Jessi's Secret Language by Ann M. Martin

has to hide the stuff around her room. Then sometimes she forgets where she’s hidden it and has to go rooting through all her stuff to find it.
    Anyway, Kristy accepted my apology with no problems.
    I plopped down next to Mal.
    â€œRing-Ding?” asked Claudia, holding one out to me.
    I smiled, but shook my head. “No thanks.”
    â€œDouble-Stuf Oreo?” she tried again.
    â€œI better not. I’d love one, but I think I’ll wait for dinner.” I like junk food as much as Claudia does, but I try not to eat too much of it. Ballerinas have to be strong and agile and in good shape. Junk food doesn’t help you to be any of those things.
    â€œOkay,” said Kristy, clapping her hands together. She swallowed the last of an Oreo. “Any club business? Anything urgent?”
    â€œThe treasury’s low,” spoke up Dawn.
    â€œHow’d it get low?” asked Kristy.
    â€œMostly paying Charlie to drive you to and from the meetings.”
    â€œWell, dues day is coming up,” said Kristy.
    We all kick in some money from our babysitting jobs to keep our club running. We use the money to pay Charlie, to buy stuff for a slumber party or something every now and then, and to buy things to put in our Kid-Kits. (Kristy thought up Kid-Kits. They’re boxes full of games andbooks — our old ones — plus new coloring books, activity books, and sticker books which we sometimes take with us when we sit.)
    â€œOne day of dues isn’t going to do it,” said Dawn worriedly.
    â€œWell,” Kristy went on slowly, “could all of you kick in double next time — just this once?”
    We grumbled but agreed to. Nobody wanted to pay double, but we could afford it, since we earn so much money sitting.
    The phone rang then and Claudia answered it and lined up a job for Dawn.
    â€œAny other business?” asked Kristy.
    Mallory and I glanced at each other. We had decided that we should talk more at the meetings — at least about business. At first we had wanted to keep a low profile; now we were worried that we weren’t joining in enough.
    I can’t believe what I did next. I actually raised my hand — like some dumb first-grader.
    â€œYes?” said Kristy, looking surprised. (About the hand-raising, I guess.)
    â€œWell, I — I — I mean, I, um … um —”
    Luckily the phone rang again.
    I stopped talking as Mary Anne reached for the receiver and lined up a job for Kristy. As soon as Mary Anne was done, Kristy said, “Yes, Jessi?”
    This time I managed to speak like a human. I thought the club members should know about Matt and his progress, since any one of them might baby-sit for him and Haley sometime. I told them that Matt and Haley were both making friends. Then I told them about the conversation Haley and I had had about what it was like to be Matt’s big sister. Finally I said, “Is anyone interested in learning more about signing?”
    I was surprised at the answer. “Yes!” chorused Kristy, Claudia, Dawn, Mary Anne, and Mallory.
    â€œYou are ?”
    â€œSure,” replied Claudia. “All the kids around here are learning to sign. We better learn how, too. Besides, us baby-sitters have to be prepared for anything.”
    â€œRight,” agreed Kristy, who sounded as if she wished she’d said that.
    So in between phone calls I showed the other club members how to finger spell. I figured that would be helpful because if they were sitting at the Braddocks and didn’t know the sign for something, they could always spell the word out. (Finger spelling is somehow more personal than writing stuff on paper. At least you can look at the person you’re talking to.)
    We were up to the letter J when the phone rang. Dawn answered it, listened for a moment, and then put her hand over the mouthpiece and said with a grin, “Hey, Mary Anne, it’s Logan !”
    (Logan is one of our