Kristy at Bat by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin [M. Martin, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

Mary Anne was working on her BSC notebook entry when I called. She had a lot to tell me about her afternoon with David Michael. And not all of it was good. For a moment, after speaking to her, I wondered if I should go home. How could I stay at Dream Camp when David Michael needed me? But then I came to my senses. If I couldn’t trust my BSC friends to help straighten things out, who could I trust?

When Mary Anne arrived at my house on Wednesday afternoon, she found a very excited David Michael. He was her only charge that day: Karen and Andrew had play dates, and Nannie was taking Emily Michelle to a birthday party.

“Guess what, Mary Anne,” David Michael said as soon as they’d seen Nannie and Emily Michelle off.

“Um, you have a dinosaur in your backyard?” guessed Mary Anne.

David Michael laughed and shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “Guess again.”

“Let’s see,” she said. “Did you win a million dollars in a contest?”

“Uh-uh. Never mind, you’ll never guess. I’ll tell you. Mom took me shopping and helped me buy something so, so great.”

“Cool!” said Mary Anne. “What is it?”

“I’ll show you,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the living room. There, spread out on the floor, were dozens of plastic pages, filled with baseball cards. “It’s a Super-Mega Baseball Card Collector’s Set. The best one they make! And I used my own allowance money to pay for it. Well, Mom helped a little.”

“Wow,” said Mary Anne.

David Michael threw himself down on the floor and began to riffle through the card-filled plastic sheets. “It came with a value guide, so I’ve been looking up all my cards to see what they’re worth,” he explained.

Mary Anne sat down next to him. “And?”

“I don’t have too many valuable cards,” David Michael admitted. “But I can trade. I know I have some that other kids will want.” He held one up. “Like this Chris Russell card. He only played one year for the Mariners, and now he’s a football player. So everybody wants to have his card.”

Mary Anne nodded. “I see,” she said. But, as she told me later, she didn’t really see. The idea of baseball cards being valuable seemed silly to her. She could see how it might be fun to collect them and even trade them. If you happened to be even one bit interested in baseball, which she isn’t. But she’d heard that some kids only cared about the financial value of their cards, and that seemed weird to her. Still, David Michael sounded so happy. She wasn’t about to say anything negative about his new interest.

“So, it looks as though this kit will really help you organize your cards,” she said.

“Definitely,” said David Michael. “I’ve been working on that. I’m almost done!” He showed her how the plastic holders fit into a notebook, and how he’d kept a separate list of every card and its value.

“You’ve been busy,” said Mary Anne admiringly.

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