After I rejoined the BSC, Dawn moved to California permanently. (She missed it too much.) We have a new member now, Abby. She’s Dawn’s replacement (not that anyone could replace Dawn, but you know what I mean).
Now that you know our history, here’s how the club works. We meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from five-thirty until six. Clients call during that time. The person nearest the phone answers and takes down the client’s information (name, number, how many kids, when, where). We decide who should take the job and then call the client back.
It sounds simple, and it is, but it takes a lot of planning and organization to keep everything running smoothly. That’s the reason we each have official club titles and responsibilities to go along with those titles.
As you know, Kristy Thomas is president. This is partly because she thought of the club and partly because the club needs someone strong, organized, and … well, bosslike to keep it going. (Is bosslike the same as bossy? I think so.) Kristy is all those things and is very dedicated to the club. On top of that she constantly overflows with great ideas.
One of her ideas was to keep a club notebook, a journal in which we write about our sitting jobs. It’s a great reference when you need to know about a certain family you’ll be baby-sitting for.
Her other very important idea was the record book. That’s where we keep the schedule of who is baby-sitting where and when. We also have our personal schedules in there. For example, the book says when I’ll be in Manhattan with Dad, when I have a doctor’s appointment, and so on. That way if I’m not available to work on a certain day, it’s in the book. In the back of the book is official information about our clients: addresses, phone numbers, the rates they pay. There’s even special information about our charges such as allergies or their likes and dislikes.
Also under the category of great Kristy ideas come Kid-Kits. These are boxes full of fun stuff to bring on baby-sitting jobs. Each of us has our own and we keep them stocked with things such as stickers, coloring books, arts and crafts materials, and games. Kids love the Kid-Kits, though we don’t bring them all the time. We tend to use them to smooth the way in difficult sitting jobs. We use our club dues to refill the boxes once in awhile.
Speaking of dues, I’m the club treasurer. I got that job because I love math and I’m good at it. I have the sometimes unpleasant duty of collecting dues every week. Everyone grumbles on dues day, but it’s necessary. We use the money to contribute to Claudia’s phone bill. We also pay Kristy’s brother Charlie to drive Kristy and Abby across town since they live farther away than the rest of us. If there’s anything left over, we restock Kid-Kits or buy anything else we might need. Then, if we have enough money (as treasurer, I decide this) we can do something fun such as go to the movies or have a pizza party.
Our vice-president is Claudia. Her main contribution is the use of her phone and her room. She’s also a kind of hospitality officer, providing snacks and soda for everyone. She always makes sure there’s a healthy snack for me, which I appreciate a lot.
Mary Anne is our secretary. After Kristy, she has the second most important job (in my opinion). She keeps track of the record book, seeing who is available for jobs and then recording the jobs in the book. She’s unbelievably good at it, and has never made a mistake.
We also have an alternate officer. That’s the person who has to know everyone’s club job and be ready to take over if someone is not at a meeting. Before she left, Dawn was the alternate. Now Abby is.
As I mentioned before, Jessi and Mallory are our junior officers. They’re only allowed to baby-sit during the day (or in the evenings for their own families). That frees the rest of us to take night jobs, so they’re a big help.
Now I’ll tell you a bit about the members of our club. Again, I’ll start with Kristy. Once Dad and I went to see a play called The Mouse That Roared. The title always makes me think of Kristy. At first glance she looks a little mousy — petite with straight brown hair, plain, sporty clothes, no makeup. But she sure can roar. She lets you know exactly what she’s thinking. She’s not at all shy about it even if her opinion is unpopular or a little insulting.
This domineering personality allows her to take charge of things easily. She really keeps the club moving. (No one goofs off or breaks rules with Kristy around.) She also coaches a little kids’ softball team called Kristy’s Krushers, which gives her plenty of roaring opportunities.
Don’t get me wrong, though. Kristy isn’t just bossy. She’s also a good friend with a great sense of humor. But she has a very can-do attitude.
