Friends Don't Look At Friend That Way | Jake Baker

Chapter 12

"Kids on the carpet! Now!" Tom demands from downstairs. I sigh and roll my eyes.

"Come on Mads." Jake says in a bored tone.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." I mutter and get off the floor before walking out of our room and to the stairs to see the whole Stallions team. 

I hear a gasp from behind me. "Dad! College guys?!" Lorraine shrieks. I turn to see her wearing a green face mask and a messy bun on her head. 

"This is why I don't bother with that kinda stuff." I laugh.

"And you're already beautiful." Jake adds and smirks when I start to blush.

"Ahhh!" Lorraine runs back to her room.

"What's going on here?" Jake asks, placing his arm on my shoulders.

"Where's Charlie?" Tom asks after scanning over his children.

"He went to Midland for the day." I answer.

"Midland? Its a school day." Tom says.

"He hates school." Henry states.

" 'Course you wouldn't know that cos you're never home." Sarah says rudely.

Tom puts a fake smile on, "Well, that is about to change, Sarah Baker. Because since I can't go to work without you guys getting in trouble and since I can't stay home without Shake bugging me, I have brought my work home with me. Guys, meet the family. Family, meet the team."

"Sup boys!" Jake nods to the team.

"Sup!" The team replies with small smiles.

"Okay." Tom nods. "We will be in the living room. We got a lot of work to do. And I don't want any interruptions unless its an emergency, clear?"

We all have blank expressions on our faces. "Okay. Now go do your homework. Um.... Maddison's in charge."

"Shouldn't Henry be in charge? He's older." I question.

"Technically Lorraine is older." Jessica corrects. I give her a 'really' look. "You're right I wouldn't want her in charge either."

"No, Maddie you are in charge." Tom says confidently. "Maddie listen, you are my quarterback. This is my team, our team. You have the biggest job, now don't let me or the team down, got it?"

"Got it coach." I mockingly salute him.

"Good. Now go." Tom smiles and shoo's us away.

______________

Everything is changing around here. We all thought having Tom work from home might get things back to normal. Well as normal as the Bakers are. But we were so wrong.

Half the kids don't show up to Tom's games anymore. School is even more terrible then before.  There's never any food in the house because of Tom's team eating it all. The only eventful things in our lives are watching the Stallions practise and going for walks/ skating every now and then. Charlie is spending less time at school and home because he hates it, but Tom still makes him do school runs.

______________

Everyone is at the table eating breakfast before school and Tom is no where to be seen. 

"Alright guys, I'm on drop offs again today so who's needs a ride?" Charlie speaks up.

Everyone raises their hand but me. "Maddie, you don't need a ride?"

"Nah, I'm thinking about walking." I inform him.

"Oh alright." Charlie smiles.

"We want to go with Maddie!" Nigel and Kyle shout.

"Only if that's alright with Maddie..." Charlie trails off, looking at me with puppy dog eyes, the twins soon joining him. 

I sigh, "Okay."

"Yay!" The twins cheer.

"Go get dressed." They nod and run to their rooms.

"Thanks Maddie." 

"No problem Char." I smile and finish my toast.

"Yo Mads, do you want me to come?" Jake asks.

"No, its fine Jake. You can go with everyone else if you want." I tell him.

"Let me rephrase that." He starts. "I want to come with you."

"Oh okay." I giggle.

______________

Me and Jake approach our school after coming from dropping the twins at pre-school and see the rest of the Baker's getting out he car. "Hey Bakers!"

"Hey Quinn and other Baker!" Mike smiles.

I look at Mark and see a sad look on his face, I follow his gaze to see two rich boys walking without a care in the world.

"Something tells me you had an unpleasant interaction with those boys, Mark." Kim reads my mind.

"They knocked my glasses off." Mark admits. What is it with this school and doorknobs who think they're better then everyone?!

Me and Jake share a glance before tapping Mike on the shoulder to get his attention and striding over to the boys we were talking about. 

"I heard you were dissing my family." Jake states.

The blonde boys scoffs, "I don't even know your family, loser."

"You do now!" Mike hits the boys latte out his hand.

"My latte!" The boy cries. Suddenly a full on fight breaks out between the Baker boys and the bullies. I keep Jess and Kim out of it as I try stop the boys from fighting, whilst a huddle begins to form around us.

"Boys lets go!" I try to tell them but end up getting shoved into the fight by someone in the newly formed crowd. 

After a while, teachers come out to break the fight up and we are all hauled to the principle's office.

______________

"Alright, enough is enough." Tom begins. "You're slacking on your chores, you're fighting in school. Things are out of control."

"As of this moment, you are all grounded." Tom states.

"What's grounded?" Mike asks.

" 'what's grounded?' I'll tell you what grounded is." Tom fake smiles. "Except for attending games, you go to school, you come home from school, you do your homework, you do your chores, you go to bed. That's it!"

"But that-"

"Oh yes Sarah, I know. That sucks." He cuts his daughter off. "But that's the way it is."

"Does this mean we can't go to Dylan's birthday party?" Jake asks.

"That's exactly what it means."

"But we brought his presents already." Kim tries to reason.

"You are going to miss it!" There's a long pause. "Now go to bed."

______________

The next day at school, the two girls that have been harassing me really pissed me off so I ended up punching one in the face. Bad idea! They both ganged up on me. It was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, except this time I was losing. 

Half way through the fight I felt too arms wrap around my waist from behind and pull me back, then I heard Jake's voice in my ear.

Long story short, we both got hauled to the principle's office, again. This time I ended up with a split lip due to one of the girl's rings but they were in a worst shape then me.

Tom was furious!