DISC: I DO NOT own any of the chars from BSC. They belong to Ann M. Martin. I Do however own anyone you don't recognize!
Enjoy!

"Kristy's Big Decision"

CHAPTER 3

"Anastasia's your Mom?" Abby asked. She seemed as surprised by Alex's reply as the rest of us.

"Uh-huh." Alex replied.

"Did she adopt you?" Karen asked.

"Karen…" I said warningly. I had a feeling Alex was growing tired of the questions my sister was throwing at her.

"Yeah." Alex replied.

"But Anastasia's as old as my sister!" Karen exclaimed in surprise.

"So?" Alex challenged. "And she's a year older than Kristy."

"Karen…" I said once again.

"Well she is." Karen insisted. "Why did she adopt you?" Karen continued.

Alex sighed.

"Mama adopted me because she loves me and I needed help." The seven-year-old replied truthfully.

Karen nodded. She finally seemed satisfied and stopped asking Alex questions.

"Okay. Do you want to sleepover?" Karen asked Alex.

Alexandra shook her head. I couldn't blame her. She was probably a little upset at Karen for playing twenty questions with her.

"No thanks." She said. "Maybe another day. I'm gonna go home now. Dosvedanya, Kristy. Thanks for letting me join the team." With that, she said good-bye to the other Krushers and Abby and left.

I watched to make sure she had crossed the street safely before turning my attention back to Abby and the few Krusher's who were still there.

"That was different." Abby commented.

I nodded.

Abby grinned.

"So what do you say, fearless leader. Is it time to get out the club mystery notebook?"

I poked her playfully in the side before shaking my head.

We hung out for a little while longer before she left for her house. She had a sitting job at the Perkins' and she had to eat before hand.

Once the rest of the Krushers had gone home-minus my own siblings, I took them back into the house to get ready for dinner.

As I chopped vegetables for a salad Nannie was making along with our chicken and pasta that night, I tried to help Karen understand that what she had done was wrong.

"Karen, you shouldn't have pestered Alex like that." I tried. "Sometimes it's okay to ask questions and other times it's not."

Karen frowned.

"I didn't mean to hurt her feelings." She said sincerely.

"I know you didn't." I assured her. "But you need to say you're sorry the next time you see her."

"I will." Karen said.

"Good girl." I praised. "Now what do you say? Why don't you help me make dessert?"

"Okay!" Karen agreed. She was smiling again and it was a nice sight to see.

Throughout the next week, we didn't' see much of the Springer family due to school ending for us and the Springers' settling into their new house.

We saw Anastasia making sure Alex got to the bus stop all right, but that was it so far.

On the last day of school, I decided to start a conversation between us.

Anastasia seemed really nice and she seemed to have a way with kids.

After the kids had come home on the last day of school, I saw Anastasia hanging out on the front porch of her house.

I waved to her and she waved back.

"Hi!" I called.

"Privyet!" She called back. "Hi! Do you wanna come over? Sara went to the grocery store and Alex's doing an art project in her room."

"Sure!" I replied. "Is it okay with your Mom?"

Anastasia looked confused for a minute. Her face broke into a grin and she laughed gently.

"Sara's not my Mom!" She replied. "She's my older sister. And she won't mind. She met your parents a few days ago."

"Okay." I said.

Before I Knew it, I was sitting on the front porch with my new friend, drinking lemonade and talking happily.

I posed a question to Anastasia a minute later.

"What does Privyet mean?"

Anastasia smiled warmly.

"Privyet is Russian for hello." She explained.

I nodded.

"Cool!"

Anastasia giggled.

I frowned just then.

""I want to apologize for what Karen did to Alex." I began. "She can get a little carried away sometimes. I tried to stop her, but she just kept going and going…" My voice trailed off at the understanding look on Anastasia's face.

"It's okay." Anya replied. "Alex was a little upset when she came home a few days ago, but she's fine now. She made friends with a girl named Charlotte. They played together yesterday and seemed to get along really well. Charlotte's a sweetheart."

"Char is sweet." I agreed. "She's one of our favorite charges to sit for."

Anastasia gave me a puzzled look.

"Charge? Sit for?"

"Yeah. My friends and I used to run this club. It was really a baby-sitting business. It's called the Baby-sitter's club or BSC for short. Charlotte Johanssen was one of our regular charges."

Anastasia nodded. She looked genuinely interested.

"So what's the club all about?" She asked as she took a sip of her lemonade.

I guess now would be the best time to tell you about the club. I did promise to explain all about it.

I started the club back in seventh grade.

After watching my Mom call sitter after sitter for my little brother, David Michael.

As I watched her make call after call, I started thinking, wouldn't it be easier if she could call one number and reach more than one reliable sitter?

And that's how the club was born.

We started out with four members, but now we're eight members, if you count the associates.

Claudia Kishi, Mary-Anne Spier, Dawn Schafer, Mallory Pike, Jessi Ramsey, Stacey McGill were the original seven.

When Dawn moved back to California permanently, Abby and Anna moved to Stoneybrook and Abby joined the club.

Our associate members were Logan Bruno and Shannon Kilbourne.

But Logan quit the club a month ago and Shannen moved, so we don't have any associates anymore.

We used to meet Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at Claudia's house. Clients called on those days between five-thirty and six to ask for sitters for their kids.

As I finished explaining this, along with some of our inventions to help nervous or scared children, Anastasia looked fascinated.

"The club sounds great!" She said with a grin.

"It is. " I agreed.

Just then, Abby joined us. She looked a little upset.

"What's up?" I asked as I waved her over.

Abby sat down beside me on my left and gave Anastasia a wave.

"My Mom just told Anna and me about our vacation."

"What vacation?" I asked.

"We're going to Long Island to visit family for a month." She replied.

I nodded.

"I told her we might start the club up again and we already had a few sitting jobs lined up. Jobs I had taken, but she wouldn't hear it. She said something about this being family time and…" Her voice trailed off.

"It's okay." I assured her. "We'll be fine. It's only for a month. Mal is coming back from Boarding school in a week and the jobs haven't' really started trickling in by the dozens yet. Our first meeting of the summer isn't until this Monday."

Abby smirked.

"So you are going to start the club again?" She asked.

"I was thinking of starting it again on a trial basis. " I said. "Besides, we always do fun things with the kids in the summer. They've gotten used to it and we always have fun."

Abby gave me a look that clearly stated she wasn't' buying the trial basis line.

"What about Anastasia?" Abby asked.

"What about her?" I asked. Then realizing what I had said, I threw Anastasia an apologetic look.

She smiled.

"It's okay." She replied.

"Couldn't Anastasia take my place until I get back? Who knows, she might be so good we might have a new member."

I shoved Abby playfully.

I turned to Anastasia just then.

"Sorry. Abby sometimes gets carried away too." I said with a pointed look towards my friend. "We call her the energizer bunny sometimes."

Anastasia giggled.

"It's okay, really. I would love to take her place in the club until she gets back. I mean if that's okay with you." She added quickly.

"I don't see why not." I replied. "You can go on your first job with a more experienced member and then we'll go from there."

"Awesome!" Abby shouted. "Yes!" She pumped her fist in the air triumphantly. "The BSC is back!"

I nodded before I could stop myself. It looked like the BSC was back. The only question was, for how long?