BSC HIGH: Senior Year
A/N: Book Four in the miniseries. Just so you'll know, the stories in this miniseries contain things that I either have done, or would've liked to have done, when I was in high school.
CHAPTER 1: September—Stacey
I can't believe it. I'm finally a senior in high school. Where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday I was starting kindergarten at Parker Academy in New York, and now, here I am. Wait, where are my manners? You don't know who I am, do you? Well, let me tell you.
My full name is Anastasia Elizabeth McGill, but everyone calls me Stacey. No one ever uses my full name, unless they're really mad at me. Anastasia is the name on my birth certificate and driver's license, and will be on my high school diploma and marriage certificate, if the time comes. Anyway, I'm seventeen years old, and like I said before, I'm starting my senior year of high school. I'm also a member of the Baby-sitters Club, which I join-ed in seventh grade. I'm the treasurer, which means that I handle the money that comes in, namely the club dues. Even though it's the club's least favorite thing in the world, it has to be done.
I also have diabetes, and have to do two important things: watch what I eat, and give myself insulin injections two or three times a day. You may think giving myself insulin sounds painful, but it's really only as painful as brushing my teeth. If I don't do either of these things, I get really sick and end up in the hospital, which hasn't happened in a few years. I've been in the hospital several times, but hospital stays couldn't be avoided when I was first diagnosed in sixth grade. In fact, I missed so much school that year, I was almost held back.
When I was first diagnosed, the other kids at Parker avoided me like the plague, and it SUCKED! (I also don't mean to get off the subject here, but when the BSC members first met me, they thought I was anorexic or something, because I'd told them I was on a diet, and was always turning down sweets.) Thankfully, I never have to put up with that here in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, where I currently reside with my mom. You see, my parents divorced when I was thirteen. Dad stayed in NYC, because of his job, and Mom and I returned to Stoneybrook.
Confused? Okay, let me explain.
You see, the summer I was twelve, Dad's company transferred him to their Stamford office. Mom was also glad for the move, because ever since I was diagnosed with diabetes, she felt I needed a "peaceful little town". We'd just settled in and I'd just joined the BSC when Dad's company transferred him back to New York. We'd just moved back there when my parents started to fight a lot, mostly about money, me, things like that. A few months later, my parents announced that they were getting a divorce. The only decision I had to make was which parent to live with, and where. I chose to return to Stoneybrook with Mom, but I see Dad every other weekend. In fact, Dad got remarried about two and a half years ago, so I have a very nice stepmother named Samantha. When I returned, my friends were glad to have me back.
Kristy Thomas is the BSC president. Like me, she's seventeen and a senior at Stoneybrook High School. Unlike me, however, she has a big, blended family. You see, her dad left them when Kristy was in first grade, but was killed in a plane crash about a year ago. Mrs. Thomas married Watson Brewer the summer before we started eighth grade, and that's how Kristy got her big family. Kristy has two older brothers—Charlie, who's twenty-one, and Sam, who's nineteen, as well as my boyfriend. They attend NYU, where Charlie's a senior sports medicine major, and Sam's a sophomore sports journalism major. In fact, I recently heard that Charlie just became engaged to Kathy Patrick, who had been their regular baby-sitter before Kristy's mom and Watson got married. Back then, Kristy and her older brothers took turns watching David Michael, who's now eleven and in sixth grade at Stoneybrook Middle School, one afternoon a week, and Kathy took the other two, which only lasted until a few months after the BSC began.
Kristy also has two younger stepsiblings and an adopted sister. Her stepsister, Karen, is almost eleven and in sixth grade at Kelsey Middle School, her stepbrother, Andrew, is eight and in third grade, and her adopted sister, Emily, is six and in first grade. Both of them attend Stoneybrook Academy, a private school in Kristy's neighborhood.
Karen, Andrew, and David Michael are also part of a children's show choir called the Stoneybrook Kids. It was started last spring by Mr. Drubek, who's the choir director at SMS, and Jason Everett, who happens to be Kristy's boyfriend. Anyway, it's a group of kids between the ages of seven and eleven, and this past summer, they were invited to compete in the international competition in Washington, DC, and they won a few awards.
Claudia Kishi is the vice-president of the BSC, as well as my best friend. She's also seventeen and a senior at SHS. The BSC meetings are held in her room, because she has her own phone and phone number. In fact, the money from the BSC treasury has a lot of functions. For example, paying Claud's phone bill, gas money for Kristy and Abby to get to meetings (when we were younger, it was paying Charlie a dollar to bring them), the occasional pizza or slumber party, and stuff for our Kid-Kits, which are like toy boxes that we take on baby-sitting jobs. I really hate parting with the money, but that's just how it goes. Claud's a fabulous artist and the wildest dresser I've ever seen, even wilder than me. She lives with her parents and older sister, Janine, who's twenty and a junior pre-med major at U-Conn, because she's planning to be a doctor. Her grandmother, Mimi, used to live with them, too, but she died when we were in eighth grade. School, on the other hand, isn't one of her strong points. In fact, she had to repeat some of seventh grade, but thankfully, she was able to catch up.
Mary Anne Spier is the BSC secretary. She's almost seventeen, but will be a senior at SHS. She's very organized, which she inherited from her dadd, an asset that makes her a great secretary. Her stepmother, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. Sometimes when I'm at their house, I'll find a pair of scissors in the vegetable drawer or a shoe in the breadbox. Anyway, Mary Anne was just a baby when her mother died, and thirteen when her dad remarried his high school sweetheart, who happens to be the mother of her best friend, Dawn Schafer.
