"Yeah, I like him," Nita said, and turned red at having to make the admission. The problem was, there was no lying to Dairine. She always found °ut the truth sooner or later and made your life unbearable for having tried to h 'de it from her.You messing around?" Dairine said. 'Dairiiiiiiiine!" Nita said, quietly, but with murder in it. "No, we are not Kessing around!" Okay. I just wondered. You going swimming?"No," Nita said, snapping the strap of her bathing suit very obviously at "er sister, "I thought I'd go skiing. Wake up, lamebrain." Dairine grinned at Nita upside down. "Kit went west," she said.184 SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL WIZARD"Thanks," Nita said, and headed out of the yard. "Tell Mom and Dad I']] be back for supper.""Be careful," Dairine called after Nita, in a perfect imitation of their mother. Nita made a face."And watch out for sharks!" Dairine added at the top of her lungs. "Oh, great," Nita said to herself, wondering if her mom or dad had heard She took off at a dead run in case they had.She found Kit waiting about a mile down the beach, playing fetch with Ponch to tire him out, as he'd told her he was going to. "Otherwise he gets crazy if I go away. This way he'll just lie down and sack out." And sure enough, after some initial barking and dancing around Nita when she arrived, Ponch flopped panting on the sand beside them where they sat talking and finally rolled over on one side and began to snore. They grinned at each other and headed out into the water. It was un-nerving at first, to swim straight out into the ocean, past the breakers and the rollers, past the place where the bottom fell away, and to just keep going as if they never intended to come back. Nita had uncomfortable thoughts about undertow and how it might feel to drown. But just when she was at her twitchiest, she saw a long floppy fin tip up out of the water.
