Disclaimer: I don't own Cheaper By The Dozen or any of it's characters.
Friday rolled around finally, Tom had left for work early leaving behind a note Lorraine and Kim were on breakfast duty, Jake had lunches and Charlie had to drop everyone off. By the time everyone was organized and at school Charlie and Lorraine were running late. Nigel and Kyle had given them a tough time when they had dropped them off at nursery school. The bell had just rung as the two were getting out of the car. Lorraine told Charlie to hurry or they'd be late when Micah and his friends ambled up.
"Cute car seats Baker" Micah antagonized.
Lorraine was so sick to death of Micah and his smart mouth, he was always 'mooing' whenever he saw them and just being a jerk in general.
"We had to take our little brothers to nursery school, if that's ok with you" Lorraine retorted.
Micah took on a fake look of concern and placed his hands on his chest 'endearingly'.
"What happened? Did mommy and daddy go back to the farm?" his friends laughed behind him.
Charlie had, had enough too. His temper was beyond breaking point.
He slammed his car door shut.
"You know this whole 'harass the hick' thing's getting pretty old" Charlie fumed walking over to where Micah was standing. Lorraine stayed by the car.
"Actually I'm just getting started" Micah said.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah"
"What else you got?" Charlie asked stepping even closer to Micah getting into his face.
Micah's friends stepped closer too seeing the threat.
"You don't wanna know man" Micah replied
"Oh I really wanna know"
Enough was enough. The Last thing Charlie needed was to get suspended over some jerks antics.
"Charlie!" Lorraine yelled hurrying to step between the two. "Charlie stop, stop, just let it go ok? Please" Lorraine asked looking up at him. He kept his eye's on Micah not even taking any notice of her. Lorraine begged silently for Micah to keep his mouth shut long enough for her to push Charlie away and get them to class.
No such luck.
"Yeah Charlie" Lorraine's shoulders slumped at the sound of Micah's voice.
'He just had to put his two-bit in' Lorraine thought,
"Let it go and go… All the way back to Podunk" Micah's friends snickered. Charlie started forward but Lorraine gave Charlie another shove, this time he moved. Lorraine took his arm and turned him around.
"Charlie go" Lorraine said leading him away. Charlie reefed his arm away from her and walked ahead, Lorraine walked faster to keep up but glanced over her shoulder and gave Micah a sad look.
'What did he have to be so mean?' she wondered turning her head back and kept walking.
Her first class that day was English. Everyone was already seated and working quietly on their essays that they were given on Tuesday by Mrs Robins. There was an empty seat next to Justine so Lorraine entered the classroom quietly and sat down.
"Next time Miss Baker I would appreciate if you turned up to my lesson on time" Mrs Robins said sharply.
"Sorry Ma'am" Lorraine said sheepishly reaching down into her backpack and got out her notebook and continued on with her essay like everyone else.
The rest of the day went pretty quick, after speaking to Justine about their essays both of whom had almost finished decided that they would go back to Justine's to work on them and rest of their homework freeing them up for the weekend.
After getting all the required books from their lockers the pair of them walked to Charlie's car where he was waiting. Lorraine told him that she was going to Justine's to do homework and gave him Justine's number in case their dad needed to reach her. Charlie started his car and drove off home.
"Come on we have to catch a ride with my brother he'll be waiting for us" Justine said walking off in the direction of her brother's car. She came to a car and pulled open the front passenger door then motioned for Lorraine to get into the back. Lorraine open the car door and got in.
"Hey" Justine said to the guy behind the wheel. Lorraine almost did a double take. The guy behind the wheel was Micah Daniels.
"Hey kid how was you day?" He asked.
"Yeah not bad, Lorraine's coming home with us so we can study"
"No problem, how're you doing Baker" Micah asked trying to make polite conversation.
"Fine" she replied and turned and looked out her window. She didn't want to sit there and make small talk with him. Not after how he had made coming to school tough for her and Charlie. Micah sighed, started the car and drove out of the school car park and home.
