Margo (she's seven) was trying to get Claire (she's four) to play Skatch. Even with the Velcro mitt, which the Velcro ball sticks to, Claire couldn't catch it (another female Pike athletic superstar in the making).

Sometimes the craziness of my house bugs me. But today I was too deep in thought. I dodged three flying ninjas, stepped over a Squiggle Ball and a bassett hound, ducked a runaway flash of wild pink Velcro, and hopped over a Skip-It rope, barely noticing any of it as I made my way across the living room. I just had to come up with a good project.

I was halfway up the stairs when I heard the phone ring. "Vanessa," Mom called my sister from the kitchen. "Phone. It's Haley." Haley Braddock is Vanessa's best friend. Hearing Haley's name gave me a thought. Haley is a member of a club in theStoneybrookElementary School called the Kids-Can-Do-Anything Club. Jessi's younger sister, Becca, belongs to it, too. The members of the KCDAC, or Kids Club (as most members call it), do a lot of community service work, such as organize food drives and recycling projects. I wondered if I could find a way to include the club members in my English project. After all, my future career would involve writing for kids, so shouldn't kids be a part of the project? It seemed like a natural connection.

But how could I include them?

By the time I reached the room I share with Vanessa, I had that limp, brain-drain feeling you get from thinking about one thing for too long. I decided to put the project aside for awhile.