Actions

Work Header

Pump It

Chapter Text

 

2009
Charlie's POV
"You can't do this to me." I pleaded to my distant cousin, William Tavington. The two of us were standing in the living room of the condo that we lived in, and my so-called cousin just told me that he was gonna send me away for at least a year.

Tavington wouldn't hear of my excuses, since I had been acting up a lot lately, apparently he had good reason to send me away to some old family friends. Turns out that these old family friends were the Duggar family, I think I once watched a show that had this huge family in it, and they had eighteen(soon to be nineteen) children.

"I'm sorry Charlie, but you are going, end of discussion." After he said that, I stalked off my bed and sighed looking at the dresser, if I didn't pack my clothes, Tavington probably would and it would be a bunch of stuff that I didn't wear. Tavington was always a tough guy, which I could respect, it was always useless to argue with him.

The truth was that Tavington was probably just tired of dealing with me, I had been acting out a lot lately, and he was tired of these multiple discussions with the principal and/or teachers. But I wasn't just your average teen or human like my cousin, no see my parents were a witch and a demon.

And that gave me the powers of strangulation(self-explanatory), chronokinesis(to stop, rewind, and fast-forward time), and then shimmering(a form of teleportation). You might be wondering who I am now right? I'm Charlie Gollin, thirteen-years-old, with my birthday being January 2nd.
***
Tontitown, Arkansas
Michelle's POV
"Everybody, your mother and I have an announcement to make." my husband, Jim-Bob said as we gathered seventeen out of our soon-to-be nineteen children, my new baby is due in March. Jim-Bob and I had eighteen kids Josh, fraternal twins Jana and John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, fraternal twins Jedidiah and Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johanna, Jennifer, and Jordyn. Josh and his wife Anna lived in their own house and it turns out Anna was expecting as well, with her baby due in about a month or two.

"What is it dad?" Jana asked.

Jim-Bob then told the kids that they were going to have a 'visitor' for a while, when Joseph asked how long a while was and if the visitor was a boy or girl, I answered and told him that it was a boy and that I wasn't sure. One of my old friends, William had a distant cousin and Jim-Bob and I agreed to take him in and straighten him out, we had no idea how long we would be keeping him, I guess however long it took.

"Where's he going to sleep?" James asked.

"We're going to have you boys set up a bunk in your room." I told him, and then we asked how the kids felt about having a new house guest, we didn't get any protests, so we assumed that everyone was fine with it.

Chapter Text

The next day…
Charlie’s POV(I won’t be putting this at the top of every chapter unless POV’s are switched)

Tavington forced me to get up super early (about 5 am), since we had a long drive ahead of us to Tontitown, Arkansas, Tavington was truly cold-hearted, I mean I was going to be out in the country. But the good part about this I would be able to bring my iPod and laptop, I wasn’t sure if the Duggars had internet or not, that was something I would have to ask when I got there.

It was hard for me to grasp having to live in the country and completely out of my element, I would be living with virtual strangers for I wasn’t sure how long and I wasn’t aware of what they would be like.

Tavington and I had quick breakfast before heading out onto the road, since he wouldn’t let me play my rap music, I just chose to listen to my iPod for the whole journey.

It took only a couple of hours before we arrived in Tontitown, we drove through the town and through a couple of fields before reaching the neighborhood that the Duggars resided in, Tavington pulled up and parked on a curb just outside the house then we got out of the car and headed to the front door.

My cousin had called the Duggars about an hour into the trip and told them that we were on our way, so they should be ready for us, only thing was I didn’t know if I would be ready for them.

A little boy answered the door, it didn’t throw me for a loop, the Duggars had to have at least one kid. Tavington then told the boy to tell his parents to come to the door, the boy whose name turned out be James quickly ran off, it was a couple of seconds before Mr. and Mrs. Duggar came to the door.

“You guys finally made it.” Mrs. Duggar commented.

Tavington gave me a hard nudge, indicating for me to be polite and introduce myself. “Hi, I’m Charlie.”

“Tavington told us.” Mr. Duggar said and then introduced him and wife as Jim Bob and Michelle. After pleasantries were exchanged, the four of us walked inside the Duggar house and into the large living room where I found about nineteen people.

Each kid then introduced his/herself to me and every single one of their names started with J, right then and there, I already knew that it would be a hard time keeping everyone straight.

The eldest of the children, Josh was there with his wife, Anna and it turned out that both Anna and Michelle were pregnant. So the aunt/uncle and niece/nephew were going to be the same age? It surprised me.

Chapter Text

Tavington, Josh, Anna, and Michelle headed into the kitchen to talk leaving with me with everyone else, the second oldest Duggar son asked if I wanted to know where I could put my stuff, I just nodded my head and a couple of the other Duggar sons followed us upstairs and I was led into this huge room with a set of bunk beds, it kinda reminded me of these college dorms that I saw on the internet.

John-David or JD as I was going to refer to him told me that I would be sharing a bunk bed with Jackson, one of the younger Duggar boys. When I asked John-David where to put my clothes and stuff, he led me to this closet which had all of the Duggars’s clothes inside it.

But I really didn’t want my stuff to get mixed up, therefore it was decided that I would just leave my clothes in my suitcase and get my clothes out when I needed a change of clothes.

One thing I noticed was that outfits were similar, meaning that this family shared a lot of their clothing, not to say that I was judging them, because I’ve been taught never to pass judgment out on the way people live.

“What do you guys do for fun?” I asked cautiously. It was hard for me not to be nervous but I didn’t want to show that I was, Tavington always told me that it was a sign of weakness.

“For fun?” Another of the older Duggar boys asked.

“Joseph, he means what do we do for entertainment.” John-David said and then turned to me. “Before you and Mr. Tavington got here, we were actually going to round everybody outside for a game of soccer, you want in?”