Kristy, Claudia, and Mary Anne have known each other practically their whole lives, because they all lived close together. Kristy and Mary Anne were neighbors, and Claudia lived across the street from them. The triangle is now broken, since Kristy and Mary Anne have moved in with their new stepparents. Kristy and Mary Anne are also best friends, and they're as different as night and day. Kristy's a loudmouth who rarely cries, whereas Mary Anne's shy, and cries over the slightest little thing. I still remember when we watched E.T. at a recent sleepover, and I thought I was going to have to put an umbrella over my head, because she was crying so much.
Abby Stevenson is the alternate officer of the BSC, which means that she takes over if someone has to miss a meeting. She's also almost seventeen, but will be a senior at SHS. She has a twin sister named Anna, and they were only nine when their father was killed in a car accident. We actually invited both twins to join, but Anna declined, because she's a dedicated musician, and wanted to spend more time on her music. However, she will help the kids with music and instruments as needed.
Anyway, the Stevensons are Jewish, and we got to attend the twins' Bat Mitzvah, which is similar to a Jewish boy's Bar Mitzvah. The Stevensons are originally from Long Island, and moved to Stoneybrook when the twins were in eighth grade. Abby has such a sense of humor, and it never fails to rub off onto you.
Mallory Pike and Jessica Ramsey are fifteen and sophomores at SHS. They're both the oldest in their families, but that's pretty much it. There are some pretty big differences, though. For example, Jessi's black and Mal's white. That didn't bother us BSC members at all (I mean, Claud's Asian, so why should it?), but it seems that Jessi's neighborhood—which had been my old neighborhood from when we'd lived in Stoneybrook the first time—wasn't exactly thrilled to have them there. Things have calmed down now that they've gotten to know the Ramseys. Jessi loves ballet, and Mal loves writing stories. In fact, I've seen Jessi dance, and she's really talented.
Jessi comes from an average-sized family with two siblings: Becca (short for Rebecca), who's twelve, a Stoneybrook Kids alumni, and in seventh grade at SMS, and JJ (short for John Jr., and whatever you do, don't call him Squirt), who's five and in kindergarten at Stoneybrook Elementary, and her Aunt Cecelia, who moved in to help when Mrs. Ramsey got a job. But now that JJ's in school, I don't know what the plan is.
Mal, on the other hand, comes from a big family with seven siblings, three of which are triplets. The triplets, Adam, Byron, and Jordan, are fourteen and freshmen at SHS. Vanessa's thirteen and in eighth grade; Nick's twelve, a Stoneybrook Kids alumnus, and in seventh grade; and Margo's eleven and in sixth grade. They attend SMS. Then there's Claire, who's nine, a Stoneybrook Kids member, and in fourth grade at SES. I can only imagine how those poor teachers must feel about teaching yet another Pike!
We also have several honorary and associate members that we can call on if we're overloaded with jobs: Logan Bruno, Mary Anne's boyfriend; Shannon Kilbourne, who lives across the street from Kristy, and the only BSC member to go to a private school; and Jason and Bebe Everett, who are not only stepsiblings, but also the only ones not born in this country. Jason used to be Claudia's boyfriend, but they broke up last winter, and now he's Kristy's boyfriend. There's also Vanessa Pike (Mallory's sister, remember?); Haley Braddock, Vanessa's best friend; and Charlotte Johanssen, who calls me an "almost-sister". In fact, Charlotte's mom is a doctor, and she helped me through some rough patches with my diabetes. Logan and Jason, like us older ones, are seniors at SHS; Shannon is in twelfth grade at Stoneybrook Day School; Bebe's a freshman at SHS; and Charlotte and Haley, like Vanessa, are not only three of our former baby-sitting charges—as is Mallory—but they're also eighth graders and cheerleaders at SMS.
Jason is the oldest of us, in terms of age. He's eighteen, and was born in Scotland. He and his mom came to America when he was four. And for some reason, his accent never went away completely. He sounds like the present-day Ewan McGregor, who happens to be one of Mary Anne's favorite actors. I should also mention that Kristy's two little stepsiblings just idolize him, and love having him baby-sit when they're at their mom's.
Bebe was born in Toronto, Canada, and came to the United States with her dad when she was a baby. She also has an accent, but it's much more subtle than Jason's.
Okay, back to me. I picked Claudia up, and we headed to school. As we left Bradford Court, "Good Morning, Starshine" from Hair came on the radio, and we started to giggle.
"Is this song reminding you of anything, Stacey?" Claud asked.
"Mm-hm," I agreed. You see, Kristy, Jessi, and Jason had been three of the chaperones when the Stoneybrook Kids went to Washington, DC. When they got back, they told us about their trip. According to them, Jason wasn't feeling well on the day they'd left for Washington, and it later turned out that he needed his appendix out. Kristy also said that Bebe had told everyone that when Jason woke up from surgery, that's what he was singing.
When we pulled into the parking lot at SHS, we saw Jason, Bebe, Kristy, and Mary Anne getting out of Jason's truck. As Jason and Bebe headed toward the building, my friends and I stood there for a moment, just taking it all in. Our status in the school, that is.
"Well, here we are again," Mary Anne said at last.
"Yeah, but this time, we're seniors. Hallelujah!" Claud said.
"And we're going to rule the school," I added.
"Okay, Rizzo," Kristy giggled.
"Well, aren't you glad it's finally senior year?" I asked.
"Well, yeah, aren't we all?" Mary Anne agreed.
The first thing we did was go to the office for our schedules. When I got mine, here's what I saw:
1st period-Algebra
2nd period-English
3rd period-P.E.
4th period Home Ec.
5th period-lunch(We get to leave campus! Yea!)
6th period-study hall
7th period-Democracy
8th period-science
"Okay, girls," I said as we left the office. "Let's go get 'em."
And with that, we went our separate ways to homeroom. Our last year of school was officially underway.