im not my brother

march 15

"Thomas!"
I jolted awake as I heard someone scream my name.
"Thomas, you're going to be late for school!"
"Alright! I'm awake!", I said muffled into my pillow. I'm not much of a morning person, especially when it comes to school. I looked at the clock on my bed side table and saw that it was getting late. I quickly put on my uniform; khaki pants, a white collared shirt with the school's logo on it, a navy pullover sweater which has the same logo, and my least favorite part, a tie.

I ran downstairs and saw Mike already ready and eating breakfast, of course. My mom, Karen, than proceeded to comment on how messy my hair looked.
"Tommy, did you even brush it this morning?"
"No." I didn't really care how it looked. I could hear Mike laughing from the table.
"I think it looks great.", Mike said, probably sarcastically, but whatever. "He's expressing himself."
"Exactly the look I was going for Mike."
"Hurry up and eat so you're not late!", mom added. I grabbed a banana and sat down next to Mike.
"So when's dad coming back?", Mike asked. Our dad always travels for these conferences for work. Right now, he's in Seattle. I don't usually miss him though.
"Not until Friday.", mom replied. 'Yes!', I thought. Mom's not as strict as him so I like when he's gone for a while and today's only Monday.
"You boys should get going."
"Yeah. Let's go Tommy." We both got up from the table and grabbed our backpacks. "Bye mom"
"Bye", I said.
"Stay out of trouble Thomas!"
"No promises"
"I mean it" She said says this everyday with her most serious face, but ,eh, like I said, no promises.

Mike and I don't walk together, so today, I was kinda confused. He usually leaves the house way before me and I tend to walk with my friends.
"So, what's new?" Wow. Walking and talking with me. Yup, this was different. Mike and I aren't your stereotypical brothers who know everything about each other and do everything together.
"Uhh, nothing." I never know how to respond to that. Plus, we live in the same house. Shouldn't he know what goes on in my life?
"You gonna try out for baseball again? You'd probably make varsity this year." When I was eight, my parents decided to put me on our town's baseball team, just like Mike was. I've been playing every year since and in 6th and 7th grade, I played for the school. I don't hate it, but it's getting kinda boring.
"Actually, Jared and I were thinking about trying out for lacrosse this year." Jared's been my best friend since the 4th grade. We're more alike than me and Mike. People ask me if I'm his brother.
"Oh, really?" He seems disappointed. I don't know why. Doesn't it annoy him that mom and dad want me to be just like him?
"Yeah. He's been bothering me about it and I kinda wanna try something different."
"Dad'll be upset."
"I figured." I'm used to disappointing my dad. It's not very often that I make him happy. "Well, both tryouts are on the same day, so I don't know yet."
After that, we were silent for a little bit. I took out my phone and opened up Twitter. As I scrolled through my feed, I got caught up in a subtweet fight between two girls in my grade, Lily Sweetin and Alison Blake. I started to slow my pace and I must've eventually stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. I started to feel like someone was behind me. I slowly turned around and saw a kid on a bike coming towards  me. Suddenly, I heard Mike yell," Tommy, move!" as he ran up and pushed me out of the way and I fell to the ground.

This wouldn't have been as embarrassing if we weren't in front of my current crush, Lizzie Pierce, and her friends.