I was about to agree when voices called me downstairs, I walked down where some of the younger Duggars were playing in the living room, Tavington was waiting for me by the front door and motioned me outside.

“Behave yourself.” Tavington warned before heading out to his car, not even a handshake or hug goodbye, he must have really wanted to get rid of me. I stood outside for a minute watching Tavington’s car drive off, half-hoping that he would bust a U-turn and come back and get me.
Michelle called me back inside the house, so reluctantly I headed back inside the Duggar house, not really knowing what to expect.

Chapter Text

“Hey, it’s time for dinner.” One of the Duggar boys told me and then headed downstairs. Well I’ve learned a couple of things in the hour or two I’ve been here, the Duggars were apart of this show, but filming hadn’t started yet for the new season, Michelle and Jim Bob both assured me that I would get used to the cameras. And also I found out that there was a ‘schedule’, living with Tavington, I’ve never been on a schedule (except maybe bed-time), this was new to me.
***
I walked downstairs and headed into the kitchen where the other Duggars had a line with the meal, lasagna sitting on the metal table, this set-up reminded me of a cafeteria, which I guess I could get used to. It was confusing to me why everyone else hadn’t gone yet, until John-David told me that since it was my first night and I was technically a guest, I got to go first.

It was awkward but I grabbed a plate and then went through the line and got some lasagna before moving onto the dining room table where I was quickly joined by one Duggar kid after another.

After everyone finished getting their dinner, Michelle told us to bow our heads so that we could say ‘grace’, which was also something I wasn’t used to. See during dinner, Tavington didn’t eat with me, I was either at the kitchen table by myself or in my room, and that’s not to say that Tavington didn’t care because he did care alot, but he always worked in the evenings.

We ate dinner where some small-talk was exchanged by Jim Bob, Michelle, and the children, I remained silent up until questions suddenly started flying at me from the Duggar kids.

“Where are you from?”

“Is Tavington your dad?”

Michelle and Jim Bob stopped the others from asking any more questions, and I told them that I was from South Carolina and that Tavington was my cousin. Then one of the Duggar girls asked me why am I staying with my cousin and not my parents? I kept my mouth shut, thinking of how to answer.

“Joy, I don’t think Charlie wants to talk about it.” The second oldest Duggar girl said.

And that officially closed the topic discussion, I suppressed a sigh of relief, talking about my parents and why I was living with Tavington was a sensitive topic to me, and since I didn’t know the Duggars that well, it wasn’t something that I would be ready to tell.

Chapter Text

One week later…

Tavington had kept in constant contact with Michelle, Jim-Bob, and me almost on a daily basis, making sure that I wasn’t giving them any trouble. While living with the Duggars, I got introduced to the concept of home-schooling, I mean sure I knew what homeschooling was, but I didn’t think I’d take part in it.

Waking up early wasn’t strange for me, but having to go to bed before nine o’clock was, Tavington usually let me stay up until about ten or eleven even on school-nights, my bedtime usually depended on whatever time Tavington got off work that night.

Early in the morning, I woke up in the room that I shared the other Duggar boys, well actually I had been getting better with names over the last week, I couldn’t tell you how many times I accidentally called Jana ‘Jinger’ or Joseph ‘Justin’. They probably got very annoyed by it, but I’m sure they took it easy on me since it was something that they were used to with strangers.
***
I quickly headed to the closet where my suitcase was placed with John-David, Joseph, Josiah, and etc. right behind me. I unzipped my suitcase and got out some clothes, before heading to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get washed up for breakfast.

The older children such as John-David, Jana, Jill, and Jessa were helping the younger ones like Jason, James, and Johanna get ready for the day. It was the same as dinner, there was line, only this time I learned quickly that it was first come, first serve without guests being over.

Jedidiah was in front of me, while behind me was Joy-Anna, after everyone got their breakfast of eggs, bacon, cereal, pancakes, and/or sausage, we all sat at the table and said ‘grace’ before eating.

After breakfast, we all read from the bible before doing a fast clean of the house, the chore that Michelle stuck me with(well I wasn’t exactly stuck with it, considering I was on a ‘team’) was sweeping downstairs with John-David, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah, and Jinger.

“Who’s taking the living room?” asked Jedidiah.

“I don’t know.” Joy-Anna then looked at me. “Do you want to?”

“Sure.” I responded and then headed into the living room to begin sweeping, to be honest I was better with a vacuum cleaner, but hopefully I could get used to the broom.

Chapter Text

Housecleaning was finished after nearly an hour passed and then it was time for ‘school’, at the dining room table sat Michelle and some of the younger Duggars working on phonics, while the rest of us (besides Jill and Jana who were only there to help if there was something we didn’t understand, John-David was at work) sat at computers where we opened the homeschooling program and began our work.

It had only taken a couple of days for Jim Bob and Michelle to register me, I thought for a second that I would be going to public school, but I’m not. It was a few hours before lunch and the Duggar kids and I had made small-talk in between assignments.

Lunch consisted of salad and fruit and for the next hour and half, we were on break-time and were left to our own devices.
***
Jeremiah, Jedidiah, Justin, and I headed outside where we played a pick-up game of soccer. I was on one team with Jedidiah or Jed as I was going to refer to him while Justin and Jeremiah were on the other team.

“Charlie, you ever played soccer before?” Jedidiah asked.

“I used to play with a couple of other kids from my school.”

Jedidiah looked surprised. “You mean public school?”

I nodded my head and asked him, Jeremiah, and Justin if they have ever been to a public school before, and they all told me that their parents have taken them to visit a few public schools both in and out of the area. We continued playing soccer, finally getting to know one another better, before Jill called us from inside and said that break was over.

