Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 059

Claire was dancing to a music video. Va-nessa had spread a zillion magazines across the living room floor because she was making a collage for school. Margo sat beside her building a house of cards.

"Mallory is here!" Margo yelled as I walked in. She jumped up, sending her cards fluttering to the ground. "Did you make the team?" she asked me.

"I made it," I told her happily.

Margo and Vanessa jumped to their feet and ran into the kitchen. "She made it!" I heard Margo yell.

That announcement was followed by the sounds of chairs being pushed around, and dishes banging. I heard my brothers talking. "That's not how you spell it!" said Byron.

"You're putting it on too thick!" cried Jordan.

"Let me do it!" said Adam.

"What's going on?" I asked Claire.

"You'll see," she replied mysteriously.

Now what? I thought. The Pike brothers in the kitchen must mean disaster. I knew I should find out what was going on.

My brothers met me in the doorway before I reached the kitchen. They stood together, with Margo and Vanessa behind them. Jordan was holding the silliest looking chocolate layer cake you ever saw. The right side had collapsed. A lot of the icing had flowed down onto the plate. Written in wobbly letters were the words MALLORY and CONGRATULATIONS!!!! "Wow! This is great!" I cried.

"The boys made it themselves," Vanessa said. "It was their idea." "It was?" I asked. The boys nodded. "This is really a surprise. You might even call it a shock. But a good shock. Let's go into the kitchen and have some." We got out plates and forks and sat around the table. "But what if I hadn't made the team?" I asked as I cut the first piece.

"That's why we were waiting for you to get home/' Nicky explained. "If you didn't make the team, we figured you would need a cake to cheer you up." "Yeah/' added Jordan. "We were going to write Better luck next time." "It's a good thing you made the team/' Adam said. "Because I don't think we could have fit all that on the cake." "Well, thanks, you guys. This was really nice of you." "We know," said Nicky. "We're such great brothers." We laughed and went on eating the cake (which was pretty good, despite its appearance). It seemed I was going to have to rethink my opinion of my brothers, and boys in general. Even though I'd had a bad run of luck with them lately, maybe they weren't as horrible as I'd thought. In fact, at moments like this, they seemed almost sweet.

With time, maybe they would become angels.

Stranger things have happened.

Look at how I'd changed my opinion of gym. And if that could happen - anything was possible! About the Author ANN M. MARTIN did a lot of baby-sitting when she was growing up in Princeton, New Jersey. She is a former editor of books for children, and was graduated from Smith College.

Ms. Martin lives in New York City with her cats, Mouse and Rosie. She likes ice cream and I Love Lucy; and she hates to cook.

Ann Martin's Apple Paperbacks include Yours Turty, Shirley; Ten Kids, No Pets; With You and Without You; Bummer Summer; and all the other books in the Baby-sitters Club series.

Table of Contents

BSC059 - Mallory Hates Boys (and Gym)

About this Title

This eBook was created using ReaderWorks™Publisher, produced by OverDrive, Inc.

For more information on ReaderWorks, visit us on the Web at "www.readerworks.com"