Mystery at Claudia's House.

Martin, Ann M.

Chapter 1.

"Oh, Lament, you shouldn't have!" squealed Becca. "These flowers are so gorgeous. But I don't know where I can possibly fit them! My entire house is already full of the beautiful flowers you've brought me."

"Well, actually," said Charlotte, putting on a deep voice, "these aren't for you. They're for Charlotte, and they're from Derek!"

Charlotte and Becca broke into hysterical giggles. Charlotte stuck the bouquet of flowers (actually a crumpled sheet of newspaper) behind a chair and turned to me. "Isn't it awesome? Derek Masters is coming back to town!"

"It's great," I agreed, hiding a smile. And to tell the truth, it was kind of exciting. Not every little town has a real live TV star. I could understand why the girls were so wild about the news.

"The girls" were Charlotte Johanssen and Becca Ramsey. I was baby-sitting for Charlotte, and Becca, who is Charlotte's best friend, was visiting. Who am I? I'm Claudia Kishi. I'm thirteen years old and I'm in eighth grade at Stoneybrook Middle School. Stoneybrook, Connecticut, that is. That's the name of the town I live in. And the town Derek Masters would soon be returning to!

Derek Masters, in case you're wondering, is an actual, genuine TV star. He's on this really popular show called P.S. 262, about a cla.s.s in an inner-city elementary school. The character he plays is called Waldo, and he (the character, not Derek) is kind of a geek. But he's a funny geek, and the other kids in the cla.s.s like him. He's not the most popular kid, though. That would be Lament, who's smart, and funny, and really cute. Lament is the one Becca has a giant crush on.

Anyway, Derek Masters lived in Stoneybrook long ago before he even dreamed of becoming a star. He used to do a little modeling and stuff like that, and then he was discovered and hit the big time. So now he lives out in L. A. most of the .time, since that's where his work is. But whenever he has a chunk of time off, he and his family come back to Stoneybrook, where they still have a house.

"How long is Derek staying this time?" I asked Charlotte. She seemed to have all the inside information on Derek and his plans.

"Well, his show's on hiatus," she said knowingly. "So I guess he'll be here for a couple of months."

"His show is on what?" I said.

"On hiatus. It's just a break," said Becca. "Like, they've already made all the shows for this season, so now they have some time off until they start again."

"How do you know so much about this stuff?" I asked. I was amazed at how sophisticated they sounded, for eight-year-olds.

"Derek told Nicky all about it," said Charlotte. "And Nicky told us."

Nicky is Nicky Pike, who is Derek's best friend in Stoneybrook. "So, did Nicky tell you when Derek will be here?" I asked.

"Today!" cried Charlotte. "He's coming today!" She sounded like an eight-year-old again.

"But we probably won't see him for a few days," added Becca. "He might not start school until Monday."

"I don't know if I can stand it," said Charlotte, dramatically. "It's only Wednesday. How can I wait five whole days to see him?"

"Well, you've already waited for about five months," pointed out Becca. "I think you'll make it." She sounded very mature. Then she started to giggle. "But I don't know if I will! I can't wait to see him. Maybe this time he got Lament's autograph for me!"

The girls started to talk excitedly about what they would wear to school on Monday, and what they would say to Derek when they saw him. I listened for a bit, and then I tuned out. Poor Derek. When he's in Stoneybrook, what he wants most of all is to be treated like a regular kid, not like a star. He likes to do all the things other eight-year-old boys do. He's a good big brother to his little brother, Todd. And, while he sometimes has trouble readjusting to "normal" life, he's basically just a smart, friendly guy. I hoped the other kids would give him room to be himself, instead of treating him like someone famous. I can understand why he hates that.

I understand a lot about kids. I kind of pride myself on that. It's not necessarily because I have a natural talent for it, though - it's just because I'm around kids a lot. I baby-sit all the time, and it's something I love to do. In fact, I'm in this club - the Baby-sitters Club or BSC. It's a group of girls - and one boy - who love to baby-sit and who have gotten together and made kind of a business of it. I'll explain more about the club later.

Understanding kids may not be one of my natural talents, but I do have some of those. Mainly what I'm talented at is art. I love all kinds of art, and without being egotistical about it, I have to say I'm a pretty good artist.

Not that I love everything I do. I've drawn plenty of pictures only to rip them up, and started and never finished a bunch of sculptures. But I've also done some things I'm proud of, and things other people seem to like a lot.

I'm always working on some project. Sometimes it's handmade jewelry, which I love to wear or give as gifts. Sometimes it's a sculpture or a collage. Other times it's a series of paintings, like the ones I did of junk food. Yes, junk food. That's one of my other loves. I could eat Twinkies and Doritos all day long. I think my paintings really showed how much I love the stuff, too, because the objects in the paintings - a Chunky bar, a pack of Lifesavers-look beautiful. They're kind of like portraits. Portraits of loved ones.

Pretty silly, right? Oh well, maybe you have to see them to understand. Anyway, I do love art. And junk food. What else? Well, I love to read mysteries - especially Nancy Drew stories. My parents don't approve because they think those books'll rot my brain. (They don't approve of junk food, because they think it'll rot my teeth!) But I keep on reading - and eating - what I like. I just keep the books and food hidden, and figure what my parents don't know won't hurt them.

Except for their lack of taste in food and reading material, my parents are basically great people. They are j.a.panese-American like me. And although they can be strict, they are also fair. They do their best to treat me and my older sister equally, even though sometimes I think Janine (that's my sister) gets more attention than I do. The fact is, she earns attention by doing exceptional things, like getting all A pluses, for example, or by being invited to join this program in which she attends college cla.s.ses even though she's still in high school.

Janine's a genius. I mean it. She's not just smart or intelligent. She's a super-brain. Sometimes I wonder how we're even in the same family. I mean, I'm not dumb, but I don't do well in school. I never have, and I probably never will. And you know what? I don't really care. I mean, sure I wish I were a better student, but being a good artist means more to me. I know my parents think I should "apply" myself, since my teachers say that that's all I need to do to get better grades. But I guess things like spelling and math just aren't that important to me.

Janine sometimes teases me and tells me I'm "shallow" because I'm interested in hairstyles and cool clothes. I'll admit that I love to wear trendy stuff - in fact, sometimes I'm even the one to invent trends in my school. And I do love to try all kinds of wild things with my hair, which is long and black and straight. I even love to experiment with makeup. I like to try accentuating certain features. But I don't think that makes me shallow. These things are part of my artistic nature. I see my body as a blank canvas, and I can put anything I want onto that canvas, depending on my mood. Does that make any sense?

I was thinking this over, and checking that day's outfit (lace leggings, purple tie-dyed T-shirt dress, and purple high-tops) in the mirror, when I was snapped back to reality by Charlotte who was tugging on my sleeve.

"Becca and I want to make 'welcome back' cards for Derek. Can you help us?"

"Sure," I said. "That sounds like fun." I love working on art projects with kids. "Let's put down some newspaper, and then we can take out the poster paints and get crazy!"

Pretty soon we were sprawled out on the floor, making a big mess. (I had decided to make a card too, just for fun.) Charlotte covered her paintbrush with drippy red paint. "Derek's going to love this card," she said. "I'm making a picture of him as Waldo. You know, with those funny gla.s.ses and that spiky hair?"

Derek-in-person looks so different from Derek-as-Waldo. The first time I met him I could hardly believe Derek really was the same person I'd seen on TV. In real life he's totally normal-looking, but on the show he gets laughs just by walking into the room.

