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Melanie's smile widened.

Jefferson frowned and looked up at me. I closed my eyes and opened them to signal he shouldn't argue, and he sat back and pouted the rest of the way.

All the chatter at school was about my party. My classmates had really enjoyed themselves. Pauline couldn't wait to ask me about Gavin and tell me how good-looking she and most of the other girls thought he was.

We had an abbreviated school day, the purpose of which was to conduct the end-of-the-year activities: returning books and locker keys, straightening and cleaning out desks and lockers, returning overdue library books and settling other school debts, as well as getting some preliminary information about the beginning of the next school year.

Naturally, there was a great deal of excitement in the air as everyone talked about the coming of summer, the places some of them would go to and the things they would do. The school corridors were filled with laughter and chatter, even the teachers happy and less severe about the rules.

Finally, the last bell rang and we all charged out into the warm, late spring sunshine. There were cheers and screams and shouts of good-bye as friends who wouldn't see each other for a few months parted. I spotted Jefferson walking slowly from the elementary school, his head down. He had his report card tucked under his arm.

"How bad is it?" I asked him when he reached me. I held my breath, afraid of the answer. He just looked up at me and started toward the limousine, in which Richard and Melanie were already waiting. "Let me see it, Jefferson," I demanded. He paused and reluctantly, he passed the envelope to me. I took out his card.

It wasn't only that he received Unsatisfactory marks for every behavior category; he received two U's in his school subjects as well. Actually, it was his worst report card ever.

"Oh Jefferson," I cried. "Mommy and Daddy will be so upset with you."

"I know," he replied and began bawling in anticipation.

"Get into the car," I said sternly.

"Well?" Richard asked, a crooked smile of self-satisfaction already on his face. "How bad is it?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Richard. It isn't funny," I said sharply. Jefferson turned into the corner of the seat and began to cry. When he was like that, all I could do was comfort him, even though I knew he didn't deserve it.

"You can't cry over spilled milk," Melanie said. "You just have to do better."

Jefferson wiped his eyes and turned around.

"Melanie's right about that, Jefferson," I said. "You're going to have to make a thousand promises," I advised him, "and not get into a single bit of trouble this summer, not even a teeny-weeny bit," I said. He nodded.

"I'll be good," he promised. "I'll clean up my room and pick up my clothes and never leave the front door open."

"Believe that and you can believe there really is a tooth fairy," Richard said.

"There is a tooth fairy,"

Jefferson spat back. "She left me a quarter under my pillow."

"I told you," Richard replied, shaking his head, "your mother or your father put it there."

"Or maybe they had Mrs. Boston do it," Melanie suggested.

"They did not!"

"Stop teasing him," I cried. The twins looked at each other and then out the window.

"Hey!" Richard suddenly said. "What's that?"

We all leaned forward and that was when we first saw the tower of ugly black smoke rising above the roof of the main building of our hotel.

4

BURNING CURSE

"JULIUS, WHAT IS THAT?" I CRIED. I WAS SEIZED WITH fear.

"I don't know, Christie," he replied, but sped up. It took us almost ten more minutes to get there because of all the other people hurrying to the scene, and when we arrived, we found policemen and firemen on the street blocking traffic around the front of the hotel. People were out of their cars and gathering in dumps along the road to watch the flames spit out of the roof and the windows of the top floor of the great Cutler's Cove resort. Their eyes were wide, their faces lit up with the reflection coming from the fire and from their own excitement. I saw guests and members of the staff huddled together on the front lawn far back from the ropes put up to keep people away from the activity.