“What is she doing?” I thought while looking at my mom. “ Why is she so quiet?” She was downstairs packing clothes. Then I remembered that today was the day. The day when my eighteen year old brother leaves to go to college.

“Can I help pack anything, Jake?” I asked bored out of my mind.

“No. I don’t need any help,” he said with a snotty tone. That kind of tone that is the “get away from me because I’m not in the mood”.

“Jeez,” I thought. “He needs to get his pants out of a knot.” So I just sat down in my stiff, pink, hand-me-down recliner, watching Jake and my mom pack so we can ship him off to Grand Valley State University.

“He’s really tense right now. He should have packed last night, “ my mom said comforting me. “He needs to learn how to pack and plan ahead when he lives on his own.”

“OK. I’ll leave him alone.”

“You better.”

“I know.”

“Jeez mom,” I thought. “I heard you the first time!” All we had to do is pack our Pontiac Montana minivan and we could leave.

“Here Mitch, you can come pack this, and this, and this,” Jake said while he was comfortable, not doing anything.

“OK,” I will do anything to make someone happy. So I carried the things he “needs to have to live on his own”. Then I find out that our minivan is packed with stuff already. “Maybe we should take two cars?” I asked. Figuring that we needed another car for all of his bags. He probably had at least five big bags of stuff and musical instruments

“No. It will all fit,” says my mom. She is a stuffer so when she says that it will fit, it will fit.

Once we got the car all packed, we started heading to GVSU. It took roughly fifteen minutes to get there. I admired the massive campus as if I were a mouse in a mansion. We then drove to my brother’s first stop, the music hall. We walked in and had to wait in a fast moving line so we could get him registered for his marvelous marching band experience. He used to play the trumpet but he switched to the euphonium. A euphonium is a lot of brass pipes swirling around with a big bell at the top. It is about a yard tall and about a foot and a half wide. They already had enough trumpets so Jake didn't want to take a chance to audition for a trumpet because he might not have made it. Just when we were about to leave the music hall, we ran into Jake’s roommate, Noah. Jake knew Noah before because he went on a Europe trip with him. It was the first time I have ever seen Noah but I have heard so much about him from Jake.

“Hey! You made it! I thought you were going to get stuck in traffic,” Jake said joyfully.

“Whoa! You’re Jake’s brother!” Noah said with astonishment looking at me. Supposedly people say that my brother and I look alike.

“Yeah. People always say that,” I said with a sigh. We talked to Noah for a while. He is about 5’9”. He has blondish brown hair and a pointed face, but that doesn't interfere with his stellar personality. I zoned out to admire the huge building compared to Kenowa Hills’ Middle School. When we finished talking to Noah and his parents, we got back in the car and navigated our way to my brother’s dorm.

“Right there mom,” Jake said. Finally, we could do something more fun than registering. Anything is more fun than registering. We easily found his living center. As we were hauling the bags in, eager to unpack and set him up.
We squeezed into the dorm which is only about ten feet by twenty feet. I then asked the question that both my mom and I were waiting for, “What bed do you want?”

“I don’t care. Let’s wait for Noah to come in and choose which bed he wants,” Jake said not so eager.

“Fine,” my mom said with a sigh. So we sat there in the room that wasn't air conditioned for about a half of an hour. Then we saw Noah finally come and he walked into the room with all of his stuff.

“We finally said with so much excitement, “Noah, which bed do you want?”

“I don’t care.”

“What,” I thought. “We sat here in a hot room to find out that Noah, doesn't care what bed he wants! I even told my mom which bed Jake would want because I know him too well. Of course, I was right and we waited for nothing.”

So I offered to set up his bed and hang his clothes up in his wardrobe so I wouldn't have to do anything else that had to involve more effort.

“OK, I got the bed done!” I said with pride. It took me only about five minutes to make his bed.

“OK, how about you hang up his clothes now?” my mom said.

“Crap,” I thought. Moving him in seemed like forever. Good thing he was in a better mood than that morning.

We were almost finished and we were putting the final touches on our work. It looked nice, but both me and my mom knew it wouldn't stay like that for long. Noah’s parents already left because they had to get back to Mattawan. It was our turn to leave now. I didn't want to because it seemed like an awesome place to hang out. Time for the hardest part. Saying goodbye.

“Goodbye honey!” my mom said with a whole lot of love.

“See you later, Jake,” I said with less feeling than my mom because I’m not all lovable to my brother.

“See you guys later,” Jake said. You couldn't tell if he felt happy or sad. After that, we said bye to Noah and we left the dorm, then the campus, then, we were home. I was sad but didn't show it in front of my mom.

I still sometimes miss my brother, but he tells me this every time he comes back home, “ If you want to, you can come visit us anytime you want.” After every time he says that, I know that he cares about me. My brother may be in college, but I still feel very close to him.