“Are you mad? You’re mad. Okay, listen, I can talk to Mom. I think Sadie told her you’d think it was funny, and—”

“Sadie told her that?”

“Well, I don’t know exactly. I just think—”

“Duuuude,” Maggie said, skipping down the stairs. “You looked like you were about to turn into a flock of crows and peck out everyone’s eyes up there! Did you see Sadie yet? I bet—”

But she fell silent as their mother walked in from the kitchen, drying her hands on her apron.

“Hi, honey,” her mom said with a smile.

“That’s what you have to say to me after earlier?” Greta demanded.

“Well, what do you want me to say? That I’m happy my daughter stood up in front of the whole town and glared at everyone?”

“I glared because you and Sadie put me in a position where I’d have to do something I hate or publicly offend the whole town. What, did you think I’d be, like, excited about it?”

“Don’t be such a baby, Grotto. It was just a joke,” Sadie said as she walked in from the kitchen. She took a loud, crunching bite of an apple and cuffed Greta on the shoulder.

“It’s not a joke!” Greta seethed with a deep, trembling kind of anger that made her voice come out thin and reedy. “That’s what shitty incels and rapey frat boys say when they realize whoever they’re talking to isn’t going to let them say horrible things. Don’t tell me it’s a joke to put your sister on a fucking auction block for someone to buy the right to a dinner date.”

“Pshh, it’s for fun. It’s a holiday tradition,” Sadie said.

“Fun for who? Not for me, certainly. And I’m not going out with Nicholas Martens.”

“What do you mean?” their mother broke in, frowning. “You can’t not go. It’s for charity.”

Greta spluttered.

“And you’re cool with this,” she said to Sadie finally. “I know we fuck around, but you actually think that I should go on a date with a man who bought time with me. Come on.”

“Not like you’ve got any other dates,” Sadie muttered. “Whatever, take the free dinner. Nicholas isn’t that bad.” She waved her hand in dismissal.

Greta took a step toward her. Sadie was only two inches taller than Greta but around ninth grade had decided that she would never lower her chin, so she seemed even taller.

“Fuck you,” Greta said. “I know you don’t think this is cool. You would never do it to anyone but me.”

Something flickered in Sadie’s eyes, but she just sniffed and the moment was past.