"Martin, Ann M - Baby-sitters Club 060 - Mary Anne's Makeover" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)

Before anyone could answer, Kristy boomed
out, "This meeting will come to order!"
Claud's digital clock had just clicked to five-thirty. Stacey and Mal quickly found places to sit, then peeled off their down coats.
"Any new business?" Kristy asked.
I told the story about Carolyn's time machine, which made everybody laugh. Stacey talked a little about the January Jamboree, an SMS dance that was coming up.
Then, when we hit a lull, Claudia got off the bed and reached behind her night table. "Hey, dudes, who wants Duds?" she said, pulling out some boxes of Milk Duds.
I should explain that Claud is a Junk Food Squirrel,. She's always hiding candy bars, cookies, chips, and pretzels. Sometimes she even forgets where they are. She'll be feeling around in the back of her closet for a paintbrush or a Nancy Drew book, and - crrunch! - there are last April's tortilla chips! Nancy Drews, by the way, are the other things she has to hide. She's addicted to them, but her parents disapprove. They think Claud should only read classics. It's been hard for them to realize Claudia doesn't have an I.Q. of 196 like Janine. But lately they've been coming around. Claudia is an amazing artist. She paints, sculpts, draws, and makes jewelry. And her parents have finally started realizing how special that is.
Claud is the BSC vice-president. She doesn't have many official duties, but since we use her room and her private phone line, she ends up answering calls from parents who telephone at odd times. She's also very generous with her junk food.
You know how some people can eat anything and still stay thin? That's Claudia. Her figure is like a model's. She also has silky jet-black hair and perfect skin and dark almond-shaped eyes. (Did I mention she's Japanese-American?) As if that weren't enough, she has a fantastic sense of fashion. She can put together the oddest collection of clothes - a slouch hat, a sequined vest, an oversized button-down shirt, stirrup pants, and lace-up boots - and she looks stunning. If I dressed like that, people would laugh. I want to know how Claudia does it. Is she just beautiful, or can a person learn to look sensational?
"Let's see, I know there are some oat-bran pretzels around here somewhere ..." Claudia was saying. Half her body was under the bed now. Her magazines were in a stack next to me and the top one was open to a page that said, "Cool and sassy for spring!" I saw pictures of models with short haircuts and gorgeous, loose-fitting clothes. I decided to take a look.
"Wow," I said, leafing through one of the
magazines. Some of the outfits were really cool. One was this long, flowing, pastel paisley print shift with a scoop neck, cinched at the waist. "This is beautiful..." I said with a sigh.
Around me, jaws were working hard on Milk Duds. "Mmph," was Kristy's reaction.
"She looks so unhappy," Jessi commented, glancing at one of the models.
Dawn giggled. "I'd love to see you in that, Mary Anne. Your face would match the color of the dress."
"You couldn't wear sneakers with it," Kristy said with a mischievous grin, after swallowing her Milk Duds.
Oh, well, so much for that idea.
"Here they are!" Claudia shouted, pulling out two bags of sesame-seed-covered, low-sodium, oat-bran pretzels. "One for Dawn, one for Stacey."
Yes, it's true. My stepsister, Dawn Schafer, likes health food. Tofu, alfalfa sprouts, carrot-parsley cocktails, millet croquettes. She actually looks forward to these things. She won't touch red meat and hardly ever eats dessert. It's weird, I know, but I love her anyway.
What does Dawn look like? Like a "California girl"! Wait, Dawn hates when people say that. I should say she looks like the stereotype of a California girl. She has long blonde hair,
blue eyes, clear skin, and a trim figure.
Dawn is a real individualist. (You'd have to be, to eat teriyaki tofu loaf on a whole-wheat bun while everyone around you was eating cheeseburgers!) She does what she wants to do without worrying what others think.
Dawn doesn't have many official duties during our meetings. She's our alternate officer, which means she has to take over the job of anybody who's absent. I think she's done each job at least once.
