Free Hello, Mallory by Ann M. Martin Page B

pulled Squirt into my lap. Jessi looked down at the banana bread and then up at me.
    "Maybe," she said, "it won't be so bad here after all."
    "Yeah," I agreed. "Some things just take time."
    Chapter 13.
    When I read Mary Anne's notebook entry a few weeks later, I almost laughed. The answer was so obvious. Ask me to join the club! But they had blown that with their stupid digestive-system test. And then they had gotten themselves in hot water. It wouldn't be much longer, though, until they saw what they had to do. In fact, by the end of the meeting they were holding the day Mary Anne wrote about the problem, they were on their way to solving things.
    The meeting started off on the wrong foot because Kristy and Dawn were in bad moods and Claudia couldn't find this package of Ring-Dings she'd hidden in her room.
    "Did one of you guys take it?" asked Claudia accusingly.
    "Are you kidding? That trash?" replied Dawn. "I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. You know, you're going to rot your teeth, Claudia. Your face is going to break out and people will call you — "
    "They will call me happy," Claudia interrupted her, "because that's what I am when I eat Ring-Dings. So you can just stop lecturing me about food. If I ate health food, I'd probably turn into a rabbit like you. A skinny, pale rabbit. I'd — "
    "Shut up," said Kristy. "You two are wasting our time. This meeting started five minutes ago and all we've done is crab at each other and go on a Ring-Ding hunt. But believe me, we've got a problem. Mary Anne, open up our notebook."
    "Yes, sir," said Mary Anne sarcastically. She'd come to the meeting in a good mood, but by now even she was feeling cross.
    Kristy held up the club's appointment book, which was opened to the calendar pages. "See this?" she barked.
    "Yeah," said Dawn, who was not happy about having been called a skinny, pale rabbit. "So?"
    "It is all full," said Kristy flatly. "For two weeks."
    "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that was the point of this club," said Claudia. "To sign up jobs. And when we do that, we fill up the calendar."
    "Save the sarcasm," Kristy told her. "Of course that was the point. But what happens if someone calls needing a sitter during the next two weeks?"
    "We ask Logan or Shannon to take the job," said Mary Anne. "That's what they're there for. They're our back-ups." (Logan Bruno and Shannon Kilbourne are two associate club
    members, which means that they don't come to meetings, but they're called on to take jobs no one else can take.)
    "I guess so," said Kristy. "I mean, I know so. It just seems to me that they shouldn't be quite this necessary to us. ... Boy, do we need Stacey back."
    "Yeah . . ." the others said and fell silent. They all missed Stacey, especially Claudia, who had been her best friend.
    The phone rang then. Kristy, perched in the director's chair, adjusted her visor and reached for the receiver. "Keep your fingers crossed that this is a call for at least a year from now."
    That brought a smile to Claudia's face, anyway. The girls listened to Kristy's end of the conversation. "Hi, Mrs. Prezzioso. . . . Oh, fine, thanks. How's Jenny? . . . Good. . . . Thursday afternoon? I'll get back to you right away. . . . Okay. . . . Sure. Good-bye."
    Kristy hung up the phone. "Somebody around here wasn't crossing her fingers," she said. "Mrs. Prezzioso needs someone for this Thursday afternoon."
    Mary Anne closed the notebook she'd been writing in and took the record book from Kristy. "Let me handle this," she said. "It's my job." She looked at the appointment calendar. "What's
    the big deal, Kristy? You and Claudia are both free that afternoon."
    "Claudia and I are both sitting that evening. You know our parents won't let us take two jobs on the same day, at least not during the week. We'd never get our homework done."
    "Well, I'll call Logan," said Mary Anne happily. She didn't look the least bit upset. That was because Logan Bruno is Mary Anne's boyfriend, and she