Stacey and the Mystery Money

by Ann M. Martin

  The club’s secretary is Mary Anne Spier, who happens to be Kristy’s best friend. As secretary, she keeps our club record book up-to-date with information on our clients. She also knows all our schedules, and can tell at a moment’s notice which of us is free for a job. Mary Anne is as shy and quiet as Kristy is bold, but for some reason they get along really well. Mary Anne has brown hair and eyes, just like Kristy, but she’s a little more fashion-conscious. In fact, she recently shocked the rest of us by having a makeover! She got her hair cut in this really cute, short ’do, and even bought new makeup and clothes. We needed awhile to get used to it, but now we think she looks great.

  I was surprised that Mary Anne’s father let her get a makeover, since he’s always been strict with her. He raised Mary Anne by himself (her mom died when Mary Anne was just a baby) and he kept his “little girl” in braids and jumpers for quite a while. But by now I guess he’s realized that Mary Anne isn’t his little girl anymore. She’s a teenager, and she wants to be treated like one.

  Mary Anne is the only member of our club with a steady boyfriend. That may seem odd, since she’s so shy and quiet. But Mary Anne is also very sensitive and caring, and very romantic, so I guess it makes sense that Logan (that’s her boyfriend’s name: Logan Bruno) is crazy about her. In any case, Mary Anne is likable, which also explains why she has not one, but two best friends. And guess what? Her other best friend just happens to be her stepsister.

  Dawn Schafer, Mary Anne’s stepsister, is the club’s alternative officer. That means she can take over any job if one of the other officers can’t come to a meeting. Dawn has striking looks: long, long pale blonde hair, huge blue eyes, and a casual style of dressing all her own. Her skin just has this healthy glow, which probably is partly due to the fact that she’s a vegetarian and a health-food nut. She’s the only other person in the club, besides me, who turns down Claudia’s offers of Pringles and Devil Dogs. Instead, she’ll happily munch on an apple or some trail mix.

  Now, Dawn and Mary Anne weren’t always stepsisters. That happened pretty recently. Here’s how: Dawn grew up in California, but her mother had grown up in Stoneybrook. And when Dawn’s parents got a divorce, Mrs. Schafer decided to take her two children (Dawn and her younger brother Jeff) back to her hometown. Not long after Dawn arrived in Stoneybrook, she met Mary Anne and made friends with her and the other members of the club. She and Mary Anne quickly became best friends, and soon they discovered something very interesting about their parents. Back in ancient times, when Mary Anne’s dad and Dawn’s mom were in high school (where they were known as Sharon and Richard), they used to date!

  Mary Anne and Dawn helped their parents get re-acquainted, and eventually Sharon and Richard were an item again. Before long, they were married, and Mary Anne and her dad moved into the old (and possibly haunted) farmhouse that Dawn and her mom had been living in. By that time, Dawn’s younger brother had moved back to California to live with his dad. He just never adjusted to life in Connecticut. We’re sorry for Dawn, because she misses Jeff a lot, but we sure are glad she made the adjustment.

  There’s one more set of best friends in the BSC: Jessi Ramsey and Mallory Pike, our junior officers. We call them that because they are eleven and in the sixth grade and they’re not allowed to sit at night, except for their own families. They take a lot of afternoon jobs, though, which is great for them and frees the rest of us up for evening jobs.

  Jessi and Mallory have a lot in common. They both love to read, especially any book about horses. They both look forward to being older and treated less like children by their families. And they are both terrific sitters.

  But, like all best friends, they have their differences, too. Jessi is black, with beautiful dark eyes and skin. She’s a ballet dancer — a really good one — and she has legs that go on forever. She has a little sister named Becca and a baby brother called Squirt (his real name is John Philip), and her Aunt Cecelia lives with the family.

  Mallory is white and has curly red hair, glasses (she’d give anything for contacts), and braces. They’re the clear kind of braces, so you hardly notice them, but Mal can’t wait to get them off. The Pike family is so big they could form a team for just about any sport: there are eight kids! Mallory’s the oldest, and in age order after her are Adam, Byron, and Jordan (they’re triplets), Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire. Oh, and there’s also Frodo. He’s a hamster.

