Aythea

My Real World

Jeremy

As I'm walking home, I reflect back on what happened today. School started out mundane and boring, nothing of any real interest. Once I noticed Louis messing with a girl I would soon later discover to be Eidri, things got more interesting; though not in a good way. Eidri tried to shoo him off, but soon she ended up shouting at him. After telling the guy to screw off and leave the girl alone, I followed her as she quickly left the scene, and momentarily was swept out of view. I went in her general direction and managed to catch up to her to make sure she was okay. I kept it subtle though, I don't want to come across as creepy or anything, you know? Besides that, school was just school.

Now? Nothing special, really. Once I said goodbye to Eidri, I headed over to my siblings' elementary school to pick them up and walk them home.

Once I walked up to the front of the school, I quickly recognized my little sister's bright purple hoodie, then saw my brother Alder kicking the dirt, hands in his pockets, and my sister Penelope shifting restlessly next to him. I proceeded to walk towards them. When Penelope saw me, she ran over.

"J.J!" My little sister hugged me.

I laughed and bent down to hug her as she ran over to me. "Hey Penny. How was school today?"

"We read a chapter book today, and my teacher said I did the best!" She giggled and clapped with excitement.

I replied, "Wow, that's awesome. Good job!" Looking over at Alder, I asked, "What about you Alder, how did class go?"

He looked up. "Huh?"

"I asked what you did in class today."

"Oh. Just some boring stuff for our test later this week." More confidently he added, "I think I'll pass the test. I understand math a lot better now since my teacher helped me."

Smiling, I replied, "Awesome. That's good." A few seconds later I sighed and said, "Okay, let's get home guys."

In unison, I heard, "okay!" and "alright."

Penelope grabbed my hand and we started walking home, Alder walking on one side, Penny on the other. On the way there, she told me about class, her friends, and other various four-year-old shenanigans. I listened quietly as she spoke excitedly about it with Alder walking quietly beside me, listening in too. Soon we arrived at our house, I ushered them inside, and shut the door behind us.

Walking into my room, I set my stuff down by my desk. I knew it was just a matter of time until I had to deal with my mom. For now, I went to tell my brother to go ahead and start their homework. I'd checked Penny's things and she didn't have anything, just paperwork for parents to sign.

To my luck, my siblings hadn't shut themselves in their rooms yet. While they were in their rooms I went to my brothers and said to him, "Hey Alder, don't forget to go start your homework, that way you guys can play afterwards."

He nodded and grabbed his backpack, shuffling through it before grabbing what he needed and sitting in the dining room to work on it.

"Oh, Momma needs these too," he handed me a pile of papers and I took them and gave him a tight-lipped thank you.

I made my way over to my parents bedroom. Looking it over, it looks like a tornado came through. Clothes everywhere, glass bottles all over the floor and on nearly every surface in the room. A wave of anger came into me instantly, and I had to use the doorframe as support while I took deep breaths to calm down. Waking up Mom wasn't an option, I don't want to have to deal with that amount of chaos that would cause ever.

After calming down enough to continue, I walked in quietly and started picking up bottles and taking them to the box by the front door to take outside later. It took me a few minutes, but I finally finished cleaning most of the bottles up. I also picked up some clothes, gagging at the pungent stench of body odor and alcohol combined, throwing them into a laundry basket to wash.