Have none of them grown up in six years?

S

he is nervous.

For a tutoring session by her younger sister.

Seriously?

Mimi shakes her head. She lays her books out on the desk in order of priority: Kayla will want to start with the assignments, then the studying, beginning with the ones with the earliest due date. She places two pens beside the pile of books and then sweeps everything that’s cluttering the rest of the desk onto the bed: ribbons and cellophane from the mishloach manos theme she’s experimenting with; a chocolate bar; a bunch of loose earrings; some pictures she’s in the middle of sorting into albums.

There. All ready, and on time for a change.

The second hand meets the twelve, and Kayla walks in. She looks totally normal, totally fine, as if nothing happened in school today. As if Mimi hadn’t stood by when the class queen ripped into her sister, as if she hadn’t been a part of the wall of silence that must’ve made everything worse.