A/N: Just a tiny bit today. Working on polishing the next part.
Out in the world
Growing up in a group home wasn't hard - once the original small-children orphanage was reformed they stayed even in the same building, just under a different name.
It became a bit more involved, especially as they grew - they had chores, they were sent out shopping, they had trips to the ZOO and picnics. Still, they stayed in the relatively limited range of people in their school grade and in the home.
College, however, was a shock. The sheer number of people and complexity of interactions required from them by their new environs were astounding.
Elsa's reaction was simple. She reached even higher level of detachment from all others, calmly ignoring everyone equally - bullies, jocks, mean girls, nerds - except for her own sisters. Where it didn't affect her grades, it gained her a rather obvious nickname she quickly became tired of.
Elena took up martial arts, delighted with bo staffs and the occasion to hit people with a stick legally. Both her sisters took to teasing her about her musculature a bit, but as the shortest (by an inch) she was happy to gain a bit of strength. It proved to be helpful in all kinds of situations, especially if Elsa needed extracting from some idiotic situation with an oblivious (or seemingly oblivious) admirer. There were no admirers for Elena, at least not after she became known to have climbed the dojo rank ladder rather quickly.
Emma took the bravest step in her life and signed up for social support group for disprivileged youth, and together with a number of other like-minded students from all departments she worked in a study hall, tutored kids and supported them in various activities, up to and including interventions at schools and helping in personal matters. She was learning so many important things she felt they had missed in the group home and she would share - as much as she could sanitize of personal data - with her sisters whenever she learned something useful. All three needed a lot of information about the actual "outside world" to survive until graduation.
As Elsa worked her way towards a law degree - having decided that becoming an assassin requires way too much climbing and crawling, Elena and Emma followed their more technical goals. Although being the "mascot of the group" became very annoying very quickly, Emma stuck to her programming course. It was slightly harder for Elena, who couldn't make her mind and tried to take typography classes, technical writing, editing and creative writing courses all at the same time.
Her sisters supported her - despite their obvious doubts - and they all pulled through. With their master thesis properly edited, set and printed.
They survived by holding together at all times. Well, almost all. They were adults, after all.