Ann Martin - Good Bye Stacey, Good Bye

"Stace, no. I want you in Parker Academy. And algebra."

"Oh, Laine." Just a minute ago, I'd felt happy and excited. Now I was sad and worried. Did I or didn't I want to leave Stoneybrook? Did I or didn't I want to go back to New York? I couldn't tell. It was all part of moving. Some good feelings, some bad ones, some happy, some sad.

I wished I could divide myself and live half in Stoneybrook, half in New York City.

Chapter 7.

All us club members love to sit for the Pikes, even though there are eight of them and sometimes they get out of hand. In case you've forgotten about them, let me give you a rundown on the Pikes. The youngest is Claire. She's five. Then there's seven-year-old Margo, eight-year-old Nicky, nine-year-old Vanessa, the ten-year-old triplets (Byron, Jordan, and Adam), and last of all, Mallory, who's eleven.

Mallory has been a sort of junior baby-sitter for a while now. When us club members held a play group last summer, Mallory gave us a hand. And lately she's been the "second" sitter almost every time there's a job at the Pikes'. (Since there are eight children, Mrs. Pike usually likes to have two sitters in charge.)

Anyway, when Claudia went to sit at the Pikes' that afternoon, she had no idea what she was getting into. She thought she and Mallory would have just the usual Pike bedlam to put up with. But, no, Jordan had invented SA's.

"Where is everybody?" Claudia asked, as Mallory let her in the front door. She was used to being met by a herd of children.

"Out back," Mallory replied, rolling her eyes. "I'll explain as soon as Mom leaves."

Mrs. Pike bustled downstairs, giving last-

minute instructions and phone numbers to Claudia and Mallory. Then she inched her station wagon down the driveway and was gone.

"Okay," said Mallory. "Come here." She led Claudia to the Pikes' back door. "Look in the yard. What do you see?"

"Nothing," I replied.

"Look harder. Look in the elm tree, for instance."

Claudia squinted her eyes. She saw a pair of blue jeans and some curly hair. "Jordan?" she guessed.

"Right."

"What's he doing up there?"

"I'll tell you in a minute. See if you can find everyone else."

It took a while, but Claudia finally spotted Claire and Margo crouched behind a yew bush, Nicky lying flat on his stomach in some tall grass, Vanessa peeking around a corner of the toolshed, and Adam and Byron up an ash tree. There was not a sound in the Pikes' backyard.

"What are they doing?" Claudia whispered.

"Spying," Mallory replied. "And we don't have to whisper. They're playing a game called SA's. That stands for Secret Agents. Some people finally moved into the Congdons' house, and those goons — " (Mallory waved her hand,

indicating her brothers and sisters) "— think the new people are foreign spies."

The Congdons' house sat just beyond the back edge of the Pikes' property. Adam and Jordan in the ash tree were practically looking in the bedroom windows, that's how close they were to the house.

"Why do they think the new people are spies?" Claudia wanted to know.

"Oh, they have a long, funny last name, and they speak with accents. They sound like this: 'ow nize do meed you. Thank you zo moch for your 'ozpeetaleetee."

Claudia giggled. "Do they really sound like that?" she asked.

"They really do," Mallory replied. "But that doesn't mean they're spies."

This is what us sitters like about Mallory. She is totally levelheaded. And practical. And usually willing to give people the benefit of the doubt. Not that she doesn't have an imagination. She does. She loves to read and is usually in the middle of at least four books. She likes to write, too. And when she's alone, she daydreams. But when she's helping us baby-sit, she's always on top of things.

"We better go out there and see what they're up to," Claudia said, opening the door.

Mallory and Claudia strode through the

backyard. They were intending to keep an eye on the kids. Instead, they wound up helping with spy missions that afternoon.

"Psst! PSSST!" hissed a frantic voice.

The girls looked around. They found Jordan signaling to them from his tree. He was waving a little spiral notebook around.

"What?" asked Claudia and Mallory at the same time.

"Come here. And keep quiet!"

The girls tiptoed to the base of the elm tree. "What is it?" asked Claudia. "By the way, your mother left. She'll be back around five-thirty."

"Okay," said Jordan quickly. Apparently, Mrs. Pike was the furthest thing from his mind. "Listen, you gotta keep quiet. We don't want the spies to know we're spying on them."

"Jordan, they are not spies," Mallory whispered.

"They might be. That's what we have to find out. You should see all the stuff that's in their den. There's a Xerox machine, a Telex machine, two computers, a printer —"

"How do you know?" Claudia asked.

"Vanessa looked in the window. She earned her yellow badge for that." ' "Huh?"

"You have to complete certain missions,"

Mallory explained to Claudia. "Every time you do, you get a badge. Getting the pink badge is easiest. Black is hardest. And there are eight other badges in between. If you earn all ten, you're named a top agent, like Byron and Adam. They've been going on missions more often than anyone else."

"Would you guys be quiet?" asked Jordan. "Nicky's setting up the tape recorder. I don't want it to pick up your voices."

Claudia nearly fell over. "Tape recorder? What tape recorder?"

Jordan jumped out of the tree and led Claudia and Mallory toward the house. "We have to find out what they're talking about," he said.

"I think that's invasion of privacy," Claudia told him. "Isn't it?" She turned to Mallory.

"I don't know," Mallory replied, "but you guys are trespassing."

"We are not," said Jordan huffily. "We're not setting a toe on their property. At least not for this. Nicky's going to tape from up in a tree. And the tree's in our yard."

"Well, I hope he's careful," said Mallory. "The only one of us kids who's ever broken a bone is Nicky, and that was when he fell out of a tree."

Jordan looked slightly worried, but he held his ground. "He has to start climbing again

sometime. Besides, he's going to earn a green badge if he does a good job. Anyway, can you two give me a hand? I can't assign missions and help my agents and keep track of who's earned which badges. Here." Jordan thrust his notebook at Mallory. "Just make a note any time an agent gets a badge." Then he ran back to the elm tree.

Mallory opened the little notebook and Clau-dia peered inside. At the top of each page was the name of one of Jordan's "agents." Running down the side were the words Pink, White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Purple, Green, Blue, Brown, and Black. At least one color was checked off on each page. All the colors on Adam's and Byron's pages were checked off.

"Hey," said Mallory, grinning. "Jordan didn't bother to give himself a page, since he's head spy. He is so stuck-up. He invented the game, so he doesn't even have to go on any missions. He just sits in that tree and gives out orders."

Claudia smiled, too. Then she said, "Come on. I have a feeling we should check on Nicky. I don't want any broken bones."

"Or any inversion of privacy," added Mallory.

"Whatever." Claudia smiled. Mallory might be practical and levelheaded, but she z's two

years younger than Claudia and the rest of the club members.

The girls hunted Nicky down. Just as Jordan had said, he was perched in a tree a few yards from one of the bedroom windows of the new neighbors. He looked safe enough, though.

"Let's see what the others are up to," Claudia said, but before they'd gone very far, Claire came running over to them.

"Give me my white badge! Give me my white badge!" she cried.