Kristy's Mystery Admirer (2 page)

Here are a few more things about Dawn. She's an individualist who stands up for what she believes in, even if no one else believes in it. She's organized (thank goodness, because her mom is exactly the opposite). She and her mom (and Jeff and her dad) love health food and don't eat meat. Dawn is gorgeous. She has LONG silky blonde hair. Honest, it's so blonde it's nearly white. She has sparkling blue eyes and she dresses like the individual she is. She wears what she wants to wear. My other friends and I think of it as "California casual." Dawn has two holes pierced in each ear. (Mary Anne and I will never get our ears pierced.)

The vice-president of the club is Claudia Kishi. When Mary Anne and I were still in our old neighborhood on Bradford Court, we

lived across the street irom Claudia. So she grew up with us, too. Claudia lives with her parents and her older sister,_ Janine, who is a genius. It's true. Janine is only in high school, but she gets to take courses at the local college. This is a tragedy where Claudia is concerned. See, the thing about Claud is that she's smart, but she doesn't apply herself, as her teachers are always pointing out. Claud would much rather read a good Nancy Drew book (she's hooked) or work on her art. Usually her art takes priority. (That means that it's more important.) And no wonder. Claudia is a fantastic artist. Her work is incredibly distant. (That's a word my friends and I made up to mean supercool.) Claud can sculpt, paint, draw, make collages, you name it. She even makes her own jewelry.

That's another thing. Claudia's clothes. She's a real fashion plate. Talk about distant. Her clothes are so distant. Claudia is the most interesting dresser I know. She is always wearing things like Day-Glo high-top sneakers, cut-up jeans, off-the-shoulder sweat shirts (sometimes torn), and friendship bracelets. (Her best friend is Stacey McGill, the club treasurer, and Claud braided friendship bracelets for both of them.)

Claud is exotic-looking. She's Asian and has

long black hair that she fixes a million ways, almond-shaped eyes, and a complexion I would die for. How come I get pimples sometimes and Claud never does? Especially since she's addicted to junk food. She hides it all over her room. (Her parents, naturally, don't approve of this.) Also, she has two holes pierced in one ear and one hole in the other.

As I mentioned, the BSC treasurer is Stacey McGill. Two things about Stacey: 1. She is the most distant of all of us. 2. She has had the most problems of all of us (in my opinion).

Stacey originally came from New York City. That's where she grew up, and I think that's why she's so sophisticated. Stacey's clothes are at least as distant as Claudia's, and she gets to have her hair permed and stuff. She has pierced ears, of course, and she is slightly boy-crazy. But, her life has not been easy. First, Stacey's father's company transferred him to Stamford, Connecticut, which is not far from Stoneybrook, so Stacey had to leave New York and her friends at the beginning of seventh grade. Then, the McGills had only been living here for about a year when Stacey's father was transferred back to New York. And not long afterward, the McGills decided to get a divorce. Not only that, Mrs. McGill planned to return to Stoneybrook, while Mr. McGill

planned to stay in New York with his job. Who was Stacey going to live with? How would she make the decision? It wasn't easy at all, but finally Stacey returned to Stoneybrook and the BSC. Of course, us club members, especially Claudia, were thrilled, but Stacey still feels guilty about leaving her father. She visits New York a lot.

To top things off, as I mentioned before, Stacey has diabetes — a severe form of the disease. What that means is that something in her body called insulin can go out of whack if Stacey doesn't stick to a strict no-sweets, calorie-counting diet, give herself injections of insulin (yuck), and monitor her blood. I know this sounds disgusting, but think how Stacey feels. And I have to admit that she hasn't been looking good lately. There's talk of her going to see her special doctor in New York again.

