Claud's unofficial duty is a labor of love, since she is the Junk Food Queen of Stoneybrook. And although Claud isn't very good at memorizing things or taking tests (which is why she doesn't get such great marks at school, unlike her older sister Janine who is a true genius), she knows her junk food. She can tell you the ingredients and special properties of every candy bar on the market. She

can compare and contrast Doritos and Ruffles. And she could pass a cola taste test with flying colors. She just loves junk food, and she always has plenty of it on hand.

You wouldn't see any of the stuff at first if you walked into her room, though. Why? Because she hides it, since her parents don't approve of it They don't approve of her taste in reading, either; Claud loves Nancy Drew books, and her parents would rather see her read books that are a little more challenging. So the Snickers bars can often be found nestled in a sock drawer, next to a well-thumbed mystery.

The other club members serve as our junior officers. While the rest of us are thirteen and in the eighth grade, Jessi Ramsey and Mallory Pike are eleven and in the sixth grade. They are both great sitters, but neither of them is allowed to sit at night unless she's sitting for her own family. That's why we call them junior officers, and that's why they take a lot of the afternoon jobs.

I can see Jessi and Mallory being friends at eighty-five, just like Mary Anne and me. There they'll be, on the porch. Mal will be sitting in a rocker, writing in her journal. (She wants to be an author-illustrator of children's books, so she's always writing.) And Jessi will be standing near the porch railing with her foot

stretched out on top her advanced years. (She's a dedicated ballet student, and never seems to stop stretching and practicing.)