Ann Martin - Little Miss Stoneybrook...and Dawn

Mallory wandered over to us then, followed by Jessi, who I guess had been in the audience.

"Don't say it," I said to them. "I know. We all should have listened to you guys on the day the newspaper article came out."

"Well ..." said Mal, and I could tell that she and Jessi were just dying to gloat.

"I only want to say one thing," Jessi spoke up. "And I promise it isn't 'I told you so.' I want to say that now maybe it's clear how silly pageants are. 4 mean, look who won . . . and look who should have won."

"I know, I know, I know," I said testily. "I was thinking the same thing. I don't know what this pageant judged, but it sure wasn't talent and character."

"It was fake personality," Mallory pronounced.

I had to agree with her.

"Dawn?" said Claire. "Can I be in the pageant again next year?"

I nearly passed out. It was time to join the rest of the Pikes - quick! - and get home.

Chapter 15.

It took everyone - especially Charlotte - quite a while to get over the pageant. After all, Charlotte was the one who had run away in tears and had to be taken home.

Us baby-sitters discussed the pageant endlessly. The six of us sat around in Claudia's room most of Sunday afternoon. After we talked about how Mal and Jessi had been right, and the pageant wasn't fair and all that, Claudia (who looked a little teary-eyed) said, "I did a terrible thing."

"What?" asked the rest of us.

"I forced Charlotte into the pageant. I've apologized four times to her and her parents and they're being really nice about it, but I still feel awful."

"Well, you didn't actually force her into the pageant," Mary Anne pointed out. "You didn't pick her up and carry her kicking and screaming onto the stage."

"No," agreed Claudia, "but I did have to talk her into it."

"Well, I kind of did the same thing with Myriah," Mary Anne replied.

"And I kind of did the same thing with Karen," added Kristy. "They both wanted to be in the pageant, but we brought the subject up, hoping that that would happen. . . . And all so we could prove what good sitters we are. Pretty dumb. We know we're good sitters or we wouldn't have this great club!"

The rest of us laughed. But we couldn't forget the pageant. Not easily.

First an article about it and a picture of Sabrina, Myriah, and Lisa appeared in the paper. Then Myriah had her shopping spree at Toy City, and an article about that appeared in the paper. Then the town gave Sabrina a parade. (I don't know anyone who went to it, but another article appeared in the paper.)

I was sitting at home one evening, reading the latest article, when the phone rang. "I'll get it!" I called to Mom. I was waiting for Mary Anne to call me when she got home from the movies.

"Hello?" I said.

The voice on the other end wasn't Mary Anne's. It was Jeff's!

"Hi!" I cried. He and Dad had called twice before and spoken to Mom, but I'd been out both times. "How are you?"

"Good," replied Jeff. "Great. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Tell me what's going on. How's Dad? How's California?"

"Dad's fine, but California may not be. We had a little earthquake this afternoon."

"Whoa. Too bad. But tell me about yourself. How are you really?"

"I'm really fine. I like school. I haven't been in a single fight."

"Do you like the housekeeper Dad found?"

"Sure. She's all right. Sometimes she's kind of strict, but she's a good cook. Guess what. Most of my old friends are in my class at school. And they're all on the soccer team, so I might join the soccer team."

"And how about you and Dad? How are you getting along?"

"The bachelor life?" teased Jeff. "It's great. We went to a football game. And Dad helps me with my math." (Two things Mom and I had never done with my brother.) "Mostly I just like being someplace where everything is familiar. I feel like I was never in Stoneybrook. Kind of like it was just a weird, bad dream."

"Thanks a lot!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, you know what I mean."

"Lucky for you."

"Hey, Dawn? Dad wants to say hi. And then I want to talk to Mom, okay?"

"Okay. ... Hi, Dad!"

"Hi, Sunshine." (Sunshine was Dad's baby name for me. If any of my friends ever heard about it ... well, I don't even want to think what they'd say.) "How's my girl?"

"Fine. I miss you. So does Mom." (I wasn't sure she did, but it couldn't hurt to say so.)

I talked to Dad for a few minutes, then he talked to Mom, then Mom talked to Jeff, and finally Jeff asked to talk to me again.

"Dawn?" he said. "I just want to tell you something. Um, I miss you."

"I miss you, too," I replied, choking on the words.

" 'Bye, Dawn."

" 'Bye, Jeff."

We hung up.

"Want to make some popcorn, honey?" asked Mom, seeing my teary eyes.

"Sure," I answered.

When it was ready, we sat on the living room couch with the bowl between us.

"You know what?" I said to Mom. "That was the old Jeff on the phone. The Jeff I knew

before we left California. He does seem happier there."

"He is happier," Mom agreed. "Letting him go may have been the toughest thing we ever did, but it was the right thing."

"I know," I said, and sighed.

"I don't want to lecture," said Mom.

"But?" I prompted her, and we laughed.

"But," she went on, "most of the best things in life are tough - tough to work out, or tough to achieve. If they weren't, we wouldn't appreciate them so much."

"Yeah," I agreed slowly.

The phone rang again then. "Oh, that's Mary Anne!" I said. "I'll be right back. I won't stay on long." I dashed into the kitchen, picked up the phone, and said, "Hi, Mary Anne! . . . Oh, sorry. . . . Claire?"

It was Claire Pike. She'd never called me before.

"Guess what?" she cried. "There's going to be a Beautiful Child contest at Bellair's Department Store. The winner will get to model clothes in a big fashion show at the store. Mom said I could enter - if you'll help me. Will you? Will you, Dawn?"

Oh, no! I thought.

"Dawn?"

"I'm here."

"The winner gets a camera, too. And a supply of Turtlewax, whatever that is."

I paused. At last I said, "Okay, Claire. Tell me what we have to do."

Here we go again!

About the Author.

ANN M. MARTIN did a lot of baby-sitting when she was growing up in Princeton, New Jersey. Now her favorite baby-sitting charge is her cat, Mouse, who lives with her in her Manhattan apartment.

Ann Martin's Apple Paperbacks are Bummer Summer, Inside Out, Stage Fright, Me and Katie (the Pest), and all the other books in the Babysitters Club series.

She is a former editor of books for children, and was graduated from Smith College. She likes ice cream, the beach, and I Love Lucy; and she hates to cook.