Ann Martin - Jessi's Babysitter

Anyway, back then, Kristy lived across the street from Claud, arid Mary Anne lived next door to her. The three of them had grown up together and all liked to baby-sit, but they did their sitting on their own. Then one day Kris-ty's mom (who was just beginning to date Watson Brewer) needed a sitter for David Michael, who was only six. No one was available — not Kristy, not Sam or Charlie, not any of the sitters Mrs. Thomas had phoned. It was while Kristy was watching her mother make all those telephone calls that she got what was probably the most brilliant idea of her life. Wouldn't it be easy if her mom could make just one call and reach a lot of sitters at once? Of course it would!

So she told Claudia and Mary Anne about her idea for a sitting business, and they formed the Baby-sitters Club. They asked Stacey to join, too. She and Claud were already getting to be friends, and the girls thought that four sitters would be better than three. That was the start of the BSC.

The club did well from the beginning, thanks partly to all the advertising the girls did and partly to the fact that they were (and still are) excellent sitters, so people asked them back after they'd done a good job. Soon the BSC business was booming, and when Dawn moved to town, they asked her to join. Everything went smoothly until Stacey had to move back to New York. By then, a year had gone by, the original club members were in eighth grade, and Mal had joined them at SMS as a sixth-grader. She was old enough to sit (and she certainly had plenty of experience with young children), so they asked both Mal and me to replace Stacey. Then, of course, Stacey moved back here (I felt guilty that she couldn't move into her old house, since we were living in it), and she settled into the club routine again. We have seven members now, and Kristy says that's enough. I think she's right. Claud's bedroom is getting crowded.

How does the club run? Well, we meet three

times a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons from 5:30 until 6:00. People know that we meet then and they call us to line up sitters. They also know to call us at Claudia's, whose bedroom is BSC headquarters.

Kristy, as 1 mentioned, is our president. Her job is to conduct meetings, solve problems, get good ideas, and generally keep things running smoothly. These are two of Kristy's ideas: Kid-Kits, and the club notebook. Kid-Kits are terrific. Kristy suggested that we each get a cardboard carton, decorate it, and fill it with things kids like to play with — our old books, games, and toys, plus stickers, coloring books, and art materials. We sometimes take the Kid-Kits with us when we baby-sit, and children love them. This is good for business, because when our charges our happy, then their parents are happy, and then the parents ask us to sit again.

The club notebook is a good idea, too, but not nearly as much fun. In it, each of us has to write up every single job we go on. I think that's a royal pain, but I have to admit it's helpful. See, once a week we're supposed to read the notebook to see what happened while our friends were sitting, and often 1 find out how they solved tough sitting situations, or

learn about a problem a kid is having whom I'll be sitting for soon.

Claudia is the vice-president because we're always using (or eating) her things. Three times a week we take over her room. We tie up her phone and we eat her junk food. Claud is pretty good-natured about this. In fact, I think she likes having us come over.

The job of the secretary, Mary Anne, is a big one. Mary Anne is in charge of the club record book (not the notebook), in which she keeps track of our clients, their addresses and phone numbers, and the rates they pay. More importantly, she schedules every single one of our sitting jobs. She has to keep track of all our other activities and appointments, such as my ballet lessons, Mal's orthodontist appointments, and Kristy's softball practices. I do not think Mary Anne has ever made a mistake.

Stacey is our treasurer. She's good with numbers. It's her job to keep a record of the money we earn (just for our interest), to collect dues from each of us every Monday, to preside over the treasury, and to dole out money when it's needed — to help Claudia pay for her phone bill, to replace items in the Kid-Kits that get used up, such as crayons, and to shell out for a club pizza party or slumber party every

now and then. The funny thing is, Stacey loves collecting money — having it — but hates parting with it, even though it isn't her own. Nothing pleases her more than the sight of a fat treasury envelope.

Dawn is our alternate officer. That means that if one of us has to miss a meeting, Dawn can take over that person's job. She's sort of like an understudy in a play. She has to know how to handle the treasury, schedule appointments, etc.

Then there are Mal and me. As junior officers, we take on a lot of the afternoon sitting jobs. This is mostly because we aren't allowed to sit at night yet unless we're sitting for our own brothers and sisters. But it does free the other girls up for nighttime jobs, so all in all we're important club members, too.

Believe it or not, there are a couple of other club members whom I haven't described yet. This is because they are associate members and don't come to meetings. They are our backups. They're responsible sitters we can call on if a job comes up that none of us seven regular members can take, which does happen sometimes. Our associate members are Shannon Kilbourne, a friend of Kristy's, and . . . Logan Bruno, Mary Anne's boyfriend!

"Ahem," said Kristy loudly.

I looked up guiltily. Boy, had I been daydreaming. The rest of the BSC members had arrived and Kristy was starting the meeting. She took role. Then Stacey collected our dues, gleefully exclaiming over the contents of the treasury and beaming when no one said they needed any money. After that, we waited for job calls to come in.

The first was from Mrs. Rodowsky. She and her husband have three boys — Shea, Jackie, and Archie. Jackie, the seven-year-old, is a walking disaster, completely accident-prone, but we love him.

I got the job.

When the phone didn't ring again for awhile, we began talking.

"When's your aunt coming, Jessi?" Stacey wanted to know. (By then, practically the whole world knew my aunt was moving in.)

"I'm not sure," I said. "I mean, Aunt Cecelia isn't even sure. She still has to hire movers, sell some of her furniture, things like that." I paused. Then, "Ohhh," I moaned. "Why does she have to come? There must be some other solution to this problem. Perhaps my parents could hire a jailer."

Kristy giggled. But then she said, "Really,

Jessi. How bad could having your aunt move in actually be? Nannie moved in with my family, and it's been great. We love having her around."

"And Mimi lived with us for as long as I can remember," added Claud. "You know how I felt about her. She was like another mother."

I knew. And I knew that Nannie was wonderful, too.

But Aunt Cecelia would not be wonderful, and my friends wouldn't understand that until they personally saw Aunt Cecelia in action.

Chapter 4.

I raced directly to the Rodowskys' from school. Mrs. Rodowsky needed me by three-thirty so that she could drive Shea to his music lesson and little Archie to his soccer lesson. (Can you imagine a bunch of four-year-olds playing soccer? It must be quite a sight.)

As I pedaled along, I remembered telling Mama that morning that I would be going directly to a sitting job after school. I knew she wouldn't worry about me. But, I thought, would things be different when Aunt Cecelia was in charge? Would she let me go places without checking in after school? Would she remember my afternoon plans when I told them to her over breakfast in the morning?