After the experiencing the most awkwardness humanly possible, I turn the key and enter my house. I am hoping to get some peace and quiet but then I remember that I am entering my house. Let's catch you up, shall we?
My house is a jungle. Not a literal jungle, like where I was located for the summer but even more wild. When guests come over, our house and family is picture perfect. But on a regular day like this? I can barely make it to my bedroom alive. With 3 crazy sisters and 2 crazy parents and an even crazier grandmother, it's a wonder that I can keep a schedule. People can say that having brothers are a nightmare, but having crazy sisters is even worse. If you think about it, there are 5 women in this household who have periods at different times of the month. Result? A very hard time dealing with moodswings. I can barely handle my own, let alone 4 others! Plus, my Lola (grandmother) can be extremely chatty at times. Especially when it comes to my life.
I open the door, quiet as a mouse, hoping to not attract the attention of my family members. The millisecond that my toe scratches the surface of the floor, the sound of loud yelling hits my ears.
"It's not my fault that it broke again!" my mom yells at my dad in sassy english. They fight like this all the time. Not really fighting, but more like playful arguing. Like, they're not mad at each other, but they're just loud people?
"Dahil sa karamihan ng damit mo, na sira na naman ang closet!" he sighs loudly. (Because you have so many clothes, the closet broke again!)
I almost laugh. My parents had this same argument a few months ago when the shelves of my parent's closet broke and all of the clothes came tumbling down like an avalanche. It was mostly because of my mom's handbag collection, so my dad added another shelf. He also had to repair the one that fell. It was hilarious!
My mom just laughs at him, not disagreeing.
My dad continues. "Stop buying clothes! Ang dami mo ng damit!" (You already have so many clothes!)
I shake my head at the continuing battle between the two and make my way upstairs to my bedroom. By the time I get downstairs, my parents will probably be dying of laughter since towards the end of their "fights" it starts getting funny.
Lola Nora must be in her room sleeping, reading the bible, or checking her Twitter, since no one is attacking me with questions about the latest school gossip. Yes, she has a Twitter account, as well as an Instagram.
I lock my bedroom door and change my clothes. As I take off the tight jeans and lift my shirt over my head, I feel free. I unclasp my bra and throw it onto the bed. As every girl knows, taking off your bra is like letting go of weight or tight clothing. I put on my gray sweatpants and my favourite oversized t-shirt. I take my hair out of its intricate braid and clip it up with a giant clip.
I head downstairs, only to find my parents back to normal. Well, their type of normal. My mom sees me and asks, "When did you come home, Ara?"
"I came home like five minutes ago, but you guys were too busy fighting about your closet or something." I say, as I walk towards the kitchen in search for a snack.
"How was school?" mom asks, like she usually does when she gets home. Today was her day off work, but she usually comes 30 minutes after I get home.
"It was boring." I lie. But what am I supposed to say? Guess what mom? My three best friends just got boyfriends and I was blackmailed by a baboon?
"Really? Oh. Well Tita Gia called and asked me to say thank you to you for helping James out."
Tita in english, translates to aunt. No, James' mom is not my parent's sister. We're not even related! Not even a bit! But she and mom have been co-workers at Open Heart General Hospital since before I was even born. Needless to say, they've been friends for the longest time. And in the Philippines, you can almost call anyone tita. (From my 16 years of observation, that is.) I was trained to call anyone Filipina, (older sister) ate (ah-teh) or (aunt) tita (tee-ta). On the other hand, anyone filipino, (older brother) kuya (koo-ya) or (uncle) tito (tee-to).
"Oh...that." Damn it! I almost forgot! Now that Tita Gia knows about this, I cannot escape it. My family will probably disown me if I make them look bad infront of Tita Gia and Tito Danny.
"That?" my mom questions.
"I agreed to help him out in bio and math?" I tell her, but it comes out sounding like a question.
