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BSC019 - Claudia and the Bad Joke - Martin, Ann M.

Chapter 1.
    "You know,ö said Kristy Thomas, ôI have never been hit in the face with a pie.ö
    ôImagine that,ö I teased her. ôSweet thirteen and never been hit. What a tragedy.ö
    My friends and I laughed.
    ôWell, personally,ö said Jessi Ramsey, ôI would not want to be hit in the face with a pie, thank you very much.ö
    ôI donÆt know,ö said JessiÆs best friend, Mallory Pike. ôIt would depend on the kind of pie.ö
    ôYeah,ö agreed Kristy. ôA double chocolate pie wouldnÆt be bad at all. Besides, thereÆs always the attraction of wearing food.ö
    Logan Bruno looked at Kristy as if she were crazy. He was the only boy among us. Therefore, he had never been at one of our Babysitters Club slumber parties1 which explains why he didnÆt know about KristyÆs food theory. The thing is, Kristy has always thought it would
be kind of cool to wear food. Like, to hang grapes from your earlobes, or make a vest out of teabags.
    Mary Anne Spier began to turn green, which often happens when Kristy starts in on food. Mary Anne has a weak stomach and Kristy has a big mouth.
    "You know,ö said Dawn Schafer, ôwould only want to get hit with ùô
    ôWe know, we know,ö I jumped in. ôAn all-natural, sugar-free pie. Well, I wouldnÆt mind getting hit with any kind of pie.ö
    ôIÆll keep that in mind,ö Logan told me.
    ôSHH! SHH! Quiet down, everybody. Find your seats.ö
    It was a rainy Saturday afternoon. My friends and I had been bored out of our minds ù until Logan (who happens to be Mary AnneÆs boyfriend) called her to say that there was going to be a slapstick film festival at the public library. That in itself was pretty good. Better yet, it was free.
    Mary Anne agreed to go. She didnÆt have to think twice (although she did have to check with her father, whoÆs on the strict side). Then she called Kristy and Dawn, her best friends, to tell them about the film festival; Kristy called me; Dawn called Mallory; Mallory called Jessi; and a few hours later we were sitting in the
meeting room at the Stoneybrook Public Library having a conversation about wearing food and throwing pies. It was intermission. We had seen three short, very silly films. Now intermission was over and it was time for two more.
    I looked around the room as the lights dimmed. It seemed that all of Stoneybrook was there. (Well, all of Stoneybrook under sixteen.) I saw a bunch of MalloryÆs brothers and sisters, JessiÆs younger sister, KristyÆs little brother, and a lot of the kids my friends and I baby-sit for.
    My friends and I, by the way, are more than just friends. WeÆre the members of a club that Kristy started ù the Baby-sitters Club. ThereÆs Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Dawn Schafer, Jessi Ramsey, Mallory Pike, and me, Claudia Kishi. (Logan Bruno is not a true member of the club. He and a friend of KristyÆs, Shannon Kilbourne, are associate members. More about that later.)
Ka-BOOM!
    Ha, ha, ha. Hee, hee, hee. A new movie was on, and a guy on the screen was having a birthday. Someone had just set a beautiful cake in front of him. Really, it was a work of art. Bunches of candy roses and garlands of frosting flowers decorated it. The guy leaned
over to blow out the candles and ù POW! The cake exploded! Everyone in the room was laughing hysterically. The poor guy was now wearing the cake.
    I turned to look at Kristy. She was enthralled. IÆm sure she was imagining herself with buttercream eyelashes and hair.
    Kristy and her ideas. Kristy amazes me. Her mind is always working, working. She thinks up lots of great ideas. ThatÆs why sheÆs the president of the Baby-sitters Club. Kristy used to live across the street from me here in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. And Mary Anne lived in the house next door to her. (Well, she still lives there.) So the three of us pretty much grew up together. Despite that, itÆs hard to imagine three more different people. Let me tell you about us.
    IÆll start with Kristy, since you already know about her big ideas. Kristy is thirteen, just like Mary Anne, Dawn, Logan, and me. (Mal and Jessi are eleven.) But sometimes she seems younger than the rest of us eighth-graders. A little less mature, I guess. SheÆs the shortest kid in our grade (which is not her fault), sheÆs a tomboy, and she doesnÆt care much about clothes. Or boys. She always wears the same kind of outfit ù blue jeans, running shoes, a
turtleneck, and a sweater. ThereÆs nothing wrong with that, but there are other things to wear. I mean, she could try a floppy bow in her hair or some interesting ponytail holders, or some big earrings. ThatÆs what I would do. But then, IÆm not Kristy.
    Kristy has an interesting family. And the last year in her life, in terms of family, hasnÆt been easy. When Kristy lived across the street from me, she lived with her mom, her older brothers Charlie (heÆs seventeen) and Sam (fifteen), and her little brother, David Michael, whoÆs seven. KristyÆs dad left the Thomases a long time ago and they pretty much never hear from him. Sometimes Kristy gets mad about that. I mean, would it kill her father to remember her birthday by sending a card? Anyway, KristyÆs mother met this millionaire, Watson Brewer, and fell in love with him. They got married last summer, and Watson moved Kristy and her family across town to his mansion. So Kristy moved, got a stepfather, and also got a stepbrother and stepsister all in a short period of time. Andrew and Karen are her steps. TheyÆre four and six, and Kristy loves them to bits, even though she only sees them every other weekend. (Mostly, they live with their mother, WatsonÆs first wife.) Also, somewhere in all of
this, the ThomasesÆ wonderful old collie, Louie, had to be put to sleep. Kristy seems to have survived everything, though.
    IÆm not sure Mary Anne could have. As I mentioned before, Kristy and Mary Anne are best friends. They have been practically since they were born. And theyÆre a pretty good example of the saying that opposites attract. Kristy is tough and has a big mouth. Mary Anne is sensitive, shy, and quiet (although I think sheÆs coming out of her shell). Mary Anne is also a good listener, a fair person, and a romantic who will cry at anything. She used to be like Kristy in that she was very short and didnÆt care about clothes, but lately sheÆs grown a few inches and has taken much more interest in her wardrobe. SheÆs definitely getting trendier.
    Mary Anne lives with her dad and her kitten, Tigger. Her mom died when Mary Anne was just a little kid. Since Mr. Spier had to raise her by himself, he was much too strict with her for the longest time. Now heÆs getting better. (Luckily, he likes Logan.)
    Then thereÆs me. I am soooo different from Mary Anne and Kristy. For starters, Fm Japanese-American. Also, I love to mess around with clothes and jewelry. I might as well just come out and say it ù IÆm one of the coolest-
looking kids in Stoneybrook Middle School. I know that sounds conceited, but everyone agrees itÆs true. I wear wild clothes, such as baggy pants and sweaters, high-top sneakers, and jewelry I make myself. For instance, at the film festival, I was wearing earrings made of wooden beads that IÆd painted. My hair is long and jet-black, and IÆm always experimenting with different ways to fix it or decorate it.
    KristyÆs hobby is sports, Mary AnneÆs is needlework, mine is art. I justö love art ù painting, drawing, sketching, collage-making ù and crafts, too. IÆm addicted to junk food, and I love to read Nancy Drew mysteries, but IÆm a terrible student. This is too bad, since my older sister, Janine, is a genius. SheÆs a high-school student who takes college courses. Janine and I live with our parents and Mimi, the most wonderful grandmother in the world.
    What about Dawn, Jessi, and Mal? Well, I wonÆt forget to tell you what theyÆre like. IÆll start with Dawn. SheÆs Mary AnneÆs other best friend. Dawn moved here less than a year ago and she and Mary Anne became friends right away, which was a little hard on Kristy. Dawn moved all the way across the United States from California with her mother and her younger brother, Jeff. They moved because her parents had just gotten divorced, and Mrs. Schafer
wanted to come back to Stoneybrook, which was where sheÆd grown up. The divorce and the move were quite a change for all the Schafers, especially Jeff, who finally decided he couldnÆt take the East Coast. So not long ago, he moved back to his dad. Dawn wonÆt do that, though. SheÆs a California girl, all right (she hates junk food, red meat, and cold weather), but sheÆs extremely close to her mother. So sheÆs staying.
    Talk about survivors, Dawn is a champion one. SheÆs an individual, too. She stands up for what she believes in, even when no one else believes in it, and she dresses the way she pleases, and does things her own way. SheÆs not stuck-up, though, and she doesnÆt step all over people, trying to get her own way. In fact, sheÆs one of the nicest people I know. Dawn is a good student, sheÆs addicted to ghost stories the way IÆm addicted to junk food and Nancy Drew books ù and she lives in a house with a real secret passage in it.
    Now on to our younger club members, Mal and Jessi. Mal used to be someone our club ~sat for. SheÆs the oldest of the eight Pike kids. But as last year went on, we noticed that whenever we sat for the Pikes, Mal was much more of a sitter than a sittee. So when one of our members had to drop out of the club (more
about that later), we asked Mal, and later Jessi, too, to fill her spot. I think the thing I like most about Mallory is that sheÆs so practical and levelheaded. You could say to her, ôMa!, thereÆs a lion loose in the basement,ö and sheÆd say, perfectly calmly, ôOkay, close the basement door, call nine-one-one, and evacuate the children. And donÆt anybody take any meat out of the refrigerator.ö
    Mallory wants desperately to grow up and to look older. I think itÆs her mission in life. She wants her parents to say she can get pierced ears instead of braces. She wants her freckles to go away and her curly hair to straighten out. And she wants contact lenses instead of glasses. Mallory loves reading and writing and might become an author one day. SheÆs not sure yet. Right now, sheÆd settle for getting a miniskirt and a glittery sweat shirt (just two of the things her parents say sheÆs not old enough for).
    Jessi (short for Jessica) Ramsey is MalloryÆs best friend, even though the Ramseys have lived in Stoneybrook for a very short time. She and Ma! found each other when they needed best friends. Also, they have lots in common, so they just hit it off. Like Mal, Jessi loves to read, and they both especially love horse stories. Plus, Jessi is a terrific dancer ù a ballerina.
Although she doesnÆt plan to become a dancer professionally, she goes to the best ballet school in the area (in Stamford, the nearest city). Also like Ma!, Jessi thinks her parents treat her like a little kid, and sheÆs getting braces, not pierced ears, and has to wear glasses (just for reading, though). Jessi told me that if once, just once, she could wear clothes like mine to school, she could die happy.
    Jessi lives with her mom, her dad, her eightyear-old sister, Becca (short for Rebecca), and her baby brother, Squirt. SquirtÆs real name is John Philip Ramsey, Jr., and heÆs adorable.
    Oh, one other thing about the Ramseys which I guess I should mention. TheyÆre black, one of the few black families in town. And the people of Stoneybrook (well, some of the people of Stoneybrook) sure didnÆt make them feel welcome at first. But Jessi says things are getting better now. Thank goodness. As my dad would say, though, we all have our crosses to bear. That means, we all have problems.
    And as I looked around at the members of the club, I thought how true that was. Each of us did have our own problems. But at that moment, no one was thinking about them. We were giggling and laughing instead.
    On the movie screen, a man dressed in a tux was holding out a corsage to a woman in
an evening gown. The woman leaned over to smell the flowers and SPLAT! A stream of water got her right in the eye.
    But just then, the man got hit in the face with a coconut cream pie.
    ôAwesome!ö whispered Kristy. ôThatÆs my dream!ö
    The movie ended, the lights were turned on, and we stood up. The film fest was over. What none of us knew then was that a practical joke fest was about to begin.
Chapter 2.
I was under my bed. My head was, anyway. I was looking for a bag of Doritos that I knew I had hidden there. Remember when I said I love junk food? What I didnÆt mention was that my parents donÆt approve of eating a lot of the stuff, so I have to hide it in my room. ItÆs everywhere ù but youÆd never know it. The naked eye cannot see it. Well, the naked eye cannot see it unless it knows where to look. There was a Butterfinger bar in the drawer of my jewelry box, a package of Double-Stuff Oreos in a shoebox labeled PANT BRUSHES (so IÆm not a great speller, okay?), and I knew ù I just knew ù there was a bag of Doritos somewhere under the bed. Only I couldnÆt find it.
    I wanted to find it in the next ten minutes. It was 5:20. At five-thirty a meeting of the Baby-sitters Club was going to start, and I like to be prepared with a little food, because weÆre
all usually starving by this time of day.
    It was a shame my room was such a mess. I mean, IÆd like it to be a little neater since my friends spend so much time in it. But I canÆt help being messy. I need to save things that I can use in my art projects, plus I store canvasses and brushes and charcoals and pastels all over the place. The good thing about a mess, though, is that it helps you hide stuff, like junk food. Also, like Nancy Drew mysteries. I have to hide those because my parents think I should be reading more worthwhile books. I canÆt think what they would be.
    ôAh-hci! There you are!ö I exclaimed. I saw my Doritos behind a pillow and some other things that had somehow wound up under the bed.
    ôHi, Claud!ö
    ôOw!ö I replied, as I banged my head on the bed, trying to scramble out.
    Dawn had arrived. Mimi must have let her in. Mimi knows my friends, and they love her as much as I do. She loves them right back. ThatÆs just the kind of person Mimi is.
    ôSorry,ö said Dawn. ôI didnÆt mean to scare you. IÆm a little early.ö
    ôThatÆs okay,ö I answered. I sat up and rubbed my head. Then I held out the Doritos. ôI knew these were under there somewhere.ö
    Dawn wrinkled her nose, plainly meaning, ôJunk food. Ew.ö
    Kristy showed up then. Since her move across town, she depends on her brother Charlie to drive her to and from meetings. (The club pays him for this, in order to be sure that heÆll do it regularly.) Kristy headed straight for my directorÆs chair ù she conducts our meetings from it ù put her visor on, stuck a pencil over one ear, and reached for the club notebook.
    She was ready.
    The time was 5:25. Within the next five minutes, Mary Anne, Jessi, and Ma! showed up. The club members are prompt. Kristy wouldnÆt have it any other way.
    Maybe I should explain to you how our club works. I better start by telling you how Kristy got the idea for it. One evening her mother said that she was going to need a sitter for David Michael. It turned out that she needed one at a time when none of the older Thomas kids ù not Charlie, not Sam, not Kristy ù was available. So Mrs. Thomas got on the phone and started making calls. It took forever to find a sitter.
    While that was going on, Kristy was thinking how terrific it would be if her mother could make just one call and get in touch with a
whole lot of sitters at once. And that was the beginning of the Baby-sitters Club. Kristy got together with Mary Anne, me, and another girl, Stacey McGill. (StaceyÆs the one who had to move away, the one Jessi and Mallory replaced.) The four of us decided to meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons from five-thirty until six. We did plenty of advertising so people would know when we were meeting and could call us at those times.
    KristyÆs idea was terrific. People did call us. They always reached four sitters, and at least one of us was usually available to take their jobs. Our clients loved finding sitters so fast, and we loved our baby-sitting jobs and earning money.
    Since then, the club and the way itÆs run havenÆt changed much, but the members have. First, Dawn moved here and joined us, becoming the fifth member. Then Stacey had to move away. That was really sad (for me) since Stacey and I had gotten to be friends. In fact, she was my first and only best friend. SheÆs been gone for awhile now, and I miss her a lot. But sheÆs not too far away ù just in New York City ù so we talk on the phone a lot, and recently Mary Anne, Dawn, Kristy, and I visited her there and stayed for the weekend!
    Anyway, by the time Stacey left, our club
was doing so much business that we knew weÆd have to replace her. First we found Ma!, which was good but not good enough, because Mal is too young to sit in the evening, unless sheÆs helping take care of her own brothers and sisters. So we asked Jessi to join, too. SheÆs not allowed to sit in the evening, either, but we figured two afternoon-only sitters would free up the rest of us enough to handle the evening jobs. So far, we seem to be right. Plus, we have Logan and Shannon as backups. We call one of them when the club is offered a job that none of us can take.
    Logan and Shannon, as I said earlier, are associate members of the club, meaning that they donÆt attend meetings. Mal and Jessi are junior members. The rest of us hold offices. You know about KristyÆs. Her office is president. As president, she gets great ideas, conducts the meetings, and generally keeps things running.
    IÆm the vice-president. ThatÆs because we hold the club meetings in my room, and thatÆs because IÆm lucky enough to have my own phone and personal, private phone number. When job calls come in, which is often, we donÆt tie up anyone elseÆs line.
    Mary Anne is the club secretary. She probably does more actual work for the club than
the rest of us put together. You see, itÆs the job of the secretary to keep the club record book in order and up-to-date. The record book is one of the two most important features of the club. (IÆll tell you about the other one in a minute.) ItÆs where Mary Anne writes down the names and addresses of our clients, itÆs where Dawn (our treasurer) keeps track of the money we earn, and itÆs where Mary Anne schedules our baby-sitting jobs. That is not easy to do. Mary Anne has to remember all sorts of things, like when Jessi goes to her ballet lessons or when I go to my art classes, in order to know when weÆre free to sit. Somehow, she keeps everything straight, though. The appointment calendar in the book is always accurate and contains the latest information. Thank goodness for Mary Anne.
    I might as well tell you about the other important feature of the club now, while IÆm on the subject. ItÆs the notebook we keep. This, of course, was KristyÆs idea. None of the rest of us would have thought of it, and none of the rest of us like writing in it very much ù but we all admit that itÆs helpful. In the notebook, each of us is supposed to describe every job we go on, even if the job is, say, Mallory taking care of some of her own brothers and sisters. ItÆs surprising what we can learn by
reading about our friendsÆ sitting experiences. Plus, itÆs just good to know whatÆs going on with the kids we sit for. Anyway, we write up our jobs, and then weÆre responsible for reading the notebook once a week. We keep the record book and notebook in my room, the club headquarters.
