The Summer I Learned About Love and Hate

“Dani, be nice. She’s your cousin, not Hitler.”
“She could be Hitler, the way she’s trying to take over my life,” I told my mom as I sat in the kitchen in an itchy purple tank top and a knee length blue and purple skirt, waiting for the princess to arrive. “And besides, she’s not even my real cousin.”
“She’s as good as,” Mom replied. “Now go get your brothers.”
I sighed deeply, and then heaved myself off my chair and went downstairs.
I have four brothers. Two older, two younger. Growing up with them has made me a little bit of a tomboy. My wardrobe consists of mostly dark wash skinny jeans and t-shirts from bands like All Time Low and My Chemical Romance. I don’t have many girl friends. I feel more comfortable with guys, and girl drama kinda scares me.
I sometimes feel like I’m missing out on some stuff. The one time I had a slumber party, with girls and manicures and stuff like that, was when I was seven, and my two older brothers came into my room dressed like Indians, complete with tomahawks, and scared everyone off. They all called their parents to come pick them up early, and they never talked to me again. I was so mad at my brothers for a while until I found out that they had videotaped the whole thing. When I saw that, I almost died of laughter. Who wants to be friends with girls who can’t even take a joke, anyway?
When I got downstairs I found my oldest brother Scott locked in a videogame battle with my twin Derek, who’s older by two minutes. My younger brothers Chris and Tommy were having a Mountain Dew chugging competition. I cracked up as Chris threw up all over his new sweater-vest.
“Moms gonna kill you,” I said, still chuckling, as Derek, Scott, and Tommy rolled on the floor laughing. Even Chris started to laugh, and he couldn’t have been feeling good.
“What’s going on down there” Mom yelled down the stairs.
“Nothing,” we all said.
“What’s all the laughing about, then,” she asked as she started down the stairs.
We scrambled into action. Scott grabbed Chris and hauled him to his room to clean him up. Derek and Tommy ran into the bathroom and got some cleaning supplies for the puke. I went to stall Mom.
She reached the bottom of the stairs and opened the door. I leaned across the doorframe so that she couldn’t see inside the room.
“Where are the boys,” she asked, trying to peer into the room around me.
“They’re in there,” I said, still blocking her view as Derek and Tommy ran back into the room and started scrubbing at the stain.
“Can I get through, Dani?”
“Yup, sure you can,” I said, still not moving.
She stared at me expectantly.
I smiled at her.
“Dani?”
“Yeah?”
“Will you please move?”
I peeked behind me. Scott and Chris had returned, Chris wearing his button-up Easter shirt. Derek and Tommy were running the cleaning supplies back to the bathroom. I moved aside. Derek and Tommy strolled casually into the room, discussing the feeding habits of armadillos, as Scott and Chris resumed the video game.
Mom peered suspiciously around the room. I stood blocking the stain, which wasn’t completely gone.
“You all need to come upstairs now,” she said. “Chris, where’s your new vest?”
“Uhm, well, uhm…”
“Rosa peed on it, mom,” I said quickly. She looked at me, then looked at Scott, then back to Chris. Rosa is Scott’s rat.
“Chris, is that true?”
“Yup.”
“Scott, why was your brother holding your rat in his new vest?”
“Last minute cleaning, Mom. I wanted the cage to look good for when I show the princess.”
She sighed and said, “Stop calling her that. She has a name, and I expect you to use it,” then walked upstairs. We all followed silently.
When we got to the kitchen, Mom looked us all over.
“Scott, Derek, please tuck in you shirts. Dani, please take those out,” she said, referring to the clip-on color streaks in my hair. I removed them, making a silent vow to put them back in as soon as she wasn’t looking. They were as much a part of me as my real hair, and if the princess and her parents didn’t like that, then that’s their problem.
The doorbell rang. Mom gave us a final once-over, then went to answer it, calling our dad from his office as she went. We followed her reluctantly. If you hadn’t figured it out yet, we were really dreading the coming of our “cousin” Manda. She wasn’t actually blood related to us, but we had been calling her our cousin for years. Our parents were best friends, so we’d grown up together, but we hadn’t seen her, or her brother, in five years, because they moved away. But now the parents were going to Europe for an undefined amount of time, and Manda was staying with us until things were figured out. Either it was just a vacation, or they were moving there and would send for Manda as soon as they knew. Either way, Manda was with us for the summer, and there was nothing we could do about it.
Why Manda was coming and not Jake, her brother, was a mystery to me. It would have made more sense for Jake to come, seeing as there were more guys here, but we may never know how the minds of our parents work. Besides, it made no difference to me if Jake or Manda came, they were both just rich, annoying twerps. The last time I had seen them, Manda had cried for three hours because she lost the jewel from her twenty-five cent ring, and Jake had constantly poked her with a stick. She had worn little pink, frilly dresses, and he had glasses that slid down his nose and was always wearing a sweater vest. Always. Even in the summer. It was so dorky.
Mom opened the door. I then heard what sounded like a mouse being squeezed. Then I figured out it was Linda, their mom, squealing like a little girl. She ran inside and hugged my mom, repeatedly screaming, “Gracie! Gracie!” while my mom screamed, “Lindy, Lindy!” Wow, I never knew moms could act like twelve-year old girls. When they had stopped their squealing, Linda looked over and noticed me and my brothers, standing there awkwardly.
“Oh. My. Gosh,” she said, wide-eyed. “You have all grown so much!”
“Yeah. Amazing what a little food and water will do,” Derek said, smirking.
Mom glared at him. If looks could kill. Linda’s smile only wavered for a minute, then she went back to scrutinizing us. My clip-ons were back in, Scott and Derek had their shirts untucked again, Tommy was fidgeting like a squirrel, no doubt from all the Mountain Dew, and Chris still looked a little green. She was probably regretting her daughter staying here now. Me and her both.
She opened her arms and smiled at me.
“Come here Dani. I’ve been wanting to hug you for ages.”
I raised my eyebrow and glanced at my mom. She nodded. I hesitantly stepped forward into Linda’s embrace and patted her awkwardly on the back as she squeezed the air out of me. I could sense my brothers starting to crack up. I pulled away and smiled politely at her. She smiled back. Then she turned away. Finally.
I turned to my brothers so that we could start cracking up because of that way to tight hug, but they were all staring at open-mouthed at something behind me. Or rather, someone.
I turned and saw the prettiest girl I had ever seen in my entire life. Long, wavy blond hair, a golden tan that wasn’t even fake, deep blue eyes, a pink miniskirt, two white layered tank tops, sparkly silver kitten heels, her cheeks rosy from the heat. It was like looking at a magazine, come to life in my living room. She was that pretty. There was no way that was dumpy, whiny Manda Evansworth from five years ago.
She smirked at me. “Dani! It’s been, like, so long!”
“Yeah Manda,” I replied, still shocked. “You’ve changed so much.”
“I know, right. You still look the same though.”
Ouch. So she was still annoying, then. I just smiled. This was gonna be a fun summer. I could already tell.