A Birthday To Remember

• Patrick Andrews, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2011

It all started in my room my birthday was coming up and still they, my family that is, haven’t even asked me what I would like for a present. You would expect that mum or dad would have picked up on my hints. I had mentioned a couple of times that I would love to have a pet dog but they must not have taken any notice. I even bought my best friend James’ dog, ‘Rex’ home for the weekend to prove that I could take care of an animal. Are they that busy that they couldn’t see how well I could manage a pet? I was hoping that a pet dog could fill the empty spot inside of me as my brother Jonathon is evil and only thinks about how he can cause me pain. Everyday is always the same with him he gets up before everyone else but he doesn’t get ready for school, instead he wakes me up with a nice morning, bam! Punch. Then there are my two sisters Melanie and Katherine who always only think about themselves but the good thing is Katherine is hardly ever home now that she has her license and it’s only a couple of months before Melanie gets her license as well. Girls are such a bother, they take so much time in the bathroom and all they are worried about is their hair.
Anyway, as I was saying it all started in my room. I was told not to come out of my room as mum had walked in at just the wrong time. Here I was caught in the act and mum had seen it all, well at least what I had done to Jonathon. I had ‘accidentally’ purposely rammed my brother into the floor. Well he deserved it. I had just had enough of his morning routine of thinking he can just come into my room ant) punch me whenever he feels like it. So there you have it. I finally snapped, I hit back and I’m the one that gets into trouble. Well, seen as I was in my room for awhile and I was sick of feeling sorry for myself and wondering whether I would ever get a puppy. My thoughts went back to when I had asked mum for a beagle after the weekend of looking after ‘Rex’. Mum had just gone on about how a dog is a life long responsibility, well for the life of the dog anyway. Mum’s replies were always the same exactly the same: “No of course you can’t have a dog. Do you know how much responsibility a dog is? You have to feed it, give it water, pick up its poop, blah, blah, blah,” and I had the same reply each time. “But I am responsible can’t you see that? I looked after Rex really well.” Even though it had been a fun weekend with Rex there was no harm in asking one more time I thought.
I looked around my bare room for something to do. I suppose you are wondering why my room was bare. Mum was so angry with me that she had taken all the things I would enjoy out as punishment - as if going to my room wasn’t enough. As I was looking around my room I noticed that under the small gap in my door that someone had left a magazine, maybe there was someone in my family that did feel sorry for me after all. I looked at the magazine. It was about a pet shop called Al’s Pet Barn. On the front cover was a picture of a beagle. I wonder who would have left this under my door…
Meanwhile in the kitchen while mum was cooking dinner, Jonathon approached her and asked if he could help. Mum looked at him strangely wondering what was going on. “Are you feeling okay Jonathon?” asked mum. “Yeah I’m okay, I just want to help” replied Jonathon. “Luke must have really hit you hard. You never ask if you can help,” said mum. “No it wasn’t that hard, usually I give him a bigger thumping,” Jonathon answered in a smart manner. “What?” Mum screamed “what do you mean you give him a bigger thumping?” “Whoops I um wasn’t meant to tell you that,” Jonathon said sheepishly. “What really happened Jonathon?” You had better tell me or things might become very awful very quickly!” Mum furiously said. “Well...um... I kind of give him a smack every morning just to let him know that I’m boss” mumbled Jonathon. “Oh is that right? Well then it looks like you have some major apologising to do, don’t you think?” replied mum. “Well it’s no so bad, I did let him know that I was sorry by leaving a pet shop magazine under his door” Jonathon said sarcastically. “Is that so?” She asked cautiously. “That does not make up for what you have done... You can go to your room and your grounded from seeing your mates and playing your computer until further notice.”
Later there was a knock at my bedroom door, it was mum. “Come in” I said. “I see now what you did was just self defense. I wish I had of known what was going on all along. I’m so sorry that both dad and I have been busy to notice,” mum said sadly. “That’s alright,” I said. “What is it that you are reading?” said mum. “Just a pet magazine, nothing special” I said in a ho hum way. “Well seeing as your birthday is coming up how about we go shopping, maybe even look at some pet beagles?” Mum said cheerily.
So we went down to the pet shop that was in the magazine. We looked and looked ant) found the cutest puppy I had ever seen. It was a small beagle. “Mum how about it?” I said. “It is awfully expensive how about you pay half?” said mum. It cost me all my savings but it was worth it and when we were home there was a lot of playing and rolling.