Part 1 (2/2)

She also has a very busy home life these days. Kristy grew up with two older brothers, Charlie and Sam, and one younger one named David Michael. Kristy's dad skipped out on the family when David Michael was just a baby, and for a long time things weren't easy for the Thomas family. But then Mrs. Thomas met - and eventually married - a really nice guy named Watson Brewer. Watson happens to be rich and, soon after the wedding, the Thomases moved across town to live in his mansion. Along with their new home came more additions to the family. Watson has two kids from his first marriage, Karen and Andrew, who live at the mansion part time. Plus, Kristy now has a brand-new little sister: Emily Mich.e.l.le, a Vietnamese girl whom Kristy's mom and Watson adopted. And Kristy's grandmother lives with the family as well. Add in the pets (Shannon, a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, Boo-Boo the cat, and a couple of goldfish), and you've got one hectic household.

Kristy's best friend is Mary Anne Spier, the secretary of the BSC. Her job is to keep the record book up-to-date. Now, while Kristy goes through life like a hurricane, Mary Anne is more like the eye of the storm. She's quiet and shy and very, very sensitive. Mary Anne is the best listener I know. If you tell her about something that's upset you, her big brown eyes will fill with tears and she'll say just the right thing. And if you're happy, n.o.body could be happier for you than Mary Anne. In a word, Mary Anne is loveable. Maybe that's why she's the only member of the dub who has a steady boyfriend. He's Logan Bruno, the a.s.sociate member, and he's seriously cute and also the sweetest guy at SMS.

That day, a bright-eyed Mary Anne entered Claud's room soon after Kristy started scribbling out her list. ”Hey, you guys, guess what?” she said, as she settled into her regular spot on Claud's bed. ”I talked to Dawn last night. She's doing great, and she says she's really looking forward to coming home in a few months.”

Dawn Schafer is Mary Anne's stepsister, and another member of the BSC. She's in California right now, living temporarily with her father and her younger brother, Jeff. Here's how she and Mary Anne became stepsisters: First of all, Mary Anne's mom died when Mary Anne was a baby. Mr. Spier brought Mary Anne up all by himself, and although he was often a little too strict, he basically did a great job. (How else would she be so loveable?) While Mary Anne was growing up in Stoneybrook, Dawn was growing up in California, with her mom, her dad, and Jeff. Then, Dawn's parents got divorced, and Mrs. Schafer brought her kids back to Stoneybrook, which is where she had grown up. Dawn and Mary Anne became friends, and soon discovered that their parents had dated when they were in high school. They schemed to get them back together, and the rest is history. Now Mary Anne's dad and Dawn's mom (whom Mary Anne calls Sharon) are husband and wife, and Dawn and Mary Anne are stepsisters, and they live in an old, old farmhouse. Pretty cool, right?

Here's the downside: Before Sharon and Mr. Spier got married, Dawn's brother Jeff realized that he was never going to adjust to life in Connecticut. He missed California - and his dad - so much that everyone decided it would be best for him to go back and live there. Dawn felt at home in Stoneybrook, but not too long ago she started to miss Jeff and her dad a lot. That7s why she's out there now. She went to live with them for awhile, and now we miss her like crazy. Mary Anne, especially. I could tell she was really happy to hear that Dawn was looking forward to coming back.

Dawn, who has long, long blonde hair and cornflower-blue eyes, is a true individual. She goes her own way, without worrying too, much about what the rest of the world is doing. Her job in the BSC (when she's here) is alternate officer, which means she can take over for any other officer who can't attend a meeting. We don't need an alternate officer every day, but there are times when the job is essential.

That's why Shannon Kilbourne, who is usually an a.s.sociate member like Logan, has temporarily replaced Dawn. Shannon, who has curly blonde hair and a ski-jump nose, lives in Kristy's new neighborhood and goes to a private school. As one of our a.s.sociate members, she used to be on call to take jobs when we had more than we could handle. Lately, though, she's been acting as a full-fledged member, attending meetings regularly and taking on lots of sitting jobs. (Logan attends meetings only when he wants to.) Shannon has two little sisters, Tiffany and Maria. She's a great student, and she's always involved in after-school activities.

That day she arrived soon after Mary Anne did. ”Whew!” she said, eyeing Claud's digital clock. ”I just made it, didn't I? I was at a drama club meeting, and my friend's mom drove me here afterward. She isn't familiar with this neighborhood, and she kept making wrong turns even though I thought I was giving her good directions!”

Kristy glanced at the clock. It was 5:28, and I knew she was dying to start the meeting. But I also knew she would wait until exactly 5:30, because that's just the way Kristy is. She's a strong believer in punctuality, to put it mildly.

