Amethyst fell onto the couch the moment they entered the apartment.
“That was…” she paused. “Amazing.”
And it had been, especially after Steven showed up and made things ten times less awkward. They had finally gotten around to actually ordering pizza, and once she was no longer struggling to say a single word, Lapis and Peridot had rejoined the table as well. Amethyst had just meet her sisters. Real, actual, biological sisters.
“You shouldn’t have been nervous,” Peridot sat herself next to Amethyst. “We told you it would be fine.”
Lapis snorted. “You said nothing helpful.”
“I was extremely helpful!”
Amethyst nudged Peridot with her foot. “No, you weren't.” She sat up. “But who cares about that because I have sisters now.” She flopped down onto her back again. “And Steven invited them to his party, and they’re coming.”
“So?” Lapis sat on the other side of Amethyst. “You like them.”
Amethyst threw her arm over her face. “I do like them. But Steven invites everyone. Which means they’ll end up meeting everyone.”
“We met everyone.” Lapis said.
“You are my girlfriends. These are my sisters. Somehow, that is worse.”
“Tell them not to come,” Lapis suggested.
“I can’t tell them that!” Amethyst moved her arm. “I want them to like me!’
“Then let them come.” Lapis said.
Amethyst groaned.
Amethyst scanned over the cars gathered around the house as they drove up. Lapis was stuck at work, so it was just her and Peridot. She was slightly relieved to see that it didn’t look like any of the Deitz girls were here yet. Maybe something had come up and they would be able to come at all. She shook her head. Lapis and Peridot were right. She wanted them here. She wanted to hang out with them. And if that meant them meeting every single person in Beach City… then that would have to do.
“Amethyst!” Steven was on the porch, dressed in an truly hideous Hanukkah sweater. He ran down to the street as Amethyst and Peridot got out of the car.
Steven grabbed one of Amethyst’s and Peridots hands, tugging them inside. “Your sisters are coming, right?! I was telling Pearl and Garnet about it and they think it’s really cool-”
Amethyst laughed, pulling Steven off their arms. She ruffled Stevens hair. “Yes. They’re coming.”
The house was already half full of people. Holiday music was playing and Amethyst recognized as something Greg had written. She was a tad impressed Steven had convinced Greg to actually let him play it. There was food and decorations all around, and Steven had been sure to pull out plenty of extra chairs.
Steven grinned, “Yes! They were so cool! Do you think they’ll want to come to more stuff? Cause I can make sure to invite them next time-”
“Slow down” Amethyst urged, “Let’s just see how this goes, alright?”
Peridot had gone off and was talking to Pearl about something. Amethyst was slumped on the couch with a glass of punch. She wished there was alcohol but Steven insisted parties were more fun without it.
“Hey, mini.”
Amethyst looked up. She sat up straight, almost spilling her cup when she saw Kaylee standing in front of her, dressed in a leather jacket.
“Hey! When did you guys get here?”
Kaylee sat herself on the couch next to Amethyst. “About five minutes ago. Steven showed up and insisted on introducing us to everybody. I told him I had to use the bathroom and slipped off. Cause I don’t feel like personally meeting every single person here.”
Amethyst looked around at the crowded room. “Steven throws pretty big parties.” She took a sip from her cup. “Did you call me Minnie? Like, the mouse?”
Kaylee laughed, “Like you being short.”
“I’m not that short!” Amethyst argued even though it was clearly a lie. She was shorter than any of the Deitz girls, and shorter than most of the other party guests as well. She didn’t argue against the nickname. She was thrilled that Kaylee had decided to give her one.
“So,” Amethyst said after a second. “What’s being a security guard like?”
“Boring mostly,” Kaylee shrugged. “I mean, even in Empire City people don’t steal as much as you’d think. Mostly I just end up dealing with lost kids.”
“Does that happen a lot?”
“Couple times a day. I think they always come to me cause I’m one of like, three girl security guards in the whole place.”
Amethyst considered that. “At least your bathroom isn’t crowded.”
Kaylee burst into laughter. Amethyst felt another thrill.
Kaylee leaned back as the laughter subsided. “Man, I wish we found you sooner.”
Amethyst hoped having sisters would never feel normal. She liked it this way, as though every single interaction with one of them was the most amazing thing on the planet. She liked it feeling special.
“How did you find me anyway?” Amethyst asked.
“We started looking a couple years ago,” Kaylee said. “Then Jay saw a newspaper article about the wrestling tournament you were in and decided you kind of looked like us.” She shrugged and nudged Amethyst with her shoulder. “We dug around and now here we are. At the Hanukkah party for our little sister’s brother.”
Elle suddenly sat herself next to Amethyst, followed shortly by Gina and Jayna. Gina grabbed a stray chair and pulled in in front of them, while Jayna took the place next to Kaylee.
“Why is everyone you know named after a rock?” Elle asked.
“Everyone I know is not named after a rock!” Amethyst argued,
Elle began counting on her fingers. “Let’s see, your name is Amethyst, you’re dating two girls named Peridot and Lapis Lazuli. Steven just introduced us to Pearl, Garnet, Fluorite, Rhodonite, Ruby, Sapphire, Padparadscha-”
“Wasn’t the girl you fought in that wrestling tournament named Jasper?” Jay interjected.
