I was so excited I felt like doing cartwheels across Claudia Kishi's bedroom floor. It was summer (at last!) and my friends and I were gathered for a special meeting of the Babysitters Club.

I looked around the room, and it was pretty obvious that my friends were as excited as I was. Of course, everyone was trying very hard to be cool, because that's the way our club president, Kristy Thomas, expects us to be.

Even though we were starting our summer vacations, she insisted on business as usual. Kristy was perched in a director's chair, wearing a red T-shirt, faded jeans, and a visor. She glanced at her watch just as our two junior officers, Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey, scooted into the room and flopped down on the floor.

"You're late," Kristy said sternly.

Jessi and Mal are younger than the rest of

us (and happen to be best friends) but Kristy believes that rules are rules. She takes her duty as president very seriously and believes that nothing — short of an earthquake — is an excuse for being late. But I can understand why she feels that way. The Baby-sitters Club was her idea, and I can still remember the day she told Claudia and me about it. All of us had grown up together onBradford Court and loved to baby-sit, but it took someone like Kristy to set the wheels in motion for an actual sitting business.

But back to Mal and Jessi. "Sorry," they murmured in unison. They looked like they were trying hard not to giggle. Mal and Jessi always stick together, and besides, how could anyone take things seriously on the first day of summer?

"I can't believe you're going toCalifornia tonight," I whispered to Dawn Schafer. Dawn is my stepsister (her mother married my father), and she was going to the West Coast to visit her father and brother for two weeks.

"I can't believe it, either. It will be so much fupl to go home. I mean, to my second home," jrfie added quickly.