"Oh, that's right," Sheila said with sickly sweet sympathy. "Your illness and all."

"No, it's not that," I said quickly. "I'm just tired." Sheila was referring to the fact that I'm diabetic, which means my body has trouble controlling the sugar levels in my bloodstream. Diabetes is a serious disease but I can live a

normal life as long as I give myself injections of insulin every day and stick to a strict, healthy diet. (No sweets. Or my system would go wild and I could even go into a coma.) There's no doubt that having diabetes is a major drag, but I don't let it stop me from doing anything I want to do.

"I guess we won't play then," Robert said, looking disappointed.

"You can, if you want," I offered, knowing full well he wouldn't.

"Come on," Andi coaxed him. "One quick game."

"No, thanks. Another time," Robert said. Waving, Sheila and Andi went off to play their tennis game. Robert turned to me. "Do you feel all right? Do you want to go home?"

"I feel fine," I answered honestly."I just didn't want to play tennis with them."

Robert nodded. He knows how I feel about his friends so I didn't have to explain. "Okay," he said. "What do you want to do now?"

"I don't know," I admitted with a shrug. "Want to try that new computer game my dad gave me? Mom and I set it up last night. It's pretty fun."

Robert stood up. "Sounds cool. But will your mother mind me being in the living room?" (Mom's rule is that Robert is allowed

to come into the house while she's at work, but we have to stay in the kitchen. "The TV is definitely in your living room, remember?" he added.

Personally I didn't see any difference between being in the kitchen and being in the living room. "I'll call her when we get to my house. I'm sure she won't care as long as I let her know."