“Fine,” Amethyst relented. “I know a lot of people named after rocks. In my defense-” she added. “Ruby and Sapphire’s weird family naming conventions are not my fault.”
“Your last name is a rock too.” Gina added.
Amethyst groaned. “I can’t win this can I?”
“No,” Jay said. “You can’t.”
The party was finally ending after a couple hours. Amethyst had spent most of it talking to her sisters in the corner, occasionally joined by Steven or Peridot. By now, almost everyone had gone home, including the Deitz’s who said they wanted to get back to Empire City before it got too late.
Amethyst was in the kitchen with Pearl, helping her put away the leftover food. Amethyst snapped the lid onto a container of cookies.
“Hey, can Peridot and I take these?”
Pearl glanced over, busy rearranging more containers in the fridge. “You might as well,” She stood up straight and shut the fridge. “There’s too many leftovers just for Steven.”
Amethyst set the container aside so she wouldn’t forget it. “Thanks.”
“Steven introduced us to your sisters.” Pearl said suddenly.
Amethyst turned around to look at her. “What do you think?”
Pearl was silent for a moment. “They seem like lovely girls.”
“They’re amazing,” Amethyst said, unable to keep herself from smiling. “I like talking to them and having them in my phone and-” She looked out to the living room where Garnet was helping Steven take down the streamers he had hung up. “I like having them to come to stuff like this too.”
Pearl nodded as she put away unused paper plates. “I’m glad.”
“Hey, Pearl?”
Pearl hmmed as she turned back around. “Yes?”
“Did Rose know I had any family?”
Pearl pause in the middle of gathering up the bowls and platters they had used. “There… there wasn’t a lot of information about your birth family. Rose thought that-” she set the dishes in the sink- “If there was someone who could have been taking care of you, they would have been. She thought about looking a few times- but she wanted to wait until you were old enough.”
Amethyst nodded slowly. “You think she would be glad I found them now?”
There was another second of silence. Then, “Yes. I think she would be.”
Amethyst had her fingers drumming endlessly on the table. Peridot put her hand over Amethyst’s.
“You’re panicking,” Peridot said.
“I’m not panicking,” Amethyst pulled her hand away. The three of them were seated at a table in the back corner of Fish Stew Pizza. Only a couple other tables were filled. She almost wished she had picked some place less empty. She couldn’t figure out if empty was going to be better or worse. Amethyst checked the time on her phone. It was ten to six. “I’m- I don’t know what I am.”
Amethyst buried her face in her phone again. Jayna had texted her this morning to make sure they had the right place. They hadn’t texted since. Amethyst wondered if she should send another message to make sure they were coming. She put her phone down and shoved it away from her. She started tapping her fingers on the table again.
“Sisters. What do you do with sisters? Peri, what do you do you do with sisters?”
Lapis stirred her straw around in her drink. It was the only thing any of them had ordered so far. “I don’t think Peridot’s sisterly experiences are going to be much help here.”
Amethyst groaned, dropping her head onto the table.
“Are you sure this is right?” Gina asked. She leaned over towards Jayna in the passenger seat to check the GPS on Jayna’s phone. Jayna tilted her phone away and turned the GPS off.
“There can’t possibly be that many restaurants called Fish Stew Pizza,” Kaylee said from the backseat. She got out of the car and shut the door, gesturing down the boardwalk.
Gina turned the car off, the rest of them following her out. Jayna shoved her phone away in her pocket.
Gina reached into her purse and ran her hand over the picture frame.
“Okay, none of us have actually moved,” Jayna realized. They were all still standing right outside the car. “Are we doing this or not?”
Elle nodded. “We’re doing this.”
Peridot poked Amethyst in the arm. “Amethyst. Amethyst.”
Amethyst kept her head on the table. “What?”
“I think that’s them.”
Amethyst shot her head up. The four Deitz girls were heading back towards their table.
Amethyst felt herself enter some sort of actual panic mode. “What do I do? What do I do?” She whispered urgently.
Neither Peridot or Lapis had an answer, and there wasn’t time for one anyway before the four girls reached the table. Jayna spoke up first.
“Are you Amethyst?”
Amethyst nodded, looking up at them. They looked remarkably like her, despite all being quite a bit taller. “That’s me.”
Jayna held out her arm and shook Amethyst hand as the four of them sat down at the empty seats. The other three shook hands with her as well as they introduced themselves, but it was awkward and stiff. Amethyst hated it. Well, no. That wasn’t the problem. Saying names and shaking hands felt so empty. It didn’t mean anything. It was formal and weird and not much fun, like all five of them were intentionally holding back.
There was several seconds of silence before Amethyst remembered she hadn’t actually come here alone.
“Oh, this is Peridot and Lapis,” she gestured towards both of them. “They’re my-” she could say roommates, which wasn’t actually a lie and would easily avoid the possibility of them instantly disliking her for that fact alone. But she also didn’t want to lie to them. “They’re my girlfriends.”
