"Hi, I'm Elizabeth, Megan's older sister"

"Oh, ok. Uh, I didn't know she had an older sister." Kelly said.

"Yeah, I'm just helping out for a while. I think the papers are over there." Elizabeth gestured to the other room.

Kelly eyed Elizabeth a little, clearly curious as to why Megan's older sister was working in such a low role. She grabbed the papers, said thanks, and left quickly.

Five minutes later, Elizabeth got a text. "What the hell Liz! I told you not to say anything! OMG!"

Elizabeth texted back "Sorry! Geez, I didn't think it was such a big deal." She huffed and set the phone down. Megan was such a drag sometimes. Who cared if she was her sister? It didn't seem like it mattered, and besides, Megan was making her clean her house, for money! She was starting to have trouble understanding why Megan couldn't just give the money to her. They were sisters after all. She picked up her phone again and started scrolling through social media, looking to see if anything interesting was happening. It almost seemed like she could hear some kind of white noise coming from the phone, but she dismissed it out of hand.

Later that day, Megan came back from the office, arms full of files. She set them down on her desk in the home office in a heap.

"What are these?" Elizabeth asked, a bit shocked at how her sister had dumped them.

"Files from the meetings today. I need to review them before tomorrow. I have to organize them and then figure things out from there. Hah, I don't suppose you could start cooking for me too?" Megan joked.

"Uh, yeah I don't think so." Elizabeth made a face. Now Megan wanted her to COOK too? That was too much.

Megan rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen to find a frozen meal. Elizabeth sulked a little, but followed her sister to the kitchen. While the TV dinner heated up in the microwave, Megan started, "Hey, By the way Liz, that wasn't very mature, what you did with Kelly. I asked you to do something for me, and you deliberately ignored it and embarrassed me." Elizabeth rolled her eyes and mumbled an apology. "Fine, sorry. Geez."

Megan let it slide. "But the team is coming back from the Europe branch next week, and will probably be in and out of the house some. The office is getting refurbished and I'll be working from home some. If you want me to keep paying you to clean the house, you had better figure out something to say that doesn't involve 'hi I'm Megan's older sister. I don't care what you say other than that."

"So what, you're embarrassed to even be related to me then? Is that it?" Elizabeth shouted in an outburst.

"No, I'm not embarrassed to be related to you. I'm embarrased for -you-. You're my older sister, why don't you think about how it makes you look that you're cleaning your little sister's house!"

Elizabeth quieted. She hadn't thought about it that way. "Oh. Ok, yeah, I get it."

Megan scoffed, "You know, I would have thought you'd have shown some gratitude. But if this is the way you want to play it, fine. You can tell people you're my sister, I don't care."

Elizabeth sighed, "Sorry Megan. Look, what if I say I'm your younger sister or something? I mean, I look pretty young still, I could probably pass for younger than you. We can just go with that, if you're ok with it."

"Fine, if that's what you want to do, I think it would be best if, just while you're working at the house, for you to always refer to me as your big sister. I'll just start calling you Lizzie instead of Liz or Elizabeth because it sounds more, you know. So we can get used to it."

Elizabeth could tell it wasn't completely a request, but she didn't see a reason to argue. If her younger sister needed her to pretend, she could pretend. "Yeah, that's fine I guess. I wasn't thinking really, it just came out."

"Well just think about it next time. Oh," Megan stopped. "That reminds me. You're dressed a little, how can I put this, grimy. Not a real professional look, yeah? Kelly didn't mention anything, but I know she noticed. You need to make sure you are dressing a little younger, and less like an old mom about to paint the walls, got it?"

Elizabeth felt the command in her little sister's voice. Normally, she'd bite back with some retort, but for whatever reason, she kept her mouth shut. We need the money, she reminded herself.

"Let me think about it?" She asked.

"Fine, but by next week, we need your cover solid."