Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 059

Sheepishly, Vanessa stuck her soaking wet, foam-flecked head into the bathroom. Yes?" "How old are you? Two?" I shouted angrily. "Somebody could have gotten hurt, especially Claire. And look at this place. It's a mess!" "We were going to clean it up," Vanessa replied huffily.

"How about starting with the rec room, then," I suggested as I peeled off Claire's shirt.

"The boys mostly did that," said Margo, sticking her head in beside Vanessa. "They thought we should play the Operation game in a pretend hospital." "I don't care what they thought," I snapped. "Go get dried off and clean everything up." Despite my big words, I wound up doing most of the work. If I'd left it to the kids it would never have been done before my mother got home.

Suppertime was all right, if you didn't mind a lot of giggling, poking, and under-the-table kicks. "Angels, huh?" my mother said skeptically as we cleared the table.

"I don't know what's with them tonight/' I replied honestly. "It must be Vanessa, Margo, and Claire. The girls are making them nutso." "It looks like the other way around to me/' said my father as he dried a frying pan.

Things did not improve as the night wore on. None of the kids wanted to go to bed. But finally, everyone was settled in. My parents were downstairs watching TV and I was in my room reading.

Vanessa was on her bed reading, too. She got up to go to the bathroom. Ten minutes later I heard the sounds of shouts and giggles coming from the boys' room. When I checked on them, I found a full-fledged pillow fight being waged, with kids standing on top of dressers, jumping off the bunks, and darting in and out of closets.

"Go to sleep!" I shouted at them.

"We're having a slumber party," James told me.

"No, you're not," I said. "Claire, Margo, Vanessa, back to bed!" I read for another fifteen minutes until I noticed that once again Vanessa had disappeared. That time I found her, and the rest of the kids, sitting in the dark. James held a flashlight under his face and was telling a scary story.

"Come on," I said. "Johnny and Claire will have nightmares. Besides, you're supposed to be sleeping." Margo made a face at me and stuck out her tongue.

I stuck out my tongue back at her.

Next thing I knew, all the kids were glaring and sticking their tongues out at me.

I never thought I'd say it, but I couldn't wait for the Hobart boys to go home! Chapter 13.

The longest night in human history finally ended.

At about eleven-thirty, after stern words from my mother, and a special intimidating appearance by my father, everyone finally went to sleep. Half an hour later, Claire was up crying. Just as I predicted, the stories had scared her and she was having nightmares. No sooner was she asleep again, than I heard Johnny roaming the hall, whimpering. When I got out of bed to see what was wrong, he told me Mathew kept rolling around in the bunk above him and he couldn't sleep. We went downstairs and drank warm milk together until he yawned and felt sleepy enough to go back to bed. By then it was almost twelve-thirty.

At around three in the morning, I sat bolt upright. I'd been awakened by a loud thud. I met my parents and my sisters in the hall.

They'd heard it, too. It had come from the boys' room. We rushed in and discovered James on the floor. "Oooowwwww!" he howled. He had rolled out of the top bunk and hurt his shoulder.

We trudged downstairs while Dad wrapped him up with an ace bandage. That took until three-thirty.

Before eight the next morning, there was a knock on my door. It was James. "I'd like to go home now," he told me as I gazed at him, bleary-eyed. "My shoulder hurts and I want my father to take me to the hospital." "Okay," I muttered, tromping down the hallway like a zombie. "Let me call and see if they're awake." The Hobarts' phone rang and rang, but no one answered. Great, I thought. My brothers have burned their house to the ground, or blown it up, or something worse. I envisioned the phone bleakly ringing in the pile of rubble which once was the Hobart home. "No one's answering," I told James. "Why don't you watch TV for awhile." Looking put out, James went down to the rec room. On my way back to bed, I met Mat-hew and Johnny. They'd awakened and discovered that James was missing. "Did James go to the hospital?" Mathew asked me, concerned.

I shook my head. "He's watching TV. Go back to bed." "We'll watch TV, too/' Johnny said, continuing down the stairs. I headed for my bedroom, then thought I'd better watch the boys. The way things were going, one of them was bound to get into some trouble.

I've never been so tired in my life. I was nodding off in the chair when the Hobarts decided they wanted cereal. So I dragged myself to the kitchen and poured them each a bowl of cereal. Honestly, at one point I put my head down on the kitchen table and fell asleep. Johnny, tugging at my pajama sleeve woke me up. "Cereal," he reminded me.

"Right. Cereal," I said as I poured milk into the bowls.

The cereal was greeted with groans of disgust. My mother buys low-fat milk. Apparently Mrs. Hobart uses only whole milk. The bowls of soggy cereal were left uneaten.

Meanwhile, my own family was sound asleep. Usually my household is up and chugging by eight-thirty on a non-school day. Not today. Everyone was exhausted.

At ten, the phone rang. It was Ben. "You're alive!" I said, relieved. "Was it too horrible for words?" "It was no problem," he said. "They were great." For a moment I was sure I had fallen asleep at the table again and was having some bizarre dream. "What?" I asked.

"No kidding." "They didn't destroy your house?" "No. .Mom made a special dinner and we ate it in the dining room. They told my parents about school and the Zuni pen-pal program. Adam talked about the plight of the Zuni people. He was very interesting, really." "Adam was interesting?" I said in disbelief.

"Yeah. So was Byron. He told us how he came up with the idea to start his own lending library. Then, after supper, Jordan played the piano for us." "Jordan played the piano!" I shrieked. "Ben, is this a joke?" "No. Jordan mentioned that he took lessons and Dad asked him to play. He was good." "I bet Nicky was a terror, though. Right?" "Nope. Later that evening Dad showed slides of our home in Australia. Nicky was super interested. He asked all sorts of questions. Dad was thrilled with him. Most people yawn through his slide shows. The triplets asked him some good questions, too. Dad was in his glory." "Ben, did you and my brothers get together and dream all this up? If you're playing some practical joke, I'm going to kill you." "This is what happened," Ben said, laughing. "Honest." "Keep going," I said, rolling my eyes to the ceiling. "How was bedtime?" "No problem. They went right to bed. Then this morning we went downtown for breakfast at Renwick's." "Oh, that's why you weren't home when I called. I bet that's when your parents saw the real Pike brothers. I hope they didn't have a food fight in Renwick's or anything." "No. They ordered fruit cups and oatmeal and ate it all. I don't know what you're talking about, Mal. They have very nice manners." "Good manners? Fruit cups and oatmeal? I'm losing my mind. I can't be hearing this!" "Is now a good time to drop them home?" Ben asked.

"I guess so," I replied. "Tell your parents James might have to go to the hospital. He may have dislocated his shoulder when he fell out of the top bunk last night." "Oh, wow! But he's probably all right. James is a big baby when it comes to pain. He always exaggerates." "He does?" "Yeah." "There are so many things I never knew about your brothers," I told him.

"How were they?" asked Ben.

Somehow, I couldn't bear to go into all the details. "They'll tell you about it," I said with a yawn. "See you in a little while." Still numb with shock, I trudged out of the kitchen and back to the Hobarts. They were busy shooting rubber bands at one another. James had found a way to do it with one hand. Suddenly I wasn't too worried about him.