Marianne snorted and then covered her mouth. “Sorry,” she said.

“Yeah, I guess it’s a little pretentious,” Lillian admitted. “She’s good, though! Well, she’s got that kind of … star charisma, you know? Anyway, I wanted to ask her to join Literary Lionesses, but I don’t think she’d be into it.” Lillian paused and, unable to help herself from getting back to some kind of work, picked up the guitar again and fiddled around with the tuning. As she did so, she asked Marianne, “Do you think I should? Should I just ask her anyway?”

“Doesn’t hurt to ask, right?” Marianne offered. “Sounds like she likes book stuff, so why not?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lillian started to strum a country tune. “Maybe.”

“Um, why not? Since when are you a wuss? Just ask her,” Marianne commanded.

“Ha. I feel like a wuss a lot of the time, actually,” Lillian mumbled, and her playing grew louder.

“Oh sure.” Marianne rolled her eyes.

“She’s friends with Samia, which is how I met her,” Lillian said loudly over her strumming.

“Oh, how’s Samia and her whole thing with Jack?”

Lillian stopped playing, and Marianne settled in for a gossip session about the many complicated social dynamics of high school. It was Marianne’s weekly entertainment, a reality show just for her. Sometimes she couldn’t even quite believe these people were real.

“Can I get some help in here, girls?” their dad hollered from the kitchen.

Lillian put away the guitar and they moseyed over to their dad’s side, where Lillian grabbed some measuring spoons and Marianne took over the onion chopping.

“How was your day?” Marianne asked her dad.

He came over to kiss her head as he answered, “Fine, but long.”

“Same,” said Lillian. “One of those days when every teacher decides to have a quiz at the same time. Don’t they ever talk to one another?” Lillian poured some spices into a bowl.

“How about you, Mar?” her dad asked from inside the pantry.

“I joined Quiz Quest,” Marianne reported as she chopped. She took deep breaths from her mouth because her dad had told her that you actually get the teary eyes from inhaling through the nose. Would that fact be on Quiz Quest?

“Oh…” her dad said. She could just imagine the faces he and Lillian were making behind her back, enjoying all the “What’s going on with Marianne?” drama they liked to share in together. “Whose quest? What kind of quest are you going on?”

“It’s a quest for knowledge, Dad.” She couldn’t chop the onion into neat lines. Halfway through, the knife got stuck and the onions slipped out of her hands. “Extra credit with Mr. Garcia. It’s basically a bid to save my life.”

“Not dramatic at all!” her dad teased.

“It’s a shame you have him,” Lillian said. “I had Ms. Fitzpatrick and she was the greatest. Everyone dreaded Garcia’s tests. What does Bubbe always say about people? He’s ‘a cold fish.’”

“My mother thinks everyone is a cold fish, and if they’re not, then they’re ‘a little too much,’” her dad joked. He was always making fun of Bubbe.