That night, at the club meeting in my room, Suzi was the last to arrive and Jenny actually showed for the meeting! Karen seemed to be in a very bad mood so I ignored her practicly the whole time.
"Okay, Jenny, where were you last meeting?" Karen demanded as soon as everyone was in my room and had a seat.
"I...had to go somewhere with my mom. We went to a jewlery show in Stamford. I'm sorry...did I miss anything important?" Jenny really did sound sorry. Karen rolled her eyes once again.
"Yes, you did actually. You missed alot of great jobs and you didn't pay dues either." Karen told her. Jenny blushed.
"Okay, here's my dues." Jenny pulled a dollar bill out of her round lightblue handbag. It had a beaded dark blue flower on it.
"Now that that's said and done, let's get down to business. First of all, I wanna say that some people need to make more commitment to this club." Karen glanced at Myriah, Jenny, and Suzi. Nina cast a wary look at me from on Margo's bed. I shrugged to her.
"I know you're all very sorry, but you need to pay more attention. My step-sister and the original club members made mistakes too, I guess. But this club is very important to me and it must be of some importantance to you guys if you're in it. Okay? Please, guys stop making these little mistakes." I knew Karen was trying to sound nice but still, geesh.
Myriah, Jenny, and Suzi mumbled their apologizes and said they'd try harder. Soon, job calls were coming in and I put some music in, the first Sugarpuff Girls album. After the fourth call, Karen set the phone down looking a little irritated.
"Okay, we've got a pretty big job and I figured we might need two sitters for this one. It's tomorrow and it's a birthday party at the Cassedeny's. There's going to be six kids there. Myriah, who's free?"
Myriah checked the record book and the only two people free were Nina and Jenny. They took the job and Myriah wrote it down. Karen called back the Cassendeny's and told them who was sitting. It was silent for a little while, except for the sounds of the Sugarpuff Girls from my boombox on my nightstand.
"Okay...does anyone have any club business?" asked Karen. Everyone shook their heads.
"Okay, um, did everyone read the club notebook?" Karen tried again. Jenny of course, hadn't so she read and I guess reading it made her understand what was going on with Myriah and Suzi.
"Well, it's almost six. This meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club is dismissed." Karen said loudly. Everyone quickly got up and left muttering things under their breath. I layed back down on my bed.
I reached for one of my Care Bears. I've collected Care Bears since forever. I'm amazed I have so many and they're all on my bed. I have Tenderheart Bear, Bedtime Bear, one of the twin baby bears (Hugs Bear), Swift Heart Rabbit, Love a Lot Bear, and a whole bunch more, all the originals I guess. Some of them I've had, I get some at yard sales and at flea markets, and I even bought at least four or five of them on E-Bay. But that's a little off subject....
I thought a lot about the meetings we'd been having and some of the mistakes we've had. I hope they'd stop as quick as they had started.
That night, Margo was sleeping over at a friend's house and I had my room to myself. It was probably ten o'clock when my mom came in. She sat down on my bed with me. "Have a fun meeting?" she asked.
"I guess so. Our club's been having some major problems lately. Jenny missed a meeting and didn't call us to tell us she was going to, Myriah's too busy to take her own jobs, and Suzi forgot her own baby-sitting job today." I told Mom all the things that had been happening to the club.
"You guys will overcome this. I know you will." Mom had told me. I sure hoped she was right.