Chapter 29

We Are FAMILY!

Tis the season to be jolly, FA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA! I'm in a holiday mood today. It's snowing outside! :) This MIGHT be the last chapter for this year because I am going away next week. But I will bring my notebook so I can write chapters FOR BOTH stories while I am away. And I will make sure to post both new chapters on the best holiday of the year, January 3rd. lol So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, and Happy New Year! (sorry if I misspelled any of those) Lauryn and I thank you for over 15,000 views! AHH! :) I'm gonna have fun with this chapter… :D On with the show!

Carly walked into the Williams household, and immediately felt like she had walked into one of those college parties you see on MTV. There were people everywhere. Babies crying on the floor, children fighting over a Buzz Lightyear toy. It was nuts.

"Where are we?" She whispered to Claire. "I'm scared."

"Haha, relax. Let me introduce you to my siblings."

"Okay. But I'm still scared."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Those little boys over there," she pointed to the boys fighting over the Buzz Lightyear toy. "are my little brothers, Jacob, Patrick, and Frankie."

Jacob, Patrick, Frankie. Not so hard.

"And over there," Claire continued, pointing to a table where four men and a woman were sitting, probably early twenties, having a heated discussion about politics. "Those are my older brothers Josef, Josh, Jordan, and Freddy, and my older sister Beatrice."

Oh, geez. How old were Claire's parents?

"And over there," she said, pointing to a corner where six girls were playing dress up, "are my younger sisters Jamie, Haley, Jenna, Kelly, Emma, and Kaitlyn. But where are-Oh, there they are." She dragged Carly over in the direction of the kitchen. "This is my older sister, Jane, and my oldest sister, Pina."

"Pina?"

"Before she was born, my parents liked pina coladas…"

"Oh, okay."

"Yeah."

Carly got a second look at them. Pina didn't look like she was older than twenty-six, so Claire's parent's couldn't be that old… "Any other siblings I have to meet?"

"No… oh, wait. Then there's me. Hi my name is Claire."

"Hi, Claire. Nice to meet you." Carly said sarcastically.

"Claire! Oh, honey! Thank goodness you're home! We need someone to watch the children while I'm cooking!" Carly heard a voice say behind her. She turned around to see a woman no older than fifty hugging Claire. That's probably Claire's mother.

"Mom," Claire said, turning her mother's attention to Carly. "This is my friend, Carly Shay."

"The girl from the Internet?" Carly nodded. "Oh, Carly, it is very nice to meet you. We have heard a lot about you and your friends from Claire." She turned her attention back to her daughter. "Isn't that the web show where you used to have a really big crush on that one guy? What was his name?"

"MOM!"

"Okay, okay. I know the rule. No embarrassing your daughter in front her friend. Got it. Can you please go watch the kids now?"

"Yeah, I'm on it. Carly, you want to come with me?"

"Sure…"

Carly went to go play with the little boys, who were now fighting over who would get to play Woody. That didn't last long. Pretty soon the little girls recognized her as "the girl who is on the posters all over Claire's room", and ran over to her, all speaking at once. Carly laughed at the embarrassing Claire stories they told her, and looked up at her friend, who was now sitting in a chair, with her head in her hands. Carly could tell her face was bright red.

Suddenly Claire stood up. "Okay, that's enough of story time! Carly, how about you and me go help my mom in the kitchen?"

"Okay. They're so cute!" she whispered as they walked into the kitchen.

"They're all club members of "Hey, Claire's skin tone is normal! Let's make her face the color of a traffic light!" Seriously, they have badges and everything."

"That's true," Claire's mom added. "I've walked in on meetings." She glanced at all the food on the table. "Looks like everything's done. Claire, would you like to do the honors?"

"Sure." She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. Sixteen pairs of eyes looked up at her. "Hey!" she screamed. "Dinner's ready! Come and get it before it's gone!"

Needless to say, there was a stampede. Plates and napkins and utensils went flying everywhere. "How do you deal with this on a daily basis?" she asked Claire as people crowded around her, pushing her out of the way to get to the food.

"Deal with what?"

In the midst of the food tornado, Carly noticed a man around the same age as Claire's mom come down the stairs. "I heard the dinner whistle! Where is the food?"

"Over here Dad!" Claire's sister named Jane answered. "How was your nap today?" she asked over the chaos?

"Great. Nobody came to bother me this time!"

