Sitter Smarts Only take jobs you know you can handle
Chapter 1 It was a dark and stormy night I said A gust of wind answered sending a flutter of dead leaves skittering across the sidewalk I shivered took a deep breath and turned the corner The House loomed ahead Dark windows like evil eyes glared down at me Gnarled vines clawed the walls like fingers It was a dark and stormy night I said again more softly this time No one answered I was alone A dark and stormy night was how my longtime best friend Beth and I always started our ghost stories Whenever we walked past The House emphasis on each word The House
we whispered stories we’d imagined about the ghosts and murderers and creatures and villains who lived within its walls My stories were scary but Beth’s usually made us giggle which helped ease our fears when walking past The House But today I was alone Just like every day this week and last week and the week before Ever since we’d started seventh grade a few months ago Beth had made up one excuse after another to avoid walking home from school with me She’d say I’m going to stay after to make posters for Spirit Week or My mom is picking me up and we’re going to the mall or I’m going to help Mr Billings clean up the science room All excuses never the truth The truth was that Beth was becoming Miss Popular and I was anything but She didn’t
want to be seen with me anymore She preferred to spend her time with the cool crowd especially her new best friend Avery Beth and I had been best friends all through elementary school When we started junior high I didn’t think anything would change not about our friendship anyway That first day hundreds of new faces lined the halls and cafeteria and Beth and I stuck close together But after that first day things did change Beth changed She wasn’t interested in anything we used to do like watching anime cartoons or making up ghost stories Now she was only interested in the latest fashions and designer boots Beth was really focused on what everyone else was wearing too She and Avery took turns carrying around a secret notebook Inside they wrote down everything all the girls in our class
