Disclaimer: Same old same old. Nothing belongs to me. Sad. C.B.T.D characters belong to its creators.
A/N: I apologize for the long delay in update. I've been extremely busy with exams and other stuff and there are moments when i feel like discontinuing with this story as i have completely lost the mood of writing this story. There have been a great growth in the amount of CBTD fics out there in and forums at IMDB and the genres vary and now my story seems very bland.
Rating: PG-13. Just in case!
Reviewers: I wanted to thank each and every reviewer and reader of my fic for encouraging me to continue writing and in boosting my esteem with the great comments and feedback and even plots to help me move this story along. So, a million grateful and heartfelt thanks to anyone that's reading this. ; D
The Split of the Dozen
By avren
9 Unfolding the mystery
"Hey, who's that in the front seat? " Sarah frowned as she pointed to the incoming Chevy with an unknown passenger in the front seat.
Jake stopped playing with his skateboard and turned to look. "That sure ain't Lorraine. She doesn't have brown hair for one thing."
Jake, Henry and Sarah watched as the screeching tires of the Chevy halted in front of them. There, sitting beside Charlie, sat a brown haired stranger with a friendly smile plastered on her face. Sarah and Jake simultaneously raised identical frowns whereas Henry was in a daze.
"Guys, " Charlie introduced from the driver's seat, "meet Fern, my Chemistry lab partner. Fern, that's Henry, Sarah and Jake, my fourth, fifth and sixth siblings."
"Hi! Nice to meet you, " Henry greeted eagerly, shaken out of his momentary daze and continued to gaze adoringly. Sarah noticed his weird behavior and raised an amused brow.
"Nice to meet you too," Fern smiled warmly back.
"Hey." Sarah waved shortly.
"Sup." Jake greeted.
"Okay, so get in the car already. Lorraine's sitting at the back with you guys since Fern is in front." Charlie ordered.
"But there's not enough room for the four of us to sit in the back. It's bad enough with Henry and Lorraine, " Sarah complained, glancing at Lorraine who was busily flipping through a magazine.
Lorraine looked up at that comment and growled," And what are you insinuating with that? Are you saying that i'm fat?"
"Decipher whichever way you want. The point is, we can't fit four people in the back! It'll be too squeezy!" Sarah stressed.
"Oh c'mon Sarah, just for today. Fern's coming to tutor me for my makeup test and I really have to pass that test if I want to stay in football." Charlie pleaded. Fern was feeling uncomfortable with the argument brewing and spoke up.
"Err, that's okay Charlie, I'll catch a bus to your house. Lorraine can sit in front." She started to unbuckle her seatbelt but Charlie stopped her.
"Oh don't be silly, you're already doing me a favor by agreeing to tutor me. The least I could do is to give you a ride to my own house. Don't mind Sarah. She's probably in a bad mood today," Charlie looked sternly at Sarah, "and there's enough room at the back to squeeze four people. Don't worry," he assured Fern.
"Oh alright, fine. I'll squeeze in the back. I don't want to be the selfish sister do I?" Sarah muttered but added, "But still, I don't want to sit beside Lorraine."
"Who said I want to sit next to you?" Lorraine retorted.
"Alright! Break it up already! Jake, you sit next to Lorraine. And please keep Sarah and Lorraine from clawing each other out will you? This car has enough dirt and gunk already, and it doesn't need any extra blood to add to the collection," Charlie said, exasperated. He shook his head in despair at his squabbling sisters as they squeezed in the back. Facing Fern, he said, "See what I have to face everyday?" He sighed. Fern just gave a sympathetic smile.
Henry though, was another problem. He was oblivious to the squabbling, as he stood rooted on the pavement, still gazing adoringly at Fern. Charlie saw that he was the only one not yet in the car.
"Henry! Get in the car! What are you doing standing there?"
Lorraine, Sarah and Jake snorted amusedly at another of their sibling's antics.
"Dude, stop drooling at Fern and get in! " Jake called out. Sarah chuckled. Charlie shook his head again and dropped his head onto the steering wheel in despair. Fern just patted his shoulder in sympathy.
Henry snapped out of his daze and smiled sheepishly at them. He quickly squeezed himself in beside Sarah who just grumbled to herself.
It was a silent drive home at first, with Henry's eyes staring fixated at the back of Fern's head, Lorraine flipping through her magazine silently, and the duo upfront keeping their eyes on the road. Jake finally turned to look at Sarah who was squeezed between him and Henry, a big scowl on her face. Nudging her side, she looked at him.
"What?" she snapped irritably. Jake jerked in surprise at her hostility.
"Whoa there! What's the matter with you?" Jake asked, frowning.
"Nothing."
