BSC HIGH: Freshman Year
A/N: Book One in a four-part miniseries about the older BSC members in high school. For story purposes, Dawn still lives in Stoneybrook.
CHAPTER 1: September—Kristy
"I can tell there's no more time left to criticize; I've seen what I could not recognize. Ev'rything in my life was leadin' me on, but I can be strong. Oh-h, yes, I can..."
I awoke to the sounds of "Don't Look Back" by Boston blaring from my radio, not to mention that God-awful buzzing. After a few minutes, I got out of bed and went to the closet. Today was an important day for me, because some of my friends in the Baby-sitters Club (more about that later) were joining for the first day at Stoneybrook High School.
Before I go any farther, I should probably tell you more about myself. My full name is Kristin Amanda Thomas, but everyone calls me Kristy. (I only get called Kristin whenever someone's mad at me, which is also the name on my birth certificate, and will be on my driver's license, diploma, and marriage certificate, when the time comes.) I'm fourteen years old, on the short side, and have long brown hair and brown eyes. I may be the last of my friends to get a bra, but I'm the first one to get my period.
I'm also a very busy person. Not only am I the BSC president, but I also coach a softball team for little kids. It's called Kristy's Krushers, and the purpose of the team is to help kids who are either too young or too scared to try out for Little League. The average age is 5.8, and while they're not exactly Major League material, they're still a pretty average team. Let me put it this way: when it comes to softball, they're really good at table tennis.
I come from a big, blended family. You see, my dad walked out on us about eight years ago, and about six years after that, Mom met and married my stepfather, Watson Brewer, and we moved into his mansion. (Yes, you heard right, mansion; he's a millionaire.)
A lot of people live there. I have three brothers, two older and one younger. My older brothers are Charlie, who's eighteen and a freshman at NYU (he left home last week), and he's majoring in something called sports medicine, and Sam, who's sixteen and a junior at SHS. My younger brother, David Michael, is eight and in third grade at Stoneybrook Elementary School. Watson also has two kids from his first marriage: Karen, who's almost eight and in third grade, and Andrew, who's five and in kindergarten. Both of them attend Stoneybrook Academy, a private school in our neighborhood. Mom and Watson also adopted Emily from Vietnam last year. She's now three, and entering preschool. Nannie, Mom's mother, moved in to help when Emily came to live with us. Add to that a Bernese mountain dog, a black cat, two goldfish, a part-time rat and hermit crab, and a guide dog puppy, and it gives new meaning to the term "full house".
The BSC is getting ready to celebrate its second anniversary. We meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 5:30 to 6:00, and parents can call us to line up baby-sitters. It saves the parents time, because that way, they don't have to call all over town just to find a baby-sitter. How do parents know about us? We advertise, of course. And when we hear of a new family in town, we present them with a flier, too, hoping to gain more business. And sometimes, new clients are gained through word-of-mouth. We also do the occasional fundraiser, so as you can see, we're pretty successful.
Anyway, I got the idea for the club a couple of years ago, when Mom and Watson were still dating—and when I didn't want to have anything to do with Watson, Karen, or Andrew, because I was still hoping my real dad would come back. I still remember that day like it was yesterday.
It was the hottest day of the school year, and when the last bell rang, I was so glad to get out of there to my air-conditioned house, but Mr. Redmont, my social studies teacher at the time, stopped me before I left, saying something about writing a pap-er on the importance of decorum in the classroom. As I did my homework that night, I found out that meant I'd been rude, but why hadn't my teacher just said so?
Anyway, Mom had brought a pizza home for dinner, which she only did whenever she had a favor to ask me and my older brothers. As it turned out, the favor was that her regular baby-sitter, who only watched David Michael twice a week, with me and my brothers taking the other three afternoons, had canceled, and she was wondering what my brothers and I were doing the next afternoon. Since we were all busy, Mom got on the phone and started calling all over town, looking for another baby-sitter. As I watched her make all those calls, I felt bad about her pizza getting cold, and then it hit me: why not make one call and reach a whole bunch of sitters at once?
Like the saying goes, the rest is history.
Claudia Kishi is the vice-president of the Baby-sitters Club. She's also fourteen and a freshman at SHS. Claud is Japanese-American, and very beautiful. She's not the best student in the world, which is unfortunate, because her older sister, Janine, who's seventeen and a senior at SHS, is a genuine genius. She may still be in high school, but takes college courses, and that's no joke. Claud, on the other hand, had to repeat some of seventh grade, but she was able to catch up and go to high school with us.
