Second Child by John Saul

all, which they practically never did, Teri thought she knew what they were thinking:
    You don’t belong here—why don’t you go home?
    And yet as she stole another glance at the group of kids on the beach, she was certain at least one of them was giving her a look she’d seen before, a look that said he, at least, wanted to get to know her. Unless he was just staring at the skimpy bathing suit she’d found in the poolhouse yesterday.
    He was the tallest one of the group—a little over six feet, and when he grinned at one of his friends, she could see deep dimples in his cheeks. “Who’s that?” she asked Melissa.
    Melissa didn’t even have to look at the group of kids to know whom Teri was talking about. It had to be the boy on whom she’d had a secret crush for the last two summers. “Jeff Barnstable,” she said out loud. “Isn’t he adorable? I love his curly hair, and his eyes are just incredible.”
    Teri eyed her half sister speculatively. “You like him, don’t you?”
    Though Melissa shook her head in denial, her flush of embarrassment belied the gesture. “Well, maybe I’ve got kind of a crush on him,” she finally admitted, then sighed heavily. “But he doesn’t even know I’m alive.”
    Teri squeezed Melissa’s hand sympathetically. “Well, don’t worry about it,” she said. “I bet if we can just get his attention, he’ll notice you. Besides,” she added, “it wasn’t him I was talking about. Who’s the tall one?”
    Melissa covertly let her eyes scan the group of teenagers, and then understood who Teri was talking about. “Brett Van Arsdale,” she said.
    “What’s he like?”
    Melissa, relieved that it wasn’t Jeff who interested Teri, shrugged indifferently. “I don’t know—he’s okay, I guess.” She started walking once more. “Come on—just ignore them, and they’ll probably leave us alone.”
    Side by side they walked along the waterline, the foam from the gently breaking waves lapping at their feet. Teri could feel the eyes of the teenagers on the beach watching them as they passed, but she didn’t look up. When they were about a hundred yards farther along, she glanced at Melissa. “Let’s go for a swim,” she suggested. “I’m all hot and sticky.” Without waiting for an answer, she turned and dashed into the water, running out until she was knee deep, then diving into a small wave. The chill of the water hit her skin with a shock, but she swam underwater for a few yards, then surfaced, rolling over onto her back. “Come on in,” she called to Melissa.
    Melissa hesitated, then waded into the water, stopping when it reached her knees. “It’s cold!” she called.
    Teri laughed and started swimming toward her half sister. “It isn’t cold—it’s freezing! But come on in. If I can do it, you can do it! And once you get numb, it’s not bad at all!”
    As she heard Teri’s laughter, Melissa felt a pang of hurt stab through her. But then, as she listened to what Teri was saying, she realized Teri wasn’t laughing
at
her at all—she was laughing
with
her! Taking a deep breath, she held her nose, then dropped down into the water, only to jump up again, screeching with the shock of the sudden cold. “It’s the only way I can do it,” she told Teri a moment later, finally stretching out into the water andslowly dog-paddling toward the other girl, with Blackie, who’d plunged happily into the water the moment she’d started wading in, swimming along beside her. When she came close to Teri, she rolled over on her back, too, and they floated for a while, side by side, the warmth of the air on their faces barely compensating for the ocean chill.
    They drifted for a few minutes, enjoying the gentle rise and fall of the swells, and finally Melissa let her feet drop down and began treading water. Though they hadn’t been floating more than five minutes, they were already thirty yards from the beach. “Teri?” Melissa called. “We’d better go