Humility
Everyone has something they want to fight for, (or endure fighting for, but it was want in her case) something to guide them through depths of despair and self-doubt and all the rest of it. More often than not, the something is a bundle of erratically strung little things, of hardly any consequence in the larger scheme of everything. But nevertheless, sorely missed when not there. What was it again, you don't notice the cricket in the hearth till it stops chirping?
She figured her sisters were one of those things. Jordan and Sarah. Among the most annoying beings to walk the face of the earth. And yeah, so neither of them ever got annoying to the level of old Esplin 9466. But then again, neither of them ever really tried to murder her.
Well, not deliberately, anyway.
"Sarah, put that thing down!" she yelled. She'd been yelling things all evening. Two hours or so by now. "You could hurt someone."
Sarah gave her an indignant look, and a lengthy discourse which pretty much amounted to "Geez, Rachel. I'm not four. I know perfectly well how to use scissors, so why don't you drag your patronizing big sister butt someplace else?" while Jordan looked increasingly smug in the background with each passing second.
She exhaled noisily. This wasn't something she planned for. She never figured Jordan would get wise to her dumping all the babysitting assignments onto her. And she definitely didn't figure being so out of touch with handling her sisters. For gods' sake, what happened to the time she could silence them with a glare and an accompanying word?
Gone with the Yeerks, I guess.
Jordan cleared her throat, and she gave up. Her sister had just worn down the most enthusiastic warrior in the fight against the alien invasion of the Earth. Too bad she had absolutely no idea about it.
"All right, I admit it." She conceded. "I have no clue about babysitting. You are the master of babysitting. Now please help me out before I go psycho and kill someone."
The self-satisfied smirk grew. Jordan set about placating Sarah with chocolate ice-cream and cartoon videos while she watched, bemused. It was so simple. Why couldn't she think about something that simple?
In battle there is no time for thinking. There's only time to react.
Whatever. It still figured that her second sister was better at dealing with her third sister than she was. It was annoying. And it made her feel slightly envious. And somewhat humiliated. And very, very, very slightly heartbroken. If only there was some way to save the world without the drifting away part.
"Hey, Rachellll…" Jordan sang, holding up the third (where'd that come from?) bowl of ice cream like a trophy. "Want some, oh almighty defeated one?"
Sarah giggled. Jordan smirked. She felt her lips twitching, but she made a face in time to save face, and sat down to watch Disneys' Hercules.