    The fourth office in our club is treasurer, and that belongs to Dawn. Dawn took over the job from Stacey when Stacey moved. Stacey had been a great treasurer. She loves numbers and is a real math brain. Dawn is just average at math, but sheÆs doing a fine job. She keeps careful records of who earns how much money, and she watches over the treasury, always remembering to collect dues, to give Kristy money to pay Charlie, and to let us know when club funds are getting low. And thatÆs about it. I canÆt think of much else to tell you, so IÆll just let you see how a typical meeting is run.
    Kristy began it at five-thirty on the nose.
    ôAny urgent club business?ö she asked.
    We shook our heads. WeÆd been busy, but things had been running smoothly.
    ôThe treasury is fine,ö Dawn spoke up. ôWeÆve got plenty of money to pay Charlie, and more left over in case anyone needs anything for her Kid-Kit.ö
    Oops. I forgot to tell you about Kid-Kits. Kristy thought those up, too. Naturally. TheyÆre boxes that we decorated and keep filled with our old toys, books, and games, plus a few new items such as coloring books or activity books. We each have one, and sometimes we bring them with us when we baby-sit. The Kid-Kits are always a surprise and always a treat. Children love them!
    We were discussing what we needed for our Kid-Kits when the phone rang. Jessi answered it, and Mary Anne, record book open, set up a job for Dawn. As soon as she hung up, it rang again. Mrs. Perkins, whose family moved into KristyÆs old house, was calling to say she needed a sitter for Mynah and Gabbie. Then two more of our regular customers called.
    We had just arranged sitters for those jobs, when the phone rang a fifth time. Kristy answered it. After saying yes a lot, asking a bunch of questions, and nodding her head, she told the caller, ôIÆll get right back to you.ö Kristy hung up. ôOkay,ö she said to us club members, ôa new client. Mrs. Sobak. She lives on Cherry Valley Road. She needs a sitter for her eight-year-old daughter, Betsy, this Thursday afternoon.ö
    Mary Anne was looking at our calendar. ôClaudia, youÆre free,ö she said.
    ôGreat,ö I replied. ôBut IÆm confused. I know other kids in that neighborhood who sit for Betsy Sobak. How come her mother is calling us?ö
    Kristy shrugged. ôDonÆt knock it,ö she said. ôA job is a job. Mrs. SobakÆs regular sitters are probably all busy. Maybe the Sobaks will become regular clients.ö
    ôRight,ö I agreed.
    Kristy called Mrs. Sobak and told her that I would be BetsyÆs sitter. When she hung up, she looked at her watch. ôAlmost six,ö she announced. ôOh, hey, Mary Anne, can I have the record book for a sec?ö
    ôSure,ö replied Mary Anne. She leaned over, holding the book out.
    Kristy reached for it, pen in hand, and SPLOOTCH. She squirted blue ink all over Mary AnneÆs white sweat shirt. Mary Anne,. gasped, but Kristy dissolved in laughter. ôItÆs disappearing ink!ö she cried. ôSam lent it to me!ö
    We all watched the ink disappear, but Kristy was the only one laughing. Somehow, a practical joke seemed funnier in the movies than in real life.
Chapter 3.
The meeting ended at six oÆclock, but it was six-fifteen before all of my friends had drifted away. Dawn was the last to leave. With her brother Jeff back in California, DawnÆs never in a rush to get home. She might be if she thought her mother would be there, but Mrs. Schafer works very hard at her job and recently hasnÆt been getting home until seven on weeknights. And sometimes she goes out with thi,s guy, Trip, whom Dawn calls the Trip-Man and canÆt stand. Dawn has stayed over at our house for supper a few times, but that night, she headed home to start fixing dinner.
    I went downstairs to give Mimi a hand with our own dinner. I found her in the kitchen making a salad. I could smell chicken cooking.
    ôHello, my Claudia,ö she greeted me. ôHow was meeting?ö
    Mimi is native Japanese (English is her second language), but the reason she talks funny
doesnÆt have anything to do with that. ItÆs because she had a stroke last summer. The stroke left her with a limp, and she canÆt use her right hand. Also, she has trouble with her speech. Even so, my family is amazed at how much sheÆs relearned in the past few months.
    I kissed Mimi on the cheek. ôThe meeting was fine,ö I told her. ôOh, I think we have a new client. Mrs. Sobak. She needed a sitter for her daughter, and I got the job. I go on Thursday.ö
    ôWonderful!ö said Mimi.
    ôWhat can I do to help?ö I asked.
    Words must have escaped Mimi just then, because all she did was point into the dining room. I knew she wanted me to set the table.
    I had just finished, when the genius came home.
    ôHello,ö she said somberly.
    I guess life is a trial when youÆre as smart as my sister Janine. All I worry about is babysitting and art projects. And maybe school. Janine has to worry about molecular theories and foreign politics and things like, Will the earth ever revolve so near the sun that it burns up?
    My parents came home not long after Janine, and since MimiÆs dinner was ready, we sat down to eat.
    ôHow was school?ö Dad asked when weÆd all been served.
    I was hoping he was asking Janine, but no, he was looking at me.
    Darn. That simple question can be very touchy.
    ôFine,ö I replied.
    ôDid you get your math quiz back?ö Janine wanted to know.
    I shot her a killer look, but everyone was waiting for my answer. They had all helped me study for that quiz.
    ôYes,ö I answered.
    Silence.
    ôAnd how did you do?ö Mom finally asked. ôI got, urn, an eighty-one.ö I put a huge bite of chicken in my mouth, hoping no one would ask me questions when they could see that I was trying to chew.
    No one did. More silence.
    I swallowed my chicken. I sighed. ôAn eighty-one,ö I told them, ôis good. ItÆs a Bminus.ö
    Mimi smiled at me from across the table. She didnÆt say anything, though, and this time it wasnÆt because of her stroke. It was because she and my parents donÆt agree on my schoolwork. My parents think I could try harder and do better; Mimi thinks they should leave me
alone. But Mimi isnÆt my mother, so she doesnÆt say anything.
    I changed the subject in what I thought was a very kind and thoughtful way. ôTell us about your research project,ö I said to Janine.
    JanineÆs projects are all boring, so I hardly ever ask about them. However, Janine loves to talk about them. She was flattered that IÆd asked. I was relieved that she had something long-winded to say.
    The attention was off of me~ and my B-minus (which, frankly, IÆd been sort of proud of).
    When dinner was over, Mom and Dad and Janine cleared the table and began cleaning the kitchen. Mimi and I went into the living room to do my homework. ItÆs sort of a family rule that somebody has to give me a hand with my homework each night. This is because my grades used to be so bad. My homework was always a mess, and I didnÆt know how to study for tests or quizzes. The best homework nights are the ones on which Mimi helps me. The worst are the ones on which Janine helps me. I wish I didnÆt have to have any help at all, but my parents told me I couldnÆt stay in the Baby-sitters Club unless I kept my grades up.
    ôAll right,ö Mimi began, ôwhat are your assign ù assign ù what ishomework?ö
    ôOne page of math problems, read this chapter in my science book, and answer these questions for English,ö I told her.
    Mimi nodded. ôWhere to start?ö
    ôEnglish,ö I said promptly. I donÆt love English, but I hate math and science.
    ôWhy not get bad work done first, then do English?ö suggested Mimi.
    I screwed up my face. ôOkay,ö I agreed. We began with the math. I donÆt know what it is about numbers. They just donÆt make sense to me. Stacey once said that she can ôreadö numbers the way she can read words. She understands them. She can look at a problem for a few moments, and suddenly she has the answer, without doing any figuring or writing. She calculates things in her head as if her brain were a computer.
    Not me. Oh, no. I sit and figure, and half the time IÆm figuring wrong. Adding when I should be multiplying, subtracting four from ten and getting seven. What a mess!
    Mimi and I plodded through my work. Mimi is so patient. She never raises her voice or gets aggravated.
    ôNow,ö she said, when I had finished my math and science, ôwhere are English plobrems, my Claudia?ö
    I knew she had meant to say ôproblems.ö ôTheyÆre just some questions,ö I told her, ôand theyÆre right here.ö
    In English class this year weÆre reading the Newbery Award-winning books. WeÆve already read several. Now weÆre reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. I didnÆt think I would like it, but really, it isnÆt bad.
    Mimi looked at the list of questions and read the first one. ôIn what ù in what ways is main ù is the main character in Roli~. of, um, Thunder, Hear My Cry simi ù similar to main ù to the main character in A Wrinkle in Time?ö
    ôOh, lord,ö I replied, ôThey couldnÆt be more different! I hate questions like that.ö
    ôThink, my Claudia. Is anything the same about them?ö
    ôTheyÆre both girls,ö I said.
    If Janine had been helping me, she probably would have thrown down her pencil in disgust at that answer, but Mimi just said, ôThat a good start. What else?ö
    We worked and worked. The more we talked, the more answers I found. When we were finally done, I kissed Mimi, thanked her, and escaped to my room.
    Ah, art. I looked at the half-finished pastel drawing on my easel. I just stood in front of it for several minutes, thinking. After awhile,
I opened my box of pastels and slowly set to work. When IÆm in the middle of a good project, especially a painting or a drawing, I can forget about everything else. Which is what I did. And which may explain why I jumped a mile when the phone rang.
    ôHello?ö I said.
    ôHi, Claudia. ItÆs Ashley.ö
    Ashley Wyeth is a new friend of mine. We have a funny relationship. It seems like weÆre always mad at each other. WeÆre forever fighting, then making up. But Ashley is the only person who truly understands my love of art. SheÆs an artist herself ù the most talented person our age I know. Before she moved to Stoneybrook, she lived in Chicago and went to this really great art school there. And she thinks iÆm talented! Ashley can be a pain in the neck, though, because sheÆs always bugging me to quit baby-sitting and spend more time on my art.
    So when Ashley called, I braced myself for a lecture, but all she wanted was our English assignment. I read her the questions and then hung up. As soon as I did, the phone rang again.
    ôHello?ö
    At first there was just silence at the other end of the phone. Then an odd-sounding voice
said, ôDo you have Prince Albert in a can?ö
    ôHuh?ö I replied. ôPrince Albert?ö
    ôOh, never mind.ö The voice suddenly sounded disgusted and the caller hung up.
    I looked at the receiver as if it could explain to me what had just happened. A goof call gone wrong, I decided as I hung up. The caller was probably someone whoÆd been at the film festival. Practical-joke season had begun ù and I, for one, did not like it.
It was Thursday morning and I was nervous.
A couple of kids who used to baby-sit for Betsy
Sobak had told me why they wouldnÆt do it
anymore.
    ôSheÆs an incurable practical joker,ö Diana Roberts said.
    ôWell, she used to be,ö Gordon Brown corrected her. ôSupposedly she outgrew it, but I donÆt sit for her anymore.ö
    ôMe neither,ö agreed Diana. ôI donÆt think itÆs safe yet.ö
    ôIÆll let you know,ö I told them. ôHer parents must have gotten desperate without you guys, because her mom called the Baby-sitters Club. IÆm going to sit for Betsy this afternoon.ö
    I was smiling, trying to pretend I wasnÆt nervous. This wasnÆt easy with Diana and Gordon looking at me sympathetically, but I put up a good front.
    ôBe careful,ö Diana called as she headed for the girlsÆ room.
    ôYeah, weÆll be thinking of you,ö Gordon added.
    Oh, lord. What had I gotten myself into? I found out at three-thirty that afternoon. That was when I rang the SobaksÆ doorbell. I stood nervously on their front stoop. In a moment, the door was opened by a friendly looking girl with brown hair, which had been pulled into two ponytails and tied with big blue ribbons. She was wearing a very snazzy pair of red pants that were held up by red suspenders. Under the suspenders was a blueand-white-striped T-shirt. The legs of her pants ended in cuffs, and on her feet were running shoes tied with purple laces.
    ôHi!ö she said cheerfully. ôIÆm Betsy. Are you Claudia?ö
    This was the kid IÆd been afraid of?
    ôThatÆs right,ö I told her. ôClaudia Kishi.ö
    ôCome on in.ö
    Betsy held the door open for me and I entered the SobaksÆ front hallway. A woman bustled forward to meet me, trying to put on her coat and shake my hand at the same time.
    ôCookie Sobak,ö she said. (Cookie?) ôOn my way to a meeting at the WomanÆs Club. About
to be late. Emergency numbers by the phone in the kitchen. Mr. Sobak works at Tile Corp., if you need to reach him. Better fly. Betsy ù behave. Back at six. Ta-ta.ö
    ôTa-ta,ö replied Betsy. Then she stuck her tongue out at her motherÆs back.
    ôBetsy,ö I admonished her, but I couldnÆt help smiling. Mrs. Sobak was so, I donÆt know, fake, that I kind of wanted to stick my own tongue out at her.
    ôListen,ö I said to Betsy as her motherÆs car backed down the driveway, ôhave you had a snack yet?ö
    ôUrn, no. No, I havenÆt.ö A smile crept over BetsyÆs face. (I was glad she was so easy to please.) ôWant some cookies?ö she asked. ôMy mom makes great oatmeal raisin cookies.ö
    ôSure,ö I replied. (Oh, goody. Cookies.) ôHere, let me help you.ö
    ôNo, no,ö said Betsy hurriedly as she led me into the kitchen. ôYouÆre kind of like my guest. IÆll serve us. Do you want some apple juice?ö
    I didnÆt, really, but I said yes anyway. Betsy seemed so pleased to be in charge of fixing our snack.
    ôYou sit right there,ö she told me, pointing to a chair at the kitchen table.
    I sat. Betsy got busy filling glasses, opening the cookie jar, finding napkins.
    ôSo,ö I said, ôyouÆre an only child, huh, Betsy?ö
    ôAlmost,ö she replied, her back turned. ôMy sister Pat is twenty-three. She even has a baby. IÆm an aunt now.ö
    ôWow,ö I replied, impressed. I didnÆt know any other eight-year-old aunts. ôAunt Betsy.ö
    ôYup. Here you go.ö Betsy set a plate of cookies and two napkins on the table. Then she carefully handed me a tall glass of juice. At last she sat down, a much smaller glass in her hands.
    I reached for a cookie. ôMmm,ö I said, after IÆd taken a bite. ôThese are great. Your mother must be a good cook.ö
    ôThe best,ö agreed Betsy.
    I took a swallow of apple juice, wishing Letsy hadnÆt poured me quite so much. There was an awful lot of juice in the glass, and ù ôOh, ew! Ew!ö I shrieked. Something else was in the glass. A fly! It was stuck in an ice cube!
    IÆd barely gotten the first ôEw!ö out when I realized the glass was dripping. Apple juice was running down my shirt.
    ôWhat ù ?ô I cried. 1 set the glass on the
table. ôBetsy, thereÆs a fly in my glass, and I think..
    I stopped talking because Betsy didnÆt seem the least bit horrified. In fact, she was laughing. Hysterically.
    When she got control of herself, she managed to gasp out, ôGotcha! The fly is fake. ItÆs in a fake ice cube! And I gave you a dribble glass!ö
    ôWell, thatÆs just great, Betsy,ö I said. I knew that, as a baby-sitter, I wasnÆt supposed to get sarcastic, but sheesh. ôNow, IÆve got apple juice all over my white shirt,ö I told her.
    Betsy couldnÆt have known it, but the shirt was one IÆd made myself. IÆd taken a shirt of my dadÆs, painted it, and sewn sequins all over it. It had taken ages to do, and the shirt was very special to me. Also, it had to be dry cleaned.
    ôDry cleaning,ö I informed Betsy, ôis expensive. Plus, IÆm going to smell like sour apples all afternoon.ö Practical jokes were seeming less and less funny.
    ôSorry,ö said Betsy, not sounding sorry at all.
    ôI talked to a couple of your old sitters today,ö I told her. ôI thought you quit playing jokes on people.ö
    ôI tried. I really tried. And then I went to some movies on Saturday. And, I donÆt know. I have all these great jokes. zYou havenÆt even seen them all yet ùô
    ôAnd I donÆt care to see any more.ö
    Betsy didnÆt answer that. She was laughing again.
    I got up in a huff, opened cupboards until I found the SobaksÆ glasses, and poured the rest of my juice into a regular glass. Of course, I picked the fake ice cube out first.
    Betsy set it on the table between us. ôIsnÆt it lifelike?ö she asked me. She sounded as if she were quoting from an ad.
    ôVery,ö I replied. ôWhereÆd you get it?ö
    ôFrom McBuzzÆs Mail Order. ItÆs a catalogue. All McBuzzÆs sells is practical jokes. I spend most of my allowance on stuff from McBuzzÆs. . . . Well, I used to. Then Mom and Dad made me quit. But it didnÆt matter. I already had McBuzzÆs best jokes.ö
    ôOh, good,ö I said. ôYou wouldnÆt want to miss out on a single instrument of torture.ö
    ôWant to see a catalogue?ö asked Betsy. Before I could answer, sheÆd dashed out of the kitchen and upstairs. She returned carrying McBuzzÆs Mail Order.
    ôLook. Look at the front cover,ö she in-
structed me. ôThis catalogue features rubber chickens and plastic ants.ö
    ôGreat.ö
    Betsy flipped through the pages. I had to admit that some of the stuff ù especially the selection of whoopee cushions ù was kind of funny. By the time weÆd finished, IÆd calmed down.
    But when Betsy said, ôWant some gum?ö I was immediately on my guard again.
    ôUh, no,ö I replied.
    ôLook,ö said Betsy, ôIÆm sorry about the juice. I really am. Here.ö She pulled two pieces of gum out of her pocket. She kept the WrigleyÆs for herself. She handed me one in a plain white wrapper.
    Well, I might not be a good student, but IÆm no fool. I know about trick gum. ôThanks,ö I said drily, ôbut I prefer WrigleyÆs. So letÆs trade.ö
    Betsy frowned. ôWe-ell . . . all right.ö
    We swapped sticks, I peeled off the WrigleyÆs wrapper, popped the gum in my mouth, and, ôAughhh! Oh, EW!ö I spit the gum out. ôIt tastes like pepper! That is so hot!ö I grabbed for my glass of apple juice and polished it off, but my mouth was still on fire.
