Ann Martin - Kristy's Great Idea

Still, Claudia has never been a close friend, and this year, the gap between us seems to have widened just since school started. Even though we're all seventh-graders, Claudia suddenly seemed . . . older. She talks about boys, and spends most of her time adding to her wardrobe and talking on the phone. In the short time since school started, she's become a different person.

David Michael came into the kitchen looking much cheerier.

"Here you go," I said. I handed him a glass of lemonade as he sat next to Mary Anne.

Charlie came in then, tossing a football

around. Sam got home a few minutes later, with our collie Louie skidding along behind him. Charlie is sixteen and Sam is fourteen. They both go to Stoneybrook High. Sam's a freshman this year, and Charlie's a junior.

"Hi, everybody. Hi, squirt," Charlie said to David Michael.

"I am not a squirt," replied David Michael.

Charlie thought he was so great because he'd just made the varsity team. You'd think he was the first person ever to play football for Stoneybrook High.

"We're going to play ball in the Hansons' backyard," Sam announced. "Want to play, Kristy?"

I did, but David Michael wouldn't want to. He was too little. "I don't know. I thought Mary Anne and I would take David Michael to the brook. You want to go wading, David Michael?" I asked.

He nodded happily.

"See you guys later," I called as Sam and Charlie left the house, slamming the front door behind them.

Mary Anne and I took David Michael and Louie to the brook. We watched David Michael wade and make sailboats and try to catch minnows. Louie ran around, looking for squirrels.

"I'd better go," Mary Anne said aft^r an hour or so. "Dad will be home soon."

"Yeah. Mom will be home soon, too. David Michael," I called, "time to leave."

He stood up reluctantly and the three of us and Louie walked home together.

When we reached our driveway, David Michael ran across the lawn, and Mary Anne whispered to me, "Nine o'clock, okay?"

I grinned. "Okay." Mary Anne and I have a secret code. Mary Anne made it up. We can signal each other with flashlights. If I look out my bedroom window I can see right into hers. Lots of nights we talk to each other with the flashlights, since Mary Anne isn't allowed on the phone after dinner except for things like baby-sitting jobs or getting homework assignments.

When Mom came home a little while later, she had a pizza with her. My brothers and I stood around the kitchen breathing in the smell of cheese and pepperoni.

But Sam and Charlie looked skeptical. "I wonder what she wants," murmured Sam.

"Yeah," said Charlie.

Mom only gets pizza when she has to ask us a favor.

I decided not to beat around the bush. "How come you bought a pizza, Mom?" I asked.

Charlie kicked my ankle, but I ignored him. "Come on. What do you have to ask us?"

Mom grinned. She knew exactly what she was doing. And she knew that we knew it. "Oh, all right," she said. "Kathy called me at work to say she won't be able to watch David Michael tomorrow. I was wondering what you guys are — "

"Football practice," said Charlie promptly.

"Math Club," said Sam.

"Sitting at theNewtons '," I said.

"Drat," said Mom.

"But we are sorry," added Sam.

"I know you are."

Then we dug into the pizza while Mom started making phone calls.

She called Mary Anne. Mary Anne was sitting for the Pikes.

She called Claudia. Claudia had an art class.

She called two high school girls. They had cheerleading practice.

David Michael looked like he might cry.

Finally Mom called Mrs. Newton and asked if she would mind if I brought David Michael with me when I sat for Jamie. Luckily, Mrs. Newton didn't mind.

I chewed away at a gloppy mouthful of cheese and pepperoni and thought it was too bad that Mom's pizza had to get cold while

she made all those phone calls. I thought it was too bad that David Michael had to sit there and feel like he was causing a lot of trouble just because he was only six years old and couldn't take care of himself yet.

Then the idea for the Baby-sitters Club came to me and I almost choked.

I could barely wait untilnine o'clock so I could signal the great idea to Mary Anne.

CHAPTER TWO

After dinner that night I went to my bedroom and shut my door. Then I sat down at my desk with a pad of paper and a sharpened pencil. I had three things to do: the composition on decorum, my homework, and some thinking about the Baby-sitters Club. I planned to do them in that order, grossest first.

I looked up decorum in my dictionary. It said: "Conformity to social convention; propriety. See Synonyms at etiquette." I had to look up both propriety and etiquette before I got the picture. Then I understood. I'd been rude. Why hadn't Mr. Redmont just said so? It would have made things a lot simpler. So I wrote down some stuff about how being rude was distracting to other students and made Ston-eybrook Middle School look bad to visitors. I counted the words. Ninety-eight. So I added

"The End" with a great big flourish, and hoped for the best.

Then I did the math assignment and read aboutParaguay for social studies.

And then it was time to think about the Babysitters Club.

I smoothed out a fresh piece of paper and started making a list:

1. Members: Me

Mary Anne Claudia Who else!

2. Advertising: Fliers Telephone Newspaper!

3. Set up meeting times when clients can call to line up sitters. Where to meet!

4. Weekly dues for expenses!

My idea was that Mary Anne and Claudia and I would form a club to do baby-sitting. We would tell people (our clients) that at certain times during the week we could all be reached

at one number. We would hold our meetings during those times. That way when someone needed a sitter, he or she could make one phone call and reach three different people. One of us would be available for sure. Of course, people could call us individually at other times, but the beauty of the meetings would be the opportunity to reach several babysitters at once. That way, our clients wouldn't have to go through what Mom had just gone through at dinner.

We would have to advertise ourselves, I decided. I was hoping Claudia would help us make up some fliers to stick in the mailboxes in our neighborhood. She'd be able to draw something really cute on our ads.

I looked at my watch. It was aquarter to nine . Fifteen more minutes before I was supposed to signal Mary Anne. I was getting edgy. I had such a terrific idea and I couldn't even pick up the phone like a normal human being to tell Mary Anne about it. Mr. Spier would just tell me I could see Mary Anne in school tomorrow.

I sighed.

Mom knocked on my door. I knew it was Mom because none of my brothers ever bothers to knock. They just barge in.

"Come in," I called.

"Hi, sweetie," said Mom. She closed the door behind her and sat on the edge of my bed. "How was school?"

Mom tries to spend a little time alone with each of us kids every day. She feels guilty that she and my father are divorced and that she has to work full-time to support us. She's told us so. I wish she wouldn't feel guilty. It's not her fault that Dad ran off toCalifornia and got married again and doesn't send Mom much child support money. Mom says she doesn't want more money, though. She has a terrific job at this big company inStamford , and she likes the fact that she can support us so well. It makes her feel proud and independent. But she still feels guilty.

My father can be sort of a jerk sometimes. He hasn't called us in over a year. And he even forgot my twelfth birthday last month.

I paused, trying to think of a way to answer Mom's question without telling her about the composition I'd had to write.