STARRING THE BSC...AGAIN!
A/N: For the record, there are several differences between this and Starring the BSC. There are two reasons why I chose Carnival. One, my community theater did that one years ago, and I felt there were enough experiences to incorporate into the story; and two, it's now one of my favorite musicals.
PROLOGUE: Jessi
It was a fairly typical Monday in January at Stoneybrook Middle School. It also happened to be the first day back after Christmas vacation. To tell you the truth, we were less than thrilled. I, for one, was slightly glad to be back. Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual. (Man, I say that so often, it wouldn't surprise me if that was on my gravestone!)
Here, let me start at the beginning. My name's Jessica Ramsey, but everyone calls me Jessi. I'm eleven years old, in the sixth grade, and like maybe two percent of the student population at SMS, I'm black. In fact, I'm the only black student in my grade, so I really stick out like a sore thumb. I live with my parents, aunt and siblings. Becca, my sister, is eight and in third grade at Stoneybrook Elementary School, and John Jr.—or Squirt, as the nurses at the hospital called him, because he was so tiny—is almost two. There's also Aunt Cecelia, Daddy's older sister, who moved in to help when Mama returned to work. She used to be the ultimate control-freak when she first came to live with us—which earned her the nickname "Aunt Dictator" from me and Becca—but she's loosened up a little since then, even though she still has her moments sometimes.
I'm also a member of the Baby-sitters Club, which was started by Kristy Thomas. She's in eighth grade, and the president. Mallory Pike, who's my best friend, and I are not only sixth-graders, but we're also junior officers, which means that we're not allowed to baby-sit at night, unless it's for our own siblings. That really sucks, but the good thing is, we free up the older members for the evening jobs. There are several differences between Mal and me. I have two siblings, and Mallory has seven! She's also white. Plus, not only are we the oldest in our families, but both of us still think our parents treat us like babies. On the upside, they did let us get our ears pierced, so that's a start.
I'll tell you something else. My skin color doesn't bother the BSC members one bit, but my family and I weren't exactly given a warm reception when we first moved here. Thankfully, people are starting to be nicer, since they've gotten to know us better.
Claudia Kishi is the BSC's VP, and we hold our meetings in her room, since she has her own phone and phone number. That's a real plus, because that way, we don't have to tie up someone's phone line during our meetings, three times a week for half an hour, which means Claud also has the unfortunate task of taking calls when we're not meeting. She's Japanese-American, and lives with her parents and older sister, Janine, who's sixteen and a junior at SHS. She's also a genuine genius (I'm told her IQ is 196), and takes college courses.
I am not making this up.
Her grandmother, Mimi, used to live with them, too, but she died about a year and a half ago. I can tell they all really miss her, but Claud most of all. Another thing about Claud is that she isn't exactly what you'd call a brainiac, but she loves art. I would love to have a fraction of her artistic talent—and by that, I mean the ability to make such amazing masterpieces like she does.
Dawn Schafer and Mary Anne Spier are an alternate officer and the club secretary, respectively. They're best friends, as well as stepsisters, which is because Dawn's mom is married to Mary Anne's dad. They were high school sweethearts, but went their separate ways to college, where they each met someone else.
Sound confusing? Okay, I'll explain.
Mr. Spier married his first wife, Alma, who died soon after Mary Anne was born. In fact, I'm told Mr. Spier was so upset that he sent Mary Anne to live with her maternal grandparents in Iowa, then wanted her back when she was a year and a half old. There wasn't a big court battle, and Mary Anne's grandparents reluctantly returned her. Mr. Spier wanted to prove to his in-laws that he could be a good single parent, and from what the older BSC members have told me, I think he went more than a little overboard. I'm told that he invented all these rules about how Mary Anne dressed wore her hair, things like that. However, that all changed when she was able to show him that she was growing up.
Mrs. Schafer married Dawn's dad, Jack, and they had Dawn and Jeff, who's ten. They divorced when Dawn was twelve, and Mrs. Schafer brought her kids to Stoneybrook, because it's the town where she grew up. Sadly, though, Jeff never adjusted to life in Connecticut, so he returned to California to live with his dad. Dawn also went back for a few months, too, but she came back, because she missed us too much.
