A Story Starring Mary Anne
Chapter 1
"Look at this soup", said Kristy Thomas and grimaced as though she was going to throw up.
"It reminds me of what Shannon once did on one of our Oriental rugs after Karen had mixed ten tablets of laxative into her food. And I don't mean Shannon the dog." She bowed her head towards her plate. "And oh yeah, it stinks the same."
This was very typical of Kristy. She is always making up disgusting comments on food she or someone else nearby is eating. It's pretty gross, but I didn't have the courage not to snicker because Kristy can be quite vindictive.
Mr. and Mrs. Kishi, in whose house we, the BSC, were having dinner, didn't look too cheerful. They exchanged an angry glance and Mr. Kishi said quietly something in Japanese.
"Kristy's just kidding, dad", said Claudia quickly, and we could all hear her kicking Kristy hard under the table. "She is such a vicehacker."
"The correct expression is wisecracker ", said Claudia's big sister Janine in a bored voice.
Stacey also kicked Kristy with all her powers, so that Kristy's chair fell backwards.
"Ouch!" she yelled. "One more violent act against me and I'll dissolve the Club!"
Kristy is my oldest friend, resourceful and goal-oriented, but sometimes she just has no manners. Fortunately no one paid her any attention anymore, because Claudia had started a quarrel with Janine.
"Oh whatever you say Miss I-Know-It-All-Coz-I've-Learned-It-By-Heart-From-A-Dignitary!" Claudia shouted and her eyes filled with tears of rage. "Is there anything you don't know! Any dictator in Northern Europe whose name you don't remember? Any glacier in Africa which you can't locate in one degrees accuracy!"
Janine looked annoyed and a little amused. "The book which you would need really badly is actually called a dictionary. A dignitary is a person you could never become since you can't even spell your own name."
Claudia burst into tears. "I'm not appreciated in this family!" she cried and stood up. "I'm an artist, why don't you understand that? It doesn't matter that I can paint as well as DaVinci when everyone in this family is cleverer than me."
Janine burst out laughing. "It isn't hard to beat someone who thinks that Lenin was our first president", she howled.
"It was you who told me that!" Claudia yelled. "A day before my history test! What a loving sister I have!"
"Stop arguing right away girls" said Mr. Kishi. "Claudia, sit down. We are having guests." He spat the last word out of his mouth as if he was talking about something disgusting and dirty.
A silence fell over us all. I was very shocked by this hostile scene, so shocked I couldn't finish my soup (or maybe it was because Kristy's words still bothered me). I had known that Claudia and her older sister didn't get along, but I had never imagined things were this bad. I was ever more grateful that my stepsister Dawn and I were best friends.