Rochelle pushed her brown bangs off her forehead. She squinted at her packing list. It was so far away… Oh. It was on the floor. She stooped down to pick it up and noticed something blue. It was her toothbrush, lying comfortably in a bed of dust under her desk. Great. The third time it had fallen in the past ten minutes. Usually her luck wasn’t so bad. Perhaps her luck was disgusted by her foul mood. She was usually happy. Today she was stressed. Her schedule was packed full of groans, grimaces, and growls. No time for smiling.

She ran to the bathroom, toothbrush in hand, and reached for the sink. Crash! All of a sudden she was sprawled on the rug in a shallow pool of water.

“Jason!” she hollered.

“What?” came the reply, muffled by a closed door.

“Get over here now!”

She heard a door open, followed by footsteps. A small boy appeared in the doorway of the bathroom, freckled and brown-haired.

“What’s up with all the water?” Rochelle demanded, panting.

Jason folded his arms and leaned against the wall, smirking. “You might want to get up first,” he said coolly.

Rochelle realized she was still on the rug and quickly pulled herself to her feet. She glared at Jason. “Explanation, please.”

“I took a shower.”

“You’re ten. You’re supposed to be a big boy now. Big boys don’t flood the place when they shower.”

“Maybe I did it on purpose.” He grinned.

“I’ll flatten you, you little-”

He had already taken off for his room. “I said maybe! That doesn’t mean I did!” The door slammed shut.

Rochelle tested the doorknob. Locked. She huffily returned to the bathroom. She held her toothbrush under the faucet. Lifting it up to the light, she inspected it. It slipped and clattered to the floor. She let out an earsplitting cry, so earsplitting, in fact, that it made competition for howler monkeys. If you’ve never heard howler monkeys before, then you have the luck dear Rochelle was lacking on that day.

Thankfully, the phone rang at that exact moment. Rochelle snatched it up without bothering to look at Caller ID. She knew who it was.

“Heather!” she breathed.

“Hey, Ro!” a cheery voice replied.

Apparently Rochelle did have a little bit of room in her grumpy schedule for a small grin.

“How ya doin’?”

Rochelle thought for a moment. “Well, let’s see. I’ve washed and dropped my toothbrush four times. My suitcase is still two-thirds empty. My new shirt is sopping wet because my brother thought it would be funny. Speaking of which, he’s being a total pain in the-”

“Ro! Relax! It’s summer vacation. Of course packing is stressful, but you still have two days until Camp Two Trees starts. So just chill, okay?”

“Well, I guess I should trust you. You’re the packing expert, after all. You get to go away like five times a year!”

“Yeah, my family likes to travel. But why are you making such an effort to turn this on me?” Rochelle could hear Heather’s sigh.

“Look, I’m sorry. I’m just in a really bad mood. Maybe I should call you later when I’m feeling okay.”

“You know what you need? A nice bubble bath.”

“Have you ever noticed that I’m not in elementary school anymore?”

“You still throw tantrums. If you won’t have a bath, then check your email. I sent you something funny.”

“Fine. Talk to you later.”

“Bye, Ro-Ro!”

Rochelle, feeling slightly better, retreated to her room. She checked her packing list. The letters were so small. Wait, it was still on the floor. She kicked it and missed. Her grouchymood returned, she crossed over to her computer.

The email from Heather had a link to YouTube. Rochelle clicked it, willing for anything to take her mind off the stupid suitcase sitting open on her desk. It was a howler monkey. And it was howling. It appeared as though the monkey had beat her out. Lovely.

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I'm trying out a different style than what I usually write with. Do you like it? Feedback is very helpful to me, so if you have any comments or suggestions, don't keep them inside. I don't care if it sounds ridiculous or mean. If you totally hate it, say so! If you have no comment but you spotted typos, please let me know. Thanks!

An explanation for the screenname "Rochayla"will be coming up. I would like to let you know that I have no idea if there are people with these screennames so please don't go IM them. (:

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Thanks for reading!