Claudia finished telling us about the rest of the calls she’d received. The Newtons. The Addisons. The Braddocks. They all had very good reasons for not calling us recently, and they all needed sitters again. Our reputation was as good as ever. What a relief!
Mary Anne was going over the club record book. “Wow, are we going to be busy for the next couple of weeks,” she said. “We may have to call on Shannon and Logan to help us if we get too many more jobs.”
Just then the phone rang. Kristy answered it. “Oh, hello, Mrs. Gardella,” she said, making a face at me. “Yes, we’re glad, too. Oh, really? Well, that’s nice. Thanks for letting us know. ‘Bye!”
Kristy hung up. “She said she was ‘so glad the mess had been cleared up,’ and she was sorry — for the fortieth time.” Kristy smiled at me. “She also said their nanny is back so she won’t need us much anymore.”
“Good!” I said. “You know what? I wasn’t going to sit for them again, anyway. We don’t need clients like that, when we’ve got all our good old regulars back.”
“I agree with Stacey,” said Mary Anne shyly. “I don’t think we should sit for people who don’t trust us and who would spread rumors about us.”
Everybody nodded. “It’s unanimous,” said Kristy. “We won’t sit for the Gardellas again, even if their nanny deserts them. We don’t need business that badly.”
“It’s sort of sad, though,” I said thoughtfully. “Tara is the sweetest baby.”
“But what about Mouse and Bird?” asked Kristy. “I mean, we’re baby-sitters, not spoiled-animal-sitters.”
We all laughed. Then the phone rang again. It was Mrs. Barrett, looking for a sitter for Buddy, Suzi, and Marnie.
“They were away on a trip,” said Kristy after she’d hung up. “That’s why she hasn’t called lately. But she says Buddy misses Mallory, and he asked for her especially. The job’s on Saturday afternoon.”
Mary Anne was looking at the record book. She gasped and put her hand over her mouth. “Oh!” she said. “That’s right. I have a little note here saying ‘Barretts to Grand Canyon.’ I forgot all about their vacation.” She shook her head. “Well, I’m glad they’re back. And yes, Mallory is free, but so are you, Stacey,” she said.
“You take the job,” I said to Mal. “I’ve already got two others lined up.”
The phone rang throughout the meeting — just like the old days. One of the last calls was from Jessi’s mom, Mrs. Ramsey. She wanted to remind Jessi that she and Mr. Ramsey had tickets to the theater that Saturday, and that Aunt Cecelia would be away visiting cousins.
“I remembered,” said Jessi, when the call was over. “And I’m looking forward to the job. At least I don’t have to worry about that old burglar anymore.”
“What?” asked Mary Anne. “Did he get caught?”
“Didn’t you hear?” asked Jessi. “It was on the radio last night. I guess he wasn’t the most brilliant burglar in the world. They caught him because he left his wallet at one of the houses he robbed. And get this,” she went on. “The wallet was under a couch, but the family’s dog pulled it out when they were sitting around watching TV!”
“I don’t believe it,” I said. “That’s incredible! That dog must have been taking lessons from Mouse.”
“And once the cops had his wallet, it wasn’t too hard to find him,” added Claudia. “His driver’s license was in there, along with all kinds of other ID.”
“Well,” said Jessi. “I am so, so glad he got caught. I was scared he’d show up while I was baby-sitting somewhere.”
“Do you know what to do if a burglar does show up?” asked Kristy. “It’s important to know how to deal with a situation like that.”
“Umm,” said Jessi. “I guess I’d try to get the kids out of the house without attracting his attention.”
“Good!” said Kristy. “That would be common sense.”
“I’d never try to stop a burglar myself,” added Mary Anne.
“Nobody should,” said Kristy. “It’s best just to try to get out of his way.”
“But what about the police?” asked Mal.
“You could call them from a neighbor’s house,” I suggested.
“Right,” said Kristy. “Get the children out of the house first, then figure out how to let the police know what’s happening. The main thing is to make sure the kids are safe.”
“I still hope it never happens to me,” said Jessi. “I’m not sure if I could handle it without panicking.”
“Of course you could,” said Mal loyally. “You’re not the panicky type. I’m sure you’d do fine.”
“I guess,” said Jessi. “I did manage to hide how scared I was that time with Becca and Squirt, so at least I know I can do that. But if I really saw a burglar —”
“Well, it’ll probably never happen anyway,” said Kristy. “But it’s good to be prepared.”
“Enough about burglars,” said Dawn. “I have a proposal to make. I think we deserve a healthful pizza party, and I’m inviting you guys over this Friday. How about it?”
“Yay!” everybody cried at once.
“Anyone who has a sitting job can come late,” said Dawn. “We’ll make it a sleepover.”
“Is there enough money in the treasury for pizza?” asked Kristy.
I checked. “There sure is,” I replied. “Good thing we kept paying dues.”
“Good thing,” echoed Claudia, grinning at me. “By the way, Stacey, I want to give you something. I know it doesn’t make up for what I did, and I know it’s not exactly the jewelry you’re dreaming of, but …”
She handed me a little box. I took it and opened it. “Oh, it’s beautiful!” I said, holding up what she’d given me for everyone to see. “Did you make this?”
Claud nodded. “I’m glad you like it,” she said.
I held it in my palm, looking at it. It was an earcuff (a very cool accessory these days) with a collection of blue stones and beads hanging from it. “I love it,” I said. “Thanks, Claud.” I passed the box around so everybody could take a look. “And by the way, I may get the birthstone ring after all,” I said. “My mom told me last night that she and my dad talked about it, and they might go in together to get it for me for my next birthday — or for Christmas, or some other special occasion.”
“All right!” cried Claud.
“Wow,” said Jessi and Mallory together.
“That’s great!” exclaimed Dawn.
“You’re so lucky,” added Mary Anne.
“Baby-sitters Club,” said Kristy. She was answering the phone. It had rung one more time while we were talking. At the sound, we grinned at each other. It was good to be back in business.
The author gratefully acknowledges
Ellen Miles
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 © 1991 by Ann M. Martin.
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, August 1991
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, download
ed, 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 978-0-545-69058-4
Ann M. Martin, Stacey and the Missing Ring
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends