"Martin, Ann M - Baby-sitters Club 004 - Mary Anne Saves the Day" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)

It was Dawn's turn to laugh. "Who else should I know about?" she asked.
I pointed out a few other kids. We spent the rest of the lunch hour whispering and laughing. Twice I caught Kristy's eye. She looked absolutely poisonous. I knew I wasn't helping our fight, but I kind of liked the idea of getting even with her for not letting me sit at our table.
"Hey, do you want to come over to my house after school tomorrow?" Dawn asked.
"Well . . . well, sure," I replied. It felt so strange to be talking with somebody besides Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, or the Shillabers. I wasn't sure that I had ever made a new friend all on my own. Mariah and Miranda had originally been friends Kristy had made, Stacey had been a friend of Claudia's, and I had just grown up with Kristy and Claudia.
"Oh, that's wonderful!" exclaimed Dawn. She must have been really lonely.
I began to feel guilty. I knew full well that one reason I wanted to go over to Dawn's house was to make Kristy (and Stacey and Claudia) mad.
I hoped Kristy would see me leaving school with Dawn the next afternoon. I hoped she would be surprised. I hoped she would be mad (madder than she already was). I even hoped she'd be a little hurt.
"That would be fun," I added. "Where do you live?"
"Burnt Hill Road."
"That's not too far from me! I live on Bradford Court."
"Great! We have a VCR. We can watch a movie."
"Okay!"
Dawn and I got up and cleared our places.
"Want to eat lunch again tomorrow?" asked Dawn. "Or will your friends be back?"
I paused. What if we'd all made up by the next day? I decided to cross that bridge when I came to it. "I don't know," I answered.
"It doesn't really matter anyway," said Dawn quietly.
"Okay. Well ... see you."
"See you."
We left the cafeteria.
I didn't see Kristy, Claudia, or Stacey again until school let out that day. Just after the last bell rang, I was standing in the front doorway of Stoneybrook Middle School, looking out across the lawn.
Then I saw them, all three of them. They were walking home from school, each one alone, each one still probably mad.
I set out slowly after them. It wasn't until I got home that I realized I had never given Claudia the note I'd written.
Chapter 4.
The first thing I thought when I woke up the next morning was, it's Wednesday. Today is a club-meeting day. We can't stay mad much longer or we won't be able to hold the meeting. And we've never missed a meeting. Suddenly, I was sure our fight was over.
I was so sure, that on my way to school, I stopped at Kristy's house and rang her doorbell. I thought we could walk to school together and apologize to each other.
Ding-dong.
David Michael answered the door. "Hi, Mary Anne!" he said.
"Hi," I replied. "Is Kristy still here?"
"Yup," said David Michael, "she's just Ч "
"I am not here!" I heard Kristy call from the living room.
"Yes, you are. You're right Ч "
"David Michael, come here for a sec," said Kristy.
David Michael left the front hall.
A few seconds later, I heard footsteps tiptoeing toward the hall. The front door slammed shut in my face.
I stood on the Thomases' stoop, shaking.
Then I turned and crossed the lawn.
All the way to school I kept hearing Kristy's angry voice and the door slamming. Well, I thought, there's still Dawn. Dawn wasn't the same as Kristy or my other friends, but she was something.
We ate lunch together after all. "Your friends are absent again?" Dawn asked. She looked skeptical.
"Yeah," I replied. I decided not even to go into it.
I looked around the cafeteria for the other members of the Baby-sitters Club. Things were a bit different that day. Kristy was still eating with the Shillabers, but the empty chair had been filled by another friend of theirs, Jo Deford. Claudia and Trevor were sitting with Rick and Emily. At the opposite end of their long table were Dori, Howie, Pete, and Stacey. Every so often, Stacey would look up and give Claudia the evil eye, or Claudia would whisper something to Trevor and then look in Stacey's
direction and laugh. Once, she stuck her tongue out at Stacey.
Things were worse than ever. I wasn't surprised that Kristy was holding a grudge, but I had sort of expected Stacey and Claudia to make up, or at least to pretend to have made up. I never thought I'd see the day when cool Claudia would stick her tongue out at somebody in front of Trevor Sandbourne.
"Boy," I said under my breath.
"What?" asked Dawn.
I sighed. "Nothing."
When the bell rang at the end of the day, I made a dash for the front door of school. I was supposed to meet Dawn there and was trying to figure out just how to time things so that Kristy would be sure to see me walking off with my new friend. I decided that I should simply meet Dawn and dawdle. As it happened, things worked out better than I could have hoped.
Almost as soon as I reached the door, kids started streaming past me. I kept my eyes glued to the crowded hallway. After a few moments, I spotted Kristy. She spotted me at the same time and made a face that was a cross between a scowl and a sneer. So what did I do? I smiled. Not at Kristy, but at Dawn who
happened to be right in front of her. I'm sure Kristy thought I was trying to make up with her again.
Boy, was she surprised when Dawn called, "Hi, Mary Anne!" and ran up to me.
"Hi," I replied. I flashed another smile. And as we headed out the door I looked over my shoulder in time to see Kristy standing open-mouthed behind me.