CHAPTER ONE
One day I woke up and I was fed up with my life. I just couldn't take it anymore. I was tired of being a leader. I was tired of only wearing turtleneck sweaters and being a tomboy all the time. And I was REALLY tired of babysitting. For once in my life, I didn't want to be responsible anymore.
I was 18 years old and pondering what direction my life was going. The plan was that I was going to move to California to go to UCLA with Mary Anne, but the more I thought about it, the more I dreaded it. I had to get out of here. I had to get as far away as possible from the reputation I had among everyone I knew.
Don't get me wrong, I was immensely proud of the BabySitters Club and what it meant to Stoneybrook. I was also a little bitter at my friends who abandoned the club when their lives got a little too intense for it. I still tried to maintain the club and what it stood for, but it just got too hard. At 18 years old, I was tired of my life, and it was time to change it for good.
As soon as I woke up and wiped the sleep from my eyes, I called Mary Anne. She was my best friend since we were 8 years old, and I barely ever made a decision without calling her first.
"Kristy! What is it! You sound weird," she said, taking a bite from an apple. She ate an apple for breakfast every single morning of her life.
"Can I come over? I want to talk."
"Sure! Come on over."
I hung up, knowing that I was about to shock her and it wasn't going to be pretty.
I took my crappy hand-me-down car (Charlie gave it to me after he finally got a real job and started making money to buy a new car) to Mary Anne's barn house she shared with her dad and stepmother. I always went to her house because still, after all these years, I was not used to Watson's big mansion. I never quite felt comfortable in that house.
She was waiting for me when I arrived.
"Where's Dawn?" I asked, before getting to the point.
"Oh, she's off on the East Coast somewhere with some guy in a van. She's gotten so flaky lately, Kristy! I don't think she's going to UCLA with us!"
"Um, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, Mary Anne."
"Okay... what is it? Just tell me."
"I can't go to UCLA. I just can't. I need to get away, Mary Anne! I'm tired of my reputation here. I don't want to go to California; I just want to get out."
"Kristy! We're all getting out, don't you see? Claudia is going to San Francisco to art school, Stacy is moving to New York to go to NYU, we're going to California! We ARE getting away."
I took Mary Anne's hand.
"You don't get it... I mean I'm going FAR away. I'm going to Paris. I have a cousin there, and I called her this morning. She said I was welcome to stay with her for a year or two while I got on my feet there, and she sounded really excited about it. I'm going to do it."
Mary Anne's eyes grew wide, and I knew we were in for the waterworks. I was going to miss that about her.
"Don't cry! It's the best for all of us. With all four of us going in separate directions, we'll get a chance to grow! We need this, Mary Anne. You know that."
She looked down at her feet and didn't say anything for a while. A few minutes later, she finally looked up at me and gave me a watery grin.
"Okay, Kristy. If that's what you want, that's cool. I understand. I'll miss you, you know that. But if it's what you think you have to do, then do it. I support your choice."
I knew that was the hardest thing she ever had to say, and I appreciated it.
That was 10 years ago. Now I found myself, while dusk turned the chilly Connecticut night dark, staring at the red brick monstrosity that was Stoneybrook High School. Mary Anne called me in France and told me about the reunion, and I knew I had to attend. I was nervous about seeing all my former friends because I really sort of left Claudia and Stacy hanging. I never told them I was leaving because it was just too much. They were my friends, but as these things happen, we were drifting apart in the end anyway. I knew they must have been bitter towards me, but a thick cloud of apathy surrounded me ever since I moved to France.
I was nervous, but ready to face my past.