Ann Martin - Dawn On The Coast

"Hi, Mr. Brewer," we chorused.

"All right. All right. That's enough," Kristy said suddenly. "Baby-sitters upstairs."

I'm surprised she didn't say, "Forward, march!" or "Single file!" (she did sound like General Kristy), but we all trooped up the

stairs after her. We left Watson and Kristy's mom kissing hello in the hallway, with their kids and their animals chasing all around them.

"Phew!" Kristy said. She shut the door behind us. Mary Anne, Claudia, and I collapsed on the bed. Jessi and Mallory sat cross-legged on the floor. Kristy pulled up a chair. It looked just like a regular meeting of the Baby-sitters Club, only we were in Kristy's room, not Claudia's. Kristy picked up a clipboard and pencil and rapped on the arm of her chair.

"The meeting will now come to order," she said.

"Meeting!" Claudia cried. "Kristy, this isn't a meeting. It's a party."

I smiled at Mary Anne. Mary Anne is a good friend of Kristy's, but she knows how Kristy loves to be bossy.

"True," said Kristy. "It's not exactly a meeting. But we do have a few things to decide. Pizza, for instance. Do we want some? And, if so, what kind?"

"Pizza would be good," said Mary Anne. Mary Anne is always agreeable. "Does anyone else want pizza?"

"P-I-I-I-I-Z-Z-A-A!" said Claudia in a deep, rumbling voice. She sounded like Cookie Monster demanding cookies.

"That's three/' said Kristy. "Dawn?"

"Do they have broccoli pizza?" I asked.

"Ew!" Kristy made a gagging face.

"It is Dawn's party," said Mary Anne. "I think we should do what she wants."

Claudia crinkled up her nose.

"If they do have broccoli, maybe they could put it on only part of the pizza," she said.

Claudia was more polite about it, but I think the idea of broccoli pizza was as weird-sounding to Claudia as it was to Kristy. I'm the only member of the club who really likes health food. Everybody else is happier with hamburgers and french fries. Especially Claudia. Claudia takes junk food to the extreme. She keeps her bedroom stocked with Ring Dings and Twinkies. In fact, right then she reached into the knapsack she had brought and pulled out ... a handful of Tootsie Roll Pops.

"Tootsie Pops all around," she said, passing them out, "and a fruit roll for Dawn."

We all sucked on our treats while Kristy finished the pizza order. Half a pie with broccoli (if they had it), half plain, and one whole pie with the works — sausage, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and pepperoni.

"No anchovies!" everyone voted. For once we were all in agreement.

The rest of the party was just as crazy as the

start. When the pizza was delivered, Sam brought it up to Kristy's room. He knocked on the door. "Pizza man," he called in. Kristy let him in and tore open the boxes.

"What'd they give us? What'd they give us?" she said excitedly. "EW!H!" Kristy jumped away from the boxes in disgust. We all crowded around to see. There, all over the tops of both pizzas, were worms! . . .Rubber worms. Sam's shoulders were shaking with laughter.

"SA-AM!" Kristy said hotly. We should've known Sam would pull something like that. Sam is one of the world's champion practical jokers. (By the way, underneath all the worms, the pizza place had sent my broccoli.)

After pizza we wheeled out the television and set up a movie on Kristy's VCR.

Kristy had picked out the spookiest movie she could find at the store, Fright Night at Spook Lake. It was all about a ghost who haunts an old lakeside resort house. When Karen heard the VCR on, she knocked on the door and asked if she could join us.

"Only if you don't get scared," said Kristy.

"Okay," Karen agreed. She climbed into Kristy's lap.

But when the ghost first came on the screen, Karen shrieked. "That's Ben!" she cried. "That's exactly what Ben Brewer looks like!"

"Karen!" Kristy said firmly. "There is nothing to be afraid of. Look at me. Am I afraid? Of course not. There's nothing to be afraid of."

Just then, in the movie, the resort house got strangely quiet. An eerie light filled the inn's reception room and a breeze rustled the curtains. A phone rang loudly — Riming! — and at that moment, the real phone right outside Kristy's room rang, too! We all screamed and jumped a mile. Kristy gulped and looked at us. You could tell her heart was racing, and I think she didn't know whether to answer the phone or not, but she did.

"Oh," she said. "Hi, Nannie." She heaved a big sigh. "It's only my grandmother," she whispered to us. "Phew."

When the movie was finished, Kristy's mom came in to collect Karen and take her off to bed. We stayed up a long time after that. We pushed Kristy's bed out of the way and put our sleeping bags and bedding in a circle, so that all our heads met in the center. We just talked and laughed about school and about boys. Claudia got some pieces of paper from Kristy's desk and drew little caricatures of us all. When Jessi posed for hers, she sat on the floor, her legs stretched out on either side of her and her torso folded all the way over so her stomach was flat on the ground.

"Wow!" said Mary Anne.

I think by then we were all getting tired, but nobody wanted to admit it. We talked on, but one by one we started to drift off. Only Mary Anne lay wide awake beside me.

"In two days you'll be in California," she whispered to me.

"Yeah," I said. I didn't sound as excited as I thought I would. All of a sudden I was a little nervous about going. I looked around the room. Here I was, with all my best friends — especially Mary Anne.

It all felt so cozy and homey. It felt like . . . like a family.

"You'll be gone so long," Mary Anne whispered. "And you'll have so much fun you won't even think of us."

"Of course I will," I said. "You're my friends. Anyway, I'll be home before you know it."

"Well, call whenever you want," Mary Anne said. "And send me a postcard?" She took my hand and squeezed it.

"I'll send you a zillion." I squeezed her hand back.

My thoughts were all jumbled as we lay there in the dark. But the thoughts tumbled into dreams, and soon I was fast asleep.

Chapter 3.

Long flight was right. Long morning, too. That morning I woke up really early, a half an hour before my alarm. My brain was racing with all the things I needed for my trip: toothbrush, toothpaste, swimsuit, airplane ticket. I even wondered if maybe I had gotten the ticket wrong. Maybe I was supposed to fly out tomorrow, not today. It surprised me that I was so jittery. I've flown plenty of times before. But that morning, when my alarm went off, believe me, I was wide awake.

I could hear Mom in the shower, so I went down to fix myself a quick breakfast. There was granola in the cupboard, but no milk in the refrigerator. I poured myself a bowl and wondered if maybe I could substitute orange juice for milk. I decided to eat it plain.

Getting Mom to an airport in time is no small task. She thinks you don't have to get there until five minutes before flight time.

"They're always late," she says. "We'll just have to sit there."

Me, I like to count on an extra forty-five minutes to an hour. What if there's a traffic jam? And airlines overbook all the time. I could hear Mom singing away in the shower. I decided to knock on the door.

"In a minute, honey," she said.

It seemed like forever to me, but finally we were both showered, dressed, and out of the house. Mom had had her coffee and we had found her keys and I double-checked the things I had stuck in my carry-on bag: a favorite collection of ghost stories (Spirits, Spooks, and Ghostly Tales), some magazines, and some cards to write my friends. Since this wasn't a night flight, and since I would be on the plane for practically six whole hours, I figured I'd better come aboard with a few things to do.

On the ride to the airport, Mom let me listen to my radio station and didn't even ask me to turn it down. She didn't say an awful lot during the drive. Every once in awhile, she'd pop in with, "You remembered your underwear?" or, "Now don't forget your manners. 'Please, thank you.'. . . What am I saying? You know how to behave."