One thing that does tempt Dawn is a mystery. And she also loves ghost stories. Her favorite ghost story, in fact, is the one about her own house! That's right - her house may be haunted. There's this secret passage in that old farmhouse, and someday I'm sure Dawn will catch the ghost that she believes lives there.

I don't think Stacey believes in the ghost. (That's Stacey McGill, my best friend.) She's blonde, and pretty, and very smart. Stacey grew up in New York City! But now she lives in Stoneybrook, with her mom. She and I became friends when she first moved here - probably because we both have sophisticated taste in clothes - but now our friendship is much deeper. I was crushed when she moved back to the city (her dad's company transferred him) but it wasn't long before she'd moved back here again. Of course I was thrilled, even if the reason for her move wasn't the greatest - it was because her parents had gotten divorced.

Stacey's handling the divorce well - she visits her dad in the city as often as she can. And she and her mom are close.

Mr. and Mrs. McGill used to be kind of overprotective of Stacey, because Stacey has diabetes. That means that she has to be very careful about what she eats and when she eats it, or else her blood sugar gets all out of whack and she can get extremely sick. It all has something to do with her pancreas, but the complete scientific story behind it is more than I can remember. (I almost failed biology.) Stacey takes good care of herself, checking her own blood sugar and giving herself injections (ew) of insulin. She tries not to let the diabetes cramp her style, but lately I've noticed that she seems kind of tired and weak all the time. I hope she's okay.

The last but not least of my baby-sitting friends are Mallory Pike and Jessica (everyone calls her Jessi) Ramsey. They're younger than the rest of us (they're in sixth grade) but they're pretty cool. They're best friends, and like most best friends they're different in some ways and alike in others.