Caffeine and Paint

Kill me. Kill me. Kill me. I want to die I recite to myself as my mother shakes me awake. And she’s succeeded.

 “Mi Amor! C’mon baby, wake up!” My mother screams in my ear whilst shaking me.

 “Ok, give me a sec,” I mumble into my pillow. Trying to reposition my body while my mother is shaking me is not the most comfortable thing to do. Giving up on that task I prop myself up on my elbow and rub my eyes, “I’m up. I’m up,” I try to convince her and myself.

 “Ok well prove it. Stand up.” My mother says sternly standing straight with her hands on her hips.

I curse myself for asking my mother to wake me up the night before. I rip the blanket from myself and try to sit up before standing. Standing up, I give my mother a humorless smile and narrow my eyes, “happy?”

 “Yes. Now get ready, you don’t need to be late on your first day of school.” When I stood in my place a second too long, she started waving her hands towards my door, “Come on! Come on! Vamanos!” She shouted leaving my room.

 Deciding that she’s right, I walked lazily to the bathroom down the hall and am immediately assaulted by the smell of coffee, Axe body spray and hair spray. Now lets talk about what I can hear, shall we? I hear my older brother Xavier yelling at my younger brother Adrian about using too much of his Axe, my older sister Valentina humming the lyrics to a song that are too incoherent to recognize while coming out of the bathroom, and of course the youngest sibling of the house, Sofia, trailing behind Valentina asking her “how does your hair do that?” in a high pitched squeal

 To others all the commotion going on would have startled them but to me it was only natural.  Welcome to the big ass Callejas Family.

 Feeling like a slug dumped in a jar of salt with all this sunlight, I squint my eyes and walk towards the bathroom. “What are you doing?” Sofia suddenly squeals.

 “What? Huh? What do you want from me?” I say moodily, staring down at her. Then I notice her lips turning into a pout, then her glossy eyes, then her furrowed eyebrows. And now for the finale…

 “Fine. Be mean, I don’t care” she said, her voice a bit wobbly and marches off towards the kitchen downstairs. Okay, yeah, I guess I could be a little cranky in the morning - I didn't even think I was going to be so mean - but I specifically asked her to not ask stupid questions this early. Oh well I thought as I walked into the bathroom to start my daily routine and singing the song Sittin’ On The Toilet when the time came.

 After I finished my little routine and changed into my usual “I don’t really care how I look like but going to school in my pj’s is socially unacceptable so I guess I’ll wear something decent” outfit, I walked downstairs to the kitchen where the smell of coffee was even stronger. And the shouting was louder. “Morning,” I greet them and they all mumble their usual "hey", "yeah". Not actual greetings, just signs of acknowledgement. My mom and dad look up from their mugs of coffee, “Morning, honey,” they chorus. This is when I expect them to go back to their taxes or reading over their wills, whatever my parents do, but nope, they continue staring, and when the rest of my family notice that they’re staring they join in. And it’s just this big staring fest. Getting annoyed and quite frankly, feeling a bit violated I snapped “What?”

 When none of them say anything, Xavier speaks up “You look… nice.”

 Valentina adds “Presentable,” rubbing her chin.

 I look down at my outfit. Sandles, floral top and skinny jeans. “Are you saying I look ugly every other day?” I asked crossing my arms. I mean considering I dress like this every other day.