Chapter 1
Welcome To My Life
The young girl pushed open the white oak door, revealing the cramped bedroom behind it. The walls were faded and the carpet too, both of which had once been pink. There was barely any room to move between the small bed, closet and writing desk that had been shoved into the corner.
Courtney climbed over her bed, slamming the door shut behind her, and sitting herself on the edge. There wasn't enough room to fit a chair in, so her bed was a make-do thing.
The teenager pulled out her homework from school, there wasn't as if there was anything else for her to do. She wasn't in the mood to argue of television shows with the rest of the household. However, she could hear all the screaming and shouting.
Over the many years that Courtney had been living like that, she had learnt to ignore it. For the most part, anyway. It was distracting when some people ran past her bedroom door, which was right at the very end of the corridor of bedrooms. The squeaky floor boards creaked all the time, but at least Courtney knew if someone was outside her door.
By the time the teen had finished her homework, there was nothing else to do. She stared down at the front yard from one of her two bedroom windows, only to see an all too familiar Silver Prius pull up beside the mini-van. Courtney still wondered how her eldest sibling had managed to afford such a car, but had never asked.
A young woman, definitely in her early twenties, stepped out from the driver's seat. Her hair looked just like Courtney's, shoulder length, but was tied up in a loose bun behind her head. Her eyes were shielded by a pair of cheap sunglasses and her clothes looked like she was heading off to the beach; pink t-shirt and white short-shorts. They all hugged her curvy figure perfectly, Courtney was jealous of her older sister.
Dani looked up towards Courtney's bedroom, lifting her sunglasses to rest on her head as she called her younger sister downstairs. Courtney had nothing to do but do as her sister asked.
The kitchen was a lot bigger than Courtney's bedroom. It had all the equipment against two connecting walls and two large tables that had been pushed together, running down the middle. There were fourteen chairs in total, one for each member of the household and the daughter who had moved out already.
Dinner time was family time. The whole family had to be home for dinner every night at six so they could a bit of quiet bonding with each other. Having such a large family, it was a hard thing to do at any other time of the day.
Courtney took her usual place, not speaking to anyone as she entered the room. Dani was now on her phone, more than likely to her boyfriend. She was just explaining where she was and when she would be home, though Courtney didn't look as if she was listening or even interested.
"Courtney, set the table for me, love." An even older woman asked, she was fussing around the stove, finishing off the cooking before setting it out.
Courtney didn't argue with her, but went straight to setting out twelve sets of knives and forks. It was the least she could do. Courtney always did like to help her mother with little things such as prepping the table for her; it was her way of paying her back for raising her right.
"Call the other's for me, Dani." The girl's mother called to her oldest child, though Dani was hardly a child anymore.
Dani didn't argue with her mother either, instead she walked to the front door, swung it open and screeched, "DINNER TIME!" It was heard all over the house and all over the garden, meaning everyone was going to come running now.
A stampede of feet came running down the staircase and a few smaller ones came running in form the front yard. If Courtney didn't know better, she could have sworn that her siblings were starved for weeks on end by the way they reacted to having dinner each night.
In total, nine more people had entered the kitchen, all diving for their chairs before someone else took it by mistake. Courtney found herself in between the baby of the family and an empty space.
Charlie was always last to the table. Since dropping out of college, he spent his days in bed and his night working. Being twenty years old, his parents thought he was just a failure, though they never did admit it out loud. Most people thought he was too. Charlie had once been a bright High school graduate, but then he flushed it all away.
The dark haired boy entered the kitchen slowly and groggily, trying to flatten his hair. It was a failed attempt as he had been sleeping on it for no one knows how many hours.
"Looks like someone didn't get enough beauty sleep." A teenage girl, definitely younger than Courtney, giggled at her brother. Charlie lashed out, giving his younger sister a push from the back of the head forward, almost slamming it down on the table.
"Shut it, Stephanie!" He barked at her, moving around so he could occupy the seat beside Courtney.
"My name's Stevie!" The teen girl barked back, brushing her now messy hair out of her face. She looked a lot like her older brother with her black hair and green eyes, but would kill anyone who mentioned it to her. Charlie and Stevie didn't exactly get along very well.
No one was listening to the two argue back and forth as all were engaged in their own conversations. All except Courtney. Courtney was quite happy keeping herself to herself as usual. Having a decent conversation with any of her siblings was something Courtney found impossible, so she never even bothered anymore. She was the outcast in the twelve children.
The chatter instantly stopped as the two heads of the house started dishing out the multiple dishes of food. It wasn't much, fish sticks and fries. What could be simpler when cooking for so many?
Most people took a look at the Baker family and found it to be a riot, others believed it was a children's home since the children didn't all alike in so many ways. Each had their own personalities and no one was like the other, with the exceptions of the two sets of twins that the family contained.
Whatever it was people thought of the family, no one ever thought they were happy. Living such hectic environments, no one thought they could be. But they were. Living with so many people meant that there never was a dull moment. There was always something around the corner which hadn't been around the last.
As the two heads of the house took their own seats and the opposite heads of the tables, everyone dived straight in. It was almost like a race to see who could hold the most fries in their mouths at once, but they never got scolded for eating like a pig, it was still family time. During family time, no one was to be scolded or shouted at. It was supposed to be a bonding experience for them all.
However, the chatter and the arguing never stopped. The conversations and the insults flew across the table as everyone was trying to say something at once, and Courtney was caught in the middle of it all. She didn't join in, though; Courtney was stuck into her own thoughts of life.
