Kanoa's (Personal) Journal/ Kanoa’s (Pilikino) Pūnaewele

*NOT RELATED TO PROMPT! I found this story in my drive, and I remember that I wrote it in 7th grade, so I'm surprised at how good it was! I fixed it up a little bit, and I must say, it's a pretty good story!*

  Kanoa’s (Personal) Journal

  Kanoa’s (Pilikino) Pūnaewele

Friday, 4/3/19

Leinani is beautiful, popular, smart… did I mention she’s beautiful? She’s also the center of EVERYONE’S attention. Including my parents’. They fuss over her every little “boo─boo”(that’s seriously what Leinani calls her scrapes, cuts, and scratches). They take a million pictures of her every second of the day, everyday, all week, year after year. She never has to have a picture retake on picture day… because guess what? She’s never had a bad picture day in her life. She’s smacked me, yelled at me, even slammed the door before. But─surprise, surprise!─ she doesn’t get in trouble. Guess who does get in trouble, though? Me, that’s who. I’m the one who gets yelled at by my parents, I’m the one who gets sent to my room, I’m the one who gets told, “Stop being mean to your sister!” It’s so unfair! 

Oh, by the way, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Kanoa Keilaiohani. It’s pronounced Ka-no-ah Kay-lay-oh-ha-ny. My family is Hawaiian, and both of my parents and Leinani were born in Hawaii. Yeah, I know. I couldn’t even be born in Hawaii. Anyway, my mom was born in Kaua’i, my dad was born in Ni’hau, and Leinani was born in Maui. Mom is about 5’8”, Dad is 6’2”, Leinani is 5’6”, and I’m 4’”. Pretty average family, right? Well think again. I’m 12, and Leinani is 15. She’s fifteen years old, yet she’s the one who gets babied. Except she’s allowed to go to parties, have her own phone, and stay up till 11 o’clock. Sometimes I wish my parents would let me have a little more freedom or at least pay more attention to me. I think my parents just love Leinani more than me.

Saturday, 4/4/19

I looked up the meaning of my name today. It means “ordinary person” in Hawaiian. Even my name means something boring. Why does Leinani get all the special treatment? Her name means “beautiful child.” How come she’s a beautiful child and I’m just a plain, old ordinary child? I’m too mad to write any more today.

Sunday, 4/5/19 

I went to church today. Nothing exciting happened. (At least, not to me, anyway. We were late to church, though, because Leinani took an hour to put on her makeup.)

Monday, 4/6/19

Today, after school, I fell off my bike and scraped my knee really badly. I started crying really hard, and then I went inside to show Mom and asked for some band-aids. She didn’t even look up when I asked her to look at my knee and put some band-aids on it. All she said was, “Honestly, Kanoa, I don’t see why you can’t do that yourself. You’re not a little kid anymore.” 

Guess who came running into the room next? Yep, Leinani, the beautiful child. She was holding her hand, crying hysterically. Mom jumped to her feet immediately and rushed over to Leinani. 

“What happened,” Mom asked. “What did you do? Did you cut yourself? Did you fall and hurt your hand?” 

“No,” Leinani cried. “I was organizing my homework and I got this papercut. It hurts really badly.” 

Mom looked worried. “How bad is the cut? Is it big?” 

Leinani was still crying as she replied, saying, “It’s about a centimeter long.” 

“Well, let me clean it up and put a band-aid on it,” said Mom.

 A few minutes later, Leinani was drying up her tears and smiling at Mom. 

“Thank you, Mom. You’re the best.” 

Mom smiled back and said, “ You’re welcome, sweetie.” 

The whole thing made me mad, and I intended to tell Mom that. But every time I opened my mouth, no sound came out.

 Mom looked at me, then said, “Stop standing there with your mouth open like that and go… do something. You look ridiculous.” 

