Part 5 (1/2)
”Well, I just can't help it,” Charlotte blurted out. ”Every time I go over to her house it reminds me of Stacey.”
”Oh,” said Claudia. ”That must be hard. I know you miss Stacey.”
”Yeah,” Charlotte agreed. ”I do.”
”So do I. She was my best friend.”
'She was my best friend, too,” said Charlotte.
”You know what I miss most about her?” Claudia asked.
”What?”
”I miss how she was just always there. You know what I mean?”
”I'm not sure,” Charlotte replied honestly.
”Well,” said Claudia slowly, ”I mean that I could call her any time for any reason. I could go to her with any problem. Or with any good thing that happened. I could count on her for fun or help or sympathy or anything. I guess that's what a best friend is.”
”Exactly!” cried Charlotte, sounding grown-up. ”We had fun together, but sometimes Stacey helped me with problems. And a couple of times I helped her! Really.”
”I believe you,” said Claudia.
”Boy, do I miss her.”
”Yeah.”
Claudia and Charlotte were beginning to feel pretty depressed. Claudia told me that they were just sitting on the floor in the living room. Charlotte was picking at the rug, and Claudia was pulling at a thread on her pants. Luckily, Claudia got an idea that she knew would cheer both of them up.
”Hey!” she cried. ”I know! Let's go to my house and call Stacey!”
”Really?” said Charlotte, looking up excitedly. ”We could really call her? I could talk to her?”
”Sure! I call her all the time. My phone bill gets pretty big, but I earn enough money babysitting to pay for the calls to New York. So let's go!”
”Oh! Oh, Claudia, I love you!” As Claudia and Charlotte got to their feet, Charlotte threw herself around Claudia in a fierce hug. ”I love you,” she said again. ”This is great. Let's go!”
Claudia scribbled a note to Dr. and Mr. Johanssen telling them where she and Charlotte were, just in case one of them should come home early. Then she and Charlotte threw on their jackets and ran most of the way to the Kis.h.i.+s' house.
They arrived panting and out of breath, greeted Mimi, and ran up to Claudia's room.
”Where's the phone?” was the first thing Charlotte asked, looking around Claudia's bedroom.
The thing about Claudia is not that she's a slob exactly (Kristy's the slob), but that she's a pack rat. Since she loves art, she's always collecting things that might come in handy with her projects - interesting leaves, sc.r.a.ps of paper and fabric, corks, sponges, bottle caps, you name it. So sometimes it's hard to spot things amid the clutter. Plus, you never know what you might find buried somewhere.
Claudia knew right where her phone was, though, and she dialed Stacey in New York. Of course, she had long ago memorized Stacey's number.
Charlotte perched on the edge of Claudia's bed while they waited for someone to answer the phone. ”Oh, I hope she's there, I hope she's there,” she whispered over and over.
Click.
”h.e.l.lo, Stace?” said Claudia. (Charlotte's eyes lit up.) ”Hi, it's me! I want to talk to you, but there's someone here who wants to say hi first.”
Claudia handed the receiver to Charlotte. ”h.e.l.lo?” Charlotte said nervously. ”Hi - Stacey? It's Charlotte. Charlotte Johanssen. . . . Yes! Oh, I miss you, too! I miss you so much!”
Claudia watched Charlotte's face as she spoke to her beloved Stacey. She had never seen her happier. Charlotte told Stacey about school and friends and Becca and some books she'd read. At last she said, ”I guess I better let you talk to Claudia now, huh? . . . Yeah, she is a good sitter. She baby-sits me a lot.” (Charlotte smiled at Claudia.) ”Okay. . . . Okay. . . . Yeah. ... I love you, too. 'Bye, Stacey.”
Charlotte gave the phone back to Claudia. While Claudia and Stacey were talking, Charlotte poked through the junk that was all over the room. After she looked through a box of sc.r.a.ps and a folder full of sketches and water-colors, she came across a copy of the Stoneybrook News. She settled down with it, turning the pages slowly.
Guess what the first thing she said to Claudia was when Claudia had finished her phone call. She said, ”Look at this. It says here there's going to be a pageant in Stoneybrook. The judges are going to choose a girl to be Little Miss Stoneybrook.”
Charlotte had found the old copy of the paper, the one with the article about the pageant!
At that, Claudia raised her eyebrows. She felt left out, not having a kid to prepare for the pageant like Kristy and Mary Anne and I did.
”Yeah!” said Claudia eagerly. ”It's for girls ages five to eight. You could enter, Charlotte.”
”Me!” Charlotte exclaimed. ”What for?”
”Don't you think it would be fun?”
”Not really. I'd rather read.”
”If you won you'd get a crown and everyone would make a fuss over you and you'd probably get your picture in the paper.”
”You're kidding!”
”Nope. And guess who else is going to be in it - Margo and Claire Pike, Myriah Perkins, and Karen Brewer. You know, Kristy's little sister.”
”They are?”
”Yup. Wouldn't you like to be in it, too?”
”I don't know. What would I have to do?”
Claudia told her about the poise and talent and beauty stuff. ”The talent compet.i.tion is really important,” she added. ”What can you do?”
”Nothing,” Charlotte said flatly.
”Nothing? Don't you take music lessons at school or something?”
”No. And I've never taken ballet or gymnastics.”
”Can you sing? Almost everyone can sing.”
”No way. Especially not in front of a whole bunch of people. All I can do is read. . . . Hey! Maybe I could read. You know, give a - what do you call it? - a dramatic reading. Or I could memorize something from a book - like the part in The Wizard of Oz when the cyclone comes. That is so, so scary. Or I could recite the part in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Violet Beauregarde turns into a giant blueberry. That's really funny.”