    Across from me, Betsy was chewing her own
gum happily and was in hysterics again. ôGotcha! I gave you trick gum!ö she cried. ôI switched wrappers! I knew you wouldnÆt trust me, so I switched wrappers.ö
    ôWhy should anyone trust you?ö I muttered. It was hard to talk.
    I had to do something fast. I was losing control of the situation, and a good baby-sitter always stays in charge. I thought quickly. ôLetÆs play outside,ö I suggested. What could Betsy do to me outside? If she wanted to get any of her tricks, sheÆd have to go back in the house ù and I simply wouldnÆt let her.
    ôCould we play on my swing set?ö asked Betsy.
    ôSure, anything.ö I fanned my burning mouth with my hands.
    ôGoody!ö said Betsy, jumping up. ôLetÆs go!ö
    We put on our jackets, and Betsy ran out her back door. I followed her closely. BetsyÆs swing set was not in her backyard, where IÆd thought it would be. It was by the side of the house, near the SobaksÆ driveway.
    Betsy jumped onto a swing. She sat there and smiled at me. ôYou take that one,ö she said, pointing to the second of three swings.
    I shrugged. ôOkay.ö
    Betsy watched me like a hawk as I sat on
the swing. She was grinning, but after IÆd been on the swing for a moment, her smile turned to a frown. What was with her? She was one weird kid. Wait a sec! Maybe she had boobytrapped the swing or something. I wouldnÆt put it past her. But I inspected the swing, and it looked fine to me ù just a little old.
    ôCome on,ö I said. ôLetÆs have a swinging contest. LetÆs see who can swing the highest.ö
    Betsy immediately began pumping her legs up and down. She really wanted to win. Good. At least her mind was off practical jokes.
    I pumped, too. Betsy and I swung higher and higher. I remembered when 1 was BetsyÆs age and believed that it was possible to swing so high youÆd circle right over the top of the ù CLUNK!
I    heard a funny, metallic noise. And then the bottom dropped out from under me.
The chain on the swing had snapped. Oh, lord, I thought.
    You know how sometimes you have an idea that something is going to happen before it actually does happen? I donÆt know if youÆd call it ESP exactly, but, well, I just knew, without knowing how I knew, that I was going to fall and I was going to be hurt badly.
    I was terrified. I could feel my heart beating in my throat, as if it had jumped up there in
fear. And before I had time to do a thing ù this was all happening in a split second ù I was flying through the air. I landed on the driveway ù hard ù and heard another noise. An awful one. It was a crunch. But the odd thing was, I didnÆt feel any pain. My leg felt strange, but it didnÆt hurt. Still, I knew what had happened.
    ôBetsy,ö I said weakly, trying to sit up. ôI think my leg is broken.ö
My leg certainly was broken. It was a truly disgusting sight. There was no blood or anything, but it was twisted in a way that no leg should ever be twisted. I thought IÆd seen all possible disgusting sights from eating school lunches with Kristy Thomas. But this was much, much worse. I had to look away from my leg.
    I turned toward Betsy. She was still swinging, but the expression on her face was one of horror. Then, in a panic, she began to slow herself down. The swing hadnÆt even come to a stop when she jumped off it and ran to me.
    ôOh! Oh, Claudia!ö she exclaimed. ôIÆm sorry IÆm sorry IÆm sorry! I knew the chain was broken. ThatÆs why I wanted you to sit down on the swing. I thought when you did, youÆd just go ù boom ù onto the grass. But it didnÆt break right away and I forgot and you
said letÆs have a contest and I still forgot and I didnÆt remember until ùô
    ôBetsy, Betsy,ö I interrupted her. I had suddenly realized that my leg was numb. I could hardly feel it, which scared me more than anything. ôI know you didnÆt mean for this to happen. The thing is, I have to get to the hospital. And youÆre going to have to help me. Can you follow directions?ö
    ôYes. IÆm very good at it,ö Betsy said seriously. She was kneeling next to me and had taken one of my hands in both of hers. Suddenly she looked angelic.
    ôAll right,ö I replied. ôI need you to do two things. Listen to both of them now, and then go inside and do them.ö
    ôOkay.ö BetsyÆs voice was trembling and her eyes had filled with tears.
    ôFirst, dial nine-one-one on the telephone. When someone answers, explain that IÆm your baby-sitter and I broke my leg and we need an ambulance. Be sure to answer all their questions and to give them your address. Then I want you to make another call.ö
    ôTo your parents?ö Betsy asked.
    ôNo, to yours. Try your mom first. If you canÆt reach her, try your dad. And if you canÆt reach him, I want you to call the Rodowskys. Do you know Jackie Rodowsky?ö
    Betsy nodded.
    ôOkay, my friends Dawn and Mallory are sitting for a group of kids at his house this afternoon. If you have to call them, tell one of them to come over here and stay with you till your mom comes home. If you donÆt know JackieÆs number, can you look it up in the phone book? Rodowsky is spelled, urn, R, letÆs see. . . .ô
    ôDonÆt worry,ö said Betsy. ôIÆm a good speller. IÆll find it.ö She ran inside.
    I lay on the driveway and began to shiver, even though it wasnÆt very cold that day. I hoped I wasnÆt going into shock or something. I tried to remember what us baby-sitters had learned in the first-aid course weÆd taken, but it wasnÆt easy to concentrate.
    It didnÆt matter. Things began to happen quickly. First, Betsy dashed back out of her house. ôI made the calls!ö she announced breathlessly. ôThe ambulance is coming and so are Mallory and Dawn. I couldnÆt reach my mom ù no one answered ù and DadÆs line was busy, busy, busy. HereÆs a pillow and a blanket,ö she added. ôThe nine-one-one person said to give them to you.ö Betsy tried to make me comfortable, which wasnÆt easy, considering I couldnÆt move my leg.
    Soon after, Mallory and Dawn camezooming
up the SobaksÆ driveway on their bicycles, followed by a bunch of kids, also on bicycles. Dawn threw down her bike and ran to me. ôWe couldnÆt let you go through this alone,ö she said breathlessly. Then she told Mallory and the kids to stand in the front yard and wait for the ambulance. When they were gone, she said, ôOkay, Claud. Did Betsy call your parents or Mimi?ö
    I shook my head.
    ôAll right, then IÆll go do that.ö
    ôDonÆt call Mimi!ö I cried. ôShe canÆt drive. She wonÆt be able to do anything and sheÆll go crazy worrying.ö
    ôThen IÆll call your parents. Maybe they can beat the ambulance here.ö
    ôI doubt it,ö I said.
    ôWell, let me find out. IÆll be back in just a sec.ö
    Dawn ran inside and I was alone again for a few minutes. Where was that ambulance? My heart was still beating in my throat.
    When Dawn returned, she said, ôI reached your mom right away and sheÆs going to call your dad. TheyÆre going to meet the ambulance at the hospital. So IÆll ride with you, and Mallory wifi stay here with the kids. We left a note for Mrs. Rodowsky. When Mrs. Sobak comes home, Mallory will tell her what hap-
pened. . . . What did happen, by the way?ö
    I tried to explain, but I was feeling pretty woozy. I was very relieved to see the ambulance a few minutes later.
    Mallory kept the kids out of the way while the ambulance pulled into the SobaksÆ drive. Then the attendants jumped out, checked me over, and carefully (but it still hurt) loaded me onto a stretcher and into the ambulance.
    ôHer parents are going to meet us at the hospital,ö Dawn told one of the attendants. ôI just called her mother. They couldnÆt get here before you did, but theyÆll be at the hospital to sign papers, or ù or whatever they have to do.ö
    Just before they shut the doors, BetsyÆs tearful face peered in at me. ôIÆm sorry,ö she said again. ôIÆm really sorry, Claudia. I didnÆt mean for this to happen.ö
    ôI know you didnÆt,ö I told her.
    And then the driver slammed the door shut.
    ôDawn?ö I called. ôWhereÆs Dawn?ö
    ôIÆm right here,ö she replied. ôIÆm up front, next to the driver.ö
    The other attendants, a man and a woman, were in the back with me. They were taking my blood pressure and trying to put something on my leg. To hold the bones in place, I guess.
    We sped toward the hospital. I was sort of
disappointed that the driver didnÆt make the siren wail. I guess they only do that for big emergencies ù I mean, like for car accidents. I was glad I wasnÆt a big emergency, but roaring along with the siren blaring would have been exciting.
    After awhile, the ambulance came to a stop and the driver got out.
    ôWeÆre here, Claud,ö Dawn said.
    The back doors were opened and the stretcher was wheeled out. The stretcher is kind of interesting. ItÆs on these collapsible legs. When the attendants had put me in the ambulance, theyÆd collapsed the legs to make it fit inside. When they took me out, they pulled the legs down again. Then they wheeled me inside the hospital. It was like being on a traveling bed.
    ôI donÆt see your parents yet, Claud,ö Dawn said, ôbut IÆm sure theyÆll be here any minute now. You know how traffic can be at this time of day.ö
    I nodded. I thought of the last time I was in the hospital ù right after Mimi had her stroke ù and I began to cry.
    ôHey,ö said Dawn, running along beside me. She found my hand and held it. ôDonÆt worry, Claud. I mean, go ahead and cry. ThatÆs okay. But I know everythingÆs going to be all right. I just know it. Why donÆt I go watch for
your parents? I can tell them where you are. Then IÆll come find you. Or your mom and dad will, okay?ö
    ôOkay.ö My leg was beginning to hurt ù a lot. I bit my lip.
    It seemed as if Dawn was gone forever. Before she came back, a nurse wheeled me away to have my leg X-rayed. ThatÆs all I remember clearly. After that, somebody gave me an injection that made me feel very sleepy. I know I closed my eyes and that a lot of time passed, but I didnÆt feel like I was asleep. IsnÆt that weird?
    When things finally got clear again, I was somewhere else in the hospital, my leg was stretched out in front of me in a big cast, hanging from a metal frame, and Mom, Dad, Janine, and Dawn were all peering at me. I felt like Dorothy in the movie The Wizard of Oz when she wakes up back home in Kansas and finds her family and friends around her.
    ôHello, Sleeping Beauty,ö said Dad.
    ôWas I really asleep?ö I asked.
    Everyone laughed.
    ôWhatÆs my leg doing up there?ö I went on, pointing to it.
    More laughter, but it was gentle and friendly.
    ôItÆs in traction,ö Mom told me. ôItÆs ùô
    ôWhen did you and Dad and Janine get
here?ö I interrupted her. ôWhat time is it?ö I felt very confused.
    ôItÆs only about a quarter of six, honey,ö Mom told me. ôI got here right after the ambulance did. Dad and Janine arrived a little while later. You drifted off while the doctors set your leg, and now youÆre in your own hospital room. . . . Well, not your very own, youÆve got a roommate, but ùô
    ôWait a sec!ö My thoughts were whirling. ôIÆm sorry I keep interrupting you,ö I said, ôbut why am I in a hospital room? Tell the doctor to give me crutches so I can go home. When Kristy broke her ankle, she got to go right home.ö
    I saw Mom and Dad exchange one of those parent looks. You know, that look that says, ôOops. 1 think weÆve got a problem with our child. How should we handle it?ö
    Mom moved closer to me and smoothed my hair out of my eyes. ôClaudia,ö she said slowly, ôyou canÆt go home yet. YouÆre going to be in the hospital, for a week. The break was bad. Not critical,ö she assured me, ôbut no hairline fracture, either. The doctor wants you in traction for awhile, then in bed at home for a few more days, and then you can go back to school. TheyÆre just not taking any chances, thatÆs all.ö
    ôI donÆt want to be here for a week!ö I said, beginning to cry.
    ôBut think of it,ö said Dawn. ôYou get a vacation from school.ö
    ôIÆm certain you will have a stream of visitors,ö added Janine. ôPerhaps flowers and cards. I wouldnÆt mind a week of such attention.ö
    A vacation and flowers and visitors sounded nice. But the hospital didnÆt. I kept thinking of Mimi. When she was first in the hospital, she was hooked up to about a zillion machines. I was afraid to go near her. She looked dead. The doctors didnÆt know if she would walk or talk again.
    ôWill I be able to walk again?ö I asked tearfully.
    ôOh, of course!ö said my mother. ôIs that what youÆre worried about? The healing process wifi take two or three months, but youÆre going to walk just fine. This is a broken bone and nothing more.ö
    I nodded. But a horrible thought occurred to me then. What if IÆd broken my right arm instead of my right leg? What if IÆd broken it so badly that I couldnÆt use it again? CouldnÆt paint or sculpt or draw? Suddenly I was angry. I was angry at Betsy for putting me in such a
rotten situation; angry at Kristy for starting the Baby-sitters Club in the first place; angry at myself for going to the Sobak~Æ, even after IÆd been warned that Betsy was a practical joker. What was wrong with all of us? CouldnÆt we see how stupid we were?
    I was angry at the whole world.
    Baby-sitting seemed like risky business. Maybe, just maybe, baby-sitting was risky business. Maybe I shouldnÆt do it anymore.
    ôIÆm tired,ö I told Dawn and my family. ôI think IÆll go back to sleep.ö
    I wasnÆt sleepy at all, but I closed my eyes and left them closed until I thought IÆd heard everyone leave the room. I wanted to be alone for awhile.
Chapter 6.
"More flowers!ö announced a nurse. ôIÆll just add them to the collection.ö
    ôMaybe we should donate some of your flowers to the nursing home,ö commented my mother. ~I bet theyÆd appreciate them.ö
    ôClaudee, can I make your bed go up and down?ö asked Jamie Newton.
    ôWhereÆs the lunch cart?ö Kristy wondered. ôI bet hospital food is even grosser than cafeteria food.ö
    It was Saturday. IÆd been dreading Saturday. IÆd thought that spending a gorgeous weekend cooped up in a hospital room would be as bad as taking a math test. But I was actually having fun ù when I wasnÆt thinking about my babysitting accident.
    The rules about visitors at StoneybrookÆs hospital are pretty relaxed. In fact, there arenÆt any rules (unless youÆre in intensive care). Anyone can come visit. And you can have as
many visitors at a time as you want, as long as they donÆt disturb the other patients.
    As Janine had predicted, ever since IÆd been in the hospital, I really had had a stream of visitors. Mimi was usually with me during school hours, but after school and in the evenings ù oh, lord! All the members of the club had come by, and so had Mrs. Perkins and Mynah, Mrs. Newton and Jamie (Jamie is four and one of my favorite sitting charges; today was his second visit), Charlotte Johanssen and her mother, Dr. Johanssen (actually, she happened to be on duty in the hospital), CharlotteÆs dad, my parents and Janine (of course), and even two of my teachers! Boy, was I embarrassed when my teachers came by. I mean, you donÆt expect teachers to see you in your nightgown. But we actually had a nice visit. They didnÆt even mention homework. Or my nightgown.
    Then there were the flowers. Everyone sent them. I felt so special. My relatives sent them, our neighbors sent them, and Stacey and her parents sent a bouquet from New York. Plus, Stacey had called every day. (Stacey has diabetes and sheÆs been in the hospital quite a few times, so we could swap hospital stories.)
    Now it was almost lunchtime on Saturday, and crowded into my half of the room were
Kristy, Jamie, my mother (sheÆd brought Jamie and Kristy with her), Mr. Pike, Mallory, and two of MalloryÆs sisters ù Vanessa and Claire, who are nine and five.
    I felt kind of bad for my roommate, Cathy, who had no visitors, but I knew why she had no visitors. Cathy was (IÆm sorry, but this is the truth) a great big baby. She was fourteen, and sheÆd broken her elbow and had an operation on it. I guess it was a bad break, but every time a doctor or a nurse wanted to do anything to her, sheÆd scream and cry as if she were two years old. No one knew what to do about it. Her parents tried to spend time with her, but they couldnÆt be at the hospital every second, and no friends came or called or sent flowers. I decided that this was because Cathy didnÆt have any friends. I wouldnÆt want to be friends with such a baby. Still, I felt bad for Cathy.
    ôMom?ö I said as the nurse set the new bouquet of flowers on the windowsill. ôCome here for a sec.ö
    Mom had been talking to Mr. Pike and Mallory. She left them and came over to my bed. ôWhat is it, sweetie?ö
    ôGiving some of the flowers to the nursing home is a great idea,ö I whispered, ôbut maybe we should give some to Cathy, too. Do you
think she would feel insulted? I mean, itÆs kind of like saying, æYou poor kid, you donÆt have any flowers at all. IÆm so popular IÆve got more than I can handle. Here, take some of mine.Æö
    Mom looked thoughtfully at CathyÆs side of the room. Our beds were separated by a curtain, but there was hardly any privacy. My side was overflowing with flowers and getwell cards and presents and people. CathyÆs side was empty, except for Cathy and her bed.
    ôWhy donÆt you ask her?ö said Mom. ôShe can hardly get mad with all these people around.ö Mom grinned slyly.
    Usually, I think my parents are dorks, but every now and then they come through.
    I grinned back. ôFirst, I better see who the flowers are from,ö I said. I was keeping a list so I could write thank-you notes. I hate writing letters, but I thought that after IÆd been in bed long enough, even writing letters wouldnÆt be boring. Besides, I really appreciated what everyone was doing, and I wanted to let them know it.
    I reached for the card that was stuck in the bouquet.
    ôFrom Buddy, Suzi, and Marnie,ö I read out loud. ôGet well soon.ö
    ôIs that the Barretts?ö asked my mother.
    I nodded. Our club sits for the Barretts a lot.
    ôYou must be pretty popular with your clients,ö commented Mom, shaking her head. ôIÆve never seen anything like this.ö
    At the mention of ôclients,ö I felt a funny, crawling sensation ripple through my body, but I shook it off. ôHey, Cathy!ö I called.
    ôYeah?ö Cathy drew our curtain back.
    ôWould you like these flowers?ö I asked her. ôI thought theyÆd look really nice by your bed.ö
    ôWell . . . well, sure!ö Cathy smiled at me.
    Mom set the flowers on CathyÆs night table. Then she turned to me. ôHoney, Mr. Pike and I are going to go get a cup of coffee. WeÆll be back in a little while.ö
    ôOkay,ö I replied.
