Title: Who I Used To Be

Author: Brooke / bLuEhEaVeN79

Movie: Cheaper By the Dozen

Genre: General / Drama / Romance

Chapter One: Mondays

Summary: Jake Everything seemed right. It was as if everything was perfect. Then, she came along and showed me what perfection really was, and how imperfect things really were.

Sunday.

What a horrible day.

You know that the new week is coming when you have to go to school, and you're always cramming in all your weekend homework into the last hours of the night.

If I could have made up the weeks, I would've made it so that Fridays were everyday- and therefore, school would not exist.

What a dream that would be.

But, it wasn't the case for me. No Sunday night homework. Tomorrow was the first day of school. Not just school, high school.

You could say I was nervous, but I actually wasn't. I had nothing to worry about. I was in the crowd, I guess you could say. Things for me were just like anyone could ever want. The friends, the girls who liked me, the looks, the number one spot on the soccer team, all those kinds of things.

Life was perfect, or so I thought.

"Jake! Get up! You're going to be late!" my mom yelled from the bottom of the stairs as the rest of the family rushed around the house getting their things ready for another day.

"What? Late? I thought it was Sunday..." I thought as I groggily sat up and looked at my Blink 182 calendar that hung contently on the wall in front of my bed. "Monday?" I said to myself. "These weekends go by too fast..." I whined as I pushed my covers off of me and got up. I changed into some clothes and walked downstairs for breakfast.

The rest of the family was fanatically racing around the house getting breakfast, making lunches and putting on makeup. Well, actually Loraine was the only one doing that.

I walked into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of orange juice and sat down at the table.

"Fourteen years of life and our mornings are still like- this," I said to myself between sips from my glass.

My mom then walked up to me, "Jake, honey, Loraine is gonna take you and Sarah to school this morning. She'll take you to your first class."

"Mom, why do I have to take him? He's fourteen years-old! I think he's quite capable of finding a classroom!" Loraine complained as she stood there half paying attention to the situation, and half applying lip-gloss as she looked in her little hand held mirror.

"Mom, I think I can find a classroom alright by myself, and she's right. I am fourteen. This is my first year of high school. I don't need my older sister taking me around to my classes. And please, can you stop talking to me like I'm nine?"

She seemed a little taken back, but I didn't stay around long enough to hear her remark.

So, Loraine did end up driving me to school, but that's where it ended- right in the parking lot as we gave each other disgusted looks. Sarah walked with Loraine, being a year older than me and her class was near Loraine's. We all got out and walked our separate ways.

And that's when I first saw her. She was walking up the pathway to the front door. The thing was, I didn't even notice her. We both just kept walking and I guess you could say we didn't know that either of us existed. It was like she wasn't there to me, and I wasn't there to her. All I saw was a glimpse of her curly, long, dirty blond hair blowing over her shoulder as she walked through the door.

To me, she was just another girl, nothing special. Well, have you ever heard the saying, 'Don't judge a book by its cover'?

Well, it was very fitting for this situation.

"Class, please take out your textbooks and do the questions I've written down on the board." First period- Math class. It figures that I end up with that first thing in the morning. Next worst thing? Science was second period.

I walked up the hallway to room B108 and opened the door. That was the first time I actually saw her. She was wearing brown All-Star converse shoes, worn out jeans, a dark blue t-shirt that said 'The Ataris' on it and a beige blazer. Her curly, long, dirty blond hair was hung over her shoulder as she sat slumped forward in her chair, not exactly looking pleased that she was in Science class.

I took the only seat that seemed to be left in the room- behind her. To tell you the truth, I didn't think that much of her at first, but there was something inside of me that wondered about her.

"Class, please choose a partner for your lab experiments. Take note, though, that this will be your partner for the rest of the year." I looked around for some sight of a friend, but there was no luck.

"Wanna be my partner?" I didn't know where it came from at first, but then I noticed it was from the girl sitting in front of me.

"Uhh..." I stuttered. For some reason, my words weren't coming out.

"Are you on drugs or something?" she asked me. She just came right out and said it.

I relaxed, "What? I mean, no. No way, why- I mean, what-" She looked slightly confused at my rambling. I would've been too.

"So, do you wanna be my partner or what?" she spoke up over my voice. It made me feel like the stupidest person in the world. I felt like a complete nerd.

"Sure," I finally got out.

She gave me a weird look, like she was almost questioning herself why she asked that weird kid behind her to be her Science partner. Then, she smiled a confused, slight smile and turned back around.

When Science was finally over, it was time for lunch. I walked into the cafeteria to see a huge group of the guys in the back corner. I walked up to their table and sat down.

"Hey Jake," Krystin Patterson said to me as I sat down beside her with my friend Scott on my left.

"Hey Krystin..." I said uneasily as I could feel her hand on my shoulder and could see her leaning in to me in the corner of my eye.

Krystin Patterson. Krystin Patterson. What can I say? Sure, she's really pretty. That's about all that you can say about her that's kind of a good thing. She's a cheerleader. Yes, first day of school and already accepted on to the cheerleading squad. Her older sister Amber's the captain and she just had to make sure that her little sister following in her footsteps was on the squad. What else about Krystin? She's really dumb, actually. I still remember that in the seventh grade, the French teacher asked her what 'Hello' was in French, and she said 'Oui'. Also, I'll never forget the time last year in English class, she sat beside me. One day, she asked me if the letter 'A' was a vowel or a continent. Yes, a continent.

"Umm... Krystin, can you move over a little bit?" she got a somewhat insulted look on her face and moved over. And I forgot to tell you, she's had a crush on me since she learned to see, which isn't a good thing at all since she follows me everywhere I go and laughs at every single thing that I say, even when it's not funny. It's the most annoying thing in the world.

