"That was fun!" Eliza yelled over "Rock Your Body," feeling drunk and giddy and happy to be back. After spending the spring locked in her room because she couldn't bear another cold night in a wet field drinking Natty Light-the only thing that passed for a social life in Buffalo-Eliza finally felt like her old self again.

"That place was great!" she said.

"Are you serious? It was packed with nobodies." Poppy sniffed.

"Did you see that troll in last-season's Gucci?" Sugar agreed. "Totally D-list."

Eliza surreptitiously tugged on her not-exactly-new mini. She vowed to hit the shops as soon as she got her fat cash-filled envelope in three weeks.

"So, what are we going to wear to P. Diddy's party?" Poppy asked, zooming past a stop sign. "Oberon said it's strictly red, white, and blue attire only."

"That's so corny." Sugar yawned.

"It's at the PlayStation2 House, isn't it?" Eliza added.

"Isn't that the place where J.Lo had her birthday party last week?" Sugar mused. "I don't think it's even open to the public."

"Apparently even Brad and Jen RSPV'd."

"Awesome!" Eliza leaned forward between the front seats. She was dying to see some real celebrities again. Back when she was still living on 63rd and Park, she hardly ever noticed them. Spotting Julia Roberts hailing a taxicab or Sarah Jessica Parker pushing a stroller was just kind of the backdrop for her life. Good luck catching anyone US Weekly worthy in Buffalo.

"This is your street, right?" Poppy asked, pulling into a private driveway a few blocks from the club.

"Uh . . . actually . . ."

"You guys rented out your house?" Sugar asked, eyes wide.

"Well . . . um . . ."

"What's the deal? Spit it out," Poppy ordered.

"I'm kind of staying with you guys," Eliza said sheepishly.

"What?" Poppy exclaimed as Sugar nudged her sister hard in the ribs. Sugar turned around with a sweet smile. "Excuse my sister, she doesn't know how to mind her manners. Of course you can crash with us tonight. You can borrow something. You're a size zero like me, right?"

"No-it's not that. I'm kind of . . . well . . . Kevin called my dad the other day. He asked me if I could help out Anna with the kids this summer," Eliza finished lamely. "It's no big deal."

Except that it was. The twins remembered their father telling them about the Thompsons' troubles, not that they had paid much attention back then.

"Oh," Sugar said, putting two and two together.

"Excuse me?" Poppy asked, turning around in shock. The SUV jumped over a speed bump and the three of them flew up from their seats.

"Ow! Watch the road!" Sugar said, glaring at her sister.

"Sorry!" Poppy said. "You're one of the au pairs?" she asked disbelievingly, looking at Eliza in the rearview mirror.

"Kind of," Eliza admitted.

There was an ominous silence.

"Huh. Well, that's gonna be fun, right? All three of us together again!" Sugar said cheerfully.

The SUV pulled up to the Perry homestead. Poppy pulled into the driveway and cut the engine. "We're home," she said brightly "So, I'll just run in and put on something patriotic and I'll meet you guys back here?" Eliza asked, swinging her door open.

Sugar and Poppy exchanged a quick glance.

"You know what, I'm soooo pooped," Sugar said, yawning.

"Me too," Poppy agreed. "God, it's been a really long night."

"Yeah," Eliza conceded.

"I think we're just going to go to bed. We have tennis really early tomorrow, right, Pop?" Sugar asked. "We'll see you later, Eliza."

"Night," Eliza said, unsteadily slipping out of the car onto the crunching gravel underfoot.

"Night," the twins called, already halfway into the main house.

Eliza made her way down the stone path and opened the door to the au pairs' cottage ever so slowly. She was trying to be quiet. Really, she was. But she snagged her stiletto heel on the rug and went sprawling. She crashed into a bedside table with a loud thud.

The light clicked on.

"What the hell?" Mara asked, blinking like an owl without her contact lenses. She put on her glasses and glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. "Eliza, it's two in the morning!"

"So what?" Eliza asked, heaving herself up from the floor and falling backward into her bed. "It's early!"

