Ann Martin - The Truth About Stacey

I glanced up. Claudia, Kristy, and Mary Anne looked enchanted.

A few moments later we were back downstairs, sitting in the living room while Mrs. Newton opened the baby presents. She exclaimed over each one and commented on the original wrapping.

"Do you think the hat will fit?" Mary Anne asked anxiously.

"In a few weeks it should be just right."

Mary Anne let out a sigh of relief.

"Mrs. Newton?" Kristy said. "Could I ask you something?"

"Of course."

Suddenly my stomach lurched. I had this horrible feeling I knew what Kristy was going to ask. I looked over at Claudia and found that she was already looking at me. Oh, no, her eyes seemed to be saying, I can't believe she's going to bring this up now.

But she did.

"I'm not sure how to say this," Kristy began, "but when Jamie was at our house last week, he said we wouldn't be baby-sitting for him anymore. I mean, no — He said he heard you on the phone with Liz Lewis from the Babysitters Agency. Is— ? Can we still— ?" Kristy didn't know how to finish what she had started.

Mrs. Newton's face was flushed with embarrassment.

I was pretty sure mine was, too. It felt very hot.

"I guess I should have told you," said Mrs. Newton. "I knew how excited you were about the new baby. And of course you'll always be ourfavorite sitters. It's just that an infant is so delicate and fragile, and needs extra-special care— "

"But we're responsible," protested Kristy.

"I've taken care of babies before," I added.

"Newborns?" asked Mrs. Newton.

"Well, one was ten months and the other was eight months."

"That makes a big difference," she said. "There's even a big difference between a three-month-old baby and a newborn. Anyway, what I was going tosay, is that for the next few months, I'll simply feel more comfortable leaving Lucy with an older sitter. The times when I take Lucy with me and there's just Jamie to sit for, I'll be glad to use the Baby-sitters Club."

"I can understand that," Claudia said slowly.

"I'm glad you still want us to sit for Jamie," said Kristy.

"And when Lucy is older, I hope you'll be my regular sitters again," added Mrs. Newton.

"Oh, definitely!"I said, but I didn't feel

nearlyas cheerful as I sounded. Nothing seemed to be going our way anymore.

After school the next day, I met Janet and Leslie for the first time. They arrived promptly at five-thirty for our Wednesday meeting of the Baby-sitters Club.

I studied them critically. Of course, they were already members of the club, but I couldn't resist asking them a few questions.

"Have you done a lot of baby-sitting?" I asked Janet.

"Oh, tons," she replied. She was chewing a wad of gum and she cracked it loudly.

"You, too?"I asked Leslie.

Leslie looked bored. She brushed her shaggy hair out of her face. I noticed that she was wearing makeup.A lot of it.

"Sure," she replied. She glanced at Janet and they exchanged tiny smiles.

"Where?" asked Mary Anne. I was surprised to see her jumping in, but I knew she was concerned about our reputation.

"Over on the other side of town," replied Janet.(Crack, crack. Snap.) "You probably wouldn't know any of the people."

"Howold's the youngest kid you ever sat for?" asked Claudia.

"About nine months," said Leslie.

"Same (crack) here," said Janet.

Kristy was watching us nervously, her eyestraveling back and forth between the new members of the club and the old members.

"How many kids can you sit for at one time?" I wanted to know.

"Oh, three or four, I guess," answered Leslie.

"Yeah," said Janet.(Crack, snap.)

Kristy must have decided it was time to impress us. "How late can you stay out?" she asked.

"Eleven o'clockon weekdays," they replied at the same time.

"On Friday and Saturday nights (crack) I can stay out untilmidnight (snap)," added Janet.

"I can stay out until any hour on the weekend as long as I tell my mom first," said Leslie.

My jaw dropped open. "How old are you?"

"Fourteen," she replied.

"I'm thirteen," said Janet.

I began to feel the tiniest bit impressed.

Kristy looked around triumphantly. "I think what we ought to dotiow is let our clients know about our new members." She pulled a copy of our old Baby-sitters Club flier out of a folder she was carrying. "We'll add Janet and Leslie's names and ages to this, and the times when we can sit. Then my mom will Xerox the

newversion of the flier and we'll distribute the copies as soon as possible. Who can help me tomorrow after school?"

"I can," said Claudia, Mary Anne, and I.

We looked at Janet and Leslie. They were looking at each other.

"Well," said Janet (crackle, crackle), "we'd like to help you, but we have baby-sitting jobs tomorrow (crack). Youknow, previous commitments."

Kristy glanced at me as if to say, See how responsible they are?

"All right," said Kristy. "Here's the plan of action. Tomorrow, we distribute fliers. We'll also call our best customers personally to tell them the news. Friday, we meet again."

We followed Kristy's plan. And at the Friday meeting we got four baby-sitting jobs. Two were last-minute late-night ones for Janet and Leslie over the weekend. We couldn't wait for our Monday meeting to see how things had gone.

The Baby-sitters Club seemed to be back on its feet.

Chapter 10.

Wow. What happened on Monday was one of the worst events in the war between the

Baby-sitters Club and the Baby-sitters Agency.As Claudia mentioned, the four original club members gathered early for our Monday meeting. We couldn't wait to talk to Janet and Leslie.

Despite the fact that Claudia's digital clock flipped to5:35 and the new members hadn't shown up yet, the meeting got off to a good start. First Mrs. Marshall called, needing a sitter for Wednesday afternoon. Mary Anne took the job. Then Watson, Kristy's future stepfather, needed a sitter for an early evening job on Wednesday. Kristy took that job, of course. Then Mrs. Newton called! She wanted someone to watch Jamie on Wednesday afternoon while she took Lucy to thepediatrician for a check-up. I took that job, since Claudia has art lessons on Wednesdays. We were so busy taking calls that it was5:50 before we looked at the clock again and realized Janet and Leslie were late.

"They could have at least called to say they weren't going to make the meeting this afternoon," I pointed out.

Even Kristy looked miffed. "I saw Janet in school today, and she didn't say anything about not coming."

"I think it's weird that neither of them showed up," said Mary Anne. "What could havehap-

penedto make them both late?"

Kristy shrugged. "Maybe they just forgot."

"We've told them about meetings a million times," said Claudia. "If they forgot, then they're pretty irresponsible."

"Well, I'll call them," said Kristy. She knew something was wrong then, because that was when she told Claudia to write about the incident in our notebook.

"No, I'll call them," I said. "I want to know who they think they are!"

"Don't get mad," said Kristy. "It won't help. I'll call. I'm the president."

"No, I want to c— "

The phone rang then. Kristy and I both lunged for it, but Mary Anne was sitting practically on top of it. She beat us to it.

"Hello, the Baby-sitters Club," she said. "... No, this is Mary AnneSpier . Can I help you? ... Oh, hi, Mr. Kelly. ... She didn't?"

Kristy and Claudia and I jerked to attention. TheKellys were the new family Leslie had arranged to sit for on Saturday night. They had contacted the club after we'd sent around our updated fliers.

"Mr. Kelly," Mary Anne was saying, "I'm terribly sorry. I don't know what happened. . . . Well, I'd like to, but she's not here right now. I guess you could call her at