Baby-Sitters Club 021

by Ann M. Martin

  "I'll tell the girls about it at our club meeting tomorrow, and then I'll call to let you know if we can do it, okay?" Mrs. Arnold nodded. She seemed pleased.

  So did the girls.

  When I left, they called, "Ood-gay eye-bay!" instead of "Snod peer," which was what they had shouted the last time I'd left their house.

  Chapter 9.

  Kristy has said so herself: Her favorite sitting charges of all are David Michael, Andrew, and Karen. Well, I wouldn't expect anything different. After all, they're her little brother, stepbrother, and stepsister. Plus, they are awfully cute and fun. If I didn't have so many brothers and sisters of my own, Kristy's brothers and sister might be my favorite sitting charges, too.

  Kristy was sitting because her two older brothers were out somewhere, and her parents had gone to another estate sale. That seems to be Mr. and Mrs. Brewer's new hobby. An estate sale is like a very, very, very fancy yard sale. At an estate sale, the contents of a whole house are being sold, so instead of walking around someone's front yard, looking at chipped plates and falling-apart couches, you walk through someone's house, looking at all their furniture and valuable stuff. The big difference between a yard sale and an estate sale is how much everything costs. At a yard sale, you could probably get a lamp for two, maybe three, dollars. At an estate sale, things are in good condition and sometimes cost an awful lot of money.

  Kristy's mom and stepfather have started going to estate sales to find interesting things for their house and yard. Once, they came back with a birdbath. Another time, they found a chandelier. And another time, they got this big lampshade, that looks like it's made of stained glass. Kristy thinks the things they find are weird. I think they're fun. At any rate, the Brewers had gone off in search of wall sconces (whatever those are), and Kristy was left in charge.

  Andrew and Karen only live with their father part-time - every other weekend, every other holiday, and for two weeks each summer. The rest of the time, they live with their mom and stepfather, who are also in Stoneybrook. Believe me, Kristy really looks forward to the weekends with Karen and Andrew. She loves them to bits - which I think makes David Michael a little jealous, since he's so close to their ages. (She loves David Michael, too, of course.) When Mr. and Mrs. Brewer had left, the three kids immediately began telling Kristy what they wanted to do that afternoon.

  "I want to play with Hannie," Karen announced.

  Hannie Papadakis is Karen's best friend when Karen is at her father's house. Hannie lives across the street and a couple of houses down. Her older brother, Linny, is David Michael's friend.

  "And I want to play with Linny," added David Michael.

  "How about you, Andrew? What do you want to do?" Kristy asked.

  "Daddy said I have to work on my part for the program." "The program?" Kristy repeated. "Oh, right. At school." Andrew's entire preschool class was planning a program for the parents. Andrew did not want to be in it. He's terribly shy. But every kid was supposed to be involved, so Andrew had some lines to learn. He was playing a roller-skating bear (on pretend skates) in a circus skit - and he wasn't happy about it.

  "Okay, Andrew," said Kristy, "I'll help you with your lines. Karen, why don't you call Hannie and Linny and invite them over?" "Goody!" exclaimed Karen. "Thanks, Kristy." Kristy took Andrew into the den to work on his lines. She chose the den because it's a smallish room and very cozy. She thought it might help Andrew to feel more comfortable.

  Andrew stood in the middle of the room, and Kristy sat on the couch, holding the paper that Andrew's teacher had sent home with him. On it were the lines for the skating bears skit. Andrew's lines were highlighted in yellow.

  "All right," said Kristy. "Let's see. It says here that the ringmaster - " "Jason is the ringmaster," Andrew interrupted.

  "Okay, that Jason the ringmaster says, 'And now, all the way from Europe, here are the famous skating bears!' " "Right," said Andrew. "Then I'm supposed to stand up and say, 'I am ... I am' . . . um . . . Kristy, I forget what I'm supposed to say, and anyway I don't want to say it. I don't want to stand up and talk at all." "I know you don't," Kristy replied gently, "but you have to. That's your job. You know how your daddy and mommy both have jobs and go to work?" "Yeah." "And my mother and your stepfather have jobs and go to work?" "Yeah." "Well, I have jobs, too. My jobs are babysitting and going to school. Going to school is also a job for Charlie, Sam, David Michael, Karen, and you. And part of your job is to be in this program." "But I don't want to be in it," replied Andrew, and his lower lip began to quiver. "I don't want everyone looking at me and listening to me." "But you know what they'll probably be thinking while they're doing that?" "What?" "They'll probably be thinking, What a good bear that Andrew makes. He knows his lines so well. I bet he worked very hard." "What if I forget my lines? Then what will they be thinking?" "They'll be thinking, Oh, too bad. He forgot his lines. Well, that happens sometimes. He still looks like a very nice, smart boy." Andrew didn't seem convinced, so Kristy only worked with him for a few minutes. Then she let him go to his room. He said he wanted to be alone.

