Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 094

Walking upstairs, she heard them giggling. She checked in Charlotte's bedroom. They weren't there.

Jessi followed the sound of the giggling to Dr. and Mr. Johanssen's room. The door was ajar and she could plainly see Char and Becca sitting on the Johanssens' bed, talking on the cordless phone they'd taken from the phone base on the night table.

The girls looked up and met Jessi's eyes.

"Oops." Charlotte laughed.

" 'Bye-'bye." Becca giggled into the phone.

"You two are acting so silly," said Jessi. "Who are you calling?" "Just some of our friends," Char said, scooting off the bed. "Can we make valentines now?" "Of course," Jessi told her. "Come on downstairs." Jessi told us that the girls were silly and giggly for the rest of the afternoon. Once they disappeared into the front hall closet together. When she opened it up they were sitting on the closet floor writing notes on memo pad paper. They wouldn't say what they were up to.

"It was the strangest afternoon," Jessi told us. "I was the only one who finished my valentine. Now I just have to decide whether to mail it." Chapter 7.

Let me tell you, my first week at the Cheplins' wasn't easy. Between school, baby-sitting, and my BSC meetings I felt as if I didn't have a moment to breathe. When I was at the Cheplins' there was no relaxing, either. Each day Mrs. Cheplin added one extra chore to her list. By Friday - the last day of my trial period - I was wondering if the list would ever stop growing.

That day it started snowing just as I picked Adam and Dana up from the bus stop. Adam danced around delightedly, sticking his tongue out to catch the flakes.

"There could be pollution in those flakes," Dana warned him as we walked up the hill.

"There is not," Adam said, examining the small crystals of snow on his glove.

When we reached the house I saw that Mrs. Cheplin's work list was the longest one yet. Fold the laundry, empty the dishwasher, tidy Adam's room, throw wet wash into dryer, put stamps on envelopes in front hall and put out for mail carrier to pick up, put chopped meat from freezer into microwave to defrost, and empty wastebaskets into large plastic bag. All this had to be done before four-thirty, when homework was to start.

But, do you know what? I got it all done. Doing it made me feel sort of proud, too. So the chores were done by four-thirty and neither of the kids had homework over the weekend.

Finally a moment to breathe! That's what I thought.

"Can we play outside?" Adam asked.

"Please?" Dana seconded the idea. I didn't feel like going out, but how could I say no? It's not fair to keep kids in the house when it's snowing.

First, I made sure Dana had some carrot sticks for a snack. Then, we bundled up and went outside into the lightly falling snow, which fell in big fat flakes around us. In the last hour it had started to stick. There was almost an inch and a half on the ground.

We had only been outside for a minute when Mandy came along with a girl around Adam's age, maybe a little younger. "Hi, Moira!" Adam greeted the smaller girl as he ran to her.

At the same time, a boy and a girl Dana's age approached from the opposite direction. "Hi, Mandy. Hi, Dana," the girl called with a wave of her bright red mittens.

The boy waved, too, and soon the four of them were talking in the front yard while the two smaller kids chased one another in a circle off to the side of the house.

They didn't seem to need me for entertainment. I stood for a moment and enjoyed the beauty of the falling snow. Then I spied a snow shovel leaning against the house.

The snow must have put me in a good mood. Or maybe it was just the fact that it was Friday. But I decided it would be nice for Mrs. Cheplin to come home to a shoveled walk and driveway. (Or maybe I was just showing off a bit. You know, being Stacey McGill, Super Sitter.) I was shoveling away when the first snowball flew past me. "Sorry!" Mandy called from the yard when I looked around to see what was happening. Mandy and the two other kids were having fun throwing snowballs at one another. The only one who wasn't smiling was Dana, who stood frowning, her arms folded.

"Let's do something else," I heard her say. "Let's build a snowman." "No, let's have snowball teams," the boy said. "You and Mandy against Ellen and me." "Yeah! Come on, Dana," said Mandy. "We can get them good." I checked on Adam and Moira, then went back to my shoveling. The snow was falling so fast now that the walk was filling in almost as fast as I could shovel it out. Oh, well, I thought. This makes it a little easier for Mrs. Cheplin to shovel.

I'd shoveled almost to the front door when I noticed Dana coming toward me looking very unhappy. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I don't feel good," she replied. "I'm weak and sort of dizzy." "Did you cheat on sweets today?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"You have to tell me the truth," I insisted. "It's really important. No kidding." "I didn't. Honest." "I'd better check your blood again to be safe," I said, resting my shovel against the house. I turned toward Adam and told him not to leave the yard.

"We'll watch him," Mandy called to me.

Dana and I went inside and tested her blood. "Normal," I reported. I felt her forehead. "No fever, either." Dana slumped onto the living room love-seat. "I don't want to play outside anymore," she mumbled. "I want to rest." "You should rest," I agreed.

I called Adam in. I didn't want to leave him out there unsupervised for too long. With a long, disappointed face, he said good-bye to Moira and joined me at the front door.

Moira ran to Mandy, who had waited in the yard. "Is Dana all right?" Mandy asked, coming toward me.

"I'm not sure. I think she should rest, though," I replied.

"We should have built a snowman like she wanted," Mandy said apologetically. "I keep forgetting how sick she is." "Don't worry. You didn't do anything wrong," I assured her. As I spoke the words, I began to wonder about something. Was Dana using her diabetes as a means of getting her own way? Were the guilty feelings Mandy was experiencing exactly the feelings Dana wanted her to have? I remembered how instantly Dana had recovered on Monday once the argument was over. Would the same thing happen today?

"Tell Dana I hope she feels better," Mandy said as she and Moira left the yard.

Just as I suspected, when Adam and I went back inside Dana looked a lot better. In fact within half an hour she wanted us to watch her do a cartwheel she'd learned that day in gym class.

I wondered if I should talk to Mrs. Cheplin about what I thought Dana was up to. It was a bad direction for her to be going in. Not only was it unfair to her friends, but it was bad for Dana. If she believed she could manipulate people, she might use her illness as an excuse to duck out on anything challenging.

Truthfully, though, I couldn't picture myself having that conversation with Mrs. Cheplin. We'd just met and, so far, I didn't feel all that comfortable around her. Every evening she came home and looked around the house as if she were sure I'd messed up in some way. I could tell she didn't completely trust me yet.

Instead, I decided to drop a big hint directly to Dana. When Adam went to his room to get a book I saw my chance to talk alone with Dana.

"Wow!" I said, sitting next to Dana on the living room floor. "This has been some busy week for me. I didn't think I could get everything done that I had to do, but I did it." "That's good," she said as she got to her knees and switched on the TV.

"I used to worry that my diabetes would stop me from doing things I wanted to do, but it hasn't. This busy week sure proves that." Dana studied me. "Don't you get more tired than other kids?" she asked.

"Not if I take care of myself." I checked the clock on the wall. It was five-twenty. "Gee, I hope this snow doesn't make your mother late getting home. I have to go to my Baby-sitters Club meeting. Kristy, our president, gets really annoyed if we're late. Of course, I've been coming late because I'm sitting with you and Adam, but I can tell Kristy isn't happy with it. The sooner I get there the better." "She sounds mean," Dana said.