Stacey And The Haunted Masquerade (2 page)

Take Kristy Thomas, for example. She's the president of the BSC, and the one who came up with the idea for the club. That day, she was dressed (as usual) in jeans, a turtleneck, and running shoes, with a baseball cap plunked over her brown hair. She was sitting (as usual) in the director's chair at Claudia's

desk, with a pencil stuck (as usual) over one ear. I watched Kristy eye Claudia's digital clock, and when it clicked to five-thirty, I mouthed the words along with her as she said (as usual): "I hereby call this meeting to order."

Kristy is so predictable.

But only in some ways. In other ways, she's totally unpredictable. 10181/8 like a whirlwind, a tiny tornado (she's short for her age) that whips around, full of energy and motion. For example, besides running the BSC, Kristy coaches a softball team (called Kristy’s Krushers) for kids who are not involved with Little League.

I've never met Kristy's father, because he ran out on her family quite a while ago. But I know her mom, and I can see that Kristy takes after her. Kristy’s mom is one strong woman. After Mr. Thomas left, she raised four kids — Kristy and her three brothers (Sam and Charlie, who are fifteen and seventeen, and David Michael, who's seven) — on her own. That couldn't have been easy.

But things aren't so tough for Kristy and her family anymore. That’s because Kristy’s mom married this super-nice guy named Watson Brewer, who just happens to be a millionaire. Now Kristy and her mom and brothers live in his mansion, along with Kristy’s grandmother,

plus, every other month, Watson's kids from his first marriage (Karen and Andrew, who are seven and four); plus two-year-old Emily Michelle, a Vietnamese orphan whom Kristy's mom and Watson adopted together. Plus a whole menagerie of pets.

Kristy's home life is the opposite of mine. Sometimes I think I'd enjoy all the chaos and confusion of the Brewer/Thomas household, but mostly I prefer the nice quiet way my mom and I live. Kristy, on the other hand, thrives in her busy environment.

Kristy's best friend is Mary Anne Spier. Mary Anne is short, like Kristy, and also has brown hair. They both have brown eyes, too. But personality-wise, she and Kristy are like night and day. Mary Anne is quiet and sensitive and very neat. For instance, that day, as Kristy started the meeting, Mary Anne was bent over the club record book, updating her information on our schedules. (Mary Anne is the BSCs secretary, and she does a terrific job.) She erased something carefully, and then, printing precisely, wrote something else in its place.

Like mine, Mary Anne's home life is fairly quiet. She lives with her dad, her stepmom, and her kitten, Tigger. But Mary Anne's family has been through a lot of changes in recent years. First of all, Mary Anne grew up without

a mom. Mrs. Spier died when Mary Anne was just a baby. Mr. Spier did a great job of raising Mary Anne on his own, although he did go overboard in the strictness department for a long time. He eased up a little bit when he remarried, though.

The woman he married happens to be the mother of Mary Anne's other best friend, Dawn Schafer. How that happened is kind of a wild story, but (deep breath!) here goes: Dawn's mom grew up in Stoneybrook and dated Mary Anne's dad when they were both in high school. But they didn't stay together. Instead, Dawn's mom went to college out in California, married a man named Jack Schafer, and had two kids, Dawn and her younger brother Jeff. Unfortunately, that marriage ended in a divorce, and Dawn's mom moved herself and her kids back to Stoneybrook. Dawn and Mary Anne met and became best friends (Dawn joined the BSC), found out their parents used to date, and brought them back together. (Whew!)

So now everybody's living happily ever after, right? Well, not exactly. First, Jeff didn't adjust to life in Stoneybrook, and he "ended up moving back to California to live with his dad. Next, Dawn started missing her dad and Jeff, and ended up going out there for an extended visit. We thought that visit would get California out of her system, but no. It turned

out that Dawn, who had always felt torn about where her "home" really was, decided that it was in California. So now she lives there full time, and Mary Anne is an only child again. It’s been a turbulent time for Mary Anne, but she's handled it well. She has plenty of support, too. She and Kristy are closer than ever these days, and I know Mary Anne shares many of her feelings with her boyfriend, Logan.

