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of her head and a small grunt.

"It sounds so horrible. What did your father say

about your changing to a parochial school?" Misty

asked. "Was he for it, too?"

"Like I said, when it came to most things

concerning me, my mother was in charge. She told

him what she wanted me to do, of course. It was an

expense, but he just nodded as usual, glanced at me

for a moment, snapped his paper and continued to

read."

"Didn't he care about what you thought and

wanted?" Misty followed.

I shook my head.

"Another absentee parent," Jade quipped. "Why

do they bother to have children in the first place?

What are we, some kind of status symbol, something

to collect like a car or a big-screen television set? I'm

not going to have any children unless my husband

signs a contract in blood, swearing to be a concerned

parent."

"You know you have to get pregnant to have

children," Star teased with a coy smile. "You know

that means you'll lose your perfect figure, and you'll

throw up in the morning."

"I know what it is to be pregnant, thank you." "Unless you adopt like her parents did," Star

said nodding at me.

"Yes, that's right," Misty said. "It doesn't sound

like they really wanted children. Why did they adopt

you?" she wondered.

I turned and gazed through the window. Angry