The Sweetest Baker

Chapter Two--Your Typical Unexplained Fight

If there was one thing about having twelve siblings, it meant that in any conversation Mom and Dad tried to have themselves, someone or other would eavesdrop. After Dad came home, he barely said 'hi' to us as he walked in the door dragging Mom down the steps to the basement. The second Jake, Henry, Kim, Jessica, Mike, Sarah, Mark, and I saw that something was up,  we ran to the washer and dryer. I grabbed Mike by the hand so that he wasn't dragged behind. Once we noticed that Dad knew us too well, we ran to the laundry shoot, Mike offering to go down on the rope.

Once we were sure that he wanted to do this, we made sure he was comfortable. I stood in front of Henry since I was the tallest and hoisted the rope down. I breathed heavily realizing this job was harder than I thought. We overhear them mumbling but we can't hear what they're trying to say. Charlie was still with the twins at the dentist's but was expected back any minute. I almost felt bad not including Kyle and Nigel but I feared this plan was too dangerous. A minute later, we brought our brother up. By the look on his face, he looked like he had regretted the decision to go down there.

"We're gonna move!" he announced. I was so shocked that I dropped it, not thinking of poor Mike. That was when I heard him scream as he went down to the basement. My heart broke as I went to get my brother.

~~~~

"Alright, everyone! You know the drill, right? When I count to three, give me a big cheese," Dad announced as I sat next to Mike on the first step, my arms crossed. I wore a long-sleeved red Christmas sweater with reindeer and snowflakes around it. My lipstick was a ruby-red color courtesy of Lorraine. My hair was in a braid with a red and green hat with stripes on top. It turned out everyone sitting on the steps was miserable in their own way.

Lorraine and both sets of twins were above me. Both twins were matching each other as per usual. Sarah sat on the last step with Henry, Gunner, and Charlie. Jake, who wasn't out yet, had a spot standing beside Henry and Sarah. One second later, as if I called it, Jake came outside in all black. Mom looked at him, not amused.

"Jake. Do you have to wear black?" she called, getting no answer from her son.

"Black works, Mom. Jesus had his funeral on Christmas," Lorraine informed her. I stared at Mike and Mark as they both shrugged.

"No, he didn't, Barbie. Funerals weren't even a thing. He died on Easter," Henry insulted. I shook my head at the two. Here we were having an argument about something that was plainly obvious.

"Whatever," Lorraine said, annoyed.

"He was resurrected on Easter, moron," typical Jessica sassed. I held my hand out for a high five for her which I did. Henry hit her on the back.

"Be quiet," he ordered.

"Don't touch her!" I shouted defending my sister. "She didn't do anything wrong!" I wasn't sure if he heard me though because at this point, everyone had started fighting with each other.

"Hey! What is all this about?!" Dad shouted.

"Since when were you going to talk to us about moving?" Sarah demanded. We all shouted our excuses for why we didn't want to leave. Mom and Dad stared at each other confused wondering how we knew that. Then, I guess they remembered Mike and they stared at us with a guilty look on their faces.

~~~~

"I'm not moving," Charlie retorted immediately from next to me on the couch, Jessica on his lap, Kim on mine. Everyone else surrounded us nodding in agreement.

"Charlie, honey. Evanston is only four hours away. Beth can come and visit on the weekend and you can see her if you don't have school," Mom reassured him.