Johanna, Jennifer, and Jordyn had already been put down for their naps by some of the older kids. Michelle, myself, and the older children then met up for more lessons, before we had some free time a couple of hours later, this routine was definitely something that I would have to get used to.

“Hey, where’s JD?” I asked, walking into the upstairs hallway where some of the younger kids were playing.

Jason and Justin exchanged glances. “Who’s JD?” they asked.

“He means John-David.” Joy-Anna clarified. “He’s still at work.”

Chapter Text

“So, why were you staying with Tavington?” Joseph asked me after dinner, we were on dishwashing duty with Jill, Joy-Anna, and Jason. We were all taking turns and switching off drying and washing, currently Joseph and I were on washing while Jill, Joy-Anna, and Jason were drying afterwards.

Jill gave her younger brother a warning look. “Joseph, didn’t we tell you to stop asking that?”

“That’s not something I’m ready to talk about.” I simply said before continuing to wash the dishes, Joseph got the hint and didn’t ask anymore questions, but truthfully I didn’t know any of the Duggars well enough to share personal details on my life.

After bible study and family time, I then headed upstairs and took a shower, it occurred to me that shower and bath time had to take a bit of time in this house, I mean there were a lot of people.
***
It was bedtime for me and the children from Joseph to Jordyn, just when I was about to head back to the boy’s room, voices were heard and it seemed that I was the topic of discussion. Sure I could’ve gone in and interrupted the conversation, but I had to know what they were talking about.

“I don’t know why mom and dad have this kid staying here.” said Joseph.

“Charlie’s too secretive.” Josiah replied. “Anytime we ask him questions, he’s always dodging the subject.”

“We’ve never had a guest who wouldn’t leave.” Joseph said, and Josiah nodded his head in agreement.

“Uh, guys-“ Jedidiah’s eye peered over to where I was standing, dangit I wasn’t trying to get caught, I wouldn’t have thought that they would badmouth me when I wasn’t around.

I walked in and didn’t say anything to anybody, instead deciding to climb up on my bunk and try to get to sleep, at least now I was fully aware of what I was dealing with.

Josiah complained that maybe he and Joseph shouldn’t have said anything, knowing that I would probably just tell Michelle and Jim-Bob and get them into trouble, Joseph told him that I wouldn’t say anything if I knew what was good for me.

Chapter Text

Two days later…

Michelle, Jim-Bob, Jessa, Jinger, and little Jordyn had went to New York to make a TV appearance and that left Grandma Duggar and the older kids in charge. I was outside in the backyard talking to Johanna(Hanny) and Jackson while pushing them on the swing, the two had taken a liking to me and wanted to be around me, it was no issue for me being friendly with them.

When I overheard the Duggar guys talking about me a few nights ago and how they didn’t want me to be here or how I was too ‘closed up’, it hurt me but instead of confronting them and getting into a physical and/or verbal battle like I usually would, I just decided to try and keep my distance.

Tavington would be extra pissed if Mr. or Mrs. Duggar called him and told him that I’d gotten into trouble this early on.

“Charlie, Johanna and I were going to color a picture to show mommy and daddy when they get back.” Jackson said. “Do you want to color with us?”

“Umm-“ I tried to think of an excuse so that feelings wouldn’t get hurt.

Johanna gave me puppy-dog eyes. “Come on please Charlie.” I told Hanny yes, and the three of us headed into the house and into the living room where we sat down and started coloring. Joy-Anna then walked into the living room and asked what we were doing, and Jackson had told her that we were coloring a picture for mom and dad.

Johanna asked if Joy wanted to color with us, but Joy said that she had something to do which she was working on for Jinger when she got back. At first I thought Joy-Anna was just lying to get out of coloring, but after hearing a lot of the standards in this family, Joy-Anna was probably completely serious.

But that’s what got me curious as to what could she possibly be working on for Jinger, it was something that I’d have to find out later.

After we finished coloring, Jackson and Johanna had wanted to ask some of the older Duggars if their pictures looked good, I tried to decline knowing that there were certain ones that I was trying to avoid, but the two wouldn’t let me.
***
The three of us then headed into the kitchen(well actually the little ones pulled me) where Jana was preparing lunch and talking to Joseph, Jackson and Johanna went over to Jana and Joseph and asked the two if they liked their pictures.

I kinda stood in the background, silent and attempting to slip out when Jackson looked over at me.

“Aren’t you going to show them your picture?” he asked.

Before I could make up some kind of excuse, Jana said that she was interested in what I colored, and to avoid being rude, I gave her the coloring and then Joseph snatched it before handing it back to her and started laughing.

“What’s so funny Joseph?” asked Jana.

Joseph didn’t say it, but I knew he was thinking that I was a loser, I was tempted to curse him out but then I remembered that the little kids were still in the room, so that would have to be held off on for now.

Chapter Text

“Charlie, I wanna talk to you.” Josiah asked as he walked into the boy’s room, Jeremiah and I were cleaning it, I told Jeremiah that I would be right back before following his older brother out the room, which might have been a stupid decision. I didn’t know whether he and Joseph had cooked up some kind of plan against me, which meant that I had to keep my guard up.

“What?” I asked him, the way that he and his brother talked about me was still fresh on my mind.

“I’m sorry.” he said, I decided not to respond and he continued with his apology for talking negatively about me and also for being less than welcoming, Josiah said that it was going be different from now on, at least with him anyways, he wasn’t too sure about Joseph.

I shook hands with Josiah, we were cool now, before going back into the guy’s room and continuing to help Jeremiah with cleaning it out. I asked Jeremiah when Jim Bob and Michelle were returning, and he told me that they wouldn’t be back for at least a day or two, meaning that the older kids and Grandma Duggar were going to wrangle down the fort.