  "Karen!" Kristy called. "David Michael! Where are you guys?" Kristy had heard the doorbell ring while she was talking to Andrew, so she assumed the Papadakises had come over. Sure enough, she found Linny and David Michael on the back patio reading Basho-Man comics. Then she went to Karen's room, where she found the girls. They were dressed as twins! "Look!" cried Karen. "Look what Hannie got! It's a dress exactly like ours!" Karen was wearing her sister-outfit dress that Kristy's grandmother had given her and Kristy the previous Christmas.

  "My mommy bought it for me," Hannie spoke up, "and as soon as I saw it, I said, 'That's just like Karen's dress.' So I wore it over as a surprise." "And we both have on white tights," added Karen, "and our shoes almost match." The girls were wearing Mary Janes, but Hannie's had two straps each, while Karen's had just one.

  "Are we twins?" asked Hannie, putting her arm around Karen.

  Kristy smiled. The girls couldn't have looked less like twins. Karen is blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and thin, while Hannie is dark-haired, dark-eyed, and stocky, but Kristy said, "You look just like twins." The girls beamed.

  "Let's do something twins do!" cried Karen. "Let's . . . let's . . ." Kristy left the girls deciding what to do. She had an idea of her own. She went to her room and found her matching dress. She took off her jeans and turtleneck and put the dress on.

  "Whoa," she whispered. "This thing's tight" Kristy is the shortest kid in her grade at Stoneybrook Middle School, but she must have been growing. The thought made her happy.

  She barely managed to zip up the dress. Then she found a pair of white stockings and looked for some black shoes. She didn't have Mary Janes, of course, but she found some black flats and slipped into them.

  She smiled at herself in her mirror. Then she returned to Karen's room.

  "Hi, you guys!" she said.

  Karen and Hannie turned to look at their "triplet." "What do you think?" asked Kristy, pleased with her idea.

  "I - " Karen began. "It's - " She gave Hannie an odd look. At last she said, "I think - I think we're tired of being twins." "Yeah," agreed Hannie.

  "You are?" said Kristy.

  The girls nodded. "I think I'll change," added Karen.

  "Then I will, too," said Kristy.

  Kristy left the girls and put her jeans on again. She checked on Andrew, whom she found muttering his skating-bear lines in his room. Kristy smiled. Andrew was afraid and shy, but if he had to perform, he wanted to do it well. Kristy was proud of him.

  She tiptoed away from his room and ran into Karen and Hannie, who were heading downstairs. Karen was no longer wearing her twin dress.

  , Kristy wrote in the club notebook.

  I thought about that for a long time after I read Kristy' s notebook entry. I thought about some of the things Marilyn and Carolyn had said to me. I thought about what Jessi had said - that it's fun to pretend you have a twin, someone who looks just like you.


  Then I thought about me. I remembered the time a year ago when I had bought this very-cool floppy bow for my hair. Vanessa liked it so much that two days later, she bought one, too. I was so angry. Whenever Vanessa wore her bow to school, I wouldn't wear mine. I wanted to be the only one with that bow. I wanted to be an individual - like Dawn. Dawn never follows the crowd. She insists on being unique, on being herself.

  I thought of all these things, and suddenly something clicked. I had an idea about the troublesome twins. And I had an idea about how I might help them make a little change in their lives ... or maybe a big change.

  Chapter 10.

  And I, Mallory, think the party turned out to be fun. Well, maybe not fun exactly, because it was work, and there were some bad moments, with the twins. On the other hand, any party is exciting, and there were also some good moments with the twins. The thing is, only the twins and I knew that they were good moments. . . . Hmm, like I said before, I better start at the beginning.

