popularity || sanders sides [DISCONTINUED]

2 | Roman

Chapter Two: Trademark
  Roman Castillo

We had a system in my house. It was almost like a conveyor belt type thing. We would all stand in line and pass everything for breakfast down the line. It really sucked when my little sisters were at the end because they would always forget that they were at the end and drop something on the floor. They broke a $2,000 dollar plate once. I just want to know who puts pancakes on a plate that expensive, to be honest.

I would always volunteer to be at the end to prevent something like that happening again. It wasn't that bad. I just wouldn't get as much bacon as everyone else. It's cool.

Rayne and Charlotte, my sisters, ran past me, their full plates in hand. I knew that those two should never be allowed to run in the house, and I decided I'd save my mother the stress by telling them myself, "Girls, no running in the house!"

They sighed in unison, as they often did, and Charlie said, "Fine," and Rayne muttered, "You're mean, Roman," under her breath. Of course, I heard her, but I didn't say anything.

"You don't have to be so hard on them," my older brother Nathan said, putting a hand on my shoulder, "That's Mom and Henry's job. You're not a dad yet, little bro."

I looked at him with my annoyed look™ and replied, "I just don't want to add more stress onto Mom's shoulders. She doesn't deserve that. Maybe if you helped out for once, you'd know that, Nathan."

When I said that, I thought back to yesterday, when I had helped my mom with the dishes. We had a playlist of Disney songs that we played and sang along to. She would use the sponge as a microphone and I used the water sprayer thing. It was the most fun I had had all week.

"Whatever." Nathan said before walking away. Then, my other older brother, Ricky, walked up to me and elbowed my side, "Yo Ro, you need me to pick you up from football practice tonight, right?"

I nodded.

"Great," he began walking away, before turning back and saying to me, "You know, you wouldn't have to ride in my weed-scented rubbish car if you just, I don't know...got a license."

I smirked, "Nice try, Rick, but not gonna happen. I have no reason to have a car yet. Both you and Nate have a car, and Jonathan is almost there, too. I'll probably get a car when I'm in college."

"Cool beans," he responded, "Hey, do you want a Mountain Dew or Coke for when I pick you up?"

He always asked me that when I had practice. He knew that those were my favorite sodas. We even had a code for this question. I blinked twice and then gave two thumbs up, signaling that I wanted a Mountain Dew. He nodded and walked away, which only left me to come in contact with...

"Ayeee! Romie!" My younger brother Jonathan said, taking off his sunglasses, which he wore indoors to make himself look 'cool.' I smiled, "Hey, Johnny..."

He stuck one arm of his glasses in his mouth and said in a low tone, "I just uncovered a pack of candy cigs under mom's bed. They kept me up all night, yo."

"Cool..." I said, already tired of Jonathan. He tried to act cool and like the "big kids," but honestly, he was just cringy. Whenever I had some of the team over he would try to insert himself into the conversations and it made me really mad. He would also try to flirt with my best friend Veronica Heron when she came over, despite me telling him that she was off-limits. He took that as 'Oh, you're dating her. But she's hot so ima keep doing what I'm doing.'

But, in case you were asking, I wasn't dating Veronica. In fact, our relationship will always be purely platonic. To put it plainly, while I liked both girls and boys, Veronica just wasn't my type. She just radiated too much Friend Energy™ for me to be attracted to her.

Jonathan found something else to occupy himself and I looked over at my mother, who had just finished packing my lunch. I walked over and took my lunch bag from the counter, "Thanks, Mama."

She smiled up at me. I was taller by a few feet. "You're welcome! Ricky's picking you up after practice, right?" She asked, just to be sure. If there was one thing I knew about Rita Castillo it was that she always liked to be sure about things.

"Yep!" I said with my signature bright smile. It was a trait that I received from her.

Her smile widened and she pulled me in for a hug, "Keep Johnny and the girls behaved in the car, okay? We don't want Nathan to go into meltdown mode like we all know he will."

"Got it!"

I went out to the car where everyone was standing, waiting for me. We piled into Nate's old pickup, Ricky hitching a ride in the bed of the truck so that he could get to his job at the gas station on time. For some reason he felt that it was easier to jump out of the back than to jump out of the back seats.

In my family, we had a saying. It was that this family was a "BFF." A big-frickin-family. I thought about that saying as I looked out the window, being drove to school. To be honest, I really liked my life, these mornings. Sure, they were chaotic, but they were chaotic in a good way, and for that I was grateful.

"RAYNE! PUT CHARLOTTE'S MUFFIN DOWN NOW!" I heard Nathan yell from the driver's seat. I looked back at the three in the back and saw that both of the girls were screaming at each other. I must've completely zoned out until Nathan shouted.

Time to put some of those Big Brother Skills™ into use. I can do this, I always could.