"Oh, my Lord!" Claudia Kishi exclaimed, pulling a bag of M&Ms out from under her bed. "I thought I'd lost these forever! Who wants some?"

Stacey McGill rolled her eyes. "Got any pretzels?" she asked.

"I'll take some," I said, reaching for Claudia's offering of some chocolate goodness. My father wasn't keen on stocking candy in the house, and my stepmother would never hear of it, I'm sure.

Oh, I guess I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Mary Anne Spier. I'm thirteen years old and in the eighth grade at Stoneybrook Middle School. If you've never heard of Stoneybrook, it's probably because it's a rather small town about half an hour from Stamford, Connecticut. I've lived here all my life… when I was younger, I lived on Bradford Court with my father (my mother died when I was just a baby, so I never really knew her), but now I live with my father, my stepmother, and my stepsister!

It's actually kind of a cool story. Basically, my father, Richard Spier, and Dawn's mother Sharon were high school sweethearts. When I met Dawn, I had no idea about this, but eventually, our parents rekindled their relationship and got married! How awesome is it to have your best friend turn out to be your stepsister? Dawn's brother Jeff moved back to their home state of California to be with his dad, but Dawn and Sharon are living with us. I've never had any siblings before, so it's a really nice change for me.

Confused yet? I'll explain everything.

Back when I used to live on Bradford Court, my best friend was Kristy (short for Kristin) Thomas. We also hung out with Claudia a lot. Kristy and her three brothers lived with their mom, because their dad walked out when Kristy was really young. She hardly ever speaks to him anymore. But the good news? Her mom married a millionaire! Now the whole family (Kristy's mom, brothers Sam, Charlie, and David Michael, her stepsiblings Andrew and Karen, her grandmother Nannie, her stepfather Watson, her adopted sister Emily Michelle, Shannon the dog, Boo-Boo the cat, and Goldfishie and Crystal Light the Second… whew!) lives across town in Watson's mansion. That hasn't changed Kristy much, though. She's always been a really outgoing tomboy. She's really short for her age, and never dresses to impress (mostly she just wears a turtleneck shirt, jeans, a sweater, and her favorite baseball cap with a picture of a collie on it), but boy do people notice her. She's an idea machine of sorts. She even created the Baby-Sitters Club, which I'll tell you about in a minute.

Even though Kristy was my first best friend, we're about as different as we can be. Well, maybe not in terms of looks. She has longish brown hair and brown eyes. My eyes are brown, but my hair is pretty short, and I also have glasses for reading. I'm as shy as she is outgoing, and as sensitive as she is loud. Sappy movies, commercials, books, EVERYTHING makes me cry. I'm short too, but my style is more prep than Kristy's is. For example, that day, I was wearing khaki Capri pants, a pink sweater, white flats, and a necklace with a single pearl on the end. Not that exciting, but I like to look neat and stylish.

I didn't always have such freedom, though. Since my mom died when I was so young, my dad was extra-protective of me. He only let me wear skirts, I had to keep my hair in braids, and I pretty much wasn't able to stay out late at all. I'm surprised he let me join the Baby-Sitters Club! After he got married to Sharon, though, he totally loosened up. He let me start dressing more the way I wanted to, let me get my hair cut, extended my curfew, and even let me get a kitten! (Tigger is grey and striped, and is the love of my life… besides Logan, that is!) He's also fine with the fact that I have a boyfriend. Logan Bruno and I met way back before my thirteenth birthday, and we've been dating ever since. Like all couples, we've had our problems, but the bottom line is I love him and he loves me. Plus, he looks exactly like my favorite actor, Cam Geary, which certainly doesn't hurt.

Let's see… the other person who lived (and still lives) on Bradford Court is Claudia Kishi. She lives with her parents and her genius sister. I really mean genius, by the way. Janine has an IQ of well over the genius level, and she can be kind of annoying sometimes, but mostly she's pretty cool. All she likes to do is study, though, which Claudia can't understand at all. As studious as Janine is, that's how UN-studious Claudia is. Her passions are art, junk food, and Nancy Drew books, in that order. Since she's totally not allowed to have the second two (only good wholesome food and classic literature for the Kishis!), she has to hide them around in her room. That explains why she'd almost lost the bag of M&Ms. At a typical meeting, she pulls out five different kinds of chocolate snacks—and some healthy stuff too, for Stacey and Dawn.

