The Weight Of The Middle Child

So, I've been feeling kind of off lately and thought maybe writing it out would help. You know how you're always stuck in the middle with two parents who seem to have different favorite kids? Well, for me, that's been my whole life. I'm the middle child between an older brother who is super athletic and gets all the attention because he's a star on the soccer team, and a younger sister who is so sweet and artistic that everyone thinks she's perfect. Me? Not so much. I've always felt like I was just kind of there, existing but never really noticed or celebrated for my own merits. It's not their fault, I know they love me, but sometimes it feels like the only way to get any attention is by doing something stupid and making a scene. That's what happened last week when we were all out at dinner with our parents. My brother had just finished talking about his latest game-winning goal and how everyone was congratulating him. Then it was my turn, and I froze. I'm not bad at sports; I actually like running track and swimming, but those aren't the kinds of things that really impress anyone around here. So instead, I grabbed a salt shaker from the table and threw it at my brother, yes, it bounced off his head and was kind of funny, but then everything went downhill. My parents were not pleased to say the least. My sister tried to help by saying we were just playing around, but the look on their faces when they cleaned up the mess? I felt awful after that. And now my brother calls me 'Little Miss Chaos' and everyone else knows what happened too. I guess I'm stuck here as the middle child who causes trouble instead of being someone they can be proud of. It's a lonely spot to be.