Speaking of sharing, you'll never find a more generous person than Claudia Kishi, my best friend (and favorite shopping buddy) and the vice-president of the BSC. Claudia is Japanese-American and has long, shiny black hair, dark, almond-shaped eyes, and a complexion to die for. She's vice-president mainly because she has her own phone with a private line, so we can take BSC calls without tying up anybody else's phone. But, over time, Claudia seems to have decided that providing munchies for each meeting is part of the vice-presidential job description. I've never attended a BSC meeting where there wasn't food, and plenty of it.

Maybe calling it "food" is a stretch. I guess it depends on whether or not you consider Cheez Doodles and Snickers bars "food." Claudia sure does. She adores any kind of junk food, and always has tons of it on hand. (She

knows I can't eat it, though, and she's very thoughtful about making sure she also has stuff I can eat, such as pretzels or fruit-juice-sweetened cookies.)

At that meeting, Claudia was rummaging through her bureau drawers, searching for a bag of Hershey's Miniatures she was sure she had hidden there. (Claudia has to hide her junk food, and also her beloved Nancy Drew mysteries. Her parents don't approve of either.) "Whoa!" she suddenly cried, interrupting Kristy, who was in the midst of asking if there was any new business. Kristy shot Claudia a Look, but Claudia ignored it. She pulled out a pair of purple, orange, and green paisley leggings. "I've been looking everywhere for these," she said.

"How could you miss them?" muttered Kristy.

Claudia grinned. "They are kind of loud, aren't they?" she said. "I love them." Claudia sees things a little differently than the rest of us. She's an artist, and color and texture and design mean everything to her. She has never received anything less than an A + in art class. She can draw, paint, sculpt, or create other kinds of art better than anyone else at SMS, but her grades in her other classes are more in the C range. Claudia's smart, but she just doesn't care too much about spelling, or algebra, or

anything that doesn't have to do with art. Also, I think Claud figures her older sister Janine makes enough A's for both of them; Janine's a certified genius.

Claudia finally found the bag of chocolates and sat on the bed next to me, still clutching the leggings. She passed the chocolates to Mary Anne, who sat on her other side.

"Any other business?" Kristy asked.

There was none, but if it had been a Monday, I would have said it was dues day, and everybody would have groaned. You'd think I was asking for a pint of blood from each of them! Dues are no big deal. As treasurer of the club, I collect them every Monday and keep track of how much we have in the treasury. We use the money for things such as contributing to Claud's phone bill, paying Kristy's brother Charlie to drive her and Abby to meetings (which he's done ever since the Thomases moved across town to Watson's, which is about three miles away), and buying stickers and other things for our Kid-Kits. Once in a while, if there's enough extra money, we'll have a pizza party.

While I was out of the club, my job was taken over by Dawn. She was the BSC's alternate officer, which means that she could step in for any other officer who couldn't make it to a meeting. But now that Dawn's back in

California for good, we have a new alternate officer — and a new BSC member! Her name's Abby (short for Abigail) Stevenson, and she and her twin sister Anna and their mom (their dad died in a car accident when they were nine years old) recently moved into Kristy’s neighborhood.

That day, Abby was perched on a stack of Claud's art books. She can't sit on the bed, because she's allergic to the feathers in Claudia's pillows, and she can't sit on the floor because she's allergic to dust. Abby seems to be allergic to just about everything. She's constantly sneezing, wheezing, and blowing her nose. She also has asthma, a disease that can be life-threatening. But she's learned to deal with it, just like I've learned to deal with my diabetes.

Her physical problems don't slow her down, though. Abby's a real dynamo. She even gives Kristy a run for her money. She's a natural athlete, with tons of energy for biking, soccer, or whatever. She's also addicted to fun. If nothing's happening, Abby makes something happen. We've always had a good time at BSC meetings, but it seems as though we laugh even more now that Abby's a member.

