Chapter 9

Dear Amy,

So I promised you I would write a letter to tell you all about my new life living in a small New England town. So first of all, Stoneybrook is slightly bigger than Sweet Valley. We live about an hour and a half away from New York City and Stamford is right next door to us.

My mom's cousin is really nice. Her name is Sharon and she's a real estate agent. She has a daughter named Dawn who is my cousin. She also has a son named Jeff but he lives with his dad in CA.

Then there's Sharon's husband Richard. He's a lawyer like Dad and he also has a daughter. Her name is Mary Anne and she's my step-cousin (well, actually, Dawn and Jeff are my second cousins and Mary Anne is my second step-cousin but for some reason, it always feels weird when you have first cousins who are adults when their kids are the same age you are).

All of my mom's family so far are really friendly and really cool. I think you'd like Stoneybrook if you were here. I actually like it more than I thought I would.

Mary Anne, Dawn, Jessica and I all go to the same school here in town called Stoneybrook Middle School. The teachers are great and the students are pretty nice. I really like it.

Dawn and Mary Anne introduced me to some friends of theirs. They're in a club called the Baby-Sitters Club and they make money watching grownups' kids! Everyone I've met so far in the club are pretty nice. I don't think Jessica likes them very much but I think that is very obvious. I think we all know kids were never Jessica's specialty!

The president of the club invited me to a meeting of the club so I'm going to hang out with them today!

I really hope you can visit me one of these days. Give Evie, Mary and Maria lots of hugs for me! I miss you guys sooooooo much! Angels forever!

Love,

Elizabeth


While I was stuck at home, bored out of my skull, my sister and my cousins were on their way to a meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club. Elizabeth was excited, to say the least. But in reality, she was also nervous. Elizabeth really wanted the BSC to like her.

She, Dawn and Mary Anne walked together to the meeting, chatting along the way.

The meeting was held at Claudia Kishi's house on a street called Bradford Court. Dawn informed Elizabeth that Claudia was the club's vice-president because she was the only one who had her own phone (lucky duck!) and provided food.

When they arrived, they greeted Claudia's parents and introduced Elizabeth to them. Then they walked upstairs into Claudia's room.

Elizabeth blinked in surprise at Claudia's room. Claudia's room was messy; Elizabeth was used to having her room neat and organized.

Mary Anne must have sensed the look on Elizabeth's face because she nudged her. "Claudia's a bit of a slob but she's a neat slob. You're not going to find anything gross here, I promise," she whispered.

Elizabeth only nodded, dumbfounded.

In the room, Kristy Thomas was sitting in a director's chair; Stacey McGill was sitting on Claudia's bed; Abby Stevenson was sitting on the floor next to two other girls Elizabeth hadn't been acquainted with yet.

"Hey, guys, c'mon in!" Claudia greeted them. "Elizabeth! Glad you could make it! Have a seat anywhere!"

Elizabeth quickly took her seat next to Stacey on the bed. "Thanks for inviting me. I'm really happy to be here," she said.

"Hey, Elizabeth! Welcome!" Kristy exclaimed. "Sorry Jessica couldn't make it – we heard all about what happened with Cokie."

Elizabeth frowned. Not that she particularly even wanted to come anyways, Elizabeth thought.

"Oh! Elizabeth, before I forget," Kristy plowed on, pointing to a girl sitting on the floor with red curly hair, glasses and freckles and another girl with dark skin and her hair in a messy bun. "These are the sixth graders we were telling you about at lunchtime; Mallory Pike and Jessica Ramsey. Mal and Jessi, this is Elizabeth Wakefield. She moved here from Sweet Valley, California."

Elizabeth shook their hands. "Nice to meet you, Mallory and Jessica," she said cheerfully. "I have a sister named Jessica," she also pointed out.

"Nice to meet you, too," Jessi said. She shook Elizabeth's hand. "But you can call me Jessi. Just about everyone I know does. Plus, it will probably help now that you know two Jessicas now."

Elizabeth nodded, smiling and chuckling. "Will do," she said.

