"Martin, Ann M - BSC052 - Mary Anne And Too Many Babies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)
Kristy Thomas was sitting in Claudia's director's chair, her visor perched on her head, a pencil stuck over one ear.
Kristy is the president. (Of BSC, I mean.)
Jessi, one of our junior officers, was leafing through the club notebook.
As I found a comfortable position on the bed, I glanced at Kristy. She was staring at Claud's digital clock. That clock is the official club timepiece, and when the numbers flip from 5:29 to 5:30, Kristy begins a meeting, whether all the club members are present or not.
I guess Kristy has a right to do that. After all, she's not just the club president, she's the person who started the BSC. The club was her idea. What is the BSC? It's really a business, and a successful one. This is how it works. Three times a week Ч on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from five-thirty until six Ч my friends and I gather in Claud's room and wait for parents to call us, needing babysitters. When a call comes in, one of us agrees to take on the job. This is great for parents.
They make one phone call and reach seven people, seven expert baby-sitters. So they're bound to line up a sitter quickly. They don't have to call one person after another, trying to find someone available.
How do parents know when to call us? How do they know when we hold our meetings? Because we advertise Ч you know, flyers and posters. Also because we've been in business for awhile now. We have a good reputation.
Anyway, Kristy is the president, since she started the BSC. She is overflowing with fantastic ideas. Kristy is the one who thought of keeping a club notebook, which is like a diary. Each time one of us finishes a sitting job, we're supposed to write about it in the book. Then, once a week, we read through the recent entries to find out what happened on our friends' jobs. This has turned out to be really helpful.
Kristy also came up with the idea for Kid-Kits. Every member of the club has made a Kid-Kit. A Kid-Kit is a large box that has been painted, decorated, and filled with child-appealing items Ч our old games, books, and toys, art supplies, activity books, and so forth. Our sitting charges just love to see us show up with our Kid-Kits. They may have the most spectacular toys ever created, but show them something new (even if it's old, it's new to the kids), and suddenly it's more interesting than
anything they own. Somehow Kristy knew that.
Kristy seems to be a natural with kids. She's certainly around them enough at her own house, although for the longest time only one of her brothers and sisters was younger than she was. Hmm Ч that's pretty confusing. What I mean is, Kristy's mom got remarried just like my dad, and when that happened, her family changed. A lot. When Kristy and I used to live next door to each other, her family consisted of her two older brothers, Sam and Charlie; her little brother, David Michael; and her mom. Her dad had walked out when David Michael was just a baby. Several years later, her mom began dating this guy Watson Brewer, who happens to be a millionaire. He also happens to be divorced, the father of two little kids. After Mrs. Thomas and Watson Brewer got married, the Thomases moved across town into Watson's mansion. That was when Kristy's family began to grow. The Brewers adopted Emily Michelle, the little girl from Vietnam. Nannie, Kristy's grandmother, moved in to help care for her. Plus, Watson's children, Karen and Andrew, live at their father's every other weekend. Also, they acquired a dog and two goldfish, and Watson already owned a cat.
Did I tell you that Kristy is my other best
friend? Actually, she's my first best friend, since we grew up together, and I didn't meet Dawn until the middle of seventh grade. A lot of people think Kristy and I make a pretty weird duo. That's because we're so different. Kristy is extremely outgoing and is known for her big mouth. (Well, she is.) Plus, she loves sports and even coaches a softball team for little kids. (Her team is called Kristy's Krush-ers!) I, on the other hand, am shy. I'm whatever you call the opposite of outgoing. (Ingoing? Ingrown?) I think before I speak. I'm romantic (maybe that's why I ended up with a steady boyfriend before any of the other BSC members did), I cry easily (nobody likes to go to the movies with me), and I do not enjoy sports. However, Kristy and I look sort of alike. Everyone says so. Our faces are shaped the same way, we both have brown hair and brown eyes, and we're short for thirteen. We dress differently, though. Kristy's happiest when she can just drag on a pair of jeans, a turtleneck shirt, a sweat shirt, her running shoes, and maybe a baseball cap. (Her uniform.) She never bothers with jewelry or makeup. (Well, hardly ever.) I wear clothes that are a little more trendy Ч as trendy as my dad will allow me to look. Mostly, I guess I'm on the preppy side. I don't have pierced ears (neither does Kristy), but I do wear jew-
elry, including clip-on earrings. And I experiment with my hair sometimes. No major dos, though. So Kristy and I are quite different. Maybe that's why we've been such good friends. We complement each other, personality-wise.
You know who's the opposite of us in almost every way? Claudia. Yet she's a good friend, too. We voted Claud the vice-president of the BSC. We thought that was fair, considering we meet in her room three times a week, mess it up (usually), take over her phone, and eat her junk food. The phone Ч that's another reason we hold our meetings in her room. Claud has not only her own extension, but her very own phone number. That means that when job calls come in, we don't tie up someone else's line, just Claud's. You may think Claudia's job isn't difficult. I know it sounds that way, until you realize that not everyone remembers to call the BSC during our meetings. When parents call during off-hours, Claud has to deal with those jobs.
In what ways is Claud different from Kristy and me? All right, let me see. First, she comes from a smaller, less complicated family. It consists of her parents and Janine. No pets. And Claud's interests are art, junk food, mysteries, baby-sitting, and fashion, although probably not in that order. Claudia is a fantastic artist,
and she's addicted to junk food and Nancy Drew mysteries. Candy, chips, and books are hidden all over her room. (They're hidden because her parents disapprove of both addictions. They wish she would eat healthy foods and read the classics.)
