I keep my journal under my mattress in my bedroom, which I share with Vanessa. Not that I need to hide it from her. She's a poet and understands a writer's need for privacy.

"First I am going to finish all my homework this afternoon, so I can focus my complete attention on my story." Then I groaned when

I realized my homework was mostly math and science, my two hardest subjects. That was going to take a lot of concentration, which was hard because I was feeling so excited.

Jessi checked the little gold watch she was wearing and reminded me, "You better get started on your homework right away. We have a BSC meeting in exactly two hours."

"Two hours? Yikes!" I waved good-bye to Jessi and shouted, "See you at Claud's!" (Claudia Kishi is the vice-president of the BSC, and we hold our meetings at her house.)

Then I hurried home. Our house is medium-sized for such a big family. In fact, sometimes it seems tiny. My brothers, Nicky and the triplets, have one bedroom (two sets of bunk beds); my two youngest sisters, Claire and Margo, share another; and Vanessa and I share a third. My parents have the master bedroom. You can imagine with that many people in such a small space, something's always happening. Today was no exception.

I opened the front door and was about to hang my jacket in the hall closet when Claire wrapped her arms around my legs and shrieked, "The boogiemen are after me!"

"Boogiemen?" I repeated. (Usually there is only one boogieman, and he lives in a closet. Everybody knows that.)

Claire pointed at the living room, where the

triplets were crouched like cats ready to pounce. Byron was wearing a catcher's mask; Adam was wearing a diving mask, with big flippers on his feet; andJordan was carrying Dad's tennis racquet in his hand, a ski mask pulled over his face. At first glance they really were kind of scary.

"Moozie is gone," Claire cried, her lower lip quivering. (That's what Claire sometimes calls Mom — Moozie.) "They napped her."