Chapter 4

"I hate you Mary Anne! Do you hear me, you jerk! The oven has been on and warm for half an hour now, but I haven't been able to finish my soy casserole because it took you so freaking long time to go to a grocery store! Do you get how much electricity you have wasted?"

Once I stepped into the kitchen Dawn started raging. She snatched a plastic bag from me and turned it upside down so that everything that was in it fell on the floor. She picked up a shaker of herbal salt and shook it fiercely on her dish, which she then put into the oven. After that she turned to face me.

"Open the window and look outside!" she told me. I obeyed. She came to stand next to me.

"SEE THE POLLUTION DARKENING THE ATMOSPHERE? FEEL THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT SPEEDING UP?" Dawn suddenly yelled in my left ear, and made me jump at least two feet. She has been a little tense since she went vegan six months ago. I think she doesn't eat enough vitamin B.

"Why didn't you just turn off the oven?" I asked her.

She totally ignored my question. "Mary Anne, because of selfish people like you, we are all going to die", she said dramatically.

I rolled my eyes. Dawn had a pretty good reason to be angry. My trip to the grocery store had lasted almost an hour, although it should've taken max 20 minutes. But it wasn't my fault, really! In the store I had met Mallory's mom, and we had had a long chat. I'm a very good listener, everybody knows that. My friends often come to me when they have problems. Even my friends' parents know I have this unusual feature, which basically bases on the fact that I don't have the courage to interrupt people.

It was only Saturday morning, but I had already heard all about Mrs Pike's new pie recipe, her limited urinary continence and the triplets' troubles at school. When she had mentioned Mr Pike's potency I had started acting like I was choking, just to direct her attention to other things.

I sighed. Dawn took this as a good sign. "Don't worry", she said happily. "You can always change your behaviour. Hey, why don't we hit the mall today? They have opened a new X-Burger there."

I was just about to ask how come she had added junk food into her diet when she continued: "I have drawn and written many banderols. We can stand in front of it the whole afternoon informing people what a huge mistake they would make if they went in."

Luckily I didn't have time to answer because both my father and Dawn's mother Sharon came to the kitchen. Otherwise I would've probably agreed. I'm lousy at making up excuses. For that reason I originally joined the BSC; Kristy didn't buy my lies about the super important piano lessons I had every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But don't get me wrong; the club is the best thing that has ever happened to me. If I don't count Logan, of course. And Tigger. And father's remarriage. And the fact that tofu really tastes OK when you have got used to it. Dawn always makes me eat it when she visits us.

"Good morning girls!" Sharon twittered. "What a beautiful day. Isn't it, Richard?" She was wearing a red fisherman's hat, my old silver coloured T-shirt, blue jeans, a long, black cloak and big, square eyeglasses, although as far as I know there is nothing wrong with her eyesight. Besides this she had nails hanging from her hair.

Sharon is always a bit slapdash, but I thought this was a record, taking into account that she had obviously just wakened up. However, Claudia would have been jealous to death if she had seen her. She likes weird outfits.

"Yes, the weather is pretty nice", my father responded. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat by the table. "Sorry that we got up so late", he said. "But we didn't come home before two o'clock last night. We had great time with the Lewis's."

"It's alright", Dawn said. "The later the better." Father just snorted and opened the newspaper that lied on the table.

"Do you girls want some breakfast?" Sharon asked.

"No thanks, we already ate", I told her.

"Mom, will you take a walk with me?" Dawn wanted to know. "I would like to get some fresh air. Well, the air hasn't been fresh since the industrialization started, but you know what I mean."

Once they were off I sat down next to my father, who was still reading. I remembered I hadn't seen Tigger all day. I wondered if Dawn had let it out again. She has this obsession that she must set free my cat. She takes it outside, yells "be free" or something like that and goes back inside. When Tigger starts to scratch the door and meow she tells it to go and find its roots.

"Dad, do you know where Tigger is?" I asked worriedly. "Mrgh", was all he said.

"Dad, did you hear my question?"

My father looked up from the paper. His face was very pale and his eyes were widened. He stared at me for a moment with this peculiar expression. Then he calmly said what he had on his mind:

"Mary Anne. Your mother is coming to town."