"Babysitters Club 122 Kristy In Charge" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babysitters Club)

"Fabulous, Alan," Abby said dryly. "See what I mean?" she said after he was gone. "This idea has major drawbacks, if you ask me."
As it turned out, she was right. The idea had more drawbacks than either of us could ever have imagined.
Chapter 2.
"Who's doing TOT?" Stacey McGill asked that afternoon before our Friday BSC meeting. We were in Claudia Kishi's bedroom, where we hold meetings.
"I'd love to do it," Stacey continued, "if I could be sure I'd get a math class." Stacey is a math whiz and the club treasurer.
"You can't pick," Mallory Pike told her. "I already asked. You have to take the class the TOT coordinator assigns you."
Claudia ripped open a bag of popcorn. "There's no way I'm doing it," she said firmly. That was no surprise. School is not one of her favorite things. She'd probably rather go to the dentist than go to school.
Glancing at the clock, I saw it was five-thirty. Time to start the meeting. I checked the room. Everyone was there. Good, I thought. It really bugs me when anyone comes late. "This BSC meeting is about to begin," I announced.
As I mentioned earlier, I came up with the idea for the BSC. One day when I was in seventh grade, my mother spent hours calling around for a sitter for David Michael. That's when the idea came to me. If she could call one number and talk to lots of sitters, she'd probably call that number every time she needed a baby-sitter. For her, it would be easy and wonderful.
And for me - it would be a great business.
So I talked to my best friend and neighbor, Mary Anne Spier, and then to Claudia and Stacey. We agreed to meet in Claudia's room since she has her own phone line. Then we let parents know they could reach us on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons from five-thirty until six at Claudia's number.
We were an instant success! We had so much work that we brought Dawn Schafer into the club. Later, when Stacey had to move, we added Mallory and Jessica Ramsey. When Stacey returned to Stoneybrook it was no problem because our client list had grown so much that we needed even more help. Then Dawn moved back to California, where she'd grown up, and we had to replace her. Enter: Abby. That makes ten members right now. (Seven regulars, two associates, and one honorary, since Dawn visits fairly often and always comes to meetings when she's here.)
The phone rang. Claudia scooped up the receiver. "Hello, Baby-sitters Club," she answered. Listening carefully, she took the client's information down on a pad, then said she'd call right back. She turned to Mallory. "It was your mom. She wants someone for this Thursday, but just for Vanessa, Margo, and Claire." Mallory is one of eight kids. Sitting for only three of them is a breeze compared to dealing with the whole crew.
"Yeah, I can't do it Thursday," Mallory explained. "TOT training. I asked ahead to make sure I'd be available."
"Then a lot of us can't take the job," Mary Anne said as she opened the BSC record book where, as club secretary, she keeps track of all our jobs. "I wanted to volunteer too." She looked at Claudia. "You said you didn't want to do it, right?"
"Me? No way," Claudia replied. "I'm definitely free for Thursday."
"I'm not doing TOT," Jessi said. "But I can't sit either. I just started an extra ballet class on Thursdays."
"I'm not doing TOT either," Abby added.
Mary Anne looked down at her book. "But you have an allergist appointment that day," she reminded Abby.
Mary Anne not only records all our jobs in the record book, she also keeps track of our
appointments and after-school activities, so there's never a conflict. She's awesome at it.
"I'll go," Claudia said as she punched in the Pikes' phone number to tell Mrs. Pike she was coming on Thursday.
"The training is on Friday too," Mallory mentioned to Mary Anne. "I won't be available on that day either."
"I'd better find out now who's going to TOT training and who isn't, so I can schedule everyone properly," Mary Anne proposed. "Everyone who is going, raise your hand."
As Mary Anne sorted out this scheduling wrinkle, I looked around at my friends and thought about which class each of them should teach.
For Mallory, English would be a perfect fit. She loves books and writing and hopes someday to write and illustrate stories for children. She has a dry, wry sense of humor that would probably work well in books for kids.
Mallory has reddish-brown hair, glasses, braces, and a nose she hates. She complains about her looks all the time - as if looks matter. Her personality is funny and perky and she's a good person. Those are things that count.
Since she and Jessi are eleven and the rest of us are thirteen, they're our junior members. They only work during the day, unless they're
sitting for their own brothers and sisters.
