Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 123

"Our guests will be arriving in a short while," Janine informed me, looking at her watch.

Our guests? "Janine, did you invite any of your friends to stop by?" I asked, thinking maybe I'd missed something.

"Of course not. This is a party for your friends, so that they may become better acquainted with one another. It will also give me an opportunity to get to know them better," she said. She picked up a red mohair sweater and laid it alongside a pair of black jeans. "Look, I have on red and black too. If you wear this, they could be the official hostess colors." "But I'm the official hostess," I told her.

Janine looked me directly in the eye. 'And I'm the official chaperone." She had me there. I slipped into the black jeans, then pulled a black turtleneck over my head. I had a fleece top with turquoise, hot pink, and lime green stripes and one thin line of red. It was a boxy jacket style and looked festive, I decided.

"That's bright," Janine said as I buttoned the jacket.

I found a pair of earrings I'd made out of curling ribbon and put them on, then stood back and looked at the results. Cool.

"The food is prepared. I have three large cookies for decorating later in the evening and a dozen sacked cookies for each member of the winning team. I've ordered pizza to be delivered at eight, and there's a variety of soda on ice in the cooler, plus the overflow is in the refrigerator. I also have chips and pretzels and even some fruit, should someone want a healthy alternative to the junk food." Janine ticked each item off on her fingers.

"Janine, you are the goddess of food and I thank you." I gave her a quick hug.

"You look terrific," Janine said. "Ready?" "I think so." I pulled a brush through my hair one more time. I'd decided to wear it loose. "Josh and Stacey should be here in a few minutes to help set up." As we ran down the stairs, the doorbell rang. Janine practically knocked me over in her rush to reach the door first.

"Stacey!" she said, throwing the door open. "I'm so delighted you could come. Enter!" "Hi, Janine. Hi, Claud." Stacey stepped inside. "Josh is right behind me." "Joshua, come right in," Janine called out the door. "It's party time." I hugged Stacey. "I'm so excited," I whispered.

"Now, let's see what still needs to be done," Janine said as she closed the door behind Josh. I wiggled my fingers at him in greeting as he stood waiting for his instructions from the "official chaperone." "Wait a minute," I said. "First you have to have a sticker." I peeled off a red heart for Josh (for obvious reasons) and a blue star for Stacey and stuck them on their shirts. For myself, I chose a pink heart. I wanted to be in Josh's group.

"What about me?" Janine asked.

After exchanging a glance with Stacey, I gave Janine a star.

"Stacey, you choose the music. Josh, you set out some of the napkins and plates that we'll need later for refreshments. Claudia, you start filling baskets and bowls with snacks," Janine said.

And, Queen Janine, what will you be doing? I wondered. She joined me in the kitchen. When the doorbell rang, she offered to take over and finish.

I wiped my hands quickly, then ran into the front hall. My first real guest. I opened the door. "Hi!" I said, with a big smile.

"Hi, yourself," Pete Black replied.

Pete Black? Had I invited Pete? He's a good friend of Logan's, but I didn't remember even talking to him during the past week. He must have sensed my confusion, because he added, "Logan mentioned you were having a party and that it would be cool if I stopped by." "Sure, the more the merrier," I said, quickly trying to figure out how many people that now meant. Twelve, maybe? That wasn't so many. I was "stickering" Pete with a squirrel to start the third group when I saw Emily Bernstein, another eighth-grade friend, coming up the walk with Erica Blumberg. Uh-oh. The word must have gotten out.

"Claudia, this is a great idea," Emily said, stepping inside.

"Thanks for inviting us," Erica added.

Janine had come into the hallway. She gave me a strange look but didn't say anything. Emily, Erica, Pete, and Stacey were chatting away while Josh looked on. I stuck a bear on Emily and a star on Erica, explaining that we'd be dividing into teams as soon as everyone arrived.

Before I could close the door, the Junk Bucket, Charlie Thomas's car, pulled up. Kristy climbed out, followed by Shannon, Abby, Anna, and Shannon's best friend from Stoneybrook Day, Greer Carson. I took a deep breath. This was a get-to-know-people party, after all. Still, I was starting to worry about whether we'd ordered enough pizza and if we had enough soda. Would three teams be enough?

And I hadn't included everybody in the trivia game! I gave out stickers without really thinking about who should go where. Mary Anne and Logan arrived, followed by Rick Chow and Austin Bentley, two more friends of Logan's.

"What a crowd!" Mary Anne said, hesitating in the doorway.

"There are a few more people than I expected," I admitted. "And not everybody that I expect is here yet." "You said to let our other friends know about the party," Mary Anne reminded me.

I didn't remember exactly what I'd said, but it obviously hadn't come out the way I'd meant it. I gave everyone in that group stickers too, then greeted Jeannie, Joanna, and Shira, who were followed by Mal and Jessi.

There was a solid wall of people around the table where we'd set out the food, as well as a crowd in the living room. I looked outside and saw no sign of other unexpected guests, so I closed the door. Someone turned the stereo up a notch. I started for the living room to turn it down again, then saw it was Janine adjusting the knobs. She was talking to Greer, who had on a star that matched Janine's.

In fact, when I settled down enough to notice, I realized that people were mixing with each other pretty well. Joanna was talking to Kristy and Austin Bentley, while Shira was giggling with Emily and Jessi. Mal, Josh, and Mary Anne were sitting on the steps leading upstairs, deep in conversation - about what, I had no idea.

"Thanks for coming, everybody!" I shouted, wondering if I could be heard above all the noise. Janine rushed to my side, smiling. The noise level dropped a bit and a few people turned my way.

I raised my voice a little higher. "I gave out three kinds of stickers. Find the other people who are wearing the same kind you are. They're your team members." I took a deep breath. It was much quieter as people moved to find their teammates. They stood in silent clumps, looking at me. I caught Josh's eye and he smiled, making me feel better. "I'm going to pass out sheets with trivia facts about some of the people here. You'll need to talk to each other to find who the fact is about." Pete said something I couldn't hear and everyone around him laughed.

"The winning team will be the one which correctly identifies the most people," I added.

Janine handed me the sheets she'd typed up, and I passed them out. There were exactly enough. Janine must have made extras. "Let the games begin," Janine added.

"I thought there were going to be fourteen people here," Janine said quietly to me. "I count twenty and with me, twenty-one. I didn't really think we'd use all those sheets." Twenty-one. That sounded like a lot. I had thought eleven or twelve people would show up.

"I ordered pizza for fifteen," Janine continued.

"We'll make it stretch," I replied.

"The snacks are almost completely gone already," Janine pointed out, "and I figured on two sodas per person." I squirmed a little.

"Where did the extra people come from?" Janine asked. "How could you have been so far off on your total?" I was more worried about stretching the food than about exactly how many people were present. After all they were here and they weren't going to leave.