Jessi thought about Quint and the possible valentine for an entire block. From there she started wondering what kind of valentine she should send if she decided to send one at all.
She was lost in these thoughts, and didn't notice Char and Becca giggling their heads off until they had nearly reached the Johanssens' house. "What's going on?" Jessi asked.
Char and Becca bit down on their giggles, but their eyes were still alive with mischievous fun. "What?" Jessi pressed. "What is it?" "Oh, nothing," Char said in a singsong voice.
Jessi narrowed her eyes at them suspiciously.
Becca giggled. "Nothing at all," she echoed Char.
With that, the girls bolted into the house. Shaking her head, Jessi ran after them. They were already on the phone when she reached the kitchen, both of them giggling and whispering into the receiver.
"Who's on the phone?" Jessi demanded.
"Nobody," said Charlotte.
"Nobody?" Jessi asked incredulously.
"Not really." Charlotte giggled.
Becca cupped the mouthpiece of the phone. "Got to go," she whispered to the "nobody" at the other end. Quickly, she hung up.
Jessi's hands went to her hips. "Would you please tell me what is going on?" she asked with laughter in her voice. The girls were acting so silly it was hard not to laugh, but she was also becoming very curious about what they were up to.
Char shrugged with wide, outstretched arms. "Uh . . . you know . . . stuff." "What kind of stuff?" Jessi asked.
"Valentines kind of stuff," Becca said.
"Speaking of that, want to start the valentines?" Jessi suggested as she pulled off her jacket and draped it over a kitchen chair.
"Okay," the girls agreed.
"Take off your jackets and let's start," said Jessi as she sat down at the table and began taking their new supplies out of the bag.
The girls pulled off their jackets and headed for the hallway to hang them up. While she waited, Jessi took the cellophane wrappers off the stickers and stamps and spread everything out on the table. She folded a piece of red paper and pondered what kind of valentine she should send to Quint, since by then she'd decided she would send him one. She decided a funny valentine would be best, but couldn't think of anything funny to say.
After a while Jessi realized that Becca and Charlotte hadn't returned from hanging up their coats. She went into the living room, but they weren't there, either.
Walking upstairs, she heard them giggling. She checked in Charlotte's bedroom. They weren't there.
Jessi followed the sound of the giggling to Dr. and Mr. Johanssen's room. The door was ajar and she could plainly see Char and Becca sitting on the Johanssens' bed, talking on the cordless phone they'd taken from the phone base on the night table.
The girls looked up and met Jessi's eyes.
"Oops." Charlotte laughed.
" 'Bye-'bye." Becca giggled into the phone.
"You two are acting so silly," said Jessi. "Who are you calling?" "Just some of our friends," Char said, scooting off the bed. "Can we make valentines now?" "Of course," Jessi told her. "Come on downstairs." Jessi told us that the girls were silly and giggly for the rest of the afternoon. Once they disappeared into the front hall closet together. When she opened it up they were sitting on the closet floor writing notes on memo pad paper. They wouldn't say what they were up to.
"It was the strangest afternoon," Jessi told us. "I was the only one who finished my valentine. Now I just have to decide whether to mail it." Chapter 7.
Let me tell you, my first week at the Cheplins' wasn't easy. Between school, baby-sitting, and my BSC meetings I felt as if I didn't have a moment to breathe. When I was at the Cheplins' there was no relaxing, either. Each day Mrs. Cheplin added one extra chore to her list. By Friday - the last day of my trial period - I was wondering if the list would ever stop growing.
That day it started snowing just as I picked Adam and Dana up from the bus stop. Adam danced around delightedly, sticking his tongue out to catch the flakes.
"There could be pollution in those flakes," Dana warned him as we walked up the hill.
"There is not," Adam said, examining the small crystals of snow on his glove.
When we reached the house I saw that Mrs. Cheplin's work list was the longest one yet. Fold the laundry, empty the dishwasher, tidy Adam's room, throw wet wash into dryer, put stamps on envelopes in front hall and put out for mail carrier to pick up, put chopped meat from freezer into microwave to defrost, and empty wastebaskets into large plastic bag. All this had to be done before four-thirty, when homework was to start.