Kristy has needed that attitude. Her life has not always been easy. Her family used to live on Bradford Court across the street from Claudia and next door to Mary Anne. Mrs. Thomas struggled to raise four kids (Kristy has two older brothers and one younger) by herself since Kristy’s dad walked out on them right after her younger brother, David Michael, was born. (Is that rotten, or what?) Then, the most amazing thing happened. Kristy’s mom met this man named Watson Brewer and remarried. The amazing part is that Watson is an actual millionaire, complete with a mansion and everything! Kristy and her family moved across town to live in the mansion.
Her family needs a mansion, too. Kristy’s mom and Watson adopted a Vietnamese girl, Emily Michelle, who is two and a half. Nannie, Kristy’s cool, peppy grandmother, came to help take care of Emily. On top of that, Watson is divorced and he has two kids, Karen (seven) and Andrew (four). They live with Kristy and her family every other month, and with their mother and her new husband the rest of the time. With their assorted pets, that’s a full house.
Despite living in a mansion and being suddenly wealthy, Kristy wasn’t thrilled with the move. (Material things don’t mean much to her.) She didn’t like being so far away from the rest of us. And she wasn’t sure if she liked Watson, either. But soon everything straightened out. Watson turned out to be a terrific guy, and Kristy is wild about her new stepsiblings. (They adore her, too.)
One person who really missed Kristy when she moved across town was Mary Anne Spier. She and Kristy had always lived next door to each other and they were almost like sisters — twins, even, since they looked a lot alike back then. Mary Anne is also petite with brown hair. But, unlike Kristy, she’s softspoken, even a bit shy.
Of course, Mary Anne and Kristy stayed friends even though they couldn’t talk to each other from their bedroom windows anymore. When I think of how Mary Anne was when I first met her, it’s amazing how much she’s changed. She was this timid little kid with braids who wore awful, babyish outfits (pleated skirts, ruffled blouses, knee socks). Since she was short, too, she seemed much younger than she was. She dressed like that because her father was very strict. Her mother died when Mary Anne was a baby and Mr. Spier had to raise Mary Anne by himself. He did a good job, too good. He sort of overdid it, if you ask me. He watched her so carefully and had so many rules that Mary Anne could make few choices for herself, including what she’d wear and how she’d fix her hair.
Now Mary Anne looks her age, wears a little makeup, has adorable short blunt cut hair and is, in fact, extremely cute. She won the freedom to develop a new image thanks to Dawn Schafer and her mom. They loosened Mr. Spier up a lot (thank goodness!). He relaxed enough to let Mary Anne be herself.
I should explain. See, Dawn’s mother married Mary Anne’s father. Dawn’s parents had gotten divorced, which was why Dawn had moved to Stoneybrook with her mother and her younger brother, Jeff. (Her dad stayed in Palo City, California.) When Dawn and Mary Anne browsed through Mrs. Schafer’s old high school yearbook they made an awesome discovery: Their parents had been boyfriend and girlfriend back then. Right away, they started scheming to get their parents back together.
It worked, too! Although not overnight. It took months, actually. But finally their parents married. Mary Anne and her father left Bradford Court and went to live in Dawn’s old farmhouse (built in 1795!). The four of them (Jeff had returned to California) had to work hard to become a new
family. It wasn’t nearly as easy as Mary Anne and Dawn had expected. They even had some upsetting fights along the way.
One of their main problems was food. Dawn and her mother are health food eaters. (They don’t touch red meat, sugar, or junk food, and actually prefer foods like tofu, miso, and kelp flakes.) Mary Anne and her dad eat red meat, fried foods, and lots of other things people who are health conscious don’t eat. Mealtimes turned into battles. There were other problems, such as messiness versus neatness. (Dawn’s mother is messy; Mary Anne’s father is neat.) There were the issues of privacy and space. (Mary Anne and Dawn started out sharing a room and ended up much happier with separate ones.) Eventually, though, everyone compromised a little and things worked out.
