“ ’Bye,” I said.
“ ’Bye,” the other three said.
I felt awful as I watched them walk off. It was as if they had taken my heart out and stepped all over it.
“They’re nuts,” Logan whispered. “I think they’re just jealous.”
I didn’t believe that for a minute. Maybe all those people in the hallway had been lying to me, just trying to make me feel good. “Logan, do you really like my hair?”
Logan held my shoulders gently and looked me in the eye. “I really do. But that shouldn’t matter. Mary Anne, you don’t need to listen to what anyone says. You’re the one who has to like it. If it makes you feel good, that’s what counts.”
Leave it to Logan. He was right. I liked the way it looked, I liked the way it felt. “Yeah,” I said. “Thanks.”
“Okay, I better go before the bell rings. ’Bye.”
“ ’Bye!” As he turned to leave, I saw Dawn sitting in homeroom. She caught my eye, then looked away.
Suddenly I remembered the BSC meeting that afternoon. “Oh — Logan?” I called down the hall.
“Yeah?” he said, turning back around.
“Are you coming to the meeting?”
“I hadn’t planned on it. Why? You want me to?”
How did he know? I smiled and nodded. “I don’t think I can face it alone. You know …”
“Okay!” he said. “Anyway, I’ll see you at lunch. ’Bye!”
“ ’Bye!”
I walked in the classroom. I could tell right away that Dawn had heard me. She was shaking her head and staring out the window, with a teeny little smirk on her face.
The weather report had predicted heavy snow for Tuesday. They were right about the heavy part, but they were wrong about the snow. Freezing rain fell the whole day long. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t feel warm or dry — inside or out.
So there was Claudia, inside the Arnolds’ kitchen, cold and bored silly. Marilyn was practicing scales over and over, Carolyn was still working on her contraption, and the last drizzlings of the storm tapped against the windows.
After listening to the clanking downstairs, Claudia was getting curious. She went to the top of the basement stairs and shouted, “Do you want something to eat?”
“No!” Carolyn shouted back.
“I can bring it down.”
“No!”
“Can’t I just come down?”
“NO! I told you this is top secret!”
Claudia rolled her eyes. “But you let Mary Anne and Marilyn see it a few days ago.”
“I wasn’t working on the secret stuff back then! Please leave me alone!”
“All right.”
Claudia slunk back to the kitchen table. In her shoulder bag was a Nancy Drew book she’d just finished reading. With a sigh, she pulled it out and started reading it again.
By the end of the first chapter, Marilyn finished practicing. She bounced into the kitchen and said, “Let’s go see the time machine!”
“Noooooo!” Carolyn screamed from the basement.
“I think she means no,” Claudia said.
“What a party pooper,” Marilyn replied with a pout. “I know, let’s invite someone over!”
Good idea, Claudia thought. Stacey was sitting at the Braddocks’, just a couple of blocks away. “We could try Matt and Haley,” she said. “I don’t know if Stacey’ll want to take them out in this weather, though.”
“The rain’s almost stopped!” Marilyn squealed. “Call them up!”
It turned out that Stacey was happy to bring the kids over. In a few minutes she and the Braddocks appeared at the door, soggy but excited.
“Hi!” Haley and Stacey shouted.
“Hi!” Marilyn replied. “Come in!”
Matt beamed and made a motion with his hand. A small, low noise came from his mouth. (Matt has been deaf since birth. He goes to a special school in Stamford, and speaks with sign language. I haven’t caught on how to do that, but Jessi’s really good at it.)
They hung their coats in the closet and came into the kitchen.
“Don’t let them downstairs!” Carolyn’s voice floated upward.
“What?” Marilyn said in an exaggerated loud voice. “Let them come downstairs? Okay! Let’s go, guys!”
“No!” Carolyn shrieked. “Don’t! I said don’t!”
Marilyn giggled. “Come on,” she said to her friends. “Let’s play.”
The three of them ran into the rec room.
