Free Would I Lie To You by Cecily von Ziegesar

of the inside of the twins’ tiny nostrils or read the latest issue of Highlights.
    Reading the labels on the sunblock would actually be more fun.
    Vanessa scanned the scene, searching for a flash of the twins’ blue or red swim trunks. A few brave nannies waded into the frigid Atlantic surf with the kids they were babysitting, gritting their teeth but laughing. She saw two little boys in swimsuits identical to Nils’s and Edgar’s and wondered momentarily if anyone at the James-Morgan household would even notice if she brought them home instead.
    She’d been in the Hamptons for less than a day, but it was long enough to tell that Ms. Morgan was even less interested than usual in the boys, and that Mr. James Grossman’s single check-in phone call was pretty much the daily norm. It was like they were all a bunch of windup robots programmed to perform their own tasks with zero genuine interaction with or feelings about anyone else. Not that Vanessa was a mush, but come on.
    It was just eleven in the morning, and the beach belonged to kids and their caretakers. Vanessa studied her peers, the army of au pairs, wondering if maybe she’d strike up a friendship. Did the rest of these babysitters have bosses who undressed in front of them? She imagined the Hamptons must be filled with people like Ms. Morgan, and she wouldn’t mind having someone to swap bizarre employer stories with. But looking around, it didn’t seem too likely that any of these lithe creatures, with their perfect tans, over-size sunglasses, and manicured nails, would want to have anything to do with her. Or vice versa. Basically, it was like being back at Constance Billard, the school that had tormented her for the last three years.
    Vanessa stared out at the endless ocean, suddenly fighting the urge to cry. She kicked her sneakers off and crossed her legs, looking in the mess of things around her for some-thing to drink. She found a tiny box of apple juice and opened the cellophane-wrapped straw, stabbing it into the little hole in the box angrily.
    “There you are!” Nils skipped toward her across the sand, taking a shortcut over their neighbors’ blankets and towels.
    “Don’t do that,” she scolded him. “Or do and get yelled at.Whatever.Where’s your brother?”
    “Don’t know.” He dropped to the ground and rummaged through the stuff that was strewn all over the blanket. “Vanessa, you got sand inside my Cheez-Its.”
    “Life’s rough, sometimes.” Vanessa inspected her milk-white ankles and even paler feet. She almost wished she’d thought to get a pedicure. She swiveled them off the blanket and buried them in the sand. “Please, Nils, tell me you didn’t kill your brother.”
    Nils grinned at her, leaned in closer, placing his sticky, sand-covered little hands on her shoulders, and burped in her face.
    An overprivileged psychopath in the making.
    “The boy you’re supposed to be watching is over there,”a familiar whiny voice piped up.
    Vanessa turned to meet the cool glare of her old class-mate, Kati Farkas. Kati sported a professionally sprayed–on tan and a too-small black Gucci bikini. Beside her lay her best friend, Isabel Coates. Isabel was on her tummy with her pea green string bikini top off. A tiny redheaded girl was rubbing her back with Ban de Soleil bronzing oil.
    “Oh, hello,” Vanessa responded coldly. Two other long-limbed mannequin types lounged beside Isabel beneath a pink-and-white striped umbrella. “Are you a nanny for the summer too?” she asked Kati, even though she knew it couldn’t possibly be true. Kati and Isabel work? Never.
    Kati rolled her eyes. “She’s my niece. I like watching her. She gets us stuff and rubs on our lotion and guys think she’s cute.”
    Vanessa nodded. She really had no response. Then she caught sight of Edgar across the beach, walking to the edge of the water and then screaming excitedly every time a frothy wave crashed at his feet. She was about to stand and grab him,