Mallory looked a little bit more hesitant. "Um, aren't you the girl that got into that fight with Cokie Mason earlier today?" she asked. "The whole school's been talking about it."

Elizabeth blushed in embarrassment. "No," she replied. "That was my sister. We're identical twins."

"Ohhhhhh," Mallory said, nodding and blushing. "Sorry. I didn't know."

"Don't worry about it – I've been asked the same thing literally all day. We're both new to SMS. Nobody could've known we're twins."

"Hey, Elizabeth, do you like Twinkies?" Claudia asked, holding out a box she pulled from a pillow case.

"Sure," Elizabeth said, grabbing one. "Thanks." She opened it and nibbled on it.

"We can always count on Claud to have the best snacks," Abby replied, opening a bag of puffed Cheez Doodles.

The clock instantly struck 5:30. Kristy immediately called the club to order.

At exactly that time, the phone suddenly rang. Everyone scrambled in their places. Elizabeth watched in fascination.

Stacey picked up the phone from her spot on Claudia's bed. "Hello? Baby-Sitters Club?" she answered.

She listened for a few seconds. "Alright, we'll be right back to see who's free," she said.

She hung up. "Alright, guys...um… Kristy's mom just called because she needs a sitter for Karen, Andrew and David Michael on Friday night at 6pm," she announced. "Her and Watson are going to the Stoneybrook Community Theatre's special showing of My Fair Lady."

Mary Anne quickly flipped open to a page in a notebook, scanning through it.

Her face looked tense. "Oh dear…it looks like we have a problem. It looks like none of us will be able to do it. All of us have prior engagements we can't get out of."

Kristy frowned. "Looks like we'll have to call in the reinforcements. Stace, can you call Logan and Shannon and see if they can do the job?"

Stacey nodded. She quickly called and explained the situation.

Afterwards, she hung up, looking dejected. "Well, this has never happened before. Logan is going to be away with his family and Shannon has a play rehearsal," she said grimly.

"What are we going to tell my mom?" Kristy wondered out loud.

Elizabeth didn't know where it came from or why she even did it but she raised her hand.

"I'll do it. I'll help."

Everyone stared at her.

"Have you baby-sat before?" Kristy asked. "I mean, no offense or anything, but if you don't have experience working with kids, then you shouldn't be doing this."

"No, I get it. I don't mind helping. It would make your business look bad if no one could take the job. I've baby-sat a few times before so I definitely have experience."

Kristy sighed. "If this were under different circumstances, I probably wouldn't do this, but this is an emergency. OK, I'll give you the job, Elizabeth. I like you and I trust you. Think you can handle the job? My steps and my brother can be a bit much."

Elizabeth chuckled a little. "You guys can count on me," she replied.

Stacey called Kristy's mom back. "Hello, Mrs. Thomas? Um…listen…I know this might sound a little strange but we have a new person that agreed to take on the job. Her name is Elizabeth Wakefield and she's Dawn and Mary Anne's cousin. She just moved here. Is it OK if she goes? None of us can make it."

Afterwards, she hung up. "She said it's fine," she said.

"Thanks for doing this, Elizabeth. We were in a serious jam," Mary Anne said gratefully.

"Well, Elizabeth, looks like you got some sitting charges and you're not even a member of the club!" Dawn exclaimed.

Everyone nodded their agreement, voicing their congrats and thanking her.

If I can handle having Jessica for a sister, I can handle this! Elizabeth thought, beaming proudly.


Later that night, Elizabeth, Mary Anne and Dawn were telling the family around the dinner table about how Elizabeth scored a sitting job at Kristy Thomas's house.

Steven then began telling us about a bunch of people he had met in his English class at Stoneybrook High and how they were going to hang out tomorrow for pizza in Downtown Stoneybrook. I knew everyone already knew about my suspension and didn't particularly want to discuss it around the dinner table.

I picked at my food moodily. I couldn't help but feel a small pang of envy at my siblings. My brother and sister were already starting to make friends in school and around the neighborhood and the only thing I had done was make an enemy.