Karen's Nanny

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Gabrielle Charbonnet

  for her help

  with this book.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 A Fresh Start

  2 Karen’s Two Families

  3 Project Jupiter

  4 Best Behavior

  5 Karen’s Resolution

  6 Start Not Changing Now

  7 Rose Wertzel

  8 The Lemon Drops

  9 Springtime in January

  10 Launch Delays

  11 Trouble at School

  12 Karen Has Changed

  13 The Second Candidate

  14 Wonders Never Cease

  15 Karen’s Confession

  16 The New New Year’s Resolution

  17 Many Apologies

  18 Two Projects

  19 Third Time a Charm

  20 Merry Perkins It Is

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  A Fresh Start

  “Rabbit, rabbit,” I whispered. I opened my eyes and sat up in bed. “Yes!” I said. “I remembered to say ‘Rabbit, rabbit!’ ”

  Why was I so excited about saying “Rabbit, rabbit”?

  Well, if you say “Rabbit, rabbit” first thing in the morning on the first day of the month, you have good luck all month. And I had just said it not only on the first day of the month. I had said it on the first day of the whole year.

  It was January first. New Year’s Day.

  I was sure I would have good luck for the whole year.

  I peered out of my little-house bedroom window. (I will explain about my little house and my big house in a minute.) The ground was covered with beautiful, fresh new snow.

  My good luck was starting already.

  I leaped out of bed and ran to the kitchen. Mommy was at the table. So were Seth, who is my stepfather, and Andrew, who is my little brother. Andrew is four, going on five. I am seven.

  “Good morning, Karen,” said Mommy. “Biscuits or cereal for breakfast?”

  “Cereal, please,” I said. “Krispie Krunchies.”

  “I am sorry, Karen,” said Mommy. “We are all out of Krispie Krunchies.”

  No Krispie Krunchies? Hmmph. My good luck had not lasted all year. It had not lasted even five minutes.

  “We have Oatie-Os,” Mommy suggested.

  “Okay,” I said. “I will have Oatie-Os. Thank you.”

  I was not going to let a little thing like no Krispie Krunchies upset me. It was a new year. There was new snow on the ground. The world was off to a fresh start, and so was I.

  And the best way to make that fresh start last was to make a New Year’s resolution. I had been thinking about it for days. But I had still not decided what my resolution would be.

  Mommy had said a New Year’s resolution should make you a better person. Hmmm. How could I become a better person? I was already pretty good. This was going to be hard.

  Sometimes I forget to raise my hand in class. Sometimes I forget to use my indoor voice. So I could resolve always to raise my hand in class, and never to shout when I am inside.

  No. Those things were not big enough. A New Year’s resolution should be about something big — something important. (Besides, I was not sure I could remember always to raise my hand and use an indoor voice.)

  Maybe hearing my little-house family’s resolutions would give me an idea for my own.

  “Have you made a New Year’s resolution, Seth?” I asked.

  “I certainly have,” said Seth. “My New Year’s resolution is to get more exercise. I want to run in the Stoneybrook Ten-Kilometer road race in October.”

  “Gee,” I said. That was a good resolution. But I did not think I could run that far. It was not the resolution for me. “What is your New Year’s resolution, Andrew?”

  “I am going to eat more cake and ice cream,” said Andrew.

  “Hmmm. O-kaay,” I said. I was trying to be polite. But I did not think Andrew understood what New Year’s resolutions are all about.

  “What is your New Year’s resolution, Mommy?” I asked.

  “I have two resolutions,” Mommy said. “While Seth exercises his body, I will exercise my mind. My first resolution is to read one play by William Shakespeare each month, for the whole year. January is Romeo and Juliet.”

  “Wow,” I said. Mommy’s first resolution was good too. But though I am an excellent reader, I was not sure I was ready for Shakespeare.

  “What is your other resolution?” I asked her.

  “My second resolution is even more important than the first. I resolve to find the perfect nanny for you and Andrew,” she said.

