Changes happened slowly after that.

It definitely wasn’t like in the movies, where all of a sudden, from one day to the next, your life is turned upside down. For the better this time.

There were months of figuring things out, meeting with lawyers, going to court, and all sorts of paperwork.

At first, Sophia fought against everything.

She fought to gain control of the trust, but my dad had been explicit. Only a lawyer would be able to do that. Then she fought against my Tía Isabel’s petition for guardianship.

Once my lawyer threatened to take her to court and fight it out in public, dig into her financial records, she gave that up pretty quickly.

She didn’t really want me anyway. She just wanted me under her thumb, and now that Isabel knew the truth about her, that would prove impossible.

The day finally came when the guardianship paperwork came through. It was toward the end of junior year. I began packing my stuff.

Moving day arrived. My aunt rented a small moving truck so we could get our stuff to our new home. In the past few months, she’d found a house not too far from here. It was in the same school district and everything.

As I carried the first box to the moving truck, Jesse pulled up. He got out, jogged over, and took the box from my hands, leaning down to give me a kiss.

He looked at me with his signature smile, the one that made me melt. “Happy birthday.”

I grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him down to me again.

Things had been going really well with us, and if they kept going well, we’d be at Georgia Tech together in just over a year.

This move alone was a big life change, but somehow, I wasn’t worried about it at all. I had my Tía Isabel, I had my best friends, and I had Jesse.

“Are you sure you don’t mind helping out?” I asked, hands on my hips.

He carefully put the box in the moving truck and walked over to me. “Of course not. I’m just happy you’re finally leaving this place.”

I looked at the house. I had done a lot of growing up here. It had been my home for as long as I could remember, and now I was leaving it forever. That was one thing that Sophia would be keeping.

I blinked back tears, and Jesse put his arm around me.

Whatever happened, though, wherever I ended up, my parents would always be with me. No matter what. They weren’t tied to the house, as much as it hurt to leave. Ms. Moreau had helped me understand their memories would always stay with me.

My aunt came down with another box. She put it in the truck.

“Hey, Jesse,” she said, walking over, hands now empty.

Jesse stuck out his hand like he always did.

She shook his hand. “I always did like your manners.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Jesse said.

The air turned a little awkward.

My aunt glanced at me and then looked back at him, her tough face now on. “Ever since I met you, I’ve been impressed. But now that I’m officially Ella’s guardian, I’m afraid we need to have a little talk, you and me.”

Jesse stood there without a word, and part of me wanted to cry tears of joy or laughter or a mix of both, while another wanted to cringe.

My aunt took another step closer.

Even though Jesse stood three or four inches taller, he seemed to shrink before her.

“I like you, Jesse. But that can change very quickly if I find out that you’ve broken my niece’s heart. I have friends in the Navy. Friends, who, if you ever break Ella’s heart, will kick your—”

“Okay, Tía. I think he gets the message,” I said, dragging her inside for more boxes. “Let’s get moving, shall we?”

Jesse followed us, holding back his laughter. Once we got to the stairs, I hung back with him and let my aunt go on.

“I like her,” he whispered as we climbed the stairs.

“Me too,” I whispered back.

“I heard that,” she called out from the top of the staircase, but she sounded like she was also on the brink of laughing. “Years of Naval training.”

Jesse loaded the last box into the moving truck.

My tía closed the door, locking it in place. “This is it. You ready, kiddo?”

“More than you know,” I replied.

“After we unload at our place, I’m taking you out for your birthday dinner. And Jesse, you’re coming with us.”

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“It’s settled, then,” she said.

I glanced back at the house one more time and decided to take a picture.

Just as I went to get inside the moving truck, Sophia’s car pulled into the driveway. The moving truck was already waiting for me on the curb, Jesse behind it in his truck.

I opened the passenger door of the moving truck, sure that Sophia, Lindsay, and Courtney didn’t want to see any more of me.

“Hey, Ella,” I heard.

I froze and turned around, not sure who had called my name.

The kitchen door in the garage slammed shut. Lindsay and Courtney stood next to Sophia’s car.

They walked toward me, a small plastic bag in Courtney’s hands. Maybe they’d spent the day on one of their shopping sprees.

“We just wanted to say…” Courtney started, staring off to the side.

Lindsay looked like she was more concerned with something on her shoe.

Courtney’s eyes finally met mine. “We just wanted to say good luck.”

I blinked, sure I was imagining this moment.

“We know that you could have fought for the house and not cared if we’d ended up on the streets.”

Lindsay finally glanced at me.

“You could have really caused some damage if you wanted,” Courtney went on. “And you didn’t.”

I nodded, not sure what to say.

“We also wanted to say that”—she cleared her throat—“that your dad meant a lot to us too. We didn’t get to know him like you did, but he was like a father to Lindsay and me.”

Lindsay chewed on her lip.

I exhaled, focusing on every word that reached my ears.

“I think we were just jealous of you, all this time,” Courtney continued. “Because you had a dad who cared, and we never did.”

“You’ve always had your mom,” I said quietly. I never had anyone, I wanted to say. But I thought they got it, and I didn’t want to cry again. There had been enough tears.

Courtney nodded, and the expression on her face said she couldn’t talk anymore either.

Lindsay finally spoke up. “You know our mom, Ella. She’s not like most moms. It’s always hard with her. I guess we just wanted what you had. Even with everything that happened, you always had more than us.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“You shouldn’t be the one apologizing,” Courtney said. “We’re sorry. We should’ve been nicer to you when we had the chance.”

She looked at Lindsay.

“Sorry,” Lindsay said. I could tell she meant it.

I clenched my teeth, finding the right words and willing myself to keep the tears in as long as possible. “Well, no matter where I live, you guys will always be my family. My dad saw you like his daughters too. He still would if he was here. Maybe now we can start over. I know we’ll probably never be best friends, but you can count on me for anything.”

I took a couple steps and hugged Courtney before I could think twice about it. She hugged me back. Then Lindsay. It was awkward and weird, but I was glad we had fixed things between us. My dad would have wanted it, and I wished I had thought to do it first.

I stepped back, ready to say goodbye.

“We got you something,” Courtney said, holding out the bag.

“For the new you,” Lindsay added.

“We didn’t have time to wrap it,” Courtney said, “but we hope you’ll like it.”

I peeked inside to find a small jewelry box. Wondering why they’d give me something of the sort, I took the tiny box out of the bag and opened it carefully.

The word diamond etched in silver jumped out at me. Diamond earrings… I opened my mouth to tell them I didn’t have my ears pierced, when the realization hit me. The world tilted on its axis for a moment. I heard my last words to my dad one more time.

“Oh my god,” I cried, my hand at my mouth. The tears in my eyes trailed down my face. “You guys remembered.”

They nodded but didn’t say anything. It was hard to see clearly through the tears, but Courtney’s chin quivered.

It took me a minute to compose myself. I wiped the tears away and replaced them with a smile. “Thank you. So much. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

Lindsay dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve.

“See you in school on Monday?” Courtney asked.

“Definitely,” I said, nodding.

They waved and headed inside, and I stared at the earrings, not believing what had happened in the last few minutes. It was too late to go back and get all the chances we’d had to be stepsisters, but the next best moment was now.

I walked over to the moving truck and got in, pulling the door shut beside me.

“Everything okay?” my aunt asked.

I nodded, a familiar lump rising in my throat. “It is,” I said, looking at the house one more time as we drove off.

“So, we’ll get you settled in, and then we’ll go eat wherever you want.”

I smiled. “There’s just something I want to do first, before dinner,” I said.

My aunt raised her brows. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”