The Baby-Sitters Club belongs to Ann M. Martin

I was texting a of my few friends.

I'm Mary Anne Spier. I'm 14 years old. I'm a 9th grader at Stoneybrook High School. I recently started talking to two older guys, Jack and Rick who are 17. They're twins. In fact, they happened to be friends with one of Kristy's older brothers, Sam. In fact, they both attend that high school, too. Jack is graduating soon and Rick is in 11th grader. Rick was supposed to be in his senior year, but was held back a year. He's not a good student in math.

Later, Dawn thinks I had strangers on my phone. Dad wasn't home yet.

"What do you mean by strangers?" I asked.

"You could get in trouble if you get caught talking to them," warned Dawn.

"I hate to say this to you, but Jack and Rick are not strangers. They're Sam's good friends, remember?" I asked. "Don't you remember he introduced us to them one time?"

Dawn didn't realized that I was right.

"If they do want to come here one day, I'd have to remember not to do that when Dad's not home," I said. "We'd have to stay outside like I do with Logan."

"That's true," said Dawn.

I never broke that rule at all.

Dad came home with dinner. Sharon was out of town for two weeks for her work.

I'm sure he won't mind about that. I don't know them well enough to hang out with them though. The only thing is you can not agree to meet strangers in person, even if they're friends with a sibling, which makes sense to me. I would never do that without Dad's approval. On top of that, I realized I didn't have their number and I wouldn't get that unless Dad approves as well. Dad knows how to keep us safe. We didn't need to give any passwords since Dad and Sharon trusts us. They're not worried about us.

Rick and Jack invited me to hang out tomorrow, but I said I couldn't. Perhaps over the weekend. They wanted to pay coffee for me. Then, it hit me: I don't drink coffee and I don't think Dad would let me yet. It has too much caffeine and that could keep you stay awake all night, if you drink it too late. And, I needed to sleep. I'd know be in deep trouble if Dad finds out.

He does let me drink ice coffee often and I rather have that. I'm also a hot chocolate when it's cold outside.

The next day, I went to Dad and said, "I'm thinking of trading my old phone to get an iPod."

"You may do that as long as you help pay the bill," said Dad.

"Okay," I agreed.

I don't need to worry about that since I baby-sit and I can use that money to pay the bill.

"I plan to keep my number though," I said.

"Some people do that," said Dad.

"I'll do that after school," I said.

"Okay," said Dad.