Ann Martin: The Truth About Stacey

The Truth About Stacey

Ann M. Martin

Chapter 1.

As president of the Baby-sitters Club," said Kristy Thomas, "I hereby move that we figure out what to do when Mrs. Newton goes to the hospital to have her baby."

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Well, we ought to be prepared. We've been waiting for this baby for months, and theNewtons are practically our best clients. They'll need someone to take care of Jamie while his parents are at the hospital. Smart baby-sitters would be ready for the occasion."

"I think that's a good idea," spoke up Mary AnneSpier . "I second the motion." Mary Anne usually agrees with Kristy. After all, they're best friends.

I glanced across the room at ClaudiaKishi . Claudia is my best friend, and vice-president of our club. She shrugged her shoulders at me.

There are just the four of us in the Babysitters Club: Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne (she's the secretary), and me, Stacey McGill. I'm the treasurer. We've been in business for about two months. Kristy thought up the club, which was why she got to be president. We meet three times a week from five-thirty to six o'clock in Claudia's room (Claudia has a private phone), and our clients call then to line us up as sitters. The reason the club works so well is that with four baby-sitters there at the phone, each person who calls is pretty much guaranteed to get a sitter for whatever time he or she needs. Our clients like that. They say that having to make a whole bunch of calls just to line up one sitter is a waste of time. They like us, too. We're good baby-sitters. And we worked hard to get our business going. We printed up fliers and distributed them in mailboxes, and even put an ad in TheStoneybrook News, the voice ofStoneybrook , Connecticut.

That's where I live now, in this teeny-weeny town in Connecticut. Let me tell you, it's quite a shock after life in New York City. New York is a big place.Stoneybrook is not. There is only one middle school here, and I go to it. We all do. (We're in seventh grade.) InNew York there are about a billion middle schools. In fact, in New York there are about a billion of everything — people, cars, buildings, stores, pigeons, friends, and things to do.

Here there's, well, there's . . . not much, really. My parents and I moved into our house in August and I didn't make a single friend until I met Claudia inschool in September. Everyone here seems to have known everyone else since they were babies. Claudia, Kristy, and Mary Anne have. And they've grown up together, since Kristy and Mary Anne live next door to each other on Bradford Court and Claudia lives across the street from them. (I live two streets away.)

So, was I ever glad when Claudia told me Kristy wanted to start the club! Friends at last, I thought. And that's just what I found. Even though I'm better friends with Claudia, I don't know what I'd do without Kristy and Mary Anne. It's true that they seem younger than Claudia and me (they don't care much about clothes or boys yet — although Kristy did just go to her first dance), and Mary Anne is unbelievably shy, and Kristy's sort of a tomboy. But they're my friends, and I belong with them.Which is more than I can say about certain traitors I left behind in New York.

"All right, here'sone plan," Kristy was

saying. "If s a school afternoon. Mrs. Newton realizes that it's time to go to the hospital. She calls Mr. Newton or a cab or whatever,then calls us, and one of us goes to stay with Jamie."

"What if we're all busy?" I asked.

"Hmm," said Kristy. "Maybe from now on, one of us should be free each afternoon so Mrs. Newton will be guaranteed a baby-sitter. It will be a special service for her, since theNewtons are such good customers."

"That seems like kind of a waste," spoke up Claudia, which was exactly what I was thinking.

"That's right," I said. "Babies can be late.Two or three weeks late. We could be giving up an awful lot of perfectly good afternoons for nothing."

"That's true," said Kristy thoughtfully.

"How about anighttime plan?"I suggested. "Doesn't it seem that pregnant women always rush off to the hospital in the middle of the night? I was born at two-twenty-two A.M."

"I was born at four-thirty-six A.M.," said Claudia.

"I was born at four A.M. on the dot," said Kristy.

We looked at Mary Anne. She shrugged. "I don't know what time I was born." Mary Anne's mother died when Mary Anne was

little, and Mary Anne is not very close to her strict father. It figures that they'd never talked about the day (or night) she was born.

A knock came on Claudia's door. Mimi, her grandmother, stuck her head in the room. "Hello, girls," she said politely.

"Hi, Mimi," we answered.

"May I offer you something to eat?" she asked. Claudia's family is Japanese, and Mimi, who didn't come to the United States until she was thirty-two years old, speaks with a gentle, rolling accent. She has lived with Claudia's family since before Claudia was born.

"No thanks, Mimi," replied Claudia, "but maybe you could help us."

"Certainly."Mimi opened the door the rest of the way and stood just inside the room.

"Do you know what time Mary Anne was born?" Claudia asked. She figured Mimi would know since Claudia's parents have been friendly with theThomases and theSpiers for years, and Mimi had gotten to know the families, too.

Mimi looked only slightly taken aback. "Let me think for a moment, my Claudia. . . . Mary Anne, your mother and father left for the hospital around dinnertime. That I remember clearly. I believe you were born neareleven o'clock ."

"Oh!" A grin lit up Mary Anne's face. "I didn't know. So I was anothernighttime baby. Thank you, Mimi."

"It was my pleasure." Mimi turned to leave, and almost bumped into Janine, Claudia's sister, who had come up behind her.

"Claudia! Claudia!" cried Janine.

I looked up in alarm. Janine is this prim, not-much-fun fifteen-year-old who's a genius. To be honest, she's boring. Dull as dishwater. I'd never even heard her raise her voice, which was why, the minute I heard her cry, "Claudia!" I knew something was wrong.Very wrong.

Unfortunately, I was right.

"Janine! What is it?" exclaimed Claudia.

"This." Janine was waving a paper around. She squeezed past Mimi and thrust it at Claudia.

Claudia took it and Kristy, Mary Ann, and I crowded around. We stared at the paper in horror. This is what we saw:

Need a reliable baby-sitter? Need one fast? Then call:

THE BABY-SITTERS AGENCY

Liz Lewis: KL5-1162

OR

Michelle Patterson: KL5-7548

And reach a whole network of responsible baby-sitters!

Ages: 13 and up

Available: After school

Weekends (until midnight) Weeknights (until 11:00)

Low rates! Years of experience! The ultimate time-saver!

CALL NOW!

The four of us just looked at each other. Even Kristy, who has sort of a big mouth, couldn't say anything. Mary Anne's eyes grew so wide I thought they would pop right out of her head.

"What is wrong, my Claudia?" asked Mimi.

"Competition," Claudia replied stiffly.

Kristy checked her watch and saw that it was onlyfive forty-five , and that we still had fifteen minutes left to our Friday meeting. "1 herebychange this meeting of the Baby-sitters Club to an emergency meeting," she announced.

"We will leave you alone, then," said Mimi softly. "Janine, please help me with dinner." Mimi tiptoed out, followed by Janine, who closed the door softly behind her.

I looked at my three stricken friends.

Claudia's dark eyes were troubled. She was absentmindedly playing with a strand of her long black hair. Claudia is very fashion-conscious and always dresses in the absolute latest trendy clothes, but I could tell that clothes were the last things on her mind.

Kristy, wearing her typical little-girl clothes, her brown hair pulled back into a messy pony-tail, looked as troubled as Claudia did.