  Mal wants to be an author and illustrator of children’s books when she grows up. She loves to write. In fact, I think she may be the only member of the BSC who truly enjoys writing in the club notebook, which is another of Kristy’s ideas. We each write in the notebook after every job, and then everyone else reads our notes. The information we pass along about our clients is very helpful. I’ll admit that, even though I don’t love all the extra work, I think it makes us better sitters.

  The BSC also has two associate members, who don’t often attend meetings but who do take on sitting jobs when we’re overbooked. Shannon Kilbourne, a girl from Kristy’s new neighborhood, is one of them. She’s been coming to meetings more than she used to lately (although she wasn’t there that day because of a dentist appointment), and we’ve enjoyed having some “new blood” in the club. Shannon is pretty, with thick, curly blonde hair, high cheekbones, and deep blue eyes. The other associate member is Logan Bruno, Mary Anne’s boyfriend. A lot of people don’t think boys can be good baby-sitters, but Logan is great. He doesn’t come to meetings too often, maybe because he feels outnumbered by us girls.

  Anyway, now that you know just about everything there is to know about the club, let me tell you about our meeting that day. It was a busy one.

  Kristy called the meeting to order as soon as the clock said five-thirty. “Any business?” she asked.

  “Well, it’s dues day,” I said.

  “Tuesday?” said Claudia with a grin. “Stacey, it’s not Tuesday, it’s Monday.”

  “No, dues day,” I repeated.

  “You need new shoes?” asked Kristy.

  “No, dues.”

  “You’ve got the blues?” asked Dawn, giggling.

  I put my hands on my hips. “You guys!” I said. They all laughed and handed over their money, and I stuck it into the manila envelope we use for a treasury.

  “Any other business?” asked Kristy after we had answered a few phone calls and set up some jobs.

  “I think I may have another client for us,” said Mary Anne. “I was talking to this new girl in my gym class. She hates gym as much as I do. Anyway, she has a little brother named Georgie, and she said her mom may need a sitter for him sometimes. She’s a really nice girl. Her name’s Tasha Hoyt.”

  I gasped. “Did you say Hoyt?” I asked. I glanced at Claudia. “I think I met her brother today. Does she have a twin?”

  Mary Anne nodded. “His name’s Terry.”

  “Right,” I said softly, almost to myself. Already I knew more about the new boy. He was a twin!

  “Okay,” said Kristy. “It’s always good to keep an eye out for new clients. Nice work, Mary Anne.”

  Mallory cleared her throat. “I have some business,” she said shyly. “It doesn’t really have to do with baby-sitting directly, but it could affect us.”

  “Yes?” asked Kristy.

  “Well,” said Mal, “did anybody else read that article in the paper last night? The one about counterfeiters in Stoneybrook?”

  “Counterfeiters?” I said. “Here? That’s ridiculous. Why would counterfeiters come to little old Stoneybrook?”

  “It’s true,” broke in Dawn. “I read the article. It said they may be here because Stoneybrook is so little. There’s just a small police force here, and the bank tellers and shop clerks might not be very sophisticated, so the counterfeiters can pass their bills more easily.”

  “Wow!” I said. “What if one of our clients gave us a fake bill? How would we tell?”

  “The article said fake money is hard to spot sometimes,” said Mal. “There�
��s new technology that makes it easier for people to counterfeit. But a lot of times the money feels different, and there are some little things you can watch for, like whether the money has tiny red and blue lines in it or not.”

  “Real money does,” said Dawn, “and fake money doesn’t.”

  “So what if you get a fake bill and try to use it?” asked Mary Anne.

  “You can get in a lot of trouble,” replied Dawn. “Plus, you don’t get to keep the money. The government confiscates it. But I don’t think we have to worry too much. They said it’s mostly big bills, like twenties and fifties, that are being passed.”

  Just then, the phone rang. I grabbed it. “Hello?” I said. “Baby-sitters Club.” And as soon as the person on the other end started to talk, I forgot about the mystery money.

