planned to stay in New York with his job. Who was Stacey going to live with? How would she make the decision? It wasn't easy at all, but finally Stacey returned to Stoneybrook and the BSC. Of course, us club members, especially Claudia, were thrilled, but Stacey still feels guilty about leaving her father. She visits New York a lot.

To top things off, as I mentioned before, Stacey has diabetes — a severe form of the disease. What that means is that something in her body called insulin can go out of whack if Stacey doesn't stick to a strict no-sweets, calorie-counting diet, give herself injections of insulin (yuck), and monitor her blood. I know this sounds disgusting, but think how Stacey feels. And I have to admit that she hasn't been looking good lately. There's talk of her going to see her special doctor in New York again.

The last two members of the Baby-sitters Club are younger than the rest of us. They're in sixth grade at SMS, and we're in eighth grade. Their names are Mallory Pike and Jessica Ramsey, but they mostly go by Mal and Jessi. (Mallory, by the way, is someone our club used to sit for.) Anyway, Mal and Jessi are best friends, and I can see why. They have a lot in common, although they certainly have their differences, too. First of all, they're both

the oldest in their families, except that Mallory has seven younger brothers and sisters (she's Claire and Vanessa Pike's big sister), and Jessi has just one younger sister and a baby brother. Becca is eight,and Squirt (whose real name is John Philip Ramsey, Jr.) is a toddler. Both Mal and Jessi are at that awful age (eleven) when they want to be more grown-up than their parents will let them be.