Baby-sitters Club - Baby-sitters On Board! Part 11

So we went. We took a raft over to the island, which turned out to be more like a park, and Ricky and Roddy had a blast. There were hills to climb and a cave to explore and a wobbly bridge made of barrels to walk across. But they had the most fun firing off these air guns at Fort Sam Clemens.

By the time we had to leave to meet Parker's father and stepmother, the four of us were laughing and talking happily - until I realized that my unicorn charm and bracelet were missing.

I burst into tears. Who knew where I'd lost them? And I could never replace the bracelet. Mom was going to kill me. Plus, I only had $2.50 left. Not enough for a new charm. So the day was sort of ruined. But I did feel an awful lot better when, returning to the hotel later, Parker reached into his pocket and handed me something wrapped in tissue paper.

I opened it. It was another unicorn.

I was so pleased and so surprised that I started to cry again.

Parker blushed.

And then he kissed me on the cheek.

Mallory.

I don't know about this spying business. See, the frustrating thing is that sometimes you see or overhear things you don't understand, can't figure out, or never learn anything more about. For instance, what about that stowaway I saw the first day we were aboard the Ocean Princess? I spent the entire trip waiting for someone to discover him and arrest him. But nothing like that happened at all. The most exciting part of the trip was the storm we had one night. A big wave rocked the s.h.i.+p, and Va-nessa's shoes flew through the air and hit Mary Anne on the head.

What had happened to the pretty girl who looked like she might be from New York? I'd never seen her again. I knew that her name was Alexandra Carmody, that she'd talked to Mary Anne a few times, that she'd said she was an orphan, an actress, a countess's niece or something, and that she was traveling alone, which was all pretty interesting. But I hadn't seen her.

And where was Spider from the Insects, for heaven's sake? You'd think I would have seen him again.

I did know something more about the little boy in the wheelchair and the old man. The boy, Marc Kubacki, had become a friend of Stacey, Claire, and Margo, and the man, Mr. Staples, had become a friend of Kristy Thomas. But I wanted to know about the others.

I got my chance for more spying the very first day we went to the Magic Kingdom. After spending the morning together as one big group - Mom, Dad, all my brothers and sisters, me, Mary Anne, and Stacey - my parents said we could split up when lunch was over. I begged to be allowed to go off on my own again.

"Your own?" said Dad, frowning. "You really want to go on rides by yourself? Wouldn't you have more fun with some of your brothers and sisters - or even your old dad?"

I grinned. "Don't worry about me . . . Old Dad. I'll go on rides again with everyone to- * *.

morrow. This afternoon I just want to look around. I might go shopping or to one of the shows. And the parade comes down Main Street in the afternoon. I don't want to miss that."

"A parade?" exclaimed Claire. "There's going to be a parade? Oh, please, please, please can we go?"

"Sure," replied my mother, "but you might like it better at night. They hold the parade at night, too. And later, fireworks go off."

"Fireworks! Like on the Fourth of July? Oh, lef s go at night!" This time it was Margo who was so excited.

"Well, anyway," I interrupted, "so if s all right if I spend the afternoon on my own? I'm kind of looking forward to it."

My parents exchanged a glance. At last Mom said, "I think if s all right. But we're going to meet at five o'clock at Cinderella Castle. And if you're not there, I'm going to be very worried."

"I'll be there," I promised.

Mom smiled. "Lef s figure out how the rest of us are going to split up," she said. Then she made the mistake that's always made at least once whenever us Pikes are on vacation.

She said, "What does everyone want to do?"

"Go on Pirates of the Caribbean," said Byron.

"Go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride again," said Margo.

"Go on s.p.a.ce Mountain again," said Jordan.

"Go on the spinning teacups," said Nicky.

"Go on It's a Small World," said Vanessa.

"Ride the skyway," said Adam.

"Get an ice-cream cone," said Claire. "And a Mickey Mouse balloon."

Mom looked at Dad. "Ride the merry-go-round," he said, and everybody laughed.