The last two members of the Baby-sitters Club are younger than the rest of us. They're in sixth grade at SMS, and we're in eighth grade. Their names are Mallory Pike and Jessica Ramsey, but they mostly go by Mal and Jessi. (Mallory, by the way, is someone our club used to sit for.) Anyway, Mal and Jessi are best friends, and I can see why. They have a lot in common, although they certainly have their differences, too. First of all, they're both

the oldest in their families, except that Mallory has seven younger brothers and sisters (she's Claire and Vanessa Pike's big sister), and Jessi has just one younger sister and a baby brother. Becca is eight,and Squirt (whose real name is John Philip Ramsey, Jr.) is a toddler. Both Mal and Jessi are at that awful age (eleven) when they want to be more grown-up than their parents will let them be. They were allowed to get their ears pierced recently, but Mal has to wear glasses and braces, so she doesn't feel particularly pretty, and both girls feel that their parents treat them like babies sometimes. Plus, Jessi's mother just got a job, so with both Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey working, Jessi's Aunt Ce-celia moved in. Sometimes Jessi feels like Aunt Cecelia is her baby-sitter. A few more similarities: Mal and Jessi both like to read, especially horse stories, and to write. (Well, Mal likes writing more than Jessi does, but she did convince Jessi to keep a journal, which Jessi has been doing faithfully.)

Now for the differences. Mal, the great writer, would like to be an author and illustrator of children's books one day, while Jessi thinks she'd like to be a professional dancer. She's been taking ballet classes for years, dances en pointe (that means on toe), and has even had leading roles in several ballets, danc-

ing in front of big audiences. She takes lessons a couple of times a week at a special school in Stamford, Connecticut. She had to audition just to be able to take lessons there.

Furthermore, Jessi and Mal couldn't look less alike if they tried. Jessi is black and Mal is white. Jessi has the long, graceful legs of a dancer, is thin, and has these huge, dark eyes with lashes that I'd like to have as much as I'd like Claudia's complexion. Mal, on the other hand, has unruly red hair, and (as I mentioned before) wears glasses and braces, so she's not too pleased with her appearance right now. Also, she has freckles, which she can't stand.

Let's see, I might as well finish telling you about me, as long as I'm on the subject of the members of the Baby-sitters Club. I am active, always on the go and coming up with new ideas. (Some people think I'm bossy.) Can you believe it? I'm the only club member who still doesn't wear a bra because I don't need one. I don't care too much about clothes, though, anyway. I am not trendy and distant like some of my friends. I'm more of a slob. Almost every day I wear jeans, running shoes, a turtleneck, and a sweater. Those clothes are comfortable.

I miss my father. He never calls or writes anymore. I wish he were more like Dawn's

father or like Watson. They both make efforts to see their kids. And Mr. Schafer and Dawn are even separated by three thousand miles.

What else about me? I think boys are dweebs, except for Bart, Logan (Mary Anne's boyfriend), and the boys I sit for. I even think my fifteen-year-old brother Sam is a dweeb. I like animals and we have a puppy named Shannon (after my friend Shannon), and an old cat of Watson's named Boo-Boo. Sometimes I think my house is a zoo, but I like the activity.

So there you are. You have just met my friends and me. I know I'm lucky to have such good friends. I also know I'm lucky to have a family, even a mixed-up one. I knew that when Emily came into the den holding out a sneaker I'd lost and said proudly, "Soo." (Shoe). I gave her a big hug.

Chapter 3.

"Thanks, Charlie!"

"See you in half an hour," he replied.

It was almost time for a Monday club meeting and Charlie had just dropped me off at Claudia's in his "car." (Now that I live in a different neighborhood, Charlie has to drive me to and from BSC meetings. The club pays him to do this.)

I ran to Claudia's front door and right on inside, without bothering to ring the bell. There was no point. I knew Claud was prob-aby the only Kishi at home, and anyway, we club members never ring the bell.

"Hi, Claud!" I greeted her, as I entered her room. (I am always relieved when her sister, Janine, isn't home. Janine is nice enough, I guess, but she's forever correcting your grammar and vocabulary. I guess that comes with being the genius that she is.)

"Hi," replied Claud. She was lying on her

bed, reading The Clue of the Velvet Mask, and one of her legs was propped up on a pillow.

"I guess it's going to rain, huh?" I said.

Claud broke her leg awhile ago and ever since, it has hurt her when it's going to rain. It's a pretty good barometer.

"Yeah," agreed Claud. "Do you think Dawn and the others will mind sitting on the floor with Jessi and Mal today? My leg really hurts."

"Nope," I replied. "Is there any junk food you want me to search for?"

"Hmm." Claud closed her Nancy Drew book with a snap and looked thoughtful. "Try — Oh, wait a sec. There's something right here." She reached under the comforter that was lumpily folded at the foot of her bed and retrieved a bag of potato chips and a package of Gummi Bears. "These'll do," she said.

