You opened the door to your house and sighed. Another day of school, done. Thank goodness. You kicked off your shoes and headed upstairs to your room. After dropping your backpack off, filled with books for all the homework you had to do tonight, you headed back downstairs to have a little after school snack. As you entered the kitchen you saw your little brother, Kyle, rummaging through the fridge.
"Hey Kyle, what are you looking for?" you asked as you come up behind him.
"Nothing special...I'm just hungry." he replied, looking at all the different foods.
"Well, why don't I make you a sandwich?" you offered, grabbing the meat, cheese, and condiments.
His face lit up and he nodded. "Yeah! Thanks! That would be great!"
He sat down at the table with a big smile on his face, happy that his older brother was so willing to help him. You two always had a great relationship with each other. Kyle looked up to you as a role model and tried to emulate you in any way possible. It had annoyed you at first but you couldn't fault your little brother for seeing you as something to work toward. So you decided to do your best to show your little brother the best way to live through life. He was quite different looking than you. Whereas you had blond hair, he had darker brown, your eyes were a bright blue and his were a more subdued greenish blue, though you had the same kind of build: skinny, kind of on the short side, but lean, not bony. He was eight years old to your sixteen, your parents conceiving him as a "happy accident" as they called it. Doctors had thought that your mother wouldn't have been able to have any more kids. He was a miracle baby of sorts. You laid out the sandwich ingredients on the counter and started making a ham and cheese sandwich. "So, how was your field trip yesterday?"
Kyle attended an all-boys primary school in the area. It was literally the only logical choice your family could make since the only other primary school was miles and miles away and the buses didn't come out to where your house was. Luckily, in order to cater to students who were in such a position, Kyle could go to the school for the same price as he would the regular school. He was also a very smart kid so he didn't feel out of place amongst the richer, "gifted" children. Yesterday, they had gone on a field trip to a nearby laboratory where new genetic experiments were being performed. Absolutely nothing going on in there was against any laws and all the research was going towards bettering humanity and the human lifestyle as well as making sure no lasting damage would be done to the Earth. It was incredibly famous for this reason and only conducted tours once in a great while. The school was very lucky they had gotten in.
Kyle shrugged, seeming kind of distracted. "It was pretty cool. A really nice lady led us around and showed us all the different experiments and stuff going on. It was weird though. The air was really tingly in one room. When I talked to my friends about it they said they felt the same thing but none of the adults did."
"Tingly huh?" you said, only half listening, focusing on the sandwich. "That does sound odd. What was going on in the room?"
Kyle shook his head and replied, "Don't know. It was some kind of experiment to...to...something. I can't remember. There was a big machine that was always running though and we had to stay behind a big wall. We only felt the tingling in that one room though."
You set the sandwich down in front of him and he happily picked it up and started eating. "I wouldn't worry about it squirting." you said, ruffling his hair. "That place has passed every safety inspection since it opened. It's a model of perfect safety. There's no way you would get hurt in there."
Kyle had finished off the sandwich in record time. He licked the mayo off his fingers and said, "Yeah, you're right. Hey, can I have another sandwich? I'm still really hungry..."
His little tummy growled as he said this. He gave you the old puppy dog eyes until you relented and said, "Alright, but just one more. I don't want mom yelling at me for spoiling your appetite before dinner."
Kyle grinned and said, "Don't worry, I won't tell! I don't want you to get in trouble!"
What a great kid. You made up another sandwich for him and he ate it down just as fast. You still hadn't even made one for yourself yet! Kyle drank a glass of milk as you sat down with your own sandwich. He looked sadly at it as you picked it up. You noticed and said, "You want this don't you?"
Kyle nodded, his stomach gurgling again. "Geez, you're really hungry today! Alright why not? You can have it."
You pushed the plate over to him and he eagerly devoured it. He burped when he was done and patted his slightly distended belly. He never ate this much! He got up and said, "Thanks big bro! That was really good!"
He ran off upstairs to his room, leaving you to scratch your head in perplexity. Your little brother was a notoriously picky eater. It was one of the reasons he was so skinny. But now...he had just eaten three sandwiches, one of which had pickles on it, something you KNOW he hated. Why the sudden change in tastes? You shrugged and just decided it was because he was growing up. His tastes were bound to change. The phone rang suddenly. You got up and answered it. "Hello?"
"Hey sweetie, it's Mom. Listen, something major just came up and your father and I are going to have to be out of town for the next two weeks. I know this is really sudden, but can you take care of Kyle while we're gone?"
"Sure! Don't worry, I've got everything under control!"
"Thanks so much for understanding sweetie. We'll make it up to you and Kyle when we get back, promise."
"Don't worry about it Mom. I can handle it!"
"Okay. See you in two weeks. Love you."
"I love you too. Bye Mom." you hung up the phone and smiled. Yes! Two whole weeks without parents! It was like a dream! Today was Friday too, so that meant the whole weekend was ahead of them, plus, the coming weekends! This was going to be fun! His parents were hard workers, working at the same law firm. They often had to be out of town for business reasons so you had gotten used to cooking, cleaning, and taking care of everything while they were gone. You didn't mind at all and your parents always made it up to you and your brother by spending time with you, so these situations were always fun.
You ran upstairs and knocked on Kyle's door. "Hey Kyle! Mom and Dad are going to be gone for a while! It's just going to be us for the next two weeks!"
The door opened and Kyle said, "Really? You mean it? Awesome! We're going to have so much fun together!"
You laughed and ruffled his hair again. "You bet we are!"
Kyle ran back into his room to his desk and started writing on his calendar. "There are all sorts of things I want to do! We can go camping, swimming, go to the movies, play video games, watch T.V...."
He wrote quickly, rattling off things to do as he did so. It was getting closer to summer so the weather was getting pretty warm, plenty warm enough to do all the things Kyle wanted to do. As you watched Kyle write you noticed something odd. His shirt seemed to be too short. It was riding up in the back as he leaned over to write on his calendar. Strange...it had been fitting fine before when he was bending over to get food out of the fridge...maybe it was just the way he was sitting. Yeah, that was probably it.
"So! I'm going to start dinner, Kyle. Is there anything in particular you want?"
"Yeah! Lasagna! With garlic bread!" He shouted out.
"Okay, but that might take a while. Can you be patient and wait?"
"Yup! I can always wait for lasagna!"
"Alright, I'll call you when it's done then."
You walked downstairs and started preparing the dish. Italian was Kyle's favorite food and he always chose lasagna or spaghetti, or some other kind of pasta when he got a choice. You didn't mind. It was easy enough to make and you enjoyed it too. It took about twenty minutes to get the lasagna in the oven. The garlic bread would go in when there was about five to ten minutes left to cook properly. You dusted off your hands and started setting the table.