At that point, Claudia put her foot down for the second time that day. "We are going to be here three nights," she said firmly. "So we'll switch off. Each of us will have a bed to herself one night. And I don't want any more contamination wars or clothes battles. There are plenty of drawers and coat hangers. We have enough s.p.a.ce to put all of our stuff away, even mine. So let's do it. And then you two," she went on, glaring at Dawn and me, "are going to call a truce."

Dawn and I didn't dare to argue with Clau-dia. We started to unpack our things. Since we weren't talking, I switched on the TV. "Hey!" I said immediately. "We get cable here!"

"Really?" exclaimed Dawn, who doesn't have cable TV at her house in Connecticut. "Hey, maybe we'll get, you know, some movies we're not allowed to watch."

"R-rated?" I suggested, my eyes growing wide. "Yeah! Maybe." (We do have cable at home, but Watson won't let us get any of the movie channels. It's one of the few things he's strict about.) I started flipping channels, while Dawn opened a program guide she found on top of the TV.

"Darn," she said after a minute of flipping through it. "Nothing R-rated. Nothing worse than an old murder mystery. That's on Chan- nel Eight, if you want to watch it."

I flipped to eight and we went back to our unpacking. When we were finished, we realized that Claudia was right again. There was plenty of room for all our stuff. Of course, Claudia had used up more drawers and hangers than Dawn and I together, but what did we care?

The room was as neat as a pin.

I couldn't resist. I opened a bag of Fritos that was in my knapsack, dumped them out on one of the bedside tables, and dropped the empty package on the floor.

Dawn made a face at me, then s.n.a.t.c.hed up the bag and flung it in a wastebasket.

A hand closed over my Fritos. I looked up. Claudia was now making a face at me. "Kris-tin Amanda," she said. "You are . . . you are ... What's the word? Coating her?"

"Goading her," I said sullenly.

"Right. You're goading Dawn and there's no reason for it. Come on. We've got this nice, tidy, big room. And we've got three days at Disney World ahead of us. It would be helpful if the two of you could get along. You'd have a much better time. So would you call a truce. Please?"

I looked at Dawn.

She looked at me.

"Truce?" I asked.

"Truce," she replied.

"Now shake on it," Claudia instructed.

Dawn and I glanced at Claudia, then at each other. Finally we shook hands. I know my hand was salty and greasy from the Fritos, but Dawn didn't say a word about it.

After we'd shaken, I started flipping TV dials again. The murder mystery was really boring.

"Kristy?" Dawn ventured. "Have you ever seen an R-rated movie?"

"Nah," I replied. "But someday I'm going to. Have you ever seen one?"

"Nah."

"Me neither," said Claudia, heading into the bathroom.

"My brother saw one once by accident," said Dawn. "He said it was no big deal."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"What a disappointment."

Dawn and I began to laugh. "I bet we'll finally see one," said Dawn, "and after it's over we'll go, 'So what?' "

"Hey, you guys!" called Claudia from the bathroom. "Come here! There's more great free stuff."

Dawn jumped up, but I put my arm out to stop her. "I just want you to know," I said, "that I'm sorry about the way I acted. Sometimes I was being messier than usual. On purpose."

"I'm sorry, too," replied Dawn. "Sometimes I was being neater than usual. On purpose."

I gave Dawn a quick hug to show her that I really meant I was sorry, and then we joined Claudia in the bathroom.

"Look at this!" Claudia cried. "A shower cap, a shoe horn, a shoe buff, and this whole basket full of stuff - soap shaped like sh.e.l.ls, shampoo, creme rinse, mouthwash, hand lotion, a sewing kit."

We explored the bedroom thoroughly then and found a local newspaper, some postcards and stationery, two ballpoint pens and - "Whoa! Look at this!" cried Dawn. "How come we didn't notice this before? Look what the TV is standing on."

The TV was standing on a refrigerator. But we couldn't open it. It seemed to be locked. Next to it was a cabinet full of - "JUNK FOOD!" shrieked Claudia. "Aughh! Candy bars and M&Ms and potato chips and pretzels. How do we get into this thing?"

We couldn't figure it out, so we called Watson in from the next room.

Watson took one look around, found a key which he said opened the refrigerator and the cabinet, and put it in his pocket. "Sorry, girls," he said. "I know the stuff in there looks tempting," (we hadn't even seen what was in the fridge), "but it costs an arm and a leg. I'm not kidding. It's probably two dollars for a fifty-cent bag of chips. That sort of thing. More than what you'd pay in any store. You'll do much better getting sodas from the machine down the hall and snacks from the shop in the lobby."

"Okay," we said, feeling let down. The idea of a stocked junk-food cabinet had been very appealing.

"Watson? Can we explore the hotel?" I asked. It was five o'clock in the afternoon. We wouldn't be going to Disney World until the next day.

"Sure," replied Watson. "I don't see why not. Just be back in time to get dressed for dinner. We're going to eat at seven, and we're going to a pretty fancy dining room here, so you'll have to change your clothes first."

(We were all wearing jeans.) "No problem," I said. "Come on, you guys."

Watson cleared his throat. "How would you feel about taking Karen and Andrew with you? They're dying to go exploring, too. Well, Karen is. Andrew just wants to do whatever she's doing."

I grinned. "No problem."

The five of us set off. We went to the lobby first. And what was the first thing we saw? Mr. Staples at the checkout desk.

"The checkout desk!" I exclaimed. "Just a sec, you guys. I have to see what's going on."

I ran across the lobby. "Mr. Staples! Mr. Staples!" I called. "What are you doing?"

I reached him just as he was handing in his room key.

