Stacey and the Bad Girls by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin [Martin, Ann M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Childrens
ISBN: 9780590194969
Google: J3oKAAAACAAJ
Goodreads: 523638
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 1995-06-14T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

“Hey, Stace-alita, how’d it go?”

I hadn’t expected to see Jacqui on the up escalator as I was going down. But there she was, with Mia, Heather, and Sheila.

“Hi!” I called out. “Where are you going?”

“To meet you!” Heather replied. “Want to shop?”

“Wait for me up there!”

When I reached the bottom, I switched to the up escalator. My friends were waiting for me on the third floor.

“What a great job!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah?” Heather said. “Nobody barfed on you, or snotted up your shoulder? My little cousin does that all the time.”

“Say it louder, Heather, so the whole store can hear,” Mia remarked.

I laughed. “They found other ways to make a mess. But it was fun.”

Sheila was not listening. She had walked ahead, into the music section. “It’s here!” she called over her shoulder.

“It,” we all knew, was U & Me 4 U4Me, the latest CD from you-know-who.

We all ran to her and gaped at the display. It was Skyllo, life-size and lifelike.

Sigh.

Needless to say, we each bought a CD. And a U4Me T-shirt. And a special U4Me magazine on sale next to the display.

We raced back to my house (on the way, I made sure we bought snacks).

Eating chips and drinking juice, we listened to the CD over and over. By the third time we were singing along at the top of our lungs.

On Tuesday we had only one emergency at the Kid Center. A five-year-old boy disappeared from the room, but a saleswoman in Bedding found him bouncing on a king-size mattress.

Overall, though, the day was much smoother. Mrs. Grossman let us keep a face-painting kit in a cupboard, and she added a “No Markers” rule to a do’s-and-don’ts list she was preparing for parents.

She told me she admired my “way with children,” so I guess I was on the right track.

At one-fifty, I saw my friends waiting for me outside the Kid Center door, gabbing with each other and glancing at the clock. At two o’clock, Sheila started making “Hurry up” faces, but I was halfway through reading Ferdinand to a little boy, so I stayed until I was done. It was now ten after two.

“We thought you’d never stop,” Sheila muttered as we walked away.

“Sheilaaa,” Heather said warningly.

“Ignore her,” Mia said to me.

We took the escalator to the first floor. As we walked through Accessories, a gray-haired woman in a silk dress walked over to me, smiling. “You must be Maureen McGill’s daughter!”

“Yes,” I said.

Her name was Mrs. Ballmer, and she told me how much she enjoyed working with my mom. I introduced my friends to her, but they managed to slip away when Mrs. Ballmer started talking my ear off.

I finally broke loose and found them browsing together near the belts.

“Sorry about Mrs. Ballmer,” I said as I approached.

“No problem,” Jacqui replied. “Let’s go eat.”

The four of them headed toward the aisle.

“Did you find anything you liked?” I asked.

“Nahhh,” Mia said over her shoulder.

I followed them. We left the store and went across the street toward Uncle Ed’s, a fast-food Chinese restaurant.

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