On Kirsten's birthday, she had gotten the best gift of all--a new sister! After a long car ride home, Samantha was eager to change out of her party clothes. She carefully hung up her other dress so it wouldn't get dirty.
"You can wear one of my dresses if you want," she offered.
Kirsten frowned. "They're not really my style," she said politely. "What else is there?"
Samantha shrugged and led Kirsten to the small box of AG clothes that Karin had acquired, mostly through swiping them from her mom's house.
"Perfect!" Kirsten said happily.
Samantha frowned. "I doubt she'll let you wear that, it's totally not your era," she said gently.
"You're not wearing that!" Karin yelled. Disappointed, Kirsten changed back into her blue dress.
"It's ok," Samantha said. "I'll show you where we can find you a dress."
"Rats, back ordered," Samantha said. "Well, let's look at other dresses."
"What are you doing?" Karin asked, frowning. "And where did you get that...wait, that's an expired library card. You can't order things off the internet with an expired library card."
"You could renew it," Samantha said. Karin asked them to go do something else, please.
"Want to see my doll?" Samantha asked.
"Sure!" Kirsten replied.
Samantha opened the box carefully, her eyes shining. "This is my doll. I like to keep her in her box, and then sometimes I open the box and look at her."
"You're weird," Kirsten said.
"Am not!" Samantha retorted. She dragged Kirsten over and showed her a large stack of boxes in the closet. "Look, here are some of Karin's dolls. She likes to keep them in the boxes, and then sometimes she opens the boxes and looks at them."
"Okay, you're both weird," Kirsten said.
"Let's not argue," Samantha said. "I've never had a sister before, let's do something sisters can do."
"Like what?" Kirsten asked.
"We can make a bedroom!" Samantha said. "We can make a bedroom on top of the dresser and arrange our things in it. Karin, is that okay?"
Karin shrugged. "You don't actually have a bed, but I guess you could make a playroom or something."
"If you put one of these totes up on the dresser, we could put blankets on it and call it a loft bed or something," Samantha suggested.
"What's in the totes?" Kirsten asked.
"Cabbage Patch Kids," Samantha said.
"Okay, so, nine 18-gallon totes, that's...wait, how many Cabbage Patch Kids are in a gallon?" Kirsten tried to do the math.
"Never mind that!" Karin said quickly. "Nobody wants to do math during summer vacation! I'll help you lift a tote up there to be your bed."
"The first thing we have to do is move all these creeps out of the way," Samantha said. "Here, you carry this one."
As the two were arranging their dolls on top of their newfound shelves, Kirsten heard an indignant voice say, "That is my property!"
Samantha rolled her eyes and whispered, "Rats, I knew something would spoil our fun."
A small peach cat plopped herself down on the dresser and grabbed the doll. "This is mine," she said.
"You never play with it, can we use it, please Scrounge?" Samantha asked. "We're trying to have matching things, like sisters sometimes do."
"Maybe," Scrounge said. "What are you doing anyway?"
"We're making a bedroom," Samantha said.
"I want to make a bedroom!"
"You can't, all your toys are up on top of the fridge because you're naughty with them," Samantha said. "But if you let us play with your doll, you can sit up on the bed and play until we have to go to bed." Scrounge seemed to accept that compromise.
After some more work, the girls were finished with their room. "Karin, come look," Samantha said.
"How nice," Karin said. "Matching doll houses and everything. Wait, aren't those my CD storage shelves? Where are the CDs?"
"On the floor," Samantha said cheerfully.
"And what are you doing with the auxiliary change pig?"
"Saving for poor Kirsten's doll," Samantha said. "She's lonely without her."
"You know, cats could sleep on people's feet even when they're in bed," Scrounge said. "I just thought you should know."
"I'm really more of a dog person," Kirsten whispered to Samantha. Samantha whispered back, "Only cause you haven't met the dogs yet."
"I'm so glad I have a sister now," Samantha said.
"Me too," Kirsten agreed. They gave each other a big hug.
"Me three! Where's my hug?" Scrounge yelled. Samantha and Kirsten pretended not to hear.