Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye Read Online Free Page B

regular members."
    My friends grew silent, thinking.
    "This is one big problem," said Kristy, heaving a sigh. "Being a member of the club takes up an awful lot of time."
    "And we need someone just as responsible as Stacey," said Dawn.
    "She is not going to be easy to replace," Kristy remarked. "Not at all. This may be the biggest problem our club has ever faced."
    Meanwhile, I was upstairs with Mr. Zizmore. He was patiently explaining a problem to me, and I was patiently not listening. I was thinking of moving, of Claudia, of Laine, of the Jerk Twins, of awful Allison Ritz, of the Baby-sitters Club, of Charlotte Johanssen.
    Charlotte. How could I tell her I was leaving? That her favorite person in the world was abandoning her? It wasn't my fault, but she wouldn't care whose fault it was. All she'd care was that I wouldn't be around anymore.
    Of course, she had Carrot and all her best
    friends, and she liked school. But I couldn't kid myself. She would really miss me. And I would miss her. And telling her I was leaving was going to be very, very hard.
    Darn Dad and his stupid old company. They were making life miserable for a whole lot of people.
    Chapter 5.
    Mary Anne's job sitting for Jeff Schafer started out normally. Mary Anne was prepared for a fairly easy job since Jeff was the only kid to sit for, he's pretty old, and it was a school night, so she figured he'd have homework to keep him busy. She arrived at the Schafers' a little early. The reason Dawn wasn't taking care of her own brother was that she was going out with her mother. The public library was giving a program on old homes and "haunted" houses in Stoneybrok. This sort of thing is fascinating to Dawn. She loves to read ghost stories, and the Schafers' house is really old and even has a true secret passage in it. Of course, Mrs. Schafer and Dawn had asked Jeff to go to the lecture and slide show with them, but he'd refused. So Mary Anne was babysitting.
    Ding-dong. Mary Anne could hear the Schafers' bell ringing in the house. It was followed by silence. At the Pikes' it's followed by the sound of a stampede as the eight kids run to the door. At the Perkins' it's followed by the frantic barking of Chewbacca, their dog. But at the Schafers' that night, Mary Anne didn't hear a thing. She was about to ring again when the door was flung open by Dawn.
    "Sorry!" she apologized breathlessly. "You're
    early! Mom and I were upstairs changing our clothes. Don't ask me why Jeff couldn't come to the door."
    "Is he in one of his moods again?" Mary Anne asked warily.
    Dawn nodded ruefully. "I guess so." Mary Anne sighed. She knew that Jeff was having problems and had become sort of a handful since school began that fall. See, Dawn's parents got divorced almost a year ago, and Dawn and Jeff and their mom moved to Connecticut last January. (The reason they moved all the way to Stoneybrook from California is that Dawn's mother grew up here.) At first, things seemed to be going pretty smoothly. The Schafers got all the hard stuff out of the way. They found a house they liked, Dawn and Jeff started in their new schools, and finally Mrs. Schafer even got a job. Then, toward the end of the summer, Dawn and Jeff went to California to visit their father for the first time since they'd moved east. Dawn thought the trip went well, but maybe it went too well for Jeff. Not long after they returned to Stoneybrook, Jeff started acting cross and moody. In school he became a troublemaker. And lately he's been talking about moving back to his dad's, if that's possible. Dawn, of course, is
    praying it isn't. She doesn't want her family ripped in half.
    Mary Anne stepped inside and Dawn closed the door behind her. Mary Anne really likes the Schafers' old house. The rooms are small and dark, the doorways are low, and the stairways are narrow. This may sound spooky and gloomy (and maybe it is), but Mary Anne loves the idea that the house is so old, and that all sorts of history has gone on while it