    As soon as the adults were gone, I looked at Kristy and Mallory. ôAll right!ö I said. ôOn our own!ö
    ôAnd just in time for lunch,ö added Kristy, as a nurse came in with covered trays for Cathy and me. She set mine on this table that rolls over the bed, right across your lap. Then she raised my bed so I was sitting up higher.
    ôCool!ö cried Vanessa, watching with interest, at the same time that Jamie said, ôI wanted to make her bed go up!ö
    ôYou can put it down for me after lunch,ö I told Jamie. ôHowÆs that?ö
    ôOkay.ö Jamie looked satisfied.
    ôMallory, IÆm hungry,ö complained Claire. ôI want a lunch, too.ö
    ôWeÆll get lunch at home when Daddy comes back,ö Mal told her.
    ôYou might get to eat something before that, though,ö I said. I was looking disgustedly at my tray. It held a pale piece of baked chicken, a helping of extremely limp broccoli, something white that I couldnÆt even identify, a pudding cup, a roll, and a container of milk. ôHere, have my pudding,ö I said to Claire, holding out the container along with a plastic spoon.
    Kristy was staring at my tray, bug-eyed. ôWell, itÆs finally happened,ö she said. ôWeÆve found something worse than cafeteria food and airplane food put together.ö
    ôI know,ö I moaned. ôWhat I wouldnÆt give for a Ring Ding or a big bag of Fritos right now.ö I thought longingly of the junk-food stash in my room. Since I knew the Babysitters Club meetings were being held in my room without me (they had to be, because people call my phone number), I said, ôPuhlease sneak some decent food in here next time one of you visits, okay? Look in my desk drawer or under my bed or in almost any shoebox.ö
    Kristy and Mallory agreed, and I tried to eat my lunch.
    ôHi, Claud!ö someone called from the doorway.
    I looked up. There was Mary Anne. She was holding a cardboard carton and looking sort of, oh, furtive. (ThatÆs a word Janine uses. It means secretive.) She tiptoed into the room, not saying a word to anyone. Then she smiled at Cathy, said, ôExcuse me,ö pulled the curtain between my bed and CathyÆs, and opened the box.
    Inside was her kitten, Tigger. ôMew,ö he said in his tiny voice.
    Now, the hospital may not have many rules, but I know animals are not allowed.
    ôI know it, too,ö Mary Anne said when I mentioned that to her. ôBut I thought you could use a cuddly visitor.ö
    Everyone crowded around my bed. I pushed my lunch table away and we began cooing over Tigger. I hoped Cathy wouldnÆt blab, and decided she wouldnÆt, since IÆd just given her flowers.
    After a few minutes, Mallory said, ôHey, whereÆs Jamie?ö
    He was gone.
    That caused some panic, as you can imagine.
    My friends went to look for him, leaving me with Tigger. Thanks a lot. What if a nurse came in? But Jamie was found pretty quickly. He was down the hail, in a room where a little boy was recovering from having his appendix removed.
    ôWhat were you doing there?ö I asked Jamie.
    ôVisiting,ö he answered. ôIÆm a visitor, right?ö
    I smiled at him. ôRight.ö
    My mom and Mr. Pike returned then, and Mary Anne quickly put Tigger in his box and shoved the box under the bed. Since it was lunchtime, everyone left, except for Mary Anne and Tigger.
    The afternoon passed quickly. Dawn arrived, then left later with Mary Anne. (I have to admit, I breathed a sigh of relief to see Tigger go, cute as he was.) Jessi and her sister arrived. They brought me a sock to put over the foot of my cast. The sock looked like a moose head. Once it was on, Becca started laughing and couldnÆt stop. Cathy laughed, too.
    Jessi and Becca left. Ashley arrived. Ashley left.
    Then the room was silent. It would be a good time to ù Ring, ring.
    I reached for the phone. Since IÆd been in the hospital, every single call had been for me. Not one for Cathy.
    ôHello?ö I said.
ôHi, Claud! ItÆs me!ö ôStacey! Hello!ö
ôHow are you doing?ö I paused.
    Stacey could tell immediately that something was wrong. ôHow are you really doing?ö she corrected herself.
    ôIÆm ù My leg is okay. It hurts, of course, and being in traction is uncomfortable. And IÆd give anything for a Ring Ding, but. . .ô
    ôWhatÆs wrong?ö
    ôIÆve been doing a lot of thinking,ö I told her. ôI keep coming back to this one thing. What if IÆd ruined my hands or arms when I fell? Baby-sitting can be dangerous, Stace. And thereÆs a good chance that when I grow up IÆll be an artist, not a sitter. I donÆt want to lose that chance. So IÆm thinking of dropping out of the Baby-sitters Club. Just to be on the safe side.ö
Chapter 8.
I was lying in bed, laughing. Kristy had
brought the club notebook by for me to read,
I had never had so much fun with it as when
I read Jessi and Mary AnneÆs entry. IÆm sure
not everything that had happened that afternoon seemed funny then, but it seemed pretty
funny later.
    The afternoon began when Jessi and Mary Anne arrived at the PikesÆ, rang their bell, and were frightened out of their wits by sevenyear-old Margo, who sprang from behind some bushes, shouting, ôBOO!ö
    ôAughh!ö screeched Jessi and Mary Anne.
    ôScared you! Scared you!ö Margo cried delightedly.
    She let her sitters inside the house.
    ôHi!ö cried Nicky. (Nicky is eight.) ôHi, you guys! Boy, am I glad youÆre here!ö
    He stuck out his hand and Mary Anne reached for it. She was thinking, Nicky isnÆt usually this enthusiastic or this polite, but what the heck.
    She shook NickyÆs hand.
BZZZZZZ!
    ôAughh!ö Mary Anne screamed again.
    ôWhat is going on out there?ö called Mallory. She rushed into the hallway, followed by her parents.
    Nicky was laughing and jumping up and down. ôI got Mary Anne with the joy buzzer!ö he exclaimed.
    ôAnd I scared Mary Anne and Jessi!ö cried Margo.
    Mr. and Mrs. Pike shook their heads.
    ôPlease donÆt give your sitters a hard time,ö said Mr. Pike.
    ôWho, us?ö asked Nicky innocently.
    ôAny of you,ö their father replied sternly.
    Mrs. Pike gave Jessi and Mary Anne some instructions about the afternoon~
    ôThe triplets are out in back,ö she began. (The triplets are Byron, Adam, and Jordan, and theyÆre ten.) ôVanessa is over at the BraddocksÆ playing with Haley. And, letÆs see. Who are we missing? Oh, yes. Claire. SheÆs up in her room, I think.
    ôAll the kids have had lunch,ö Mrs. Pike went on, ôand weÆll be back around five-thirty, so you donÆt have to worry about dinner. Mr. Pike and I will be visiting friends in Haddonfield. Their number is by the phone in the kitchen. I guess thatÆs it. You girls know everything else,ö
    ôAnd IÆll be sitting for Jamie Newton, if you need me,ö added Ma!. She checked her watch. ôWow, I better go. See you later. æBye, Mom! æBye, Dad! æBye, you guys!ö
    Mallory took off on her bike. Her parents took off in their car.
    ôI think IÆll go upstairs and see what Claire is up to,ö said Jessi.
    But before she had moved an inch, the phone rang.
    ôIÆll get it!ö said Mary Anne. She answered it in the kitchen. ôHello, Pike residence.ö
    ôHello,ö said a familiar voice, ôis your refrigerator running?ö
    ôYes,ö said Mary Anne impatiently. That was the oldest goof call in history. She waited for the caller to say, ôThen you better go catch it.ö
    ôJust checking!ö said the voice. The caller hung up.
    So did Mary Anne. ôGoof call,ö she said disgustedly to Jessi.
    Jessi smiled.
    The phone rang again.
    ôIÆll get it this time,ö said Jessi. ôHello?ö
    ôHello, is Rita Book there?ö The caller dissolved into giggles and had to hang up the phone.
    Mary Anne and Jessi waited for the phone to ring a third time. When it didnÆt, Jessi finally headed upstairs, while Mary Anne took Nicky and Margo outside. Jessi found the door to Claire and MargoÆs room closed.
    She knocked on it.
    ôCome in!ö called Claire.
    Jessi opened the door ù and was hit in the face with a stream of water from ClaireÆs squirt gun.
    ôHee, hee, hee!ö giggled Claire.
    ôBoy, you and your brothers and sisters sure are full of tricks,ö said Jessi, wiping the water out of her eyes.
    ôWeÆve got some great ones, all right,ö agreed Claire. ôMy brothers even have a rubber spider. ItÆs big and yucky and ooky.ö
    Jessi didnÆt answer her at first. Her eyes had seen something lurking in a corner of the room. She swallowed. ôYour brothers?ö she repeated. ôAre you sure they have the only one?ö
    ôSure, IÆm sure,ö replied Claire. ôAnd they wonÆt let us girls borrow it.ö
    ôWell,ö said Jessi, backing toward the doorway, ôthen what is that?ö She pointed to the corner of the room.
    ôWhat?ö asked Claire. Then she saw it. ôAughh!ö she cried.
    Jessi panicked and ran into the hallway. She pulled Claire after her, slamming the door shut. ôOh. Oh, my gosh,ö she said, panting. ôThat is the biggest spider I have ever seen. ItÆs as big as a dog! I better get Mary Anne.ö
    Claire began to giggle again. ôAs big as a dog!ö She laughed and laughed.
    ôIt wasnÆt that funny,ö exclaimed Jessi.
    ôYes, it was!ö Gasping and giggling, Claire opened the door to the bedroom. She ran to the corner and picked up the spider. ôThis is the rubber one!ö she cried. ôFooled you! Fooled you!ö
    Meanwhile, Mary Anne was outside with the other kids. The triplets were practicing soccer moves, and Nicky and Margo were playing volleyball. All the kids were hot and sweaty, so when Byron asked, ôMary Anne, can we have some ice cream?ö Mary Anne said yes.
    She brought the kids inside and called Claire and Jessi downstairs.
    ôLetÆs make chocolate sundaes,ö said Byron. ôAdam and Jordan and I will make them for everyone, even you and Jessi,ö he told Mary Anne. ôNow you guys just sit down and relax.ö
    Jessi sat down, but Mary Anne said, ôBe back in a minute.ö She headed for the bathroom.
    She hadnÆt been gone long when Jessi heard a cry of, ôOh, disgust!ö
    Nicky tried hard not to laugh.
    Jessi glanced at him suspiciously, then dashed for the bathroom. ôWhat is it?ö she called.
    ôThat,ö Mary Anne replied, pointing to the floor. ôIt took me a minute before I realized itÆs fake barf.ö
    Jessi looked at the realistic puddle on the floor. ôEw,ö she said. ôBoy, you know what? So far, Margo has scared us, Nicky has joybuzzed you and left this barf here, Claire has gotten me with a squirt gun and frightened me with a fake spider ùô
    ôAnd Vanessa goof-called us twice. IÆm sure it was Vanessa,ö Mary Anne finished up. ôListen, weÆve got to put an end to this, and I think I know how to do it. While weÆre eating our ice cream,ö she said, lowering her voice, ôIÆm going to tell the kids the circus is coming. Just go along with anything I say, okay?ö
    ôOkay,ö agreed Jessi, mystified.
    Mary Anne explained the rest of her idea. Then she picked up the plastic barf and brought it into the kitchen. ôVery funny,ö she said, handing it to Nicky.
    Nicky smirked.
    ôIce creamÆs ready!ö announced Byron.
    Mary Anne, Jessi, Nicky, Margo, and Claire sat down at the PikesÆ kitchen table. The triplets served each of them a dish of vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate sauce. Then they carried their own ice cream to the table.
    ôOh, boy!ö exclaimed Nicky. He dug his
spoon into his dish  -- and the scoop of ice cream slurped out and bounced across the table.
    The triplets laughed until they were almost crying.
    ôItÆs a chocolate-covered tennis ball!ö Jordan managed to gasp out.
    Nicky pouted, but there wasnÆt much he could say after the joy buzzer and the plastic barf. He just made himself a real sundae.
    ôSo,ö said Mary Anne, ôdid you guys hear about the circus? ItÆs coming to town tomorrow. Well, actually, itÆs coming today, but the first show will be tomorrow. Clive BaityÆs Traveling Circus, itÆs called.ö
    The Pikes were intrigued. They wanted to know all about the circus. Mary Anne answered their questions. Practical jokes seemed to have been forgotten. But not for long. When Jessi stood up for a moment to grab a dish towel from the counter, Nicky pulled her chair out from under her, which made her sit down on the floor.
    ôThat does it,ö Mary Anne whispered to Jessi as she helped her to her feet. ôCome in the living room with me. ItÆs time to put our plan into action.ö
    Jessi and Mary Anne sauntered casually into the PikesÆ living room. They left the kids in
the kitchen, cleaning up the ice cream dishes.
    ôOh, my lord!ö Mary Anne suddenly screeched. ôJessi, I donÆt believe it! There is an elephant in the front yard!ö
    ôAn elephant?ö cried Claire from the kitchen. ôDonÆt listen to her,ö Adam said. ôItÆs a joke.ö
    Jessi and Mary Anne pretended not to have heard him.
    ôWhatÆs that thing on the elephantÆs back?ö asked Jessi.
    ôItÆs ù itÆs a blanket. Why, it says Clive Baity on it.ö
    ôOh, no! The elephant must have escaped from the circus! Honest, Mary Anne, I have never, and I mean, never seen anything like this in my whole life!ö
    That was enough for the Pikes. Both Jessi and Mary Anne sounded truly stunned. And their story was believable. . . sort of. Besides, baby-sitters donÆt play tricks, do they?
    The Pike kids rushed to the living-room window.
    ôWhere is it?ö asked Adam breathlessly.
    ôFooled you!ö cried Mary Anne.
    ôAnd,ö added Jessi, ôthis is the end of all practical jokes for the day.ö
    Red-faced, the triplets, Nicky, Margo, and Claire went outdoors to play.
    And that was the last trick of the day ù except for when the phone rang, and an oddsounding voice on the other end said, ôHelloo, this is Queen Elizabeth. Is Prince Charles there?ö
    ôYes, he is,ö said Jessi, ôbut he canÆt come to the phone. HeÆs outside waxing his yacht. Good-bye.ö
Clunk.
Chapter 9.
I couldnÆt believe it. I was going home at last! The week was over. The night before, the doctor had taken my leg out of traction. I still had to stay off my feet for another week, but I would much rather have done that at home than in the hospital.
    I was tired of the hospital. My flowers were drooping, I hated the meals (Dawn had saved my life, though, by bringing me some junk food), and I wanted to sleep in my own bed again. Cathy had gone home, and a sevenyear-old girl had taken her place. She slept all the time and everyone had to whisper when they came in our room.
    The doctor let me go home really, really early one morning. Dad picked me up at seventhirty. (My parents were trying not to miss too much work.) A nurse pushed me outside in a wheelchair, and she and Dad loaded my stuff
into our car. Since I was still in my nightgown and bathrobe, this was fairly embarrassing.
    I got over it, though. As Dad drove me through Stoneybrook, I felt as if IÆd been let out of prison.
    ôBoy, am I glad to be going home!ö I exclaimed.
    ôNo! Really?ö teased my father. ôYou mean you didnÆt want a few extra vacation days in the hospital? IÆm sure Mom and I could have arranged something.ö
    I laughed. ôI wonÆt even mind finishing my thank-you notes, or starting all the homework IÆll have to make up.ö
    ôWell, we sure are glad to have you back.ö
    ôThanks, Dad.ö
    I thought Mom would already have left for work and Janine for school, but when Dad steered our car into the driveway, there were Mom, Janine, Mimi ù and Mary Anne! They were crowded onto our front porch, and they waved madly when they saw the car.
    I rolled my window down. ôHi!ö I called.
    ôWelcome home!ö they replied.
    IÆve never had so much help in my life. Everyone rushed to the car. Janine opened my door. Mom and Mary Anne tried to get me out. Dad rushed around to give them a hand.
Mimi opened another door and began pulling my things out of the car.
    At last I was inside and settled on the couch in the den.
    ôThis is where you can stay, for the most part,ö said Mom. ôYouÆll be downstairs with Mimi, and youÆve got the television and a phone, even if it isnÆt your phone. At night, you can go up to your room.ö
    ôFor club meetings, too,ö Mary Anne added. She looked at her watch. ôGosh, I better go. IÆll be late. . . . Uh, stay right by the phone for a while, Claud. Okay?ö
    ôWhy?ö I asked. (As if I could go anywhere anyway.)
    ôNever mind,ö Mary Anne replied. She dashed off for school.
    ôIÆm afraid IÆve got to leave now, too, honey,ö said my mother.
    ôSo do I,ö said Dad and Janine at the same time. Before they left, Mom and Dad hugged me, and Janine gave me a stack of magazines to read. She had bought them especially for me. I knew this because the only magazines Janine reads have names like The Joy of Physics or Science, Technology, and You. What she had given me were People, Tiger Beat, Seventeen, and Vogue.
    ôBoy! Thanks!ö I said enthusiastically.
    My family left in a rush. Mimi and I were alone together. We looked at each other happily.
    ôI hope IÆm not going to be too much work for you,ö I said. ôI donÆt want to tire you out.ö
    ôYou not work at all!ö Mimi exclaimed. ôWe have nice week. I know.ö
    ôI can get to the bathroom myself,ö I assured Mimi. ôDad left my crutches right there onthe floor. And last night, I practiced on them after they took my leg out of traction.ö
    ôYes, fine,ö said Mimi approvingly. ôOh. I have pre ù pre ù gift for you. A moment. I be back.ö
    Mimi left the den. She returned with a paper bag in her hands. ôHere,ö she said. ôOpen.ö
    I peeked inside the bag. Then I let out a screech. ôOh, thank you! A Nancy Drew book! ThatÆs great! I havenÆt read this one. Mimi, youÆre the best.ö
    Mimi smiled. ôNow, my Claudia,ö she said, ôI fix breakfast. You did not have breakfast at the hospital?ö
    ôNo,ö I told her. ôI left too early. Oh boy,
Mimi. One of your breakfasts would be great.
