"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 Kishis' 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."

"You know," Claudia said slowly, "that's not a bad idea. It's not like singing or dancing; it's different. The judges might like it. Do you want me to ask your mom if you can be in the pageant?"

Charlotte scrunched up her face in thought. "I don't know," she said. "See, the thing is, I'm not pretty."

"Being pretty isn't the point," Claudia told her. "It really isn't. You have to have poise and talent and be smart."

"But you have to be pretty, too. I know you do," Charlotte replied.

Claudia didn't answer her right away. The thing is, Charlotte is quite pretty, with big dark eyes and chestnut-colored hair, but Claudia knew how useless it is to try to convince someone that she's pretty when she thinks she's not. So all she said was, "This isn't just a beauty show, Char. I guarantee it."

It took a little more talking, but finally Claudia convinced Charlotte that they should ask if she could be in the pageant. Claudia knew she didn't have a very confident partic.i.p.ant, but at least she had one.

And when they talked to Dr. Johanssen about it, she gave them her permission, along with the other usual stuff. She said that Claudia would take the responsibility of preparing Charlotte, and that Charlotte should try not to be too disappointed if she lost.

So the Little Miss Stoneybrook pageant gained another contestant.

Chapter 9.

I had no idea how caught up Claire and Margo had become in the pageant. I had told Mrs. Pike I would work with them a few afternoons after school. But apparently they were rehearsing and preparing on their own. As you can tell from Jessi and Mal's notebook entry, they spent all Sat.u.r.day afternoon working on pageant stuff. I guess it got kind of annoying for Jessi and the Pikes. On the other hand, n.o.body gave the girls an easy time. According to Jessi and Mallory, this is how the afternoon went: When Jessi arrived, the Pikes had just finished eating lunch. Nevertheless, Margo, who was standing in the middle of the living room, was holding a half-eaten banana in one hand and the copy of The House That Jack Built in the other (in case she forgot the words). She was rehearsing away in the banana-scented room.

"Thish ish the housh that Jack" (chomp, chomp, swallow) "built. This is the malt that lay in the" (bite, chew, chew) "housh that Jack bit. Thish ish the rat that - Oops." A piece of banana had broken off and fallen on the carpet.

"Ha, ha, ha! Hee-hee!"

Margo had an audience consisting of everyone in the house - Jessi, Mal, the triplets, Vanessa, Nicky, and Claire. A few of the kids began to laugh when the banana fell apart.

"Mal, don't you think she ought to rehea.r.s.e in the kitchen?" Jessi said. "It's awfully hard to get banana out of a rug. I know because Squirt smushed a big piece of one into the carpet in the den last week. I thought Mama was going to have a fit."

"Good idea," Mallory replied. "Margo, you better rehea.r.s.e in the ki - Don't eat that! Don't you dare put that in your mouth!" she cried as Margo aimed the fallen piece of banana toward her lips. "It's been on the floor."

"Ew, ew, ew!" cried Claire.

"Ew, ew, ew!" mimicked Nicky.

"Aw, do I have to go in the kitchen?" asked Margo.

"Just until the banana is gone," Mallory told her. "And after that, no more bananas. You can't rehea.r.s.e with them all afternoon. You'll make yourself sick. Concentrate on the poem."

"Boo," replied Margo unhappily, but she headed for the kitchen anyway.

Everyone followed her. They all wanted to watch.

Margo stood in front of the refrigerator. She popped a piece of banana in her mouth and chewed it thoroughly.

Just as she was about to begin reciting, Adam jumped in with, "This is the mouse the cat killed. This is the fly that landed on the mouse the cat killed. This is the spider that ate the fly that landed on the mouse the cat killed."

"Adam!" Margo cried. "Mallory, Jessi, those aren't the right words! Make him stop!"

"Adam," said Mallory warningly.

"Mallory?" Adam replied.

Mallory hid a smile. She thought Adam's poem was sort of funny. And she thought all the pageant business was ridiculous. But as a baby-sitter, it was her job to try to keep the peace. She frowned at Adam. He frowned back, but remained quiet.

"Thish ish the housh that Jack" (swallow) "built," said Margo.

"This is the fly that landed on the mouse the cat killed," Adam continued for her.

"Adam!" screamed Claire and Margo.

"Why don't you go rehea.r.s.e in your room?" Jessi suggested to the two hopeful beauty queens.

"No!" they shrieked. "Make Adam be quiet."

"Adam - " Jessi began.

"Never mind," he said hastily. "Come on, you guys," he added, and as he left the kitchen he was followed by Jordan, Byron, Nicky, and Vanessa.

Mallory and Jessi looked at each other and shrugged. Then they left/ too. Claire and Margo were alone in the kitchen.

"Good," said Margo with satisfaction. "Now we can really rehea.r.s.e."

"Right," agreed Claire. "Only it's my turn to 'hea.r.s.e."

"No, mine! I'm not finished."

"It's mine! I haven't even started."

"Mine!"

"MINE!".

"Okay, break it up in there!" shouted Mallory from the living room. "Either take turns or rehea.r.s.e in separate rooms."

Margo and Claire looked at each other. Margo had finished her banana. "Separate rooms," she said, glaring at her sister.

"Good," said Claire angrily.

As Margo marched out of the kitchen she called over her shoulder, "I'm going to win, you know. Because my talent is better than yours."

"Is not!" Claire began singing at the top of her lungs, "I'm Popeye the sailor man. I live in a garbage can."

"Claire, hold it down just a little," said Jessi, poking her head into the kitchen.

Claire ignored her. "I eat all the wor-orms and spit out the ger-erms. I'm Popeye the sailor man!"