Sorry it took so long to update. I tried posting it a few days ago, but it kept saying there was an error. Anyways, enjoy chapter 5.
!JAKE'S POV!
"Jake! Get out of the kitchen!" Sarah screeches at me. "Gee, Sarah." I put the lid back on the pot that I was inspecting. It's Alyssa and I's anniversary and everyone is coming over. And I mean everybody. Audrey's and Alyssa's mom had the kids for the day while the three girls prepared everything all day. Why does everything have to be so uptight in this family? Shouldn't we relax sometime or another. The doorbell rings. "Ugh! Who's that?" Alyssa asks. "No one is supposed to be here yet!" "Calm down, Alyssa," I call from the foyer. I walk to the door and swing it open only to see Alyssa and Audrey's mother, along with a hyper Cayden, Rylee, Crystal, and Eve. "Hi Jake!" their mother says, giving me a kiss on the cheek. "Something smells good!" She walks right into the kitchen, the place I was not welcome. Of course since the girls do not trust me to do anything that has to do with this party, I am the babysitter. While everyone else is getting everything completely ready for the party, the only thing I'm allowed to do is take all the kids upstairs and entertain them somehow which is a lot harder than it sounds. I was also blessed with the job of getting our guest rooms ready. Since my entire family is coming down this weekend, some of my siblings and their families are going to have to stay with Alyssa and me because there's not enough room at my parent's house anymore. Some people are even staying at Audrey and Kevin's and Sarah and Kyle's. I told you everyone was coming. "No! Cayden! Don't jump on the beds right now! They have to look nice for when the people come over!" I yell. I pick Cayden and see Eve with a cup of grape juice. How does this girl always end up with grape juice? "Eve! Put that down! Not on your white dress!" I take the cup from her hand, still holding Cayden. Eve start to cry. "No no no. I didn't mean to make you--" I sigh and put the cup down and pick Eve up. Just then Alyssa comes stomping upstairs. "Jake, do you think you could keep the kids from crying for like 5 minutes? Geez." She snaps as she takes Eve. "Look, I have 4 kids to look after and keep quiet I don't need you yelling at me too." She heaves a frustrated sigh. "Look. I know we've been fighting a lot lately but can we please just act like everything's ok while we have everyone over?" "Geez Alyssa. Who's the one fighting?" Alyssa opens her mouth to give an answer when someone comes running up the stairs. "Is that my Evie I hear crying?" Kevin's voice asks. He comes into the room and takes the crying Eve from Alyssa. She's immediately silenced. "Hey guys. I hope you don't mind. I just let myself in," Kevin says. Alyssa shrugs. "I've got stuff to do," she says and walks back downstairs. "Stressful day?" Kevin asks. "Stressful month," I reply. "Man, am I glad you're here. I can't handle four at once." "No problem." Rylee starts to open the closet door. "Yo, Rylee! Keep your hands off that door," Kevin says in a teasing tone. Rylee giggles and runs out of the room. Kevin turns to me "So? You've had a stressful month?" I sigh as I pick up Crystal before she knocked down the picture frame sitting on top of the fireplace. "Have I ever? Man I go to work all day, work my butt off, come home and all Alyssa wants to do is pick fights. In fact, that's all she ever does. She will go out of her way to find something to argue with me about." Crystal squirms "Daddy. I have to go potty." "Can you hold it?" I roll my eyes at the idiocrocy of my question. I take Crystal to the bathroom and return to the guest room. "So, what is Alyssa fighting about?" "Oh, you know. I work too much and I never make time for the family. Stuff like that." I put Crystal down. "Do you?" "Do I what?" "Work too much. Maybe it's true." "What the heck, Kevin? You're supposed to be on my side." "I'm on the kids' side here." I sigh and I'm thankful that the doorbell rings that second.
!SARAH'S POV!
