Chances Come and Go

The sun streamed out brightly as me and my friends played soccer on the field near my house. I ran swiftly and sprang the ball from my opponent and scored an easy goal. Sweat spread across my body. It was burning hot. Our Arizona peeps (a.k.a older siblings) stayed at home in the air conditioner doing whatsoever nonsense.

 I looked at the audience, my little brother and his friends. Their five year old habits made me and my friends laugh out loud.

         We finished the game as per five goals. That was mainly because our soccer champ, Eloius Rewatin, had been sucked energy from the sun. (Not literally!) I really had to agree that the scorching sun had made us weary.

My little brother at the stands was shouting, ‘Go Lemonade!’ And his friends were copying him and saying the same thing.

Lemonade is my family nickname. That is because of my superior talent of making lemonade. I know great talent! If you meet my family members, you will hear them say something addressing lemonade.

My real name is Warden Orochimonawasin. I am in ninth grade. My dream is to get administration into Sun National High School.

People say that Sun National High School has the best studies and is very hard to get admission in. That, I took as a personal challenge. I mean, I think that everything is possible. Not hard, not impossible. Just possible! Everything is possible if you work for it, it may sound difficult but, still possible!

Anyway, my fellow friends and I separated as we left for home. Dragonflies flew in different directions. Butterflies swarmed us in a circle. It was cool. I and my brother walked through the green garden and into our property.

‘What do you want for refreshments when we get back home, Marlon?’ I asked. My brother lifted his head up. His greenish- blue eyes shined as he grinned. ‘You know it!’

We entered our comfy home as Marlon went inside to wash his hands. I followed him in as well. We came to the living room as we saw our parents watching Dr. Who. We sat down and watched it as well. Then it was time for lunch. My older, nerdy sister came downstairs. Her filmy rectangular glasses and her freakish smile annoyed me. She just said that I was jealous. But who would be jealous of someone who just studies and does parties 24/7.

I sat at the table and began chewing my food. My sister waited for everyone to be seated, and then she gave everyone her ferocious glare. We were all used to that so we ignored her and gobbled down the food. I had spared my lunch time to make some refreshing lemonade for everyone.

After lunch, we were to let mom and dad rest and talk about future planning while we had to be creative.

To make things worse, I and my older sister, Corona, had to take care of little Marlon. Mom and Dad had to go for groceries.

I mean, working together, with Corona in the house, did not seem agreeable to me. Her deadly stare, her ghostly tone, made me freak out.

Soon, our parents went for groceries. I hummed back to my room ignoring Corona. She was facetiming her school friend, Covid. She was also facetiming Cronin. I knew for a fact that the three of them were dorks and geeks. I called them The Three Idiots when they were together in front of me.

They were talking about some inappropriate stuff so I am not going to tell you what.

Anyway, I called Marlon into my room and locked the door from inside. I didn’t want him to hear those dirty minded words of my sister.

When I was a baby, my mom and dad used to go out together a lot. My sister was about five years that time. And I regret saying this that she was smart! Other than her parties and sassiness, she was a mastermind. She was the smartest in her class. She knew equations that I had never heard of.

One day, mom and dad left me with Corona for like, hours. She used her ipad to face time with her friends. (Yes, yes, I know, still with the facetiming.)

That time, I didn’t know her evil and unreliable self. I had barely learned to walk that time. I walked towards her and ran out of balance. I stumbled on her lap. The girls on the screen cooed. One of the girls said, ‘Oh, such a facetiae!’

My sister muted the ipad and, with such irate cursed, ‘Oh, you overloading b****, why are you here.’

And guess what? The curse which my sister had screamed was the first word I said. HA!

My mom and dad were thankfully not there!

Mom and Dad had to go to a party this time. We were not invited. It was only an adult’s party. It was my sleep time. So, Mom and Dad had closed my door so that there was no disturbance for me.

After my parents left, I slept peacefully.

Corona, my dear sister, who was now six, had a friend who was our neighbor. She ate her lunch, and selfishly left the house to her friend’s house. (Wow!)

I, Warden Orochimonawasin, who had not even had my milk, had my diapers soaking wet. The pee was reaching my chest, making me cold. I cried. My babyish voice echoed the room. No one came. I cried for an hour, I think. I was starving; I hadn’t had water or anything.

I imagined my sister drinking orange juice and snacks at her friend’s house. I thought I would die of thirst and hunger.

But happily, that didn’t happen. My parents stormed the doors calmly and put down the heavy load of groceries. Dad cried, ‘Corona, where are you?’ No one answered.

My mom, who had a good sense of hearing, heard me wailing in despair. She dashed upstairs. She crashed into my room. My room was moist. It was filled with my tears flooding my bed. That was a very sad moment.

My mom rushed to my closet to get a new diaper. My Dad came to my room as well. His loud panting made me cry even more loudly. My mom changed my diaper.

Meanwhile, my dad had disappeared into the light and had soon brought me warm milk. I drank greedily. The drink soothed me, making my insides warm. My eyelids closed and I slowly fell asleep, again.

I really don’t know what had happened but I knew it wasn’t pleasant. My parents hadn’t left me home alone with my cruel sister since, except for now. . .

