CHAPTER 2: 1 Plus 1 Equals 2

Now would be a good time to explain who all these people are. You see, my parents were once happily married, but when Andrew and I were really little, they got a divorce. Naturally, being as young as we were, our parents had to give us a lot of reassurance that even though they still loved us very much, and always would, they just didn't love each other anymore. Daddy stayed at the big house, because it's where he grew up, and Mom took Andrew and me, and moved into her little house.

Shortly after that, my parents got remarried. No, not to each other, but I used to wish they would. When the divorce first happened, Andrew really hated it whenever I talked about it. In fact, just before my seventh birthday, I tried to get my two families together for a big birthday bash, but it didn't work out quite the way I'd planned, even though my two families were together for a few minutes. Mom met and married Seth, who's our stepfather. Seth has a cat named Rocky and a dog named Midgie.

Soon after that, Daddy met and married Elizabeth, who's our stepmother. She has four kids from her first marriage, so I have three stepbrothers and a stepsister. My oldest stepbrothers are Charlie, who's almost twenty-one, and Sam, who just turned nineteen. They attend NYU, where Charlie's going to be a senior, majoring in something called sports medicine; and Sam's going to be a sophomore, majoring in something called sports journalism. Kristy, my stepsister, is almost seventeen, and will be a senior at Stoneybrook High School. She's also the president of the Baby-sitters Club. They're a great group of girls, and I hope they don't break up when they go to college. David Michael, who's also in the Stoneybrook Kids, is eleven. This fall, when I enter Kelsey Middle School, he'll be entering Stoneybrook Middle School. (By the way, Stoneybrook Academy does have upper grades, but my parents talked to the parents of some of my friends, and they decided to let us try public school for those.)

The only other person at the big house, which is what I've always called Daddy's house, is Emily. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from Vietnam when she was two. Now, she's almost six, and will be in first grade at Stoneybrook Academy, and Andrew will be in third. Nannie, Elizabeth's mother, used to live there, too, but she moved out soon after Emily started school.

There are also pets at the big house. First, there's Shannon, David Michael's dog, and Pumpkin, their cat. She came to live there shortly before Boo-Boo, Daddy's old cat, passed away. We also have two goldfish, and I used to have a pet rat named Emily Junior (I'll bet you can't guess who I named her after?) Since Daddy and Elizabeth said that Emily could now have a pet, I gave her my rat, so I wouldn't have to take so much stuff between houses each month.

I also have two best friends that live near each house: Hannie Papadakis lives across the street from Daddy's, and Nancy Dawes lives next door to Mom. When we were younger, we called ourselves the Three Musketeers.

Since Andrew and I have two of almost everything, I used to call us Karen and Andrew Two-Two, since Ms. Colman, my second-grade teacher, read a book to our class called Jacob Two-Two Meets The Hooded Fang. Well, guess what? Ms. Colman had also been Andrew's teacher, so he's not only heard that book, too, but now he calls us that. Surprised? I'm not.

Okay, back to me. After Mom and Seth left, I went upstairs to get ready for bed. I'd just laid my watch on the nightsand when Kristy came into my room. "How are you feeling, Karen?" she asked, laying a hand on my forehead.

"Oh, horrible," I said.

"Well, no offense, but you sound pretty horrible, too."

"None taken," I said, laying my glasses on the nightstand and flopping back onto the bed.

Kristy brushed my hair out of my face and laid her hands on my cheeks. "You do feel pretty warm," she said.

"Wonderful," I muttered.

"It might not be too serious," Kristy said. "Your dad says he'll talk to your mom when she calls in the morning, and when she takes you to the doctor, they'll find out for sure what's wrong."

"It'd be nice if I knew," I nodded.

"Whatever it is, it'll be okay," Kristy reassured me as she patted my arm. "Now, in the meantime, why don't you try to get some sleep. You've had a pretty long day. Come to think of it, we all have. And I'll leave the thermometer in here in case your dad or my mom wants to take your temperature again."

I nodded again and rolled onto my side as Kristy patted my shoulder and left the room.

Great, I thought as I drifted off. First, I break my wrist, then I have to have my spleen removed, now this. Haven't I suffered enough?