"Good morning, Lila, Violet!  Breakfast will be on the table in no more than ten minutes!"

And Lila sees someone poke her head out the door of said bedroom, snatch up the bracelet, and dart down to the table.  "G'morning sis!"

Lila doesn't have a sister.

Lila doesn't have any friends who'd call her "sis" either, not since they were seven.

And all that doesn't matter because she doesn't even recognize the girl who just ran down the stairs!  What's happened?  This couldn't be a prank on her; Mom wouldn't stand for that even if some stranger somehow wanted to do it!

"What - what -" she babbles in the direction of the stairs where this strange girl had vanished.

(She gets the strange feeling this's like something that might happen at the beginning of a story...)

But getting no answer, she finishes rinsing her face the fastest she's ever done it (still giving a sharp mental wish that Mom would tell her just how she got her own face), gives the comb one quick stroke through her hair, and races downstairs with her hair still frizzy.

She's still there.  And looking a bit concerned when Lila turns up all still frazzled!  "You alright, Lila?  I know I'm pale, but you look like you've seen a ghost."

Ophelia - Mom - is cooking three things at once (well, if toast counts as proper cooking), but she still has time to look over at Lila even before she dishes up breakfast.  Something causes a momentary very-concerned expression to flicker over her face at that point.

Lila throws her hands into the air.  "Who are you!?  What's going on!?"

But even as she brings them down on the back of her chair, she's sure - with a sinking feeling - that the answer is going to be far weirder than she thought.  There're three chairs at the table now with three placemats, not two.  There's another sunhat hanging next to hers and Mom's in the hall, and a new pair of shoes next to the door that doesn't look like anything Mom would wear.

Ophelia hums worried tones that strike a chord within her daughters; both know them.  Both know their meaning; something's very, very wrong right now, so be careful, watchful, thoughtful.  "I'm your mother, dear.  Violet's been your sister for most of your life, as far as I recall.  We're having breakfast before you two go to school.  If something's 'going on' with that, then either you or I are very wrong about the way the world should be, and either of those options are rather concerning."

Her obvious concern, and the sharp-like-a-knife tension slipping into her stance, does not stop breakfast.

Violet falls back as if Lila's words had physical force.  "Amnesia doesn't work like that...and you didn't hit your head or anything like that this whole week to begin with...so what's happening?"  She wraps her arms around herself, rocking back and forth in obvious worry.  "What's wrong, Lila?"

"Yeah, amnesia doesn't work like this outside a pulp novel or bad TV show!  And I didn't think we were in one of those!  But --"

She looks back and forth between Mom and Violet.

"If nothing's wrong with me, then it needs to be wrong with you!"

Violet recoils from the accusation, letting out a pained whine.

Ophelia...

Now knows that something is very, very, wrong.

"Lila, darling, you're out sick today; you had a horrible migraine when you woke up and it's bad enough that going to school would be pointless.  And while I tell the school that, you can look through the old photo albums; you're going to need to know what happened in them regardless of whether they're correct."

That's her businessmom voice.  Oh dear.  That voice only comes out when there's an emergency.

"MOM!  Don't make me miss school today too!"

Wait, if she got dropped into an alternate universe or something - and it's not like there're any other stories looking more plausible at the moment - "Wait, I am still in Mr. Brenner's history class, right?  And Ms. Dermot's precalc where we have a quiz today?  On math, not on family history or anything!"

She pushes back her still-frazzled hair and slides into her seat at the table as if everything was fine.

"...Yes, I believe so."  This time her voice is faint with ill-concealed worry.  "...If you're going to school today, then...Be careful, darling.  I don't know who or what could have done this how, but...If someone did this, they were likely trying to hurt at least one of us.  They might not stop trying just because their plan failed."

"The reason I want to have you out of school today is not because your teachers might notice; I expect that if anyone will, it is those who you hold dear.  Are you prepared for your friends to think something is wrong with you, darling?  I know I wouldn't have been, when I was young.  ...Also.  You are distressing your sister, young lady.  I know that she appears to have been erased from your memory by powers yet unknown, or perhaps inserted into mine and others', but I did not raise a child who would think of a person as wrong simply for existing, Lila."

"Yes - I'll be careful - and - I'll do it like I'm acting in a play.  I think I can do that!  And I'd rather do that - even if I'm not telling my friends - rather than just sit at home."

She jumps up with a shallow smile and bobs a quick curtsy as if she was onstage.

"And - I'm sorry, Violet - I didn't mean to hurt you; I didn't mean you're wrong yourself - just - one of us is misremembering."

She pauses, looking across the table at Violet, trying to remember what she'd hoped for way back when she was a little girl imagining having a sister.  "Were we... do you think we were... close?"

Judging by the fierce hug Lila's getting...yes.  "Close as we could be," she murmurs.  "It's okay, you were scared."

"Then to school you shall go, darling.  ...Please be safe."

After a moment of shock at the hug, Lila hugs back.  Real or not, she's got a sister for now.

Breakfast is quick - she doesn't want to be late, and she still needs to get her bag - but she says, "Violet, what were we doing yesterday?  I was talking with Gene and Kate after school, and then I just went home and studied and read."

"I stayed late for an art project; we studied together.  It was mostly math; you do have that quiz today."

Violet's bag is already tucked up next to her chair; she clearly believes that preparedness is a virtue.  Where's Lila's?

Ophelia scoops up her Business Gear and starts the car, while all this is happening.

Lila's bag is up in her room; she runs up to grab it (and grab a tie for her hair).  Oh goodness, she thinks; is she being a bad example to her new little sister?

She'd like to ask either Violet or Mom, when they're not in front of each other, whether they have any guesses what's going on here... but she doesn't expect them to.  Well, Violet at least; Mom sounded like she might have some guesses - as little as that would make sense!  But alone time is probably sparser now that there're three of them in a hasty morning, and anyway, she has a part to keep playing.

Ophelia is...rather quiet, in the car, thinking, with what attention isn't on the road.

Violet is idly humming something quiet.  "You ready for the math quiz, do you think?"

Lila almost got into the front seat next to Mom like always - before remembering there was a third person there now, and getting in the back next to Violet.  It still felt weird.

"Yeah... er, were we studying that together yesterday?  I - well, I" (she taps herself, to distinguish herself from the other Lila whom Violet remembers) "still have trouble with turning triangles into unit circles, or however you say it."

"It's pretty simple if you...So if you draw a line segment from the origin to points on the unit circle, sine is your y value, cosine is your x value.  I don't know why they're set up that way around, they kind of just Are.  And it doesn't actually matter what triangle you have when you go looking for sines and cosines; angles are angles.  And tangent is...sine over cosine.  And then there's secant, cosecant, and cotangent, which are one over their corresponding..."

She pulls out an index card, and consults it, to be sure.

"...why do people do weird name things with math.  Secant is one over cosine and I hate that."

"Anyway, did that help any...?"