Baby-Sitters Club belongs to Ann M. Martin

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"Do you want to go on a trip as a father-daughter week? I'm going on vacation all that time starting the day after tomorrow," said Dad.

"Really? As in just you and me?" I asked excitedly.

"Yes," said Dad.

I got so happy as I hugged him. We always do something special together. We're very close.

"What about Dawn or Sharon?" I asked.

"They won't be around," replied Dad. "Sharon has to work late all next week and Dawn'll be in California, so I figured you and I can go on vacation."

"Oh, okay," I smiled.

I'm sure you're wondering who I am. I'm Mary Anne Spier. I'm thirteen years old and grew up in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. I attend Stoneybrook Middle School as an eighth grader and will be graduating from there this week. Summer vacation starts on Friday. My dad is a lawyer and doesn't always take too many vacations. Sharon Schafer was his first girlfriend from high school before he met my mom- who died when I was an infant- and after Sharon got sent away to college in California where she got married & had a daughter, Dawn, who is my best friend, and a son, Jeff. Then during the winter back in seventh grade, the Schafers got divorced and she moved her children back here since she grew up & wanted to be near her folks. The kids-including Jeff- took it very bad. Jeff missed his dad terribly & moved back to California. Dawn was about to adjust the move pretty well. Sharon and Dad were dating at that time. They finally got married this year and my dad & I moved in with the girls on Burnt Hill Road after living on Bradford Court for more than thirteen years since Mom and Dad bought that house before I was born.

It was pretty tough for me at first because I had two friends I grew up with only one of them moved before I did. My two friends I grew up with were Claudia Kishi who lived across the street and my first best friend, Kristy Thomas who was next door to me. She joined a stepfamily, too. She lives with her mother, stepfather, three brothers, two stepsiblings, an adopted sister, and grandmother who helps out. Her father left the family when she was growing up on Bradford Court.

Claudia still lives there with her folks and an older sister. Her sister is super smart when it comes to a hard subject and she gets As, which makes it rough for Claud who is a C average student. She's happy she still passes and she must pass to stay in the club we do, The Baby-Sitters Club, also known as BSC. Her grandmother lived with them before passing away recently after she was struggling with a stroke she had since the summer after seventh grade ended.

"Where do you have in mind?" I asked.

"We can go visit your grandmother," said Dad.

"Sweet," I said.

Grandma Verna Baker was my mom's mother and lives in Maynard, Iowa. She and her late husband raised me for a year after Mom joined the angels to help Dad to get over the sadness losing Mom. At first, Dad tried to get me back when I was eighteen months old after my grandparents thought he might not be able to raise his infant daughter all himself. Dad had to fight for that until they gave in to let me live with him again. I'm glad he did. Otherwise I'd never knew who was my father growing up. Plus I wouldn't have good friends here or have a boyfriend, Logan Bruno. I certainly wouldn't attend any Stoneybrook Public Schools. Grandma and I recently got reunited a week after she called- for the first time in thirteen years- to say her husband died of colon cancer the week before.

"We can leave Friday when you get out of school," said Dad.

"Okay. Are we driving or flying?" I asked.

"Sharon offered to take us to the airport for twelve-thirty flight," replied Dad.

"Sounds good," I said. "This is also good since I'd be seeing Bob again."

Bob is my friend of Maynard, Iowa. His mother is the daughter one of Grandma's best friends. When I first met him, I thought he was a very boring guy because we had nothing in common, but he says we still can be friends. That's fine by me. What I like about him is that he understood that I'm already taken anyway. Logan? Well, let's just say he doesn't bother tell the popular girls, Cokie Mason and Marci that he's been taken until the very last minute. That's when I get mad at him. I blame him for not telling them. I also get mad at the girls for taking my boyfriend from me, but the trouble is I'm very shy and it's hard for me to speak myself. So, mostly, I just practice the words in my head so I can tell Logan or the girls on how I feel.

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The next day, we got ready to walk across the stage. I hope I'd do okay, but I knew I don't have to look at the crowd, just at the principal's eyes when I get a graduation award. I'd be with my homeroom class and right next to Dawn since Schafer is before Spier. We're the only two 'who the last name that begins with 'S' in our homeroom. They'll be doing each floor. Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey were excused from a class to watch their friends graduate and they wouldn't able to see us except for the BSC meeting days, which is every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Claudia was glad that she's graduating with us.

We're glad we'll be in high school together. Stoneybrook High School is the only high school here anyway. Kristy's neighbor, Shannon Kilborne, would be with us for the first time because she attended Stoneybrook Day School. Kristy's glad about that and Shannon might be able to come to the meetings more often since she joined a lot of after school activities, which is why she's the associate member. My adopted brother, Carlos Peters, went to school with Shannon. I have another adopted sibling, Meredith Sousa.

I'm just nervous going to high school. I knew I'd do just fine since I get good grades and I want go to college after high school. My dream college is Stoneybrook Community College because I want to be closer to home. Kristy and Claudia are doing the same thing. I want to be a fashion designer because I love to sew, Kristy is going to be a softball coach for kids, and Claudia wants to be an artist & would like to have her own busniess and name it, 'Claudia's Art Shop and Gallery'.

After school, at home, I did all of my chores like emptying the dishwasher while Dawn loads it, I watered the flowers, and I figured I'd start the laundry now to be all done. We do white and colored separatedly so they won't get stained if I accidentally add bleach on colors. When I first did laundry last year, I forgot that the white and colored clothes were together and I didn't know I wasn't suppose to add bleach on colors & it came out with stains! I was afraid Dad would be mad at me for doing it, so I didn't tell him for the whole day until he found out his colored shirts had some stains & noticed stains happened to be bleach. Luckily, when I told him about what happen that night, he didn't get mad since he knew it was my first time doing the laundry & he showed me how to do the right way by separate colors away from whites so it won't happen again. That was before Sharon married Dad.

That night, I was packing my suitcase since Dad and I would be leaving for Iowa after I graduate and the graduation would be done before eleven. He and I would be having lunch at the airport before going on the plane.

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The following day, it was the big day for me and Dawn & other BSC members to graduate! So, we'd be saying good-bye to Stoneybrook Middle and pretty soon, we'd be saying hello to Stoneybrook High School. Later, after the graduate flew up, Kristy arrived me and Dawn to the graduation party.

"I'd like to, but Dad and I have to leave for the airport to catch a plane for Iowa, it's at twelve-thirty this afternoon," I said.

"You and your dad can stay for awhile if it's okay with him, it's only eleven," said Kristy.

"Let's go check with him," said Dawn.

We did and Dad said we can stay for awhile. Sharon joined us so she can bring me and Dad to the airport.

"We can stay until ten of twelve to give us enough time to get to the airport," said Dad.

"Okay. Sounds like a good plan," I said.

At Kristy's, we had a fun time. They were about to serve lunch at quarter of noon when Sharon decided to leave to bring me and Dad early.

TBC