Emma: Seventh Grade

Chapter 37: Cousins

When they arrived at Aunt Macie and Uncle Jack's house, it was one in the morning, and Emma was not in a good mood. She had hit her head on the ceiling of the car trying to reach in her suitcase for some sweatpants to wear over her diaper, and now she had a throbbing headache. On the way inside, she had dropped her blanket in the snow, and now it was dirty and wet. As soon as Emma stepped in the house, her mom made her go back outside and fetch the big box of gifts. Needless to say, when she finally flopped down on her aunt and uncle's couch in the living room, she was ready to cry.

"Do you want anything to eat, honey?" Aunt Macie asked. She was sitting at the kitchen table with Emma's mom, dressed in a worn Aeropostle T-shirt and pink plaid pajama pants. Her brown, curly hair reached slightly past her shoulders and, compared to her sister's fit figure, she was on the chubbier side. In the middle of the table was a box of Cheerios and a carton of milk, and Emma's mom and Aunt Macie both had in front of them bowls of cereal and were munching on it contently.

"No, I'm fine," Emma answered, her nose in her phone. For the last couple hours, Lizzie had been texting her about some family drama going on at her house, and Emma had been doing her best to give her advice about things. Her stomach growled with hunger, but she refused to accept her aunt's offer for food. She didn't want Aunt Macie to accuse her of pigging out or think she was a fatty. Rather than risk being judged, Emma told herself it was better to go hungry.

"Emma, you need to eat something," Emma's mom insisted, scooping a spoonful of cheerios in her spoon. "Come over and have some cereal. You haven't eaten all day."

Normally, Emma would have insisted on not eating. But right now, she was hungry enough for a small bowl of cereal. So she gave in to her mom's wishes and got up off the couch, shoved her phone in her pocket, and joined her mom and aunt at the kitchen table. Aunt Macie then proceeded to prepare a bowl of cereal for Emma.

"So guess what Emma did on the way here?" Emma's mom asked her sister with a gleam in her eye.

"What happened?" Aunt Macie wanted to know.

Emma hung her head in regret as she listened to her mom gossiping about how Emma wet her pants in the car. She left out no details either, including how Emma cried like a baby when she was forced to wear a diaper, and how her mom made her clean up her mess. She felt her face flush with embarrassment and tears fill her eyes. Her mom seemed to love talking trash about her, even when she was sitting right there. As much as Emma wanted to burst out crying and run from the table, she forced herself to stay silent and finish her cereal. The last thing she wanted was to cause another disruptive scene for her mom to talk about.

After their midnight snack, Emma's mom was shown to the guest bedroom and Emma had to share a room with her cousin Catie, just like every year. Catie owned a queen-sized bed and both girls could easily fit in it, but Emma hated sleeping in Catie's room. For one thing, Catie, being on the chubbier side, would often hog most of the bed, leaving Emma with little room to lie comfortably. It was impossible for Emma to move her cousin over, so she had no choice but to lie at the foot of the bed or on the floor. Another reason Emma hated sharing a room with her cousin was that Catie would always make a big deal out of Emma's bed-wetting problem. It embarrassed Emma to the point of crying, but Catie seemed to enjoy making Emma miserable. When she was seven years old, Emma wet Catie's bed in her sleep, and every single year her cousin wouldn't fail to bring up that episode.

Emma tiptoed silently into Catie's room, carrying her blanket and pillow and wheeling her suitcase behind her. Her cousin was sprawled out in the middle of her bed, snoring. Her walls were covered in posters of Justin Bieber, One Direction, and Will Smith. There were clothes hanging out of her dresser and on the floor. On top of Catie's dresser and nightstand stood multiple pictures of her and her friends at school. Glancing at the pictures, Emma felt a stab of sadness through her heart as she remembered all the fun times she spent with Hannah before the two of them grew apart. Tears came to her eyes as she parked her suitcase by the foot of the bed, unzipped it, and dug out her phone charger. She plugged her phone charger in the outlet next to Catie's nightstand and plugged her phone in the other end. Then, she placed her phone next to Catie's phone on the nightstand and crawled in bed next to her cousin.