Upon entering my house, it was not surprising that my parents and Allistor were fighting again. Not feeling up to listening to them, I silently sauntered up the stairs towards my room, opened the door, and collapsed on my bed. The commotion downstairs was still perceptible so I grabbed my laptop off my desk- not want ting to dig for my iPod in my school bag-, plugged in my headphones and turned iTunes on. Soon later I was asleep. I don't know how much time past, but around 6:30 pm, my younger brother Peter waltzed in claiming it was time for dinner. Not feeling it up to it, I pretended to not have heard him. Noticing that I wasn't moving, he walked closer to the bed, jumped on it, and started shaking me. Finally, after about ten seconds I yelled at him.
"What could you possibly want?"
"So you are awake and not dead." I scoffed and rolled my eyes. He continued. "Anyways what I wanted was to tell you that it is time for dinner, you know food. The stuff you eat when you get hungry?" I nodded to his ramblings.
"Yeah and what of it?" I questioned his tiny little fourth-grade mind.
"Mum and dad want you to come down and eat." He clarified his purpose further.
"Yeah?" he nodded as I continued, "well could you tell them that I don't feel like eating. I am sick." I lied.
His face told me that he was confused. "Yeah sure, but when they tell me that they don't care and send me back up here you're gonna have to come down." Peter persisted.
"It is 'going to' not 'gonna', and tell them something more exaggerated than just that I'm sick. Use your imaginative mind to come up with a good excuse. Now leave and report to the parental units of my status." I declared to him with a slight glare. Finally, he left, shutting the door softly. Hoping he would stay away, I turned my head, rolled on my belly, pulled the covers on over my body, and faced the wall. 58 seconds later the door opened once more.
"I thought I told you to leave." I voiced from underneath my covers with a muffled voice. The bed shifted when new weight was added to the open side. Confused because Peter is not one to sit on my bed like this, I turned my head only to realize that it was my mother. I resumed my original position, before this intrusion, with my face looking towards the wall.
"I know that this…" she paused, probably searching for a way to explain, "this predicament is not very easy for you to handle; that you are struggling but when I send Peter up here to retrieve you for a family dinner on a Friday night, I expect you to come down and not feed your brother lies about your health." She sighed, making it sound to me that she was somewhat sane right now.
"I know that." I snapped at her. Noticing my tone, I calmed down a bit. "I just don't want to eat today, I feel really bad and food would make me throw up, so please forgive me this time." I defended my absence from the dinner table.
"Fine, don't expect to eat later." She made left my room.
I don't even care. As the time was nearing closer to seven pm, I decided to change out of my school clothes into my pajamas then back to bed.
As mourning rolled around bringing the bright lights of the day, Peter strolled in my room, again, demanding that I bring him to the park. Ugh, it is a Saturday and I want to sleep in later than 7am.
"Go away Peter. I have no desire to be up this early in the morning on a Saturday. Let me sleep." I complained in hopes that he would leave.
"Um, How about no? I have no 'desire' to be cooped up inside the house on a fine early September morning. You know, winter is coming around; you could always just take me out then, in the cold, windy, freezing, snowing outdoors, instead." He mocked with the biggest grin on his face.
"Ugh fine you win… but only because I don't want to take you outside later in the year. You are going to have to get Allistor to do that." I retorted back to him as I got out of bed and wandered to my dresser to find clothes. "Hey before you leave tell me how cold is it outside?" I asked Peter just before he disappeared through my door.
"I don't know, why?" Peter wondered, letting stupidity get the better of him.
I face palmed at his questioned while muttering, "Oh, I don't know, maybe because I need to know what I should dress in for the outside weather." He looked at me with a look that proclaimed that he did indeed not know.
"Oooooh, I'll go find out, be right back." He yelled while running out the door and down the stairs. A minute or two later he returned declaring I would need a sweater and pants. Knowing that I would be outside with a fourth-grader, I dressed down by wearing a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt that were buried at the bottom of my dresser's drawers. After changing into my outdoor attire I began my search for my least favorite sweater,-one that could get torn if needed be and I wouldn't care all that much- a gray hoodie with little silver stars printed all over. As I was just leaving my bedroom heading to the stairs Peter ran up them.
"Oh yeah, forgot to tell you but you might want to bring your iPod or a book or something to do, because a bunch of friends are coming to the park to play too." Peter said nonchalantly as he leaned on the wall.
"What? Am I babysitting a bunch of rowdy children of the age ten, by myself? Are you crazy?" I remarked while moving to hit him on the head. He quickly ducked down.
"Uh no, I'm not crazy and no, you won't be there babysitting alone. Some of the other parents will be there and besides it's only until twelve thirty or so, so it won't be that bad." He joyfully explained and continued on practically jumping up and down, "let's go!"
"One minute and I'll be down, go wait by the door." I commanded.
I snatched my iPod from my school bag, unplugged my headphones from my laptop, slung them around my neck, and connected the two while placing my cell phone in my back pocket. Finally down the stairs and out the door, my brother and I were on our way to the park.
