An exclusive interview with Tamsin from THE SECRET CLUB!

So, you just moved to a whole new town and a new school. That has to be tough.

Yeah, really tough. I mean, part of me was excited. I felt like I was going to have a whole new life, and there would be a million things to discover in a new town. But mixed in with the feeling of excitement, there was big part of me that was just plain nervous.

Why did you move?

My mom is a doctor and she got a new job.

Were there things from your old room that you didn’t put up in your new room?

Absolutely! I had a giant-sized teddy bear poster. That was definitely, positively NOT getting a space in my new room. I had to sort through a lot of stuff I’d outgrown.

What was your first impression of your new school?

My very first thought was, The girls at this school look cool! That and that I was going to have to get used to a lot of different things. I thought I’d have to learn a whole new language! It was so overwhelming and I had a lot of questions. But the girls in my class really went out of their way to make me feel welcome. They even made a nametag for my locker in art class. They wrote out my name and drew a picture of a daisy on it.

What was the thing that surprised you the most about your new school?

You could still be an individual even if you did have to wear a uniform.

Was it hard to be the new girl?

YES! It took a while to get used to my new school and my new house. I felt really lonely before I made new friends. I like being a part of a group. It makes me feel connected.

What do you like most about your friends?

Well, Ivy is funny. She reminds me of my best friend, Karen. They both want me to hurry up and eat at lunchtime so we have more time to play and hang out. I also like that all my friends like to laugh and be silly.

Can you tell us more about your best friend?

Karen is fantastic. She’s good at everything. She can even surf, and I mean standing on a real longboard surfing. Karen always eats potato chips when she needs to figure something out. And she does this thing where she gets all excited and talks really loud on the phone. I think my new friends would really like her a lot. Karen and I have been friends since kindergarten. We e-mail and talk on the phone all the time, but it’s not the same as seeing each other in real life. She’s coming to visit in a couple of weeks. But it feels like a long time to wait.

What kinds of things do you like to do with your friends?

Well, at school we always jump rope during recess. Ivy and I like to take our dogs for walks to the park and then go on the swings together. And Karen and I used to pretend we were sisters.

When a whole big group of us get together, we like to try different makeup. Sometimes we read magazines. Or we just sit around and talk. We also like dressing up like famous people and lip-syncing to our favorite songs. We also have this secret club. But I can’t tell you anything more about it. I’m sworn to secrecy!

Okay, I’ll tell you one secret: We use cans of baked beans as pretend microphones when we lip-sync! It’s a riot!

What was the best day of your life?

The day all my new friends and my best friend Karen were all together hanging out in my new room. It was the day my new life started to feel even better than my old one.

Do you have any advice for other girls moving to a new town or school?

Keep in mind that things don’t always turn out the way you think they will. In a good way! When I heard my teachers’ name—Ms. Withers—I thought she’d be a withering old lady. But she wasn’t like that at all. She was actually kind of young for a teacher, and she had a bob hairdo and groovy square glasses. Really cool!

Is it true that there was a girl in your class who didn’t like you at all when you first moved in?

No—not at all. Casey’s just had a lot of problems lately, and sometimes she gets upset and it makes her a bit…mean. She seemed to be in a bad mood all the time when I first started at school. She was always roiling her eyes at me and she pretended she couldn’t remember my name. I thought she hated me. But then I found out she was going through a tough time at home and I didn’t feel so bad about it anymore. That’s what I mean about expectations. Sometimes they’re wrong.

Do you have any hard and fast rules about friendship?

You can’t ask one friend about another friends’ secrets. That’s something people have to tell you themselves. My friends and I tell each other our secrets because we know we can trust each other.

Okay, one last question. It’s a fun one. Do you believe in luck? Have you ever had a good luck charm?

Well, I do feel lucky to have so many great friends. And I did have a good luck charm once. My brother Julian is a whiz on the computer. Once he found this picture of Kayla Storm, the singer, on the Internet and he stuck a picture of me in next to her. It really looked like Kayla had her arm around me. Like we were best friends. It was the coolest picture in the world! I folded it up and kept it in my pocket on my first day at my new school. It was my good luck charm. And it ended up working like a charm. It actually helped me make new friends.

Tamsin, thank you so much for being here and chatting with us.

No, thank you. It was so much fun!

IF YOU LOVED READING ABOUT TAMSIN, YOU SHOULD MEET THE OTHER GIRLS.