The Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever #3: Mary Anne’s Big Break-up Read Online Free PDF Page B

Barnat. I answered the phone when
    I heard it ring, and I picked it up just in time to hear Dr. Barnat say that you’re three weeks pregnant.” Carol just looked at me. “I hung up then,” I said. “Honest.
    I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I know it isn’t –“
    “Never mind,” said Carol. “Don’t worry about it.”
    I was so relieved not to be in trouble that my excitement about the baby
    bubbled over then. “Carol, you’re going to have a baby!” I cried. “We’re going to
    have a baby! I have a great name if it’s a girl. Ashley. Isn’t that a good name? Or better, we could spell it A-S-H-L-E-I-G-H.”
    Carol just sighed. “Honey, let’s not get too excited right now.”
    “Why not? Is something wrong?” Maybe that’s what the rest of the
    conversation had been about.
    “No, no,” said Carol quickly. “It’s just that this isn’t quite the way I’d
    imagined this happening. I mean, with your father away. I wanted to tell him the
    news in person, and he’s not going to be back for six days. Plus, I wanted him to
    be the first to know. So Dawn, you have to keep this a secret. Please. Please
    don’t tel a soul. Okay?”
    “Okay,” I said slowly. “I promise.”
    The more I thought about this later, though, the more it didn’t seem right.
    What’s the big deal about tel ing Dad in person? I have a horrible feeling
    something else is going on.
    Saturday 10/4
    This morning Maggie, Sunny, and Jil came over. We holed up in my room.
    The party is tonight and we had to decide whether to go to it.
    “Of course we’re going to go,” said Sunny stubbornly.
    “We have to,” I added, although I didn’t feel very certain about this.
    “Well, we really want to,” Maggie said. “But let’s be realistic. Do we
    actual y think our parents are going to let us go?”
    Nobody said anything for a moment.
    “What would we tell them?” I finally asked. “I mean, where would we say
    we’re going? To a secret party three miles from here given by a bunch of older
    kids?”
    “Well…” said Sunny.
    Jil final y spoke up. “It’s an impossibility,” she said firmly.
    Sunny rolled her eyes. I shot a glance at her, but of course Jill had seen
    the eye-rolling for herself.
    “Don’t look at me like that, Sunny!” Jill exclaimed. “Come on. Get real.
    What are we going to tell our parents? We have to tel them we’re going
    somewhere.”
    Nobody had any ideas. About getting to the party, that is. But Jill had
    another idea. “You guys, we can have our own party,” she said. “It’l be fun. Just the four of us. Like we used to. Please?”
    “Oh, man,” muttered Sunny.
    “What else are you going to do tonight?” asked Jil . “Our parent aren’t
    going to let us go to the other party.”
    “Well, that’s true,” I said.
    “So come one,” said Jill. “Let’s go to the mall today. We can buy some
    stuff for our party.”
    “And look at clothes,” added Sunny, brightening.
    “And window-shop,” I said.
    Jil looked from Maggie to me to Sunny. Expectantly. Like a dog who’s just
    heard his master say a whole bunch of words and is positive that one of them
    was “walk.”
    “All right,” said Sunny. “Mall. Then sleepover.”
    Saturday afternoon 10/4
    We have been to the mall. In a little while it will be time to leave for Jil ’s
    sleepover.
    We had fun this afternoon. We real y did. I think we’re going to have fun
    tonight, too. I hope so. I don’t like this feeling of everything changing. I feel so torn. Sometimes I’m like Jil and I just want everything to stay the way it’s been. I want us to be young and safe. But sometimes I’m like Sunny, wanting to surge
    forward and get on with things. Impatient for whatever is coming. Not even caring
    what it is. Just wanting to experience it, taste it, live it.
    Jil showed up at the mal with a list of things she said we needed to buy
    for the sleepover. It included popcorn, sodas, and fortune-telling cards.
    Sunny glanced at the