Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 027

"All bops on the head," he continued, "all punches on the arm ..." "All punches in the nose," I said, laughing.

"All kicks in the shins." I have to admit, we were getting pretty silly. Suddenly, I remembered that I was supposed to be the baby-sitter. I glanced at Mrs. Masters to see if she seemed bothered. Mrs. Masters smiled.

"All knocks to the noggin," she joined in.

Pretty soon we were all laughing. For me it was a way of letting out some of that giddiness that was left over from the audition.

"You know, those notes are all fine and good," Mrs. Masters said, "but we did catch your performance and I just want to say that it was beautiful." "Really?" I said.

"Breathtaking," she went on. "There's just something about ballet, isn't there? And you looked like such a natural ballerina up on that stage." "Except for the pique turns and the tour jetes," Derek teased.

"I think those girls were picking on you because you were so good," said Mrs. Masters.

Boy, I sure wished I could let myself believe that. I still wasn't sure I had the stuff to make it into the production. Now that I had only one more audition to go, I started to get really scared. I was in the big league now. Deep down, I was afraid of blowing it.

By this time Mrs. Masters was pulling the car into the driveway. When she shut off the ignition, she turned to face Derek.

"Well," she said, "are you going to tell Jessi your news?" Derek blushed.

"Shhh," he said.

"News?" My ears pricked up. "What news?" "I'll tell you later," Derek said.

The front door of the house banged open. Todd had heard the car and was running out to greet us. He jumped right into my arms.

"Jessi!" he cried.

I set him down and followed him into the house. Mr. Masters was putting on his jacket to join his wife, who was waiting for him in the car. A few moments later, I was alone with the kids. My curiosity was getting stronger and stronger.

"So," I said. "What's this news all about, anyway?" "Nothing." Derek shrugged.

Todd grabbed my arm and started jumping up and down.

"We're going back to L. A.! We're going back to L.A.!" he said.

"What!?" I shrieked.

Derek stared at the floor. ."Derek, are you really?" I asked.

He glanced up quickly, then nodded his head.

"Why?" I asked. "You just got here." "Derek's gonna be on TV again," Todd said. "He's gonna be on another show." "A TV movie," Derek explained. "They start shooting real soon, so we have to leave in a couple of weeks." "A couple of weeks?" I said. I couldn't believe it. This had all happened so fast.

"I'm gonna go back to my old school," said Todd. He was still hanging on my arm and tugging hard.

"Just when I started to make friends," said Derek. "I'll miss my new friends and I'll miss you. . . . Oh, no, Jessi," he cried. "I just realized. I won't get to see you in Swan Lake." Derek's eyes started to glaze over. You could tell his mind was wandering off somewhere. "Hey," he said suddenly. "Jessi, why don't you come out to L.A., too? There're lots of dancers out there. You could pick up some modeling work. I'm sure you could get some commercials." "I can't go out to L.A.," I protested.

"Why not?" said Derek. "I did." "Anyway, I couldn't get work on commercials." "Sure you could." Derek grabbed my free hand and started tugging at me, too.

"Come to L.A.," he started chanting. "Come to L.A." Todd joined in.

With Derek tugging on one hand and Todd tugging on the other, I felt a little bit like a giant piece of taffy. Just then, the doorbell rang.

"Saved by the bell!" I said with a laugh.

Todd ran to the window to see who was there.

"It's your friends," he called to Derek.

Derek looked at me quickly.

"Don't say anything about L.A.," he said. "I'll tell them. Soon, but not yet." He ran to the door. Four boys trooped in, I guess they were the same boys Claudia had invited over. Derek introduced me to them, but none of them was named John.

Oh, well. I sighed to myself. Derek had been in Stoneybrook such a short time. It had been long enough for him to make a few friends, but not long enough to win over the Super-brat. I took Todd's hand and brought him out to play in the backyard. There sure were big changes here. And something Derek had said was echoing in my brain. That I could get modeling jobs and work on commercials.

"Come on, Todd," I said.

Modeling. Commercials. That might be a relief after all this ballet anxiety. I had a lot to think about.

Chapter 11.

When Monday rolled around, I almost missed the meeting of the Baby-sitters Club. I had two projects in mind, and both of them had something to do with Derek. At 5:10, I was still sitting in my room, working on Project #1. I had the Stamford phone book in my lap. I opened it to the yellow pages and was copying down names and phone numbers of certain kinds of businesses. I had closed the door because I didn't want anyone to know what I was doing ... at least not yet. It was my secret. I bet I have you curious about what I was up to. Well, I'll give you this hint: the project had something to do with Derek's idea about me going into acting and modeling. I hadn't been able to stop thinking about the possibility, ever since Derek had brought it up. I glanced at the clock. Uh-oh! Only a few minutes to meeting time. Time to put aside Project #1 and get started on Project #2.

(You'll see what that one was in a minute.) I hid the list of phone numbers under my pillow and took off for Claudia's.

No one was surprised, of course, when I slid into the meeting at the very last minute. I guess at this point, they almost expect that. Kristy was already rapping on the arm of her director's chair to call the club members to attention.

"The Baby-sitters Club will now come to order," she said.

I sat up as tall as I could. I don't usually talk a lot at the meetings, being a junior officer and all, but like I said, I had to start organizing this second project I had in mind. And that would mean getting all the club members involved.

"Anybody have any club business?" Kristy asked.

I shot up my hand even though Kristy had said at my first club meeting that I didn't have to do that.

Kristy looked a little surprised and so did everyone else. I hadn't even told Mallory my idea yet.

"Jessi," Kristy called on me.

"Yes. Well," I began. "Well, all of you know by now that Derek and his family are moving back to L.A. in a couple of weeks. So my idea is ... My idea is ..." I swallowed hard. "My idea is that we give him a surprise good-bye party before he leaves. We could invite all the new friends he's made. That way everybody will get a chance to say good-bye." For a moment nobody said anything. Then Kristy's face broke into a big smile.

"Great idea!" she said.

"Yeah!" Mallory echoed.

"I could make invitations," said Claudia.

Everybody started talking at once.

"We could invite some of the kids we babysit for." "And all the kids in Derek's class." "All the kids?" I asked. That sounded like a big crowd. "I was thinking of having the party at my house. I don't know if everyone would fit." "Well, we could have it at my house," Kristy offered. Kristy's house, remember, is a mansion.

"Really?" I said. "You wouldn't mind?" "It would sure make Karen happy," Kristy said, laughing. "She still hasn't given up the idea of meeting Derek and asking him to make her a star." A phone call came in and then another one, so we did have to do some of our usual meeting stuff, but we spent most of the time planning the party. Kristy, who loves to be in charge, had quickly taken over.

The first problem we ran into was the question of when to hold the party. There wasn't much time left before Derek would be moving again and we were all pretty tightly scheduled with jobs and all. Mary Anne paged through the appointment pages of the record book.