"Divided We Stand" – Chapter One, "Rain"

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Summary: Drake and Josh over - hear private conversations and find out that a hurtful blow is coming to them soon concerning their family. My third D&J story, R&R!

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A/N: I'll make it short and sweet -- for my faithful "Party in a Box" readers and fans, here's another new story. This one is much less depressing, and much, much less disastrous, so it's pretty fun and easy to write. I came up with this storyline out of the blue and I thought it was clever enough to earn itself a new story, so please enjoy! I love all you guys! Edit: I got the comments about how hard it was to read the dialogue, so I changed around the paragraphs. Hope it reads better!
-Morgan

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Fic Information--

Story: "Divided We Stand"

Chapter: "Rain", One

Date Begun: February Fifth, Two-Thousand and Six

Date Chapter Finished: February Seventh, Two-Thousand and Six

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Drake Parker slid down the hall in his red socks and ducked in to the empty kitchen. He had just come in from school and what he needed most was a big, preferably sugary snack. As he took another slippery step toward the cabinets beside the refrigerator, he noticed the soft trickle of spring rain on the foggy glass of the kitchen window and sighed in a carefree way, as a blithe smile slid to his lips. Unlike his highly straight – laced step brother Josh, he liked rain very much. Rain made him happy and kind of set him in a peaceful, creative mood. This was only one of the many bits of sweet oddity about the boy. Looking at Drake, you'd easily notice many of the other bits—the odd way his brown eyes shimmered and the way his eyebrows bent in a feel of playfulness; the curious way his soft brown bangs of his hair hung and swayed just above his eyes; the avant-garde clothes he wore and the quirky jesting in his smile.

Singing the chorus to one of his newly written songs in a quiet mumble, he reached up and yanked open the door to the cabinet mounted on the wall, and began to dig around inside it, searching for a treat that would hit the spot. "Aha!" he murmured, pulling out a bag of candy corn and popping a handful in his mouth. Gulping them down almost simultaneously, he closed his eyes and sighed happily, again: "How good s candy?" The question was aimed at himself, but he jumped back a little bit in surprise when he received an answer. After spinning around and realizing that the sound of speech was coming from the next room and that he was still by himself.

A little half - frown twined itself in to his brows and his caramel eyes glittered in curiosity as he took a few quiet steps to the side and around the island in the middle of the kitchen, stopping at the edge of the room to lean close to the closed shutters, drawn across the window of the living room.

Everything was quiet for a minute more, but then, finally after a long pause of bleak silence, Drake listened and heard his mother speak up in a hushed tone, making him strain his keen ears to hear what she was saying so quietly.

"Walter, we can't just… just pretend this isn't going to happen. I mean, they may be teen agers, but we have to realize that they—"

"Audrey, I know—" "We'll have to tell them! I'd be pointless to pass over and keep from them, now! It's already almost done!"

The deep voice of Walter spoke: "Audrey, I know already! It's just that well… they might not like it! I mean, being that way for so long and having to explain leaving would be so hard."

"It can't be simply put aside! It may seem pointless to do this, but it's been needing to happen for a long, long time. And when it happens, now… well, believe me, their going to notice a change as drastic as that!" she replied.

"Look, don't be sarcastic."

"I'm not!"

"Oh, yes you are."

Drake's eyes filled with confusion and he shot away from the window. What in the world? He quickly put down the candy he had been clenching and he stopped to lean up against the wall and think for a minute.

"What could they possibly be talking about? Are we moving? No! We can't move! I can't move out of this city and leave all my friends! I'd leave them all so, so much! Trevor and Scottie, and Rebecca, Patricia, Ashley, Renee, and Caitlyn, and Lorelei, Hannah and Stephanie, Danielle, Netta, Amanda, Alyson, Denise, Cynthia and Manyana, Lily, Rosabeth and Emily, Jamie, Essy and Jo, Gina and M—wait, focus! …Could we really be moving?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, a fearful look flashed through his eyes and he grabbed a can of Dr. Fizz, frowning with a wide eyed look of horror and pushing through the swinging door, out of the kitchen. "Mom! Mom, are we moving? We so can't move away from here! Please, PLEASE say we're not moving!"