At the hospital, all they had was, like, Wonder
Bread and runny eggs. They couldnÆt even
make good tea. It was weak and pale. So IÆm
dying for one of your breakfasts~ And IÆm starving.ö
    Mimi left for the kitchen. I lay back against my pillows. I had noticed something during the past week. Any time I was alone ù when there were no doctors or nurses or visitors around me ù thoughts about baby-sitting crept into my head. I had a huge problem, and I had no idea what to do about it. The thing was, I love being a member of the Baby-sitters Club. My friends might not realize that, since art is so important to me, too, and Ashley once almost talked me into quitting the club so I could spend more time on my art. But the club is a big part of my life. I knew that. So I didnÆt want to drop out of it at all.
    On the other hand, the thought of babysitting terrified me now. Suddenly it seemed like too many things could go wrong. And if I was afraid to sit ù how could I be part of the club?
Ring, ring!
    The phone! Mary Anne had said to stay by it~ I answered it excitedly.
    ôHello?ö
    ôHello,ö said a manÆs voice. ôIs this Claudia?ö
    I recognized the voice. It belonged to my homeroom teacher.
    ôHi!ö I said.
    ôHi, there. This is your whole homeroom. IÆve got you on a speaker phone so everyone can hear you.ö
    ôOh!ö I exclaimed. ôHi, you guys!ö My teacher must have aimed the receiver out at the class then, because suddenly I heard twenty-one voices say, ôWelcome home, Claudia!ö
    ôThanks,ö I replied.
    Then I got to say hi to every single kid in the class, individually. 1 didnÆt talk to most of them very long, but when Kristy got on, we had a discussion about my homework.
    ôIÆll collect it for you, if you want,ö she said, ôand give it to you at our meetings. On Tuesday and Thursday, IÆll send it home with Mary Anne.ö
    ôHey, how did Mary Anne know about this phone call?ö I asked.
    ôOh, weÆve had it planned forever. We were hoping youÆd come home on a weekday. We were dying to do this.ö
    ôIÆm glad you did,ö I said. ôItÆs too bad Mary Anne isnÆt in our homeroom.ö
    ôOh, I gotta go, Claud,ö said Kristy suddenly. ôæBye!ö
    Someone else picked up the phone. ôClaudia?ö said my teacher again. ôThe bell is about
to ring, so weÆll have to hang up.ö
    ôThank you for calling,ö I told the class. ôI really appreciated it.ö
    ôGood-bye!ö shouted the kids.
    I could hear the bell ring then, so I got off the phone. Just as I was hanging up, Mimi came into the den, carrying a tray.
    ôOh, goody. Breakfast,ö I said.
    ôWho was on phone?ö Mimi asked.
    I told her about the call as she handed me the tray. ôOh, Mimi. This looks super!ö I exclaimed.
    On the tray were waffles and bacon, orange juice and tea. Strong tea. Mimi had even put a flower in a bud vase.
    Mimi sat at the end of the couch and watched me eat.
    ôYou know what?ö I said to her, my mouth full of bacon.
    ôWhat, my Claudia?ö
    ôThe doctor says IÆll have to have physical therapy after he takes the cast off. Exercises and stuff.ö
    ôI am sure you do them fine,ö Mimi said. ôPractice, practice.ö
    ôItÆll probably hurt.ö
    ôA little. Will hurt a little, yes. But you will do it.ö
    ôMimi? Were you ever scared after you had your stroke?ö
    ôOh, plenty. Very scared.ö
    ôYou know what IÆm scared of?ö I said. ôIÆm scared to baby-sit again.ö
    Mimi looked thoughtful. ôWhat is really scary,ö she told me, ôis to think we do not have control. Cannot keep accident from happening. Or stroke from happening.ö
    ôWell, I know one way to have a little control. I wonÆt baby-sit. Then I wonÆt be exposed to kids and their toys and tricks.ö
    ôIs that what really want?ö asked Mimi.
    I shook my head. ôI donÆt know.ö
    ôYou must think over,ö said Mimi solemnly. ôVery important. You have any ideas, you need any help, you come to me, my Claudia.ö
    ôI know. I know I can do that. Thanks.ö
    When I had cleaned my plate, Mimi took the tray away. She returned a little later with a cup of tea for herself.
    Mimi looked at her watch. ôOh! Claudia! I put on TV. Time for Wheel of Fortune!ö
    IÆd forgotten about Mimi and Wheel of Fortune. SheÆd started watching the daytime reruns of the show last summer when she was recovering from her stroke. IÆd thought they might be helpful. (The word games improved her read-
ing and vocabulary.) Mimi had gotten hooked. She switched on the TV and we settled into
the show.
    ôSpin wheel! Spin wheel!ö Mimi wouldcry. ôNo, donÆt guess now!ö
    Mimi and I played along. If we had been contestants, we would have won a lot of prizes. Well, a few anyway. Oh, all right, Mimi would have won prizes. Then we watched GilliganÆs Island and I Love Lucy. I read my Nancy Drew for awhile. After lunch, Mimi and I watched soap operas.
    If I could just forget about the baby-sitting problem, I thought, having a broken leg wouldnÆt be bad at all.
Chapter 10.
My cast was a work of art. No kidding. Now that I was out of traction and could reach it, I couldnÆt keep my hands (or my Magic Markers) off of it. It was just too tempting a drawing surface. I know youÆre supposed to let your friends sign your cast ù and I was going to do that ù but those big white spaces seemed to me to be jumping up and down, screaming, ôColor me! Color me!ö Huge areas of my cast were solidly covered with designs and sketches.
    On the day of the first club meeting after I came back from the hospital, I lounged on my bed, waiting for my friends and illustrating my cast. A few minutes before, Mimi had watched me climb the stairs to my room. She wouldnÆt let me do it with the crutches unless someone else came with me (she thought it was dangerous), so I had figured out a way to back up
the stairs on my bottom. It looked really stupid, but it was safe.
    Downstairs, I heard the front door open and a squeal as someone (probably Mary Anne) greeted Mimi. Then I heard footsteps on the stairs and finally Mary Anne appeared.
    ôHi!ö I greeted her. ôI thought it was you.ö
    ôHi! . . . Can I sign your cast?ö
    ôSure.ö
    ôOh, goody. IÆve got a really cute autograph.ö
    Mary Anne took one of my pens and carefully wrote:
    While she was working on that, the rest of the club members arrived. Jessi was the last one, as usual. She has a busy schedule in the afternoons, and she dashed in just as Mary Anne capped her pen, and Kristy said, ôThis meeting will now come to order. I move that we all sign ClaudiaÆs cast and welcome her back.ö
    Everyone dove for my Magic Markers (except Mary Anne).
    ôMary Anne,ö I said, ôI think we could use some refreshments. Look under my bed and see what you can find.ö
    Mary Anne disappeared, then returned triumphantly with one large bag of pretzels and two small bags of M&Ms.
    ôKristy, thatÆs mean!ö Dawn suddenly exclaimed, leaning over to read what Kristy had written on my cast ôListen, you guys. It says, æGod made the rivers, God made the lakes, God made Claudia . . . well, we all make mistakes.Æ
    Jessi and Mal started to giggle. ôThatÆs not mean!ö said Jessi. ôItÆs funny.ö
    ôNo, itÆs mean,ö cried Dawn, but she was laughing, too.
    So were Kristy and a dust-covered Mary Anne.
    ôAutographs are dumb,ö Mal announced.
    Everyone was talking and laughing and arguing. How could I decide not to be part of such a great group of people? 1 must be crazy. But I was pretty sure I was going to have to leave the club. I would tell my friends whenever the time seemed right.
    ôOrder, order!ö cried Kristy. ôThis is a meeting, everybody, not a party. Come on. We have business to take care of.ö
    We settled down. I was stretched out on my bed. Dawn was at my feet, still doodling on my cast. Mary Anne, who usually sits with us on the bed, sat with Mal and Jessi on the floor, since I was taking up so much space. And Kristy, of course, sat in the directorÆs chair, her visor in place. ôOkay, Dawn,ö she said, waving her pen around as she spoke, ôhowÆs the treasury? Are we in good shape?ö
    ôWeÆre fine . . . but Claudia owes dues from when she was in the hospital.ö
    I blushed. The thing was, I didnÆt want to pay dues if I was going to drop out of the club.
    ôAre you broke?ö Dawn asked. ôIf you are, donÆt worry about it. You can make up for it next week.ö
    ôNo, itÆs not that,ö I said uncomfortably. ôItÆs, um, itÆs . . .ô I was hoping the phone would ring then and let me off the hook (get it?), but no such luck. ôSee, I did a lot of thinking in the hospital,ö I began. ôAnd, well, you know how important my art is to me. I really want to be an artist when I grow up. Or maybe a clothes designer. So I thought, what if I had broken my arm or smashed my hands when I fell? What if I had hurt myself so badly that I couldnÆt draw or paint anymore?ö
    ôBut you didnÆt,ö Mallory pointed out sensibly.
    ôBut I could have,ö I said.
    ôWhat are you getting at?ö asked Kristy, with narrowed eyes.
    ôIÆm getting at    I-want-to-drop-out-
of-the-club,ö I said in a rush. ôBaby-sitting is too dangerous.ö
    ôClaudia!ö everyone cried. ôYou canÆt do that!ö
    The phone did ring then, but we didnÆt all dive for it, like we usually do. Kristy picked it up after glaring at me for a moment and arranged for Dawn to sit for the Perkins girls. Then she turned to me. She looked as if she was about to let her mouth go on a rampage, but Mary Anne jumped in ahead of her.
    ôClaud,ö she said, ôwe understand that you must be scared. Your accident was awful. But it wasnÆt caused by baby-sitting.ö
    ôOf course it was,ö I told her.
    ôNo. It was caused by Betsy Sobak. And not even on purpose. You know she didnÆt mean for that to happen.ö
    ôIt did happen, though.ö
    ôClaudia, we donÆt want to lose you,ö said Dawn. ôAre you absolutely sure you want to drop out of the club?ö
    ôNo,ö I told her. ôBut IÆm pretty sure.ö
    ôLook,ö said Kristy, ôyou canÆt baby-sit for awhile anyway, can you?ö
    ôNot unless I get a walking cast,ö I said, ôwhich might happen. But I donÆt think IÆd be much good on crutches.ö
    ôAll right, then. Instead of dropping out of the club, why donÆt you see how it feels not to sit for awhile? Maybe youÆll miss it a lot.ö
    I thought about that as a few more job calls came in. I passed around the pretzels and M&Ms. I chewed and thought some more.
    ôOkay,ö I told the club members at last, ôI wonÆt decide right away. But I want you to know that IÆm thinking about it.ö
    ôThatÆs fair,ö said Kristy.
    ôDarn old Betsy Sobak,ö muttered Dawn. ôLook what sheÆs caused.ö
    ôYou know, I thought I was prepared for anything,ö I said. ôBefore the swing broke that afternoon, Betsy had already gotten me with a dribble glass, a fake ice cube with a fly in it, and pepper gum.ö
    ôOh, you were lucky then,ö said Mallory. ôAfter you guys went to the hospital, I got to see BetsyÆs room. ItÆs, like, a joke warehouse in there. SheÆs got a rubber chicken, glow-inthe-dark lizards, a giant cockroach, plastic ants, a squirting hair ribbon, an exploding cigar, and a fake bloody tooth.ö
    ôI suppose we have McBuzz to thank for all of that, whoever McBuzz is,ö I said.
    Mallory nodded.
    The phone rang again and Mary Anne picked it up. As she spoke, she kept raising her eyebrows and making faces at us. At last she said to the caller, ôIÆll get right back to you.ö She hung up. ôThat,ö she told us, ôwas Mrs. Sobak. She needs another sitter.ö
    ôBoy!ö I exclaimed. ôIf I were Mrs. Sobak, I wouldnÆt have the nerve to call us again. Her daughter nearly killed me.ö
    Dawn rolled her eyes. ôShe didnÆt nearly kill you.ö
    ôBesides,ö added Mallory, ôwhen I met Mrs. Sobak, I sort of got the impression that she doesnÆt think Betsy misbehaves. She just thinks sheÆs kind of . . . well, she called her highspirited. And I ù Oh! Oh, my gosh! Have I ever got an idea!ö Mallory suddenly cried. ôKristy, if IÆm free, please can I take the job with Betsy? See, thereÆs been a lot of practical joking going on in my house ùô
    ôTell me about it,ö said Jessi.
    ôSo I know a lot of tricks now myself,ö Mallory finished up. ôAnd I could borrow some stuff from the triplets.ö
    ôYou mean, youÆd play jokes on Betsy?ö exclaimed Kristy.
    Mallory nodded. ôBad idea?ö
    Kristy frowned. ôI donÆt know about that, Mal. Playing tricks on a little kid. . . . I just donÆt know. It seems sort of mean. On the other hand . . .ô KristyÆs voice trailed off and I could tell she was thinking ù hard. ôYou were certainly patient with Betsy, Claud,ö she said at last.
    ôYeah, and look what she did to her,ö Mallory chimed in.
    ôI know, I know,ö said Kristy, and her eyes were beginning to gleam. ôWell, maybe that would work. Obviously, we have a problem and we have to do something about it. I suppose we could declare a practical-joke war on Betsy Sobak. An unofficial one, of course. I mean, we canÆt tell her about it. But maybe it would teach her something. Mary Anne, is Mallory free to take the job?ö
    Mary Anne checked the appointment calendar in the record book. ôYup,ö she replied. ôIÆll call Mrs. Sobak.ö
    Kristy looked at me. ôThe war is on,ö she said with a grin.
    I felt a lot better.
    But after dinner that night, Ashley called, and I made a mistake. I told Ashley I might drop out of the club.
    ôGood for you!ö Ashley declared. ôIÆm really glad to hear that.ö
    ôYou are?ö I replied.
    ôSure. IÆve always told you: If you want to be a serious, professional artist, you have to devote more time to your art. You canÆt be baby-sitting every day. Think of the extra classes you could take if you werenÆt sitting.ö
    I thought about them. I could take watercolors or portrait-painting or still life. But for some reason, that didnÆt cheer me up. And that should have told me something. It didnÆt, though. Not then. So I let it go by.
    At the club meeting, I had bought time. Kristy had pointed out that I couldnÆt sit for awhile anyway. How would I feel without kids around me? Without jobs? Without a way to earn money? Would I miss Jamie and the Perkins girls and the Pike kids? It would be an interesting test.
    Even more interesting, however, would be watching to see who won the practical-joke war.
Chapter 11.
The joke war was on, even though us sitters were the only ones who knew it. We had declared it at the last meeting, and we werenÆt going to stop fighting until we had won it. WeÆd never had a problem we couldnÆt handle, and we werenÆt going to let Betsy get the best of us.
    This was the main idea of a speech Kristy gave at the end of the meeting during which we had declared war. Mallory found KristyÆs words running through her head as she rode her bike over to BetsyÆs on Thursday afternoon. She told me later that as she pedaled along, she tried to psych herself up, the way boxers do before important fights. She talked to herself, encouraged herself, reminded herself of the jokes she had rented and that she knew what jokes Betsy kept in her room. By the time she reached the SobaksÆ, she felt prepared ù on guard and ready.
    Before Mrs. Sobak left, she told Mallory that Betsy would want a snack first thing, so as soon as Mal and Betsy were on their own, Ma! said, ôWhat would you like for a snack, Bets?ö
    ôCookies,ö Betsy replied immediately. ôCookies and milk.ö
    ôOkay,ö said Ma!. ôIÆll fix the snack.ö She wasnÆt taking any chances. ôFurthermore,ö
Mal added, ôyou sit right here at the kitchen table while I fix it.ö Ma! was trying to keep Betsy away from her stock of jokes.
    ôOkay,ö said Betsy obediently.
    Mal stood at the counter, taking cookies from the jar and pouring glasses of milk. Every so often, she looked over her shoulder at Betsy.
    Betsy was just sitting in her chair. She was barely moving.
    Mallory never let her guard down, though. She carried everything to the table at once, so Betsy couldnÆt switch anything around or add anything weird to the food like plastic ants or ice cubes with flies in them.
    But Betsy was an absolute angel during the snack.
    Maybe sheÆs learned her lesson, thought Mallory.
    Betsy bit into a cookie. She chewed it thoughtfully. ôHowÆs Claudia?ö she asked.
    ôNot bad, considering,ö Mallory replied. ôSheÆs home from the hospital, which means her leg isnÆt in traction anymore. But she canÆt go back to school yet. She might get a walking cast later, but sheÆs not sure.ö
    ôWhatÆs a walking cast?ö Betsy asked poiitely. (She had a milk mustache.)
    ôItÆs a shorter cast and it has this piece on the bottom; sort of like the heel of a shoe, only
sturdier, so you can walk around as if you had two regular legs.ö
    ôOh.ö Betsy nodded solemnly. Then she noticed that Mallory had finished her cookies and milk. ôWant some more?ö she asked.
    ôYes, thanks. Oh, but IÆll get it,ö Mal answered quickly.
    She opened the refrigerator and stood in front of it, pouring milk into her glass. SheÆd been planning on having another cookie, too, but realized that she hadnÆt been able to keep her eyes on them while sheÆd had her back turned, so she decided she better not take one after all. TheyÆd probably been coated with itching powder or something by then. Even seeing Betsy take another cookie didnÆt conù vince Mal that the rest were safe.
    ôHow was school today?ö Ma! asked Betsy. (What a dumb question, she thought, but she didnÆt know Betsy very well. Besides, it might be a dumb question, but it also seemed safe.)
    ôIt was fine. Our class is going to be in a school program. WeÆre going to recite Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. WeÆre doing choral speaking. Do you know that poem?ö
    ôParts of it,ö said Mal.