  Gulp. A nanny? Even though I was making a fresh, new start, that did not mean I needed a fresh, new person in my life.

  Karen’s Two Families

  “Why do Andrew and I need a nanny?” I asked.

  “Karen, you know that I am going to start working at the crafts center soon,” said Mommy.

  I nodded. It was true — Mommy had found a job making jewelry. She might even teach classes in jewelry-making.

  “When I start work,” Mommy continued, “we will need a nanny to take care of you and Andrew on the days you’re here at the little house.”

  Oh, yes. I promised to explain about the little house, where Mommy and Seth live, and the big house, where my big-house family lives.

  A long time ago, Andrew and I lived at the big house all the time, with Mommy and Daddy. Then Mommy and Daddy got divorced. Andrew and I moved with Mommy to the little house. Daddy stayed at the big house. (It is the house he grew up in.)

  Then Mommy met Seth Engle, and they got married. That made Seth my stepfather, and his pets — Rocky, a cat, and Midgie, a dog — my steppets. The other little-house pets are my rat, Emily Junior, and Andrew’s hermit crab, Bob.

  Daddy also got married again, to a nice woman named Elizabeth Thomas. She had been married before too, and has four children of her own. David Michael is seven, like me. (He does not go to my school, Stoneybrook Academy. He goes to Stoneybrook Elementary.) Kristy is thirteen. She is gigundoly nice. Sam and Charlie are so old they go to high school. I also have a little sister named Emily Michelle. She is two and a half. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from a faraway country called Vietnam. And last there is Nannie, Elizabeth’s mother, who came to live at the big house and help take care of all of us. Those are the big-house people. I have not even mentioned the pets yet! Shannon is David Michael’s gigundo puppy; Scout is a Labrador puppy that Kristy is training to be a guide dog; Pumpkin is our brand-new black kitten; and Crystal Light the Second and Goldfishie are our sharks (just kidding!). Also, Emily Junior and Bob go back and forth when Andrew and I do. Andrew and I usually spend one month at the little house, and the next month at the big house. That way we can have time with both our families.

  I made up special nicknames for my brother and me. I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. (I got the idea from a book called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) Andrew and I are two-twos because we have two of so many things. We each have two mommies and two daddies, two houses, and two families. I have two bicycles, one at each house, and two stuffed cats who look exactly alike. Andrew and I have two sets of clothes, books, and toys. That way, we do not need to pack much when we go back and forth between our two houses. Also, I have two pairs of glasses — blue for reading, and pink for the rest of the time.

  I even have two best friends. Hannie Papadakis lives across the street and one house down from the big house. Nancy Dawes lives next door to the little house. Hannie, Nancy, and I are all in Ms. Colman’s second-grade class. We do everything together. We call ourselves the Three Musketeers.

  Now I have
something very, very sad to tell you. There used to be one other pet at the big house — Boo-Boo, Daddy’s cat. Daddy had had Boo-Boo since before I was born. For a long time I did not like Boo-Boo very much. He was cranky. But as he grew old, he became nicer. Then he died. It was very tragic, especially for Daddy. I miss Boo-Boo a lot too. I wish he had not had to die.

  Sometimes being a two-two is hard. Andrew and I miss the family we are not staying with. And changing houses is not always fun. Plus, a little while ago Mommy, Seth, and Andrew went to live in Chicago for several months. I went with them, but then I decided to come back to Stoneybrook and stay at the big house. Now everyone is back in Stoneybrook, and I am at the little house again.

  The little-house family moved to Chicago…. Pumpkin came to live at the big house…. Boo-Boo died…. The little-house family came back…. And now there is going to be a nanny at the little house.

  So many changes! I like excitement, but I was beginning to think I did not want so much change in my life. It seemed that as soon as I got used to things, they changed. It was exhausting.

  Now Mommy said, “I have placed an ad in the Stoneybrook News. I will interview people who answer the ad. The ones I like will spend an afternoon with you. And you two will help me choose the perfect nanny. It will be just like finding our own Mary Poppins.”

