“Looks like somebody’s planning to help her father,” June said as Michelle came into the kitchen. She glanced up from the eggs she was frying, and, seeing the look on Michelle’s face, smiled at her. “Don’t look at me that way — I’m going right back to bed after I finish breakfast. But I have to start getting up — I need the exercise, I’ve been in bed for three days, and I’m going out of my mind up there!” Then, to prevent Michelle from protesting, she pointed to the refrigerator. “There’s orange juice in there.”
Michelle opened the refrigerator and took out the pitcher of juice. “Help Dad with what?” she asked.
“The butler’s pantry. Today’s the day the remodeling starts.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t you want to help him?” June was puzzled. Usually Michelle couldn’t be kept away from her father’s side, but this morning she sounded almost disappointed at the prospect.
“It’s not that,” Michelle replied hesitantly. “It’s just that some of us were planning a picnic—”
“A picnic? You didn’t say anything about a picnic.”
“Well, I wasn’t sure I was going. Actually, I only just made up my mind when I got up. I–I can go, can’t I?”
“Of course you can,” June replied. “What are you supposed to take?”
“Take where?” Cal asked, emerging from the stairway that led to the basement.
“There’s a picnic today,” Michelle explained. “Me, and Sally, and Jeff and some other kids. Sort of the last day at the beach, I guess.”
“You mean you’re not going to help me with the pantry?”
“Would you give up a picnic?” June divided the eggs onto three plates, and led her husband and daughter into the dining room. “Maybe I’ll take Jenny, and join in.”
“But it’s just us kids,” Michelle protested.
“I was only kidding,” June said quickly. “How about if I make some deviled eggs?”
“Would you?”
“Sure. What time’s the picnic?”
“We’re all meeting down at the cove at ten.”
“Oh, great,” June moaned. “Really, Michelle, couldn’t you have given me just a little more warning? I’ll hardly have time to make the eggs, let alone chill them.”
“You won’t make them at all,” Cal announced. He turned to Michelle. “I only let your mother get up to fix breakfast if she promised to go right back to bed again. If you want deviled eggs, you’ll have to fix them yourself.”
“But I don’t know how.”
“Then you’ll have to learn. You’re a big girl now, and your mother has a baby to take care of.” At the look of dismay in Michelle’s eyes, Cal relented. “Tell you what,” he offered. “After breakfast we’ll send your mother back to bed, you do the dishes, and I’ll see what I can do about the eggs. Okay?”
Michelle’s face cleared — everything was going to be all right after all. But everything’s different, she thought as she began to clear the table. Now that they have Jenny, it’s all different.
She decided she didn’t much like it.
Michelle hurried down the trail to the cove. It was already ten-thirty, and she was going to be the last one there. In one hand she clutched the bag containing the deviled eggs. They were still warm, as her mother had predicted. Well, maybe no one would notice.
She could see them, a hundred yards north, scrambling over the rocks, following the ebbing tide, staying close to Jeff as he moved easily over the granite outcroppings. Only one person was still on the beach, but even from the trail, Michelle recognized Sally Carstairs’s blond hair. As she reached the beach, Michelle began running.
“Hi!” she called out. Sally looked up and waved to her.
“I’m sorry I’m late. Daddy just finished the eggs. Do you think anybody’ll notice that they’re not cold?”
“Who cares? I was afraid you weren’t coming.”
Michelle looked at Sally shyly. “I almost didn’t. But it’s such a nice day.…” Her voice trailed off, and Sally saw her staring out to the shelf of granite, where Susan Peterson was kneeling down next to Jeff. “Don’t worry about her,” Sally said. “If she starts teasing you again, just ignore it She teases everybody.”
“How’d you know that’s what I was worried about?”
Sally shrugged. “I used to worry about her, too. Just because her father’s a big shot, she thinks she is, too.”
“Don’t you like her?”
“I don’t know,” Sally said thoughtfully. “I guess I don’t think about it, really. I mean, I’ve known her all my life, and she’s always been my friend.”
“That’s neat,” Michelle said. She sat down on a blanket next to Sally and picked up a Coke. “Can I have a sip of this?”
“Take the whole thing,” Sally said. “I can’t drink any more of it. What’s neat?”
“Knowing somebody all your life. There isn’t anybody I’ve known all my life.” Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. “Sometimes I wonder who I really am.”
“You’re Michelle Pendleton. Who else would you be?”
“But I’m adopted,” Michelle said slowly.
“Well, so what? You’re still you.”
Suddenly wanting to change the subject, Michelle got to her feet “Come on, let’s go see what they found.” Far out on the rocks, everyone was clustered around Jeff, who was holding something in his hand.
It was a tiny octopus, only three inches across, and it was wriggling helplessly in Jeff’s palm. As Michelle and Sally approached, Jeff held it out to them, grinning.
“Want to hold it?” It was a dare. Sally shrank back, but Michelle put her hand out, tentatively at first, and touched the slippery surface of the octopus’s skin.
“It doesn’t bite,” Jeff assured her, casting a disdainful glance at Sally.
Hesitating, Michelle took the little sea creature in her hand, and carefully turned it over. It put out a tentacle, braced itself against her finger, and righted itself.
“Won’t it die out of the water?” Michelle asked.
“Not for a while,” Jeff said. “Is it holding on to you?”
Michelle took hold of one of the tentacles and pulled gently. There was a slight tingling sensation as its suction cups pulled loose from her skin.
“Ooh! How can you
“Don’t do that!” Susan glared at Michelle.
“It’s only a baby octopus,” Michelle laughed. “Who can be afraid of a little tiny octopus?”
“It’s horrible,” Susan declared. She turned, and started back toward the beach. Michelle, suddenly sorry for what she’d done, tried to apologize, but Susan ignored her. The rest of the children looked first at Susan, then at Michelle, as if trying to make up their minds what to do. Then, as Susan continued picking her way across the rocks, they all began following her. Ony Sally Carstairs hung back.
“Maybe you shouldn’t do things like that,” Sally said softly. “It makes her mad.”
“I’m sorry,” Michelle replied. “It was only supposed to be a joke. Can’t she take a joke?”
“She doesn’t think things are funny when they’re on her. Only when they’re on someone else. She’ll probably start teasing you now.”
“So what if she does?” Michelle asked. Suddenly she felt very brave. “I can take it. Come on — we might as well go back to the beach.”
The sun was high in the sky, and the children were scattered over the beach, munching sandwiches and washing them down with an apparently endless supply of Cokes. Michelle was sitting with Sally Carstairs, but she was uncomfortably aware of Susan Peterson, a few feet away, sharing a blanket with Jeff Benson. Susan hadn’t spoken to her, but had kept watching her, as if sizing her up. Now she put her soda down, and stared at Michelle maliciously.
