Dawn thought she'd be baby-sitting - not monster-sitting!

Kristy disappeared from her window. A few minutes later, we heard the Spiers' front door open and close, and then the sound of feet running up the stairs. "Hi," said Kristy. "Gosh, what's all this stuff?"

"Dawn brought it over," Mary Anne replied. "It's from their old house in California. They don't need it anymore. Dawn thought I could use it in here. Dad's letting me take the baby stuff - Alice in Wonderland and Humpty Dumpty - off my walls and put up things I want - posters, a photo of the club members, if I could get one."

"He's letting you put thumbtacks in the walls?" asked Kristy incredulously.

"I guess so."

Kristy brushed her messy brown hair out of her eyes. "How come you didn't tell me you were going to start redecorating?"

"I don't know," Mary Anne answered hesitantly.

Kristy turned to me, but she continued to talk to Mary Anne. "You know, I might have some things you could use, too. Remember last year when we made that poster for art class and it won the prize? You could put that up. I still have it."

"You do?" cried Mary Anne. "That would be great! We had fun making that."

"And you know that stencil kit Watson gave me?" she went on.

"Yeah?" said Mary Anne excitedly.

"We could paint those awful pink picture frames and then stencil designs on them."

"Oh, great!"

Kristy smirked at me.

I felt completely left out.

After that, the three of us worked on Mary Anne's room for hours. We talked and planned and giggled. But I noticed two things: 1) Kristy only spoke directly to Mary Anne; 2) Kristy never laughed at my jokes. (Even though Mary Anne did.)

I was beginning to worry. I didn't think Kristy liked me very much, and that was not a good situation, since I was a member of the Baby-sitters Club - and she was the president.

Dawn and the Impossible Three
Published by Scholastic Inc. 1996
ISBN: 0590437208