THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB #1111; CLAUDIA KISHI & THE RICH BOY

"LOOK! LOOK!" yelled my five-year-old adopted brother, Nick who's obsessed with video games.

I nearly screamed right at his face but I managed to hold it for a while. "WHAT!" I yelled back at him. He started making this weird sobbing sound and pointed at the big van that was parking on my neighbor's front lawn. Oh, I just remembered... My perfect neighbor, the Stinkers, is moving to New York. I knew from the beginning that the Stinkers can't stand living in Stoneybrook. Don't get me wrong. Stoneybrook is a nice place and the best thing is that a few of my friends and I had the best baby-sitting service in town.

A few years ago, my ideas-producing-machine friend, Kristy Thomas came out with an idea of having our own baby-sitting club and it worked out fine. Kristy is the president of the club because, well, she's super-confident and she came up with the whole idea. I am the vice-president of the baby-sitters club and there are a few more club members – more on that later -.

I am thirteen-going-on-fourteen this month and my parents recently adopted this brat (namely Nicholas "Nick") from our last trip to Scotland. He was so adorable then and now he turned out to be a nasty, playful and not to mention INTELLIGENT. Now I'm even more depressed. He's also a vegetarian and healthy-eater which makes me tick. I mean, who eats frozen peas for desserts?

HONK! HONK! Just right after a few men came out of the big van, two cars parked in the parking lot. Who is it? I was so curious mainly because I was quite sure that our new neighbor is rich. Just look at their cars; a yellow Lamborghini sport car and a black Volvo. One goofy-looking guy rushed out from his big van and hurriedly opened the Volvo's shiny black door. Out came an old man that was wearing a brown tuxedo and holding a walking stick with the shape of an eagle carved on top of it. Mr. Jay Stinkers shook the old man's hand kindly as though the old man was a king. Mr. Jay had never been so kind to anyone. I figured that the old man must be a VIP to Jay Stinkers. His boss, maybe? No... Mr. Jay is retired.

While I was busy thinking and Nick was speaking in this rude, loud way about the cars, a teenager; a young man who was wearing a leather cap, a simple tee and jeans, came out from the yellow Lamborghini. There was something else behind him. A monkey? No, it was an elegant poodle whose hair was dyed bright yellow. The Lamborghini driver came out from the car and was following the boy behind and he was whispering something to him. Then only did I realize that the boy is by far the cutest guy I've met. Whoa, Claudia, snap out of it, remember he's still a rich spoilt brat!

DING DONG! It was Kristy. I almost forgot we had a club meeting that day and today I am supposed to host the meeting. Kristy is always the earliest. It seemed that Kristy also realized the cute boy next door. "Wow, what was that all about? And that boy is not bad-looking!" I didn't say anything.

After two minutes, all of the club members had arrived and they can't stop talking about the boy next door. Mary-Ann, who was the only one who seems to ignore the boy, was busy writing notes down in her notebook. 5:30pm, the phone finally rang. "Hi, this is the baby-sitters club, how may I help you?" asked Kristy. Kristy's face turned red and she was suddenly talking in a gentle and soothing tone that was so rare that I'd never heard it before.

We were all anxiously waiting for Kristy to tell us what was going on. She finally cracked up and told us that the boy next door called. Why? He wants us to baby-sit his Poodle! What a jerk, I thought. Wrong! Kristy thought for a while and she told us that the Krushers are having a game with the Softees. The Krushers is a baseball team Kristy found and she is the coach. She loves baseball and the team's oldest kid is only 8 and the youngest just started school.

Dawn, who was obviously in love with the boy as she was talking about him just now, raised her hands and said that she would love to baby-sit the Poodle. I was mad and blurted out, "He's a jerk! How can he ask us to baby-sit a dog?!" Kristy was in denial,
"Well, there isn't in our club policies that we can't baby-sit anyone but humans!"

Dang. Since I was the only one who was denying, Kristy decided that I was to baby-sit the Poodle. Alright, I thought, it would be fun to let the boy tastes his own medicine!

