Ann Martin - Claudia And The Terrible Truth

I wonder if they'll end up as BSC clients. If they do, they won't be our only new clients.

Lou McNally is an eight-year-old girl who once spent a few weeks living with some other clients of ours, as a foster child. At the time, we thought she was the "Worst Kid Ever." That's what Kristy called her. It turned out that she was just very unhappy. Her father had recently died and her mother had left the family years before. Eventually, she and her eleven-year-old brother, Jay, went to live with an uncle — their father's brother — and his wife. Now the McNallys have moved to Stoneybrook and Lou is doing much better. My friends and I have been sitting for her and Jay. We love having new clients.

Meanwhile, I'm going to concentrate on taking care of my incredibly adorable, totally lovable, majorly wonderful baby cousin.

"What should we do first?" I askedLynn. "Play peekaboo? Change you into another one of your outfits? Teach you how to play This Little Piggy? Or just lie here and snuggle?"Lynndidn't answer. Then I heard a tiny baby snore and realized she'd fallen asleep on my stomach.

"Oh," I said softly. "You want to take a nap. Sounds like an excellent idea." I closed my eyes and lay there happily, feeling the soft, warm weight ofLynnand smelling her delicious baby smell. She was trusting enough to fall asleep on top of me. Somehow, in her little baby mind, she knew she was perfectly safe with me. And I felt safe with her too. Like nothing could go wrong in a world withLynnin it. It was a wonderful feeling, and I wanted it to last forever.

But before I could drift into the same kind of peaceful sleepLynnwas enjoying, I heard the thump of feet coming up the stairs. I rubbed my eyes, yawned, and tried to figure out how to sit up without wakingLynn. Those thumping feet told me that bur BSC meeting was about to start.

Chapter 2.

The door to my room flew open and Kristy Thomas, the BSC's president, burst in. "Is she here — ?" she began loudly. Then she spottedLynn, and her voice dropped to a whisper. "Oh, she's beautiful," Kristy said. 'And she's grown so much already. I can't believe it." She reached out to strokeLynn's head.

Lynnwas stirring by then, making little baby noises as she stretched. "Can you go downstairs and ask my mom to heat some formula?" I whispered to Kristy. "I bet she'll be hungry when she wakes up." Kristy nodded. "I'll bring it up in a couple of minutes," she promised. She was still gazing atLynn.

Lynnstretched again. "Hurry!" I said. I didn't wantLynnto have to wait.

Kristy bolted out the door. I started cooing overLynn, telling her softly that a snack was on its way.

By the time Kristy came back with a warm bottle of formula, the rest of the BSC members had arrived and Lynn, who was wide awake by then, was the center of attention. I'd promised everyone a turn at holding her, but I wanted to be the one to begin giving her the bottle. Kristy handed it over reluctantly and I offered it to Lynn. Her eyes closed in happy satisfaction as she sucked and drank, and my friends clustered around, discussing in whispers her shiny black hair, her perfect little hands, her gorgeous ears.

"Okay, I have two announcements," Kristy said finally. "First of all, I hereby call this meeting to order. And second, it's my turn." She sat down in the director's chair by my desk and held out her arms.

Carefully, I transferred Lynn and her bottle. It was hard to give her up, but she didn't seem to mind being held by another person. At first, , that made me just the tiniest bit jealous, since I want her to love me best of all. But then I decided that it was a good character trait for my cousin to have. She makes friends easily and adjusts well to new surroundings. I hope she'll always be that way.

I wonder if the personality you have as a baby stays with you. My mom tells me that I started making- finger paintings with my strained carrots and mashed peas. 'An artist right from the beginning," she says. I looked around the room at my friends, trying to picture each of them as a baby. Had their infant personalities followed them as they grew?

I actually knew Kristy as a baby, since she and I lived across the street from each other back then. Of course, I don't remember what she was like, since I was a baby too. But I'd bet anything that Baby Kristy was headstrong and determined to have things her way. She probably had definite opinions and wasn't shy about sharing them.

Kristy (grown-up Kristy, that is) is the driving force behind the BSC. In fact, the business was originally her idea. Here's how it works: The club meets in my room, since I have my own phone, with a private line (that's why I'm the vice-president). We meet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from five-thirty until six, and parents call us during those times to set up sitting jobs. We're very organized. We keep a dub record book with information on our clients and a calendar with our schedules. We also keep a club notebook, in which we each write up every single one of our jobs, which is not my favorite chore. Reading everybody else's entries helps us stay up-to-date on what's happening with the kids we sit for. The parents love that.

We're excellent sitters: responsible, punctual, and caring. We love hanging out with our charges. We're not the kind of sitters who stick a movie into the VCR to keep the kids busy while we raid the fridge and talk on the phone. We think it's more fun to pull out our Kid-Kits (boxes we've filled with fun stuff such as stickers and markers and hand-me-down toys and books) and have a good time with our charges. You can imagine why kids — and parents — like us so much.

And it's all due to Kristy. She has a real talent for coming up with terrific ideas, and that headstrong nature of hers means she knows how to make sure her ideas are carried out. Some people might call her bossy, but that's just Kristy.

Kristy has brown hair and eyes and absolutely zilch in the way of fashion sense. Her closet is filled with jeans, turtlenecks, and running shoes. She has a huge family: her mom and stepdad, two older brothers and one younger one, a younger stepbrother and stepsister, a little adopted sister who's just learning to talk, and a grandmother who has more energy than all of the others put together. Plus a whole zoo's worth of pets. They all live very happily in her stepdad's mansion across town. Her stepfather's name, by the way, is Watson Brewer, and he happens to be a millionaire.

Kristy's life wasn't always so easy. In fact, it was rough going for a long time, after her father left the family when she was six. I'd say she and her mom and brothers deserve some happiness.

"Um, Kristy?" Mary Anne Spier, Kristy's best friend, was holding out her arms. "Do you think I could have a turn?" Kristy grumbled, but she knew she couldn't hog Lynn forever. She gave her to Mary Anne, who settled herself next to me on the bed. Mary Anne, who has brown hair and brown eyes just like Kristy, is the club's secretary. She keeps track of all our clients and monitors our schedules so well that she always knows at a glance who's free for what job.

Okay, let me think about Baby Mary Anne, whose mother died when Mary Anne was very, very young. She would have been quiet, that's for sure. And much more bashful than Lynn, but very sweet and loving.

After her mom died, Mary Anne lived with her grandparents for awhile. After that, she grew up with just her dad for family. Until recently, that is. Not long ago, her dad remarried a woman he'd gone out with in high school! (Sigh. So romantic. Mary Anne loves that kind of thing.) The woman had moved to California, married another man, and had two children. Then, when that marriage ended, she'd moved back to Stoneybrook, bringing her kids along.

One of them was Dawn Schafer, who became one of Mary Anne's best friends, and then her stepsister. Dawn also belonged to the BSC and served as our alternate officer, which meant she took over the duties of anyone who couldn't make it to a meeting. However, Dawn and her younger brother, Jeff, have both moved back to California to live with their dad. I know Mary Anne misses her sister a ton (we all do), but at least Dawn comes back to visit on some holidays and school vacations.