Carly looked at the food table. Serving plates filled with burgers, tacos, Chinese food, pasta, chili, and French fries lined the table. Claire had told her on the way over that since there were so many of them, they had a lot of different types of food to choose from at family gatherings. This family is nuts. she thought as she grabbed a taco from the "buffet line", only to have it taken off her plate by one of the little boys a second later. She sighed as she grabbed another, closely guarding it by putting her hand over it as she walked to the massive size dining room table. She sat next to Claire at the end. She ate her food in silence, because if another voice was added to the conversation, she was afraid that the Williams' neighbors would call the police and complain of a public disturbance.

"So, Carly, Claire tells me you do a web show." Claire's father said. "How's that working for you?"

"Pretty good, we get a few million viewers a week, and they seem to really enjoy the show, I'm just lucky that we have so many supporters."

"Dad, didn't you know that most of us at the table here watch iCarly?" Claire asked.

"No, honey. I'm always at work. Speaking of which," he turned to Carly, pulling a card out of his pocket. "If you're any in some sort of legal trouble with this show of yours, here's my card."

"DAD!"

"What kind of legal trouble?" Carly asked.

"Song copyright infringement, photo copyright infringement, if you get sued by a viewer, and things like that."

"Why would we get sued by a viewer?"

"There are lots of reasons. Maybe they want your money…"

"Maybe they're just crazy." Claire added. "Like that girl who sued Justin Bieber (ha! Microsoft Word said "Bieber" is spelled wrong! Guess he's not taking over the world! Anyway…) because she said he was the father of her baby."

"Justin Bieber has a baby?"

"Geez, do you watch the news? Do you read the celebrity headlines? Do you listen to the radio?"

"Well, no."

"Then you need to."

"Anyway," Claire's dad interrupted. "If you have any legal trouble, any kind at all, call my firm and we'll take care of it."

"Thanks."

Claire's mother suddenly came out of the kitchen. "We are singing Happy Birthday now! Dave, get the lights." She ordered her husband, who ran over to the light switch to turn off the lights. Carly got a quick look at Jane's cake. It had Sam and Freddie on it. Oh, geez. Claire laughed when she saw the look on her face. Carly shot her a look and then began to sing with the family:

(A/N: The song "Happy Birthday to You" is copyrighted, so I will give credit now: the publishing rights are owned by John F. Sengstack and Summy-Birchard Music. That's why Freddie said "Not BD!" or whatever he said at Sam's birthday party.)

"Happy Birthday to You,

Happy Birthday to You,"

That's when Carly lost them. She continued to sing the traditional tune, while everyone else continued with:

"You are getting old now,

Happy Birthday to You!"

Wait, What? I was right, this family is nuts!

Jane cut into the cake and began passing pieces around. Carly dug her fork into her slice of chocolaty goodness. They may be nuts, but they make good cake! Oh, Sam would love this!

Soon after it was time for goodbyes. Carly got a hug from every person in the household, (they are a hugging family) and made a promise that she would see them all again soon. She turned to Claire before walking to her car. "Hey Claire, see you on Monday, okay?"

"I'll be there." She smiled before shutting the door.

Carly smiled as she walked to her car. That's one big, happy, crazy family. I would love a family like that.

A/N: And, done! That made me happy. And I feel I should let you know, since I am so uncreative when it comes to names, every name of Claire's siblings except two are names of my 13 cousins, and my one second cousin. Beatrice is the daughter of my cousin Josh, if anyone cares. The other two names, Jane, I came up with in an earlier chapter, and I had to use it, and it made sense to use a character that you are already familiar with to have a birthday for. And Pina is the nickname of my mother. My grandparents aren't pina colada people I SWEAR! Pina is short for Giuseppina, which, if you look it up, is an Italian name, and Italy is where she was born. Um… oh, and the only people I didn't use in this chapter for names is me and my brother, Ryan. Ryan I used earlier as Melanie's BF, and me…let me introduce myself: Hi, my name is Lauren. lol And you know those days where writing just comes naturally and your fingers are flying across the keyboard? That's one of those days. I just love big families, so I had to write one in. Thanks to all who read, Lauryn, my unofficial beta and one of my biggest supporters, and DannySamLover20, who it seems always has time to review, and always makes me smile with her comments. And her profile says her birthday is on Christmas, so Happy Early Birthday! :) Other than that, please review and tell me what you like about my story (or don't like…but please be as nice as possible). Oh, and on my profile is a link to a special message for all my readers, so go click it! :D This awfully long AN is over, I'm gonna go now, but if I made a mistake and DannySamLover20 is a boy… I'm gonna be really embarrassed. :p