Disclaimers:

“The Pretender” and its characters do not belong to me they belong to TNT and NBC and are being used without permission. Please don’t sue because I have no money.

“The Brady Bunch” and its characters do not belong to me they belong to TNT and NBC and are being used without permission. Please don’t sue because I have no money.

Author’s Note: This story is going to be set like the Brady Bunch. The characters are going to be different and I’m putting pretender characters into Brady Bunch characters. I put Jarod as Marcia because in the show it was always about Marcia at least that’s what Jan thought. In the show Miss Parker thought it was all about Jarod. It’s going to throw the names off, but that’s the only way that I could do it. I also put Lyle as Jarod’s brother because that’s just how it turned out. Also, the Major and Margaret are not Jarod and Kyle’s parents. It may be set as the Brady Bunch, but it’s set in the future where they have DVD’s, computers and all that stuff.

Alice- Mr. Raines- William Raines.

Carol Brady- Mrs. Parker

Mike Brady- Mr. Parker.

Marcia Brady- Jarod

Greg Brady- Bobby- Mr. Lyle

Bobby Brady- Kyle

Jan Brady- Miss Parker or Angel Parker.

Cindy Brady- Faith Parker

The Brady Bunch

By: 24

Brady House.

“Kyle and Bobby get down here now.” He yelled at his youngest and middle child as he stood at the end of the stairway. He wished that his two children would be like Jarod was. Jarod was a bright and well-mannered child his oldest was. Kyle and Bobby were also bright, but got into so much trouble.

“What is it dad?”

“Did you paper Mr. and Mrs. Taylor’s lawn?”

“It was Halloween dad. We had to toilet paper a lawn. It’s no harm dad.”

“Yes, it was. I want you both to go clean up your mess now.”

The two boys looked at each other and back at their dad. There was no room for argument and they knew it, so they went out the door and over to the Taylor’s to clean up their mess.

8888

Back at the house.

“But mom, it’s always about Jarod, Jarod, Jarod and I’m sick of it.”

“You know that Jarod is very bright, honey. You are bright too, but not as much as Jarod is.”

“It’s not fair mom. It’s always about him.”

“I know honey and I’m sorry. We just want Jarod to have the best possible education. Sydney is the only one that knows how smart Jarod truly is.”

“I’ve got to go because I have homework to do.”

“Okay honey.”

Mrs. Parker went back to what she was reading. William was in the kitchen cooking their dinner for tonight. He was a great cook and good housekeeper. He looked after the children when they had to go out.

Jarod arrived home from going to Sydney’s house. He went upstairs and into the room that he shared with his brothers. He took out his notebook and started writing it. He had made sure to code it so that no one would be able to read it.

There was a knock at the door and he put down the notebook and hurried to the door to open it. There stood his stepsister Angel.

“It seems that you’re back. What happened at Sydney’s?”

“Nothing.”

“Well then why do you go if you do nothing?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Angel walked into the room and snatched up his notebook that he was writing in.

“What’s this gibberish?”

“I’m keeping a journal.”

“Well, it looks like chicken scratch to me.”

“It’s a code that I made up. That way if someone looked at it they wouldn’t be able to read it.”

“Very smart.”

Jarod shrugged then smiled at her. They had become friends when their parents married each other, but sometimes she had this attitude problem. He learned to just shrug it off and go on.

“So what are you going to do now?”

“Don’t know.”

“Let’s go for a walk.”

“Okay.”

They went down the stairs and out the door. Mr. and Mrs. Parker watched as the two went out the door.

“At least they are friends.”

“Yes, it is. She complains about Jarod, but I think that she really likes him as a friend.”

“I’m glad. I was worried that our children wouldn’t get along when we met and decided to marry. Kyle and Bobby are handfuls, but Jarod is so well mannered.”

“Well, Angel is a handful sometimes too. I think it does her good to have Jarod as a friend. He’s a good influence on her.”

“Well, I’m glad. Jarod is a good boy, but sometimes I worry about him. Sydney say’s that he’s a very gifted individual. He says that he solves every problem that he’s given him.”