  The birthday party was supposed to go from one o'clock to three o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Mrs. Arnold asked us sitters to work from twelve to four so we could help prepare for the party beforehand and clean up afterward.

  Mary Anne and Dawn walked over to my house, picked me up, and then the three of us walked to the Arnolds'. We arrived at ten minutes to twelve, which pleased Mr. and Mrs. Arnold.

  "Happy birthday, Marilyn! Happy birthday, Carolyn!" I exclaimed as soon as I saw the twins. I'd gotten pretty good at telling them apart, even without their bracelets. Once I'd learned to look for the mole, I found other differences between the girls. For instance, Marilyn's nose is just slightly more rounded than Carolyn's. And Carolyn's cheeks are fuller than Marilyn's. But those are just physical differences. As I came to know the girls better - as they let me know them better - I found personality differences, too. After all, they are two different people, not Marilyn-or-Carolyn, so they're as different as any two sisters, or even any two strangers.

  "Hi, Mallory!" cried the twins. They were bouncing up and down with excitement, still in their pajamas (matching, of course). They were not going to get dressed until just before the party started.

  I introduced Dawn to the girls and their parents, and then Mary Anne said hello to everyone.

  After that we got down to work.

  "Let's see," Mrs. Arnold said. "Dawn, you're the tallest. Why don't you help Mr. Arnold put up the crepe paper in the dining room? Mary Anne, you can help the girls blow up balloons. And Mallory, you can fill the goody bags and then give me a hand in the kitchen." "Okay," I replied.

  Mrs. Arnold showed me into the living room, where an assembly line had been set up on the floor - fifteen paper bags with clown faces on them, fifteen packages of neat-looking barrettes (apparently, all the guests were going to be girls), fifteen sets of Magic Markers, fifteen tiny clip-on koala bears, fifteen candy bars, and fifteen beaded necklaces.

  Boy, goody bags had certainly improved since I last got one. When we were little, didn't goody bags just have, oh, peanuts and a pencil and maybe a plastic ring in them?

  I stuffed the bags neatly and stacked them on a chair in the living room. Then I helped Mrs. Arnold set out paper plates and cups and napkins, and fill candy baskets for the table. After that, we put the finishing touches on the twins' birthday cake. I wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARILYN AND CAROLYN in pink frosting. Believe me, this was not easy. But Mrs. Arnold thought the cake looked fine.

  "It's perfect," she said. "Now let me think. Mallory, could you help the girls dress, please? I've laid their clothes out on their beds." "Sure," I replied. "Marilyn, Carolyn!" I called. "Time to get dressed." The girls and I went upstairs.

  "Your mom said she laid your clothes out," I told them on the way.

  No response.

  Now what? I wondered.

  We entered the girls' room. There on the beds were two absolutely beautiful dresses. They were white with pink ribbon running in rows from the neck to the waistline, and with lace at the collar, the edges of the sleeves, and all around the bottom.

  "Those are gorgeous!" I exclaimed as soon as I saw them. "Are they new?" "Yes," replied Carolyn shortly.

  She and Marilyn looked at each other, looked at the dresses, then looked at each other again.

  I decided to take a chance. "Gosh," I said, trying to sound casual, "you guys probably don't like having to dress the same all the time. I'm not sure I'd like it." The twins' eyes widened in surprise. Then Marilyn said slowly, almost as if she were afraid to say it, "It's funny. Last year we loved wearing the same dresses. This year, it just doesn't seem like fun anymore. Hardly anyone knows whether I'm Marilyn or Carolyn. No one even cares." "It's like we're one person instead of two," Carolyn added.

  A-ha! "Maybe you could dress differently today," I suggested. "One of you could wear your sailor dress. That would be good for a birthday party." Carolyn's face lit up at the thought, but then she said, "No. We have to wear what Mommy says." So on went the two white dresses - and two pairs of pink tights, two pairs of Mary Janes, two gold lockets, two pink hair ribbons, and the name bracelets.

  No sooner were the girls dressed, than the doorbell rang.

  "They're here!" cried Marilyn. "The kids are here!" The twins made a dash for the front door. Standing on the stoop outside were three dressed-up little girls. Each was holding two identical presents.