Claudia groped around under her bed and came up with a bag of Hershey's Miniatures. ”I found these last night,” she said. ”I hid them so well that at first I couldn't remember where they were.” Although Gaud loves junk food, her parents don't like her to eat it. So she hides it all over her room, along with the Nancy Drew books her parents don't approve of (they think she should be reading ”more challenging material”), and pulls it out when we have meetings. She also keeps pretzels and whole-wheat crackers on hand for me. As vice-president of the club, that's one of her only real duties, and it's an unoffical one. Mostly she's the vice-president because the dub meets in her room - and we meet in her room because she's the only BSC member with her own phone and a private line. Which reminds me of another one of her duties. Claud handles any BSC calls that come in when we're not meeting.

Kristy accepted the bag of candy and started picking out the Special Dark bars. While she poked around, Jessi Ramsey and Mallory Pike rushed into the room.

Jessi and Mal are best friends, and the only junior officers of the club. They're called junior officers because unlike the rest of us, who are thirteen and in the eighth grade, Mal and Jessi are eleven and in sixth. They can't baby-sit at night, except for their own families. Jessi has a younger sister named Becca and a little brother called Squirt. ”(His real name is John Philip, Jr.). Mal comes from a huge family: she has seven younger brothers and sisters! Three of them are identical triplets: Adam, Byron, and Jordan. Then there are Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire. Ifs no wonder Mal's such a good sitter. Jessi is African-American, with coal-dark eyes, cocoa-colored skin, and the long, limber body of a dancer. She studies ballet very seriously, and may be a ballerina someday. Mal has red hair, gla.s.ses, and braces. (They're the dear kind, and don't really show, but she hates them anyway.) Mal is a talented writer and artist, and hopes someday to write and ill.u.s.trate children's books.

Jessi and Mal had arrived just in time. Right after they got settled on the floor, the dock clicked to 5:30, ”Order!” said Kristy. The meeting had begun. ”Any new business?” she asked first.

I kept quiet. It was a Friday, which meant I didn't have to collect dues. As treasurer of the dub, I do that on Mondays. We all pitch in to help pay Claud's phone bill and Kristy's transportation costs. (Her brother Charlie drives her to meetings.) n.o.body loves paying dues, but I have to admit that I like to collect them and keep track of all our money. Maybe someday I'll invest some of it, and surprise everybody by making a killing on the stock market! Or maybe not. Kristy would have a fit.

When n.o.body answered Kristy, she plowed right ahead. ”Well, / have some new business,” she said. ”Project Work is going to change the way we run the dub for awhile, from what I can tell. Ifs a special cla.s.s at SMS,” she explained, turning to Shannon.

Just then, the phone rang and Kristy answered it. It was Mrs. Perkins, one of our regular clients, looking for a sitter for Sat.u.r.day. The BSC swung into business mode. Mary Anne checked the record book and told us who was free: Jessi, Mary Anne, and Gaud. Claud said she had an art project planned, and Mary Anne said she was going shopping with Sharon, so Jessi got the job. Kristy called Mrs. Perkins back, and in minutes everything was all set up.

”Now, where was I?” said Kristy, after she'd hung up. She glanced at the notes she'd made earlier. ”Okay, here's the thing. We're all going to be working three days a week after school. The way I see it, we're going to have to cut down our BSC meetings to one a week. Plus, we're going to have to be extra careful about how many sitting jobs we take on.”

We glanced at Shannon. She had just gotten used to making time in her schedule for BSC meetings, and now Kristy was telling her that we wouldn't have time. Shannon smiled. ”It's fine with me,” she said. ”Maybe I can cover the phone on the days we aren't meeting. But tell me more about Project Work.”

We spent the rest of the meeting - between phone calls - talking about Project Work.

Kristy thought it would be a good idea if we all worked at the Was.h.i.+ngton Mall, just so our schedules would be coordinated, and we started talking about which stores and businesses we'd like to work at. Even if only half of them had agreed to accept Project Work kids, there would still be dozens to choose among. The mall is absolutely huge. We weren't fantasizing anymore, but it was almost more exciting to think about what we really might be doing. I could hardly wait to get started.

Chapter 3.

Mr. Withum, my Project Work teacher, was a nice surprise. I'd never had him for a teacher before (he was new at SMS) so I didn't know what to expect. From hearing his name, I had imagined a kind of shriveled, gray-haired man. But he turned out to be ”pleasantly plump,” as my mother would say, with a big, round pink face and a cheerful smile.

