Baby-Sitters On Board by Ann M. Martin Read Free Book Online

night.
Then I had to clean out the wastebasket, which was really really really disgusting, but that was part of my job. Baby-sitting isn't always fun and games. Still, after I'd finished, the rest of the evening was kind of fun. There was no way Claire was going to go to sleep for awhile, so she and I watched things slide around. We took pictures of a suitcase that had dumped open, and of a banana flying through the air. (Well, I hope I got the banana.) I even took a picture of Claire laughing hysterically as she fell out of bed.
When she finally got tired, we lay together in her bunk and listened to the howling wind and lashing rain. At last Claire fell asleep and I climbed up to my bed.
The next morning, the sea was calm, the sky was clear, and the sun was shining.
Kristy.
The last thing I expected when I woke up on the morning of the third day of the cruise was a calm sea. The storm was over.
"I don't believe it," I said to Claudia as she climbed down from the top of our bunk. "I thought for sure — OW! Can't you get out of bed without stepping on me?" "Sorry," said Claudia. "I'm just not used to this thing. People always talk about climbing into or out of bed, but I never thought of that in terms of ladders. It doesn't seem normal." "Wake Dawn up, would you please, Claud? We're supposed to meet Mom and Watson and everyone for breakfast in half an hour." Claudia had just stepped into the bathroom. I could hear water running. "I can't," she called. "You do it." "Oh," I groaned.
"Never mind!" said Dawn. "I'm awake." She sat up quickly and hit her head on the springs of the top bunk. A pair of Claudia's shoes fell to the floor. Dawn frowned. "This room is a dump," she said.
"I don't think so," I retorted. And just to make her madder than she already was, I got up (without hitting my head) and swept two more pairs of Claudia's shoes off the bunk.
Thonk, thonk, thonk, thonk. They landed on the floor. I was doing it on purpose, and I knew it would make Dawn mad. It would serve her right for being such a neatnik.
Dawn stomped around, picked up all six shoes, and threw them back on the bed. Then she found the wrappers from two bags of M&Ms that Claudia and I had eaten the night before, and threw them into the trash can with such force that they almost bounced back out again.
I felt a little worried. Maybe I had gone too far with Dawn. Just in case, I decided to eat at Mom and Watson's table. And then I decided I needed to go someplace to cool off — literally. So I put on my bathing suit, grabbed a towel, my sunscreen, and this sports book I was reading, and headed for the big pool on the Sun Deck.
I wanted to go swimming, but it was too soon after breakfast. Watson says that that business about waiting an hour before you go in the water after you've eaten is an old wives' tale. But I'd eaten two poached eggs, two English muffins, and four pieces of bacon, and drunk both tea and orange juice at breakfast, so I was on the full side and decided to wait anyway.
I plunked down on a lounge chair, spread on my coconut-scented sunscreen, and opened my book. I hadn't read more than a page when someone else plunked down on the chair next to me. I hoped it wasn't Dawn. Unless she was coming to apologize.
When no one said anything, though, I dared to glance over at the chair. Sitting in it was an old man wearing a blue Hawaiian-print shirt (kind of like one Stacey has) and green Hawaiian-print shorts. The shirt and shorts absolutely didn't match. They looked awful together. Just as bad was the man's faded blue golf cap — and the look on his face. The look was so grouchy that I quickly turned my head back to my book.
But right away I had to glance at him again. Wasn't he the man who had stopped Claudia and me the other day to ask us the time? I couldn't be sure. There were so many people on board the Ocean Princess. Besides, that man had seemed sad, not grouchy.
I turned back to my book. I read a chapter, then another. The sun was