Mr. Staples looked at me in surprise. "What am I doing?" he repeated. "I'm checking out, thafs what. Going home."

"Buy why?" I pressed.

"Whole trip was a darn-fool idea," he said. "Shouldn't have come."

"But we had fun playing Donkey Kong and shuffleboard, didn't we? And I have to teU you something very important about that fight I was having with Dawn." Mr. Staples and I had discussed it several more times on the cruise, and he'd been really helpful, considering he was a slob like me. We'd talked about his wife a lot, too, and I'd thought he'd seemed a little more cheerful. "And," I went on, "my parents really liked eating dinner with you. Besides, I haven't given you Nannie's phone number yet."

"Plus," said Karen, who had joined us, "remember at dinner? You said you'd pull a quarter out of my ear? Well, you didn't do it yet."

"I thought we were going to spend some time together at Disney World," I added, truly disappointed. "And you wanted to get Mickey Mouse ears for your grandchildren and have their names put on them."

"Okay, okay, okay!" Mr. Staples threw up his hands, but he was smiling. "I know when I'm licked."

I didn't leave his side until he had the room key in his pocket again. Then Dawn and Clau-dia and Karen and Andrew and I did go exploring. We returned to our rooms and finished getting dressed just five minutes before dinner. Andrew put on a suit. Karen put on a party dress. They looked so snazzy that I took their picture.

After dinner we managed to hold a quick Baby-sitters Club meeting, but everyone was tired, and no one had any ideas about presents for Mom and Watson and the Pikes, not any decent ideas, that is.

"We're running out of time," I told my friends.

"We know, we know," they replied. But the added pressure only made us more nervous, not more creative.

When I went to bed that night, I was exhausted.

Karen.

Disney World! Disney World! Disney World! This is my dream! I have always, always wanted to come here. Ever since I first saw a TV commercial about it.

I went with Daddy, Elizabeth, and Andrew the next day. I wanted Kristy to come with us, but she decided to walk around with Claudia. And David Michael went off with his big brothers.

It took a long time to get from our hotel to Disney World. First we took a bus to a gigantic parking lot. Then we rode on a monorail to Disney World. The monorail was fun. It was way up high. I felt like we were on a flying train.

When we got off the monorail - Disney World! We gave a lady our tickets and pushed through a turnstile and suddenly we were on Main Street.

"Oooh," I said. "Look. We're in a little town. Right here in Disney World."

An old-fashioned fire truck came down the street. So did a horse-drawn buggy. We were standing at the town square. I could see a popcorn machine and - "Look!" shrieked Andrew. "It's Minnie Mouse! I see Minnie Mouse! She's right over there. And she's signing autographs!"

"Oh, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, please can we go see Minnie?" I begged. "I swear, she is my best friend in the whole wide world."

Daddy raised his eyebrows. "She is?"

She really wasn't, and we both knew it. But I just had to get Minnie's autograph. And maybe have my picture taken with her.

I grabbed Daddy by the hand, and Andrew grabbed Elizabeth by the hand. We pulled them across the square to Minnie. Some other kids were standing with her, and Minnie was leaning over and patting their heads. The kids were giggling. Their parents snapped pictures. Then Minnie waved good-bye to them.

And what did she do next? She waved to my brother and me!

Andrew and I looked at each other.

"Go on over," whispered Daddy, giving me a little push forward.

I took Andrew's hand and led him to Minnie Mouse. I felt excited and scared. It was just like visiting Santa Qaus at the department store. When we reached Minnie's side, she shook our hands.

"Hi, Minnie! Hi, Minnie!" I said.

"Hi, Minnie," whispered Andrew.

Minnie waved again. I guess she doesn't talk.

I opened up my pink purse and took out a pad of paper and a pen. I handed them to Minnie. "Please could you give us your autograph?" I asked. "And could you write one for each of us?"

Minnie wrote this on two pieces of paper: LOV& MlA/A/JE /AOUSTS Then she gave the pad back to me. I looked at the papers in awe. Andrew and I had Minnie Mouse's autograph! We would be famous in Stoney-brook. I sure hoped we would have Show-and-Tell when school started again, because boy, would I have something to show!

I gave Andrew his autograph and Minnie put her arms around us.

"Smile!" called Daddy.

Andrew and I smiled while Minnie hugged us tightly. Then she patted us on our heads and sent us back to Daddy and Elizabeth.

"Good-bye!" we called.

"Say thank-you," whispered Daddy.

"Thanks!" we cried.

We walked along Main Street.

"Look! Look at everything!" I exclaimed. I began reading the names on the stores. "House of Magic. Penny Arcade, The Shadow Box, Main Street Cinema, The Con . . . Con . . ."

"Confectionary," Elizabeth told me.

"What's that?" I asked.

Elizabeth and Daddy glanced at each other. "If s a candy store," said my stepmother.

"Andrew! Andrew! A candy store!" I screeched. "Daddy, can we go in?"

"Wait!" said Andrew. "There's a man selling Mickey Mouse balloons. Can we have one?"

"Can we get ice-cream cones?" I asked.

"Can we go to the movie theater?" asked Andrew.

"Can we buy magic tricks?" I asked as we pa.s.sed by the House of Magic.

"Whoa! Whoa!" exclaimed Daddy. "Hold on, kids. We'll try to do everything. I promise.

But we can only do one thing at a time. Since we're here, lef s go to the magic store."

"Goody!" I said. "Come on, Andrew."

The magic store was dark, but it was filled with great stuff. There were jokes like rubber spiders, and magic tricks like handkerchiefs that turned into eggs. And there were masks and disguises, too.

"You may choose one thing each," said Daddy.