"I'll be right back," I said to them as I got out of my seat. I walked over to the vending machine and put my dollar in. I pressed 'B6' to get a Twix bar. It got stuck.

"What the hell!" I mumbled as I started to hit the machine with my hand. As time passed by, I kept hitting it harder and harder.

"Calm down, buddy..." a familiar voice said from behind me.

I turned around to see her standing there. I didn't even know her name.

"Stupid thing got stuck." She laughed a small laugh and walked in front of me. She put a dollar in and bought a Twix bar for herself. She turned around and handed me the chocolate bar. "Thanks," I said as I smiled at her, and she flashed one back.

I noticed her braces. It's not like everyone in the population of our school didn't have them. Clear on the top. Never would've noticed. She had green on the bottom. You'd think that they'd make it look like she had lettuce or spinach or something gross in her teeth, but they didn't. They looked perfect. Cool, too. Just because my favourite colour was green.

Then, I found it unbelievably uncomfortable how I was standing there staring and analysing her braces. Another nerdy moment for me.

"Yeah, I guess those drugs can make you act like that sometimes," she said as she started to open the package of her chocolate bar.

I laughed, "Yeah," trying to keep my cool as much as I could.

"So you are on drugs, hm?" she said.

"What? No, I was just agreeing with you that they can do that," I replied, leaning against the vending machine, yet again trying to keep it cool.

"Isn't that what they all say?" she asked with a hint of a joke in her voice.

I just smiled, and she smiled back as she walked out the cafeteria door and down the hallway.

I then walked back to my table and got mauled my Krystin for the rest of lunch.

Loraine had to drive me and Sarah home. I wasn't that happy about it, but I didn't mind. I had barely any homework, which made me happy. The drive home was quiet, and we all didn't talk to each other at all. I just stared out the window the entire time.

As we were coming up our street, I saw someone who looked familiar.

In no time, I had noticed that it was the girl from Science class. Lab partner girl. That's all I have to call her right now. A full day and we still don't know each other's names. Sad.

She was walking up her driveway which didn't seem to be far at all from my house. Maybe she was new here.

We pulled up the drive way and I got out of the car immediately and walked inside. When I got up to my room, I threw my bag on to the floor and flopped on to my messy bed.

After a while of sitting and staring at my ceiling, I got kind of bored. I sat up, grabbed my skateboard and went outside.

"Loraine! I'm going out boarding!" I shouted as I heard her vaguely say 'Whatever!' from up in her room. I shrugged and walked out the front door, closing it behind me.

I didn't exactly know where I was going, but I knew that I had an idea. Something made me want to go over to where I saw that girl earlier. She made me wonder.

I made my way over, doing small tricks here and there on the way. Finally, I made my way up the large Victorian house with yellow brick and fancy, white trim. After staring at the house and curiously looking around it, I heard the sound of a ball hitting something.

I looked around the house and moved slightly over to the side to see if I could see around. That's when I saw her. She was in her backyard kicking a soccer ball up against her fence.

I stood there debating with myself if I should go and talk to her for I don't know how long. Finally, I decided to go and say hi.

I got off my board and picked it up as I started walking up the driveway. I pushed the gate open a bit more and walked through to see her stop kicking as the ball made its way under her foot. She was wearing an old white t-shirt and soccer shorts. She had her socks and cleats on as well.

"Hey," I said, holding my board around my back with both hands on either end. My attempt of standing in a 'cool' way.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, a bit confused at how I knew where she lived.

"I was on my way home when I saw you walking up the driveway. I live around the corner."

She looked me over, and then went back to kicking her ball against the fence.

"So, you play?" I asked. She looked back at me with that sarcastic look that said 'Do I look like I play?'

She smiled. "Yeah, I play."

"How long?"

"Since forever," she replied.

I smiled. "Cool."

"I thought so, too." She smiled again, looking gracefully over her shoulder.

"So, do you normally get all dressed up to kick the ball around?" I questioned her as she continued to kick the ball.

"Tryouts for the city team are today. They're at 4:30."

"City team, huh? You must be pretty good then," I said as I sat down on the grass and leaned back on my skateboard.

"You could say that," she said as she looked back once more and smiled.

It seemed like I sat there forever just watching her kick the ball. It's not like it was fun or anything, but I enjoyed the silence that seemed to overcome everything around us. Except for the sound of the ball hitting the fence.

"So, do you play?" she asked me as she stopped kicking.

"Captain of the school and city team," I replied as she got an exaggerated, but surprised look on her face.

"Wow, aren't you too cool for school..." I laughed but then I kind of got the hint that she was kind of wasn't joking.

She sat down on the ball and faced me. "So, what else don't I know about you?" she asked. It was as if she thought she knew so much already.

"My name."

"That's right... what is it?" she asked.

"Well, what's yours?"

"I asked you first," she said.

"Jake."

"Bedelia."

"Are you joking me?" I asked.

"No."

"Oh."

She laughed, "I'm kidding, it's Arleigh."

"Nice name."

"Thanks." There was a slight silence for a moment.

"So, where's your practice?" I asked.

"North Hill Park, why?" she asked.

"Maybe I'll come check it out."

"And why would you wanna do that?" she asked me. Is it a crime now to go and watch someone play soccer?

"I just wanna see how good you really are..."

She smiled. To me, it seemed like she almost got nervous, but she wasn't nervous. She seemed way too confident to be nervous about some weird guy she barely knows coming to see if she's a good soccer player. Maybe that's what she was nervous about? Some weird guy checking her out playing soccer. I'd be scared. Maybe that's because I wouldn't want some guy checking me out playing soccer since I am a guy. Eesh. That would be odd. I came out of my thoughts when she spoke up.

"Prepare to be amazed."