Brothers... sheesh.

I've always sort of wanted to join the cooler kids, and I finally get up the guts to just sit on the steps with them and join in. They're on one of their favorite topics -- things their older brothers do to drive them crazy. It's almost like a contest to prove whose brother is the most annoying.

I don't have an older brother to bug me, so I just sit on the periphery and listen for an opening. Chayala finishes her story about the dead frog that kept appearing among her various possessions over the course of a week last summer, and the girls supply the anticipated sounds of shock and sympathy. Chayala seems quite pleased at having won the annoying-brother-contest for now. I join the consensus with "Yeah, your brother sure is a real pest!"

Now she's angry at me. Why? I didn't think she liked him very much...

(Maybe I just shouldn't talk to them anymore. I don't think they like me, either.)