FREEWRITE! - because sleep is for the weak. one o' clock currently, and i have to get up at six.
is it going to happen?

I couldn't stop crying. Not because the cut on my knee was searingly painful, or was the blood making me weak with fear, but because the attention I was receiving was probably the best birthday gift I have ever had.

"Don't move, I got my brother!" Jaimy yelled as he came sprinting, frail and fragile arms pumping like pistons as he sprinted over the grass. His breath was shallow as he reached us, doubling over on his knees and panting like a dog.

I continued to squeeze out a few tears to make sure he was still looking at me. Even though he always said seven was too old to cry, he didn't say anything while I was actually doing it. So I belt it out. He never should have pushed me over anyway.

"Do you need a Band-Aid?" my older brother said as he crouched over my knee, the blood finally beginning to clot, leaving an oozing gash that, along with blood, was pumping out a clear liquid down my legs that made Jaimy wrinkle his nose in disgust. My lower lip quivered as I mumbled out a yes, and my big brother just tried to calm me as we waited for Rosie to explode out the front door with a whole suitcase filled with Band-Aids and popsicles: the universal remedy.

"Hey, you wanna hear a joke?" Jaimy said after a while, squinting in the three-o'-clock sunlight.

I nodded, hoping my silence would seem innocent and weak. As long as he talked to me. Oh, just to be near him...

"What did the dog say when he sat on some sandpaper?" He paused, then made an imitation of his golden retriever, Maxie, lolled out his tongue, and barked out a, "Rough!"

My older brother cracked up so intensely that a grenade of spittle landed in my hair before he fell over onto his side, shaking from hysteria. I didn't even realize my hair had become slightly more damp from his saliva samples until after Jaimy pointed it out, after Rosie had carefully caressed a large Spider-Man Band-Aid on my cut and a cherry flavored ice pop was firmly wedged between my lips.