Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 040

As Stacey said, it's never calm at the Pikes'. I told you that Mallory had a big family, but let me introduce them all just so you get the whole picture.

Mallory's the oldest. She's eleven and kind of quiet (at least in relation to the rest of the Pikes) and . . . well, I've already told you a lot about her. After Mal come the triplets - Byron, Adam, and Jordan. They're ten. And if you think that one ten-year-old boy can be a noisy handful, you should try sitting for three at a time! Actually, Byron's kind of sensitive and a little calmer than the others - but Jordan and Adam make up for it by being extremely wild.

Then, after the triplets, there's Vanessa. She's nine, and she thinks she's Emily Dickinson or something. She wants to be a poet, and she goes around speaking in rhyme half the time. Then there's Nicky, who's eight. He longs to be old enough to play with the triplets, but unfortunately they leave him out of things too often. Most of the time, Nicky ends up hanging around with Mar go. She's seven, and she's a pretty good kid. And then, finally, there's Claire, the baby of the family. She's five, and she seems to be in a permanent "silly" phase. She loves to play "pretend," and she generally refers to people as "silly-billy-goo-goo' s." So this is what Stacey saw when she arrived at the Pikes': Mallory was dashing out the door, trying to be on time for a sitting job of her own. She barely had time to say hello to Stacey. Mrs. Pike was trying to round up Margo, Nicky, and Vanessa for a trip to the mall, but no sooner would she have all three of them in the car than one would jump out, claiming to have forgotten something that he or she desperately needed.

"Hi, Stacey," said Mrs. Pike with a sigh. "Thanks for being on time. I know I must be crazy to take all three of them clothes shopping at once, but at least it's better than taking everyone!" Stacey tried for a moment (she told me later) to picture a trip to the mall with all eight Pikes. The image was too horrible to think about.

She smiled at Mrs. Pike. "Why don't you just stay with the others, and I'll get Vanessa," she said.

She went into the house and found Vanessa in the living room, searching through a huge box of toys, games, and other stuff. "Vanessa," she said, "your mother is waiting for you. Better get going!" Vanessa looked up. "My green notebook I must find," she said, "for I have a special poem in mind." "Not now, Vanessa," Stacey said, smiling. "Try to remember it, and you can write it down when you get back." She walked Vanessa out the door and then waved as Mrs. Pike backed down the driveway.

Suddenly, Stacey sensed someone behind her. She turned, and saw three someones - the triplets. Each of them was making a different gruesome face. Claire stood nearby, giggling.

"Hey, you guys!" said Stacey. "Nice faces! What if they stay that way?" They laughed, knowing that she was teasing. Then, just as Stacey was about to suggest that they go outside to play since it was such a nice day (and since they seemed a little wound up), Adam announced that they were going to play baseball in the backyard.

"And you can't come!" he said to Claire, sticking out his tongue.

"I don't care, Adam-silly-billy-goo-goo," she answered. "Me and Stacey are going to play hopstotch." "It's 'hopscotch,' you dummy," said Jordan.

"Jordan," said Stacey. "Be nice!" But she knew he didn't really mean it. "Okay, have fun, guys," she said, waving them into the backyard.

Then she turned to Claire. "Hopscotch?" she asked.

"Can we?" asked Claire. "Please? Margo never plays hopstotch with me anymore." "Sure, Claire," said Stacey. "Let's find some chalk." They found some pink chalk in the toy box and went out to the driveway to draw the board. Stacey started right in, drawing the first three boxes stacked on top of each other, then a fourth and fifth side-by-side stacked on top of them.

"No, Stacey!" said Claire. "You're not doing it right." She pointed at one of the lines Stacey had drawn, which was a little crooked.

Stacey tried to be patient. Claire always needed to have things done "just so," and sometimes it took a long time until she was satisfied. "Okay," said Stacey. "Look, I'll fix that line like this, and then you can fill in the numbers. Can you make a one here and a two here?" Claire's a pretty smart kid (all the Pikes are) and she knows her numbers really well. She and Stacey worked on the board for quite awhile, Stacey drawing the boxes and Claire filling in the numbers. Finally, it was done.

They couldn't start to play, though - not until Claire had found a special "lucky" stone to toss down, and helped Stacey find just the right one, too. Then she went through an elaborate ritual to decide who got the first turn.

At last, the game began. Stacey threw down her stone and hopped. When she'd finished her turn (of course, she'd pretended to slip so that her turn wouldn't last forever and Claire wouldn't get even more impatient than she already was), Claire threw down her stone. She didn't like where it landed, and she tried to get Stacey to let her throw again, but Stacey wouldn't let her. (Mean old Stacey!) Then, Claire began to hop. Hop, hop . . . CRASH! Claire went tumbling over the neatly drawn squares. Stacey held her breath. Sometimes if you don't make a big deal about a fall, the kid won't, either. But then Claire began to bawl.

Stacey ran over to where she lay and took a look at the knee Claire was pointing to. This wasn't a false alarm. She'd skinned it pretty badly. And she'd skinned the other knee, too - and also one of her hands.

Stacey looked over to where the triplets were playing ball. They were so absorbed in their game that they'd barely noticed Claire crying. "Adam! Jordan! Byron!" Stacey yelled. "I'm taking Claire inside to clean her up. Don't go anywhere without telling me first, okay?" They nodded and kept on tossing the ball around.

Then Stacey scooped up Claire and took her inside. She washed out the scrapes as gently as she could, while Claire gave her careful directions through her sobs. "Now put on some thirst-aid cream and then a bandage," said Claire. Stacey followed orders, rummaging in the medicine cabinet to find the first-aid cream.

Claire was so interested in the bandaging procedure that she'd begun to forget how much her hand and knees hurt. Her sobbing had slowed to a sniffle as Stacey applied the last bandage.

Just then, Stacey heard a loud SMASH from downstairs. "What - " she said. She realized immediately that the triplets had managed to break something. She ran down the stairs, Claire hobbling after her, and out the door.

There were all three boys crowded around one of the basement windows. Their bat and a pile of gloves lay on the ground, but the ball was nowhere in sight.

Stacey put her hands on her hips. "Okay, which one of the wrecking crew is responsible for this?" she asked. The triplets looked at each other, then looked back at Stacey. All three shrugged in unison.

"What's going on?" asked Stacey. "All I asked was which one of you did it." The triplets shrugged again. Then Byron spoke up. "It's like this movie we saw," he said. "The Three Musketeers. All for one ..." he started, and then Jordan and Adam joined in, "and one for all!" "We've decided to be like them. We'll never turn in a fellow triplet again!" said Jordan.

"Yeah!" said Adam. "We're a team." Stacey rolled her eyes. Then she cleaned up the broken glass. She made Claire and the triplets stand off to the side - she didn't need any more injuries that afternoon.

When Mrs. Pike got home, Stacey had to tell her what had happened. Mrs. Pike rolled her eyes, too, when she heard about the Three Musketeers. Then she questioned the boys herself.

They still wouldn't tell which one of them had broken the window.

"You know, guys," she said, "ordinarily I'd let this go. But this is the fourth window you've broken in the last three months. This can't continue." She stopped to think. "Since you won't tell me who did it, I'm going to have to punish all three of you. You'll be grounded until you admit which one of you is the culprit. Also, none of you will get an allowance until that window is paid for." Stacey was sure that such a tough punishment would convince the triplets to abandon their pact, but they didn't give in. They just looked at each other silently, turned around, and headed for their room. Stacey watched them go, shaking her head. At least, she thought, you never got bored sitting for the Pikes! Chapter 6.