"I like Waldo," mused Becca. "He's funny. But Lament! Lament is really special. He is so cute. Did you ever notice how big his eyes are?" I think one of the reasons Becca picked Lament to have a crush on is because he's African-American. Becca is, too. And she doesn't have too many black friends in Stoneybrook, because not that many black people live here. She used to live in New Jersey, in a more integrated town. Anyway, she probably likes Lamont because she relates to him and wishes she knew more boys like him.

It must be hard sometimes for Becca and her family. I'm friends with her older sister Jessi (she's in the BSC), and I know that when they first moved here people were actually mean to them. By now they've been accepted, but it wasn't easy at first.

Charlotte and Becca and I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing our cards and talking about Derek and his show. Just as we were cleaning up, Dr. Johanssen, Charlotte's mom, came home. It was already five o'clock by then, so I said my good-byes and headed back to my house to get ready for our club meeting, which is always at five-thirty and always in my room.

The house was quiet. I knew my parents were still at work. I also knew where I could find Janine. She was, as usual, in her room. Studying. What else is new? I stopped in to say hi to her, and then went into my own room, thinking I should tidy it up a little before the meeting.

As soon as I walked in, I noticed something strange. My room was messy, but that wasn't the strange thing. It's always messy. The strange thing was the way it was messy. It was different. Somebody else had made it messy, not me. On my desk, my papers were disorganized in an unfamiliar way. The makeup on my dresser was spread out differently than it had been that morning. And my closet door was hanging open even though I knew that, for once, I'd left it shut that morning.

I couldn't believe it! Had my room been burglarized, even though the rest of the house looked like it hadn't been touched? I started to panic. Then I looked carefully around the room and began to calm down. Nothing was missing. I could see that right away.

At that moment, my friends Kristy and Mary Anne arrived. I wasn't going to have time to put my room back in order because it was almost five-thirty and our club meeting was about to start.

Chapter 2.

"Can you believe this?" I said, gesturing at the mess on my desk and dresser.

"What?" asked Kristy.

"My room," I said.

"What about it?" asked Mary Anne. "It looks the same as always."

I had to laugh. "I guess it does. But this is a different kind of mess than usual. Someone was in here!"

"You're kidding!" said Kristy. "What did they take?"

"Nothing that I know of," I admitted. "But still - "

"Tell us .about it after the meeting," interrupted Kristy. The other members of the club had arrived by then, and my digital dock had turned to five-thirty. Kristy is very punctual and always starts our meetings on time. She's also very focused, and never lets anything get in the way of club business.

Even though Kristy can drive me nuts sometimes, I'm glad she's our club president. If she weren't, I don't know if we'd ever get anything done. The rest of us would be happy to discuss school or the latest issue of People magazine for hours at a time, but Kristy keeps us focused on the club.

But that's not the only reason she's president. The main reason is that she thought up the idea for the club. Kristy's always having great ideas, and this was the most awesome. She figured parents would think it was convenient to be able to call one phone number and reach a bunch of good sitters - and she was right. Business has been booming since the day the club started. Here's how it works: we meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from five-thirty to six. We advertised those hours at first, with fliers, but we hardly ever have to do that anymore. Parents call to line up sitters, and we divide up the jobs according to who's available when. Simple, right? But it took Kristy Thomas to think of it.

Kristy's a real dynamo. She has brown hair and brown eyes, and she's short for her age. She's kind of a tomboy: Kristy loves sports, especially baseball. And she doesn't care much about clothes and makeup and all that. She wears nearly the same thing every day: jeans, a turtleneck, and running shoes.

Kristy has a big family, and it's much more complicated than mine. She has two older brothers and one younger one, plus a stepfather and his kids - a boy and a girl - from his first marriage. (Her stepbrother and stepsister don't live with Kristy all the time, though. Most of the time they're with their mom.) Also, her mom and stepdad adopted a little girl, so Kristy has a two-year-old sister, too. Plus, her grandmother lives with the family. It's a full house, but luckily Kristy's step-dad (whose name is Watson Brewer), is a millionaire - honest! - and their house is actually a mansion.