Stacey and Claudia went into the living room, flopped onto the sofa, and gabbed for awhile. (Claudia didn’t mention what they were gabbing about, and I didn’t ask, but I have a pretty good idea….)
Well, the topic must have been very interesting (harrumph), because they lost track of the kids.
“Claudia?” Stacey said. “Do you hear anything?”
Claud sat up. “No.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. What are they doing?” Stacey stood up and headed out of the living room.
She stopped when she heard scurrying footsteps outside. “Why are they —”
There was a burst of giggling from the side of the house. Stacey and Claudia looked out the window to see Marilyn, Matt, and Haley, with their coats on, running down the driveway.
“Come on,” Claudia said. She dashed to the closet, grabbed their coats, and called down to let Carolyn know they were going outside. Then she and Stacey bundled up and left through the back door.
The rain had stopped, but it was still freezing. Claud and Stace walked around the side of the house, looking for the kids.
They found them on their knees, peering through a small basement window. Haley signed something to Matt, and he laughed.
I should explain, Matt’s laugh is … well, unusual. It’s sort of a cross between a loud squeak and a goose’s honk. (He can’t help it, he’s never heard what it sounds like!) Anyway, it made Marilyn crack up. Haley thought it was pretty funny, too. As for Matt, I think he likes the way his laugh affects people. Their reaction makes him laugh even more.
But Carolyn had heard it, too, and she had a different opinion. “Knock it off!” she called from the basement. “Get away from there!”
The three spies raced away. They saw Claudia and Stacey, but they ignored them. They headed for the green slanted door that led into the basement from outside.
“Ssssshhh!” Marilyn warned. She gently pulled the door open.
Eeeeeeeeee.
The kids cracked up again at the squeaky hinge.
“Hey!” came Carolyn’s voice.
Marilyn let the door fall open. She and the others stepped back and stared as Carolyn angrily stomped up the stairs. She poked her head out and reached for the door handle.
On her face was a snorkel mask, complete with pipe. A pair of fluffy earmuffs was on her head, and a big wool scarf around her neck. Between the mask and the muffs, her hair was sticking out every which way.
Claudia had to admit, she looked ridiculous.
The kids thought so, too. They screamed with laughter.
“Go away!” Carolyn yelled. “You’re ruining my concentration! Claudia, get them out of here!”
She disappeared back into the basement, slamming the door behind her.
“Come on, guys,” Claud said. “Let’s go inside.”
The kids ran in the back door ahead of Claudia and Stacey. “And stay away from the basement steps!” Stacey warned them.
The kids settled down. They spent the rest of the time in the rec room. Claud and Stace set up a game of Mousetrap, which held their attention just fine.
Every once in awhile they could hear a bang or a bonk or a boing from downstairs. But they had lost interest in the time machine by then.
Until Carolyn herself suddenly barged into the rec room. Her eyes were practically on fire. She was wearing the same crazy outfit, without the mask. A ratty old wool hat was now perched above the earmuffs. Claudia said she looked positively demented.
&n
bsp; “Eureka!” she shouted.
“Eureka?” repeated Claudia.
Haley looked puzzled. “You need a vacuum cleaner?”
“No,” Carolyn said. “I’ve solved the final mystery. The last obstacle to time travel!”
“Uh-huh,” Marilyn replied. “What happened? You rearranged the milk crates?”
Carolyn ignored that remark. “Soon,” she said, grinning wildly, “I will be ready for my first flight!”
There was something arresting about the look in her eyes. No one was sassing her now. Claudia said a shiver ran down her spine.
She almost believed Carolyn.
I had learned a new word. Pariah.
It sounds like an exotic name, but it’s not. It means “outcast.” I had come across it in a newspaper, then looked it up. Funny how it seemed to fit me these days.
I found one good thing about being a pariah. I got to eat lunch with Logan, alone.
That’s right. My friends, the supposedly truest friends of my whole life, the girls I’d shared everything with, were eating at another table.
