up the book and saw the necklace. "See?" she asked. "Just like I told you."

I shrugged. "As long as the system works for you," I said. I've learned to live and let live. "Anyway, it sounds like you already know what you're going 'to wear. So let me tell you about this dream I had, while you get dressed." Dawn and I often tell each other our dreams. It's one of the things I absolutely love about having a stepsister.

"Wow," she said, after I'd told her what I remembered. "Strange. So what do you think it means?" Dawn loves to analyze dreams, and usually she's pretty good at it.

"I have no idea," I said. "But it gives me the creeps. I feel like I need to figure it out."

We talked about the dream while Dawn got dressed and brushed her hair. And, since Sharon and my Dad were already done with breakfast by the time we came downstairs, we kept talking about it as we ate our cereal. (I had Sugar Snaps. Dawn had Health-i-os.) But no matter how hard we tried to analyze the dream, we didn't come up with anything that felt right to me. It seemed that the dream was going to be haunting me for awhile longer.

Chapter 2.

"Hey, Mary Anne! Snap out of it!" Kristy snapped her fingers in front of my nose, and I blinked.

"What?" I said. "What’s going on?" I'd been thinking about my dream again, and I guess I'd kind of phased out for a minute.

"We're about to start the meeting, that's all," said Kristy, "and since you are a member, we'd like to have you join us, if you think you can manage it."

Kristy was being sarcastic. She can be that way sometimes. It’s funny — Kristy Thomas and I have been best friends ever since I can remember, but we are such different personality types. She's loud, and bossy, and sure of herself. And I'm exactly the opposite. But I guess it's like the old saying, "opposites attract."