Ann Martin - Hello, Mallory

"Fixing my horsie," Suzi replied. She opened another Band-Aid wrapper, expertly peeled off the paper, and applied the Band-Aid to the

edges of a diaper, securing it just under the tabletop.

"Excuse me?" said Dawn.

Suzi patted the table. "My horsie broke all his legs," she said. "And he has a sickness. I have to fix him up."

Dawn clapped her hand to her forehead. Then she set Marnie on the ground. "Suzi, your mom needs these diapers for your sister. I'm, um, I'm really glad you made your horse better, but now we have to take the Band-Aids off — carefully. Try to do it without ruining the diapers."

It took almost fifteen minutes, but at last the diapers had been unwound from the table, folded neatly, and placed in their box in the laundry room. Dawn might not have been so concerned if she didn't know how expensive disposable diapers are.

She decided it was definitely time to get the girls outdoors, so after a quick snack, and after she'd given Suzi her medicine, she put Pow on his leash, walked the girls into the garage, and plopped Marnie in her stroller.

"Where are we walking to?" asked Suzi as they headed down the driveway. "The school playground?"

"We-ell, that's kind of a long walk, but I guess we could try."

"Wait! Could we go to the brook?" asked Suzi. "Marnie loves it."

"Sure," replied Dawn. "That's a great idea. And the brook is much closer."

Dawn, Suzi, and Marnie hadn't walked far when suddenly Dawn saw something that made her stop short. She stopped so quickly that Pow, whose leash was attached to the stroller and who was trotting happily ahead, jerked to a halt, too, and nearly fell over.

What Dawn had seen was me. Well, not just me, but Jessi and me across the street with all of my brothers and sisters.

Dawn told me later that her first thought was, why are they baby-sitting? Her second thought was, maybe they're not sitting, maybe they're just playing with the kids. Then she noticed that my parents' cars weren't in the driveway and knew we were sitting after all.

"Wow," said Dawn under her breath. Of course, she was dying of curiosity. If Mrs. Pike needed another sitter, why hadn't she called the Baby-sitters Club? She always had before. And furthermore, who was the girl who was helping me baby-sit (if that's what she was doing)?

Dawn had a lot of unanswered questions, but she wasn't going to ask me about them. It was embarrassing enough that we'd seen each

other. I hadn't spoken to any of the girls in the club since I'd marched out of Claudia's room announcing I was "quitting."

Unfortunately, Suzi didn't know any of this.

"Dawn?" she said. "Can I go play with Claire?"

Dawn bit her lip. She hated to say no just because she and I were having problems. Why should Suzi and Claire suffer for that? Finally she said, "Don't you want to go to the brook? We can throw stones in the water and float leaves under the bridge. Hey, we can play Poohsticks just like Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends do in The House at Pooh Corner. We might even see some squirrels there. Or a rabbit." Dawn was pulling out all the stops.

"Maybe we'll see a snake!" Suzi cried excitedly. Her decision was made. Dawn felt relieved — especially because Suzi hadn't yelled across the street to ask Claire to join them.

So Dawn took the girls to the brook and they did toss stones and float leaves and play Poohsticks. And they saw a squirrel, which Pow chased joyfully. (They did not see any snakes.) When they returned to the Barretts' house later, Dawn was still wondering about Jessi and me and whether we were baby-sitting. And why. And who Jessi was.

Her questions were answered not long after when she was getting more juice for Marnie. She opened the refrigerator and for the first time noticed something tacked to the door with a magnet shaped like a frog. It was one of our fliers for Kids Incorporated. It listed Jessi's name and my name, our ages, phone numbers, and the club meeting times. (Jessi and I had decided to run the club just the way the Babysitters Club was run. We'd even bought an appointment book and a notebook.)

Dawn finished her sitting job in a huff. As soon as she got home, she called Kristy with the news. She figured that, as president, Kristy ought to hear it first.

"Guess what," Dawn said flatly.

"What?" replied Kristy. "Boy, you sound like you're in a good mood."

"I'm in a rotten mood and it's all because of what I have to tell you. Mallory Pike has started her own baby-sitting club."

"What?!" screeched Kristy. "How could she? Who else is in the club?"

"Some girl named Jessi Ramsey. She's new here. I think she's the one whose family moved into Stacey's house."

"Hmphh," was all Kristy would reply. After a pause she added, "Well, who'll hire them?

They're too young. They won't get any jobs. . . . And Mallory doesn't know the first thing about tourniquets."

"Mrs. Pike already hired them," Dawn informed her. "They were sitting there this afternoon when I was at the Barretts'. That's how I know about all this."

"The Pikes! They're practically our best customers," moaned Kristy. "Mallory can't do this to us."

"Well, she is doing it."

"Hmphh," said Kristy again. "Well, I'll just get on the phone with Mary Anne and Claudia. This absolutely cannot happen."

"How are you going to stop it?" I asked.

"I don't know," replied Kristy. "I really don't know."

Chapter 11.

The second meeting of Kids Incorporated will now come to order," I said.

It was Monday afternoon, five-thirty. Not far away, the girls in the Baby-sitters Club were holding a meeting of their own. I wondered if Claudia's phone had rung yet. I decided that it might have, since it seemed to ring an awful lot.

The girls in the Baby-sitters Club held their meetings with the door closed. Jessi and I had to hold ours with the door open so we could hear the phone in the hall. We'd set it on the floor, as close to the doorway as the cord would stretch, but it was not the same as having my own phone. Plus, my brothers and sisters ran upstairs every two seconds.

I looked at Jessi. "This is not exactly like the Baby-sitters Club," I told her.

"No?"

I explained about the phone and the privacy.

"And another thing," I added. "They have club officers. You know, president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer. But there are only two of us."

"You could be the president," said Jessi, "since you know how to run a baby-sitting club."

"But you thought of the great name for our club," I pointed out.

Jessi frowned. "Let's not have officers," she said. "Let's be equal."

"Okay," I agreed. "We can take turns with everything — answering the phone, writing down appointments."

"Perfect."

We sat and waited for the phone to ring.

It didn't.

"I guess it takes a while for things to get started," said Jessi.

"I guess."

"What do the other girls do when they're not on the phone?"

"Gossip," I replied. "Talk about boys."

"Ew," said Jessi. "Boys."

"I know. Ew. We could gossip, though."

"About who?"

"Benny Ott."

"He's a boy!"

"No, he isn't. He isn't even human."

Jessi laughed. "Well, I've got some news to tell you. I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure, but last week I decided that I would take ballet lessons here after all."

"That's great!" I cried.

"Thanks," said Jessi, and ducked her head, looking embarrassed. "We called this ballet school in Stamford," she went on, "and they asked me to come in and audition."

"Did you?"

"Yup."

"And what happened? Oh, this is so exciting!"

"Well . . ." said Jessi slowly.

"Don't keep me in suspense!"

"I got in! To the advanced class! And everyone was super nice."

"Oh, wow! That is wonderful! Really. Boy, just think of it. Pknow a real live dancer. Is your school going to put on a ballet soon?"