Disclaimer: For the tenth time. How I wish at least one of the CBTD character belong to me. Nonetheless, I do own Joshua, Fern, Mr. Puceton, etc.
A/N: Since it is the holidays, I'm on a roll! So keep an eye out for the next few chapters! They'll be coming out as soon as you know it.
Rating: PG-13. Contains some acts of violence: e.g., Chucking small objects to people's heads. Other than that, this story is harmless.
Reviewers: Will repeat myself each chapter until my throat dries out. Thank you thank you thank you for even reading this fic. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Thank you. ",
Finnigan Irish: Just wait and see! OH, and don't worry, there's more chapters to come.;p
The Split of the Dozen
By avren
10 Caught
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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.
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There, standing at the doorway, blocking the streams of light from the living room, was none other than-
"NORA!" gasped both Jake and Sarah, jumping in surprise at the sight of their sister at the doorway.
Sarah quickly hid her hand behind her back and slipped the photograph into the back pocket of her pants and stood up from her crouching position behind the desk. She kicked the bottom drawer shut with her foot and it slammed shut. .
"So what are the two of you doing in here?" Nora asked suspiciously, moving towards them.
"Nothing." Sarah lied.
Her eyes widened when she saw that their Dad's email account was still open on the monitor of the computer and she nudged Jake with her foot and gestured with her eyes to the monitor. Jake reacted instantly and exited from their dad's email account and opened a words processor program with the click of the mouse.
"And what are you doing with Dad's computer? Don't you know you're not allowed to use them without permission?" she prodded, finally rounding up behind them and glanced at the monitor.
Both Jake and Sarah tried to hide their guilt and put on innocent faces.
"Oh, we were just..erm.." Jake hesitated, trying to think up of a lie to cover himself.
"Printing some stuff! " Sarah quickly answered for him. Jake nodded vigorously to back her up. They shifted their glances at each other, doubtful whether Nora believed them.
"And why is it a blank screen?" Nora questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Well," Jake swallowed and quickly thought of a reason," I, err... accidentally deleted it when you suddenly appeared and shocked us. And I forgot to save it before, so now everything's gone." He then faked a sigh.
Nora still looked dubious but did not comment anything on it. She then turned to Sarah.
"And why did you open Dad's drawers? I heard it slam shut just now." She asked, pointing to the last drawer.
"Err. Well, cos' I was searching for some paper to load up the printer. See, its empty," Sarah gestured to the printer, which, luckily, was indeed empty.
Nora seemed to accept their reasons because she did not question them further. They inwardly gave a sigh of relief, which Nora did not notice. It was then their turn to ask the questions.
"How come you're home early? And where's Dad? How come he didn't come home with you?" Sarah asked, hands akimbo.
"Well, I finished earlier and since Dad told me he had to go somewhere after work, he told me not to bother waiting for him and go home first." Nora explained.
Sarah and Jake exchanged curious glances at that but said nothing.
Nora noticed their glances but did not prod on the matter.
"So are you going still going to print or what? You'd have to redo them all over again since you didn't save them. You'd better use my computer if you still intend to do so cos' Dad's going to be home soon and I'm sure he wouldn't want to find you guys in here," Nora offered.
"Oh, it doesn't matter now. We'll do it tomorrow in school using the computers there. It's alright," Jake reassured, and he exited the program and switched off the computer.
"Yeah," Sarah added, "thanks for the offer anyway. We'll finish it somehow." She said, and Nora ushered them out from their Dad's office and slid the door shut behind them.
"Oh, by the way, since Mom will be home a little later with the rest of the guys from their dentist appointment, you guys need to help me set the table. I'll be doing the cooking today and I'll get Lorraine to help me. So, the table needs to be set by six pm, got it?" Nora instructed.
"Got it. No problemo." Jake affirmed.
"Thanks." Nora smiled at them and ruffled their hairs, in which the both of them groaned at that.
"Okay, so if there's nothing else, we'll be up in our rooms if you need us or anything." Sarah said and nudged Jake to move upstairs. Nora nodded and turned in the opposite direction but was halted by Sarah when she added, "Oh and Charlie brought home a friend. Don't know whether she'll be staying for dinner though."
"She?" Nora asked.
"Yup. Someone named Fern. You'll meet her soon." Jake assured and they proceeded upstairs.
They quickly headed back to Sarah's room and shut the door once they were inside. Jake locked the door and he flopped on the bed while Sarah sat cross-legged on the floor with her back leaning against the side of the bed.
"Phew!" Jake said, relieved, "That was a close one. I thought we were busted when Nora found us there!" He rolled on his back and stretched out across the bed.
"Yeah," Sarah agreed, " I nearly had a shock when someone opened the door. I thought it was DAD!" She admitted, thoroughly relieved that it wasn't.
"Haha..Yeah, I thought that too," he chuckled and continued, "But you sure had quick thinking. My mind went blank when she questioned what we were doing."
"Well, you were quick too," she defended, "Luckily you opened a word processor. If you had opened something else, I'm sure Nora wouldn't believe us."
She then took out the photograph from her back pocket and examined it again.
"Hmm....there's no date on this picture," she observed, looking at both sides, "So we can't really know when this picture was taken or how recent it was."
Jake rolled over so that he was lying on his stomach and reached out for photo.
"Here, let me take a look at it." He took it from Sarah and inspected the picture.
"Hmm...." he paused.
"So what do you think?" She asked, and got on her knees and peered at the photograph.
"This picture looks like it was taken recently. Look," he pointed to the figure of his Dad in the picture and continued, "Dad looks pretty much like what he looks now."
Sarah glanced at the picture and agreed.