I left them behind, trying to sort out who was going to go with whom, taking into consideration things like: Mary Anne refused to ride the skyway because it was so high up, the spinning teacup ride would make Margo barf, etc.

As soon as I was safely out of sight of my family, I sat down on a bench and pulled out my spying notebook. As far as I knew, no one had looked in it or even found it. I uncapped a pen and started making some notes: Two old ladies walk by. They have blue hair.

A family walks by with a kid in a stroller. The kid is crying.

Another family goes by. The little girl drops her ice-cream cone. Cries.

A big group of people goes by. They are wearing matching T-s.h.i.+rts. They are very loud (the people, not the s.h.i.+rts). I think the people are r.e.t.a.r.ded. Having fun. Lots of smiles.

A family goes by. Both kids crying.

(How come all the kids are crying? I check my watch. It is naptime.) Two parents and a little girl come by. The girl's legs are in braces. She doesn't seem to care. She is saying, "Snow White's Adventure is the funnest ride here!"

This was all very interesting, and it might help improve my writing skills and sharpen my powers of observation, but it wasn't true spying. At any rate, it wasn't the kind of spying Harriet would have done. Harriet would have dug up secrets. I was just watching crying children.

I decided to find a better place to spy. Maybe I could sit down somewhere in Fantasyland next to a line for a ride. That way, I could overhear conversations. Now that would be interesting.

I headed for Fantasyland. When I got there, I realized I had just one problem. There was no place to sit down that was near enough to a line so that I could actually listen in on conversations.

I sighed.

Then I kind of hung around lines for awhile. I heard a kid tell his father he was tired of waiting. (Big deal.) I heard a little girl say she was starved and ask for ice cream. (Is that the only thing children want to eat at Disney World?) And I heard one old man tell an old woman that he'd been through the Haunted Mansion six times. (Yawn.) And then I saw Alexandra Carmody, the beautiful girl from the Ocean Princessl She was just as beautiful as ever, with that long, wavy hair. And she seemed to have found some friends - a light-haired boy who looked a little younger than she, and an older couple. Maybe the boy's parents?

Now I had something to find out about!

They joined the end of the line for Peter Pan's Flight, so I got on the line right behind them, even though I'd just been on Peter Pan's Flight that morning.

I poised my pen and opened my ears.

But for the longest time, none of them spoke.

vZ/ Maybe they were really, really tired. I capped my pen again.

Spying can be a bore.

Finally the boy said, "Hey, Mom, remember when you read Peter Pan to us?"

So the man and woman were the boy's parents - or at least, the woman was his mother.

"I certainly do," the woman replied fondly. "Captain Hook scared you two so much you had nightmares. Remember, Alex?"

Alex? I didn't get it. The woman was talking like she was Alexandra's mother. But Alexandra wasn't supposed to have any parents.

"Oh, don't remind me, Mom!" Alex cried. "Hey, Daddy - " (She tugged at the sleeve of the man's s.h.i.+rt.) " - I made you hide my alarm clock. Remember? I said it scared me as much as it scared Captain Hook."

"Some big sister you were," the boy added, but you could tell he was kidding. "You were more scared of everything than I was."

Mom, Daddy, big sister!

Boy, what a liar Alexandra was! She told Mary Anne she was an orphan - that her parents had been killed - and here she was with her parents and her brother.

Just when I thought I'd had all the surprises I could handle, I noticed that a couple in front of Alexandra's parents, who were about the same age as the Carmodys, were whispering and nudging each other. Every so often, they'd turn around to look at Mr. and Mrs. Carmody.

I couldn't tell whether the Carmodys saw them or not - but they couldn't help but notice when the woman finally said, "Excuse me, but are you Viv and Vernon Carmody?"

Now why did those names sound familiar?

The Carmodys smiled graciously. "Yes, we are," said Alex's father.

"Oh, I have to tell you!" the woman exclaimed. "My husband and I are your biggest fans. We have been for years. Are you performing here at Disney World?"

I listened and gawked and scribbled notes. I figured out who the Carmodys were - a man and wife singing team who were popular with people my parents' age and older. I knew I'd heard their names before. I think Mom and Dad even have one of their alb.u.ms.

