Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 061

Stacey has another problem. She's diabetic. She has to watch what she eats - no sweets at all. And, she has to give herself injections of insulin every day. I think that would really get me down, but most of the time Stacey is a very up-beat person.

Here's how our club works. We meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from five-thirty to six in Claudia's room. Claudia is the only one of us who has a phone with a private number in her bedroom. That's why we meet here. It's also why Claudia is the vice-president.

During club hours, our clients call and set up baby-sitting appointments. It works out great for them because they can call just one number and reach seven baby-sitters instead of having to make a bunch of phone calls.

Actually, they're reaching nine sitters. We have two associate members of our club. They don't come to meetings but we call them if no one else is free to baby-sit. One of them is Logan Bruno. He's Mary Anne's boyfriend. (She's the only one of us who has a steady boyfriend.) The other associate is a girl named Shannon Kilbourne. She lives near Kristy and goes to a different school.

Mallory and I are junior officers. Because of our age, we only sit during the day, which means after school or on weekends. This frees the others to take night jobs. (I can't wait until I'm old enough for night jobs. I won't feel like such a kid.) So, anyway, our clients call and say when and what time they need a sitter. Then whoever answers the phone says she'll check it out and call right back. That's where Mary Anne comes in. She's the club secretary and keeps the record book in order. The book (another of Kristy's great presidential ideas) contains everyone's schedules-my ballet classes, Mallory's archery club meetings, Claudia's art classes, Kristy's softball games. If one of us has a dentist appointment or a big class project due, it goes into the book. Mary Anne then looks at the book and tells us who is free to take a particular baby-sitting job. She's very proud of the fact that she's never, ever, made a scheduling error.

The record book also lists the names and phone numbers of all our clients and any important information about the kids we sit for, like food allergies, fears, bedtimes, and stuff like that. It's a good thing to check before going on a job.

The only part of the book Mary Anne isn't responsible for is the record of money we've earned and spent. That's Stacey's department since she's the club treasurer (and our resident math whiz). Even though each of us takes home the money we earn, Stacey keeps track of it, just for the record. She also collects dues and puts the money in a big envelope.

No one likes to part with money but the dues are necessary. We use the money to pay Claudia's phone bill, and to pay Charlie Thomas (one of Kristy's older brothers) to drive Kristy to and from meetings now that she's moved out of the neighborhood. We also need to restock our Kid-Kits from time to time.

Kid-Kits are another of Kristy's brilliant ideas. We each have a box filled with coloring books, crayons, toys, and any little thing we think would amuse kids. Kristy noticed that kids like playing with other people's toys more than their own. That's how she came up with the idea and it really works. My Kid-Kit has saved more than one rainy day. Kid-Kits are also great for distracting fighting kids and cheering up tearful ones who don't want to part with their parents.

As I said, Kristy is president because she never stops thinking up these great ideas.

Dawn is our alternate officer. She steps in if any of the other officers is absent. This means she has to know everyone's job. When Stacey left, Dawn became treasurer for awhile. She was more than happy to give that job back since she hates math.

Besides scheduling appointments, taking dues, and discussing how to spend the dues (if any money is left over we get to do something fun like have a pizza party), we also write in our club notebook. (Guess who's great idea this was! You got it.) In the notebook we write about our babysitting experiences. It's a great resource. If you're baby-sitting for kids you don't know, you can just check the notebook and find out about them. It also gives you ideas on how other members have solved particular babysitting problems.

So, you can see that even if the phone never rang, we'd be plenty busy fitting all this into a half hour. But, today the phone was ringing like mad. We'd all taken jobs when Mrs. Newton called at five minutes to six. She needed someone to take care of four-year-old Jamie and little Lucy the next night.

"Nobody's free," said Mary Anne after checking the record book. "We'll have to call Shannon." Everyone looked at Kristy. She's usually the one to call Shannon since they're friends. Today Kristy cringed slightly. "Could somebody else call her?" she asked sheepishly.

"What's the matter?" asked Dawn.

"Lately Shannon's been calling me asking if I want to go out and do things with her," Kristy explained. "Her schedule has changed and she has more time on her hands. It seems her school friends are busy with other things." "Shannon's nice," said Stacey. "Don't you want to hang out with her?" "Who has the time to hang out?" Kristy cried. "It's nothing against Shannon. It's just that with baby-sitting and the club meetings and other stuff, I don't have any time. Whenever Shannon calls I have to say no because I really am busy. I don't want to hurt her feelings, but I think they're getting hurt just the same." "Tell her to call us," Stacey said. "I think Shannon's cool." "Me, too," agreed Claudia.

"Yeah?" Kristy said, her face brightening. "Then I will call her. I'll ask her about the job and tell her to get in touch with you guys about doing things together." "I've always wanted to know Shannon better," said Dawn.

Kristy punched in Shannon's phone number. "Great," she said with a smile. "Another problem solved." Chapter 3 "Hi," Mme Dupre greeted the volunteers. We'd assembled outside Mme Noelle's classroom. Besides Mary and me there were four other volunteers from different ballet classes. Two of them were boys.

Mme Dupre is French like Mme Noelle, but she's much younger - somewhere in her twenties - and her accent isn't nearly as thick. She's kind of pretty, with grayish-blue eyes and a high forehead. She wears her long brown hair swept back off her face in a tight ponytail. Normally she assists Mme Noelle, but I guess she'd been excused so she could conduct this special class.

Today, instead of her usual black outfit, she wore gray tights, a matching leotard, bright warm-up leggings, and a red dance skirt. She must have noticed me looking at her. "On Tuesdays from now on, you can wear more casual work-out clothing," she told us. "I think it might put the children at ease since they haven't been in a dance class before." "All right!" I cheered happily. Sometimes I get tired of wearing the same old black leotard all the time.

Mme Dupre smiled at me. "The kids are already in the practice room down the hall. Let's go see what we can do with them." "I can't believe Vince Parsons volunteered," Mary whispered to me as we walked down the hallway. She nodded toward the boys who were up ahead beside Mme Dupre.

"Which one is he?" I whispered back.

"He's the snobby-looking one," she replied. I knew who she meant immediately. Of the two boys, one was Latino, with olive skin, and very handsome. The other was thin with tight blond curls, a long narrow nose, and super-straight posture. "Snobby" perfectly described the expression on his face.

"Is he really a snob?" I asked.

"The worst," Mary said. "He goes to my school and you'd think he was already a major dance star instead of a student. The other guy is cute, though. I don't know him, but I'm going to try hard to change that!" "Do you know either of the girls?" I asked, referring to the other volunteers who were hurrying along with us.