When I reached the Pikes', I parked my bicycle at the side of the driveway and rang the doorbell.

"I'll get it! I'll get it!" cried a voice from inside.

The door was flung open by Claire, the youngest Pike. She loves answering the door and the phone.

"Hi, Claire!" I said brightly.

Claire suddenly turned shy. She put her finger in her mouth and looked at the floor. "Hi," she replied.

"I'm Dawn. Remember me?"

Claire nodded.

"Can I come in?"

She nodded again.

As I was opening the door, Mrs. Pike ran down the stairs. "Oh, it's you, Dawn. Terrific! You're right on time. How are you?"

"Fine, thanks," I answered.

I really like Mrs. Pike. She has lots of energy and she loves kids. (She'd have to, I guess.) She's patient and funny and hardly ever yells. She and Mr. Pike have been really nice to our family ever since we moved here.

"I'm just going to be at a meeting of the trustees of the public library. The library number is on the bulletin board by the phone. If you need to call me, ask for the Prescott Room and say that I'm in the board meeting, okay?"

"Okay."

(Mrs. Pike is always so organized. She's a baby-sitter's dream.)

"The emergency numbers are in their usual

spot, and the kids can have a snack — a small one — if they're hungry. I'll be home a little after five. Is that all right?"

"Perfect. We have a Baby-sitters Club meeting at five-thirty."

Our club is run very professionally. We meet three times a week to go over club business and take job calls. (We get tons of jobs.) The president is Kristy Thomas. She's the one who had the idea for the club.

The vice-president is Claudia Kishi, who's really neat and sophisticated. She lives across the street from Kristy. We hold our meetings in Claudia's room because she has a phone. Claudia is Japanese and beautiful. She hates school, but loves art and mystery stories. She's a little bit hard to get to know.