"Wha—Dr—Drake! N-no! No, honey, we're not moving. Don't worry—you'll live here for a long time." His mother stuttered, seeming surprised as she jumped up from the couch.

"What… made you say a silly thing like that?" Walter asked, with the same apprehension in his voice.

"Well—" Drake began to reveal that he had been listening in, in the kitchen, but for some reason something stopped him: "Well, um… nothing really. Just… thinking about it, really."

The room fell awquardly silent again and Drake began to ask a question as Walter shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortably, but he was immediately cut off by his brother running in from outside, exclaiming: "Dude, the ice cream truck's making it's first round of the year down the street!"

Momentarily, Drake's dim face lightened in to a childish expression and temporarily forgetting the mysterious way his parents where acting, he rushed forward: "AWESOME! I bet I can beat you there!"

"Who ever gets there last has to pay for the ice cream!" Josh laughed.

"Ha, not me!" Drake said, as he threw open the door, and Audrey gasped as he started out side: "But, Drake, it's raining out there!" Her sentence was too late for him to catch, but Josh, who was still inside, threw out his hands, exclaiming a: "Mom, who cares? It's the ICE CREAM TRUCK!"

Then turning toward the door, he followed his brother and shut the door, but not before calling out: "Rocky Road, here I come!"

Audrey watched her sons exit the house and slowly her eyes traveled back to her husband, as she sighed. The room was quiet between them for a minute and then Walter let out a harsh breath. "Did you see that, Audrey? Their just like little kids! We can't just—" he began, but she cut him off:
"Walter, we really have to. And we have to tell them. I really, really don't want to have to fight with you about this thing anymore. As I said, already… it's been coming for a long while."

The front door opened again and an eleven year old girl stepped through it, muttering: "Dumb rain…"

She shook her thoroughly wet umbrella out of the front door as best as she could, and then leaned it against the wall beside the door. She slid out of her rain - dotted, deep red colored blazer and tossed her amber, deep brown hair back, over her shoulder.

It was rather obvious that Drake was her biological brother, because she had his same, deep, twinkling brown eyes and the same soft wave in her long locks. She stepped in to the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator, reaching in and sighing before she grabbed out a can of soda and popped it open, sipping it and walking back in to the living room.

Lifting her head and walking forward, catching her two parents in her view, she spoke up: "Hey guys. What's up?"

"Nothing really, with us, Megan. Tell us, sweetie-- how did your drama class go?" Audrey asked, cracking a smile and leading her daughter to sit beside her.

"Oh, man, it was awful, Mom! I'm really glad my friend Shannon's Mom was a little early to pick us both up. That way I didn't have to stay there any longer. Seriously, like nobody in that class can act at all. It's completely excruciating to have to watch and listen to. Oh yeah! And I forgot-- I'm supposed to homework! For it, I'm supposed to write a dramatic and comedic short story to act out in class! Who ever's story wins the highest grade, gets to be the star in the play we're putting on next month. The worst thing is that I can't think of anything and its due by Monday!" the girl exclaimed: "...Stupid drama."

"I thought you loved drama--" Drake exclaimed, walking back inside with his brother at his side and with a slightly rainy ice cream cone in each of their hands: "Or maybe just causing it..." he continued, with a quieter voice and slightly mischievous chuckle and raise of his eyebrows.

"Drake..." Walter said, in an almost warning growl.

"Okay, I'm sorry." he sighed, taking a lick at his melting scoop of ice cream.

"Well, you should be." the pre - teen age girl said, narrowing her eyes.

"Look, guys, your mother and I are going to go get the car washed, okay?" Walter said, motioning for their mother to grab her coat, as she stood.

"Can I come with you?" Megan asked.

"No!" her father snapped, making the young girl shrink back at the unexpected bark.

"...He means that we'll just be back in a while, Megan. You go watch TV in your room or play with your Pintendo GS until we return, okay, sweetie?"

"Okay, mommy."

"Bye, Mom--Dad." Drake said, shrugging and stepping across the room, a bit closer to the couch.

"Bye, kids." Walter replied, closing the door behind them as Josh walked over to where the other boy was sitting on the sofa.

"So... you guys actually chased down the ice cream truck in the rain?" Megan said, after a moment of staring at the wet ends of Drake's hair hanging down in his eyes.

"Well..." Drake began: "Yup." both said, simultaneously.

