For quite awhile, we had to make do without Stacey. In fact, Kristy (she's the club president) asked Jessi and me to join when Stacey's family moved from Stoneybrook back to New York City, which was where they'd come from in the first place. (They'd moved both times because Mr. McGill's company kept transferring him.) Then, after they moved back toNew York , Mr. and Mrs. McGill decided to get divorced. They'd been having problems for awhile. So Mr. McGill stayed inNew York with his job, and Mrs. McGill and Stacey returned to Stoneybrook. Unfortunately, they

couldn't move into their old house. Guess why? Jessi Ramsey's family had moved into it! But Stacey and her mom found a nice old house that they like — and it's right behind ours. If there weren't so many trees in the way, I'd be able to look out our back windows and into Stacey's back windows. Maybe that will happen when the trees are bare. At any rate, it's nice to be able to walk out our back door, through our backyard, and right into Stacey's backyard.

On the day that Mom fixed the casserole, the McGills had been back for a week and a day. That meant that Stacey had been to three BSC meetings since her return — and, boy, were the rest of us glad to have her back.

I guess I should tell you a little about the girls in the BSC, since the club is basically the most important thing in my life. First, there's Kristy Thomas. I'm starting with her because she's the president of the club. She dreamed it up and got it going. Kristy is part of an interesting family. She has two older brothers, Sam and Charlie, who are in high school, and one much younger brother, David Michael. He's seven. Kristy's parents are divorced. They got divorced a long time ago and Kristy never sees her father. However, last summer

her mother married this millionaire, Watson Brewer, who whisked the Thomases across town to his mansion. (Kristy used to live onBradford Court , next to her best friend, Mary Anne Spier, and across the street from Claudia Kishi.