"That sounds real weird," Nita said, "coming from someone with little Yodas all over her pajamas.""Oh, stuff it, Nita," Dairine said. Nita turned her head and smiled, think-ln g that Dairine had become easier to tease since she'd decided to be a Jedi A night when she grew up. Still, Nita went easy on her sister. It wasn't fair for192 SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL WIZARDa wizard to make fun of someone who wanted to do magic, of whatever brand. "Same to you, runt. When're Mom and Dad getting up, did they say?" "They're up now." "What for?""They're going fishing. We're going with them." Nita blanched. "Oh, no! Dair, I can't—" Dairine cocked her head at Nita. "They wanted to surprise us." "They did," Nita said, in shock. "I can't go—" "Got a hot date, huh?" "Dairine! I told you—" "Where were you two going?" "Swimming." That was the truth. "Neets, you can swim any time," Dairine said, imitating their mother's tone of voice. Nita zipped up her jeans and sat down on the bed with a thump. "What were you gonna be doing, anyway?""I told you, swimming!"Nita got up, went to the window, and looked out, thinking of S'reee and the summoning and the Song of the Twelve and the rest of the business of being on active status, which was now looking ridicu-lously complicated. And it looked so simple yesterday. . . ."You could tell them something—" Nita made a face at that. She had recently come to dislike lying to her parents. For one thing, she valued their trust. For another, a wizard, whose business is making things happen by the power of the spoken word, learns early on not to say things out loud that aren't true or that he doesn't want to happen."Sure," she said in bitter sarcasm. "Why don't I just tell them that we're on a secret mission? Or that we're busy saving Long Island and the greater metropolitan area from a fate worse than death? Or maybe I could tell them that Kit and I have an appointment to go out and get turned into whales, how about that?"
