My father has tried to make up for my not having a mother. He truly has done his best. But a father is not the same as a mother, no matter how hard he tries. My father used to be extremely strict with me, but over time he's

begun to loosen up. I think I had to help him learn how to be a father to a teenage girl. There was a lot he didn't know, until recently. For example, my father didn't know that a seventh-grade girl should not be forced to wear her hair in pigtails and dress in childish jumpers. My father didn't know that a seventh-grade girl is quite old enough to decorate her own room. I won't even get into all the other things my father didn't know about teenage girls, but I'm sure you can imagine.

I have always been very shy. I think this is because I grew up as an only child and got used to spending a lot of time alone. But in the past year or so, I have learned that being shy does not have to mean being timid. I have learned to stand up to my father and to challenge some of the rules he had made — just the ones that were obviously ridiculous, that is.

And I think my father learned to respect me as a person in my own right, instead of thinking of me as a helpless child. He learned that I am a responsible young adult who does not need someone hovering over her at all times. Plus, I think that learning these lessons allowed him to feel free to get on with his own life. Which is how I got my stepsister!

Is that kind of confusing? Okay, I'll back up and explain. See, I have a good friend named

Dawn Schafer. I met her when she moved to Stoneybrook and became part of this club I belong to, the Baby-sitters Club. (More about the club later.) Dawn moved here fromCalifornia. She has long blonde hair and blue eyes. She has this laid-back attitude, mellow, but individualistic. And she loves health food like (ugh!) tofu burgers and (ew!) soy milkshakes.

Anyway, as I said, Dawn moved to Stoneybrook fromCalifornia, along with her mother and her younger brother Jeff.