Here there's, well, there's . . . not much, really. My parents and I moved into our house in August and I didn't make a single friend until I met Claudia inschool in September. Everyone here seems to have known everyone else since they were babies. Claudia, Kristy, and Mary Anne have. And they've grown up together, since Kristy and Mary Anne live next door to each other on Bradford Court and Claudia lives across the street from them. (I live two streets away.)

So, was I ever glad when Claudia told me Kristy wanted to start the club! Friends at last, I thought. And that's just what I found. Even though I'm better friends with Claudia, I don't know what I'd do without Kristy and Mary Anne. It's true that they seem younger than Claudia and me (they don't care much about clothes or boys yet — although Kristy did just go to her first dance), and Mary Anne is unbelievably shy, and Kristy's sort of a tomboy. But they're my friends, and I belong with them.Which is more than I can say about certain traitors I left behind in New York.

"All right, here'sone plan," Kristy was

saying. "If s a school afternoon. Mrs. Newton realizes that it's time to go to the hospital. She calls Mr. Newton or a cab or whatever,then calls us, and one of us goes to stay with Jamie."

"What if we're all busy?" I asked.

"Hmm," said Kristy. "Maybe from now on, one of us should be free each afternoon so Mrs. Newton will be guaranteed a baby-sitter. It will be a special service for her, since theNewtons are such good customers."

"That seems like kind of a waste," spoke up Claudia, which was exactly what I was thinking.

"That's right," I said. "Babies can be late.Two or three weeks late. We could be giving up an awful lot of perfectly good afternoons for nothing."