a pretty snappy outfit — hot-pink shorts with a big, breezy island-print shirt over a white tank top.

"Hi," I replied. "You look really terrific. Is that shirt new?"

Dawn nodded. "Dad sent it to me fromCalifornia ."

"Ooh, don't tell Kristy," I said.

"I know. I won't."

Kristy never hears from her real father. He hasn't been very nice to her, or to her brothers. He doesn't even send them birthday cards anymore. I'm glad she's got Watson now. If she'll just let herself like him a little more . . .

"We better go," said Dawn.

"Okay, I'm ready. Let me make sure I have my house key." I found my key and locked the front door. I'm usually the only one home during the day. My dad is a lawyer and he works long hours, I don't have any brothers or sisters, and my mother died when I was little. I barely remember her. Sometimes it's lonely at my house. I wish I had a cat.

Dawn and I crossed my front yard, and I stopped to check our mailbox.

" Aughh!" I shrieked when I opened the box. "If s here! It came!"

"What did?" asked Dawn, looking over my shoulder.

"Sixteen magazine. Oh, no! I'm dying! Look who's on the cover. It'sCam Geary! Isn't he adorable? The last issue had an article about him, but here's his gorgeous picture — " (I gasped) " — and a poster of him, too. A free poster!"

Dawn looked at me, amazed. "You sure have changed this summer, Mary Anne," she said. "I've hardly ever heard you talk so much. And I've never seen you go this crazy over a boy."

I flinched, remembering how, not long ago, I'd been accusing Stacey of talking about boys too much. But Dawn didn't seem annoyed.

We crossed the street and Claudia's lawn. Dawn rang the Kishis' bell.

"ButCam is adorable," I said, hugging the magazine to me. "If s those eyes of his. They're so ... so ..."

"Hello, girls," Mimi greeted us, speaking slowly and clearly. The Kishis are Japanese and Mimi has always spoken English with an accent, but she isn't hard to understand. She speaks slowly now because of the stroke. "The other girls are here. They are in Claudia's room," she told us.