“I’m glad that we found Sydney for Jarod. He’ll give Jarod the education that he needs plus going to public school.”

“Yes it will be good for Jarod to have a well rounded education.”

The door opened and Kyle, Bobby and Faith came in.

“Faith, baby how was your Birthday party you went to?”

“It was fun Mom.”

“Good.”

“Bobby and Kyle. Did you clean the Taylor’s yard up?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“Good. That was not the only punishment that you get though. You will have to clean up the backyard, the front yard and the garage. Now get to work.”

“Dad.”

“There is no argument out of this. You will get to work now. This is your punishment and you will do it.”

“Where’s Jarod?”

“Don’t mind your brother, but if you must know. Angel and Jarod just went out for a walk.”

“Why doesn’t Jarod have to help clean up?”

“Because Jarod didn’t do what you did now go.”

They went out to the shed to get the rake and garbage bags. Jarod and Angel came in just as they started raking the leaves that was blown from the trees yesterday.

“How was your walk?”

“Good. We went to the store and I brought some candy.”

Mr. Parker smiled at his oldest son. “What did you get?”

“Pez and some lemon drops.”

“Did you get anything Angel?”

“I got some taffy.”

“Now don’t spoil your dinner kids. William is cooking us a big dinner.”

“We won’t” as the two bounded up the stairs.

A while later.

William pulled the chicken out of the oven as the timer buzzed and turned it off. He walked out to the living room and announced that dinner was about ready to be served.

Mr. Parker yelled at Angel, Jarod and Faith to wash up and come down because dinner was ready. Then he slid the back door open and yelled at the other two to get washed up too.

They sat down and William started serving their plates. Each of them dove into the delicious food.

“This is very good William. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome Mrs. Parker.”

They had oven-fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables and cornbread. After they were done the children went to the living room and watched a movie that was on DVD. William cleared the table, put the leftovers away and washed the dishes and then went to his room.

The next day.

Jarod, Kyle, Angel, Faith, and Bobby went to school and then came home. Jarod grabbed something to eat as the others went upstairs. He went out the door and walked down to Sydney’s house. He wondered what kind of puzzle he was going to be given today. He liked the school he was going to, but it didn’t test his mind like Sydney’s puzzles did. Sometimes they were weary, time consuming and hurt, but it was still fun. It tested his mind and that’s all that counted.

When he came home he went straight to his room and wrote in his book. Bobby and Kyle were still cleaning up the yard from their punishment yesterday and they had to finish what they did not do yesterday.

Angel heard the front door open and then heard the boy’s room open and close. She knew that Jarod was home and decided to find out what kind of day Jarod had. Sometimes she would see the pain in his eyes and felt sorry for him.

She knocked on the door and was told to come in. She looked at Jarod’s face and saw that there was anguish on his face.

“What’s wrong Jarod?”

“Nothing.”

“What happened at Sydney’s?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why don’t you tell your dad about what you go through?”

“Because he’s so happy that I can expand my mind. I know he’s almost always angry with Kyle and Bobby because they get into trouble and I don’t want him to be angry with me. Besides sometimes I like expanding my mind even if it does hurt sometimes.”

“Come on let’s go exploring.”

He put his notebook under his pillow and walked out with Angel leading the way. They went out the door and down the sidewalk. When they arrived back it was almost dinnertime.

When they were done Angel picked out a comedy to watch with Jarod, so he can take his mind off of whatever happened at Sydney’s house. Jarod and Angel and the rest of the bunch laughed at what was happening on the T.V.

Angel watched Jarod relax and laugh at the movie. Good she thought to herself it had the desired effect. She smiled at his grin as he turned his head towards her. She couldn’t believe that his dad couldn’t see what was happening to Jarod when he went to Sydney’s house, so she took it upon herself to help him through it.

After the movie was over she picked up the popcorn bowl and took it to the kitchen and put it in the sink and went back to the living room to find that Jarod was sitting there looking out the window.

