"Football practice," said Charlie promptly.

"Math Club," said Sam.

"Sitting at theNewtons '," I said.

"Drat," said Mom.

"But we are sorry," added Sam.

"I know you are."

Then we dug into the pizza while Mom started making phone calls.

She called Mary Anne. Mary Anne was sitting for the Pikes.

She called Claudia. Claudia had an art class.

She called two high school girls. They had cheerleading practice.

David Michael looked like he might cry.

Finally Mom called Mrs. Newton and asked if she would mind if I brought David Michael with me when I sat for Jamie. Luckily, Mrs. Newton didn't mind.

I chewed away at a gloppy mouthful of cheese and pepperoni and thought it was too bad that Mom's pizza had to get cold while

she made all those phone calls. I thought it was too bad that David Michael had to sit there and feel like he was causing a lot of trouble just because he was only six years old and couldn't take care of himself yet.

Then the idea for the Baby-sitters Club came to me and I almost choked.

I could barely wait untilnine o'clock so I could signal the great idea to Mary Anne.

CHAPTER TWO

After dinner that night I went to my bedroom and shut my door. Then I sat down at my desk with a pad of paper and a sharpened pencil. I had three things to do: the composition on decorum, my homework, and some thinking about the Baby-sitters Club. I planned to do them in that order, grossest first.

I looked up decorum in my dictionary. It said: "Conformity to social convention; propriety. See Synonyms at etiquette." I had to look up both propriety and etiquette before I got the picture. Then I understood. I'd been rude. Why hadn't Mr. Redmont just said so? It would have made things a lot simpler. So I wrote down some stuff about how being rude was distracting to other students and made Ston-eybrook Middle School look bad to visitors. I counted the words. Ninety-eight. So I added