Jessica Ramsey stretched her sore legs out on the floor and sighed. She loved ballet and dancing so much, but sometimes she wondered if her muscles hadn't suffered from overexertion. She was 27 years-old, and had been dancing since she was seven- she knew that 20 years of ballet would have affected her body in some way. Perhaps she would take the doctor's advice and quit dancing soon. She had other things she wanted to do.

"Okay guys, that was a great performance. Just warm down over at the barre, and then you can go," she called to her 8-year-old students. When she wasn't dancing or rehearsing, she also taught several classes, and did some choreography- she remembered her old teacher from Stanford- Mme. Noelle- and wanted to be just like her. Jessi had stayed with Mme Noelle until she finished school and when she got into Julliard, Mme. Noelle came to New York to see her performance in Swan Lake.

"Now do you realize ze benefit of all zose hours of practice, Mademoiselle Romsey? Zey haven't come to nothing, as you told me one day, have zey?"

"Non, Mme. Noelle- I'm very glad I was wrong about that."

She grinned at the memory of Mme Noelle at the ballet school as she watched her young pupils giggle and stretch at the barre. If only life was as simple fore her as it was for them.........

Being two years younger than the older members of the Babysitter's Club had its advantages and disadvantages- mostly disadvantages. Mallory and Jessi, to their chagrin, couldn't do much of the night sitting jobs because they had curfews, so they mostly had the weekend and afternoon jobs.

"It's like our parents talked to Kristy and told her to give us as many day time jobs as possible," Mallory complained one afternoon

"Don't worry, as soon as we're 13, we'll be allowed to do that stuff too." Jessi's comment proved to be prophetic as the older members were heavily involved in high school, and much of the work fell to Mal and Jessi. They enjoyed it, but they were already worried about the time when the others would finish school, and leave for college.

"Then what are we going to do? Two 15-year-olds can't do all that," Mallory said with a worried expression. Jessi noticed that, lately, Mallory had worried a lot more about everything- she suspected she was coming to close to a breakdown. When the babysitter's graduated, Mal and Jessi knew that it wouldn't be the same without them, and chose to leave the club as well.

"You started this club, and we can't envision it without you," Jessi said honestly to Kristy.

"It's like eating a chocolate chip cookie, and there's no choc chips," Mal added, trying to compare the two situations. The older girls burst out laughing, then Mary Anne, seeing the angry look on Mal's face, intervened sympathetically.
"We understand completely." No one wanted to trigger Mal's hair thin temper and acute sensitivity at the moment. However, some of Mal's younger sisters, Becca and some of the other neighbourhood girls decided to step into the empty groove and take over from them.

"Just don't get any ideas about us giving you any babysitter's jobs," Becca had warned Jessi shortly before the 'takeover' occurred. Jessi had laughed at her serious expression, and relayed the message to the others later.

"Well, they want to make their mark in Stoneybrook, and they don't want to be looking over their shoulders at what we used to do," Stacey said sensibly.

By September, the Babysitter's Club as they knew it was over, and everyone had left Stoneybrook- Kristy out west, Stacey to New York, Mary Anne to San Francisco, Dawn back to California, Claudia to Chicago, Shannon to Boston and Abby to Washington. After they were gone, it was strange to go to school and not sit with them at lunchtime, or see them between classes. For Jessi, she didn't realize how much she missed babysitting until she saw Becca or the Pike girls in action at someone's house. She tried to explain it to Mallory, but Mal seemed oddly withdrawn since the others had left. She never spoke to Jessi about it, but Jessi sensed that Mal was very unhappy about something, but she didn't know what. She noticed that Mal stopped speaking to her when they were 17, and in their senior year she went completely wild. She began hanging out with the 'bad crowd', dyed her hair black and gave up on writing and school altogether.

"What is wrong with you Mal? You've been so weird for the past six months!" Jessi had intercepted her between classes. Mal looked at her through dark sunglasses.

"You know, Jess, I don't think we ever really had anything in common except the BSC. These guys are opening my eyes to different things, and I think that's cool." Just then, one of Mal's so called 'friends' called out to her from their locker:
"Mal, you aren't talking to that black chic are you? She should stick with her own kind." Mal laughed.

"No, she was just apologizing to me for bumping into me. Thanks kid," and she walked away. Jessi looked after her, feeling sorry for her and the racist jerks she was now hanging out with. They were all trying to be cool, and it wasn't working.

"I don't think Mal's ever really been the same since you guys left," Jessi said sadly to Mary Anne in June, when Mary Anne came home. Out of all the BSC members, Mary Anne had been the most consistent in writing and keeping in touch.

"I had the feeling something was wrong with her before we left- but it could be a phase. It sounds as if she's hiding some sort of problem. She could be really depressed."

"I know, but she's never been influenced by racists before." She wasn't pleased about the racial slur, but she was hurt that Mallory hadn't stood up for her. By graduation, their friendship was over in all by name- even her parents had noticed the difference at the ceremony.

"My goodness, I wonder what her parents think of her having her nose pierced," her mother said thoughtfully, surveying her from the other side of the room.

"Thank goodness Jessi has enough sense not to get involved in that rubbish," her father added.

