Disclaimer: Me no own Sarah, nor Jake, nor Mike, nor Charlie, nor any of the other Baker clan. I do, however, own Ryan, Jenkins, Puceton…yada yada yada. You get the idea.

A/N: Man, my story is getting longer and longer by the month. And I have yet to reach the part where the Reginalds come to Forest Avenue. Well, I'm taking this story slow and hope you guys will be patient with me. And I know it's been over a month for me to update but I've been really tight in my schedule with all my school activities and camps to organize. Hope you guys understand and thanks again for all the reviews! And on another note, I'm trying to improve on my style of writing and I hope I'm more structured in terms of whose pov that I'm using.

Rating: Nothing violently descriptive. Hey, this is a family movie. But just in case, it's PG 13. Contains loads of sarcasm, bantering, chucking things on the head, and annoying siblings and even more annoying classmates.

Reviewers:

NcsoccerplayerOkay, I know you're very eager which I can tell by looking at the number of reviews you have given me but do give me time to formulate my plot and think of the story. I need at least two days to complete one chapter and when my enthusiasm is low, it'll take longer. Sometimes, when I'm inspired, I can churn up to two chapters but right now, I'm feeling less creative. So do give me leeway for the long delays in updating cos' I have other things in my life too. Hope you understand.

Kimmy Boo: Opps. I know I made a fumble somewhere, but yes, Charlie is still in High School and he has the year left to go before he graduates to college. I made the mistake in the first few chapters cos' I forgot to recheck my plot. Thanks for bringing that up!

Points to note about this fic: I made Jake and Sarah to be about the same age, which is thirteen years old. Somehow, in the movie, I didn't accept that Sarah was older than Jake because Jake looks so much older than her and taller. I guess, Girls do mature faster than boys, and they wanted to make Sarah the chief troublemaker in the Baker family, so that's why they probably made her older I think. But they're not twins, although compared to the rest of the cast members, they tend to look the most sibling like due to the same hair and facial appearance.

The Split of the Dozen

By avren

15 + Nightmare

Flashback

Sarah sneaked in through the back door and quickly slid into her seat just as Miss Jenkins turned around after writing on the board and faced the class. Sarah saw her teacher looking at her in her seat and gave a knowing smile but decided not to say anything even though she clearly knew that Sarah had just sneaked in after the bell rang. Sarah heaved a sigh of relief inwardly, thankful that she wasn't in trouble and slumped in her seat as Miss Jenkins started to address the class. Her good friend, Kristy, who was sitting two seats in front of her in the next aisle, turned around and smiled at her. She returned the smile and faced Jenkins.

"All right class. Settle down please." Sarah followed Jenkins' pointed gaze to the group of girls that consisted of Veronica, her archrival, and her posse, whom was still giggling about god-knows-what in the center of the classroom. They immediately silenced and looked eagerly to the Jenkins.

"As you are all aware after being in this school for several years, that each year, it's almost a tradition for several chosen classes to perform for the whole school at the Annual Theatrette Extravaganza."

As she spoke, her expression was becoming one of eager and excitement and she almost broke into a grin upon the next sentence that she was going to tell them. Sarah looked at her amused. 'Any more excitement and she'll wet her pants.'

"I'm extremely pleased to inform you that our class are one of the lucky few to be chosen to perform at this event!" She revealed excitedly and looked at her students expectantly to see what their reactions would be.

Unsurprisingly, Jenkins was met with a whole barrage of expressions from the looks of her students, ranging from those of excitement and squealing of glee, to surprise and astonishment, to doubt and puzzlement, and to disgust and objection. Followed by the showcase of emotions, came the outburst of conversations all around the room.

"What?"

"No way! Really?"

"Awesome!"

"Oh my god. This can't be happening."

"So exciting! I get to be a star!"

"Oh brother."

"Great. Just fantastic." Someone sarcastically. Sarah turned towards the source of the voice only to find her other enemy, none other than THE Ryan Reynolds. The constant irritating itch that always manages to get her riled up within a few seconds. 'Looks like someone is just as unhappy as I am about this play.' She mused though watching him intensely folding the piece of paper into an airplane; he looks like he couldn't be bothered about the play.

Sarah dropped her head in despair on her desk as the news sank in her head. She moaned to herself. 'Please don't make me be in the play.' She chanted it over and over again in her head hoping that if she said it a lot of times, her wish may be granted. Being in a play is just something not in her list of things to do right now. Besides, she does not possess any stage talent that would make her useful in the play. 'I hope she puts me in the props department or the backstage crew.' She kept her hopes up.

Little did she know that what is to come would be the opposite of what she hoped for.

