Cast of Characters

	CLAUDIA That’s me. I’m thirteen, and I’m in the seventh grade at Pine Tree Middle School. I live with my mom, my dad, and my brother, Jimmy. I have one cat, Ping-Ping. I like music, baseball, and hanging out with my friends.
	MONICA is my very best friend. We met when we were really little, and we’ve been best friends ever since. I don’t know what I’d do without her! Monica loves horses. In fact, when she grows up, she wants to be an Olympic rider!
	BECCA is one of my closest friends. She lives next door to Monica. Becca is really, really smart. She gets good grades. She’s also really good at art.
	ADAM and I met when we were in third grade. Now that we’re teenagers, we don’t spend as much time together as we did when we were kids, but he’s always there for me when I need him. (Plus, he’s the only person who wants to talk about baseball with me!)
	TOMMY our class clown. Sometimes he’s really funny, but sometimes he is just annoying. Becca has a crush on him … but I’d never tell.
	I think PETER is probably the smartest person I’ve ever met. Seriously. He’s even smarter than our teachers! He’s also one of my friends. Which is lucky, because sometimes he helps me with homework.
	Every school has a bully, and JENNY is ours. She’s the tallest person in our class, and the meanest, too. She always threatens to stomp people. No one’s ever seen her stomp anyone, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened!
	ANNA is the most popular girl at our school. Everyone wants to be friends with her. I think that’s weird, because Anna can be really, really mean. I mostly try to stay away from her.
	CARLY is Anna’s best friend. She always tries to act exactly like Anna does. She even wears the exact same clothes. She’s never really been mean to me, but she’s never been nice to me either!
	NICK is my annoying seven-year-old neighbor. I get stuck babysitting him a lot. He likes to make me miserable. (Okay, he’s not that bad ALL of the time … just most of the time.)
	BRAD is our school’s football star. He’s really popular, really nice, and really cute. Only Becca and Monica know that I have a really big crush on him! I usually feel too embarrassed to talk to him, unless I really, really have to.
	KAREN is one of Anna’s friends. So of course she’s trying out for the cheerleading squad.
	GINA is in eighth grade. She’s also the captain of the cheerleading squad. She gets to pick the people who will make the team. I don’t know her well, but she doesn’t seem very nice!
	KRISTIN is really good at math. She’s one of the girls who’s trying out for the cheerleading squad.