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A pageant to choose Little Miss Stoneybrook was going to be held for girls ages five to eight. The winner would go on to a county pageant. The winner of the county pageant could compete for the Little Miss Connecticut crown. From there, she could go on to try for Little Miss America and then Little Miss World. The Little Miss World crown seemed like kind of a long shot to me.
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Ann M. Martin |
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a67166b
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I thought for a moment. I did want the job. It sounded like fun, and I needed some fun. I didn't want to cause any more problems among us sitters, though. On the other hand, this might be my chance to prove just how good I was with kids. Certainly as good as Claudia. Imagine if Claire or Margo won the contest and became Little Miss Stoneybrook! Plus, I wouldn't mind irking Kristy just a little bit to get back at her for the induction cere..
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Ann M. Martin |
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cef1d59
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Mallory clapped her hand to her forehead and moaned, "Oh, no. My sisters. My baby sisters. They'll be contaminated. They'll be brainwashed. If I become the sister of Little Miss Stoneybrook, I will absolutely die!"
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Ann M. Martin |
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c373838
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A watched pot never boils,
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Ann M. Martin |
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781b703
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I was numb. Once, I had an infected finger. A splinter had gone in and I couldn't get it out. My father said he would try to get it out for me. Before he started "operating", he held an ice cube on my finger to numb it. That's how I felt now. As if someone had applied a giant ice cube to my body and to my brain, as well."
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Ann M. Martin |
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55e71b9
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I felt guilty. I felt guilty because there I was, making a fuss over Jeff's leaving, when I wouldn't have minded going right along with him. He wasn't the only one who missed Dad. I did, too. And I missed my friend Sunny, and I missed the kids I used to baby-sit for. Face it. I wanted to go back to California, too, but I wouldn't leave Mom. No way. We were much too close for that. Besides, I liked Stoneybrook, too. Even in the middle of t..
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Ann M. Martin |
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95a6697
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I can sing," said Margo. (Claire was sniffling and rubbing her knee.) "We sing all the time in music class at school. Listen to this. It's the song about the smart reindeer: Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear." "Margo," I said when she had finished. I paused to think. Margo was giggling away at her reindeer joke, but there was a little problem. She couldn't carry a tune. She might have been singing any song. Any song at all."
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Ann M. Martin |
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dea8d3c
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It hadn't really occurred to me that the Pike girls would be competing against each other. What if one of them did win the pageant? The other would lose not just to strangers or even friends, but to her own sister. How awful! On the other hand, I was beginning to think that there wasn't much chance that either girl would win, not with banana-peeling and rude Popeye songs.
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Ann M. Martin |
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cffb858
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No doubt about it, Myriah really was good. Her talent was true talent, not just some little act thrown together for the pageant. And there was Karen, looking awfully pretty. Kristy was nervously brushing her hair. And there was Charlotte, simply looking scared to death. She and Claudia were standing around awkwardly, almost as if they didn't even want to be there.
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Ann M. Martin |
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62047c4
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A new voice spoke up. "I can tell you how to get rid of the Pageant Jitters forever," it said, sounding as if it were reciting something from a TV commercial. The voice belonged to the girl with the makeup. "You can?" said Claire, Margo, and Charlotte in unison. "Certainly. It would be my pleasure." I glanced at Claudia. Who was this kid? She was about Margo's age, but she looked and acted 25."
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Ann M. Martin |
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b5da398
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Charlotte and the Pikes stared after Sabrina as Mrs. Bouvier whisked her away. "Do you know what that was?" Claudia whispered to me. "A pageant-head, that's what. A poor kid who gets roped into any beauty contest or pageant that comes along. Her whole life is one big smile." "She's not that pretty," I pointed out. "And maybe not very talented," added Claudia. "But she knows pageants, or her mother does, and she knows what the judges like."
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Ann M. Martin |
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d3799bf
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took the inchworm off my shoulder and put it on Sally's pillow to see how she'd react.