"For you, maybe," Mara snapped. "Some of us actually worked today. What's the deal with cutting out? Hey, are you drunk?"

"God, Mara, get a grip." Eliza moaned. "I don't know how to break it to you, but we're in the Hamptons-hello? The Hamptons."

"I know that," Mara snapped.

But clearly she didn't, thought Eliza.

"Where's Jacqui?" Mara asked.

"I don't know. Probably still having a lot of fun, unlike some people," Eliza said pointedly. "You missed a great party."

"I wasn't invited," Mara replied.

Right. Eliza looked uncomfortable. She had forgotten about that part. That was kind of mean of her, she realized, and she wasn't a mean person-really. Just careless. But someone had to watch those bratty kids.

She peeled off her tank top and struggled out of her skirt, pulling on her favorite silk camisole and a pair of Brooks Brothers pajama bottoms. She was still feeling high from her night and caught a glimpse of the pool reflecting in the garden pathway lights, giving her an idea . . . the six-pack Jacqui had found was still in the cooler.

"Hey, Mar, what do you say we . . .," she started to say, turning to her roommate. But Mara was already back asleep. Boy, Mara was one lame goody-goody.

Eliza hopped into bed, hitting her pillow just as an all-too-familiar rumble geared up outside. No, it can't be, she thought, bolting upright.

"Get in!" she heard Sugar's scratchy voice call.

She scrambled to the window and watched as Poppy ran out of the main house, wearing a red, white, and blue tank top and white jeans, looking furtively over her shoulder toward the au pairs' cottage. Eliza's stomach dropped as the car backed stealthily away, the headlights sweeping the road only after they'd made it out of the driveway without the lights. I invented that trick, thought Eliza.

They were going to the party after all.

It was all well and good to hang out with her at a VIP room or two-but when it came to hitting the real action, she was just deadweight.

The truth hit her hard, and for a minute she was back in her bedroom in Buffalo on yet another lonely Friday night. No one had asked her to be on prom committee even if it was obvious she had more style than anybody else in the class. They'd all thought she was such a snob when she turned up for her first day of school in a mink chubby. But hell, it was cold up there.

This summer was supposed to be different-she was supposed to be back with the old posse, back in the limelight, back in the lap of luxury, where she belonged. She thought Sugar and Poppy were her friends.

She thought back over the evening, looking for clues. So much had happened and she'd had so much to drink. It was mostly a fun, loud, Gucci-Envy-scented blur. But she did remember one thing: they hadn't even thanked her for paying the valet.

A blistering day at the beach.

MARA SHOOK ELIZA'S SHOULDER. IT WAS ALMOST NOON and she was annoyed. Jacqui was nowhere to be found and Eliza had slept in all morning. Only Mara had shown up to feed the kids their breakfast in the main house (a grapefruit for Madison, gluten-free pancakes for Zoe and William, mashed rice cereal for Cody).

"What time is it?" Eliza asked sleepily.

Mara told her. "Hurry up. Anna wants us to take the kids to the beach. They're already in the car."

Eliza grumbled as she hoisted herself up against her pillows. She blinked at the tiny attic room. Where on earth was she? Then she remembered. The Hamptons. Working for the Perrys. As an au pair. God, it was depressing.

"Where's Jacqui?"

Mara shrugged. "I don't think she came home last night," she said with a hint of disapproval in her voice.

Eliza yawned. "Good for her." She padded to the bathroom to get ready, just as Jacqui walked into the room.

"Hola chicas!" Jacqui greeted, a blissful expression on her face. She was glowing and fresh-faced, although Mara noticed she was still wearing last night's clothes.

Mara frowned. "Anna's on a rampage. I suggest you guys meet me and the kids in the main house in five minutes if you all don't want to get in trouble." Mara was irritable from their little stunt the night before, and determined not to let them get away with it again. She stormed off, and Eliza and Jacqui exchanged dismayed expressions.

"What crawled up her butt and died?" Eliza asked. Jeez. She hadn't bargained on having to spend her summer with some hick from the sticks, who was so obviously a little tattle-tale, as well.

