"Because- he- is- trash, that's why you can't play with him." Aunt Alexandra said glaringly.
I still didn't understand why I couldn't be nice to Walter, but I didn't want to butt in since Aunt Alexandra looked angry.
"You're enough of a problem to your father as it is." She bluntly stated.
At that accusation, something inside me blew up. Something ignited. I was mad. Yeah, I might not be a perfect lady and sure, I'm not just like my aunt. That doesn't mean I'm a burden to Atticus, whom I love and respect very much. I was tired of Aunt Alexandra treating me like dirt. I don't know what I would've done, but Jem stopped me. He caught me by the shoulders, put his arm around me, and led me sobbing in fury to his bedroom.
"I hate her Jem, I hate her!" I yelped as he closed the door.
"Awh Scout, you don't hate her. You can't hate family, Scout," he began in his usual condescending, yet brotherly tone as Atticus opened the door to see what was wrong. " 's all right, sir," Jem said gruffly, " 's not anything." Atticus went away. He almost started speaking again, but I interrupted him.
"I don't care if she's family, Jem. I want her outta this house!" I whined as Jem didn't listen to a word I had said.
"Have a chew, Scout." Jem dug into his pocket and extracted a Tootsie Roll. I took the Tootsie Roll and plopped it into my mouth. It took a few minutes to work the candy into a comfortable wad inside my jaw. As I chewed I started to think to myself, before Jem started talking again.
"Scout, don't let Aunty aggravate you." It wasn't as simple as that. She would continue to aggravate me until I became a lady, and I refused to become her, so that was a sure problem.
Jem interrupted my train of thought by sayin' somethin' so I thought I should tune in. "Can't you take up sewin' or somethin'?" That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard him say.
"Hell no. She doesn't like me, that's all there is to it, and I don't care." I was done with the conversation by then. I came to the conclusion that if being part of the Finch family meant being like Atticus, I'd gladly be a Finch, but if it meant actin' like Aunt Alexandra, I'd have to rethink my priorities. I was, again, interrupted by Jem starting to say something on the lines of, "You know, Scout, there are four kinds of people in this world…"