Family Pride

Felix sat at the dinner table smiling at his family who surrounded him. His eyes followed his father's movements as he distributed the bon bons. His younger sisters cheered eagerly as they noticed the little parcels of chance being handed out. His laugh danced gleefully with his grandparents' hearty chuckles at their cute reactions to the beloved tradition within the Lee family.

Once everyone had recieved a bon bon and Felix's father had returned to his seat, the scrabble began. Everyone rushed to find another bon bon to hold while ensuring someone else had grabbed the other end of their own bon bon. The only rule was that you couldn't be holding a bon bon from the person beside you. The end result was an entangled mess of arms and fits of giggles from everyone around the table.

Then came the countdown. Each year, a difderent family member would start the countdown before everyone else joined in. "Olivia? Do you want to count us in?" Felix's mother asked the youngest. A fond expression settled over his parents, grandparents, his own and his Rachel's faces in response to Olivia's overjoyed grin and excited bouncing in her seat despite her arms being tangled.

"Yes!" She shouted energetically before leading them into the countdown. "10, 9, 8, 7," her voice was strong and confident even as her face scrunched in concentration as she ensured she didn't mess up the countdown.

"6," Rachel chorused with Olivia, beginning the family ritual of joining the countdown leader.

"5," Felix's own deeper voice  joined his sisters', contrasting their higher voices harmoniously.

"4," his mother flashed him a grin as she too allowed her lilting voice to join the increasingly louder choir of voices.

"3," his father boomed eagerly.

"2," his grandmother shouted. Everyone around the table collectively tensed in preparation.

"1," his grandfather's loud voice joined their simultaneous screeches as everyone pulled as hard as they could. Loud popping bangs were followed by a chorus of cheers and disgruntled grumbles as the winners claimed their prizes and the losers held empty ends of the bon bons.

Felix laughed at his father's particularly disgruntled expression as he stared at the two empty ends of his bon bons with betrayal as if the inanimate objects were the reason he was left empty handed. Joyous laughter broke out across the table as everyone noticed his father's bad luck. Felix's father glanced at everyone for a moment before pegging his empty bon bon pieces at the culprits who had stolen what should have been his prizes. Felix's grandfather grinned boyishly, ducking for the flying rubbish before placing two paper crowns upon his head with a wicked grin. His father scowled playfully as jingles of giggles and laughter escaped his sisters, grandmother and mother at the interaction.

Felix moved to place his own orange paper crown upon his head when Rachel grabbed his arm and whispered, "You should give your crown to Dad," Felix was about to object when Olivia's head whirled in his direction and her eyes lit up.

"Yes, yes! Give your crown to Dad!" She yelled excitedly. A frown began to tug at Felix's lips as he glanced at his grandfather who was still wearing two crowns upon his head proudly. The older man stared at Felix expectantly. Felix's gaze flickered to his grandmother followed by his mother. Both women were giving him the same expectant look as his grandfather, although his mother's expectance held a darkerundertone of an unspoken command for Felix to relinquish his crown to his father. Felix's frown deepend as he dragged his eyes up to look at his father, he hoped the man would just shake his head and tell him to keep his prize, however, all hope of such a scenario was wiped out of existence when he saw his mother's expression mirrored on his father's own face.

Repressing a sad sigh, Felix stood and handed his crown over to his father, gently placing the coloured paper atop his father's black hair. "Here, Dad, you can have mine," he said the words as if he were willingly relinguishing his prize, as if he were being the perfect son his parents wished he was.

His father thanked him and conversations began as everyone settled in to eat the dinner his mother and grandparents had made. His father who had no pafticular talent for cooking and with an inclination to accidentally burn the house down if he tried had been barred from the kitchen and told to keep Olivia, Rachel and Felix occupied and away from the food as the trio of siblings often had the habit of sneaking into the kitchen to steal a bite to eat as it was cooking and the adults' backs were turned.

Felix lifted his fork to his mouth, the food felt heavenly against his tongue, the meat melting in his mouth, but it was tastless. His mouth went dry as he chewed robotically as his mother's proud voice filtered into his ears as she spoke to his grandparents eagerly.

"Isn't Rachel just the sweetest girl? She was so quick witted and selfless in suggesting that Felix give his crown to his father, wasn't she?" The praise left his mother's mouth easily and Felix felt the food in his mouth turn to ash. He allowed his fork to slip from his hand, the object sliding into his food slowly before resting against the plate as Felix kept his eyes trained on his plate.

"Oh, yes! And little Olivia was such a good girl too!," his grandmother exclaimed eagerly. "Encouraging him to do that was such a nice thing for her to do. She is going to grow up into a lovely young lady. Both her and Rachel will be the pride of the family."

A storm raged in Felix's mind, his food forgotten. It was the same thing each year, even if he hoped for it to be different; for his parents to be proud of him. He stopped hearing as his family began to read the so-bad-they-were-funny jokes from their bon bons. He stopped hearing the world around him, and yet he could hear every single word, every sentence, every pridefilled comment about his two lovely, selfless, perfect sisters, and every disappointed mutter about his disgraceful self.

"Olivia has been getting A pluses all year in all of her subjects."

"Rachel won the Dux award, I am so proud of her. She is so intelligent and talented. She even won the first prize in the theatre performance her class performed at a competition last month."

"Olivia is showing great potential to be an amazing business woman. We bet she will surpass even your great grandmother's repuation, Dad."

"Olivia is top in her music classes for piano, violin and cello."

"Rachel aced all of her exams and she has been volunteering every spare second between studying."

The thoughts chased Felix ruthlessly, snapping and snarling at him viciously, laughing at his imcomparable achievements. Laughing at his lack of everything.

"Ah, Felix... Oh! Olivia won the trivia competition her school held. She came first even when competing against grade sixers!"

"Felix's grades seem to be getting worse and I just don't understand what I am doing wrong. Oh, but, Rachel was chosen to be school captain for next year! I'm so proud of her."

"Felix just won't stop with his ridiculous obsession with dancing. I have tried talking him out of it, but he just won't listen. I'm honestly so disappointed..."

Disappointed.

Disappointed.