By the time I brought Carrot back into her stall, it was starting to get dark. No one had come onto the trail or at least no one had crossed my path all day. Even though I didn’t want to be around anyone, it still would have been nice if Theo had come to try to talk things out. He usually did and it was odd for him not to follow me after we fight. We both wouldn’t admit it, but we both hated being mad at one another. Theo was my older brother, and I knew he would always be there for me, even if I didn’t obey Mom or Dad, he’d always stick up for me.
When I was walking back towards the house I saw that the light in the family room was on and that it was the only light coming from the house, besides the porch light. I hurried my pace, and went from walking to jogging to a full on sprint. I didn’t know if I was pass curfew or not and I didn’t want to do anymore rule breaking, since my parents were still on edge about Caleb.
I sprinted up the porch steps, running my excuse for being in pass curefew in my mind. I got lost. Carrot got hurt. I tripped on a log when I was walking next to Carrot. I didn’t release how late it was. The only one that might have worked was the last one, the trees were tall and thick around the trail, but I still wouldn’t get out of being grounded. I pushed the back door open and I started sputtering excuses out when I heard someone start to walk over.
It was Theo “Shay calm down, you are past curfew but I won’t tell Mom and Dad. It’s my fault you ran off. And by the way, no more running away this weekend, my rule. Mom and Dad went to go help Aunt May, you do know she just had a set of twins, and they left me in charge. So you’re under my rules for the rest of the weekend.” He handed me a piece of paper with his writing all over it. On the top it said ‘List of rules for Shay’.
List of rules for Shay
No running off
No leaving the house without Theo
No having friends over
Bedtime is 9pm
Since Shay is not allowed to be outside by herself, her curfew is whenever Theo decides to go in
If Shay breaks any of these rules, Theo won’t tell Mom or Dad but will handle it himself
Theo must have saw my expression, because he grabbed the paper from my hand and started speaking again. “Listen, if Mom and Dad did show up and you didn’t, you have been home, 15 minutes after curfew. These rules are just here to teach you how to manage your time better. And sorry if they seem like they are for toddlers, that was the point of the project; to see how older kids act to what would be considered appropriate rules for toddlers. Don’t worry, I won’t treat you anymore like a toddler than what these rules say.” Throughout his whole speech, Theo kept waving the paper with my rules in my face
While Theo was going on about how I should respect him, I grabbed the paper from him. “You’re rules have no authority on me.” Theo’s face crumbled in horror as I ripped his list of rules into tiny little shreds. I smirked with victory as the tiny pieces of paper crumbled around his feet.
“That was worth half of my grade.” Theo whispered. “I’m failing my parenting class so my teacher gave me and the other failing students extra credit. The assignment was to see how older kids react to rules made for toddlers. I was explaining that before you ripped the paper up.”
Twice in one day I made Theo cry. He started crying right in the middle of the living room. “Oh theo, I’m so sorry. I thought you were just doing that to make me mad.” I wrapped my arms around his stomach and gave him a hug. Theo wrapped his arms around me too. We didn’t say anything, but we shared a moment of silent sibling love. “I’ll try to talk to your teacher for you. I’ll say it was me who ruined you’re project. I mean it! Tell me who’s your teacher and ill talk to her for you! I’ll take the blame for it, okay?” I kept trying to get Theo to stop crying, but nothing seemed to work. He must have been really upset about failing a class. I wouldn’t know the feeling; I was the top student in every class. Teachers loved me, I was a perfect model student that everybody else should try to be like. Anyone who really knew me knew that I didn’t choose to be top student and that I truly wasn’t a perfect model.
“Why don’t we sleep on the couches and watch a film like we used to when we were little?” Theo said in between muffled sobs. He used the word film instead of movie, which bothered me and Theo knew it, but I didn’t say anything about that. I just nodded and started to get the spare blankets and pillows out of the hall closet.
Just like the rest of the house, the family room only had the minimal amount of furniture, which was two couches, two small end tables, and a table in the middle of the room that rested on a rug that my great grandmother made for my parents’ wedding. We were also lucky enough to have a projector and a small collection of movies. While I was getting the two couches ready for Theo and me to sleep on, Theo chose a movie about a girl who has to travel all around our country to find her soul mate. It’s a sappy love story kind of movie, but it was interesting enough that I wouldn’t argue about watching it again. We made popcorn and hot chocolate before getting the projector working again. Theo put the movie in and within minutes, I was asleep.
*Author's Note*
Sorry for another rushed chapter! I promise the next one or two chapters will be more exciting and longer! Thank you lovelys for all the reads and votes, I love you all!
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