That's Kristy. Now, more about the club she organized. I'm the vice-president. Why? Well, mainly because we meet in my room-and use my private phone line for our business. I guess I don't have any real duties, unless you count supplying Ring-Dings and Ruffles. Oh, and I also take care of any business calls that come in during times when we're not meeting.

Mary Anne Spier is our secretary. She's Kristy's best friend, even though they are very different people. I think the only thing they have in common may be their looks: Mary Anne also has brown hair and eyes, and is small for her age. But while Kristy is outgoing, Mary Anne is more of a mouse. She's shy, and quiet, and very sensitive.

Everybody loves Mary Anne, because she's a good listener and a good friend. She's not very sophisticated, but in a way she's more mature than she seems. For example, she's the only one in the club who has a steady boyfriend! Also, she's very dependable, which is important for the club. As secretary, she takes care of a lot of little details. She keeps our record book up-to-date with all kinds of information about our clients. She also keeps track of everyone's schedule, so when a call comes in she always knows - at a glance - who's available.

Mary Anne's mom died a long, long time ago, and Mary Anne grew up with just her father. I know life wasn't always easy for Mary Anne or her father. But now Mary Anne has a new stepmom, and a new stepsister and -brother. More about that later.

Our club's treasurer is Stacey McGill, who happens to be my best friend. Stacey is cool. Very cool. She grew up in New York City, and I think she's more sophisticated than anyone else in Stoneybrook. Her outfits are always awesome, and she perms her blonde hair and wears makeup that brings out her big blue eyes.

Stacey's parents got divorced not too long ago, and her dad lives in New York. Stacey visits him as often as she can, but I think she's glad she decided to live in Stoneybrook with her mom. (Boy, would I hate to have had to make that kind of decision!) I think Stacey has a really good relationship with her mother. Mrs. McGill used to baby Stacey, because Stacey has diabetes. But by now Stacey has proved that she is mature enough to take care of herself.

Diabetes is no joke. It's a serious disease, and Stacey will always have it. It has to do with blood sugar; I've never entirely understood the scientific explanation, but I know that Stacey has to be very careful about what she eats. No sweets. (That would be a total nightmare for me.) Also, she has to give herself a shot every single day. That's because her body doesn't produce the right amount of this stuff which I forget the name of. Anyway, Stacey's very accepting about having diabetes, even though it sometimes makes her really, really sick.

As treasurer of our club, Stacey's main job is to collect dues every Monday. She sometimes has to pry the money out of us, since we all hate to part with our hard-earned cash. She also keeps track of how much money is in the treasury. This is a snap for Stacey. She loves math. (Gag me!) We use the dues money for a lot of different things. For example, we pay Kristy's brother to drive her to meetings, since Watson's mansion is way across town. (Kristy used to live across the street from me.) And some of the money goes for supplies for our Kid-Kits. Kid-Kits are another of Kristy's great ideas. They're these boxes we've decorated to look cool, and they're full of stuff that kids love: games and puzzles and stickers and books. We bring them on jobs, and they're always a big hit, especially on rainy days when kids are bored to death with all their own toys.

If Stacey can't make a meeting some day, Dawn Schafer can take over her job. In fact, Dawn can take over any job in the club. She's our alternate officer, and she can fill in for anyone. Dawn's great. She's also absolutely gorgeous, but she doesn't even know it. She has this long, long silky blonde hair, and big blue eyes, and this great casual-yet-extremely-stylish way of dressing.

Dawn and her younger brother grew up in California, but when her parents got divorced, her mom decided to move back to Stoneybrook, which was where she'd grown up. Guess what happened to Mrs. Schafer when she came back to Stoneybrook? She met this man she used to date in .high school, fell in love with him again, and married him. And guess who that man was? Incredible but true: It was Mary Anne's father. That's how Mary Anne acquired a new stepmother and stepsister and stepbrother.

