Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 123

"Janine, could you help me for a minute in the kitchen?" Mom called.

Thank you, Mom, I thought.

Josh and I settled back on the couch as Janine left, promising to come back as soon as she'd finished helping Mom.

"What did you do today?" I asked him, leaning back against his arm.

"Rescued my cat from a fate worse than death." "Is he okay?" I asked.

"Only his pride is wounded. There's another cat in the neighborhood. We call it the 'puffy' cat because it has hair out to here." Josh held his hands wide apart. "It hangs around our house all the time, waiting for my cat to come outside. I've never been sure whether it wants to play with him or fight him. Then today I decided it wasn't waiting for my cat at all. It was waiting for us. I think it's jealous of all the attention we give our cat." "How did you figure that out?" I asked.

"Because all it wants is to be petted. As soon as any one of us steps outside, it starts meowing and rubbing against our legs. Except for Dad. Dad's yelled at it before and it doesn't like him much. In fact, one of the neighbors asked why Dad was so mean to the poor cat. He's not mean. He's just trying to make it go away and leave our cat alone." I laughed, imagining Mr. Rocker chasing the "puffy" cat away.

"You guys ready to go?" Dad asked from the doorway.

Josh whirled around, then smoothed his hair and straightened his tie again.

When he reached the car, Josh held the back door open for me, then climbed in beside me. He was quiet on the way to the restaurant, answering Dad's questions but not saying much else.

"Thanks for the ride, Mr. Kishi," Josh said as we climbed out of the car. His voice broke slightly when he said "Kishi," but he quickly cleared his throat to cover it.

"See you later, Dad. Mrs. McGill will drive us home later," I said.

"Have a good evening." Dad waved as we turned to walk inside.

Josh paused at the door. I grabbed his hand and found it damp with sweat. He pulled it away and dried it on his pants. "Still want to hold it?" he asked with a grin, rubbing it on his pants leg again.

I took his hand and smiled, trying to reassure him.

We were the last ones to arrive.

"Welcome to the Rosebud Cafe," Logan said, standing up and bowing as we approached the table.

"Claudia!" Stacey looked surprised to see us. She'd been deep in conversation with Ethan, who was every bit as cute as I'd remembered. He was dressed all in black - black jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt. 'And Josh," she added.

There were two empty chairs between Ethan and Mary Anne, so I took the one near Ethan, leaving Josh to sit beside Mary Anne. He knew her, and maybe that would help him feel more relaxed. He kept wiping his hands on his pants and clearing his throat.

"Claudia, you remember Ethan. Ethan, this is Josh Rocker, who goes to school with us. Josh, this is my friend Ethan Carroll, from New York City." I was glad that Stacey didn't mention that Josh was in seventh grade. That was one of the things making him nervous.

Josh had just sat down, but he quickly pushed his chair back and stood to shake Ethan's hand. His chair tipped over when he stood up, making a huge racket. Worse, a waiter was passing behind him when the chair fell. He stopped short, and the tray he was carrying tilted. The glasses on the tray began to slide. Josh grabbed the tray and leveled it, let go, and jumped back, landing in Mary Anne's lap.

'Are you all right?" the waiter asked Josh.

"Fine," Josh said. "Hi, Mary Anne. Sure is good to see you again." Everyone laughed.

"It's nice to meet you, Josh," said Ethan.

"You too, earring - I mean, Ethan." Josh's face turned red again.

Ethan has one ear pierced. I guess it caught Josh's attention.

We relaxed. Josh began talking to Logan. I turned to Ethan and asked him if he'd been to any good art exhibits lately. He is a terrific artist. We were discussing an exhibition of collages he'd seen recently when Josh nudged me.

"I'll be right back," he whispered. He headed to the men's room. When he returned, his tie was gone.

When our food arrived, Josh concentrated on his dinner, nodding or shaking his head and chewing whenever someone asked him a question. He looked more relaxed by the time we'd finished eating and arrived at Stacey's house.

During the video, Josh and Logan talked quietly about sports for awhile. Then Josh leaned his head back against the couch and closed his eyes for a few minutes. The movie was pretty boring. I wondered if Ethan had chosen it, because it didn't seem like something Stacey would ordinarily watch. It had subtitles and beautiful scenery but not much happening. I wasn't even sure what it was about.

"I guess all the copies of Mask of the Avenger were already rented," Josh whispered to me toward the end of the movie.

After the video, Mr. Spier showed up to drive us home. I'd thought that Mrs. McGill was going to do that, but it didn't matter. Dad wouldn't mind if I rode with Mary Anne's dad. We dropped Josh off first.

"I'll call you tomorrow," he said. "Thanks for the ride, Mr. Spier. Good night." Josh almost didn't wait for the car to come to a complete stop before he jumped out and ran up the walk to the door of his house.

"Do you think Josh had a good time?" Mary Anne asked. "He's really sweet." 'And funny," Logan added.

"Yeah, I think it went pretty well," I said, feeling pleasantly tired.

When we reached my house, all the lights were on. Janine was standing in the hall, holding a plate of cookies. "Isn't anybody else coming in?" she asked, looking past me to the door.

"It's kind of late," I said.

"Oh." Janine looked down at the cookies.

"I'll have a couple," I said. They were chocolate chip - I think. The edges were too dark and the shapes were all a little different. I bit into one and it crunched.

"They're a little overdone," Janine said. "I was reading and didn't hear the buzzer. How was your date?" She turned and carried the cookies back into the kitchen.

"Fun," I said, starting upstairs.

'Aren't you going to tell me about it?" "Sure." I joined my sister in the kitchen. Janine was beginning to act like my new best friend. I was just thinking that her bonding attempts probably wouldn't go on much longer when Janine pulled out... the list.

"I brainstormed a selection of activities for next weekend when Mom and Dad are gone. What do you think?" Janine asked.

The list covered the front and half of the back of a piece of paper. I thought that if we did even half of the things she'd written down I'd never have time for Josh, the BSC, my seventh-grade friends, and my homework.

Chapter 6.

"Thanks for the cookies, Janine," Josh called over his shoulder as we headed down the sidewalk. It was the next day, and we still had plenty of Janine's cookies left.

"Anytime. I'm hopeful they'll prove to be a delight to the palate," my sister replied.

We were on our way to eat pizza. I'd just finished my homework, when Josh had called. As soon as I'd said yes to pizza and hung up the phone, Stacey called to talk about Ethan. Like I said - taffy pull time.

As we walked into Pizza Express, a couple of Josh's friends called to us from the video game arcade. Josh waved to them. Then we chose a table for two along the wall.

"I like this place," Josh said after we ordered.

"Me too." Practically everybody I know likes Pizza Express.

"It's kind of ... comfortable here," he continued.

I nodded.

"Not like the Rosebud." Josh arranged and rearranged the napkin holder and the cheese and spice containers sitting on the edge of the table.

"The Rosebud isn't so bad," I said.

"But you have to worry about table manners, and talking with your mouth full, and," he shrugged, "not being immature." "I guess you didn't have much fun last night," I said.