For a long time, Dawn took over Stacey McGill's job as treasurer. That was when Stacey temporarily moved back to her hometown, New York City. Then Stacey returned to Stoneybrook, and we were all thrilled (especially Dawn, who hated being treasurer). Stacey's a real math whiz. Her job is to collect dues on Mondays, put the money in our treasury, and pay our expenses. That means helping Claudia with her phone bill, paying Kristy's brother Charlie for driving her to meetings (the Brewers live on the other side of town), and buying occasional new supplies for Kid-Kits. We grumble about paying dues. But sometimes there's enough money in the treasury for us to have a pizza party or a sleepover, and then the grumbling stops - for a little while.
I didn't tell you the reason Stacey finally moved back to Stoneybrook. You see, their
return to New York was supposed to be permanent, but Stacey's parents ended up getting a divorce, and they let Stacey decide where she would live - in New York with her father or in Stoneybrook with her mother. And Stacey decided to move back to Stoneybrook. (I'm glad she did, but you know what? I'd have picked New York. I think it's the most exciting place in the world!)
Stacey is the BSC's other blonde (but a darker tint). Like Claudia, she's a fashion plate, except her style isn't as ... exuberant. It's more urban and sophisticated. Like Dawn, she doesn't touch junk food. But she has a different reason. Stacey is a diabetic, which means her body can't regulate sugar in her bloodstream. If she has too much sugar (or too little), she could faint or go into a coma. So she has to take it easy with sweets and give herself daily injections of something called insulin. (Just thinking about that makes me shiver. If I ever saw her do it, I'd pass out!)
The phone rang, and Claudia grabbed it. "Hello, Baby-sitters Club ... oh, hi, Mrs. Wilder! Uh-huh . . . okay, I'll check and call you right back." She hung up and turned to me. "Rosie Wilder next Tuesday, right after school?"
I put down the magazine and opened the record book. "Um . . . Jessi and Kristy are free."
"I don't know . . ." Kristy said. (Rosie is sort of a genius, and a little hard to tolerate sometimes.)
"I'll take it," Jessi chimed in. "Last time we did barre exercises together. It was fun."
Jessica Ramsey is one of our two junior officers, along with Mallory Pike. Why junior? Well, they're both in sixth grade, while the rest of us are in eighth. They do everything we do, except take late sitting jobs (their parents have strict curfews).
Jessi and Mal are best friends, and they have a lot in common. Both of them are the oldest in their families, both like to read, and both are convinced their parents treat them like babies. Oh, and both are great baby-sitters.
Other than that, they're pretty different. Jessi's black, and she has these long, graceful dancer's legs. Her hair is always pulled back from her face. Mal is white, with curly red hair, and she wears glasses (which she hates, but her parents won't let her have contacts) and braces (clear, so you don't notice them much).
Jessi has an eight-year-old sister named Becca and a baby brother named Squirt, while
Mal has seven siblings, including triplets!
Their interests are different, too. Jessi is a ballerina. She's so natural on stage, and her technique is incredible. She's danced lead roles in some important ballets in Stamford, the nearest big city.
Mal's talent, on the other hand, is thinking up stories. She wants to write and illustrate children's books someday.
Let's see, that brings me to our associate officers - Shannon Kilbourne and . . . saving the best for last. . . Logan Bruno! Usually they take jobs we can't fill, either because we're too booked or someone is sick.
Yes, in addition to all his other qualities, Logan is a fantastic baby-sitter. He's kind and funny and very patient.
Okay, I admit, I'm biased.
But it's true.
I flipped through to the end of Claudia's magazine. I was just about ready to shut it, when this picture caught my eye.
You know how you see models with these gorgeous haircuts, and you know you'd look terrible in them, but then all of a sudden, one just hits you? A cut you'd never have dreamed of getting, but when you see it on the page, you know it's just right for you?
It was in the back of Seventeen. It was pretty short, sort of a bowl cut in front, but really
close-cropped at the neck. Very twenties (well, that's what the caption said).
Here's what I thought: All my life, I've had this long, mousy brown hair that just sort of hangs. The idea of feeling air on my neck was really exciting. Here's what else I thought: My New Year's resolution was to be "the best person in all possible ways" - and didn't that mean looking my best? Sure it did.
"I wonder how I'd look with this cut," I said. I was talking to myself, but Claudia was looking over my shoulder.
"Aaaaaugh!" Claudia screamed, putting her hands on her cheeks like that kid in Home Alone. "Not our Mary Anne!"
Dawn laughed and shook her head. "Please!"