Speaking of Grandma Duggar, she wasn’t at home when I first arrived, and I didn’t meet her until that night, she was a nice lady and definitely someone that I would like having for my own grandma. But unfortunately by the time I was four, both sets of grandparents had died, my mother used to tell me that I would always be up under my granny, I wished that I had gotten to know her.
***
“Are you okay?” asked Jeremiah, bringing me out of my thoughts, I just nodded my head and pretty soon cleaning the guy’s room was done and I headed downstairs to the playroom where Joy-Anna was playing Daytona Racing and James and Justin were at the foosball table.

I asked Joy Anna if I could go against her, and she agreed, I’m guessing that she was glad to have a new challenge. After picking out our cars, the race track, and etc., the race was on.

Sure I had played this game before, but the problem was that I always ended up crashing into something or throwing the car in reverse, and it made me worry what kind of actual driver I was going to be in a couple of years.

Joy-Anna ended up beating me but I wasn’t too sore about it, Joy-Anna then asked me if I wanted to play her again and (stupidly) I agreed. Around the third game that Joy-Anna and I played against each other, James asked who was winning, and Joy-Anna pointed to herself.

“How do you keep losing?” asked James, I then told him that I didn’t have a lot of experience with arcade games and racing was something I always messed up on. Joy-Anna and James both offered to teach me to play the game and other games right, and I agreed.

Chapter Text

The next day…

“Oops, my bad.” Joseph tripped me as he walked down the stairs past me, he had already made it clear that he didn’t want me here, I wasn’t sure what else I could do. On the bright side Michelle, Jim Bob, Jinger, and Jessa had come back with Jordyn, bringing everybody back together again. They had also made an announcement that Grandpa Duggar was in ill health and would be coming to stay with the family for a while, everybody was upset about it, and Joseph had become more openly hostile towards me.

I tried not to let it get to me, knowing that the guy was going through a lot at the moment, with his grandpa being sick, but even I had limits. I opened my palm and clenched my hand into a fist, Joseph’s neck started glowing and his hands went to his throat as he began gasping for air.

“Joseph! Are you okay?” Jessa walked over to the bottom of the stairs to Joseph’s side, and I snapped out of the daze I was in and opened my hand again, Joseph’s hands left his neck as he found his breath again. Joseph told Jessa that he was fine and then walked past her, I quickly turned around and headed back up the stairs.

See, Tavington knew about my powers and had told me not to use them at all while I was living here, and so far I had been doing good with that, but the thought of what could’ve happened to Joseph if I couldn’t have got my control back haunted me.
***
John-David was in the living room when I walked in and sat on one of the sofas. “Hey Charlie.”

“Hey JD.”

“What’s up?”
I told him that there was nothing up, and while John-David could tell that something was troubling me, the subject got dropped and we switched to a different topic, after a long conversation John-David then finally asked the question that I feared would be brought again.

“Tavington’s your cousin right? Why are you staying with your cousin?” he asked.

I sighed and began the tale(which it really was): when I was a preschooler, my parents had gotten killed on a car crash coming home from their anniversary, Tavington was the only living relative that they could find, and that was how I got stuck with him, though if you let Tavington tell it, it was the other way around.

John-David then told me that he was sorry to hear that, but I told him that it was okay, especially since I fabricated on important details in the story I fed him. It’s not that I wanted to lie, but the details of my parent’s death involved the supernatural and it wasn’t something that the Duggars or any other human would understand.

Chapter Text

Jim-Bob and Michelle had left to pick up Grandpa Duggar, and the rest of the kids along with Grandma Duggar had waited at the house for them to make their return. I was sitting at the dining room table with Jinger and Joy-Anna eating grilled cheese when we heard an announcement through the house living room.

Jim-Bob had told everyone to get to the living room, Joy-Anna, Jinger, and I then left grilled cheese on the plastic plates we had been eating them from and then headed to the living room where the other Duggar kids, Michelle, Jim-Bob, Grandpa Duggar, and Grandma Duggar were, even Josh and Anna had come for a visit, I hadn’t really seen a lot of them since I had got here.

The Duggar kids greeted Grandpa Duggar, while I stood in the background, not only to let them have their moment but I felt a little out of place. It was only when Michelle motioned me forward that I put on a nervous smile and then moved to stand between Jill and Josiah.

“This is Charlie, he’s staying with Jim-Bob and I for a while.” said Michelle.

“Hi Mr. Duggar.” I said remembering my manners.

“Call me Grandpa Duggar.” We shook hands, and then the other Duggar kids started exchanging conversation with each other and Grandpa Duggar for a bit before Michelle and Jim-Bob led the man off to the room he would be staying in.
***
As the Duggar kids filed out, I contemplated where to go, and then I remembered that I hadn’t finished my grilled cheese yet and decided to head back into the dining room, Jinger and Joy-Anna came back and finished their food quickly before putting their plates in the trash and walking out again.

I finished my grill cheese and my mind briefly went back to how I used my powers against Joseph, at the time I thought he had it coming but it was wrong of me to do that, especially against someone that couldn’t defend himself against me.

The grand piano was sitting in the living room unoccupied when I walked in and sat at it, see me along with other Duggar kids all had to take piano and violin lessons, though the girls also took harp lessons as well.

Seeing as I had been having some trouble with the piano, I decided to see to practice and see if there was a chance that I could improve my skills.

Chapter Text

“Hey Charlie.” Jessa said, as she walked into the kitchen with Jinger beside her, I was getting some Coke from the pop machine when the two entered.

“Hey.” I replied.

“We haven’t gotten the chance to really talk since you’ve been here and I wanted to ask you, how have you been enjoying living here?” questioned Jinger. I told her that things had been going fine and I had actually been getting along pretty well with everybody, which was mostly true.

