We Are A Family

"Ouch, Freda!"

"Come on, Klaus, we're gonna be late!"

I straighten the wrinkles on my long sleeve white school uniform and sigh. "You know, I don't need to be hit in the head every time you want me to do something."

Freda, my younger sister, grins at my statement and rushes to the front door. Her jet-black hair is tied into a ponytail as it dangles when she put on her shoes.

"Be careful, you two!" my mother shouts.

I look at her figure in the kitchen and waves. "Goodbye, Mom."

"I can't... put it in. Klaus! Help me!" yells Freda, struggling with tying her shoelaces.

"Seriously? I thought Dad taught you before," I complain. I sling my deep blue school bag over my shoulder and trots to her. She wears a green jacket over her uniform and a loose black skirt. Frankly, despite Freda's attachment towards jeans, I never heard a single complain from her about wearing a skirt for years.

I guess since she's fourteen-years-old now, she has m.a.t.u.r.ed, I suppose.

"What are you dreaming about, Klaus? My shoe!" says Freda.

Yeah, she can be annoying at times.

"Okay, okay." I swiftly tie her white shoes and grunts after that. "Now, let's go."

With her oversized red school bag, she darts out of the front door and enters the car. I put on my own shoes quickly, slowly walks towards Dad in his car. He smiles when he sees me sit next to Freda at the back.

I glance at him.

Unlike me who is bespectacled, my father is handsome-looking. His dark hair was combed backward and shines a little bit. Despite being forty-years-old, his body is well maintained.

He usually drives both me and Freda to school, on his way to the office. He's a CEO of a very successful smartphone company, but he never forgets his responsibilities as our father. When he's at home, he would spend time with all of us. More so when the holidays arrive.

"Yes!" answers Freda with her wide smile.

"Everything is in there, Dad," I say.

"Oh, great. Let's get going then." He presses on the pedal and his dark Toyota Vios starts to move along the road.

I shoot my eyes at an oval mirror that Freda's holding. My dark hair was cut short, and my slim, rectangle-framed spectacles glints in its blue color.

Freda notices that I was looking at her mirror and pulls it away. "No, use your own mirror."

I blink twice, no, three times at what she said. "I also want to have a look at the face of my beautiful sister in her own mirror, you see."

Freda snorts. "Yeah, right."

We arrive at our glorious Shizumi junior high school. And since I and my sister are literally students from German, the students of glorious Osaka look at us in awe.

Or that's just how they react when foreigners come to their school. But we are used to that. There's no discrimination whatsoever. Freda and I just get a lot of attention, that's all.

"See you after school," I say at Freda. She waves lazily at me and proceeds to her classroom.

I sweep my gaze around the schoolyard and take in a deep breath.

"Tomorrow, summer vacation starts. And I will use it wisely," I say to myself.

And by wisely, I mean to have full control of where our family will go after we arrive at Sydney, Australia.

Kangaroos.

I want to meet them.

And starting tomorrow, I will get to meet them. Touch them and pet them.

During the day, nothing unusual happens. It is still the same thing that my teachers teach, over and over. I already revised on what the class is going to be learning today so I have no problem absorbing what they are teaching.

During lunch, I quickly get out of my seat and rushes to the rooftop.

Freda is eating a flimsy sandwich all by herself when I barge into her private space. But being on a rooftop alone is just not that private when basically anyone could come in here.

"You're disturbing me again," says Freda unenthusiastically.

"Hmm, you don't say."

"I guess not having that many friends make you so desperate as to spend your lunchtime with me," says Freda, squinting at me just a few meters away.

"Er, well, I can't leave you alone, you know. Since you're suffering from... anemia."

I sit next to Freda, leaning my back against the metal railing.

Freda stares at the floor with brooding eyes. "You shouldn't bring that up."

"Have you taken your pills this morning?" I ask.

"I have..." She glances at me. "You don't have to worry about me too much, Klaus."

"So, you're saying it's my fault?" Freda switches her blue eyes to that of a menacing glare at me. "That you have to be with me all the time?"

"Nope. I'm here because I want to. There's no telling when we'll be separated in the future, you see."

Freda fists my shoulder and I wince from it. "Don't say things like that. You're making me nervous. Don't get all too serious on me."

"Yeah, yeah."

I don't know why, but the fact that I'm here with her makes me happy. To be able to act as a brother and help her anytime she needs me. It makes me happy.

Fulfilled, to be exact.

After I'd spend my lunchtime with Freda, I return to my class. And after what seems to be a year, it's time for us to get back to our home. Yeah. a year is an exaggeration.

But I can't wait to come back home and pack my stuff.

"Freda, want to get something to eat?" I say to her as we both pass a convenience store on our way home. Dad can't pick us up in the evening so we walk. Freda doesn't want to use public transports, which she didn't intend to share with anyone why she dislikes it.

"Can we just go straight back?" Freda insisted, showing me her sparkling eyes that could take down a demon lord in itself.

"Okay," I reply simply.

It takes about twenty minutes from our school for us to arrive at our doorstep. Freda dashes to her own room upstairs and I step into our kitchen, where Mom is cooking. Her blond hair was tied into a braid behind her back when I see her. She stops cutting a few vegetables when she realizes I'm there.

"Oh, Klaus. Welcome home. I didn't hear you come in," said Mom.

I look around the kitchen, and as always, it is amazingly clean. Mom works at a telco center during the day, and when she comes back home, she's a full-time housewife. Her female colleagues usually pick her up since Dad is busy on the weekdays. Even though her schedule is densely packed, I never heard any complaints from her.

If she's feeling down or something, she tries to put up a smile for her family.

"I'll help you, Mom," I volunteer.

"Oh, it's okay," says Mom. "I just need to boil these vegetables." She stares at me and I can't help but smile. "Thank you, Klaus."

"Nah, thank you, Mom," I say instead. "I'll prep the plates and all that."

"It's fine. I want to do this anyway."

I carefully grab four white plates from its holder next to the sink and place them on the dining table. My hand is about to yank the utensils out from a small drawer when Mom shakes her head.

"Go change, Klaus. I'm fine here," says Mom. "Or I'll be mad..."

I backed away from her when she draws her eyebrows together. That's usually a bad sign. A sign for me to bail out from the kitchen immediately.

"Okay, if you need my help with anything, I'll be there," I say.

"That I will do." Mom gestures at the wooden stairs and I nod, making my way slowly upstairs.

I walk past Freda's room and put my feet to a halt.

"Nah, I don't need to bother her," I say under my breath.

I push my door open and pause at the sight.

It is perfectly normal, I can say. A bed, a chair, a desk for me to study, a table lamp, and a cupboard. Oh, and there's a window. Duh.

"Hmm, it looks so boring," I mutter.

Perhaps that's because I sold all my stuff a year ago. There's too much 'garbage' and things I don't need, so I did what I have to.

I sit on my bed and gaze at a clock nailed at the wall.

"Six o'clock, huh? I can read something for a while." I pull out my phone in my desk's drawer and searches the news.

I know. There's no way any sane student would even read the news, right? Well, tough luck. I'm not one of those students.