“Spell pathetic,” I command.

Her lips curl up and she places her hands on her sides. “I can spell better than you, fool.”

“Okay, prove it.”

Her back goes straight and her eyes narrow until they’re nearly closed. I know she can spell the word, but I also know she’s torn between proving she can spell it or refusing just because I challenged her, which will only lead to me teasing her more.

She clears her throat. “Pathetic. K—A—I. Pathetic.” Olivia bursts out laughing while Po Po lifts her hands to her face to cover her smile. I buck at Kylie and she takes off running but pauses behind Po Po to say, “Should I use it in a sentence?” And that’s a wrap. I take off chasing her around the house, finally catching her near the couch and tackling her there.

“Alright you two. If you don’t help, you don’t eat. Let’s go.”

I release Kylie from her headlock but push her back into the couch cushions before making my way back to the kitchen.

“Those look great, Tulip,” Po Po praises Olivia as she pinches the ends of her dumpling dough. The four of us have been sitting around our kitchen table making dumplings for the last hour. We have about fifty ready to cook. It might seem that fifty is too many dumplings for four people—well, six since we’ll leave some behind for my parents—but that would be wrong. Olivia can never get enough of Po Po’s dumplings, and Kylie may only be ten but she eats like a grown man.

“Thanks, G. I’ve come a long way since I started making these with you guys.”

“Yeah, yours used to look like balls of poop,” Kylie states matter-of-factly. Her tongue sticks out of the side of her mouth as she focuses intensely on pinching the disk of dough in her hands.

“Ya Tou, that’s not nice,” Po Po admonishes but Olivia just laughs.

“Nah, she’s right, they did. But now mine look even better than Kai’s.”

Kylie gives her a look as if to say now you’re taking it too far. I think it’s the repetitive motion that soothes me but I’ve always loved making dumplings, and I’ve become really good at it. Each one comes out looking exactly the same with the perfect dough-to-meat ratio.

Po Po even gives Olivia a look that says she’s trippin’ but Olivia just smiles and keeps pinching. Her long dark hair is pulled up into a bun but a few strands are loose around her face. She looks so beautiful; I want to wrap one curl around my finger and kiss her, but I don’t want to hear Kylie’s mouth about being gross at the table so I don’t.

We continue assembling in comfortable silence for a while before Po Po asks, “So, summer is coming to an end and high school is right around the corner. Are you two ready?”