Ann Martin: Baby-Sitters Club 059

"Mom kicked everyone outside for awhile," I explained.

"Oh," said Ben. "The house is a little spooky when if s so quiet." "Don't worry," I said, leading him into the dining room. "It won't last too long. But hopefully it will last long enough for us to get some work done." That sure turned out to be wishful thinking! No sooner had we opened our math books on the dining room table than I heard the back door slam. "Let's each do this first problem and see if we come up with the same answer," I suggested to Ben, pointing to a problem in the book.

We were working on the problem when suddenly I jumped up from the table and screamed. Something warm and furry had run across my foot.

Ben jumped up, too. "Mal! What's wrong?" Then I saw Frodo, our pet hamster, scurrying along the floor by the wall. The sound of laughter came from just outside the dining room.

I stormed to the doorway. There were Adam, Jordan, Byron, and Nicky, red-faced from giggling. "Ha! Ha! Ha!" I said angrily. "You guys are a riot. Someone come get Frodo." "We haven't seen Frodo," replied Jordan.

Glaring at my brothers, I went back into the room and tried to grab Frodo. Boy, is he fast! It took almost five minutes for Ben and me to catch him.

Once I'd put Frodo in his cage, I returned to the dining room. "Sorry about that," I apologized to Ben.

"It's okay. I finished the first problem while you were gone. I'll just wait for you to do it." At that moment, Margo appeared in the doorway. "Excuse me," she said. "Mom wants to know if you and Ben would like some lemonade." "Sure," I told her. "Thanks." In minutes Margo came back with the drinks. With her was Claire who carried a tray of still-warm butter cookies Mom had made. "Thanks a lot," said Ben, taking a cookie.

"You're welcome," Claire replied. My sisters can be so sweet sometimes.

"See?" I said to him. "Not all members of my family are geeks." But the geek patrol was soon back.

The next thing that happened may possibly be the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me.

I was working on the first problem when I began to notice this strange sound coming from outside the dining room. It was a slurpy, squeaky sound. It was a kissing sound! And it was loud, amplified. I put down my pen and felt a hot blush burn across my cheeks. (Which only made matters worse.) "I love you so much," came a silly, deep voice.

"No, I love you more!" This was a high-pitched voice.

"I love you more, my darling Mallory!" The deep voice.

"I love you more-est, Benjamin my sweet!" the high squeaky voice squealed. Then there were more loud, wet kissing noises.

I wanted to die! To disappear then and there! Ben looked like he felt the same way. He was smiling, but he was also blushing.

"Excuse me a minute," I said, pushing back my chair.

When I reached the doorway, I found my darling brothers crowded around Nicky's new speaker phone, busily kissing the backs of their own hands. They looked at me with guilty, but laughing eyes. "I'm going to brain you idiots!" I shouted.

Nicky switched the speaker to baby-talk. "Time to go bye-bye," he said. As he spoke, he raced away behind the triplets, disappearing into the kitchen.

"We're not going to get anything done with them hanging around," I said apologetically, turning back to Ben.

"Want to work at my house?" Ben suggested.

"Good idea," I said as I closed my math notebook. Ben is so nice. Another boy probably would have run out of the house. Why couldn't my brothers be more like him?

I had to let my mother know I was leav-fjing, so I stuck my head into the kitchen. Only Vanessa was there, thumbing through a mail-order toy catalog. "Where's Mom?" I asked.

"In the yard with Claire." "Tell her I'm going over to Ben's to work," 1 said. "1 have to get away from the Pike punks before I kill them." "I heard what they were doing," she said sympathetically. "I don't blame you for wanting to murder them." "Tell me about it," 1 said, leaving the kitchen.

It didn't take long to walk to Ben's house. The Hobarts moved into Mary Anne's old house across from Claudia's. (Mary Anne Spier and Claudia Kishi are both BSC members and my friends. More about them later.) And, anyway, it was better to work at Ben's house than at mine since I had a BSC meeting that day at five-thirty. The BSC meetings are held at Claudia's so all I would have to do is run across the street.

At Ben's house we were able to sit at the kitchen table and work without being disturbed. His three brothers - James (eight), Mathew (six), and Johnny (four) - are nothing like my brothers. They're actually sweet and well-behsived. They were playing video games in the family den. They didn't bother us even once the entire time.

At about 5:15, I shut my history book. (We finished the math pretty quickly once we escaped from my brothers.) "Gee, it's so peaceful here," I said with a sigh.

"Not always," Ben replied. "Besides, I think your house is fun." "Try living there," I groaned as I stuffed my books into my pack.

Ben stood up and opened the refrigerator. "Hey, it's a miracle! There's chocolate cake left from last night. Want some?" I glanced at the kitchen clock. 5:17. "Okay. But I have to eat and run. Kristy starts meetings at five-thirty sharp." Kristy Thomas is the president of the BSC. Punctuality is very important to her.

Ben cut me a slice of cake. "That's okay," he said with a smile. "We have to eat fast, anyway, before my Mom comes in and tells me no cake before supper." Mrs. Hobart makes a super delicious chocolate cake. She makes it from scratch, too. Until I met Ben, I thought making a cake from scratch meant you started by opening a box of cake mix! As I sat eating the cake, I thought how great it must be to live at Ben's house. Homemade cake. Quiet, unobnoxious brothers. Heaven! Chapter 2.

Athough I was only across the street, I was almost late for the BSC meeting. (I was having such a nice time with Ben that I stayed until the absolute last second.) I flew into Claudia's bedroom just as her digital clock turned to 5:30.

Still breathless, I sat down quickly on the floor next to my best friend Jessi Ramsey. "Where were you?" Jessi whispered.

"At Ben's," I whispered back.

Dawn Schafer, who was sitting on the bed behind me, heard what I said. "Ben's!" she teased in a singsong voice.

I could feel myself turn red. "We were doing homework!" "Ooooohh! At Ben's!" the other club members sang out, laughing. All except Mary Anne. She was there with her boyfriend, Logan Bruno. (He's also a member of the club. I'll tell you how he fits in after 1 tell you about the club.) It was unusual for Logan to come to meetings. I guess he was at the meeting that day because he had been hanging out with Mary Anne.

"What's wrong with doing homework together?" Mary Anne asked, taking Logan's hand. "Logan and I just came from studying in the library." "Oooooooooooohhhh!" the club members teased.

Now it was Logan's turn to blush.

"Cut it out, you guys," said Mary Anne.

"Oh, we're just teasing," laughed Stacey McGill, perched cross-legged on Claudia's bed.

"Okay, enough," Kristy said, speaking over the giggles. She looked very stern as she sat forward in Claudia's director's chair with one leg crossed high over the other knee, her pencil stuck over one ear and the club notebook on her lap. "This meeting of the Baby-sitters Club is about to begin!" Before I go any further, I suppose I should tell you about the club and its members. I'll start with the members and then I'll explain how the club works.

First I'll tell you about Jessi, since she's my best friend. Like me, she's eleven. We're both in the sixth grade at Stoneybrook Middle School. Jessi is tall and beautiful. And African-14 American. This was a problem for some people when the Ramseys first came to Stoneybrook. But the Ramsey family stuck it out, and now nobody bothers them about the color of their skin anymore.