Little Miss Stoneybrook...and Dawn by Ann M. Martin Read Free Book Online Page A

the two older girls while their mother took Laura to the doctor for a checkup.) They had dressed up in funny clothes and were dancing around their playroom.
    â€œOn the goo-oo-ood ship Lollipop,” Myriah sang, “ it’s a something, something, something to the candy shop, where bonbons play, something, something on Peppermint Bay …. Stop, Gabbie. Wait,” Myriah said. “Where … hmm … And if you eat too much — ooh, ooh — you’ll awake with a tummy ache. … Gabbers, hold on. Let me finish.”
    Myriah was trying to remember the words to a song she had learned the year before. She wanted to perform all by herself, but Gabbie kept pulling at her arm. “Let’s sing ‘Silent Night,’” she cried.
    â€œNo, Gabbers. It’s not Christmas. And I’m trying to remember this song.”
    â€œSi-ilent night,” Gabbie sang anyway. She strutted across the floor in an old pair of clumpy high-heeled shoes.
    â€œYou know,” Myriah told Mary Anne, “if I could just remember the words to this song, I could sing it and tap dance to it. I took lessons last year. I wonder if my tap shoes still fit.”
    Myriah dashed out of the playroom.
    Gabbie followed her. “I’m coming, too. I’ll look for my baldet shoes. I can be a baldet dancer!” she called over her shoulder to Mary Anne.
    In a few minutes, the girls returned. Gabbie returned quietly in a pair of pink ballet slippers that had once belonged to Myriah. Myriah returned noisily. “They fit!” she exclaimed. “My tap shoes still fit! Now watch, Mary Anne. Okay?”
    â€œOkay,” replied Mary Anne. I bet the wheels were turning even then. I bet Mary Anne was mentally auditioning Myriah for the pageant.
    Myriah rolled back a throw rug and stood on the wooden floor. She held her arms to one side, smiled, and began stepping across the room. In time to the tapping of her shoes, she sang, “On the goo-oo-ood ship Lollipop, it’s a something, something, something to the candy shop, where bonbons play —” She paused. “I don’t think that’s right, Mary Anne. Not just the something-something part, but even the bonbons part. Oh, well.”
    â€œWell, I’m sure we could find the words printed somewhere. But can you sing any other songs?” asked Mary Anne, knowing full well that she could. Both Gabbie and Myriah are famous in the neighborhood for all the long songs they know.
    â€œI know ‘Tomorrow,’” replied Myriah. “You know, from Annie ? But I can’t tap dance to it.”
    â€œLet me hear it anyway,” said Mary Anne.
    (Gabbie was dancing a slow, graceful ballet in a corner of the room, lost in her own world.)
    â€œOkay, here goes.” Myriah gathered herself together. Then she belted out, “The sun’ll come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun….”
    She sang the entire song. She knew every word, was right on pitch, got the timing right, and even added a few hand gestures.
    Myriah had an amazing voice.
    Mary Anne was impressed. She was so impressed that she told Myriah about the Little Miss Stoneybrook pageant.
    â€œAnd you think I could be in it?” Myriah asked, awed.
    â€œSure,” replied Mary Anne. “Why not?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Myriah said slowly.
    â€œHave you ever seen a pageant before?” Mary Anne asked her. “On TV or something? Like Miss America or Miss Universe?”
    â€œYes,” replied Myriah.
    â€œWell, wouldn’t you like to be in one for girls? You’d get to dress up and sing or dance. And if you won, you’d wear a crown.”
    Myriah wasn’t saying anything, but her eyes were growing rounder by the second.
    â€œCould I be in it, too, Mary Anne Spier?” asked Gabbie. (She calls everyone by their full names.) Gabbie had stopped dancing. She came over to the