Claudia is also the wildest dresser I know. It's weird, because stuff that would look absolutely dreadful on me (or anyone else for that matter) looks absolutely amazing on Claud. For example, at today's meeting, she was wearing a short-sleeved dress that looked as if it had been water colored in all shades of the rainbow, sky blue leggings that went down past her knees, pink boots with rainbow laces, a short yellow vest covered in various rhinestones of all colors, and earrings made of little rainbows. I would look like a clown in that ensemble, but Claud looked gorgeous. I still don't understand how her skin and figure stay so good-looking, with all that junk food… but I guess Claudia's just lucky! And, due to her Japanese-American heritage, she looks good in every color.

Of course, Claudia and I are good friends, but Claud's absolute best friend in the world is Stacey McGill. She's thin, gorgeous, sophisticated, and a math whiz. Like Claudia, she loves to create wild outfits to wear to school, but she's a little more subdued that Claudia. Today, she wore cropped black pants, a long-sleeved red shirt, three different sparkly necklaces around her neck, a black beret, and red kitten-heel sandals. She looked gorgeous, as always, with her permed blonde hair and blue eyes. The coolest thing about Stacey is that she's from New York City. I would LOVE to be from New York City, but I'm not too jealous of Stacey. You see, she has diabetes, which is a disease where your body can't process sugar. Stace has to give herself shots of insulin every day (ew!) and make sure her blood sugar is at a safe level, or else she can get very sick (which is why she was asking for the pretzels earlier). She carries it well, though, and always sticks to her diet to keep herself healthy. It's a good thing, too, because her parents are divorced and don't have time to keep track of her diet themselves. Her dad lives back in New York, and her mom lives here in Stoneybrook. Stacey doesn't have any brothers or sisters, but sometimes I think she and Claudia are so close, they might as well be sisters.

Oh, I haven't told you about MY sister yet! I met Dawn Schafer when she moved to Stoneybrook from Palo City (right near Los Angeles), California. She looks Californian, too—long, pale blonde hair, tan skin, sparkling blue eyes, and a completely unique style. Dawn's outfit today consisted of wide-leg denim Capri pants, a long white men's shirt over a pale turquoise tank top, and turquoise studs in all four of her pierced ears (she has two holes in each ear!). On her feet were turquoise flip-flops. She looked ready to go to the beach.

Another thing about Dawn is that she's a vegetarian and complete health-food freak. She won't touch sugary stuff with a ten-foot pole, so she and Stacey always snack on pretzels or crackers at our meetings (which Claudia hides along with the junk food). Her family is the same way—her mom, Sharon, her brother Jeff, and her dad (who lives in California with Jeff, since her parents are divorced too).

We also have two junior officers in our club: Mallory Pike and Jessi (Jessica) Ramsey. Mal and Jessi are best friends. They both love horses, are the oldest in their families, and are eleven years old and in sixth grade. The differences? Well, Mallory is the oldest of EIGHT kids, has long curly red hair, glasses, and braces. She longs for the braces to come off and to get contacts, but her parents say no way. She plans to become a famous author someday. Jessi, on the other hand, only has two younger siblings, and she wants to be a professional ballet dancer. She's been taking ballet lessons for most of her life, and she even looks like a dancer. She's tall, thin, and has long legs. She's also African-American, which is another difference between her and Mal. But even though they come from very different backgrounds, they couldn't be tighter.

We also have two associate members. Logan Bruno (my boyfriend!) and Shannon Kilbourne, who's Kristy's neighbor. They don't come to meetings, but if we're swamped and need extra help, we can call on them to help us out.

