Part 3 (2/2)

”I do!” said Mary Anne. ”And I know the kids do, even if it is stirring up some compet.i.tion. They're having fun already.” ”I know,” said Mallory. ”I baby-sat for the Perkins girls yesterday afternoon, and you should have seen them trying to give Chewy a bath. What a mess!” Chewy is Chewbacca, the Perkinses' dog. He's a black Labrador retriever, and boy, is he a nut. He's the most energetic dog I've ever seen - and since he's also big and strong, sometimes he creates total chaos in that house.

”First of all,” said Mallory, ”every time they finally wrestled him into the tub, he'd jump out again and shake water off all over the bathroom.” ”Oh, no!” said Dawn, groaning. ”1 hope Mrs. Perkins was prepared for this.” ”She said that whatever the girls wanted to do was okay,” said Mallory. ”1 guess she figures that it's only water. Anyway, then they'd get him into the tub, and one of them would have to get in with him to try to hold him. The other one would pick up the bar of soap and start scrubbing. Then the soap would slip out of her hands and onto the floor, and Chewy - ” ”Would jump out to retrieve it, I bet!” finished Dawn. ”That dog can never let anything drop to the ground without running to pick it up.” ”No joke!” said Mallory. ”He looked pretty surprised the first time he picked up the soap. It must have tasted so gross! But he kept doing it again and again.” ”So did he finally get clean?” asked Stacey.

”He was getting there,” said Mallory. ”But then Gabbie left the room for a minute and came back carrying R.C.” That's R.C. for Rat Catcher, the Perkinses' brown tiger cat.

”She must have thought R.C. needed a bath, too - because the next thing I knew, she'd dumped her in the tub with Chewy!” Oh, my lord.

”R.C. jumped right out and streaked out the door, looking like a drowned rat. And Chewy chased after her. Water was flying all over the place!” said Mallory. By now we were hysterical, imagining the scene.

”Of course, R.C. ran under the porch, and Chewy followed her. Both of them got covered with dirt. So the whole thing was a waste!” ”I'm sure Chewy would have gotten dirty again by the time of the pet show, anyway,” said Mary Anne.

”That's what I tried to tell Gabbie and Myriah,” said Mallory. ”But they were too upset to listen. What a day! It took us the rest of the afternoon to clean up the bathroom.” ”I had kind of a similar experience with Linny Papadakis and his turtle,” said Kristy.

”He gave his turtle a bath?” asked Claudia.

”No, he didn't exactly give Myrtle a bath,” said Kristy. ”What happened was - ” But she was interrupted by a job call. Mrs. Barrett needed a sitter for Buddy, Suzi, and Marnie. Mallory got the job. Then Kristy went on with her story.

”Linny spent all afternoon painting Myrtle's sh.e.l.l,” she said. ”He used these water-based poster paints, since I told him that his model paints might not be so good for Myrtle. You know what? He did a great job. Myrtle looked really cool when he was done.” ”What did he paint?” asked Claudia.

”There were these red lightning bolts running down the sides of the sh.e.l.l, and yellow stars,” said Kristy. ”And all kinds of other stuff. We took Myrtle outside with us afterward, so that Linny could admire her once in awhile as he played.” ”Sounds like a disaster is coming up!” said Mary Anne.

”You're right,” said Kristy. ”Linny got involved in a game of Statues with some other kids, and Myrtle crawled over to this little plastic pool in the side yard. By the time we got to her, all the paint had washed off.” ”Oh, poor Linny!” I said.

”1 know,” said Kristy. ”He was really crushed. But at least he learned that he's got to keep Myrtle away from water if he wants the paint job to last.” We talked about the pet show for the rest of our meeting that day - it was clearly the ”main event” for a lot of kids in Stoneybrook. I only hoped we'd all live through it.

Chapter 9.

Poor Mallory. She realized the minute she entered the Barretts' house that she was in for a bad afternoon. As usual, Mrs. Barrett was running late (she's sort of disorganized), and she left without giving Mallory any instructions about the job. (We always get to jobs on time - or even early - so that parents can let us know if they have any special directions for us. But in Mrs. Barrett's case, arriving early hardly ever does any good.) Mrs. Barrett was divorced not too long ago, and I guess caring for three kids on her own isn't easy. I'll say one thing, though - it doesn't take a toll on her appearance. Mrs. Barrett is totally gorgeous. She looks like a model, with her beautiful chestnut-colored hair. Anyway, Mrs. Barrett rushed out as Mallory came in, leaving a cloud of perfumed air behind her.

She also left three cranky kids. Buddy, who's eight, is usually in a pretty good mood - and he's always got a lot of energy. But that afternoon he seemed sulky and withdrawn. And five-year-old Suzi's round face looked crabby. She can pout with the best of them. Mallory said that Suzi's lower lip was stuck out about as far as it could go.

Marnie, the baby (she's two), was wailing like a fire engine. Mallory scooped her up.

