Ann Martin - Mary Anne And Camp

We all went "euuuw," but we also knew that Shannon would read every single book on the list.

Two other BSC members who are best friends are Mal and Jessi. Mal and Jessi are junior officers. As sixth-graders, they aren't allowed to baby-sit at night unless they're taking care of their own siblings, so they take a lot of afternoon jobs.

Jessi wants to be a ballet dancer and takes special dance lessons every week. She's even danced in a real ballet, a performance of Swan Lake. Jessi is slender with brown eyes and brown skin and carries herself like a ballet dancer. She wears her black hair pulled back in a ballet dancer's bun. She is very disciplined and gets up every morning before her alarm goes off at 5:30 so she can practice ballet at the barre that her family built in the basement for her.

Like Mal, Jessi is the oldest kid in her family, but she has only two younger siblings — her eight-year-old sister, Becca, and her baby brother, Squirt. And like Mal, Jessi loves horse

stories, especially horse stories by Marguerite Henry.

Mal loves horse stories, too. In fact, she'd like to be a children's book writer and illustrator some day, and I wouldn't be surprised if she writes about horses. Meanwhile, she works as hard at her writing as Jessi does on her ballet or Claudia does on her art. Mal has red hair and pale skin with freckles, and to her eternal despair wears glasses and braces. . She's also secretary of her class at school. She used to be one of our baby-sitting charges, but she's a little too old for that now. And when we realized how good she was at baby-sitting and how much experience she'd had (with all her brothers and sisters), it seemed only natural to invite her to join the BSC.

Logan Bruno (who wasn't at this meeting) is, as you know, an associate member of the BSC. You should also know that he's a good baseball and football player, likes track, and is a good baby-sitter. He's average height, with blue eyes and blondish brown hair. He's got a great sense of humor and he can be very romantic. He can be a good friend, too. Logan is also stubborn and sometimes bossy, which is why we broke up for awhile. But we worked things out and I'm glad we did.

Finally, there's me. I'm the secretary of the

BSC, which means I'm in charge of the record book. I keep track of our jobs, and who is available when our clients call to ask for a baby-sitter. And so far, I've never, ever made a mistake.

In addition to the record book, we have a dub notebook. In fact, as Kristy was answering the phone and taking down the information about a baby-sitting job, Mal was writing in the notebook.

The notebook was also a Kristy idea. We write up our baby-sitting jobs in it: details about new clients, information about who is having trouble at school, who's developed a dislike for this food or that activity, who might be afraid of ghost stories but love horse stories, . what happened at various jobs. It's very helpful and means we are extra-prepared when we baby-sit. And it is .important for a baby-sitter to be prepared.

We had a lull in the phone calls. Mal finished writing in the notebook. Claudia took a jujube, put it between two potato chips, and gulped it down.

I met Mal's eye. "Okay, everybody," I said. "We've got a potential problem."

Kristy lifted her head like a bull who's seen a red flag. "What're you talking about? Is one of the kids we sit for having trouble?"

"Nope," I said. "The problem is summer."

"Summer is never a problem," said Claudia flatly.

Dawn grinned. "I agree. The beaches are warm, school is out, what could be better?"

"Business is going to be better," said Mal. "Think about it." Then she explained about camp and the community center and the three-week lag between those activities and the end of school. "Unless we take on more babysitters," she concluded, "we may have more work than we can handle."

"Wow, you're right, Mal." Kristy looked thoughtful.

"Who else can we get to work with us?" Shannon asked. No one mentioned Stacey. Conspicuously.

The silence built up. Claudia muttered something, then shook her head.

"I could ask some friends at my school if they could help out, but..." Shannon's voice trailed off.

And then Kristy's face lit up. "Camp," she said.

We waited.

"Camp," said Kristy again. "Camp BSC. A baby-sitting camp! A day camp! Like the mini-camp you and Dawn once had, Mary Anne."

It was perfect. We knew immediately that it would take care of the problem. If all eight of

the current members of the BSC, including Logan and Shannon, were counselors, the camp could probably handle about twenty kids. And .our clients would be very, very happy.

"Perfect," I said aloud.

"Super perfect," said Claudia.

The phone rang again. And again. We were kept very busy the rest of the meeting setting up baby-sitting jobs.

It looked as though the summer rush had already begun. We'd thought of the idea of Camp BSC just in the nick of time.

Chapter 3.

We were gathered in Claudia's room for the Wednesday meeting. Logan had joined us. Kristy hadn't exactly told everyone it was an emergency meeting, but I had a feeling she'd presented the need for everyone's attendance in pretty urgent terms.

"Tomorrow?" Dawn nodded solemnly at the phone. "I'll check and get right back to you.… Yes.… Thank you." She hung up the phone and looked at us. "Mrs. Papadakis needs someone tomorrow afternoon."

I flipped open the record book and ran my finger down the list. "Jessi, it's the one day you don't have ballet practice. Do you want to use your free afternoon on a baby-sitting job?"

"No. problem," said Jessi. "Hannie and Linny and Sari are great kids. Sign me up."

I did, while Dawn called Mrs. Papadakis back.

The phone stopped ringing for a moment and Logan stopped throwing popcorn up in the air and trying to catch it in his mouth to ask, "Okay, so what's the deal here?"

Kristy said, "The deal is summer… but I'll let Mary Anne and Mal explain."

"You have some complaints about. summer?" Logan pretended to be shocked. I hadn't told him about Camp BSC. I wanted him to come to the meeting with an open mind.

Mal grinned and pushed her glasses up her nose. "Summer's great, Logan. Unless you're a parent with kids who've just gotten out of school and it's too soon for camp or the community center to have started."

"Oh…" Logan thought about that for awhile.

Shannon was quick to get to the point, as usual. She said with her characteristic briskness, "And this is where the BSC comes in."

"Right!" I said. "We save the day. We fill up the free time…"

"We sleep late," said Claudia plaintively.

We all cracked up. Kristy picked up a piece of popcorn and flicked it at .Claudia. "Later, Claud. Later in the summer we sleep late."

I hid a smile at that. It was hard to imagine Kristy or Shannon sleeping late. Dawn could manage it, I knew from past experience. I

didn't mind sleeping late myself, although not as a rule. (Also I have this gray kitten who thinks that if he's up at daylight, his owner should be, too. Tigger and I have had many, many discussions about this. I have lost most of them.)

Logan loved to sleep. He claimed that hot weather and sleep went together naturally. But I knew that nothing would keep him away from a baseball game or a pick-up game of basketball or football.