The Baby-Sitters Club doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Ann M. Martin. Thank you for your cooperation!

I was watching Gone with the Wind, which is one of my favorite movies, on a Saturday afternoon. My neighbors, Kayla and Kaylee were with me. We had pizza while watching the movie. This is their first time seeing it. They moved here from New York not along ago. Dad already knew about it. He's a lawyer and had a four-hour meeting since 11:00 this morning and won't be home until after 2:30 this afternoon. After that, we made plans to go out for the afternoon. My stepmother, Sharon Schafer, is out with her parents to lunch and a movie, and my stepsister, Dawn, is baby-sitting until five. The only ones who are home with me are my adopted siblings, Carlos Peters and Meredith Sousa. My cat, Tigger, was sitting on my lap like he always does.

Who am I? I'm Mary Anne Spier. I'm a shy fourteen-year-old ninth grader at Stoneybrook High School, here in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. School is ending in a week or two for the summer and I can't wait for it to arrive. Dad and I lived on our own for a long since Mom died when I was too young to remember her. I grew up on Bradford Court. Sharon actually happened to be Dad's former high school girlfriend. She recently got divorced and moved here all the way from California with Dawn and her younger brother, Jeff. Dawn and I quickly became best friends long before Dad and Sharon finally got married... and now, we're stepsisters! I live on Burnt Hill Road now because the old house is too small for the Schafers to move in with me and Dad.

Jeff was already gone back to California to be with his father because he was very miserable here. Poor Dawn was torn because her family has been split in half ever since. But she does visit them often and Jeff visits here.

After the movie ended, we were watching another movie when Dad arrived at 3:00 pm.

"Hi, Dad," I greeted him.

"Hi, sweetie," smiled Dad. "I'll go change and then, we can leave for the afternoon."

"Sounds good to me," I agreed. "Can the girls join us?"

"Sure," replied Dad. "They can also join us for dinner."

"Sweet," said Kayla.

"We're free anyway," said Kaylee.

"We can still watch the movie while we wait," I said.

"That's fine," said Dad.

He did went up to change and was ready in ten minutes when he came back downstairs,

"All set to go?" asked Dad.

"You bet I am," I said.

"I already told Carlos that we were leaving," said Dad.

We adopted him not long ago. Carlos has no family since he was eight years old. His older brother was ill with a scarlet fever at age eleven and his older sister, who was nine, & his parents were killed in a car accident. It was very tough on him. His room was our old attic.

"So, how did the meeting go?" I asked.

"Very long," replied Dad.

"I bet," I said.

"I'll be going away on a business trip for a month starting tomorrow," said Dad.

"A month?" I asked as he nodded. "Was that why you were at the meeting?"

"Yes. Kind of. They'll be promoting me to a higher level after the business trip ends," continued Dad.

"That's cool," I said.

"I'm glad. I'll be an assistant manger while being the lawyer," Dad kept on.

"Good for you," said Kayla.

"So, this means if Randy is out at anytime, I might have to work a bit later," added Dad.

"Oh, okay," I said.

"Plus, I'll be doing more jury duties, but not every single weekend though, so we still can have our father-daughter days," said Dad.

"Oh, good," I said.

"What can I do is once I get my schedule for jury duties, I can circle the non-jury duties on the weekends so we'll know when we can get together," said Dad.

"I like that idea," I agreed.

"So do I," smiled Dad. "I might or might not be home for dinner since I'll be home two hours late, but only when Randy's out."

"Can the girls still join every once in awhile?" I asked.

"Sure," replied Dad.

"This means the rest of us would be the bachelor girls while you and Carlos are away," I joked as we both laughed.

"We'll join you girls, too," said Kayla as we giggled.

Carlos and his baseball game from Stoneybrook High School will be away in Orlando, Florida for a month. At the mall, which is our favorite spot to hang-out, we explored at FYE, a small variety store so Dad can get snacks for the business trip in Cleveland, Ohio, and in Borders. After that, we saw a movie and ate at Johnny Rockets for supper.

"It's too bad it's our last dinner to be together for awhile," I said while waiting for our meals.

"I know. I won't be leaving until after breakfast. The cab is getting me for 9:00 am to catch the 12:00 pm flight like Randy mentioned," said Dad.

"Oh. At least a month would fly by," I said.

"I agree with you, Mary Anne," said Dad. "I might be able to come home early."

"Sweet," I said.

"I hope so that is since a month is very long," said Dad.

"True, especially being away from your family for that long," I agreed.

After dinner, we went in the arcade we always do before we go home. My secret is I always win more tickets than Dad. Sometimes I would tease him. I just love being with him. When we got 40 tokens, we would split them up into 20 each. When I did spin and win, I had a jackpot that was worth 200 tickets! Isn't that cool? You should've seen Dad's face when he saw that! His mouth dropped open and I couldn't help laughing at that. After all the tokens were used, I had 260 tickets while poor Dad only had 150. I told you I win more tickets. We like putting our tickets together and there were 410 altogether. The Willis girls laughed when they see that.

I got this cool kit that includes pens, envelopes, paper, and stamps for 100 tickets, Dad got a Goofy hat that was 150 tickets, and we each got three pads of paper worth 10 tickets each.

"We can go to Friendly's on the way home," said Dad.

"Sounds good," I said.

"Okay," said Kayla.

That's what we did. I had chocolate milkshake and Dad ordered vanilla ice cream by my surprise since he always get chocolate ice cream.

"I wonder what my bachelor girls would do without me," said Dad.

"I don't know," I said shrugging.

"It's a mystery," said Kaylee.

"Yup," said Kayla.

After that, when we got home, he told Sharon the news shortly and she was thrilled for him. Then, Dad went up to go pack.

"Oh, good, so whenever he has to work late, we'll do take-out orders and no oven until he returns from the business trip," announced Sharon.

"For a month?" asked Dawn.

"Yes," replied Sharon.

"Wouldn't you be tired of doing that every single night?" I asked.

"Not me," said Sharon.

Dawn and I looked at each other.

"Or we can go on trips ourselves," said Sharon.

"Sounds good, Mom," agreed Meredith.

"Same here," Dawn and I agreed.

"We can start that when Carlos leaves next Friday," added Sharon.

"Okay," I said.

"Where do you have in mind?" asked Dawn.

"Probably South Carolina, Sea City where Mary Anne goes with Stacey and the Pike kids, and Portland, Maine," said Sharon. "We can do one week each."

"Perfect. I love Sea City," I said.

"You can see if we can rent the Pikes' beach house they rent every year," said my stepsister.

"Okay. That's a good idea. You and Meredith will like it," I said since Dawn went there, too when all the members went together. "Can we bring Kayla and Kaylee along?"

"Of course," replied Sharon.

"Great," I said.

"I'm going to see Dad for awhile," I said.

I went up before I could hear Sharon say, "He's probably still packing."

I knocked on the door when Dad noticed me there and smiled and said, "What's up, peanut?"

"I just want to be with you for awhile," I replied sitting on the bed.

"Okay," smiled Dad.

"We just made plan to go on a vacation after Carlos leave next weekend and Sharon already gave me permission to bring Kayla and Kaylee with us," I said.

"That's good," said Dad.