“This is serious,” Kristy said the next day at lunch. As usual, all the older BSC members were sitting at the same table. I’d just finished telling my friends what had happened the night before at the Braddocks’.

“What if all the kids we sit for start telling lies about us?” Kristy went on.

“That’s not going to happen,” Stacey said. “Our kids wouldn’t do that.”

“Haley has,” Kristy insisted.

“That’s Haley,” Abby argued. “The rest of the kids aren’t like that.”

“She’s already gotten to Vanessa,” Kristy reminded us. “I saw Haley and Vanessa talking to Becca and some of the other girls at practice last Saturday. Even if they don’t all start lying, they could spread the lies Haley has been telling. Suppose Becca goes home and says Claudia told Haley homework isn’t important. Mrs. Ramsey might think twice about asking us to sit for Becca and Squirt.” (Squirt is Jessi’s little brother.)

“Mrs. Ramsey would know better than to believe something like that,” said Mary Anne.

“Okay, maybe she would, since her daughter is a BSC member, but other parents might not,” Kristy said. “They were talking to Sara Hill too. Her parents don’t know us as well as some of our other clients.”

Kristy has a way of worrying about things the rest of us don’t even think about. She insists on punctuality partly because we’re only at meetings for a half hour, but also because she frets that if we start coming late to meetings, we’ll also show up late for jobs, and then customers will get fed up and stop calling. It’s just how her mind works.

In a way, I thought that she was making too big a deal over the Haley situation. Then again she might be right. Lies do have a way of spreading and causing even bigger problems. “What do you think we should do about it?” I asked her.

“I don’t know,” she said, sitting back in her chair with a serious, thoughtful expression on her face. “But I’m going to watch Haley closely at basketball practice this afternoon.”

*  *  *

Josh and I had made plans to hang out together after school that Tuesday. Since he’d been complaining that he didn’t see enough of me, I felt I should make some time for him. We had no exact plan — only to be together.

“Ready?” he asked, coming to my locker at dismissal.

“Yup,” I replied as I pulled my backpack over one shoulder. We strolled down the hall together, not talking. It was odd, as if we’d run out of things to say.

I began searching my brain for something to talk about. I didn’t really want to tell him about Haley. I wanted to take a break from thinking about her for a while. But I couldn’t come up with anything else. “You won’t believe what happened while I was sitting yesterday,” I began.

He listened as I told him the story. Just talking about it made me feel upset all over again. Something else was bothering me too.

Josh.

I didn’t feel that I had his undivided attention. He appeared to be listening, but it was as if he were thinking about something other than what I was saying. There was a faraway look in his eye, and he didn’t comment at all.

“Are you listening to me?” I demanded as we walked out of the school building.

“Yes,” he replied. He looked surprised that I’d asked.

“You’re not saying anything,” I pointed out.

“That’s because I’m listening.”

That made sense, I supposed, so I continued my story. But I couldn’t figure out Josh’s reaction. Normally he’d be making comments, jokes, observations. He wasn’t the type to listen without jumping in at certain points in the conversation.

I remembered a science fiction movie I’d seen called Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Giant pods from outer space took over people’s bodies while they slept. You could tell when a pod had gotten someone because the person’s behavior changed.

Between Haley and Josh, I was beginning to suspect we’d had a pod invasion recently.

“So, what do you suggest?” I asked him when I had finished my story. “Do you have any idea why she’s changed so much?”

“Who knows?” he said with a shrug.

This was definitely not Josh. Normal Josh would have come up with a million possibilities and theories.

“Did you even hear what I said?”

“Yeah, some bratty little kid is driving you nuts because she’s lying her head off.”

“Well, sort of,” I agreed. “But it’s more than that. This is a girl I know and used to get along with. It upsets me that she’s acting this way.”

“Forget about her,” he suggested.

“I can’t. She’s ruining my reputation with some of the other kids, and Kristy’s even worried that the things she’s saying might hurt the entire BSC.”

He shook his head, disbelieving. “No way. I think you’re making too much out of this. Blow it off.”

“I could try to, I guess,” I said quietly. It seemed to me that Josh just couldn’t be bothered thinking about this problem. Maybe something bigger was on his mind. “Are you okay?” I asked. “Is everything all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he answered.

We decided to walk to Brenner Field and sit on the big rock at its edge. There was no real reason to go there, but at least it was a destination.

It was one of those super-windy March days that I really love. The trees were bending in the wind, and stuff from the streets was blowing around us. Josh tugged down on his baseball cap as the wind nearly lifted it from his head.

As we walked, my mind raced, searching for an answer to the question of what was wrong with Josh. I didn’t believe that he was fine.

By the time we were near the field, I had come to the conclusion that the problem had to be me. What else could it have been? If it had been something else, he would have told me about it.

In the field, out on the baseball diamond, some kids were flying kites. One was in the shape of a dragon with a long tail that danced in the air. “That’s so cool, isn’t it?” I commented as we climbed the rock together up to the flat part where we could sit comfortably.

“Yeah, it is,” he agreed. “Hey, do you want to try to make a kite together?”

“Sure. I’ve never done it, have you?”

“Once. It didn’t fly too well. I think I know what I did wrong, though. I put all this fancy junk on it to make it look cool, and it got too heavy.”

“Want to work on it this Saturday?” I asked.

For the first time that afternoon, Josh gave me a real, true Josh Rocker smile. “Sounds good,” he replied.

I suddenly felt much more relaxed. Things between us now seemed normal. Maybe he’d just been in a mood. Everyone is entitled to a mood once in awhile.

Without talking, we watched the kites fly. There’s something hypnotic about the way they sail in the sky, dipping and circling. At one point, the wind got hold of Josh’s cap and he had to scramble down the rock to recover it.

As he climbed back up, cap in hand, I noticed a questioning expression in his eyes. He seemed about to say something. And then he did. “Claudia, do you think things between us are working out?”

“Sure,” I replied quickly — maybe too quickly. The moment the words left my lips, I was hit with the unpleasant feeling that I’d just told a lie.

I hadn’t meant to lie.

I didn’t want to lie.

But that was how it felt — like a lie.

Josh smiled and seemed to accept my answer. But now I was upset over the question. I knew I loved Josh. He was so wonderful, how could I not love him?

But was I in love with him? Or did I love him as a friend? That was what I wasn’t sure about.