“And you’re my Mary Anne.” Logan polished off the cookie he’d been eating, and put his arm around me. “I could never hurt you. Not on purpose. I couldn’t lie to you. Don’t you know that?”
“I thought I did. But you have hurt me lately. You’ve changed.”
Logan looked down at the grass. “You might as well know,” he said. “I’m about to get kicked off the baseball team.”
“You are? Why?” I couldn’t believe it. Logan had been the star of his school team in Louisville.
“Coach doesn’t like me. He expects more of me than of anyone else. And I start making stupid mistakes because of that.”
“Oh.” I remembered what Dawn had told me, how she’d watched Logan drop a ball that was right in his mitt.
“So a little while ago, Coach said I’d be off the team if I didn’t improve. And I’ve been trying to improve. I really have. But Coach yells at me all the time and just makes me so nervous. I’m thinking of quitting before I get kicked off.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. But I guess I kind of took my baseball problem out on you. That wasn’t fair.”
“It’s okay. I should never have accused you of knowing about Tigger. That wasn’t fair, either.”
“Kerry is a champion sneak,” added Logan. “She could hide a whale in the house and we’d never notice him.”
“Not until you smelled him.”
Logan and I laughed.
Then Logan said seriously, “I bet Kerry would change one hundred percent if she could just make some friends here.”
“Well, I can help with that. I’ll try to get her together with Becca Ramsey or Charlotte Johanssen.”
“Hey, that’d be great! Listen, Mary Anne, I’m sorry about the way I acted.”
“And I’m sorry about the things I said…. Is our fight over?”
“Yes…. Are the neighbors watching us?”
“Probably. That’s the purpose of this outdoor arrangement.”
Logan made a face. “Then let’s just promise that from now on, we’ll be more honest with each other.”
“I promise,” I said solemnly.
“Me, too,” replied Logan.
* * *
Friday.
Club meeting day. At five-thirty we gathered in Claudia’s room. Tigger was with me. He was curled up in my lap.
As soon as our opening business was taken care of, the phone rang.
“First job of the day!” said Kristy gaily, as she reached for the receiver. She picked it up. “Hello, Baby-sitters Club…. Oh, hi, Logan. Hold on. Here she is.” Kristy handed me the phone, saying, “If it isn’t a job offer, keep it short.”
Ms. Bossy.
“Hi, Logan,” I said. “What’s up? Oh …”
I listened for quite awhile. When I’d hung up, I turned to the other girls. “It was a Kerry update,” I said. “Logan thought you’d like to know what’s happened, since you were all involved with the search for Tigger.”
Five heads nodded.
“Okay. Well, of course Mr. and Mrs. Bruno were not too happy about what Kerry had done, but they understood why she’d done it. She’s going to be punished lightly, like, she has to wash the Brunos’ cars or something, for keeping Tigger when she knew he belonged to me, and for bringing an animal into the house, especially so near to Hunter’s room. However, the Brunos also think Kerry proved she’s responsible enough to care for a pet. So tomorrow she and her parents will go to the pet store and Kerry will get to choose a hairless animal, like a turtle or some fish. Plus, next Wednesday, she’s going over to Charlotte’s house. She needs a friend her age. And one who’s human.”
“That’s great!” cried Claud, and the others agreed.
The meeting continued. When the numbers on Claud’s digital clock turned to 6:00, Kristy said, “Well, meeting’s over.”
Everyone stood up, except me.
“Come on, Mary Anne,” called Dawn.
“Can’t,” I said. “Tigger’s asleep.”
Kristy groaned. “You are overprotecting that kitten.”
“Yeah. You’re treating him, oh, kind of the way your dad used to treat you,” said Claud.
I stuck my tongue out at her and everyone laughed. Then I said, “All I know is that Tigger will not be allowed to start dating until he’s at least sixteen. And I will never, ever let him get his driver’s license. Or have his ears pierced.”
“How about his nose?” asked Kristy, as I struggled to my feet.
I held the sleeping Tigger out toward her. “On this baby?”
Tigger opened his eyes sleepily and yawned in Kristy’s face.
“Mmm. Cat-food breath,” she said.
The six of us began giggling again as we headed downstairs.
Cat-food breath or not, I was thrilled to have Tigger back — and Logan, too.
* * *
Dear Reader:
I named Mary Anne’s kitten after the first cat my family ever had. Before I was born, my parents lived in an apartment complex in Princeton, New Jersey. One day, one of the neighbors saw a young stray cat being attacked by a blue jay in the yard. The neighbor gave the cat to my parents, and they named him Tigger, after the tiger in Winnie the Pooh. Tigger lived to be seventeen years old and was one of our favorite pets, even though he remained shy and scared throughout his long life.
When I was young, my family had lots of cats. None of them was ever stolen, like Mary Anne’s, but every now and then one would disappear for a day or two. We always worried, just like Mary Anne. Once, though, while we were on vacation, one of the cats escaped from the boarding kennel and found her way all across town to our house, even though she had never been outside our yard before. Just like in the book The Incredible Journey!
Happy reading,
* * *
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 © 1989 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, May 1997
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 978-0-545-63070-2
Ann M. Martin, Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger
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