Jessi and the Bad Baby-Sitter Page 9

  Everyone laughed at Erick and Ryan. “Poor Dawn,” Shannon said as the volley of orange Nerf Balls flew toward the camera lens.

  “She looks great,” said Mary Anne. I heard a touch of anxiety in her voice. I think she was worried that Dawn was having too good a time.

  When the video ended, Claudia let her chin drop into her hands. “Boy, this makes me miss Dawn even more.”

  We all nodded sadly. “It shows she’s thinking of us, though,” I said, mostly for Mary Anne’s sake. The growing tinge of pink at the tip of her nose told me she was on the verge of tears.

  Kristy noticed it, too. “I say we use some club money to call Dawn,” she suggested.

  “Sure, we have enough money, almost,” Stacey agreed. “We will by next week, anyway.”

  The phone upstairs in Claudia’s room began to ring just then. “Who could that be?” Claudia wondered. She jumped to her feet and ran upstairs.

  “Dawn!” she screamed excitedly. We could hear her all the way down in the living room. Instantly we thundered up the stairs to join in on the phone call.

  “We just finished watching your video,” Claudia was telling her as we ran into the room. “It was great!” Claudia cupped her hand around the phone and turned to us. “It’s Dawn.”

  “Duh,” said Kristy.

  “She got our video today,” Claudia added. “She thinks it’s hysterical.”

  My friends and I started yelling, “Let me talk to her! I want to talk to her!” all at the same time.

  Finally my turn came. “Hi, Dawn!”

  “Jessi, I couldn’t stop laughing,” she told me. “When Snow White’s wig popped off, I thought I would die. I laughed so hard I cried. And I can’t believe we both had the same idea at the same time.”

  “I know, it’s pretty amazing,” I agreed. “Actually, Buddy and Suzi Barrett first had the idea.”

  “Oh, they were a riot. Buddy as Captain Planet was too funny. And Suzi was really good. She’s growing up. I miss them.”

  “They miss you, too,” I told her. “That’s why they wanted to make the video. So you wouldn’t forget them.”

  “I couldn’t forget them.”

  “Your video was great, too,” I said.

  “Thanks, but it wasn’t nearly as creative as yours. My next one will be better.”

  “Next one?”

  “Sure. This is a great way to stay in touch.”

  Unexpectedly, I felt a lump form in my throat. “You are coming back, aren’t you?” I managed to say.

  “Jessi, of course I am,” she replied. “Don’t worry.”

  “Okay.”

  Stacey was dying to get on the phone, so I said good-bye to Dawn and handed Stacey the receiver. Stacey only got to talk for three minutes before Claudia, Kristy, Mary Anne, and Shannon started hovering near her trying to hear, giggling and shouting things to Dawn all the while.

  “Do you really think she’ll come back?” I asked Mallory who was sitting on the bed.

  “I think so,” said Mal. “How could she leave friends like this behind?”

  As I looked at my happy, laughing friends, I knew what Mal meant. Dawn would never find better friends than these.

  And neither would I.

  The Baby-sitters Club was (almost) back to normal.

  * * *

  Dear Reader,

  In Jessi and the Bad Baby-sitter, Jessi’s new friend Wendy likes to baby-sit, but finds that she doesn’t want to commit to the rules and regulations set up by Kristy. So eventually she decides that the Baby-sitters Club is not for her. I think this was the right decision for Wendy — and for the Baby-sitters Club. The last thing any organization needs is a member who isn’t fully committed to it. One of the biggest problems I’ve faced as an adult is planning my time to keep up with all of my commitments. There are a lot of them, and I take them very seriously. Not only is there my writing, but I’ve started two foundations, and recently, I committed to a fifty-state tour to promote the Baby-sitters Club. In order to devote enough time to each of these things, I have to plan my schedule very carefully. Plus, I do like to have some free time. Now when I’m asked to join another organization, or to do anything that involves a big time commitment, I think very carefully before I say yes. Saying no isn’t easy, but I’d rather do that, than say yes and then not be able to do what I agreed to do. So the next time you’re thinking of starting something new, consider how you really want to spend your time. And make sure that if you say yes, you really mean it.

  Happy reading,

  * * *

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Suzanne Weyn

  for her help in

  preparing this manuscript.

  About the Author

  ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.

  There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.)In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.

  Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.

  Copyright © 1993 by Ann M. Martin.

  Cover art by Hodges Soileau

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First edition, October 1993

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-76817-7