her room, but when Vanessa reveals that she makes and sews them herself, Tibby begins to consider Vanessa, not Maura, the artist. In South Carolina Albert 'Al' Lowell is Carmen's father. He married Lydia Rodman last summer. Lydia Rodman-Lowell is Al's second wife and the mother of Carmen's step-siblings, Paul and Krista. Paul Rodman is two years older than Carmen and has an alcoholic father. He attends the University of Pennsylvania, his father's alma mater. He is serious and quiet, although he does pledge a fraternity. At the end of the summer, he meets Lena at a restaurant, and seems fascinated by her. They seem to have their own quiet chemistry. Krista Rodman is Carmen's age. She and Carmen did not get along when they met last summer, but this summer Krista runs away to Bethesda in an effort to convince her mother that she wants to have her own identity. In Alabama Greta Randolph is Bridget's grandmother who, like Bridget's mother, suffers from diabetes. Greta was cut off from Bridget because of her bad relationship with Bridget's father. Over the summer, Bridget takes the name Gilda Tomko (combining the names of the gym where the Septembers first met and Tibby's mother's maiden name) to meet and work for Greta and obtain information about her mother. Greta, who was never fooled by the alias, helps Bridget discover her mother's past. Billy Kline is Bridget's childhood friend, was in the same soccer team when they were kids, and became her holiday fling in Alabama. He is also known to be her little childhood boyfriend who still has feelings for her. Family members of the Sisterhood Georgos "George" Kaligaris is Lena's strict Greek father. Although his parents owned a restaurant in Greece, he is a lawyer. He has spent his adult life trying to repress his Greek heritage, until his father dies at the end of the summer. Ariadne "Ari" Kaligaris is Lena's mother, an ambitious Greek woman who put herself through school to become a social worker. She had a lengthy, long-distance romance with a man called Eugene when she was younger. Shortly after they broke up, she met and married Lena's father. Effie Kaligaris is Lena's extroverted sister, fifteen months younger. Effie gives Lena courage and comfort at times when the Sisterhood isn't there. Effie loves having boys be around her. Franz Vreeland is Bridget's father, a former history professor