My name is Hope Beckett, though why my mother called me that I have no idea. I live in a normal house with my sister, my brother and my parents. And with my cat Dave, but he's in and out the house so much that you wouldn't think it. I swear one of the neighbours has started feeding him, 'cause he's getting fat.
My brother is the perfect child, according to my parents. He gets amazing grades, is captain of nearly every sports team the school offers and has a ton of friends. He has a billion watt smile that always seems to win my parents over, no mater how bad it is, so that even at eighteen he still gets everything he wants. My parents can't ever see that he gets all his good grades through cheating and beating homework's out of the nerds. They can't see that he bribed his way onto the teams, and that half their money goes into keeping him their so he can get all the girls. They don't see the mess that all his so-called friends leave behind after another one of his parties, another girl he's done a one-night-stand with. He just smiles his smile and he's James, their perfect son all over again.
My sister Annie is a year younger than James and two years older than me. She sees our brother for who he really is too. Every time he has a party, the two of us sneak up onto the roof and play guess-how-may-pints-they've-had on the guests. We know the drinking limits of nearly every teenager in town. We giggle and laugh as we watch them drunkenly sway to the pounding music, occasionally collapsing into the pool to much raucous laughter. I tell you, we could have the entire school at our feet the secrets we have seen from our little rooftop hideout.
It's not so fun in the morning. Our brother stays in his room all day nursing his hangover while our parents make us clean up the house. According to them, if us kids want to throw a party then we need to have the responsibility to clean up after ourselves, even though we tell them that we spent the whole night up on the roof. That doesn't matter to them though. As long as James is fine, they don't care what happens to us.
Once, a new girl came to the school. It took James less than a week to snare her and by the weekend she had wandered into our home. The first time I met her, I wandered in on her sat in my living room, watching my TV, eating my Jaffa Cakes. Of all the things in the house, Jaffa Cakes was one of the few bought especially for me. And she was eating them.
The girl turned and saw me. She scowled.
"Who the hell are you?"
"What? I'm Hope. Do you know where James is?" I needed to remind him that my bedroom was not just another place to go for a quick shag. Again.
"Are you sure you don't know. Cause I bet I know where he's been. In your pants! You're his girlfriend aren't you! Well you won't be for much longer you wh**e! James is mine!"
I stood there shocked.
"I'm not... I... James is my brother..."
"Oh really. Then how come I've never heard of you. James has never mentioned having a sister and no-one at school talks about you. Don't you lie to me b***h!"
"Hey babe, got you the diet coke you wanted!" James. Fantastic.
"Hey BABE, would you care to explain to me who this is? Is this your girlfriend or something?" The girl said angrily. James glanced at me for about half a second, then laughed.
"Her? No way! Trust me babe, she's not my 'girlfriend'."
"Then who is she?"
He smirked at me. "No-one important." He turned back to the stranger in my house. "Now how about we return to more serious matters..." He suggested, making me feel physically sick. This is where I take my leave.
Once I was in my room, I thought about what he had said. Was that what I was to him; nobody important? Just another being in the house, another face in the scenery. How could someone think of a member of their own family like that? Mind you, my parents managed fine. Anger filled me as I thought of them, of how unfair it all was. Hot tears of rage slipped from the corners of my eyes, as I cried over all the lost hugs and forgotten kisses, all the toys that had never arrived, all the love that had been given to James and James alone.
That was how Annie found me, an hour later, curled up on my bed, tear tracks lining my cheeks. She didn't have to ask to know what was wrong, she simply pulled me into a hug. Annie was the only one that cared, my sister and my mother, my best friend and my shelter when all was lost. I could always count on my sister.
"Not long now sis." She whispered in my ear. " A few more years and we'll both be out of here, and we won't ever look back. They can have James. You and me, we've got each other, and that's the only family we need." Oh how I hope that these years would pass sooner, and that we could be free now, to do whatever we liked.
How I hoped I had parents who noticed when I came home with an A or parents who were concerned when I went on dates. How I wished I had a brother who would actually tell his friends that I existed, a brother that would tell boys they were dead if they hurt me. How I dreamed for a family that loved me, just a little.
My one dream is that after graduation, I will come home and my parents will say to me: "Well done Hope. Well done". And they will smile and be proud of me. They'll love me.
But that is not my reality. My reality is that the only true family I have is Annie. And that to the others, I am just like a little cat, that comes and goes as it pleases, is useful for looking cute, or getting rid of mice, and occasionally needs taking to the vets. An ornament on the shelf. A pretty picture on the wall.
No-one important.
But I can always hope.
There are two themes for this short story- can anyone guess what they are? Go on, guess, you could be right!
