Baby-Sitters belong to Ann M. Martin.
Co-written by Elizabeth8289
I was in the attic going through pictures of my parents. My mother has died when I, Mary Anne Spier, was a baby. She had cancer. My father raised me on his own. I'm 13 now and has lived in Stoneybrook, Connecticut all of my life even though I was with my mother's parents in Iowa, where she grew up in, for sometime so Dad can give himself more time since he couldn't raise me at the time. I'm an eighth grader at Stoneybrook Middle School.
I want to know about my mother and on how she and Dad met. I know very little about her. She's sort of like me: for example, she loved to sew, she was an excellent student, she loved animals, and she used to be a terrible cook. I like looking at pictures of my parents. One of them was when they first got married.
I found her yearbooks she used to get in her school years. She loved to collect them. She was so cute when I saw her kindergarten picture and in her other grade pictures. She was just like when I was little. I noticed that when I saw her pictures. I put them back when I was done looking at them.
Dad is happy now. He recently got remarried to his first girlfriend from high school, Sharon Schafer. That was before my parents met. She was divorced and she has moved here, where she grew up, from California with her two kids, Dawn- who happens to be my best friend!- and Jeff who was too miserable to remain here and moved back to California to join his father.
Dad and I moved from Bradford Court to join my new stepfamily since it was much bigger than my old one. My cat, Tigger, moved with us, too. I got him for my 13th birthday. He loves to sleep with me every night. Sharon didn't like cats much, but thankfully, she liked Tigger. I didn't want to give him away.
I wish I'd ask Dad about how he and Mom met, but it's too painful for him to talk or think about her. I know I could ask my other best friend, Kristy Thomas, for support. Her real father left her family when her younger brother, David Michael, was an infant. Her mom support all four kids- Kristy has two older brothers- alone. She gained a new family not long ago after seventh grade ended. She has a stepfather, Watson Brewer, two stepsiblings, and an adopted baby sister now. Watson, who's a millionaire, lives at the mansion.
"Mary Anne, dinner!" I could hear Dawn calling me.
"Coming!" I called back as I went down for supper.
"Your father is running late there was traffic on the way home from work," said Sharon. "But he said we can start eating without him until he gets home."
"No problem," I said as I sat at the table.
That was when Dad came home.
"Hello, my favorite gals," said Dad.
"Hi," we all said.
"You must be glad to get out of the traffic," said Sharon.
"Yes, the workers were fixing a road," said Dad.
"So, how was your day at the office?" asked Dawn.
"Very busy," replied Dad.
The dinner was pretty talkative except for me. No one seemed to notice. After I ate, I asked to leave the table as I got up and went up to my room. I'll wait for awhile to go back up in the attic.
"Was Mary Anne okay? She looked pretty quiet," said Sharon.
"I didn't notice that," said Dad.
"We did," said Dawn.
"I should go up to check up on her after dinner," said Dad.
After dinner, Dad came up to me.
"Sharon and Dawn noticed you were quiet," said Dad. "Is everything okay?"
"I just had a long day that's all," I said.
I didn't want to ask him about Mom because I was afraid I would upset him. An hour later, I was in the attic for awhile looking through pictures again. There would letters when Mom did penpals when she was younger. That was interesting. These letters must be written before my parents met. I read some of them. One penpal was from London, England and the other was from China. I liked these letters. I might want to save them to read them later on. I got up, put the things back where they were, and went downstairs with the letters as I shut off the light and went to my room. I put those letters in a drawer to keep them safe.
I got undressed by nine and went to bed an hour later since it was a school night. In bed, I read one of the letters. She had about ten letters from both penpals. I read them until I went to sleep ten minutes later after I put them away.
"Mama! Mama!" I called out two hours later.
That was when I woke up. I had this dream about Mom being alive in China. She was with that penpal. I was with her. Then, the villagers started to attack. The penpal and I lived, but Mom got killed. Boy, was I scared!
Dad probably heard me because he came in and said, "Were you okay, honey?"
"I just had a bad dream, that's all," I said.
"Was it about?" asked Dad.
"Mom and I were visiting China when the villagers attacked us. I escaped, but Mom was killed," I said.
"Oh, it's okay now," said Dad.
The next day, at school, I went to Kristy in GYM.
"I found something really interesting last night," I said. "I want to mention it to the others during the meeting."
"Okay," said Kristy.
I didn't want to say something since Cokie Mason was around because she might blurted I found the penpal letters that wrote to my mother to Dad. I do not trust Cokie at all.