That's when the great idea hit Kristy like a bolt out of the blue.

Why not form a club consisting of responsible, experienced sitters? Parents could make one call, to the club, and reach a whole bunch of good sitters at once. Brilliant, huh?

In the beginning, there were only four of us — me, Kristy, Claudia, and Stacey McGill. Claudia, who is a fantastic artist, designed our fliers and the dub was on its way. We decided to meet three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from five-thirty to six in Claud's room.

Kristy and I used to live across the street from Claudia on Bradford Court. That’s all changed now. I already told you that my dad married Sharon and we moved into their farmhouse. Well, Kristy's mom married Watson Brewer (a genuine millionaire) and Kristy and her three brothers — Charlie, age seventeen,

Sam, age fifteen, and David Michael — moved into his big beautiful mansion on the other side of town.

Watson has two kids from his first marriage, seven-year-old Karen and Andrew, who's four. After he married Mrs. Thomas (now Mrs. Brewer), they adopted Emily Michelle, a two-year-old from Vietnam. Then Nannie, Kristy's grandmother, moved in to help look after everybody. When Karen and Andrew are living at the big house (they call their mom's house the little house), which is every other month, there are ten people at the Brewer mansion. It’s a good thing it’s so huge.

But anyway, in the beginning, when the dub was formed, Kristy and Claudia and Stacey and I were neighbors. We decided to hold our meetings at Claud's because she has a phone in her room and — are you ready for this? — it’s not just an extension, it’s her very own phone line.

Kristy became president because the dub was her idea and because she's a real leader. (Some people would say she's loud and bossy, but I prefer to call her strong-willed.) We can count on Kristy to be at every meeting in her jeans, sneakers, and a turtleneck shirt. She usually wears her baseball cap placed firmly on her brown hair, which is pulled into a ponytail.