Jessi's Secret Language by Ann M. Martin Page A

diaper-changers or something.
    When Squirt was clean and dry, she carried him down to the family room. She was going to show him some of his board books, but she decided to see what the girls were up to instead. She didn’t hear a sound from the basement, which worried her.
    Kristy stood with Squirt at the top of the steps. She could hear murmurings from the girls, but nothing more. She tiptoed downstairs. What were they doing?
    â€œBecca? Char?” She found them sitting on one of Jessi’s exercise mats. “What happened to the Polanski Sisters?” she asked.
    Becca smiled. But she didn’t answer the question. Instead she said, “We know a secret!” She didn’t say it in a way that made Kristy cross. She said it as a point of interest, something she was excited about.
    â€œOoh, what?” asked Kristy.
    â€œCan’t tell.” (Now that was annoying.)
    â€œCan’t tell yet ,” added Charlotte.
    â€œYou mean I’ll find out?”
    â€œYup.”
    â€œWhen?”
    â€œCan’t tell.” Becca and Charlotte grinned at each other. “But it’s a good secret,” said my sister.
    Kristy remembered the mysterious phone call I’d gotten from Mrs. Braddock. Something was going on. She knew that for sure. But what?
    Kristy Thomas does not like to be left out of things.

Opening night!
    Oh, my lord!
    I can’t believe it!
    The opening night of anything (if you’re in the cast, that is) is the most exciting and also the most scary part of a production. It’s even scarier than auditioning. Opening night is when you know whether your work has paid off. It’s when you know whether you’ve worked hard enough. And it’s the first time you perform your new role in front of a whole theater full of faces.
    So I was nervous about the opening night of Coppélia .
    But I wasn’t too nervous. There have been other opening nights in my life, and there will be more. I hope.
    This opening night would be special, though. It would be different from any other. This was because, thanks to the Braddocks, Mme Noelle,and Ms. Frank, Matt and his class would be in the audience. That was part of the secret Becca had told Charlotte.
    I’d kept the secret for as long as I could. I didn’t hit the members of the Baby-sitters Club (even Mallory) with the news until two days before opening night. (Kristy canceled our regular Friday meeting on the afternoon of that first performance so that everyone could have time to get ready for the big trip to Stamford.)
    The girls were really excited when I gave them the news.
    â€œYou did that for Matt?” asked Mary Anne with an awed smile.
    â€œYou arranged all that?” added Kristy.
    I nodded.
    Everyone looked impressed.
    I felt great.
    Â 
    And now it was opening night. As I had promised, I’d given my ten free tickets to Mama, Daddy, Becca, Grandma and Grandpa (they’d traveled all the way from New Jersey just to see the show), and Kristy, Dawn, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Mal.
    Guess who was going to baby-sit for Squirt? Logan Bruno, Mary Anne’s boyfriend, one of the associate club members.
    One other important person was also in the audience — Mr. Braddock, Matt’s father. Where were Mrs. Braddock and Haley? That’s the rest of the secret, and you’ll find out about it soon enough.
    The performance was to start at eight o’clock. Now it was ten minutes to eight. My stomach was jumping around as if I’d swallowed grass-hoppers. When the curtain rises on this ballet, Coppélia herself is already onstage. Dr. Coppelius has seated her on the balcony of his workshop. I, Swanilda, am the first to actually enter the stage.
    But tonight — and only tonight — I would be onstage before the curtain rose.
    Now it was five minutes to eight. My hair was fixed, my costume was on, my makeup was finished, I had shaken myself out and warmed myself up.
    Five more