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all started looking at me as if I was funny.

"I couldn't help it. I wanted their lives so much

I'd follow their mothers around a supermarket,

pretending I was with them, buying food.

"You think I was pretty pathetic, don't you?" I

asked Jade.

"No," she said. "Really," she added, when I

looked skeptical. "I can understand not wanting to be

who you are. I've felt like that lots of times." "Me too," Misty said.

"Yes," Cat said. "Me too." She looked like she

meant it more than any of us. How could her story be

worse than mine? I wondered.

"There's more," I said, now willing to tell it all.

"One time I hurt my ankle in gym class and the

teacher sent me back to the locker room to get

dressed. I noticed Charlene's looker was unlocked and

I opened it and took her blouse."

"Why?" Jade asked with a grimace.

"To wear it later, when I was alone at home in

my room. I pretended I was her and I lived in a nice

house with a real mother and a father. Her daddy

works for the city. He's some kind of traffic manager,

makes good money, and her mother always looks

stylish. They come to the basketball games and watch her cheer for the team. She's about my size, too, so the

blouse fit real good."

"What happened when she found her blouse

was missing?" Misty asked. "Did they accuse you?" "No. The teacher made everyone open her

locker and she looked in all of them."

"How come they didn't find it in yours? Where

did you put it?"