Chapter Fourteen
Later that afternoon, Dawn and I made our way to Claudia's house for the BSC meeting. I hadn't called Kristy yet—when I got home, I found that Tigger had thrown up on the Oriental rug. Dawn and I spent the majority of the afternoon trying to clean it. At least we had gotten the stain out. We walked quickly through the brisk air and soon we were running up Kishis' staircase. We ran by Janine's room quickly and then entered Claud's room. We both took a seat-Dawn on the desk chair, me on the bed.
"Hey guys." Claudia said, once she re-appeared from her closet. She held up a bag of chips triumphantly.
"I knew I had them in there."
We giggled as Claudia sat on the bed and opened up the bag of chips.
"Dawn, there's some crackers in the desk drawer for you and Stace."
"Thanks."
Dawn dug around in one of the drawers and came up with a semi-crushed box of Triscuts. I looked at the clock-it was 5:23. We sat and chatted for awhile and by 5:28, Mallory (who, by the way, had totally recovered), Jessi and Stacey were there. We all sat in silence as we watched the door, then the clock, and then we'd all look back to the door. When the clock clicked to 5:29, Stacey said,
"It can't be."
No one said anything. At 5:30, Kristy had still not shown up.
"I guess it is." Claudia said as the phone rang. I reached over and picked it up.
"Hello, Baby Sitters Club."
"I hereby call this meeting to order." A voice on the other end of the line said.
"Kristy!" I exclaimed. "Where are you?"
"At home. I'm sick. Now put the phone on speaker. I don't want to tie up the line for too long."
I smiled-sick or not, she was still the same old Kristy. I punched the speaker phone button.
"You're on speaker." I told the phone.
"I hereby call this meeting to order." Kristy said again.
"Hey Kristy!" and "Hi Kristy!" echoed around the room for a moment.
"Hi, everybody. Any club business?" Kristy asked.
"No."
"Have you all been reading the notebook?"
"Yes."
"Good. We should get off the line now. I don't want to tie it up."
"Okay. Feel better, Kristy!" I said.
"Thanks. See you."
"Bye!" we all called and I hung up the phone.
"Wow…Kristy actually skipped a meeting." Jessi sounded amazed.
"I guess that means I'm president today." Dawn said. "Although Kristy already did the fun things."
Dawn pouted and we all laughed.
"Wait! I thought of one." Dawn exclaimed. We all leaned forward to hear Dawn's announcement but the phone rang.
"Business first." She said. Kristy would've been proud. We set up a job for Jessi with the Perkins and, once we had called them back, we all waited to head what Dawn had to say.
"I move that the Baby Sitters Club go and visit Kristy after the meeting is finished."
"Great idea!" Stacey exclaimed. "I bet my mom could drive us. I mean, we can only take four but…"
"I bet my mom could too." Jessi exclaimed. I handed Jessi the phone, who called and asked. Once her mom had said yes, she handed the phone to Stacey. Stacey's mother also agreed.
"Great." Dawn said, looking quite proud with herself. The phone rang and Mallory reached over and picked it up.
"Baby Sitters Club." She said.
"Alan?" she exclaimed a moment later. She then handed the phone to me.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Hi, Mary Anne. It's, um, it's Alan."
"Hi."
"I was, um, I was wondering if you ever found Kristy today?" he sounded nervous.
"No, actually. But she called a few minutes ago. She's home, sick."
"Really?"
"I'm afraid so." As I was talking with Alan, an idea was coming to mind.
"Um, Alan, we're going to visit Kristy in about ten minutes. Do you want to come with us?"
"You mean it?" Alan sounded suspicious.
"Of course I mean it. Just be at Claudia Kishis' house in ten minutes.
"Great. Thanks, Mary Anne."
"No problem. See you."
I hung up the phone and found everyone staring at me.
"You do realize you just invited Alan Gray to come and visit Kristy, right?" Stacey asked after a moment. I nodded.
"Do you think Kristy will be mad?"
No one said anything for a moment and I began to wonder what I had done.
"Well, us girls will go in first and make sure Kristy looks okay. Then Alan can come in." Claudia said.
"Good idea." Dawn said. "Now, we'd better call our parents and let them know what we're doing. We have to leave in five."
We all quickly called our parents and we were all given permission. As the last person hung up the phone, the doorbell rang downstairs.
"That's probably Alan." I said, standing up. We all gathered our coats and ran down the stairs. An embarrassed looking Alan was standing in the entry way.
We all exchanged hellos and then we went outside and piled into the two cars. I ended up sitting next to Alan.
"Mary Anne, I'm nervous."
"It'll be okay."
I explained to Alan what we would do once we got there and he relaxed ever so slightly. However, he tensed up again when Mrs. McGill pulled into the circular drive and called out,
"We're here."