Two Dozen People, One Family

Chapter 1

“Trenton, Nathan stop it now!” I screamed as I chased my identical six year old brothers down the stairs. “Give me my school paper back!” I panted as I grabbed Nate and rip the beat up paper out of his hands.

“Ha ha ha ha!” They taunted me as the terror twins ran to the play room.

“Ugh! I hate being in this family!” I said out loud as I shoved my paper into my backpack and zipped it up. Just then Danny came whizzing past me on his skateboard, which made me loose my balance and the contents of my backpack went spuing out all over the floor. “Watch it Danny!” I said angrily picking up my math book and some homework papers. Danny of course didn’t hear me. He just kept on rolling. Then as I was picking up my papers Robbie came in trampling all over my papers with his muddy boots!

“Sorry Katie!” he said as he kept running. At this point I was about to SCREAM!

In my HUGE family there are sixteen kids including me. I know I know how do my parents do it? I have no clue whatsoever!

The oldest is Matthew James he’s eighteen. He is very stylish and his curly blond hair is past his ears. He’s a sweet brother, but hardly ever helps out. He’s always playing his guitar up in the attic. He is moving out to go to college in a year or so.

The second oldest is Elizabeth Kay, She is sixteen. She’s not such a bad sister, sometimes. She’s got long dark brown hair. We get in fights a lot. She’s all into make-up and junk. She always has to have her clothes just so. She takes up most of the closet and she basically lives in the bathroom. Not that she’s constipated or anything she just always is fixing her hair and stuff.

The next is Daniel Chase, who’s fourteen. Him and Matt are best friends. He’s got short brown hair. He loves to skateboard and play football. He’s a genius at school though. He’s got an IQ of like 1,000. We call him Danny. He sort of small for his age and gets picked on a lot.

The second oldest girl is Samantha Nicole or Sam. She is twelve. She is a total tom-boy and is always with the guys. She wears the guys hand-me-downs and everything. Her and I get along fine, but we’re not really close. She’s all into punk stuff. Not like me at all. I don’t hate her or anything. I talk to her sometimes, but most of the time I don’t understand her. She talks all gangsta like.

Jonathan Seth is next. Johnny is kinda chunky for his age. He is eleven. He wants to be an artist. He is really funny, he’s probably the comedian in the family. He’s constantly making us all laugh. His paintings are a lot like Picasso. Like taking a bucket of paint and dumping it on a canvass is his idea of a painting. He swears that one day he will be famous.

Next is me, but I’ll come back to me later.

After me is Caleb Clent, He’s nine. Me and him are really close. I am only a year older than him. He’s got blond curly hair too. But his hair only goes about halfway past his ears. I talk to him a lot about my problems and vice-versa. He’s my favorite brother. We built an old tree house in the back yard when we moved in. We talk a lot out there. He’s the only guy I’ve ever known that likes talking with girls.

The eight year old poet/writer is Katherine Lynn. She is a writing nut! No joke! Kathy-Lynn is always writing something down. She carries her notebook everywhere with her. She’s quite mature for her age. She’s like those people (I don’t know what they’re called) that write everything down. I think it’s called a scribe or something. She’s in this stage where she has to rhyme everything too. It drives me CRAZY! Me and her share a bunk. She wants to go to Paris and write one day.

Then there’s Robert Trevor. He’s seven. He loves animals, but the wrong ones. Robbie’s always finding frogs and snakes and chasing Christy with them. It’s kinda funny. Mom is constantly telling him to put the frogs and lizards outside. He has a pet snake named Sneaky. Mom makes him keep it outside in a pen.

Then there’s Trenton Chad and Nathan Scott the terror twins. They’re only six, but make more trouble than the rest of the boys put together. They have short blond hair and they get Matt to spike it for them. They can be cute when they want to be, but mostly are terrors. If something breaks its normally there fault!

Next is Christiana Marie. She is a little lady, although she’s only five. Christy always hast to be in a dress and hates dirt. She’s got long blond hair. She loves to drive me CRAZY singing songs WAY off key! Her favorite is “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round.” But She pronounces it “Da Heels on Da Dus Do Round Da Round.”

The twin girls Emma Grace and Ella Faith are the next ones on the list, they’re four. They got short brown hair and they always have to match. You can only tell them apart by the color they’re wearing. Emma wears purple and Ella wears pink. Heaven help their new teacher. They are probably my favorites, next to Caleb of course. That’s only if I had to choose.

