Chapter 12 - Claudia III

At the meeting, I was passing out the crackers for both Dawn and Stacey. I even passed out M&Ms to the others-except Mary Anne who turned it down, which was unusual.

"I'm all set, Claudia. Thanks anyway," said Mary Anne.

"Are you alright, Mary Anne? You never say no to candy," I said getting concerned about her.

"My stomach is starting to hurt a bit, that's all," replied Mary Anne.

"Would you like some crackers to make your stomach feel better?" I asked.

"Thanks, but all I want is water for now," answered Mary Anne.

"Okay, go ahead," I said.

That's what she did. But for reason, she didn't return.

"Maybe I should go see if Mary Anne's okay," said Dawn who was getting worried about her sister.

"I would," agreed Kristy who was getting worried about Mary Anne.

When Dawn was about to get up when my older sister, Janine, knocked on the door.

"Is Mary Anne okay? She looked pale and she just passed out," said Janine.

"Uh-oh. I better go call Richard," said Dawn as she rushed to go do that.

"Where is she?" asked Kristy.

"I just put her on Mom and Dad's bed," replied my sister.

"Okay," I said. "I'll go stay with her until Mr. Spier comes."

"That'd be a good idea," agreed Stacey.

That's what I did when Dawn met me and said, "Richard's on his way now."

"You wait for your stepfather and I'll stay with Mary Anne until he arrives," I told her. "When he gets here, tell him she's in my parents' room."

"Okay," said Dawn.

Five minutes later, Mr. Spier arrived and came up with Dawn after I took Mary Anne's temperature.

"She's burning up," I said. "The temperature was 101 degrees Fahrenheit."

"I'll bring her home now before she gets too dizzy afterwards," said Mr. Spier.

"Good idea," agreed his stepdaughter.

He left to bring Mary Anne home with him.

"Poor Mary Anne might get confused where she is when she wakes up later on," said Dawn as she and I came back to join the rest.

"I agree," I said.

After the meeting, we all decided to see Mary Anne before we went to have dinner at Stoneybrook Diner.

"How's Mary Anne doing? Did she wake up?" asked Dawn.

"No, not yet," replied Mr. Spier.

That was when Sharon came down and said, "Mary Anne just woke up."

"I'll go see how she is," said Mr. Spier going up to his daughter. "Are you going to be okay now, honey?"

"Dad, what happen?" asked Mary Anne who was a bit puzzled.

"You passed out. You were burning up," said Mr. Spier.

Her temperature remained at 101 degrees Fahrenheit. The next day, Mary Anne was out because her fever didn't go away yet. We were talking about having a slumber party at Kristy's on Friday after the meeting and then another one at Mary Anne and Dawn's Saturday night.

"I'll ask Richard if Mary Anne and I can have both sleepovers," said Dawn.

"Sounds good," said Kristy.

I did my English homework on questions during study hall. I was done by the time the bell rang. After school, at home, I was doing math and science homework. I did science questions first. Math was on order of operations, which confuses me. The best way to remember is PEMDAS- Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. I try to remember that. Luckily, I called Stacey to help me out since she's the math whiz.

"Of course. I'll be right over," said Stacey

She did arrive two minutes later and helped me out. We were done in no time.

"Either you or Janine can help me study when the test date is announced," I said.

"Good idea," agreed Stacey.

She stayed for an hour and left for a sitting job. I decided to call Mary Anne to see how she was feeling. Dawn answered.

"Hello," said Dawn.

"Hi, Dawn, is Mary Anne asleep?" I asked.

"She's just relaxing on the couch," replied Dawn.

"May I talk to her? I just want to see how she was doing this afternoon," I said.

"Of course. I'll give her to the portable phone," said Dawn.

She did and Mary Anne came on the phone.

"Hi, Claudia, what's up?" asked Mary Anne.

"How are you doing?" I asked her.

"I'm feeling a bit better. Thank goodness the rehearsal was yesterday. I hope I'll get better tomorrow for it," replied Mary Anne as I agreed with her.

The next day, Mary Anne did got better and was back at school. She was happy about that-especially in time for practice. All she had for lunch was tuna and water.

"My stomach's still not feeling well. I didn't eat anything because I was afraid it would come back up," said Mary Anne. "In fact, I threw up three times until two or two-thirty. I'm so glad that I'm better."

After school, at the rehearsal, we did scenes three for We Would Like to Thank You and Mrs. Boyd would do scene four for Little Girls. I like the part when the orphans tease her. Then Mr. Lins would return Mary Anne and Mrs. Bleecher, who's playing Grace, would get Annie to invite her to spend Christmas at Mr. Warbucks' home.

After we did both scenes, Cokie said, "How come Mary Anne gets to do her lines without scripts?"

"How about you should mind your business? I'm sure she practiced at home first. She does have the script in case she wants to study it before the rehearsal," said Kristy. "That's why she's been memorizing her lines."

"Yeah," I agreed.

"The only scene I'm nervous about is scene seven when Annie cried when Mr. Warbucks gives her the new locket, but didn't want it because the old one she's been wearing was from her parents when they left her. That'd be the tough part," said Mary Anne who was starting to feel anxious about it.

"Don't worry, it's not until Monday since we'll be doing scene five for I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here and scene six for NYC on Friday," said Kristy.

"True," agreed Mary Anne.

"We're doing the entire Act one on Wednesday since scene seven is the last one for You Won't be An Orphan for Long," I added.

"And the end verse of Maybe," Mary Anne added on.

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