Lucy’s tip for surviving eighth grade:

Be open to surprises.

An Old Mill taxi pulls into our driveway, and Grandma and I leap up from the couch. We’re outside on the porch waiting for Claudia before she’s even gotten out of the car.

I’m having déjà vu back to last summer when Claudia pulled up with Lauren and Bean. Only a million things are different now: Claudia’s getting out of a taxi, not Lauren’s car. It’s freezing outside. And Yamir’s not sitting on the porch taking pictures.

I want to go back to that moment. Sometimes I wish that life could be like the photo stream on my phone. You could click back and forth from one moment to another. You could revisit happier times and take a break from harder ones.

“Hiiii,” Claudia says, running up the steps to the porch. She reaches out to hug both of us at the same time. I guess she’s not staying long, because she only has a small bag with her.

“Let’s go in. I’m freezing,” she says. She’s the only one of the three of us with a coat on, plus she’s coming from Chicago. She should be used to cold weather.

She drops her bag by the front door and hangs her coat on the coat tree. She walks into the kitchen like she’s been here for weeks, like nothing unusual is happening. She grabs an apple from the bowl and fills up a glass of water.

It’s the strangest thing. It’s like she has no idea we’re ridiculously worried and curious about why she’s here.

Grandma goes back into the living room and picks up her book. I sit next to her and wait. I’m not going to interrogate Claudia. I’ll wait until she’s ready to talk.

“So,” she starts, and sits down on the brown armchair across from Grandma.

“I’m going to guess you weren’t arrested,” I say. “You seem too calm for someone who might be heading to jail.”

“Very funny, Luce.”

“Start talking,” Grandma says to Claudia. “You don’t just appear out of nowhere like this.”

If Mom were here, she’d probably yell at Grandma for saying something like that, but I stay quiet. I kind of want to see how Claudia explains this. And sometimes a little tough love is helpful.

“Where’s Mom?” Claudia asks.

I tell her about “the bind” Adrienne is in. “She needs someone to check in on the cats and the birds. Sounds like she has a whole pet store in her house.”

“Yuck,” is all Claudia says.

“Claudia. Come on. What’s going on?” Grandma seems frustrated that Claudia isn’t getting to the point.

“Well, I came for advice.” She looks down at her feet. “Bean asked me to marry him!”

“What?” Grandma screams and stands up. “Claudia Desberg. Stop this right now.”

I can’t say I’m totally surprised. It could be worse. She could already be married. Oh no! Maybe she is.

I stand up too. “Wait? You didn’t answer him, right?”

Claudia’s the only one still sitting down, and it feels funny. “Great to know you both love Bean.” She half-smiles.

“This is not about loving Bean or not loving Bean,” Grandma says, sitting down again, so I follow along. “This is about the fact that you’re barely twenty years old. And you’re not getting married. It’s not even legal!”

“Actually it’s totally legal,” Claudia replies. “I think. I’d have to look it up. Whatever.”

Grandma shakes her head like she’s in pain. “Tell us the whole story, Claudia. Please don’t leave out any important information.”

Under her breath I hear Grandma add, “You girls are so much like your mother. It kills me.”

We both ignore her, even though we know she wanted us to hear that.

“Well, okay, I should clarify,” Claudia continues. “He didn’t ask me to marry him right now. It wasn’t like that. He just has this whole plan for us to travel and live abroad for a few years after college, and he thinks it’s better if we’re married.”

“No. The answer is no. You cannot get married!” Grandma stands up again, and I almost start laughing. It feels like she’s been up and down a million times. This time she leaves the room. We hear her stomp up the stairs, and even though she’s not much of a door slammer, we hear her bedroom door close forcefully.

“So, that wasn’t a success,” Claudia says, laughing a little.

“Of course it wasn’t,” I say. For a smart girl, Claudia can be really, really dumb. “You didn’t think she’d be happy about it, did you?”

“Um, I guess not. But I thought Mom would be here to sort of help.”

“Well, blame the cats.”

“She has birds now too. But, of course. We can blame most things on cats.”

We both start cracking up, and it feels good to laugh. There are a million problems lingering, but sometimes you have to laugh anyway. Laugh in spite of all the problems.

