(OC Alert!)

Brothers

Four – Soccer

I don't know that you could call me the best sister in the world.

I mean, I like my brother just fine, but…he's seven. He gets on my nerves. He thinks that since I'm a girl, I can't like the same things he does. Get this – the other day he told me to go play with my Barbies so he could have the PS4. Barbies. I haven't played with dolls since I was five!

Okay, yeah, I know. He's just a kid. I know!

But like I said, I'm not the best sister in the world. I don't hang out with Ben every moment of every day. I don't let him follow me around, or take him to the park, or buy him ice cream after school.

…Yes, I even fight with him on occasion. I'm only human.

I used to fight with him all the time, but that was when we didn't have anything in common. He likes RPGs and racing games; I like action/adventure games and shooters. He likes comedies; I like horror movies. (And if Ben tries to tell you I like romances, don't believe him.)

Last year, we finally found something we both like: soccer.

It's a funny story, actually. Dad's the soccer coach at my school, and this year I was captain of the girl's team. But Ben's never wanted to play – not in gym class, not on weekends with his friends, not at family reunions, even though two of our cousins are his age. Dad used to bug him about it every time someone pulled out a soccer ball, but Mom made him stop. Says it upsets Ben or something.

It was a Tuesday, the first day of soccer practice for the boys' team, so Dad stayed at school until dinner, and Mom was on duty. That left me home alone with Ben. I was bored and Ben was hogging the TV, and I decided I wanted to kick a ball around for a while. But Mom has this dumb rule that I can't go outside without Ben when I'm watching him. She says I won't be able to hear him scream if he gets hurt, but our house isn't that big, and since it was a nice day, we had all the windows open.

So I went outside. I made sure to stick close to the window, and trust me; I could hear the annoying Chihuahua-like voice of the cleric from his RPG very, very clearly. (Can you believe people actually get paid for talking like that?) I heard him turn the game off and assumed he was putting in another one, hopefully one with better voice acting.

I dribbled the ball a few times, then nailed it with a kick that could have gotten past a world-class goalie.

…You know, Ben would make a great goalie, if only he learned to use his hands instead of his face…

He wasn't hurt (too bad), but it took ten minutes and a bowl of ice cream to get him to stop crying. I was afraid he was going to tell Mom, so I made a deal with him. I'd let him kick the ball at me as many times as he wanted if he didn't tell Mom and Dad that I hit him.

And you know, he was actually pretty good, for a first grader.

Somehow him kicking at me turned into me teaching him soccer, and one afternoon turned into two, and then afternoons became weekends and pretty soon he was playing with his friends after school. I promised to help him this summer, and he's even going to join the team next year.

Dad still doesn't know how I did it.

Ever since then, Ben and I have gotten along better. Of course, now that summer's here, I can't use homework as an excuse to get away from him when he gets annoying.

Yeah. We'll see how it goes.

Taura Kanbara, 11 years old

(Another OC from Redux: the Warrior of Water.)