Maybe I should stop here and explain a little about who the BSC members are and what they do, just to give you a more complete picture of the club.
As president, I run our meetings. I also work hard to keep generating new ideas for the club. For example, I came up with Kid-Kits, which are these boxes crammed full of hand-me-down toys and games, plus new stickers and crayons and things. The kids we sit for go wild when we bring them on jobs. I also thought of the club notebook, where we each write up all the jobs we go on. I have to admit, the notebook is not one of my most popular ideas. Most of the other club members aren’t that crazy about writing in it, since it’s a lot of work, but they do agree that it makes us better sitters, since we’re all up-to-date on what’s going on with our regular clients.
The member who likes the club notebook the least is probably Claudia, the BSC’s vice-president. She doesn’t spell all that well, and I think she’s sometimes embarrassed about her entries. Claud isn’t dumb or anything, although she isn’t a genius like her older sister Janine. It’s just that Claudia doesn’t “apply” herself, as her parents would say, to her schoolwork. What she does apply herself to is her artwork; Claud is the most creative and talented person I know. She also applies herself to eating as much junk food as possible, and to reading Nancy Drew books, two habits her parents aren’t wild about.
Claudia is Japanese-American, and with her long black hair, dark, almond-shaped eyes, and perfect complexion, she’s beautiful. Her clothes look great, too, because she’s as creative about dressing as she is about everything else. Claudia somehow knows how to put together a perfectly stunning outfit with odds and ends from a thrift store.
Claud is our vice-president mostly because of that private phone line in her room. She answers club calls when they come in at odd hours, but other than that, she doesn’t really have many official duties.
Claud’s best friend is Stacey McGill. The two of them share a passion for fashion: Stacey is about the trendiest dresser Stoneybrook has ever seen. She’s from New York City originally, and she still has that urban flair. Stacey has blonde hair, which is usually permed into a curly mass, and huge blue eyes. She’s an only child. I think that made it doubly hard for her when her parents got divorced not that long ago. Her dad still lives in New York, and while Stacey chose to live with her mom in Stoneybrook, she makes a point of visiting her dad as often as possible.
Stacey does not share Claudia’s passion for junk food — or at least, if she does, she manages to control it. She has to, since she’s a diabetic. That means her body doesn’t handle sugar well — in fact, she has to be extremely careful about keeping track of every single thing she eats. Not only that, she has to give herself shots of insulin every day! Stacey’s what Watson would call “a trouper.” She never complains about being diabetic — she just deals with it.
I’d have to say that Mary Anne is a kind of a trooper, too. She grew up without a mom, and that can’t have been easy. Her mom died when Mary Anne was just a baby, which left Mary Anne’s dad to bring her up all by himself. I remember years and years of him being extremely strict with her, but recently he’s begun to treat her more like the responsible young adult she is.
There’ve been some other changes in her family, too. Mary Anne is no longer an only child. Now she has a stepbrother and a stepsister, and her stepsister happens to be her other best friend, Dawn Schafer. Dawn is a member of our club, too. But right now she’s spending some time with her dad in California, where she grew up. Confusing, right? I’ll try to explain. See, Dawn’s mom was born and raised in Stoneybrook, but then moved to California, got married, and had two kids: Dawn and her younger brother, Jeff. Then, when the Schafers divorced, Mrs. Schafer brought her kids back to Stoneybrook to live. Dawn and Mary Anne met, became friends, and discovered that their parents had dated when they were in high school. They got them back together, and the rest is history. Now the Spier-Schafer family (including Tigger, Mary Anne’s kitten) lives happily together in the Schafers’ cool old farmhouse.
Well, not the whole Spier-Schafer family. Even before Mrs. Schafer and Mr. Spier got married, Dawn’s little brother decided he was miserable in Stoneybrook and ended up moving back to California. Dawn was okay with that, but after a while she missed Jeff and her dad so much that not long ago she went back, too, for an extended visit. Everybody in the BSC misses Dawn a ton, especially Mary Anne.
