Bad Influence

Kindall Quackenbush

Ms. Bruewer

Creative writing

19 March 2014

Bad Influence

    When I was younger probably around 5 at the time, both of my parents worked so during the day they left me and my two brothers Mason, and Dalton with my Aunt Dorris and my Cousin Chloe. My family wasn’t the best influence on me and my brothers. Both my aunt and my cousin cussed and my aunt smoked. Their house smelled like smoke and wet dog. All of their furniture was worn down and completely mismatched. Passing the threshold into their house, their four dogs would jump on me and push me down.

There was a lot to do at my Aunt’s house but we always decided to watch the one tiny TV nestled against the wall in the kitchen. Although me and my brothers could all decide to watch TV, we couldn’t ever agree on what to watch. Dalton wanted to watch Pokémon, Mason’s vote was for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But I never really cared what we watched so I was always the deal breaker, and if I chose wrong, that could possibly make one of my brothers hate me for the rest of the day.  One day my aunt went to the store and we were left with just my cousin watching us. We fought over what to watch just like every other day but this time my cousin turned the TV off and just stared at us.  

“Look you guys do this every day, and I’m sick of it, go into the living room.” My cousin looked at us and waited for us to get up and make our way into the living room.

“Okay Mason, go to that corner, Dalton that one, and Kindall go over there.” I was assigned the dusty corner in the back of the room next to the couch, Mason had a chair in his corner, and Dalton’s corner was closest to Chloe. We each moved to where we were told and sat down. The room was extremely quiet and we could hear one of the dogs breathing in the other room. My cousin looked at us for a while then finally said something. “Okay sit down, we’re going to settle this fighting once and for all” I looked at her like she was crazy, was she going to make us fight each other? I am at least half the size of my brother this isn’t fair! “You guys are going to argue with each other, and you can cuss, I won’t tell your mom I promise.” That’s it, she has lost her mind. I have never cussed before, I know what the cuss words are, but I’ve never said them. Dalton cussed once in the grocery store, and he was grounded for two weeks. I definitely don’t want that to be me next time.

“No I don’t want to we’re get in trouble.” Everyone just looked at me for while, what I can’t be the only one thinking that! 

“You won’t, no one will tell your mom, now just do it.” My cousin ordered us and my brothers listened obediently.

They both began to insult each other and curse at each other. I couldn’t handle it, I was so confused as to why they would listen to her, this was a terrible idea. I was frozen I didn’t move or say anything. My brothers didn’t just insult each other, they insulted and cursed at me to, but I was still too dumfounded to move, let alone say anything back to them.

Finally I had dealt with enough and I snapped. I don’t remember what I said, or if it was even bad. Maybe just that I said anything at all shocked everyone. But I just remember everyone stopping and looking at me. It was only for a second though then my brothers went back at it. I didn’t say anything the rest of the time. Just sat and listened, I didn’t have anything to say. After awhile my cousin decided she had enjoyed the situation enough and told Mason and Dalton to stop. 

Right when she told them to stop I looked up at her. She was holding her old video camera. We shouldn’t have trusted her I knew it was a bad idea. My face turned red with either anger or embarrassment, I couldn’t tell which. She noticed me staring and my brothers started to notice the camera to.

“Look, I told you I wouldn’t say anything to your mom, so I won’t. This is just for me so I can laugh about this later!” Chloe barely managed that sentence before laughing again. I looked over to where Dalton was supposed to be and he wasn’t there. Just then I heard the theme song from Pokémon. Well, that entire argument clearly wasn’t productive. I just really hoped Chloe never told my mom.

My mom didn’t say anything to me about the video, until a year ago, almost ten years after it originally happened. Of course I found it funny now, and my mom still does to. She never even got mad and that surprised me. Mostly she just thought it was hilarious. I think this story is a prime example of just how weird my family is, and why I shouldn’t trust my cousin anymore. 

In this writing I think that my description is good. During most of the story I provide good description for the different places, and things going on inside of my Aunts house.