Summer is supposed to be the time where you relax, go on vacation, drink lemonade on your front porch, go swimming, do something fun. For the past four school years I’ve hated sitting in a cold classroom, taking notes nearly as long as a book, exams, and state testing. So when the summer finally comes and I say partial goodbyes to my friends and comrades, I go home. And for the first week I sit on the couch and stare at my book bag in the corner of the room. Relaxing, yes. Having the time of my life on an island, heck no. I can’t tell you how I met a precious Hawaiian boy on vacation last year because it never happened. Instead, I’ll tell you how bored I was for the last three summers.
In the summer of 2008, my younger brother and I were entirely too young to stay home by ourselves when school was out and our parents worked. So my grandmother kept an eye on us and occasionally took us on tiny adventures. Truth is, she didn’t have the patience to put up with our shenanigans. He is two and a half years younger and at the time I was seven and he was about five. One time we were playing in our front yard and we decided to mess with the oh so interesting mailbox (it was infested with wasps, but we were clueless). My brother was the first one to see it and something in his five year old mind told him to stick his fingers in it. I screamed at him like the bossy sister I am, and he got mad like he always does. So he removed the nest threw it at my neck. It happened so quickly and I was surprised that he had the boldness to do it and I kinda caught it in my hand. And then it was like the movies where they have the explosives in their hand and the timer is at three seconds, I looked up at him and my head told me to run but my legs did not move. You can imagine us doing the slow motion run to the door with all the wasps flying toward us. 
That summer, I also got attacked by my neighbor’s puppy in my backyard. I was sitting in the grass petting her curly, fur and then she jumped on me and started clawing my face. At first I was like “okay, chill” but I realized that she was not going to stop. So then the dog started biting and pulling at my hair and I screamed for help but every single person on the block was either inside or deaf. Crazy thing is, me and that dog were almost best friends. She always smelled like fried chicken. I wasn’t sad when she “accidentally” got hit a couple weeks later, though.
In the summer of 2013, my brother and I were over going to summer camp because we hated it for no reason at all. As an alternative, some days we’d visit our grandma and some days we’d stay home by ourselves. This resulted in a lot of fighting and expensive things being broken. We got bored extremely easily. There was a huge air conditioner in the window of our living room and we decided to fly a kite with it on high inside the house. We weren’t allowed to go outside so must of the dumb stuff we did was inside. Now that I think about it, this was a very stupid idea. We turn the air conditioner on high and wait a few minutes for the “wind to kick in”. The kite wanted to use was brand new and it wasn’t a little baby kite. It was at least four feet in diameter. Its flying a little but not how we want it to so we start running back and forth, from wall to wall. We’re knocking over lamps, house plants, coffee tables. Two hours later we’re worn out and upset because the kite wouldn’t fly. Then a big explosion sound comes from the air conditioner and some fumes are flying from it because we left it on for two hours straight. And we had to explain to my mom why it was broken. I don’t even know why we decided to fly a kite inside anyway, I hate kites.
That summer a daycare across the street caught on fire while children were inside and it burned completely down. It was so beautiful to watch the flames while the sun came down in the distance. That was a joke. Everyone was safe, though.
In the summer of 2014, the only difference from the summers in the past was that we had gotten older and our boredom could be relieved in more well though-out, logical ways. Our house was pretty small at the time. But, it was big enough for us to run around and fight each other. One day, I locked my brother in our back room that had a lock on the door.  It was one of those doors that has multiple rectangular pieces of glass all on the top half.  I left for maybe two hours and forgot he was in there, and then I hear all this glass shattering everywhere.  He turned into the Hulk, took his fist and smashed the glass open to get to the lock on the other side.  In my head, I’m like, “Why?”  But, then I remembered why.  The same day he decided to hang from the cabinets in the kitchen and two of them broke off.
Later that month, we were riding bikes in the middle of the street and we both hit a parked Mercedes Benz on accident.  I was already in trouble for something dumb that I had done. So, I picked up my bike and ran to the garage even though my knee was nearly completely shattered.  This was also around the same time when my brother mysteriously busted his head open in the bathtub.  We were home alone because my mom left just before it happened to get something for her sunburn.  I was minding my business when he runs out crying with blood running down his neck.  My mom is notorious for not answering her phone and she really came through this time. Usually my dad answers the phone when I call but this time he didn’t. I took matters into my own hands and called an ambulance because I’d be in trouble if I let my brother bleed to death. Later at the hospital while he got staples stapled into his head with a gun, my parents finally showed up and everything was somewhat okay. My brother still hasn’t properly thanked me for saving his life.
That’s all I really have to say about the dumb stuff I’ve done with my sibling during the summer. I've clearly learned a lot about what to do and what not do, even when it sounds fantastic. And I made some memories that I'll never forget.