Phoebe

"I haven't gone by Twila since you and Dad up and left."

Apparently I was no longer to be considered a player of clarinet. (To be honestly truthful to say I was a decent clarinetist was close to stepping over the line anyway. I suppose my near-perfect grades didn't really allow me to be brilliant in the art of music; there's only so much talent a single person can have without being absolutely obnoxious.) The girl was obviously Twila Ivy Whitaker, my bolder, prettier, and -- in general -- better sister. Her hair had darkened, to be sure, but her eyes were still the same green-speckled brown as my own, given that you overlooked her eyes being a shade lighter.

"Ivy then? Just please don't call me Ione. I don't think I could stand it."

She leapt the distance from the door to my bed and she tried to hug me, but I dodged her by standing. "I don't like to be touched," I said as Twila, now Ivy, crashed onto my bed.

"Since when have you not liked to be touched?" Ivy questioned as she righted herself to sitting position. I knew she was thinking back to days of before -- when we used to hug and hold hands and chase Canadian geese together at the pond in the park behind our (former) house.

I shrugged and sat in my rolly computer chair. "I think around the same time Dad and I up and left."

Ivy laughed; she still had that ability to change the atmosphere of the room she was in as well as the people in it. That was another thing besides her appearance that she had inherited from Alfie's side of the family. I swear that the both of them had been bitten by Jasper (you know from the Twilight series: Jasper being the vampire who could control the emotions of the room). I was close to laughing myself, but I checked myself and merely smiled as I asked a question.

"Why are you here?"

Ivy stopped suddenly. "Why aren't I here?"

"Well, you never wanted to go looking for mom. And now that we've stopped looking for her, and we're just moving around the states, you still don't want to come with us. So why now? Why pick now to come find us?"

Ivy sighed and sagged her shoulders. She had changed a lot since I had last seen her -- gosh had it been that long ago? -- roughly seven years ago. She wasn't wearing a yellow sundress. No, that had been exchanged for flip flops, capris, and a white shirt transparent enough to see the color of her bra -- which was a hot pink I must say. Like I said before, her hair had changed. It used to be platinum and long and curly; now it was honey colored and styled. And the makeup-less eyes she used to have were at this time covered with blue eye shadow and mascara.

"Grandma said that I had to leave. She practically kicked me out. She said that you guys were now in Laurel, Georgia, and I must say that it was very easy to find you once she said that. Have you seen how miniscule this town is?"

I shrugged. "It's not all that small. It has a Starbucks. And a Wal-Mart. And a McDonald's. You know that every town is complete once it has those three."

Ivy laughed and I smiled again. "Why exactly did Grammy kick you out? I thought she loved you the best of us all."

It was true the Grammy showed favoritism toward Ivy when we were growing up. My sister usually always got the good presents at Christmas and for our birthdays; I normally got stuck with socks and a "classic" book. (Perhaps that's now why I'm obsessed with everything about books.) I didn't really mind too much that Ivy was given everything and I almost nothing; she was better and therefore she deserved it. It was just natural that everybody gravitates toward the openness that is my dear sister.

Ivy chewed her lip. "I'd really rather not say."

She was concentrating on balancing her flip flop on her big toe, and I knew that she was silently begging me to drop the subject. I decided to comply and instead asked how she got here from Mississippi.

"Train. Bus. Whatever. Doesn't really matter, does it? I'm here now."

Her dancing toe finally failed to catch the strap and the blue shoe landed with a PLOP on the wooden floor. "Oh, let's stop talking about the past. We should be talking about school, and, um, books, and movies, and which actors we think are the hottest things to ever walk the Earth."

"I guess so."

"Well then . . ." replied Ivy as she jumped into the subjects she said we should discuss. I couldn't help but feel something was missing -- even though the thing that I was missing was in front of me now. But I didn't know what that thing could possibly be so I listened to my sister's declarations that Johnny Depp was the most talented, gorgeous thing to ever grace Hollywood with his presence -- even if I myself didn't agree.