Salty Hot Chocolate

The 10 things that I need to do before school tomorrow;

1.       Write an essay reviewing the Class Book that we read in English,

2.       Complete page 24 ex.  1, 2, & 4, page 25 ex.  5, 6, 7 & 8, and the whole of page 26 of my maths text book in my exercise book (Why does my teacher feel the need to kill me with homework over the weekend?)

3.       Research some artist (That I forgot to write down the name of) and present it in a creative way for art homework,

4.       Text Macy and ask for the name of the artist that we have to research,

5.       Finish off writing up the method and conclusion for the Chemistry experiment that we did last Thursday,

6.       Remember what we did in Chemistry last Thursday

7.       Check with my mum to see if my uniform is in the washing machine,

8.       Make sandwiches and keep them in the fridge, ready for tomorrow,

9.       Shower, wash hair and shave legs,

And the last thing I need to do:

10.   Pack bag and actually get some sleep

It’s 1:00pm on Sunday and I am knackered.  After being picked up from Allison’s yesterday, I was dragged to some family gathering thing and my parents made us stay until midnight, after I had barely slept at Allison’s.  I couldn’t even sleep in this because I had a Judo lesson at 10:00am, followed by church.  I showed up to both the lesson and church looking an absolute mess in my huge grey hoodie, black leggings and messy bun.  I can’t even remember how either went �" I’m so tired.  All I know is that I came home, went straight upstairs and now I’m here, in my room, getting started on the mountain of homework that’s all in for tomorrow. 

I’ve finished my chemistry, and I’m attempting to concentrate on my maths before falling asleep.  Ok.  So I need to solve some equations - fun.  Algebra would be fine if my brain understood maths. 

Bedroom door’s opening.  I need a lock.  Badly. 

“Max, what are you doing in here?”

“I was making myself some hot chocolate, so I made you some too.”

Max?  Making me hot chocolate?  Ok it’s happened �" either I’m hallucinating or someone had kidnapped my brother and sent a replacement.  Hmm, it smells normal, it looks normal. 

“Max, I am not in the mood for your jokes so just tell me what you put in this hot chocolate!”

I knew it!  He did something, because now he’s staring at his feet guiltily and quickly swapping his hot chocolate with mine,

“Okay, I may have put a load of salt in yours for a laugh, but I’m sorry.  Have mine - I really need to talk to you.” And now he’s invited himself in and has perched on the edge of my bed.

“I don’t really think I feel like hot chocolate anymore, and I’ve got a tonne of homework to do so if you want to talk, you’re gonna have to make it quick and to the point.”

Ok, this might actually be serious �" Max is gulping and looking at his feet again.  Maybe I was too blunt, I mean, he looks generally worried about something. “You’re a girl, right?”

Worry over �" now he’s just being stupid. “No.  I am not a girl.  In fact, I’m a boy, just like you!  Have been all my life”

“Well that explains your outfit!” He’s got a silly smug expression on his face.  I do not have the time of the energy for this. 

“LEAVE.  NOW.”

“I’m sorry!  I’m sorry!  Please!  I actually wanted to ask you something important!”

“Well what is it then?”

Now I feel bad �" I may have snapped at him, but to be fair, I’m tired and in the last 10 minutes he has insulted me and put salt in my hot chocolate.  His face has changed though �" he looks kinda sad and embarrassed.  Now I definitely feel bad.  Ok, I need to show a little sympathy.

“Ok Max, I’m sorry, seriously, if you have an issue you can tell me!”

He’s looking seriously embarrassed.  Is he being bullied?   Or beaten up?  I don’t care about age, I will personally go all judo on anyone who is hurting my brother.

“What kind of things do girls like?”

Ok.  Now I’m kind of confused.  That was totally not what I was expecting.

“Max, why do you want to know what girls like?”

“Because I just wanted to know okay?!”

Ooooh, Max just snapped at me!  Defensive attitude, eyes on feet, non-Dylan behaviour.  I know exactly what that means.