  "Come on in!" said Mr. Arnold heartily. And the girls stepped into the living room. They put their presents in two piles on the couch.

  For the next fifteen minutes, the doorbell kept ringing and guests kept arriving. Each one came with two gifts which were placed on the two piles. When all the children had arrived and Mary Anne and Dawn were organizing them for pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, I secretly added my own gifts to the piles. I slipped them underneath the other presents.

  Marilyn and Carolyn had seemed a little upset while they were getting dressed, but they were just fine during the games. All the girls liked pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. Marilyn and Carolyn giggled and shrieked as they and their guests wandered blindly around the rec room, groping for the donkey poster. By the time everyone had had a turn, there were tails tacked up all over the rec room. The winner was the one who had pinned the tail on the donkey's nose. The twins were hysterical.

  After the prize had been awarded, the kids played musical chairs (twice, Carolyn fell on the floor), and then they had a peanut hunt. When the hunt was over, Mrs. Arnold said, "Time for presents!" The kids began cheering. The guests were as excited as the birthday girls were.

  Marilyn and Carolyn sat down on the floor in the living room and their father set one stack of gifts beside each girl. The twins reached for the presents at the very top of the stacks. They were wrapped in Winnie-the-Pooh paper and were from a pigtailed girl named Jane. Marilyn and Carolyn tore off the wrapping. In each box was a small Raggedy Ann doll.

  "Thank you," the twins said at the same time, and set the dolls on the floor.

  They opened the next packages - two Barbie dolls. Then two stuffed elephants, then matching necklaces. Two, two, two. Each twin kept tossing her presents onto the floor, and growing crosser-looking by the second, although the guests kept exclaiming, "Aw, isn't that cute?" or "Oh, can I play with that?" At last, the only presents left were mine. They were not the same size or shape. They were wrapped in different paper. The twins looked intrigued.

  "Is this a mistake?" asked Carolyn.

  "Who are they from?" asked Marilyn.

  "Me," I replied. "Go on. Open them." So they did. I'd picked out a tiny pin in the shape of a piano for Marilyn, and a book of simple science experiments for Carolyn.

  "Boy, thanks!" cried the girls enthusiastically. They absolutely beamed at me.

  But their smiles didn't last long. Mrs. Arnold wanted to take some pictures. She took the twins standing together holding hands. She took them cradling their new Raggedy Anns with the party guests grouped behind them. She took them sitting next to their piles of identical gifts. The gir
ls were always together, always doing the same things.

  It was no wonder that by cake time, the twins' faces were identical thunderclouds. They were sitting at one end of the decorated dining room table, the cake between them.

  "Now lean over and blow out the candles," instructed Mrs. Arnold, her camera poised.

  Two angry faces blew out the candles, then turned toward the camera.

  Click! The camera caught me in the background. I was trying to smile, but I'll bet my face looked pretty strange. I felt terrible for the twins. How awful to have no identity, to be just Marilyn-or-Carolyn, a cute lookalike twin.

  As I walked home from the party later that day, I knew that my idea had been right. The girls didn't want to look identical. They might have enjoyed it when they were younger, but now they wanted to be individuals, just the way Dawn does - just the way almost everybody does - and I planned to do something about it.

  Chapter 11.

  The next time I sat for Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold was on Tuesday, three days after their birthday party. The girls were waiting for me when I arrived. They were sitting side by side on the front stoop. In their matching yellow jumpsuits and white T-shirts they looked like gateposts marking the entrance to the house. When I was still only halfway up the walk, though, I noticed one difference between them. Marilyn was wearing the piano pin I'd given her.

  "Hi, Mallory! Hi, Mallory!" the twins cried as I approached. They jumped up and ran to me, throwing their arms around my waist.

  What a welcome.

  "Hi, you guys!" I replied with a smile.

  "We couldn't wait for you to get here," said Carolyn, taking one of my hands.

  "You want to play with our new toys?" asked Marilyn, taking my other hand.

  The twins led me inside, where the three of us were greeted by Mrs. Arnold. As soon as she left, we went upstairs to their bedroom so I could look at their gifts. (A good project, since I'd forgotten to bring the Kid-Kit.) I'd seen the gifts the girls had received at the party, of course, but I hadn't seen the ones from their parents or relatives.