Take A Chance

Erica Goldberg had many talents, but ignoring her ridiculous family was the most impressive one. Mainly because it wasn't such an easy task, as their family was shouting and cursing all the time.

But there was one person in her family that she couldn't ever seem to ignore. Her littlest brother, Adam.

So, when he came home from school one day, she found it strange that he didn't come over to say hello. Adam looked up to his sister more than anybody.

"Hey, Adam." She greeted softy.

The sixteen-year-old cameraman walked upstairs, pulling his hood over his face, slipped on a pair of sunglasses, and avoided her gaze. Erica, who inherited her Mother's talent of butting in, walked upstairs after him. She opened the door to his room, expecting it to be locked, but it wasn't.

"Adam?" She called, looking around the room.

"Erica?"

The teenage girl jumped and looked down at her little brother, "What the hell? I thought you were in your room dorking it up."

"Sorry." He apologized, "Now, if you'll excuse me." He nudged past her, but Erica grabbed his arm and yanked the sunglasses off. She gasped at what she saw. On his left eye was a large, purple bruise.

"Who did this to you?" She shouted, her blood pumping in anger, "Was it someone at school? Did you fall in Gym class? Were you and Emmy Mirsky wrestling again?"

"Erica, cool it. I'm fine."

"You are not fine. Come into my room, tell me what hap-who happened so I can beat the crap out of 'em."

"You're overreacting."

"I am not! My baby brother just got hit in the freaking face! Something has to be done about this!" She dragged him into her bedroom, locked the door in case of escape attempts, and then ran to the bathroom to grab the First Aid Kit and some of her own makeup.

She came back to see Adam had fallen asleep on her bed. So, not wanting to disturb him, she pulled the covers over him and applied the medicine and cover up to his eye.

There was a knocking at the door and Erica opened it, making sure her brother didn't awake. She rolled her eyes at the sight of her Smother, "What, Mom?"

"Have you seen my little Schmoopie?"

Erica rolled her eyes, knowing she was talking about Adam. She assured her Mother that everything was fine, and he had crashed on her bed because he had had an exhausting day. Beverly offered to take her son to his bedroom and tuck him in, but Erica told her no.

"Then let me in, my little Boopie needs snuggies from his Mama!" She ran over to the bed, but Erica stopped him.

"Back away, Mother. I can handle the snuggies tonight." The musician said, internally gagging at the words that had just come out of her mouth. Beverly looked at her daughter, then to her son. She frowned, "Oh, fine. Take care of your brother."

Erica nodded and changed quickly into her pink nightgown. She did, indeed climb into the bed next to him. She wrapped her arms around her brother's waist and pull him into a close snuggle.

Adam awoke the next morning uncomfortably close to his sister. She had her head rested against his own, is she seriously snuggling me right now?

Adam gently slipped out of her grasp and looked down at his crusty outfit he had forgotten to change out of.

He walked quietly out the door, being careful not to wake the sleeping beast. But as he passed the bathroom, he noticed something strange in the mirror. His black eye was gone.

"Morning, Dork." Erica greeted, yawning and sitting up.

"Erica, look! My black eye healed!"

"Yeah! Except it didn't."

He turned around and frowned at his big sister, "What're you talking about? It's gone!"

"Well, guess what genius? I put some medicine on it while you were sleeping, then covered it up with concealer." She shrugged, "Now, before I kick you out of my room, so I can get dressed, there are two things I need you to do. One; never tell anyone I let you sleep in my bed last night."

"Fair. I'll head to my room."

"Hold it, Adam. There's a second thing I need you to do."

The blonde cameraman sighed and rolled his eyes, "What?"

"You have to tell me what happened to you yesterday. Who the hell did this to you?" She asked, her typical "concerned big sister" attitude replaced with "Uncool Mom."

Adam shook his head, "Sorry, I'd rather not talk about that. And I'd rather you didn't either, so please don't tell Mom about any of this. She'll go completely insane and demand to know about Jos- oh, Balls!"

Erica narrowed her eyes into slits as she stared at her youngest brother, waiting for him to finish his sentence. But alas, it didn't happen. He just turned around and walked out of the room to change and get ready for school.

Erica tapped her chin with her hairbrush, a scheme slowly unwinding in her teenage brain. Yup, the brunette had gone into full-out Mom Mode.

Both brother and sister walked to the bus together, attempting to ignore their brother Barry's obnoxious laughing about Erica and Adam snuggling together.

"Shut the hell up, Barr! Hurry your ass up, your bus is almost here." She shouted, shutting the door behind her.

"Um, Erica?" Adam squeaked, "It's nice and all, but you really don't have to walk me to the bus stop."

The two Goldberg children stopped their conversation when they heard the screeching of tires, and the airy sound of a door opening.

"Okay, later Erica!" Adam said, hugging his sister goodbye. But it wasn't goodbye for her. She followed her brother aboard the bus. Emmy Mirsky moved to sit next to Adam, until Erica shot his best friend a look and took the seat next to her little brother.

Emmy took the seat behind the two siblings and prodded her best friend on the shoulder, "What is your sister doing here?"

"I don't know. But it's got Mom written all over it."

"I can hear you guys, y'know." Erica said.

"Erica, why are you on the bus? You've graduated high school."

"Just giving my teachers a visit."

"And how long is you're "visit," exactly?"

"About one to however long it takes to tell me what is going on with you."

"So, you're coming with me to school?"