"That's not nothing. You're angry at something, or someone. Surely you're not sore about being squeezed at the back, are you?" Jake raised an eyebrow.
Sarah just kept silent and crossed her arm grumpily. Lorraine glanced sideways and snorted, "She's probably having her PMS."
IN an instant, Sarah tried to lunge at her but Jake held her back.
"Lorraine! Quit it!" Charlie warned from the front. Lorraine just rolled her eyes but nonetheless, backed away from Sarah's outreaching hands by flattening herself against the car window.
"Let go of me!" Sarah struggled but Jake held a strong grip on her.
"Jeez! Sarah, chill will ya'? Lorraine's just being a pain and hurting her won't do you any good," Jake tried to restrain her but she continued to struggle. To Henry, he said, "Yo Henry! Help me out here could you!"
Henry stopped staring at Fern's head and grab Sarah around the waist and pulled her back down. Still, Sarah struggled harder.
"Well at least it would satisfy me! Now, I said, let GO of me!" she gritted and tried to wriggle her arms from Jake and Henry's grip.
"Not until you promise you won't go for Lorraine again," he said firmly. Even though Sarah could take on Jake's strength, she didn't feel up to it and slumped back. Henry instantly removed his arms but Jake held on.
"FINE. Whatever. Now could you let go of my hands?" She resigned. Jake released her hands but Lorraine was still wary of her and tried to sit as far away from her as possible. However, that proved to be difficult in the current state that they were squeezed in.
Charlie turned his head towards Fern slightly while keeping his eyes on the road and apologized. "I'm so sorry you had to see that."
"There's no need to apologise. It's alright." Fern smiled understandingly.
Henry went back to gaze dotingly at Fern while Sarah sat grouchily beside him. This time, Jake did not bother her in case another outburst erupted. Silence followed throughout the rest of the journey with occasional sighs coming from Sarah.
Finally, they pulled up on their driveway and Charlie hit the brakes.
"Get moving Henry!" Sarah urged him to get out of the car. Henry was still fixated on Fern and did not budge. Sarah let out a cry of indignation and without waiting for him to get out; she climbed across Henry, jumped out of the car and stomped into the house.
"Hey Sarah, wait up!" Jake called her and ran after her into the house. Lorraine also got out of the car and went in. Charlie looked from the Chevy and shook his head in despair at his siblings.
"Well, this is it. Welcome to the Baker's residence," Charlie said.
"Wow! You've got such a huge house! Of course," Fern slapped her forehead, "since you've got such a huge family. Silly me!" She grinned at him.
They didn't realize that Henry was still in a daze, watching every move of Fern's.
"Well, why don't you go in first, I have to park the car in the garage," beckoned Charlie and as he turned, he found his gawking brother sitting at the back seat, unmoving. "HENRY! What are you doing, still sitting there! Get out of the car! I need to put it in the garage," he ordered.
Henry quickly got out and gave a sheepish smile at Fern, who looked amused. As Henry and Fern walked towards the house, Charlie called from the car.
"Henry, why don't you show Fern around the house first while I park the car." Charlie suggested and drove the car around towards the garage. Henry immediately brightened up and beamed at Fern.
"Sure! No problem. Come on, follow me." He beckoned while stealing adoring glances at her as they walked into the house.
"Sarah! What's up with you? Why are you in such a funk?" Jake asked, concerned at her behavior earlier as they went up the stairs towards the bedrooms. She darted into her bedroom and slammed the door shut, just mere inches from Jake's nose.
"Hey! Sarah! Open up! I wanna talk to you!" he rapped on her door, calling her out.
"Jake, could you leave me alone, please!" she urged from behind the door. "There's nothing wrong so just go away!"
Jake stopped knocking and said, "Fine. If that's what you want. I just want to know what's bothering you but since you don't want to share it, I'll leave you with it." He sighed, resigned.
"Thank you, Jake. I'm sorry," she muttered from behind the door," but this time I'll handle it myself."
Jake just stood at her doorway for a moment. Then, he spoke up softly, "Well, I thought we're doing some snooping in Dad's office today," he looked around as he said this to make sure no one's around, "but since you're having some problems, it's okay then. I'll do it myself. You just make sure that whatever that's bothering you is solved." He then turned and walked towards his own bedroom when he heard her door opening.
"Jake." Sarah called. He turned in his steps and looked at her, who was standing with the door slightly ajar. She shifted her gaze downwards and heaved a huge sigh.
"Yes?" He asked. She stood there silently for a while before muttering something incomprehensible. Jake, getting frustrated at her behavior, snapped. "Sarah! Get on with it! What do you want to tell me?"
She jumped slightly in surprise. "Oh alright, I'll come with you to snoop in Dad's office."