After introducing himself, he explained in more detail how the cla.s.s would work. All of the Project Work teachers had divided up the available jobs. We would be able to pick from the list he had made, which mostly included jobs in Stoneybrook and at the mall. I listened closely when he explained how, for the six weeks of Project Work, the kids who were working at the mall would be bussed to their jobs on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons. I was just hoping I could find a job I liked at the mall, so I could be on the same schedule as my friends. ”During school we'll meet three times a week,” Mr. Withum went on, ”to check in with each other and talk about how the jobs are going.” Then he handed a stack of job lists to the first person in each row and told them to pa.s.s the lists back. Austin Bentley raised his hand. ”What if we get fired from our jobs?” he asked with a grin.

”Do we fail the cla.s.s?” I like Austin, but he can be a wise guy.

Mr. Withum smiled. ”This cla.s.s is unfailable,” he said. ”If you got fired, which I doubt would happen, I'd ask you to write up the experience in your job diary. And then I'd ask you to find another job. It would all be part of learning what it's like to work in the real world.”

Kara Mauricio, who was sitting in front of me, handed back the job lists. I took one and pa.s.sed the rest of them on. Then I scanned the list, hoping I'd see the perfect job right away. There are some great clothing stores at the mall, and I'd been fantasizing about working at one of them. This one called Zingy's has very cool stuff, but I didn't see it on the list. I was disappointed. The cla.s.s was buzzing as everybody looked over the list. ”All right!” said this guy named Gordon Brown. ”Donut Express. That's for me!” Donut Express is a place just outside of Stoneybrook that sells - you guessed it - doughnuts. Ifs a great place to pig out, even though whenever I go there I have to limit myself to the bagels. ”I love those chocolate cream-filled ones,” Gordon went on. He looked hungry.

”This job at Bellair's looks cool,” said Kara. ”Women's accessories. I could get into that.” ”Dibs on the job at the bike shop!” yelled Austin.

”Okay, hold on just a minute,” said Mr. Withum. ”Let's do this in an orderly fas.h.i.+on. I'll go down the list, and if I call out a job you want, raise your hand.” He started reading out the names of businesses.

Meanwhile, I looked the list over more carefully. Zingy's was out, but there were several other choices at the mall. Then I saw it. ”Perfect,” I said. Near the bottom of the list was Toy Town, which is a terrific toy store. I've browsed through it plenty of times, looking for little items for my Kid-Kit. Toy Town carries all the regular toys, but it also has some really neat stuff that you can't get everywhere else, such as kits for bug-collecting, or a make-your-own kite package. I guess they're called ”educational” toys, but they're not boring.

They're cool. Some of the kids I sit for have found great things at Toy Town. Charlotte Johanssen, my favorite sitting charge, bought a great stuffed dinosaur there.

Just as I was trying to remember what Charlotte had named the dinosaur (I think it was Jasper) I heard Mr. Withum call out, ”Anybody for Toy Town?”

My hand shot up. I looked around nervously to see if anybody else wanted to work there, but my hand was the only one raised. Mr. Withum took down my name, and that was it. I had a job!

Once all the jobs were a.s.signed, Mr. Withum told us we'd be visiting our new employers on Wednesday, for orientation, and that our jobs would actually start on the following Monday.

As soon as cla.s.s was dismissed, I ran to my locker. As I'd hoped, Claud was waiting there for me. ”Did you get a job?” she asked eagerly. I nodded.

”At Toy Town,” I said.

”All right!”

”What about you?”

”I got the exact one I wanted,” she replied. ”At the Artist's Exchange.”

I squealed and gave her a hug. The Artist's Exchange is this great art supply store where Claudia sometimes buys oil paints and special markers and stuff. ”You'll be perfect there,” I said. ”You know about everything they carry.”

”Well, not everything,” she said. ”But I'll learn. This is going to be so cool.”

As soon as I finished at my locker, we headed outside. I couldn't wait to find out what jobs everybody else had landed. The other members of the BSC were waiting by the fence, and as Claud and I crossed the parking lot, Kristy caught sight of us. ”Did you get jobs at the mall?” she yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth. I gave her the thumbs up sign, and she grinned at me.

When we joined our friends, everybody was talking at once, and at first it was hard to sort out who had gotten which job. ”Hey!” yelled Kristy. ”Order!”

”Kristy, this isn't a meeting,” I said. ”You can't call us to order.”

”Oh, right.” Kristy looked a little embarra.s.sed. ”I just wanted to hear about everybody's jobs,” she explained.

”Me, too,” I said. ”How about if we take turns telling each other?”

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