The last two members of the BSC are younger than Dawn, Kristy, Stacey, Claudia, and I. Their names are Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey, and they're both eleven and in sixth grade. They are also best friends, and like most best friends they have some things in common, yet are very different in many ways. Here are the ways in which they're different: Mallory comes from a huge family. She has seven brothers and sisters! And three of them are identical triplets (boys). Jessi comes from a more regular-sized family. She has a younger sister and a baby brother. (Mal and Jessi each live with both of their parents, plus Jessi's Aunt Cecelia lives at the Ramseys' house.) Jessi is thinking of becoming a professional ballet dancer one day, while Mal is pretty sure she's going to write and illustrate children's books after she goes to college. Boy, you should see Jessi dance. She is really talented. She dances en pointe (that means on toe), she takes lessons at a special ballet school in Stamford, and she has danced lead parts in lots of productions before big audiences. Mallory is talented, too, but she's more private about her stories and drawings. We don't get to see many of them, but when we do, we're impressed.

    One last difference between Jessi and Mal - Jessi is black (with long, long dancer's legs, and beautiful eyes), and Mal is white (and not feeling too pretty these days. She wears glasses and braces, and has unruly red hair).

    Here are the ways in which Mal and Jessi are similar.

    They both like to read, especially horse stories by Marguerite Henry. And they're each the oldest kid in their family but feel that their parents treat them like babies. For instance, the Pikes absolutely will not allow Mallory to wear contacts instead of glasses. However, in a recent parent-daughter breakthrough, Mal and Jessi convinced their parents to allow them to have their ears pierced. So that was something. Maybe contacts for Mallory will come next.