"We have ice cream in the freezer!" the practical girl smirked, frowning and crossing her arms.

"So? ...Ice cream truck ice cream is just bettah!" Josh replied, taking a bite out of his cone.

"And anyway, there wasn't even any waiting line at the truck, so we got it really fast!" Drake smiled, shrugging also.

"...That's because other people aren't as stupid as you guys, and their smart enough to stay home, stay... dry, and eat free ice cream. Boobs!" she exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

"Well, the rain was wet, so you do kind of have a good little point there--" Josh began, being cut off by Drake: "You're agreeing to her calling us boobs, you idiot!"

"Drake, I am not an idiot!" Josh growled.

"You know, Josh, you're right for once--you're not an idiot--you're a boob!" Drake exclaimed loudly.

"Whatever, I'm going to my room to obey Mommy." Megan said, with a quick, innocent bat of her eye lashes. "Oh, yeah," she finished, stopping at the doorway and turning around: "And if you guys don't want to catch pneumonia, I'd really suggest getting up off your lazy butts and changing in to clothes that haven't been through Niagara." With these last words, the little brunette figure disappeared in to the stair well, leaving her two older brothers alone in silence except for the fading echo of her foot steps up the stairs.

"Dude, she is right-- I'm getting totally uncomfortable in these clothes." Josh said standing up and helping up sopping wet opposite: "It's just too wet in all the wrong places."

Drake nodded and started toward the stairs with him, stopping only for a moment to throw the very small remains of his cone in the trash can in the dining room.

Once the teen agers where upstairs and in their room, the two boys headed to their closet and taking out better, certainly dryer clothes, then beginning to change in to them as quickly as they could. "Hey... Josh?" Drake asked, as he pulled his soft tee - shirt on over his head shook out his loose, brown - gold mane of hair.

"Yeah, Drake?" Josh smiled with a truly kind and content smile, looking up and running his hand through his own dark, slightly damp hair.

"...Do you happen to know about any secret things Mom and Dad are planning?" came the questioning reply.

"What do you mean?"

Drake leaned against the silver ladder of his bed and laced a tired arm carefully through the rungs, beginning to shake his head: "That's just it-- I don't really know yet. I was just in the kitchen grabbing a snack and I heard them talking. Dad said something to Mom about 'leaving after being here for so long'. I wondered if they were thinking about perhaps buying us a new house, but when I came out of the kitchen and asked Mom about it, she acted all... weird and said no. I was just thinking that maybe you were in on some kind of deal with them or something. Or maybe you have some inside scoop on what this is all about."

"Drake, I'm not the publisher of a useless teen age magazine-- and I don't even know what they could be up to. ...Much less do I know of any 'inside scoops'!"

"Well, I was just asking!" Drake laughed at his brother with a roll of the eyes as he drew himself from the metal ladder and stepped a few steps across the room, sitting on the sofa in the center of it.

"Ughhh... do you know what has to be one of the worst feelings in the whole history of the world EVER?" he started, after a minute, looking up with a deep grimace.

"Being a D minus student in school and being hopelessly and overly obsessed with seeking pleasure from young, teen age girls?" Josh asked.

"You're a D minus student? Josh, why didn't you TELL ME?" Drake replied, gasping truthfully and grabbing his brother's shoulder.

"Not me. I was talking about-- Ohh, never MIND. There's no use in trying to explain any of it to you. What to you is the worst feeling 'in the history of the world, ever', if... that's even grammatically correct?"

"Wet socks! Blach! Their disgusting!" Drake replied, finally reaching down and ripping the damp red socks from his feet, tossing them over his shoulder.

"Oh, yeah, Drake... wet socks is the worst feeling as opposed to cancer, being murdered, being helplessly alone or suffering depression like some people all over the world!" Josh said, rolling his eyes and watching his step brother walk over and open up the drawer of the dresser to grab some dry socks.

"...And hey! Thank you for throwing your dirty, dripping wet socks on to my fresh, clean bed! Now we can all feel better!"

Drake simply let out an: "Eeeh," and grabbed up his old socks off Josh's bed, tossing them instead at his brother's face, before he sat down to put on the fresh ones.

