"Hi," they replied. (If we didn't sound overly enthusiastic, remember that we'd seen each other in school just a couple of hours earlier.)

Kristy Thomas was sitting in Claudia's director's chair, her visor perched on her head, a pencil stuck over one ear.

Kristy is the president. (Of BSC, I mean.)

Jessi, one of our junior officers, was leafing through the club notebook.

As I found a comfortable position on the bed, I glanced at Kristy. She was staring at Claud's digital clock. That clock is the official club timepiece, and when the numbers flip from5:29 to5:30 , Kristy begins a meeting, whether all the club members are present or not.

I guess Kristy has a right to do that. After all, she's not just the club president, she's the person who started the BSC. The club was her idea. What is the BSC? It's really a business, and a successful one. This is how it works. Three times a week — on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from five-thirty until six — my friends and I gather in Claud's room and wait for parents to call us, needing babysitters. When a call comes in, one of us agrees to take on the job. This is great for parents.

They make one phone call and reach seven people, seven expert baby-sitters. So they're bound to line up a sitter quickly. They don't have to call one person after another, trying to find someone available.

How do parents know when to call us? How do they know when we hold our meetings? Because we advertise — you know, flyers and posters. Also because we've been in business for awhile now. We have a good reputation.

Anyway, Kristy is the president, since she started the BSC. She is overflowing with fantastic ideas. Kristy is the one who thought of keeping a club notebook, which is like a diary. Each time one of us finishes a sitting job, we're supposed to write about it in the book. Then, once a week, we read through the recent entries to find out what happened on our friends' jobs. This has turned out to be really helpful.