A day at the Lius’ house

Pulling up to an unfamiliar curb at 11 a.m., I was tempted to call my friend sophomore Ariel Liu to confirm this was the correct house. I struggled up the driveway with my textbooks and laptop, but before I could ring the bell, Ariel threw the door open.

After ranting about my tardiness, Ariel climbed into my mom’s car as I hesitantly entered her family room. 

I was greeted by her mother, busily cooking in the kitchen while Ariel’s two brothers slept and her father was at church.

Taking a seat at the family room table, I began working on my AP US History (APUSH) notes while listening to One Direction, and after 10 minutes of hard work, I heard a groan.

“Ariel! Close the doooor,” said Samuel, Ariel’s older brother and my intimidating, dictator-resembling editor-in-chief, annoyed.

In a flurry of terror, I quickly turned off the angelic sound of Harry Style’s voice and gently nudged the door shut. 

Because of the hurry Ariel put me through this morning, I had skipped breakfast. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long until Ariel’s mom brought me an appetizing bowl of fried rice.

It took another half hour of APUSH notes before Samuel finally walked into the room exhausted from a long night of sleep, and unsurprisingly, continued straight to his iMac desktop without noticing me. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes later when Ariel’s mother said my name out loud when offering me seconds on fried rice that Samuel peeled his eyes from the screen.

“Sherrilyn,” he said surprised. “Hello.”

Suddenly the cry of a small child rang in my ears. 

“He’s awake!” Ariel’s mom shouted in Chinese as Samuel jumped out of his seat and rushed into the hallway, returning with possibly the cutest baby I have ever seen. 

Samuel set Timothy, their one-and-a-half year old brother, down and he stumbled toward me, looking up at me with shiny eyes still wet from crying. I smiled at him and attempted to wave pleasantly, trying to remember any knowledge I might have of what babies find enticing. In return he stared at me blankly, so I decided to get back to my homework. 

Before I could lift my hand he snatched my pen from it, leaving me unable to work as I had already lost points for not using blue or black ink on my APUSH notes the previous week.

Timothy walked away with the pen, so I sat there for a couple minutes before deciding to take one from Ariel’s desk and continue. 

After getting bored of homework, which only took about 30 minutes, I decided to explore my surroundings and wandered into Ariel’s room. The scent of sweet pea air freshener was a bit too strong but the plain lavender walls were a nice contrast to my room’s movie poster covered walls. On her desk was a very unnecessary basket containing enough nail polish to satisfy 11 girls for a year.

Going back into the hallways, I saw years worth of family portraits hung across the walls. As I walked, I was able to witness Samuel and Ariel throughout the years (for anyone who’s curious, Samuel was surprisingly chubby and buck-toothed as a child).

I then made my way into the backyard where an adorable Australian shepherd greeted me and wouldn’t let me stop petting her when I tried to walk away. Suddenly, I heard a clucking sound and walked down the steps to find the eight infamous Liu chickens scrambling around in a coup. Bewildered, my initial instinct told me to run back into the house.

Upon entering, I was baffled to find Samuel laughing as his little brother “twerked” to the tune of one of his baby toys.

As if I weren’t alarmed enough, Timothy’s face suddenly turned bright red as he began to make grunting noises. I wasn’t sure what was happening until Samuel crinkled his nose in disgust.

“Go away, you smell,” Samuel said as he lightly shoved Timothy.

The foul odor hit me, and I instinctively buried my face in my cardigan, as Timothy continued to grunt. Thankfully, his father came and carried him away, and I could once again breathe fresh air.

Finally, Ariel returned at around 6:30 p.m., and though I had a memorable experience at the Liu home, it was nice to be back in the comfortable presence of my own mom in the familiar passenger seat of her dark grey Prius.