The reason why Claud is the BSC's VP is because she has her own phone and phone number, so she takes calls when we're not meeting. She lives with her parents and older sister. Her grandmother, Mimi—who we all loved dearly—used to live with them, too, but she died about a year and a half ago. I know that Claud really misses her. Janine may be an academic genius, but Claud is an art genius, and sometimes makes her own jewelry.
Mary Anne Spier, my best friend since toddlerhood (don't you just love that word?), is the BSC secretary. Her mom died when she was just a baby, and her dad pretty much raised her on his own, under some very strict rules, making her look and dress like a six-year-old until she was in seventh grade, but loosened up when Mary Anne was able to prove to him that she was growing up. Mary Anne is one of the youngest of us. She's almost fourteen, but will be a freshman at SHS. She lives with her dad, stepmother, stepsister, and cat in a renovated barn. I'll tell you the romantic story later.
Stacey McGill is the BSC treasurer. She's also fourteen and a freshman at SHS. She's had a complicated life over the past three years. It all started when she was diagnosed with diabetes in sixth grade, and told us how horribly she'd been treated by the other kids at her old school because of it. That following summer, her family moved to Stoneybrook when her dad's company transferred him to Connecticut. Stacey had just settled in and joined the BSC when her dad's company transferred him back to New York. We hated to see Stacey go, but a few months later, Stacey's parents got divorced, and Stacey got to choose which parent to live with. She chose to return to Stoneybrook with her mom. Mr. McGill stayed in NYC, because of his job, and Stacey visits him regularly. If there's one word to describe Stacey, it would be trouper, not because of her crazy life, but because, like I said, she has diabetes, and has to stick to a strict diet. Recently, a sweets binge, not to mention her changing body, put her in the hospital, and we were all scared, but thankfully, she's okay now.
The BSC also has two alternate officers who take over if someone has to miss a meeting, Dawn Schafer and Abby Stevenson. I'll start with Dawn, because she's Mary Anne's stepsister. Dawn's mother was raised in Stoneybrook, but went to college in California. Dawn's parents met, got married, and had two kids, Dawn and Jeff, who's eleven. The Schafers divorced when Dawn was twelve, and Dawn moved here with her mom and Jeff.
Soon after that, Dawn and Mary Anne became friends. I'll admit, I was a little jealous of Dawn at first, but she was able to win me over. They soon made the discovery about their parents, and with some help from D & MA Matchmakers, Inc., the two former high school sweethearts started dating again, and soon married. Then, Mary Anne, her dad, and her cat moved into the Schafers' colonial farmhouse. Sadly, the farmhouse burned to the ground a few months ago, and they recently turned the barn into a house and moved into that. Unfortunately, Jeff never adjusted to life in Connecticut, so he moved back to California to live with his dad. Dawn also went back for a few months, too, but we were glad when she returned.
Abby Stevenson is actually the youngest of us. Like Mary Anne, she's almost fourteen, but will be a freshman at SHS. She's originally from Long Island, and has a twin sister named Anna. They'd just moved to Stoneybrook last year. When the twins were nine, their father was killed in a car accident. Thankfully, Abby never lost her sense of humor, which grows on you. The Stevensons are Jewish, and a few months ago, the twins celebrated their Bat Mitzvah. The Stevensons live down the street from me.
The BSC also has two junior officers, Mallory Pike and Jessica Ramsey, and they're twelve years old. Jessi is in seventh grade at SMS, and Mal attends a boarding school in Massachusetts. Honestly, we all feel kind of sorry for her.
Talk about crazy families! Mallory has seven siblings, and three of them are triplets. The triplets, Adam, Byron, and Jordan, are eleven and in sixth grade at SMS. The others attend Stoneybrook Elementary: Vanessa's ten and in fifth grade; Nicky's nine and in fourth grade; Margo's eight and in third grade; and Claire's six and in first grade. I can only imagine how those poor teachers must feel about teaching yet another Pike!
Mallory loves writing stories, and Jessi loves ballet. In fact, I've seen Jessi dance, and she's really talented. Jessi lives with her parents, her Aunt Cecelia, who moved in to help when Mrs. Ramsey got a job; her nine-year-old sister, Becca, who's in fourth grade at SES, and her two-year-old brother, John Jr.—or Squirt, as Jessi says the nurses at the hospital called him, because he was so tiny.
