Cluttered {Watty Awards 2016}

Two

Two

The next morning, I still can't get last night's episode out of my head. Emily and I had fallen asleep way before Mom ever returned. When I have showered, dressed, and told Rory and Emily to start getting ready, I find Mom snoring on the couch. She's been sleeping on the couch since February because her bed has too much stuff on it to sleep comfortably. I make a face at the many plastic shopping bags surrounding the couch. New junk that Mom couldn't live without. Shaking my head, I retreat into the kitchen to look through the new groceries and fix my siblings and myself something for breakfast.

I go with generic pop-tarts. "Breakfast!" I yell after the last one pops from the toaster. We haven't been able to sit at the kitchen table in months, so we usually take our plates to wherever we can find a place to perch long enough to eat. After we've eaten, I help Emily pick out an outfit and quickly braid her hair.

"Can I have the unicorn one?" she asks as I rifle through Emily's large assortment of shaped barrettes.

"Sure," I say as I locate the pearly white unicorn. The horn is silver. I clasp it onto the end of her braid and she grins and hugs me.

"Thanks."

"Welcome. Get your bag and make sure everything's in it, okay?"

Nodding, she runs to find her bag. I go by Rory's room and knock on the closed door.

"Almost!" he yells.

"Hurry! We've only got ten minutes," I call before heading into my room. I go into the bathroom to check my reflection real quick. My short dark hair is still dripping from my shower, but I grab a brush and get out the last of the tangles. Then I turn off the light, grab my book bag from my desk chair, and go to round up my siblings.

Minutes later, we are walking down the street to the bus stop. A few years ago, the bus used to stop right in front of our house. Then someone had decided that it was too much trouble to pick us and our neighbors up individually and they'd created the bus stop. I don't mind waiting at the bus stop, but it would be nice to have those few extra minutes. Especially since I have to be at the stop to make sure Rory and Emily make their bus, which comes ten minutes earlier than mine.

"Morning," I greet, nodding at the other kids already there. Five other kids are already waiting. Four are in elementary school and one is in middle. I'm always the oldest. Sarah, Drake, Holden, Jill, and Matt all nod back at me. Then Holden playfully punches Rory's shoulder. They're in the same grade, fifth, and have the same teacher.

"Dude, did you play last night?" Holden asks.

"You know it."

I roll my eyes and smile at the rest of the kids. Matt is the next oldest. He's thirteen. He's also a bit of a douche, usually ignoring all of us until his bus arrives, like the rest of us (even me) are beneath him. I don't particularly like any of the bus stop kids, though. Sarah and Drake only talk to one another and while Jill is a beautiful black girl in Emily's class, she always regards Emily with a look of disgust. I'm not sure why, but Emily doesn't really have any friends.

"They all think I'm weird," she once told me, although when I'd pressed for more details, she didn't have them. I hoped that one day she'd make a friend. She was only seven, so she still has a lot of time. A part of me thinks that her asthma is one thing that other kids find weird about her. The other is probably the fact that Emily doesn't have sleepovers or play dates or birthday parties like the others. How could she with the way our house is? None of us can have people over.