Speaking of Jessi, there's no doubt what class she should teach - dance. She's a graceful classical dancer who works hard at it. She even looks the part, with her long legs and her black hair swept off her face ballerina-style.
Jessi and her family moved to Stoneybrook from Oakley, New Jersey, a town with a mix of ethnic groups. So the Ramseys were shocked when here in Stoneybrook some people gave them a hard time because they're African-American. They snubbed them and were rude and basically intolerant. Fortunately, that seems to be in the past now, and the Ramseys have lots of good friends here.
"Okay, that's all set," Claudia said, hanging up the phone. "Write me in for the Pikes this Thursday at three-thirty. Mal, do you think the girls would like it if I brought over my bead-making kit?" she asked.
"They'd love it. They go wild when you bring your art stuff over."
Claudia's class would have to be art. She lives and breathes it. She even looks like art. I'm not kidding. Today she was wearing a long-sleeved white T-shirt on which she'd painted a bald man's head from a side view. All the lines were sharp, not natural at all. His nose was purple, his eyes were orange, and his skin was green. Jagged yellow lines like lightning bolts sizzled around his head. "What is that supposed to be?" I'd asked her when I saw her in school.
"A person having a great idea," she'd answered, as if it should have been obvious to me. "You, especially, should have recognized it, Ms. Idea Machine."
"I generally don't turn colors when I think. Why is his skin green?" I'd asked.
"Why not?" she'd replied. Sometimes, I have to admit, I don't get it. But Claudia is creative. She's also a junk food maniac, which is why she's been assigned to be our club caterer. (Her official title is vice-president.) As club caterer all she really has to do is pull out the bags of snacks she has hidden all over her room. (Her parents forbid her to eat the stuff. But does that stop her? N-o-o-o-o-o.)
Really, you'd never think Claudia likes junk food so much. She's slim and has perfect skin. Her long, straight black hair gleams, and there's always a shine in her dark, almond-shaped eyes. (She's Japanese-American.) Claudia is like a walking advertisement for the benefits of unhealthy eating. I wonder sometimes how long she'll be able to keep it up before something (like a zit) catches up with her.
Claudia's best friend is Stacey. The class Stacey would most like to teach is math, as she mentioned. She could also teach a special class
on style and sophistication. Stacey is originally from New York City, and it shows. I think she seems older than the rest of us. (With the possible exception of Claudia.)
Stacey isn't just a former city girl. She still goes there on weekends every so often to stay with her father. You see, her parents are divorced and her dad still lives in the city. She's also dating this guy named Ethan, who's an art student there. So, in a way, Stacey has another life in New York City.
One more thing about Stacey. She's diabetic and has to eat healthily and carefully. It's serious business. Her body doesn't properly regulate the amount of sugar in her bloodstream. To keep this condition under control, she has to give herself injections of insulin every day. She also has to watch what she eats. She's very disciplined about these things and most of the time her diabetes doesn't get in the way of her life.
"Okay," Mary Anne told our group, "everyone is doing TOT except Abby, Jessi, and Claudia. Is that right?"
We nodded.
Of course it was right. Mary Anne never gets a scheduling matter wrong. Her class could be secretarial sciences. She would be a great guidance counselor too. She's an excellent listener,
extremely sympathetic, and she really cares about people.
Mary Anne and I actually look a bit alike - small with brown eyes and brown hair.
Mary Anne is so sweet that people assume she's had an easy life. That's not true. Her mother died when Mary Anne was just a baby. She lived with her grandparents for awhile after that, because her dad was so freaked out that at first he couldn't deal with raising a child. Soon, though, he pulled himself together and came for her. He was a good father but very strict. Mary Anne had to fight for every little freedom she had.
In seventh grade, Mary Anne met Dawn Schafer. Dawn is tall and willowy with straight blonde hair and strong convictions about issues such as ecology. Dawn's parents had recently divorced and Mrs. Schafer had moved home to Stoneybrook, where she'd grown up.
One day, Mary Anne and Dawn discovered that their parents had been a couple when they were teenagers. They instantly began plotting to bring them together again. Amazingly, it worked. Dawn and Mary Anne became stepsisters and best friends and Mary Anne and her father moved into Dawn's old farmhouse on Burnt Hill Road. (Dawn's brother, Jeff, soon