“You’re not supposed to tell,” said Charlie.

“I’m not telling, Charlie,” said Marlin. “I’m saying we can all guess. Okay, I hate to ruin the presentation but time to slice the cake. Actually, that’s the best part. That’s when you see the magic.”

The cake was, as Marlin promised, magic—a wonder of layers. Marlin took a long careful time slicing pieces. She began by slicing two pieces before removing the first one, the way she had read to slice a cake if you don’t want the pieces to fall apart when you remove them. Then she handed round beautiful rainbow slices, each slice with seven layers and each layer a different color and flavor. For a moment they all looked at the cake slices in front of them, unwilling to mar their perfection with a bite.

“They’re beautiful,” said Fiona.

“Vanilla, chocolate, coconut, cherry, lemon, almond, and orange,” said Marlin. “I put a plain vanilla buttercream between the layers because I didn’t want the icing to clash with the cake flavors.”

“Which color is which flavor?” asked Natasha.

“Take a bite and guess,” said Marlin, digging in.

By the time they were done guessing and had discovered that white was vanilla, brown was chocolate, green was coconut, red was cherry, yellow was lemon, blue was almond, and orange was orange, they were all feeling a little better.

Marlin opened her presents from her sisters and happily exclaimed over them. Miss Webster and Mr. Pettinger opened the pictures Charlie had made and declared them amazing likenesses. Then, finally, it was time for Miss Webster and Mr. Pettinger to go.

At the door Miss Webster pulled Fiona aside. “You do know I’m not abandoning you, right?”

Fiona nodded but her heart sank again. All the worries she had thought would soon be off her shoulders were now securely back on. “When are you leaving?”

“Next Saturday. You really will be okay, Fiona, all of you. I wouldn’t go if I weren’t sure of it.”

“I know,” said Fiona. “Don’t worry.”

They hugged and then there were hugs all around and Miss Webster and Mr. Pettinger left. Fiona, Natasha, and Charlie hurried to wash and put away the dishes. Marlin, of course, was the birthday girl and so excused. Then Charlie and Natasha went to bed. Fiona could hear Charlie quizzing Natasha over and over about why Miss Webster and Mr. Pettinger weren’t adopting them. Fiona was thankful that it was Natasha who shared a room with Charlie and not her. She didn’t think she could stand a half hour reassuring someone when her own spirits were so low.

“Well, it wasn’t the suckiest birthday I ever had,” said Marlin once she and Fiona were lying exhaustedly under covers.

“I know,” said Fiona.

“The worst one was the one right after Mommy and Dad died.”

“Yep.”

“Trying to pretend I was happy that Mrs. Weatherspoon made me three cakes.”

“Yep. That was definitely worse than this,” said Fiona.

“I really thought they would adopt us and move in, didn’t you?”