When the two girls were up in Justine's bedroom Lorraine almost exploded.
"You never told me your brother was Micah Daniels, wait I thought your last name was Williams"
"It is, Micah is my step brother and it never came up so I didn't tell you"
"Even after Charlie and me vented on you?"
"Look I know Micah can be a jerk but he can be a normal person too, are we gonna get started on our homework or talk about my brother all afternoon?"
"Homework" Lorraine agreed. They sat on Justine's bed and did their homework for a while. Lorraine feeling thirsty got up and went downstairs to get a drink of water from the kitchen, as she stood by the sink drinking Micah walked in.
"How's it going up there, getting a lot done?"
"Yeah" Lorraine answered then put her empty glass in the sink and went to go back upstairs. She practically sprinted up them and hurried back to Justine's room and continued with her work. Justine looked at her strange when she came back in but didn't say anything. Lorraine didn't know how long they had been sitting there when there was a knock on Justine's door.
"Come in" Justine called. The door opened slightly and an older female popped her head around it. "Hey mom" Justine said
"Hey sweetie how's the homework coming along?"
"Yeah we're just about done, mom this is Lorraine Baker, Lorraine this is my mom Annette Daniels"
"Nice to meet you Mrs Daniels" Lorraine said politely
"You too Lorraine, Are you staying for dinner?"
"Uh no, I should probably be heading home now anyway"
"Ok I'll get Micah to drop you off"
"Uh that's ok I can walk"
"Don't be silly sweetie I'm sure it's no hassle"
"Ok" Lorraine said lamely, she didn't want to be outright rude to Justine's mom by telling her she would rather walk on broken glass than sit in a car with Micah Daniels again.
"Come on I think he's in his room" Justine's mom said. Lorraine packed all her stuff up and said 'goodbye' to Justine then followed Justine's mom out of the room. They walked down to the end of the hall and opened a closed door. There was another flight of stairs and at the top another closed door Mrs Daniels walked up them and knocked on the door. Lorraine could hear someone playing guitar up there as she slowly followed her up, by the time she reached the top step the music had stopped and Micah had opened the door.
"Hey mom what's up?" Micah asked. He stood there bare-chested and bare foot.
"Would you be able to take Lorraine home for me honey?"
"Uh sure, just give me a minute" Micah said, saying the last bit to Lorraine.
"Thanks Micah" Mrs Daniels said and walked back down to the second floor. Lorraine stood there awkwardly not sure whether to follow Micah and Justine's mom or stay where she was. Micah solved that for her.
"Uh come on in" he said opening the door even more allowing her entry.
"Thanks" Lorraine mumbled quietly and stepped inside. His room was huge it was obviously the attic but had been turned into a bedroom with it's own lounge area and bathroom at one end and a sleeping area at the other. Micah walked over to a tallboy and opened a draw taking out a t-shirt and pulled it on. He then slid his feet into a pair of shoes and grabbed his car keys off the coffee table.
"You ready to go?" Micah asked. Lorraine nodded her head then followed him down both flights of stairs and out to his car parked in the driveway. She hadn't realised how dark it was until then, 'no wonder their mom had insisted on the lift home' Lorraine thought. She gave Micah her address then was silent the rest of the trip.
"Thanks for the lift" Lorraine said quietly and opened her car door.
"No problem" Micah replied. He waited until Lorraine had made it to the front door before he drove off.
Lorraine ate her dinner and then went up to her room not saying much at all to anyone. Charlie thought this was a bit strange of her so he went up and knocked on her door, when she let him in he asked who had dropped her off and she just told him Justine's older brother, not mentioning names. The afternoon had been a bit much for her and she didn't really want to talk, she just wanted to be by herself. Charlie took the hint and left quietly. She got changed into her pyjamas and went to bed early. It took her awhile before she could actually fall asleep, and when she did it wasn't all that great she dreamt of Micah Daniels for the first time that night.
Little did she know it wasn't going to be her last.