Chapter Two
For those of you who haven't met me, let me introduce myself.
My name is Kristin Amanda Thomas Retlin Taylor. It's probably a bit of a mouthful but you can just call me Kristy.
As teenagers, my group of friends and I started a club.
The Baby-Sitters Club, to be exact.
It all started when Elizabeth Thomas Brewer, the mother of yours truly, found herself in a dilemma when she couldn't get a baby-sitter to watch my younger brother David Michael.
And BOOM! The Baby-Sitters Club was born. Even though a new generation, aka my niece Corina and four of her closest friends, are in charge, I do miss it.
When the club started in our generation, there were only four members:
Me, Kristin "Kristy" Thomas, the founder & president.
Claudia Kishi, the vice-president. She earned this position because she was the first among us to have her own personal phone line.
Mary Anne, my best friend & next-door neighbor until Mom married Watson, was the secretary. Though timid & quiet, meeting and later marrying Logan Bruno brought her out of that shell.
And Stacey McGill rounds out the core original four. She was our treasurer. In our senior year of high school, most of our group thought Stacey would attend college to become a math genius or math teacher but surprised us all when she was accepted to the Med School at New York University. Then she & my older Sam rushed to get married because Stacey would wind up pregnant with Corina.
Later on we added four alternate officers & two junior officers:
Dawn, the first of 4 & later Mary Anne's stepsister, moved to Stoneybrook with reluctance. Though she formed an instant bond with Mary Anne, it was Stacey that Dawn forms a deeper bond with due to both of their mothers moving them to a new place after a divorce.
Logan, the second of 4 & only male member of the club in our generation, would become Mary Anne's first boyfriend and later on, her husband and was a great officer in the club.
Shannon Kilbourne, the third of 4 officers, was first introduced as one of my new neighbors when Mom married Watson and we moved to his house. For a brief time I'd always thought Shannon was into guys but when Jessi was at Julliard, she'd seen Shannon kissing Anna Stevenson.
Abby (Abigail) Stevenson, the fourth & final alternate officer. She joined the club although her twin sister Anna declined the offer, wanting to focus on her music studies again.
And our two junior officers:
Mallory Pike, the writer. She did get her first novel written by the time she was eleven & a half and it was published when she was twelve. From there she put writing on hold until college and became an overnight sensation.
Jessica "Jessi" Ramsey, always dancing while she walks. It wasn't a surprise to any of us when she joined Julliard but it was when she became the first African-American female director of ABA, aka American Ballet Academy.
That rounds out everyone in the club but I'm not finished. Each of us has family and mine's the biggest so we'll start there.
Charlie is my oldest brother, four years older than me. After our dad Patrick abandoned the four of us & Mom, he did his best to help raise us, Sam, me and David Michael and it inspired him to end up becoming a social worker.
Sam is my older brother, two years older than me. He became a cop to bring good back into the world much like Charlie and cut back a little on his hours to help Stacey raise their now fifteen year old daughter Corina.
David Michael is my younger brother, six years are between us. Just like Charlie, he's a social worker and they're both fantastic at their jobs so it's a win-win.
Then there's Karen, Andrew & Emily Michelle.
Karen Brewer is our stepsister and the same age as David Michael. She works as a second grade teacher at Stoneybrook Elementary and has been named Teacher of the Year five years running!
Add in her younger brother Andrew Brewer and you had quite the handful. But not anymore. Andrew just finished another year of med school. He wants to be a pediatrician, and we're all so proud of him.
Last but not least there's Emily Michelle, the little girl that Mom & Watson adopted from Vietnam. Though she's the youngest of our growing family, she is a hard worker and is currently attending college out in Tuscon.
Our next generation is: Corina, B.J., and the baby girl I am currently expecting. Mary Anne & Logan have two kids even though they're not part of the family and Dawn also has two kids, with Alan Gray.
Let's move back to siblings though.
Claudia's older sister Janine is between Sam & Charlie age wise and is a total genius. She's also a savvy businesswoman, CEO of her own company and lives in Tokyo, Japan.
Dawn's younger brother Jeff moved back to Stoneybrook when Dawn graduated from high school after a heated fight with their father & stepmom. He & Karen have also struck up a blossoming romance though it's been slow going for them both.
Think you've gotten your fill yet? We had better buckle down because I have more.