But, boy, was I left with a lot of questions. The biggest one was, why was Alexandra such a liar? I couldn't wait to find Mary Anne and tell her what I had learned!

Mary Anne.

What a day our first day at the Magic King dom was. I was exhausted. I thought the Pike kids wore Stacey and me out when we went to Sea City, but that was nothing compared to a day at Disney World. My feet ached, my back ached, and my head ached. I'd been on s.p.a.ce Mountain twice, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad three times, and I'd stood on miles of lines. Then Kristy had called a club meeting for right after dinner. And ever since we'd met the Pikes at Cinderella Castle that afternoon, Mallory had been bugging me about some thing. She kept saying she wanted to talk to me, but that we had to talk in private.

"Okay," I said. We were back at the hotel and I was rummaging around in my suitcase, looking for aspirin. "We'll talk when I get back from the club meeting. Your mom gave Stacey and me an hour and a half off, so I'll talk to you right before we go to bed."

"What about Vanessa?" asked Mallory.

"We'll wait until she's in the bathroom. You know she takes forever. Is that okay?" I asked.

Mallory nodded.

"Great," I said. But I was wis.h.i.+ng that I could just fall into bed, go to sleep right then, and not get up until the next morning. Or maybe the next afternoon.

Instead, I dragged myself to the club meeting. Stacey dragged along with me. She was as tired as I was.

The meeting was held in the room Kristy, Claudia, and Dawn were sharing. When we entered, I drew in my breath in surprise. Their cabin on the s.h.i.+p had looked like the back end of a garbage truck. But their hotel room looked like, well, a hotel room. It was reasonably neat. There were no clothes lying around. There were no M&M wrappers on the floor or cracker crumbs on the desk. And Dawn and Kristy were actually smiling - at each other.

"Hi, you guys!" called Kristy as we entered the room.

"Hi," we replied.

"Whaf s the matter?" Claudia asked us.

"We're exhausted," said Stacey.

"We're fea&y-sitting," I reminded them crossly.

"Touchy, touchy," said Dawn, who's the only one I would have let get away with saying something like that just then.

"Sit down," said Kristy. "Rest your feet. You want a soda or something?"

"Definitely," I answered.

Claudia looked longingly at a refrigerator and a cabinet that was full of potato chips and candy. "If only we could get in there," she said, touching her finger to the keyhole of the cabinet.

"Well, you know what Watson said," Kristy told her.

"Yeah," replied Claudia. "If s just. . ." She peered into the cabinet. "Oh, my lord, there's a Mounds bar way in the back! I haven't seen Mounds bars anywhere in the hotel. They're not in the store in the lobby."

"Claudia, that thing probably costs about twelve dollars. Come on. I've got Fritos and pretzels here. And I got some sodas out of the machine. Now let's start the meeting." Kristy was growing impatient.

She pa.s.sed around sodas and opened the bags of pretzels and Fritos. We talked about the kids for awhile, but there wasn't much to say. They were all having a ball. Kristy mentioned that Karen thought she had a ghostly companion, but none of us knew what to do about that.

Dawn told us how she'd lost her bracelet, and grew teary-eyed.

Claudia showed Stacey and me a pair of barrettes her Secret Admirer had sent her at dinner.

Then I said that Claire and Margo were upset because we'd missed both the afternoon and the evening parades that day.

"You too?" said Kristy. "So did we. And Karen and Andrew missed them, too. They really wanted to see them. Or at least one of them. Did anyone see one?"

We all shook our heads.

"Well, we'll remember tomorrow," said Kristy. "Now. Who has an idea for gifts for Mom and Watson and the Pikes?"

There were a few red faces among us. I knew we hadn't been thinking about the gifts at aU.

Dawn cleared her throat. "I saw some really nice cement planters in the gift shop. They were shaped like turtles and - "

ftrrr*.

"Those huge things?!" cried Kristy. "They weigh a ton! How would we ever get them on the plane?"

Dawn shrugged, embarra.s.sed.