"Babysitters Club 091 Claudia And The First Thanksgiving" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babysitters Club)

Sadly, though, Dawn recently decided, after a long visit with her West Coast family, that she missed her brother, her father, and California too much. (Jeff had decided pretty much the same thing earlier and had moved back.) So she headed west again. She rejoined the California version of the BSC, which she and
her fellow West Coast baby-sitters call the We V Kids Club. She and Mary Anne talk on the phone often, and are already planning visits. But we all really miss her.
When Dawn left, Shannon Kilbourne (who wasn't at the meeting) quit being an associate member and took over Dawn's job as alternate officer. Shannon is a neighbor of Kristy's. In fact, her Bernese mountain dog, Astrid, is the mother of the Brewer-Thomases' Bernese mountain dog puppy. Shannon has curly blonde hair and high cheekbones and she is just as organized as Kristy. She goes to a private school, makes practically straight A's, and is involved in all kinds of after-school clubs and activities. So she could replace Dawn only temporarily, because she can't come to meetings regularly.
That's where Abby Stevenson came in. She's the newest member of the BSC, and Kristy and Shannon's newest neighbor. Abby has long, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes and she's a real knockout, in more ways than one. The moment she walks into a room you feel her personality. She's a fast talker, and she loves jokes and puns. (She would have liked my jokes at breakfast.) I don't think Abby is afraid of anything - not even going eyeball to eyeball with Kristy when they don't agree about something.
Abby, who's from Long Island, is a twin. She and her sister Anna moved here with their mother, who had just received a big promotion at her job in New York City. Their father died in a car accident when Abby and Anna were nine. Abby doesn't talk about that much.
Abby and Anna turned thirteen a little while ago. They've just started to prepare to become Bat Mitzvahs in the spring, which is a very important event for many Jewish thirteen-year-olds.
Anna is the quieter of the twins. She's seriously into music and schoolwork. Abby is seriously into having a good time. She's a killer soccer player, and has a killer sense of humor.
She also has asthma, and is allergic to all kinds of things. But she doesn't let it slow her down.
Her energy is part of what makes her a great baby-sitter. I don't think there's any kid on earth who could wear her out!
Stacey is our treasurer. If this had been a Monday meeting instead of a Friday one, we'd have been paying our dues to Stacey. We grumble, but we always hand the money over. Stacey is a math whiz (one of her favorite Short Takes, remember, was Math for Real Life). She is very cool and, I have to admit, more sophisticated than the rest of us. Sometimes that's a problem. In fact, Stacey recently quit
the BSC for awhile, because she started spending nearly all her time with her boyfriend Robert and his friends. Stace started missing jobs, and making lame excuses, and then she and Kristy had a big blowup. For awhile, I was the only one in the BSC who would talk to her - or whom she would talk to.
But Stacey finally realized that saying you're cool and acting cool isn't the same as being cool, which is a problem that Robert's friends had. We all started talking again and now Stacey is back handling BSC jobs and doing our numbers.
She still sees Robert, and some of his friends, sometimes. But she seems to have found a way to balance things better.
Another thing that makes Stacey seem older than the rest of us is that she has diabetes, a disease that prevents her body from managing sugar properly. That means no sweets for Stacey. It also means that she has to follow a special diet and give herself insulin shots (ewww, ow) every day. She says the shots sound worse than they are, but she does miss the sweets. As a junk food fanatic, I'm totally amazed at how much willpower Stacey has. I always make sure to keep things such as pretzels and wheat crackers and Frookies (sugarless cookies) around for our meetings, so Stacey can munch with the rest of us.
Mallory and Jessi are our junior officers. In fact, we used to baby-sit for Mallory and her brothers and sisters. Then we realized that we needed more baby-sitters, and that Mallory, thanks to all her experience with her siblings, would be an excellent BSC member. When Jessi moved to Stoneybrook and she and Mal became friends, Jessi joined the BSC, too.
You already know that Mal has seven younger brothers and sisters, including triplets: Adam, Byron, and Jordan. The other Pike siblings are Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire.
Jessi comes from a smaller family. She has a little sister named Becca and a baby brother named John Philip Ramsey, Jr., whom everybody calls Squirt. Her aunt also lives with the family, since Jessi's mother started working again.
As I mentioned, Logan is an associate member of the BSC (like Shannon is once again), and he doesn't usually come to meetings. But that afternoon, his football practice had been canceled. Now he and Abby were arguing about the merits of football versus soccer. Mary Anne was listening and rolling her eyes.
After the call from Betsy Sobak, we took three phone calls in a row. Things were pretty busy for awhile. When they'd settled down, Mary Anne said, "At least we don't have any
baby-sitting jobs scheduled for Halloween." "Good," said Stacey. "I like answering the
door and seeing the costumes the little kids
are wearing." Mal grinned. "If you want to see something
really scary, I'll try to bring the Pike family by
your house. The triplets are all going to dress
as Groucho Marx, and I think everyone else
is, too."
"Seven Groucho Marxes," said Jessi. "Awesome."
We snickered at the idea.
"Speaking of baby-sitting jobs," said Kristy, "who's going to be here over Thanksgiving, and who wants to work if any jobs come up?"
"Count me out," said Abby. "We're going back to Long Island to visit all the people we left behind."
"New York City, here we come," said Mal. She crossed her fingers. "Mom's cousins have come through big time. We're going to stay in the apartment of some friends of theirs who are going to be away, and it looks like we'll have grandstand seats for the Macy's parade, too."
"New York City for me, too," Stacey put in. "I'm going to spend the whole vacation with my dad."
Jessi said, "We're going to New Jersey for Thanksgiving, but we'll be back on Saturday.
So if anything comes up over the weekend, I might be able to do it."
"My grandmother is coming from Iowa," said Mary Anne, "so I'll be here, but busy. Are the Millers still coming to visit you, Kristy?"
"Yup," said Kristy, looking pleased. Her Aunt Colleen and Uncle Wallace are some of her favorite relatives. Plus they'd be bringing their four kids, who are also favorites of Kristy's.
"Here, but very busy," Mary Anne murmured, making a note of it in her record book.
"I'll be here," I said. "But not quite so busy, I guess. My aunt and uncle are coming to dinner, too." My Aunt Peaches and Uncle Russ, who live in Stoneybrook, are my favorite aunt and uncle. Especially my aunt. She is major fun. I was really looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with her and Russ.
"We're going to my cousins', in Louisville," reported Logan.
"And Shannon and her family are going to a bed-and-breakfast inn to ski in Vermont," added Mary Anne, making one last note.
"It's going to be a great Thanksgiving," I burst out. "It's my favorite, favorite holiday."
Stacey smiled. "Even though you don't get presents on Thanksgiving, the way you do at Christmas?"
"Maybe that's why I like it so much," I said, more thoughtfully. "You don't have to worry about buying presents or making them, or wrapping them - not that I don't love all that stuff, too. You just hang out with your favorite people and eat all your favorite foods: pumpkin pie, candied sweet potatoes . . ."
"Sweet potato pie," added Logan, "and pecan pie."
"Hey, don't forget the turkey," said Kristy. "And the dressing and the . . ."
We were off and running. Then suddenly it was six and the meeting was over.
We'd finished the gourmet junk food I'd provided, too. Even the pretzels.
All that talk about Thanksgiving dinner must have made us extra hungry.
I grinned as I waved good-bye to everybody. It was a good thing Halloween was coming. I could buy plenty of candy at half price the day after - more than enough to last until Turkey Day!
Chapter 3.