Four years ago, it would have been me, Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and Dawn sitting in Claudia's room at a meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club, or the BSC, as it was known colloquially. We would have been answering the phone non-stop, me with the record book in hand, hastily scheduling jobs for my best friends. We would have just finished the seventh grade and looking forward to a summer full of traveling and fun before school once again reared its ugly head with the coming of September and eighth grade. Kristy's parents hadn't gotten remarried yet and my father and Dawn's mother had just started seeing each other, and not even exclusively. Mallory was a sitting charge, and Abby, Logan, Jessi, and Shannon were either still living in their former towns or unaware of the BSC's existence. Disney World, Claudia's grandmother dying, the wedding, the playgroup, camp--it seemed like the school year would be terribly dull in comparision with our summer, one chock-full of both sad and happy events.

Once we were in the eighth grade, it seemed like we were there forever. So much happened that year that in retrospect, it seems impossible for so much to have happened in under ten months. But it did. Stacey moved back to New York. Her parents divorced and she moved back here. My father married Dawn's mother. Dawn moved back and forth between here and California. Jessi and Mal joined the Club. We went to California, Hawaii, Europe--everywhere. Dawn's father got remarried and his new wife had a baby. Our house burned down. I started dating Logan and I broke up with Logan. And that's not even half of it. It seemed as if the stars aligned at that moment and caused everything to happen at once.

With the collapse of the BSC, our lives slowed down considerably. Our lives now revolved around our families, schoolwork, our friends, and our own separate interests. We were all still friends with each other, but we lived less like a unit and more as a group of four individuals with their own lives who share them with each other in passing. We remained the best of friends, yes, but there was no longer a new group project every week to work on or mysteries to solve.

We had moved on.

Yet here we were, all gathered in Claudia's room as if nothing had passed in the last four years. The only things missing were Jessi and Mallory sitting on the floor, leaning against Claudia's bed making gum wrapper chains and giggling about things as sixth graders tend to do.

Kristy especially seemed the same. Then again, Kristy would never change. Ever since we were in diapers, she's been stubborn, loud, bossy, and an incredibly wonderful friend to have. Wearing an outfit that fit in with what we endearing call her "uniform"--shorts, a ratty old tshirt, and her hair carelessly held back from her face in a ponytail--Kristy looked basically the same, only a bit taller and older. She was still all-business, and was ranked #2 in our class, as well as being a leading athlete and an all-around doer, leader, joiner.

While her siblings had gotten older, and Charlie had transferred to Cornell after excelling during his year at Stoneybrook University (he hadn't felt ready to fully move on from home after graduating from high school) and Sam was a sophomore at Ithaca, her other siblings were the same as ever. Karen was still unmistakenly Karen, except that she had gotten more Kristy-like as she had grown, if that was possible. Andrew and Emily were both shy, sweet and adorable.

Nannie, her beloved grandmother who takes care of the Brewer children, had a bout with breast cancer, but in true Nannie fashion, she fought it hard and now was in remission. Watson and Elizabeth, Kristy's stepfather and mother, were both doing well. Life at the Brewer mansion has calmed down at last. Sure it was noisy and fun, but it was stable.

As for Claudia, she has spent high school enraptured in art. She was still interested in fashion, and boys, but art took top priority. All the boys she dated she met in her art classes, thus combining the two interests. The other-worldy qualities that Trevor Sandbourne, her seventh grade love, possessed were topped by these new guys and their own eccentricities. I never knew quite what I'd say to her new boyfriends. They either seem very deep or utterly bizarre.

Janine, of course, went to MIT. Peaches and Russ, her aunt and uncle, had another baby, this time a boy. They named him Nicholas, and he was absolutely adorable.

Claudia remained independent, funny, and deeply loyal. Her grades improved slightly, and while her parents were holding out for perhaps a small liberal arts college, we all knew that she wouldn't be going anywhere but art school.

As for Stacey, well, she'd always seemed very grown up to me. She went from being a sophisticated thirteen-year-old to be a sophisticated sixteen-year-old. Her once-fluffy blonde hair was now stick straight and her clothes had gone from Bellair's to Barneys. She got back together with Ethan in the summer after eighth grade and was still with him. She doesn't believe in marriage, or so she claimed, but she and Ethan seemed very secure in their relationship and they showed no sign of splitting up, even though Ethan was now enrolled at Cooper Union and is very busy with his courses.

Her mother had ran a clothing store, Paradisa, ever since the end of eighth grade. We all loved to go there and buy clothes. (Except for Kristy, but we dragged her along anyway.) Although Stacey's father had since remarried and adopted a child, a little girl from China they named Esme that Stacey adored, Ms. Spencer showed no intention of dating anyone seriously yet. Stacey and her mother were content in their small family unit.

And me? Well, I suppose that I had grown more independent and outspoken since the BSC ended. I worked hard in my classes, especially history, which had always been my favorite. I still had a preppyish, conservative style and my hair was still on the short side. I dated a few guys, but nothing really special. My life was not exciting, and I was glad for it. The fire was enough excitement to last a decade.

My stepmother, Sharon, was still studying to become an architect while freelancing part-time. My father became a partner in his law firm. While they were both busy, I had what I had always wanted: a family with a mother I could talk to about things that I couldn't discuss with my father and also my dad being the great parent he had been all along. It was a bumpy road, but things were now smooth.

The only thing missing in my family was Dawn. But she was on her way to Stoneybrook, and she would be here for the whole summer. I couldn't wait.