I wince. Not landing Alistair in detention this week? Who says that during grace?

Albert says some more things and finishes with, “Amen.”

The rest of the family echoes, “Amen,” and I stay silent, busy looking at Ace now that all our heads aren’t bowed.

He looks unbothered by his father’s statement, his posture as lazy as it usually is. His arms are splayed out on the arms of his gaudy chair, and his legs are spread wide enough that one of his knees is knocking into his brother’s.

Xander roughly pulls away. “Alistair, move over.”

“Am I bothering you?” Ace asks, raising his brows. “I thought nothing bothered you?”

Xander’s grip tightens on his fork. “Aren’t you tired of being so immature?”

“Immature?” Ace pretends to look shocked. “You know, Mom always says I’m too mature for my age—”

“Mom hasn’t seen this side of you,” Xander says, his tone biting. “Dad, do you see what I have to deal with?”

“Alistair, enough,” his dad says.

Ace opens his mouth to argue but seems to think better of it after a glance in my direction.

My gaze flicks among the three of them with rapt awareness, and I look away only when my phone buzzes in my pocket.

I take it out briefly to see a text from my mom. My heart rate rises and I force myself to take a breath, clicking on the notification. Dadu says you’re staying at school late, finishing up a project. What project?

There’s another text from Samir earlier, which reads: bro I accidentally recorded over baba’s basketball games on the DVR how mad do u think he’s gonna be on a scale of 1-10??

I reply to my mom first, a lie already prepared. I make up some nonsense about a physics lab and send a selfie of me and Nandini in goggles, saved in my camera roll from last week.

Then I respond to Samir, saying: yikes... ask dadu if she’ll take the blame bc he’d never be mad @ her. I don’t think he’d be that mad at you anyway, but if you wanna avoid a lecture... that’s ur best option lmao.

Samir’s response is immediate. UR SO RIGHT thanks bro!!

I roll my eyes, looking back up as Ace’s stepmother stands and starts uncovering the various dishes. I try not to sigh when I see a roasted ham as the main course. I don’t eat pork because I’m Muslim, and I’ve never been so grateful Dadu offered to save my lunch in the fridge.

Bangladeshi food is one of my favorite parts of my culture. It’s so rich and heady, yet so comforting at the same time. One of few things I dread about going to college is leaving behind my family’s homecooked meals. I highly doubt aloo bhorta is on Columbia’s lunch menu.