Suddenly the brother's phone on the desk began ringing loudly and Josh darted across the room, throwing the socks on to the floor and looking to check the caller i.d. screen. "Hey, Drake, it's Dad's new cell." Josh said, almost unconsciously.

"Oh really? I wonder what he could possibly want." Drake replied, looking up and standing, taking a few steps until he was beside the other boy: "Put it on speaker phone before you answer, I want to hear."

"'Kay..." Josh murmured, punching a few buttons and then looking back over at his brother before turning to the phone and smiling: "Hello, Dad?"

What the boys heard next was so strange that it took them a while to figure out. There were quiet voices talking over the line, but they sounded almost far away-- as if they weren't meant to be heard by the listeners on the other end of the line. Drake and Josh listened for a long moment before realizing that there were two voices and that they both belonged to their parents. Leaning in close to the speaker on the telephone cradle, the boys tried hard to discern what they were saying, with out even coming to the realization that perhaps they shouldn't be listening.

"Audrey, I'm telling you, their not old enough now to--"

"Listen to me! You know how bad it's been lately, and it's not going to get any better instantly, so the best thing to do is to walk away from it and get all new. And I mean ALL new. Not a bit left of the old one. I couldn't stand that and neither could they."

"But this means so much to me! Is it really... over?"

"...Yes Walter. Now let it go."

Drake and Josh frowned, pulling back and straightening themselves up. "Why did they call us and then--"

Josh cut off his brother's useless question and answered it all at the same moment: "He didn't call us on purpose, I don't think... his new cell phone has that voice recognition calling system. He must have forgotten to lock the phone and then said the words 'Drake and Josh', and when the phone recognized our programmed names, it called us."

"Then... then we're not supposed to be hearing what ever their saying, are we?" Drake asked, thinking for a silent moment.

"No, I guess not, but I find it interesting. I mean, they were taking about us and--" Josh felt his sentence trail off when his usually less righteous step brother frowned and reached out, pressing the little plastic switch to hang up the phone: "Then we can't listen, after right now."

"Yeah, bro, you're right. But... is it wrong to wonder what all of that gibberish could have possibly meant?" Josh replied, sighing out of tired and slightly convicted confusion.

"No, it's not wrong. I mean, we heard it, and there's no erasing it from out heads. Anyway, we didn't know until now that we weren't supposed to be listening. ...But like you asked-- what did it mean?" Drake said, frowning and crossing his arms as his brother fell in to the office chair, and he rested himself in perfect balance on the edge of the desk in front of it.

"Yeah... and what did Dad mean about 'Is it over?' Is... what over?"

Suddenly, the words Josh had spoken seemed to pop out, bigger than life in both of their minds, and the thoughts that began to swirl vigorously in and around their heads made them outwardly gasp.

"J-Josh what if they mean--what if your Dad meant that he thought--what if they--?-!" the stuttering, garbled words of the teen ager reflected Josh's perfectly and he turned to Drake, gasping again and taking on a much more serious, unbelieving look of exasperation.

"N-n-no! They couldn't even be thinking about that! Not even pondering it! They couldn't EVER do that to this family-- to us!" he exclaimed.

"I know they can't be! They can't have a baby! Our family is perfect the way it IS!" Drake almost shrieked.

"Drake! No! Not that! Their not having a baby! I was--"

"How can you be so sure?-! I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were going to! That's why they were arguing all about 'telling us' when they were down in the living room!"

"Drake--"

"Oh my g--JOSH, THEIR HAVING A--" Something flew at Drake's face and with loud popping noise, he stared a minute before shaking off the slap, murmuring a quick: "Thank you..."

"You're very welcome!" came the breathless answer.

"Then--then what do either of them mean by all the junk they said?" he asked, very, very curiously.

"Drake, I don't know-- I mean, I think I have an idea or more a guess, but I think that..."

"What?" Drake asked, desperately wanting to finally know what was on his brother's troubled mind as of an answer to this confusing riddle of jumbled words: "Seriously, what are you thinking, Josh? You have to tell me!"

"Bro," Josh stood and turned to Drake, coming closer and reaching out to clasp the boy's thin, firm shoulders gently in his hands as he bit his lip: " I don't know, really, I mean, I'm sure I could possibly be wrong, but I think the only conclusion I can understand that's logical in this situation is that Mom and Dad might just seriously be... breaking up."