We'll start with Tiffany Kilbourne. Although Shannon, her older sister, and myself once didn't get along after we moved in with Watson, it was after Shannon gave us one of her Border Collie puppies that we settled our brief feud.
Vanessa Pike, one of Mallory's assortment of younger siblings, is currently studying journalism but plans to go into broadcast journalism unlike Mallory.
The rest of the Pike siblings are doing their own thing, either graduating from college or currently in college.
Rebecca "Becca" Ramsey sort of followed Jessi into dance but does freestyle and is working to become a dancing coach for celebrities.
I think that wraps it up for families so we'll go on to the husbands – or rather, former & soon to be former in Dawn's and my cases.
Bart Taylor, mine. It breaks my heart to do this to him after all that we've been through to get here. But we've had a good & happy marriage and I'm planning to stay here in Stoneybrook (and in Stamford) so we can share custody of our precious babies.
Alan Gray, Dawn's former husband. He's been a total sweetheart to her during their marriage, and before & after, and dotes on Sadie & A.J.
Cary Retlin, another ex of mine. Though the marriage was short-lived, it wasn't because of abuse, although my two overprotective older brothers think otherwise. Cary and I would have clashed over every little thing if we had stayed married but neither of us wanted that kind of life together.
I am Kristin Amanda Thomas and this is my story.
Saying that my life is simple is an understatement. I work, at work, at home, being a father. I took a downward slide in the romance department but that was a mutual thing with both of the women I once thought I'd had a deep & passionate love story to share with.
Between my high school romance with Jessica that fizzled out and when she got pregnant with Sammie & Stevie, I had Regina Morrow.
Ever as feisty, she probably still carries a torch for me but I've done my best to move forward with my life so that I can focus on raising my girls.
Somehow, in a miraculous way, I stumbled upon her.
Kristin Amanda Thomas, to be exact. Though she hated her full name, she loved, and probably still does, the way I would say it.
I first met her through friends of hers, Alan Gray and Dawn Schafer (formerly Gray), when she'd come to California for Alan & Dawn's wedding.
It was before Jessica found out that she was pregnant with the girls so I was a free agent at the time. Kristy was dating, nearly engaged to, a guy whose name is Bart Taylor so I did my best to steer clear of her.
Yet it was an impossible feat, on both of our parts. Neither of us could possibly deny our attraction to each other or that we both needed a connection to hold onto with someone.
I'd once been told by my ex-girlfriend Regina Morrow that I could never settle for just one woman and after meeting Kristin, I know she's right.
I did my best to let Jessica fill that void left behind when I went my separate way with Kristin but it just didn't work.
But I suppose I should pause my sap story and tell you about the people in my life.
While my father was up there in age, his mind had been as sharp as a thumbnail size tack but he retired from the business right after Sammie & Stevie were born. And then the private jet he & Mom were on crashed into the lake near their remote log cabin up in the Rocky Mountains.
Devastated by the loss, and to keep from reeling & falling apart, I called the guys I now consider to be good friends of mine.
Todd Wilkins being the main one. Though we had interacted in different social circles all throughout junior high and high school, Todd was the first person I called when the jet with my parents went down. I never would have thought to call him back in high school but time & circumstances have changed us all since then.
Ken Matthews also helped me a bunch. As the representative attorney to Patman Industries, Ken was with me when I'd gotten the call about my folks. Before I had him call Jess, I had him call her. Despite everything, and with only a few things connecting their intense, rocky past to the present, I consider Alice Wakefield to be more than a mother & grandmother. More than a woman who scorned Dad back in the 1960's.
She's a friend, the confidant I didn't know I needed to listen when I had doubts & fears about becoming a first-time father. Alice sat there, and listened for hours as I paced back & forth and just let me rant. If anyone called Alice would politely ask for them to call back, even when it was my phone ringing.
And then there are the women most important to Jess. Liz, Lila, Enid. Liz being the most important of the group for being Jessica's twin sister, and Lila her best friend. Enid fell somewhere in between considering that she was Liz's best friend but they still all got along.
And then there's Todd, Ken and Steven. Steven being the oldest Wakefield and only son, he dotes on his nieces; especially his namesake Stevie. There are many more people I'd like you to introduce you to but those are the ones I consider my dearest friends, whether they're my friends or Jessica's friends.
I am Bruce Henry Patman and this is my story.