"No, Health's Angels," Maggie replied.

I let them fight it out while I paid for the dresses. All I could think about was the look on Mary Anne's face.

She was going to love it.

Chapter 2.

Stacey.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Time to eat, have a seat, who wants scrambled eh-eggs?"

As I bounded into the kitchen, poor Mom was shuffling toward the coffee pot. She stopped and looked at me as if I'd gone completely crazy.

"Nine o'clock, time to rock, open up the fridge . . ."I sang.

I am not usually like this. Really. Snow does this to me. Besides, it was a Saturday. I had nothing to do except sit for the Barrett and

DeWitt kids. And THE SEASON had begun!

When we first moved to Stoneybrook, I thought the holidays would be bo-ring. No offense, but my old hometown is pretty amazing at this time of year. New York City, that is. The tree at Rockefeller Center, the department store windows, the smell of roasting chestnuts at every corner. . . .

I thought I'd never adjust to the "country." But you know what? I had a chance to live in New York again. After my family moved to Stoneybrook, we had to move back because of my dad's job. That’s about when Mom and Dad started heading toward a divorce. Then I was faced with a choice — stay in NYC with Dad or return to Stoneybrook with Mom. And I chose Stoneybrook.

So the holidays aren't as flashy here. But hey, the snow on the ground stays white much longer. I never get stuck in the subway. Movie theater lines are shorter. And I get to hang out with my best friends in the world.

Plus I love baby-sitting, and as a Baby-sitters Club member, I do a lot of it.

That day, for example, I had been hired to keep the Barrett and DeWitt kids out of their parents' hair. The two families were going to visit their future house, to watch while the painters and decorators started work.

I was looking forward to it. I feel very dose to the Barretts. I had been with them and the DeWitts when they picked out the house to begin with. I also spent two weeks last summer with the Barretts in Sea City, New Jersey (I was hired as mother's helper), where we all went through a hurricane together.