  “This is Janice Hoyt,” said the woman. Terry’s mom! I almost jumped out of my seat. “My family is new in town, but our neighbors told us we would find a reliable sitter at this number. I need one for my son Georgie, on Saturday night.”

  “Sure,” I said as soon as I caught my breath. I took her number and told her we’d call her back as soon as we checked our schedule. I was hoping I’d get the job, just so I could get a peek at Terry’s house, but it turned out I was already booked for an all-day job on Saturday. Kristy ended up taking the job, and soon after that call our meeting was over.

  Claud grabbed me just before I left her room that afternoon and whispered to me, “Wear your red dress tomorrow. Terry won’t be able to resist you in that!”

  I grinned at her. It sure was fun to have a new boy in school.

  “Hello, Stacey,” said Dr. Johanssen, opening the door to let me in. “Charlotte is so excited about your plans for today. She’s talked about nothing else all week.”

  It was Saturday morning, and I had arrived at the Johanssens’ a little early for my sitting job. I guess I was looking forward to the day almost as much as Charlotte was. Charlotte, I should tell you, is one of my favorite kids to sit for. She’s eight years old and really smart; in fact, she skipped a grade in school. She loves to read, play with her dog Carrot, and solve mysteries.

  Sometimes I almost feel as if Charlotte is the little sister I never had. And I guess she thinks of me as an older sister. She’s an only child, just like me, so in some ways we’re a perfect match.

  Anyway, we had big plans for our day. Dr. and Mr. Johanssen had been invited to an afternoon wedding in Stamford, and they’d be gone until evening. They had offered to drop Charlotte and me off in downtown Stoneybrook on their way out of town, and we were going to spend the whole day there. We planned to eat lunch at a restaurant and shop at the downtown stores. At the end of the day, we’d get a ride home from my mom, who works at Bellair’s Department Store as a buyer.

  “Stacey!” Charlotte ran down the stairs. “Guess what? I have four dollars and seventy-nine cents to spend today!”

  “Wow!” I said. “You’re rich, aren’t you? And you look like a million dollars, too.” Charlotte had gotten dressed up for our day out, in a pink skirt and a white, frilly blouse. I was glad I had also dressed up a little. I was wearing my favorite white miniskirt with a new blue-and-white-striped sweater.

  Dr. Johanssen drove us downtown and slipped me some money to pay for our lunch. “Have fun, girls!” she said.

  Soon, Charlotte and I were strolling down Main Street, swinging our pocketbooks and stopping every few steps to look into store windows. “This is fun,” said Charlotte, grinning up at me. I had to agree with her. It was a sunny day, but it was pleasant and cool. The streets were full of people. And we could spend the whole day together. For the first time all week, I wasn’t thinking about Terry Hoyt — I was just thinking about having a good time with Charlotte.

  “Look at that picnic basket,” said Charlotte, pointing to a fully equipped basket in the window of a housewares store. Blue-and-white-checked napkins, pretty blue plates, and white mugs went with it. “Do you think I could buy that?”

  “Not with four dollars and seventy-nine cents,” I said. “It is pretty, though.”

  “It would be perfect for a teddy bear picnic,” said Charlotte longingly. Then we moved on to the next store, which was Polly’s Fine Candy. In the window was a beautiful gingerbread house, decorated with gumdrops and lollipops and swirls of icing. “Yum,” said Charlotte, licking her lips.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked. “How about heading to Renwick’s for lunch?”

  Charlotte nodded happily, and we walked around the corner to Renwick’s. It’s not a fancy restaurant, but it’s a fun place to eat. There are red leather booths to sit at, and the waitresses are really nice. “How are you today?” asked the one who brought us our menus. “Our special today is a grilled chicken sandwich, but your little sister might want to look at the children’s menu.” She smiled at me and left.

  “She thinks we’re sisters!” whispered Charlotte delightedly.

  “Let’s pretend we are, just for today,” I whispered back.

  Charlotte chose an item from the children’s menu: the Lucy special, which was a cheeseburger and fries. All the children’s items were named after characters from Peanuts. I almost ordered the Linus special myself, which was a grilled cheese sandwich, but at the last minute I decided on a tuna sandwich instead.

