Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 027

"I look different from on the show, huh?" Derek said. I guess my mouth was still hanging open.

"No glasses," I managed to say. , "Waldo wears the glasses," said Derek. "I have 20-20 vision." Mrs. Masters ushered me into the house and started showing me around. Well, the famous Derek Masters was not only regular-looking himself, he also lived in a perfectly regular house. In fact, it was kind of messy. There were newspapers all over the floor in the living room and dishes piled up high in the kitchen sink. What had I expected? A Hollywood set?

Mrs. Masters showed me where she kept the emergency numbers and then she set out a snack for the boys and me in the kitchen. She was just going to be gone a couple of hours, so she said good-bye to Todd and Derek and left me there in charge.

"Well," I said to the boys. They looked up at me over their glasses of juice. "Tell me about L.A. What's the TV business like, Derek?" "Yuk," Derek said. "Work. Actually, I like it okay, but I'm glad we're on a break." "P.S. 162 feels like work?" I said. "Gee, it looks like so much fun on TV." "It can be fun," Derek said, "but it's long hours." "Then when do you go to school?" I asked.

"I have a private tutor there," said Derek. "He works with me on breaks between tapings, whenever we can fit it in." Derek stuffed a whole fig cookie into his mouth. "I'm starting school here again next Monday," he grinned. The words were all garbled with cookie. Derek was a regular kid, all right.

I wished I had taped our conversation that afternoon. It probably sounded pretty comical. For awhile, I didn't give up trying to ask Derek questions about the show - what it was like being a TV star and all. But, every chance he could, Derek changed the subject and asked me things about Stoneybrook. Did I know anything about Stoneybrook Elementary School? he wanted to know. Were the same teachers still there? Did I know if any of the same kids would be in his class?

Of course, I know plenty about Stoneybrook Elementary. Becca goes there and so do just about all the kids I baby-sit for.

"Do you know Nicky Pike?" I asked.

Derek's face lit up. "Nicky's a great guy." As Derek talked on, the light bulb finally flashed in my brain. Derek wasn't interested in talking about show biz. Here was a kid who'd been away from his class for almost a year, and he was just worried about how he would fit in when he went back.

"I hope the kids don't think I've changed," he said, "or treat me differently. Some people act pretty strange about this star stuff." "Really?" I gulped. I was glad Derek didn't know how silly I had gotten.

After the boys had finished their snack, Derek brought me up to his room. He pulled an old, battered box out from one of his drawers. It was a game of Candy Land.

"Landy Cand!" he said to Todd. "You want to play Landy Cand?" Then he explained to me, "That's what Todd used to call it when he was two." See, not only was Derek a regular kid, he was also a regular, everyday brother.

The three of us settled on Derek's floor for a game. And another. And another. Whenever Todd got a card with candy on it, he brought it up to his mouth and pretended to eat it with loud munching sounds. Derek let Todd win every other game.

When we were about Candy Land-ed out, Derek folded up the board and put the game away. I spotted another box in the drawer. On the top was a large photo of Derek.

"What's this?" I asked curiously. I picked up the photo. It was of Derek's face, but it was blown up and it looked like some kind of fancy movie star photo. His hair looked kind of windswept, but in a perfectly styled kind of way. His smile was big and toothpaste-y. At the bottom of the photo his name was printed in big letters. Derek looked embarrassed that I had found it.

"There's more," I said. The whole box was filled with copies of the photo.

"It's my head shot," Derek said shyly.

"Your what?" I asked.

"Head shot," Derek repeated. "If you're an actor, you get a fancy picture taken of you like this and then you send it around to all the people who might give you work." "Really?" I said. It seemed so ... so, I don't know. ... So professional.

"Yeah," said Derek. "You take them to auditions with you and stuff." "Auditions," I mumbled, I wondered if dancers were supposed to have photos, too.

"I'm going on an audition soon," I told Derek. Even as I said the word, my stomach started knotting up. I may have decided to go ahead with the audition, but I was obviously still more than a little scared.

"Really?" said Derek. Now it was his turn to be surprised. "What kind of audition? An acting thing?" "Sort of," I said. "For a ballet." I explained to Derek about my dance classes and about this Stoneybook Civic Center production of Swan Lake. I told him that Mme Noelle had encouraged me to try out.

"Great!" said Derek. "I know all about auditions. I'll be your coach. I'll tell you exactly how to land this job." Derek didn't have time to do any coaching that day, though. Downstairs, the front door banged open.

"I'm home!" Mrs. Masters called.

Derek came downstairs with me. "Thanks for all the news about Stoneybrook Elementary," he said.

"Sure," I replied. "And don't worry. You'll do fine. Hey, especially in science," I suggested, trying to be helpful. "You could make friends just by doing everybody's science homework." "Science!" Derek shook his head as if he were going crazy. "I hate science!" he exclaimed. "I get F's!" "You do?" I said. I couldn't help laughing.

Derek narrowed his eyes, pretending to be mad.

"I know, I know. I'm confusing you with Waldo. I'm going to have to start a list. On one side I'll put all the things Waldo does. On the other side I'll put the things Derek does." Mrs. Masters paid me and I said good-bye to the boys. I hurried down the street and headed for my afternoon Baby-sitters Club meeting at Claudia's house. I couldn't wait to tell my friends all about Derek and what a nice kid he was. And wait'll Becca hears, I thought.

Uh-oh. I stopped short. Becca! I'd completely forgotten to ask Derek anything about Lamont! Oh, well. I sighed as I thought of how mad Becca would get. I ran the rest of the way to the meeting.

Chapter 5.

You can tell from what Mallory wrote in the club notebook that she had caught DEREK MASTERS! fever. That's the way it seemed to go. Just when one person would be getting over it, another person would catch it. It was contagious.

Anyway, that Saturday, things did get a little strained. Who knows, maybe it was all my fault. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to get everybody together in the first place. But Becca started it. And Mallory pushed it. And then the triplets made it worse.

Come to think of it, Derek didn't help the situation any himself.

See, this is how it started. I was still home, getting ready to go over to the Masterses' house for another afternoon baby-sitting job. Becca followed me to the door while I was putting on my jacket. She was begging, I mean absolutely begging me to take her along.

"Please, please, please, please, please," she said.

"Becca," I said, "you know I can't take you with me on a job." "But Derek is probably lonely," she whined. "He probably doesn't have any kids here to play with yet. In L.P. he probably gets to play with Lamont all the time." I rolled my eyes. This time I didn't even bother to correct Becca. She hurried on.

"Does Derek ever say anything about Lamont?" she asked. "I mean, did he ever maybe say anything about how Lament really loves rock collections?" What a question. That's my sister, though. You can guess who has her very own rock collection. Miss Rebecca Ramsey, herself.

"Please," Becca started up again.

Okay, Becca was being a little bit of a pest. But as she was talking, I started thinking. It was true, Derek had seemed a little lonely. Practically all he'd talked to me about was whether he was going to be able to make friends at school again. And it just so happened that he and Becca were the same age. I decided that I would ask Derek and his mom if they'd mind if Becca came over to play for awhile. Of course, I wasn't about to tell that to Becca. I figured I'd wait and see what they said first.