“Sounds like a party in here.” Naomi appears in the kitchen doorway, work bag on her shoulder. She stops short when she sees a stranger at the kitchen table. “Um. Hello.”
“Hello!” Vivi says, sitting up straight. “You must be Naomi.”
Naomi stiffens. Maybe it’s the surprise of an unexpected addition who somehow knows her name. Maybe it’s that Naomi is not exactly a warm person to begin with. Maybe it’s that Naomi is perpetually tired from the commute to her internship. But whatever it is, my sister is not thrilled. “And you are . . . ?”
“Vivi,” she says simply, as if her name is an explanation in itself. And, as I’m coming to find out, it sort of is.
“She’s my friend,” Leah announces, lifting her chin up.
“Leah invited me over for dinner after she found me wandering around Main Street like a stray cat, with no one around to feed me. Does that sound about right, Leah? Meowwww.” Vivi glances at my little sister, who nods confidently through her giggles.
“Umm . . . okay.” Naomi’s not even fake smiling. “Jonah, I think we have some soda in that garage refrigerator. That’ll be good with pizza. Help me carry it?”
She’s giving me an intentional look. In response, I throw a glance at Silas. I don’t have to—he’s already lifting himself off the couch. We each play referee for the other two. Silas and I rarely fight, but we’ll both get into it with Naomi every once in a while.
When we’re all three in the garage, my sister turns with her hands on her hips. “In the future, I’d appreciate if you didn’t invite total strangers into our home.”
“She’s not a stranger. And Leah invited her—not me.”
“We agreed. We agreed to keep things quiet around the house for Mom.”
“Yeah, and look how far that’s gotten us. Besides, I like her. She’s . . . sunny.”
She snorts. “I’m shocked. You like a girl who looks and dresses like that.”
Okay, as if I wasn’t pissed already. That’ll do it. My face goes hot. “You know what, Naomi? I don’t really give a shit what you think.”
“That’s just charming, Jonah. Very mature.”
“You’re not even here most of the time. I don’t know why you think you can move home for the summer and start telling everyone how it is. We did this for months without you.”
Her eyes narrow. “So my opinion no longer counts because I have to be in college some of the time?”
“Hey, you said it, not me. This is our full-time reality. You get to come and go.”
Naomi recoils. Her voice becomes a scary whisper. “I come home every chance I get. Most kids my age go on spring breaks and study abroad, and I’m here. Do you know how insane my commute is?”
“And I dropped baseball to be home with them after school.” I gesture to include Silas. “We get up at the ass crack of dawn; we help with homework and school projects. We—”
“Enough.” Silas’s voice is quiet. “We’re not playing the game of who has given up the most.” Naomi and I both open our mouths, still arguing our cases. Silas holds up his hand. “Stop. Jonah, you don’t get to disregard Naomi because she was at school most of the year.”
She looks vindicated, but Silas keeps talking. “And Naomi, you don’t get to make unilateral decisions because you’re the oldest. Jonah’s right. I’m okay with anyone who can make Leah laugh like that.”
Naomi’s eyes burn into me. “Fine.”
“Fine.” My jaw clamps after I say the word.
We come back in, holding the soda as our excuse. Vivi has made setting the table into some sort of game, and Leah’s so delighted that Isaac and Bekah wander into the kitchen, too, wanting in on the fun. I give Naomi a look, like See—this is a good thing. She avoids me.
When Vivi’s not looking, I poke Isaac’s shoulder and hand him the plate of food for our mom. He turns to take it upstairs without a word. We do this every night, even though she only sometimes eats it. Other times, she shuffles downstairs to the kitchen at odd hours, searching for anything appetizing. If one of us sees her, she startles like she’s a burglar caught red-handed stealing our food.
“Oh! I almost forgot!” Vivi leaps up as everyone else assembles around the table. I’ve set all the food out to be passed around already, so I don’t know what she forgot. “The sparkling juice! Jonah, do you have some little glasses for it somewhere?”
“I think so.” I dig around the hutch until I find mini champagne glasses that must have belonged to my grandmother. There’s a pop as Vivi opens the bottle, and she pours a bit of sparkling juice into each glass, passing them out to my siblings.
It’s a holiday. It was not a holiday five minutes ago.
Vivi climbs back onto the bench with Leah. I nestle in between Isaac and Bekah. Silas and Naomi sit at the ends of the table—their natural places as the oldest.
“Thank you so much for welcoming me into your home,” Vivi says, lifting the little glass. “I don’t have any siblings, and I’m so glad to pretend to be a Daniels for the night.”