I have a confession to make, people: I don't own Digimon! Surprised? Yeah, I didn't think so.
I guess dub "errors" can actually be a good thing sometimes, because one of them gave me the idea for this story. It's very short, from Mimi's point of view, and I wrote it at 2 A.M. Enjoy ^_^
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My Baby Brother
"Guess what, you guys!" I take a seat at our group table and open my lunch, waiting for one of my friends to answer.
Matt gives me that sarcastic, semi-teasing look of his. "You actually passed a test in one of your classes?"
I stick my tongue out at him. "Ha ha, very funny. Nope, it's even more exciting than that!" I'm not sure why everyone sweatdrops just then, but since nobody says anything, I decide to answer my own question.
"My baby brother learned to walk yesterday!"
"Really?" Sora's eyes light up. "How neat!"
"I didn't know you had a baby brother, Mimi," Tai says through a mouthful of rice. Sora looks at him distastefully.
"Don't talk while you're chewing. That's disgusting. And Mimi's mentioned her brother before, remember?"
Tai appears to be thinking. "Oh, yeah."
"Could you tell us what happened?" asks Izzy. "It would be interesting to know the details behind the first noticable step in the evolution of a human being." He and Sora are looking at me eagerly, and even Tai and Matt seem interested.
"Well," I begin, glad to finally have my audience's attention, "I actually helped him with most of it. Mom was cooking dinner and Dad was all into this sports special on TV, so I was the only one paying any attention to my brother just then."
"Sounds like the way it is with Kari and me sometimes," Tai comments. I nod to show that I know what he means.
"Anyway, me and him were on the floor playing checkers -- he's not old enough to know the rules yet but he likes to stack the pieces, and I have to watch him to make sure he doesn't put any in his mouth and choke --"
"So you were playing checkers, and then what?" asks Sora. I can tell she's eager for me to get to the walking part.
I clasp my hands together and continue. "So then I guess he got bored stacking checkers because he saw his foam hammer toy across the room and pointed for me to bring it to him. But instead of going and getting it like I usually do, I bent over and took his hands."
Matt leans forward in his seat. "And did he stand up then?"
"Not at first. He just looked at me kinda confused -- it was really cute, the look he gave me." I grin. "But then I helped him some by lifting him onto his feet. He fell back down, but this time he got up on his own while I kept holding his hands." Everyone's listening intently now. They know I'm coming to the good part.
"So I started walking, and he followed me! We kept going till about halfway across the room, and that's when I let go. I stayed behind to catch him in case he fell, but he didn't. He made it the rest of the way on his own!"
"Most impressive," Izzy says. Tai pumps his fist in the air. "All right! Go little bro!" The others laugh, and I can feel myself beaming.
"My parents came into the room just as my brother reached the toy he wanted and they saw him standing there. Mom was so happy she started crying."
"Not as happy as you were, I bet," Sora grins. "After all, you're the one who taught him to walk!"
"Yeah."
Just then the bell rings and everyone jumps up. Tai and Izzy wave and hurry off to class. Sora and Matt stay behind with me.
"That's really cool, Mimi," Matt says to me. "I had no idea you were such a great big sister." He waves to us. "Well, see ya."
Sora and I walk out of the lunchroom together. Our classrooms are in opposite directions, so we stand still for a moment in the hallway.
Just before turning to walk away, Sora looks at me again and smiles.
"Sometimes I wish I had a sibling, too," she says.
The way she says it tells me that she knows the truth, that she'd probably known it all along. Yet she'd played along anyway when I told my story, and I know that she would continue to do so for as long as I did. I don't have to worry about her telling the others the truth: that I had never really taught my baby brother to walk, never been there to play games with him and make sure he didn't put any checkers in his mouth, to look after him when my parents were too busy... never been there to do anything for him, because I had never had a baby brother at all.
And I'm not ashamed that she figured out my story was a lie, that I had made it all up. Because I know she understands why.
The End