Baby-Sitters On Board (11 page)

I decided to find a better place to spy. Maybe I could sit down somewhere in Fantasyland next to a line for a ride. That way, I could overhear conversations. Now that would be interesting.
I headed for Fantasyland. When I got there, I realized I had just one problem. There was no place to sit down that was near enough to a line so that I could actually listen in on conversations.
I sighed.
Then I kind of hung around lines for awhile. I heard a kid tell his father he was tired of waiting. (Big deal.) I heard a little girl say she was starved and ask for ice cream. (Is that the only thing children want to eat at Disney World?) And I heard one old man tell an old woman that he'd been through the Haunted Mansion six times. (Yawn.) And then I saw Alexandra Carmody, the beautiful girl from the Ocean Princessl She was just as beautiful as ever, with that long, wavy hair. And she seemed to have found some friends — a light-haired boy who looked a little younger than she, and an older couple. Maybe the boy's parents?
Now I had something to find out about! They joined the end of the line for Peter Pan's Flight, so I got on the line right behind them, even though I'd just been on Peter Pan's Flight that morning.
I poised my pen and opened my ears.
But for the longest time, none of them spoke.
vZ/ Maybe they were really, really tired. I capped my pen again.
Spying can be a bore.
Finally the boy said, "Hey, Mom, remember when you read Peter Pan to us?" So the man and woman were the boy's parents — or at least, the woman was his mother.
"I certainly do," the woman replied fondly. "Captain Hook scared you two so much you had nightmares. Remember, Alex?" Alex? I didn't get it. The woman was talking like she was Alexandra's mother. But Alexandra wasn't supposed to have any parents.
"Oh, don't remind me, Mom!" Alex cried. "Hey, Daddy — " (She tugged at the sleeve of the man's shirt.) " — I made you hide my alarm clock. Remember? I said it scared me as much as it scared Captain Hook." "Some big sister you were," the boy added, but you could tell he was kidding. "You were more scared of everything than I was." Mom, Daddy, big sister! Boy, what a liar Alexandra was! She told Mary Anne she was an orphan — that her parents had been killed — and here she was with her parents and her brother.
Just when I thought I'd had all the surprises I could handle, I noticed that a couple in front of Alexandra's parents, who were about the same age as the Carmodys, were whispering and nudging each other. Every so often, they'd turn around to look at Mr. and Mrs. Carmody.
I couldn't tell whether the Carmodys saw them or not — but they couldn't help but notice when the woman finally said, "Excuse me, but are you Viv and Vernon Carmody?" Now why did those names sound familiar?
The Carmodys smiled graciously. "Yes, we are," said Alex's father.
"Oh, I have to tell you!" the woman exclaimed. "My husband and I are your biggest fans. We have been for years. Are you performing here at Disney World?" I listened and gawked and scribbled notes. I figured out who the Carmodys were — a man and wife singing team who were popular with people my parents' age and older. I knew I'd heard their names before. I think Mom and Dad even have one of their albums.
But, boy, was I left with a lot of questions. The biggest one was, why was Alexandra such a liar? I couldn't wait to find Mary Anne and tell her what I had learned! Mary Anne.
What a day our first day at the Magic King dom was. I was exhausted. I thought the Pike kids wore Stacey and me out when we went to Sea City, but that was nothing compared to a day at Disney World. My feet ached, my back ached, and my head ached. I'd been on Space Mountain twice, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad three times, and I'd stood on miles of lines. Then Kristy had called a club meeting for right after dinner. And ever since we'd met the Pikes at Cinderella Castle that afternoon, Mallory had been bugging me about some thing. She kept saying she wanted to talk to me, but that we had to talk in private.
"Okay," I said. We were back at the hotel and I was rummaging around in my suitcase, looking for aspirin. "We'll talk when I get back from the club meeting. Your mom gave Stacey and me an hour and a half off, so I'll talk to you right before we go to bed." "What about Vanessa?" asked Mallory.
"We'll wait until she's in the bathroom. You know she takes forever. Is that okay?" I asked.
Mallory nodded.
"Great," I said. But I was wishing that I could just fall into bed, go to sleep right then, and not get up until the next morning. Or maybe the next afternoon.
Instead, I dragged myself to the club meeting. Stacey dragged along with me. She was as tired as I was.
