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Today, we are going to the beach.

I like to swim, but I don’t like the beach that much. I don’t like the feeling of sand on my skin. Also, after a trip to the beach, it feels like sand is everywhere. It’s between my toes, in the cracks of my elbows and knees, and even after a shower, it still sort of feels like it’s there.

“I feel the same way!” Mom replies when I say this to her before we go. “But we haven’t done any family trips since we moved, and I think this will be fun. Anyway, you love to swim, right?”

“I guess.”

She smiles at me. “And you can bring a book.”

I’ve got Someday Angeline in my backpack. The librarian let me take it home, because I don’t get much reading done at school, and I want so badly to finish it. Hunter just won’t leave me alone, and obviously, Dad isn’t around to be scary and make him stop bothering me.

I wonder what Mom would do in a situation like that. Unlike Dad, she deals with everything in a calm and rational way. Maybe she has a solution that will help me deal with Hunter without having to take out Dad’s knife, which would be ridiculous.

“Mom,” I say.

She is digging through my drawer now, looking for a swimsuit that still fits me. I grew a lot this year, and I’ll need all new swimsuits soon. “Mm-hmm?”

“What do you do if a boy is being mean to you?”

Mom drops the swimsuit she’s holding and whips her head around. “Is there a boy being mean to you?”

Her face has turned very pink. I don’t want to upset her. I heard Dad talking to her about some medical problems she has with her blood pressure. I don’t want anything to happen to my mom.

“Not me,” I say quickly. “A friend of mine. I’m trying to help her.”

“Oh.” That seems to calm her down. “A lot of bullies are just looking for attention, and if you ignore them, they go away.”

“And what if ignoring them doesn’t work?”

“Well, the important thing is to make it very clear that you’re not going to tolerate being treated that way.” She hesitates. “Using your words, of course.”

Of course Mom is going to say to use your words, and Dad is going to hand me a big knife.

I end up going to the beach, and I do bring a book with me, although it’s such a nice day and the water looks good, so maybe I won’t even end up reading it much. It will be fun to play in the water with Nico, like we used to when we were little.

But when we get there, it’s not as fun as I thought it would be. Mom seems like she’s almost angry or something. And Nico is acting weird too.

“Hello, Nico, Ada,” Mr. Lowell says to us. He’s wearing a pair of swim trunks and a baseball cap. He’s really white under his shirt, like my mom.

“Hi,” I say, although my brother doesn’t respond.

He doesn’t seem to be upset that Nico didn’t answer him. “Great day for the beach, huh?”

“Yes,” I say politely.

Nico still doesn’t answer, and I’m not sure why. He’d been going over to the Lowells’ house to do chores for a while until they told him he didn’t have to come anymore, so I figure he knows them better than I do. And I don’t think the chores were that bad, since he usually hates chores but he hadn’t complained about it at all.

“Is everything okay?” I ask Nico as we are walking to the water. The sand squishes beneath my feet, and I can feel it getting between my toes. Stupid gross sand.

“Everything is fine,” he says.

“Why do you seem so angry at Mr. and Mrs. Lowell?”

“Why don’t you just mind your own business, Ada?” he snaps at me.

Nico has never spoken to me that way before. I freeze in my tracks, shocked. Nico keeps running to the water, and I should go too, but I don’t want to go if Nico is mad at me. Something is going on, and I don’t understand what.

I look back at where we set up our chairs on the sand. Mom is sitting on a chair, and Mr. Lowell is next to her. She waves at me. I wave back.

Okay, I can’t let this get me down. I’m not going to let my brother ruin the day.

I follow my family out to the water. Dad is a really good swimmer, and so am I, but he doesn’t like me to go out farther than where he can reach me, just in case. I swim out as far as I feel safe, and then I swim back. On my way back, I notice Nico bobbing in the water nearby. And that’s when I also notice that Mrs. Lowell is next to him and they’re talking. I tread water as close as I dare, trying to hear what they’re talking about, except there’s water in my ears and it’s hard to hear.

“Don’t even think… telling anyone,” Mrs. Lowell is saying to Nico. “Don’t you dare… Do you know how much trouble you’ll be in?”

And then Nico says in a tiny voice, “I won’t. I promise.”

Was she… threatening him?

I don’t know what they were talking about, but I didn’t like the tone of her voice. She was threatening him. I’m sure of it.

I keep thinking about it as I’m swimming, and I get madder and madder. How could she talk to my brother that way? And what were they talking about? I get so angry, I can’t even think straight. And then when I’m swimming under the water, I pass by her legs.

I don’t know why I do what I do next. I’m just so mad. So the next thing I know, I’m grabbing one of Mrs. Lowell’s skinny legs and pulling as hard as I can, yanking her down into the water. She doesn’t see it coming at all.

Right away, I’m sorry I did it. She wasn’t prepared to go underwater, and it’s obvious that she can’t get back up. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to save her.

And I think to myself, what if she drowns because of me? I’d be in so much trouble!

But of course, Dad comes to the rescue. He grabs her and pulls her out of the water, and it turns out she’s okay. So I didn’t end up drowning her after all.