And probably talking about me.
To be completely honest, it was I who decided not to eat with them. You see, they hadn’t said a single nice thing to me since I had gotten the makeover, and it was already Thursday. Monday’s club meeting had been torture. If Logan hadn’t been there, I think I would have jumped out the window. Of course, I made Logan come to Wednesday’s, too. But that one was even worse. I had decided to wear the casual outfit I’d bought at Steven E, and the snide comments were flying.
To add insult to injury, now the members of the BSC were spreading crazy rumors about me around the school. Rumors that some high school guy liked me. Can you believe it?
Well, I had had enough. Their attitude was stupid and mean. And that’s exactly what I was explaining to Logan at lunch.
“What rumors?” Logan asked.
“You don’t want to hear,” I said.
“Who’s spreading them?”
“Logan, I’m not going to talk about it. It’s not worth it.”
“But it’s upsetting you. So why don’t you tell me? You’ll probably feel better.”
I took a tasteless bite of Salisbury steak and thought about how to word my reply. “Well, it’s just that … supposedly there’s this friend of Kristy’s brother Sam, named Chris Something, who … well, who said I was cute, and wanted to know my name.”
There. I had said it.
Logan looked at me blankly. “So what?” He shrugged. “What’s the big deal? I don’t understand.”
“That doesn’t bother you?”
“No. I mean, I’m not surprised.” Logan’s eyes crinkled as he flashed that famous smile. “If I were him, I’d ask the same thing.”
“It’s just that they’re talking about me behind my back, that’s all,” I said. “And they’re talking about me to other people.”
“Mary Anne, maybe you’re taking this a little too seriously.”
“Logan, it’s true. Sometimes I catch people looking at me, and when I look back they glance away. And I can hear all these muttered comments when I walk down the hall. It’s so immature. I can’t stand it!”
“Maybe you should sit down and have a talk with your friends,” Logan suggested.
“I thought about that, but you know what? I feel disgusted, Logan. I’m supposed to go shopping with Kristy this afternoon to buy art supplies for our Kid-Kits, and I don’t even want to go.”
“But Kristy would listen to you. She’s your best friend.”
“She was. Who do you think started spreading the rumors?”
Logan nodded. “Yeah … well, it’s sad. Maybe you do need to cool off.”
“What are you doing after school?”
“Um, I’m supposed to go to Austin’s around five-thirty, but nothing before then. Want to come over?”
“Okay!” Spending the afternoon at the Brunos’ would be a much better idea than shopping with Kristy the Gossip.
* * *
I saw Kristy in the hallway before last period. I really had to force myself to look her in the eye. “I’m not going to be able to go with you this afternoon,” I said.
“Oh.” She didn’t seem crushed, but I could tell she wasn’t overjoyed, either. “Well, I guess I can find enough stuff myself.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Will you be at the meeting?” Kristy asked.
“Yeah.”
“See you.”
“ ’Bye.”
It was mid-winter, but it felt chillier inside than out.
* * *
After school, I met Logan and we walked to his house. As soon as we stepped through the door, Logan’s brother and sister ran into the living room to see us. Hunter jumped up and down, pointing to my head. “Your hair! Your hair! Your hair!” he cried out. “I like it!”
Kerry was staring at me in awe. “You look so grown-up, Mary Anne.”
“Thanks,” I said.
Hunter and Kerry are adorable, and it was nice to see them so excited and hear their compliments. A couple of days before I would have loved it. But I was tired of drawing attention to myself. I kind of wished I had an Old Mary Anne wig I could put on for awhile.
Logan and I were making hot chocolate in the kitchen, when I brought up something that was bothering me. “Um, you’re going to Austin’s house today?”
“Yeah,” Logan said. “He came over for dinner once last week, and his parents invited me to his house.”
“Oh. So you definitely can’t come to the BSC meeting?”
“Sorry. But you can handle it, Mary Anne.”
