Our Family

Fireball

Tori POV

She was literally like a little fireball, destroying everything in her path and wreaking havoc on the environment around her.

And by that, I mean my life.

Little baby Annie never does anything wrong. Noooo never. It's always Tori's fault isn't it?

'Oh no, Tori, don't let her play with that!'

'Tori you need to watch her more carefully!'

I mean, I understand that my parents hadn't had a 6 year old running around in a year, so it was all of a sudden more hectic and different. But, come on!

And she's developed a habit of doing little things to get me into trouble. But if I say anything, Dad gets irritated at ME!! It's neverrrrr her fault, is it? Since I'm the 'oldest', and I have to be more 'responsible'. Gimme a break.

I've tried to get along with the kid, but she's not making it very easy. Oh well...what do I do?

The worst of it was that I could never have one of my parents alone. I'm not the type to get jealous easily, but it was becoming apparent that the little brat just couldn't stand the idea of sharing OUR parents. I'd walk into the living room to show Mom a specific science problem I was having trouble with, or ask Dad how to word my thesis for a research paper, and as soon as I opened my mouth, little baby Annie was whining about something. The first couple of times was a coincidence, but it's been three months, come on!

Annie literally hates me, and is using our parents against me. Now, it's showing in how I act. I act like I don't care about anything, I'm constantly lashing out by giving an attitude and being sassy. I'm turning into Lexi.

My Dad is getting more and more fed up with me lately. Many times he's threatened to spank me, despite not needing to very often. Even Mom is at her wit's end with me. But I don't care. It doesn't matter what I do, I won't win.

The biggest incident happened just yesterday.

I was made to babysit Annie in Mom's office at NCIS while my parents worked. I had to admit, it was super boring being confined to my Mom's lab, but I kept myself busy with my math homework. I looked over to my left and saw that the chair that once held my sister was now empty and pushed away, leaving the little table filled with crayons and papers.

"Annie?" I questioned aloud. I rose from my chair and looked around the office. I left the office and frantically gazed around my Mom's lab.

What I saw suddenly made my heart leap to my throat.

Annie was standing on top of one of my Mom's lab stools, reaching up to grab one of the glass beakers.

"Annie! What are you doing!?" I yelled out of fear of her falling and hurting herself.

"I'm trying to get a beaker to do 'speriments in like Mommy does. What does it look like?" Annie snapped back.

"Get down from there, you could fall!" I ordered. Then it would be my ass.

"Bugger off, you're not Mommy! And I've done this thousands of times bef-WHOA!"

I watched in horror as Annie fell from the stool in slow motion. She would have hit the floor without a doubt if she hadn't been caught just in time.

"Dad!"

"What is going on here?" Dad demanded, of ME, at that.

"She was climbing on top of the stool to get one of Mom's beakers to do experiments!" I explained frantically. "I was just telling her to get down!"