Why Me?

Why Me?- Chapter Four.

"Tyler, your sister did what was right tripping you! You do as coach says, and don't shove your brother down to the ground as an offering!" My mother screamed at Tyler, pointing a breadknife at him, as if daring him to interrupt her again.

"Sometimes I wish I had all girls and one boy! Not the other way around!" She seethed through her teeth before turning around to the loaf of bread she had been cutting and slammed the knife down on it, cutting a clean piece of bread before she turned back around to us, this time looking at Charlie. "Your in trouble too mister! Serves you right having a broken nose! Running from a coach! Pathetic! Just wait until your father gets here!"

Charlie unlike Tyler, actually looked ashamed and kept apologizing, but mother would have none of that. She knew better by now, she knew a difference between a real apology and a forced one.

"In our defense, Colton is the youngest of us three and he was the easiest target." Tyler muttered under his breathe, not meeting mothers eyes as she stared at him angrily, if only looks could kill. If only. We would all be dead by now.

I held Bentley in my lap, playing with his hair boredly as I heard mother keep screaming and lecturing Charlie, Colton, and Tyler. It was kind of funny at first, but now it was just boring. Big whoop, they ran from coach, get over it mom. Of course, I would never. Ever. Say that to her face, because as much as I didn't like to admit it, I was terrified of my mother. All of us were, she was a scary woman, and she needed to be to control all of us.

"Now you little miss prissy," She said looking towards me with the knife this time, and I felt my eyes go wide. Me? What had I done? "You caused your brother a broken nose, and caused them to get caught. I don't know what to do with you yet, I'm still thinking. Now go, shoo, all of you. Get out of my sight before I strangle you all."

We all scattered except for Bentley, who was mom's favorite at this point since he didn't know what was going on and was just too adorable for his own good. Sean stayed too, helping mom cook the dinner as the younger of us went into the living room for football time.

"She's gonna kill you Ty," Hank mumbled through a piece of bread he had stolen behind mom's back, and chewed it loudly. But, how do you chew bread loudly? That was my question, but I could hear him munching on the bread from across the room, and I knew he better chew fast because mom wouldn't like the idea of finding one of her precious pieces of bread gone...

And yes, she would notice.

She knows us better than we like to think, so she counts everything.

"KIDS! WHO STOLE IT?!" She screamed from the kitchen, and Hank swallowed the last of it, glancing around the room with beady eyes, as if to say "Rat me out and I'll murder you." And I knew he would, he wasn't scared to smack around one of us if he got tattled on.

"Scatter!" Joseph hollered loudly, and instantly we were all up on our feet, pushing and shoving and running in every direction we could to get away from our mothers wrath. She was pretty scary, Id rather face chucky than my own mother, and that's pretty bad.

I ended up outside in the old tree house we had built in a huge oak tree with Tyler and Henry, all of us panting hard from running. I looked around, we hadn't used this thing in years, and I'm not sure if Joseph and Bentley even knew about it. It was the ultimate tree house, and dad had paid professionals to build it. It was mainly for me and Tyler though, since the others were older by the time we were to the point of where we were begging for it, and the younger ones were toddlers besides Colton.

It had four different sections, my room, Tyler's room, and Colton's room, and then the other one had a small kitchen in it. We couldn't cook or keep fridge items in it, but it had a small table and cabinets. The middle of everything was my favorite room, because it was the living room with two small couches and a chair, and a mini bar where we kept cokes and sprites, even though they were hot, and by now, long expired. It was perfect though, and even now, I wanted to stay up here longer.

"Wow. This thing has really gotten out of shape..." Tyler said, looking around. He had a glint of amusement in his eyes as he walked around, trailing his fingers on the couches and walls.

"It's still cool though." I replied, sitting down on a couch, surprised no dust came out of it. "It's clean though."

Henry was plopped on the other couch, one leg draping off the side and one on the end of it comfortably. "I remember this thing; you two spent the entire summer up here when you were younger. I was so happy." I shot him a small glare, but I wasn't actually mad, he would have known if I was. I got my mothers anger management issues, we all did, but me and Tyler had it worst. I knew how to control mine most of the time though, as were Tyler didn't know how to.

"KIDS GET DOWN HERE! I WILL MAKE YOUR FATHER GET UP THERE!" Mom's voice echoed through the yard, and I giggled a little. Like my dad was going to get up here. He'd rather die first than ruin his suit and tie.

But I knew she would come up here if we didn't come down, and I didn't want to be trapped in a high tree with her anytime soon. So we all made our way down, using the old technique we used to.

A tire.

Tie a rope to it, pull it up, get it in, and drop. Kind of scary at first, but so much fun, and a lot easier than climbing down an old ladder. But it took guts the first time, but after the first, it was super easy.

"I can't believe you kids still do that tire thing, it's gonna kill one of you someday." My father said as he sat down at the table, opening a newspaper, scanning the first page. Before he could even find a good column to read, my brother brought over the food in one hand, held high above her head like a waitress. With her empty hand, she snatched the paper from him, right as she put the food down in the middle of the table. She then proceeded to roll up the paper and whack him upside the head with it.

"You're setting bad examples for your children! Your demon children!" She said as she hit him one last time, adding a little glare to it before she rolled her eyes and sat down beside him, next to Sean.

Tyler was the end, then me, then my dad, then mom, then Sean, then Henry, and Hank went on the other end, then Charlie on the opposite side, then Colton, Bentley, and Joseph. We always sat this way, no matter what.

Dad chuckled, rubbing his head softly before leaning over and kissing mom on the cheek, and she turned a beet red before whispering, "Your not out of trouble." He grinned at her before nodding.

That's when the real entertainment started.

Getting food.