Greta had always looked up to Tillie. Sweet, selfless, agreeable Tillie was never the problem, always the peacemaker, and always seemed satisfied with whatever the outcome. Greta had felt like she could never measure up and had felt guilty for not being more like her.

Now, for the first time, Greta felt sad for her.

“You get what I’m talking about, right, Ads?” she asked her twin.

Adelaide nodded slowly but didn’t say a word. Greta knew what that meant: she was processing something large, and she’d need to check back in later.

“Well, I don’t,” Sadie said. “Compromise is a good thing. Mom and Dad needed us to get along and share, so we did, because we’re not spoiled monsters. The fact that you don’t know the difference between compromise and martyrdom isn’t their fault.”

“I never said it was their fault, Sadie!”

Then the penny dropped, and Greta felt utterly foolish that it had taken her so long to understand.

“It must have been really hard on you to feel the strain to make us agree to take pressure off Mom and Dad, huh?”

Sadie started to snap at her out of habit but paused. “What?”

“You’re the oldest. You must have seen how hard Mom and Dad worked to provide for us, to give us time. So of course you wanted to help, because you identified with them. So if we weren’t compromising or sharing or whatever, you knew it meant more work for them. So you tried hard to help out.”

Sadie narrowed her eyes.

“Probably you tried so hard to help out that there was stuff you wanted to do that you didn’t get to, huh? You were so busy trying to be helpful that you didn’t get to be yourself either.”

Sadie sat back down. For a moment, she looked like she had absorbed what Greta’d said. Then she shook her head. “Whatever. I was the most mature, so sure, I helped keep you all in line. But I’m an adult now, and I can do whatever I want. I choose to stay here.”

“Well, I’m really glad to hear that, Sadie. I want you to be happy.”

And she really did. But it came out sounding sarcastic because she was talking to Sadie. So Sadie flipped her off.

“I’m going to the West Coast for the summer with Naveen, and I’m moving there after graduation,” Maggie blurted.

All eyes turned to her.

“What?” their mother said, sounding horrified.

Maggie gave a nervous laugh. “Uh. Yeah. Seemed like an appropriately upheaval-y moment to bring it up.”

“That’s awesome,” Greta said deliberately. “I can’t wait to come visit you there. And I can’t wait for all of you to come visit me in New Orleans and let me show you around.”