A Character Sketch: Mary Jo, Age 13

She sat in the corner on a pile of big, brightly colored pillows, hugging her knees. Her light brown hair, cut in long layers, curled around her narrow shoulders. It was freshly brushed, parted on the side and pulled tightly across her forehead. The style seemed too sophisticated for her round, chipmunk-like cheeks and chubby, acne-dotted nose. With pale face and close-set, light green eyes she had a muted look. Her slight body was accented by the belted waistline of her knee-length black dress. In the v-shaped neckline a gold cross pendent lay between a hint of cleavage.

She jumped up to take a baby who was brought to the door by its father. With bright eyes she smiled widely, making her cheeks even fuller as she cooed at the tiny child.

"I've never dealt with babies this little," she confessed to the nursery director. "I can't wait to be a mother." As she spoke her thin, pink-glossed lips seemed awkwardly drawn over her perfectly straight teeth, as if they were still distorted around braces.

Still in his carrier, the baby began to cry. Mary Jo offered him a bottle, asking continuously, "Am I doing this right?" "Is he OK?" "Why is he making those noises?"

When the bottle failed to calm the child, Mary Jo asked, "Can I hold him? I really want to hold him."

Mary Jo slowly lifted the baby into her arms, smiling nervously. She sat in a rocking chair and kicked off her black patent leather mary-janes, her white feet barely touching the floor. She seemed to relax a little as the baby sucked noisily on the bottle.

"He's like, 'yeah'!"

"Is his Dad like a special agent, or something? He had that earphone thing in his ear," she joked as she jigged the now full, sleepy baby up and down. As she danced around keeping the baby happy, she babbled to the director,

"...she said, like...and then, Stuart like..."

Suddenly she turned to me and said, "Oh, update. Stuart is my boyfriend and I loooove him! I've called him, like 15 times this weekend. His parents think I'm crazy, but I don't care."

The baby suddenly let out a belch twice its size, making Mary Jo laugh.

"The plastic babies at school don't burp!"