A few hours later, Joyanna sat upstairs in her bedroom, fuming. She wasn't particularly mad about the locket, although it still puzzled her that Jyll was given the same one. (Did Aunt Claudia have no concept of how different they were? Why would she give Jyll the same gift?)

The real reason she was upset was because during the entire time that the family had been together, nothing was said about the play. No one said, "Congratulations on getting the lead role, Joy." That was, of course, because her mother forgot to make a single mention of it at dinner. They were all too busy raving about Jyllina's first week as a thirteen-year-old ninth grader.

The jealousy was too much for Joy to handle. Tears stung her eyes as she flung a fist into her pillow. Even worse was the feeling that no one would understand. She couldn't call up her friend Michelle and complain because Michelle was dealing with a problem of her own.

Michelle had been cast as Joy's understudy. Joy could tell that she was upset about the situation, too. All things considered, Joy figured Michelle wouldn't be the best person to vent her frustrations to.

So in addition to being jealous of little sister getting all the attention at dinner, Joy was also feeling guilty about the way the play had been cast. She couldn't help but wonder if Michelle was going to be jealous of her. It wasn't how she had planned it at all. Jealousy, as Joy well knew at the moment, felt awful. She didn't want that feeling for herself or for Michelle.

"Hey, there."

Joy was nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of her aunt's voice. She had been staring at the television while letting her mind wander and had become somewhat detatched from reality. She smiled sheepishly at her aunt, who was giving her an odd look.

"I was just, um you know, thinking."

"Oh, I see," Claudia nodded. "Well, the girls are going to bed, and they just wanted to come and tell you goodnight."

The other relatives had gone home, but Claudia, Nayen, and Chae were spending most of the weekend at the Yamakawa's home. It had been Janine's idea since she adored her two adopted nieces and liked having her little sister around as well. Nayen and Chae would be sleeping in Jyll's room which meant that Jyll and Joy would both sleep in Joy's room.

"Already going to bed?" It was only nine 'o clock.

Claudia shrugged. "Nayen has always liked going to bed early and getting up early. And Chae mostly does whatever her sister does. I hope they'll let you sleep in tomorrow. I talked to Nayen about that."

"It's okay if they don't," said Joy. She loved her little cousins dearly.

"See, Mommy, Joy doesn't mind," Nayen's little voice was heard, and sure enough, she and Chae stood in the doorway. Nayen grinned shyly when she caught Joy's eye. Chae wasn't nearly as shy, bounding towards Joy and tackling her with a great hug. Nayen followed a bit more gracefully and wrapped her arms around Joyanna.

It was then that Claudia noticed Joy's eyes were awfully bright as though she had been crying or was holding back tears.

"Scoot, you two," Claudia finally said, and the girls complied.

"What's up?" Claudia asked after Nayen and Chae had merrily skipped out of the room. Her voice was filled with concern and Joy picked up on the tone, knowing that she had not fooled her aunt. Even still Joy could not decide what to tell her aunt. She bit her lip and stared at her hands.

"Joy," Claudia gently urged her niece. "What is it?"

"I guess I'm jealous." There was a lot more to it, but that sumed it all up in a nutshell. "Jealous of Jyll the genius."

"You've got the right person to talk to then," Claudia chuckled slightly. Joy relaxed slightly, and a few tears slipped out now that her guard was down. She knew, of course, that Aunt Claudia had dealt with many of the same problems growing up.

Joy finally admitted how disappointed she was that the subject of her play had never come up at dinner. That led her to talk about the worries she had about Michelle. Joy wisely left out the part about Jyll's locket. She didn't want to hurt her aunt's feelings.

"I'm sorry your mom forgot to mention the play," Claudia gave Joy a little squeeze on her shoulder. "For what it's worth, congratulations. I know you'll be wonderful, and I can't wait to see you in it."

"Thank you, Aunt Claudia."

"I think when your mother realizes that she forgot to say anything, she's going to feel awful," Claudia added. "It seems like she's under a lot of stress because of her promotion. You've probably noticed."

Joy didn't say anything just then because truthfully, she hadn't really taken time to notice. Now that Claudia mentioned it, Joy realized that her mom did seem pretty tired these days. She had been complaining of headaches, too, and forgot about a lot of little things here and there.

