Mallory and I joined the BSC during the time that Stacey was back in New York, before her parents got divorced. The rest of the club members were feeling kind of overwhelmed with jobs, and we were available, so it worked out for everyone. Even though (we think) we're lowly sixth-graders and can only sit during the day (except for our own families), I think we fit in pretty well.

    So, all together there are seven of us now, and it seems like the club is just the right size. In fact, I don't think Claudia's room could hold too many more people without bursting at the seams.

    The way the club works is pretty simple. We meet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 5:30 to 6:00. Parents can call during those times to arrange for a sitter. (Most of the parents have been using us forever; new clients find out about us through the fliers we distribute from time to time, or by word of mouth.) Kristy is the club president, and she takes her job pretty seriously: She's all business at meetings. She always sits in Claudia's director's chair, with a visor on her head and a pencil over her ear. She calls each meeting to order just as the digital clock flips to 5:30. Sometimes she asks us if we've read the club notebook. (We always say yes, because we always have.) The club notebook, in case you're wondering, is the place where we record every job we go on. We write down what happened, who it happened to, why it happened, and anything else we can think of. Seriously, it's a good thing that we have it. Reading it keeps us up to date on our clients and what's going on with them. The only thing is, it's kind of time consuming to write all that stuff down - and then to read what everybody else wrote. But it's worth it. By the way, the notebook was Kristy's idea (of course).

    Anyway, let's get back to answering the phone. When a call comes in, someone takes it (we all dive for it) and finds out when and where the job will be.