The Baby-Sitters Club belong to Ann M. Martin

My sister's best friend was over. Things have been very good until now.

I'm Mary Anne Spier. I'm 14 and a ninth grader at Stoneybrook High School. My (adopted) sister is Meredith Sousa. She was an exchanged student from London, England. She became friends with this girl, Cassandra. She lost her father recently.

Cassie was over for dinner. I noticed something was up because she didn't thank Dad or my stepmom, Sharon, for supper when her mom picked her up for 8:00 pm like she normally does. I waited to see if they noticed it. She was never like that when she came over a few times. Is she still in pain about her father? But that's not an excuse. I was raised to thank people no matter what. I suspect that she's changing. She wasn't like that when we went to Paris not long ago.

My (adopted) Carlos also noticed that. My stepsister, Dawn, wasn't home at the time. She was baby-sitting. I'm not sure if Meredith did. She went up to do some homework. Carlos and I talked about it in his room so she won't hear.

"Since when she's like that?" asked Carlos.

"I know," I said.

I don't dare to tell Dad yet because he would break them up. He doesn't stand for rude people at all. The hard part is that the girls are very close.

"I wonder how I'm going to bring it up to Dad about this," I said. "I don't know if Sharon noticed that part."

"And, imagine if they try to break them up? Meredith would go crazy," said Carlos.

"That's the only problem," I said. "That's why I'm not going to bother telling Dad in front of her."

"Good idea," said Carlos.

"We'll have to figure it out," I said. "Should I mention this to Meredith first?"

"I think that would be a better idea," said Carlos.

We talked about how to tell her carefully. Meredith and I share a room. We whisper for a bit while we're in bed. At 9:30 pm, I left Carlos' room to get ready for bed. In my room, I talked to Meredith about that.

"Oh, I thought she did," said Meredith.

"No. I didn't want to mention it earlier because I didn't want to embarrass you or Cassie," I said. "She's never like that with us."

"I heard she's starting to go with a wrong crowd at school," said Meredith. "I think that might be a reason. I didn't want to talk to her about it because I'd be afraid our friendship would be ruined."

"I thought it had to do something with her father at first," I said.

"But please don't tell Dad because he'll break us apart," begged Meredith.

I am puzzled now. I can see what she's saying. I don't keep things from him. I might wait until he asked me about it, so I just said, "Okay."

We went to bed 30 minutes later and whispered in bed for ten minutes before going to sleep. Dad doesn't mind us doing that as long as we don't stay up too late.