by Blue Lightning

Created on: April 28, 2008

"Metika! Your breakfast is ready!"

Lila Williams' screams echoed through Metika's closed basement bedroom door. Though it was soundproof, she could hear them clear as day. "I'm coming, I'm coming... Just give me...a minute..." she mumbled groggily. Her eyes kept forcing themselves shut every time she opened them. She pulled the covers off of her and shivered; her window had been open the whole night. She stretched her arms, bones cracking from being in one position for too long. From what they sounded like, you'd think it'd be painful, but Metika didn't think so.

The sunshine managed to drift through the dusty, half-broken window. It shone not enough to make the room light up, but it was a basement, so what could you do?

As Metika swayed lazily up the stairs, she could hear her 4-year-old brother Jose rampaging wildly through every room he could find, including the small, not-to-run-in space of the full bathroom and the about-to-break laundry room.

"Jose! Quit fooling around and calm down!" shouted Lila from the kitchen.
"But it's Saturday! What else am I supposed to do?" snapped Jose.

Lila did not respond.

Metika, at the top of the stairs, managed to choke out, "I think he's had one too many cups of sugar fruit juice, Lila." Jose heard this and charged at her, ready to punch her eye out with those little fists of his.

"Oh, you want to go, do you?" she hissed bravely. Normally, fighting someone smaller than you made you a weakling, but in Metika's case, that phrase did not apply at all.

She made her body tower over him, she wasn't trying to frighten him or anything, she was just trying to let him know who was boss. In fact, it was more like a "Back off, or I will seriously take you off that juice of yours" kind of thing. Lila used to do this all the time to Metika, and it had worked. She silently thanked Lila for giving her another way to deal with her little devil of a brother.

Jose took a few steps back. "Umm... OK, no harm done," he stammered. He then sat down quietly to play with his trucks. Lila sighed in relief, shook Metika's hand, and motioned for her to eat up.

"You sure have learned a lot from me, haven't you?" she teased. Metika shrugged and forked the first bite of over-easy eggs. As she ate, Lila continued, "Well, just wait until you fight someone bigger than you. Without the option of towering over them, you have no choice but to fight or flee."

A slight smile curved on both their faces. Metika was going on a big adventure today, but she couldn't let Jose

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