Finally the van was loaded. After a last tour through our empty, echoing house, my parents climbed into the car. It was packed with suitcases, just in case anything should happen to the van on its way to New York.
“Come on, Stacey!” called Dad.
I faced my friends. “How can I say good-bye to you?” I asked them.
They shook their heads. Then Mary Anne held her arms out and we hugged. After that, I hugged Kristy, Dawn, and finally Claudia. Claudia and I hugged the longest of all. As we pulled apart she handed me a long envelope.
“Open it in the car,” she whispered.
I nodded. I couldn’t talk. I fled to the car, crawled into the backseat, and nestled between my bed pillows, which Mom had put there for me.
The van pulled slowly down the driveway, and we followed it. I gazed out the window. Claudia, Kristy, Dawn, and Mary Anne were still standing on the lawn. “Good-bye, Stacey! Goodbye!” they called.
I waved until we turned a corner and I couldn’t see them anymore. Then I opened the envelope from Claudia. Inside was a letter. It was thirteen pages long. “Dear Stacey,” it began, “I bet this will keep you amuzed intil you get to NY. City.” I smiled. The letter was full of jokes, riddles, gossip, the details on how Dori and Howie had suddenly decided to break up (Dori had returned the ring, so Howie was now stuck with something of mine!), and Claudia’s thoughts about our friendship.
“Maybe I will never have another best friend,” she wrote, “but it would be wirth it. I mean it would be wirth it to have had you for my best freind even if it was for just a yer. You will always be my best best freind if you know what I mean. What I mean is I might get another best freind sometime but she wouldnt be as good a best freind as you.”
And you, Claudia Kishi, I thought, will always be my best best friend.
We turned onto the highway. I was ready. Ready for New York and whatever it held for me.
* * *
Dear Reader,
After this book was first published, I received thousands of letters from readers wanting to know why I moved Stacey back to New York City. Stacey was — and still is — one of the most popular members of the Baby-sitters Club, and readers were disappointed that she had left. I never intended to write Stacey out of the series, and in fact planned to feature her in upcoming books. But readers wanted Stacey back!
I decided that Stacey would return to New York because it seemed natural that among any group of friends, one might eventually move away. I get lots of letters from kids telling me how difficult it is when a friend moves or asking me for a story about a friend who moves. Also, I thought it would be fun to write about Stacey’s very different life in New York — her friends, her school, her baby-sitting charges. And you’ll have a chance to read about them in BSC #18, Stacey’s Mistake.
Happy reading,
Ann M. Martin
* * *
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.
There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.) In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.
Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.
Copyright © 1988 by Ann M. Martin.
Cover art by Hodges Soileau
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First edition, 1996
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
e-ISBN 978-0-545-53388-1
Ann M. Martin, Good-Bye Stacey, Good-Bye
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