Eleven-year-old Courtney sighed as she watched her nine-year-old sister, Beth Ann, run through the house for what seemed to her to be the one hundredth time.
"Beth Ann! Would you stop running around the house?" asked Courtney with her irritation showing in her voice.
"Say please!” said Beth Ann in an “I’m-so-cute” tone of voice that made Courtney even more annoyed.
“Beth Ann! You stop running around the house this instant or I will go tell Mom that you are breaking the rule. By the way, did you ever finish your page of math today?”
Beth Ann stopped running. “Sorry,” she said sincerely. She just couldn’t understand what made Courtney so mad. Courtney ran through the house, too, after all. And Courtney hadn’t finished her schoolwork, either. She walked over to her desk and sat down.
“Can’t you write any neater?” Courtney said as she looked over Beth Ann’s shoulder at Beth Ann’s math book. “I can hardly even read that.”
“I can read it just fine,” Beth Ann replied. “Would you go away? You’re always finding fault with me over nothing.”
“It’s not over nothing.” Courtney stomped away.
Beth Ann felt bad. She wanted to always be nice to Courtney, but didn’t always do such a good job of it. She hadn’t really meant to snap at her older sister, but Courtney did seem to find fault with her all of the time, and it was hard to keep from saying mean things more often. She decided to go apologize to her sister.
“Courtney, I’m sorry that I told you to go away. That was mean of me. You can watch me do my math if you want. And I guess I could try to write a little neater,” Beth Ann admitted as she followed Courtney into their room.
At this, Courtney felt a little bad about what she had said, too. “I’m sorry that I keep criticizing you,” she said. “I guess I could be a lot nicer to you, too.” Beth Ann gave her a hug and left the room, feeling a lot happier, but Courtney still felt some annoyed with her little sister. Why is she always disobeying Mom? she thought to herself. I’m not half as bad as she is.
Later, she saw her two little brothers go into their bedroom laughing together in a secret kind of way, and then shut the door behind them.
I wonder what they’re up to, Courtney thought to herself. I’m going to find out. She knocked on the boys’ bedroom door. Ten-year-old Samuel opened it a crack.
“Yes?” he asked when he saw Courtney, but did not open the door any further.
“What are you and David doing in there?” she asked suspiciously.
Eight-year-old David called from inside the room, “It’s a birthday surprise. Don’t come in! Samuel, close the door before she sees!” Samuel closed the door and the boys continued working on whatever they were doing in there.
A birthday surprise! thought Courtney. I wonder if that’s for me, or is it for Beth Ann? Beth Ann and Courtney had birthdays one day apart from each other. Courtney’s came first. Courtney’s presumption led her to believe that the surprise they were making was for her and not for Beth Ann. Beth Ann can be such a pain at times.
Courtney suddenly remembered that she needed to complete her schoolwork for the day.
Click here to read part two.