Ann Martin - Mallory Pike, No.1 Fan

After the wedding, Kristy's family moved into Watson's mansion, which is in a different part of Stoneybrook from the Thomases' old house. (They used to live across the street from Claudia, here onBradford Court .) And just as Kristy's house became much bigger, her family did, too. Watson has two kids from his first marriage, Karen and Andrew, who are seven and four. They live with Watson every other month. Both of them adore Kristy and she adores them back.

Kristy's also crazy about Emily Michelle, her newest sibling. Emily's fromVietnam . Watson and Kristy's mother adopted her shortly after they were married. She's two and a half now. Nannie, Kristy's grandmother, moved in soon after Emily came home. She helps to look after Emily during working hours.

I'll tell you aboutShannon next, since she's Kristy's across-the-street neighbor. When they first met, Kristy thoughtShannon was a snob.

But Kristy soon discovered thatShannon isn't snobby at all.

Shannon's family (which consists of her mom, her dad, and her two younger sisters) breeds their pedigreed Bernese mountain dog. When Kristy's dog, Louie, died, Shannon gave Kristy a Bernese pup. Kristy named the puppy Shannon. From then on, they were friends.

Shannon has great hair. It's curly, blonde, and thick. She has blue eyes, high cheekbones, and a ski-jump nose.

Since Shannon goes to a different school than I do, I'm still getting to know her, so I can't tell you that much about her. I know she's a good student and very involved in school activities. So far, she's done a great job of filling in for Dawn.

Speaking of Dawn, I'll tell you about her, even though at the moment she's in California. Dawn moved here with her mother and her younger brother, Jeff, after her parents divorced. Mrs. Schafer was originally from Stoneybrook. They moved into an old farmhouse (built in 1795) on Burnt Hill Road. Jeff was never really happy here. He went back to live with his father in California pretty quickly. Dawn had trouble adjusting to the cold weather, but, mostly, she liked Stoneybrook.

I think Dawn is totally gorgeous. She's tall and thin with long, white-blonde hair. Dawn is seriously into ecology and healthy food. She eats no red meat, no junk food. She actually enjoys stuff like tofu and seaweed salad. No matter how much the rest of us kid her or pretend to gag, she just keeps on eating it.

Like Kristy, Dawn is now part of a blended family. The great part is that her family joined up with the family of her very best friend, Mary Anne Spier, who's also a BSC member.

Things get the tiniest bit complicated here, so let me take a moment to tell you about Mary Anne before I go on with the rest of Dawn's story.

Mary Anne and Kristy used to live next door to one another on Bradford Court. Mary Anne lived alone with her father; her mother had died when Mary Anne was very young. Her father had very rigid ideas about bringing up a daughter. Mary Anne had to obey strict rules about everything from how long she could talk on the phone to what she could wear. (She still wore braids and jumpers in the seventh grade!) Then Mary Anne met Dawn, who had only been in Stoneybrook for four days. They didn't appear to have much in common. Dawn is tall, Mary Anne is short. Dawn is a cool dresser, Mary Anne wasn't. Dawn is outgoing, Mary Anne is shy. But, still, they became good friends pretty quickly.

One day, as they browsed through Mrs. Schafer's old high school yearbook, they discovered something amazing. Mrs. Schafer and Mr. Spier had been boyfriend and girlfriend in high school! Obviously, they hadn't gotten married, at least not to each other. But now they were both free again. Mary Anne and Dawn decided to try to get their parents back together.

It took some doing, but finally everything fell into place. After dating for a long time, Mr. Spier and Mrs. Schafer got married. That's how Dawn and Mary Anne became stepsisters, and Mary Anne and her dad moved into the farmhouse on Burnt Hill Road. At first, it wasn't easy. Everyone - including Mary Anne and Dawn - had a bumpy time learning to work together as a family. But, things slowly started settling down. And, just when everything was finally going smoothly, Dawn decided she missed Jeff and her dad, and went to California to stay with them. Dawn swears she'll be back, but I sometimes wonder. We all really miss her, and hope she doesn't decide to stay in California.

Oh! Talking about Mary Anne reminded me of someone else you should know about: Logan Bruno, Mary Anne's steady boyfriend.

The reason you should know about him is that he's an associate BSC member, like Shannon used to be. We call Logan whenever we have more jobs than we can handle. Logan has curly light brown hair and a Southern accent. His family (which includes his mother and father, a younger sister, and a younger brother) is from Louisville, Kentucky.

Let's see, who haven't I mentioned? Claudia! Claudia Kishi, whose room we were in at that moment, is strikingly beautiful. She has long, silky black hair, and lovely almond-shaped eyes. (She's Japanese-American.) Claudia's natural beauty is set off by her unique fashion sense. You see, Claudia is extremely artistic. She paints, sculpts, makes jewelry and pottery, sketches - you name it. And her clothing reflects her artistic nature. She combines colors and styles in an original way which really works. For example, today she wore wide-legged maroon corduroy pants, a yellow paisley-print blouse with ruffle sleeves, and a yellow-and-maroon-striped vest. Her hair was fixed in two braids and she wore a black brimmed fisherman's cap. On her feet were heavy-soled black Doc Marten shoes with bright yellow laces. It might sound a little strange, but on her it looked spectacular.

Looking at Claudia's creamy skin and slim figure, you'd never guess she's~ a junk food fanatic. Bags of snacks are stashed all over her room, because her parents disapprove of this habit. They also disapprove of the Nancy Drew books Claudia adores. (Those are hidden all over the place, too.) Claudia's parents would like her to read more "challenging" books, and be more like her older sister, Janine. Janine is an authentic genius, with an I.Q. of 196. Claudia is smart, too, but there's no way she'll ever be like janine. For one thing, Claudia isn't much of a student. She does just enough work to get by and no more.

Claudia's best friend is Stacey McGill, another BSC member. Stacey is our New York girl. She's a real live native New Yorker, and she loves everything about New York City. Like Claudia, Stacey also has a great fashion sense, although she isn't quite as original. Her blonde hair is permed and she has the biggest blue eyes.

As I mentioned, Jessi and I joined the BSC when Stacey moved back to New York. While they were there Stacey's parents decided to divorce. Soon afterward, Stacey moved to Stoneybrook once again with her mother, and rejoined the BSC.

Considering all the moves she's made and her parents' divorce, Stacey is a remarkably upbeat person. That's even more surprising when you consider that she has another problem. Stacey has a very serious form of diabetes. Diabetes is a condition which prevents your body from properly regulating the sugar levels in your bloodstream. To keep her diabetes under control, Stacey has to monitor her diet carefully (no sweets). She must also give herself insulin injections every day.

Now that you know who is who, let me give you a brief rundown on how the BSC works. We meet in Claudia's room, because she is the only one of us with her own phone and a private number. Her private number allows us to do business without tying up someone's family phone. Because we use her phone and room, Claudia is the vice-president.

At the beginning of every meeting, Kristy, who is president, asks if there is any new business. If anyone has something special to discuss that's when we do it.