Jessa and Jinger then asked which one of their siblings that I hadn’t really gotten on with, of course I tried to avoid the question, since this was their family and I was only a stranger in their home. Jessa then revealed that she had noticed the way Joseph had been acting towards me, and the two of them pieced it together that I wasn’t getting along with him.

Of course when they figured it out, I made it clear that I had no real problem with Joseph, Joseph was the one who had a problem with me, Jessa said that her and Jinger wouldn’t hold anything against me and that they would talk to Joseph.

“You don’t have to do that.” I said. “It could just make things worse.”

Jessa just shook her head. “Joseph knows that we treat all guests in our house with respect, so if we talk to him and he doesn’t shape up, then we’ll have to bring it to mom and dad.”

“I really hope that we don’t have to take it that far.” Jinger added, and then the two walked out of the kitchen presumably going to talk to Joseph, which I thought was bad idea.

The guy was probably going to think that I ratted on him and was trying to get him in trouble, which wasn’t the case. It’s not that I was afraid of Joseph, I mean even though I had powers, a lot of stuff did scare me, but I learned in pre-k never to back down from anybody. I just didn’t want to have to deal with the madness, I had to live here for who knows how long, and life would truly be miserable to have to fight with the same person every day.
***
It was a little bit before dinner, so I headed to the playroom where a couple of Duggars were at, and found James, Justin, and Jackson going up the indoor climbing wall. Since there wasn’t enough space for me to go on yet, I decided to wait until someone came down.

There was an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, because I wasn’t sure what would happen when Jessa and Jinger got done talking to her brother, there a series of questions running through my head. Was I gonna wake-up and find my head covered in syrup and shaving cream? Would I have a broken ankle because I got tripped walking down some stairs? I was overwhelmed thinking about it.

Chapter Text

Two weeks later…

The talk that Jessa and Jinger had with Joseph had made things worse, but it didn’t get as bad as I thought it was gonna be. There was one occasion that I woke up with warm water on me and thought I wet myself, but it turned out that it just a prank that Joseph pulled on me, at first I was gonna get him back. But after thinking about it, I realized that it would only keep the beef going on, so I just shook it off even though Joseph kept calling me “pee-pee boy.” Whenever we weren’t near his parents.

Also when I made top-ramen and went to put salt on it, it turned out that the sugar and salt had been switched, luckily I stopped myself from putting any more sugar in the noodles. I didn’t want to retaliate, but it seemed that I had no choice, it was either that or keep being walked on. I borrowed some markers from Jackson and used them to color on Joseph’s face while he was sleeping, my biggest fear was waking the other guys up and being caught. I also put egg yolks in Joseph’s tennis shoes.

Michelle and Jim-Bob weren’t too happy with this, and after talking with Tavington, they had grounded Joseph and me, and we got stuck in the guy’s room until the two of us could learn to get along. We had agreed to call a truce, and Michelle and Jim-Bob had let us off punishment.
***
The next morning, I had woken up and took the covers off me before climbing down the ladder of my bunk and realized that it was freezing. The cold surprised me a bit and I shimmered out and then reappeared, the Duggar boys were all starting to wake up, I’m just glad that they didn’t see that.

I had wanted to get back under the covers, but thanks to the schedule, unfortunately I couldn’t and therefore I headed to the closet and grabbed some clothes before heading to the bathroom and getting ready.

After getting dressed, Jim-Bob’s voice was heard on the intercom and I headed downstairs with the rest of the kids and we all gathered in the large space in front of the stairway with Jim-Bob and Michelle near the door facing us.

“There’s an ice storm out there, none of you are allowed outside until it calms down.” Jim-Bob said.

“Mr. Duggar-“ I started.

“Jim-Bob.”

“Jim-Bob.” Sure I had referred to Jim-Bob and Michelle by their first names in private, but not in person, it felt like I was being disrespectful somehow. “What’s an ice storm?”

“Freezing rain.” Jim-Bob said. I nodded my head, deciding that it made a lot of sense.

“But if it’s really that bad outside, what’s going to happen to our house?” Jill asked her parents. “Or even the shed?”

“We didn’t build our house near big trees, you know that, but as for the shed, your mother and I aren’t sure, also the electricity is out so John-David, Joseph, I’m going to need you two to help me get the generators.”

Chapter Text

“This is your first ice storm?” Jill asked me as we walked away from the kitchen, the family and I had just finished breakfast, and the two of us had walked out together and were heading for the living room where we sat across from each other on the couches. Since the ice storm was going on, Michelle and Jim-Bob had made us all change into warmer clothing.

The electricity was still out, but there were generators set up, which kept the laundry going, and since the stove ran off gas, we had been able to have a hot breakfast.

“Yeah, Tavington never told me that you can get ice storms out here.” I said.

“We get them here way more often than in Cali.” replied Jill. That was a fact that I never knew, it was just lucky that when the ice storm started, the rest of the Duggars and myself were inside of the house. Jill then said that her father had called Josh to go get some fuel for the generators, and it was planned for John-David to make the next trip with him.

“But isn’t Anna going to come?” I questioned.

Jill shook her head. “She’s pregnant and it’s too dangerous for her and the baby to be out in this weather.”

I then reminded Jill that Josh was going to drive in it, but Jill told me that Josh had a lot of experience with this type of weather and how to drive in it, seeing as he was the oldest. I was still a little worried, but like Jill said, the dude had experience.

“I’m curious, why did Tavington not want to keep you anymore?” she asked a question that was different from the one that I had been expecting, it was an uncomfortable topic, but not to the point that I didn’t want to tell her.

