Teen Ink- short stories

Family: The "Stupidity" Choice

   You would probably guess-hearing that I live in a trailer park-that im supposed to be some slacker who enjoys smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, and you would probably guess my sister would be, too, because she lives in the same lousy home I do. Well, you'd be right about her.
   She didn't start out this way. At the beginning of the year she was in the advanced math class for eighth graders,  a class I took as a freshman. But now she is an average student in an average class. I know she has the intelligence, but I also know she forgot how to use it. "They" helped her forget.
   "They" are your trailer-park stereotypes, the ones you make fun of-and for a good reason. To me, they all look the same: sagging, oversized pants, an emotionless frown, and a stench that reeks of tobacco, and sometimes alcohol and marijuana. I didn't really care what they did or how they lived their sad lives as long as it didn't involve me. But, it involved me when they started hanging around with my sister.
   I saw major differences within a week. First, she was demoted to pre-algebra, and then school called saying she had skipped and received a three-day in-school suspension. I also noticed that she acted differently. We both used to enjoy jokes at the expense of the "real park kids," but now she was saying that whatever they did was their choice. She also would try to use force when she wanted something, which didn't work on me. Although I'm not much bigger than she is, I'm considerably stronger. Then she started to smell like tobacco and alcohol and her grades continued to slide. When I asked her if she had been smoking or drinking, she would say she hadn't. I couldn't argue, because I had no evidence. So I started looking.
   My "pre"-park sister would have known better than to leave incriminating evidence in her backpack where anyone, especially a nosy older brother could find it. There were a couple of letters bragging about her adventures skipping class, and some to a friend about a "cool" shelter in a nearby city that she was planning on asking mom if she could move to. Most alarming, though, was one note in which she said she wanted to sleep with a particular boy, again. When I asked her about it, she denied everything, saying it was a note to her from a close friend. I'm a fairly smart kid; I didn't believe her for a second.
   As any intelligent, immortal person in my situation would do, I tried to blackmail her. My goal was not monetary gain, just my sister's well-being. My terms were simple; I didn't want her hanging around with the park kids anymore. She agreed, and that pact worked for a couple days.
   Then one Monday night she told us she was staying out with her friend, Jane. When she didn't come back we didn't worry, since she often broke her curfew. Early Tuesday morning I started searching for her. The first place I tried was her friend's. I wasn't surprised when her mother answered the door and asked where her daughter was; however, when she showed me the letter Jane wrote proclaiming she was running away to live in a girls' home in the city, I was shocked. I knew my sister had gone with her.
I told my mother, and the next day both girls were taken into police custody and Jane's mother brought them back. My sister was ready to defend herself as soon as she walked in, saying she only went to support her friend, and it was my ridicule that had made her run away.
I know what made her run away. The park kids showed her an appealing way of life with no responsibility. Their philosophy (in my words) is: "if you want to mess yourself up, it's your choice.
Now my sister is under their influence more than ever, and there is nothing I can do except state my obvious objections about her situation. I can't use force. I might be able to take some of them in a fight, but even if I won, they would avenge their loss by teaming up on me and I'd end up at the hospital.
Although there is little change, I can take pride in being their opposite, totally challenging their ideas. My sister can live her life the way she wants; however, this will not come without my persistent reminders that she is ruining her life. As for me, I'm going to live it the way I want to. I'm not going to opt for the "stupidity" choice.