It’s a wonderful time for a friendly competition. Brother and sister, pitted against each other in the race of life. My brother and I arrive home from school, and we’re off! I take an early lead for the week, having completed most of my homework before I came home. Keith, my brother, is lagging behind. He struggles with his household chores, but finally manages to get through them. I am heading toward a hurdle now, but I don’t know if I can handle it. This past week has been extremely busy, and I have not studied, so this test will be hard. I guess it was coming faster than I thought it was. I trip over the hurdle.

Keith has just reached a short climbing wall. He stops in front of it. Now why would he do that? Looks like the task is intimidating him. It’s an essay, and he doesn’t enjoy writing as much as I do. He is calling for help now. Our mom is coming. She’s giving him a few ideas- let’s see if he will listen. He’s shaking his head, what a stubborn brother he is! He refuses to take on the obstacle. Look! Our dad is coming to help, too. Both of our parents are lifting Keith up over the climbing wall. He hardly had to do any work, what a cheater!

I had an easy stretch for a short time, but now I am getting closer to a new set of hurdles. It looks like I have a lot more homework this week. I struggle through the first bit of it, but now I’m finding my groove. Keith is beginning to catch up to me. He finally finished his homework from last week and is slowly working on what he needs to do this week. It is my turn to do the dishes, but I get that done quickly, and keep my lead. For the next few days, it continues like this. Keith gets a push forward and catches up to me, before I pull ahead again.

Friday has arrived- the red finish line is beckoning us. We are both ready for the weekend. I thought that I would have won the race, but somehow we tied. Personally, I don’t think it should count since he had some help. Oh well, I’ll just have to live with it. After all, I still get to enjoy the weekend. We both start up our computers, and after an hour or so of playing computer games, we are happy to see our mom come home with milkshakes. It’s almost too perfect, but we deserved it.