" WHAT? ARE YOU SURE? " Jean Malloy practically screamed into the phone. There was a long pause on the other end of the phone.

" Well of course I don't mind moving back to Buckman. The people are so nice there and it's a charming town. It's just that the girls have already started school here and-" There was more lengthy pauses occasionally interrupted by a " Well I guess" or a " Hmm" from the girls' mother.

Finally the conversation ended with a " Well I'll tell them then I suppose. I bet Caroline will be happy"

Mrs. Malloy sat down at the dining room table. Hard. Her three daughters Eddie, Beth, and Caroline were already seated and had been listening to the phone conversation. " That was your father girls. And you've probably guessed already that we're moving back to Buckman. Things just didn't work out for Mr. Benson at the college. He decided he and the family missed Georgia too much so they are moving back. We'll be moving back into their house and your father will take over Mr. Benson's job permanently."

There was complete silence around the table as all the girls let this news sink in. This is so weird nine year old Caroline thought. She had gotten all worked up over leaving Buckman to return to Ohio; She bawled the whole way there. But then she returned and spent the last three weeks hanging out with all her old friends. What she'd discovered was that although she hadn't changed much in the year she's been gone her friends certainly had. When Caroline left all her friends were giggling 3rd graders who liked barbies and drawing pretty pictures. Now they had just started the 5th grade and had moved on to boys and clothes. It wasn't long before Caroline herself had begun to mow lawns for extra money just so she could afford that new Hollister shirt or that skirt from Charlotte Russe. Or before she was eying the cute curly haired boy in the seat in front of her.

Wally Hatford had sat in front of her last year. The Hatfords! Caroline had been so busy lately she hadn't even thought about Jake, Josh, Wally,and Peter. This revelation shocked her; The boys and the pranks she, along with her sisters, had pulled on them used to consume her ever waking thought. Well that and acting. Caroline was going to be a major Broadway star someday and if anyone ever told her she wouldn't be it was only because they were jealous. But it wasn't Caroline's fault she was "precious". She was so precious in fact they had moved her up a grade which was how she had ended up in the same grade as Wally who was a year older than her. 12 year old twins,Jake and Josh, were the same age and grade as Eddie who had just started middle school, as a 7th grader. 11 year old Beth was in 6th now and little seven year old Peter was in 3rd. Of course now all three girls would be switching schools three weeks after it started... The fact that they already knew many people in Buckman, after living there a year while Mr. Malloy temporally took over Benson's job as a teacher exchange program, was a comforting thought. During their year living year they had been renting the Benson house as well; Now they would be buying it and live right across the bridge from the Hatford boys forever. Well until college anyway.

Eddie, who had been quiet along with everyone else, suddenly jumped up and said everyone might as well start packing. No one could argue with that and fallowed her lead.