Ann Martin: Baby-Sitters Club 056

I was so lost in thought when I reached home that I nearly tripped over Janine who was sitting on our front stoop reading one of her sociology texts. Her bookbag was perched beside her.

"Oof! Sorry," I said. "What are you doing here?" The weather that day was gorgeous - warm and sunny - but Janine prefers to study in her room. She is not an outdoor person.

"I'm locked out," she said. "I can't find my key." "Well, I'm here to save the day," I replied.

Our parents both work, so at my house forgetting or losing your key could mean trouble. Dad is a broker with a company in Stamford, Connecticut, which is the nearest city, and Mom is the head librarian at the Stoneybrook Public Library.

I unlocked the front door and let Janine inside.

She checked her watch. "You have a meeting soon, don't you?" "Yup," I said. "I'm going to clean up my room. Want to keep me company?" Janine may be dowdy, and she may be a genius who makes me look dumb next to her, but she is still my sister, and I love her.

"All right." Janine followed me upstairs and along the hall to my room. "Goodness. What are you working on?" she asked. She cleared a space on my bed so she could sit down.

"Mobiles," I answered. "Want to see?" I held up a half-finished one with ceramic cowboy boots, a cactus, and a coyote hanging from delicate curving wires. Then I showed her a still life I was painting, a charcoal sketch I was finishing up, and an idea for making jewelry with beads, sequins, and lace. And then I began to tidy up.

Janine watched with a half smile as I dug a package of Ring-Dings out from under a pile of papers and drawings on my desk, and tried to make order out of chaos. "Are you going to be ready in time?" she asked.

"Barely," I answered.

And at that moment I heard our front door open and close, and then feet running up the stairs. "I'm here!" yelled Stacey McGill.

Chapter 2.

By five-thirty, Janine had left my room and settled herself in front of her computer in her place were the six other members of the Babysitters Club: Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Stacey McGill, Dawn Schafer, Jessi Ramsey, and Mallory Pike.

"This meeting of the BSC will now come to order," announced Kristy. She was sitting in my director's chair, one leg crossed over the other, a visor perched on her head, a pencil stuck over her ear, and a notebook open in her lap. Kristy is the president. She gets to call meetings to order. (She has a mouth which is suited to that purpose.) It seems like forever that my friends and I have met in my room every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon from five-thirty until six but, as I mentioned, the BSC has only been around since the beginning of seventh grade. The club was Kristy's idea, and when it first began, there were just four members - Kristy, Stacey, Mary Anne, and me. As business grew, so did the club. Soon Dawn joined, and later Mal and Jessi joined, too.

How does our business work? It's simple, really. When parents in Stoneybrook (especially in our neighborhood) need a sitter for their children, they call us during one of our club meetings. Since they reach seven capable sitters at once, they're bound to line up someone with just one call (instead of making a million phone calls, trying to find a sitter who's free). My friends and I get tons of jobs this way, which is great, since we adore children. (We like the money we earn, too.) As president, Kristy runs things smoothly and professionally. Every club member has her own duties and responsibilities. Kristy's duties are to be in charge, and to keep coming up with her good ideas. Kristy is famous for her ideas. She thought up the club, and she thought up a lot of other things. Like Kid-Kits. A Kid-Kit is a cardboard box (we each have one now) that we've decorated and filled with our old books, toys, and games, plus art supplies, activity books, and so on. We often take them along when we go on a sitting job. Kids love to explore them, which is one reason we're popular sitters.

Kristy also decided that keeping a notebook and a record book would help our club to be efficient and organized. The notebook is more like a diary. In it, each of us writes up every single job we go on. Then we're responsible for reading the notebook once a week to find out how our friends solved sitting problems, and to stay in touch with the lives of our clients. The record book is where we keep track of all kinds of information: our clients' names, addresses, and phone numbers; the rates they pay; and notes about the children we sit for regularly, such as whether they have food allergies or special fears, or have to take any kind of medication. These things are extremely helpful to us.

Sometimes when I think about all the great ideas Kristy has had for the BSC, I'm amazed. At other times I think that's just part of who Kristy is. She's always had great ideas. I should know since she and Mary Anne and I grew up together. Before our lives began to change, our families lived on Bradford Court. Kristy lived across the street from me, and Mary Anne lived next door to her. (Now I'm the only one who still lives on Bradford Court.) Anyway, even when we were little kids Kristy had one great idea after another. Who knows why?

Kristy's family is a pretty interesting one, as far as I'm concerned. She has two older brothers, Sam and Charlie (they're in high school with my sister), and a little brother David Michael (he's seven). Her dad walked out on the family when David Michael was just a baby. For a long time, Kristy's mother struggled to support her four kids by herself - and she did a terrific job. She's some kind of big executive with a company in Stamford. When Kristy was in seventh grade her mom met and fell in love with a man named Watson Brewer. Guess what. Watson is an actual millionaire. And during the summer between seventh and eighth grade, Watson and Kristy's mom got married, and Watson moved the Thomases into his mansion (yes, mansion) across town. So Kristy acquired a stepfather. At the same time she acquired a little stepsister and stepbrother, Karen and Andrew, who are seven and four. Later, she acquired an adopted sister! Not long ago, Watson and Kristy's mom adopted Emily Michelle, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl who had been born in Vietnam. As you can imagine, the Thomas/Brewer household is pretty wild sometimes. Even though Karen and Andrew live there only part time (mostly, they live with their mother and stepfather, who are also in Stoneybrook), the house is zooey, what with all those kids, Kristy's grandmother Nannie (who moved in to help care for Emily), and various pets.

What sort of person is Kristy? Well, she's energetic and outgoing and she talks a lot. Even she admits she has a big mouth. She loves sports and kids, which is why she decided to organize and coach a softball team for little kids, called Kristy's Krushers. Kristy has a fun sense of humor, and she's a good student. She's brown-eyed and brown-haired and the shortest kid in her class. (By the way, Kristy is thirteen, like me. So are the other members of the Baby-sitters Club, except for Mal and Jessi who are eleven and in sixth grade.) One thing that does not interest Kristy is clothes. She's happiest wearing jeans and a sweat shirt, maybe a turtleneck, baggy socks, old running shoes, and sometimes a baseball cap. If forced, she will put on a little makeup or jewelry, but she rarely thinks of that herself.

Would you be surprised to find out that Kristy has a boyfriend? Well, she does, although I think she'd kill me if she heard me say that. But she and Bart Taylor, who lives in her new neighborhood, have been spending a lot of time together, and not just on the softball field (Bart coaches a rival team, Bart's Bashers). They've even gone to a few school dances together.

Let's see. On to the vice-president of the BSC, and that's me. You already know a lot about me and my family, but let me tell you why I was elected V.P. It is mainly because I have a phone in my room. Not only that, I have my very own phone number. This is important, considering how many calls we usually receive during a club meeting. Using a parent's phone would be pretty inconvenient (we'd tie it up three times a week and get calls during meetings that were for other people). So we're lucky to have my phone. As vice-president, I also offer around my supply of junk food when my friends and I meet. More importantly, I deal with calls that come in when we're not meeting.