The meeting was held in the room Kristy, Claudia, and Dawn were sharing. When we entered, I drew in my breath in surprise. Their cabin on the ship had looked like the back end of a garbage truck. But their hotel room looked like, well, a hotel room. It was reasonably neat. There were no clothes lying around. There were no M&M wrappers on the floor or cracker crumbs on the desk. And Dawn and Kristy were actually smiling — at each other.
"Hi, you guys!" called Kristy as we entered the room.
"Hi," we replied.
"Whaf s the matter?" Claudia asked us.
"We're exhausted," said Stacey.
"We're fea&y-sitting," I reminded them crossly.
"Touchy, touchy," said Dawn, who's the only one I would have let get away with saying something like that just then.
"Sit down," said Kristy. "Rest your feet. You want a soda or something?" "Definitely," I answered.
Claudia looked longingly at a refrigerator and a cabinet that was full of potato chips and candy. "If only we could get in there," she said, touching her finger to the keyhole of the cabinet.
"Well, you know what Watson said," Kristy told her.
"Yeah," replied Claudia. "If s just. . ." She peered into the cabinet. "Oh, my lord, there's a Mounds bar way in the back! I haven't seen Mounds bars anywhere in the hotel. They're not in the store in the lobby." "Claudia, that thing probably costs about twelve dollars. Come on. I've got Fritos and pretzels here. And I got some sodas out of the machine. Now let's start the meeting." Kristy was growing impatient.
She passed around sodas and opened the bags of pretzels and Fritos. We talked about the kids for awhile, but there wasn't much to say. They were all having a ball. Kristy mentioned that Karen thought she had a ghostly companion, but none of us knew what to do about that.
Dawn told us how she'd lost her bracelet, and grew teary-eyed.
Claudia showed Stacey and me a pair of barrettes her Secret Admirer had sent her at dinner.
Then I said that Claire and Margo were upset because we'd missed both the afternoon and the evening parades that day.
"You too?" said Kristy. "So did we. And Karen and Andrew missed them, too. They really wanted to see them. Or at least one of them. Did anyone see one?" We all shook our heads.
"Well, we'll remember tomorrow," said Kristy. "Now. Who has an idea for gifts for Mom and Watson and the Pikes?" There were a few red faces among us. I knew we hadn't been thinking about the gifts at aU.
Dawn cleared her throat. "I saw some really nice cement planters in the gift shop. They were shaped like turtles and — " ftrrr*.
"Those huge things?!" cried Kristy. "They weigh a ton! How would we ever get them on the plane?" Dawn shrugged, embarrassed.
"I saw some keychains in the shop," I said. "They were personalized. You could get them with almost any name. I found most of our names down there. I bet we could find — " "Those keychains had Mickey Mouse on them, for heaven's sake!" said Kristy. "Get real, you baby-sitters. We want to do something special." "Well, what ideas have you come up with?" I asked.
"No good ones," said Kristy. "But they were better than cement planters and Mickey Mouse keychains." "There's a nice clothing store in the lobby," Claudia began.
"You guys are missing the point," interrupted Kristy. "We don't want to give just any gift. We don't even want to give just an expensive gift. We have to give meaningful gifts." "Like what?" asked Stacey.
Kristy shrugged. "I don't know. Yet. Well, keep thinking." We turned our attention to the Fritos. Then we found a Michael J. Fox movie on TV and tuned in.
I fell asleep.
I didn't wake up until I became aware that Stacey was shaking me gently and saying, "Mary Anne, Mary Anne, get up. Our break is over." Stacey and I dragged ourselves back to our rooms.
As soon as I opened the door to mine, Mal-lory bounced over to me. (Where did she get all that energy?) 'Terfect timing!" she said. "Vanessa just went into the bathroom. I figure we have, oh, fifteen, twenty minutes." "Okay." I lowered myself onto my bed. (Mallory and Vanessa were sharing the other bed.) Mallory plunked herself down next to me. "I have some very important information," she began.
"Important information?" I said. "You sound like a spy, Mal." For just a moment, I thought Mallory was blushing. But it was hard to tell. She'd gotten a lot of sun that day.
Mallory cleared her throat. "Well, anyway, guess who I just happened to be standing behind on the line for Peter Pan's Flight today?" "I can't guess. Who?" "Alexandra Carmody. And she was on line with her mother, her father, and her brother. I couldn't help overhearing what they were saying. And get this — her parents are, like, celebrities. Have you ever heard of Viv and Ver-non Carmody? They're a singing team. They're for older people." The names sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't think about names just then. All I could think was that Alex had parents.