The older girl had a patient look in her eyes, as I began to answer the question, Tavington didn’t want to deal with unruly pre-teen such as myself any longer, he was sick and tired of having to put up with the stuff I did. Jill said that other than the situation with Joseph, she hadn’t seen much of this rebellious streak that Tavington sent me here for.

I set Jill straight and informed her that Joseph was the one who started the ‘prank war’ but as she knew, we had called a truce, Jill sensed that there were stuff that I was holding back and it was more than me being this bad kid.

It was something that I kinda wanted to tell her about, but knew that it wasn’t allowed, and besides Tavington and others had said that mortals weren’t usually open-minded enough to be able to accept magic.

Chapter Text

Midnight was only a few minutes away, but I still wasn’t able to get to sleep, so I got up from bed and slowly tried to climb down the ladder as quietly as I could so that the other guys didn’t wake up and then exited the room and headed downstairs. I walked over to the window and opened it, and saw that the ice storm was going strong.

Since I probably wouldn’t see the next ice storm for some time, I wondered what would happen if I went outside and into it, quickly I shimmered upstairs to the closet and retrieved my coat before shimmering back in front of the door.

“Charlie! What are you doing?” A male voice hissed sharply. If it was Jim-Bob, I was pretty much done for, at least with my last grounding, there was company, but I’d be all by myself in that room with this one.

“JD?” I then turned my head.

“Yeah it’s me, why were you trying to go outside this time of night?”

“I wasn’t going outside.”

“Yeah, you were. I saw you trying to open the door.” I figured that denial was the best way to handle this, just because I wasn’t sure whether or not John-David was going to tell Jim-Bob about it, but wait a second? It was almost twelve am, so why was JD up?

My panic turned to confidence when I realized that I could easily deflect this subject, I asked John-David the reason why he was up this time of night, John-David replied that he was getting a snack and not to change the subject. Of course I tried to deflect again, but John-David threatened to wake up his parents, he had me.

John-David’s patience was wearing thin. “Come on Charlie, you’re either going to tell me or my parents. Which one is it gonna be?”

It took me a couple of seconds going over the options in my head, because I wasn’t expecting to have to explain my actions, the whole house was usually asleep by this time. I told him that when I was living with Tavington, we never had storms like this, only rain, and that I just wanted to go outside and really experience it.

Chapter Text

A few days later…

The ice storm had calmed down, so that it was no longer snowing and/or raining outside, but the Duggars and I still didn’t get too outside too much. On the bright side, John-David agreed not to tell Jim-Bob about me trying to go outside in the middle of the night, and I had begun trusting him a little bit more. The Duggar’s outside shed had been destroyed and would have to be rebuilt and also a bunch of trees had collapsed in the surrounding area of their house which John-David, Josh, and Jim-Bob were picking up.

But the other Duggar kids had gotten a great idea to use Jim Bob’s old political signs as sleds since there was a snowy hill near the house, we all went outside wearing coats and gloves and decided to have a little race, the only ones who didn’t go were Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Jennifer, and Jordyn.

“We should have a race.” suggested Josiah.

I nodded my head. “Why not?”

“I’m game.” Jedidiah said. Everyone else(and me) had nodded their agreements, this was definitely going to be fun, the kids then readied their poster sleds, it was decided that we would go on ‘3’. But we were barely at the count of 2, when Justin started moving his sled down the hill, which forced the rest of us to go as well.

The race ended up with James as the winner, everyone then called Justin out for that ‘head-start’ he had gotten, and had wanted to do the race over. Jana had gone out there with us, since someone needed to be in charge, and she told us to stop arguing. I made it clear that I hadn’t been apart of the disagreement, but Jana paid me no mind.

“We don’t have too long out here.” Jeremiah reminded. “If we’re going to race, then let’s race.” The Duggar’s had quit arguing and all of us went back to the top of the hill and got ready to race again, Jana scolded Justin and then told him he had to go when everyone else did before she started counting.

Not even a second after Jana got the count of ‘3’, we all started going, and it ended up being a close match between James, Josiah, and I but in the end, the winner ended up being Josiah. Josiah bragged about the win a little bit, annoying the rest of us, but he knew when to stop.

Chapter Text

“I hope that Jordyn’s going to be okay.” I was sitting on the couch between Jana and John-David. Jordyn had gotten sick, at first everyone thought that the baby had just gotten Jennifer’s cold, but as her symptoms became more severe, Michelle and Jim-Bob had decided to take her to the hospital.

Before they left, Jim-Bob had made me and the younger kids come back inside the house, I didn’t mind too much since the sledding was starting to get tiring. Jana said that we all needed to have faith that Jordyn was going to be alright, she was a Duggar, John-David then added that the Duggars were fighters and they were mostly confident that Jordyn would be fine.

“Why are you acting like you care about Jordyn?” Joseph then walks from the kitchen and into the living room where Jana, John-David, I were sitting at. “You haven’t spent any time with her since you got here.”

I was surprised, cause Joseph and I had called a truce, it was a shaky one at best, but the dude making that kind of accusation against me threw me for a loop.

Jana reprimanded him before John-David could. “Joseph, I know you’re worried, but taking your frustration out on Charlie isn’t going to help anything.”

Joseph didn’t really say anything after that but walked out of the living room and back into the kitchen, I knew that he meant what he said, and that meant nothing had changed.

John-David tried to tell me that Joseph didn’t mean it, but he did, and I’ve been nice for too long. In the back of my head, I knew that the decision I was about to make was a bad one, but it was time to settle this.
***
I got up from the couch without responding to John-David and then headed into the kitchen after Joseph, ignoring the worried looks from Jana and JD. Joseph was cleaning the counter when he turned and saw me enter, he asked me what I wanted.

“What’s your problem with me Joseph?” I demanded.