Erica Jenkins glanced around the classroom, looking at the various expressions on her student' faces and trying to answer the barrage of questions that were thrown at her upon the revelation of their participation in the play. She noticed that a lot of her students were pretty much excited about it except for a particular few, who were either moaning and grumbling to themselves and banging their head on their desk, or not giving a care at all. Two of them were the chief troublemakers in her class, Sarah and Ryan. The archenemies that loves to banter with each other over the smallest of things.

When she was first assigned to this class to be her form class, she was a little apprehensive to have Sarah Baker, Ryan Reynolds AND Veronica Link all in her class. She's heard from the previous tutors who had taught these three that they require a little more discipline and strictness when handling them and in having all three in the same class, it's jus like dynamite waiting to explode. Luckily, there had been no such cases yet but somehow, she has a feeling that she might experience it soon.

What she learnt was that Sarah was famous for attracting and causing trouble. She and her brother, Jake Baker, both brunettes and was about her age but in a different form class, - 'Thank god for that' - is always being sent to detention for all their pranks and mischief that they did in school. You could say that they're literally honorary members of the detention room since they're always being sent there for countless of reasons. Even though they were always in detention, the trouble that they caused are usually those of fun and pranks that they pulled on other kids, and never had it been the case for stealing or more serious problems. And she was thankful for that.

Ryan Reynolds was another of Sarah's kind. What that means is that it's as if these two were vying for the same position of being the best mischief-maker in school. It's like both of them are trying to outdo each other in terms of the amount of trouble they caused, and Ryan was a close second behind Sarah in the position of the most number of detention they've gotten. Coincidentally, he is also a brunette and is a very good looking one too, making him the envy of other guys as a lot of girls are vying for his attention. He is also a skateboarder, who is also a good friend of Jake, but surprisingly, he and Sarah can never get along.

As for Veronica, well, besides being a raven-haired extremely pretty head cheerleader of the junior squad in school, technically, she can never get along with Sarah, who is seen as a tomboy with pig-tails. Veronica has her own posse following her around and hangs out with the popular crowd, since she is after all the popular girl in school. Plus, she keeps trying to get Ryan's attention, which is to no avail since he doesn't seem the least interested in her, or girls in fact.

Right now, she found Sarah slumped over her desk, mumbling to herself whereas Ryan was busy folding a paper airplane and was not aware that she was looking at him.

Her lips curved slightly, albeit a little on the evil side as she thought about the reactions of these duo when she reveals the next part of the news. Their parts in the play. 'This should be interesting.'

"Okay class, before you ask me anything about the play, let me clear several things first." Her voice overrode the din, silencing their chatter. "Firstly, I need to emphasize that everyone will be involved in this play, whether you'll be acting in the play or even as the props or costume or any other department that you're assigned to, all of you have a part to play in this production."

On the side, Veronica was whispering not so quietly to her girls. "No doubt I'll be the lead as always." She smirked confidently. She saw Sarah rolling her eyes.

"Secondly, you must give in your fullest commitment to this play because this is a very special event for us since we're one of the lucky few to be chosen and as the Annual Theatrette Extravaganza is quite a huge event since parents and outsiders will be invited to watch, I expect all of you to put in your very best effort in making this play a success!"

'Way to put pressure on us.' Sarah groaned inwardly and propped her head on one of her hands to support her head as she listened to the rest of Miss Jenkins' announcement.

"So now, I'll be reading out your roles and duties in this play and I hope you listen carefully cos' I won't be repeating it twice." She warned the class and everyone sat up attentively. Even Sarah was eager to know what role she was assigned and she crossed her fingers and hoped that she was given props management or something that does not require acting.

"For those who will be in the play –" Jenkins started but was cut off by Ryan who suddenly seemed to be interested. "Yes Mr. Reynolds?"

"What play will we be doing?" He asked, curiosity evident on his face.

Jenkins gave a small smile and said. "Oh right, I forgot to tell you what play we will be doing. Well, the drama committee has selected a few scripts for the chosen classes to put up and –" Again she was cut off.

"Just say the name already!" Someone shouted. Jenkins appeared irritated for a moment but the moment passed and she gave a patient smile.

"We'll be performing Beauty and The Beast."

Dead silence filed the room as jaws dropped in shock upon hearing the play that they will be putting up. For a while, no one said anything until someone reiterated her sentence.

"Bbeauty… and the Bbeast?" He managed to choke out.

"Yes. Beauty and the Beast." Jenkins confirmed. Looking at the horrified faces of her students, her smile turned to a frown. "Why? What's wrong with it?"

"What's wrong with it!" One of her other classmates repeated.

"It's such a kiddish play!" Shouts started to fill the classroom with objections being raised about the play that they're going to perform.