When Dawn’s here with us, she serves as the club’s alternate officer, which means she can fill in if one of the other officers can’t make it to a meeting. For now, the job is being covered by Shannon Kilbourne, who is a friend of mine and lives in my new neighborhood. Shannon goes to private school, so until she got involved in the club none of the others knew her that well. But the more we know her, the more we like her. She’s super-smart and fun to be around. Before Dawn left, Shannon was an associate member, which meant that she didn’t come to meetings but was on call when we needed extra sitters. Now that she’s a full (if temporary) member, the only associate member is Logan Bruno, who wasn’t at our meeting that day.
Logan is Mary Anne’s boyfriend. He’s from Kentucky, and he has this sweet, Southern drawl. He’s a sports nut, like me, so we get along well. Mary Anne can get pretty mushy about him. In fact, she tends to go on and on about how much he looks like — guess who? — Cam Geary!
Our club also has two junior members, Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey, who are both eleven instead of thirteen like the rest of us. They’re best friends, but, like Mary Anne and me, they’re opposites in certain ways. For one thing, they look nothing alike. Mal has red hair, freckles, glasses, and braces, while Jessi is African-American, with dark brown eyes and smooth dark skin. Mal comes from a huge family (eight kids!), while Jessi just has one sister, Becca, and one brother, John Philip (otherwise known as Squirt). Mal’s mainly interested in reading and writing — she wants to write and illustrate children’s books someday — and Jessi is a serious ballet student. Still, though they may not appear to have a lot in common, Mal and Jessi have major chemistry together. They’re inseparable.
As a matter of fact, as that day’s meeting wound up, Mal and Jessi were already plotting and planning their summer together. “I definitely want to spend some time at the movie set,” said Jessi. “Even if we’re sitting a lot, I bet sometimes we’ll be able to bring our charges. It’ll be awesome!”
Mal agreed. And so did the rest of us. The Day I found Out It Was Going to Be an Interesting Summer was drawing to a close, but the real fun was just beginning.
Trucks. Tons of big, huge, noisy trucks with heavy cables and wires running out of them. And vans and trailers and carts of all sizes loaded with complicated-looking equipment. And lots of people — I mean lots — all dressed in jeans and T-shirts and baseball caps, standing around looking like they weren’t doing a thing.
That was my first impression of the movie set. It wasn’t exactly what I had expected, but then I hadn’t really known what to expect. All I knew was that I was supposed to be there at seven-thirty that Tuesday morning, to meet Derek for his first day of filming.
The film’s main location was the elementary school, on the ballfield. The entire parking lot — and half the field — was packed with trucks and vans. I turned to Charlie, who was standing between Sam and me at the edge of the parking lot.
“I wonder where I’m supposed to go,” I said.
He shrugged, peering at the scene. “I was wondering the same thing,” he said. Charlie had landed a job on the set, as a gofer for the assistant-assistant stage manager.
Sam yawned. “I know where I’m going,” he said. “That spot over near third base looks like the perfect place for a nap. I’m sure somebody will wake me up when things start happening.” He loped off across the field.
Sam didn’t have a job on the set — he had just come along to watch. Most of my friends were hoping to come, too. In fact, most of Stoneybrook would probably be on hand, since having a movie shot here was about the mos
t thrilling thing that had ever happened in our town.
I was feeling just as sleepy as Sam. It was going to take awhile for me to adjust to getting up so early every day. But even though I was tired, I was also incredibly excited — and kind of nervous about what this job was going to be like. Just then, I saw a woman walk by with a clipboard under her arm. Somehow she looked official. “Excuse me,” I said, “but do you know where I might find Derek Masters?”
“Isn’t he one of the gaffers?” she asked.
Gaffer? What was that? “Um, no,” I said. “He’s an actor.”
“Try makeup,” she said, waving a hand toward the trailers. Just then, the walkie-talkie she wore at her waist gave a squawk.
“Which —” I began, but she was trotting off, talking quickly into her walkie-talkie.
“I’m going to head over there,” Charlie said, pointing toward a cluster of people who were standing near home plate, gesturing and talking. “I think I see one of the guys I talked to about the job.” He grinned at me. “Good luck,” he said.
