"Babysitters Club Special Edition Mary Anne's Book" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babysitters Club)

Thomas," she thundered.
"Why does he have to be so dumb?" Kristy asked, looking at the ceiling as she went to her seat.
Mrs. Frederickson was so busy restoring order to her class that she forgot why her students had been laughing and why Kristy was angry at Alan Gray. So Mrs. Frederickson never thought to tell me it would be perfectly fine for me to invite my dad. I was convinced that I'd make a total fool of myself and my dad if he came to our Mother's Day tea party.
Chapter 3.
On the way home from school Knsty and Claudia talked about what a jerk Alan Gray was and how he'd ruin the tea party. "He'll probably drop a tray of cookies," said Claudia.
"And blow his nose on the napkins," added Kristy.
They made up other dumb and gross things
-Alan might do to ruin the party. I pretended to listen and be amused, but I was thinking about how to keep my dad from coming to the tea party.
By the time my dad arrived home that night, I had a plan. I wouldn't tell him what day we were planning to have the party. If he didn't know when it was, he- wouldn't be able to come. -
That night my dad didn't mention the tea party, and neither did I.
The next day in school, Mrs. Frederickson announced that our art teacher, Mrs. Packett,
would help us make special invitations for the party. She showed us the art supplies she and Mrs. Packett had collected for us to use. There were little circles of paper lace, metallic sparkles, and squares of shiny paper in shades of pink, yellow, blue, and purple. We would each have a stiff sheet of white paper to work on, as well as our regular supplies: crayons, scissors, and glue. I couldn't wait to make a tea party invitation! In the next instant my heart sank. Who would I give my - invitation to?
- During lunch Claudia and Kristy talked about how, they were going to make their invitations the most beautiful ever. "I'm going to use a lot of purple on my invitation," Claudia said. "That's my mother's favorite color."
"What's Mimi's favorite color?" I asked.
"Blue, I think," said Claudia. -
"Are you inviting Mimi, too?" I asked.
"We can only bring one person," Kristy told me. "Mrs. Frederickson said." -
That's when I got the most brilliant idea. I'd invite Mimi to the tea party. She was a woman, and like a grandmother to me. It was perfect. "Can I invite Mimi to the tea party?" I asked Claudia. -"What about your dad?" she countered.
"It's a Mother's Day tea party," I reminded her. "So I can't bring a dad."
"But didn't you invite him already?" Kristy asked.
"He forgot about it," I said. "Besides, he has to work."
"Invite Mimi then," Claudia said. "That'd be great."
"Perfect," agreed Kristy.
Kristy and Claudia seemed glad that I wasn't bringing my dad to the Mother's Day tea party. Now I knew for sure that it would have been a terrible thing to do.
I sang happy little songs in my head that afternoon as I worked on Mimi's invitation. I thought it was the prettiest thing I'd ever made.
When I walked into my house after school that day I asked my baby-sitter if I could go to Claudia's. "Just for a little while," she said. She phoned the Kishis to be sure it was okay with Mimi, then I left to deliver my invitation.
Mimi was in the kitchen cutting up vegetables for supper. "Hi," I greeted her.
"Hello, our Mary Anne," she said. "Claudia and Kristy are in Claudia's room."
"I have something for you," I said. I held out the invitation.
Mimi wiped her hands on her apron and took the invitation from me. A beautiful smile came over her face. "My, isn't this lovely!"
exclaimed. "And blue is my favorite color."
"I know," I said.
She read the invitation out loud. Then she said, "I would be honored to be your guest at the Mother's Day tea party." She leaned over
and kissed me on the forehead. "Thank you for inviting me."
I ran happily up the stairs to tell Claudia and Kristy the good news. Mimi - my almost-grandmother - would be my guest
The only person I couldn't share the good news with was my dad. For the next few days I had to be careful not to mention the tea party in front of him. It wasn't easy because during dinner my dad always asked me what I'd done in school that day. Now I had to leave out the most exciting -part of -the school day - preparing for the tea party. I was dying to tell him that we'd each made an illustrated book about our favorite animal that would be on display during the tea party, and that we were going to decorate the room with balloons and crepe paper. I couldn't even tell him that Kristy would be greeting people at the door, and that Claudia and I would be passing around trays of cookies.
The day before the party, Mrs. Frederickson helped us practice introducing - our guests. When it was my turn I said, "I would like to introduce my neighbor and almost-grandmother, Mimi." No one laughed. Claudia turned around and smiled at me.
Mrs. Frederickson had said that we should dress in our Sunday best for the tea party. So the next morning I put on my fancy dress with
the shiny buttons. I covered it with a sweater so my dad wouldn't ask me why I was wearing my best dress to school. I looked outside. It was a beautiful spring day, not a cloud in the sky. I was allowed to wear my shiny patent leather shoes to school when the weather was good. I put them on. That morning I felt as if there were two different Mary Annes. A happy, excited Mary Anne and a sad, guilty one. The excited Mary Anne was dressing up for a special tea party. The guilty Mary Anne hadn't told her dad that she'd invited someone else, and had tricked him by not telling him the date of the party.
I felt terrible at breakfast. I couldn't wait to leave the house. Finally, Kristy rang the doorbell. It was time to go to school. I gave my dad a quick peck on the cheek." 'Bye," I said. "See you tonight."
I was rushing to the door when my dad called after me cheerfully. "Did you forget that today's the tea party? You'll be seeing me at school this afternoon. I arranged it so that I can leave work early today."
I stopped in my tracks. "Okay," I said without turning around. "Bye."
I ran out of the house, past my friends, and across our lawn to the sidewalk. I wanted to get away from my house as fast as possible. I didn't want my dad to see that I was upset.
Claudia and Kristy caught up to me. "What's wrong?" asked Kristy.
"How come you're crying?" asked Claudia. By then we'd met up with Janine, but she was reading and didn't even notice anything was wrong. Kristy, Claudia, and I walked ahead of her and talked about my problem all the way to school.
"But how did my dad even know what day the tea party was?" I asked.
We all thought about that for a minute.
"I know how," Kristy said. "The school mailed the letter they always send when there's something for parents at school. The one with directions on where to park and to remind everybody what time to be there."
"What am I going to do?" I wailed. "I can't have a dad at the tea party. And I can't invite two people. Mrs. Frederickson said so. I broke two rules about the tea party."
"Well, no one is going to laugh at you when your dad comes," Kristy growled. "I'm going to talk to Alan Gray . . ." (she raised her clenched fists) ". . . with these."