The doorbell rings. "I'll get it," I say. I wipe my hands off and walk into the foyer. I'm not used to wearing high heels and I stumble into the room. I open the door to see my mom and dad, as well as Kyle and Nigel, who are both about a foot taller than I am now. "Hey mom! Hey dad! Kyle and Nigel," I say. We all exchange hugs. "Wow honey. Don't you look nice?" My mom says as she gives me a hug. "Thanks." Nigel and Kyle, who are about 17, now come in and of course immediately ask where the food is and I point them in the right direction. "Where's your brother?" My mom asks. I shrug. "Probably upstairs. We left him with babysitting duty," I say. "Oh. I taught you well, honey," My mom goes into the living room, followed by my dad. I don't even get the door closed before Tyler and Dylan run into the house. Kyle comes running in after them. "I think we need a leash for them," he says, kissing me on the cheek. "You're probably right," I say. "Where are the guys?" "Upstairs." I point up. Kyle runs up the stairs. I close the door and start to go back into the kitchen, but the doorbell rings again. "Geez," I say to myself. I stumble into the foyer again and open the door. It's Charlie, his wife, Maureen, and their two children. "Hey" I say giving them both a hug as the kids run upstairs. "What's going on?" Charlie asks. I sigh. "Just getting ready for this party all day. Jake, Kevin, and Kyle are upstairs if you want to go hang with them and Nigel and Kyle are over by the food." He nods and heads upstairs. Maureen joins Alyssa, Audrey, and I in the kitchen. Jacob comes down into the kitchen moments later. "Hey mom," he says, hugging mom. "Hey Mo," he says to Maureen. "It's nice of you to join us," mom says. Alyssa glances at him. "Yeah," Jake says. "What's wrong with you I ask?" "My dad skills," he says. "Well, maybe if you were ever around, you'd have some," Alyssa says under her breath. "Hey Jake! There's a game on!" Charlie yells from the other room. "All right. I'm coming!" Jake calls back. Jake goes into the living room with the rest of the guys and I look over at Alyssa who is opening and slamming drawers. "What are you looking for?" I ask her. "The ice cream scooper." I pick it off the counter. "It's right here." She heaves a frustrated sigh and takes it out of my hand. "Are you ok, Alyssa?" Without even looking up she replies "No. I'm not." "It's your anniversary, Alyssa. Be happy." She looks at me and for a moment, I think she's going to slap me. She looks away. "I don't want to talk about it," she says. She walks out of the room and up the stairs. I can hear her slam the door. I glance at my mom, Audrey, and her mom. All three of us know better than to mess with Alyssa right now. I sighed. Why do guys have to be such jerks sometimes? Just then the doorbell rang again. I answer it. It's Lorraine and her new boyfriend, Lucas. I think the only ones who have met him are mom and dad. Today was not the best day for him to be introduced to the family but what can you do?
!AUDREY'S POV!
I follow Sarah into the foyer as she lets Lorraine and her boyfriend, Lucas, through the door. "Hey Lorraine !" I say. I give her a hug after Sarah does. Lorraine introduces us to Lucas. He seems nice enough. Lorraine has fulfilled her dreams of becoming a fashion designer, so I guess Lucas is probably in the fashion industry as well. We show them the living room and I volunteer to take door duty as people start coming in now. Sarah says that she'll go upstairs to see if she can talk to Alyssa. The doorbell rings again. I can hear voice outside the door before I can ever get to it. I open the door to see Nora, Bud, and five children. "Hi Nora! Hey Bud!" The children file in one by one and stand in a little group. I look at all five of their faces and try to remember their names, but fail. Nora is pregnant again. How does she do it? "The kids are upstairs if you want to go play," I tell the kids. They scatter off around me. "They're so cute," I tell Nora and Bud. I can hear lots of stomping upstairs now. I bet there are 13 kids running around up there. I hope Alyssa hid all the breakable stuff. "You're welcome to go into the living room." Nora heads for the kitchen and Bud goes into the living room. I'm about to close the door when I see two little girls running up the sidewalk. "Hey Sophia! Hey Morgan!" It's Kevin's sister, Ava, her husband, Brandon, and their two girls. I give Sophia and Morgan hugs before they run upstairs. Ava comes in hurriedly behind them, with Brandon close behind. "Hey Ava! We have a house full of kids." "I bet!" She says. She's one of those people that always seems like she's in a hurry, while Brandon is very laidback. "You can... just go wherever you want," I tell them, noticing the kitchen and living room becoming very full. Why did we decide to have all these people in this house?
!ALYSSA'S POV!
I cannot believe how incredible jerky Jake has been acting lately. He's never at home and he expects me to feel sorry for him since he's having trouble getting the kids to listen to him and be still and quiet. He needs a serious reality check. I honestly am not in the mood for an anniversary party, much less my own. I figure I'll try my best to make it through the day without smacking Jake upside the head. My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. I opened it half hoping it was Jake coming to apologize but it wasn't. Sarah walks into the room and sits down. Without even saying a word, I knew what she was there for. She knew I did too; she just sat there not saying a word, just looking at me until I started talking. "Your brother is being a jerk." I say quietly. She makes her way over to where I was sitting and sat down next to me. "I know he is, but this is your anniversary and it's supposed to be a happy occasion." I don't feel happy..." "I know. Just try to make it through the rest of today in a semi-happy mood. When everyone leaves you can fight with him all you want." I sigh. "Yeah. I guess I can do that." She smiles. "Come on. Almost everyone's here. You'll have a lot of people to talk to." I slowly stood back up and walked back downstairs. When we got downstairs, I tried my best to stay away from the living room, where the guys were watching the game and supposedly watching the kids. After a while, everyone had arrived and the game was over. I still tried to stay on the opposite side of the room from where Jake was. I knew if he said one more thing to me, I would explode and probably start beating him up or something. It wasn't too incredibly difficult considering the house was full. I decide to show Lorraine and Lucas, Mark, his wife Jane, and 2 kids Chase and McKenzie, and Mike the rooms where they are staying. After getting them settled I make my way downstairs and mingle with everyone else. While I talked with everyone I couldn't get my mind off the fact that all I wanted to do was crawl in my bed and just lay there without anyone bothering me. I just want to be alone.
!KEVIN'S POV!
