Mary Anne slept restlessly, which had been happening more and more often lately. Maybe this was due to her parents never really being at home with her, or perhaps it was due to her troubles with her friends. Either way, she was exhausted.
Looking at the clock, she realized it was only 7:30, which was way too early for her to be up and about on a Saturday. So she lay in bed with Tigger just thinking about everything that was going on for about an hour. She had been doing a lot of reflecting lately, which had made her sad, but she supposed it necessary. After all, one could hardly figure out where they were going if they didn't know where they had been.
Mary Anne eventually climbed out of bed and started to get ready for her day. At ten she decided that it was time to go over to Kristy's house. She was surprised to find herself feeling so nervous- after all, Kristy was her oldest friend. She just had a nagging feeling that whatever the situation that Kristy was currently engulfed in was, it would be too big for the two of them to handle. This was such a change from when she was thirteen, and the Babysitter's Club seemed to be able to handle whatever challenge that a member faced.
Grabbing Kristy's Algebra book, she set out over to the Thomas-Brewer's on her bike. As nervous as she was, she also knew that she could not turn back.
After the 20 minute bike ride across town Mary Anne arrived at the Thomas-Brewer's. She rode into the driveway, and went to park her bike on the side of the garage. She noticed that the Junk Bucket was the only car parked in the driveway, and the garage seemed to be empty as well. Glancing to the backyard, which must have contained thirty bird baths, she saw David Michael, Karen, Andrew, and Emily Michelle huddled together at the picnic table by the swing set in the enormous back yard. They were not playing, or even talking, just sitting together silently. Mary Anne went over to talk to them.
"Hi guys," she said, "What are you doing out here?"
"Nothing," David Michael responded glumly. "We're just tired of being in there."
"Yeah, there's too much yelling," Andrew responded.
"Shh! We're not supposed to talk about that, remember? Kristy said," Karen piped up. She turned to Mary Anne. "Everything is great. We're just out here because we're forming a club. It's just for us, and no one else can be in it. I'm the president."
Mary Anne was confused- she really had no idea what was going on, and it was clear that she was not going to get a direct answer out of one of the kids. She reached out to pick up Emily Michelle and give here a hug- the poor little girl looked like she was about to cry.
"It's okay, Emily," she said, "If you stay out here with your brothers and sister, I'll go find Kristy and we'll make you a special treat. How does that sound?"
Emily Michelle didn't respond, but a smile crept up on her face. Mary Anne set her back down.
"Well I have Kristy's math book. She left it at school yesterday, and I know that she needs it to do the homework that was assigned this weekend. So I'm going to go inside and find her. Maybe afterwards we can all play a game or something."
Karen and David Michael looked at each other, talking with their eyes, but they did not say a word. Mary Anne braced herself for whatever she was about to find, and slowly walked around to the front door of the house. She rang the door bell. No one answered, so she eventually she walked right in. There had been a time when simply walking in to Kristy's house would not have been a problem. Things had certainly changed since then, and Mary Anne felt nervous.
Walking through the entry way and into the living area Mary Anne was shocked. Furniture was knocked down, and there was broken glass on the floor. She saw Kristy and Sam each doing what they could to clean up the mess.
"Hi Kristy," Mary Anne said weakly. "I brought you your algebra book. Because you left it as school. And I just thought that you might need it. To do your homework, I mean."
Kristy just stared at her. Algebra and school were clearly the farthest things from her mind.
"Thanks," Kristy said, "You really should go though. We have a lot going on around here, in case you haven't noticed."
"Kristy I want to talk to you. You can't hide the fact that something big is going on. Maybe we're not as close as we used to be, but I care about you. I want to help."
After saying this Mary Anne took a deep breath. Standing up to Kristy was something that she had rarely done in their childhood, and it took almost all of her energy.
After hearing this, Kristy visibly let down her guard. As tough as she appeared to be on the outside, she had always been just as sensitive as Mary Anne if you knew how to get through the exterior.
Kristy turned to Sam. 'I'm going upstairs to talk to Mary Anne for a little while. We'll be down to help in a bit."
Sam glared at her. "If you're getting Mary Anne into this, I'm calling Charlie."
"Fine. But don't expect him to do anything. He's given up on this family, remember?" Kristy said, bitterly.
"He's our brother. He'll be there for us. He's always there for us," Sam said, raising his voice.
Mary Anne stood back and listed and watched the exchange of the bickering siblings.
"If you say so," Kristy said, dismissively. "Let's go into my room. We can see the backyard from there, so we can keep an eye on the kids."
Together Mary Ann and Kristy walked up to the second floor where all of the kids had their bedrooms. Mary Anne hadn't been up here in a little over a year. She noticed that everything was exactly the same as she remembered it- even the school pictures on the wall had not been updated for some reason, which she thought strange. Elizabeth was usually on top of things like that.
Walking into Kristy's room, both girls sat down on her enormous bed, not saying anything. After a minute, Kristy began to speak.
"Nannie moved out last month. Did you know that?" She began.
Mary Anne just shook her head and let Kristy continue.
"She just got fed up with everything- Watson treated her like a maid. I mean, she moved in here to help take care of Emily Michelle, but she ended up doing all the cooking and cleaning as well. She put up with it for awhile, but eventually she just got sick of it. I don't blame her. And with… with the more recent events, I'm glad that she's out of here."
"It turns out that this whole blended family thing isn't as simple as everyone thought it would be, especially now that Karen and Andrew live here full time. Anyways, things have been so busy around here, especially without Nannie, and mom is exhausted."
Looking defeated, Kristy took a deep breathe before she continued.
"Watson's not quite the guy I always thought he was. He's not exactly a family man. Despite his heart attack, he started working more and more. And when he's not working, he's drinking. Mary Anne, it's terrible! He comes home drunk and starts fights with Mom and Sam. Charlie had enough, and says he won't come home until Watson is gone. The kids are scared out of their minds."
Tears formed in Kristy's eyes. "Mary Anne, I just don't know what to do. I've been thinking and trying for almost a year, but I can't think of anything that would work. I guess I ran out of great ideas."
Mary Anne and reached out to give Kristy a hug. She would never have guessed that all of this was going on. It seemed that the Thomas-Brewer's weren't doing any better than her own family. Mary Anne was momentarily grateful. Her dad and Sharon may never be home, but at least she didn't have to live in fear of what might happen next.
She didn't really know what to tell Kristy. This was something that was too big for her, too big for all of them.
"Let's go back downstairs and finish cleaning up. Then we can get the kids and try to cheer them up for a little while," said Mary Anne softly.
Kristy wiped away the tears in her eyes. She seemed to understand everything that Mary Anne could not say. The two of them walked back downstairs and eventually the house looked somewhat normal again.
They brought the kids in, and set about making macaroni and cheese for lunch. Things seemed calmer, and Emily Michelle and Andrew were even laughing.
Just as lunch was winding down, they suddenly heard tires screeching, and a loud crash.
Kristy ran outside to see what was going on, and Mary Anne stayed inside to watch the kids. She tried to get them into their play room in the basement so they would not have to be involved in whatever was happening.
Once the kids were downstairs Mary Anne rushed outside to find Kristy. Before she even got outside she heard Kristy screaming hysterically to call 911.
Mary Anne ran to the phone and started dialing.