My Brain and Other Things I Don't Understand

Eight

Alex

Truth be told, Cassidy didn't immediately go over to my house after she got out of the hospital.

Of course she still feels a bit under the weather after a sudden flare up and had to stay home for a week. She needs rest. Especially if Cassidy is infamously known for doing things no one expects her to do.

I walked home from school today. Unfortunately, me and my family didn't live in that one neighborhood where you can literally just walk or take a short bus ride home to. We lived right around the far corner of town. There weren't much people who lived here, but I find it nice, with all the quiet we were getting.

Like most of the time, I didn't have enough money to pay for the bus. Well, I do have some, but I'm trying my best to earn as much as possible before college. I still want to continue studying, but I don't want to worry my mom about going into debt.

After some time, I was finally home.

I half-expected one of my sisters, Lily, to greet me at the door like she usually does, but she didn't.

Maybe she's over at the neighbors.

She usually goes there when Mom and Bella can't watch over her, so maybe my sister's there.

Walking up to my room made me feel like a zombie. I was tired.

School today had been nothing more than boring and unexciting. With Cassidy still in her 'frail, Victorian lady era', I didn't have anything else to do after school except band.

We had a good hour and a half of practice today for some game we would be playing for, and all I've done there was play the clarinet and watch the minutes pass by.

I walked up to my room and gripped the doorknob, before I heard giggles and laughter inside it.

That was weird.

Was Lily with some of the neighborhood kids? She has so many of them, I can barely keep up with their names.

I immediately opened the door, and to my surprise, my sister was currently having a tea party with a new friend she's made.

Cassidy.

Me and my sisters all share a room, but ever since Bella, my older sister, moved out to stay in an apartment with some friends, me and Lily shared this room instead.

"It looks like we have to add another seat to our party, Lily." Cassidy exclaimed as soon as she laid eyes on me, smiling.

I stared at her in complete shock.

Did I tell her where I lived? How the hell--

Before I could talk to Cassidy, Lily immediately stood up from the floor and yanked me towards her small pink table.

"Sit! You're late, Alex." Lily told me as she placed a red paper crown on my head that had been cut almost looking like grass.

Lily is six, but she's a lot smarter than any other kid I know. People say she looks a lot like me, but with short, black, pigtails and a lighter shade of brown eyes. My almost mini-me.

"Sorry, Lily. I had band practice today." I said, adjusting the paper crown on my head as I sat next to Cassidy, who had uneven cutouts of paper flowers stuck to her brace and on top of her head was a macaroni crown.

I bet Lily made her wear it.

"I've never seen you play your clarinet before." Cassidy said as she eyed my clarinet case beside me.