The BSC also has three associate members that we can call on when we're in a bind: Logan Bruno, Shannon Kilbourne, and Jason Everett. Logan is fourteen and a freshman at SHS, as well as Mary Anne's boyfriend. He's originally from Kentucky, and moved to Stoneybrook last year. Shannon lives across the street from me, is in ninth grade at Stoneybrook Day School, another private school in our neighborhood, and the only BSC member to go to one.
Jason also moved to Stoneybrook last year, and his life seems almost as complicated as Stacey's. You see, he was born in Scotland, and came to America with his mom when he was four. (Jason once told me that his real dad died about a month be-fore he was born.) About a year and a half later, his mom married Steve, and Jason not only acquired a stepfather, but also a stepsister, Bebe, who's eleven and in sixth grade at SMS. Jason was also adopted by his stepfather, and took his last name. When he was ten, he told me that he got in a fight, and the other kid hit him in the face with a board that had a little nail sticking out of it, which is why he now has a little scar on his right cheekbone. The interesting thing about Jason is that even though he came to America at such a young age, his accent never went away completely. Jason is fifteen, but will be a freshman at SHS.
I snapped out of my reverie and saw Sam staring at me. "Ready to go, Kristin?" he asked.
I rolled my eyes. Like I said before, only a few people ever call me that. "Yes, Samuel," I answered. Oh, well, at least he didn't call me Crusty. Otherwise, he'd be in real deep shit.
The two of us got in Sam's red Jeep—which Mom and Watson had gotten him last week at the same dealership in Stamford that Jason's motor scooter had come from. On the way, we passed by Jason on his motor scooter, honked, and waved.
I couldn't wait to see what the day would bring.
When we arrived at SHS, I saw my boyfriend, Cary Retlin, looking at his schedule. "Hi, Cary," I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Hi," he said.
When I picked up my schedule, here's what I saw:
1st period-Math
2nd period-Home Ec.(Oh, joy, my favorite)
3rd period-P.E.(Yes!)
4th period-study hall
5th period-lunch
6th period-English
7th period-History
8th period-science
Just then, my other BSC friends happened to join me, and we were all comparing schedules. I also happened to look at Cary's schedule, and saw that we were in the same English class.
That's when the bell rang, and we disappeared into homeroom: Cary, Jason, and I into one; Claud, Stacey, and Abby into a second; and Mary Anne, Logan, and Dawn into a third.
Basically, the morning went like this. First period Math with Mrs. Fredericks. Mary Anne, Dawn, Abby, and Logan were in my class. Second period Home Ec. with none of my BSC friends, but the BSC arch-enemies, Cokie Mason and Grace Blume. Third period was gym with Mrs. Ferguson. Mary Anne and Stacey were in my class. Fourth period was study hall with Mrs. Jackson and Logan.
Fifth period was lunch. Logan and I met Mary Anne and Jason in the cafeteria, and we found a table. The day's lunch consisted of a pizza, pineapple chunks, and milk. I discovered that the food was only slightly better than at SMS. Oh, well.
"So, how's your first day going?" I asked as I sat down at the table.
"So far, so good," Mary Anne said, opening her milk. "I haven't gotten lost yet." The rest of us nodded in agreement.
"That's good," Jason said, taking a bite of pizza. "I decided to give the hot lunch here a try."
"Good for you," I said.
As soon as we finished eating and threw our trash away, the bell rang.
The afternoon also passed quickly. I had sixth period English with Mr. Johnson and Cary. I had seventh period History with Mr. Reed. Claud, Mary Anne, Stacey, Logan, and Jason were in my class. Mr. Reed told us that we'd be doing three different projects throughout the year, and each one would involve doing a project on a certain time period in history. Jason and I were paired together. I didn't mind one bit, even though I know he's a good friend and neighbor, as well as Claudia's boyfriend. We decided to do ours on World War II. Mr. Reed told us that it would be due before Thanksgiving, so we had plenty of time to work on it.
Eighth period was science with Mrs. Martinez. Abby, Logan, and Jason were in my class. We knew the Martinez family, because we'd once baby-sat for the kids, nine-year-old Luke and four-year-old Amalia. Abby knew that Luke was keeping some secret about a fire in the neighborhood, so she invented a game to get him to spill the beans.
After the last bell rang, I went to my locker and got my stuff out. I just knew that high school was going to be a blast.