    ôIt goes like this: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night sailed off in a wooden shoe ù sailed on a river of crystal light ùô
    ôInto a sea of dew,ö Mal chimed in.
    Then she and Betsy said together, ôæWhere are you going and what do you wish?Æ the old moon asked the three. æWe have come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea; nets of silver and gold have we!Æ Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.ö
    ôHey, youÆre good!ö Betsy said approvingly to Mal. ôDid you do choral speaking in third grade, too?ö
    Ma! shook her head. ôNope. I just like poetry. My two other favorite poems are The Owl and the Pussycat and Jabberwocky.ö
    Betsy and Mal had finished eating by then.
    ôYou like those, too?ö asked Betsy. ôI read The Owl and the Pussycat to myself. Our teacher read Jabberwocky to us. Hey, IÆve got The Owl and the Pussycat in the den. Want me to get it?ö
    ôSure!ö said Mallory. She couldnÆt believe how well things were going. Not only was Betsy on her best behavior, but she shared an interest of MalloryÆs. Maybe my accident had taught Betsy a lesson, and sheÆd sworn off practical jokes.
    "IÆll clean up our snack while you get the book,ö Mal added.
    Betsy ran off. A few seconds later, Mallory heard the doorbell ring.
ôIÆll get it!ö called Betsy.
    ôOkay,ö Mal replied. She heard feet running through the hallway, followed by the sound of the front door opening. Then she heard Betsy talking to someone. And then she heard the door close. . . Silence.
    ôBetsy!ö Mal called.
    No answer.
    ôBETSY!ö
    No answer.
    Now, if Mal were a panicky person, she might have thought Betsy had gone out to play with someone without her permission. But Mallory is sensible. She looked out the window and didnÆt see Betsy or any other kids. And she hadnÆt heard a car pull away, so she knew Betsy hadnÆt gone off with anyone. Betsy must be inside, and she was probably playing another joke.
    Mallory threw down the sponge sheÆd been wiping the table with, and cried, ôBetsy Sobak, I know youÆre hiding! You come out this instant!ö
    Boy, is Betsy sly. She had lulled Mallory into thinking she was a normal kid, then WHAM! She pulled a stunt when Mallory wasnÆt prepared.
    ôBetsy, youÆre asking for it!ö Mallory shouted.
    She searched the house from top to bottom.
She looked under tables, behind couches, under beds. Then she looked outdoors.
    No Betsy.
    Finally, Mallory really did start to worry. She went back in the house and was passing by a closet, when the door burst open and Betsy jumped out, shouting, ôBOO!ö
    ôBetsy!ö Mal admonished her.
    Betsy burst into giggles. ôGotcha!ö
    ôI checked that closet twice! Were you in there all the time?ö
    Betsy nodded. ôWell, almost all the time. First I rang the bell, then I tiptoed back to the living room and pretended to answer the door. Then I hid. IÆll show you how I hid.ö She ducked into the closet, stepped into a pair of her fatherÆs galoshes, then wrapped an overcoat around her. The coat was still on its hanger. Betsy was disguised as raingear. She was nearly invisible.
    Mallory had to admit that the prank was original, but she was mad at Betsy for making her worry. However, she didnÆt want to give Betsy the satisfaction of seeing that she was mad. Instead, she said, ôOkay. Very funny. Come on out now. Oh, and if you do, IÆll show you this new powder I got yesterday.ö
    That brought Betsy out in a hurry. Mal knows
that most girls BetsyÆs age like powder and perfume and makeup. Her sister Vanessa does.
Mal opened her purse. She took out the sneezing powder. It was in a fancy little jar. ôHere,ö she said, and poured a small amount into BetsyÆs hands..
    Betsy rubbed her hands together, then sniffed them, and. . ôACHOO!ö
    ôBless you,ö said Mallory politely.
    ôAh-ah-CHOO! ACHOO!. . . ACHOO!ö
    Betsy began sneezing and laughing at the same time. ôIs this sneezing ù ACHOO! ù powder?ö she managed to ask.
    ôYup!ö (Ma! was quite proud of herself.) ôOh, great joke. I knew that powder was going to be fake. I better ù ACHOO! ù get a Kleenex.ö
    Betsy ran off and returned with a tissue. ôAh-ah-ACHOO-OO! . . Oh, no!ö Betsy cried. She was holding something in her hand. ôI sneezed my tooth out!ö she exclaimed.
    Mallory was worried, until she realized it was the fake bloody tooth she had seen in BetsyÆs room. She narrowed her eyes. Time to get even . . . again.
    During the rest of the afternoon, Mal scared Betsy with the slug, Betsy scared Ma! with a rubber snake. Mal scared Betsy with the rat,
Betsy scared Mal with her cockroach. Just as Mal ran out of jokes, she heard Mrs. SobakÆs car pull into the garage.
    Betsy and Mal looked at each other. They smiled. Mallory was almost embarrassed to admit it, even to herself, but she and Betsy had actually had fun that afternoon. Well, not when Betsy had hidden from Mal. That wasnÆt fun. But the other jokes, the harmless ones, were cause for an awful lot of giggling.
    And Ma! knew something just from looking at Betsy then. She knew that neither of them would mention the jokes to BetsyÆs mother. As a baby-sitter, Mal shouldnÆt have been playing them on one of her charges. But Betsy shouldnÆt have been playing jokes after what had happened to me.
    A battle of the joke war had been fought, but nobody had won and nobody had lost.
Chapter 12.
Dawn left for BetsyÆs house feeling less confident than Mallory had. She was prepared with some tricks, but by then she knew that Betsy hadnÆt given up her practical joking, no matter what Mrs. Sobak said or thought.
    Dawn was carrying a rubber spider with her. It wasnÆt the tripletsÆ, since she didnÆt want to have to rent anything. She knew it was probably too tame a trick for Betsy. (After all, Betsy had all sorts of rubber things of her own.) But Dawn thought the spider was worth a try. Under the right circumstances, anything could be scary. Dawn had borrowed the spider from Buddy Barrett.
    Also, she had polished up her acting skills. (Did she even have any acting skills to polish up? she wondered.) She was prepared to scream and jump up and down as if she had seen a mouse, she was prepared to pretend to faint, and she was prepared to be very dramatic about both things.
    Last but not least, Dawn had brought her Kid-Kit with her. She was hoping that maybe a good distraction was all Betsy needed.
    Dawn was sitting for Betsy on a Saturday, from ten oÆclock until three oÆclock, while her parents went to a golf tournament. She was
relieved that she didnÆt have to feed Betsy first thing. I had had to, and Mallory had had to, and each time the snack had somehow led to
a major joke. But by the time Dawn arrived, Betsy had already eaten breakfast and Mrs. Sobak said Dawn didnÆt have to make lunch until about twelve-thirty.
    As soon as the Sobaks had left, Dawn said to Betsy, ôWant to see the Kid-Kit I brought with me?ö
    ôWhatÆs a Kid-Kit?ö asked Betsy suspiciously.
    Ah-ha! thought Dawn. Betsy is suspicious. That must mean that sheÆs worried about having jokes played on her. Well, she had every reason to be suspicious.
    ôA Kid-Kit,ö said Dawn, ôis just a box full of fun. Toys and games and stuff. I left it in the living room. Come on and take a look at it.ö
    Dawn led Betsy into the living room. They sat on the floor with the Kid-Kit between them.
    ôI brought Old Maid,ö Dawn began as she opened the box, ôand Mad Libs and a really great book called Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and some other stuff.ö
    Dawn was looking at Betsy as she spoke, but fishing around in the Kid-Kit with one
hand. She felt the deck of cards, she felt some books, she felt a pad of paper and a box of crayons, she felt slime.
    ôAughh! Oh, no! Ew!ö Dawn jerked her hand out of the Kid-Kit. ôOh, thereÆs something slimy in there!ö She looked at her hand. ôAnd itÆs green. . and itÆs on me! Ew! GROSS!ö
    Dawn was just working up the nerve to look inside the Kid-Kit when she realized that BetsyÆs face was turning red.
    ôBetsy,ö said Dawn warningly.
    Betsy burst out laughing. ôGotcha! I slimed you!ö she cried. ôI slimed you! I saw the KidKit as soon as you came in. While you were talking to Mom and Daddy, I dumped the slime in the box. And you put your hand right in it!ö
    ôThatÆs nice, Betsy,ö said Dawn. ôThatÆs very nice. Thank you so much. I want you to know that I really appreciate your ruining my Kid-Kit.ö
    ôOh, itÆs not ruined,ö Betsy assured her. ôThe slime is just one big glob. I can get it all out of the box at once. IÆll show you.ö
    Betsy reached her hand in the box and withdrew the slime. Sure enough, it was in one big glob. Dawn checked the Kid-Kit anyway, though.
    The slime was gone.
    ôWhere do you keep it?ö asked Dawn. ôThe slime?ö said Betsy. ôIn this can.ö Betsy pulled a can out from under a chair, where sheÆd apparently been hiding it. She dropped the slime back in. Slurp.
    ôWhat a disgusting noise,ö said Dawn, trying to look ill. ôThat slime is . . Oh . . . Oh, my. . .ô Dawn raised her hand to her forehead.
    ôWhatÆs wrong?ö asked Betsy, looking alarmed. She put the lid on the can and set the slime on the table.
    ôI ù I feel a little . . a little . . . faint,ö Dawn replied weakly. And with that, she flopped over onto the rug.
    ôDawn!ö Betsy exclaimed. ôDawn, wake up!ö
    Dawn waited until she was pretty sure Betsy was leaning over her. Then she opened her eyes and shouted, ôBOO!ö
    ôEeee!ö cried Betsy, leaping back.
    Dawn began to laugh.
    After a moment, so did Betsy.
    Dawn shrugged her shoulders. There seemed to be no beating the practical-joke queen.
    ôCome sit on the couch,ö Betsy said to Dawn. ôIÆm sorry about the slime.ö Betsy stood up, sat on the couch, and patted the seat next to her.
    An apology. That was a good sign. Maybe Betsy would want to read for awhile. Dawn got Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and joined Betsy.
FW000000!
    Suddenly Betsy was hysterical again. ôGotcha with the pooh-pooh cushion!ö she exclaimed.
    That did it. Dawn lost no time in pretending sheÆd seen a mouse. She screamed, ôA MOUSE!ö and jumped up on a chair. Before she could even think, Betsy did the same thing.
    ôGot you!ö cried Dawn. ôThere is no mouse!ö
    Once again, Betsy laughed.
    Another joke battle was on. Betsy startled Dawn with a fountain pen that squirted water at her. Dawn pulled out the rubber spider. Betsy pulled out a fat rubber toad. That was unfortunate, because by then, Dawn had run out of tricks.
    She decided to try reasoning with Betsy. ôWhy do you play jokes all the time?ö she asked her.
    ôBecause 1 like to,ö Betsy replied. How could Dawn argue with that? The kid just liked jokes. And she was quick to point out that her baby-sitters played them, too.
    ôWell, do you think you could stop for awhile?ö asked Dawn. ôIt would be a refreshing change.ö
    So Betsy stopped. She and Dawn played
with some of the stuff in the slime-free KidKit. They actually had a good time. They even
got so involved in a game of Monopoly that Dawn forgot about lunch until she heard BetsyÆs stomach growl. She looked at her watch.
    ôQuarter of one!ö she cried. ôBetsy, weÆve got to eat lunch.ö
    ôAw, but ùô Betsy started to protest. ôItÆs okay,ö Dawn told her. ôWeÆll leave the game right here. WeÆll come back to it after lunch.ö
    ôOkay,ö said Betsy.
    Dawn fixed soup and sandwiches. After she and Betsy had eaten, Betsy sat back in her chair and looked at Dawn thoughtfully. ôIÆm
really sorry,ö she said quietly. ôYou know, about the jokes. All of them.ö This time Betsy sounded as if she meant it.
    ôYou are?ö Dawn replied. ôWell, IÆm glad to hear you say that. It isnÆt easy to apologize.ö
    Betsy shook her head. ôNo, it isnÆt,ö she agreed. ôAnd you know what? To make up for what I did, IÆm going to fix us a special dessert.ö
    Dawn was about to refuse, since she doesnÆt eat junk food, but she knew that now was not the time to turn down BetsyÆs offer. Betsy was trying to make up for things. WasnÆt she?
    ôOkay,ö said Dawn. ôWhat kind of dessert?ö
    ôIce-cream sundaes.ö
    Dawn sighed. Not only did she really not want any ice cream, but she remembered Mary Anne and JessiÆs experience when the triplets had fixed sundaes. However, that was the PikesÆ house, not the SobaksÆ.
    ôGreat!ö said Dawn, hoping she sounded enthusiastic. ôIÆll clean up the kitchen table, you make the sundaes.ö
    By the time Dawn had put the leftover food away and loaded the dishwasher, Betsy was carrying two dishes to the table. She had made real sundaes ù ice cream topped with whipped cream, a cherry, and chopped peanuts. Dawn wished she liked sundaes better.
    Betsy set one dish in front of Dawn and sat down with the other. She took a bite. ôOh, heavenly,ö she said. She closed her eyes for a
moment.
    Reluctantly, Dawn lifted her spoon. She just knew she was going to regret this. She would probably get pimples and cavities from all the sugar. She was concentrating so hard on how unhealthy the ice-cream was that she forgot about who had dished it out ù the practicaljoke queen. She put the spoon in her mouth. And then she did something she had never done before. Well, at least not since she was
a very little kid. She spit her mouthful back
out.
    ôOh, disgusting!ö she cried. ôBetsy, what is this? It tastes like soap.ö
    ôItÆs shaving cream! Gotcha!ö Betsy managed to choke out. ôI got whipped cream. You got shaving cream!ö
    Dawn just shook her head.
    When Mr. and Mrs. Sobak came home, Dawn didnÆt say a word about the jokes. She couldnÆt. It would seem like tattling. And it sounded so babyish.
    But babyish or not, another battle in the practical-joke war had been fought ù and Dawn was pretty sure that this time Betsy Sobak had won.
I was bored.
    Not just a little bit, rainy-day sort of bored. I was loll-around-the-house, complain-abouteverything bored. I was so bored I wanted to go back to school.
    It was hard to believe.
    I donÆt know how Mimi put up with me.
    It was a Monday afternoon. IÆd been home from the hospital since a week before the previous Thursday (longer than the doctor had first said I would have to stay home). The good news was that I didnÆt have to stay in bed so much and I could go back to school on Wednesday. The bad news was that by that time I would have missed three weeks of school. Even though IÆd been keeping up with my homework, I was worried about the classwork IÆd missed. When youÆre me, itÆs not ~ good idea to miss three weeks of school. ItÆs hard
enough keeping up when youÆre there every dαy.
    ôMimi,ö I said, as I waited for my friends to arrive for our club meeting, ôwhat if I have to stay back? Do you think IÆll have to repeat eighth grade? It would be honible! All my friends would go on to the high school and IÆd be left behind with a bunch of drippy former seventh-graders who probably wouldnÆt even ùô
    ôClaudia, my Claudia,ö Mimi interrupted me.
    She was sitting at the kitchen table, shelling peas for dinner. I was supposedly helping her, but IÆd reached that point where I was so bored I didnÆt want to do anything.
    That doesnÆt make much sense, does it? YouÆd think if you were bored enough, youÆd be happy for little chores. Like, if someone came up to you and said, ôWould you please pick the lint balls off my sweater?ö youÆd say, ôOh, thank you thank you thank you. Thank you so much for this opportunity. IÆve been waiting for something like this.ö But that wasnÆt the case with me. The boreder I got, the less I wanted to do except start my regular life again.
    ôClaudia, you let imani ù ima ù you let
thoughts run away with you,ö said Mimi. ôNo. I think you do not have to repeat grade. You are worry too much. If you fall very far behind, maybe summer school. But your mother, your father, your sister, and I we help you.ö
    I nodded. ôI know you will. I guess IÆm just nervous. IÆve never missed three weeks of school before. At first it did seem like a vacation. Now it doesnÆt seem like one at all.ö
    ôYou know, my Claudia,ö said Mimi gently, and she stopped shelling the peas for a moment, ôI have idea about you. I am not. . . I am not . . . head doctor, but this is what I think. I think you worry about school because there is something else you not want to worry about. And that is baby-sitting. What about club? Do you make decision yet?ö
    I shifted my position uncomfortably. I was sitting on one kitchen chair with my leg propped up on another.
    ôNo,ö I replied. ôI havenÆt made a decision.ö
    ôYou think about it?ö Mimi asked me.
    ôWell, not too much. IÆve been trying not to.ö
    Mimi nodded. Janine or my parents might have prodded me or scolded me, but Mimi just accepted that I was having some trouble.
    I looked at the kitchen clock. Five-fifteen. My friends would be arriving soon, but not
soon enough to save me from this discussion. ôYou know what the problem is?ö I said to Mimi. ~I donÆt think I want to make a decision. I donÆt want to baby-sit because IÆm afraid to, and I donÆt want to drop out of the club because I like being part of it. So if I donÆt make up my mind, I wonÆt have to do either one.ö
    ôThat is called being in limbo, my Claudia, and you cannot stay there,ö Mimi informed me gently. She wasnÆt going to come right out and say it, but she meant that I better make a decision.
ôI just canÆt decide,ö I told her. ôI know I should be able to talk to you or Mom or Dad or Janine ù or my friends ù but I feel like I canÆt because thereÆs nothing to say. I donÆt know how to talk about this anymore. ItÆs not ù Ring, ring.
