The Truth About Stacey by Ann M. Martin

make the meeting this afternoon,” I pointed out.
    Even Kristy looked miffed. “I saw Janet in school today, and she didn’t say anything about not coming.”
    â€œI think it’s weird that
neither
of them showed up,” said Mary Anne. “What could have happened to make them both late?”
    Kristy shrugged. “Maybe they just forgot.”
    â€œWe’ve told them about meetings a million times,” said Claudia. “If they forgot, then they’re pretty irresponsible.”
    â€œWell, I’ll call them,” said Kristy. She knew something was wrong then, because that was when she told Claudia to write about the incident in our notebook.
    â€œNo, I’ll call them,” I said. “I want to know who they think they are!”
    â€œDon’t get mad,” said Kristy. “It won’t help.
I’ll call.
I’m the president.”
    â€œNo,
I
want to c—”
    The phone rang then. Kristy and I both lunged for it, but Mary Anne was sitting practically on top of it. She beat us to it.
    â€œHello, the Baby-sitters Club,” she said. “… No, this is Mary Anne Spier. Can I help you? … Oh, hi, Mr. Kelly…. She
didn’t?
”
    Kristy and Claudia and I jerked to attention. The Kellys were the new family Leslie had arranged to sit for on Saturday night. They had contacted the club after we’d sent around our updated flyers.
    â€œMr. Kelly,” Mary Anne was saying, “I’m terribly sorry. I don’t know what happened…. Well,I’d like to, but she’s not here right now. I guess you could call her at home…. Oh, I see. Well, would you like to speak to our president? … Okay…. Sure. And I—I’m really sorry.”
    Mary Anne’s face was flaming. She cupped her hand over the mouthpiece, and as she passed the receiver to Kristy, she whispered, “Leslie never showed up on Saturday. She didn’t even bother to call the Kellys.”
    Kristy took the phone, her eyes closed, steeling herself for the conversation with Mr. Kelly. “Kristy Thomas here,” she said after a moment, “club president…. Yes, Mary Anne just mentioned that. I feel terrible. Leslie never told
me
she wasn’t going to be able to keep her appointment with you. If she had, I would have sent over one of our other fine sitters…. I hope you can accept our apologies…. Sure…. Sure. Okay, goodbye.”
    Kristy hung up the phone. I couldn’t tell whether she was angry or scared or embarrassed. Maybe she was all three. She kept still for so long that at last I said, “He was really mad, right?”
    â€œYup. He and his wife had tickets to see his wife’s brother perform in a concert in Stamford.When Leslie didn’t show up, he called her house, but no one was home. The Kellys had to scramble around trying to get someone to watch their kids. At last, they left them with a neighbor, but by the time they reached the concert hall, they’d missed twenty minutes of the concert.”
    â€œUh-oh,” said Claudia.
    â€œWhy didn’t they just call one of us?” I asked.
    â€œSimple,” snapped Kristy. “They didn’t trust us, and why should they? Mr. Kelly was only calling now to make sure we knew what Leslie had done. I have a feeling the Kellys won’t be calling the Baby-sitters Club again.”
    â€œOh, great,” I said, letting out a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding. “Wait’ll word gets around about
this.”
    The phone rang again. Nobody made a move to answer it. Finally, I picked it up on the third ring. “Hello, the Baby-sitters Club,” I said glumly. “Stacey McGill speaking…. Yes? … Oh, no, you’re
kid
ding! I mean, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. We had no idea. Maybe you’d like to talk to our president…. Okay, hold on.” I handed Kristy the phone,