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Ann M. Martin |
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9ce4e30
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Then I realized I smelled like horses and manure,
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Ann M. Martin |
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c00dbbc
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old
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Ann M. Martin |
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f2cca14
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You are exaggerating, Sunny. You don't know a thing about him. He is still a stranger. You may never see him again. Get over it.
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Ann M. Martin |
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ad3690f
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Toledo. In Ohio," Dad added when the city didn't seem to register with Jeff. "Toledo. In Ohio," Dad added when the city didn't seem to register with Jeff."
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Ann M. Martin |
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776710d
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Big Trouble
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Ann M. Martin |
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001a9d5
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Here we are," said Mallory, running up to me, pulling Margo along. "Oh, thank goodness." Mary Anne and I counted the Pikes about five times before we were satisfied that they were all safe and sound. "I want to see the shark!" cried Nicky, jumping up and down. So did I. "Okay," I said. "Let's walk down the beach, away from this crowd." Mary Anne and the other kids followed us. When we had a little space, we held our hands to our eyes, block..
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Ann M. Martin |
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0d07172
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Maybe not all boys were pains, just American boys.
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Ann M. Martin |
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ee4df91
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When I was older, I could move to some place (like Australia or Kentucky) where the boys act more like human beings.
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Ann M. Martin |
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9ac7647
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I looked at my watch. 2:30. I really should go back to sleep soon or I'd be a basket case at school tomorrow, I thought, but I was avoiding nightmares of my own. I had them pretty often, more often than Courtenay did. I knew they weren't real, I knew they wouldn't hurt me, but they still scared me to death.
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Ann M. Martin |
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a0ae5a8
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me for anything
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Ann M. Martin |
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every other weekend. He can be a pain, so I don't mind this too much.)
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Ann M. Martin |
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0fd5651
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In any pageant, or in any game or contest, there are winners and there are losers. You might be a winner, Myriah, and that would be wonderful. Daddy and Gabbie and I and even Laura would be very proud of you, but you might be a loser, too. There are going to be lots more losers than winners and I want you to know that we'll be proud of you if you lose. We'll be proud of you for having the courage to be in the pageant, and for the work and ..
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Ann M. Martin |
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4d9c6eb
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Oh, that is pathetic," said Mallory to Jessi. "Look at them. They're going to think the only thing that matters in their lives is beauty and poise. They'll grow up believing they can only be pretty faces, not doctors or lawyers or authors." "I am so glad Becca has stage fright," said Jessi."
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Ann M. Martin |
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f9ae922
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I told them the whole story, from Ms. Besser's fateful phone call until right now. "Now" was Jeff's stuff slowly being packed away into trunks. It was my mom crying in her room at night. It was me crying in my room at night. It was all of us, even Jeff, feeling like we were going through the divorce again. And because of that, it was Mom clinging to me, as if to say, Don't you go away, too. Well, I wouldn't. That was the one thing she'd nev..
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Ann M. Martin |
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d7951b7
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Margo," I said, "What is your greatest wish?" "Global peace," she replied immediately. "Yes, but say it in a nice sentence." "My greatest wish," Margo said, looking rapturous and angelic, "is for global peace. That would be very ... nice." I only hoped the judge wouldn't ask her to explain what she meant. Margo didn't have the vaguest idea what global peace was."
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Ann M. Martin |
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6c3f039
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Jeff and I may have had our share of fights, and Jeff may have been nearly impossible to live with lately, but he was my brother and I was going to miss him. How could we let him go? Hadn't Jeff and I huddled together in my room in California during Mom and Dad's noisy fights? Hadn't I protected him from bullies and nightmares and imaginary monsters? Hadn't he taught me how to climb ropes when my gym teacher said I was hopeless? How could ..
