Ann Martin - Dawn And The Impossible Three

"How many Pike kids are there?" I asked.

"Eight," Stacey replied. "You know that."

"Right, and there are three Barrett kids. That makes eleven. Plus you and Claudia and me — fourteen."

"Yeah?"

"Now count the people in the backyard."

Stacey counted. "... thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. . . . Fifteen?"

"That's what I just realized," I said.

"Well, let's see who doesn't belong here."

"All right," I replied. "There are Buddy, Suzi, and Marnie."

"And there are Mallory, Byron, Adam, Jordan, Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, Claire, and Jenny."

"You just counted nine Pikes/' I informed Stacey.

"Jenny!" cried Stacey. "What's Jenny Prez-zioso doing here?"

"Oh," I groaned. Jenny the brat. She lived right around the corner. "I wonder why we didn't notice her earlier/7 Jenny was the only kid in the backyard who appeared to be dressed for a wedding. She had on a pink pinafore over a spotless white dress, white tights, and pink Mary Janes. Her mother had braided her hair and tied pink ribbons at the ends.

Claudia was carrying food out of the house and setting it on the blankets. The picnic was almost ready. "We might as well ask Jenny to stay," said Stacey.

I made a face, but said, "I guess you're right."

"I'll go inside and call Mrs. Prezzioso," Stacey offered. She returned a few minutes later saying, "It's okay."

Claudia and Stacey and I settled the kids on the blankets. We passed out sandwiches and poured cups of lemonade and milk. For two

and a half minutes, the twelve children were as good as gold. Then something very small happened. Jordan put his sandwich down, turned to Nicky, aimed his index fingers at him, and went, "Bzzz."

The result was astonishing. Nicky yelped and said, "Claudia, Jordan gave me the Bizzer Sign!"

"What's the Bizzer Sign?" I whispered to Stacey.

"Something the Pike kids made up. It's like an insult or something. They use it when they want to annoy each other. Or their friends."

"Ignore him," Claudia told Nicky.

"But he gave me the Bizzer Sign!"

"Ignore him."

"But he gave me the Bizzer Sign!"

Claudia sighed. She glanced at Stacey and me. I shrugged.

The next thing we knew, Adam was giving Jenny the Bizzer Sign, and Buddy was giving Suzi the Bizzer Sign.

Both Jenny and Suzi began to cry.

Then Mallory, who is usually quite well behaved, gave Byron the Bizzer Sign, and he began to cry.

Within the next thirty seconds, seven kids were crying and seven were bizzing and grinning. (Marnie was making the ham face.)

This may be how a war gets started. One day, a world leader pokes another world leader in the ribs and says, "Nyah, nyah, nyah." The second world leader begins to cry, and suddenly their countries are fighting each other.

Our picnic had gone from a dream to a disaster in under five minutes.

Luckily, I had a brainstorm. In the midst of the pandemonium, I stood up and shouted, "Who wants brownies?"

"I do!" shouted every single kid, except Marnie.

"Great," I said, "but you can't have any until you stop teasing each other, finish your sandwiches, and behave yourselves. And the next person who gives somebody the Bizzer Sign will have to go inside."

Silence reigned. Then laughter. Then some elephant jokes. Fifteen minutes later, the sandwiches were gone and I was passing around brownies. I broke off a piece of one and handed it to Marnie, wondering whether she would eat it.

"Hey!" shouted Mallory. "Don't give her that!" She dove over Vanessa and Buddy and snatched the brownie out of Mamie's fist.

"What do you think you're doing?" I said crossly. "You'll get a brownie in a minute, Mallory."

Mallory looked at me with wounded eyes. "She's allergic," she said quietly. "Marnie can't eat chocolate. She'll get sick."

"Are you sure?" I exclaimed. "Mrs. Barrett never told me that."

"I'm positive. You can ask my mom."

