Ann Martin: Claudia And The Mystery At The Museum

As treasurer, Stacey keeps track of how much money we each earn. That’s easy for her, since she's great at math. She also collects the club dues every Monday. We hate to pay up, but she makes us cough up the money. We use some of the treasury funds to pay

Kristy's brother to drive her to meetings. Some of the money goes for materials for our Kid-Kits, which are boxes full of games and books (mostly used) and stickers and crayons (those are new) that we sometimes bring with us on jobs. (Kid-Kits are another of Kristy's great ideas, by the way.) And once in a while we break into the treasury to splurge on a pizza party.

The club secretary is Mary Anne Spier. I'll tell you what she's like, and you can try to guess what animal she said she'd be. She's small, like Kristy (who happens to be her best friend)/ and she has brown hair and brown eyes. She recently got a great new haircut, and she looks terrific. She used to dress very conservatively, but that was only because her father insisted on it. He brought her up, since her mother died long ago, and he thought he had to be strict to be a good parent. He's finally loosened up a little, though, and now Mary Anne has some pretty cool clothes.

Mary Anne is very shy, but also very caring and sensitive. She has a romantic nature, which is probably why she's the only one of us who has a steady boyfriend. His name is Logan Bruno, and we all like him.

So, have you guessed? Mary Anne would like to be a koala. She said she would spend

most of her time hiding in the trees, but she would also let herself be hugged by children, if they needed her.

Our koala makes a great secretary. Mary Anne is in charge of the club's record book, which includes information about our clients as well as the schedules of each sitter. At a glance, Mary Anne can tell you which of us is available for a job.

The dub record book was Kristy's idea, of course, and so was the dub notebook. The dub notebook is where we write up jobs that we've been on, so that the other members can read our notes and keep up-to-date on what’s happening with our clients — who's suddenly afraid of the dark, who's on a broccoli strike, and so on. All that writing and reading is a real pain sometimes, especially for a terrible speller like me, but I guess it pays off. Parents appreciate sitters who are well informed about their charges.

One member of the BSC wasn't in my room that afternoon, but I want to tell you about her anyway since she's still very much a part of the dub. Her name is Dawn Schafer, and she's Mary Anne's other best friend — and her stepsister. Remember I mentioned that Mary Anne's father had loosened up a little? Well, we think it may have had something to do

with the fact that he fell in love again with an old high school girlfriend, and then married her. That girlfriend was Dawn's mom, Sharon. She grew up in Stoneybrook, but after high school she moved to California. She got married there, and that's where Dawn and her younger brother Jeff were born. After the Schafers divorced, when Dawn was twelve, Sharon brought Dawn and Jeff back to Connecticut. Dawn adjusted to the move pretty easily, with the help of the BSC. But Jeff never got used to Connecticut, and he ended up moving back to California to live with his dad. Dawn missed him like crazy from the moment he left, so she finally decided to spend a few months with him and her dad, in California. She has promised to come back to Stoneybrook, though, and we all hope she makes it sooner rather than later. We miss her.

When Dawn had to choose an animal, she didn't hesitate. "A dolphin," she said. "I'd be perfectly happy skimming through the water and playing in the waves." I can see Dawn as a dolphin. She's certainly at home in the ocean, since she practically grew up on the beach.

Dawn was our alternate officer, which meant that she could take over for any other officer who had to miss a meeting. So far we haven't

filled her job, and so far that's been okay. We've been attending meetings pretty regularly.

Now, so far all the members I've told you about are thirteen and in the eighth grade, like me. But two members of the BSC are younger. They are Jessi Ramsey and Mallory Pike. They're best friends, and they're eleven and in the sixth grade. They are junior officers, which means that they take mostly afternoon jobs, since they aren't allowed to sit at night except for their own families.

We didn't have to ask them which animal they'd choose. We knew they would both want to be horses. Jessi, who studies ballet seriously (and is very talented) said she'd be a Lipizzaner, which is a kind of stallion that is trained to dance in a special way. And Mallory, who loves to read and write (and wants to be an author someday), said she'd be a horse "just like Black Beauty in the book."

Jessi is African-American, with coal-dark eyes and long dancer's legs. She has a little sister named Becca and a baby brother named John Philip (everybody calls him Squirt). Her Aunt Cecelia lives with the family, too.

Mallory has red hair, freckles, glasses, and braces. She's going to be very, very pretty someday, but right now she can't see that. Mal comes from a gigantic family: she has seven

brothers and sisters! She's the oldest, and then there're Adam, Byron, and Jordan (they're triplets), Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire. What a handful! I think they have been wearing Mal out lately. She's been feeling tired and run-down all the time.

Last but not least, the BSC has two associate members who don't always attend meetings. They help out when we're overbooked and need extra sitters. One of them is Logan Bruno, Mary Anne's boyfriend. He wasn't at our sleepover, of course, but Mary Anne told him about the game, and he said he'd be a hawk, so he could fly. The other is Shannon Kilbourne, who lives in Kristy's neighborhood. Lately Shannon's been coming to meetings more often so we're getting to know her better. She's really nice. I liked her animal choice. She said she would be a cat, so she could lie in front of a roaring fire all day.

So that’s the zoo we call the BSC! Imagine if we'd actually turned into the animals we'd chosen. My room would have sounded like a jungle. But in reality the noises were pretty normal — girls talking and laughing, the phone ringing, and lots of crunching sounds as we passed around the popcorn I'd made for the meeting.

Just before the meeting broke up, Mal said she had some news. She told us that her mom

was going to be very busy for awhile, putting in a lot of overtime with the temporary help agency she works for. She was going to be calling the BSC for plenty of sitters in the next few weeks. "Personally, I think she just wants to escape from the house," she said, laughing. "Claire is driving us all nuts. She saw Annie on TV last week, and now she's decided she wants to be a star. She's been bugging my parents to let her take tap or ballet or theater classes. And she walks around in sunglasses all the time and practices signing her autograph."

We all cracked up, picturing five-year-old Claire as a budding starlet. Then, as the meeting was ending, I brought up Don Newman again, my favorite local celebrity, but before long I noticed everybody seemed to be in a hurry to leave. I guess they just don't appreciate art the way I do.

Chapter 3.

"Wow! Look at that!" Carolyn pulled on my left hand, guiding me toward a sign for an exhibit about the human body.

"No! Over here!" said Marilyn, pulling on my right hand. She was looking at an African mask that hung near a display of drums.

Corrie stood silently in the center of the main hall, gazing up at the large directory that told about the displays. Her eyes were sparkling as she read about the Discovery Room and the Science Room. "Can we see everything?" she asked, looking up at me.