That is, they worked out until Dawn began missing California. She missed her father, her brother Jeff, her friends, and her life there in general. I think she tried not to miss it because she was loyal to her friends here, Mary Anne in particular. But that longing got the best of her and she decided to live in California permanently. Mary Anne was heartbroken at first, but now she’s used to the idea.
It helps that her boyfriend, Logan Bruno, is such a nice guy. He and Mary Anne are very close and being with him helps her feel less alone now that Dawn is gone. Logan is an associate member of the BSC. That means we call him if we have a job that no one else can take. He’s a good baby-sitter since he has a younger brother and sister of his own.
Not only does Mary Anne have Logan to depend on, she has us, too — the BSC. We all care about Mary Anne. She’s an amazing club secretary, a sensitive listener, and a true friend.
Speaking of true friends, my very closest friend is Claudia Kishi. She was the first one to befriend me when I moved here and we’ve been best friends ever since. Claudia and I have a lot in common. For one thing, we both love clothing and style. Claudia’s style is much more original than mine, though. Her creative, great-looking outfits reflect the fact that Claudia is an artist. Everything about her is artistic. She loves to draw, paint, sculpt, make jewelry, throw pottery, silk-screen — everything!
Today Claudia had on an oversized purple top over turquoise leggings. With fabric paints she’d painted a beautiful unicorn on the top and then decorated the leggings with designs in the same colors. From her ears dangled earrings she’d made of papier-mâché in the shape of unicorn heads.
One thing Claudia and I don’t have in common is junk food. I can’t have any and Claudia is wild for it. Her parents don’t approve so Claudia stashes it all over her room. You have to be careful when you sit down somewhere or you just might squash a pack of Devil Dogs or crush a bag of chips.
Another thing you might find hidden in Claudia’s bedroom are her Nancy Drew mysteries. Claudia absolutely devours them, but her parents don’t think they’re intellectual enough. That seems crazy to me, but if you think about Claudia’s family, it makes sense. Mrs. Kishi is the head librarian at the Stoneybrook library so I suppose her taste in books is pretty sophisticated. And Claudia’s older sister Janine (who’s sixteen) is a real live genius with an IQ score to prove it.
It’s funny to think that two sisters could be as different as Claudia and Janine. Claudia’s style is funky and artistic, while Janine has no style.
Another difference. Claudia is gorgeous, Janine isn’t. Claudia has astounding, thick, silky black hair and almond-shaped eyes. (The Kishis are Japanese-American.) She’s glamourous and graceful. Janine, on the other hand, is very plain and couldn’t care less about her looks. Claudia once gave her a makeover, though, and it’s helped some.
And while Janine adores nothing more than sitting in front of her computer, Claudia can hardly stand school. Schoolwork doesn’t come easily to her and her spelling is the pits. (If you saw the club notebook, you’d see what I mean.) I believe Claudia isn’t good at schoolwork because she can’t bring herself to pay attention. She’s always concocting some new art project in her head instead of listening to the teacher. Then when she’s home, instead of studying, she’s working on that project.
Speaking of sisters who are different, our newest member, Abby, has a sister, Anna, who looks exactly like her. They’re twins. They both have very dark eyes and wear either contacts or glasses. They have thick, curly brown hair, but they each wear it differently; Abby’s is long and Anna’s is short.
Honestly, though, apart from their looks, Abby and Anna Stevenson are almost as different as Claudia and Janine. Anna is a musician devoted to playing the violin. Abby is an athlete who loves to play soccer and helps Kristy with the Krushers. (She lives two doors down from Kristy on McLelland Road, so it’s convenient for them to go to games and practices together.) Even though Abby suffers from occasional asthma attacks and has lots of allergies, she doesn’t let it slow her down.
The Stevensons are originally from Long Island, which isn’t far from Manhattan. Their father died in a car accident when Anna and Abby were nine. Their mother works as an editor and commutes to and from the city every day. She works hard and sometimes gets home late, so Anna and Abby have become very self-sufficient and independent.
