Jon lay on his bed in the fetal position, unable to move. For all he knew, Sarah was downstairs making changes to his mother and his sister that he wouldn't even remember. But if he tried to do something about it, she'd just turn her attentions to him. Scenario after scenario raced through his head as he slowly became claustrophobic in his own room. He couldn't leave. He was trapped. Sarah was in total control of the situation. Jon stared at his alarm clock as the minutes ticked away until finally there was a knock at his door.
"Yeah?" Jon called back meekly.
"It's me," his least favorite voice in the world called back. "You're going to open up one way or another, but I think you'd rather do it voluntarily."
Full of dread, Jon slowly got out of his bed and walked to his door.
"I wish Jon would just open up already."
And suddenly the doorknob was in his hand and Sarah and Zoe were staring him in the face. Zoe was smiling. It was weirding Jon out.
"We were just talking about you," Sarah started, "and we thought you might want to join the conversation."
"I'd really just like some time alone right now please, Sarah."
"I know you do, Jon, but I that think this is important." Sarah pushed past Jon and entered his room. Zoe followed closely.
"See, Zoe and I were continuing a conversation we started at school. I told her this afternoon how you really care about her, and that sometimes it's hard for you to show it because you're worried." Sarah sat herself down on Jon's bed. "Does that sound familiar, Jon?"
He nodded tersely.
"I think, Jon, that a part of you is afraid of what might happen if your little sister gets the better of you, that you feel a need to assert your dominance constantly, and that contributes to you and Zoe fighting."
"Yeah, Jon," Zoe chimed in, "Sarah really makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't have thought it, but she's pretty observant. It's sort of cool."
Sarah gave a half grin. "Sort of?"
Zoe visibly struggled, like she didn't want the words that were about to come out of her mouth to come out of her mouth, but she quickly collapsed into a gush of teenage admiration. "Okay, it's totally cool." The young goth then dropped herself on the floor next to the cheerleader's feet, head leaning against her knee as Sarah began to stroke her black-dyed hair.
"I'm not afraid of Zoe doing better than me," Jon insisted. But the stereo downstairs was not his friend right at that moment.
"Anything you can do, I can do better"
Jon shut the door quickly, but it was too late. Sarah had heard it. "You know, I always liked that dumb song," the cheerleader said to the air before turning to Jon. "If you really don't care about Zoe doing better than you, then I wish that anything you can do, she can do better."
Jon's face turned red at that. He knew that Sarah was going to get her way no matter what he did, but he could at least try to not be with her as she did it. "Get out of my room."
"Excuse me?" Sarah said with mock indignation.
"I said get out of my room." Jon walked towards the two girls and even managed to grab Sarah's arm before she turned to Zoe.
"He's trying to get us out of his bedroom. I wonder if you might be better than him at getting someone out of his bedroom."
Zoe grinned. In a second, she was behind Jon with his wrists pinned together and was pushing him out of his own room. A moment later, and the door was closed behind him.
Like Fred Flintstone at the end of every episode, Jon could do nothing but bang on his own door, begging to be let in, as lyrics floated up to him from the stereo below.
"Anything you can sing, I can sing sweeter
I can sing anything sweeter than you."
