The toys were old. The furniture was old and dirty and showed years of wear and the evidence of cats. Those seat covers couldn't save the couches, old and torn and uncomfortable. The big blue couch had a big wooden plank under the cushions in order to keep it standing, and the right arm had the indent of my little sister's body, where she would constantly snuggle up and watch hours of television. It was a room with character. Or we were characters in a room. Either one worked, but it was us who made the house so animated. And there we were, just staring into space.
I decided to take some time to whine. "I have to write something for claaaassss......and I can't think of anythiiiiiiing..."
"Well," Danielle said, looking at me with those big, innocent eyes of hers, "what do you have to write about?"
"That's the thing. I have to write about something that happened to me."
"Write about how I bought a Terry doll!" my other sister chimed in, getting all excitable in her covered chair.
"Um..." I blinked a few times, watching her fidget and squirm happily. Before I could respond, Danielle caught my attention again.
"Or how we got to pet the papillon!"
"But I wasn't there!" I responded, a bit exasperated. I got exasperated very easily when it came to little girl antics.
"But we told you all about it!"
"It wouldn't make a good story if I wrote about you telling me a story..."
"Oh, well. Anyway..." Danielle went back to playing with Samantha's Terry Doll -- you know, the wife of the Crocodile Hunter? Sam and my mom continued to throw ideas at me.
"Well, Siren died. Write about how you had to see him take his final breath!" my mother suggested. I shrugged my shoulders and sighed quietly.
"I'm trying for once to write something I won't cry through. I'm sick of being weepy."
"What, 'And as he took his last breath - Ahahahahaha' doesn't fit?"
"No."
Danielle turned to me again, her warm brown eyes dancing and smiling. "Make something up so you'll get an A!" We all had a good laugh at that. I tried to explain that the point wasn't to make something up and get away with it. The point was a bit lost, as she went back to playing with Terry. "Look!" she