“Problem?” Joseph narrowed his eyes. “What problem are you talking about? How you invaded on the lives of me and my family?”

“Dude, I didn’t invade on your lives!”

“Yes you did.” he shot back. “And I’m not the only one who doesn’t want you here, my brothers and sisters are just too nice to say that they want you gone.”

“Even if that were true, I heard you’ve had foreign exchange students live here before, so why do you wanna be a bully to me?”

“If you would get gone, I wouldn’t have to be a bully.” Joseph then turned back to the kitchen counter and began scrubbing it again, my anger was being tested, just when I was about to make a fist and use my powers again, the realization came to me that I might not be able to stop myself this time.

Chapter Text

It was hard for me to take the focus of what Joseph said, everyone of the Duggars(except him) had been nice to me but I had to wonder if they were just pretending to accept me into their lives, did they really want me to get gone? I didn’t exactly want to be here either, but lately I had been getting used to it.

I decided to go sit in the guy’s room since it was the only place that I would be getting privacy with my thoughts, the Duggar kids had spread out in different places around the house. I was sitting there with my head placed in my hands, trying to figure stuff out. If nobody wanted me here, and I didn’t want to stay here, then why stay?

“Hey Charlie, wanna play a game of chess?” asked Jedidiah, as he walked into the room.

I quickly took my heads out of my hands and thought about the question, it would be easy for me to tell one or all of the Duggar kids off for not being real people that I could trust, but I had a better idea in mind.
***
“Sure Jed.” I said, and then the two of us headed downstairs and into the living room where Jedidiah set the chess set up on the table, there were doubts in my head as to whether Joseph was being completely truthful, therefore I decided to play nice with the Duggars until the truth came out.

When I first came to live with the Duggar family, I didn’t have a lot of experience with chess, but after being invited to play so many times, I didn’t feel like a complete newbie anymore. In the middle of the game, Joy-Anna had come to watch and said that she’d play winner.

Jedidiah came out the winner, which was fine, Jed was just a better play at this game than I was, but if it was checkers, then I definitely would’ve had a better chance. Joy-Anna then started playing against Jedidiah, and I decided to watch since Joy had been an audience for my game.

I didn’t know which one of them to root for, especially since the little trust I had for them had been weakened by what Joseph had said. The game between Jedidiah and Joy-Anna wound up in a tie, and after the tie-breaker, Jedidiah ended up the winner.

Chapter Text

Two weeks later…

It was two weeks ago that I started to doubt whether the Duggars really liked me or not, but that’s not really important because it was a couple of days ago that the family had lost Grandpa Duggar, his funeral had taken place the other day and the family was really broken up about it, I had grown to care about Grandpa Duggar in the time that he had come to stay with the rest of us. But it didn’t compare to the way that the rest of the family cared about him, and I knew that, therefore I tried my best to serve as a mini-source of comfort for not only the Duggar kids, but Jim-Bob and Michelle as well.

Walking down the upstairs hallway, I found Joy-Anna crying in the corner, briefly I thought about going to get one of her older siblings but it would’ve been wrong for me to just leave her there, so I sat down next to Joy and tried to comfort her.

“I can’t imagine what kind of pain you’re feeling.” I told her. “But do you think your Grandpa would want you to be upset like this?”

“I miss him.” Joy looked at me with teary eyes.

“Everybody reaches their time in life where they’ve got to move on to the next world.”

“Have you ever had one of your family members or someone that was really close to you die?”

“My parents.” I admitted and then told her that my parents wouldn’t want me to be upset at them dying, because they have moved on and are at peace now, Joy said that she was kinda glad that it was me who had come into the hall because she didn’t really want her brothers and sisters to see her like this.

It was hard for me, because I didn’t want to make it seem like I was telling her how to handle her grief, when my parents were murdered, I wouldn’t have wanted someone to do that to me. I embraced Joy-Anna and then she went to the bathroom to get herself together, being around the Duggars felt awkward since it was a sad environment. The younger kids such as Justin, Jackson, Johanna, and etc. didn’t fully understand death but they all could see how sad the rest of the family was.

Chapter Text

“You okay man?” I asked walking into the guy’s room where Joseph was laying on his bed, looking upset. Joseph didn’t reply as I expected him too, and I debated whether or not to walk away, so that a fight wasn’t started. Unfortunately my conscience got me the better of me, and I decided to stay. “It’s different for people, but I lost someone too you know.”

Joseph still didn’t say anything.

I tried to think of what to say next, but then Jim-Bob’s voice announced through the intercom that everyone was to get downstairs, Joseph quickly got up from where he was laying in his bed and headed downstairs. I stayed back in the room, because I had been trying a lot to put some distance between myself and the entire Duggar family.

Joseph turned back around. “Didn’t you hear the announcement dork? Dad said to get downstairs.”

Instead of replying, I decided to go to climb on my bunk and lay down, the dude did the same thing to me, so I didn’t exactly feel bad about it at all. Joseph shot me a hard glare before heading downstairs to the family, it was not only a few seconds before he was sent back up to retrieve me.
***
Joseph commanded me to come down off my bunk or that he would shake the rails until I fell off it, deciding not to test whether he meant it or not, I climbed down and then the two of us headed downstairs where Jim-Bob, Michelle, the Duggar kids, and Grandma Duggar were all gathered.

“Nice of you to finally join us.” Jim-Bob said and then he told us all to join hands because we were going to say a family prayer for Grandpa Duggar. Since I had been standing next to Joseph, I grabbed his fingertips, and Jill grabbed my other hand. We all closed our eyes as Jim-Bob began to speak.