I closed my mouth and went upstairs to my room. It was only when I closed my door, and only then, that I felt safe, secure, and at home. I laid down on my bed, and promptly fell asleep. I slept all through dinner, and nobody woke me up. I woke up by myself in the middle of the night, starving. I went downstairs to get a snack, being as quiet as a mouse. Luckily, nobody woke up and heard me. I went back up to my room, ate, then laid back down and fell asleep again. 

Tuesday, 4/7/19

I woke up today… to Leinani barging into my room, shouting something that sounded like gibberish. 

After listening to her rambling on and on about whatever it was she was telling me, I said, “I can’t understand a thing you’re saying, Leinani. Please repeat whatever it was that you were saying ─ sorry, I meant please repeat whatever you were yelling.” 

That really set her off. 

She started shouting at me again, yelling, “As I was saying, Mom wants you to go downstairs and clean up the mess in the basement. She went down there this morning and almost knocked over a cup of water. Then she almost stepped on your violin. Also, you totally messed up the bathroom. There’s my nail polish in the sink, my lipstick smeared all over the mirror, my face cream smeared all over the bathtub. My eyeshadow is all mixed together, and my hairbrush is in the toilet! Do you know anything about this? Oh, wait, of course you do! You’re the one who did it!” 

Just then, Mom came through the door, looking very infuriated.

 “You, young lady,” she said, pointing her finger at me, “are in very big trouble. First of all, there is a very big mess in the basement. Second, there is an even bigger mess in the bathroom. You have some serious explaining to do today.” 

I started to protest, but Mom cut me off. “I don’t want to hear it, Kanoa. I don’t want to hear your excuses. Leinani would never do something like that, and neither would your father and I. This behaviour is unacceptable, and you know that. You had better stop this now, or you won’t be allowed out of your room for a very, very, very long time. Understand?” I nodded, but I did it reluctantly. Mom started to walk out, and then… Leinani smirked at me. 

“Mom, Leinani is smirking. She probably did do it, because she knows that you and Dad love her more than me and you would never yell at her or ─.” 

At that point, Mom had turned around, Leinani had stopped smirking, and I was really in for it. “KANOA KEILAIOHANI! You can clean up both of the messes YOU made, and then you can come right back up here and sit here all day! You will also be grounded from the TV, reading, and anything else. You hear me, young lady?” 

I replied, saying, “Yes, ma’am.” 

“Good,” Mom said. Then she walked out of the room, telling Leinani to follow her. Before Leinani walked out, she smirked again, then stuck her tongue out at me. I almost stuck my tongue out at her, but instead I bit my tongue to stop myself from doing it. 

Life is really unfair all the time. For Leinani, it’s completely fair. Her world, her life, all of it is perfect for her. Not so much for me, though. 

Wednesday, 4/8/19

I don’t know where to begin. This day has been hectic. Mom ungrounded me, because guess what? Leinani actually asked her if I could be ungrounded. Of course, Mom did what Leinani wanted. 

Later, when I asked Leinani why she asked my if I could be ungrounded, she said, “Well, I felt bad for getting you in trouble. I ‘fessed up to Mom this morning, and now I’m not allowed to have my phone for a month and a half.” 

When she finished talking, I stared at her, surprised at what she had said about feeling guilty. I had no idea she could feel guilty for doing something to me, after she’d spent her whole life making sure to make mine miserable. 

I said to her, “Wow. I never knew you cared about me like that.”

She told me that she thought about it all day yesterday, and felt really guilty about blaming me. 

We hugged, and then Mom walked in. “I see that you two are finally getting along.” 

We smiled at her and I said, “Yep, we are. You’re probably really happy about that!” Mom laughed and nodded her head, then hugged us both. After we got all of our hugging out, we went out to dinner, and then we came home and made ice cream sundaes ─ together, as mau kaikuahine, or sisters.

Thursday, 4/9/19

Mom and Dad have been treating us both equally now. I’m glad that they are. Life is good right now. Also, now that Leinani confessed to Mom and Dad and got in trouble, her life doesn’t seem so perfect anymore. She’s definitely not the angel that Mom and Dad thought she was. But I guess you already knew that, if you read the rest of my journal.