Mom gets home a little while later. Her hair is tied up in a messy bun and she looks disheveled.

“What happened?” I ask, turning off the TV.

“One of the cats had some stomach troubles,” she says. “Don’t even ask.”

“I won’t. I don’t want to know.”

“Did Claudia ever get home?”

I nod. “Yeah. You might want to go talk to Grandma.”

Mom clenches her teeth. “That bad, huh?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Where is she?” Mom puts her hands on her hips like she’s about to take control. The thing is, she’s not good at being in charge. It’s actually kind of funny to watch.

“In her room, I guess.”

I keep the TV off, because I want to hear what happens. The thing that confuses me is that I’m not sure if Claudia came home to ask permission, or to get our opinion, or what. I’m not even sure why she came home. I guess getting engaged worried her in some way. She must know it’s absolutely insane.

I hear voices but I can’t make out what’s being said. I leave the den and tiptoe up the stairs. I’ll hang out in my room with the door open, and then I’ll be able to hear everything.

“Claudia, you can’t make a decision for two years from now!” Grandma yells. “That is absurd. And he’s nuts to expect that of you.”

“How many times have I said he didn’t want an answer right away?” Claudia says.

“So then why exactly did you fly home?” Mom asks. “I’m thrilled to see you. Don’t get me wrong. But why the urgency? Why does this need to be decided or discussed right now?”

There’s silence for a few moments. And then Claudia says, “I guess it startled me. I wanted a break from everyone at school. I wanted to talk with you guys. But you get so crazy. Everything becomes a fight.”

Then she starts crying.

“It’s not a fight, Claud,” Mom says in her soft, trying-to-be-comforting voice. “We just want what’s best. And it doesn’t make sense to make these decisions when you’re so young.”

“Because look at what happened to you,” Claudia says, and something about her voice makes it clear she already regrets saying it.

“No,” Mom replies. “I have no regrets.”

“Jane, please,” Grandma sneers. “Frankly, Claudia, I think you need a break from Bean. You’ve been together since the first day of college, and it seems like he’s getting ahead of himself. Take time for yourself. Meet other boys.”

No one responds to that.

A few seconds later Claudia says, “Well, Mia’s home for her grandparents’ anniversary party this weekend, so we’re going to grab some coffee. Can I borrow the car?”

“Be home for dinner,” Mom says. “And tell Mia we say hi.”

Claudia comes into my room before she goes. “They’re crazy,” she whispers.

I don’t know if I agree. I mean, yeah, sometimes they’re a little hard to take. But in this case I think Bean is the crazy one.

When I don’t respond to that, she says, “So, what’s new with you, Luce? How’s Yamir?”

I’m faced with a choice: tell her the truth, because she’s my sister. Or lie to her, like I’ve been lying to everyone else. It becomes surprisingly easy to lie when you’ve been doing it so consistently for so long.

“He’s okay,” I say. Technically that’s not really a lie, but it’s not saying much of the truth.

She checks herself out in the mirror above my dresser and smears on some of my lip gloss. “Things are good with you two?”

“Well, I can’t really say that,” I reply. It turns out I can’t lie to my sister. I mean, I did sort of kiss someone else last night, and Yamir and I broke up.

“What do you mean?” Claudia turns around, sounding shocked. “Clearly you need to fill me in,” she says. “But I’m almost late to meet Mia. Talk later?”

I nod.

Claudia goes out, and the house is quiet again. I think about the conversation Claudia had with Mom and Grandma, and it makes me wonder if she’s telling the truth. It feels like something’s missing from the story. Maybe she’s scared to go into more detail because Mom and Grandma get so intense.

Maybe we’re all only telling half the story all the time.

I guess it makes us feel safer that way. We can’t reveal everything or we’ll be vulnerable. If we tell our stories in bits and pieces, there’s time to see how people will respond, time for us to adjust what we say as we go.

There has to be more to this. Bean’s not crazy. And Claudia hates to leave school, even for a few days.

I told everyone that things were great with Yamir for so long when they really weren’t so great. I did it because it was easier at the time. But it was just putting off the hard part.

I guess the hard part comes eventually, no matter what you do.