Chapter Text

After the family prayer, Jim-Bob had made the announcement that the family was going to be taking a road trip to Big Sandy, Texas. If any of the Duggars were excited about this, they sure weren’t showing it on their faces, I didn’t know how to feel about it, because this trip had family bonding written all over it and I had been trying to keep my distance from the sad atmosphere.

Michelle told me and the children that we should get upstairs and pack some clothes, then we all walked upstairs and to the closet where we began putting stuff into suitcases. I wasn’t sure how long this road-trip was, and I had my fears on what would happen on this trip, the Duggar kids were still very upset over Grandpa Duggar’s death and I wasn’t sure how they would handle their grief.

If I had to pick a Duggar that I trusted the most, it would be John-David, but the two of us haven’t talked too much since the funeral. The Duggar kids and I finished packing the suitcases and then headed downstairs to the shuttle bus that the family owned. The bus had a kitchenette, multiple TV’s, tables, lots of bunks, some comfortable sofas, bathroom, and etc.

Sure I had seen the bus before, but had never been actually able to ride in it, which meant that this would be the first time for me but not for Duggars. Stepping into the bus with the Duggars, I had a shocked expression my face as I looked around it.

“What? Haven’t you seen a bus before?” asked Jinger, amused by the expression on my face.

“Umm, I’ve only been a public bus before and it was nothing like this.” I admitted.

“Jessa and I have been a public bus before, but we liked the experience.”

“I liked the experience too.”

Michelle was standing by the driver’s seat when she told all of us to go find a bunk to sleep in, the younger Duggars would be sharing, while the older ones got their own. I found my bunk which happened to be across from Josiah’s and then set my stuff there.

I decided to head to a part of bus that had the TV’s set up, sure the Duggars did have a TV in the house, but their watching of it is pretty restricted. Joy-Anna, Jedidiah, Jason, Jeremiah were all in the room watching some kind of educational program when I walked in.

“Do any of you know why we’re going on this trip?” I asked them, not really caring which one of them answered.

Joy-Anna looked over at me. “There’s an educational conference.”

I realized that it would take some time to get from Arkansas to Texas, and I would only be listening to a lecture of some sort, and it wasn’t fair. With all the education that I got in home, going to a conference in Texas would be just be added onto it.

Chapter Text

“Charlie, Charlie-“ I was lying in my bunk sleeping that evening when I heard my name being called, I was a little ticked, but since everyone else was probably sleeping, I didn’t want to go off and wake them up as well.

“What? And can this wait?”

“I guess it can.” whispered Josiah. “I heard that you were complaining about the conference.”

“And don’t try to deny it either, I heard you.” Another voice which turned about to be Joseph said.

“I wasn’t complaining.” I’m not exactly sure what gave the two of them that idea, but being that I didn’t have a lot of trust for everyone, I figured that it wasn’t really safe for me to be complaining.

Josiah then said that the conference wasn’t what I thought it was gonna be, and that it was actually a lot of fun, and I replied that I’d believe it when I saw it. Joseph then bet me five bucks that they were right, and that I was wrong, I didn’t exactly have the five dollars to bet at the moment and had to turn him down.
***
The next morning, it turned out that Joseph and Josiah were right, I didn’t believe it at first but there was a large area to play around in and lots of fun activities for the kids to be able to enjoy. The girls were involved in teaching classes or playing the orchestra, while the guys were involved in the alert cadet program.

One of the people that ran the program asked me if I would like to participate in it, I agreed and seeing as I didn’t know a lot about it, I was given a training manual and told about the basics of the alert cadet. It was interesting, I got to watch some of the other kids rappel down the wall, and I couldn’t wait to learn how to do it.

After breakfast, Joy-Anna and I rode our bikes in a long dirt path through the institute.

“Having fun?” asked Joy-Anna.

“I didn’t know that the institute was like this.” I told her.

“That was kinda the point, we’ve all been here before, it wouldn’t have been any fun if we had just told you that it was like this.”

“Everybody was in on this?”

“Of course.” Joy-Anna smiled. “Good thing you didn’t bet that money with Joseph the other night.”

Chapter Text

Epilogue.

Charlie ended up having a lot of fun at the conference in Texas and the trip had helped him with bonding with the Duggar family bit more, Joseph and Charlie actually ended up becoming good friends despite the animosity between them in the beginning.

Tavington’s calls to the Duggars had lessened and lessened until they finally stopped coming completely, Jim-Bob and Michelle had tried to get back in contact with Tavington but it was no use, Charlie was hurt by it being that Colonel William Tavington was the only family member he had left in the world, but eventually he got through it and learned to think of the Duggars as family.

Michelle and Jim-Bob had a daughter they named Josie and around the year 2011, Michelle got pregnant with her twentieth child but she ended up having a miscarriage. The family was really devastated by this and it turned out that Josie possibly would be the last addition to the Duggar children. But Josh and Anna had already began their own families with Mackynzie and Michael and eventually the other Duggar children married, moved out, and had children of their own.

Despite having grown up, getting married a woman that he had met at one of the many homeschool conferences that he had attended over the years with the Duggar family, Charlie kept in close contact with the Duggars and even attended their weddings, Joseph had asked him to the best man at his wedding.

Since he loved the Duggar family, it was hard for him to hear a lot of the negative things that people had to say about them, Charlie ended up using his powers against this random person, but in time he learned to ignore it the way that the other Duggars do.

Because of the amount of trust and love that Charlie had grown for every one of the Duggars, he had finally revealed to them that he had supernatural powers, Joy-Anna was the most accepting, it took the other family members a bit of time to come around to it. But because they all cared about him, they had all come to accept it. With the reveal of his powers, Charlie had also told them how his parents died and exactly what type of magical creature he was, his parents had been vanquished by a group of three witches that were the strongest in the world, after they were killed, Tavington had took in Charlie despite not having any ability to relate to children whatsoever.