"Don't worry," Claudia spoke up, when Joy did not respond. "I'm sure your mom will be back to normal once she gets into her new routine. Now, what's this about Michelle?"

"I don't know what to do," Joy sighed. "I'm glad I got the lead, but I feel terrible that Michelle is understudying me. It would have been a lot easier if Michelle had been given the part she wanted. She didn't want to be Nora at all. She wanted to be Christine. Now I'm Nora, and she's my understudy. I don't know how Michelle feels or what I should say to her."

"That sounds like something that happened between my friends, Kristy and Jessi." At a loss for good advice, Claudia resorted to telling Joy a story. It seemed to work because Joy appeared interested and wanted to know more. Claudia explained what had happened when Stoneybrook put on Peter Pan.

"Kristy got the leading role, and Jessi was cast as the assistant choreographer. We all thought that was a pretty big honor, but Jessi didn't see it that way. Her feelings were hurt because she didn't get to be the one on stage. It's funny how it turned out though. Jessi ended up having to fill in for the guy who played Nana and the Crocodile. It all worked out for the best. The little boy who played Michael was terrified of the crocodile, but with his babysitter Jessi in the costume, he wasn't scared anymore, and he was able to do the scene."

"Sounds neat. I'm glad that everything worked out for Jessi and Kristy," Joy said, brightening a little. "I really hope things work out for Michelle and me." She paused. "Hey, Aunt Claud? What did you do in the play?"

"Guess."

"Did you act?"

"Oh, no!" Claudia burst out laughing. "Me, act? No way."

Joy laughed, too. "I think I know. You designed the sets!"

"You got it."

"I'll bet they were beautiful, too."

"Well, I did have some help. They turned out very nicely," Claudia mused over the memory for a moment. "I'm glad we talked, sweetheart. Now I'd better go tuck Chae and Nayen into bed."

Claudia rose, and left the room. On her way out, she nearly ran into Jyll who was coming in at the same time.

"I guess we're roommates for the night," Jyll came into Joy's room already wearing her pajamas and sat primly on the end of Joy's bed. She took a look at her older sister's face and asked, "Have you been crying?"

"A little," Joy could not hide the fact since her puffy eyes and red face had given her secret away. "Aunt Claudia and I were talking."

"Gosh..." Jyll looked like she wanted to say something, but she trailed off. She did not want to admit this, but she had listened to part of the conversation outside the door. The second part of what she had heard was about Joy and a friend from school, but the first part had been about Jyll.

Joy's feelings about Jyll starting high school a year early were not unknown to Jyll. Naturally, she had also known for a long time that Joy was jealous because she wasn't the genius of the family. It was logical that Joy would be jealous, bu it still hurt to hear the words coming directly from her mouth. It seemed that there was nothing Jyll could do about it.

"What?"

"I-I um," Jyll stammered, trying to find the right words. "I sometimes wish I was as close to Aunt Claudia as you are. You two seem to have a tighter bond."

"Well, I could say the same about you and Mom."

"Are you upset because Mom didn't mention the play tonight?" Jyll got to the point rather quickly. Too quickly for Joy. Good thing you're so smart, Jyll, because you sure don't know how to play dumb.

"You were listening to Aunt Claudia and I, weren't you?

"No I wasn't!" Jyll tried to lie, but it was no use. Joy saw right through her. "Okay, fine, I was. I didn't mean to. I couldn't help it."

"OH RIGHT!" Joy spun away angrily. "Jyll, just do me a favor and stay out of my private conversations. And how about not hogging all of the attention while you're at it."

"Hogging all of the..." It was Jyll's turn to get angry. "Oh, please, Joyanna, I most certainly do not hog anyone's attention. Your little play was merely overlooked tonight since we were celebrating my birthday. No one forgot about it. Not like we could. You're going to remind us every minute of the--"

"SHUT UP!" Joy yelled. To her own horror and disbelief, she actually raised a hand as if she were going to hit her sister.

Both girls were stunned momentarily, and they froze. Joy lowered her hand. Neither sister knew what to say. Joy backed away and headed for the bathroom without another word. Jyll burried her face in her hands as she tried not to cry. Needless to say, it had not been the best birthday by a long shot.