"Super-sister"

I was in the dining room putting finishing touches on "Interview with a Mummy" when I heard footsteps. I knew they were Bassy's as he tends to slide his feet on the floor, and I knew why he was up. If there's one thing I know about him, it's that when he gets upset, he doesn't sleep. He paces around and usually gets on the computer. So I knew something was up. Something told me I couldn't be super-woman. I had to be super-sister.

It was two in the morning, and I was dead dog tired. But I didn't care. Bassy was in trouble.

So I fixed him a pipin' hot plate of macaroni and cheese and sat him down for a little heart-to-heart. "Tell me what's going on," I began, looking right into his deep blue eyes. They're the exact same ones as my father's, the same shade, shape and size.

He looked at me plaintively. "It's Daisy."

I knew it was girl trouble. It couldn't be anything else. Teenage girls are trouble. I should know, I was one.

"Ernie, man --"

"Who's Ernie?"

"Ernie Tripp. I thought he was my friend. We all hung out together, it was me, Ernie, Daisy, and Neil -- I mean, we all grew up together, ya know? One minute we're laughing and joking, next thing I know, she's coming out of one of his closets --"

"What?"

"It's crazy, man. Crazy. What happened next was even crazier."

"When I turned around to leave, she ran after me, called my name and said, 'Bas, it's not what it looks like. I had to laugh cause it was exactly what it looked like."

"Do you think she thought you were stupid?" I asked him, my anger growing by the second. I swear, I wanted to kill her, Ernie and Bassy for getting themselves into this mess. And I've never even met Ernie and have only met Daisy once.

"I dunno what she thought," Bassy said.

"But you laughing at it, in her mind, makes her think it's okay what she did," I told him.

"I didn't laugh at her -- I was laughing silently, to myself. I wasn't even sure how to react, to tell the truth."

Dang, he's got to be like dad, I thought, because I would have physically hurt someone in that room.

"You need to talk to Ernie and Daisy," I told him. "You need to let both of them know exactly how you feel about what happened. You need to tell them what you told me, that you feel embarrassed, you feel betrayed, that you're hurt by all of this."