The Princess Pledge

"It can't rain all day." Grayson groaned, staring out the window.

"If you could will it to stop raining, it already would've." His mom said, patting his shoulder. "Sorry, bud." He sighed and flopped down on the couch. "Read your new comic or something."

"I already did. Twice." He said. He growled as he heard a loud thump upstairs. They were so loud!

"You could always play with the girls." She knew all too well that that was what he was trying to avoid. 'The girls' were his sister Jenny and their cousin Jessie. They always made him feel like a third wheel and girls were just weird. Especially those two. No matter how many times his mom told him Jenny loved him, he could not shake the feeling they wished she and Jessie were sisters and he was the cousin they only saw every few months.

"I'll just stay down here." He sighed, looking down at the floor where some blocks waited. Blocks, at his age? Aunt Rhonda had to be joking. Then again, she had been told he would spend the day playing outside. And that had been the plan. This cold, gray drizzle was the only thing keeping him from doing that. "It'll stop before we leave, right?" His mom's face was all the answer he needed.

"We'll be in Auntie's scrapbooking room if you need us." She said, turning to leave him to the blocks and his twice-read book. "No playing ball in the house."

"I didn't even think of that!" He insisted, but he doubted she believed him. He had only done that once and it wasn't even here! Thump! "God, shut up." He muttered as he looked up at the ceiling. What were they even doing up there? Then again, did he really want to know? He surveyed the living room and shrugged. Had to be better than hanging out alone down here. They were going to be here all day and lunch was still a long time away!

"So then, I told Allison that Meghan said" Grayson paused at the ladder that led up into the attic. Did he really want to do this? He could turn around and find something, anything else to do. It did not hurt to at least see if they were doing something cool, he figured.

"Hey" he said, poking his head up through the floor. The girls turned and looked at him.

"What do you want?"

"Jenny, be nice." Jessie said, smiling at him.

"He's an annoying little brother. Why should I?" She looked back at her brother. "Why aren't you playing outside?"

"I wanted to, but mom said I'll catch a cold and die if I go out in the rain."

"Oh." Jenny looked a bit conflicted. "Uh, I guess you can play with us? Right, Jessie?"

"Sure." Jessie grinned. "If you play what we're playing."

"You were playing? I thought you were just talking."

"We're princesses." Jenny said, immediately picking up on her cousin's hints.

"Yeah, they sit around and talk a lot."

"So, what would I do? Be a knight or something?" He remembered doing that before when the girls had been younger and everything had been princesses with them. That had been alright.

"Not quite. You'd be a princess too." Grayson's nose wrinkled almost immediately.

"So I'd just sit here and listen to you two talk?" He almost started down the ladder again.

"I guess? We could play a board game or something though. Once we're all princesses." Grayson rolled his eyes.

"Fine, whatever. I" he grunted as he climbed up into the attic fully. "Better than playing with blocks, I guess."