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Ann M. Martin |
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9b8a83d
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Let's see," I said. "Claire, you're near the beginning. You'll always go on stage right after Myriah. And Margo, you're sort of near the middle. You'll always go on right after Sabrina Bouvier." "Right after who?" exclaimed Margo. "Shh," I said. "A girl named Sabrina Bouvier." Margo looked frantically around the backstage area. Her eyes traveled over Myriah, Charlotte, Karen, and several other contestants, and landed on the girl who was wea..
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Ann M. Martin |
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e270fd1
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Sabrina looked as if she might have been born on a stage. She smiled glamorously at the audience and the judges, curtsied prettily, and shook Mrs. Peabody's hand smoothly. Okay, I thought, after all the little girls had been introduced. So Sabrina was gracious and sophisticated. So what? She might not have any talent at all. Or maybe she'd be really, really stupid and not able to answer her question.
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Ann M. Martin |
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8b0d242
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If you could change one thing about this world, what would it be?" Mrs. Peabody asked her. "It would be wars," Myriah replied seriously. "I would stop them. I would say to the people who were making the wars, 'Now you stop that. You settle this problem yourselves like grown-ups. Our children want peace.' That's what I'd change."
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Ann M. Martin |
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a8dc491
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I put my head in my hands. Neither Claire nor Margo was going to win. "Hey," said Claudia, "don't feel too bad. At least your contestants stuck it out." "I wanted one of them to win something, though. I wanted to prove how good I could be with kids." "You did!?" exclaimed Kristy. "So did I. I guess we all did. Maybe we learned something, though. Even the best baby-sitter can't change a kid." "Yeah," agreed Mary Anne. "And I'd rather have a ..
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Ann M. Martin |
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713a5b3
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Something occurred to me then. It was all about the unfairness of the pageant. Mary Anne was absolutely right. Myriah really should have won, if this pageant was honestly based on people's talents and character, but it wasn't. I was glad that because Myriah had been given such a terrific prize, she wasn't disappointed about not winning the grand prize. But I was sorry that she had to settle (even happily) for second best.
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Ann M. Martin |
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f29ca80
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Van Buren's
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Ann M. Martin |
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1b46481
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didn't like Mr. Nicholls, it wasn't as if he were doing anything illegal. And when I told them that I wouldn't want Joey and Nate to feel as if I'd abandoned them, we agreed that I should continue sitting for them as long as I didn't feel too uncomfortable around Mr. Nicholls.
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Ann M. Martin |
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4b6339b
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ratio
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Ann M. Martin |
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90789e7
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Her second best friend is her computer.
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Ann M. Martin |
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57e0a4e
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ROLLING After the parade,
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Ann M. Martin |
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1a6daf5
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BSC
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Ann M. Martin |
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said Emily.
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Ann M. Martin |
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23fd7e6
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Okay, so Courtie had some dirt on the knees of her pants and a piece of grass in her hair and a little red around her mouth. She was four. What did Leigh expect? Four-year-olds get dirty. I'd be more worried if she were pristine every day. To me, dirt is a sign of fun. It's normal.
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Ann M. Martin |
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d3ad6ac
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I really love Courtie and I love Leigh too, I guess. After all, she'd been my stepmother for five years then ever since I was 11, and she'd seen my older brother, Mike and me through some hard times. But Leigh and I had always clashed, especially over Courtenay. See, Leigh didn't quite trust me. We got off on the right foot and never seemed to get on the right one, at least not for long.
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Ann M. Martin |
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d20504d
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Mike and I have lived with Dad every since my mom took off when she was 7. They got divorced a year later. I love my mom and I know she loves Mike and me. Of course, I haven't seen her in ages, but that's just because she's such a creative person and creative people need space. At least, some of them do.
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Ann M. Martin |
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174a092
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Mike and I ran through everything we thought Courtenay should know about being on her own in the big, bad world: who to trust, who not to trust, what to do if somebody wanted to give her candy, touch her, take her for a ride. And that was one of the big problems between Leigh and me. Leigh was incensed that I had started the Lost Game. She thought it would scare Courtenay and all Leigh wanted to do was protect her.
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Ann M. Martin |