"Overlooked"
        by Lucy-Brianna

        Wow, another fic inspired by a single moment of an episode! 
*laughs* This is my second Brady Bunch fic, based on the episode "Cyrano 
de Brady". Short, angsty, Peter POV after he fails to ask Kerry out on a 
date.

[The Brady Bunch is copyright of Sherwood Schwartz and Paramount. I'm only 
borrowing the characters for a while, I don't intend to make any money 
off of this. This is a standard boy-angsts-about-a-girl fic, but it's 
pretty angsty. If you don't like that kind of thing, don't read any 
further and then complain. Please.]



                                ~

"I'm the brother who better say goodbye now."

Peter slowly hung up the phone, his heart sinking. He'd just tried to call 
Kerry Hathaway, the new girl at school, to ask her out on a date.

She hadn't said no.

But he hadn't even asked her.

How could he, when she didn't even know who he was?

"Goodbye," he mumbled. He dragged himself off the couch and trudged 
upstairs to his room. Fortunately, Greg was studying at a friend's house 
and Bobby was off playing checkers of something with Cindy. It didn't 
matter, just as long as he could be alone for the night, he thought as he 
let the door swing closed behind him.

"She didn't even know who I was," he muttered. He looked at himself in the 
mirror and shook his head. "Didn't help that I made a complete fool of 
myself when I met her." He cringed, remembering how Kerry and Jan had 
laughed at his "pleased to meet me" gaffe. "Anyone could've made that 
mistake! They didn't have to laugh so much!" he said, climbing up to his 
bed and lying back against the pillow. At that moment, the frustrations of 
being the middle child began to set in.

"Being in the middle sure stinks sometimes," he muttered. "Greg's the 
groovy one who gets all the girls, and Bobby's the cute one. Where does 
that leave me?"

In truth, Peter had never had much of a problem with being in the middle. 
Sure, there was that usual trapped feeling, but he could live with it.

Oftentimes he'd head Jan moan about how "being in the middle was like 
being invisible", and while he felt bad for her, he always thought she was 
overreacting. Maybe it was because he was a guy and certain things just 
didn't bother him so much. He never had much of a problem with his looks, 
and he'd won plenty of awards for sports of school stuff, just like Greg 
had. And it didn't matter if Greg was more popular than him. No big deal, 
right?

Until tonight.

Tonight, he was beginning to see where Jan was coming from.

"She didn't even remember who I was. You'd think she'd at least remember 
me as the one who slipped up and made her laugh so much," Peter sighed. 
"Why am I harping on that anyway? It could've been worse...I could've had 
food stuck in my teeth, or spilled a drink on her, or my fly could've been 
open."

He sighed again, rolling onto his stomach and folding his arms.

"But it feels pretty lousy, being overlooked that way," he mumbled, 
resting his head against his arms. "I'll be seeing her at school every day 
from now on...I wonder if she'll ever notice me...or remember my name."

He rolled his eyes. "Jeez, what's with me tonight? Why am I being so 
dramatic over a little thing like a girl not knowing my name?"

Then he remembered the moment he laid eyes on her. The moment Jan had 
introduced her to him.

Her golden hair. The way her blue eyes sparkled when she laughed.

Her voice.

Her smile.

"That's why," he whispered, tears coming to his eyes.

Being overlooked had never bothered Peter this much before.

But he'd also never fallen in love before.


                                ~End~


        W00t! Nothing like the feeling of starting and finishing a story 
in the same night! XD
        I like how "Cyrano de Brady" touched on how Peter might feel about 
being in the middle/losing to Greg, even if just a little. While I like 
the way he was written as a scheming, laid-back guy, I also like it when a 
series digs into a character's psyche a little, shows a rare glimpse of 
something they normally don't display whether it be because they hide it 
from the world, or that most of the time they just don't have it.