Ann Martin - Jessi's Babysitter

friend was — the mother of Dawn Schafer, another club member, and Mary Anne's other best friend. Dawn, her brother, and her mom had moved back to Stoneybrook (they'd been living in California) after the Schafers' divorce. Dawn and Mary Anne got to be friends, then their parents began dating, and now the best friends are stepsisters, too. They all live in Dawn's house, which is a colonial farmhouse. Dawn is so cool. (Or, as Claudia Kishi, another BSC member, would say, she's fresh.) Dawn has long pale blonde hair that reaches halfway down her back. Her eyes are sparkling blue. She dresses in a casual style all her own. And, although she likes Stoneybrook and her new family, she longs for California — for a couple of reasons. In the first place, she was raised there. She misses the house she grew up in, the warmer climate, and of course, her father. She also misses her brother. That's right. Jeff is back in California, living with Mr. Schafer. He just never adjusted to Connecticut the way Dawn did. He had trouble in school and he wasn't happy. So he returned to California. At first Dawn felt terrible. She felt as if her family had been ripped in two. Now that she's got a stepfather and a stepsister (not to mention a kitten — Mary Anne's), she feels

more complete. But she still visits her father and Jeff whenever she can.

Things at the Schafer/Spier home got off to a troubled start after the wedding. Dawn and Mary Anne were friends, but they weren't prepared to be stepsisters. And Dawn and her mom are as different from Mary Anne and her dad as night and day. They have varying ideas on everything from meals to housecleaning. But they're overcoming things. I think that deep down, Dawn and Mary Anne are happy to be stepsisters.

Let's see. The two remaining BSC members are Claudia Kishi, club vice-president, and Sta-eey McGill, club treasurer. Claudia and Stacey are best friends and also have their similarities and differences. (I guess all best friends do.) Both Claudia and Stacey are pretty fresh themselves. They are the most sophisticated of all us members. None of us usually comes right out and says that, but we all know it's true.

Claudia comes from a regular family. It's like mine, I guess. She lives with her parents and her older sister, Janine. Janine, however, is a genius in the true sense of the word (she has this amazingly high I.Q.), while Claudia, who's smart, is a terrible student. She simply doesn't like school. (Oh, and she's an awful

speller.) What she does like is art, and is she ever talented. Claud can sculpt, paint, draw, you name it. She even makes wild jewelry to go with her wild clothes. Claud wears things my mother won't even let me look at in stores — short, short skirts and tight black pants and off-the-shoulder sweat shirts. Also, she can think of a thousand ways to wear her hair, which is long, silky, and jet-black. Claud is Japanese-American and very exotic-looking. She's also fun. She loves to read Nancy Drew mysteries and eat junk food, but her parents don't approve of either habit. Does that deter Claudia? No. She just hides the books and food all around her room. Once, I dropped a pencil on her floor and it rolled under an armchair. I reached down to pick it up, and my hand closed over a Planters Peanut Bar! Claud likes boys and goes out on dates and to school dances, but she doesn't have one special boyfriend yet. Here's one sad thing about Claudia. Her grandmother Mimi used to live with her family. I think Claudia was closer to Mimi than to anyone else in the world. Then Mimi got sick and died. That was a hard time for all of us, but especially for Claud.

And now we come to Stacey. Stacey shares Claudia's sense of fashion and, if this is possible, she's even more sophisticated than

Claud. Her mother lets her perm her hair, she has pierced ears (well, so do all of us, except for Kristy and Mary Anne), and her clothes are even more cool than Claudia's. I think. Actually, maybe they're about even on the coolness scale.

But there's one thing about Stacey that none of us can top: she grew up in New York City. Big, thrilling, exciting New York City, the shopping capital of the world. How did Stacey wind up in Stoneybrook? Well, the company Mr. McGill works for transferred his job to Stamford, so Stacey and her parents settled in Stoneybrook. (Stacey is an only child.) Then, after they'd been here about a year, Mr. McGill was transferred back to New York. (When they left, they sold their house — to my family!) Anyway, that was when the trouble started. Mr and Mrs. McGill began having problems. Finally, they separated. Mrs. McGill wanted to move back here, while Mr. McGill stayed in the city. It was a tough decision, but Stacey finally chose to live with her mom in Stoneybrook. (Boy, were we glad to have her back.) So Stacey's life might seem glamorous, but it hasn't been easy. Especially when you consider that on top of everything else, Stacey has a disease called diabetes. She has to stay on a strict no-sweets diet and give herself (oh, ew)

daily injections of something called insulin. All in all, though, Stacey copes pretty well, even when she isn't feeling too great. And she's a very good friend to all of us.

The phone rang then, and it jolted me out of my daydream. I jumped off my bed. I hadn't begun my homework. I hadn't practiced at my barre in the basement, either. Even so, I hoped the phone call was from Mallory. Homework or not, practice or not, all I wanted to do was pour out the story of Aunt Cecelia to my best friend.

Chapter 3.

"Bye, Mama!" I called. "I'm going to Claudia's for the meeting. I'll be back in time for dinner!"

"Have fun, sweetie," my mother replied.

I dashed into our garage, hopped on my bike, and rode toward Claud's house, hurrying. It is never a good idea to be late for a meeting. Kristy feels it is her presidential duty to run the BSC meetings in as official a manner as possible. So I pedaled along quickly.

On the way I thought about how nice it was to have Mama at home. I'd never thought about it before; I guess because there was no reason to think of her not being there. Even when she began to job-hunt, I didn't think what it would be like to have two working parents. It didn't seem real enough.

But now that Mama would soon not be at home, I spent a good deal of time appreciating having her around. It was nice to return from

school and find her in the den, paying bills; or on the phone, doing volunteer work; or best of all, in the kitchen, baking cookies with Squirt at her heels. Soon all that would be over. I'd come home to ... Aunt Cecelia. (I always imagined scary music playing when I thought of her name.) And when I left for a club meeting, I would have to call good-bye to ... Aunt Cecelia.

My own baby-sitter.

I pulled into Claud's driveway and parked my bicycle by a lamppost. Then I let myself into the Kishis' house. There's no point in ringing the bell, because both Mr. and Mrs. Kishi work, and Janine often isn't at home, so us club members just run upstairs instead of making Claudia come downstairs when we know perfectly well where to go.

"Hi!" I said when I entered Claud's room.

Claudia, Kristy, and Dawn were there, in their usual places. I took my usual place.

"Hi, Jessi!" my friends replied.

Claud and Dawn were sitting on Claud's bed, leaning against the wall. Kristy was perched in the director's chair, which she has claimed as her own — the president's throne. She was wearing a visor, and a pencil was stuck over one ear.

I sat on the floor. We were waiting for Mal-

lory, Stacey, and Mary Anne. While we waited, I only half listened to the others, who were talking loudly. I couldn't help thinking about Aunt Cecelia, about how Mama and Daddy had gotten me a baby-sitter. And then I began to think about our own sitting club.

This is how the BSC got started. It all began more than a year ago, when Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey were new seventh-grade students at SMS. I still lived in New Jersey then, Dawn still lived in California, and Mal was a lowly fifth-grader at Stoneybrook Elementary. She wasn't even a sitter yet.