Ann Martin: Kristy's Mystery Admirer

"Can we all help?" asked Nicky. (Sometimes the triplets do things on their own. And they often leave Nicky out, even though he's the only other boy in the Pike household.)

But — "Sure, you can all help," said Adam surprisingly. "We'll need lots of people. We'll need someone to answer the door and take kids down to the basement. We'll need someone else to lead each kid through the haunted house. And we'll need dressed-up people, like ghosts and headless mummies to walk around. Real people are scarier than fake ones."

"You know what else?" said Vanessa. (She

was about to make a very un-Vanessa-like suggestion.) "There should be a part of the haunted house where we blindfold people. Then we make them put their hands in peeled grapes and cold spaghetti and stuff. We'll tell them the grapes are eyeballs and the spaghetti is brains. They will be so grossed out!"

"Vanessa, you're a genius!" exclaimed Jordan.

"Not really," she replied modestly. "I saw it on TV."

"Well, anyway, we'll definitely do that," said Jordan.

"And we'll play a haunted-house sound effects tape," added Adam. "The kids will hear moaning and groaning and screaming and doors slamming and the wind howling and thunder and everything!" Adam was all worked up.

Claire looked a little scared, but she covered up her feelings. She didn't want to be left out of the family project.

The Pike kids fell into silence. Their thoughts must have drifted from Halloween, because the next thing that was said was, "Do you think we can really beat the Bashers?" (That was Nicky.)

"In the World Series?" asked Margo.

Nicky nodded. "What do you think, Mal-lory?"

"I don't know. You beat them before, but I think you'll have to try very hard not to be nervous during the big game."

"And the cheerleaders will try very hard to ... to, um ... to lead the Krushers to victory," said Vanessa dramatically. "Hey! I've got an idea. Since the World Series game will be played right before Halloween, Charlotte and Haley and I should wear costumes. I mean, Halloween costumes."

"That would be cool," said Nicky. Then he looked out the window. "It isn't raining, Mal-lory. Can Claire and Margo and I practice catching and hitting in the backyard?"

"Sure," replied Mallory.

The kids split up then. The three younger ones went outside. The triplets began planning the spook house. And Vanessa got on the phone with her fellow cheerleaders to discuss costumes. She called Haley first.

"Hi, Haley. It's Vanessa. Listen, I've got this idea." She explained her plan to Haley, who must have liked it. Then she said, "What? A group of three? Oh, I see what you mean. All right. I'll think about it. You call Charlotte, then call me back, okay?"

Vanessa hung up. She returned to the rec room, where Mallory was giving the triplets a hand with their haunted house. (Jessi had gone outdoors to help Claire, Margo, and Nicky.)

"Haley says that cheerleaders should dress alike," Vanessa reported to Mal. '-So we have to be the Three Somethings, only we don't know what."

"How about the Three Little Kittens?" suggested Adam, snickering.

"Or the Three Little Pigs?" said Jordan.

"No!" cried Vanessa.

"They're just teasing you," Mal told her gently.

The phone rang then, and Vanessa dashed for it, crying, "That's probably Haley! I bet she and Charlotte have a good idea for our costumes."

"Big deal," muttered Adam.

A few moments later, Vanessa reappeared. "Charlotte and Haley are coming over."

"Goody," said Jordan. "Just what we need. More girls."

"Enough," Mallory told him warningly.

The cheerleaders holed up in the bedroom that Mal and Vanessa share. They talked for almost an hour about costumes. At last they

ran down to the rec room, looking very excited.

"We know what we're going to be! We know what we're going to be!" cried Charlotte, who doesn't usually get very noisy.

"What?" asked Mal, quite interested.

The girls looked at each other and grinned. Then they said in unison, "The Three . . . Stooges!"

Mal tried (successfully) not to laugh. "The Three Stooges?" she repeated.

"Yup," said Haley.

"And," added Vanessa, "we're going to go trick-or-treating together. The Three Stooges costumes will be for Halloween, too. Now I don't have to worry about what a poetess looks like."

"Boy," said Adam enviously. "We should have thought of that. The Three Stooges would be perfect costumes for triplets."

"You can be The Three Stooges, too, if you want," said Vanessa generously.

"No way!" exclaimed Jordan. "Not if the idea is already taken by girls."

The girls ignored Jordan's comment. They found the TV Guide and began looking through it to see if any Three Stooges programs were going to be on soon. They wanted to copy the

costumes of Larry, Moe, and Curly. The triplets returned to their spook-house preparations.

In the backyard, Nicky yelled, "Home run! All right!"

The afternoon was, Mal and Jessi agreed, a fun one.

Chapter 8.

At first, I couldn't figure out why my friends were looking so astonished. Finally Mary Anne stood up and whispered in my ear, "The clock, Kristy."

It was Monday afternoon. The seven BSC members were gathered in Claud's bedroom. As usual, I was sitting in the director's chair, visor in place, pencil over one ear. What had astonished everybody was that the clock had changed from 5:29 to 5:30 and then to 5:31 — and I had not said a word. I had not called the meeting to order. I was just sitting in the chair, staring into space.

"Oh. Oh, um. Order, everybody," I said hastily. I paused.

"Kristy, are you all right?" asked Stacey.

"Yeah. I just forgot to start the meeting, that's all."

"You forgot to tell me to collect dues, too," said Stacey. "It is Monday. And what do you

mean you forgot to start the meeting?"

"Oh, nothing. . . . Stacey, it's dues day."

"No kidding." Stacey made us fork over. Then my friends just gaped at me.

"What?" I said.

"Well, what is wrong?" asked Mary Anne. "You've never sat by the clock and not noticed when it said five-thirty."

"Yeah. Maybe you shouldn't be president after all," teased Dawn.

I tried to laugh, but it wasn't much of an effort.

"Kristy?" said Claud. "Come on. Get with it."

I sighed. "Okay. I was too embarrassed to tell you guys this, but I've gotten four more notes from the mystery admirer."

"So? You weren't embarrassed about the first fifty or so notes," said Stacey, smiling. I could tell she was trying to get me to smile, too.

"The last four notes," I began, "have been . . . weird."

Everyone immediately looked interested, and I could tell that we weren't going to have a normal meeting.

"What did the notes say?" Jessi wanted to know.

"Well, the first one wasn't so bad. Just kind

of odd/' I replied. "It said, 'I love you, I love you, I love you. But beware. Love is fickle and so are friends.' Or something like that. Then the second note said, 'Violets are blue, blood is red, I'll remember you when you are dead.' "

"What?" screeched all my friends.

"Yup. That's exactly what that note said. I'll never forget it. Then the third note was about, let's see, blood again, but I didn't memorize that one. And anyway, today, just before Charlie drove me to the meeting, I got this note."

I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket. My friends jumped up and leaned over me, peering at the note. They surrounded my chair, and I felt smothered.

"Ew," said Stacey. She took the paper from me and read aloud. "I want to be with you forever — eternal togetherness. So I am coming to get you."

"Aughh!" shrieked Mary Anne. "He's coming to get you?"

"Now are you guys so sure the notes are from Bart?" I asked.

"No," replied everyone else.