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The door to Willow’s room bursts open and Mia skips inside with her straight dark hair bouncing behind her. “Whatchaya doin’?”
“Mia! How many times have I told you to knock?” Willow scolds her little sister.
“I don’t know. I lost count years ago. Hi, Lily, Ava, Chloe, and Liam. What are you guys up to?”
“Project.”
“Homework.”
“Test.”
She raises her brows just like her mom. “You guys suck at lying. Good thing you’re not actors.”
“Yeah, good thing,” Willow mutters. “Now shoo.”
“Can I hang out with you?”
“No.”
“But your friends are hardly ever over and you never hang out with me. She’s always working on her app,” she tells us with a roll of her eyes. “She never makes time for me. Soon, she’ll be off to MIT and won’t say a single word to me. And then when I’m rich and famous and resent her, she’ll blame me.”
Willow looks up at the ceiling with a sigh.
I smile at Mia. “Willow is pressured to get her app ready in time for the coding competition. But she loves you and wishes she could hang out with you.”
She glances at her older sister. “Really?”
Willow sighs again and turns to her. “I’m sorry I’m not making time for you. I’m just so stressed with my app.”
“Oh. Well, I can try to learn to code and maybe help you…”
Willow shakes her head. “You focus on your acting.”
“Have you gone on any auditions?” Lily asks her.
She sighs very dramatically as she falls down on Willow’s bed. “I am currently not allowed to go on any auditions. My parents are going to ruin my budding acting career.”
“You should have thought about that before you put your life at risk. Mom and Dad were worried sick about you.”
“It wasn’tmyidea…”
“I think my sister is a bad influence on you and Zoey,” I say.
“Rylee is the best friend a girl can ask for. She’s awesome.”
“She is,” I agree. “A little misguided…”
“Ooh, can I play with WillowBot?” Mia gets up and heads to where Willow’s two-foot, human-looking robot sits on her desk, inactive.
“Stop right there!” Willow orders when her sister’s hands are inches from the robot. “Drop your hands and step away from the bot.”
“Aw, come on. I won’t break her.”
“She’snota toy, Mia. How many times do I have to tell you? I worked extremely hard on her for the eighth-grade robotics competition—”
“I know, I know. But I won’t drop her, Iswear.”
“You said that the last time. And I spent days repairing her.”