Dawn still misses California sometimes, but now she loves Stoneybrook and considers it her home. Her brother never made that adjustment, though. He went back to California to live with his dad. I know that's hard on Dawn. She misses Jeff a lot.

Kristy and Mary Anne and Stacey and Dawn and I are all thirteen and in the eighth grade, but two members of our club are a little younger. They are our junior officers, Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey, who are eleven and in the sixth grade. They're also best friends. Being junior officers means 'that they can't baby-sit on weeknights, unless it's for their own families. Instead, they do a lot of afternoon sitting, which is great since it frees the rest of us up for nights.

Mallory is energetic and smart. She has red hair and wears gla.s.ses. She also has braces, which she hates. Mal would love to have her braces removed, dump her gla.s.ses for contacts, and get some really funky clothes to wear - but she is only, eleven, and her parents have told her she'll just have to wait. I think Mal, sometimes feels older than her years, because she's the eldest in a family of eight kids and has had a lot of responsibility for her brothers and sisters. Mal wants to write and ill.u.s.trate children's books someday, and I think she'll probably do just that. She has a lot of talent.

I've already told you a little about Jessi. Becca is her sister, remember? She also has a baby brother, who is adorable. Like Mal, Jessi is talented; she's a dancer. She's been studying ballet forever, and she's really serious about it. Her parents are totally supportive of her, which is great. Jessi's family also includes an aunt who lives with them.

There are two more members of our club, but they don't come to meetings. They're a.s.sociate members, who help out when our schedule is overloaded. One is Shannon Kil-bourne, a girl from Kristy's neighborhood. The other is Logan Bruno, who happens to be Mary Anne's boyfriend.

So that's the club. Great idea, great people. There's only one tiny little thing about our club that I don't love. That's the club notebook, another of Kristy's ideas, in which we each have to write up what happens on every job we go on. Then we all read the notebook every week, so we're up to date on what's going on with our clients. Good idea, right? So why don't I like it? Well, since I don't happen to be the world's best speller, sometimes I get a little embarra.s.sed about how my entries look. But I write in the book anyway, because it z's a good idea. Besides, Kristy insists on it.

Our meeting that day was almost over. In between phone calls and after we'd taken care of club business, I told everyone about how I thought someone had been in my room. n.o.body took this seriously; maybe they didn't believe me. After all, my room didn't look all that different to them. Jessi jokingly suggested that the FBI must be after me for some reason, and Dawn thought maybe it was the work of a ghost. (She loves ghost stories.) Kristy wanted me to set up an elaborate trap to catch whoever might have been in my room, but the others didn't think it was worth the work. I decided they were right. In fact, I decided the whole thing probably had been in my head.

Just as the meeting was ending, guess who called. Derek Masters' mom! So he was back in town. Mrs. Masters said she'd be needing sitters quite often, since she and Mr. Masters were very busy managing Derek's career. I have to admit that we squabbled just a little over who would get the first job - everybody was kind of excited about sitting for a STAR - but Kristy was actually the only one free that Friday, which was the day Mrs. Masters was calling about. So she got the job.

After the meeting, I put my room back in order, checking again to make sure nothing was missing. Nothing was. I figured I had just imagined the whole thing. After all, why would anyone be interested in my makeup and stuff? It didn't make sense.

Chapter 3.

Kristy was a little nervous about being the first to sit for the Masters boys. She hadn't seen Derek for a long time. For all she knew, he might have changed a lot.

"What if he thinks of himself as a big star now?" she'd asked Mary Anne and me at lunch. "After all, his show's more popular than ever now. Maybe he won't even talk to normal people anymore. He probably has a car phone and a swimming pool and all kinds of things out there in Hollywood. He's going to be so bored in Stoneybrook. How'm I supposed to entertain a kid like that? He's probably ten times more sophisticated than I'll ever be." Kristy sounded so panicked that I was tempted to giggle. I was sitting next to her in the school cafeteria, Mary Anne was across the table, and Stacey, Dawn, and Logan were scattered around us.

