Baby-Sitters Beware Read Free

best friend.
    Then after much back and forth about whether she would be happier staying in Stoneybrook with her mother and new blended family (which by then included Mary Anne and Mr. Spier), or returning to California to, her father and brother and her father’s new wife, Dawn at last decided to move back to California. Aside from missing Dawn as a friend, we soon discovered we were in the middle of a baby-sitting crunch. That's when Abby Stevenson, who had just moved into Kristy's neighborhood, was invited to join, along with her twin sister Anna. Anna said no, Abby said yes.
    We have two associate members. Shannon (Kristy's neighbor) and Logan Bruno, who don't often come to meetings, take sitting jobs when the rest of us can't fit them into our schedules.
    Kristy is 1) Very Organized, and 2) Full of Great Ideas. As a result, the BSC is very organized, and has some unique things going for it. We meet regularly, and hand over dues every Monday. The dues are used' for gas money for Kristy's brother Charlie (he drives her and Abby to meetings). Also, as I mentioned, the money's used for BSC pizza parties every now and then. We also spend the dues on our Kid-Kits, another Kristy idea. Kid-Kits are boxes that we've decorated (mine has an office theme) and filled with old puzzles, toys, games, and books, plus new stickers and markers and whatever else we think kids might .like to play with. Even though most of the stuff in the Kid-Kits is secondhand, to the kids at our jobs it’s all brand-new. And have you ever met kids who don't like playing with other kids' toys more than their own?
    We don't take the Kid-Kits to every job. We save them for rainy days, or for kids who are in bed with colds, or for times when we think we might need something extra to help a job
    go smoothly. And you know what? They work, almost every time.
    Mary Anne maintains the dub record book, where she records each job and keeps a calendar of other things the BSC members do, such as my special ballet lessons in Stamford at Mme. Noelle's, every Tuesday and Friday afternoon after school. The record book also has a list of all our clients, with their addresses and phone numbers, plus any special information we might need.
    Kristy runs a tight ship. Someday, I'm sure, she'll be running a bigger ship, such as a major corporation (or maybe Congress) in much the same way.
    Of course, our success isn't all due to organization. We can also congratulate ourselves on being very, very good at what we do. (I'm not bragging, just stating a fact. We wouldn't be successful if we weren't good, would we?) I think one of the reasons the BSC is such a solid club is because we are all so different. I know you've heard it before, that opposites attract. But in this case, It’s really true. We all get along, most of the time, even though our group is filled with pairs of opposites.
    For example, Kristy and Mary Anne are best friends. It's true that they have a lot in common: They are both short, each lost a parent early on, they are both very organized and responsible, and they both live in blended families now.
    But Kristy is outspoken and outgoing and sometimes almost too blunt. She gets her point across, and she won't take "no" for an answer. (Although she certainly doesn't hesitate to use it as an answer herself!) Kristy, who has brown hair and brown eyes, wears a sort of uniform of her own — jeans and sneakers and a sweater or T-shirt. She is also athletic, and coaches a softball team called Kristy's Krushers, made up of little kids whose ages range from two and a half to eight.
    Mary Anne is shy and not athletic. (I can't imagine her as a coach, standing on the field blowing her whistle and running a practice!) She is very sensitive and cries easily. Even commercials can make her cry. Unlike Kristy, who has always lived in a larger than average family, Mary Anne was the only child of an only parent for a long time. Her mother died when Mary Anne was just a baby, so Mr.