Jacqui shrugged. That morning, she and Luca had more than made up for their months apart, and she was still in a romantic daze. She was also sporting a few red hickeys on her neck from their passionate reunion. "She needs um amante. A lover," Jacqui decided. That was Jacqui's solution to everything. Jacqui had had one boyfriend or another ever since she turned thirteen and it was the only way she felt totally comfortable.

"Don't we all," Eliza sighed.

They changed into their shorts and swimsuits and met Mara and the kids by the driveway. William was jumping up and down in the gravel driveway, the baby was bawling in his car seat, and the little girls sat in the very back of the SUV with bored faces.

"William! Please get in the car!" Mara pleaded.

"C'mon," Eliza said, picking up William and shoving him in the car. "You better behave or I'm enrolling you in ballet with your sisters." That sobered him up. Mara wished she'd thought of that.

Eliza walked to the driver's seat. "I'll drive, I know how to get there."

Mara nodded, thankful for the help. They piled in and Eliza drove to Georgica Beach. They dropped Jacqui off to go grab lunch at the snackbar and Eliza gave her instructions on where to meet them. It was a struggle keeping all of the kids together, but Eliza finally chose a spot on the sand that was far from where her old crowd hung out. She shook out the towels and reclined on a beach chair. She still had a pounding headache from the night before, and the kids' whining wasn't helping any, but boy did it feel good to be back at Georgica.

Mara affixed a floppy sun hat on Cody's head and began to slather sunscreen on the girls. When Zoe and Madison were good and covered, she tried her luck with William. "Sit still! Wait! I still have to do your back!" Mara pleaded, but William kept jumping and wriggling away.

"I give up!" Mara sighed. She looked around. Eliza was asleep on her towel. They'd dropped Jacqui off almost an hour ago, but she was still missing. What a surprise.

"What happened to him?" Eliza asked, horrified, hours later when she woke up and noticed William's raw, red face.

"What do you mean?" Mara said. She had been so busy playing with the girls and Cody that she hardly noticed how red William had gotten. Mara had been so grateful when he'd finally gotten out of the waves and splayed out on a towel that it didn't occur to her that laying down might be a tad uncharacteristic for the boy.

"I don't feel too good," William said. His entire body was an angry crimson, and his eyes were watering.

"Haven't you heard of sunblock?" Eliza asked Mara accusingly.

"I tried to put it on him," Mara said weakly. "But he wouldn't sit still!" She put a hand on his forehead. "He's burning up!"

"Sunstroke. I've seen it happen to tourists. It's bad. We should get him to the doctor," Jacqui said, surveying the damage with a critical eye.

The girls panicked. William began to hyperventilate. Mara's heart began beating hard against her chest. She scooped William up in her arms and ran to the car. Eliza and Jacqui packed up the remaining kids and the bags in helter-skelter fashion and scrambled after them.

At the hospital, they deposited an unconscious and feverish William in the arms of a gentle nurse and a kindly doctor, and handed the other three kids off to Laurie, who'd met them there. "I won't tell Anna. For now. But call if you need me," she said sternly before driving off.

"It's my fault," Mara said quietly. She felt terrible for neglecting him. It didn't even occur to her that he had been Eliza and Jacqui's responsibility as well.

"Well, he really wouldn't stay still," Eliza conceded. That was as close to an admonition of guilt as Eliza would get. Still, she was really worried about the kid-and not just because they might get fired.

Jacqui murmured a short prayer. The worst of it was that she knew from experience that sunstroke was easily prevented. She felt a twinge of guilt for sneaking out to meet up with Luca for lunch.

They waited in the little outdoor room, debating whether or not to call Anna. Mara said yes. Eliza said no. And in the end, it was Jacqui's deciding vote for what she doesn't know won't hurt her that finalized their decision not to call.

When the doctor emerged, the news was good. Minor sun stroke. Nothing ice packs, fluids and bed rest wouldn't cure. They almost cheered when William ran out, just as spastic as ever.

Eliza tousled his hair. "You gave us a quite scare!"

"Next time will you sit still?" Mara asked.

William only grinned. Jacqui hugged him.