“Okay,” she starts. “Here’s the condensed version: I think we should switch places.”

She waits, watching me carefully. I blink at her. “Um, sorry … what?”

Jamie crosses her legs and nods. “I think we’ve been presented with a rare golden opportunity to mess with our parents, and I, for one, can’t bear the thought of letting it slip through our fingers.” Excitement leaks into her eyes. “Dad had no idea you would be here, or he wouldn’t have suggested I come. So as far as I can tell, they have no idea we’ve reconnected.” She purses her lips. “Do you think Mom had any idea I’d be here?”

I slowly shake my head. No. She would never send me here if she knew her secret was about to blow up in her face.

Jamie nods. “Okay, hear me out. I’m thinking, we go home in each other’s place so we can each confront our respective estranged parents, have the difficult, emotionally charged conversations we need to have so we can move forward from all their drama, and gain a better understanding of ourselves, blah blah blah blah. BUT to make this more interesting, and dare I say fun”—she grins—“we do it with a little twist.”

She pauses for dramatic effect.

I roll my eyes. “… Explain.”

Jamie smirks. “I think we should play dress-up. So, at a glance, when we first arrive, they won’t know we’ve switched, and we can catch them completely off guard.

“That plot twist, landmine moment of parental dread when they realize we’ve switched, that’ll be something we can treasure for the rest of eternity, Sier. It’ll be a landmine moment to own all landmine moments!”

She starts gesticulating. “And I’m thinking after being switched for five days, we trick them into meeting up at the same place on day six, and then we can pitch them your I’m sorry sister road trip thing together in front of them both!

“This way when we do head off on that little road trip, we do it with some closure on all this traumatic parental bullshit.”

I gawk at her for a few long moments before I pivot and walk farther down the trail. Jamie’s asking me to participate in wild, mischievous sibling shenanigans.

Jamie catches up to me three seconds later. “We’d get five days to talk and get to know our other parents alone—I’ll have time to work through all this imaginary shit with Mom. And you can stay in Cali with Dad and Grams and work through the whole abandoning ordeal.” Go to California … without her?

I walk a little faster, but Jamie keeps pace.