not even counting the pets — Shannon, Boo-Boo the cat, and the goldfish.

I don't have any pets, but when the game got around to me, I decided I'd be a wildly colored jungle parrot. I envision plumes of red, gold, green, and blue. Purple tail feathers. A bright yellow beak. The flashiest, coolest bird in the jungle, that's me.

I'm vice-president of the club. I don't have many official duties, although I do make sure to have plenty of snacks on hand for meetings. The reason I'm vice-president is that I am the only one in the club with my own phone and a private line, so we don't tie up anyone else's phone with all the calls we get. That's important. We meet in my room three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from five-thirty to six. That's a lot of phone time.

Our club treasurer is Stacey McGill, my best friend. The animal she picked was a big jungle cat, like a lion or a panther. I think that's perfect. Stacey has blonde hair, and huge eyes with dark, dark lashes, so she looks like one of those big, tawny cats. Plus, she has a certain elegance, as if she knows she's queen of the jungle.

Like me, Stacey likes clothes and fashion and experimenting with hairstyles and makeup. But while I'm a wild dresser, Stacey is

more trendy and sophisticated. I think that's because she grew up in New York City. And she still visits there a lot, because her father lives there. Stacey's parents got divorced not that long ago, and Stacey (luckily for me!) decided to live in Stoneybrook with her mom.

Stacey may look like a queen, but she has down-to-earth problems, just like anybody else. The divorce was hard on her, for one thing.