Whew! Okay, back to the meeting. Claudia passed out the M&Ms to Kristy, Mallory, Jessi, and me, and located some cheese crackers for Stacey and Dawn. Just as I'd popped a few pieces of candy into my mouth, the phone rang. "I'll get it!" Kristy exclaimed, and reached for the phone. "Hello, you have called the Baby-Sitters Club, how may we be of service?"

I started cracking up. Honestly, Kristy takes the BSC so seriously!

Hmm. You're probably wondering what the BSC is and how it works. Well, it all started with Kristy. Her mom couldn't find a sitter for David Michael, her youngest brother, so Kristy thought, "wouldn't it be great to call one number and reach a whole lot of sitters?" And presto! The Baby-Sitters Club was born! Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and I were the original members, and then came Dawn, Mallory, and Jessi. We decided to meet from 5:30-6:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in Claudia's room (because she has her own phone AND her own phone line. How fresh!). The way it works is like this. Clients call Claudia's number, and we see when they need a sitter. Then, I look at the appointment book (I'm the secretary, since I'm good with writing and very organized) and see who's free. I keep track of everything, from Mal's orthodontist meetings to Claudia's art classes to Jessi's ballet practices. I let everyone know who's free, and then whoever is free takes the job and we call the client back. On Mondays, we hand over dues to Stacey, who's the treasurer (remember how I said she was a math whiz?). Kristy, being the idea machine she is, is our president, and Claudia is vice president, since we use her room. Mal and Jessi are junior officers, since they're younger than the rest of us (we're all thirteen except for them), and Dawn is the alternate officer, and takes the place of anyone who can't make a meeting. Usually, she has to act as treasurer, because Stacey goes to New York pretty often. No one likes paying dues, but we have to, to pay Charlie for driving Kristy over to meetings, and to buy new things for our Kid-Kits.

Kid-Kits, by the way, are another Great Kristy Invention. Basically, they're boxes that are full of crayons, coloring books, toys, books, dolls, and anything else that might be fun for kids. Everyone knows that toys are more fun when they're someone else's, right?

Okay, so now you know how everything works. As I was saying, at that meeting, Kristy answered the phone. I started cracking up. " 'How may we be of SERVICE'?" I said. "What are we, a tech support office?"

Kristy ignored me. "Yes? Oh, hi, Mrs. Pike. Yes, we'll call you right back." She hung up. "Who wants to sit for all seven of the Pikes, Friday at 6:30?"

I groaned inwardly. Don't get me wrong, I love the Pike clan, but there are so many of them. Byron, Adam, and Jordan are ten-year-old triplets. Vanessa is nine, Nicky is eight, Margo is seven, and Claire is just five. We always send two sitters to sit for all the Pikes because they're such a handful.

I checked the appointment book. "Mal, you and Jessi are free. So are Kristy, Claudia, and myself."

"Jessi, you wanna take care of it?" Mallory said. "I mean, they ARE my siblings."

"Sure," said Jessi. "I love your brothers and sisters. And it'll give me some time to wind down from ballet class."

Kristy called Mrs. Pike back and let her know that Mal and Jessi would be sitting on Friday. Then, she turned to us. "So I was thinking…"

"Uh oh!" Dawn giggled. "I smell an Idea!"

Kristy stuck her tongue out at Dawn. "Well, summer has just started—"

"Yahoo!" Claudia cheered. (School is not her favorite subject.)

"A-HEM! Summer has started, and we're going to hit the standard boredom streak soon," said Kristy. "I think it would be a good idea for us to plan something fun for the kids BEFORE they start getting whiny."

"I like that," said Stacey. "Preventing the summer doldrums."

"But let's not do a day camp," I interjected. "At least, not the same day camp we usually do. This needs to be different."

Dawn munched thoughtfully on a pretzel. "Well, in California, we always equate summer with water-related fun."

"That sounds fun," I said, "but what about the kids who don't know how to swim? I mean, we're going to be dealing with all ages, aren't we? We need to come up with something fun and safe for them to work on."

I watched as Claudia's clock went from 5:59 to 6:00. "Everyone, keep thinking!" Kristy advised. "This is going to be the best summer ever!"