"Oh, not only that. But I'm also going to sign up to be in every one of your classes!"

"What? How is that possible?"

"She's freaking me out, Adam." Emmy said from behind the two siblings.

"Oh, and it's not only classes. I will eat lunch with you every day, come to your lame nerd meetings, and take the bus back home."

"That's really messed up." Emmy remarked. Erica shot her brother's best friend a glare, then grabbed Adam's hand. He shoved it away, and speed-walked ahead to class, away from his sister.

Erica caught up to her brother by shoving and yelling at every student to get out of her way. So basically, the Beverly Goldberg tactic.

Seeing her brother disappear around the corner, she ran ahead until she caught up with him. Adam was already sitting on his stool, his sort-of friend Dave Kim, who dressed like Velma from Scooby Doo sitting next to him.

"Hey, Mouthbreather. Take a hike, I'm sitting next to my brother today."

Like always, Dave Kim was a sucker for Adam's older sister. He had a serious crush on her and would do anything for her. He smoothed down his bowl cut and jumped out of his chair, letting Erica take his spot.

The teacher walked in seconds later. He took one look at Erica and walked over to her, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"Erica Goldberg. I'm going to be here for a while."

He looked at the attendance sheet, "I don't see your name on here."

"Oh, that's because I graduated high school already."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"Don't answer that." Adam demanded. And Erica didn't. Instead, she commanded the teacher to start teaching, which he did. She kept a close eye on her brother through the whole period. It was extremely creepy. She didn't have to do any of the work, so instead she looked over her brother's shoulder and told him what he was doing wrong on his pop quiz.

Adam suffered through this exact pattern for the rest of the day. The worst, however, was lunch. Geoff Schwartz was eating lunch with Barry and the rest of the Jenkintown Posse, also known as the JTP.

Erica had chosen a table in the dead center of the cafeteria. She hadn't touched even touched her food, at not until Adam joined her at the table.

"This is really weird, y'know." The wannabe-director said, placing his tray on the circular table and sliding into his seat opposite her.

"What's so weird about your big sister marching into school to keep an eye on you until you tell me what the hell is going on?"

Adam shook his head, "This isn't a big deal."

His sister was about to say something when an older teenager sat down on the seat next to Adam, "Hey there, Dork." He looked at Erica, "You finally snatch up a lady? She's a bit old for you, I'm impressed." He popped his collar.

Erica gagged.

"She's not my lady, she's my sister!" Adam explained.

The teenage asshole snickered, "Figures." He slid next to Erica, "I'm Josh. But you can just call me the man of your dreams."

She scoffed, "I have a boyfriend."

"And I have a Math test."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh, I thought we were both listing things we could cheat on." He said, leaning in for a kiss. She gagged and pushed him away.

"Get away from my sister!" Adam shouted, getting a surprised look from Erica as well as every student in the cafeteria.

Josh chuckled, "Ha. I almost forgot you were here." He grabbed him by the collar and dragged him off the seat.

"You have a real ass of a sister, you know that?" Josh said, dropping Adam onto the ground with a thud.

Emmy ran over to her best friend, her expression somewhere between anger and worry. Josh lifted his foot, about to step on his face.

"Yo, asshole!" Erica said. He turned around and beamed at the girl. She batted her eyelashes at him, "Come here."

He came forward. The brunette growled and punched him in the gut, landing with a even louder thud than Adam.

"Woah, Man! Did you just get beat up by a girl?" A boy said from a different table. Josh raised his right hand and flipped him off.

"Let's make one thing straight." Erica hissed, "If I ever catch you hurting my brother again, I won't go as easy on you." She helped her brother up and led him to the Nurse's office. And she complained the entire time they were in the waiting room.

"See, this is why I didn't tell you! I knew you'd get all freaked out."

"Why shouldn't I? My brother is being treated as a human punching bag!" Aggravated and annoyed, Erica sank down in the chair next to Adam.

There was an awkward sort of silence before Erica spoke again, "You need to talk about this kind of stuff with me."

"Why?"

"Wh-Why? I'm your big sister, that's why! The sole reason I was placed on this Earth was to protect you! Well, that, and to share my amazing talent as a musician worldwide."

"You don't have to protect me Erica. I'm a man now."

"No, you're not. You're my kid brother, and until you stop hiding things from me and talk about what's going on, it will be like this every day."

"Every day?"

"Everyday. I'm taking you home now, get your ass up."

"But the Nurse hasn't even helped me yet."

"Yeah, well I don't care. She's taking a hell to long, and did you hear her bitchy attitude?"

"She asked me to wait here for a minute."

"It's been a minute and thirty seconds, totally unacceptable." Erica said, "Now c'mon Dork, what did I say? Get your ass outta that chair."

Groaning, Adam got out of the chair and followed his sister out the door at the end of the day, after convincing a concerned Erica that he could survive the rest of the day. He, however, had to promise to tell her anything mildly bad that was going on. He was reluctant but agreed. They boarded the bus home together and held hands, this time of his own free will.

Emmy Mirsky was still very uncomfortable with this, which wasn't all that surprising.

And from that moment on, Adam told his sister everything; the good and the bad. And Erica kept her promise by not barging in anymore, and not telling Mom.

But when something seriously bad happened to Adam, you know Erica would be storming into the school to quote-on-quote "Fix" things. But, all she really did was punch them and call them morons or assholes. Like any true Goldberg would.

The End