“I guess.” I sighed. “But a half hour of the cold shoulder?”
“Bring something to read,” Logan suggested. “That’ll fill up the silence.”
“Yeah, but what if they start making comments again? Then what should I do?”
Logan frowned and stirred his cocoa. “Well, let’s work out a plan. What could happen?”
“They could say something about my hair.”
“Tell them you feel great. Tell them they should try it. What else?”
“They could tell me my outfit is ugly or it doesn’t fit right.”
“Well, they’re wrong, you know that. So you can just say, like, ‘That’s funny. It was one of the nicest outfits I saw there. And everyone seems to like it but you.’ Something like that. Remember, you like the way you look.” He quickly added, “I mean, I do, too, and so do a lot of other people, but you’re the important one.”
As you can see, Logan is very take-charge. (And he knows how it feels when people talk behind his back. Once, he had to become a regular BSC member when Dawn went to Los Angeles for a few weeks — and when his football teammates found out, they were awful to him.)
We talked and talked, and by the end of our conversation, I felt prepared for anything. At about five-fifteen, we put on our coats and left the house. Austin’s is the opposite direction from Claudia’s, so we said good-bye on the front lawn.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a familiar car drive by. Charlie was taking Kristy to the meeting.
“Uh-oh,” I said.
“They didn’t stop to pick you up,” Logan remarked.
“That doesn’t surprise me. But I told Kristy I couldn’t go shopping with her, remember? And now here I am.”
“Where did you say you were going to be?”
I shrugged. “She didn’t ask why I couldn’t come.”
“Then don’t worry about it. It’s your business.”
“Yeah. Okay, see you tomorrow.”
“ ’Bye.”
We gave each other little good-bye kisses and left.
* * *
Boy, was there a chilly breeze in Claudia’s room when I got there. It came from Kristy and Stacey and Dawn and Claudia (especially Kristy), and it blasted me from head to toe.
But I knew just what to do. I said “Hi,” took the record book, sat down on the bed, and did my work.<
br />
No one said a word to me. I tried to be strong. But I have to say, when the phone rang I felt a shiver of relief.
“Hello, Baby-sitters Club,” Claudia said into the receiver. “Hi, Mrs. P! Uh-huh. Okay, hold on, let me check.” She covered the receiver and looked at me. “A week from this Thursday, six to ten.”
I looked at the calender. Jessi and Mallory can’t sit at night, Kristy was sitting for the Arnolds, and Claudia was going out with her family. Dawn and Stacey were free, but they had heavy sitting schedules the rest of the week.
“I could do it,” I volunteered.
As Claudia confirmed the date with Mrs. Prezzioso, Kristy gave me a sidelong glance. “You sure?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“What if Logan wants to go out?”
I shrugged. “We’ll just —”
“I mean, there are some people who give up their girlfriends for the sake of their boyfriends …” Kristy let a silence hang in the air, then looked around and said, “Want to see what I bought for the Kid-Kits today?”
“Yeah!” everyone said. They leaned forward as Kristy brought out a paper bag crammed with stuff.
Me? I just sat there, speechless. I thought I’d prepared myself for every mean comment. I never expected that one.
What else would they think of? When was this going to end?
I was determined not to cry. I looked down at the record book. The names started to blur. And for the first time, I had the terrible feeling that this was all wrong. From the start.
Maybe I just didn’t belong in the Baby-sitters Club.
“Does it come in other colors, too?” Hannah Toce asked, admiring my cable-knit sweater.
“Uh-huh,” I replied. “But once they sell out, they’ll only have spring clothes, so you should probably go there soon.”
“Okay, thanks, Mary Anne!” she said, turning to look for an empty seat in the study hall. “Oh,” she added, “and good luck with that guy.”
“What guy?”
“I heard a high school guy liked you. Is that … off?”
“Um, no. I mean, yes!” I laughed. “I mean, it’s only a rumor.”
Hannah bit her lower lip in embarrassment. “Oh. Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I said.
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