"SO!" Everyone instantly shut up as their father raised their voice. "How was everyone's day?"
That made everyone shut up. Even if it was family bonding, no one liked talking about themselves to their parents. It was as if they were all at that age where their parents shouldn't be nosing in their lives anymore, and for the most part, they all were.
"Courtney, how about you?" The other eleven children groaned under their breaths. Of course their father would pick Courtney, he always picked Courtney.
Courtney was their fathers favourite child, even though he denied it. This made some of the others jelous of her, though they would never admit it out loud to anyone else. She was picked for everything by her father. She hated it just as much as her brothers and sister, but her father contiued choosing her to be first.
"You know." Courtney mumbled. "School's, school." The brunette was twirling her fork around her fries like they were noodles. It was unusual for Courtney not to want to talk about school. She was a straight A student, who did a bucket load of extra credit and was on honour roll. But on this particular evening, Courtney didn't feel like sharing anything with her father.
"Come on, Court." The old man urged. "It's been a good few decades since I was your age, tell me about school."
"I studied for my biology test, passed another Geometry exam and completed more homework. Nothing out of the ordinary." She explained sarcastically. She really wasn't in the sharing mood with anyone recently.
"Are you in a bad mood because of that kid in your class?" Stevie shot at her sister from across the table, knowing for a fact that was exactly what all of this was about.
"What kid?" Courtney asked nervously, but she knew exactly what kid her little sister was on about. The only problem was that now everyone was going to ask Courtney questions and she couldn't death glare Stevie without someone seeing.
"You know, the one with green hair and all those wicked piercings." Stevie wanted to a punk, which is what this boy in Courtney's class was, but her father would have had a heartattack if one of his darling daughters came home with face piercings and blue streaks in her perfect hair.
"Who is she talking about, Courtney?" Her mother asked, swallowing down a few fries. She was quite a nosey person and hadn't heard her daughter mention any boy in her class before, so why had Stevie brought up this one in particular?
"His name's Duncan Lewis, he's just some guy from my class." Courtney explained, not meeting eye contact with anyone, focusing solely on her food. "He's not exactly the brightest person in the world, so I've just been helping him out a little with a few things, you know."
Everyone at the dinner table exchanged glances. Courtney liked to be at the top, the best in everything, there was no way she would willingly help out another person, especially someone who sounded the way Stevie had described.
"Isn't he the boy the rumors about?" Courtney other older brother asked.
Courtney was fourth from eldest in the family. Dani came first, then her two brothers. Next in line was Stevie, followed by another brother before the twin girls, another sister, twin boys and finally Robin, the baby of the family. It was very confusing to keep track of everyone, and most people had no idea what order the children went in, but Courtney always remembered.
"What rumor, Shayne?" The children's father almost choked on his food when saying the word. Rumors were not a good thing in his ears. The man hated rumors. It was because with a big family it was easy to start and spread them about each other. He disouraged it.
"The word around school is that Courtnay and Duncan are an item." Shayne explained, wording his sentance careully. The last thing anyone wanted to do was annoy their father, especially if it came to talking about his 'golden girl'.
"Shut up, Shayne!" Courtney hissed at her brother was sat almost directly across from her, luckily more towards their mothers side of the table rather than their fathers. That could have had disastorous consequences.
By now all of the others had gotten involved, questioning Courtney for answers on everything. Of course Courtney didn't answer any of them, why? Because none of it was true.
"The rumour isn't true!" Courtney finally snapped, shutting everyone up in the process. "May I be excused?" The brunette asked her mother, knowng she would say yes.
As soon she got the nod of approval, Courtney raced to her bedroom. Anywhere was better than being with her family.
A/N: Wasn't that a great starting chapter?
hehe! I think it was ;) LOL!
Yes! This is a re-do of my story Baker's Dozen. I do hope you like it! If you haven't read the original, I'm not going to force you to because this one will have the same plot, but at a MUCH better quality!
I did write the original Baker's Dozen way back, around a year ago now actually...So, it has been some time! Hopefully you have forgotten the details if you have read it and hopefully you're in for a surprise if you haven't read it ;) LOL!
You should also feel happy because this is the first ever story that I have actually not just said Silver Car, butb I said Silver Prius...Why did I chose a Silver Prius? I have no idea...I didn't even know what it was until I just googled it now...LOL!
I also have spellcheck now...I never used to have a programme with spellcheck on it on my old computer, which is what I used to write this on, then I'd put it on my memory stick and move it to 'daddy-dearest's old laptop and uplaod it because I wasn't allowed the internet on my computer...Wow...Memories I have of that...LOL!
DISCLAIMER! I never write disclaimers, but I shall for this one...
I DO NOT own Total Drama Island/Action/World Tour. If I did, do you honestly think I would be sat here writing fanfictions about it or trying to get Courtney and Duncan back together?
I also DO NOT own Cheaper by the Dozen, Cheaper by the Dozen two or Mine, Yours & Ours. Though they are all AMAZING movies, I haven't got an imagination that would have EVER thought up such great comedy =D LOL!
Okay, no more disclaimers from me...Probably EVER! LOL!
I am in SUCH a happy mood...I really do like this story...It is BY FAR! One of my best, right up there with the best of them...LOL!
This was actually the very first proper story I had ever written for ...The other stories had all ben very short and not well planned out...This one...Well, this one was different...I knew how this was going to work and I think it worked out quite well...hehe!
I do hope you enjoyed this!
Thank you for reading, pretty please review :)
Loving all of you ever so much,
ChloeRhiannonX