Cheaper By The Dozen—Chapter one: Any Other Way.
I know I'm terrible for starting another fic but this one just hit me. And I had to do it. So here we are. This story is based on the book/movie "Cheaper By The Dozen." I'm really excited about this one!!! Thanks to Mara for making the amazing banner you see above. Mara this chapter is dedicated to you!! Review guys!! They make my day seriously!!! Oh and thanks to Courtney for betaing since I was too impatient to wait for Miranda!
XXXHaving a small family was never an option for Lucas and I. Or Brucas as my brother and sister in law like to joke. Lucas had spent seventeen years never knowing his half brother, Nathan, and I spent seventeen years just wishing for someone to keep me company while my parents were away. We met when Luke joined the basketball team, which essentially turned my world upside down. In a good way though, in the way that makes you weak in the knees and gives you butterflies in your stomach.
We'd been through a lot from junior to senior year but at the end of our senior year, I found myself pregnant with our baby girl Maddie. We were eighteen, and scared but when she came crying in that delivery room, I knew we'd all be okay. We got married when she was two and about nine months and thirteen days after our wedding we had Brody. We waited about three more years and then had Emma, James, Benjamin (Ben), a Mackenzie, and Natalie (Nattie) in consecutive years. Natalie was a year and a half when I got pregnant with the twins, Brittany and Morgan. When the twins were a year, Dakota joined us. Lucas and I were happy with eleven, life was crazy and hectic, and it was just the way we wanted it. But sometimes things never work out that way, and as I type this baby number 12 is awaiting arrival into this world. I ran into a girl I went to high school with the other day and she looked at me and said, "I heard you have eight kids." I laughed a bit and placed my hand on my four-and-a-half month pregnant stomach and replied, "This is our twelfth." Her jaw almost touched the floor. "Don't you find your life insanely…crazy?"
"Yes, but its what we both wanted from the start. And I wouldn't have it any other way."
Thirty-three-year-old Brooke Scott woke up next to her husband of eleven years Lucas Scott. He smiled at her and lovingly brushed some stray hair out of her face.
"Do you hear that?" She asked.
"Hear what?" Lucas smiled pulling Brooke, his wife, the love of his life, closer to him.
"Exactly. Its quiet. It's almost never quiet here. Now if only this one would let mommy sleep for a bit then I'd be happy." Brooke smiled placing her hand on her small bump. Lucas placed his hand over her's and kissed her forehead.
"You're beautiful." Brooke blushed. It still made her smile that after all these years Lucas thought she was beautiful.
"Stop Luke, I look hideous. My hair is a mess, I'm just blah." Lucas smiled at Brooke.
"Babe, you're beautiful even after thirty-six hours of labor." Brooke groaned, Maddie's birth had taken thirty-six hours, and she still hurt thinking of it. Noticing her cringing Lucas continued. "Brooke you could be green and have warts all over your face and you'd still be my pretty girl." Brooke leaned over and kissed Lucas.
"Mmm I knew there was a reason I married you." She said breaking their kiss before going back in and kissing him more passionately this time. Things were just starting to get heated when Dakota came paddling into their bedroom.
"Eww!" He exclaimed wrinkling his nose. Brooke and Lucas laughed and Brooke patted the bed next to her.
"Come on up sweets." She said. Dakota scampered up onto the bed as Mackenzie, Morgan, and Brittany stumbled into the room. They climbed into the bed too.
"See Broods I told you we should have gotten the king size bed." Lucas laughed.
"You said that when we only had three kids babe."
"And one on the way." Lucas shook his head.
"Mom! Dad! We have to get moving!" 14-year-old Madison, or Maddie, announced walking into their room with their 12-year-old son Brody following behind her. Maddie was Brooke's clone in every respect, same brown hair, same brownish green eyes, same dimples whenever she smiled, which was a lot since she was bubbly and happy like her mother. Brody, on the other hand, was just like Lucas right down to his blond hair and intense blue eyes. He even brooded like Lucas did.
"Princess Maddie for once is right," agreed Brody running his hands through his hair.
"Shut up dumb ass!" Maddie retorted.
"Madison Rose Scott!" Brooke said in what Lucas called her 'watch out' voice.
"Sorry mom." Maddie mumbled.
"Okay, since we have to do back to school shopping here's how its going to go. Dakota, Brit, and Morgan, I laid out your clothes for today in your rooms, go put that on, then girls find me, Dakota find daddy. Maddie, get in the shower, Mackenzie you get in right after. Brody you head into the guys shower and then James will get sent in after you. Breakfast is at nine, Maddie, Brody; you're on breakfast duty with me, and in the kitchen by eight fifteen got it? That's an hour. No more then twenty minutes in that bathroom I mean it. Luke you go wake up James and Ben, I've got Emma and Nattie. Let's move guys its going to be a long day and don't tire me out by making me repeat myself. Remember what mommy and daddy told you? We all need to help out right now okay? Let's go guys." The kids scampered off in various directions and Brooke and Lucas got out of bed.
"You had to ruin the silence didn't you?" He teased kissing her. Brooke laughed.
"Shut up and go wake up your remaining two sons."