I stood there for a moment and tired to figure out what to do next. How would I ever find Derek in all this confusion? Another woman with a clipboard walked by, and I was about to stop her and ask her where makeup was when I heard someone call my name. I turned to see Derek waving at me as he emerged from a shiny black car with a uniformed chauffeur behind the wheel. Todd and Mr. Masters were climbing out behind him.
“Derek!” I said. “Hey, you must have grown about four inches.” He had definitely sprouted since the last time I’d seen him.
Derek grinned and looked down at the ground. Mr. Masters smiled at me and shook my hand. “Good to see you, Kristy,” he said. “Listen, we’re running a little late. Derek should be in makeup by now, and I need to take Todd over to wardrobe to get his costume re-fitted.”
“No problem,” I said. “The only thing is, I don’t know where —”
“I’ll show you,” said Derek. “It only looks confusing here. Once you get used to them, all movie sets are pretty much alike.” He led me on a crooked course around the parking lot. We walked around the big trucks, stepping over the huge cables and dodging men with their arms full of electrical equipment. “Those are the gaffers,” Derek said, after we’d nearly collided with one of them. “Electrical guys. Don’t get in their way!”
“What are the big trucks for?” I asked. “And why do they make so much noise?”
“That’s where the generators are,” he said. “You know, to make all the power for the lights and stuff.”
I nodded. I could see I had a lot to learn, but I had a feeling Derek could teach me. He seemed to be totally at home on the set.
“Here we are,” he said, leading me up to one of the trailers. He pointed to a sign on it that said “makeup.” The trailer had three doors, which weren’t marked, but Derek just pushed open the middle one and walked in. I followed behind him.
“Missy!” said Derek, giving a high-five to a blonde woman in a pink smock. “I was hoping you’d be here.” He turned to me. “Missy is the best makeup person in the business,” he explained. Then he hopped into the seat in front of the mirror. “This is Kristy, Missy,” he said. “She’s kind of my assistant on this shoot.”
“Pleased to meet you,” said Missy. “Have a seat.” She moved a stack of magazines from a stool and gestured toward it. I sat down and looked around. We were in a small cubicle — I guess the trailer had been divided into at least three of them — with a mirror along one wall. A shelf with piles and piles of makeup and hairspray and stuff ran under the mirror. The trailer was cool and comfortable, and I suddenly realized that it was air-conditioned. I relaxed and smiled. This was going to be a pretty neat job.
Missy got right to work. “Nothing fancy today,” she said. “The vampires’ll be getting fangs and blood and all that stuff, but you’re just a regular kid. A little base, a little powder, a little work on the eyes, and you’ll be all set. Then Nancy’ll come in and do your hair.”
I watched, amazed at how much stuff Missy slathered onto Derek’s face to make him look like “a regular kid.” Derek’s eyes met mine in the mirror, and he smiled. “This is going to be a fun set,” he said. “It’s a neat script, too. Have you heard anything about it?”
I shook my head.
“It’s about this kid who comes to America as a foreign-exchange student from Transylvania. His name’s Laddie Alducar, and he’s a real charmer — everybody likes him. What they don’t know is that he’s a vampire, and he’s been sent here by his parents to recruit more vampires.”
“Who plays Laddie?” I asked. “Is it Cam Geary?”
“Nope,” said Derek. “It’s Carson Fraser — you know, that blond guy from Miami Beach, USA?”
I was pretty sure I could picture the actor, even though I hardly ever watched that show. He has longish, wavy blond hair and sleepy-looking blue eyes. I guess he’s kind of a hunk, although he’s not my type.
“Anyway,” Derek went on, “in the movie, Laddie starts to wish he wasn’t a vampire. He feels sad about how he missed out on a normal childhood — that’s why he helps coach Little League games and stuff — and when he meets my character, we get to be friendly.” He paused while Missy dabbed at his lips with a tiny sponge. “He can’t decide whether to drink my blood or be like a big brother to me, but his vampire side wins out and he tries to recruit me. Some of his vampire pals help him out, too. Eventually, me and my friends figure out that he’s a vampire — that Laddie is short for Vladimir and that his last name is Dracula with the letters rearranged — and there’s this big final scene where we have to decide whether or not we should put a stake through his heart.”
