Growing Up 101

Part 3

"Assalamualaikum! Ayra, Alya?"

I only heard grunting noises from upstairs. Those were either Ayra or Alya's since I've already checked on the snoozing Amsyar. I had no time to waste, so I went to the kitchen to take the medicine first. Then, I climbed up the stairs to consult the twins.

As soon as my eyes laid on their room, I sighed heavily.

"Tell me, who did this?" I pointed at the messy study desk and the pile of books on the floor. I could see Ayra was trying to say something, but after being glared by Alya, she kept it to herself.

I forgot one trivial thing. Although Alya may seem composed and more mature than Ayra, her temper was a hand-full to settle with. I guessed Ayra was messing around with Alya's things and made her all riled up. She probably ticked the bomb at the wrong time.

"Alya, why did you make a mess of your books?" I asked as I slowly picked up her books. She bent down to help me, but I shoved her aside and asked again. "What happened, Alya, Ayra?"

"It was Ayra, kakak... she was using my mechanical sharpener without my permission! On top of that, it broke when I came in and saw her using it." Alya sobbed. Ayra stood there silent.

"Ayra, have you apologised?" "I did, kakak.. Alya was the one who made such a huge fuss about it!" "I simply asked you to put it back where it belonged after you use it! Now it's broken, what are you going to do?" Alya's eyes were red. It only waited for the right moment until the barrier broke and tears fall. I sighed for the 100th time today.

"Alright now, Alya. I will tell Ummi about this, we can get you a new one. I just hope that you won't make a mess like this again. Imagine if Ummi sees this when she comes back!" I turned to Ayra.

"Ayra, you learned your lesson. Next time, ask for Alya's permission. And use it properly so it doesn't break. You should explain yourself to Ummi later, I am tired after the whole chaos. Give me a break, guys." I trudged back into my room and shut the door. Why can't they ever leave me alone?

My eyes fluttered open as I felt the blinding lights of my room shone brightly. Wasn't it supposed to be evening already? Why am I still on the bed? Did I slept?

"Rise and shine lazy head! It's 7 o'clock, have you prayed Asar or not?" I turned to my left and saw Ummi shutting the windows. Since when did I slept?

I slowly shook my head in response. "Bathe yourself! Why couldn't you at least clean yourself? Did you even take care of the house? As soon as I came back from work I saw the laundry still hanging outside! Amsyar was crying and the twins were nagging towards each other! Why couldn't you handle an easy situation, Amber? I thought I could rely on you because you're the eldest, guess I was wrong." Her words stung. Was it because I'm unreliable? Or was it because she misunderstood me?

I frowned. My body was worn out after running around the library for books to increase my understanding about pollination of flowers. Turned out I didn't get a thing into my brain! I even helped to do the laundry before handing it over to Ayra. I wiped all the porridge scattered on the floor and table which was made by Amsyar. I even had to put up with the twins' play! Which part of me was not enough of helping?

"All you do is frown and play game consoles. Do I need to confiscate them from you?" Not that kind of threat! I can't live without my games!

"Please don't! Anything but my games!" I pleaded as my eyes wavered towards my PC and game consoles in the room. I heard her let out a sigh.

"Go get your pads downstairs. Oh right, you're on your period. So you can't pray, that means you should have time to wash the dishes right? I'm counting on you, your father will be back late again today." Ummi said before leaving.

That's Abah. He would usually leave home before dawn and arrive right before midnight. That is if he didn't take the overtime offer. Sometimes when I went to kitchen at 3 a.m. to drink a glass of water I would bump into him accidentally, catching him eating instant noodles late at night. It was a bad practice and I knew of it. Even so, I felt huge sympathy for him since he must've starved to complete all of his assignments. Whenever I caught him eating in the middle of the night, he would glare and shoot daggers at me. Abah can be intimidating sometimes, but he's our father.

I had no choice but to feign ignorance.
He is also hot-tempered so I don't want to get on his bad side. It was so hard to see him at home, even on holidays he would either go out with his friends watching soccer matches or busy settling something at his office. He never had time for us, but I couldn't blame him. Somehow, later on I would feel neglected by him and felt as if I didn't get enough attention from him. Although I feel so, he would still work and earn money to feed his family.

Abah was a cheerful person as I remember him from my childhood. As I get older, we distanced ourselves away from each other and I do not feel close to him anymore. This could be the perks of being a teenager, I guess?

After washing the dishes, I ran back to my room and logged into Instagram. I watched almost all of my classmates' feed and each one of them were flexing on how jubilant they look while hanging out with their friends. Some were celebrating birthdays at a fancy restaurant, some went shopping at a plaza and some were having a nice evening while enjoying tea at a famous teahouse. I'd be lying if I were to say I wasn't envy of them, but my family was just an average family. To be honest, I never set foot on KLCC or Mid Valley like these people. Their parents had high positions as well as high salary. You could say their children were really lucky.

Am I unlucky?

I have no answer for that. I may seem unlucky having to born as the eldest in the family, somehow I believe happiness would still be within.

I have a secret not even Ummi knows.