Ann Martin - Kristy And The Walking Disaster

separated by a continent. In a way, this is like my own family, since my dad took off forCalifornia years ago and 1 never see him, but 1 feel luckier than Dawn. 1 have a new family now.

Dawn is really great, even though sometimes I'm a little jealous of her since she's so close to Mary Anne. But Dawn is independent. She "does her own thing" and couldn't care less what anyone else thinks. She's super-organized, a health-food nut, and has her own style of dress. I think of it as "Californiacasual." Also, Dawn has the palest blue eyes and the longest, blondest hair I've ever seen.

Now - about our two younger members, Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey. They joined the club awhile ago after one of our original members, Stacey McGill, had to move away. (I'll tell you more about Stacey later, I promise.) Mal joined first. She's the oldest of the eight Pike kids. Our club sits for the Pikes a lot. Mallory had always been a big help to us sitters, so now that she's eleven, she's allowed to sit in the afternoons and on weekends. She's great with kids! She's patient and practical. She thinks her parents treat her like a baby, though. She desperately wants contacts instead of glasses, but she's getting braces instead. She wishes her hair were straighter. She wishes a

lot of things. Mal loves reading, writing (poetry and stories), drawing, and horses.

Jessi (Jessica) Ramsey is Mal's friend. Her family moved to Stoneybrook pretty recently, and both Jessi and Mal were in the market for a best friend. When they found each other - POW! They have so much in common. They have the same interests (plus Jessi is a talented ballet dancer), they both think their parents treat them like babies, and they both come from really great families, although Jessi's is much smaller than Mal's. Apart from Jessi and her parents, there are just her eight-year-old sister Becca (short for Rebecca) and her baby brother Squirt, whose real name is John Philip Ramsey, Jr. Here's the one big difference between Mal and Jessi. Mal is white and Jessi is black. That hasn't mattered to either of them, but being black in Stoneybrook can be difficult. Let's just say that some people here didn't exactly make the Ramseys feel welcome at first, but things are improving. Jessi is adjusting - and she's a great addition to our club!

So. These complicated people are the "little friends" Charlie mentioned. The more I thought about them, the more I looked forward to seeing them. I always look forward to club meetings.

When Charlie pulled into Claudia Kishi's

driveway (our meetings are always held in Claud's room) I leaped out of the car. I couldn't wait to get things started.

" 'Bye, Charlie!" I called to him. "Thanks'. See you in half an hour!"

" 'Bye, kiddo. Have fun!"

Have fun? No problem! We always do.

Chapter 2.

"Claud? Is that you?" I asked.

Claudia's grandmother Mimi had let me in and told me to go up to Claudia's room. So I had - and now all I could see was a pair of legs sticking out from behind an armchair.

"Yeah, it's me," said a muffled voice.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Looking for my Cheese Doodles. I know they're around here somewhere . . . but not under this chair, I guess. Look what I did find, though."

Claudia's legs disappeared. A hand clutched the back of the chair. Then she stood up. She was holding a paintbrush. "I've been looking for this. I wonder how it got under the chair. But where are the Cheese Doodles?"

I giggled. Claud is just like a squirrel. She hides food - then forgets where she hid it.

"I'll look under your bed for you," I volunteered.

I flopped onto my stomach, scrunched underneath the bed, and poked around in the art supplies Claudia keeps there. "Jackpot!" I exclaimed. "Here are the Cheese Doodles and a whole pack of those mini candy bars."

"Oh, goody!" said Claud. Even though our meetings are held just before dinner, Claudia always provides us with snacks, since we're starving by five-thirty. Well, she provides most of us with snacks. Dawn won't touch much of Claud's junk food.

"Hi, you guys!" Mary Anne came in just as I was crawling out from under the bed. "I brought Tigger over. I hope you don't mind. He needed a change of scenery." Mary Anne set her gray kitten on the floor. Tigger immediately found a piece of ribbon and began batting it around.

Dawn and Mal showed up next, and Jessi appeared last. She usually does. She's very busy in the afternoons, between ballet classes and a steady sitting job.

My friends were all crawling around on the floor playing with Tigger, so 1 called the meeting to order.

"Any club business?" 1 said loudly.

At the sound of my voice, everyone scrambled to their usual places - Claudia, Mary Anne, and Dawn on Claudia's bed, and Mal

and Jessi on the floor. I always sit in Claud's director's chair. And I wear a visor.

I am the president and I must look like I mean business.

"The treasury is getting low," spoke up Dawn, our treasurer. "But when I collect dues next week, I think we'll be okay."

Maybe I better stop for a moment and tell you how our club runs.

As I've said, I'm the club president. This is because the idea for the club was mine. I got it way back at the beginning of seventh grade when my mom and my brothers and I were still living next door to Mary Anne. Mom was just getting to know Watson then. Anyway, one evening, Mom realized she needed a sitter for David Michael. Sam and Charlie and I were all going to be busy. So Mom had to find someone else. I watched her make call after call. And as I was watching, it occurred to me that Mom could save herself a lot of time if she could call one number and reach several sitters at once.

That was it! A brilliant idea! I did some babysitting in my neighborhood then. So did Mary Anne and Claudia. We decided to start a babysitting club. We also decided we should have a fourth member. That was when Claudia introduced us to Stacey McGill, a new friend

of hers who had moved to Stoneybrook from New York City. Stacey had lots of experience and was a terrific sitter, too. We asked her to join us, we began advertising, and just like that we had a baby-sitting business.

We decided that if we were going to be serious about our business, then we had better run it professionally. First, we agreed to hold regular club meetings three times a week. We told our clients they could reach us at Claudia's number on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from five-thirty until six. (Claudia has her own phone and personal, private phone number.) One of us was certain to be free to take any job that came in.

Then we voted ourselves officers of the club.

1 was made the president . . . for obvious reasons.

Claud was made the vice-president, since we would always be meeting in her room and using her phone. Plus, people would probably be calling the club number even when we weren't meeting, and Claudia would have to deal with that extra work.

Mary Anne, who's the neatest and most organized of the four original club members, was named secretary. Boy, does she have a lot of work to do. It's her job to line up sitting appointments, to keep all our schedules straight

(such as when Claudia goes to art lessons or when Jessi has ballet classes), and to keep the club record book up to date. The record book is crucial (that's a really good word, meaning Very, very important') to the running of the club. In it, Mary Anne keeps track of all our clients and their addresses and phone numbers. And on the appointment calendar pages she schedules our sitting jobs. (The treasurer also uses the record book, but I'll get to that in a minute.) Mary Anne is a wonder. I don't think she's slipped up yet. None of us has ever been booked for two jobs at the same time or anything like that.

Last but not least, we made Stacey McGill our treasurer. It was her job to keep track of how much money each of us earns (just for our own information), to mark it down in the record book, and to collect dues for our treasury. What do we use our treasury money for? Two main things. 1. Entertainment, such as club sleepovers and pizza parties. 2. Funds for supplying our Kid-Kits.