Emily: Today was like my first day of school. Mom doesn't have enough money to buy me a car, so I have to ride the bus with all the little elementary school kids. It's totally okay though because Mom really does try to give me things she never got to have. Like right now for example. She's working the night shift as a security guard at the mall so she can save money to send me to college.

Emily: Sometimes I'd tag along (only until ten, though- Mom doesn't want me out late on school nights.) The Crystalline Mall is pretty much the hangout of all the teens in the neighborhood, and so I'd come and meet up with some of my new friends from school. Sometimes I went with Alyssa Edwards, but she would never stop complaining about how all her expensive designer clothes were lost in the truck accident. More often I hung out with Rebecca Johnson. Like me, her family's tight on money, so we go window shopping together.

Emily: One time there was a hot guy working the cash register, so I went over and flirted. After a while we got to be friends, but when I asked him out he said he wasn't interested in a relationship right now. Geez, George, I just wanted to go on a date. Who said anything about a relationship?

Emily: Mom was working so hard that she started getting promotions left and right. More promotions equaled more money, and more than anything Mom wanted me to be able to go to college. I had never had any interest in doing my schoolwork before now, but mom was working so hard and I knew that if I got good grades I could earn a scholarship. Then all the money could be put towards expanding the house.

Emily: The day I brought home my first A+ mom couldn't have been more excited. She went right out and bought me a TV to go in my room. I told her she deserved a reward too, and so now we just keep it in the living room for both of us to watch.

Emily: Rebecca and I got to be close friends, and so did my mom and her dad. Patrick Johnson came over a couple times a week to chat with my mom. Sometimes he even stayed for dinner. Patrick spent so much time at my house Rebecca and I could swear our parents were in love or something. Not that that is a bad thing. If my mom married her dad- well, we'd not only be best friends, we'd be sisters, too!

Emily: Mom says not to get my hopes up; she and Patrick are only friends. But she doesn't know about the time I caught them kissing!

Emily: On one hand I was happy for her, but on the other hand I couldn't believe my mother was getting more action than I was. So I invited George McCarthy over and this time I didn't take no for an answer.

Emily: We're not exclusive, though. He did say he didn't want a relationship. And I have my eye on the cute boy next door.