BSC037 - Dawn and the Older Boy - Martin, Ann M.

Chapter 1.

I don't think orange is your color," Claudia Kishi said thoughtfully. "You're more the peaches-and-cream type, with your light skin and blonde hair." "Mmm, I think you're right." I stared at myself in the mirror and reached for a tissue. The orange lipstick had to go. I looked like I had just kissed a pumpkin.

"Try this," Claudia went on, handing me a tube of gooey pink lip gloss. It reminded me of used bubble gum.

Claudia caught the expression on my face and burst out laughing. "Trust me, Dawn. It will be fantastic on you." Claudia is an artist and can see shapes and colors in a way that nobody else can. It's a good thing that Claudia is creative because she's not the world's best student. (She's an especially bad speller.) And just to make things worse, she has this incredibly brainy older sister named Janine. Janine is the type of girl who sits around doing quadratic equations for fun. Honest.

But back to the story. I glanced around Kristy Thomas's bedroom and saw that all six of my friends were experimenting with lipstick and nail polish. A few of them, like Stacey McGill, were even trying out new hairstyles. It was a sort of mass "make-over," and there was a lot of giggling going on. (And some of the "befores" looked better than the "afters," if you know what I mean.) I guess I should stop right here and introduce everybody before I tell you anything else about the sleepover at Kristy's. First of all, the seven of us are members of the Baby-sitters Club (or BSC), which I'll explain about later. My name is Dawn Schafer, and I am the alternate officer of the club. I live in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, and I am thirteen years old. My friends all say I look like a California girl with my long blonde hair and sparkly blue eyes. This makes sense since I lived in California before my parents got divorced and my mom and my brother Jeff and I moved to Stoneybrook.