Ann Martin: Kristy's Big Day

Kristy's Big Day

Ann M. Martin

Chapter 1.

Old Ben Brewer was crazy.As crazy as anything. He ate fried dandelions, and after he turned fifty, he never left his house . . . except to go out in the yard to get dandelions. When he died, his ghost stayed behind. I'm telling you, he haunts our attic."

Karen Brewer looked at me with wide eyes."Honest, Kristy. He haunts our attic," she repeated. Karen loves to talk about witches and ghosts. She thinks her next-doorneighbor , old Mrs. Porter, is a witch namedMorbidda Destiny.

Karen's four-year-old brother Andrew turned to me with eyes as round as an owl's. He didn't say a word.

"I think you're scaring your brother," I told Karen.

"No, she's not," whispered Andrew.

I leaned over to him. "Are you sure?" I whispered back.

"No." I could barely hear him.

"I think that's enough talk about ghosts," I said.

"Okay," replied Karen. Her tone of voice implied that it was foolish of me not to arm myself with information about old Ben. "But when you move into our house, you'll wish you knew more about my great-grandfather.Especially if you get a bedroom on the third floor." Karen made "the third floor" sound like Frankenstein's castle.

I couldn't help giving a little shiver. Why was I letting a six-year-old get away with this?

Karen looked at me knowingly.

Karen and Andrew are the children of Watson Brewer, who is engaged to my mother, the divorced Elizabeth Thomas. This means that when they get married, Karen and Andrew will become my little stepsister and stepbrother. It also means that my brothers and I will be moving out of our house on Bradford Court, where we grew up, and into Watson's house.

There are pros and cons to this situation. The pros are that Watson is rich. In fact, he's a millionaire. And his house isn't just a house, it's a mansion. Charlie and Sam, my older brothers, who have shared a room for years,

willeach have his own bedroom at Watson's. They could probably each have a suite of rooms if they asked nicely. And David Michael, my little brother (he just turned seven), will finally have a room bigger than a closet.

I don't benefit at all where bedrooms are concerned, since I already have my ownand I think the size is fine. The main drawback to moving to Watson's is that he lives across town. I have never lived anywhere but right here on Bradford Court. All my friends are here. Mary AnneSpier lives next door, ClaudiaKishi lives across the street, and Stacey McGill and Dawn Schafer live nearby. The five of us make up the Baby-sitters Club (I'm the president), and it won't be nearly as easy to run the club when I live clear on the other side ofStoneybrook , Connecticut.

The other "con" is that Watson is mostly okay, but sometimes he can be a jerk.

"Kristy? Karen? Andrew?"

"Yes, Mom?"It was a Saturday evening, and my mother had invited Watson and his kids over for dinner.

Karen and Andrew and I were crowded into

alawn chair in our backyard. They're good

kids. I like them a lot. And I know them well since I've been sitting for them off and on for

aboutnine months, since the time the Babysitters Club began. Watson and their mother are divorced, and while they live with their mother, they do spend every other weekend and certain vacations with Watson, and some in-between time, too, if they want. The arrangement is pretty loose.

"Dinner's ready!" called Mom.

"Come on, you guys," I said. "You know what we're having?"

"What?" asked Andrewcautiously. He's a very picky eater.

"We're having spaghetti."

"Oh, yum!" cried Karen.

"Pasketti?"Andrew repeated. "Jody Jones saidpasketti is dead worms."

"Ew,ew ,ew !" exclaimed Karen.

"Well, Jody Jones is wrong," I told them. "Spaghetti is ... noodles. That's all."

We entered through the back door of our house and went into the dining room. The table was set for eight. Candles were burning and the lights had been dimmed. A bottle of red wine stood next to Watson's place. The dining room had been transformed into an Italian restaurant.

"This looks great, Mom," I said, "butit's June. We should be eating outside. We're wasting the nice weather."

"Oh, honey," my mother replied. "Eat spaghetti on our laps? That sounds like the start of a Tide commercial. We'll be much better off in here."

I laughed. Ever since Mom got engaged to Watson, she's been in a great mood.

My brothers crowded around the table. (They're never too far off when food is about to be served.)

Karen and Andrew approached them shyly. (Yes, even Karen gets shy sometimes.) I think she's shy around Charlie, Sam, and David Michael because she knows they're going to become her stepbrothers and she wants to make a good impression on them. She knows me a lot better than she knows them because of all the baby-sitting I've done for her and for Andrew.

"Hi, Charlie.Hi, Sam.Hi, David Michael," Karen addressed each one solemnly.

"Hi, kid," replied Charlie. (Charlie is my seventeen-year-old brother. He just got his driver's license.)

Sam, who's fifteen, couldn't answer Karen because he was busy scarring up olives from a little dish my mother had set on the table next to the pepper grinder.

"Hey, Mom!"I called into the kitchen. "We need an olive refill."

Sam gave me a dirty look.

While we kids stood around waiting for Mom and Watson, who were doing last-minute spaghetti things in the kitchen, Karen and David Michael eyed each other. Mom is afraid there's going to be some trouble between the two of them after the wedding. David Michael is used to being the baby of the family. He's not just theyoungest, he's the much-youngest. There's a ten-year difference between Charlie and him. There's even a five-and-a-half-year difference between him and me. (I'll be thirteen in August.) But suddenly he's going to acquire a part-time six-year-old sister and four-year-old brother.

Meanwhile, Karen is used to being the oldest. And she's going to acquire three part-time older brothers plus me.

Furthermore, Karen and David Michael are so close in age that Mom is sure they're going to be competing for things - toys and privileges and stuff. She wonders whether David Michael will feel cheated because he'll be in public school, while Karen goes to private school. On the other hand, she thinks David Michael would feel resentful if she switched him out of the school he's used to.

Things could get pretty messy.

Karen broke the silence in the dining room by gazing around and saying, "Yikes, after Dad and Elizabeth get married, I'm going to have four brothers."

"And me," I reminded her. "You'll be my very first sister."

"We better stick together," said Karen. "We're the only girls."

"Oh,yick ,yick ,yick ," said David Michael."Pew, pew, pew. One sister's enough. Now I'll have two." He made a horrible Halloween face.

"Hey!" exclaimed Karen. "You said a poem, David Michael!"

"I did?"

"Yeah.Say it again."

David Michael tried to repeat his nasty remark, but couldn't remember it.

"Serves you right," I said. "What'd I ever do to you?"

David Michael looked puzzled. Then he smiled."Nothing!"

I shook my head.

Through all of this, Andrew did not say a word.

Mom and Watson came into the dining room then, Mom carrying a pot of tomato sauce, Watson following with the spaghetti. When

everyonehad been served, Watson poured wine for Mom and himself.

"Can I have some?" asked Charlie.

Watson looked at Mom. We all knew what the answer would be, but I liked the fact that Watson let Mom say it. For the time being, she was still our boss.The Thomas boss. And Watson knew it.

"When you reach the drinking age," replied Mom pleasantly, "then you may drink."

"But Mom, a year from now I'll be going to college. All the kids -" Charlie stopped. Mom isn't too partial to any sentence that begins with "all the kids."