Finn turned to her sister and smiled. Several awkward seconds later, Zadie broke the silence. “Kathy went all out with this party. I’ve been to carnivals with fewer attractions.” She glanced out the window at a bouncy castle overflowing with teenagers which was next to a pen that contained several mini horses. From the outside, it looked more like an eight-year-old’s birthday than a graduation party.

“It’s a lot, isn’t it?” Finn half-grimaced. “I said I didn’t want to make a big deal out of my graduation, but I guess she didn’t hear that part. I mean … I haven’t even met half of these people. A guy I’ve never seen before actually asked me what the graduate’s name was so he could write it on a card.”

“I hope you didn’t give him your real name.”

“Nope. I told him her name was Chrisantha Applebees.”

“Like the restaurant chain?”

“Yup. I was sure he would know I was messing with him, but he actually wrote it down! I feel kind of bad about it now.”

“If he wrote her a big check, you might have to change your name to Chrisantha.”

Finn laughed. “I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

The conversation settled into awkward silence once more. What happened to us? Zadie thought. They used to tell each other everything, often staying up well past Finn’s bedtime to share their dreams for the future as well as their fears. Their dreams changed almost weekly, but their fears stayed mostly the same. In those days, Zadie never would have imagined that she’d look into her sister’s face and see the wandering gaze of someone searching for something to say. Zadie almost blurted out the news of her pregnancy just to fill the void.

Thankfully Finn spoke first. She stepped closer to Zadie and spoke in a low voice. “Hey … you haven’t seen…” She trailed off.

“Seen what?”

Finn screwed her mouth to the side. Something she did when she felt embarrassed. “Never mind. It’s stupid.”

“You can tell me.”

“No. Forget I asked.”

Just then a female friend of Finn’s came running up. “Finn! You’ve gotta come with me. Jack wrote a song for your graduation, and it’s terrible, but in, like, a funny way.”

In an instant, Finn’s whole demeanor changed. “Seriously?” she squealed, then turned back to Zadie. “I’m gonna go check this out, but let’s catch up later, okay? We can talk vacation plans.”