Mary Anne looked at her watch again. It was Wednesday afternoon, and she was supposed to meet Claudia and Howie in the Stoneybrook High School library for their first tutoring session at 3:30. It was 3:35, and so far neither of them had shown up yet. If this was in any way indicative of how the rest of the tutoring session would go, it was going to be a challenge.

Before Mary Anne could get too frustrated, Claudia pulled up a chair to the table she was sitting in. Claudia wore a jean skirt, light pink leg warmers, and a hot pink tank top. She had on a white half sweater on top of the tank top. As usual, this was an outfit that Mary Anne wouldn't have even considered for herself, but it looked great on Claudia.

"Hey Claud,"

"I'm so happy that I was assigned to you for tutoring, Mary Anne. When Mrs. Ochs told me about this I was worried that I would get stuck with Emily Bernstein." Claudia wrinkled her nose. "She's kind of scary when it comes to school and grades. Last week, I saw her almost pepper spray Pete Black when he borrowed her biology flashcards. She said he was assaulting her intelligence."

"Wow," Mary Anne responded. Again, she wondered what went through Emily's head on a daily basis.

"So is it just the two of us, or is there someone else coming?" Claudia asked

"Howie Johnson is supposed to be here too. You're both in the same English class, right?"

"Let's just say that I have quite the history with Howie Johnson," Claudia responded, smiling.

Mary Anne looked at her quizzically. She was about to ask Claudia to elaborate on that, but Howie choose that moment to walk into the library. Hopefully she would find out what Claudia was talking about later. She was getting really sick of being out of the loop. It was about time someone told her what was going on.

Once Howie arrived and sat down, the remainder of the tutoring session went quickly. Claudia and Howie were reading To Kill a Mockingbird in their English class, and both needed help beginning the essay they were assigned to write. They both needed a lot of help. Mary Anne winced when Claudia referred to Boo Radley as 'The ghost who lived next door.'

"Should we meet again on Monday then?" Mary Anne asked.

Claudia and Howie looked at each other, and then they each nodded. Howie took off quickly, saying something about needed to met up with Alan Gray before getting home for dinner.

"Thanks for all the help Mary Anne. My paper is going to be a lot better now that I know Scout's not a boy. I mean seriously, who would name their daughter that?"

"I'm not sure Claud," Mary Anne said quickly. "Did you want to go get something at the Rosebud Café? I don't have to be home for about an hour."

"I'd love to Mary Anne, I need to get home. Janine won another award for being a genius, and my family is going out to dinner to celebrate. Maybe we could on Monday though."

"That sounds good. I'll see you later."

"Bye Mary Anne."

Mary Anne gathered her things together. For some reason, she wasn't too disappointed that Claudia had turned her down. Even though she still wished in her heart that they could be friends, she had an awful lot going on right now. Maybe she and Claudia weren't meant to be good friends. She grimaced, thinking of Claudia's study habits. Maybe they could just be casual acquaintances, and that would be okay.

Leaving the building, Mary Anne was about to start walking home, until she heard someone call her name.

She turned around, and saw Dawn sitting on the steps leading up to Stoneybrook High School. Sharon and Richard had forced her to come to school today under duress and threats of boarding school in New Hampshire.

"Why are you still here?" Mary Anne asked.

"I guess I've been waiting for you. There are some things that I need to talk to you about," Dawn said softly, "but I'm not quite sure how to begin."

"That's okay," Mary Anne replied, "you can take your time."

The two of them started walking home slowly. Neither of them said anything for awhile. Mary Anne could tell that Dawn was working her way up to something, and she didn't want to interrupt.

"I guess it all really started at the beginning of the last school year," Dawn began. "I was spending most of my time hanging out with Sunny, Ducky, and Amalia. Maggie wasn't around much, because she was really sick at that point."

Mary Anne nodded, remembering how worried Dawn had been about Maggie at this time last year.

"My friends in California are nothing like everyone here," Dawn continued. "Sunny was wild during eighth grade, and it only got worse once her mom died. Amalia isn't as wild, but she is willing to try anything. And Ducky is great, but he's older than all of us. So by hanging out with him so much, we all kind of felt like we were older too, you know?"

Mary Anne just nodded her head, even though she didn't really know what Dawn was talking about. Her problem last year hadn't been what kind of friends that she had, but the fact that she didn't have friends in general. Dawn's problems seemed a world away.

"I started going to parties fairly often. For the most part, they were relatively tame, but at the end of last summer, one of them was busted by the cops. I got caught with pot."

The words hung in the air, and Mary Anne could tell that Dawn was waiting for a response. Even though she had heard this already from Sharon, it made it so much more real coming from Dawn. She really didn't know what to say.

"I'm not going to lie, Dawn. I didn't expect that from you. Drug use is not something that I respect," Mary Anne said simply.