    ôIÆll get it,ö I said. I had chosen my spot in the kitchen carefully. I was close to both the phone and the refrigerator. I could get to either one without moving much. I picked up the receiver. ôHello?ö
    ôHi!ö
    ôHi, Stacey! How come youÆre calling on this line?ö
    ôBecause I figured youÆd be downstairs. . . And I was right!ö
    ôOh. Well, great timing! EveryoneÆs going to be here in a few minutes.ö
    ôI know. ThatÆs why I called now. I wanted to talk to you, and I figured that by the time we finished, the other girls would have arrived and I could talk to them, too.ö
    ôOh, good. But itÆd be easier if I talked to you in my room. So if you donÆt mind, let me crawl upstairs and IÆll call you from my phone. Okay?ö
    ôOkay.ö
    Stacey and I hung up. ôMimi?ö I said. ôI know I have to make a decision. I know I canÆt stay in limbo. So I will decide. But it might take awhile.ö
    ôThat is okay, my Claudia. It is okay as long as you are responsible. And making the decision is part of being responsible.ö
    I nodded. Then I got my crutches, hobbled to the stairs, and with Mimi watching anxiously from below, backed awkwardly to the second floor on my bottom, dragging my crutches with me. When I reached my room, I settled on my bed and dialed Stacey.
    ôHi,ö I said. ôOkay, IÆm in my room now. How are you doing?ö
    ôFine,ö Stacey replied. ôHow are you?ö
    ôBored.ö
    ôI bet. Once I missed a whole month of
school. I was so bored my mother said she was going to look for a full-time job. She couldnÆt take me anymore. Of course, she was kidding. I think.ö
ôMimiÆs being really patient,ö I told Stacey. ôWhat else would Mimi be?ö Stacey replied. We laughed.
    ôWell?ö said Stacey.
    ôWell, what?ö
    ôWell, what are you going to do about the Baby-sitters Club?ö
    "Oh, my lord. Is that all anyone can think of?ö
    ôExcuse me,ö said Stacey. ôIt was only a question.ö
    ôSorry. Mimi just asked me about it, too. The answer is, I still donÆt know.ö
    Stacey and I talked for a few more minutes, and even though that was really great, it made me think how much I miss her. We used to have all the time in the world for talks. Then my friends started to arrive. Dawn and Kristy came first, then Mary Anne, then Mallory, then Jessi. Dawn, Kristy, and Mary Anne each spoke with Stacey.
    ôI,ö I said to Jessi and Mallory while the others were crowded around the phone, ôwill be so glad to put on real clothes. You canÆt imagine. I havenÆt been dressed in days.ö
    ôDo you know what youÆre going to wear to school on Wednesday?ö asked Jessi.
    ôNot for sure. But itÆll have to be a dress. IÆm not going to cut slits up the legs of all my pants and jeans, just so I can get them on over my cast. . . . Hey, Mary Anne!ö I whispered loudly, tapping her arm. ôGet off the phone, okay? This call is costing a fortune.ö
    When Mary Anne had said good-bye, Kristy called the meeting to order. ôOur first piece of business,ö she said, ôis that we need an answer, Claud.ö
    ôAn answer to what?ö
    ôAre you in the club or not?ö Kristy asked bluntly.
    ôWhat is this?ö I cried. ôTorture Claudia Day? I donÆt have an answer.ö
    ôClaud,ö Dawn said gently, ôwe donÆt want you to leave the club. But if youÆre going to, we need to know.ö
    ôRight,ö agreed Kristy, a little more sympathetically. ôI mean, we couldnÆt keep holding meetings in your room if you werenÆt a member of the club. So weÆd have to find a new meeting place and give our new number to all our clients. WeÆd have some work to do. ThatÆs why weÆd kind of like your answer.ö
    I sighed. ôI just canÆt tell you yet. Because I
donÆt know the answer myself. IÆm really sorry. I know it isnÆt convenient.ö
    ôOh, Claud,ö said Mary Anne, sounding disappointed. ôYou canÆt drop out of the club. WeÆve had too much fun. Remember ùô
    ôThis wasnÆt fun,ö I said, pointing to my leg.
    ôNo, of course not. But donÆt forget about the fun we have had. Remember when Lucy Newton was christened?ö
    ôAnd remember our trip to Disney World?ö said Dawn.
    ôAnd our trip to New York?ö added Kristy. I glanced at Ma! and Jessi, hoping they didnÆt feel too left out. They hadnÆt come to New York with us, since they were too young. And they hadnÆt been part of the club when we went on the other trip.
    But they didnÆt look upset at all, which meant that they probably werenÆt even thinking about the trips. They just wanted an answer from me, like everyone else did.
    ôCan I give you my answer in a week?ö I asked. ôThatÆs all I need. Just one more week.ö
    ôOkay,ö said Kristy. ôSure. Claud, tell us something, though. Do you miss baby-sitting?ö
    ôI miss everything!ö
    ôHonestly. Do you miss it?ö she asked seriously.
    I paused. ôYes. I do. IÆd give anything to see Jamie or Mynah or Gabbie or Karen or one of your sisters or brothers, Ma!.ö
    ôYouÆre going to stay in the club, I just know you are!ö exclaimed Mary Anne.
    ôIÆm really not sure,ö I said.
    We stopped talking then because the phone began ringing. We set up some jobs.
    ôHowÆs Betsy?ö I dared to ask, when we hit a lull.
    ôThe same,ö replied Ma!, sounding irritated. ôJoke, joke, joke. We canÆt beat her. SheÆs unstoppable.ö
    ôWeÆre losing the war, arenÆt we?ö I said. Kristy screwed up her face. ôI hate to admit it, but yes. WeÆre losing it.ö
    ôThatÆs what I was afraid of,ö I said thoughtfully. ôMimi is right. We canÆt control everything in life. And I donÆt like that.ö
    My friends and I looked at each other. No one said a word. The room was silent.
    ôGosh, IÆm bored!ö I exclaimed. ôAnyone have any lint balls? IÆll be glad to pick them off your clothes for you.ö
    We all laughed ù but I was feeling worried. Now I had only a week to decide if I really wanted to be in the Baby~sitters Club.
Chapter 13.
Leave it to Sam? No ù leave it to Kristy. Kristy and her great ideas. Sam did help her, but Kristy was the one who finally beat Betsy at her own game of jokes. On Saturday, three days after I was allowed to go back to school, Kristy had a special sitting job with Betsy. The movie theater downtown was having a twoweek-long run of kidsÆ movies ù Mary Poppins, The Parent Trap, The Red Balloon, The Wizard of Oz, Swiss Family Robinson, all sorts of things. The Saturday afternoon feature was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Mrs. Sobak had asked Kristy to take Betsy while she and Mr. Sobak went to another golf tournament. She said sheÆd buy the tickets and refreshments, then pay Kristy a small fee. (After all, Kristy was getting a free movie out of the deal.)
    The movie date was KristyÆs first job with Betsy. Kristy saw it as a giant challenge. She wasnÆt sure she could actually beat Betsy, but she was determined not to lose another battle. As soon as she found out what kind of afternoon had been planned for her and Betsy, she went to her brother Sam. She explained the problem we were having and ù bang ù just like that, Sam had tons of advice (well, jokes) for Kristy. And they were jokes that would work especially nicely in a movie theater.
*    * *
    At twelve oÆclock on Saturday afternoon, a car horn honked in front of the Brewer manù sion. Kristy ran outside. The Sobaks were waiting in the driveway. She slid into the backseat next to Betsy. Mr. and Mrs. Sobak were in the front.
    ôNow,ö said Mrs. Sobak as she drove through Stoneybrook, ôthe movie starts at twelve-thirty and itÆs long ù almost two and a half hours ù so itÆll let out just before three. Mr. Sobak and I will be home around five. You two can walk to our house after the movie ù it isnÆt far ù and then Kristy, weÆll drive you home later. Is that okay?ö
    ôThatÆs fine,ö replied Kristy, as Betsy sneakily squirted her with her trick fountain pen. Kristy ignored Betsy. She didnÆt even wipe the water off her face.
    The Sobaks let Betsy and Kristy off in front of the movie theater. Mrs. Sobak handed Kristy some money, and then she pulled the car into the stream of traffic on StoneybrookÆs main street. ôTa-ta!ö she called.
    ôOkay, Bets,ö said Kristy. ôGet ready for a great movie. And,ö she went on, ôI have something important to tell you. IÆd like you to listen carefully.ö
    ôOkay,ö said Betsy curiously, as Kristy pulled
her away from the crowd of kids in front of the theater.
    ôWhat I want to tell you is . . no more practical jokes. I wonÆt put up with them,ö said Kristy firmly. ôI donÆt like them, even if you do. So no practical jokes. Got it? Not one more.ö Kristy had told herself that she would not put her plan into action unless it was really called for. If Betsy was good, then Kristy would not continue the practical-joke war.
    ôOkay,ö said Betsy a bit uncertainly.
    ôIÆm not kidding,ö Kristy told her. ôSo promise me.ö
    ôI promise.ö
    ôWhat do you promise?ö
    ôI promise not to play any more practical jokes,ö said Betsy obediently.
    ôAll right,ö Kristy replied.
    Betsy flashed Kristy a big smile. ôPlease can I give the lady the money for our tickets?ö Betsy begged. ôI just love doing that. IÆll say, æOne adult and one child, please.Æö
    ôSure,ö said Kristy. ôHere you go.ö She held out some of the money Mrs. Sobak had just given her. Betsy reached for it, and ù BZZZZZZ!
    ôGotcha!ö hooted Betsy. ôI gotcha with my joy buzzer! Hee-hee-hee!ö
    I donÆt believe it! thought Kristy. The kid
played another joke. Right after flat-out promising not to. Well, that does it. The plan goes into effect now.
    Kristy just smiled. Soon she would be the one saying, ôGotcha!ö
    Betsy and Kristy joined the line of kids waiting to buy tickets. An awful lot of people were standing outside the theater. Kristy looked around, hoping to see someone she knew. But she didnÆt recognize any faces.
    Betsy did, though. ôHey! There are Hilary and Cici!ö she whispered to Kristy. ôOh, and Justin and Joey.ö
    ôGo say hi,ö Kristy suggested.
    Betsy looked uncomfortable. ôUh, no. ThatÆs okay.ö
    ôNo, really. Go on. IÆll save our places in line.ö
    Betsy shook her head. ôI donÆt think they like me.ö
    ôAny particular reason?ö asked Kristy.
    ôMaybe because I tied their shoes together during assembly last week. When they stood up, they fell down.ö
    ôWell, thatÆd do it,ö said Kristy drily.
    ôAnd also because I fixed the door to the girlsÆ room so that a baggie full of water fell on Cici when she went inside. . . . Oh, and I put fake ants in JustinÆs sandwich, and a fake
fly in JoeyÆs pudding, and fake barf in HilaryÆs lunch.ö
    ôYou put fake barf in someoneÆs lunch?ö exclaimed Kristy. ôThatÆs disgusting!ö
    ôI know,ö said Betsy, who looked both guilty and proud of herself.
    ôSo now those kids donÆt like you?ö asked Kristy.
    ôI donÆt think so.ö
    Hmm. Kristy decided to keep her eye on Hilary and Cici and Justin and Joey.
    The line was moving fast. Soon Kristy and Betsy and BetsyÆs classmates had bought their tickets and were entering the theater.
    ôCan we get popcorn?ö asked Betsy.
    ôSure,ö replied Kristy, ôbut we better find seats first. Come on.ö
    Betsy chose seats in almost the exact center of the theater. Her classmates sat on the other side of the aisle, several rows behind. As soon as Betsy and Kristy had taken off their jackets and settled down, Betsy said, ôNow can I get popcorn? And can I go by myself, please? I know just where to go. I promise IÆll go straight to the refreshment stand and come straight back.ö
    ôOkay, if you promise,ö said Kristy, who was thinking, This is great! This is perfect! This is better than perfect, joke-wise. But all she said
was, ôHereÆs some more money. Why donÆt you get a large box of popcorn?ö
    ôOkay!ö cried Betsy. ôGoody.ö
    ôNow, hurry,ö Kristy added as Betsy edged down the row. ôThe movie is going to start in about five minutes.ö
    Betsy rushed away. Kristy watched her. As soon as Betsy was out of sight, Kristy stood up, grabbed the jackets, hurried to the aisle, and moved six rows back. The theater was filling up fast, but she found two empty seats on the aisle. Then she leaned back and tried to look nonchalant.
    Right across the aisle were Hilary, Cici, Justin, and Joey. They were giggling and fooling around. The boys were tossing popcorn in the air and catching it in their mouths.
    Smirking to herself, Kristy watched the aisle for Betsy. When the lights began to dim and there was no sign of Betsy, she felt slightly nervous. She remembered how Betsy had hidden from Mallory.
    And then, suddenly, there was Betsy. The theater was almost dark and the curtain was rising in front of the movie screen. But the aisle was lit with tiny lights, so Kristy was able to watch Betsy as she marched past her, clutching the popcorn. Betsy slowed down as she approached the middle of the theater. Kristy
knew she was searching for her own empty seat. But there were no empty seats now ù except for the one next to Kristy. The theater was full.
    Betsy paused. She looked around. She walked to the front of the theater. She walked back. ôKristy?ö she whispered loudly.
    Across the aisle from Kristy, Justin nudged Joey and pointed at Betsy. ôLook!ö he said. ôItÆs Betsy the brat!ö
    Joey snorted rudely.
    ôKristy!ö Betsy whispered again. ôK~isty, where are you?ö
    Kristy kept her mouth shut. She knew Betsy was safe as long as she was within her view.
    ôKRISTY?ö
    ôSHHH!ö said several people.
    Hilary and Cici giggled.
    ôSHHH!ö said someone else.
ôKRISTY?ö
    Okay. Enough was enough. ôOver here, Bets,ö Kristy whispered loudly. She waved to Betsy.
    Betsy finally saw Kristy. She marched over to her and plopped down in the empty seat. Her classmates were hooting and giggling. ôKri sty, Kristy, help me!ö Justiri was saying in a high voice.
    ôYou switched seats!ö Betsy said accusingly to Kristy.
    ôGotcha!ö Kristy replied.
    Betsy sulked. But not for long. The movie had started and the popcorn was good. ItÆs difficult to stay mad under those conditions.
    Kristy decided to put the next part of her plan into action. She wasnÆt going to let up on Betsy. Not while things were going so well. And not after all the jokes Betsy had played on the members of the Baby-sitters Club. And especially not after promising Kristy she wouldnÆt play any more jokes.
    ôWhy donÆt you let me hold the popcorn for awhile?ö Kristy asked Betsy. ôIÆll keep it right here between us. Your hand must be getting tired.ö
    ôYeah. Thanks,ö said Betsy gratefully.
    Kristy held the box with her left hand. Her right hand was busily working its way into her pocket. It closed over something that Sam had lent her. Kristy pulled it out and slipped it onto her left thumb. Then carefully, quietly, she worked her thumb through the flap on the bottom of the popcorn box.
    Betsy never noticed a thing.
    The movie continued. The popcorn was disappearing fast, although Kristy had stopped
eating it. Betsy was the only one whose hand was going back and forth from her mouth to the box.
    On the screen, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the wonderful car, took to the air for the first time. As it flew, the kids in the theater cheered.
    Betsy reached into the popcorn box again. This time, Kristy felt BetsyÆs fingers brush her thumb. Betsy paused in her eating. She rustled her hand around in the box. Her hand closed over KristyÆs thumb. Betsy drew in her breath sharply. Then she leaned over and peered inside the box.
    There was just enough light for her to see what appeared to be mixed in with the popcorn sheÆd been eating ù a large, bruised, bloody thumb. Considering that the fake thumb had come from McBuzzÆs, so Betsy had probably seen it a hundred times in the catalogue ù and maybe even owned one ù Kristy was surprised that Betsy screamed as loudly as she did. It must have been, Kristy told me later, the element of surprise.
    ôAUGHHH!ö shrieked Betsy. ôAUGHHH!ö
    ôSHHH!ö said about thirty-five people around Kristy and Betsy.
    Kristy didnÆt let the gag go on for too long. She pulled her thumb out of the box and took
off the fake one. Then she held it up for Betsy
to see.
    ôGotcha again,ö she said.
    From across the aisle came giggles and snickers. Cici, Hilary, Justin, and Joey took great pleasure in seeing the practical-joke queen outjoked.
    ~WhyÆd you do that?ö Betsy whispered angrily to Kristy. ôI am so embarrassed.ö
    ôWell, remember that the next time you think about playing a joke on someone else.
And why did I do it? I did it because you gave Claudia pepper gum, you hid from Mallory, you made Dawn eat shaving cream, and you squirted me with your pen.ö
    ôAnd you put barf in my lunch,ö said a voice from across the aisle.
    An usher appeared next to Betsy. ôIf you kids canÆt keep quiet,ö she said, ôIÆll have to ask you to leave. People are complaining. Settle down, please.ö
    When the usher was gone, Kristy whispered as softly as possible, ôDo you want to stay for the rest of the movie, Betsy?ö
    ôYes,ö she replied.
    ôSHHH!ö
    So they stayed. Betsy barely moved a muscle until the movie was over and the lights came on again.
when her eyes had adjusted to the light, Kristy looked over at Betsy. Betsy was staring straight ahead. She was studiously ignoring her classmates who, as they put on their jackets, kept saying things, like, ôOh! Oh, save me!ö and ôEek! ThereÆs a bloody thumb in my popcorn!ö
    When they had left, Kristy said gently, ôCome on, Betsy. We have to go now. Put your jacket on.,,
    Betsy was obedient. She put her jacket on silently as people pushed along next to her, jamming the aisle.
    After a few moments, Betsy looked over at Kristy and said, ôI know the real reason you tricked me. It was because of ClaudiaÆs leg, right?ö
    ôWell, Claudia was certainly the only one who really got hurt from one of your jokes ùô
    ôBut I ùô Betsy interrupted.
    ôI know. I know you didnÆt mean for her to get hurt, but she did anyway. And other people could have gotten hurt from your jokes. What ii the shaving cream had made Dawn sick? What if one of your rubber toys had frightened someone so much that she fainted? Or fell? When you set people up, Betsy, you donÆt know what might happen. Furthermore,ö (the theater was emptying, and Kristy and Betsy edged into the aisle), ôfurthermore,ö Kristy said again, ôsometimes your jokes are funny, but most of the time they embarrass people. The jokes make them feel the way you felt today when I tricked you.ö
    Betsy nodded. She didnÆt seem quite so mad anymore. But she was awfully subdued. As they left the theater and walked into the sunlight, she said worriedly, ôHow is Claudia?ö
    ôSheÆs doing pretty well. She was finally allowed to go back to school last Wednesday.ö
    ôJust last Wednesday?ö Betsy sounded shocked. ôBut she broke her leg months ago!ö
    Kristy laughed. ôNo, just three and a half weeks ù well, almost one month ago.ö She paused. ôThatÆs hard to believe.ö
    ôIs she going t6 be all right?ö asked Betsy in a small voice.