Peridot thrust her hand out instantly. It didn’t look near as awkward when Peridot did it. Peridot was just about to say something when Lapis stood up and grabbed her arm.
“Let’s go order a pizza,” Lapis demanded.
“Wha-” Peridot was yanked from her seat, stumbling for once on her platform shoes. Lapis pulled her away, very intentionally leaving Amethyst and the other four alone. Amethyst tried to grab onto the edge of Lapis’s skirt, but they were already on the other side of the restaurant. They were not going anywhere near the counter, clearly having no intention of ordering pizza.
Amethyst didn’t like that it still felt awkward. She grabbed Lapis’s abandoned drink for something to do with her hands. Kaylee spoke up after a minute.
“Are you in school?”
“What?” Amethyst looked up from the drink. “Oh, yeah. I’m at the college here. I’m on a wrestling scholarship. Any of you guys still in school?” They looked older than her, Amethyst couldn’t guess by just how much. She wasn’t sure which one was actually the oldest. Everything that was being said still sounded too formal and boring. She didn’t want her sisters to be boring people.
“I just graduated,” Elle said, “Bachelors in Zoology.”
“I work at the South Side Mall in Empire City,” Kaylee said. “Security Guard.”
“I’m the only other one with a degree,” Gina added, “Associates in social work and therapy.”
“Hey, I do have a degree!” Jayna interrupted. “I’m a cosmetologist,” She told Amethyst.
“That’s not a degree,” Kaylee said, a tone that indicated this was very much a joke between them. Jayna smacked her on the arm.
Amethyst smiled, even though she didn’t actually get the joke. She could see Peridot and Lapis watching them from a table on the far side of the room. They were whispering to each other, and clearly paying very close attention to the conversation.
“You didn’t tell us your major,” Elle said. “What is it?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Amethyst shrugged. “I probably should soon. I’m running out of general ed classes to take.”
“What about your adopted parents?” Kaylee said. “What are their jobs?”
The tension changed. Amethyst wasn’t entirely sure if it was for better or worse this time.
“My mom was… My step dad runs a carwash. So I don’t think I’ll be picking that as a career.” Amethyst said, half hoping they wouldn’t notice the mention of her mother. If they did, none of them said anything about it. Amethyst quickly changed the subject. “What did our mom do? As a job?”
This time Amethyst was sure the tension got worse. Elle slumped back in her seat and crossed her arms. Jayna was staring very intently at Amethyst. Kaylee wasn’t looking at any of them. Gina glanced at her sisters and took the picture frame from her purse. She set it flat on the table.
“She worked with the state parks for a while. She got fired when I was about five, just before she got pregnant with Kaylee.”
Amethyst pulled the picture towards herself. There was something extremely strange and thrilling about actually seeing an image of the woman who had given birth to her. It was somehow weirder than sitting in a restaurant with people who actually shared her DNA.
Elle was now staring intently at at poster on the wall. Jayna hadn’t looked away from Amethyst at all. Kaylee suddenly stood up.
“I’m going to the bathroom.” She announced, quickly disappearing to the back of the restaurant. Gina watched her go and then continued anyway.
“She had a bunch of jobs after that,” Gina said. “We ended up in foster care when I was ten. She would have been pregnant with you then.”
Amethyst looked up from the picture. “What about now?”
“Jayna and I got legal custody for Kaylee and Elle as soon as we both could. We all have an apartment in Empire City.”
Amethyst wondered what exactly was being left out of the story. Something had to be. She decided to leave it alone for now.
Kaylee returned to the table just as the bell over the door rang.
“Amethyst!”
Amethyst looked up to see Steven and Greg. Steven ran directly towards her and pulled himself into Peridot’s empty chair.
Greg hurried up to the table. “I’m so sorry, Amethyst, I told him you looked busy-”
“Don’t worry about it,” Amethyst assured him, throwing an arm around Steven. “I’ve always got time for Steve-o here.”
Steve grinned and turned his attention to the four girls on the other side of the table. Every bit of tension had left the place completely when Steven had appeared. Gina had taken the chance to put the picture away. Elle no longer had her arms crossed, Kaylee was sitting down again, and Jayna was looking happily at Steven.
Steven held his hand out. “Hi. I’m Steven.”
The four girls repeated their names again and each shook his hand. With Steven, nothing about it was stiff or formal or awkward. Amethyst was pleased to see that they were all smiling this time.
Greg went to introduce himself as well. Amethyst took her arm off of Steven’s shoulders.
“Stevn,, Greg, these are actually my sisters.”
Steven gasped. He had stars in his eyes. “You have sisters?!”
Amethyst laughed. “Yes,” She gestured at Steven and Greg, “This is my little brother and my stepdad.”
“That’s so cool!” Steven burst out. “Oh! You guys should come to my Hanukkah party next week!”
“You don’t have to come!” Amethyst said quickly. Not that she didn’t want them to be part of things. It was simply that the idea of them meeting everyone, because Amethyst already knew that Steven had invited half the town and everyone he was even remotely related to, was nerve wracking.
Kaylee grinned, leaning back in her chair. “We’d love to come.”
