Old and Uncool

The other day I was at the pool with my family. We'd been there a while and I was bored, so I swam up to my 8-year-old brother Elijah, who was playing with his "friends" that he had just met.
I asked, "What are you playing?" in the hopes that I could join in.
Au contraire.
Elijah pulled me aside and said quietly, "Melissa..." He couldn't look at my face.
"What?" I asked.
He bites his lip. "I'm playing with my friends."

Suddenly I got it.
My little brother was too cool to have his lame older sister around while he played with his friends.
I couldn't even swim in the general vincinity without embarassing the poor dear.
I was an oldie, too irrelevant and old-fashioned and not in with the times.
I use terms like "flipping" and "bazinga" and he was probably horribly afraid that I would unleash my slightly-too-loud laugh and his little buddies would hear it. Oh PLEASE, not the laugh! Anything but the laugh!

It's great to know the confidence my family has in me.