Brooke walked down the hall to the room that Emma, Mackenzie, and Natalie shared. She stopped in the doorway and watched the two sleeping girls. Emma lay on her back with her straight blond hair spread across her pillow. She had a tiny smile on her face. Nattie on the other hand, had her sheets twisted about her small seven-year-old body. Her soft brown curls were a mess and she lay sprawled out across her bed. It didn't surprise Brooke that even in her sleep Nattie was a ball of energy. Nattie, like herself, and Maddie, were energetic and always cheerful and on the go, she looked just like Brooke except for her eyes, which were Lucas right down to the tiny flecks of silver in them. They both looked so peaceful she almost hated to wake them. But she had to. Sighing she gently woke up Emma then Natalie and told them the plans for the day. She left them to dress themselves but not before kissing them each on the forehead and telling them she loved them.
Growing up her parents were never around, and on the off chance they were home for a few days, they never paid her any attention. For as long as Brooke could remember she had been left with nannies. When she got old enough her parents would just throw cash at her to keep her away. She had never heard them say that they loved her and she didn't think that they did. Children had never been apart of their plan, but mistakes happen, she had overheard her mother say one day when she was eight to a friend. Brooke swore that when she had kids they would always know how much she loved them, and that she'd always be there for them. That's why she stayed home while Lucas worked, and she liked it like that, this way she was there for every first step and word, ever scraped knee and she would be there for first crushes, loves and heartbreaks. She met Brody and Maddie in the kitchen where the three of them joked around while cooking breakfast.
Cooking for thirteen people three meals a day was no easy task so the kids all helped out in the kitchen. And during school the kids took turns packing lunches and helping with breakfast. Lucas and Dakota walked into the kitchen and began setting the table. Shortly after the twins came in, their honey brown hair streaming out behind them, tangled and messy. Brooke handed her spatula to Lucas and went to do the girl's hair. Nattie came bouncing into the kitchen.
"Daddy have you seen my blue flip-flops?" she asked Lucas. Lucas shook his head, Nattie was always loosing things.
"No princess," Lucas replied adding another pancake to the plate.
"Maddie, does you?" Natalie asked turning to her older sister.
"Do you and no I don't. Ask mom she always knows where everything is." Maddie replied as Brooke came back into the kitchen with the twins.
"Mommy—"
"Front closet Nat." Brooke said cutting off Natalie.
"Thanks!" Nattie yelled running off to the front closet.
"Brit, Morgan, Dakota, set the table." Brooke instructed taking the spatula back from Lucas as something crashed in the hallway upstairs.
"I'm on it babe," Lucas told Brooke dashing up the stairs two at a time.
"Please don't be my blue vase. Please don't be my blue vase." Brooke prayed while Maddie shook her head.
"Mom is this enough fruit salad?" she asked.
"Perfect sweetie. Brody how's the bacon coming?" She asked.
"Almost done."
"Mom! Mackenzie won't give me back my batman!" James yelled running into the kitchen.
"Mackenzie Elizabeth Scott!" Brooke yelled.
"I was just looking." Mackenzie mumbled handing the toy back to her brother.
"And this is why you should send me to boarding school mom. Maybe then I'd get some peace."
"Madison Rose Scott! You are not going to boarding school. I will not be one of those mothers who pass their children off on other people to be raised. I love you guys too much for that. Plus do you know how much I'd miss you sweetie?" Brooke asked stroking Maddie's cheek.
"I know mom. Sorry. I just don't get how you and dad do it plus have time to spend with each of us and each other too."
"That my dearest Maddie is skill. Fourteen years of practice sweetie. Plus I didn't sign your permission form for sex ed. The way I see it your father and I have been talking to you about sex since you were like an hour old and you don't need to hear it again. Instead I'll come pick you up and come home, there's an hour of peace for you."
"And mom that right there is why you are a thousand times cooler then aunt Haley and Peyton. They're making Bella and Jenny take sex ed." Maddie explained.
Nathan and Haley had Isabella, or Bella as Brooke deemed her, a few months after Brooke and Lucas had Maddie. Along with Jenny, who was six months older then Maddie, the three were inseparable, a lot like Brooke, Haley, and Peyton themselves.
"Maddie let me let you in on a little secret. I've always been a thousand times cooler then Peyton and Haley." Brooke laughed.
"Prettier too." Lucas added walking into the kitchen with Emma thrown over his shoulder much to Emma's delight.
"Gross dad." Brody stated turning off the stove as Brittany, Morgan, and Dakota finished setting the table.
"It's true." Lucas grinned.
"Mommy is the prettiest lady in the world right dad?" James asked walking into the kitchen with his pet hamster in hand.
"Yes she is. And my girls are the prettiest girls in the world." Lucas agreed setting Emma on the ground.
"James honey, go put Hammy back into his cage and wash up. Breakfast is ready." Brooke said placing fruit salad onto the table.
"Kids! Breakfast!" Lucas yelled up the stairs.
"What broke upstairs and who broke it?" Brooke asked.
"The soap dish and Noah knocked it over when he was brushing his teeth." Lucas replied picking up the plate of bacon.
"Oh thank God!" Brooke said sitting down at the table as James, Noah, Mackenzie, Ben, and Nattie came running into the room.
Every morning we sit down and eat breakfast together. And every night we sit down and have dinner together. I don't believe in families eating in separate rooms, neither does Luke. And this way, you bond as a family.
There's an old saying that says "A family that sleeps together stays together". I say it's a family that eats together stays together. And sure with 11 kids meal times are crazy, loud, and hectic but I love it. I get to hear about their days, thoughts, ideas, and questions. And we get to bond together as a family.
Growing up I rarely ate with my parents. It was usually just myself and the nanny, or when I was older I was at Peyton's or Lucas's. I used to want to have those family dinners I saw on TV so badly. And now I do and they're the highlight to my day. Because we get to be together. And a family, a real one anyway, needs to be together.