"Really? But what about your problems?" he asked.
"I'll put that aside for now. What's important is that we find out who that woman," she lowered her voice, "that Dad is involved with."
Jake nodded and smiled at her. She returned the smile. Then, they heard Henry's voices coming from the stairs.
"Come in quick, before Henry comes. We can't discuss it here. They'll hear us and we can't have them knowing about it yet." She beckoned him in to her room. Just as she shut the door, she managed to catch a glance of Henry, with Fern by his side, coming from the stairs.
Chuckling slightly to herself, she locked the door and plopped herself on her bed, sitting with her legs crossed in front of her.
"What's so funny?" Jake asked, as he was gently stroking Pips, Sarah's pet hamster atop her window table.
"Henry." She answered.
"And what's so funny about Henry?" he frowned, and moved towards her bed, plopping himself on it, making Sarah bounce on the impact.
"You sure are oblivious aren't you? Didn't you notice how Henry was behaving the whole time in the car just now?" She asked, looking amused as she recalled Henry's weird actions earlier.
"Well, pardon me for not noticing how Henry behaved cos' I was so busy wondering about your weird behavior just now." Jake pointed out to her. She shrugged away his remark and continued.
"I think Henry has a crush on Fern." She proclaimed. " He was gazing at her with puppy-dog's eyes and he didn't even budge when I told him to get out of the car! " She laughed at the memory.
"Well, who can blame him." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Fern is quite a catch. After all, she's pretty, friendly and I'm assuming she's smart too, considering she's tutoring Charlie. I'm surprised Charlie hasn't broke off with Beth with these kinds of girls in his school."
Sarah smacked his head at that comment. "So that's what you'll do huh? If you had a girlfriend back in Midland, you'll just dump her to go out with the pretty girls in school here?"
He pretended to ponder on that question. "Hmm...Sure, I'd do that," he said casually before breaking into a cheeky grin. She smacked his head with a pillow and laughed lightly at him.
"Man, I feel sorry for your future girlfriend, whoever that is. You're such a guy!" She shook her head at him before smacking another pillow at his head and got off from her bed.
"Duh! I AM a guy!" he pointed out, chuckling. "And I'm just kidding! I'm not that kind of person, you know that," he defended himself, and pretended to pout.
"I'll agree with that when I see it for myself. And I don't think I have to wait very long since there's a lot of girls in our school waiting to throw themselves at you," she stated and rolled her eyes at that image. She opened one of her drawers and rummaged through the stuff to search for a notepad and a pencil.
"Well, you might not know it but I see some guys in school who's interested in you too," he declared, raising a suggestive brow.
She paused from her rummaging and looked up. "Yeah, right," she said sarcastically.
"Yup. Its right. I know cos' I've seen some of the guys staring at you sometimes. They talk about the 'Chick with the pigtails'." He raised two fingers on each hand to emphasize on the quote.
Sarah chucked an eraser at his head.
"Ow! What was that for?" He moaned, rubbing the sore spot where the eraser hit him.
"For one thing, I am NOT a chick! That's the most downgrading thing that a guy can say about a girl and if I hear anyone calling any girl a 'Chick', they'll hear it from me." She threatened.
Finally found a pencil and a notepad, she closed the drawer and resumed her position on her bed.
"Now can we get back to the subject on hand?" She urged.
"What? About Henry?" Jake frowned.
"No, doofus, Dad's affair!" She cried out. Jake quickly clamped a hand over her mouth and shushed her.
"Not so loud! They'll hear us!" he warned, looking at the door to see if anyone heard her outburst. Peeling his hands from her mouth, she retorted.
"Fine! Yuck! " She grimaced as she wiped the wetness around her mouth. "Your palms are sweaty!"
Jake smiled sheepishly at her. "Opps, sorry," and he wiped his palms on his shirt.
"Okay, so now, we need to have a plan. There's no one at home right now besides Charlie, Henry, Lorraine and the two of us." Sarah counted.
"Don't forget Fern," Jake added.
"Right. Fern too. So, Mom won't be home as she's with the rest of them for their dentist appointment. What time will they be home?" she asked him.
"Hmm.. Most probably the same time when Dad and Nora comes home, which will be around five or so." He guessed. She jotted that down on her notepad.
"Its ten minutes past four right now," glancing at her Swatch, " so that leaves us with approximately fifty minutes to do some snooping around in Dad's office."
"Well, that's if Charlie and others don't catch us in Dad's office. You know we're not allowed in his office," Jake reminded her.
"Hmm....so the thing is now, what are we looking for? A picture of her? Or what?" She tapped her pencil on her chin in ponder.