Claud is also very fashion conscious, unlike Kristy and me. To begin with, she's exotic-looking. No brown hair and brown eyes for her. Claud is Japanese-American. Her hair is jet black, long, and silky. Her dark eyes are almond-shaped. Her skin is crearny and clear (despite the junk food she consumes). She loves to experiment with her hair, braiding it, twisting it up, wearing ribbons and barrettes and ornaments in it. And her clothes are outrageous. Her parents let her dress in whatever style she likes. A typical Claudia outfit might include a sequined shirt, stirrup pants (maybe black), low black boots, dangly turquoise earrings, and ribbons woven through tiny braids in her hair. And she wouldn't forget sparkly nail polish.
Another thing about Claud. She's a terrible student. She could be a good one if she tried, but school doesn't interest her. Sometimes her awful spelling drives me crazy Ч but I love her anyway.
"Hi, everyone!"
"Hey, Stace!" we replied.
Stacey McGill had dashed into club headquarters, followed closely by Mallory Pike. They had arrived just in time. As soon as they sat down (Mal on the floor with Jessi; Stacey backward in the desk chair), Kristy announced, "This meeting of the Baby-sitters Club will now come to order. Any important business?"
"Dues day!" cried Stacey. She's the treasurer, and one of her jobs is to collect dues from the seven main club members every Monday. (Two more people belong to the club, but they do not attend meetings and don't have to pay dues. They're associate members, kids we can call on to baby-sit if a BSC call comes in and none of us can take the job. Guess what. One of the associate members is . . . Logan!) Anyway, Stace is great at math, so she's the perfect choice for keeping track of the money in our treasury, which is a manila envelope. We use the money to cover our expenses: to help Claudia pay her phone bill, to buy new items to replace used-up ones in the Kid-Kits, and so forth.
Like Claud, Stacey is a real fashion plate. She dresses wildly, wears lots of jewelry (her ears are pierced; so are Claudia's), and her mom lets her get her blonde hair permed. Stacey grew up in New York City. In fact, like
What happens if Stacey or one of the other club officers has to miss a meeting? No problem. Dawn takes over for that person. As alternative officer, that's her job. She has to know everything about running the club, but that's easy for Dawn Schafer, since she's almost as organized and neat as my father is.
Dawn is also very much an individual,
which is one of the reasons she became the second of my two best friends. I like her independence, even though I eventually learned that individuality plus independence does not necessarily equal self-confidence. Dawn has some chinks in her armor just like everyone else. In general, though, she's easygoing and not likely to be swayed by what other people are doing or thinking.
Dawn has the most amazing hair I have ever seen. It's at least as long as Claud's, just as silky, but as light as Claud's is dark. It's nearly white, sort of the color of sweet corn. Dawn's eyes are blue and sparkly, she's tall and thin, and her clothes are as individual as her personality is. She wears what she feels like wearing and manages to look trendy and casual at the same time. Her mom is not at all strict about what Dawn wears Ч which may explain why Dawn's ears are double-pierced, so she can wear two pairs of earrings at the same time, although she often wears four non-matching earrings!
Dawn, Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and I are eighth-graders at SMS. The other two main members are eleven-year-old sixth-graders at SMS. They are Jessi Ramsey and Mallory Pike, our junior officers. "Junior" just means that their parents will allow them to baby-sit only after school or on weekend days; not at night
unless they're sitting for their own brothers and sisters. Mal and Jessi are another pair of best friends, and I can see why they are drawn together. Each is the oldest kid in her family: Jessi has a younger sister and a baby brother, and Mal has seven younger sisters and brothers. Each loves kids and is a terrific baby-sitter. And each feels that her parents treat her like an infant. They were finally allowed to have their ears pierced (only one hole per ear, of course), but Mal, who wears glasses, is not permitted to get contacts, and both have to dress kind of like . . . oh, like me, for instance. On the tame side.
Mal and Jessi adore reading, especially horse stories, but other than that, their interests are pretty different.
Jessi is a ballet dancer, a good one. She takes lessons at a special dance school in Stamford (the city nearest to Stoneybrook, In the mornings, she wakes up early to practice at the barre in her basement, and she has performed in lots of big productions. I think she will be a star one day.
Mal, on the other hand, likes to write and draw. She makes up stories and illustrates them. Also, she keeps journals. I bet she will become a children's book author.
In terms of looks, Jessi and Mal are pretty different, too. Jessi's skin is a deep brown,
her hair is black, and she has the long legs a dancer needs. Mal is white, her curly hair is red, and she'd give just about anything to get rid of her glasses. Also her braces, even though they're the clear kind and don't show up too much.
Ring, ring!
"I'll get it!" cried Claudia.
Stacey had finished collecting the dues, and now the phone was ringing with what was probably our first job call of the day.
Claud grabbed the receiver. "Hello, Babysitters Club." She listened for a moment. "Yes? . . . Oh, hi, Mrs. Salem," she said. (We met Mrs. Salem when we were taking an infant-care class. She and her husband have twin babies, a boy and a girl.) "Sure, sure," Claud was saying. "Okay, I'll call you back in a few minutes. 'Bye." Claudia hung up the phone and turned to me. "That was Mrs. Salem. She needs a sitter for Ricky and Rose next Tuesday afternoon. Who's free?"
I think I forgot to mention that I am the secretary of the BSC. I'm in charge of the club record book. (Guess who thought of keeping a record book.) I write down any important BSC information and I schedule all of our jobs.
I looked at the page for the following Tues-
day. "Hey, guess what. I'm the only one free," I said. "And I'd love to sit for the twins. Babies. I can't wait!"
Claud phoned Mrs. Salem to give her the good news.
Chapter 3.
"Do you, Mary Anne Spier, take this man to be your husband?"
"I do."
"And do you, Logan Bruno, take this woman to be your wife?"
"I do."
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