Surprisingly well!

Life’s full of curveballs, you know, and we all figure that out eventually. My mom got the message when the man she choose to be the father of her children turned out to be nothing but a shmuck, and I started to catch on when the girls I figured were too cool for school turned out to be, well, cool. Really cool, I mean--not bleached blonde cheerleader cool, but interesting quirky genuine cool.

Beneath the All-American girl act they put on at school, I learned that Jessie and Mari were real people with real personalities. Jessie had a mischievous streak a mile wide. She loved anything that challenged convention, whether it was music or art or just pissing off her father by breaking the rules. With deep brown eyes, dark shoulder-length hair and caramel skin, she had inherited her mother's beautiful looks. She also had a competitive streak, and was by far the best swimmer on our high school's swim team. Keeping in shape for swim meets was one of the few things she was completely serious about. I figured out pretty quickly that she loved the spotlight that her looks, her unusual tastes, and her athletic skill guaranteed her.

But all of that I could have known about Jessica before she became my sister, if I'd paid enough attention. The biggest revelation that came from living with her was her love of practical jokes. Her sister and father bore the brunt of her mischief, and but pretty soon after the wedding I became a target too…