Claudia and Mean Janine by Ann M. Martin Page A

party. The members of the Baby-sitters Club got ready to switch from being guests to being helpers.
    Mr. Newton drove us from the church to the party. Mrs. Newton put us to work right away. Kristy and Stacey were to pass out hors d’oeuvres, Mary Anne and Dawn were to help set up the food table, and I was to watch Jamie.
    Lucy apparently wasn’t going to need much watching. She was the center of attention, passed adoringly from one pair of arms to the next.
    Jamie was torn between watching all that, and not watching it. When he wasn’t watching, he tried to perform daredevil tricks on his jungle gym.
    â€œHey, Gram! Look at me!”
    But usually Gram (or Gramps or Auntie Nora or whomever he was calling) was too enthralled with Lucy to pay much attention to him.
    â€œRoarrrr!” shouted Jamie, standing at the top of his slide and beating his chest. “I’m King Corn!”
    The only attention that stunt attracted was from his mother. “Honey, not so loud, please.”
    â€œAnyway,” I whispered to him as I helped himoff the slide, “it’s King
Kong,
not King Corn.”
    â€œOh.”
    When the food had been eaten and the guests were happily stuffed, Kristy and the others helped clear the table. Then they began to pile it up with the gifts the guests had brought.
    â€œPresents!” yelped Jamie eagerly. “Maybe they’re for me!”
    â€œI … I don’t think so,” I told him.
    â€œWhy not, Claudy? Who’re they for?”
    â€œWell, I think they’re for Lucy. For her christening.”
    â€œAll of them?”
    â€œProbably.”
    â€œAre you sure?”
    Jamie just couldn’t believe that the entire stack of presents before him was for Lucy. And, in fact, he was right; not all of them were for Lucy. There were a few small things for him: some Matchbox cars and a tiny teddy. But the majority of the heap was dresses and stuffed animals and toys for Lucy.
    Jamie made his unhappiness plain. “Leave me alone,” he told me crossly.
    I knew how he felt, so I did leave him alone. The party was sort of coming to an end anyway. I joined my friends, who were lookingat the pictures Mr. Newton was taking.
    I’m not sure what made me look up to see who was holding Lucy at the moment, but I did—and I couldn’t see anyone holding her. So I scanned the yard and saw that she’d been placed in her bouncy walker chair. She was sitting by one end of the food table, next to a half-empty pitcher of fruit punch that had been left out. As I watched, Jamie spotted both Lucy and the punch. He darted toward her, lifted the pitcher, and—
    I ran across the yard as fast as I could, knowing I’d never reach them in time. I could just picture Lucy’s beautiful gown all stained with red punch.
    â€œJamie!” I shouted. “No!”
    But before the words had actually left my mouth, Jamie was putting the pitcher back on the table. And by the time I got to him, he was tickling Lucy’s bare feet.
    â€œJamie,” I gasped, “I thought you were going to pour that punch on your sister.”
    Jamie looked at me guiltily. “I was,” he said, “but I changed my mind.”
    â€œHow come?” I asked.
    Jamie shrugged, then frowned. “‘Cause I love her,” he said at last. “She
is
my sister.”
    Hmm,
I thought, remembering when I’d raisedmy hand to hit Janine, but had stopped just in time.
    The party ended a little while later. Jamie’s words didn’t come back to me until I was on my way home. Then I began to think about Janine. Janine was my sister and I was hers. I supposed we loved each other, although we’d never actually said so. I hadn’t thought much about it. Mostly what I thought about was how much attention Janine got from everybody. Janine was such a brilliant student. Janine was going to be a physicist. Don’t interrupt Janine, she has to study.