Family Tradition

*BEEP! BEEP!*

Rebecca groaned and threw the pillow across to the offensive alarm clock. 7:15 already?! It seemed like she had only just crawled into bed a moment ago, and now the alarm was screaming that it was now time for her to get up for class.

“REBECCA! . . . BECCA, TIME TO GET UP!”

Finally pulling herself up out of the bed, Rebecca stumbled over to the stereo and flicked it off. Grabbing her robe, she opened the door and groaned seeing that the bathroom door was closed, showing that she was late getting up and to the bathroom.

Rebecca knocked loudly on the door, only to be rewarded by hearing her oldest brother’s voice issuing out from the shower. She beat against the door a few more times before giving up and falling back to verbal attacks.

“PETEY! GET OUT! What’s wrong with your bathroom?! Get out so I can at least get a shower before class! You know some people do have classes rather than simply hanging around eating burgers and such. OUT PETEY!”

Hearing only a few muffled words in response, Rebecca frowned and turned to trudge down the stairs towards the kitchen. She knew that her mother would be there working on breakfast, and could therefore try to find another way to get Peter out of the bathroom, or either find another place to take a shower before classes.

“Rebecca, why are you still in your pajamas? You’re not sick, are you? I know about your Literature test, so I certainly hope that you’re not thinking of skipping. Come here and let me see if you’re feverish.”

“Mom, I’m not sick. I’m not skipping. I’m here because Petey has taken over our bathroom. Is there something wrong with his bathroom?”

Rebecca’s mother filled a plate with a special veggie omelet and set it down on the table along with a glass of milk. Then she quickly went back to her business of preparing the meal for the other members of the family.

“Rebecca, I do wish you would eat something. It’s even a veggie omelet, so you can’t complain about that either.”

“Mom, I’m really not that hungry. I was only trying to discover why Petey was in our bathroom. After a shower I might have the omelet. Thanks, Mom.”

Rebecca finished off the glass of milk in front of her, then stood and headed back towards the stairs, only to crash into her eldest brother. She squeaked a bit out of shock and from the simple impact of it all.

Peter was the first to recover and simply laughed, leaving a quick kiss on Rebecca’s forehead after hugging her, being careful to keep the towel wrapped tightly around his waist.

“Petey, you had better be glad I’ve already had a little while to wake up, or you might have gotten more than you bargained for. And thankfully none of my friends were over to see you in such a spectacle. Although you might have liked that, creepy pervert.”

With that, Rebecca shouldered her way past him up to the bathroom to finish getting ready before another day of the normal class drudge.