"Kristy," said Mary Anne. "You're getting carried away. He's only a kid, remember? I'm sure he hasn't changed at all. He was really friendly to Jessi, that time she visited him when we were all out in California. Anyway, you can handle him, whatever he's like. You're a great baby-sitter."

Good old Mary Anne. She always knows just what to say. There I was, ready to laugh at Kristy's fears, but Mary Anne kept a straight face and calmed Kristy right down. I'll never be as sensitive as Mary Anne.

"Mary Anne's right'," I said. "Just treat him like a regular kid, and you'll be fine." Then I remembered something and started to laugh. "Did you see the show last night? The one where Waldo gets new gla.s.ses and starts to think he has X-ray vision? It was so funny."

Mary Anne giggled. "Dawn and I were watching," she said. "We were both practically dying from laughing so hard."

Kristy just looked at us. "See what I mean?" she said. "He's a big star. Everybody talks about that show all day after it's on." She shook her head and took another bite of her peanut-b.u.t.ter-and-jelly sandwich. Kristy hadn't said one word about what my friends and I were eating, which was very unusual. Normally she would have spent the whole lunch period teasing about how gross the chicken chow mein looked. Instead, she just talked about how worried she was. It was unlike Kristy to be so nervous about a sitting job, but I guess anybody can get starstruck.

Kristy spent that whole day worrying about her job at the Masterses'. I noticed during our meeting that afternoon that she seemed distracted, and later I found out why.

"I was trying to figure out what I should wear," said Kristy. "It seemed like I should dress up a little, since Derek is so famous." I was shocked. Kristy never dresses up. But that night she changed out of her .jeans and into freshly ironed dress pants, just for Derek.

By the time Kristy knocked on the Masterses' door, she had b.u.t.terflies in her stomach. Mrs. Masters answered the door. She was fl.u.s.tered because she and Mr. Masters had a big meeting planned with Derek's agent. They ran out with hardly a word to Kristy. But just as the door slammed behind them, Derek appeared in the hall and a funny thing happened. The second Kristy saw him, her nervousness melted away. For one thing, she'd forgotten that Derek looks nothing like the character he plays on TV. He doesn't wear gla.s.ses, or have a spiky haircut. He's just a normal, friendly looking kid. And for another thing, he looked awfully glad to see Kristy. "Derek!" she said. "How are you?"

"I'm great," he said, smiling. "I'm so happy to be back in Stoneybrook. I get bored in Hollywood."

Kristy stifled a giggle. "I thought your life out there was glamorous and exciting," she said.

"Not really," he answered. "I work hard, you know. And then, I get tutored on the set with the other kids from the show. Sometimes I just really miss being with regular kids at a normal school!"

"I'll bet," said Kristy. "Well, I'm sure your old Stoneybrook friends are happy to see you." Kristy was glad she could say that - and mean it. She knew it was true. But Derek hadn't always been so popular in Stoneybrook. When he first became famous, he'd had a hard time in school for quite a while. Jessi had been his main baby-sitter at the time, and she was amazed at how mean to him the other kids were. According to Derek, they teased him and picked fights with him all the time. The meanest kid was one named John. After hearing all the stories about what John did, Jessi nicknamed him "Superbrat." But you know what? John didn't really exist. And all those mean things he had supposedly done were actually done by - get this - Derek! He was just having a hard time adjusting to being a star. He wasn't sure anymore how a "normal" kid was supposed to act. But Derek got through that phase with a little help from Jessi. And Kristy knew that, this time around, the kids at Stoneybrook Elementary were thrilled to have him back at school.

Derek started to tell Kristy about the teepee his cla.s.s was building, but just then Todd, who's four, came running into the room.

"Hi!" he said, stopping short when he saw Kristy. "Who are you?"