“Oh, yeah,” replied Claud. “I forgot about those. Hand them around, Jessi, okay?”

     “Sure!” said Jessi. She took out the bag of candy, replaced the lid on the box, opened the bag, and sent it around Claud’s bedroom.

     Everyone took a handful of M & M’s except for Dawn, who mostly eats health food — she won’t even eat meat — and can’t stand junk food, especially candy. Claudia remembered this and handed Dawn a package of wholewheat crackers. Dawn looked really grateful.

     This is just one of the things I love about my club family. We really care about each other. We look out for each other and do nice things for each other. Of course, we fight,

too — we’ve had some whoppers — but that’s part of being a family.

     “Well, any more club business?” I asked.

     Nobody answered.

     “Okay, then. We’ll just wait for the phone to ring.” I picked up the record book and began looking at the appointment calendar. “Gosh,” I said, “I cannot believe it’s already April. Where did the school year go? It feels like it was just September.”

     “I know,” agreed Mary Anne. “Two more months and school will be over.” She looked pretty pleased.

     “Yeah,” said Dawn happily. “Summer. Hot weather. I’ll get to visit Dad and Jeff in California again.”

     “Whoa!” I cried. I was still looking at our calendar. “Guess what. I just realized that Mother’s Day is coming up — soon. It’s in less than three weeks.”

     “Oh, brother. Gift time,” murmured Mallory. “I never know what to get Mom. None of us does. She always ends up with a bunch of stuff she doesn’t want and doesn’t know what to do with. Like every year, Margo” (Margo is Mal’s seven-year-old sister) “makes her a handprint in clay and paints it green. What’s Mom going to do with all those green hand sculptures? And the triplets” (ten-year-old boys)