INDIGO

PART ELEVEN

Indigo had been gone for hours. It seemed like everyday now that he was out doing tests and being interviewed. I wanted to go with him, but not even my mom could stay; all she did was drop him off and pick him up. When he would get home, we'd ask about how everything went, and he'd usually just say it was mostly just sitting around and waiting for different people to ask him the same questions over and over. I bet he didn't mind it though, it meant he got to dress up all the time, which he really enjoyed back then.

In other news, I was able to meet the girl who my mom had told me about. She was only three years younger than me, but she was really tiny and had dark hair, unlike my family of blondes. My mom was right about her being really sweet though, she had a small voice and was mostly silent. I was too nervous to talk much with her, and all she had said to me was her name, Camila. Soon after I met her, she was already moving into the house with her little purple backpack of belongings.

"Cami, honey, are you okay with having your own room? You can always set up in our room, or with the boys, if you're comfortable!" My mom excitedly suggested, leading the shy girl to the front door by her hand. "Anything's fine," she whispered in response, it was obvious she was nervous. "Doing okay?" I walked up to her and asked. I guess I was already feeling that brotherly urge of concern. "Mhm!" She looked up at me and we exchanged smiles. My mom put in the code to our door in a speed I could never match, and she opened it wide for Camila. "Welcome h-"," suddenly my mom choked up, "--home!" her eyes scrunched a little before they began to produce tears, and my dad quickly stepped forward to calm her down. Camila walked in apprehensively, her gaze drifting slowly from the tiled floor of the entrance to the living room, and past down the hallway leading down to the kitchen and dining room.

"Your house is really pretty," she held onto my sweater sleeve. "Ahh, that's because Indigo and I busted our butts cleaning up for you!" I snickered, trying my best to not act stiff around her. She giggled in response, which already made me feel giddy, but what really sent me was when she meekly asked, "Can I call you my big brother now?" "I- If you want to!" I quickly responded, caught off guard. My mom finally nodded towards us, her face still a bit red from her little emotional burst, "Ready to meet Indigo?" "Mhm!" she exclaimed back. Right on cue, the almost pink-haired boy peeked around the corner with a goofy grin on his face.

"Hey, miss beautiful Camila!" He quickly propelled towards us, reaching his arms out for a hug. I almost felt like I could start crying just as my mom did, and all I could think about was how much Indigo had grown, and how fun all of our futures together would be. It was crazy to think that he used to be this timid little kid with nothing but shorts and an indigo hoodie, now the most bubbly person I know. "Group hug!" I cheered, reaching my arms over the two of them, which made me notice their apparent height difference.

It wasn't long before we started prepping for dinner, setting up plates and drinks. It was almost like Indigo was more prepared for Camila than I was, he had already chosen a spot for her at the dinner table and gave her a plastic cup that matched the color of her backpack. That night, I decided I'd ask him about it.

"Hmm, did you want a sister?" I was changing into a looser shirt and sitting at the end of the bed. Indigo, who was sitting on my desk chair, looked up from my tablet and responded, "Huh? No, not really. I just... I just want friends." That hit pretty hard for me at the time, I hadn't even considered the fact Indigo likely never had any before me. "When you start going to school, you'll have tons of friends, I promise!" I got up and walked over to him to offer a hug, and he quickly took it up. "You're funny and nice, and you have cool hair!" I spouted anything that might give him hope, but soon he started crying on my shoulder. "A- are you okay?" I pulled him away so I could see his face.

"They told me... I w- won't go to school until... until years from now," he said between cries and sniffles. "What? Years?? Why?!" Even I felt a pit inside my stomach from that. 'Years from now' then could have meant until high school for me. I let him breathe for a minute so he could speak clearer, and he explained, "They wanted me to take a test... but I couldn't read it… so they asked me the questions out loud, and it was about, like, numbers and weird words and animals, and- and I could barely answer anything, East!" he gripped onto my sides and I struggled not to get emotional myself. "So what are you gonna do?"

"They said there's a, uhm, program to catch me up... but they said it'd take years to get me to the level I'm probably supposed to be at by now," he slumped back into the chair, pulling me down with him. I shuffled a bit so all my weight wouldn't be on him, bringing my right knee up onto the seat. "If... if you study and work really hard, I'm sure you'll finish that program in no time," I sighed, shifting so I was sitting sideways on the chair too, one leg behind him and the other in front, my arms still wrapped around him. "I'll try super hard then!" He squeezed me, and we just stayed like that for a long while before going to bed.