Who’s next? Oh yeah Jason Luke, who’s three. He is a cutie pie. We call him Jay-Jay. He’s looks so cute in his jean overalls.

Rebecca Anne is the youngest she’s two. There’s not much to say about her, except She’s learning how to talk. Her and Jay like to play together. We call her Becky-Anne.

Last, but not least, there’s me Katie Rose. I am ten. I’ll be eleven in three months. I am the only one in our family that has red hair. Mom says I get it from my Great-Grandma. I am adventurous and I love to read. As you can tell we have a large family!

I’ll name them off just in case you got confused. There’s Matt, Lizzie, Danny, Sam, Johnny, Me, Caleb, Kathy-Lynn, Robbie, Trent and Nate, Christy, Emma and Ella, Jay-Jay, and Becky-Anne. Got it? Ok.

We live in the city and it’s pretty crowded. We have a five bedroom house and four kids share a room. Lizzie, Sam, Me, and Kathy-Lynn share a room. Kathy and I have a bunk bed. I get the top cause I’m the oldest. We just moved to New Jersey from Illinois three years ago. Jay-Jay and Becky-Anne weren’t born yet. Today was the first day of our new school and so far hadn’t gone to great. We transferred schools because the other one was too expensive.

“Kids! Breakfast!” I heard mom yell from the kitchen. All sixteen kids scrambled to the table. All except Becky-Anne, but she was already at her highchair.

We ate breakfast as fast as we could and made a terrible mess in the process. Then it was mine and Johnny’s turn to load the dishwasher. Ella, Emma,

Jay, and Becky-Anne stayed at home with mom while we went to school, because they’re to young to go.

The rest of us piled into the fifteen passenger van with dad. He dropped us off at school on his way to work. The one thing I like about school is that I’m away from all my brothers and sisters. Not that I don’t like them or anything, but sometimes I just want to be alone.

We soon pulled up in front of Jefferson Elementary School. People stared as all us younger kids jumped out of the van. Matt, Lizzie, and Danny go to the high school.

I hurried to my class. The first bell rang as I entered my classroom. My teacher’s name was Miss Ruby. She was waiting at the door to shake each child’s hand.

“Hello, you must be Katie Harper.” She said.

“How did She know my name?” I wondered. I just shook her hand and nodded my head. I walked in the room and put my bag on one of the hooks. I found a seat my by best friend that had gone to the same school as me last year. Her name is Rebecca Anderson.

“Hi! How did your summer go?” I asked.

“Great, I spent most of it at my Grandparents house in Idaho. How was yours?” She asked. Ever since Rebecca’s parents died in a fire last year she’s been bounced around from relative to relative. I feel sorry for her. She’s an only child and I know she gets lonely. Currently she’s living with her Aunt and Uncle. I guess I’ve been like a sister to her ever since her parents died.

“Same old, same old,” I said. “My little brother, Robbie, broke his arm. But He’s better now”

“Wow!” She said. She loves hearing about my families catastrophes.

We talked until the second bell rang. Then Miss Ruby wrote her name on the board.

“I am Miss Ruby,” She told us. “I hope you will have a good time this year and you enjoy fifth grade.”

We started on math first. It was harder than fourth grade, but not as hard as Matt, Lizzie, Danny, Sammy, and Johnny warned. We worked hard at our subjects and soon it was lunch time. The bell rang and we all lined up in front of the door. Mom packed me a lunch like she usually does.

“Single file line, please!” Miss Ruby said as we marched down the hall into the lunch room. I found a table with Rebecca and some girls my age. I slowly pulled things out of my lunch hoping there would be something I liked. An apple, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a box of apple juice. I made a face, because I hate peanut butter and jelly. As I ate I spotted Caleb at a table across the room. “He’s a class clown and probably has already made a bunch of friends,” I thought.

As I finished up the bell rang for lunch to be over. I threw my trash in the trash can and zipped up my lunch box. I was the first one to arrive at class. Miss Ruby was sitting at her desk writing something down.

“So you have fifteen brothers and sisters?” She asked me.

“Yes ma’am,” I said as I sat down. I really didn’t want to talk about my family, but I couldn’t stop her.

“Wow. That must be fun,” She said trying to make conversation.

