Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 059

That was fine with her. Becca and Squirt are never any trouble. But that's what I said about Jamie Newton. And look what had happened! This turned out to be a similar situation.

Now that Squirt can walk, he's into everything. As soon as Aunt Cecelia left, he pulled a lace runner off a side table, sending everything crashing to the floor. Jessi no sooner picked up the stuff (luckily nothing broke) than he pulled open the drawer where the Ramseys keep their phone books and began tearing pages from them.

Jessi is a. patient person, but Squirt never let up. She even made him his latest favorite food, macaroni and cheese. When she presented it to him, he flung it away, spraying the kitchen with sticky, orange macaroni.

Speaking of spraying the kitchen, Becca wound up making quite a mess even though she was trying to be good. She was studying nutrition in school, and her weekend home- work assignment was to make a healthy drink in the blender and bring a thermos of it into class on Monday. The kids were going to sample each drink and vote on which was the best.

"1 think the noise of the blender is making Squirt even crankier," Becca said to Jessi as she fed a carrot into the machine.

"Everything is making him cranky," replied Jessi, who was helping Becca with the project. She'd borrowed a health-food cookbook from Dawn. Dawn had even pointed out one of her favorite drinks. Now Jessi was reading the instructions as Becca pureed the ingredients in the blender.

At the moment, Jessi was allowing Squirt to play on the floor with the pots and pans he'd pulled from the kitchen cabinets. It would be a pain to put them back later, but Jessi was willing to do that if they would keep Squirt happy for awhile - at least until she and Becca could finish making the health drink.

"Do you have the can of beet juice opened?" Jessi asked. Becca nodded. "It says to pour that in while blending on a low speed," Jessi read.

"While the blender is running?" Becca questioned.

Jessi checked the book and nodded. "That's what it says." "Okay, here goes," said Becca. She found the lowest speed on the blender, turned it on, and slowly began to pour.

Jessi glanced at Squirt. His lower lip was trembling. The slow drone of the blender did seem to be annoying him. He picked up two wooden spoons and banged on the pots, as if to drown out the noise.

Finally Becca turned off the blender. "Whoaw! It's almost over the top," she commented. Gingerly, she lifted the blender off the stand.

Bang! Clang! Squirt had climbed to his feet and was now throwing the pots and pans across the kitchen floor. "That's enough, Squirt," said Jessi. She tried to take a pot lid from his hand. "Give me that and we'll go look at some books," she added. But Squirt was not going to give her the lid.

"No!" he cried. (That's one of Squirt's few words.) "This doesn't taste bad at all," Becca said as she sipped some of her drink from a teaspoon.

"Dawn said it was good," commented Jessi. Then she turned back to Squirt. "No more throwing pans, okay, Squirt?" she said.

"No!" Squirt shouted again. And this time, he hurled the pot lid just as Becca was turning to carry the full blender to the refrigerator.

Bang! The lid hit Becca.

"Oh, no!" she cried as the blender fell from her hands, splashing purple juice everywhere.

Jessi closed her eyes briefly.

"Sorry," whispered Becca.

"It's not your fault," Jessi told her. "But look at this place!" "Look at my new sweater," added Becca.

Jessi sighed, noticing that Squirt was tracking purple footprints across the kitchen floor and was about to go into the living room. "Stop, Squirt!" she cried, grabbing him.

"This is impossible," she added. Jessi thought quickly. She couldn't let Aunt Cecelia come home to this mess. "1 know," she told Becca. "How about inviting Charlotte Johans-sen over. The two of you can watch Squirt while 1 clean up." "Sure," said Becca. Charlotte is her best friend, so she was happy to ask her over.

Ten minutes later, Charlotte arrived. "Don't let him out of your sight," Jessi instructed the girls as she sent Squirt off with them. Then she set to cleaning the kitchen. This took awhile. Beet juice was everywhere! She had to do a whole load of purple-stained laundry. The tablecloth, the kitchen curtains, dishcloths, and Becca's sweater all had to be put in the washer. The drink had sprayed all over the pots and pans, so every one of them had to be washed as well. Not to mention, the floor, the cabinets, and the legs of the kitchen chairs. Furthermore, the blender had cracked up the side. What was left of the drink ran down Jessi's arm when she picked it up. Yechh.

By the time Aunt Cecelia returned, the kitchen was clean. And Jessi was extremely happy to see her aunt. Becca and Charlotte had managed to keep Squirt out of trouble. They'd accomplished this by allowing him to throw his blocks all over the rec room. Poor Jessi. She felt obligated to pick them up, too. After all, she'd been left in charge.

"I was exhausted," Jessi told me. "I don't know what was wrong with Squirt." I didn't say anything to her then, but I was beginning to develop a theory about Squirt. Also about Jamie Newton, Robbie Mara, and my brothers. What did they all have in common? That they were big pains? Yes. And also that they were boys.

Chapter 6.

It's amazing how fast time flies when you don't want gym class to come again. But, in a flash, it arrived. Before 1 knew it, it was Wednesday. Time for Gym Class 2. The honor continues.

And boy was it horrible! The night before, my mother nearly fainted when she saw me ironing my gym shorts. I thought it would make a big difference. The only difference it made was that in class the next day, 1 no longer looked like a rumpled gangly scarecrow with bony knees and elbows. Instead, I looked like a neat scarecrow with bony knees and elbows. Not a huge improvement.

So, there I was once again, standing out on this gigantic court with kids I barely knew, ready to be mocked, humiliated, shouted at, and possibly stepped on. I'm sure you can understand this put me in a pretty bad mood.

Bad is not the word. Foul, livid, murderous: those are probably more accurate words.

And my theory about boys being major pains - much more so than girls - was beginning to seem very true. I now saw that it was a wise person who orginally decided to separate boys and girls during gym classes. Boys are crazed when it comes to sports. Take that day, for example. They were throwing the ball around, grunting and shouting. And the game hadn't even started yet. They reminded me of a bunch of toddlers who had somehow gotten their hands on too much sugar.

Once the game did start, they were out of control. They didn't care who they knocked over, or elbowed out of the way. They hit that ball as if they were trying to hurt somebody.

During the first game, came the moment feared by everyone on my team - especially me. It was my turn to serve. Just in case I wasn't already nervous enough, Ms. Walden wandered over to terrorize me with her less-than-helpful advice.

As I was about to serve the ball, she shouted: "A fist, Pike! Hit it with your fist. Not open-handed!" She rattled me so that I let the ball roll out of my hand and had to go chasing it through the gym. Talk about your embarrassing moments! Everyone looked impatient when I returned. So, just to get rid of the stupid thing, I served the ball quickly.

1 served it into the net.

"Don't tap the ball, Pike! Hit it hard!" (In case you couldn't guess, that was the ever-helpful Ms. Walden.) My next serve went under the net.

"Straight arm, Pike! Your arm is wobbling all over the place," Ms. Walden shouted.

You can't imagine how much I wished Ms. Walden would go away. If 1 could have, I would have paid her all my baby-sitting money to shut up and leave.