  Maybe it would be. But I was not sure.

  Project Jupiter

  Two days later winter break was over and school started again.

  Yippee! I love school. I was glad to be back. That is because I knew I would see Hannie and Nancy all day, every day. I would see the other kids in my class. And I would see Ms. Colman, my gigundoly nice teacher.

  School is one thing that never changes. The Three Musketeers are always best friends. We always eat lunch together. We play at recess together. We even used to sit next to each other in class, but now I sit in the first row with the other glasses-wearers, Ricky Torres and Natalie Springer, while Hannie and Nanny sit in the back. The Three Musketeers have a motto: “All for one, and one for all!”

  At school, Pamela Harding is always my best enemy. (That is not really a good thing, but at least it never changes.) Jannie Morris and Leslie Gilbert are always Pamela’s best friends.

  Ricky is always my pretend husband. We got married on the playground one day.

  Addie Sidney always zooms around in her wheelchair.

  Terri and Tammy Barkan always look alike. (They are twins.)

  Natalie’s socks are always drooping.

  And the other kids — Bobby Gianelli, Audrey Green, Omar Harris, Chris Lamar, Sara Ford, Hank Reubens, and Ian Johnson — are always themselves. They are very dependable that way.

  And best of all, Ms. Colman is always, always, always gigundoly nice. She is the best teacher in the whole world. And she often has Special Announcements to make.

  “Class,” Ms. Colman said as we took our seats. “I have a Special Announcement to make.” (See what I mean?)

  “Hooray!” I shouted. Ms. Colman did not even remind me to use my indoor voice.

  “We are going to start a new unit about the planets,” Ms. Colman said. “As you all know, there are nine planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. And there are eighteen students in our class. If you all pair up with a partner, we will have nine pairs, one for each planet.”

  Ms. Colman is so smart. I had never realized that we had the perfect number of kids to study the planets.

  “I have assigned each of you a planet partner,” Ms. Colman continued. “Each pair of partners will draw a planet name out of a hat. That is the planet they will study. At the end of the unit, the planet partners will make a presentation about their planet to the class. And I will do a presentation on the sun.”

  Ms. Colman read out her planet partner list. I hoped Hannie or Nancy would be my partner. But Hannie was paired with Ian, and Nancy was paired with Ricky. (I decided not to be jealous that she was going to work with my pretend husband.)

  Ms. Colman called out more pairs. At the end, there were only four names left: Addie, Bobby, Pamela, and me. I closed my eyes and wished hard that I would not be paired with Pamela.

  “Karen and …” said Ms. Colman. I crossed my fingers. “Addie.”

  Yippee! I like Addie a lot. Plus she is smart. She would make an excellent planet partner.

  Next Ms. Colman told the planet partners to pick slips of paper out of a hat. She used the purple knit cap with the green pom-pom she had worn to school. It is a very eye-catching hat.

  When it was our turn, Addie and I reached in together. We chose a slip of paper. We unfolded it and read: JUPITER.

  Jupiter! I knew all sorts of things about Jupiter. I rushed back to my desk and made a list of everything I knew about Jupiter:

  Jupiter is the largest planet.

  ?

  Hmmm. Actually, I knew only one thing about Jupiter. But that was a start. I bet the partners who picked Uranus could not have named a single fact about it. (I could not have.)

  “Now, planet partners,” said Ms. Colman. “Please take ten minutes to meet and discuss your project.”

  Addie wheeled over to my desk. “This is going to be fun, Karen,” she said. “I love planets. Jupiter is one of my favorites, because it is the biggest. And its Great Red Spot is so neat.”

  “Great Red Spot?” I asked.

  “Yes,” said Addie. “There is a giant hurricane constantly whirling around on Jupiter. From Earth, it looks like a big red circle. That is why it is called the Great Red Spot.”

  Gosh. Addie knew two things about Jupiter, and maybe more. I would have to work extra hard to keep up with her.

