In case you were worried, Kristy's mom isn't a single parent anymore. Let me explain. Ready to hear a real-life fairy tale? Here goes.

Once upon a time, Kristy lived with her dad and mom and her older brothers, Charlie and Sam. When she was about six, two things happened. First another brother was born (David Michael). Then Mr. Thomas decided to split. No explanations, no nothing. He just ran off to California. And divorced Mrs. Thomas, and married someone else. (Needless to say, Kristy doesn't like to talk about him, and I don't blame her.) Things got tough for awhile, but Mrs. Thomas managed to hold down a job and bring up four kids. Then, a few years later, she started dating this nice guy named Watson Brewer, who was also divorced and happened to have two kids of his own, Karen and Andrew. He also happened to be a millionaire and he lived in a mansion across town. Mrs. Thomas and Watson got married, the Thorn-

ases moved into the mansion, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Isn't that a romantic story? If s all true, too, especially the mansion part. It's huge! Now the Brewer/Thomas family includes Emily Michelle, adopted from Vietnam; Nannie, Kristy's grandmother; a dog; a cat; and two goldfish. Karen and Andrew live there only every other weekend, but even with them around there's still plenty of room in the house.

The mansion is pretty far from Claudia's house, but Charlie drives Kristy to our meetings (he's seventeen).

There's a good reason our meetings are at Claudia's. She's the only one of us who has her own phone. What's Claudia like? In many ways, the opposite of Kristy. While Kristy's super-practical, Claudia is a real artist. She can paint, sculpt, draw, and design jewelry. While Kristy's brimming with ideas, Claudia's brimming with . . . junk food! And I mean brimming. She has stuff hidden in every nook and cranny. Ring Dings, Milky Ways, pretzels, chips — if it's bad for you, she has it. And she loves to share it with us. (As you can guess, BSC meetings are not dietetic.) Another way she's different from Kristy is in style. Kristy's short and tomboyish, and she usually