Ann Martin - The Truth About Stacey

"That's not until December, is it?"

"This is December. It's December first."

"Oh, wow! You're right." I was really flattered. Even if it was December, the dance was still almost three weeks away. And Pete was already asking me. "I'd love to go," I told him. "Thanks."

Across the table, Claudia was grinning at me.

Suddenly, I knew I wouldn't mind wearing the sandwich board anymore.

Kristy was in a great mood at our meeting that afternoon. I couldn't see why. "Nobody wanted to join the club," I told her. I was lounging on Claudia's bed, my feet propped up on the headboard. "It seems to be too much work."

"Yeah," said Claudia, who was sitting next to me. She rummaged around in her pillowcase, trying to find some candy she'd hidden there.

"Yeah," agreed Mary Anne from her spot in the director's chair.

"But I got two new members," Kristy told us proudly. "And they're both eighth-graders."

"You're kidding!" I exclaimed. "That's super!"

"What are their names?" asked Claudia.

"Janet Gates and Leslie Howard."

Claudia frowned. "I thought they were friends of Liz's," she said slowly.

Kristy looked smug. "Not anymore. They were part of the agency, but they dropped out. They didn't like it."

"Defectors," I said.

"Already?" asked Mary Anne.

"Yup/' replied Kristy.

"Gosh, the agency must be pretty bad if kids are dropping out so soon," I said.

"Leslie said they didn't like having to give Liz and Michelle part of what they earned. Plus, Liz gave them really horrible kids to sit for. She kept all the nice, well-behaved ones for herself and Michelle."

"So they're coming to the next meeting?" asked Claudia.

"Yeah."

"But . . . something's wrong about this," said Mary Anne. "Something. . . . I know what it is. Remember when we were first starting the club and we were deciding whether to invite Stacey to join? We didn't know her, so we asked her all sorts of things about the babysitting she did inNew York . We wanted a club of good baby-sitters.Dedicated baby-sitters. Do you know anything about Janet and Leslie, Kristy?"

"Well, no," she admitted.

"And you've already told them they can be members?"

"Yes. . . ."

"Gosh, I don't know."

"It seems risky," I said.

Kristy looked at us uncomfortably. "Well, it's too late now. We'll just have to take our chances."

Claudia found several pieces of butterscotch candy in her pillowcase and handed them to Kristy and Mary Anne. Theyunwrapped them and began crunching away.

"Well, there's one good thing," I spoke up.

"What?" everybody askedeagerly.

"If the agency is as horrible as Janet and Leslie say, maybe it won't last long."

"Yeah," agreed the others.

We sat quietly, and after a moment I realized that the four of us were staring at the phone. "I wonder if we could make it ring if we all concentrated on it," I said. We tried, but nothing happened.

Atsix o'clock , when the meeting ended, we hadn't gotten a single Baby-sitters Club call.

Chapter 9.

The next afternoon, since none of us had a baby-sitting job and we were very bored, we went over to theThomases ' house. Kristy called Mrs. Newton, who was home from the hospital, and asked if we could visit them and see the new baby. When she said yes, we were really excited.

"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Kristy after she'd hung up the phone. "I have a present for the baby, and one for Jamie, too."

"So doI ," I said.

"So doI ," said Claudia.

"So doI ," said Mary Anne.

"Are they wrapped?" asked Claudia.

"No," we answered.

"Good. Go get your presents and meet me in my room. I've got great stuff for gift-wrapping."

When we were gathered in Claudia's room, we spread out our presents. We all began to squeal, "Oh, that's so cute!"

Kristy had gotten a little toy car for Jamie and a rattle shaped like a duck for Lucy. Claudia had bought Jamie a dinosaur and had painted a picture of kittens for Mrs. Newton to hang in the baby's room. I had bought two books: a paperback called Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel for Jamie, and Pat the Bunny for Lucy.

Mary Anne's gifts were the best of all: a red ski hat for Jamie and a little pink hat for the baby.

"I made them," she said shyly. "Can you tell?"

"You're kidding!" I exclaimed. "You made those?"

"Then you couldn't tell?"

"No way!"

"Mary Anne, I didn't know you could knit," said Kristy.

Mary Anne glanced at Claudia, who smiled at her.

"Mimi's teaching her," said Claudia. "She's been dying to teach someone, but Janine and I aren't interested."

"She remembers my mother," added Mary Anne. "She tells me about her while I work."

"That's — that's great," I said. (Was that

whatI was supposed to say?)

Mary Anne brightened. "She's going to help me make a scarf for my father."

"Wow!" We were all impressed.

Claudia hauled a big square carton out of her closet. "Okay, go to town," she said.

We looked in the box. It was jammed with stuff Claudia had collected over the years: plastic flowers, papers hearts, beads, bows, ribbons, felt animals. "Those are package decorations," she told us. "We can make our own wrapping paper with these." She opened a shoe box that was full of rubber stamps. "See? I've got four ink pads in differentcolors . You can stamp this white paper to make any design you want. Then we'll decorate the packages with the other stuff."

We got right to work. I printed red hearts and blue flowers on Lucy's paper, and big green frogs saying "Ribbit!" on Jamie's paper. When we were finished, we admired our packages briefly, and then ran to theNewtons ' house.

Jamie answered the door. "Hi-hi," he greeted us.

Mrs. Newton appeared behind him. "Hello, there! Oh, I'm so glad to see you! Jamie has missed you, and I'm dying for you to meet Lucy. Come on inside."

We stepped through the door. I was surprised to see that Mrs. Newton still looked, well, fat. Not pregnant exactly, but not the way I'd thought she would look after the baby was born.

"Oh, you girls are so sweet. You've brought gifts. You didn't have to do that."

"We know," said Kristy, grinning.

"We just wanted to," I added.

"Yeah," said Mary Anne. "Babies are special."

Jarnieeyed the presents,then glanced at his mother. "Are any of those for me?"

"Jamie! It's not polite to ask!" Mrs. Newton turned to us. "I'm sorry. The last week has been difficult. Jamie is a bit J-E-A-L-O-U-S," she spelled. "L-U-C-Y has been given a lot of P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S."

"Well, you're in luck, Jamie," said Claudia. "Four of these are for you."

"Four!" cried Jamie.

We didn't make him wait. We handed him his presents and he tore into them.

"What do you say?" prompted Mrs. Newton.

"Thank you," replied Jamie automatically. He was wearing the hat, and trying to read the book and play with the toys at the same time.

Then we gave Mrs. Newton Lucy's gifts.

"Let's go peek at the baby before I open them," she said. "I wish Lucy were awake so you could hold her, but she's still napping."

She led us upstairs and into the little room that had been fixed up for Lucy. A big white crib stood in one corner, but Lucy was asleep in a blue bassinet near the door. "She's too little for the crib," Mrs. Newton whispered. "Infants feel more secure in a small bed."

The members of the Baby-sitters Club silently surrounded the bassinet and peered inside.

"Ohhh," I breathed.

"She's so little," whispered Mary Anne.

She certainly was. I guess I hadn't realized just how little a newborn baby really is.

"Can I touch her?" I asked Mrs. Newton softly.

She nodded.

I leaned over and ran my finger along one of Lucy's tiny hands. It was soft as silk, and perfect: four little fingers and a thumb, each ending in a fingernail no bigger than a speck. I breathed in. Lucy smelled sweet, like baby powder and milk. I ran my hand lightly over the fine dark hair on her head. She stirred then and opened her eyes just long enough for me to see that they were a deep blue. Then she closed them again.