Abby and Anna are identical twins, but they're easy to tell apart because they dress differently and have different hairstyles. (Abby's hair is long, dark, and curly, while Anna's is short, dark and curly.) They both wear contacts most of the time and glasses occasionally. The twins are very different in other ways, too. Anna is a talented musician — violin is her instrument — and she's much more introverted than Abby. Despite their differences, though, Abby and Anna are very close and seem to have a special kind of connection.

Sitting on the floor near Abby that day were the two junior officers of the BSC, Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey. Unlike the rest of us, who are thirteen and in the eighth grade, Jessi and Mal are eleven and in the sixth. Being junior officers just means that they take lots of afternoon sitting jobs, since they aren't allowed to sit at night unless it’s for their own families.

You remember I mentioned that for a while I felt as if I'd outgrown the BSC? Well, at the time, I had convinced myself that all the BSC members were babyish, and that Jessi and Mal were the most babyish. But you know what? They're actually both mature for their age. For example, Jessi, who's African-American and beautiful, with high cheekbones and long, long legs, is a serious ballet student who has been dedicated to dance for years. And Mal, who has red hair, freckles, glasses and braces ("a Claudruple curse" as she says; she has no idea how pretty she is), is the oldest of eight

— count 'em, eight — kids, and she's been baby-sitting for ages. (Jessi's family is smaller, but she's a good sitter, too. She has a younger sister and a baby brother, and she's had lots of practice taking care of them.) Jessi and Mal both love to read, especially horse stories, and Mal wants to be a children's book author and illustrator when she's older.

And last but not least, we have two associate members: Logan Bruno (Mary Anne's boyfriend), and Shannon Kilbourne (a girl from Kristy's neighborhood, who goes to private school). (Associate members don't usually come to meetings. They just help out when we're overloaded with sitting jobs.)

Okay, ready for the quiz? Now that you've learned about every BSC member, this should be easy. Between calls at our meeting that day, the main topic of conversation was the Halloween dance and how to dress for it. All you have to do is try to guess which member was considering which costume to wear to the dance. (The answers will be revealed later on, for anyone who's still in the dark . . .)

1. Ballerina A. Mallory.

2. Lucy Ricardo (from B. Mary Anne I Love Lucy).

3. Dorothy (from The C. Abby Wizard of Oz)

4. Amelia Earhart D. Claudia.

5. Morticia Addams E. Stacey.

6. Cowgirl F. Jessi.

7. Giant Twinkie G. Kristy.

Chapter 3.

Stacey McGill.

"There. I'd done it. I stepped back and looked at my name, which I had just written near the top of an almost blank sheet of paper. Then I smiled to myself and stuck the cap onto my purple felt tip pen.

I'm not much of a joiner. The BSC is an exception, a big exception. But, for the most part, I usually like to go my own way. That's why what I'd just done was a big step. I had been thinking about it ever since Mr. King-bridge's announcement the day before. I hadn't talked to anybody else about it — not my friends, not my mom, not Robert, not anybody.

I looked back at. the sheet of paper. "Decorations Committee," it read at the top. "Faculty Advisor, Mrs. Hall." The only other writing on the paper was my name, signed with a flourish. I was the first person to join.

It may not seem like a big deal, signing up

for a decorations committee. And it's not, really. But for me, it was a symbolic step. See, lately I've been feeling as if I need something new in my life. I mean, I'm thrilled to be part of the BSC again, don't get me wrong. But lately I've wanted to be more active at school.

I need the chance to prove myself, to have fun, to be involved. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that working on the Halloween dance was the perfect opportunity.

It wasn't hard to figure out which committee to join. The tickets committee sounded totally boring, and being on the refreshments committee wouldn't be my thing either. The decorations committee would be fun, creative, and active, just what I was looking for.

I felt even better about my decision when I walked into school that morning and saw the sign-up sheets posted on the main bulletin board. The decorations committee definitely had the best faculty advisor. Claud has Mrs. Hall for English, and I hear she's pretty decent.

The first bell rang as I was standing there looking at the bulletin board. I needed to run for my locker if I was going to make it to homeroom on time. I skidded through the halls, feeling psyched. I couldn't wait to return at the end of the day and find out who else