Bambi Shockey tried not to cry. She was eleven after all - too old to be crying just because she was homesick. But everything was so different on the island, and she missed her parents - especially her mother - as well as her best friends Tansey and Quinnie. She hadn't even gotten to watch the under-twelve beauty pageant back home in South Lincoln, and she was sure Tansey was going to win this year, like Quinnie had won the year before. Why had she ever agreed to this stupid student exchange program? She just wanted to go home!