When Dawn moved back to California, we invited both Anna and Abby to join the BSC. Anna didn’t want to take the time away from her violin practice, but Abby said yes. It’s funny to see how Abby interacts with Kristy. They’re so different, yet both are outspoken and take-charge types. I think Abby is having trouble taking orders from Kristy even though she likes her a lot.
Shannon Kilbourne also lives on McLelland Road along with Kristy, Abby, and Anna. In fact, she’s good friends with Anna. Shannon is another associate club member, like Logan. For a while she was coming to meetings and we thought she could take over for Dawn. But Shannon’s very active in after-school activities and she simply didn’t have the time. She still comes to meetings once in awhile when she’s free and can get a ride to Claudia’s with Kristy and Abby.
That covers the thirteen-year-olds, but I could never leave out our junior officers, Jessi and Mallory. They’re best friends, too.
Jessi Ramsey is a talented ballerina who takes classes in Stamford (the city closest to Stoneybrook). She looks like a ballerina, with long legs and graceful arms. Her black hair is usually pulled back in a bun or a braid the way dancers wear it. She has a pretty face and smooth, dark skin.
Jessi lives in the house my family moved out of when my dad was transferred back to New York. She and her family (which consists of her mom, dad, younger sister Becca, baby brother Squirt, and her aunt Cecelia) had come to Stoneybrook because her father’s company transferred him to their Stamford office. The fact that the Ramseys are African American bent some of their neighbors out of shape for a while. This was a shock to Jessi because her old neighborhood had been well integrated. But before long, the jerky neighbors chilled out and the Ramseys made some good friends.
Mallory Pike is also talented, like Jessi, although she isn’t a dancer. Mallory wants to be a writer-illustrator of children’s books when she gets older. She’ll have lots of kids to test her stories on since she has seven younger brothers and sisters. After Mal, there are the triplets, Byron, Jordan, and Adam (who are ten years old), Vanessa (nine), Nicky (eight), Margo (seven), and Claire (five).
Somehow I know Mallory will be successful as a writer-illustrator. She has a funny, original way of looking at things. She says she loathes the idea of having her author picture on the back of a book or on the jacket flap. That’s because she doesn’t like her looks very much. She has curly reddish-brown hair, glasses, braces, freckles, and a great smile. Okay, so it’s not the standard beautiful-girl look, but Mal has an inner beauty and I think she really shines.
So that’s our crew. By five-thirty we were assembled and ready to begin the meeting. “Any new business?” Kristy asked from the director’s chair.
“I won’t be here for a week,” I announced. As I told them about the Walker job I could see Kristy’s expression growing grimmer and grimmer. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You
keep doing this!” she exploded, tossing her arms up in the air, which caused her baseball cap to tumble backward off her head.
“Doing what?” I demanded indignantly.
“Taking long-term jobs. You took that every-day job at the Cheplins’. And now this!” Awhile back I’d sat for two kids every day after school until it got to be too much. Kristy hadn’t wanted me to take the job because it left the club minus one sitter.
“Kristy,” I said, “what is the difference if I take a different baby-sitting job every day of the week or baby-sit for the same people all week?”
“I understand what you’re saying,” she said, picking up her cap. “But you take these jobs with people we don’t usually work for. Our regular customers depend on us to have enough sitters to cover them.”
“It’s just for one week,” I protested.
“The worst possible week,” Kristy grumbled. “I’ll be away the same time. With you gone, Stacey, we’ll be two members short.”
“Late August is usually our slowest time,” Mary Anne pointed out as she sat at the edge of the bed with the record book open on her lap. “So many of our clients are away on vacation.”
A piece of Kristy’s hair had fallen into her face. She blew it away and sighed. “I suppose. I don’t feel good about it, though. I’m afraid things are going to get out of hand. Mary Anne, you’re organized, why don’t you take over as president while I’m gone?”
“Hey, wait!” Abby objected, rising to her knees from the spot on the floor where she was sitting. “Isn’t that supposed to be my job? I’m alternate officer, aren’t I?”