To my older sister, Joy Bird

(this story is completely fictional! I do not have an older sister, this is just something I wrote to express some raw emotions.)

I remember I was jealous of my older sister.

I was 11 years old when I was walking into the kitchen to get something to drink. There she was, there Joy Bird was, at the dinner table playing a game of Scrabble with herself making strange words. Next to her was a fresh copy of the Oxford Dictionary. I opened the fridge and grabbed a water bottle. It was summer, after all! As I held the water bottle, a scenario came into my mind. I walked over to where she was playing and purposefully opened my water right onto her game and the dictionary. It splashed across her face and I saw her relax her muscles.

“Pretty, why’d you do that?” she asked calmly.

“I’m sorry,” I lied with the most tears I could force (which was about two dry ones).

She got up, and got two paper hand towels and started drying the dictionary, not touching the game. “Could you put that up for me?” Joy asked while pressing softly on the book. I nodded in confusion, I just ruined this girl’s life source, and she’s okay?

I remember I hated my older sister.

I was 14 years old when I went to my first mini concert with my friends. I needed something to wear, so I went straight to Joy. When I knocked on her door, she opened it immediately and smiled at me with her pearly white teeth. Boy, did she have some perfect teeth. “I need some clothes,” I told her. She nodded, and led me right to her walk-in closet. As I looked at the clothes, her clothes were so luxurious. Most of them were from Ross or Walmart, but they were the good Ross and Walmart clothing. I grabbed a few combinations. Little did she know, I wanted it all.

I sat on her soft, light blue bed and asked her what I should wear. “You’d look good in anything, Pretty,” she told me with those pearly whites. I just shrugged and tried on what we agreed on. Later, I realized the shoes I had on didn’t match the clothes. I got so annoyed that I decided not to go to the concert. Why can’t she be perfect from hats to shoes?

I remember I missed my older sister.

I was 16 when she left for university. To become someone other than Pretty Bird’s older sister.