  Charlotte enjoyed eating lunch in a “real restaurant.” She insisted on ordering for herself, and she watched the waitress closely to see how she took down our order. She looked at the other customers. She played with the sugar packets on the table. And she behaved like a lady, saying “please” and “thank you” and wiping her mouth carefully with a napkin after every bite. I could tell that eating at Renwick’s was a special experience for her. In fact, she was so excited that she didn’t eat more than a few french fries and a couple of bites of her cheeseburger.

  After lunch, we headed for Bellair’s. Stoneybrook only has one big department store, which was a little hard for me to get used to after living in New York. And Bellair’s isn’t exactly Bloomingdale’s, if you know what I mean. But it’s a nice store. We headed straight for my mother’s office.

  “Well, hello, girls,” said Mom when we walked in. “Having a nice day?”

  “Definitely,” said Charlotte, beaming. “Stacey even let me get apple pie for dessert at Renwick’s.”

  It was true. I had decided that this was a special day, so it didn’t matter if she had dessert even though she’d hardly eaten any lunch.

  “What’s new in the store?” I asked my mother. She’s always up-to-date on what Bellair’s is carrying.

  “Look at these blouses,” Mom said, showing me a sketch. “We don’t have them yet, but I just ordered them and they’ll be here in a month. Aren’t they cute?”

  I looked at the picture. The blouses were styled like cowgirl shirts, with embroidery on the yokes. “I love them,” I said. “I bet Claudia will want one, too.”

  After we left my mother’s office, we headed for the toy department. Charlotte poked around for a long time, trying to decide what to spend her money on. Most of the things she saw were too expensive, but finally she found a troll doll that she said was just what she wanted. She took it to the cash register and paid for it, proudly telling the clerk that she was using her own money.

  “Can we go on the escalator now?” she asked, after she’d tucked away her change. Bellair’s has an escalator, which is nothing too special to me after all the stores in New York. But kids in Stoneybrook think it’s the coolest thing they ever saw, as if it were a ride in an amusement park. That’s how excited they get about it.

  “Sure,” I said. “I’d love to look at the accessories department.” We rode up together — and then down and up one more time before Charlotte was satisfied. Then we strolled through the accessories area, looking at barrettes and scarves and socks. I don’t know about you, but I love accessories. I can never have too many of them. I browsed until Charlotte grew impatient. “One more thing,” I told her. “I just want to loo
k at the hair ornaments.” She followed me to that counter, and we both saw a beaded headband at the same time.

  “Ooh, that’s beautiful,” Charlotte said as I picked it up. “That would look perfect in your hair.”

  I tried it on and looked in the little mirror that stood on the counter. “It’s nice,” I said. I checked the price tag. “Eight ninety-nine,” I said out loud.

  “Wow!” said Charlotte. “That’s expensive.”

  I guess anything over four dollars and seventy-nine cents seemed expensive to her, but the price sounded okay to me.

  “That looks lovely on you,” said the clerk behind the counter.

  I looked up and recognized the woman who had spoken. “Oh, hi, Mrs. Hemphill,” I said. “Charlotte and I are on a shopping spree today.” Mrs. Hemphill knows my mother, and she’s also friends with the Johanssens. “I think I’ll take it,” I said, pulling the headband off. “If I have enough money, that is.” I checked my wallet. I had a twenty and a few ones. I pulled the twenty out and looked at it. “I’m sure this isn’t counterfeit,” I joked.

  Charlotte giggled. “I read about that in the paper,” she said.

  Mrs. Hemphill smiled and took the bill. “I think they’re making too much of that,” she said. She gave me back a ten and some change and put the headband in a bag. “ ’Bye now,” she said. “Have a fun afternoon.”

  Charlotte and I waved and headed out of the store.

  The next stop was the the Merry-Go-Round, a store near Bellair’s. “I just want to see if they have any new earrings,” I said to Charlotte. Claudia and I buy earrings at the Merry-Go-Round all the time. In fact, my favorite pair, which has fish dangling from beaded wires, is from there.