The Kids Aren't Alright

Chapter 6: Finn

It just doesn't make sense for Sarah to suddenly remember my birthday three months later. It's too random. And it's not like she didn't have earlier opportunities to send me a present— she didn't give me anything for Christmas, either. I stare at the box in my hands, puzzled. The timing of the package's arrival can't be a coincidence. Sarah doesn't do things on a whim, which means that she must have sent the package for a reason— she must want something from me. But what could my sister possibly need from me, when she's already gotten everything she ever wanted?

"Did you find it?" mom calls.

"Yup, I got it." I grab the package and dash back up the stairs, dying to open it and see what Sarah sent me.

Before I make it back to the safety of my room, I'm ambushed in the hallway by the Twins. "Hey!" Maggie shouts, throwing herself in front of me to block my path. Maureen moves in behind me, effectively cutting off my only route of escape. "We heard you got a package from Sarah, so why don't you show us what's in the box?"

I try to maneuver my way past the Twins, but it's like trying to walk through a brick wall. "Go away. This isn't your business," I snap, pressing the box protectively against my chest.

The Twins exchange looks. "Actually, this is our business," they chime in unison. "Hand it over!"

I glare at them. I hate it when they talk like that, and they know. It reminds me too much of the pair of twins from the Shining movie. (Just another example of why the Twins are the devil reincarnated in the bodies of two fourth-graders.) I stick the front of the box in their faces. "See this? That's my name. This package is addressed to me, not you two. Which makes it my business, not yours."

Maggie pouts at me. "Sarah is our sister too, you know."

"Yeah, but I've known her longer than you have. So get out of my way and let me have the privacy I deserve."

The Twins give each other another lengthy look. I frown at them, suddenly uneasy. That look never means anything good— they only do it when they're scheming up some evil plan.

"Do it," Maureen says.

Maggie whips a small glass bottle out of her pocket, uncorks it, and splashes the contents on my shirt. "BAM! Truth serum!"

I look down at the quickly spreading stain on my shirt. It looks like a mixture of mouth wash and glitter glue and smells strangely fruity. (Juice, maybe?) I feel my teeth start to grind together. This isn't the first of my shirts the Twins have ruined, but it certainly is the last straw for me.

"There is no such thing as truth serum, you idiots. And even if there was, it's not something that you can just mix up in the bathroom sink and pour into one of mom's old perfume bottles." I can hear my voice getting louder, but I'm too far gone to try and calm myself down. The last few days of my life have been pure shit. I'm tired of being pushed around and treated like crap, just because of one stupid mistake. If the Twins want to mess with me, they really picked the wrong day to do it. "Magic isn't real," I continue, almost shouting now. "Neither is the Tooth Fairy. Neither is Santa Claus. And Sarah is my older sister, not yours. So get the hell out of my way before I use this box to smack you all the way to England, where you can ask Sarah for a personalized gift yourself!"

Maureen rushes forward and kicks me in the shins. "You are so mean, Finn!"

"She's right," Maggie says furiously. "You've been a real jerk recently. And you need to watch it, 'cause even though you're going to some special camp in alpaca—"

"Alaska," I correct.

Maureen kicks me in the shin again, and even though she's only ten and has the bone density of twig, it hurts in a way that makes me think I'll have a bruise later. "Shut up. What Maggie is trying to say is that even though you're going to Alaska for the summer, it doesn't make you better than us. And you might have known Sarah for longer, but that doesn't make you her only brother. Got it?"