"What are we? Eight year olds?" Sarah voiced out. Some nodded their agreement.

"Now now. I know Beauty and The Beast sounds like a play the first graders would put up, but this script has been revamped to have a totally different plot and angle. You need not have to worry about looking like kiddies." Jenkins reassured them though some were still unconvinced that Beauty and The Beast can be played by teens. Sarah is one of them.

The students were now chattering amongst themselves discussing about the play. Kristy had turned towards her but before she could open her mouth to discuss about the choice of the play that they'll be performing, Jenkins ordered for silence.

"I'll read out the names and the roles that you'll be doing in this production so listen up. There will be no switching of roles since every name is being randomly matched with their roles and the reason for that is because we want to give each and every one of you a chance to prove yourself. " Jenkins looked at her students pointedly and everyone groaned when they heard that their roles were being randomly matched. "Oh and another thing, this play will count towards 20 of your final grades and if you do not want to be failing at the end of this year, I hope you'll work hard to make this play a success." More groaning ensued from the class.

'Hopefully I'm given a stage crew job. Please please please.' Sarah chanted the mantra in her head as Jenkins began reading out the names from her list.

"I'll be reading the roles of those who will be performing the play first, starting with Beast and Belle. The Leads of the play."

Everyone gave their attention towards the front as Jenkins began.

"The Beast will be played by Ryan Reynolds." Sarah chuckled when she heard his name. 'Beast and Ryan. What a perfect fit.'

"But..but.." Ryan protested but Jenkins glared at him. He dropped his head on the desk and banged it repeatedly in despair.

"Now that's a good one. The real beast is going to play Beast. What an accurate match." Sarah chuckled out loud and Kristy joined in her amusement. Reynolds looked up from his head banging and glared at her but she just stuck out her tongue. 'Hey, I never said I was mature.' Sarah snickered to herself.

Jenkins cleared her throat and continued. "Now, the two leads will require an understudy in case anything happens to the lead characters so, Brad Averment, you're the understudy for Beast."

Sarah looked towards the red head guy who was sitting in the center of the classroom. Ben shrugged and did not say anything which means he have no objection to his role.

"And as for Belle, it will be played by –" Jenkins continued.

"That'll definitely be me." Sarah heard Veronica said loudly to her posse, who was all nodding their heads eagerly and in agreement.

'Cocky much?' Sarah rolled her eyes at Veronica and was just in time to hear her name being mentioned.

"Belle will be played by Sarah Baker."

"WHAT?" Both Sarah and Veronica gasped in astonishment. Both had incredulous expressions on their faces.

"Did I hear that correctly? Sarah BAKER is playing Beauty!" Veronica turned to look at me in disgust. "But she isn't even pretty!"

Kristy shouted in Sarah's defense. "And you think you are?" She mocked.

"But I should have been Belle!" Veronica whined, looking at Jenkins with pleading eyes.

"And I don't WANT to be Belle!" Sarah added vehemently. 'Please don't let this be true.'

Jenkins cut in before a quarrel broke out. "Enough girls. The decision is final. Veronica, your name has been chosen to be the understudy for Belle, so if anything happens to Sarah during the course of the play, you'll have to take her place instead."

'Oh great. I'll bet she'll be planning my death so that she'll be able to replace me.' Sarah thought to herself. 'But hey! That's not a bad idea! If I get myself sick or something, she'll have to replace me and I won't have to suffer through the humiliation when I make a fool of myself in the play!' Her expression suddenly brightened and she became more hopeful.

"Understudy?" Veronica pondered. "Fine." She reluctantly agreed. "But I'll be the prettiest understudy there ever was!"

"Oh brother." Both Sarah and Ryan groaned at the same time and they quickly glared at each other.

Jenkins continued. "Okay, now that we have the lead roles sorted out, just something I want to say before I read the rest of the names. The understudies have to be in every practice session so that in any case of the lead character not being able to make it, the understudy needs to already know the position and the script. Is that clear?"

'Great. Now I'll have to see Veronica AND Ryan every time. Can this get any worse,' she moaned to herself while the other three replied to Jenkins.

"Now moving on to the rest of your roles…" Sarah's mind started to wander off, switching off her ears to her teacher reading out the names from the list.

'Let's hope the practice sessions go off painlessly shall we?' She sighed and dropped her head on the desk, drowning herself in the cacophony of sounds around her.

END OF FLASHBACK

Sarah heaved a huge sigh after thinking about that incident and grabbed her alarm clock from the table beside her bed and adjusted it to five am.

'Six am tomorrow. I hope is survive through this.' Her last thought as her eyes drooped shut and she drifted off to a dreamless sleep, not knowing what is waiting for her tomorrow morning.