Brooklyn Murry, 10th, Madrid Jr./Sr. High School, IA, (Fiction

Brooklyn Murry, 10th, Madrid Jr./Sr. High School, IA, (Fiction)

"Sibling Love"

“Hey! No that’s My toy! Emma give it back!”

“No way loser! You’re a total baby Luke!”

“STOP! Mom!”

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Both of you knock it off! You two are always fighting! Emma, you’re Luke’s older sister. Be nice to him. Please! You too, Luke. You are seven years old. Act like it!”

“But mom!”

“No! I have had enough of your arguing! You two are each other’s siblings. The only ones you have. You shouldn’t have to fight over every single little thing!”

“Sorry mom, but we aren’t like you and Uncle Jake.”

“Yeah mommy, you guys never fight! You love each other and get along so well. I don’t get it.”

“Well, guess what. We weren’t always like that. We learned how to solve our differences. I used to think that Jake was so annoying. I didn’t want anything to do with him. All I wanted to do was watch the Vampire Diaries.”

“The what?”

“Oh, nothing, just the best show ever! But that’s not the point. Let me tell you two a story of how Jake and I got to be so close. It all started with a phone call. My mom picked up the phone and told me the worst news of my life.”

“Hello?....Yes, okay, okay. I’ll be right in.”

My mom hung up the phone and took a deep breath. She knew it would be difficult to get me to help her out. Especially because I had just turned on the television to watch The Vampire Diaries.

She walked over to me and paused for a moment, then said, “Jessica, I need your help.”

I didn’t hear her at first with my, you know, selective hearing. I looked up and she was staring at me with her cold blue eyes. She had the mom face on, so I knew to listen.

“What?”

“I need your help.”

She started to walk toward the front door so I followed. She grabbed her dark maroon coat and smiled at me. I was getting annoyed.

“They need me to go in at work. It got really busy and with four people on maternity leave, they don’t have enough help. So, what you’re going to do is help me out. You have to take your brother out for his caroling assignment.”

I was beyond annoyed. She made me pause my favorite show, right after I sat down too, and was now forcing me to go out in the freezing cold, walk around our boring town, and sing Jingle Bells with my shy little brother.

“Ugh, mom! I was gonna watch The Vampire Diaries. Why me?” I said with the biggest

eye roll.

My mom, trying to inch out the door desperately said, “Because he has to do his assignment before school tomorrow. You don’t have to go out very long, just long enough for him to sing once or twice. Please, just help him- help me.”

I took a deep breath and looked over at Jake. He was doing those annoying puppy eyes, you know, the ones you like to do Luke, except his worked on me.

“Oh my God! Fine.”

My mom’s face brightened up, and as she was running out of the door she exclaimed, “Thank you! Bye, Jake! Jessica is going to take you out. Have fun singing!

I dropped my fake smile and walked over to Jake.

“Come on, let’s sing at one house and get this over with.

We put on our winter clothes and headed out into the night. The houses were hardly decorated. Our town didn’t have very much Christmas spirit. We walked up

to a house that had zero decorations. I knew it was going to be a very long night. We went up to the paint-chipped door and stood there for a while. I looked at Jake and he was trembling. Not because of the cold, but because he was scared. I didn’t care though. I just wanted to go home.

“Go ahead Jake, knock.”

He looked up at me, still quivering, and shook his head no. I let out a big sigh and went up to the door and knocked. We stood there for a while and it seemed like no one was home. As we turned around to go try another house, an old man wearing slippers and carrying a cane opened the door.

“Get off my property!”

This normally would have frightened me, but I was not in the mood.

“Look, old man, my brother and I are here so we can get his stupid school assignment done. So you will stand there and listen to his annoying little song so I can go home and watch Stephan, Damon, and Alena!”

The old man grumbled and slammed the door in my face. Jake looked up at me with worry in his eyes. I felt bad so I decided to take him to another house. This time I chose one that had some Christmas decorations up, hopefully these people wanted to hear Jake sing tonight. All hope was lost as we walked up to the door though. All we could hear was a ton of screaming and fighting. Jake and I looked at each other with big eyes. We weren’t certain this was the house to chose. Then, all of a sudden an angry man in an untucked suit and a messed up tie runs out of the house and to the car. A woman with running makeup in a red dress then stuck her head out and screamed that the man never loved her anyway. As the main was pulling out of the driveway, she took her silver heels off and chucked them at the car, barely missing my brother and me. She looked down at us, started bawling, and went back inside. Neither of us knew what to say, so we went on to the next house without speaking.

The house that we ended up at was plastered with decorations and music was blaring inside.

“Well, this looks promising,” I said to Jake, excited that we get to go home soon.

I knocked on the door and a group wearing Christmas sweaters came to the door.

One said, “What a delight to see young folks spreading Christmas cheer!”

Another spoke to me, saying, “Aren’t you the best sister ever!! You’re probably missing

something really important to help take your brother around to sing!”

The third looked at Jake and asked, “Well, little guy, do you have a song for us tonight?”

Jake was shaking and I felt awful. He was my little brother, the only one I had, and I wanted him to feel safe and loved. I decided to start the singing, and soon Jake and the Christmas sweater group joined in. It was actually pretty fun. As we walked home, I thought about how lucky I was to have a brother. I had a best friend for life and from then on, I promised myself that I would be nicer and spend more time with him. We went home, sat on the couch, and bonded while watching The Vampire Diaries. And ever since then, me and your Uncle Jake and been very, very close.

“Well, I guess that I could be nicer to Luke. But only if he promises to grow up a bit.”

“I promise Emma! When we get older, I wanna be close like mommy and Jake!”

“That makes me so happy to hear that! Alright, clean up your toys you two. I’m going to introduce you to the best show ever!”