  “Well,” I said, clapping my hands. “I think we should get to work.”

  “Yes,” said Addie. “It is time to launch Project Jupiter.”

  Best Behavior

  That afternoon when I got home, Mommy had a snack ready for me — peanut butter on bread, and a glass of milk. I love peanut butter on bread.

  Andrew was eating his snack already. He was down to the crust. He stood up from the table, put his cup and plate in the sink, and sat down again.

  In between bites and gulps, I told Andrew and Mommy about Project Jupiter. I showed them my Project Jupiter notebook. I had started a whole new notebook just for Project Jupiter.

  Andrew had never even heard of Jupiter. He knew only Earth, Mars, and Saturn. Mommy had heard of Jupiter, of course. She even knew about the Great Red Spot.

  “Project Jupiter sounds very interesting, Karen,” said Mommy. “I am sure you and Addie will make fine planet partners.”

  I beamed. Mommy always knows what to say.

  “Now, Karen, Andrew,” Mommy said. Her voice sounded serious. “I have something important to discuss with you.”

  Andrew and I waited. I wondered what could be so important. Maybe it would be something important and fun, like a new swimming pool in the backyard.

  “I have received quite a few responses to the nanny ad I placed in the Stoneybrook News,” Mommy said. “I have picked three of the best people to interview.”

  Oh. We were not getting a swimming pool in the backyard. We were getting a nanny.

  I must have looked disappointed, because Mommy said, “Now, Karen, you know we talked about this just the other day.”

  “I know,” I said. “I had not forgotten. I had been hoping you had forgotten.”

  Mommy smiled. “After I meet my three choices, they will each spend an afternoon with you two. Then we will decide together which of them we should offer the job to. Does that sound like a good plan?”

  Andrew nodded. “We will pick the best nanny ever!”

  “There’s the spirit, Andrew,” Mommy said. “And Karen?” She looked at me.

  I nodded, but not very happily. I did not want a new nanny. I liked my little-house family just the way it was.

  “Good,” said Mommy. “Now you two run along. I have some phone calls to make. I must start setting
up nanny interviews right away.”

  I stood up from the table and trudged out of the kitchen. I hoped Mommy noticed how sad I looked.

  “Karen?” Mommy called after me.

  “Yes, Mommy?” I answered sadly. Maybe she had changed her mind. Maybe I would not have to get used to a new nanny after all.

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked me.

  Hmmm. Oh, yes. I had left my Project Jupiter notebook on the kitchen table.

  “Oh, right,” I said. I walked back into the kitchen, grabbed the notebook, and walked out again.

  “Karen!” This time Mommy was not calling after me. This time she was calling at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You left your cup and plate on the table,” said Mommy. “Please clear your place.”

  “Oh. Sorry. I forgot,” I said, coming back into the kitchen. I gathered my cup and plate and placed them in the sink.

  “Thank you,” said Mommy. “And Karen? I am going to rely on you to be on your best behavior when the new nanny comes. She will be here to help you and Andrew, but I need you to help her too. You are not a baby anymore. You are seven years old, and I expect you to be responsible. I know you can be, if you want to be.”

  Mommy’s voice was gentle, but I could tell she meant what she said.

  “Do you understand?” Mommy asked.

  “Yes, Mommy,” I said.

  “Good.” Mommy smiled.

  I tried to smile back at her, but I was not really able to.

  Mommy wanted me to start acting more grown-up. But why should I have to change for the nanny — a stranger? I did not want a nanny at all. Would the nanny be on her best behavior? What if Andrew and I did not like any of the three choices? Would we have to put up with a nanny we hated?

  I was used to my life the way it was. Now all of a sudden it was going to change. Mommy would be at work. A strange nanny would be here in the afternoon when I got home from school. A nanny I had to be on my best behavior for. Why did I have to adjust myself to everyone else? It did not seem fair.

  Well, I would try to be on my best behavior. I had promised Mommy.