"Mary Rose, I'm talking to you!" Mrs. Wilder said in an annoyed voice.

Finally the girl stopped. She let her hands fall off the piano. "What?"

"Claudia is here," Mrs. Wilder said with a big smile.

"Hi," I said, waving and looking as friendly as I could.

No reaction.

"Claudia's your sitter," Mrs. Wilder said. I wondered if that was the first Rosie had heard about me.

"I know," Rosie said.

Mrs. Wilder7s smile was beginning to look forced. "Well, aren't you going to come say hello?"

Rosie slipped off her seat, crossed the room, and shook my hand. She had flaming, thick

red hair, a scattering of freckles, and hazel eyes. "Hi," she said. She sounded about as excited as a kid in detention.

"That was really . . . nice," I said.

"It's Mozart," Rosie replied. "Those last few chords weren't supposed to be rolled like that, but my hands aren't quite large enough."

"Uh-huh," I said. I had no idea what she was talking about.

Mrs. Wilder broke into the silence. "Now," she said, "Mrs. Wood usually comes at four o'clock to give a piano lesson, but she has the flu today so Rosie is using this time to practice. Wednesday is her ballet class and her violin lesson — which naturally won't concern you, Claudia — but on Thursday, her voice teacher and tap instructor both come at five-fifteen. Normally it's just her voice teacher, but Rosie has an important dinner-theater audition coming up. Her agent says she needs a solid song-and-dance number under her belt, so we decided both teachers should be present. And, let's see . . . Friday is science club, which meets after school, so you don't have to be here until a quarter to five."

"Wow!" I said. "What a lot of talents."

Ah-ha! A smile! It was faint, but Rosie's lips were turning up slightly.

Mrs. Wilder laughed. "Oh, that's not the half. There's also math club on Mondays and

the advanced readers' group at the library every other Saturday. Not to mention our trips to New York for commercial auditions and tap-ings, modeling calls, agent meetings . . ." She rolled her eyes and wiped her brow. "Whew! It's a full-time job. Right, honey?"