“Ew!” I said.
“Yeah,” Derek agreed. “But there’s a happy ending. Laddie ends up staying in America and becoming a normal kid.”
By this time, Missy had finished and the hairdresser was fooling around with Derek’s hair. Finally, both of them were done. “You’d better move your tail over to wardrobe,” said Missy, giving Derek a hug. “They’re waiting for you.”
I followed Derek to another trailer, where a lady in a long gray smock with lots of pockets helped him get dressed in a Little League uniform that said “Tigers” across the chest. Then he led me back out into the chaotic set. “My scene was supposed to be filmed at ten,” he said, checking his watch. “But I can tell they’re running late. Let’s grab a snack, and I’ll show you around a little.”
We headed for a truck with tables set up in front of it, near a circle of director’s chairs. “They have fruit and cookies and juice and stuff here all day,” Derek explained. “Then at noon they put out a big spread for lunch.” He took an apple from a tray and thanked the woman behind the counter. “Want something?” he asked me. I shook my head. Derek headed for the group of chairs and took a seat. “This is where the actors can relax between takes,” he said. “Whoa — don’t sit in that one!”
I jumped up from the chair I had chosen and looked at it. In script across the back it said “Carson Fraser.”
“We all have our own chairs,” Derek explained. “And some people don’t take it too well if you sit in theirs.”
Just then, a tall blond guy walked up, with three girls trailing behind him. “Hey,” he said to Derek, raising an eyebrow. “Bring me some soda,” he said to one of the girls. The girl dashed to the snack table and came running back with a can of soda. She offered it to Carson — by now it was obvious to me that the blond guy was Carson Fraser — but he shook his head. “Not that junk,” he said, when he saw the can. “Get me my usual.” The girl looked as if she might cry.
I exchanged glances with Derek, and he gave me a secret grin.
Then a short bald man in a shiny black running suit came up to Carson, who was by then seated in his chair. He glanced at me and Derek dismissively, and then bent over and started to whisper in Carson‘s ear. “That’s Frank Bottoms, his manager,” Derek whispered to me. “He’s really protective.”
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The manager straightened up and gave Derek an insincere smile. Just then, a woman wearing a red silk blouse, a short black skirt, and red high heels trotted up to Carson. “And that’s the publicist for the movie,” Derek whispered. “Sheila Mayberry. She’s famous for getting tons of press on the movies she works on. And that guy who just walked up behind her is Cliff Chase, the movie’s producer.” He pointed out a man wearing expensive-looking black sunglasses.
I was fascinated. Just as I was getting ready to ask Derek three million questions about the set and the people on it, a guy with one of those clipboards came up to Derek and told him he was needed on the set. I followed Derek to the spot they’d prepared, surrounded by lights and cameras and a whole bunch of other equipment.
Across the way, I saw Mary Anne, Stacey, Logan, and Mal with the kids they were sitting for, including some of Mal’s little sisters and brothers. I waved to them, and they all waved back, except for Claire, Mal’s youngest sister. She was looking around nervously, and she must have missed seeing me. I saw Sam, too, and a girl from school named Cokie Mason, and a bunch of other people I knew from school. There were also some people I didn’t know. I noticed one girl who was clutching a fan magazine with Carson’s picture on the front. She had long, stringy blonde hair, and her cheeks were almost as red as the rose she wore in her buttonhole. She must have been really excited about having a chance to see Carson at work.
That day, as I stood around watching Derek at work, my admiration for him grew by the minute. He was completely and totally professional, and when they actually got around to shooting his scene with Carson — which seemed to take forever to set up — his acting was terrific. In fact, I thought he was a lot better than Carson. Carson was wearing dark sunglasses — since he was supposed to be a vampire he’d have to wear them all the time during daytime scenes — and he was acting extremely bored.