Mallory and the Mystery Diary by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin [M. Martin, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2013-06-23T16:00:00+00:00

Kristy was sitting in Claud’s director’s chair, her visor in place, a pencil stuck over one ear. She was wearing her usual jeans-and-turtle-neck outfit, and she was busy trying to get the meeting underway.

“Order! Come to order, please!” she was saying as she tapped a pencil on Claud’s desk.

The rest of us were gathered and ready to go. Jessi and I were sitting on the floor, leafing through the club notebook. Jessi was wearing a long, heart-covered sweat shirt over her dance leotard and a pair of pink pants that (although you couldn’t see this) I knew were held up at the waist with a drawstring. I was wearing boring old jeans, but a top that I liked a lot — a big white long-sleeved T-shirt that said I KIDS across the front.

In a row on Claud’s bed were Mary Anne, Stacey, and Claudia. Mary Anne, who can be pretty funky in her own shy way, was wearing a very cool short printed jumper over a striped shirt. You might think that those two things would clash, but they didn’t. They looked great together. The jumper was white with a small red print, and the shirt was white with narrow, widely-spaced stripes. Claudia called the outfit “a fashion risk that worked.” Claud herself was wearing jeans, a plain white blouse, a pink sweater, white socks, and loafers. She said she’d gone back to the fifties for the day. Stacey, on the other hand, was in a much more typical outfit — a short-sleeved blue-and-white jumpsuit with cuffed pants. Parts of it were striped, parts were solid. On her feet were high-topped sneakers laced only halfway up so that she could roll the tongue of the shoe down (extremely cool), plus she was wearing a lot of jewelry. I think Claud had made some of it for her.

Last but not least was Dawn, sitting backward in Claud’s desk chair, resting her arms on the top rung of the back. Her outfit was fairly normal — pants and a baggy sweat shirt — but on her head was a small straw hat! I couldn’t believe it. Talk about fashion risks.

Anyway, Kristy was calling us to order, and we were all straightening up and paying attention.

“Treasurer?” said Kristy to Stacey.

“Dues day!” Stacey cried (as if we could forget). “Pay up, you guys.”

Grumbling and groaning, we reached into our pockets or purses and forked over the weekly dues. Stacey collected it, tossed it in the treasury, added up the new total (she can do this practically just by looking at the money), and announced what was in the manila envelope.

“Thirty-two dollars and forty-one cents. We’re in good shape. Anybody need anything for the Kid-Kits?”

“Crayons,” said Kristy.

“Can of Play-Doh,” said Claudia.

“Stickers,” I said.

Stacey handed each of us some money, reminding us twice to bring back the change. She looked as if parting with the money were painful.

Then the phone began to ring. After three job calls, things settled down. In fact, we reached a moment of silence.

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