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GISELLE
One of the biggest perks of homeschooling is waking up late. You don't have to wake up at six in the morning to be at school by seven-thirty or eight. You get to sleep a bit longer, but it also means you have more work for the time you're supposed to go to your actual job. But who cares?
I heard the TV from the living room. Mom had left to take Zane to school five minutes ago, so the person watching it had to be the only other person in this house besides me. When I walked into the living room, she wasn't watching it. The now eleven-month-old was playing with some blocks I have no idea where they came from.
Okay, I do, but I'd rather forget the fact that Nick is spending his allowance on buying my little sister toys. She has three sets of blocks already!
I sat down in the middle of the couch, trying to figure out what was playing on the TV on the wall. It turned out to be a re-run of some random comedy show. As I looked for the main character ― or the one who talked the most ― I didn't notice how my sister easily left the room. Well, until I did and I had to follow her as she crawled-- why did she have to crawl?
She doesn't know how to walk without support yet, genius.
She stopped in front of a room, which had its door closed. She used the door as support, placing her small hands on it as she slowly stood.
I tried not to look too confused. "Do you want to go in there?"
She turned to look at me, and I could swear she hadn't actually understood any of what I said, but still nodded. I walked over to the door, grabbing her left hand as I turned the knob to the side and opened it.
Then I regretted it.
The room had mint-colored walls, with several plaque awards from different competitions hung on the wall next to where the door was. On the other side of the door, there was a shelf, which held multiple medals and a couple of small trophies on the top. At the bottom, there was another shelf, which had way bigger trophies, which were almost triple Ava's size. I turned to the wall on my left ― which was probably the right wall of the room ― which had different photos in picture frames.
Some of them were of her with her "friends". Some others were of our family, but there was one at the center of everything. It was a photo of Abby and her. In the photo, she wore a purple costume with her hair in a perfect bun. She had purple eyeshadow, along with baby pink blush and lipstick of the same color. The seventeen-foot trophy stood between the two of them, who wore twin grins on their faces. Abby rested her left arm on the trophy while she held the plaque with her right on. On the other side, Genevieve had a sash that read "Junior Miss Starbound 2011" around her body, a delicate silver crown on top of her head, and a giant bouquet of roses she held in her arms. The lighting in the photo made it look as if it had been long since it was taken that it was. That happened less than two years ago. Yet, it feels like a lifetime ago.
