A Home Through Pictures

Introduction -Makenna

Mondays suck. Nothing else can quite describe them as that worn out word does. Nothing good ever happens on a Monday. It's as if everyone is given a depressant. Nobody wants to do anything, and when they do they do it in spite. After school is no better. I can hear the loud voices from outside the house. Sure enough, Mother and Father were screaming again. They never had a quite argument. The volume choices seem limited to shout, yell and scream. Today had been a screamer. My stomach was pleading for a snack but you never made your presence known during a screamer. I quietly slipped my backpack straps off my shoulders and tiptoed up the stairs. When I reached the top I could hear the faint sounds of laughter coming from a door on the right. I gently nudged it open to see a comforting sight. Despite the overwhelming lack of any other color but pink, my sister's room was cozy. Like me, Cara didn't really clean up after herself. There were clothes and Legos strewn all around the room giving the impression that she enjoyed playing here. In the corner of the room, my red-haired girl held my little brother in her lap. They were both giggling as they watched the iPad in my baby brother Amais's hands. Amais contradicted us. He had a handsome pair of blue eyes and a shaggy mane of chocolate hair and was the tannest little baby you'll ever met. Vastly different then us girls, the redhead, brown eyed, pale people we are. However, the scene that I was looking at now was absolutely perfect. I silently pulled out my camera, snapped a picture of my happy siblings and soundlessly closed the door behind me. When i was out I took a look at the shot I'd just taken. The lighting could have been better but overall it was something you'd typically find in one of those family magazines. They were so blissfully ignorant of the chaos downstairs. I turned to my own room, opened the creaky door, flung my bag on the ground and flopped onto my warm bed. There I it began. Silently fighting with my own emotions. One part wanted to go downstairs and scream right back at them, the other part tells myself not to, to be strong for the little ones in the next room. Most teenage girls read, do homework or start texting when they get home. Me, on the other hand have to tune out the screaming first. It was hard to get the hang of in the beginning, but I've gotten used to it.

"McKenna?" a little nine year old redhead asked, cracking open the door. "Do you want to play Legos with Amais and me?"

I looked up at her. Amais was peeking in behind her, an innocent grin in his little face.

"Cara." I started, with a smile, " I thought you'd never ask."