Ann Martin: Baby-Sitters Club 030

Charlie didn't miss it. He took the hint, too. He let the other kids out of his car and then took David Michael on a special ride of his own.

Kristy hoped the sibling rivalry problems were over for awhile.

Chapter 11.

One Saturday evening, Dad invited Dawn and her mom over for dinner. That wasn't unusual, except that this time he said, "We ought to discuss the wedding. We should set a date, if nothing else, and we want the two of you involved in everything." Oh, goody! I thought. Immediately I wondered how long it would take Dawn and me to agree on matching bridesmaids' dresses. I knew I would probably want something fancier than Dawn would want. I pictured myself in a long pale pink dress with a lace collar. Maybe a straw hat would look nice, too. I'd seen a picture of a bridesmaid in an outfit just like that. A pink ribbon had been tied around the hat and it hung down the girl's back. Would Dawn go for something like that? Probably not. On the other hand, she had bought that Laura Ashley dress, so there was hope.

"Mary Anne?" Dad was saying.

"What? I mean, yes?" I wondered how many times he'd called my name.

"What about dinner? We don't need to do anything fancy. I think our choices tonight are fish or the rest of that vegetable casserole." I made a face. "Could we order in Chinese food? The Schafers can always find vegetarian things on the menu." "Well ... all right," replied my father.

"Oh, great! Thank you!" I kissed Dad.

"Do you want to call Dawn and just check to make sure Chinese food is all right with her and her mother?" "Okay," I answered. So I did and it was.

The Schafers came over around six-thirty. We were all hungry, so Dad found the menu right away, but then we couldn't decide what to order. We tossed around suggestion after suggestion. At last we decided on cold sesame noodles (yum), eggplant in garlic sauce (yuck - let the Schafers eat that), sweet and sour pork (that was for Dad and me), and something called Imperial Vegetables Oriental that even I said I'd eat.

While we waited for the food to arrive, Dad and Mrs. Schafer sat on the couch in the living room and talked. I noticed that these days, even when Dawn and I were around, they sat much closer together than they used to. Dawn and I sat on the floor and talked, too. I told her about my idea for the bridesmaids' dresses. I even showed her the picture, which I found tucked away in one of my desk drawers.

Dawn looked thoughtful. Then she smiled. I thought she was going to laugh at the dresses.

"I do not find them that funny," I said testily.

But Dawn said, "It isn't that. They're not funny. It's just that we haven't been asked to be bridesmaids yet." "Oh, yeah," I replied. Then we both started laughing.

At that point, the food arrived.

"Thank heavens," said Mrs. Schafer. "I'm starving." My dad and Dawn's mom each paid the delivery guy for half of our order. Then we took the bags into the kitchen, opened the cartons of food, filled our plates, sat down at the table, and began eating. When we were slightly less hungry Dad said, "Okay. About the wedding." "Which church is it going to be in?" asked Dawn immediately.

"Yeah/7 I said. "I know we don't go to church very often, Dad, but ours is so pretty. And it's got the longest aisle of any church in Stoneybrook." "That's important," said Dawn, "because, Mom, your train will look gorgeous going up and down a long aisle." "And we can have flowers by the altar," I added.

"White orchids," said Dawn.

"Pink azalea branches - to go with our bridesmaids' dresses," I said pointedly.

My father and Mrs. Schafer had stopped eating and were just staring at each other. They didn't say a word.

"And, Dad," I went on, "the ushers should wear gray striped bowties. I saw that in a movie once and they looked so handsome." "And, Mom," said Dawn, "you and Mary Anne and I should go to Rita's Bridal Shoppe out at Washington Mall. They make wedding gowns and bridesmaids' dresses to order. I know that for a fact. Oh, and get a beaded veil." "And, Dad, could you please rent a tux?" I asked him. "Don't wear your old one. The pants are too short. And don't refer to it as a monkey suit in front of any of my friends, okay?" "Gosh, Jeff will need a tux, too," said Dawn. "Maybe his should match the ushers'. Or do the ushers just wear suits? And what will Jeff be in the wedding? The ring bearer?" My father and Dawn's mother were still neither eating nor talking. Before one of them could answer Dawn, I exclaimed, "Oh, please, can we have a little bride and groom on top of the wedding cake? Tasteful ones, I mean." "And we better have a four-tier cake," added Dawn. "That way, you can save the top tier for yourselves, like they do in books, and there'll still be enough cake for all the guests. By the way, where are we going to hold the reception?" "Could we have it in that big room at Chez Maurice?" I asked. "That would be so meaningful. I wonder how many people can fit in there. Fifty? A hundred?" "Depends if we're going to have a sit-down dinner or just a big party," Dawn answered.

"Oh, hey! I mean, oh," I said. "I just thought of something else. Who'll be the flower girl? We don't have any little sisters or girl cousins." "Myriah Perkins?" suggested Dawn. "Or Gabble? Or Claire or Margo Pike?" "Whoever it is," I said, "her dress should be similar to ours, like Karen's was similar to Kristy's when Kristy's mom and Watson got married." Our parents finally found their voices. "Now wait a - " Dad began, just as Mrs. Schafer said, "Girls - " They glanced at each other, holding a quick conversation with their eyes. At last Dawn's mom said, "Girls, we aren't going to have a wedding or a reception." "What?" I cried.

"You aren't?" exclaimed Dawn. "Why not?" "We just don't want one," said Dad. "We've each had one before, and this time around we don't think it's necessary." "But Kristy's mother - " I started to say.

"Kristy's mother and Watson Brewer are different people," replied my father. "Besides, not even they had a wedding like the one you're talking about. Do you know how expensive a big wedding and reception would be these days?" "Girls, we've talked this over," said Mrs. Schafer, "and we've decided we'd rather save the money for your college educations." "Darn," said Dawn sulkily. "I was hoping to get to ride through Stoneybrook in a limo." Everyone stopped talking for a moment. We'd stopped eating, too. After awhile, I said plaintively, "No wedding at all?" "Not exactly no wedding," Dad told me. "We want to be married by the justice of the peace in a civil service in the courthouse. We want you girls and Jeff there, of course, and then we thought the five of us could go out for a quiet dinner." "How about a compromise?" suggested Dawn pleadingly. "Couldn't you have a teeny wedding in the chapel of a church?" "Then we could invite just a few people," I said. "Our friends will want to come. And Mrs. Schafer, don't you think that at least your parents would want to be there?" "You wouldn't have to wear a wedding gown," Dawn told her mother.

"And you could just wear a nice suit," I said to Dad.

"And Mary Anne and I wouldn't even need to get new dresses," added Dawn.

(I elbowed her. I was always looking for an excuse to get a new dress.) "Well," said Mrs. Schafer thoughtfully, "I suppose a small wedding - very small," she emphasized, "might be okay." She raised her eyebrows at Dad.

"I suppose," he said.

"We'd keep the guest list really small," I promised. "Just our closest friends - that's Kristy, Claud, Stacey, Jessi, Mal, and Logan." "And then," said Dawn, "there would be Jeff, our grandparents, and maybe each of you would want to ask a couple of people from work. All together, including the four of us, that would probably be less than twenty people." "If it's that small," said Dad, "maybe we could all go out to dinner afterwards. But no cake and no wedding gifts. Nothing but a dinner." "That's do-able," said Dawn, and we all laughed.