Quotes from Ann M. Martin

Mary Anne took a deep breath, then she let Claudia have it, screamed at her, threw the easel to the floor and dumped plaster of paris on her head. Actually, that was what I would've done, but not Mary Anne.

ex-boyfriend.

Claudia matched Nicky by eating three cupcakes.

Very funny, Kristy. Hilarious. I have stolen a man's suitcase with a murder victim inside it, the mob is about to close in, I'm making my European debut looking like a cover model for Parenting magazine, and you're making fun of me!

Guess what most families on our street have: (a) a swimming pool (b) tennis courts (c) a cook named Agnes (d) all of the above. The answer is (d) all of the above.

I am never falling in love again! It hurts too much." ? The Baby-Sitters Little Sister #119: Karen's Mistake

I am never falling in love again! It hurts too much.

How's it going, Johnny?" I asked, looking back at Johnny and his magazine. "Super!" he said, in his charming Australian accent.

I had a lot to be thankful for.

Well, what do you think about my idea? Four open-mouthed stares answered me. My friends had become the Great American Gapers Association. GAGA.

Do you have any pets?" asked Max. "Just a hamster. We used to have a cat, though." "We have a cat," said Amanda. "Her name is Priscilla. She's a snow-white Persian and she cost four hundred dollars." Four hundred dollars for a cat? I thought. Boy, you could get one free at a shelter. And you could certainly spend four hundred dollars on better things, like groceries.

Don't let her sit near me, Mary Anne whispered. Can't you guys just kiss and make up? I asked. Ask Claudia. She's the one who decided not to talk to me. Well, you weren't exactly Miss Congealiality yourself. Gene. Congeniality. Whatever.

Tofu and sprouts just taste better to me than potato chips and cupcakes.

Was her "conflict" invented? Was she making an excuse so she could see Jeremy without having to admit it to us?

Stacey and I were looking in on a disaster area. A chair had been knocked over. A container of eye shadow was on the rug. The sleeping bags were rumpled, as if they'd been run over by galloping horses. And Kristy, Claudia, and Mary Anne were huddled on my bed.

What was going on here? Had the Baby-Sitters Club suddenly dropped to bottom priority? I wanted to jump up and scream at them.

I looked at Andrew and at Nannie. I loved them and the rest of my family very much. I loved my friends too. For now that was enough love for me.

I knew when we changed our schedule, something like this would happen. Stacey rolled her eyes. Kristy, one thing has nothing to do with the other. Remember when Monday, Wednesday and Friday used to be untouchable? I asked. We set up our appointmnets and stuff around meeting times. Gladly. Because we knew we had to. That was why I didn't want to change Fridays. Once you do something like that, you're saying the club isn't that important. Now look what's happening: a chain reaction.

Our clients depend on us, I shot back. That's why they keep calling back. Our motto was, one call, seven sitters, remember? Not one call, four or five sitters who bothered to show up and a couple of others out shopping.

I was numb. Once, I had an infected finger. A splinter had gone in and I couldn't get it out. My father said he would try to get it out for me. Before he started "operating", he held an ice cube on my finger to numb it. That's how I felt now. As if someone had applied a giant ice cube to my body and to my brain, as well.

I needed to know more. Call it my detective's instinct. (Not for nothing has Abby nicknamed me Agatha Kristy!)

Stace, who's in eighth grade with me, is the club secretary;

I can sing," said Margo. (Claire was sniffling and rubbing her knee.) "We sing all the time in music class at school. Listen to this. It's the song about the smart reindeer: Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear." "Margo," I said when she had finished. I paused to think. Margo was giggling away at her reindeer joke, but there was a little problem. She couldn't carry a tune. She might have been singing any song. Any song at all.

It hadn't really occurred to me that the Pike girls would be competing against each other. What if one of them did win the pageant? The other would lose not just to strangers or even friends, but to her own sister. How awful! On the other hand, I was beginning to think that there wasn't much chance that either girl would win, not with banana-peeling and rude Popeye songs.