Popular?

The Perfect Child

"Come on Jeremy!" Mom calls as I try to pull a grocery bag full of fruits and dairy products through Pick 'n' Save. I would usually be able to help her, but why'd she have to get four pineapples?! Why? "Do you need help, J?" Mom asks as she looks back.
"Uh, no! I can do it!" Mom's hands are full I can't make her carry another bag!Plus she's also pregnant. I've waited ten years for a baby brother, and I have to let mom be able to trust me with him all by myself because I've got plans to play all sorts of games with him...and if she doesn't trust me...I guess...I'll have to try to fit in. I guess I've never fit before because it always looked so hard!I mean hanging out with your parents isn't half as hard as doing it with a whole bunch of people who expect you to give them money and invite them to your house all the time. I mean right there it just cuts all possibility of having any friends my own age even if I want ed to have them! I mean if you have six older sisters it's not likely that anybody will ever want to come to your house. I mean what kind of boy wants to smell a mixture of Bath & Body  Works products and nail polish all the time? Not the cool kids of course, and don't even get me started on all the physical activity that it requires! You gotta be able to shoot a basket and run the bases and throw a perfect spiral! It's ridiculous! Who decided it had to so hard to be cool anyways?!
"J?"
Oh, yeah. Sorry." We're at the car now so I try to push any thought of being cool out of my mind. I don't need to be cool so I shouldn't think about it, and plus anytime I think about I completely zone out so that proves it. All this "cool" jazz is just one of the fantasies that most boys my age have.
I see mom watch another kid my age get into the passenger seat of a Mazda 3. Then I see her mutter something under her breathe, but I'm not completely sure what she says.
"Hey, Jeremy, why don't you give the front seat a try?" Mom says. This surprises me. I wouldn't say that my mom is overly- protective, but she's definitely at least semi- protective.
"Uh, OK... I guess that'd be kinda fun," I try not to sound surprised, but I think that she understands what kind is going through my head.
"J....we need to talk."
"About what? My baby brother? Did you figure out that he will be a he?!"
"Well, not yet, but it's on it's way. We'll know weather it's a boy or a girl soon..."   
"Oh,...about my responsibilities-"
"YES!" My mom cuts in. "You see, J, I feel like you feel like you owe us something because you do so much that you really don't have to do. You actually don't have that much responsibility...Do you feel that way?
Do I? No, I don't think I do I just want to get what I've been waiting for for ten years, and I want a buddy, but can I tell her that? Can I tell my own mother that I need her because I have no other buddies? No, it'll probably make her cry or something, and I don't want a crying buddy"
"Jeremy...what do you want? Your m seventh child don't think I can't see the gears ticking in that little brain of yours!"
"Mom, I don't want anything! I just want.....a brother.."
"You don't have to come shopping with me for a baby brother."
"I don't...I just..I guess I have nothing better to do.."
"...OK, " mom says while she starts the car. "Just tell me if there's anything you DO want."
I tell mom about my grades and my extra- curricular classes at school. Unlike my sisters I'm a straight A student, and unlike my mom and dad I don't really care. I can't get the previous conversation out of my head though. I have to bring it back up even if I don't want the awkwardness I have to swerve around.
"Mom," I choose my words carefully, "...Mom, what do you think I want?"
"Oh, I don't know....birthday parties and video games and a cooler bedroom........maybe, I don't know," She looks at me and sees my confused expression. "OK, I just want you to understand what I'm saying so I'll just be frank with you. Do you want to be.....popular?" She says the word slowly, and we're at a stoplight so she's able to look at me to make sure she hadn't hurt my feelings.
"Mom....no. I'm perfectly content. All I want is a baby brother then I'll be as popular as I have ever wanted to be."
"J....Well, if you want to invite some friends over sometime I'll take the girls somewhere for the night, and you can sleep downstairs where it doesn't smell like girls."
"Mom..." I'd tell her that I don't have any friends to invite home, but that'd probably freak out." I think I'd rather just go to the movies with dad or something.
"OK, maybe you and dad can go to that new Percy Jackson movie tonight...or something....Jeremy..I know I should probably just be quiet, but...you see I was excited when I had a boy as my seventh child, but I don't really know...you see boys can be different form girls, and I don't exactly know what you want as a ten-year-old boy."
"Mom, you said before that you could read the gears clicking in my brain"
"...I know, but I can't read them as well as the girls'...I wish I could.."
"Well, that stinks because I can assure you that you can't read them any better then you are know."
"Really?! Well, then if I can always read those gears of yours correctly I might want to shut up so that you don't start hating on me." She says. Then she smiles, and I'm glad she smiles so I smile too just to tell her that I love her no matter how much of a blabber- mouth she is.