"I don't see why not," Daddy said. "I'll call tomorrow and ask about getting a family membership."

"Goody!" Becca said.

"Gooey!" Squirt said.

"That make you feel better, sweetheart?" Mama asked.

I nodded. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. The summer was going to be all right, after all.

Chapter 2.

"Order!" yelled Kristy Thomas as the clock turned to 5:30.

No, I wasn't in court, or in a restaurant. I was in Claudia Kishi's bedroom on Wednesday, the day after the pool discussion. Kristy was sitting in a director's chair, wearing a visor turned backward. Claudia was seated cross-legged on her bed next to Stacey McGill and Mary Anne Spier. Dawn Schafer was sitting at Claud's desk, and Mallory Pike and I were lounging on the floor.

What were we doing? Well, for the seven of us, Wednesday at 5:30 means one thing: a Baby-sitters Club meeting. (Monday and Friday, too — also at 5:30.) I promised I'd tell you about the BSC, so here goes.

The name "Baby-sitters Club" says everything about us "(almost). We're experienced baby-sitters, and we're a club of best friends. Here's how the club (actually, it's a business)

works: for a half hour (till 6:00), we sit in Clau-dia's room and wait for phone calls from Sto-neybrook parents who need sitters. Each time someone calls, we figure out who's available for the job. We try to spread the jobs among ourselves so everyone has the same amount.

It works out great for us and the parents. They only need to make one phone call to reach seven great sitters — and one of us is almost always available (we have two associate members in case the rest of us are booked up). And we can be sure to have a pretty steady amount of work.

By now, most of the local parents know about us. They tell their friends, and the word spreads around. But it wasn't always like that. At the beginning, the BSC used to advertise — putting fliers in schools and supermarkets, stuff like that. From time to time, we still advertise. Kristy makes us (she's the president).