Dawn nodded her hear sadly. "It's not something that I ever thought I would find myself doing either. But things happen, I guess. I only actually did it three times, including the time that I was caught," Dawn continued. "Dad and Carol were pretty cool about the whole thing, actually. They grounded me for a little while, but they eventually stopped paying attention to what I was doing. They're just so absorbed with Gracie that they sometimes forget about Jeff and I. So I do know what it's like being ignored, even at home."

Mary Anne was momentarily taken aback by this. It did make sense that Jack and Carol would be wrapped up in the new family that they created with Gracie, just as her dad and Sharon were wrapped up in each other. Poor Dawn wasn't receiving the love and attention she needed from either of her families.

They were passing Bradford court now. She and Dawn both looked up at the window to Claudia's room at the same time, then turned and smiled at each other.

"That's not the big thing, though, is it?" Mary Anne asked. If it was, she was sort of disappointed. She didn't know what would cause Dawn to seek refuge on the other side of the country, but she didn't think that it would be a need for attention. After all, she hadn't gone anywhere yet.

"I wish that was it," Dawn said sadly. "Anyway, once Dad and Carol stopped monitoring where I was going all the time, I could do anything I wanted to again. Right before school started, Sunny and Ducky convinced me to go to an end of summer party that Justin Randal was throwing. I was a little hesitant, but Justin's a cool guy, and he promised that the party was going to be small, so I wasn't too worried."

They were walking up the driveway to the house now. Mary Anne was glad to see that neither Sharon or her dad were home yet. She didn't want them to interrupt what she and Dawn had going on. It was still warm out for Connecticut, so they sat on the steps and continued their conversation.

"There were only about fifteen people at Justin's, which made me feel safe. I ended up smoking a joint, as well as drinking a lot. And, no, you don't need to lecture me. I know that what I did was stupid," Dawn said.

"I know," Mary Anne replied.

"Anyway, sometime around midnight I was completely wasted. Sunny was too. She had more to drink than I did, but she always does," Dawn paused. She quite obviously did not want to say anything else.

"Go on," Mary Anne encouraged.

"I don't know how it happened, but I ended up kissing Sunny." Dawn hesitated. "And it wasn't just a little kiss, Mary Anne. We ended up making out. I'm so embarrassed and ashamed." She hung her head.

"Wow," Mary Anne said. She wanted to say something that would comfort Dawn, but she needed to take everything in and process it first.

"When I realized what happened, I made Ducky bring me right home. The next day, I started working on Mom and Dad to let me come back here. I haven't talked to Sunny since."

Mary Anne reached over and gave her sister a hug. Her mind was racing, she certainly hadn't expected Dawn to confess to this. But whatever she thought about the situation, she could certainly tell that Dawn was hurting.

"So you're running from Sunny?" Mary Anne asked softly.

"I guess," Dawn said. "I just thought that nothing would ever be the same between us again. I didn't know if I could ever face her. And I really did miss Stoneybrook, so I figured that this would be a good place to hide out for a little while. Also, I missed you."

"Really?"

"Of course," Dawn responded.

"Why didn't you want to go to school then?" Mary Anne asked. "That has nothing to do with Sunny."

Dawn shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know really. I'm just tired. I know that people think that I am weird because I move back and forth so much, and I didn't really want to put up with that. It wasn't so bad though, I guess."

"So school went okay today?" Mary Anne asked.

"Yeah, it wasn't bad. I have a ton of homework to catch up on though. Abby is in my science and history classes though. She said that she would help me catch up if I wanted."

"That was nice of her," Mary Anne replied. She was surprised. Abby and Dawn barely knew each other, they had only met two or three times. Besides, she wasn't too fond of Abby after she dropped Kristy when she had needed a friend the most. She didn't mention any of this to Dawn, though. It would come in time.

"It's going to be different being back here. But I think I can make it work. I'm not really sure I have another choice right now." Dawn giggled. "Besides boarding school in New Hampshire, I suppose."

"No way!" exclaimed Mary Anne. "That last thing I need is for you to come home a glittery snob like Mallory. Seriously though, I'm here for you if you need help with your homework, or if you just want to talk."

"Thanks Mary Anne."

Dawn stood up, and walked up the steps to the porch.

"Dawn?"

"Yeah."

"Call Sunny. She'll be there for you too."

Without saying anything, Dawn walked into the house. Maybe she wasn't ready to take that step yet.

Mary Anne still wasn't sure what she thought of everything that Dawn had told her. Situations like that were so far out of her range of experience that she couldn't really make a judgment.

Mary Anne stood up and walked into the house. She walked right by the note on the counter that undoubtedly said that her father and Sharon would be gone for the rest of the night. The thought didn't upset her like it had a few weeks ago. Together, she and Dawn didn't make up a family by any means, but it had to count for something.