Out of Here With My Empty Suitcase

Gabriella Lowine trails her family through a school-supply mall with an empty cart. Her mother buys her sister Scarlett a four-thousand-dollar laptop, her father picks out a luggage bag, and her brother Christopher adds noise-cancelling headphones. Her childhood friend Jasper Greeson, who once promised to protect her, chooses a desk lamp for her bad eyes, then places it in Scarlett's cart instead.

For a year Gabriella has kept a list of university supplies in her phone, and nearly every item is crossed out. Her family insists Scarlett is frail and that Gabriella, with her good results, can endure hardship. When Jasper offers a free fan as compensation, she refuses, and their patience curdles into accusations of pettiness.

She has already spent her scholarship money on a plane ticket to another city, and as they pack Scarlett's bag until it bursts, she quietly begins to erase every trace of herself from the family.