Kristy's Great Idea by Ann M. Martin Page B

her mother. And that’s just how things were by the time Jamie’s parents and the Feldmans left, except that Brenda was hugging a ratty teddy bear instead of her mother’s legs.
    Claudia looked around the living room nervously.
    Rob looked around in disgust. His eyes fell on Jamie, who turned his back on Rosie and was pushing an ambulance back and forth, making loud siren noises. “Hey, Jamie,” said Rob, “let’s get away from all these
girls,
okay?” He glanced defiantly at Claudia.
    â€œâ€˜kay,” replied Jamie vaguely, busy with the ambulance.
    â€œWhere are you going?” asked Claudia.
    â€œI’m not telling,” Rob said, and grabbed Jamie by the wrist.
    Claudia dashed across the living room andblocked the doorway. Rob pulled Jamie around and hauled him off in another direction, toward the entrance to the dining room. Claudia beat him to it.
    â€œWhere are you going?” she asked him again. “I’m the baby-sitter and I have to know. Just tell me where you’re going.”
    â€œWho’s going to make me?”
    â€œNobody. But I won’t let you leave until you do.”
    Rob whirled around again. He let go of Jamie and grabbed his sister instead. Jamie sat down on the floor in surprise.
    â€œHave we ever had a baby-sitter as mean as
her?”
Rob asked angrily.
    â€œNo!” said Rosie.
    â€œNo,” sniffled Brenda, who hadn’t quite finished crying.
    â€œAre we going to let her be mean?”
    â€œNo!” shouted his sisters. “Okay, let’s do it!”
    Claudia said that her stomach felt as if it were on a roller coaster. She had no idea what the Feldman kids were going to do. She found out immediately.
    Rosie began running around and around the room, yelling at the top of her lungs. She wasn’t yelling words; she was just making noise. Brendaleaped onto the Newtons’ couch and jumped up and down on it as if it were a trampoline. And Rob turned his fingers into guns and aimed them at Claudia.
“Pow! Pow! Pow-pow-pow!
You’re a dead man! … I mean, a dead lady.” Jamie looked on dazedly.
    At that point, Claudia almost panicked and called Stacey for help, but Jamie, sitting quietly on the floor, inspired her. She remembered that when she was little, and she or Janine misbehaved, her mother used to turn to her father and murmur, “I-g-n-o-r-e.” And they would do just that. Claudia decided to try it on the Feldmans. She sat on the floor next to Jamie, reached for a copy of
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
lying abandoned by an armchair, and began to read to him. Jamie rested his head against her shoulder.
    Thump, thump, thump went Brenda.
    â€œAiieeee!”
shrieked Rosie, running by Claudia and stepping in her lap. Claudia didn’t even look up.
    â€œPow!”
shouted Rob.
“Pow!
… Hey, baby-sitter, I’m killing you! … Okay? … Baby-sitter?”
    â€œNot now,” said Claudia. “I’m busy.”
    She kept reading, raising her voice when she got to the part where Mr. McGregor chased after Peter, waving a rake.
    The thumping stopped. Brenda sat down a few feet away from Claudia and tried to listen without appearing
too
interested.
    Rosie continued to run around the room, but she stopped yelling, and every time she ran by Claudia she slowed up long enough to look at the pictures in the book.
    By the time the story was over, Jamie, Rosie, and Brenda were as quiet as mice. Claudia moved them to the couch. She found a copy of
Where the Wild Things Are,
opened it, and read about Max putting on his wolf suit and making mischief.
    â€œAs much mischief as me?” asked Rob from across the room, dropping his guns.
    â€œNot quite,” replied Claudia. Rob looked satisfied. “If you come over here,” she went on, “you can find out what happened to him.”
    Rob didn’t say anything, but he perched on the arm of the couch and listened to