Excerpts from Baby-Sitting no Oujisama

Baby-Sitting no Oujisama #1: Tezuka's Great Idea When Echizen Ryoma moved from America to Japan, he thought his future as a baby-sitter/tennis player was over. But the captain of Seigaku's tennis team has just had the absolute best idea ever!

Buchou adjusted his glasses and sat up a little straighter in his director's chair. He was wearing his usual combination of lavender turtleneck, lavender sweater, lavender jeans, and his tennis shoes. We all called it his buchou uniform.

"This meeting of the Seigaku Baby-Sitters Club will now come to order," said Tezuka-buchou. "Don't get careless with the babies."

"Snacks!" Fuji-senpai interrupted, smiling at everyone. He held up a bag of wasabi pork rinds, which I didn't even know existed, and everyone made a face. Momo-senpai groaned from his place on the floor next to me, but that didn't stop him from grabbing the bag from Fuji's hands and stuffing a double-handful into his mouth. Fuji only got to be club vice-president because he had a private phone line in his room, and Oishi-senpai had shyly told everyone that he'd rather be secretary because it'd be good practice for the future. Then Eiji-senpai told all of us that he and Oishi-senpai played secretary all the time; I didn't know what he meant, but I'm pretty sure it was gross.

"Has everyone read the club notebook?" Buchou asked.

"Yes," we all replied in bored voices. Tezuka-buchou made us write up every single one of our baby-sitting jobs because it was supposed to be a good learning experience or something. Inui-senpai said it was good data, but I mostly thought it was stupid.

Tezuka crossed his arms and nodded. "Good work. Is there any other business to discuss?"

Inui-senpai's glasses glinted and he told everyone to cough up dues or we had to drink Inui Juice. We all groaned and dug into our pockets because no one wanted to try Inui's Special Kidloving Juice.

Inui-senpai's incredibly accurate reporting of the shape of the club's treasury, up to and including the origins of a piece of lint that had somehow made its way into the manila envelope was interrupted when the phone rang. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief as Eiji-senpai dove for it.

"Hoi hoi, Seigaku Babysitters Club! Oh, hello, Pike-san! Tuesday, 3:30pm, just the triplets? Okay, I'll check to see who's free and give you a call back, nya!" He hung up the phone. "Okay, who wants it?"

"MINE! SUPERSITTER, OH BABY!" shouted Kawamura-senpai, waving his KidKit around.

"Kawamura-senpai is still mada mada dane," I said, pulling down my cap. "I'll take the job."

I'm Echizen Ryoma, babysitter. I'm the best there is.

Suddenly, someone ran up Fuji's stairs. It was Kaidoh-senpai, breathless, with his tennis bag slung over one shoulder. "Sorry I'm late," he announced, throwing down his bag. "Ballet practice ran over."



Baby-Sitting no Oujisama #7: Momoshiro and the Dancing Viper Momoshiro and Kaidoh have never gotten along, ever, but now that the Pike family has hired them both for a long-term sitting job, they're forced to work together. Will these baby-sitting rivals become friends...or is this the end of the Seigaku Tennis and Baby-Sitters Club?!

I narrowed my eyes as Kaidoh walked toward me, KidKit tucked under one arm. What was that stupid snake doing here?

"Hey!" I shouted, leaping up from my spot on the Pikes' steps. "What'd you do with Echizen?" I got right up in his face, just to prove that I wasn't scared of him or his dumb KidKit covered in adorable fluffy kitten wrapping paper.

"I didn't do anything with him. Rikkai Dai's Sanada-san challenged him to a diaper changing contest, so I switched jobs with him. I wouldn't have if I'd known it was with you." Kaidoh shoved me away, so I shoved him back. He made a big show of brushing imaginary dust from his shirt.

He must have come right from dance class. I hated when he did that because he always left on that stupid tight ballet top. It was cut low on his chest and showed off his arms, the jerk.