”What is it, Mamie?” she asked. But the answer was obvious. Marnie's diaper was soaking wet.

”C'mon, you guys,” said Mallory to Buddy and Suzi. ”Keep me company while I change your sister. Then we'll have a snack, okay?” Buddy shot Suzi a Look. ”Do I have to?” he asked. ”I don't even want to be in the same room with her.” He pointed at Suzi, who pouted even harder.

”Guess what, Buddy Barrett,” said Suzi.

”What?” said Buddy, flatly.

”You're a nut!” Ordinarily, this joke gets a big laugh out of both of them. But this time, Buddy just shook his head.

”Guess what,” he said back to Suzi.

”What?” she asked.

”Your whole family's a nut,” Buddy sneered.

”Ha, ha!” said Suzi triumphantly. ”You're in my family. That means you're a nut, just like I said.” Mallory could see that this was going nowhere. ”Okay, okay,” she said. ”C'mon, let's get this diaper changing over with. Suzi, where has your mom been keeping the diapers lately?” The Barretts' house is pretty messy. ”A pigsty,” Stacey called it, the first time she sat there.

Sometimes we try to tidy up while we're there, but Mallory didn't think that was a good idea, with Buddy and Suzi in such bad moods. So she asked Suzi to lead her to the diapers (Suzi and Marnie share a room), and asked Buddy to help her distract Marnie while she changed the wet diaper.

”Moonie, Meanie, Mownie!” said Buddy, dancing around the changing table and making faces while Mallory wiped Marnie's bottom. His technique wasn't the greatest, but Mal had to admit that it worked. Marnie was smiling and waving at him, instead of crying and kicking. She's usually not too crazy about having her diaper changed, so the distraction helped a lot.

”Thanks, Buddy,” said Mallory. ”Thanks, Suzi. You guys were a big help.” She lifted up the newly dry Marnie, who was making what Buddy and Suzi call her ”ham face,” which she only does when she's happy. Then she led them back downstairs. ”Now let's have a snack and you can tell me why you're both feeling so cranky today.” ”I'm not cranky!” whined Suzi.

”Yes, you are, too!” said Buddy. ”But I'm not. I'm happy!” He gave Mallory a big - and very fake - smile.

Mallory shrugged and turned to get some crackers out of the cupboard.

”Ow!” she heard, behind her. She turned around. Suzi was rubbing her s.h.i.+n. ”He kicked me,” she said, pointing at Buddy. Mallory gave Buddy a Look.

”Buddy, don't kick your sister,” she said, turning back to the cupboard.

”Hey!” This time it was Buddy's voice.

”What is it?” asked Mallory. She'd had just about enough of their squabbling.

”She poked me!” said Buddy.

”Did not!” yelled Suzi.

”Gobbydoo,” said Mamie, waving her hands in the air.

Mallory put her hands on her hips. ”Okay, that's it. I want to know what's going on between you two. You usually have a great time together. So what's the problem today?” Suzi looked at Buddy.

Buddy glared at Suzi.

”It's Pow,” they both said at once.

”I want to enter him in the pet show,” said Buddy. ”He's my dog. I got him for my second birthday, when he was just a puppy. Suzi wasn't even born yet then.” ”But Mommy said he belongs to all of us now!” said Suzi. ”And I help you feed him sometimes. I want to put him in the pet show!” Pow is the Barretts' ba.s.set hound. Buddy sometimes likes to tell sitters that Pow is the meanest dog in the world. But he's not. He's sleepy and slow and puts up very well with the kids' teasing.

Mallory sighed. She'd left her own house hearing a similar fight between her brothers and sisters. Ever since the Pikes had gotten their invitation to the pet show, they'd been squabbling over which one of them should be able to enter Frodo.

Frodo is the Pikes' hamster. They got him when my family got Misty, which means that he and Misty are brother and sister. I'm not great at long division, but I do know one thing: One hamster doesn't, go evenly into seven kids. Mallory told me later she'd given up on helping her brothers and sisters decide which of them should enter Frodo in the show. It seemed impossible.

”1 know you guys can work this out,” said Mallory to Buddy and Suzi. Actually, she had her doubts about that, but she knew she had to say something. ”It's really nothing to fight about. Let's finish up our snack and go outside to play.” Being outside just had to be better than being cooped up inside with these sour-p.u.s.s.es, she thought.

After the kids had eaten, Mallory tidied up the kitchen (including was.h.i.+ng a sink full of breakfast dishes that Mrs. Barrett had left behind). Then she herded her charges out the door. Marnie climbed into her stroller, and Mallory pushed her down the front walk. Suzi ran to show Mal all the flowers that she and her mom had planted. Buddy tagged along behind them, making faces behind Suzi's back.

Then Mal saw him smile and wave. She looked up to see Haley and Matt Braddock waving back. Mallory smiled with relief. Great! Now Buddy and Suzi would have something to do besides pick on each other.

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