The next day came so quickly that I didn't have time to look for anything to eat. The boy was annoyingly calling my house and asking me to come next door immediately. He also added that his precious Poodle is crying… Puh-leeze! Get a life!

I rang the doorbell twice and an old-fashioned looking man who I assumed was the butler answered the door. The first thing I saw was a bright chandelier with angels on it. Nice house, I thought. I was about to climb up the marble stairs that was so beautiful when the butler stopped me. He took me to the living room where there was a lift. Oh, a lift… Why didn't I think of that? There were 3 buttons labeling G, RYAN and MR. PATRICK. The butler pressed the RYAN button and in less than 3 seconds, we had arrived. There was a room with two leather couches and a painting of the poodle I saw yesterday. So THAT is the charges that I will be baby-sitting today.

There were two doors; a door with the letter R in gold on it and another one with a shape of a bone on it. It was so obvious and clear to me suddenly. The jerk's name is Ryan and the other door leads to the Poodle's room. I see, so the Poodle has its own room and I have to share a room with Nick? What century are we in?

We went to Ryan's room where Ryan was sitting on a leather yellow sofa. Nice room. I think Ryan likes to paint too because there is art supplies everywhere in his room. Ryan stood up and instead of inviting me in, he rudely complained, "You're late! What took you so long?" I apologized to him even though I felt like punching him right on his freckled face that was carved by angels. He laughed in a way that I find adorable. OMG, am I in love with his good looks?

He showed me his Poodle and he told me that he was just kidding about baby-sitting his Poodle and explained to me that he wants to make new friends. He also added that his Poodle already has its very own baby-sitter. He is so cute and good-looking in the adorable pink tee. I asked if he likes art and he told me that he loves art! Touchdown, a soul mate!

After knowing him more, I realized that I was seriously in love with him. Oh, and he said that he's from Scotland and his parents died last year. He also told me something shocking; he has a younger brother named Greg who was adopted by a Japanese-American in Stoneybrook and he suspected that it was us! Nick, I thought.

"If you're so rich then why did your brother got adopted?" I asked slowly. "Well, my dad comes from a rich family and because he chose to marry my mom who comes from a poor family, my grandfather was furious and kicked him out of the house. SO my dad found a descent job and they managed to make ends meet. Soon I was born and just when Greg and I were waiting impatiently in our small house for our parents to return, we heard devastating rumors that our parents had died in a car accident. We waited for two days in our house and still there were no news about our parents. We lived in our neighbor's house for two months and our grandfather heard about the news. He took me home but my younger brother was already adopted then and I heard that he's in Stoneybrook now. That's why we moved here."

"Ryan. I'm so sorry… Greg… I am the only Japanese-American in Stoneybrook" I admitted. "I know… You have a Japanese-American's elegance" he flirted. I blushed for the first time. When I went home, I explained everything to my parents and they decided to give Nick or Grey back as it's the right thing to do. The problem is whether or not Nick or Grey wants that. When Nick or Greg heard about the news, he was so happy! Money-face, I thought. I'm going to miss Nick or Greg.

The next day, Ryan and his grandfather visited our home. When Ryan saw Greg or Nick, he almost cried. Too bad Nick or Greg doesn't remember Ryan. Ryan thanked us and he winked at me. I turned away and blushed. Obviously my genius sister, Janine, saw that and she was jealous for the first time!

Ryan's grandfather was chatting with my parents when Ryan pulled me gently to the backyard. He told me that he was supposed to leave Stoneybrook and continue his studies in Scotland after he found his brother but then he said that after meeting me, he decided to stay. "Does your grandfather-"I asked when he interrupted, "Yes. He said that you're a nice young lady and that my decision is everything to him". I felt so alive for the first time in my life. We started going out secretly for two weeks and our relationship is permanent for sure. Mary-Ann was the first one to realize that we were dating but she kept quiet as we all know that if anyone especially Ryan-crazy Dawn and big-mouth Kristy, the baby-sitter club will never be quiet and peaceful again. I, Claudia Lynn Kishi, is finally not boylessness! Hooray!