As he lay in bed, 14-year-old Jeremy Whittier reflected once again how lucky he was.

With an older sister, two younger brothers, and no less than 4 younger sisters, he knew that having his own bedroom was pretty much the luck of the draw. His folks had gotten married shortly after high school, and it hadn't taken them long to have all the kids Jeremy figured any couple could want.

First had been his older sister Dawn; he'd come along just ten months after her. Eleven months later, his mom had his twin sisters Brittany and Bethany; another ten months, and Joanna was brought home. Less than a year after that, Colby and Carla made their appearance, followed just nine months later by the youngest, Tracy.

It wasn't until he got old enough to understand all the stuff his folks had taught him about how babies were made that he really understood why Mom and Dad thought it was so funny when they talked about deciding that Dad needed to get 'fixed' after Tracy had been born.

With his folks only having high school diplomas, that meant that both of them had to work to support such a big family. They still managed to make enough to meet the needs of so many kids, and even somehow spent enough time at home that Jeremy knew that both of them loved him and his siblings. Even so, Jeremy and Dawn – as the oldest – were called on to watch out for and take care of all the rest a lot of the time. From the time he spent at various friends houses, Jeremy knew that he and Dawn and all the rest got along a LOT better than most sets of brothers and sisters. It wasn't perfect (not by a LONG shot!), but definitely better; still, if he or Dawn 'got' something on the other, neither was afraid to use (but not ABuse) it to their advantage. He could only figure that it was because there were so many of them, and that they were all so close in age: Dawn had turned fifteen a few months before; the rest of them were spaced in almost yearly increments behind her – Jeremy at 14, Brittany and Bethany were 13, Joana was 12, Colby and Carla at 11, with Tracy recently turning a precocious 10.