Pat the Enormous Brat!

“I don’t want to brush my teeth!” Pat yelled as he stomped down the stairs. “Your teeth will all fall out of your mouth!” his mom yelled back at him. Pat was a really big, in fact enormous, brat. He hated doing anything people told him to do. If his friends told him to go first down the slide, he would say: “No way!” If his mom told him to take out the garbage, he would say: “I don’t think so!” If his grandma asked him to make his bed, he would say: “I’ll do it later!” If his brother told him to stop following him in the street, he would say: “I’m just as tough as you!” Pat lived with his mother, grandma, and his brother in Brooklyn, New York. He had to share a room with his older brother James, who was fifteen. James would always yell at Pat for touching his stuff and trying to play with him and his friends. James was so sick of his little brother, he drew a line in black marker across their bedroom floor. “You stay out of my business and stay on your side of the room!” James would yell. This would make Pat very angry and want to bother James even more. Pat would keep bothering James until their grandma would yell. She would tell them that she was going to send them to bed with no TV after dinner. Pat would have to take the train everyday to school, but would never let anyone come with him. “I am a whole nine years old, I am big enough to ride the train by myself!” he thought to himself. James and Pat would take the train for two stops together and then Pat would take the train two more stops by himself. Their mom worked early in the morning, so she had to let them go on their own. Pat liked to be on his own. In fact, he loved to be on his own. He hated when anyone told him what to do. Pat would never pay attention in school. “This stuff is for babies!” he thought. Instead of doing his schoolwork or reading his books, he used to daydream about living in his own world. He wanted to live where he could do whatever he wanted, and no one would tell him what to do or yell at him. After school he would take the train home. He would then play basketball with his friends in front of the building where he lived, until it started to get dark. Pat did not share the ball very well. He always wanted to shoot the baskets and get the points. When the boys would pass him the ball, he would never pass it back. If Pat saw the boys were getting really mad, he would stop playing early. Grandma would make dinner for the boys. Pat would never eat his vegetables. He would push them to the side of his plate. Then, when no one was looking, he would roll them into a napkin. Pat would barely do his homework. He would put one sentence on a page for his writing homework. Pat would also only read one page of his book. When mom would ask, “Pat did you do a good job on your homework?” Pat would say, “Yes mom!” Pat would always stay up as late as he could. After fighting with his mom and grandma about going to bed, he would hide under the blankets and watch his brother on the computer. One chilly, fall morning, Pat woke up and stomped around the house, as he was getting ready for school. He did this everyday and grandma would just roll her eyes. Pat ran out of the house to try and get away from his older brother…like he always did. He just wanted to be alone. He ran down the stairs of the subway and jumped in between the closing doors of the train. “James won’t be on the same train as me now,” Pat thought. He looked around the train and didn’t see anyone he knew. He was excited. He was alone, just the way he liked it.