“Sometimes,” I said hoping she’d drop the subject before someone came in.

The other kids arrived just then. We started on reading and I was relieved. Just when I thought my new school was not so bad, one of the kids behind me threw a crumpled up ball of paper at my head. I opened it cautiously. It had a picture of “The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe” with a ton of kids around her. It said at the bottom, “The Brady Bunch times ten.” My face got red hot. I couldn’t move my head. Not even to look back and try to figure out who threw it. Rebecca saw it and whispered, “Don’t mind them. They’re idiots.” I felt a little better. I knew that I at least had one friend.

School was finally done and I grabbed my bag. I met Caleb at his classroom as usual and we headed outside. We talked about our day as we walked. Sounded like his day had gone great. He had made a ton of friends. He asked me how my day was. I told him it wasn’t bad, but didn’t tell him about the note. We piled into the van. As soon as everyone was at the van we headed for home.

I was met by the twin girls when I opened the door. They wanted me to play Candy Land with them. I told them maybe when I finished my homework. I gave mom a kiss then went up to my, our, room. Lizzie was already there. She was at her desk she got last Christmas.

“Quiet please,” She said. “I have a lot of homework. Ugh, I hate the eleventh grade.” She complained as I climbed onto my bunk.

“I like fifth,” I said cheerfully. I pulled out my reading book and read a chapter. When I finished I went downstairs to play Candy Land with Ellie, Emmy, and Christy. I let Emmy win. When we finished mom asked if I could help with dinner. I said yes and went to the kitchen. I could see from the window Robbie, Trenton, and Nathan jumping on the trampoline outside. Little Jay tried to join in too. Sometimes I wish I was a boy. Then I wouldn’t have to help with dinner. It’s kinda a family tradition, only the girls have to help cook.

Just a little bit after we had started on dinner Lizzie came down to help out. I thought to my self while I stirred the soup. I thought how Lizzie’s not so bad, when she wants to be. I thought about the note. Are we really like “The Brady Bunch?” My thoughts where interrupted by mom’s voice.

“Katie Rose! The soups burning!”

I quickly snapped out of it. Sure enough smoke was tumbling from the soup. I quickly turned off the burner. I could tell mom was not happy. But she didn’t yell at me.

“Oh well, I guess we will just have to eat it like this,” She said.

“You dork!” Lizzie yelled. “What were you doing?”

I quickly took back all the nice things I thought about her and started thinking how mean she was.

“I’m sorry,” I said and started setting the table.

“It’s ok,” Mom told me. “Lizzie, go call everyone for dinner.”

Lizzie went off grumbling the whole way.

We all were soon seated and Dad said grace. Then the chaos started. Lizzie was complaining about the soup. Trenton and Nathan where throwing mashed potatoes at each other. Danny and Matt were talking about the rock concert coming up. Sam joined in too. Kathy-Lynn was of course writing something down. Mom was feeding Becky-Anne, and Dad was helping Jay. Johnny was making some kind of art sculpture with the green beans. Christy was telling the twin girls how overwhelming kindergarten is. Robbie was asking mom what overwhelming was while trying to chew a mouthful of potatoes. Caleb was the only one being normal. That’s what I like about him. And I just sat there watching everyone and thinking to my self.

Dad could tell something was wrong and asked, “How was your day Hon?”

“Fine,” I said trying to give a smile.

He didn’t give up though, “What’s your teacher’s name?” He asked.

“Miss Ruby.”

“Is she nice.”

“Yes sir,” I said still playing with my food.

Dad finally gave up trying to make conversation with me. When dinner was over Matt and Lizzie helped mom clear the food. Mom gave each older child, except Matt and Lizzie, a younger child to get ready for bed. I got Emma and Ella.

Soon all the dishes were in the dishwasher and the little ones were in bed. Mom did the laundry and Dad, Matt, Danny, Johnny, Me, Caleb, and Kathy-Lynn played a game of Scrabble. Danny won as usual and the game was over. The rest of us kids went to bed. Kathy-Lynn and I were careful not to wake up Liz and Sam when we got in our beds. They don’t really like Scrabble. When I got settled I pulled out my flashlight and read ahead in my reading book. I’m not supposed to, but I couldn’t help it the book was too interesting. Lizzie finally motioned for me to go to sleep from the bunk bed on the other side of the room. So I did.