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might be fun. And neither of them required taking her clothes off or wearing a uniform that would make her look gross. She wouldn't have joined the swim club for that reason, although she was actually a decent swimmer, better than she had admitted to Connie, and she didn't relish the idea of basketball shorts either. She thought the ski club might be fun too. She went skiing every year with her parents. Her father had been a champion skier in his youth, and her mother was pretty good too. And Gracie had been in ski school since she was three, and so had Victoria before her.
    "See you around," Connie said as she sauntered off on her giraffelike legs.
    "Thank you!" Victoria called after her, and then hurried to her next class.
    She was in good spirits when her mother picked her up outside at three.
    "How was it?" her mother asked pleasantly, relieved to see that Victoria looked happy. It obviously hadn't been as scary as she'd feared.
    "Pretty good," Victoria said, looking pleased. "I like my classes. It's sooooo much better than middle school. I had biology and chem this morning, English lit and Spanish this afternoon. The Spanish teacher is a little weird, he won't let you speak English in his class, but the others were all pretty nice. And I checked out the clubs, I might do ski and film, and maybe Latin."
    "Sounds like a reasonable first day," Christine said as they drove toward her old school to pick Grace up after day care. As they parked in front of the school, Victoria suddenly felt as though she had matured a thousand years since June. She felt so grown up now being in high school, and it wasn't bad at all. Gracie was in tears when Victoria ran inside to pick her up.
    "What happened?" Victoria asked her as she scooped her up into her arms. She was so small at seven that Victoria could carry her easily.
    "I had a horrible day. David threw a lizard at me, Lizzie took my peanut butter sandwich, and Janie hit me!" she said with a look of outrage. "I cried all day," she added for good measure.
    "So would I if all those things happened to me," Victoria assured her as she walked her to the car.
    "I want you to come back," she said, pouting at her older sister. "It's no fun here without you."
    "I wish I could," Victoria said, but suddenly not so sure. High school had looked okay to her that day, better than she'd thought it would. It had definite possibilities, and she wanted to explore them now. Maybe there was hope that she'd fit in after all. "I miss you too." It was sad to realize that they'd never be in the same school again. The age difference between them was too great.
    Victoria put her in the backseat, and Grace reported her miseries to her mother, who was instantly sympathetic. Victoria couldn't help noticing, as she always did, that their mother had never been as tender with her as she was with Grace. Their relationship was different and simpler for her mother. The fact that Gracie looked like them made it easier for their parents to relate to her. Gracie was one of "them," and Victoria was always the stranger in their midst. Victoria wondered if Christine also hadn't known how to be a mother yet when she was born and had learned with Gracie, or maybe she just felt more in common with her. It was impossible to know, but whatever it was, Christine had always been more matter of fact with her, more critical and distant, and demanded more of her, just as her father did. And in his eyes, Gracie could do no wrong. Maybe they had both just softened with age. But her being a reflection of them seemed to be part of it. They'd been in their twenties when Victoria was born, and were in their forties now. Maybe that made a difference, or maybe they just didn't like her as much. Grace hadn't been named after an ugly queen, even as a joke.
    Her father asked her about school that night, and she reported on her classes, and mentioned the clubs again. He thought her choices were all good, particularly Latin, although he thought the