"Are you sure about all this?" I asked Mallory.
"Positive. We were on line for half an hour. And I was right behind them." "What a liar!" I cried. "Oh — I don't mean you, Mal. I mean Alex. She told me she was an orphan. And a whole bunch of other things. I wonder if any of it is true. Oh, who cares? But why did she tell me her parents are dead instead of celebrities? People shouldn't joke about things like that." Mallory shook her head. "I thought you should know." O/rm, "Thanks," I replied. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I am glad to know." Even though I was tired, I didn't sleep well that night. I kept waking up and thinking about Alex. By morning, I had made one decision. The next time I saw her, I would confront Alex with what I knew.
Which happened to be during breakfast. Va-nessa forgot to bring her vitamin pills to the dining room so I said I'd get them. I'd gotten as far as the lobby when I ran into Alex. I didn't bother to smile or say good morning to her. Instead, I greeted her with, "You . . . are ... a ... liar." I proceeded to tell her everything Mallory had told me.
"But . . . but ..." Alex kept saying. Her face crumpled up as if she were going to cry.
Usually I can't stand to see someone cry. I get all mushy and sympathetic. But that time, I turned my back and walked away. Alex had lied, and I'd opened up and told her about my mother, and now I felt like a fool. Worse, I felt hurt.
I hadn't seen the last of Alex, though. The Pikes and Stacey and I went back to the Magic Kingdom that morning and split into groups again. I wound up with Margo and Claire.
"Snow White! Snow White!" cried Claire. "Let's go on that ride again. I want to see the wicked witch." So we went to Fantasyland and found Snow White's Adventure. And who should get on line behind us but Alex.
"Hi, there," she said.
I didn't answer her. My hurt had turned to anger.
"Can't I even talk to you?" asked Alex. "I have to tell you something." "What was your favorite part of this ride?" I asked Margo, ignoring Alex.
"Oh, easy. When the witch looks like she's going to push the big rock on you." Alex stopped talking.
She came on the ride with us, though. I mean, climbed right into our little Dopey car, as if she were the fourth person in our party! After the ride I tried to lose her in the crowd. When I thought I'd succeeded I said to the girls, "Have you guys been on Cinderella's Golden Carousel?" "Nope," they replied.
So we stood on line, and then ran onto the merry-go-round and chose our horses. The music started. The horses began to move. As my horse rose up, the one next to me sank down. I found myself looking into Alex's face.
"Hi!" she said.
I whipped my head around and wouldn't pay attention to her.
A few minutes later, when the merry-go-round had slowed to a stop, Claire began begging for ice cream. I knew from experience that she wouldn't stop until she'd had some. We walked to The Round Table and each got a cone piled high with swirls of soft vanilla ice cream.
Alex stood on line behind us.
Purely to escape her, I walked the girls all the way over to Tomorrowland after we'd finished our cones. The first thing I noticed was a sign at Space Mountain announcing that the line was only ten minutes long. The second thing I noticed was that we'd finally lost Alexandra.
"This is the time to ride Space Mountain," I told the girls. "Hardly any wait." "Goody!" they cried.
So we rode the roller coaster.
When we came out, Alex was waiting for us.
"There you are!" she said.
And at that moment, Margo threw up her entire ice-cream cone and probably all of her breakfast, too. Most of it went on Alex's shoes.
That was the last we saw of Alexandra Car-mody that day.
I couldn't have been happier.
Byron.
Disney World is awesome! And today is even better than yesterday was. That's because me and my brothers asked if David Michael could spend the day with us, and if we could be on our own again — us five boys — like we were at Treasure Cay.
Mom and Dad said no to being on our own, but yes to David Michael. That was good enough for me. I didn't care if Stacey had to follow us around. She's pretty cool. And she said we could do whatever we wanted as long as it was legal.
Well, we knew exactly what we wanted to do. The question was, would there be enough time for everything? We wanted to go on Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and the rides in Frontier-land. We wanted to look for hidden treasure again, too. (We still had our map.) And we wanted to eat as much food as possible.
"In that case," said Stacey, "there's just one thing I insist on." "What?" I asked.
"That you ride Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before you eat a thing. Got it?" "Got it," we said.
That was a great excuse to go right to Space Mountain. It was early in the day and the line wasn't too long, so as soon as we came out of the ride, we went back in again.
"Oh," groaned Stacey. "Twice in a row? I don't think my poor old stomach is up to this." "Well, you don't have to come with us. You could wait outside," I said hopefully.