"I'll pass them around," I told her.

Mary Anne and Dawn arrived then, so I took my presidential seat in Claudia's director's chair, put on the visor I wear at meetings, and stuck a pencil over one ear.

"Hi, guys," I said.

"Hi," they replied. They were already settling themselves on the floor.

Usually Claudia, Mary Anne, and Dawn sit on the bed, Stacey sits in Claudia's desk chair (or sometimes Dawn sits in the chair and Sta-

cey sits on the bed), Jessi and Mal sit on the floor, and I sit where I was already sitting, in the place of honor. (The director's chair makes me feel tall.) Today, Stacey would probably sit at the desk, and the floor would just be a little more crowded than usual.

I looked at Claudia's digital alarm clock, which is the official BSC timepiece. As soon as those numbers change from 5:29 to 5:30, the meeting begins, even if a club member hasn't arrived. I'm a stickler for being on time, though, so my friends are hardly ever late.

Our club meets three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from five-thirty until six. As president, I try to run it professionally. But let me back up here and tell you how the club started, before I tell you how it works.

See, at the beginning of seventh grade, long before so many things had changed, I still lived here on Bradford Court, across the street from Claud. David Michael was only six then, and since Mom worked full-time, Sam and Charlie and I took turns baby-sitting for him after school. (I baby-sat for other kids, too, though.) Anyway, of course a day came when none of us — not Charlie, not Sarri, not I — could sit for our little brother. So Mom started calling baby-sitters. It was while I was eating

a piece of pizza and watching Mom on the phone that it occurred to me that my mother could save a lot of time if she could make just one call and reach a lot of sitters, instead of making all those separate calls. So I got together with Mary Anne and Claud, told them my idea, and we began the BSC!

The first thing we decided was that we needed another club member, so we asked Stacey to join. She had just moved here from New York and was getting to be friends with Claudia. Stacey was dying to join, and the club was a success from the beginning. (We advertised a lot — by word of mouth, with fliers, even with an ad in our local paper.) Soon we had so much business that we needed a new member, so we asked Dawn, who was Mary Anne's new friend at the time, to join. Then Stacey moved back to New York, we replaced her with Mal and Jessi, and then Stacey returned to Stoneybrook. We have seven members now, and I think that's enough. Claudia's room is getting crowded.

Here's how we run the club and what our responsibilities are:

I am the president, as you know. It's my job to keep the BSC in good shape and fresh by coming up with new ideas. (Besides, I thought up the club in the first place.) Some of my

ideas are Kid-Kits, the club notebook, and the club record book. Kid-Kits are cartons (we each have one) that we decorated with Claudia's art materials and filled with our old toys, games, and books, as well as some new things, such as coloring books, sticker books, Magic Markers, etc. We sometimes take the kits on jobs with us, and our charges love them. This is good business, because when our charges are happy, then their parents are happy, and when parents are happy, they call the Babysitters Club with more jobs for us!

The record book is Mary Anne's and Sta-cey's department, so I'll describe that later, but let me explain about the notebook. The notebook is more like a diary. In it, each of us is responsible for writing up every single job we go on. This is a chore, but it's helpful because we also have to read the diary once a week to see what went on during our friends' recent jobs. We learn about problems our charges are having, how to solve tough sitting situations, and that sort of thing.

Now let's see. Claudia is our vice-president. This is because she has her own phone and her own personal phone number, so her room is an ideal place to hold meetings. Thanks to our advertising, our clients know when the BSC gets together so they call us during meet-

ings. We spend a lot of time on the phone and don't have to worry about tying up our parents' lines. Thank goodness for Claud and her phone.

Mary Anne is our secretary and she has a pretty big job. Remember the record book I mentioned? Well, Mary Anne is in charge of it (except for the numbers section, which is Stacey's domain). In the record book, Mary Anne has noted all of our clients, their phone numbers, addresses, the rates they pay, the number of children they have, etc. More important are the appointment pages. There, Mary Anne writes down all the jobs we have lined up and who's got the jobs. She's great at this. I don't know how she does it, because she has to keep track of so many schedules — Jessi's ballet classes, Claud's art lessons, plus eye doctor and dentist appointments, and more. But she's great at it. She's never made a mistake. (Also, she has the neatest handwriting of any club member.)