his bare shoulder. Like the other cameramen, he rarely wore a shirt during the long days of filming in the sun. He was bronzed and muscular.
Shannen quickly looked away from him, staring instead into the sparkling clear water.
“How do you know my sister won’t tell on you?” demanded Lauren, her eyes darting from Shannen to Ty and back again.
“Because I read the same name book that she did, and Shannen means ‘not a snitch,’” said Ty.
“A bitch but not a snitch,” amended Konrad.
Lauren stamped her foot. “My sister is not a bitch! You should apologize to Shannen right now, Konrad.”
“He doesn’t have to, I’ve been called worse names than that.” Shannen stole a glance at Ty. When she found him staring at her, she looked away again. “It doesn’t bother me.”
“I’m sure whoever called you…worse names, regrets doing so, Shannen,” Tynan said quietly.
“I’m sure I don’t care, Tynan,” she retorted. “Sticks and stones and all that.”
“Y’know, that’s just crap,” Konrad said vehemently. “Some of the names I got called as a kid made me a helluva lot madder than getting whacked with any stick. And in the joint, you better watch your mouth—you get what I’m saying? You diss somebody there and you’re dead meat. It’s worse than punching him out.”
“That’s an interesting point.” Ty raised his camera. “Would you say that again when I turn the camera back on?”
“Sure.” Konrad looked pleased. “Uh, should she say the bit about sticks and stones before I say it?”
“Yeah, that’s good.” Ty nodded. “Shannen?”
“I’m not saying anything,” Shannen said crossly. “You aren’t directing a movie, and we’re not supposed to rehearse our lines. Get out of here, Tynan. Go back and film Cortnee.”
“Hey, I made an interesting point,” argued Konrad. “It should be on TV.”
“I’ll give you a lead-in, Konrad,” Lauren volunteered. “Okay, Tynan, ‘Camera, action, take one,’ or however that drill goes.” She tilted her head, her expression suddenly wistful. “Shannen, remember how the kids at school used to call us freaky clones? And Gramma told us to say, ‘Sticks and stones may break our bones but names will never hurt us.’”
“Who called you freaky clones?” demanded Konrad. “Just tell me who and when I get back I’ll break every bone in their—”
“Nobody ever called us that.” Shannen heaved an exasperated sigh. “It was just Lauren’s cue for you to say your—oh, turn off that camera, Ty. This is ridiculous.”
Ty turned off the camera. “Makes you really respect directors, doesn’t it? Imagine doing take after take after take of the same botched scene.”
“Acting is harder than I thought,” admitted Konrad. “Care to try it over again?”
“No!” Tynan and the twins chorused.
The four of them looked at each other and laughed. They immediately lapsed into silence, nonplussed by the unexpected moment of camaraderie.
“I got a fish!” Lauren suddenly shrieked, hanging on to her bamboo pole, which was waving and twitching. “I bet it’s big, it’s really strong! Help!”
Tynan turned on his camera to film Lauren clutching her fishing pole as it swayed precariously, back and forth and around. Konrad reached over and took hold of the string, swinging it out of the water. The fish on the primitively fashioned hook went flying into the air.
“Get it! Get it!” cried Lauren.
Konrad did, catching the impressive-size fish with his bare hands.
“That was so quick!” marveled Shannen. “Like watching Gramma’s cat reach up and nab the bird who’d made the fatal mistake of flying onto the porch while he was napping there.”
“Except we can eat the fish,” said Lauren. “That bird incident—yuck, it was so gross!”
Ty’s lips quirked. He caught Shannen’s eye and found her looking at him. Both immediately turned their attention back to Konrad and the fish.
“I think I’ll turn off the camera until that fish is officially pronounced dead,” said Ty.
“Feeling queasy, Ty?” taunted Shannen. “You didn’t seem to have any qualms filming us drinking snake blood in that over-the-top victory contest a couple weeks ago.”
“The snake blood scene was sexy in a vampire-ish sort of way, to quote a TV critic,” said Ty. “But nobody is going to find strangling a fish sexy in any sort of way.”
“That’s disgusting!” scolded Shannen.
Ty wondered if she was referring to him, snake blood or fish strangulation.
“The fish is dead,” announced Konrad.
Ty resumed filming.
“This fish would make a decent-size meal for two people, maybe even three, but we’ll only have a few mouthfuls each if we split it six ways,” said Konrad. “So let’s not.”
“It’s only fair to share it with everybody,” insisted Lauren.
“We could outvote her.” Konrad turned to Shannen. “Two against one not to share.”
“My stomach wants to go along with you, but my better instincts tell me that Lauren is right.” Shannen sighed.
“Better instincts? More like idiotic instincts,” Konrad muttered, then added a few unintelligible growls as they trooped back to shore.
Cortnee was so delighted to see the fish, she squealed with joy and hugged Konrad and the twins in turn.
Rico and Jed tried to look happy but weren’t altogether convincing.
“Their smiles are so fake, I’m surprised their faces haven’t cracked,” observed Shannen to no one in particular. “They want to be the heroes, but you can’t catch anything, lounging around on the beach all day.”
“Told you it was stupid to share,” Konrad needled her.
Ty noticed that Reggie had moved closer to film the group, and he turned off his own camera. “Shannen.” His voice was lower than a whisper, but Shannen heard.
“Don’t talk to me,” she warned, her voice even quieter than his.
It was a warning Ty didn’t heed. “Meet me tonight. Same time and place as last night.”
“No!” She looked alarmed. “I can’t! I…I—” She was truly rattled.
“Be there,” said Ty, and moved away from her.
“Shannen,
