"Worse!" Shelley said miserably.

"Nothing's worse!" Jane exclaimed. "Except maybe driving for a junior high field trip. And if that's it, the answer's absolutely no — not for anything."

"It's nothing to do with kids." Shelley ran her ringers through her short cap of neat black hair. This was serious. Jane had never seen Shelley allow a hair out of place. Moreover, Jane's big orange cat Meow had jumped into Shelley's lap and Shelley, who loathed cats, was absentmindedly stroking its fur.

"Let me explain from the beginning. It's not really my fault. Well, it is, of course. But I mean—"

"Shelley, you normally have the disciplined sang

froid of an old-fashioned Mother Superior. It's scary seeing you this way. Get on with it!"

"Yes. Yes, of course!" Shelley said, apparently giving herself a mental slap. "All right. It's like this. You know about this class reunion of mine that's coming up next weekend?" She was still petting Meow.

"Yeah, the weird one that's being held in September instead of spring like everybody else's."

"I explained that to you. The school had a terrible fire and the reunion's being held early so we can get some alumni fund-raising efforts started."

"Uh-huh. Go on."

"Well, there was a girl's club in my school. We did charitable things. Volunteered to decorate for school dances, collected for the United Way, managed phone committees on snow days, that sort of thing. It was quite an honor to be invited to join."

"Why does this sound so harmless and sweet?" Jane asked.

"I was lulled into complacency, too. See, I started thinking about this old club and decided it would be a good idea for the members of the club to meet early and take on the leadership of the fund-raising project to rebuild the school. Appropriate, really."