The Summer Sisters

The Middle

The sun was at its highest. As spring ended its turn, summer rose up with its most unpleasant weather. However, we, despite the strong blazing sun, still longed for the freedom and light-heartedness it brings. The wind brought the smell of burnt cinnamon to my senses. I knew from where it came.

My sister ran to catch up to me. “Monica, wait for me!” she exclaimed. I looked over my shoulder and witnessed Minika slowly approaching me. I stopped midway and took out the bottle of water in my bag. I knew she would need one. The distance between us grew closer until she stopped beside me, exhausted. “I told you to wait,” Minika complained. I gave the bottle and inhaled.

“If you take care of yourself properly, you might catch up with me someday. Before that, I will go ahead first,” I said harshly.

“How about you gain some weight, you skeleton-looking monkey!” she shouted as I accelerated my pace.

Since we were children, we have always had a love-hate relationship. I was the oldest among all of us five siblings. She was two years younger than me. Our parents divorced a year after Minika was born. Since then, our lives were never the same. Antagonizing each other as we were, our three younger siblings still looked up to us.

Since I was labeled as the mature one, I took care of my siblings. The rest of them were the offsprings of our father and step-mother. Great job, dad. My biological parents both turned alcoholic after the divorce. My mother stayed single and avoided her parental responsibilities. As for my father, he continually abused my step-mother. It was a troublesome childhood.

For years, I tried my best to give my siblings a childhood that was better than mine so I took care of them as if they were my own children. Evidently, there were a few positive things to take away from this despite all the mess. First, I learned how to use my authority properly, being the eldest and all. Second, everybody had experienced a mostly normal childhood because of Minika and I. However, I resented everything that I could not control.

After our short walk, we reached our school's front gates. I did not like this academy. The “Great Grandfather” was too ancient if I was to compare it to other schools that I saw in my social media networks. With regards to the modern schools that were built with high-technology, the sole positive thing with The Great Grandfather was its legacy. That was it.

The bell soon rang the tune of its people. Students started gathering up to enter the colossal gates. I looked everywhere for my younger sister, but I couldn’t find her at all. I took that opportunity to walk myself to my locker without her.

Minika and I were completely different. Our opinions never matched. I played, sang, danced, talked, and went with anyone or anything she did not like and this held true for her against me as well. On the same note, our sense of fashion differed from each other. I was really liking the military style and she rocked the hipster style. We were completely unalike.

This was not something uncommon between siblings; I was aware of that. One of the things that ticked me off was her lack of control over her eating habits and her health. Clearly, she had mastered the art of make-up and her clothes were on the point. Despite all of her effort, she was still bullied in the school.

Since our parents decided to live their greedy, selfish lives alone, Minika started behaving weirdly. All of us thought that it was just a phase that she was going through. However, we were wrong. She was abnormally addicted to food. I told her numerous times to watch her health, but she never listened. She always denied the fact that she was ingesting more than she could properly chew. It irritated me that one day, she even went to the kitchen and ate two boxes of doughnuts! Of course, she replaced both of them with new ones so that no one would suspect her of anything. I was sure that she felt ashamed. Despite all that, I saw everything. I knew everything. She was going against my orders.