"Oh it doesn't matter, just as long as we find something! Come on, let's just go quick, we don't have much time. They'll be coming home soon!" he urged, pulling her up with him as they got off the bed and towards the door.
"But but.." she hesitated at the door, "what if we get caught?"
"I'm sure you'll think up something, you always do! That's why you're the brains of the operations," he teased.
"Don't let Kim and Jessica hear that. They're the only 'brains' in this house," she rolled her eyes.
"Dude, two words, shush now." Jake put a finger on his lips to indicate 'quiet' as he opened Sarah's door to check whether the coast is clear for them. There is no sign of any of their siblings, so they quietly closed the door behind and ventured out towards Tom's office.
Along the way, they passed Lorraine's room and Sarah placed her ears on her door to listen in.
"She's listening to her stereo, so she won't be out for quite a while. " Sarah confirmed and they moved along the hallway.
As they passed Charlie's door, it was wide open. They found Fern and Charlie sitting on the floor with their books open and all over the floor. They looked up as Sarah and Jake walked past.
"Hey!" Charlie called and they backed up their steps.
"Yeah?" they chorused.
"Where are the two of you going?" He asked, however not looking too suspicious.
"What? Can't we walk around in our own house? We want to get some food in the kitchen if that's alright with you," Sarah quickly covered up, without any hesitation.
"Fine. Just don't make a mess in the kitchen or Mom will blow." He warned and they continued with their studying.
"Well, that was easy," Jake, declared as they were out of earshot from Charlie's room.
"That's three down, one more to go." Sarah counted. As they neared Henry's room, they expected him to be inside polishing his clarinet but the room was empty.
"Where do you think Henry can be?" Jake wondered.
"Jake. Its Henry we're talking about here. Where else would he be? The Kitchen!" she exclaimed.
They quickly headed towards the kitchen to see Henry sitting on the kitchen stool, quietly munching on a doughnut and gazing blankly at the wall. He did not notice their presence, as they did not make a noise.
Sarah chuckled. "He's probably thinking about Fern. Come on," she whispered, "we've got a few minutes left. Hurry!"
They darted towards the room at the corner of the first storey where it is concealed by a sliding wooden oak door. Jake slid the door and she slipped inside, heading towards the center of the room where the office desk stood. Jake peeked outside, to see if any of their siblings spotted them entering, but luckily, none did. He silently slid shut the door and moved towards Sarah, who was rummaging through the drawers of their Dad's desk.
"So, did you find anything?" he asked, looking down at her.
"Nope. Nothing yet. Where did Mike say he found the picture? Which drawer?" she sifted through the documents in the first drawer. Jake was flipping through the stack of folders on the table but could found nothing.
"I'm not sure. He didn't exactly tell us which drawer it was. It must be here somewhere," he shrugged and sat on the swiveling chair and switched on the computer. Sarah heard the beep of the computer and cried.
"What are you doing? Why did you switch on the computer?" She stopped her search and stared sternly at him.
"I'm trying to see if there's any email that he saved or something that he sent to the woman. Who knows, maybe there's some here." He defended himself as he clicked away on the keyboard.
"Fine. But make sure you don't disturb any of his documents or delete any of his files or we'll be toast! " she cautioned.
"Hah!" he snorted, " As if I'm stupid enough to do that. Anyway, we're already toast if he find us snooping in his office, even without me going through his emails."
"Whatever. Just hurry with whatever that you're doing," looking at her wristwatch, " we've only got a few more minutes."
"Tell that to yourself. You still have the drawers to search," he pointed. They worked quietly and quickly for a few minutes until Sarah broke the silence with a cry of triumph.
"I found it!" she waved the piece of picture that has a red haired woman with her arms around their dad's waist in the air. Jake moved the chair towards her and bends forward to take a look at the picture.
"How do you know that's her?" He asked, still doubtful that the red haired woman is having an affair with his fifty-year-old dad.
"Well, the writings on the back says so," she turned the picture around and showed him the writings where it says,
Hope our love will last through eternity,
Love you Tom.
Hugs and Kisses,
Patricia Jenkins.
"Eww....that is so mushy and sappy!" Jake professed, disgusted.
"Yeah, and I still can't believe old Dad would have an affair. I still can't believe it. Hopefully, after we find more evidence, Mike is wrong about the affair." She said firmly.
"Well, we have to do more snooping then. There's bound to be more of that. What I can't believe is how Mom didn't find it out! I mean, she cleaned the house from top to bottom and she can't possibly have missed that!" He cried, disbelieved.
"Dad didn't allow us to enter this room without permission right? So he probably forbade Mom from touching his stuff too," she guessed.
Suddenly, the door slid open and they stopped in their tracks.
"Now what are the two of you doing here?" the voice rang through the room.
TBC
