Shannon has great hair. It's curly, blonde, and thick. She has blue eyes, high cheekbones, and a ski-jump nose.

Since Shannon goes to a different school than I do, I'm still getting to know her, so I can't tell you that much about her. I know she's a good student and very involved in school activities. So far, she's done a great job of filling in for Dawn.

Speaking of Dawn, I'll tell you about her, even though at the moment she's in California. Dawn moved here with her mother and her younger brother, Jeff, after her parents divorced. Mrs. Schafer was originally from Stoneybrook. They moved into an old farmhouse (built in 1795) on Burnt Hill Road. Jeff was never really happy here. He went back to live with his father in California pretty quickly. Dawn had trouble adjusting to the cold weather, but, mostly, she liked Stoneybrook.

I think Dawn is totally gorgeous. She's tall and thin with long, white-blonde hair. Dawn is seriously into ecology and healthy food. She eats no red meat, no junk food. She actually enjoys stuff like tofu and seaweed salad. No matter how much the rest of us kid her or pretend to gag, she just keeps on eating it.

Like Kristy, Dawn is now part of a blended family. The great part is that her family joined up with the family of her very best friend, Mary Anne Spier, who's also a BSC member.

Things get the tiniest bit complicated here, so let me take a moment to tell you about Mary Anne before I go on with the rest of Dawn's story.

Mary Anne and Kristy used to live next door to one another on Bradford Court. Mary Anne lived alone with her father; her mother had died when Mary Anne was very young. Her father had very rigid ideas about bringing up a daughter. Mary Anne had to obey strict rules about everything from how long she could talk on the phone to what she could wear. (She still wore braids and jumpers in the seventh grade!) Then Mary Anne met Dawn, who had only been in Stoneybrook for four days. They didn't appear to have much in common. Dawn is tall, Mary Anne is short. Dawn is a cool dresser, Mary Anne wasn't. Dawn is outgoing, Mary Anne is shy. But, still, they became good friends pretty quickly.