Stories

Chapter 7

Worst brother in the world

              Peter contemplated whether he should go to school or stay home with Scott. Of course, he didn't intend on letting Scott go to school in that size.
             Scott told Peter he would be fine alone. It was a good thing they didn’t have any pets at home.
              After a while, Peter decided to go to school because he needed to bring Scott's report of absence to school.               Peter left Scott in his penholder with a piece of bread, which would probably last the tiny Scott a whole day. Peter told him to stay on his desk.
              "Maybe you could make a special house for me," Scott said. “You know, like the Sylvania Family.”
              The Sylvania Family was a small wooden house made for little kids, especially girls, to play with. There were mini-furniture in it, and it was popular in Japan. Scott always wanted to have one, but Peter told him it was dumb for a boy to want such girlish thing.
              "You'll grow back to the normal size before I could make any houses."
              "How do you know?"
              "Oh I know," Peter said, confidently.
              Because if he didn't, Peter wasn't sure how he could live on.

              “You look so tired, Peter,” Sophia said.
              “Oh, I’m fine, Sophia. Just that I couldn’t sleep too much last night.”
              Sophia looked at him sympathetically. “I know you must be having a hard time now, with Ms. Sullivan’s death and everything. If you have a problem, you can call me whenever you want.”
              Hearing Ms. Sullivan’s name made Peter cringe. After what happened to Scott, he had forgotten about her sudden vanishing.
              Still, even with the pain of losing Ms. Sullivan and the exhaustion of taking care of the mischievous Scott, he felt he could survive if he had someone like Sophia to share his plight with.
              “Thanks,” Peter said smiling. “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t you come over to my house today?”
              “That would be great!”

              When he got to his house with Sophia, he suddenly realized he made a big mistake: Scott was in the house.              But he couldn’t cancel his play date with Sophia now, after bringing her all the way to his house. That would be too rude.
              Peter shrugged. We’ll just stay on the first floor, he thought. He mentally warned himself not to let Sophia go to his room.
              Peter opened the door and took tentative steps inside, making sure Scott was not in the vestibule.
              There were two reasons he couldn’t risk Sophia being in the same room with the tiny Scott. One was that Sophia would probably faint with shock and the other was that Sophia might accidentally crush Scott and kill him without knowing it. How shocking it would be to kill your friend’s brother by accident!
              Peter carefully led Sophia to the living room. He took out Shanghai Noon, a Jackie Chan movie, from the video rack. “Do you like action movies?”
              “I love them.”
              “Hold on a sec, I’ll go make some popcorn.”
              “Okay.”
              Peter made popcorn in 2 minutes. When he returned, however, Sophia was gone. The color drained from Peter’s face. “Oh no.”
              He ran up the stairs and found Sophia in his room. “Why are you here?”
              “Oh, I just thought I might find the books I lent you three months ago.”
              Peter slapped his forehead. “Oh I’m sorry. I forgot all about it.”
              He handed her the books.
              “Thanks, I’ve been wanting to read these,” Sophia said with a smile." That was when she bent down and picked up an eraser from the floor. To Peter’s horror, she tossed it into the penholder.
              “Ouch!” a tiny voice screeched.
              Sophia stared at Peter quizzically. “What was that?”
              “That was me,” Peter replied. “Sorry, I just stepped on something sharp. It was probably a splinter of wood or something. Now let’s go see Jackie Chan!”
              Peter took Sophia’s hand.
              “I’m thirsty!” the same tiny voice whined.
              “What?” Sophia looked baffled.
              Peter laughed nervously. “Aren’t you thirsty? Come on, I’ll pour us orange juice downstairs.”
              “What about me?” the tiny voice protested.
              Sophia looked at Peter as if he had lost his mind.
              “Come on Sophia-“
              “Quit talking to that dumb girl!” yelled the tiny voice. “Why is she here anyway?”
              Sophia frowned at Peter, looking tired and confused. "I think I'll go home now."
              “Sophia wait-“
              Sophia rushed down the stairs and Peter heard the slam of the front door a few seconds later.
              “YOU!” Peter shouted. “You’re the worst brother in the world!”