My mom is about to fire a hundred more questions, when the twins burst into the kitchen. As usual. Bree's long hair is styled in beachy waves. Who knows how long that took? Unlike me, the twins dyed their hair in a brown fading into blonde ombre. Like the majority of girls on instagram. Brook's hair looks the same as Bree's, although it is cut short.
Bree (Breanna) glares at me as I open a bag of chips. "What are you doing?" she gasps, as if I just committed a horrible crime.
I slowly place a handful of sunchips in my mouth and chew as quietly as possible. "Um...eating?" I respond with my mouth full.
"Oh my goodness! Who bought this junk? I'm trying to go on a diet!" she squeals angrily at me.
To be completely honest, I never know how I get into situations like this. I'm just a regular girl eating a bag of chips! Why does the world do this injustice to me! I thought I lived in a free country! A country that lets people eat chips freely! Where is the democratic system in this? Where is the fight? I demand a law suit!
Yeah...sometimes even I get confused in my own thoughts.
I munch on another handfull of chips.
"Hey Ara!" Brook (Brooklyn) calls out. "Think fast!" she yells before throwing a soft ball to my face. Sorry, not soft ball, as in a ball that is soft. But a softball, the one that hurts like a rock to your face.
Luckily, I am used to her tactics. I swerve to my left and dodge that thing, but it ends up ricocheting from the cupboard and hits one of the flower vases. The vase topples and crashes onto the floor, the sharp, glass pieces scatters everywhere.
My dad storms into the room. "What was that noise?" He eyes the broken glass and dirt on the floor and turns to me. "Ara! Why are you throwing things!"
Let's recap. Here I am, minding my own business and eating some chips because I am starving. Yet, here I am also getting scolded for something that I did not do. Someone please tell me how our dear world works?
"I'm not!" I object. "Brook almost gave me a concussion with that softball!" I say, pointing at the twin who is trying her best to look innocent.
"Ara! Stop lying!" he yells at me. Brook is in the background giving me an evil smirk. I'm going to get you back, I think as I glare at her.
I turn to Bree who is on her iphone, just ignoring the scene going on in front of her face. "Bree! Tell dad that I didn't do anything," I plead.
She gives a smirk to Brook before saying, "Dad, she didn't. Brook was the one who started it."
Brook gasps and tries to maintain her composure. But the look in her eyes resembles that of a coyote about to kill. Bree better keep an eye out tonight. If anything, one twin always likes to do something to get the other one in trouble. The girls are best friends one day, and enemies the next. Quite exciting watching from the sidelines, but quite horrifying when you accidentally get caught in the war.
The doorbell rings.
"I don't care who started it! Clean it up!" he shouts, before leaving the room to get the door.
"Ara, you better clean that up." Bree states.
"What? Why me? I didn't do anything!" I complain. I seriously want to strangle my sisters sometimes. Brook and Bree can be such a pain. At 19 years old, I don't know what goes on in their brains.
Brook speaks. "Too bad. Bree and I have to go. We have basketball practice."
The two walk away. Who has time to worry about being a third wheel when I almost get killed in my own home by my own kind?
As you can probably tell, the twins are health freaks.
Bree is always up for the latest diet, resulting in the whole family changing our lifestyle every few months. Sometimes you can find a bag of chips lying around in our house, but only on lucky days. Today was a lucky day. She aims for that bikini body, which she has. Yeah, I ain't getting one of those anytime soon.
Brook on the other hand is more of the tomboy. She does diets too. But she just does it to make sure that she'll be the best in every single sport. When it comes to competition, Brook trains like an animal. She plays hard. I learned some of my self defense moves while defending myself from her growing up. When I was 7, she chased me on her bike. I was running away in an effort to not get run over!
I quickly shovel up the pieces of broken glass with a broom and the dustpan. After, I grab my chips and make my way to the couch. As I sit on the couch and grab the remote, I hear another yell among the chatter in the household. "I'm home!"