"Come on, we're gonna be late," I grunted, pushing him again for good measure. We walked up the stairs and fought over who got to ring the doorbell. I won because I'd never lose to that guy.

The youngest Pike, Claire, opened the door. "Kaoru-silly-billy-goo-goo!" she squealed the second she saw us. Five-year-old Claire hadn't adjusted too well to Tokyo at first, but once she figured out honorifics, she did all right. Mostly. Claire adored Kaidoh, so obviously she wasn't perfect. She flung herself at Kaidoh and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Hello, Claire-chan," Kaidoh said, blushing and patting the top of her head. "Is your mother around?"

Pike-san breezed through before Kaidoh even finished asking, telling us there were hot dogs in the fridge and emergency numbers next to the phone. Then she was gone, leaving us alone with our charges.

"KiiiiiiiiidKiiiiiiiiiiits," roared Jordan as the triplets tumbled into the living room. I liked them a lot. They always called me Momo-chan, and Byron had a pretty good backhand. I could see him as a Seigaku regular in a few years -- and he could baby-sit like the rest of us regulars, too! Byron would be a good sitter, being the most sensitive of the Pike triplets.

Adam snatched my KidKit (decorated with my awesome Lucky the Bravest Dog stickers) out of my hands, while Jordan dove into Kaidoh's.

"Pfft," said Adam, pawing through the things I'd brought with me, "this is all girly stuff."

Jordan nodded. "Definitely girly stuff."

"It is not!" I said, offended. "There are tennis magazines in there. And my Super Soaker."

"Yeah, and horse books," Jordan said, rolling his eyes.

"Horse books?" seven-year-old Margo asked hopefully. She looked in Kaidoh's Kit and pulled out a book. "'Chincoteague no Misty: A wild, ringing neigh shrilled up from the hold of the Spanish galleon,'" she sounded out in careful Japanese.

The Pike kids were so smart! I think it only took them a week or two to learn Japanese, but they said that was only because it felt like time always moved really slowly for them. When they'd told me that, I thought about this match Arai and I had where his serve took so long to get to my side of the court that I was able to tell him that he'd never beat me with his lame moves, have a conversation with Eiji-senpai, buy a soda, then jump in the air and Dunk Smash the heck out of him.

"That book was in English first," Kaidoh told Margo. "It's my favorite."

"Oi, mamushi, that can't be your favorite book, it's my favorite book."

Kaidoh hissed. "It is not!"

"Is too!" I reached into my KidKit and pulled out my own battered copy. "I've read it about a jillion times. It's totally dibble."

"An idiot like you could never like a book this good," Kaidoh growled.

I could tell all the Pike kids were looking at us, but I didn't care. "I'll like whatever book I want to like!"

"I'm shocked you can even read!"

That was low, even for Kaidoh. "Wanna fight?" I asked, getting in his face and pulling his shirt again.

Kaidoh's face was all screwed up and I thought he was about to punch me, but instead he glanced to the side and gasped. Then he looked embarrassed.

"No," he said, stepping back. "We have a duty to the club."

As much as I hated to admit it, Kaidoh was right. We were baby-sitters and we had a job to do. Baby-sitting was the most important thing in the world, next to tennis! What would Tezuka-buchou say if he saw us?

I nodded. "To the club."

Nine-year-old Vanessa looked up from the letter she was reading from her oldest sister, Mallory, who was in boarding school in America. She pushed up her glasses, and I was weirdly reminded of Inui-senpai.

"Sitters stop fighting
Over books about horses
Working together," she intoned seriously.

"NO MORE HAIKU," shouted her brothers and sisters.

"Enjoy the book, Margo-chan. I think you'll like it a lot," I said. I shot Kaidoh one last dirty look, but took a deep breath and followed Nicky into the kitchen.

Kaidoh had been right, as much as I hated to admit it, so I'd let it go...for now. But I was definitely going to fight that idiot once we were done. Him and his stupid ballet clothes.

END.