Michelle was a name that brought a smile to Shawn Hunter's face. Why? Because that was his baby sister. Not wanting his sister to grow up and turn out the way he has, he tries his hardest to take care of the baby. His parents couldn't care less abou...
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SHAWN AND MICHELLE SAT AT the Matthews table, eating the brownies Topanga had made.
"Milk's in the fridge, babe." Shawn said, feeding Michelle another piece. "Hey, not bad."
"My sister Nebbie made them." She said, getting some milk out. "Does your sister drink regular milk, or is she still drinking formula?"
"She can have some." Shawn answered. "She's got some bottles on the counter."
"Nebbie?" Cory repeated. "Don't you mean Debbie?"
"No. Nebbie. It's short for Nebula. Nebula Stop-The-War Lawrence." Topanga explained, pouring glasses of milk, and then pouring a bottle for Michelle.
"So, what, your parents thought 'Linda's already taken'?"
Topanga just smiled, and Morgan came downstairs. The little girl was in awe of the braid Topanga had, and before Morgan went back upstairs, she stopped and turned to the two boys and said, "You know, I'd like to see more of her and less of him. He can leave Michelle here, though."
Shawn pulled a face, and set his sister down so he could tease Cory about Topanga possibly having a crush on him.
The little girl fumbled around, before making her way upstairs, and to Morgan's room where she and Topanga were.
"Hello, Michelle." Morgan smiled. "Do you want a braid too?"
"She doesn't have enough hair to do a braid." Topanga said, "but we can put clips in it, if you want."
"I don't know if Shawn would like that." Morgan said.
"Why not?"
"Shawn's weird." Was all the young girl said.
Topanga smiled, and Michelle looked up at her, and pointed at her hair. Topanga bent down, and Michelle brought her hands up to touch Topanga's wavy hair.
Michelle clapped, making Topanga smile wider. Topanga stood back up again, and walked downstairs, holding Michelle's hand.
Topanga ended up getting shoved out, and Michelle held her hand up in a wave.
Shawn laughed, and picked his sister up, who started to play with his shaggy hair.
"Topanga let you play with her hair, didn't she?"
Michelle clapped a bit, and went back to playing with his hair. Shawn smiled, and watched as Cory struggled to defend himself against Eric and Amy about Topanga.
It was funny to watch Cory struggle, and yeah they were best friends, but best friends do stuff like this all the time.
"Okay, Michelle," Shawn said. "You and I should be heading home."
Cory grumbled under his breath, "You always leave at the worst times."
Shawn just smiled, and walked out with his sister. "As bad as it sounds, I find it funny leaving Cory in these situations."
The whole way home, Shawn let Michelle walk, and he held on her hand, smiling as he watched her.
"You are so big now." Shawn smiled. "It won't be long before you're going to school too. And then you're going to be in middle school. And then high school, and by then, I'll be an old man."
Shawn shuddered, not wanting to think about being an old man. "You know what? I'm going to ask Minkus to build something to stop time so we can stay this age together."
Michelle just kept walking, not paying attention to anything her brother said. She was solely focused on walking as fast as her little legs would carry her. She was determined to keep up with her brother, who had slowed down quite a bit so she could keep up.
It took a bit longer to reach the trailer then it normally did, and it was only because they had to walk super slow.
When they did reach it, Shawn didn't even get a chance to open the trailer door, because he could hear stumbling and cursing. He slowly back up, and picked Michelle up, and walked silently away from the trailer park. Once they were far enough away from the trailer, he set Michelle back down to walk again.
"How about we go to the park or something?" Shawn asked, and then quietly mumbled, "Maybe Dad will be knocked out by the time we get home."
So, the two spent a few hours at the park, the whole time Shawn's gut twist, hoping his dad would be either gone, or passed out. He couldn't fully enjoy the time he was spending with Michelle, because he knew he would have to clean up his dad's mess. Whether it was cleaning up beer cans and bottles, or piles of puke, or stains of beer, and he, an eleven-year-old who was already taking care of a baby, would have to clean up his dad's, a grown adult, mess.
"Michelle, are you ready?" He asked.
Michelle didn't answer, but held her arms up. Shawn picked her up, and instead of walking home, he sat on a bench with her, the little girl laying on his chest, playing with the buttons on his shirt. He leaned back, sighing heavily.
He was exhausted. Between school, taking care of Michelle, and taking care of his Dad and his messes, he had not been able to sleep. The third time he nodded off, he stood up, and shuffled to the Matthews.
When he reach it, he walked into the living room where Cory was flipping through a comic book, sitting in a chair.
"Hey, Shawn," Cory smiled. "What are you—"
"Watch my sister." He mumbled, falling on the couch. "I can't stay awake any longer. I'm going to sleep."
"O...Okay." Cory nodded, watching as his friend fell asleep as quicker then he had ever seen anyone fall asleep.
Cory and Michelle ended up heading up to Cory and Eric's room. They spent nearly six hours together, waiting for Shawn to wake up, and finally, when the seventh hour came around, Alan walked up to the room.
"Why is Shawn asleep on our couch?" He questioned.
"He's exhausted, Dad." Cory explained, rolling a baseball to Michelle, who rolled it back. "He's got a lot going on, and he just came over, told me to watch Michelle, and just dropped dead on our couch."
Alan nodded, as he watched his son play with the little Hunter girl. He was glad that he didn't wake Shawn up and asked him why he was there himself. The boy needed sleep, and this was Shawn finally taking care of himself, which was very rare for the Hunter boy to do.
"All right," Alan nodded. "When he wakes up, he might as well stay for dinner."
Cory nodded, and it had been an hour after that conversation, that Shawn had finally woke up.
"Hey, Shawn," Cory smiled.
The boy looked at his friend blearily. He focused on his sister, and lazily held his arms up. Cory handed her off to him, and Shawn sighed, leaning back on the couch again.
"Did you sleep good?" Cory asked.
Shawn nodded, giving a yawn.
"Do you want to have some dinner?"
Shawn nodded again, and he followed Cory to the table.
Even after he and Michelle left, and they made it to the trailer park, he had to clean up his Dad's mess, Shawn was still able to fall asleep, and sleep for the whole night.
