My sister's voice woke me up, and I, your hapless 10-year-old, pulled myself out of bed. "Wake up, you lazy brat," she said. "You promised you were going to help in preparation for Nez's birthday; what are you doing still in bed?" she yelled.
'Could you please give me five more minutes, Noel?' I thought, suppressing my inner feelings, I said, "Coming down, big sis. As it happens, I made the error of promising my sister that I would assist with the preparations for my brother's birthday, which is today. I pondered. "You promised me you'd help arrange the living room for Nez's birthday," Noel said, her voice continuing to rise.
"Well, I don't feel like it; I made a slip of tongue at the time," I yelled back, and soon I came to learn that was my greatest mistake of the day, as my sister beat the living lumiero out of me.
We eventually were forced to work together owing to the involvement of our parents, but after that, there was peace… kind of.
Noel kept glaring at me like I'd murdered her cat. I returned the favor by arranging the balloons upside-down, not on purpose. "Fix that before Mom sees it," she hissed.
I sighed, reached up, and popped one by accident. "Oops."
She slapped her forehead. "You're impossible."
Despite the chaos, it all sort of came together. Streamers up, tablecloth ironed, Nez's favorite snacks piled high on silver trays we only ever used for special guests.
By noon, the house buzzed with laughter and music. Our little cousins were racing through the halls, and Dad was setting up the old projector, ready to show embarrassing baby photos of Nez. Typical. 'My family's amazing,' I thought as I looked around the party. My mind was in a sort of liberal state until it happened.
Smoke invaded my vision, showing me a gun and a sword, and soon enough, the smoke left the window, creating a finger that beckoned to me to follow. Of course, I didn't want to, I mean, there were a lot of things that were going on in the party at the time, but I ran after the smoke out of curiosity, not knowing which direction that one step would take me.