One morning, when I was thinking how amazing it was not to have school on Saturday, I heard loud complaining from my seven year old sister, Anne.
“We’ve just got another school project on ‘Kindness’! I don’t even know what it means! And my team has decided to meet in our house today! I was so looking forward to playing but now I’ll be stuck inside all day writing about kindness,” Anne said grumpily.
Her team arrived in the evening. Then, I realised how unkind Anne was. Whenever someone would make a suggestion, she would say rudely how horrible that idea was.
I decided to give her a taste of her own medicine.
When we were deciding what to play she suggested we play hide-and-seek. “No way! I didn’t know you like to play games like that! Let’s play something more interesting,” I said, rudely and she turned away hurt.
That night she asked me to read her a story.
“WHAT! Only babies are read stories at bedtime,” I scorned.
Anne didn’t say anything but I knew she was upset. The next morning, Anne drew up her courage and asked me why I had been so horrible to her the previous day.
“Think how you behaved yesterday?” I said.
Suddenly it dawned on her how badly she had behaved with her friends. She immediately called them and apologised.
They had another meeting and Anne worked amiably with them.
I thought about what a great job I’d done as I walked around the garden. Splash! Suddenly, someone threw a mugful of ice-cold water right onto my head. Drenched, I turned around and saw a giggling Anne with an empty mug. I ran after her and she fled.
Why did she have to be so annoying!