New sibling

She walked into her parents bedroom, bounced onto the queen bed, and cuddled into the comforter with her younger siblings, waiting for her parents to speak. "What would you think about having another sister or brother?" they asked. She didn't need more than a second to think about it. "Really? We're going to get one? When?" questions sprang from her lips. "We're not quite sure yet," they responded, "And it might be twins. We'll know soon." She thought about another child in the family for the next couple weeks. A little sister, a little brother, twin look-alikes, twin not-look-alikes. Her parents left the children at her aunt and uncle's house often while they went off to appointments. She played with her cousins, always knowing--in that secret only-I-know place in her mind--that soon her life would change. Her parents brought back pictures and gave explanations. Names popped from everyone's mouths like the bubbles she blew with her Hubba Bubba gum. A wave of excitement crashed through the house when her parents announced it would be a boy. But only just the one, no twins. There was a name. Jeffrey. The upstairs saw a frenzy of moving. She moved out of her bedroom with the window overlooking the backyard, the Big Toy, and the alley behind it. Her brother moved in. It was bigger, better for two boys. Her sister moved to her brother's old room. She moved into her sister's room. That window looked out onto the red shale planter bordering the driveway that led to the road. New items appeared around the house. Flannel towels, soft as bunnies fur, stacked in the washroom closet. Blankets and sheets and comforters covering a second bed in her brother's new room. New shoes lined up on the closet floor. Toys placed in strategic piles around the room. She sometimes found her brother playing with the toys. She showed him his own toys. Legos, toy trains, Cool Tools, matchbox cars. But he liked the new ones too. She went shopping with her mum for new clothes. Bright, colourful clothes, too small for her to fit into. She helped fold them neatly and place them in the drawers of the new dresser that somehow squeezed into the bedroom. And then it was time. She traveled to meet him for the first time. She never thought he would like her best. Maybe her brother because they were both boys. Maybe her sister because they were only four months apart in age. Not her, the older sister. But he did like her. Better than the other two. While they raced from jungle gym to slide to teeter-tooter he stayed right by her side. Her new soon-to-be-officially-adopted brother. Jeff.