Jan Goes Bad
A/N: I do not own any of the characters, settings, etc. I am only basing my fanfic on the show. The only part that I created is this plot. Please read the story and review and tell me what you think. Don't hesitate to criticize and give me pointers. Thanks.
Chapter 1: Lonely
The Brady family was known to be very happy. Mr. and Mrs. Brady lived in a big house with their six children. The family had little problems, and the problems they did have usually took only 30 minutes or less to solve. However, they were about to face a problem that would take much longer than that to solve. It involved Mr. and Mrs. Brady's daughter, Jan. She was the middle child and did not think she was special, and as a result, this would later turn out to be a much larger problem that would affect the entire family severely.
At this moment, the family was around the house up to different things. Mr. Brady was an architect, and at this point, he was in his den making sketches for a movie theater. Mrs. Brady was in the living room sewing. Alice, the family's maid, was in the kitchen preparing turkey for dinner. She worked 24 hours, 7 days a week nonstop. Most of the kids were in the driveway playing basketball. The only one that was not present in the driveway was Jan. She was up in the girls' bedroom still in bed. She had wakened up at 7:00 in the morning, and it was now 3:00 in the afternoon. She only got up once to eat breakfast with the family, but after that, she went straight back to bed. She didn't feel like doing anything. Nobody noticed her and it seemed that nobody cared about her. Since she had nothing better to do, she spent the day lying in bed.
"You're a nobody. You're nothing," Jan thought as she lay quietly in bed.
Oddly enough, Mr. and Mrs. Brady didn't even realize she was still in bed. Nobody was aware of that fact. It seemed that Jan was not noticed in the family whether she was with the family or not.
Three hours later, Alice called everyone for dinner, and everyone gathered around the dinner table to eat. They said the blessing, and then they began to eat their delicious turkey dinner.
"So who won the game?" Mr. Brady asked the kids.
"Bobby," said Greg. "He thinks he's so good, but I'll take him down tomorrow."
"That's what you think," said Bobby.
The family continued to eat and discuss different topics. It wasn't until after dinner was over that the family realized that somebody was absent at the table.
"You know, Mike, does it seem to you that somebody's missing?" Mrs. Brady asked.
"Yeah, sort of," Mr. Brady replied. "Kids, is anyone missing?" he asked.
"Not that we know of," Peter said.
Mr. Brady counted everyone at the table and thought he knew who was missing. "I know," he said. "Tiger's missing."
"Tiger doesn't eat here, Daddy," Cindy said.
"Well, um… I don't know who else could be missing," Mr. Brady replied.
"Oh, wait, I know. Jan's missing," said Mrs. Brady.
"Jan? Jan who?" Mr. Brady asked.
"Our daughter," Mrs. Brady said.
"We have a daughter named Jan?" Mr. Brady said, sounding surprised.
"Yeah, I think so," Mrs. Brady said.
"Kids, do you know where Jan is?" Mr. Brady asked. The kids shrugged and acknowledged the fact that they didn't know.
"Who knows, who cares?" Marcia said.
The entire family seemed to agree, and then they started to get up and collect their dishes. They gave them to Alice to wash, and then the kids headed upstairs to the bedrooms. The kids shared two bedrooms. The girls slept in one, and Peter and Bobby shared another one. Greg once shared a room with the boys, but he later got his own room in the attic.
The girls were surprised to find that Jan was still in bed. She'd probably been there all day. She was snoring away, and it was only 7:00 in the evening.
"Jan? Jan?" Cindy prodded Jan. She didn't respond. Cindy kept poking Jan, but it didn't do any good.
"I'll handle this," Marcia said. "JAN, WAKE UP!" she shouted. Then she punched Jan hard on the arm.
Jan jerked and fell out of bed after being yelled at and punched. Then she slowly woke up. "Don't punch me while I'm sleeping!"
"You're a geek. I can do whatever I want to you," Marcia said.
At this point, Jan was fed up. Nobody noticed her, and she was going to find a way to get the attention and respect she deserved. Jan jumped up and punched Marcia hard in the shoulder. Then, she slapped her in the cheek and shoved her to the ground. "Don't you call me a geek again!" yelled Jan. Marcia cried in pain and limped off to bed. Jan turned off the lights and got in her bed. She had enough of people treating her like she was nothing special. Jan was fed up, and she wanted to do something to show her defiance. Then, she slowly drifted off to sleep.