Stacey McGill is the treasurer of the BSC, and being the math whiz that she is, that job suits her perfectly. She was born in NYC, and moved to Stoneybrook the summer that she was twelve, when her dad's company transferred him to Stamford, which is about a half-hour drive from Stoneybrook, and where a lot of our parents work. The McGills returned to New York a year later when her dad's company transferred him back. They'd been there for a few months when her parents got a divorce. The only decision Stacey had to make was which parent to live with. She chose to return to Stoneybrook with her mom, and boy, were we glad! If you ask me, I don't think anyone missed Stacey more than Charlotte Johanssen, who's Becca's best friend, and calls her an "almost-sister".
Stacey also has diabetes, and has to stick to a strict diet. She's also described as a brittle diabetic, which means her diabetes is harder to control than most. Recently, a sweets binge, not to mention her changing body, put her in the hospital. It scared Charlotte so much that she literally became a hypochondriac until we were finally able to convince her that Stacey would be okay—which, of course, she was.
Abby Stevenson is the other alternate officer of the BSC, which means that she or Dawn takes over if someone has to miss a meeting. She moved here from Long Island with her mom and twin sister, Anna. They're identical, but I can still tell them apart. Abby has long, and extremely curly, dark hair. Anna has shorter hair with bangs, and a little straighter than Abby's, not to mention an inch and a half shorter than her sister. Both wear contacts or glasses, depending on their mood, and their personalities are as different as night and day. Anna's the serious musician, and Abby's the jock/clown.
The Stevensons are originally from Long Island. When the twins were nine, their father was killed in a car accident. At least Abby never lost her sense of humor, which grows on you, whether you want it to or not. Also, if you've ever heard her sing, she makes William Hung sound like Frank Sinatra.
And I thought my singing voice was terrible!
Logan Bruno and Shannon Kilbourne are our associate members, which means they take the jobs we can't. Logan is the only boy member, as well as Mary Anne's boyfriend. (They have what you'd call an on-again, off again relationship; right now, it's on.) The other guys used to give Logan a hard time about his baby-sitting, but they're more mature about it now.
Well, most of them are, anyway.
Shannon lives across the street from Kristy, and is the only BSC member to go to a private school, Stoneybrook Day School. Also, she and Kristy weren't exactly chummy when they first met, but they were able to bury the hatchet after she gave Kristy's family one of her dog's puppies—which, coincidentally, is also named Shannon—after the death of their old collie, Louie.
Which brings us back to Kristy. She comes from a big, blended family, and as I mentioned before, is the president of the BSC. One of the reasons why she thought it up is because her dad walked out on them when Kristy was in first grade. No phone calls, no letters, money, or even a birthday card. Kristy's still pissed at him to this day.
On a more upnote, the summer after she finished seventh grade, her mom married Watson Brewer, who happens to be a millionaire, and they all moved into his mansion. Watson has two kids from his first marriage: Karen, who's seven, and Andrew, who's almost five, live with them every other month. Along with her three brothers—seventeen-year-old Charlie, fifteen-year-old Sam, and seven-year-old David Michael—she has a two-year-old adopted sister named Emily. Her grandmother, Nannie, moved in to help take care of Emily and to help out around the house during the day. If that isn't the perfect description of a full house, I don't know what is.
Okay, back to me. In case you're wondering why I was glad to be back at school, it was because I'd gotten dreadlocks in my hair over Christmas vacation. They come to the middle of my back, and can still be pulled back in a ponytail for ballet class. (I don't mean to brag, but I'm in the advanced class, and have danced the lead in several productions, like The Nutcracker and Coppélia.) Mama once told me my hairstyle makes me look like Lisa Bonet.
As I shut my locker and started on my way to homeroom, a notice on the bulletin board caught my eye. When I was finally able to get a closer look (and yes, I was in the very back of the crowd), here's what I saw:
AUDITIONS
Carnival
Saturday, 1 p.m.
SMS Auditorium
All right! Another show at SMS. And boy, would we have something to talk abut at the next meeting!