Hmm. At the Pikes', Mallory was probably tripping over her seven younger brothers and sisters and packing the trendiest stuff she could find. Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Pike don't allow Mal to dress very fashionably. They're not strict parents, but Mal is only eleven. So far, they have allowed her to get her ears pierced. They have not allowed her to switch her glasses for contacts, to have her braces taken off early, to have her curly red hair straightened, or to wear just about anything that Stacey or I get to wear. She manages not to look like a first-grader, though. She spends most of her baby-sitting money on any clothes or jewelry she thinks she can get away with wearing. (She spends the rest of her money on journals, and on materials for drawing and sketching, and on books. Mallory is a big writer and a big reader. She especially likes horse stories.) Jessi Ramsey likes to read, too, but her true love is ballet. Jessi is a very talented dancer. She takes special classes at a school inStamford , and she has danced onstage before hundreds of people. She would probably pack a leotard and her toe shoes. (She likes to exercise even when she's on vacation.) Otherwise, she would pack stuff pretty similar to Mallory's. Her parents feel the same way about clothes that the Pikes do. This is interesting, since the Pikes and the Ramseys are pretty dissimilar. The Pikes are white, the Ramseys are black. There are eight Pike kids, but just three Ramsey kids. The Pikes have lived in Stoneybrook since before Mal was born. The Ramseys moved here (right into Sta-cey's old house!) at the beginning of the school year. I guess the parents of eleven-year-olds are sort of the same everywhere.