But, do you know what? I got it all done. Doing it made me feel sort of proud, too. So the chores were done by four-thirty and neither of the kids had homework over the weekend.
Finally a moment to breathe! That's what I thought.
"Can we play outside?" Adam asked.
"Please?" Dana seconded the idea. I didn't feel like going out, but how could I say no? It's not fair to keep kids in the house when it's snowing.
First, I made sure Dana had some carrot sticks for a snack. Then, we bundled up and went outside into the lightly falling snow, which fell in big fat flakes around us. In the last hour it had started to stick. There was almost an inch and a half on the ground.
We had only been outside for a minute when Mandy came along with a girl around Adam's age, maybe a little younger. "Hi, Moira!" Adam greeted the smaller girl as he ran to her.
At the same time, a boy and a girl Dana's age approached from the opposite direction. "Hi, Mandy. Hi, Dana," the girl called with a wave of her bright red mittens.
The boy waved, too, and soon the four of them were talking in the front yard while the two smaller kids chased one another in a circle off to the side of the house.
They didn't seem to need me for entertainment. I stood for a moment and enjoyed the beauty of the falling snow. Then I spied a snow shovel leaning against the house.
The snow must have put me in a good mood. Or maybe it was just the fact that it was Friday. But I decided it would be nice for Mrs. Cheplin to come home to a shoveled walk and driveway. (Or maybe I was just showing off a bit. You know, being Stacey McGill, Super Sitter.) I was shoveling away when the first snowball flew past me. "Sorry!" Mandy called from the yard when I looked around to see what was happening. Mandy and the two other kids were having fun throwing snowballs at one another. The only one who wasn't smiling was Dana, who stood frowning, her arms folded.
"Let's do something else," I heard her say. "Let's build a snowman." "No, let's have snowball teams," the boy said. "You and Mandy against Ellen and me." "Yeah! Come on, Dana," said Mandy. "We can get them good." I checked on Adam and Moira, then went back to my shoveling. The snow was falling so fast now that the walk was filling in almost as fast as I could shovel it out. Oh, well, I thought. This makes it a little easier for Mrs. Cheplin to shovel.
I'd shoveled almost to the front door when I noticed Dana coming toward me looking very unhappy. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"I don't feel good," she replied. "I'm weak and sort of dizzy." "Did you cheat on sweets today?" I asked.
She shook her head.
"You have to tell me the truth," I insisted. "It's really important. No kidding." "I didn't. Honest." "I'd better check your blood again to be safe," I said, resting my shovel against the house. I turned toward Adam and told him not to leave the yard.
"We'll watch him," Mandy called to me.
Dana and I went inside and tested her blood. "Normal," I reported. I felt her forehead. "No fever, either." Dana slumped onto the living room love-seat. "I don't want to play outside anymore," she mumbled. "I want to rest." "You should rest," I agreed.
I called Adam in. I didn't want to leave him out there unsupervised for too long. With a long, disappointed face, he said good-bye to Moira and joined me at the front door.
Moira ran to Mandy, who had waited in the yard. "Is Dana all right?" Mandy asked, coming toward me.
"I'm not sure. I think she should rest, though," I replied.
"We should have built a snowman like she wanted," Mandy said apologetically. "I keep forgetting how sick she is." "Don't worry. You didn't do anything wrong," I assured her. As I spoke the words, I began to wonder about something. Was Dana using her diabetes as a means of getting her own way? Were the guilty feelings Mandy was experiencing exactly the feelings Dana wanted her to have? I remembered how instantly Dana had recovered on Monday once the argument was over. Would the same thing happen today?
"Tell Dana I hope she feels better," Mandy said as she and Moira left the yard.
Just as I suspected, when Adam and I went back inside Dana looked a lot better. In fact within half an hour she wanted us to watch her do a cartwheel she'd learned that day in gym class.
I wondered if I should talk to Mrs. Cheplin about what I thought Dana was up to. It was a bad direction for her to be going in. Not only was it unfair to her friends, but it was bad for Dana. If she believed she could manipulate people, she might use her illness as an excuse to duck out on anything challenging.