“What’s her name?”

His expression just went blank.  I am so totally right.  Dylan is in crushville �" population: him. 

“What’s whose name?”

Please.  He can’t try and confuse me now!  I’m not that easily confused. 

“What’s the name of the girl you like?”

“What?  What are you talking about?  I don’t like anyone!  Why would you even...  Ok, her name is Rosie.”

“Awwww!  That’s so cute!  You’re first crush!” My little bro’s growing up!  Having his first crush!  Ok, this requires major teasing, “Max and Rosie �" sounds like an adorable couple!” 

“Never mind!  I knew I shouldn’t have asked you!  I’ll go search online for the answer!” And now he’s leaving.  Shoot, ok, I might have played that wrong, “See!  THIS is why I salted your hot chocolate!”

Ok.  I did a bad thing.  Time to fix this and run after him, “Wait! Max! I didn’t mean to...”

SLAM.  His door.  In my face.  Meh, I’ll apologise later. He has to forgive me - I have so much on him that it would be a very risky move if he didn’t. 

Ok let’s see, Macy’s come back with the art homework and after a quick google, I have found out how long this thing is.  I’ll do that later.  I’ve pretty much sure that I’ve done most of the stuff I need to do today �" I’d apologize to Max for making fun of his little crush, but he’s in the shower. 

Nothing to do �" May as well eat.

“Melanie, is that you?”  I swear, I can’t go downstairs without being called to do something. 

“Yeah it’s me!  Just coming down to get some food”

“Ok, well could you go upstairs quickly and just knock on the bathroom door and tell Max that he needs to get ready in the next 5 minutes, he’s got to bake something sweet to give to his class tomorrow!”

Perfect!  I’m bored, Max had a chore he needs to complete, and he’ll have to forgive me if I help him out!

“Don’t worry!  I’ll bake something nice for Max’s class!”

“Why?  What’s in it for you?” 

“Dad!  I’m fine!  I’m just helping out my brother!”

Ok, now the interrogation is over, time for some apology baking.  What to bake, what to bake?  I will play it safe, bake his favourite cookies �" oat and raisin. 

Let’s see: Bowl, hand-whisk, butter, sugar, flour, baking soda, eggs, oats, raisins.  Now time to roll the mix into balls and squish them onto oven trays. 

“What are you doing?!”

And there’s Dylan �" standing in the doorframe with his angry face and superhero pyjamas.  Sorry, no.  He is being too rude to the person who is baking cookies for his class, whether I owe him an apology or not.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“I said, what are you doing?”

Ignore the rudeness.  You owe him.  Deep breaths - smile through the attitude.

“I made cookies for your class tomorrow!”

“What flavour?”

“I made your favourite, raisins and oats!  Look - I’m really sorry about earlier when I made fun of...”

“Are you trying to get me killed?!  I can’t take healthy cookies to school!  I’ll be made fun of!  This is the first Monday of the month and this time it’s my turn to bring in the home-made morning snack.  People want sugar!!  And chocolate!!  And Fat!!  Nobody wants healthy raisins and oats!!!”

Wait �" Is he being serious?!  I have just wasted a good half hour of my life making cookies for him and he’s yelling at me for making his cookies too healthy!  No.  That’s not right.  He does not get to do that! 

“You know what?  I don’t know why I bother!  Throw the cookie mix away, eat it, do what you want with it!  If you don’t care about them then why should I?  There is a box of brownie mix in the cupboard; they taste 100% fake and are filled with sugar, chocolate, fat and all the E numbers that you need to be popular with your little classmates!  Have fun”

Let him be upset with me!  I don’t even care about apologising anymore �" If he’s being an annoying little brother then I can be an annoying older sister. 

I don’t care about Max, I don’t care about cookies, I don’t care about anything!

Except homework. 

I still have English and art in for tomorrow and I don’t really want detention.