"Well, then that means he must have met her quite recently too! Hmm." she pondered for a while. Jake handed her the picture back and rolled over to his back again and stared at the ceiling.
"I still can't believe this. We still don't know who that woman is so we couldn't possibly confirm that Dad really is having an affair. Do you think we should tell others now?" He asked.
"I don't know. Maybe," she said unsure, "But we don't tell Nora, Lorraine and Charlie. We'll just tell the others and they'll help us snoop around or come up with a plan." She suggested.
"I'm fine with that," he conceded.
"Right. We can't go back to Dad's office tonight cos' they'll be home by then." She pointed out.
"So what then?"
"We'll just have to wait for the rest to come home. Then we'll discuss of a plan." She concluded and she got up from the floor towards her desk and slipped the photograph in the top drawer.
"But what do we do now?" he asked, getting up to a sitting position.
"Now," she stressed and moved towards him, "we gotta set the table for dinner. But I gotta change out of this clothes first. That means you need to get out." She pulled him off from her bed and pushed him towards the door.
"Alright alright. So I'll meet you downstairs then," he said and left the room. Sarah closed the door and headed towards her dresser. Grabbing a pair of fresh clothes, she went about changing while her thoughts swirled around in her mind.
Oh Dad, are you cheating on Mom? Please don't let it be true. But who's that woman in the picture? Oh well, we'll find that soon enough.
As she finished changing, she opened the door and headed downstairs to help Jake set the table.
Earlier that same afternoon
"Alright, go wait outside," Kate ordered Kim, Jessica, Mark, Kyle and Nigel as they finished with their turn at the dentist. "I'll wait here for Mike to finish with his turn."
As the five of them turned and headed out towards the lobby of the clinic, she called over their heads.
" And make sure you behave while you're outside," she warned.
"Alright," they chorused and retreated outside.
After Mike was done, Kate went to the counter to make the necessary payments and she ushered them outside towards the place where she had parked the Hummer.
"Okay, get in quick. It's nearly five forty five and I need to make dinner. Hopefully those at home have set the table at least," she hoped and went to buckle Nigel and Kyle to their seats.
After making sure the kids were all safely fastened to their seats, she hopped in the driver's seat and drove off. At the back, the kids were chattering among themselves. Then, Kyle spoke up.
"Mom," he called out to her and she glanced at the rearview mirror, "can we get ice-cream? I want some ice-cream!"
"NO no! I want pizza!" Nigel demanded and the rest of them started to scream and shout what they wanted.
"Hey hey!" she tried to silence them but the din overrode her orders. Exasperated, she put her fingers to her lips and released a shrill whistle that immediately silenced the racket.
"Good. Now listen. You've just been to the dentist and what did the doctor said?" She asked, eyes on the road.
"Come back again soon and we'll get a lollipop?" Mike guessed. Kate chuckled at his innocent guess and shook her head.
"No no, besides that, what did he remind you when he was cleaning your teeth?" she made them recall.
"Err...that we need to brush our teeth everyday?" Mark said, unsure.
"Yeah, and what else did he told you?" She prodded on.
"He told us to refrain from eating cold and sweet stuff like candy and ice-cream if we want to have nice teeth," Kim spoke up.
"And he said that if we don't take care of our teeth, we will end up with just gums when we reach twenty years old," Jessica added on after her sister.
"That's right! I'm glad you listened and remembered. SO do you think we should have ice cream for dessert anymore?" she supposed. Sighs and moans came from them and they reluctantly answered.
"No.." they muttered, unhappy that there will be no more ice cream for dessert. Kate looked at their forlorn expression and decided to give them a treat, just for that day.
"Okay, since you're willing to give up ice cream for the sake of your teeth, i'll let you have ice cream for dessert but only for today." She offered.
Cheers erupted at the back from the kids and they chatted happily as she drove them to Old Joe's Ice cream parlor. Putting on the brakes, she got out of the Hummer but halted the kids from getting out of the car.
"You kids stay here while I go get the ice cream, alright? Don't get out of the car and be good or else you won't get ice cream for dessert." She instructed, retrieving her wallet from the compartment at the front seat.
"Mom, I want Chocolate chip flavor!" cried out Kyle.
"I want cherry!" Jessica also piped up.
"Me too!" Kim added.
"I want Chunky Chocolate and Vanilla ice cream okay?" Mike demanded.
"Whoa there! So many flavors at a time! I'll choose the flavor of the ice cream and one that everyone likes." Kate said firmly. "And stay put. Don't touch anything, got it?"
"Got it, Mom!" they chanted and she slammed the door shut and headed into Old Joe's.
Inside, she ordered five tubs of ice cream and waited while the guy behind the counter brought out the ice cream. As she was waiting, she happened to glance outside the shop through the glass windows and spotted a familiar person across the street.
Hmm.that person looks like Tom! She frowned to herself.
She watched as the person went inside an Italian restaurant and disappeared from view. She shrugged that thought away and turned to pay for the tubs of ice cream. She then went back to the car and got back in the driver's seat.
"So what flavor did you get Mom?" Mark asked as she buckled her seatbelt.
"Vanilla," she revealed and groans erupted from the others but she added, "and some other flavors." She shook her head at her kids and started the car.
She made a U-Turn and as she drove past the Italian restaurant, she only got to see the back of the person who was hugging an unfamiliar red haired woman. Chucking away the thought that the person looked like Tom, she concentrated on the road and drove towards home with a thought in her mind.
Nah, that couldn't be Tom.
TBC
A/N: Well, this chapter seems quite short and I'm getting the hang of cliffhangers. I just love cliffhangers, don't you? Wink Next chapter coming soon! Hopefully, no writer's block this time round.
TBC
