I send Cora and Nandini a Snapchat of Samir and caption it: omg he’s STILL hogging the TV I could be watching a rerun of rupaul’s drag race rn!!! Almost immediately they send back matching Snapchats expressing sympathy for me.

I’m in the midst of replying when my ringtone blares, Dua Lipa’s voice blasting loud enough that I drop my phone. I forgot I left the sound on so I wouldn’t miss any of my parents’ calls.

I huff but answer the phone, holding it in front of my face as my mother comes into view.

“Myra, why didn’t you call us yet?” my mom demands.

We’re off to a great start. “I’ve had a lot of homework. Sorry?”

“Samir called us yesterday,” she says, her voice thick with accusation. I cast my brother a glare and see that he’s grinning at me. He sticks out his tongue when I catch his eye. Sometimes I think he has no idea how much his achievements highlight my failures. Other times, I think there’s no way he can be that oblivious.

“Sorry,” I say again.

My mom passes the phone to Nanu and Nana, who eye my flimsy T-shirt skeptically. I cross my chest with one arm and give them a forced smile. “As-salaam alaikum.”

After several agonizing minutes of them asking about my upcoming college applications, my mom takes back the phone. I can’t help but be low-key bitter my grandparents are even awake this late, presumably to catch up with my parents on everything they’ve missed.

“Are my plants still alive?” my dad asks, smushing his face against my mother’s. Neither of them know how to properly angle their phones for video chatting. I think that might just be a parent thing across the board.

“Yes,” I say. “I’m taking good care of them.”

“Thank God,” he says, the lines of his face relaxing. But then he purses his lips, considering me. “How is your homework going?”

“I have a US History term paper due soon,” I say. “I was assigned President Jimmy Carter. He’s actually pretty interesting. Did you know—”

“What about physics?” my dad asks, as my mom’s gaze grows heavy.

I bite my lip to withhold a sigh. Why would my parents want to hear a cool fact about Jimmy Carter anyway? “Yes, I’ve been doing my physics homework, too. We had an interesting lab assignment today. We had to weigh our shoes for it, so I was walking around in only my socks.”

“And precalculus?”

I don’t even have an answer for that one. “It’s fine.”

My dad’s eyes narrow, mirroring my mother’s expression, but before he can say anything, I turn the phone toward my grandma. “Dadu, Baba is on the phone.”