"So, what are you up to now Charlie?" I ask, moving the mashed potatoes down the table for the 15th time. "Working on cars, of course," he says. Maureen smiles at him. Charlie really did get a beautiful woman. She had dark hair and dark eyes. She almost had a Spanish look about her. Both of their kids, Autumn and Jeremy, had dark hair. "What about you?" Charlie asks me. "I'm teaching." "A teacher? Really?" "Yeah. You didn't know that?" "Guess not. There are so many people in this family; it's hard to keep track of who does what." "Yeah. That's true." I look over and see Jake staring at his plate, tapping his fork angrily. He was clearly out of it. I lean over. "What's wrong with you?" "Alyssa." I sighed. "What did she do?" He looked up at me like I was the stupidest person alive. "Are you kidding?" "Look, have you ever thought that there might be some truth in what she's saying?" Jake's eyes get huge. "Whose side are you on?" "No one's! I'm just saying. Maybe that would just resolve all of us." "I'm not backing down." "Ok, dude. But just remember this: women always win." Jake shoots me a look. I look down at Audrey who's sitting a few seats down, chatting with Henry and his girlfriend, Olivia, as well as Lorraine and Lucas. Audrey sees me looking at her and winks. I smile at her and wink back. After everyone finishes eating, dessert is brought out. Jake is still sitting there, moping and I look over at Alyssa to see she isn't much happier. Why won't they just make up already? This is getting ridiculous. All of a sudden I hear the loud screech of tires and a car drive off. I guess everybody else heard it too because they all looked up. An awkward silence falls over the room. Audrey smiles and stands up. "Who wants dessert!?" Everyone's mind is taken of the screeching tires and on to dessert. An hour or so later, all the dessert is gone and everyone is tired. It's hard to believe we're going to do this all again tomorrow. Everyone starts to clean up. Audrey and I get Eve, along with Henry and Olivia, and my sisters Madison and Ava, who were staying at our house. "What was that?" I ask as we enter our room. "I have no idea." The next morning, we head back over to Jake and Alyssa's house. We were the first ones there as usual but after a while everyone showed up. Alyssa and Jake pretty much stayed away from each other. It is really awkward being around Alyssa and Jake because Jake is definitely my best friend and best friends are supposed to back each other up but I think Alyssa has a point. I tried to avoid talking to either one of them about it. I figure if I stay out of their business, neither one of them will end up mad at me. I think everyone else got the same idea I did, though, so Alyssa and Jake were basically ignored the whole night. Whenever one of them looked at me, I would look away. I noticed Audrey doing the same thing. I even feel guilty for feeling better about Audrey and I's relationship compared to Jake and Alyssa's. Usually Alyssa and Jake seem so happy, they rarely fight. But when they do, it's huge. I was in the middle of talking to Mike when I hear a bunch of noise coming from the kitchen. I think I hear Alyssa's voice. I decide to go check it out. "If you were home once in awhile, then maybe the kids would do what you say!" Alyssa says, slamming a pot on the counter. "Well, maybe if you gave me a reason to stay home, then I would! You're always yelling at me these days and I can't stand it!" Jake's fists are clenched up at his side. "You're the reason I'm yelling!" I notice I'm not the only one that has come to watch. I have never seen either one of them this mad. After a long pause, Alyssa speaks again. "That's it. I have had it. I'm out of here." and with that, Alyssa left.
!KYLE'S POV!
I was happy to have my younger brother in town. I wanted him to meet all the friends I had made and this was the perfect opportunity for it. Sure, he had casually met them when Sarah and I got married, but this was truly a time for bonding in my mind. However, the atmosphere in the Baker house was not settling. Even on their anniversary, it seemed that Alyssa and Jake's problems were so great, that they couldn't even put them aside for two or three days. This was something they clearly needed to sort out. Alyssa and Jake had a blowout in the kitchen and I thought they were going to rip each other's heads off. Everyone pretended like they weren't paying attention to what was going on, but I knew everyone was waiting to see what happened. Alyssa ended up just walking out the front door, getting in her car, and leaving. Andrew, my younger brother, came over to me. "Is this how they always act?" I looked at him and he was holding hands with his girlfriend, Gwen. "Fortunately, no. But unfortunately, this is the day of all days the problem blew up." I looked at Jake, who looked as if he could either throw up or cry. I could tell he was debating whether he should run out of the room, or continue on as if nothing happened. I look at Sarah. She doesn't know what to do either. Sarah runs over to Jake. "Don't just stand there. Go after her. It's your anniversary for heaven's sake!" Jake looks at her and still looks like he's going to cry. He doesn't say anything. Sarah shoves him towards the door. "Go." "I don't know where she went. Do you think she will come back?" "Well, if you don't go after her, she might take a hint and not come back." Again, Jake looks as if he's going to throw up. "Are you going to come with me?" he asks, sounding like the little brother he is. "I wish I could Jake, but this is something you've got to do alone." Jake takes a deep breath and pushes out of the room. The door slams and the room is silent. I look at Sarah once again, and she looks as if she's going to cry. Sarah never cries.