“Thank you for picking the movie out.” He said as he turned his head towards her.

“You’re Welcome. I knew that you needed to keep your mind off what happened at Sydney’s house and I tried.”

“You did a good job.”

Jarod stood up and watched as his brothers helped clean out the garage. He loved his brothers, but sometimes they got into so much trouble. They were smart almost as smart as he was, but if they studied as much as the spent getting into trouble they would be smarter. He was glad though that they weren’t at Sydney’s though because some of those tests hurt and he didn’t want his brothers to go through what he went through. It was bad enough that he went through the tests he couldn’t bear for his younger brothers to go through the same.

Angel could see that Jarod was brooding, so she left him alone to go to the computer room. The computer was already turned on so she quickly hooked up to the Internet and logged into her e-mail account. She sometimes watched Jarod as he worked on the computer and was amazed at what he could do. She was not as smart as Jarod in computers, but she knew a little bit. She had a couple of mails from her friends, so she answered them. Some of her friends were glad that her mother had married Mr. Parker because they liked Jarod. Some of them even liked Bobby and Kyle even though they were troublemakers. After she was done she quickly logged off her account and went upstairs to spend time with Faith.

The next day the children all came home from school. Jarod got something to eat from the kitchen and then went out the door. Angel watched as Jarod ate his sandwich that he made and walks down the sidewalk towards Sydney’s house. She wished that his father could see the pressure that Jarod was under, but she couldn’t.

Jarod came back and went upstairs to lie down on his bed. His brothers were not there. They had finished cleaning up and they were probably out getting in more trouble. Jarod closed his eyes and didn’t hear the door open as Angel entered the room.

“Jarod.”

Jarod opened his eyes as he heard Angel call his name and quickly sat up on the bed.

“What?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“What’s wrong with your arm?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why are you not using it?”

“Because I don’t want to.”

“Come on Jarod. Talk to me.”

“Sydney put needles in my arm to have me pretend to be a man that didn’t have use of his arm. It will wear off soon.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Let’s go walking.”

“No, I’ll just stay here for a while.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” She closed the door behind her and then leaned on it. She closed her eyes as she imagined Jarod with needles in his arms to make it numb. What was Sydney doing to her stepbrother? She knew that Sydney was seeing Jarod before her mother married his father, but that was all.

She walked down to the computer room and decided to chat with her friends on AOL IM. She wanted to get the image out of her head, but knew that she couldn’t. She knew that sometimes Jarod couldn’t sleep and would sometimes go downstairs to find him on the Internet either playing a game or researching something. He would sometimes read a book that was in the little library in the computer room. She remembered sometimes she would hear Jarod have a nightmare, but their parents never heard them.

That night she heard Jarod mumble in his sleep and then wake up to slip out of the boy’s room. She saw him go downstairs and flip on the computer.

“Do you want any company?”

Jarod flinched as he heard Angel talk behind him.

“I didn’t know anyone else was up. I’m sorry about that.”

“I heard you having a nightmare and followed you down here.”

“I’m sorry I woke you.”

“It’s okay Jarod. Do you want company? Maybe we can watch a movie or just watch T.V.”

“No, I’m fine. Go back to sleep.”

“Jarod are you going to be okay?”

“I’m okay. Nothing for you to worry about.”

“Okay.”

She went back upstairs and laid down on her bed and drifted off to sleep. She woke up the next day and hurried during her routine of getting ready for school. She went downstairs to eat. She arrived the same time as Jarod did and she could see that he didn’t get much sleep last night. They sat at the table as William served their breakfast. Kyle, Faith and Bobby came into the kitchen then and they too sat down. After they were done they ran out the door and down the sidewalk towards the bus stop.

Angel Parker went upstairs and wished that Jarod would hurry up and grow up, so that he would stop seeing Sydney. She could see the pain that he would go through when he came home from a session from Sydney’s house. She picked up the book she was reading and started to read and wondered what Jarod was doing today and hoped it wasn’t to stressful on her friend.

The End.