Free BSC10 Logan Likes Mary Anne by Ann M. Martin Page B

ten, and if you meet Logan at the party."
    "Oh, thanks, Dad, thanks! I promise I'll be home by ten! I promise everything!"
    I called Logan with a bit more enthusiasm than I'd felt before. I punched his phone number jauntily — K-L-five-one-zero-one-eight.
    Logan answered right away.
    "Hi," I said. "It's me again. Mary Anne Spier."
    "I know your voice!" he exclaimed.
    "Oh, sorry."
    "Don't apologize."
    The call was already going badly. I wished I could rewind time and start over.
    "Urn ..." I began.
    "Hey," said Logan, more softly. "I'm really glad you called. You never call me. I always call you. I'm glad you felt, you know, comfortable enough to call."
    (This was better, but still not the conversation I'd imagined.) "Well, I have to ask you something. Not a favor. I mean . . . Stacey's having a party. I wanted to know if you'd — you'd go with me. If you don't want to, that's okay," I rushed ahead. "I'll understand."
    "Slow down, Mary Anne! Of course I want to go. When is it?"
    I gave him the details.
    "Great," he said. "I can't wait."
    As long as I was doing so well, I decided to ask Logan one more question. "Have you thought anymore about joining the Baby-sitters Club?"
    Pause. "Well, I said I didn't want to join."
    "I know, but ..."
    "I'll think about it some more, okay?"
    "Okay." (After all, the rest of us hadn't decided that we wanted Logan to join.)
    There was some muffled whispering at Lo-gan's end of the phone, and then he said, sounding highly annoyed, "Mary Anne, I have to get off the phone. I'm really sorry. My little sister has a call to make that she thinks is more important than this."
    "It is!" cried a shrill voice.
    I laughed. "I better get off, too," I told Logan.
    So we hung up. But I had one more call to make. "Hi, Stacey?"
    "Hi!" she said. "Did you call Logan already? Did you call your dad?"
    "Yes and yes."
    "And?"
    "And I can come and Logan's coming, too."
    "Oh, great! Awesome! Fabulous! I can't believe it!"
    Stacey was so excited that her excitement was contagious. My heart began pounding, and I was grinning.
    We hung up.
    Ring, ring.
    "Hello?"
    "Mary Anne! What on earth have you been doing? What happened to your ten-minute
    limit? I've been calling you forever!"
    "Kristy?"
    "You ought to get call-waiting or something. Did your dad take away your limit? . . . Oh, yeah, this is Kristy." (Click, click.) "Oh, hold on, Mary Anne. We've got another call coming in over here." (Kristy put me on hold for a few seconds.) "Mary Anne?" she said, when she was back on. "That was Stacey. I better talk to her. Call you later. 'Bye!"
    The plans for the birthday surprise were in full swing — and I suspected nothing.
    Ill
    Chapter 13.
    I dressed carefully for Stacey's party, even though I didn't have much choice about what to wear. My best-looking outfit was the one I'd worn to the dance, so I decided to put it on again.
    By six o'clock I was ready and had to kill time. Stacey had originally said that the party would start at six, but that afternoon she'd called to say that everything was going wrong and could I come at six-thirty instead?
    "Sure," I'd replied. "I'll call Logan and let him know."
    "Oh, no. Don't bother," said Stacey quickly. "I'll call him. I have to call everyone else." She was talking very fast. I decided she must be nervous about the party.
    So at 6:15 that night, dressed in my famous-cities skirt, the pink sweater, and the lethal white shoes, I was standing around in the kitchen
    while my father started his dinner. At 6:25, I flicked on the TV and watched the news. At 6:35, I decided not to leave quite yet because I didn't want to be the first to arrive at the party. Finally, at 6:40,1 left for Stace/s. I wished I could have walked with Claudia, but she had told me that she and her mom were going to pick up Austin Bentley first. I kind of got the feeling that I wasn't wanted.
    When I rang Stacey's bell at 6:451 could hear an awful lot of voices inside. Stacey flung the door open. "Oh, you're here!"