Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 031

"Have fun at the job," I said sarcastically to Mary Anne. "I hope the girls are monsters." Mary Anne just smiled at me. The Perkins girls are never monsters.

Two nights later - Friday night - Mary Anne came home from the Perkinses'. It was about nine-thirty. I was lying on my bed, eating a granola bar and reading a book called Ghosts: Fact and Fantasy. I didn't even look up when Mary Anne entered our room.

"Hi," she said, after a few moments. She sat carefully on the edge of her bed.

"Hi," I replied. I still didn't look up.

"How's the book?" "Fine." "Well?" "Well what?" "Aren't you going to ask how the Perkinses are?" Mary Anne had me there. If she'd said, "Aren't you going to ask how my job went?" I would have said, "No." But I like Myriah, Gabbie, and Laura - a lot. So I said, "Okay. How are the Perkinses?" "Great, as usual. We really had fun." "Good for you." "Don't you want to know what the girls did?" Well, of course I wanted to know. "What did they do?" I asked.

"All right. Laura slept most of the time." (Laura is just a baby.) "But Gabbie was rehearsing for a play she's going to be in at her preschool. It's called The Three Piggy Opera." (I couldn't help smiling.) "And guess what Myriah wanted to do?" "What?" I asked. I admit it. I was hooked. I almost didn't care that Mary Anne had gotten the job and I hadn't.

"She wanted to write letters to famous people." "You're kidding! . . . Can she write yet?" (Myriah is still in kindergarten.) "Well, sort of. She can write her name, of course, and 'love' and a few other words. But she needed a lot of help. She wanted to write to the president to tell him she'd lost a tooth. And then she wanted to write to - get this - Cam Geary to tell him he's her favorite star." Mary Anne and I were both laughing by then. See, the funny thing is, Cam Geary is Mary Anne's favorite star. I had put my book down, sat up, and was facing Mary Anne on her bed.

"What did the letters say?" I asked.

Mary Anne smiled. "The first one went: 'Dear Mr. President, I have lost a tooth. It was a bottom tooth. I put it under my pillow and the Tooth Fairy came. She left me a prize. I just thought you would want to know. Love, Myriah. P.S. Keep up the good work.' " "Oh, that is so cute!" I exclaimed. "Myriah is such a great kid." "So's Gabbie," replied Mary Anne. "You should have heard her singing. She was rehearsing really hard." "How about the letter to Cam Geary?" I asked.

"Oh, that one went: 'Dear Cam, Hi! How are you? My name is Myriah and I am your favorite fan.' " "Your favorite fan?" I repeated.

"I think she meant 'biggest.' Anyway, then she went on: 'I like your TV show very much. If you're ever in Stoneybrook, come visit me. I live on Bradford Court. I'd be happy to give you some cookies. Love, Myriah.' " Well, leave it to the Perkins girls. Mary Anne and I were friends again. No, I think we were sisters again. How could we help it, after sharing a story like that one?

When we went to sleep that night we both said, " 'Night, sis." Chapter 6.

I guess if I were eleven, a baby-sitter myself, and not feeling well, I wouldn't have been a terrific sitting charge, either, so maybe it's understandable that Mallory did not give Claudia an easy time that afternoon. (Claud told us about her experience later that day at our meeting.) For one thing, Mal was in an odd position. She was half baby-sitter (even though she was confined to her bedroom) and half baby-sittee. Mrs. Pike needed a sitter desperately (I'll tell you why in a minute), but even though Claud had already had the chicken pox, Mrs. Pike didn't want her going too close to Mal because now we knew that it was possible to get the pox again. Therefore, Claud had to take care of Mal as best she could without going in her room. However, with so many other Pike kids around, Mal was considered an extra babysitter, just in case of an emergency.

Anyway, Adam, Byron, and Jordan (the triplets) had not been feeling well lately. They'd been coughing, sounded congested in their chests, and had been very tired. So Mrs. Pike decided a trip to the doctor was in order. Claud was left in charge of Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, Claire, and the itchy, crabby Mallory.

(By the way, Claire is five, Margo is seven, Nicky is eight, and Vanessa is nine.) "Let's play doctor's office!" said Claire as soon as Mrs. Pike and the triplets had left. With so much sickness in her house, no wonder she wanted to do that. "Okay," agreed Margo instantly.

But Nicky and Vanessa were harder to convince. In the end, Claud said, she thinks they only gave in because it was raining, and anyway, if they'd said no, their little sisters would just have begged them nonstop.

"Oh, goody!" sang Claire when everyone had agreed to play. "Now look, you silly-billy-goo-goos. The whole rec room is the doctor's office. No, wait. It's the emergency room. No, a hospital. A hospital, okay? Oh, and here comes the ambulance. Right now! There's an emergency!" Claudia could see the others getting into the spirit of the game.

"Ooh-eee-ooh," wailed Nicky helpfully.

"Make way for the ambulance!" cried Claire.

"I'll be the special emergency-room doctor," said Vanessa. "Hey, wait a sec. We need props." She dug around in a bin of toys and came up with a stethoscope for herself, plus a nurse's cap, a rolled-up bandage, a gigantic fake syringe, and a doctor's kit. She handed the nurse's cap to Nicky.

"Here, you be the nurse," she said. "I'm the doctor." "No way!" exclaimed Nicky. "Doctors are boys and nurses are girls." "Oh, that is so old-fashioned," said Vanessa. "There are lots of women doctors today. You know that very well. Doctor Dellenkamp is a woman." "Well, I am not going to be a boy nurse," replied Nicky. He handed the cap to Margo. "I'm going to be the ambulance driver." "And I'll be the patient," said Claire. "I was just in a very, very terrible car accident. I am all bloody and I think my leg is broken. My head, too." (Claudia succeeded in not laughing.) "Okay. I'll get you to the hospital in a jiffy," said Nicky. He slid Claire across the floor. "Ambulance coming!" he yelled.

Vanessa and Margo ran to their patient.

"Check her blood pressure," Vanessa instructed the nurse. Then she added, just like on the TV shows, "I can't find a pulse!" "It's in her wrist, dummy," hissed Margo.

Claire continued to lie on the floor. Her eyes looked closed, but Claud could tell she was peeking, trying to watch what was going on.

"What happened to the victim?" Vanessa asked Nicky.

"Car accident, ma'am. She was riding her bike and she ran into a truck." "I did not!" Claire whispered loudly. "The truck ran into me." Vanessa was giving Claire an injection with the toy syringe when Claud first heard Mallory's bell ringing upstairs.

Ding, ding, ding! "Oh," said Claud, "Mal's calling. I better go see what she wants." Claudia dashed up to Mallory and Vanessa's room. The door was open, but only a crack.

"Mal?" called Claud.

"Claudia?" Mal replied. "Don't come in. Mom said for you to stay away from me. Just in case." "1 know. Do you need something?" "A soda," Mal replied grumpily. "I'm thirsty. And bored." "Sorry," Claud told her honestly. "I'll have Vanessa bring you a drink, but I can't come in and talk to you or anything. Don't you have a book to read?" "I read two today." "How about writing in your journal?" "I've written ten pages." "Is the portable TV in there?" "Yes, but there's nothing on except reruns and boring talk shows." Claud sighed. She was out of suggestions. "I'll have Vanessa get your drink. What do you want?" "Ginger ale," said Mal in a tiny, pathetic voice.

So Claud interrupted the hospital game to ask Vanessa to take the ginger ale to her sick sister. While Vanessa was gone, Margo, still wearing the nurse's cap, said, "Okay, now I'm a mother and Claire is my little boy - " "Boy?" cried Claire.