“Huh?” said Claudia.
“I guess I’m a little ahead of myself,” I replied. (I’m usually a little ahead of myself.)
My friends shifted position and I looked at them as I tried to figure out how to explain my great idea. Mallory, with her new short haircut, was sitting on the floor, leaning against Claud’s bed. She was wearing jeans with zippers up the bottoms of the legs, and a sweat shirt that said STONEYBROOK MIDDLE SCHOOL across the front. In her newly pierced ears were tiny gold hoops.
Jessi was wearing matching hoops (I think she and Mal had gone shopping together), a purple dance leotard, and jeans. Over the leotard she was wearing a purple-and-white striped shirt, unbuttoned.
On the bed, in a row, sat Mary Anne, Dawn, and Claudia, watching me intently. Mary Anne’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail and held in place with a black-and-white checkered bow that matched the short skirt she was wearing. Around her neck was a chain and dangling from it were gold letters that spelled out MARY ANNE.
Dawn was wearing a necklace, too, only hers said I’M AWESOME. Honest. Where had she gotten it? California, probably. And in her double pierced ears were hoops of different sizes. See what I mean about Dawn being an individual? Also she was wearing a fairly tame dress, but on her feet were plaid high-top sneakers.
Then there was Claudia. She was wearing a pretty tame dress, too — with a red necktie! Then, she had on these new, very cool roll socks. When she pushed them down just right, they fell into three rolls. The top roll was red, the middle one was peacock blue, and the bottom one was purple. She looked as if she were wearing ice-cream cones on her feet. In her hair was a braided band in red, blue, and purple, like her socks. And dangling from her ears were — get this — spiders in webs. Ew. (But they were pretty cool.)
And me? I was wearing what I always wear — jeans, a turtleneck, a sweater, and sneakers. Okay, so I’m not a creative dresser. I don’t have pierced ears, either. I’m sorry. That sort of thing just doesn’t interest me much.
“My idea,” I began, “is to give mothers a break in their routine. I thought that as a present to the mothers whose kids we sit for — you know, Mrs. Newton, Mrs. Perkins, Mrs. Barrett, some of our own mothers — we could take their kids off their hands for a day. We could do something really fun with the kids so they’d have a good time, and while they were gone, the mothers could enjoy some peace and quiet.”
All around me, eyes were lighting up.
“Yeah!” said Claudia slowly.
“That’s a great idea,” agreed Jessi.
“Awesome,” added Dawn.
Mal and Mary Anne were nodding their heads vigorously.
“Good idea?” I asked unnecessarily.
“The best,” said Dawn.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Sometimes I get so carried away with my ideas that I can’t tell whether they’re good or stupid.
The phone rang then, and we stopped and arranged a sitting job for Jessi.
“I was thinking,” I went on as Mary Anne put down the appointment book, “that we could take the kids on some kind of field trip. I mean, an outing. I don’t know what kind exactly, but we’ll come up with something. And maybe we could do this on the day before Mother’s Day. That way, the present will be close to the actual holiday, but we’ll still be able to spend Sunday with our own moth —”
I stopped abruptly. How could I be so thoughtless? I glanced at Mary Anne, who was looking down at her hands.
“With — with, um, our families,” I finished up. I prayed for the phone to ring then, to save my neck and Mary Anne’s feelings, but it didn’t.
Instead, Jessi said, “If we’re asking our little brothers and sisters on the outing, I know Becca would like to come. Especially if we invite Charlotte, too.” (Charlotte Johanssen, one of our sitting charges, and Becca Ramsey are best friends.) “Becca might be shy, but she always likes a good field trip.”
I smiled gratefully at Jessi. She meant what she’d just said, but I knew she’d only said it to take everyone’s attention away from mothers and Mother’s Day. Also, she got our discussion going again.
“My brothers and sisters would like a trip, too,” spoke up Mal. “Well, most of them would. The triplets and Vanessa might think they’re too old for this. But, well, what about money? If this really is a present to mo — to our clients, then I guess we’re going to pay for everything, right?”
“We should talk about that,” I replied. “I really haven’t worked out all the details.”