I apologized to Mallory four times. Then I began to feel angry. The Barrett kids were great and they needed me, but their mother was a problem. She never gave me instructions. She hardly paid any attention to her children. She was totally disorganized. Plus, I was doing all her housework, and she was only paying me regular baby-sitting wages.

I planned to talk to Mrs. Barrett about every single one of my grievances, but when she blew through the front door late that afternoon, her perfume trailing behind her, she started praising me right away. She looked around at the tidy house, the tidy children, and the plate of leftover brownies, and said, "Dawn, I swear, you're a wonder. I don't know how you do it. Thank you so much. Mrs. Pike said you were a real find, and she was right."

What could I say? All my complaints flew out of my head. So I kissed the kids good-bye and left.

Chapter 9.

And I listened to Claudia as a friend. I knew she wasn't jealous because I had so many sitting jobs. The truth was that I was practically living at the Barretts'. Mrs. Barrett constantly needed someone to watch the kids, and she constantly called me. A couple of times I hadn't been available, so Kristy or Mary Anne had gone, but Mrs. Barrett said the children, especially Buddy, liked me best.

It was flattering — but I was so busy! Once I had even missed a meeting of the Baby-sitters Club. Mrs. Barrett had promised me she would be home by 5:30, and she didn't get back until 6:05. If she'd been somewhere important, say at a job interview, I wouldn't have minded so much. But she'd just been out shopping with a friend.

On the Monday after the picnic at the Pikes', I finally asked Mrs. Barrett about Mamie's chocolate allergy. I waited until she'd returned for the evening, so she couldn't rush off.

After she'd paid me, I said, "Mrs. Barrett, could I talk to you for a sec?"

Something passed over her eyes then. It was a look — just the briefest look — of fear? Annoyance? I couldn't tell.

Anyway, we sat down in the living room and before I could lose my nerve, I said, "How

come you didn't tell me Mamie's allergic to chocolate?"

"Oh, dear/' said Mrs. Barrett. Sitting cross-legged on the couch in her beautifully tailored suit, she looked chic and fashionable and oh-so-put-together — from the neck down. From the neck up, she looked weary and worried. There were lines around her eyes and at the corners of her mouth, and I caught sight of a few gray hairs. But I knew that she was only thirty-three years old.

She rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I didn't tell you about Mamie's allergy?"

"No," I replied. "And I almost gave her a piece of brownie the other day. Mallory Pike stopped me just in time."

"Thank goodness," said Mrs. Barrett. And then she added, "Poor baby," as Marnie toddled into the living room and held her arms out to be picked up. Mrs. Barrett pulled her into her lap and rocked her back and forth.

"Does she have any other allergies?" I asked.

"Not that we know of." Mrs. Barrett kissed the top of Mamie's head.

"What about Buddy and Suzi? I mean, is there anything else I should know?"

Mrs. Barrett's face softened and I thought I was going to hear all about nightmares and childish fears and favorite foods. Then it hard-

ened again, and she said crisply, "Just one thing. If my ex-husband ever calls, don't let him talk to the children, don't tell him he can see the children, and don't tell him I'm out. Say you're a mother's helper and I'm busy."

Mrs. Barrett looked as if she was going to say more, but a crash sounded in the playroom, followed by a shriek from Suzi.

"Uh-oh," said Mrs. Barrett. She hoisted Mamie onto her hip and hurried into the playroom. I followed.

A horrible sight met our eyes. When we had left Buddy and Suzi, they'd been watching a rerun of The Brady Bunch on TV. But while Mrs. Barrett and I had been in the living room, they had transformed the playroom into a disaster area. A bowl of water sat in the middle of the floor, surrounded by half-full paper cups and jars — and bottles of food coloring. They had been experimenting with the colors, but it had gotten out of hand. Little puddles of pink and blue and yellow water were everywhere. The kids' clothes were streaked, and several stuffed animals now had greenish fur. The shriek had occurred when Buddy had spilled pink water over Suzi's head.