Truthfully, though, I couldn't picture myself having that conversation with Mrs. Cheplin. We'd just met and, so far, I didn't feel all that comfortable around her. Every evening she came home and looked around the house as if she were sure I'd messed up in some way. I could tell she didn't completely trust me yet.
Instead, I decided to drop a big hint directly to Dana. When Adam went to his room to get a book I saw my chance to talk alone with Dana.
"Wow!" I said, sitting next to Dana on the living room floor. "This has been some busy week for me. I didn't think I could get everything done that I had to do, but I did it." "That's good," she said as she got to her knees and switched on the TV.
"I used to worry that my diabetes would stop me from doing things I wanted to do, but it hasn't. This busy week sure proves that." Dana studied me. "Don't you get more tired than other kids?" she asked.
"Not if I take care of myself." I checked the clock on the wall. It was five-twenty. "Gee, I hope this snow doesn't make your mother late getting home. I have to go to my Baby-sitters Club meeting. Kristy, our president, gets really annoyed if we're late. Of course, I've been coming late because I'm sitting with you and Adam, but I can tell Kristy isn't happy with it. The sooner I get there the better." "She sounds mean," Dana said.
"Oh, no, she's not." "She should understand that you're sick and you shouldn't be rushing around." I looked Dana squarely in the face to be sure she'd understand what I was about to tell her. "I wouldn't want to be treated differently from everyone else because I'm sick." "Why not?" I had to think about that for a moment. "Because it wouldn't be fair to ask for special treatment." "Why not? You're sick." "But the kind of sickness we have doesn't stop us from doing anything so it's not fair to ask to be treated differently." Dana didn't look pleased. She turned away from me and started watching TV. I wondered if anything I said would make a difference. Somehow, I didn't think so.
Adam came into the room and wanted me to read a book called Backward Bunny to him. It was a short book and just as I was finishing, Mrs. Cheplin came in, stomping snow from her boots. "Thanks for shoveling, Stacey," she said. "I can see you made a path." "You're welcome," I replied.
Adam jumped up to greet his mother. "Mom! Mom! We played in the snow. It was great. I played with Moira. But Dana spoiled it with her sickness." Alarm spread across Mrs. Cheplin's face. "Dana's sick?" "She seems fine now. And her blood sugar is okay. I tested it," I told her.
Mrs. Cheplin scowled. "I'd better call Doctor Hernandez. This is worrying me." This was my chance to say something, but I just couldn't.
As usual, Mrs. Cheplin checked around to see if everything had been done. And - as usual - she found that everything had been done. "A beautiful job, Stacey," she said.
"Thanks," I replied as I gathered my things. I wasn't looking forward to riding my bike to Claudia's in the snow.
"I'd say you've done a wonderful job this week," said Mrs. Cheplin. "How would you like to extend the job for two more weeks?" I didn't understand. If I'd done such a great job why was she offering me just two more weeks?
She must have sensed my confusion because she explained, "At the end of the two weeks if things are still this great, we'll make a permanent arrangement." "All right," I said, but I wasn't happy. This long probation didn't seem fair.
"I'll expect a bit more work done in the next two weeks," she said.
More work! Was she kidding? There was no way I could do more work.
"Mrs. Cheplin," I began, "I don't think that - " "Naturally I'll pay you more for the additional housework," she cut in. Then she told me how much more. "What were you about to say, Stacey?" "I don't think that will be a problem," I replied. At this rate, I'd have enough money for my theater tickets at the end of the two weeks and maybe even enough to take Robert to dinner if we didn't go anywhere too fancy.
"We'll see how we both feel it's going at the end of two weeks," Mrs. Cheplin said as she took money from her wallet and paid me.
"Sounds great," I told her, taking the money and heading for the door. "Have a nice weekend. See you Monday." "Wait, Stacey. Let me drive you home," said Mrs. Cheplin. "We can put your bike in the trunk." She bundled up the kids and we drove to Claudia's house through the falling snow.