You are probably thinking, ‘how does this dude know that stuff after so long? I would have never remembered that.’ Well, just think about it. I had been unfairly tortured by Corona, when I was a little growing child. Don’t you think I would have remembered that . . .? Yeah, I thought so!

Well, let’s forget about that and focus on the present. Shall we? Right, so where were we?

‘Ah,’ Marlon cried, ‘we were learning the alphabets last year.’ I had questioned him about what he had learned last year. Just to see how much he could remember.

It was the end of ninth grade. I had studied very hard. Now since I had a two month summer break. I could timely prepare for 10^th grade.

My brother had quietly brought some of his stuffed toys to play with. (As he didn’t want to see his brother fill a boring form for admission.) Yes, I was cautiously filling the form for Sun National High School. My first priority was to fill a critique for Devil’s Peek. That was my school’s name. I had to give them my opinion if there was something wrong or something we could do to fix it.

         So I wrote stuff that I actually thought was reasonable.

Second priority, fill out the Sun National High School form. They will give you some high school questions that you are expected to get in class. We were to practice these problems and converse with other friends or family about it.

         That was certainly an easy task. Except for the fact that you had to share it with your relatives and other people. And that was bad news for me!

         The registration form was only valid for a day. And those questions were something I had to relate with. A full conversation, in meaning.

         My parents were not at home. My nearby friends had gone for vacation.

         I groaned, ‘Why does this always happen to me?’ 

         My brother turned his head around, ‘Huh?’ ‘Nothing,’ I said. I took my pen and paper and walked a step close to my brother. ‘Marlon, I need to go to your sister’s room to get something, stay here and I will be right back. Okay?’ Marlon nodded his head in agreement. I closed the door and left for her room.

         I surged towards her room. But it wasn’t easy! It was like my feet wanted to reverse and go the other way. I wouldn’t want to go to the person who almost killed me of hunger.

         I knocked on the door as a real gentleman. My sister, without looking said Come in. I pushed open the door.

         Pink wallpaper greeted me. Her pink embedded bed was neatly arranged. I had to say that her room was tidier than mine. The cool air of the AC made my sleepy. I slowly walked towards her. All around her were pictures of pop stars and singers. She was reading a book about myths.

         ‘What do you want now?’ She screeched. ‘I, um-’ the words couldn’t come out of my mouth. I took a deep sigh and spoke in a small voice. ‘So, I had a question that I couldn’t understand. It was a high school question, so, yeah, I need help on that.’

         Corona was surprised. Even she couldn’t muster the power that I was asking a question. I thought she would pass out. But sadly, that did not happen. She snatched the papers from my hand.

         She glanced at it and said, ‘That’s easy!’ She took a pen and actually did the question for me. That was a good thing. She gave me back my papers. I could see the faintest of a smile on her face. I knew she was waiting for the applause that she thought she deserved. I looked at my paper. It looked like chicken scratch to me. But I knew very well that my sister wrote small, making it look like an even worse edition than chicken scratch.

         I didn’t even say thank you. But just before leaving I made a peace symbol without looking back.

         Later on, it started pouring. I wanted to enjoy the awesome weather by annoying my dear sister. But I had more on my to-do list. I had to translate my sister’s chicken scratch to actual numbers. So I did that for three hours straight.

         Till then my parents had come. I finished the last step of the equation and- trusting my sister for the last time- turned in my equation. Now, after a week, the results would come in. And there was actually a chance for me to get admission to Sun National High School.  

         The next few days were hectic. That was because we had to do church prayers. We also had to get school equipment for this year. My sister had her driving tests this week too.

         That was fine though. That would mean I could study without any distraction. I spent most of my time studying-which isn’t really what I do. I knew that I could enter Sun National High School. I readied myself for the best.

         The next day, I woke up. I remembered that today, I would probably get a mail. I went downstairs and headed straight to the mail box. There was a mail labeled by the name Warden Orochimonawasin. I jumped and shrieked. I opened the letter and read it.

         When, I had finished the letter, I had stopped jumping; I had stopped shrieking like a wild idiot. Sweat trickled down my neck. I cried, ‘No.’ and you should know what that meant. I had failed to get admission into Sun National High School. My dream had been crushed and demolished. I slowly swayed and darkness filled my eyes as an unconscious Warden Orochimonawasin fell down on the cement floor.

         The next time I woke was a day later. I was in the hospital as bandages covered my head. I slowly lifted myself up. My mom gently pushed me down on the bed. My sibling and parents were all standing over me. They all looked very stressed. My mom and dad were wearing their work clothes. My sister was wearing her safety driving suit. My brother was carrying his toys. I smiled.

         I knew that I couldn’t be depressed over school. I could go into my old, best school, Devil’s Peek. My friends must be waiting for me. I knew that I would get even better and harder chances in the future. And I couldn’t just break my head every time that would happen. I had to be ready. . .

         A quick glance at the future. . .

         I, Warden Orochimonawasin, was an architect in London. I also did a part-time job making lemonade. (You had it coming there!) I loved architecting. My brother, Marlon Orochimonawasin was studying in Sun National High School now. My sister worked at Honeywell. We were all happy. My brother had carried on my dream since I had failed to get admission into Sun National High School. He had studied and worked harder than I or my sister could have ever. My dream had finally come true by the hands of my very own brother. . .