Ann Martin - Hello, Mallory

"You want me to join the Baby-sitters Club!" I cried. I glanced up and saw Jessi's face. She looked stricken. "What about Jessi Ramsey?" I asked Kristy. And then I heard myself say, "Either both of us join or neither of us does. You have to take all of Kids Incorporated."

Jessi smiled broadly.

I listened to the muffled sounds on the other end of the phone that meant Kristy had put her hand over the receiver and was discussing things with her friends. At long last she said, "Mallory? Can you and Jessi both come to the next meeting?"

"We'll be there," I said simply and hung up the phone. Then I looked at Jessi. "I think we made it!" I told her.

Chapter 14.

Jessi and I were nervous wrecks waiting for the next meeting of the Baby-sitters Club. We spent the afternoon before that meeting together at my house.

"Are we crazy to be giving up Kids Incorporated?" I asked Jessi. We were sitting on the back porch, since Vanessa and two of her friends had taken over our bedroom.

"I don't know," replied Jessi with a sigh. "I mean, I haven't met the girls in the club, so I don't know what we're getting into. But we weren't having much luck with Kids Incorporated, were we?"

"No. Just two jobs — and all those meetings! But I hope . . ."

"Hope what?"

"That we can all get along."

"Well," said Jessi, "one thing I've learned since I moved here is that you can get along with people even if you're not good friends

with them. You know, like I'm getting along in school okay, but you're my only real friend."

"That doesn't sound so good," I told her.

"No, no. What I mean is —"

"That's okay," I interrupted her. "I think I know what you mean. The girls in the club are older than we are, so maybe we won't end up close friends, but we can get along. We can work together. Besides, you and I have each other."

"Always," said Jessi firmly.

"Always," I repeated. I looked at Jessi and knew that we were best friends.

At 5:25 that afternoon, Jessi and I stood on Claudia Kishi's front stoop. I rang the bell.

My hand was shaking.

"Relax," said Jessi.

"I can't."

Claudia answered the door. "Hi, you guys," she said. "Come on upstairs."

Jessi and I followed Claudia through her living room, up the stairs, and along the hallway to her bedroom.

The other club members were waiting for us.

"Hi," said Kristy. She looked just as nervous as I felt.

"Hi," replied Jessi and I at the same time.

Claudia closed the door behind us.

Kristy, her visor safely on her head, got up from the director's chair and said, "You must be Jessi Ramsey. I'm Kristy Thomas. And here," she went on, pointing to Dawn and Mary Anne, who were sitting side by side on the bed, "are Dawn Schafer and Mary Anne Spier. That's Claudia Kishi, the one foraging for junk food."

Claudia grinned. She'd found a giant box of Cracker Jacks and she passed it around as Jessi and I settled ourselves on the floor.

"So you moved into Stacey's house," Mary Anne said to Jessi.

Jessi nodded.

"Right into her old room," I added.

"Where'd you move from?" Kristy wanted to know.

Jessi told them.

"Do you like Stoneybrook?" asked Dawn. "1 do. I'm glad we moved here."

"It's — I ..." Jessi paused.

"Not everyone has been exactly friendly," I tried to explain.

"Oh," said Kristy suddenly, looking slightly embarrassed. "I see."

Thank goodness the phone rang then. Jessi and I watched the girls set up a job.

When they were done, Kristy said, "We

were lucky. Claudia happened to be free that afternoon. But there have been lots of days lately when none of us was free. That's why we need you two. If you could take some of the afternoon jobs for us, it would free us to sit in the evenings, and that would be a big help."

I frowned. "So are you asking us to join the club or not?" I said boldly.

"I wish I could say we are," replied Kristy, "but we can't. Not yet."

"But you said —"

"I said no more unfair tests. We do want to see you in action, though. Especially Jessi. We don't know her at all."

"She's great with kids!" I told the girls enthusiastically. "You should see her with her baby brother."

"We just have to make sure," said Kristy firmly. "All we want to do is send each of you on one sitting job with a club member. I promise we won't interfere. We'll just step back and watch — and let you be in charge. If things go okay, you're in the club. Sound fair?"

I looked at Jessi. We nodded. "It's fair," I told Kristy.

"But," spoke up Jessi, "I have to ask one thing."

"Money?" asked Kristy. "Club responsibilities?"

"No," said Jessi, looking down at her hands. "It's more complicated than that. And I better bring it up now before I join the club."

"Jess, what is it?" I asked worriedly. She hadn't told me about any problem.

"Well," began Jessi, sounding awfully serious. "The thing is, so far I've only baby-sat at Mal's house and mine. But a lot of families around here don't seem, um, they don't seem to like me. Because I'm black. So I'm wondering — what if your clients don't want me to sit for them? I mean, that's not going to help you at all. It might even hurt the club."

I watched Kristy and her friends exchange glances.

"We hadn't thought of that," said Mary Anne slowly. "We don't really know if it's going to be a problem."

"We don't care that you're black," added Claudia. "After all, I'm Japanese. Well, Japanese-American. No one minds that."

"But there really are problems," I said. I told the girls what had happened when Amy had wanted to play with Becca and her bubble-maker.

"Whoa," said Dawn under her breath.

"And that's not the only time something like

that has happened," Jessi went on. "Plus, there are other things. None of the neighbors has come by. Well, hardly any. Neither did the Welcome Wagon lady."

"But things are changing, or else beginning to happen very slowly," I pointed out. "The Johanssens invited the Ramseys over for dinner, and Charlotte and Becca are getting to be friends."

"Benny Ott stopped shooting rubber bands at me," added Jessi.

"Who's Benny Ott?" asked Kristy, smiling.

"This jerky boy in our grade," I replied. "He's always doing stuff like making faces behind the teacher's back or throwing spitballs. Once, he brought fake barf to school. And this girl, Danni, took one look at it and barfed for real."

The girls in the Baby-sitters Club laughed.

"Benny Ott sounds just like Alan Gray," said Kristy, giggling.

"Who's Alan Gray?" Jessi and I asked at the same time. (We had to stop the conversation long enough to hook pinkies and say "jinx.")

"Alan Gray," Kristy replied, "is the Benny Ott of the eighth grade."

"You mean boys are still weird in eighth grade?"

"Definitely," said Kristy.

"Sort of," said Dawn.

"It depends," said Claudia.

"Not really," said Mary Anne.

We started to laugh again. Then Claudia grew serious. "We're getting off the subject," she said. "What about Jessi's problem?"

There was a moment of silence. No one seemed to want to speak. At long last Kristy said, "You know what I think? I think we'll just have to face the problem if it happens. It's hard for me to imagine it happening, though. I mean, I can't see any of our regular customers — the Newtons, my mom and Watson, the Barretts, the Perkinses, the Rodowskys — I can't see any of them saying they don't want Jessi to sit. If it does happen with anyone, though, I'll tell you one thing — I wouldn't sit for them, either."

"Me neither," said Claudia, Mary Anne, and Dawn. (It took a moment for the three of them all to hook pinkies and say "jinx.")

"Really?" asked Jessi, awed.

"Really," replied Kristy. "We'll be like the Three Musketeers. One for all and all for one. Only we'll be the Six Musketeers."