I skimmed through our schedules, comparing our classes. We didn’t have classes together,  obviously, but we still had both lunches together.

“Hm okay,” I said. “Oh, and don’t sit with me at lunch please.”

“Whatever,” my sister said. “ Who would want to sit with you anyways?”

Maybe I was exaggerating.

When this school year started, we both agreed not to talk to each other and to stay away from one another. Don’t get us wrong, I love my sister and I am pretty sure she loves me, but as our parents once told us: if I can do it, she can, too. If I survived my first year of high school without an older sibling helping me around, she would too.

During elementary school, I loved that my sister was attending the same school as I was. Being in the same school made me feel more comfortable and I would always check on her– after all she was my little sister. We would sit together on the bus and help each other with homework. It was nice.

Then I went to middle school. The following year came and my sister, being only a year younger than me, came to middle school, too. I knew what classes she had, and she knew my classes. During the first few days we sat together on the bus. I was very thrilled to see her here. It was the best thing I could’ve asked for.

Then our parents started to compare us. “Why does she have better grades than you?” “How come she never asked for help and you always do?”

She hated that, and so did I.

And eventually our friends would compare us, too. “Wow she is a mini you!” “Hey I just noticed that you look a lot like your sister.”

I hated that, and so did she.

When school started, my sister would walk up to me and my friends and would just stand beside me. I would walk away and a few minutes later she would be beside me again. “Stop following me around,” I remember telling her. I kept asking myself: Doesn’t she have any friends? Why is she following me? Can’t she go away?

She did and later she told me that she wasn’t following me, she just wasn’t sure where she was supposed to go.

I was exaggerating.

Soon I started to realize that maybe a part of me was upset that because, as the oldest of my siblings, I had to learn to do most things by myself. Unlike her, I didn’t have an older sibling to rely on. I couldn’t always ask my sister for help because sometimes she didn’t know what I was working on.

However, she always did the best she could.

When we were little and I got sick, she would always take care of me. When I was afraid, she would always hold my hand. When I had projects, she would always try to help me with something, even if I always told her to go away. Now at school, if I need something, I can go up to her during lunch, and even if she rolls her eyes, she helps me and won’t say no. She will help me, because that’s just how she is. She helps without asking for something back.

I know that even if people walk out of my life, my sister will always be there for me, and now I’ll always be there for her, too.