Then, once a week, we're supposed to read about the jobs in the notebook. It was Kristy's idea, and even though we complain about it, it's really very helpful. We can find out if the kids we sit for are having problems the rest of us should know about, and we can learn how to handle sticky situations (such as Kristy's problems with Jackie Rodowsky). Writing in the notebook is one of the few rules in the BSC.

Kristy's day with the Rodowsky boys started out innocently enough. (Of course, even hurricanes and flash floods start out small.) Kristy was happy to take the job, because things were getting pretty boring in Stoneybrook, and Mrs. Rodowsky offered her a whole day's work. How could she know that a day at the community pool would turn into a scene from a baby-sitting horror movie?

"Are you sure you have everything?" Mrs. Rodowsky asked. She was double-parked at the entrance to the pool, while Kristy and the boys piled out of the car. The Rodowsky boys

are Archie (age four), Jackie (age seven), and Shea (age nine). All three boys have flaming red hair and plenty of freckles.

Kristy did a quick check and nodded. The kids were armed with towels, suntan lotion, and lunch money.

"We don't have Hilda," Archie complained. Hilda was a lime-green float with a head like the Loch Ness monster.

"You know we can't bring Hilda to the pool," Kristy explained. "They don't allow floats or rafts because they take up too much room."

"Floats are for babies," Shea said firmly.

"They are not!" Archie's freckles stood out on his pale skin when he was angry.

Shea shrugged and decided it wasn't worth continuing the argument. Who wanted to fight when a day at the pool stretched ahead of them?

The pool complex is much bigger than it looks from the outside. There are actually three pools — an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a wading pool, and a diving pool — plus a playground and snack bar. A first-aid station is off to one side, right next to the bathroom and showers.