Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 030

"No, thank you," she said haughtily. Then she stalked up to her room.

By the afternoon, Karen was in an even worse mood. She had spent the morning muttering about what pains and brats little sisters are.

"They are always in your way," she'd said as she tried to pass Emily on the stairs. Emily was climbing them one slow step at a time, holding onto the banister with one hand, and trailing her blanket behind her with the other.

"They get all the attention," she said at lunch time as Watson cut Emily's sandwich into quarters for her, and Nannie settled Emily in her high chair.

By the time Watson and Kristy's mom and everyone else were taking off, leaving Kristy in charge, Karen had marched up to her room, marched back down again holding her T-shirt that reads, "I'm the middle sister . . . and proud of it," and said, "See this? I don't want it anymore. You can put it in Shannon's dog-bed." Then she had dropped the shirt on the floor and huffed off to the den to be alone for awhile.

"I'm sorry to leave you with this mess," Watson apologized as he and Mrs. Brewer headed for his car.

"That's okay. I can handle it," Kristy assured him. She turned around and walked back into the house. She passed Andrew and David Michael, who were in the living room with the curtains closed, playing a game in the dark called The Wandering Frog People. The Pike boys made the game up.

Kristy was watching them and smiling when she heard an odd noise from the direction of the kitchen - several small thumps, like something being dropped. Then she heard Karen say, "Bad girl, Emily. Bad girl!" Kristy raced to the kitchen. There was Karen, shaking her finger at Emily, who was standing by a chair. On the table was a package of cookies, and on the floor were several broken ones.

"Just look what Emily did," said Karen in a disgusted voice. "She made a huge mess. Daddy hates cookie crumbs on the floor. Plus, Emily tried to climb up to the table for the cookies when she knows she's not supposed to stand on chairs." Kristy looked firmly at Emily. Watson, Kristy's mother, and Nannie had all said that it was important not to spoil Emily, even though she had gotten off to a bad start in life. And yet - Kristy didn't know what to think. Emily couldn't talk well enough to defend herself.

"Did you try to get the cookies?" Kristy asked Emily.

Emily just stood there and cried.

"Did you break the cookies?" This time Kristy pointed to the mess on the floor.

More tears from Emily, while Karen watched, hands on hips.

"If I did something bad, Kristy," said Karen, "Daddy or Elizabeth would send me to my room. They always do." That was true. But Kristy still didn't know for sure what had happened. Finally she just said, "Emily, did you do something naughty?" Emily's crying grew louder, so Kristy decided that meant she was guilty. "Okay," Kristy continued. "Up to your room." She marched Emily to her room, took off her shoes, and put her in her crib. "Time-out for ten minutes," she told her. Then, feeling horrible as Emily stood in her crib, crying hopelessly, Kristy turned and walked away. By the time she'd returned to the kitchen, Karen had cleaned up the mess, but now she was crying.

"What's the matter?" asked Kristy, thoroughly perplexed. "You can't possibly be upset that I punished Emily." "Yes I am," wailed Karen.

Kristy sat down. "Why?" she demanded. Nothing made sense.

"Because you should be punishing me. I made the mess. Then I blamed it on Emily. I just wanted to see if you'd really punish her. I know what I did was wrong. Emily looked so sad and - and confused. She even looked a little mad. Do you think she understood what I did to her?" "She might have," Kristy replied. "Emily's not stupid. She just doesn't talk much yet. And furthermore, Karen Brewer," (Kristy had stopped herself just in time from saying "young lady," a phrase her mother uses that she hates), "furthermore, you will now have ten minutes of time-out in your room while I try to explain things to Emily. Then I want you to apologize to her." Karen nodded. She knew she deserved everything that was happening. So now Kristy walked Karen up the stairs. On their way, David Michael called out, "Kristy, I'm going over to Linny's house!" "Okay," Kristy replied. She noted that the living room curtains had been pulled back and that Andrew was on the floor, playing with Shannon. The Wandering Frog People must have come to an end.

Kristy deposited Karen in her room, then rescued Emily from her crib, saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She held Emily in the rocking chair for awhile and tried to explain what had happened. By the time Karen's punishment was over, Emily was smiling again, so Kristy took her into Karen's room.

"Time's up," she informed Karen.

Karen nodded.

"Now don't you have something to say to your sister?" "Yes," replied Karen. "I want to say - Hey, get out of my toy box, Emily!" "Karen," said Kristy warningly.

"Well, she's always getting into my stuff. And she's doing it right now." "She just wants to see what's in the box. She isn't going to hurt anything." "How do you know?" Kristy didn't know. But luckily for everybody, just at that moment, Emily emerged from the box with an old stacking toy of Karen's.

"Where'd that come from?" asked Karen. "That's a baby toy. I didn't even know it was in there." Emily sat on the floor and happily placed the colored rings on the pole. Karen got up and dug through her toy box. At the bottom she found a pull-toy, some plastic pop-apart beads, and a cloth book about a little girl who takes a bath.

Karen set them in front of Emily. "Here," she said. "You can have these. I don't need them anymore." Then she added, "I'm sorry I yelled at you, Emily." Well, the grin that lit up Emily's face could have melted the heart of Ebenezer Scrooge (before he came to his senses, that is).

Kristy sighed, glad the crisis was over and that she could relax and enjoy baby-sitting.

That's what she thought. Little did she know that another crisis was about to arise. It all began when, sometime later, she, Andrew, Emily, and Karen heard, Honk, honk! "I bet that's Charlie!" cried Andrew. "I bet he's got his new car." "His old car," Karen corrected him.

"His new old car," said Kristy.

Kristy and the kids rushed out the front door. In the driveway before them was a clinker of a car. In fact, it looked a lot like Nannie's Pink Clinker, except that it wasn't pink. It was sort of gray. And Kristy could see a scratch and two dents just on the passenger's side of the car. Plus, the fenders were rusting.

But Charlie was obviously very proud of his car. He and Sam climbed out of it just as Patrick, Charlie's friend, pulled up in Mrs. Brewer's station wagon.

Charlie grinned and waved to the crowd on the porch. "Well, here it is," he said. "One gorgeous piece of metal." One gorgeous piece of junk, thought Kristy, imagining what her mother and Watson would say when they laid eyes on it.

"It may not actually be gorgeous," Charlie went on, "but it runs like a dream, and with a little paint and some wax I can really fix it up. You guys can help me." "Oh, thank you so much," said Kristy sarcastically.

Charlie was too excited to notice. "Come on, everyone. We're going for a ride," he announced. "We have to drive Patrick home." And with that he took Emily's car seat out of the station wagon, attached it to the backseat of his car, and loaded Emily, Andrew, and Karen inside. Then Sam and Patrick piled in. "You coming, Kristy?" asked Charlie.

"I can't," she replied. "David Michael's over at Linny's. I'll have to wait for him here." "Okay," Charlie said, and drove off.

Five minutes later, David Michael returned. When he found out where everyone was, he pitched a fit right in the front yard.

"You mean my own brother got a new car and he took everyone for a ride but me? His own brother?" "David Michael - " Kristy began. She was going to explain that Patrick had needed a ride home, and everyone else had been standing right there by the car. But David Michael had already banged into the house. When he came out a few moments later, he was carrying a big piece of paper and a fat black Magic Marker. In huge letters he wrote on the paper: NO PARKING He posted the sign on a tree in front of the house where Charlie couldn't miss it.