Free BSC10 Logan Likes Mary Anne by Ann M. Martin

not silly about him. Remember how Claudia used to giggle about Trevor all the time? It was as if she liked the idea of going out with him better than she liked Trevor himself."
    "Karen! No fair! You didn't let me finish my turn!" Now Andrew was shrieking.
    "Woof?" asked Louie from his spot on the floor.
    "Hey, hey!" cried Kristy.
    "I got a match and Karen took her turn anyway! No fair! No fair!"
    "Andrew, I just forgot, okay? Finish your turn," said Karen.
    "But you've already turned over two cards," said David Michael indignantly. "And An-
    drew saw them. He knows where two more cards are. So nothing's fair now. The game's ruined."
    "Excuse me/' said Kristy, "but did you all see which cards Karen turned over?"
    "Yes," chorused the three kids.
    "Then everything's fair. You all got an advantage. Think of it as a bonus or something. Andrew, finish your turn."
    Kristy sighed. "You know," she said, picking at a tiny piece of lint on her sweater, "I was always the brave one and Mary Anne was always the scaredy-cat. Now everything's reversed. And suddenly she's ... I don't know . . . ahead of me, and I've been left behind."
    Dawn nodded. "But you're still her friend, one of her very best friends."
    "I know. I just have a feeling this is going to be an awful year. I moved away from you guys, and Mary Anne's moving away from me, if you know what I mean. And I haven't made any friends here in Watson's neighborhood. My brothers have, but I haven't." Kristy stretched her hand toward Louie, but he wouldn't come over to her for a pat. He looked exhausted.
    "It might help," said Dawn carefully, "if you stopped thinking of it as Watson's neighborhood and started thinking of it as your own."
    "Karen, you give those back!" This time, the indignant voice belonged to David Michael. "Kristy, she keeps hiding my pairs under the couch. Look!" David Michael pulled up the slipcover on the loveseat he and Karen were leaning against. He revealed a row of paired Memory cards.
    "They're not his, they're mine!" squawked Karen.
    "Are not!"
    "Are, too!"
    Kristy stood up. "The game is over," she whispered.
    Karen and David Michael had to stop screaming in order to hear her.
    "What?" they said.
    "The game is over."
    Kristy's patience had worn thin, although she kept her temper. A half an hour later, the three children were in bed, and Dawn and Kristy were seated side by side on 10181/8 big bed. Louie was sacked out at the end. The portable color TV that Watson had given Kristy was on, but neither Dawn nor Kristy was paying attention.
    "Clothes?" Dawn was saying.
    'Tapes, maybe," Kristy suggested. They were trying to decide what to get me for my birthday.
    "It has to be something she wants, but that she won't be embarrassed to open in front of boys."
    "I really wish Stacey hadn't decided on a boy/girl party," said Kristy woefully.
    "How come?" asked Dawn.
    "Well, who are you going to invite?"
    Dawn's eyes widened. "Gosh, I hadn't thought about it."
    "Even if I could think of a boy I wanted to go with, I wouldn't know how to ask him," confessed Kristy.
    "You know who I like?" Dawn said con-spiratorially.
    "Who?"
    "Bruce Schermerhorn. He's in my math class. You know him?"
    "I think so."
    "He's really cute."
    "I could ask Alan Gray," said Kristy. "He's a pest, but we always end up doing stuff together. At least I'd know what to expect from him ... I think."
    Kristy and Dawn looked at each other, sighed, and leaned back against their pillows. Louie sighed, too. Eighth grade came complete with problems nobody had counted on.
    Chapter 12.
    "Ring, ring, ring.
    "Hello?"
    "Hi, Mary Anne."
    "Logan! Hi." (I was always surprised to hear his voice on the phone.)
    "How're you doing?"
    "Fine. How are you?" (It was four o'clock on a weekday afternoon. We'd just seen each other an hour earlier.)
    "Fine. Guess what's on TV tonight."
    "What?"
    "Meatballs. Have you ever seen it? It's really funny."
    "I don't think so. I mean, I don't think I've seen it."
    "It's on at eight. Try