Prologue

~ Kristy ~

It was the Sunday before Christmas, and Abby Stevenson and I were walking home from our tri-weekly Baby-Sitters Club meeting. The Baby-Sitters Club was a club I started two years previously so that my friends and I could help out the local parents, and earn some extra pocket money, of course. Now, we had a steady clientele, and our meeting days had changed somewhat from the original Monday-Wednesday-Friday to Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday this semester.

Abby and I stopped by the front gate to my house before I went in. It was a cold, windy day, with patches of snow filled with salt and grit from the road on either side of the sidewalk. My hair, usually kept in a ponytail, threatened to come out of the elastic by the force of the wind. "Well..." I started to say. Abby looked at me expectantly. My tongue felt like it was tied in a knot when I was alone with her. Anyone else, and I could talk non-stop.

"Well..." Abby said, when I paused too long, "Mom and I are going to be in the audience tonight at Anna's Christmas concert. Mom wanted us to be ready to go to Hartford before she got home from work..." Anna was one of the youngest violinists in the orchestra she was in. So, of course that meant doing Christmas concerts. The Stevensons were Jewish, but they were not against singing Christmas carols and partaking in the general spirit of the season, anyways.

"Okay," I nodded with a smile. "I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow!" I turned towards my driveway and saw a familiar old blue van newly parked there. "Oh, it looks like Charlie made it back home for Christmas..." My older brother, Charlie, was eighteen years old and a freshman at the University of Vermont. I turned back to Abby. "Tell Anna good-luck for me!" Abby smiled and nodded at me as she turned towards her house. I turned around once as I made my way down the driveway, wondering if I would ever have the courage to tell her how I really felt about her.

As I came towards Charlie's van, I wondered if he was already in the house, or if I should check in the van in case he was in there. However, as I came closer, I could tell that all of the windows were fogged up, like the bathroom mirror after a shower. I knew that he must have called one of his old girlfriends up and invited her back to his van as soon as he got home from college. I shook my head and rolled my eyes, not wanting to think of my own brother in that kind of situation. I hurried into the house as fast as I could in case they came out of the van.

Once inside the house, I took off my boots in the foyer. "I'm home!" I shouted out. No one answered. I set my backpack down, intending to take it upstairs when I went. I could hear cartoons being played in the living room. I took a peek in and saw my little stepsister Karen and little stepbrother Andrew absolutely enthralled with the t.v. screen. A toy commercial for a line of small, pastel-colored plastic cat dolls came on:

"My Little Pussy Purr Palace!

I can play with my little pussies there!

My Little Pussy Purr Palace!

A beautiful place to comb their pretty hair!

My Little Pussy Purr Palace!

A lovely throne, and Flambe the Dragon too!

My Little Pussy Purr Palace!

Little pussy it's all for you..."

I shook my head and went to go into the kitchen to grab a snack. "Hi! I saw Charlie's van..."

"Hi, Kristy," Mom said from the kitchen bar. She had a cup of steaming peppermint-mocha scented coffee in front of her on the bar. Next to the coffee was a letter, which looked like Karen's handwriting, on two separate sheets of paper. Mom did not look very happy. Her forehead was creased, her lips were pursed, and she seemed deep in thought.

I headed towards fridge to grab myself some peppermint-mocha creamer of my own to have with the coffee. "Are you okay, Mom?" I asked. "You look tense." I faced towards her as I made my coffee.

Mom nodded. "It's Karen." That was all she said. I nodded in understanding as I poured the creamer into my coffee.

I set the creamer down. "What's she done now?" I asked. This was the first week of Karen and Andrew's visit for the holidays while their mother Lisa, and stepfather Seth Engle, went on a three-week cruise over Christmas and into the new year. And Karen was already getting on Mom's nerves.

Mom held up the two sheets of paper. "It's her letter to Santa. I still can't believe how greedy and selfish she is. You and your brothers were never that bad. She just expects to get everything in the Seal's Dream Book, no matter what, without giving anything in return. And it's not just her greed, but the way she talks about us to Santa." Mom held the letter up and turned it to face me. "Right here, she says about me: 'She is a big bich and a liar.'." Mom looked at me. "Isn't that lovely?"

I quickly scanned the letter and saw where she said that. "Well, she misspelled bitch, at least..." I wondered if she said anything about me, but Mom pulled the letter away and set it back down.

"I talked to Watson about it. He agrees with me that she is not getting any more toys from Santa this Christmas. Watson said he realizes now that he spoiled her too much when he and Lisa started having problems, and especially after the divorce. Now, she doesn't even know the true meaning of Christmas. She just thinks that Christmas is getting anything and everything she wants-to Hell with everyone else!" Mom hissed.

A plan started to form rapidly in my head. "Mom..." I began. "You said that Karen won't be getting any toys from Santa this year... Well, what if everyone just made each other presents? You know, out of things we find around the house, or just buy the materials for a few dollars? Things from the heart that we think each other would like?"

"Well..." Mom thought about it for a moment. "I don't really have time to make any gifts, not this close to Christmas, but Watson and I could put together stockings for everyone-simple, inexpensive things and candy-but you, David, Andrew, and Karen could certainly take part in such a project."

"Great!" I exclaimed. I put the creamer away and carried my mug of coffee with me. "And I'm going to ask the other members of The Baby-Sitters Club if they want to take part. I already have some ideas about what we could make!" Mom nodded, and finally looked a little happier. I took a couple of Christmas cookies and grabbed my backpack out in the foyer to take upstairs to my room...