One fourth of my high school career was already over. The days went by much quicker than I had expected. I wasn't really the type of guy that did a whole lot. I would usually just stay home and play video games until my parents complained about me playing them too much. There was usually something going on at home too.
Being one of four children, there will definitely be some interesting things happening. And by interesting things, I mean younger siblings getting in trouble and then the older siblings getting in trouble for "letting them" do the bad things that they did. I was in the middle of them all.
I won't be the only person to tell you this and I definitely won't be the last. Being the middle child isn't fun. When your parents have a kid, they give them all of their attention. Then they have another and their attention goes to that one. But when they decided to have even more, they move on to the next kids. They continue to give attention to the oldest, but the one in the middle is kind of ignored.
At least, that's how it usually is. They did pay attention to me as I was considered the "smart one" but when I started not doing as well, instead of being helpful, they just got mad. Thankfully, I was able to keep myself from getting into too much trouble.
I had been born as the second son in my family and last biological child. My parents wanted their second to be a girl, so it goes without saying that they were surprised when I came out. My mother already had a name picked out for me too. Since she gave birth to a boy instead, she didn't know what to do. It's thanks to my father's quick thinking that I got the name I have today.
Growing up, my older brother, Justin and I wondered what it would be like to have a sister, so we bugged our parents about it. Of course, we had no idea how babies were made so we kinda thought it could just magically happen one day. Our parents couldn't have one the usual way so they decided to adopt. After fostering a few babies, my parents adopted a set of twins. These two have really made me want to pull my hair out over the years.
I always felt like I got in trouble more since they came around. No matter how annoying they might have been, I had to accept that I was no longer the youngest. I had to accept that I was an older brother. It's partially my fault that these two have entered my life. And my brother's fault, as well. We did want a sister but we didn't want this age gap, nor did we want two of them.
But there are some things in our house that most of us didn't want. Over the years, we had a few pets. There were some cats and had some dogs. They pretty much all died and it was usually because they got too sick. When our previous dog died, I didn't want another pet. That didn't stop my mother from getting another one.
My father was driving me and Justin home from school one afternoon and when we got home, we saw our mother playing with a dog. All the men in the house were pissed since we didn't want another dog. My mother's excuse was that the dog was a "birthday present" for herself but that didn't change how we felt. We never got rid of him though.
We pretty much just accepted that we had a dog. I pet him a few times because I wanted him to like me. His name is Odie and he doesn't really do much. He stays in his dog bed most of the day and he just lays down whenever he goes outside. I always preferred cats so my mother ended up looking for one and eventually our whole family agreed on something. It would be a bit of time before we'd pick him up though.
One summer day, I was just relaxing. I played around on my computer for a bit, not really doing anything important. I was soon handed our home phone since somebody was calling for me. I didn't have my own cell phone yet, unfortunately. I guess my parents still didn't think I was old enough. When I was given the phone, I heard Jason's voice.
"Why don't you come over?" he asked.
"I... uh, sure?" I responded.
I was a little nervous. I hadn't been to his place that many times. The last time I had gone was for his birthday party and that was months before we had gone to Dovacath. The two of us talked to each other for a little while about various things.
"See you later, man." he said, when we got ready to hang up.
I told my parents that Jason wanted me to come over but I also found out that this was the day that my mother wanted to pick up our new cat. I ended up having a few more phone calls with Jason so I could figure out when he wanted me over, but then I got confused because he made it sound like something had come up. He told me he would call me back.
Since I didn't really know what was going on, I decided to just go with my mother to pick up our new cat. I was looking forward to seeing the little guy, so I couldn't wait to pick him up. I had seen a picture of him before: he was a small orange kitten. However, he looked a bit bigger than he actually was. When we arrived at the place we were supposed to pick him up, we saw this small orange cat.
"He's so tiny." commented my mother, grabbing the little guy.
She then opened the car door and handed him to me.
"Hey there, Garfield." I said.
The little guy didn't want to sit still. It was clear to me that he wanted to explore my mom's van.
"Settle down, please." I requested.
He wouldn't settle down. Garfield kept wiggling around, trying to break free. But I wouldn't let go of him. I just held him tight and started petting him. Thankfully, he calmed down and started purring. The little guy just sat still in my lap. He later found his way to the floor. Luckily, we were able to get him home just fine.
Everyone loved the little guy, but I thought of him as a little turd. He kept getting into everything, he kept climbing all over everything, he kept scratching us, and various other things that young cats typically do. I had to apologize to Jason about not being able to go over to his place, but I did make it up to him by showing him a picture of my new cat when I actually did come over.
Garfield was very small and even if I had some trouble with him, having the little guy around has helped me through a lot. If it weren't for him, I feel like I might have jumped off of a bridge or something. I am very grateful that my world has cats.