"Babysitters Club 040 Claudia And The Middle School Mystery" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babysitters Club)

Vanessa looked up. "My green notebook I must find," she said, "for I have a special poem in mind."
"Not now, Vanessa," Stacey said, smiling. "Try to remember it, and you can write it down when you get back." She walked Vanessa out the door and then waved as Mrs. Pike backed down the driveway.
Suddenly, Stacey sensed someone behind her. She turned, and saw three someones - the triplets. Each of them was making a different gruesome face. Claire stood nearby, giggling.
"Hey, you guys!" said Stacey. "Nice faces! What if they stay that way?" They laughed, knowing that she was teasing. Then, just as Stacey was about to suggest that they go outside to play since it was such a nice day (and since they seemed a little wound up), Adam
announced that they were going to play baseball in the backyard.
"And you can't come!" he said to Claire, sticking out his tongue.
"I don't care, Adam-silly-billy-goo-goo," she answered. "Me and Stacey are going to play hopstotch."
"It's 'hopscotch,' you dummy," said Jordan.
"Jordan," said Stacey. "Be nice!" But she knew he didn't really mean it. "Okay, have fun, guys," she said, waving them into the backyard.
Then she turned to Claire. "Hopscotch?" she asked.
"Can we?" asked Claire. "Please? Margo never plays hopstotch with me anymore."
"Sure, Claire," said Stacey. "Let's find some chalk."
They found some pink chalk in the toy box and went out to the driveway to draw the board. Stacey started right in, drawing the first three boxes stacked on top of each other, then a fourth and fifth side-by-side stacked on top of them.
"No, Stacey!" said Claire. "You're not doing it right." She pointed at one of the lines Stacey had drawn, which was a little crooked.
Stacey tried to be patient. Claire always needed to have things done "just so," and sometimes it took a long time until she was satisfied. "Okay," said Stacey. "Look, I'll fix that line like this, and then you can fill in the numbers. Can you make a one here and a two here?"
Claire's a pretty smart kid (all the Pikes are) and she knows her numbers really well. She and Stacey worked on the board for quite awhile, Stacey drawing the boxes and Claire filling in the numbers. Finally, it was done.
They couldn't start to play, though - not until Claire had found a special "lucky" stone to toss down, and helped Stacey find just the right one, too. Then she went through an elaborate ritual to decide who got the first turn.
At last, the game began. Stacey threw down her stone and hopped. When she'd finished her turn (of course, she'd pretended to slip so that her turn wouldn't last forever and Claire wouldn't get even more impatient than she already was), Claire threw down her stone. She didn't like where it landed, and she tried to get Stacey to let her throw again, but Stacey wouldn't let her. (Mean old Stacey!)
Then, Claire began to hop. Hop, hop . . . CRASH! Claire went tumbling over the neatly
drawn squares. Stacey held her breath. Sometimes if you don't make a big deal about a fall, the kid won't, either. But then Claire began to bawl.
Stacey ran over to where she lay and took a look at the knee Claire was pointing to. This wasn't a false alarm. She'd skinned it pretty badly. And she'd skinned the other knee, too - and also one of her hands.
Stacey looked over to where the triplets were playing ball. They were so absorbed in their game that they'd barely noticed Claire crying. "Adam! Jordan! Byron!" Stacey yelled. "I'm taking Claire inside to clean her up. Don't go anywhere without telling me first, okay?" They nodded and kept on tossing the ball around.
Then Stacey scooped up Claire and took her inside. She washed out the scrapes as gently as she could, while Claire gave her careful directions through her sobs. "Now put on some thirst-aid cream and then a bandage," said Claire. Stacey followed orders, rummaging in the medicine cabinet to find the first-aid cream.
Claire was so interested in the bandaging procedure that she'd begun to forget how much her hand and knees hurt. Her sobbing
had slowed to a sniffle as Stacey applied the last bandage.
Just then, Stacey heard a loud SMASH from downstairs. "What - " she said. She realized immediately that the triplets had managed to break something. She ran down the stairs, Claire hobbling after her, and out the door.
There were all three boys crowded around one of the basement windows. Their bat and a pile of gloves lay on the ground, but the ball was nowhere in sight.
Stacey put her hands on her hips. "Okay, which one of the wrecking crew is responsible for this?" she asked. The triplets looked at each other, then looked back at Stacey. All three shrugged in unison.
"What's going on?" asked Stacey. "All I asked was which one of you did it."
The triplets shrugged again. Then Byron spoke up. "It's like this movie we saw," he said. "The Three Musketeers. All for one ..." he started, and then Jordan and Adam joined in, "and one for all!"
"We've decided to be like them. We'll never turn in a fellow triplet again!" said Jordan.
"Yeah!" said Adam. "We're a team."
Stacey rolled her eyes. Then she cleaned up the broken glass. She made Claire and the
triplets stand off to the side - she didn't need any more injuries that afternoon.
When Mrs. Pike got home, Stacey had to tell her what had happened. Mrs. Pike rolled her eyes, too, when she heard about the Three Musketeers. Then she questioned the boys herself.
They still wouldn't tell which one of them had broken the window.
"You know, guys," she said, "ordinarily I'd let this go. But this is the fourth window you've broken in the last three months. This can't continue." She stopped to think. "Since you won't tell me who did it, I'm going to have to punish all three of you. You'll be grounded until you admit which one of you is the culprit. Also, none of you will get an allowance until that window is paid for."
Stacey was sure that such a tough punishment would convince the triplets to abandon their pact, but they didn't give in. They just looked at each other silently, turned around, and headed for their room. Stacey watched them go, shaking her head. At least, she thought, you never got bored sitting for the Pikes!
Chapter 6.
And what was I doing while Stacey was sitting at the Pikes'? Well, I was sitting, too. In my room, with the door closed. I wasn't doing homework. I wasn't listening to the radio. I wasn't working on my collage. I wasn't even reading Nancy Drew. And I wasn't eating the Cheetos that I'd hidden the day before in my sock drawer. I was just sitting.
I was thinking, too - or at least trying to think. I still couldn't get a handle on what had happened in math class that day, and I hadn't figured out what to do about it. I knew I was innocent, but what I didn't know was how to get everybody else to believe me.
I heard Janine come home, but I didn't call out to her. I wasn't ready to talk to anyone about my problem. Luckily, she didn't come upstairs to work on her computer, like she
usually does. Instead, she started getting dinner ready in the kitchen. Good! That meant I could just keep on sitting.
A little while later I heard my mom come home. She and Janine were talking when the phone rang. Was this the call? Was the principal on the other end, telling my mother what a horrible person I was? I didn't even want to know. I stayed in my room.
Soon I heard my mom and Janine talking again. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but their voices sounded serious. Then my dad came home. I heard his footsteps go into the kitchen. More talking.
What would happen if I just stayed in my room for the rest of my life? I wouldn't go hungry for quite awhile, with all the junk food I had hidden all over the place. And I could entertain myself by reading mysteries and working on art projects. The more I thought about it, the better the idea sounded. I nodded to myself. Yup, staying in my room was definitely the best plan.
"Claudia!" my mom called up the stairs. "Dinner!"
I didn't answer. I folded my arms and stayed where I was.
Five minutes later she called again. "Claudia, honey!" she said. "We're having tacos!"
Sure enough, I could smell the popcorn-y smell of tacos warming in the oven. Tacos are one of my favorite foods. I guess it's because they're about as close to junk food as you can get when you're sitting around the table with your family. Mmm, a big crunchy taco filled with all that delicious spicy beef and then stuffed to the brim with toppings . . .