Baby-sitters on Board! by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin [M. Martin, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2013-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

I simply couldn’t believe what Stacey had just said. Not the part about my Secret Admirer. I already knew I had one. What I couldn’t believe was that Stacey had been standing right next to him, and all she could say about his looks was that she thought he had brown hair.

There was nothing to do but leave the Scooper-Duper right then and hope to see a brown-haired boy nearby. For a moment, I looked longingly at the five mouthfuls of melted ice cream that were still left in my dish. Then I jumped up and ran into the hallway. At least I didn’t have to waste time paying my bill. My Secret Admirer had taken care of that for me.

I felt like someone in a spy novel. I burst through the doorway of the ice-cream parlor, skidded to a stop in the hallway, and looked left and right. To the left was a dead end. I took off in the other direction — and almost smacked into a boy who stepped out from behind a pillar.

He had blond hair.

“Whoa!” he said, and I tried to catch my breath. “What’s going on?”

“Did you see a brown-haired boy come out of here a couple of minutes ago?” I gasped.

“Was he running like you?”

“I don’t know. He might have been. Did someone run by?”

“Yeah, at full speed. He came out of the ice-cream parlor.”

“Oh, please. What did he look like?” I asked.

“Hmm. Red hair, I think. Great sneakers. I really wasn’t paying attention.”

Great sneakers? What was wrong with everybody? Why couldn’t they be a little more observant? I didn’t have a thing to go by. Not even hair color. All I knew about my Secret Admirer was that he had nice shoes and either brown or red hair. Some clues.

There was no point in looking any further.

“What’s going on?” asked the boy.

“Huh? Oh…. Well, see, this guy has been sending me notes signed ‘Your Secret Admirer.’ And he’s bought me presents and stuff, but I don’t even know who he is.”

“If you did, he wouldn’t be a Secret Admirer,” the boy pointed out. “He’d just be an admirer.”

I smiled. “That’s true.”

“So who did you think you were chasing just now? I mean, what made you think that guy was your Secret Admirer?”

The boy and I were walking slowly through the hallway, heading for one of the open decks. I explained to him what had happened in the ice-cream parlor.

“You look pretty disappointed,” said the boy.

I had just realized something else — my admirer was not Spider. If he was, Stacey would have recognized him for sure. She wouldn’t have missed something like that. Darn. My admirer had vanished again and he wasn’t Spider. A double blow. No wonder I looked disappointed.

But all I said to the boy was, “I just wanted to see him. That’s all.”

“Your admirer?”

“Yeah.”

“Isn’t it more fun if you don’t know who he is?”

“Maybe. But in a few days this trip will be over and we’ll be going home. I might not ever get to know him.

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