Lessons from a Rubber Duck It was a regular old Thursday morning, except that Miranda’s alarm clock rang a little earlier than usual. With lightning speed, she rolled over, turned off her alarm, and sprang out of bed. It was an important day, because she was about to execute her fool-proof secret morning plan: get to the bathroom before her older brother, Ian. 1
You see, sometime around Ian’s thirteenth birthday something mysterious occurred in his brain, and he turned into Ian the Terrible. He had always been kind of annoying, but since turning thirteen, he went from being kind of annoying to being the most obnoxious and rude big brother that probably ever existed. Lately, Miranda had been using her vivid imagination to brainstorm a list of possible ways to get rid of her brother. She was considering blasting Ian off into outer space to live on Mars or having him adopted by another family who lives in Antarctica.
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She opened her bedroom door and peered into the long, dark hallway. There was no sign of him. Quietly, she sneaked toward the bathroom in her pink, fuzzy, bunny pajamas. She tiptoed past Ian’s bedroom door like a knight sneaking past a sleeping dragon. As she reached the door of the bathroom, Ian suddenly flung open his bedroom door and yawned loudly. Startled, Miranda yelled, “Ugh! Why are you awake so early?” Ian stretched his skinny, freckled arms across the doorway to his evil dragon lair. “Because your alarm clock woke me up, loser! By the way, nice hair,” he said with a smirk, “What did you do? Brush it with a dead squirrel?” 3
She looked over into the hallway mirror. Her thick, curly hair was sticking straight out, in at least twenty different directions like a red porcupine had curled up and fallen asleep on the back of her head. “Well, Ian, I get the bathroom first because I woke up first. It’s only fair.” “If life was fair, then I wouldn’t have a little sister. I get the bathroom first ‘cuz I’m older than you.” Ian rolled his beady, little, blue eyes, in his usual way and walked in the bathroom, “By the way, those pajamas are stupid.” Miranda looked down at the bunnies hopping across her soft pink pajamas and scowled. Filled with frustration and anger, she thought, I hate his beady little eyes and I hate having him as my brother! Why can’t he move far away and become a clown in the circus? She imagined Ian wearing a red rubber nose, oversized shoes, and a curly yellow wig. 4