Illa (Camilla) is here. She skips up to me and the brightest smile is plastered on her face. Illa was always the super positive one in the family, Miss Sunshine. Her medium-length hair is also dyed blonde, but not in the ombre effect like Bree and Brook. Instead, all of it is in the sandy blonde colour. She wants it light so that it'll be easy to dye it like a "mermaid"? Yup, I think that's what she said.
"Ate Ara, guess what?" she almost squeals.
For some reason, I don't call the twins ate, but Illa calls me it. Technically, I should be calling them Ate Bree and Ate Brook, but it's too hard to change habits now.
"What?" I say. Illa is probably the most spunky and energetic 13 year old girl that I know of. She comes home everyday, excited about every little thing that happens in her life. Out of my three sisters, Illa and I get along the best.
"OMG! I had the best day ever at school today!" she exclaims joyfully. "Ask me why!"
"Um...okay." I mumble. "Why? It's the first day of torture and sleeplessness-"
Illa interrupts me mid-rant. "Thanks for asking, Ate. Anyways, guess who I am paired up with in science class?"
Not like I knew any of her friends anyways... How does this child expect me to guess? What am I, a mind reader? Instead of bestowing the beautiful gift of sarcasm on her, I just continue to play along.
"Who?"
She almost screams. "Kaden Lee!"
I sit there, confused on the couch. I do not know this person, nor can I be excited for Illa. She's never talked about a Kaden guy before...who is he?
"Illa, may I ask you, what exactly is the big deal?"
The girl infront of me almost faints. Instead of losing consciousness, she pulls out her brand new iPhone 7 and goes straight to her instagram account.
Don't ask me why a 13 year old girl has an iPhone 7 because frankly, I have no clue. I mean a phone at her age is pretty normal for our generation (But I still do not support giving babies iPhones to play with instead of toys) but I have no clue as to why she needs the newest iPhone. I mean, why spend so much money on her! A question for my parents.
Goes to show, the power of the youngest sibling.
She pulls out a picture of this "Kaden Lee" and holds it to my face. As if my eyesight wasn't bad enough. Hmm...the boy is quite attractive, for a 13 year old that is. I guess I can kind of see what Illa sees in him. But I mean, looks aren't everything.
"Ate. This is the big deal. He's frigging hot." she declares.
"Well...yay?" I manage to blurt out, with no enthusiasm in my voice.
She smiles and rolls her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to tell Bree when she gets home. She'll get it."
She turns to walk away, but I catch her arm. "What do you mean, she'll get it?"
"I mean, you aren't really the type to...y'know, date." she says to me.
Defensively, I tell her, "Excuse me! Are you implying that I am never going to get a boyfriend?"
"Don't worry. You're going to be that rich, successful woman who doesn't get married."
I'm not too sure whether that should be taken as a compliment or insult.
"You should've stopped at rich, successful woman." I glare at Illa.
She laughs hysterically and continues to skip down the hallway and proceed up the stairs. Woohoo, even my little sister knows that I'm forever single, and she's not even in high school!
I sit comfortably on the couch and flip through channels, hoping to find something interesting. There is nothing to watch, so I go to the National Geographic channel. Today, there is a documentary about the biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef. I find documentaries quite interesting, especially the ones about ecosystems. Call me boring if you must.
The doorbell rings again. Ugh. I'm too lazy to get the door! But, my whole family is upstairs.
"Ara! Get the door!" my mom screams from upstairs.
"Fine!" I yell back.
Lazily, I get up from the couch and head over to our front door. I open it, only to see Tita Gia in all her glory. The woman goes in for the hug and barges in before I can say, "Come in."
"Lara! Hon, how are you!" she greets.
"I'm fine. Thanks."
I go back to lock the door but as the universe has planned, her children run in from the car. Oh how great.
Hey guys!
Welcome to another author's note! So, here was the introduction of the De la Cruz family! Tell me, do you guys have annoying and/or violent siblings? Cause I definitely understand... You people are definitely the most awesomazing beings on the planet! I just got my highest ranking so far of 197 in humor! All thanks to you! Anyways, please vote, comment and share if you liked this book/chapter! Love y'all!
-Summer