Disclaimer: Check the past twelve chapters. All of those combined say it all.
A/N: I'm getting tons of ideas for CBTD stories about the other characters, but we'll see if that actually happens. Must concentrate on this one first, who knows when this series will end.
Rating: Nothing violently descriptive. Hey, this is a family movie. But just in case, it's PG 13.
Reviewers: Thanks for the patience, for the reviews and for even reading this fic! You guys are the gem! ;)
Points to note about this fic: I made Jake and Sarah to be about the same age, which is thirteen years old. Somehow, in the movie, I didn't accept that Sarah was older than Jake because Jake looks so much older than her and taller. I guess, Girls do mature faster than boys, and they wanted to make Sarah the chief troublemaker in the Baker family, so that's why they probably made her older I think. But they're not twins, although compared to the rest of the cast members, they tend to look the most sibling like due to the same hair and facial appearance.
The Split of the Dozen
By avren
13 + Shock, Shocked & Surprised
She paused, causing him to lean forward, eager to hear her next words.
"Beauty and the Beast."
"What!" Jake choked upon hearing that. Did I hear correctly? " Beauty and the- "
"-Beast." She sealed the confirmation for him. "Say It. Don't choke on it." She said, thumping on his back, causing him to cough.
"I'm fine!" He pushed away her hands and gaped at her. "Dude! Are you trippin'! Why did they choose such a kiddy first grade play! If it's Romeo and Juliet, at least that's normal but Beauty and the Beast?"
"Yeah yeah…" she groaned. "That's what we said too. But Miss Jenkins wants our class to be different than the others. And she reassured us that she's going to change the script a little. Making it not so kiddie-ish. Well, that's what she's saying anyway cos' we haven't even seen the script." She sighed heavily.
Having recovered from his initial shock of learning the play that she was going to act in, hilarity was starting to creep in as he imagined her in a Beauty costume. A small hint of amusement was threatening to show but he suppressed it since he didn't want to get a black eye if she spotted him laughing.
He swallowed the laughter that nearly threatened to erupt but his eyes betrayed him as they were glinting with amusement and she caught it before he could turn away.
"You're laughing at me aren't you?" she glowered at him.
"No! I'd never – "
"Fine. Go ahead and laugh away." She said in a dead tone and hopped on the kitchen counter and hid her face in her hands and muttered. "I'll be the laughing stock of the school anyway when I make a fool of myself trying to play Beauty on that day."
Feeling guilty, he hopped on beside her. They have already finished washing all the dishes and they have a few minutes left before they were supposed to join the rest of them in doing their schoolwork.
"How did you get the lead anyway? Can't you get out of it if you want to?"
"I wish I could. We had to choose the roles by picking it out from this bowl and for some ill-fated luck of mine; I got this stinking role. And Miss Jenkins said that everyone have to participate cos' it's a class thing and everyone has to be involved." She dreadfully recalled the memory of it.
"But, can't you switch roles with someone else or something?" He frowned.
"I tried that too! But Miss Jenkins would not even consider it! Even when I told her I stunk at acting, she still wouldn't let me switch with someone else. Urgh! It's so frustrating! And to think I've had enough on my plate with the thing with dad having an affair..." she muttered.
Jake squeezed her shoulder sympathetically and just then, the kitchen door swung open revealing Kim, standing with her hands akimbo, looking at them with raised eyebrows. They turned to look at her.
"Aren't you guys supposed to be upstairs like, right about now?" She demanded, with an air of impatience around her.
"Why do you care? Did mom send you?" Sarah said tersely.
"No…but the sooner you guys finish your homework, the sooner you can tell us what's been happening these last few days. About you guys being so secretive and staying up late the other night. You still owe us an explanation for that." She replied in a clipped tone.
Reluctantly, Sarah got off from the counter, with Jake following suit. "Fine."
Kim marched on ahead with Sarah and Jake trudging behind and as they passed Charlie's room, they did not hear the conversation that was going on between Fern and Charlie, about them apparently.
…
"Are Sarah and Jake twins?" Fern asked as she caught sight of them as they passed by the room. Charlie paused in his scribbling of Chemistry formulae and looked up at her.
"Nope. They're actually a few months apart in different years but right now, they're both thirteen. Why?"
"Just wondering. They really look alike and they seem pretty tight from what I've observed."
"Yeah. They are I guess." Charlie pondered for a while and continued. "Sarah, Jake and Mike are closest to each other. Kim's got Jessica and Lorraine's close to Nora. The twins are obviously with each other."
"What about you, Henry and Mark?" she tried remembering the names of the rest of his siblings.
"Me and Henry are tight too I guess. Mark seems to be the only odd one out come to think of it but he's much more comfortable with my mom. Oh, and his pets. Did you know he had a whole family of frogs before he finally got Scrubs?" he said, referring to the pet hamster that is Mark's newest companion.
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. Luckily Scrubs is much better and a less hassle to handle than his frogs, but don't tell him I ever said that. He's really sensitive about his pets really." He finished off and resumed scribbling on his paper. Fern smiled amusedly and they did their work silently until Fern spoke up again.
"It's interesting to see your family cos' there's a variety of hair colors even though both your parents are blondes. "
"Well, as Jessica once said, it comes from the genes of different part of our ancestral roots. We've got the redheads from our Grandpa Gilbreth, which is Jessica and Mark, the blondes from our parents which is Nora, Lorraine, Kim and the twins, and the brunettes from Grandma Gilbreth gene pool which is me, Mike, Jake, Sarah and finally Henry."
"Intriguing." Fern grinned, "Ever thought of writing a family history? I'm sure a lot of people would want to know more about the Baker's dozen. "
"You must be kidding me. Me? Writing a book? I doubt it. Anyway, my mom has already published one about raising us, did you know?" He glanced momentarily at her before concentrating back on his work.
