Work Text:
It was 5.25 on Monday afternoon.
Stacey was sitting on a pillow, inspecting her nail polish. Mary-Anne was stretched out beside her on the floor, writing in the club notebook about her weekend job sitting for the Perkins.
Kristy came in, talking loudly to Dawn, who she had met on the way in. "Sam was telling this wild story about some kids getting bitten at a party in the woods on Saturday night."
"Bitten by what?"
"A stray dog or something. But Watson said it was because of the full moon. He says that's when all the weirdos come out. I said the stray dog was just hungry." Kristy looked around at all of them as she and Dawn settled on the bed. "It's those teenagers hanging out in the woods in the middle of the night who are the weirdos. How dumb is that? They all had to get rabies shots."
"That poor dog," said Mary-Anne.
"I can't wait till I'm old enough to go to high school parties," said Stacey.
"It wasn't a full moon on Saturday night," Claudia said. She was sitting at her desk, one knee pulled up to her chest, her foot on the seat. She scratched at her shin through her orange leggings. They had black ants stamped on them, marching up her legs in straight lines.
"What was that, Claud?" Stacey said.
Claudia looked up. She scratched her leg again. "The full moon. It's tonight."
"Didn't you have a job on Saturday night?" Kristy asked.
"Yeah, for that new family, the Cranstons."
"Did you write it up in the book?"
Claudia was saved from answering as Mallory and Jessi came in, slightly out of breath. They were just in time. The clock ticked over to 5.30 and Kristy called the meeting to order.
Phonecalls started coming in, and the conversation turned to who was available when, handing in their dues to Stacey, and other matters of business. At one point Mallory realised she was sitting on a bag of gummi-frogs and passed them around.
"I like your shirt," Dawn said to Claudia in a lull between calls.
"Thanks." She'd been experimenting with tie-dying recently. Her over-sized shirt was dyed in swirling oranges, pinks, and yellows. It was cinched around her waist with a belt made from old shoelaces.
"It's kind of like a sunset." Dawn smiled and swept her long blonde hair back over her shoulder.
Claudia looked out the window, biting her lip at the lengthening shadows. Not sunset. Not yet. She pulled her shirt sleeves down over her hands and hugged her knee to her chest to stop herself from scratching.
"Claud?" Kristy's voice made her jump, and she realised she'd been staring out the window for a while. "Mr Cranston just called," Kristy said, frowning slightly. "Do you want to sit for them again on Thursday?"
"Um."
The Cranstons lived over by the high school. It hadn't been that late when she finished sitting for their two kids, only 9 o'clock. Mr Cranston had offered to drive her home but it was such a short walk, especially if she cut through the woods. And the moon had been so bright, almost full.
Everyone was looking at her. She noticed she was scratching her arm and stopped. "Sure," she said.
While Kristy called back Mr Cranston, Mary-Anne paused as she filled out the appointment book.
"Are you feeling okay, Claudia?" she said, looking up at her from the floor with her big, brown eyes full of concern.
"I'm hungry," she blurted out. She was even hungrier than she was itchy.
At least the bite on her leg had stopped bleeding, though. A drop of sweat ran down the back of her neck. Her hair was pulled back in a braid today, with orange ribbons threaded through, and as she turned her head to look out the window again her lobster earrings swung back and forth.
"Gummi frog?" Mallory offered, holding out the bag.
"I see twinkies," Mary-Anne said, peering under the bed, "and those organic seaweed and quinoa crackers Dawn likes."
"Ooh," said Dawn, perking up.
"I'll have some of those," Jessi said. "They're weirdly good."
"How could anyone ever be hungry, living in this room?" Kristy said, reaching for the twinkies as Mary-Anne pulled them out from their hiding place.
Claudia looked around at her friends, all helping themselves to the various treats she had stashed around the room. None of them noticed she wasn't joining in. Not yet, anyway. Her stomach growled loudly, covered by the sound of the phone ringing again.
"Hello, Baby-sitters Club," Jessi said, after hurriedly swallowing a mouthful of cracker. "Oh, hi Mrs Rodowski. Tomorrow afternoon?"
The room was filled with the sound of crunching, chewing, and crinkling wrappers. Claudia swallowed hard. She was so hungry, but it was all right, the sun was going down and the meeting would be over soon. Maybe she would see if anyone wanted to stay and hang out with her for a while afterward.
She had always liked keeping snacks in her room, after all.