Present Day

"Jackpot!" Jamie gushed.

it had been two weeks now since he'd been grounded for 3 weeks, no Play Station, no TV, not even allowed to the Mall after school and he hated it! The reason for his current situation, his siblings. Mikey Sharpe, a mate of Jamie's had managed to get three tickets to see a truck rally and of course Jamie was well up for going the only problem being that it happened to fall on the night of their monthly family games night and no way was mom letting him out of that easily. He needed a plan so had decided to fein sickness, claim he'd got food poisoning that day at school and then sneak out of the house when his parents had left to go to Erin's for the games. The nights always lasted into the early hours of the next morning, as the kids would be babysat meaning no parental responsibility, it was the perfect plan. So when friday came around he was all set, he managed to get a sick note from school and arrived home an hour early where he used his puppy dog eyes to fool both parents and with that he was tucked up in bed as his parents left the front door 3 hours later. A knock at the door and Jamie was in Mickey's car on the way to the best night of his life.

Friday

Frank and Mary arrived at Erin's to find all three kids already sat eating pizza. John had taken Nikki to his parents for the weekend whilst Linda was working late so would relieve the poor babysitter later on, this was a classic battle of Reagan wits.

"Hey where's Jamie?" queried Joe as he stood to give his mum a kiss.

"Home sick" answered Mary

"What's wrong, the Kid catch lurgies from a girl playing kiss chase?" Smirked Danny

"Leave of it, is he alright mom" a concerned Erin asked

"Nothing an early night won't fix," Frank smiled as he took a seat next to his oldest.

"Damn it! I meant to tape the truck rally, a couple of the guys at work were going, reckon its gonna be one hell of a night"

"Well It's a good job we've got Trivial Pursuit then so we can have an even better night here" Joked Erin as she took the remote from Danny's clutches and turned the TV off as the Reagan's settled in for what promised to be a competitive night.

The score was always the same with one major exception, no swatty teen beating the others at everything. If anything Joe enjoyed tonight as Jamie's absence meant he won overall - not that he didn't enjoy the teasing from his baby brother how he was able to beat his older siblings despite a lengthy age gap. Surprisingly it was Danny who missed Jamie the most, although he didn't like to admit it he enjoyed pouncing on Jamie and tickling him into submission with Erin and Joe's help, it made him feel closer to the Kid.

"I think it's time we call it a night, your father appears to be dozing of to another land" sighed Mary and she nodded towards the sleeping man in the recliner.

"I'm simply resting my eyes, anyway Mary we need to stop of down the road and check on the neighbours house and feed the animals, that seems to take forever in itself " replied Frank as he got up to collect his coat.

"Tell Jamie we hope he feels better, all of us do" Joe gave a sideways glance in Danny's direction, Danny poking his tongue out in reply.

The siblings kissed their parers good night and turned around to start clearing up. Once they were out of earshot the conversation turned to other plans.

"Do you think we should've told mom and dad that we'd forgotten about tonight and that we'd booked cinema tickets to see the new Tarantino film?" smirked Joe

"Nah it wouldn't have ended well, they would've told the kid who would have got moody cuz he was too little to come out to play with his big siblings" joked Danny

"Yeah but on the plus side, we would've got Brownie points for changing our plans for family traditions" sighed Erin "never minds, I guess we can always go tomorrow."

"Yeah but its never the same as opening night. Oh well it's about my turn to give into the land of nod, thanks for a great night sis" Joe turned to leave, kissing his sister goodnight and giving his brother a playful punch on the way Joe was driving home he passed the stadium that was now chucking out a cop's nightmare of a crown, loud drunk and all elated, even still no one was causing trouble and they all seemed to have had a good night. As Joe passed a string of cars a group of lads walking through the car lot caught his eyes They looked strangely familiar although it was dark and Joe was exhausted, however the blue Jock jacked caught he eye as a mound of dirty blonde locks caught the light, he only saw for a second so put it to the back of his mind, intent on going home to sleep.

"This was officially the best night ever" screamed an excitable Jamie. Mickey, their mates Noah and Kyle and Jamie were heading back to the car, parked on the side of the road.

"Man did you see when that truck just landed on the other guys roof I thought the whole stadium was gonna erupt!" Laughed Kyle, Just then an old blue car rushed past, the number plate looked familiar, not to mention the man driving it and suddenly Jamie had a horrible feeling in his gut.

"Guys we gotta get a move on, I think that my brother just drove past which means my parents will nearly be home and I'll be a dead man walking." The boys scrambled into the car and Micky pulled away getting Jamie home in an apparent record time, there were no cars in the driveway so Jamie scrambled round the back and up the stairs chucking his shoes and jacket of as he heard a car pull into the driveway. He just had enough time to chuck his pj top on as the front door closed and he heard his mums heels begin to ascend the stairs toward his bedroom door. Flicking the light of he just managed to pull the covers over his bottom half, still in the mud splattered jeans as his bedroom door opened and his Mary poked her head around the corner to see Jamie apparently fast asleep. She wandered over kissed his forehead and closed the door. Jamie had gotten away with it, he couldn't believe his luck.

Sunday dinners could sometimes be tense as politics always seemed to be the hot topic however every now and then his siblings were civil and today seemed to be one of those days. Jamie had been in his bedroom all day finishing homework so jumped when his sister opened the door to drag him to dinner.

"Hey don't let Danny catch you swatting up, he'll call you a nerd"

"Danny's just jealous he was an academic failure" Jamie smirked "I take it dinners on the table otherwise mom wouldn't dare pull me out of m studying"

"Don't be a smart ass golden boy"

"Language Erin, mother would be shocked" laughed Jamie as he got up to leave

"Mom said bring your washing down swell, by the looks of those jeans your clothes are in diar need of decontaminating, what did you do roll around in the mud" Erin stared at the jeans Jamie had worn to the rally. Jamie needed to think fast.

"Just clipper on the way home from school friday, you know when i wasn't feeling to good"

"Yeah well I hop you have your appetite back now" Erin smiled, buying his lam excuse.

Dinner went great until the topic turned from work to Jamie who sighed at the inevitable teasing heading his way.

"Here you go Jamie" Joe smirked as he placed a spponfull on sugar on Jamies plate instead of the apple pie he'd given everyone else. Jamie could see his siblings smiling at each other and wondered how long it had taken them to cook this one up.

"Mary Poppins right, cuz I was ill and this is what she gave the kid's to help their medicine down. How long did it take the Brainless bunch to come up with that Joke" sighed Jamie not even making eye contact with his siblings. Henry smirked

"Nice one Kid"

"Yeah how much younger is your brother than you three or was he just adopted because he seems to have latched onto your jokes easily enough" smiled Linda

"That's just years of sibling taunting" smiled Frank

"Years of being targeted" groaned Jamie

"Hey you asked for it being the youngest Kid" smirked Danny

"technically no I didn't as I never specifically said can you Erin and Joe please make my life a misery and I never asked to be the youngest" Jamie shot back, wiping the smile of Danny's face

"Yes intact he even asked your faber and me if we'd have another kid just so he wouldn't be the youngest and wouldn't be picked on" laughed Mary

"Ahh no don't worry baby brother we'd never let you get of that easy" teased erin and she ruffled his hair.

"As I clearly do not have Apple pie like the rest of you I'll be gong to finish studying" Jamie moaned as he stood up and walked from the table to a series of 'ahhs' and 'poor little Jamie's' from his siblings.