Penny had no more than swung her feet to the floor before she heard the trap door fall open and the stairs slide down to the hallway below. Ellen’s blonde head popped up into her room seconds later.
“Did you plan on sleeping until dark, or what?” Ellen took four quick strides and plopped down next to Penny.
Katie’s appearance was less energetic and her demeanor much less bubbly. She tugged the sliding steps and trapdoor closed behind her, then whispered, “Michael wants to talk to us.” She looked less than thrilled by the prospect.
“What? Why?” Penny cast her thoughts back over the past few weeks in search of something, anything, they had done that might have attracted his attention. “What did we do?”
“I don’t know.” Katie’s voice was an urgent rasp. “He wanted Zoe too, but I told him h