    Kristy suddenly realized that Betsy had probù
ably been feeling awfully guilty about me. Maybe . . . maybe that was why Betsy had continued to play jokes after the accident ù to prove to herself that her tricks couldnÆt really hurt anyone, that my accident had been, well, just an accident.
    ôBetsy,ö said Kristy, coming to a stop, ôwould you like to see Claudia? We could go over to her house right now, if we turn around and head in the other direction. ItÆs not too far away. Then we can walk to your house after we visit her. Maybe youÆd, um, like to talk to Claudia and tell her youÆre sorry.ö
    ôOkay,ö said Betsy in a very small voice.
    When our doorbell rang, I was in the living room with my dad and Janine. They were trying to help me study for a math test that was coming up on Monday. But I wasnÆt being very cooperative. I just kept putting my head in my hands and moaning, ôI canÆt learn this! IÆve missed too much school.ö
Ding-dong.
    I actually cried, ôOh, goody! The doorbell.ö
    Dad and my sister shook their heads.
    ôIÆll get it,ö I added as I grabbed my crutches and hobbled to the front door.
    Believe me, Kristy and Betsy were the last two people I expected to find standing on our
stoop. IÆd been hoping for a visit from Mary Anne and Tigger, or the Perkins girls, or maybe a cute boy who was concerned about my recovery. (I wasnÆt picky. Any cute boy would do.)
    ôHi,ö said Betsy sheepishly.
    ôHi,ö I replied. ôI got your note.ö Betsy had written me a note of apology while I was in the hospital.
    Betsy nodded. ôMy daddy fixed the swing,ö she told me.
    Kristy cleared her throat. ôCould we come in?ö she asked.
    ôOh. Oh, sure. Sorry about that.ö I moved aside and let Kristy and Betsy in.
    ôI think Betsy wants to talk to you in private,ö Kristy whispered to me as she went by, and saw Dad and Janine in the living room.
    ôOkay.ö I tried to think where we could go. It was such a production getting to my bedroom, but in the end, thatÆs where we went. At least, with Dad and Janine and Kristy around I was allowed to hop up the stairs with my crutches instead of backing up on my bottom.
    I settled myself on my bed, Betsy sat cautiously next to me, and Kristy took her usual place in my directorÆs chair.
    ôI want to tell you something,ö Betsy said.
ôI want to say that IÆm sorry. I mean, I know I wrote that in the note, but I want to say it, too. Because I really mean it. Kristy said youÆre going to be okay. You are, arenÆt you?ö
    ôYes. But not for awhile. IÆm not done wearing the cast, and even after itÆs off IÆll have to have physical therapy. You know, exercise and stuff.ö Betsy was looking pretty worried, so I added, ôBut, hey! The hospital was kind of fun. I got tons of attention ù flowers, cards, visitors.ö
    Betsy gave me a tiny smile.
    ôTell Claudia what happened in the theater today,ö Kristy spoke up.
    ôKristy tricked me,ö said Betsy. She looked down at my bedspread, tracing the pattern of the fabric with her finger.
    ôAnd?ö Kristy prompted her.
    ôAnd it was really awful. I was so embarrassed. . . Did I embarrass you, Claudia?ö she asked.
    BetsyÆs question took me by surprise. I hadnÆt really thought about it. ôWell, yes,ö I told her. ôI guess you did.ö
    ôIÆm sorry about that, too, then,ö said Betsy. ôHey, donÆt feel so bad,ö I said. I reached behind my pillow and pulled out a bag of Tootsie Rolls. ôHere, have one.ö I handed a Tootsie Roll to Betsy.
    She looked at it warily.
    ôIt isnÆt a trick!ö I said, exasperated~ ôYou know, if you didnÆt p1ay~ so many tricks, you wouldnÆt have to worry about other people wanting to trick you back. WouldnÆt that be nice?ö
    Betsy nodded. Then she unwrapped the candy and ate it. When she had finished, she smiled. ôThanks, Claudia.ö
    ôThank you. IÆm glad you came over.ö
    ôWe better get going,ö said Kristy. ôClaud, IÆll be back after the Sobaks come home. I want to talk to you. When I get here, IÆll call Charlie and ask him to come pick me up. Is that okay?ö
    ôSure,ö I replied.
    Kristy and Betsy left. An hour and a half later, Kristy returned. Instead of heading for the directorÆs chair, she sat with me on my bed. She picked up a Magic Marker and dOodied on my cast.
    ôYour week is almost up,ö she informed me. ôOn Monday you have to give us your decision about staying in the club. Do you know what youÆre going to say? I donÆt mean to be pushy,ö Kristy rushed on, ôbut I am the club president, so I feel itÆs my duty to talk to you about this.ö
    ôThatÆs okay,ö I told her. ôThe funny thing is, up until Betsy came over, I did think I knew what I was going to say. I was going to tell
you that sitting is too risky and I was dropping out.ö
    æReally?ö Kristy was wide-eyed.
    I nodded. ôBut something Betsy said this afternoon ùô
    ôAbout her trick embarrassing you?ö
    ôYeah. How did you know?ö
    Kristy shrugged.
    ôWell, I started thinking,ö I continued. ôI was embarrassed. Humiliated, too, I guess. But I didnÆt want to admit it, so I started, whatÆs the word? Oh, yeah. I started focusing on all the other stuff. But the plain truth is ù I was embarrassed. And thatÆs no reason to quit the club.ö
    ôWasnÆt there something else, too?ö asked Kristy. ôSomething Mimi said?ö
    ôOh, yeah. About control. She said we canÆt control everything in our lives. I think she means that I could, like, stop baby-sitting, but that wouldnÆt keep me from having an accident on my bike or in gym class, or from falling down the stairs, you know? Plus, when I was thinking about things this afternoon, I realized something else. WeÆve baby-sat for a lot of kids since the club started and nothing like this has ever happened. We havenÆt run into any other kids like Betsy. SheÆs the only one. Also, one time Ashley pointed out how many extra art
classes I could take if I werenÆt sitting, but I didnÆt feel~ cheered up and I think now I know why. If I werenÆt sitting, IÆd just plain miss the kids ù a lot.ö
    ôSo?ö said Kristy, smiling. ôAre you saying youÆre in the club?ö
    ôYup ù as long as I donÆt have to sit for Betsy again. I just donÆt think I could do it. Is that okay?ö
    ôItÆs fine! ItÆs great!ö Kristy: cried. ôLetÆs call everyone else and tell them. I canÆt wait until Monday.ö
    So we started making phone calls.
    First we called Mary Anne. ôI knew it!ö she cried. ôOh, IÆm so happy, Claud!ö
    Then we called Dawn. ôGood going! All right!ö she exclaimed.
    Then we called Mallory. Claire answered the phone and shouted, ôItÆs for you, Mallorysilly-bily-goo-goo!ö (Claire must have been in one of her silly moods.) Mallory got on and said, ôFantastic!ö
    Then we called Jessi. ôHey, terrific!ö she cried.
    Last (but certainly not least), we called Stacey.
    ôHello,ö I said. ôIs this the New York branch of the Baby-sitters Club?ö
    Stacey giggled. ôHi, Claud.ö
    ôHi Guess what I have newsö
    ôGood or bad?ö
    ôGood.ö
    ôOh, then I know what it is YouÆre staying in the club, right?ö
    ôRight.ö
    ôCongratulations, vice-presidentÆ YouÆd be hard to replace.ö
    ôThanks, Stace.ö
    We talked for a little bit and then I hung up the phone. ôOops,ö I said to Kristy. ôIÆve got just one more call to make.ö
    The call was to Ashley. I gave her the news. ôYouÆre crazy,ö she said But she didnÆt sound mad.
    ôI better go,ö Kristy said to me a few minutes later.
    ôOkay,ö I replied. ôHelp me down the stairs, will you? I want to tell the news to one last person.ö
    ôMimi?ö guessed Kristy.
    ôYou got it!ö
    I was a true club member again. Boy, did it feel great!
Chapter 14.
B ZZZZ.
    ôOh! Oh, that looks awful,ö I said to my mother. It was two months later and I was back at the hospital. ôI canÆt go through with
it. I just canÆt. IÆve decided IÆll live with my cast. IÆll get used to it.ö
    My mother laughed gently. ôRelax, Claudia,ö she told me. ôThe doctors know what theyÆre doing. They take casts off every day. I bet they havenÆt lost a limb yet.ö
    ôThatÆs comforting, Mom.ö
    A nurse walked by us. ôExcuse me,ö I said.
    He paused. ôYes?ö
    ôHow safe are those gigantic buzz saws? The ones that look like they could slice through a redwood tree without any trouble?ö I asked.
    The man laughed. ôSafe as anything. We havenÆt lost a limb yet.ö
    As the nurse walked away, my mother turned
to me with raised eyebrows. ôWhat did I tell you?ö she said.
    ôYou told me a grown-up thing,ö I replied. ôItÆs like adults have a stock of jokes and sayings, and they pull one of them out whenever theyÆre trying to cover up for something. They all know which ones to say when. It must be something you learn when youÆre about twenty-one.ö
    My mother and I were sitting in the fracture clinic in the hospital. It was a place I had come to know very well. After I left the hospital, I had to go to the clinic once every week or two to have my leg X-rayed and my cast checked. I never did get a walking cast, but now my big, nonwalking cast was about to come off for good. It seemed as if it had been part of my body (a very heavy part) forever. It was fully decorated there wasnÆt a white patch on it ù but I wouldnÆt miss it a bit. If I could live through having it removed.
    I was watching two other people have their casts taken off. One was an old woman (she looked older than Mimi) whoÆd broken her ankle. The other was a guy about Charlie ThomasÆ age with a broken arm. A doctor was standing over each of them with a buzz saw. No kidding, the buzz saws had whirling metal disks, which made a tremendous noise, and
the disks were slicing through each cast like a pizza cutter slicing through a pie with everything on it. Now, as far as I know, there is nothing between the cast and your bare skin. How do those buzz saws know when to stop?
    I watched both procedures. I felt more and more nervous. Nobody shed any blood, though. Still, when the nurse called my name, I said, ôThatÆs okay. IÆve changed my mind. IÆm going to keep the cast. I donÆt want it, but IÆll keep it.ö
    ôClaudia,ö said my mother.
    The nurse chuckled. ôOn the table,ö he commanded.
    I got to my feet (well, my foot) slowly.
    ôGo on,ö said Mom.
    I hobbled over to the table and the nurse helped me lie down on it. Soon a doctor approached me. ôHi, there,ö he said. ôClaudia, right?ö
    ôRight.ö
    There are about six doctors in the fracture clinic, and you never know which one will be treating you. This one was Dr. Rivera.
    ôReady for the torture chamber?ö he teased me.
    I groaned. A comedian. ôOh, lord,ö I said under my breath.
    ôIf you prop yourself up on your elbows,ö he said, ôyou can watch.ö
    Watch? Was he crazy? It would be like watching the dentist pull your tooth out. ôNo, thanks,ö I said.
    ôYouÆre sure?ö
    ôVery, very positive.ö Now that I was lying there, waiting, I just wanted Dr. Rivera to get on with things. ôMom?ö I called. My mother stepped over to me. She took my hand. I hadnÆt asked her to, but that was just what I needed and she knew it.
    ôOkay, now,ö said Dr. Rivera1 ôyouÆre going to hear a loud noise,ö (duh) ôand feel some vibration and some pressure, but thatÆs all. I promise this wonÆt hurt a bit.ö
    Yeah, right. Having my leg cut off was going to be a picnic.
    I closed my eyes.
    BZZZZ. Dr. Rivera had turned on the buzz saw. All I could picture was a scene from this really old movie. A pretty young woman was tied to a moving belt in a factory where a huge saw cut trees into logs. The belt was inching closer to the saw... . The lady was going to be sliced right in half! But of course the hero came along just in time, stopped the machinery, and saved the woman whom he would
probably marry some ù ôAUGHHH!ö I shouted.
    ôClaudia!ö cried my mother, just as the doctor said firmly, ôHold still!ö
    ôBut I can feel it!ö I cried. ôItÆs right next to my skin! The blade is hot. Another eighth of an inch and itÆll be too late!ö
    ôThe blade is just warm from friction,ö Dr. Rivera assured me. ôDonÆt worry about it. Claudia, IÆve taken off hundreds of casts. I know exactly how deep to cut. But if you move, I might slip.ö
    Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for saying that, I thought.
BZZZZ. BZZZZ. The saw was moving a1on~g my leg. It was ù ôAll done!ö announced Dr. Rivera. And then
I did prop myself up, just in time to see him crack my cast open as if it were a lobster claw. The doctor hadnÆt cut me. He really did know what he was doing.
    ôNow donÆt move your leg at all, Claudia,ö he said. He pulled the two halves of the cast away. ôWant these for souvenirs?ö he asked.
    ôUh, no, thatÆs okay,ö I replied. The doctor tossed them into a bin full of other sliced-off casts. ôWell, can I go now?ö I asked hopefully.
    ôSorry, Claudia. IÆm afraid you canÆt just
hop off the table and walk out of the hospital. Your leg would never support you. WeÆve still got a little work to do.ö I took a close look at my leg and gasped. ôWhat happened?ö I cried. My leg looked as thin as a stick ù and as limp as ~a dishrag.
    ôYou havenÆt used the muscles of this leg in a long time,ö the doctor explained. ôBut youÆll be surprised at how fast it wifi look normal again.ö
    ôHow am I supposed to walk on it?ö I exclaimed.
    ôOh, youÆre not. Not for awhile.ö
    Boy, what an ordeal this was. Dr. Rivera splinted my leg. He wrapped an ace bandage around it. Then he handed my crutches to me. ôCome back in two days to see the physical therapist,ö he told me. ôAnd donÆt walk on that leg before then, understand?ö
    I did, but I was disappointed. IÆd thought the cast would come off and IÆdbe as good as new. However, I felt a lot better just a little while later. That was because I got home just in time for a meeting of the Baby-sitters Club.
    My friends were in rare form.
    Dawn had discovered junk jewelry (real junk) and was busy making a necklace for herself out of paper clips and colored rubber bands. While she worked on it, Mary Anne sat behind
her (they were on the floor) and played with her hair.
    ôYour hair is longer than ClaudiaÆs, you know,ö she told her. ôYou should braid it or something.ö
    Jessi and Mallory were making origami swans out of notebook paper.
    I just sat and watched. Mostly, I watched Kristy, who was watching everyone else. ôWould you guys please come to order?ö she finally cried.
    ôBut Kristy,ö said Mary Anne, not taking her eyes off DawnÆs hair, ôweÆve taken care of business and no calls are coming in.ö
Ring, ring.
    ôOh, yeah?ö said Kristy. She reached for the phone. ôHello, Baby-sitters Club. No, this isnÆt AngeloÆs House of Pizza. I just said it was the Baby ù Sam, is that you?. . . It is! I am now going to hang up on you,ö she announced. ôYouÆre tying up our line.ö Clunk.
    I tried not to laugh.
    ôDonÆt we have any business?ö asked Kristy.
    ôI have some information,ö Jessi spoke up. ôWhen I sat for Betsy Sobak last Saturday, guess what I found in her room.ö
    ôMcBuzzÆs?ö I asked.
    Jessi shook her head. ôNope. Something called SquirmyÆs House of Tricks ænÆ Jokes.ö
    ôAnother catalogue!ö I exclaimed, dismayed. ôDidnÆt she learn anything?ö
    ôWell, she might have,ö said Jessi. ~æShe didnÆt play a single joke on me.ö
    The phone rang again. This time I answered it. ôHi, Mrs. Barrett,ö I said. ôYou need a sitter when?ö I began to feel excited. "Okay, IÆll get right back to you.ö I hung up. Then, ôGuess what!ö I screeched.
    I sounded so excited that Jessi and Mallory dropped their swans, Dawn dropped her paper clips, and Mary Anne dropped DawnÆs hair.
    ôWhat?ö they all said.
    ôMrs. Barrett needs a sitter, but not until three weeks from Saturday. IÆll be able to sit then. IÆm sure of it. Please, can I have the job? I know weÆre not supposed to take a job just because weÆve answered the phone, but I havenÆt baby-sat for so long, and I really miss kids.ö
    My friends grinned. And Kristy said, ôThe job is yours. Go ahead.ö
    I called Mrs. Barrett back while Mary Anne noted the job in our appointment book.
    ôBoy,ö I said after IÆd hung up, ôdoes this ever feel great. I am so glad IÆm still in the club!ö
    Ring, ring. Since I was so excited, I answered the phone again. ôNO, this is NOT the Puppy
Parlor And I do NOT need my poodle clipped.ö I said Then I added, ôGood-bye, Sam,ö and hung up.
    Kristy looked thoughtful. ôYou know,ö she said, ôwe have had a major problem with practical jokes lately. And Sam wonÆt quit goofcalling us, but .
    ôYeah?ö I prompted her.
    ôI still wouldnÆt mind getting hit in the face with a pie!ö
    I sighed happily. Everything was back to normal.
ANN M. MARTIN did a lot of baby-sitting when she was growing up in Princeton, New Jersey. Now her favorite baby-sitting charge is her cat, Mouse, who lives with her in her Manhattan apartment.
    Ann MartinÆs Apple Paperbacks are Bummer Summer, Inside Out, Stage Fright, Me and Katie (the Pest), and all the other books in the Babysitters Club series.
    She is a former editor of books for children, and was graduated from Smith College. She likes ice cream, the beach, and I Love Lucy; and she hates to cook.
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