doesn’t care about getting punished He’s been punished so many times but it doesn’t make any difference at all Mom says it’s like water off a duck’s back because most of the time he doesn’t seem to notice it and if he does he just shakes it off I don’t think he actually likes getting into trouble but he can’t always stop himself so he ignores the consequences The worst thing is that Wills looks older than he is He’s nearly six feet tall and big too Not like the rest of us Mom’s five feet nothing and as thin as a goalpost Dad’s only five feet eight and shaped like a bowling pin and I’m only just taller than Mom Wills has a moustache already though he hates if anyone mentions it Mom says it shows up because he’s got dark hair Dad used to have dark hair too before it stopped growing which Dad says was because Wills sent it into shock My hair’s fair like Mom’s and curly too which is a pain because Wills teases me and calls me Curly Girly Anyway when Wills misbehaves which is often people tsk even more because they think he’s a sixteen-year-old behaving like a 6
two-year-old rather than a thirteen-year old be having like a two-year-old which is bad enough It doesn’t worry Wills though He just grins and tsks back Once in a supermarket he picked up a huge and I mean HUGE jar of pickled onions and held it up to Mom because he wanted her to buy it When she said no he dropped it I don’t know if he did it on purpose but it smashed to smithereens and pickled onions shot across the floor I wanted to die of embarrassment and Mom stood there in horror Wills thought it was hilarious He started kicking the onions under the shelves and shouting Goal even though Mom told him to stop Then he grabbed one and shouted Catch to me I missed and it hit an old woman SPLAT in the chest Everyone tsked and said it was disgraceful behavior for a boy of Wills’s age and that Mom should learn to control her children Wills just thought it was my fault because I was such a lousy catch He always blames me We can’t go to that supermarket anymore Even though Mom apologized they told her 7
that she and her unruly children weren’t wel come and Mom won’t go there again anyway be cause she says she has her pride Now we have to go to a supermarket five miles away and I know Mom isn’t very happy about it but she doesn’t complain Sometimes it makes Mom angry when peo ple say she should learn to control her children What do they know about what I have to deal with she says It makes me angry too because it’s not me causing the trouble and I hate being lumped together with Wills and also because I know what Mom has to deal with If other peo ple knew what she had to deal with they’d think she was amazing I think she’s amazing So does Dad because he couldn’t deal with it I take my hat off to your mom he says She deserves a medal for putting up with what she puts up with and coping like she does I reckon I deserve a medal too for putting up with what I put up with I’m the one Wills picks on I’m the one whose homework he scribbles on I’m the one whose things he takes without 8
asking I’m the one whose bedroom he turns up side down when he’s lost something of his own I’m the one who’s made to look a fool at school in the street in the stores This is my baby brother he’ll say Isn’t he cute And he’s such a goody-goody He’ll tickle me under the chin then thump me hard on the arm or stamp on my foot and run off laughing with his horrible friends Or he’ll grab my back pack and take my work out Look at this he’ll say to his horrible friends Ten out of ten for spelling He’s so clever my baby brother I hate Wills when he’s like that Hate him hate him HATE HIM Wish he’d never been born Wish I didn’t have to live with him You’d feel the same I bet you But sometimes especially when he’s not with his so-called friends Wills gets all sorry really sorry and puts his arm around me and says Sorry bro I didn’t mean to and stuffs a bag of marshmallows into my hand or a pack of chewing gum Are you sure they’re not poisoned I’ll say or You haven’t licked them have you 9
