The Life of Brenna Normal [NANOWRIMO 2014]

➂ Family and Cleanse

         / Family and Cleanse \

                                                                              

                                                    ❝Sometimes it feels like this world's spinning faster than it did in the old days.❞

Tuesday night was always family night. Always.

It was one of those traditions that stuck in the Normal family. As did everything else they did.

Each family night was the same. They had dinner as family (which they did every night anyway), they talked about their day as a family, they watched Andy Griffith as a family, and then they went to sleep as a stinking family.

 Brenna didn't see the point in these family nights. All they did was eat, talk, and watch television, which was normal for them anyway. Yet they did it every night and each night she asked to be excused from her family's activities. Like clockwork, each night they refused to let her leave. Brenna had made up her mind that they loved torturing her. It was as if it was punishment for being so hideously original and unique.

 Now it was time for the first punishment of the evening, dinner.

The table was decorated a white table cloth, two candlesticks that never got lit, a glass of wine for parents, a bottle of apple cider for the triplets, and a can of Pepsi for Brenna. The food was arranged neatly of many plates, and the plates in front of every person were spotless.

Each plate was strictly eleven inches apart from one another, each napkin was folded to perfect, the silverware was made perfectly straight, and the chairs were directly across from each other. It was set up with exact measurements, all to be ruined as soon as they started eating.

Their life just made no sense whatsoever. They themselves were deranged. Yet to them, everyone one but them was off their rocker's.

 They all joined in on ruining the perfection of the table by taking food, using their utencils and napkin, drinking drinks, and trying to have a good time.

 Tonight at the table, the parents spoke more to each other than to the kids, which nobody minded at all. It meant the kids could converse with one another without interruptions which they enjoyed sometimes.

 Brenna got along better with her brothers than anyone else in her delusional family. She didn't know whether it was the fact that they had more personality traits that were similar to hers or that they were more high strung. Either way, she could have real conversations with them that didn't turn into arguments over the fact she still didn't know what she was going to do in college. Plus they didn't ask her why she couldn't be like them or how she even managed to survive without an agenda.

 Since all of the three boys looked alike they had to style themselves differently so people who didn't live with them would know who was who. Crew swished his hair to the left, while Arlo had wide rim glasses, and Anders had a birthmark on his forehead that set him apart from the others.

 Crew was the most responsible of the triplets. He was also the one who could spurt out random facts that quickest and tell you the ABC's backwards at any time of day. Crew's fashion sense was more laid back and messy, the opposite of his personality. He preferred long t-shirts and baggy shorts, which mom never approved of.

 Arlo was the strangest of them all. He had a different personality almost every day which didn't match his living style whatsoever, but hey, everyone isn't the same. He was also the most talkative. His style consisted of baseball caps, some suspender every now and then, plus button up shirts, and khakis.