Soon after school finished, she headed to New York to audition for Julliard- and was successful. The hours were gruelling, and she often cried with pain and exhaustion, but it was worth it when she danced in front of a large audience and heard their applause. She saw in magazines that Stacey was now a successful model, but she was too timid to contact her- for all she knew, Stacey might have left the BSC and Stoneybrook part of her life behind her. The only one that made the effort to keep in touch was Mary Anne, and Jessi saw her when they were both in Stoneybrook. So there she was- she had been in New York since she was 18, although she had toured the country several times, and had even been to Europe. She still loved ballet passionately, but she was beginning to think about life after dancing- a husband and family. She loved kids dearly, and she adored Becca's two sons when she saw them. Becca was in law school in Boston, and had 3-year-old twin boys- Mark and Oliver-and she was expecting her third child that, she believed, would be a girl.

"Both Paul and I want a girl- I don't think I could handle three boys," Becca, now 25 said wryly. "It's amazing that I actually finished college and almost finished law school- especially when I had Mark when I was 20." John Phillip Ramsey Jr. (or Squirt) was 16 and had plans of joining the NBA when he finished school, but his parents wanted him to have a college education too.

"Oh well, at least I'll have plenty of chances to date girls," he grinned cheekily. As a typical handsome teenage boy, he had plenty of admiring fans- and there were relatively few problems with racism for him. All the girls adored him, and all the boys wanted to be just like him- in a way JJ (as he wanted to be known) was leading a charmed life. Aunt Cecilia still lived with the family, and was as ill tempered as usual, but she had several 'gentleman callers' in the past couple of months, and Jessi could imagine her getting married again.

Jessi sighed and glanced around the room- all the girls had gone, so she could pack up and head to another class. She was checking around the room for clothes or shoes when she heard someone come in. She turned to see Quint Walters, her first kiss, standing there.

"I thought you might be here."

"Just finished class- I've got to go to my next one..." Jessi didn't look at him as she picked up her bag.

"Can't we talk about what happened?," Quint begged, looking at her with sad eyes, and something inside her softened.

"Alright- you've got five minutes." She looked at him, unable to believe that he had cheated on her in Boston. What made it ten times worse was that he cheated on her with Mallory Pike, her ex friend..........

Two years after arriving in New York, she and Quint had gotten reacquainted at another ballet concert. Quint, although Julliard trained, had given up ballet when he was fifteen- he had had enough of all the jibes and teasing from the boys at school. It was a shame, Jessi thought when she had heard, because Quint had showed a lot of promise.

"However, I had a chance to have some fun at school with the boys. I was on the championship football team in high school," he said proudly. After high school, he was going to NYU with plans of going to business school and getting his MBA

"And Dad wants me to come into his company as a manager," Quint's father owned a computer company. Jessi had been impressed, and their friendship blossomed from there. They had moved in together when Jessi was 25 (much to the disapproval of Cecilia) and they had been relatively until Quint had gone on a business trip to Boston. Quint had been talking of getting married, but Jessi knew she wasn't ready to give up ballet just yet for marriage. It had provoked an unbelievably bitter argument, and Quint had left in anger. When he came back, he was cool and distant towards her, and their relationship had deteriorated since then. Three days ago, however, Quint had stood in front of her as they were getting ready for bed.

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you," Quint began, looking nervous and Jessi, however much they had fought, felt a gush of love for him.

"What is it Q?" Quint looked at his feet for a second, took a deep breath and looked her in the face.

"I don't know how to tell you this, but I cheated on you when I was in Boston." Jessi stared at him in astonishment, not yet comprehending the news.

"You what?"

"I cheated on you, and there's something else." He paused, and took another breath. "It was Mallory Pike." In a split second Jessi saw Mallory's jibing friends in high school, and Mal's black hair and moods, and saw red. She slapped on the face before she realized what she was doing.

"You jerk. I'm leaving." She strode to the wardrobe and pulled out a suitcase and began throwing clothes and cosmetics into it.

"Jess, we need to talk about this. I didn't mean for it to happen- I love you, not Mal...it means nothing," Quint babble as she blindly threw shoes in, then shut the case.

"I don't want to talk about this at the moment," she snapped then walked out of the bedroom, Quint trailing behind her.

"Where are you going to go?"

"To Keisha's, and don't try to contact me," she grabbed her handbag and slammed out the door...........

"Like I said the other night, it was the biggest mistake of my life- Mallory doesn't mean anything to me. I was angry, and scared that you'd leave me," Quint almost whined as Jessi looked at him stonily.

"You have really really hurt me- double the pain because you cheated on me with one of the few people I truly hate. You really don't understand what you did, and I don't want to talk to you for a long time."
"Please Jess..."he said pleadingly as she walked away. She turned to him, gave him the dirtiest look she could muster then turned and walked away. Just outside, she leant against the wall and took a deep breath- she was still so very angry at him yet, when she saw him again she knew she still loved him. She heard her mobile's muffled beep in her bag, and she pulled it out- she had a message from Mary Anne:

BABYSITTER'S MEETING FOR AUGUST 7TH AT 5:00PM AT CLAUDS. WE HAVE SOME SERIOUS BUSINESS TO TALK ABOUT.

She reread the message- she had only received a letter from Mary Anne the other day, and she had seemed fine. Nothing was wrong with her or her family- so what could be the matter? August 7th was only a week away- she decided that she needed to go home and have a break from Quint, ballet and even New York. And there was some unfinished business with a certain former friend that she needed to sort out.

HI- I've decided to focus on the original six in the novels, and leave Shannon and Abby out because I don't know them too well