Ann Martin - Stacey's Broken Heart

Don't get me wrong, though. Kristy isn't just bossy. She's also a good friend with a great sense of humor. But she has a very can-do attitude.

Kristy has needed that attitude. Her life has not always been easy. Her family used to live on Bradford Court across the street from Claudia and next door to Mary Anne. Mrs. Thomas struggled to raise four kids (Kristy has two older brothers and one younger) by herself since Kristy's dad walked out on them right after her younger brother, David Michael, was born. (Is that rotten, or what?) Then, the most amazing thing happened. Kristy's mom met this man named Watson Brewer and remarried. The amazing part is that Watson is an actual millionaire, complete with a mansion and everything! Kristy and her family moved across town to live in the mansion.

Her family needs a mansion, too. Kristy's mom and Watson adopted a Vietnamese girl, Emily Michelle, who is two and a half. Nannie, Kristy's cool, peppy grandmother, came to

help take care of Emily. On top of that, Watson is divorced and he has two kids, Karen (seven) and Andrew (four). They live with Kristy and her family every other month, and with their mother and her new husband the rest of the time. With their assorted pets, that's a full house.

Despite living in a mansion and being suddenly wealthy, Kristy wasn't thrilled with the move. (Material things .don't mean much to her.) She didn't like being so far away from the rest of us. And she wasn't sure if she liked Watson, either. But soon everything straightened out. Watson turned out to be a terrific guy, and Kristy is wild about her new step-siblings. (They adore her, too.)

One person who really missed Kristy when she moved across town was Mary Anne Spier. She and Kristy had always lived next door to each other and they were almost like sisters — twins, even, since they looked a lot alike back then. Mary Anne is also petite with brown hair. But, unlike Kristy, she's soft-spoken, even a bit shy.

Of course, Mary Anne and Kristy stayed friends even though they couldn't talk to each other from their bedroom windows anymore. When I think of how Mary Anne was when I first met her, it's amazing how much she's changed. She was this timid little kid

with braids who wore awful, babyish outfits (pleated skirts, ruffled blouses, knee socks). Since she was short, too, she seemed much younger than she was. She dressed like that because her father was very strict. Her mother died when Mary Anne was a baby and Mr. Spier had to raise Mary Anne by himself. He did a good job, too good. He sort of overdid it, if you ask me. He watched her so carefully and had so many rules that Mary Anne could make few choices for herself, including what she'd wear and how she'd fix her hair.

Now Mary Anne looks her age, wears a little makeup, has adorable short blunt cut hair and is, in fact, extremely cute. She won the freedom to develop a new image thanks to Dawn Schafer and her mom. They loosened Mr. Spier up a lot (thank goodness!). He relaxed enough to let Mary Anne be herself.

I should explain. See, Dawn's mother married Mary Anne's father. Dawn's parents had gotten divorced, which was why Dawn had moved to Stoneybrook with her mother and her younger brother, Jeff. (Her dad stayed in Palo City, California.) When Dawn and Mary Anne browsed through Mrs. Schafer's old high school yearbook they made an awesome discovery: Their parents had been boyfriend and girlfriend back then. Right away, they started scheming to get their parents back together.

It worked, too! Although not overnight. It took months, actually. But finally their parents married. Mary Anne and her father left Bradford Court and went to live in Dawn's old farmhouse (built in 1795!). The four of them (Jeff had returned to California) had to work hard to become a new family. It wasn't nearly as easy as Mary Anne and Dawn had expected. They even had some upsetting fights along the way.

One of their main problems was food. Dawn and her mother are health food eaters. (They don't touch red meat, sugar, or junk food, and actually prefer foods like tofu, miso, and kelp flakes.) Mary Anne and her dad eat red meat, fried foods, and lots of other things people who are health conscious don't eat. Mealtimes turned into battles. There were other problems, such as messiness versus neatness. (Dawn's mother is messy; Mary Anne's father is neat.) There were the issues of privacy and space. (Mary Anne and Dawn started out sharing a room and ended up much happier with separate ones.) Eventually, though, everyone compromised a little and things worked out.

That is, they worked out until Dawn began missing California. She missed her father, her brother Jeff, her friends, and her life there in general. I think she tried not to miss it because she was loyal to her friends here, Mary Anne

in particular. But that longing got the best of her and she decided to live in California permanently. Mary Anne was heartbroken at first, but now she's used to the idea.

It helps that her boyfriend, Logan Bruno, is such a nice guy. He and Mary Anne are very close and being with him helps her feel less alone now. that Dawn is gone. Logan is an associate member of the BSC. That means we call him if we have a job that no one else can take. He's a good baby-sitter since he has a younger brother and sister of his own.

Not only does Mary Anne have Logan to depend on, she has us, too — the BSC. We all care about Mary Anne. She's an amazing club secretary, a sensitive listener, and a true friend.

Speaking of true friends, my very closest friend is Claudia Kishi. She was the first one to befriend me when I moved here and we've been best friends ever since. Claudia and I have a lot in common. For one thing, we both love clothing and style. Claudia's style is much more original than mine, though. Her creative, great-looking outfits reflect the fact that Claudia is an artist. Everything about her is artistic. She loves to draw, paint, sculpt, make jewelry, throw pottery, silk-screen — everything!

Today Claudia had on an oversized purple top over turquoise leggings. With fabric paints

she'd painted a beautiful unicorn on the top and then decorated the leggings with designs in the same colors. From her ears dangled earrings she'd made of papier-mâché in the shape of unicorn heads.

One thing Claudia and I don't have in common is junk food. I can't have any and Claudia is wild for it. Her parents don't approve so Claudia stashes it all over her room. You have to be careful when you sit down somewhere or you just might squash a pack of Devil Dogs or crush a bag of chips.

Another thing you might find hidden in Claudia's bedroom are her Nancy Drew mysteries. Claudia absolutely devours them, but her parents don't think they're intellectual enough. That seems crazy to me, but if you think about Claudia's family, it makes sense. Mrs. Kishi is the head librarian at the Stoneybrook library so I suppose her taste in books is pretty sophisticated. And Claudia's older sister Janine (who's sixteen) is a real live genius with an IQ score to prove it.

It's funny to think that two sisters could be as different as Claudia and Janine. Claudia's style is funky and artistic, while Janine has no style.

Another difference. Claudia is gorgeous, Janine isn't. Claudia has astounding, thick, silky black hair and almond-shaped eyes. (The

Kishis are Japanese-American.) She's glamorous and graceful. Janine, on the other hand, is very plain and couldn't care less about her looks. Claudia once gave her a makeover, though, and it's helped some.