True, I thought. “What did she do?”
“She called Norman that name, Enormous Hill, one time too many.” As she spoke, Norman appeared behind her. He stopped and listened. “I told her to quit it,” Sarah continued. “Norman may be fat, but he is my brother.”
I cast a glance over Sarah’s shoulder at Norman. He chewed on his lower lip but didn’t say anything. “What did Elizabeth do?” I asked.
“She kept yelling ‘Enormous Hill, Enormous Hill’ over and over. So I pushed her. She fell on her rear end into a pile of snow!”
“All right!” Norman cheered. “All right! All right! All right!”
Sarah smiled primly. “She deserved it.”
I probably shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help smiling. Elizabeth did deserve it. I even wished I had been there to see it. (But then I would have had to scold Sarah, so it was better that I wasn’t there.)
Sarah looked down at the wet bottoms of her jeans. “I’m going to change,” she said, heading out of the living room.
When I’d arrived at the Hills’ that day, I’d noticed a big change. All the diet stuff had been removed from the walls. Now here was another change. Sarah was sticking up for Norman.
Then came the most surprising change of all.
“Would you take my picture?” Norman asked, handing me his parents’ Polaroid camera. “Brittany wants a photo of me.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “Why don’t you stand over there by the window?” You should have seen Norman. He was too adorable for words. He posed proudly for the picture, lifting his chin and smiling his sweet smile.
We sat on the couch and waited for the picture to develop. “So how’s it going, Norman?”
Norman checked to see if Sarah was near. She was still in her room. “Great,” he said to me in a low voice. “Ever since I ripped up some snotty pictures she drew, Sarah has been much nicer to me. Isn’t that weird? I thought she would be meaner than ever. Why is she being so nice?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “But maybe since you showed her you have self-respect, she has more respect for you. It works that way sometimes.”
“Weird,” Norman said. “Guess what else. That night Sarah told my parents what happened. They asked me about it and I told them I got mad when everyone bugged me about my weight all the time. I told them it made me want to eat more.”
“Did they understand?”
“I guess so. They took all that junk off the walls, and they haven’t said a word about me being fat. I know they’re still thinking about it, though.”
“Really? How do you know that?” I asked.
“Because there are no more treats in the house. My mother stopped buying cookies, soda, and cake.”
The photo was becoming clear. I handed it to Norman and he stared at it for a moment. “I wrote to Brittany about the picture. I told her that even though I’m fat now, I won’t be by the summer. I’ll send her a new picture then.”
“How are you going to lose the weight?” I asked carefully. I didn’t want to sound doubtful or discouraging.
“I’m going to pretend I’m Stacey,” he told me.
“You’re what?”
“I’m going to pretend that if I eat anything sweet, I’ll get really sick. Do you think it will work?”
“If you stick with it,” I replied. “That’s smart of you, Norman.”
He nodded. “I know. I’m pretty sure I won’t be going to Fat Camp this summer.” Norman looked at the picture again. “Do you think Brittany will stop writing when she sees this?”
“No,” I said. “I bet she’ll see what I see here.”
“What? A fat kid?”
“No,” I scoffed, pushing him playfully. “I see a warm smile, intelligent eyes, and a determined attitude. The real Norman shines through in this picture.”
Norman smiled at me. “Thanks.” He got up from the couch. “I have to put this in my letter.”
Just then the phone rang. It was Mary Anne. “Hi,” she said, “I just had to call and tell you my news. Logan got a letter from Lewis. He is totally crazy about you. Logan said he went on and on about how great he thinks you are.”
“He did?” I asked happily.
“Yeah. He told Logan he never met a girl who was so honest and interesting. This is a quote from his letter. He said: ‘Dawn is the most unique person I’ve ever met.’”
“Wow!” I cried. “He really did like me the way I am.”
“He really did,” Mary Anne agreed.
So Norman wasn’t the only one who was learning lessons. I’d learned a couple in the last few days, too.
Lewis liked me. As me. I should have had more confidence in myself.
I’m glad Lewis got to know the real me because I found out the real me is special. Just like Lewis.
* * *
Dear Reader,
In Dawn’s Big Date, Dawn has a new pen pal, Logan’s cousin Lewis. I remember how much fun it was to get mail when I was young. Now, as you might imagine, I get lots of mail — about 17,000 letters a year from kids who read the books I write. After my first book came out, I received just a few letters every year. I was able to answer those letters personally. But now I get almost fifty letters a day, so several people help me answer them. It’s fun! If kids ask questions about baby-sitting, we send them a sheet of baby-sitting tips. If they ask about writing, we send them a sheet of writing tips. Lots of times I get letters from kids who are writing as a school project. Right now a popular project is making an author quilt. The students send blank squares of fabric to authors and ask the authors to sign the squares and return them. Then the squares are sewn together to make a quilt for their classroom or school. One of the funniest requests I get is from kids who are making a garbage wall! They ask authors to send them an item of trash from their wastebasket. Then they collect the “famous” trash and display it on the bulletin board. Several classes have also written to me asking to send them old socks or sneakers! Now I hold on to all of my holey socks so I can send them out when kids ask for them. (Don’t worry — they’re clean.) As you can see, I really enjoy getting mail — and hearing from my readers.
Happy reading,
* * *
The author gratefully acknowledges
Suzanne Weyn
for her help in
preparing this manuscript.
About the Author
ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.
There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.)In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.
Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.
Copyright © 1992 by Ann M. Martin.
Cover art by Hodges Soileau
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First edition, January 1992
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
e-ISBN 978-0-545-69043-0
Ann M
. Martin, Dawn's Big Date
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