"She did? I didn't know that. I've heard about a book on the best seller's list about a Mary Gilbreth Baker but I didn't exactly expected it to be your mom who wrote it." Surprise evident in her face upon this revelation.
"Well, she used her maiden's name that's why. Not many people knew that she's the author of the book. She went on a two weeks book tour and left my dad in charge of the house. That was a nightmare I tell you. I really hated my dad then, but that was when we just moved up here in Evanston and I was being this self-centered teen caring about nothing but himself obviously." He added a grin and laughed light-heartedly at the memory.
Fern smiled at his light-heartedness and said, "It must have been hard for you. Moving from your home to this foreign place. I've always lived in Pine Avenue, and I do hope my parents have no intention of moving. Although, " she paused, smiling slightly, " It would be nice having a place of my own when I start college."
"Oh yeah, which college you intend to go to? Harvard?" He grinned cheekily, knowing that she's bound to get into the top colleges in the country looking at her straight A grades.
"Nah…it's too upper crust for me. The people there are too intellectual and I'm not that clever. " She laughed lightly. "Maybe your sisters, Kim and Jessica, might go there one day. They seem really smart to me."
"Hahaha…probably when that day happens, they'll drive the professors there crazy with their profound speeches! Well, they did drive my dad's football team crazy when they taught them last year. " He chuckled at that memory.
Fern chuckled along when the shrill ringing of the phone suddenly pierced through the room. Before Charlie could even reached the phone to pick it up, the ringing stopped. He looked at Fern and shrugged.
"Guess someone's picked it up."
Just then, Lorraine's voice was heard shouting from a few doors down. "Charlie! It's for you! Beth's on the line!"
As he picked up the receiver, he hollered back, "I've got it! You can put down now!"
He forgot that Fern was still there and at the look of the stunned face that marred her face at the outburst, he turned sheepish.
"Opps! Sorry you had to hear that," he apologized. He was still holding the receiver without muffling it, thus Beth could hear every word of their conversation.
Fern laughed and said, "Nah… it's alright. Just surprised that's all. We're done here anyway, so I'll leave you to your call. I guess I'll just head on home." She smiled and packed her stuff and prepared to leave but he stopped her.
"I'll send you. It's already quite dark outside and it's the least I can do. Why don't you wait downstairs while I take this call," he offered.
"Are you sure? I can go home by myself, no worries. "
"It's no trouble, really." He grinned.
"Alright then. I'll wait for you downstairs. You take your time with your call." She smiled and swiftly finished packing her things and turned to leave the room.
As she left the room, she heard Charlie saying, "Beth! I'm so sorry…" and she headed downstairs towards the living room to wait for him, knowing that it will be a long time before he finishes with his phone call with Beth.
…
Back in Jake's Room
All of the younger Baker kids were huddled in Jake's room, with the exception of Kyle and Nigel.
"Where are the twins?" Sarah asked as they entered the room and noticed the absence of the little tykes. She settled herself down on the huge beanbag on one corner of Jake's room, but not before shoving a pair of dirty cargo pants on the floor to make room for her to sit. Jake closed the door behind him and locked it to make sure that none of their parent would barge in during their 'meeting'.
"Oh, they're helping Mom right now, rearranging their sock drawer, so it looks like we have to go on without them for now. I'll fill them in on this later," Mark looked up from playing with Scrubs on his lap and answered.
"Well maybe it's best they don't hear this yet. I don't think they're old enough to handle this." She said when Kim suddenly gasped.
"Oh my, Jake, your room is really untidy! " she remarked, holding up a smelly sock with one hand and pinching her nose with another. She chucked the sock at him and it landed on his head. The rest of them chuckled.
"What do you expect? A flowery room with the floor sparkling clean?" He retorted sarcastically, grabbing the dirty sock off his head, balling it and threw it into his laundry basket that was overflowing with dirty laundry, making a perfect shot as it landed on the top most pile.
"So is the coast clear?" Sarah asked.
"Yup."
"So care to enlighten us now?" Jessica prodded.
"Well that was straight to the point." Henry remarked.
Looking at the eager and waiting faces in the room, Mike spoke up. "Alright. I'll explain to them," but he looked at Sarah for confirmation first.
"Sure, fine by me." She shrugged and he started retelling the whole story right from the beginning when he overheard their dad on the phone and passed on to Sarah and Jake to tell them about their discovery in Tom's office.
By the time they were done, a mixture of expressions from astonishment to downright horror grazed the faces of their siblings. There was a momentary silence until Mark broke it.
"Are you really sure that Dad's having an affair?" he asked, doubt lacing his voice. "Maybe, you might be mistaken or something?" He hoped that they were.
"Mark, it's true. And we have her picture to prove it." Sarah reached her pockets for the picture but came up empty. She frowned as she frantically patted her back pockets but there was no sign of the piece of glossed photograph. "Uh Jake, do you have the picture with you?"
"No, you had it last remember?"
"Well, I remember putting it in my back pocket earlier…." And suddenly a look of horror masked her face when she suddenly remembered something. "Shit!"
"What!" they chorused.
"Jake! Remember what happened earlier? We crashed to the floor when mom busted on us while we were eavesdropping them! I think the photo slipped out of my pocket!"
"Oh no! If mom ever finds that photo…" he trailed off and their eyes widened in horror at the thought of their mom finding that picture. "To the kitchen!" he ordered and all of them barged out of the room towards the kitchen, Jake and Sarah in the lead. When they reached the kitchen, Sarah halted them to wait outside.
Meanwhile in the kitchen
Kate was unloading the dishwasher when a piece of paper on the floor caught her eyes. She bent down and picked it up and saw the words….'Dear Tom'….
TBC
