Ann Martin - Dawn's Big Move

Perfect. Even though I'm sure Kristy would have thought of it herself (hrrmph). "Sure!" she said. "What'll we start with?"

"Basketball shooting!" the Korman kids screamed.

"Bang bang!" Sari said.

Linny ran into the garage and got two basketballs. "I shoot first!" he bellowed.

"No way!" David Michael protested. "We're guests!"

"Let's make teams," Kristy suggested. "How about the Papadakises and Andrew against the Kormans and Karen and David Michael — "

"We'll cream 'em," Linny said.

Bill stuck out his chest. "No, you won't!"

"Beanpole!" Linny said.

"Cootie head!"

As they argued, a couple of the older cousins grabbed the basketballs and started playing.

After lots of crying and some general pandemonium, Kristy explained Run for Your Money to everyone. Well, the Papadakis cousins loved the idea. The trouble was, they didn't live in Stoneybrook or Lawrenceville. But that didn't stop them. After basketball, the

kids held a massive three-legged race that ended up almost toppling the food table. Sari wanted to join in, so Kristy tied her leg to a Cabbage Patch doll's leg.

Out came the cameras. I believe Sari will be haunted by pictures of that event for the rest of her life.

Next, Kristy set up a game of horseshoes for the kids. Of course, Linny wanted to take the first turn.

He lifted a horseshoe and began spinning his arm around. "The windup ..."

"Linny," Kristy warned, "this isn't baseball!"

"And ... the .. ."

"Linny!" Kristy tried again.

"... Pitch!" Linny let go of the horseshoe too late — way too late. The horseshoe went flying toward the house.

"Heads up!" Kristy shouted.

Everyone looked around in confusion. The horseshoe came hurtling downward.

Plop! It landed in a plateful of gooey pastries.

"My baklava!" Mrs. Papadakis yelled.

"Oooops," Linny muttered.

A roar of laughter went up. "Hey, it's good luck!" one of the aunts called out.

After a couple more events, it was naptime for Sari. Then Kristy and the kids ate some food (by the way, she said the lamb was de-

licious, but that's a carnivore for you). After that came dessert and some Greek dancing to wild music. The guests joined hands and snaked around the yard.

By the time the party was over, Kristy was exhausted (yes, Kristy). She said good-bye to the Papadakises and walked home with David Michael, Karen, and Andrew.

1 found out much later what they talked about after the party — me!

"Kristy?" Karen said. "Are you sad about Dawn?"

Kristy nodded (at least she said she did). "Yeah. I'm going to miss her."

"You know what we did when Amanda De-laney moved away?" Karen asked. "I gave her a party. You should do that for Dawn. It was really fun."

"Yeah!" Andrew and David Michael said.

Kristy's eyebrows rose. "Hmmmm. Not a bad idea."

She ran to the phone. First she called Mary Anne, then Mallory, then Claudia, then Stacey. She almost called Jessi, until she realized Jessi was in Oakley for the weekend.

Everyone agreed. The party was a great idea.

And poor little old me didn't know a thing about it.

Chapter 9.

"Are you sure nothing's wrong?" Kristy said to Jessi.

"Yes," Jessi replied. "You've asked me that a million times."

Jessi was exaggerating. Our Monday meeting was only about five minutes old. But she had spent those five minutes under her own little storm cloud. She was sitting on Claudia's floor, staring out the window, her knees drawn up to her chin.

We had already paid our weekly dues and taken a phone call. Claud was busy distributing goodies.

"Claudia, these are absolutely disgusting," Stacey suddenly said, holding up a plastic bag of cookies.

"Yeah?" Claudia took the bag and read it: " 'Chock Full of Chakra Macrobiotic Dessert Snacks . . . active ingredients: comfrey leaves

and kelp, sweetened with barley malt and raisin juice/ "

"Ew!" Mallory said.

"What's kelp?" Mary Anne asked.

"Tiny green fish that swim through your bloodstream and eat bacteria," Kristy replied with a straight face.

"Really?" Claudia looked horrified.

Stacey groaned. "Don't listen to her."

Kristy just grinned.

1 had to admit, even for a natural-foods freak like me, those cookies were pretty horrible. \

Yes, 1 ate one. In fact, we actually passed them around for a tasting. Have you ever seen anyone turn green? Mary Anne did. Mal refused even to look at them. Claudia scraped off a teeny layer of one with her teeth, and brave Kristy gobbled a whole one down. Then they both devoured a box of Raisinets to get rid of the flavor.

When the bag was passed to Jessi, she didn't notice it at first. She was still staring out the window.

"Here," Kristy said. "Your turn."

Jessi shook her head and waved the bag away.

"Hey, what's up?" Kristy said. "You've been grumpy since you got here."

Jessi made a face and frowned.

Fortunately, Mary Anne decided to use a little more tact. "Jessi, how was your trip?"

Jessi sighed. In a mumbly voice, still looking out the window, she said, "Pretty terrible."

"Uh-oh," Claudia said. "What happened?"

Finally Jessi opened up. "Well, I get there, right? And Keisha has this new haircut and is wearing makeup. We say hi and everybody goes inside for lunch. Then the bell rings and it's this neW friend of hers named Jennifer, who is wearing so much perfume I can't breathe. Jennifer says, 'Is she going dressed like that?' Meaning me. It turns out they go to the mall every Saturday to hang out, all dressed up."

"And your aunt and uncle let her go, even though she had company?" Stacey asked.

"No," Jessi replied. "They told her she couldn't go, and Jennifer made this face, like they were being soooo horrible. And Keisha got really upset. She and Jennifer whispered things together out on the porch for a half hour while I just sat around. My aunt finally told Keisha to say good-bye and come back in — and then Keisha wouldn't even talk to anyone the whole rest of the afternoon."

"You're kidding," Mary Anne said. "How rude."

"Well, since she was being so weird, I asked if I could take a walk to visit my old ballet

school. I invited Keisha to go, but she said no. Anyway, it turns out my teacher divorced her husband and moved to Ohio to go to law school or something. The school is now an aerobics center, and the new teacher wouldn't even let me in the door. So then I walked by my old house — and they were chopping down these two beautiful maple trees out front. Those were my trees! 1 used to go to sleep on summer nights listening to the leaves rustle outside my bedroom window. Some guy with a chainsaw said the trees were blocking the power lines. So 1 went back to Keisha's, all upset — and she was mad at me because I got to go out and have such a fabulous time."

"Ugh, what a nightmare," Mal said.

"How about Sunday?" Claudia asked.

"After church we had a big roast chicken, and the Raymonds came over. They're old friends of my family."

"Well, that sounds nice," Mary Anne said.

"Except for the fact that Neil Raymond, their son, who used to be kind of dorky and shy, is now sixteen and gorgeous. Well, he kept talking about himself the whole time — like how many touchdowns he was scoring, which vitamins he took, the best kind of white socks to wear. Boring,' And of course, Keisha acted as if he was just fascinating. Later we joked about him and Keisha seemed a little friend-

lier. But by that time we had to leave."

"You need some special TLC," Claudia said. She reached under her bed and pulled out another box. "How about a Ring Ding?"

Jessi laughed and took one. "Okay. They look better than those other things you were passing around."

"You know, going back to your old town can be weird," Stacey said. "Everything changes. The last time I went to New York, it didn't even feel like my neighborhood. My very favorite restaurant had become an ugly clothes boutique, and this old movie theater was being torn down to make an apartment building."