It was a peaceful night at the Santiago household, and the inhabitants were getting ready to sleep. Ronnie saved her books on her backpack, her mother was making sure she had everything ready, and Bobby was about to take a bath after a long day at work. That is, until he was approached by his mother.

"Are you free for the rest of the night, son?" the woman asked, catching Bobby's attention.

"Yeah, I'll take a bath and then I'll go straight to bed, after messaging my girlfriend for a bit, of course," Bobby answered, earning a glare from his mother. "Why? Do you need something?"

"Well, I wanted to know if you'd be willing to..." Mrs. Santiago said, before whispering the rest of her request to Bobby's ear.

"Mom, are you sure Ronalda would be willing to do that?" Bobby asked before glancing at Ronnie, who was practicing some dance moves at the living room. "After all, we don't interact that much-"

"That's exactly why you should do that: You two barely spend time together, on your own without a Loud or a fellow family member, to the extent I believe Ronnie would gladly accept to do that just to get closer to you," Mrs. Santiago put her hands on Bobby's shoulders and added, "You're brother and sister, you're supposed to at least have some sort of connection. I don't want my children to grow distant, so please, try to bond with her before you go to sleep, okay?"

Seeing his mother was trusting him with such a responsibility, Bobby smiled and answered, "Okay, mom, I'll do what I can."

The woman brushed Bobby's hair and went upstairs for a well-earned nap. While she did that, Bobby walked to Ronnie Anne's side and asked, "Hey, Ronnie, what are you doing?"

"I'm practicing my moves, obviously!" the Hispanic tomboy answered while shaking her hips left and right. "There's a new "Super extreme" difficulty setting at the dancing game machine at Gus' Games and Grub, and I'm going to be the very first girl to beat it!"

"Well, can you practice later? Mom wants us to do something together, and I need to tell you what we need to do," Bobby asked.

Ronnie immediately stopped her silly dancing and walked with Bobby to the couch. Once there, the two sat down-with Ronnie sitting on Bobby's lap-and the older boy brushed Ronnie's hair.

"You know, Ronalda-" Bobby started.

This earned him a jab on the shoulder by Ronnie. "You know I prefer to be called Ronnie!"

"Right, sorry," Bobby rubbed his shoulder and took a deep breath. "You know, Ronnie, back when mom was your age-"

"The dinosaurs still roamed around?" Ronnie raised an eyebrow with an amused smile.

Bobby returned the smile and a retort, "No, but Christopher Columbus had yet to discover the Americas."

The ditzy teenager and freckled tomboy laughed out loud, and once the laughter stopped, Bobby promptly said, "But speaking seriously, mom used to do sleepover with her siblings when you here day, sometimes once a month, sometimes once a year, but they developed strong bonds thanks to those sleepovers."

Ronnie immediately got an idea of what her brother was saying. "You wanna do a sibling sleepover between you and me?"

The teenager flinched, but quickly caught his breath and answered, "Well, seeing as how we don't spend enough time together, and how I'm free today, I thought it was the perfect chance to get to bond or something," Bobby brushed Ronnie's hair and added, "So, what do you say?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Ronnie smiled and said, "I'd love to," but then, her smile turned into a worried frown. "But will we really be able to pull this off? I mean, what if something goes wrong?"

Bobby, realizing Ronnie needed him, grabbed her hand and said with a reassuring tone, "Ronnie, you have nothing to worry about."

Ronnie blushed at the sight of her comforting brother, not being used to this side of Bobby. Then again, she wasn't used to interacting with him without Lori, or Lincoln, or any of their family in their way, so... Yeah, this was new to her.

Then, her frown turned into a smile, and looking away and blushing, she said "Shut up and take me upstairs already, you dork!" sheepishly. Bobby, in return, carried Ronnie bridal style as the two went upstairs, laughing all the way. Once they reached Bobby's bedroom, he put Ronnie down and he sat on his bed while the tomboy stretched.

"Alright, time to begin the Extra Special Santiago Bonding Sleepover!" Ronnie cheerfully proclaimed, earning a look from Bobby. "I overheard Lame-O say something similar while you were talking with Lori one day, and I thought making long titles would be fun."

"Well, are they?" Bobby asked.

"No, they're a mouthful," Ronnie sat down. "Anyway, what do we do first?"

"Okay, according to the list mom left here, the first thing they usually did was play some games," Bobby read out loud, with Ronnie flinching as she got an idea. "Any games you would like to play?"

Ronnie put on a sly smile, and mere moments later, the brother and sister were playing a PS3 version of the dancing game from Gus' Games and Grub. However, it was very clear that no matter how hard Bobby tried, his younger sister was far better at it than he was.

"I don't know what's more unsurprising, the fact you picked a dancing game to begin with," Bobby looked at his score of 1000, which paled in comparison to Ronnie's 267050. "Or the fact you're utterly kicking my butt."

"Well, I have been practicing a lot lately," Ronnie remarked with a sly smile. "I could even give you some private lessons if you wish."

And as the duo continued to dance, Bobby suddenly heard his phone ring even amongst the loud sound. Dating a young woman who's so obsessed with you she'd send you messages every couple of minutes for over eight months, and who you don't want to see angry, will develop your ears to make sure you can hear her call.

So Bobby stopped dancing, took out his phone and answered her message, while Ronnie continued to dance.

"Wow, Bobby, I knew you weren't good at this game, but now it's like you're not even trying!" Ronnie quipped, only for her smile to turn into a frown when she saw her brother texting. "Are you texting Lori?"

"I'll just answer this message and we'll get right back to our game, I promise," Bobby answered, focusing firmly on his phone.

Going from Ronnie's stern glare, she didn't approve of the answer. "Bobby! This is supposed to be between us!" the tomboy whined before she stopped dancing. "How do you expect us to bond if you're going to waste your time answering to your girlfriend?!"

"I'll answer this and-"

"And then you'll tell Lori you're in the middle of something important!" Ronnie growled. "Mom wants this to work, I'd like it if it worked too, so please, don't ruin this just because of Lori!"

"I won't jeopardize it, I promise!" Bobby replied before sending his reply to Lori, then saving his phone on his pockets. "There, I told her I was in the middle of something important, now she won't bother us for a while, are you happy now?"

"I'm getting the feeling that won't be enough to deter her, but I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt," the tomboy stated, sternly folding her arms.

"Fine, at least we got that going," Bobby took a deep breath, then asked, "Why does the fact I'm calling my girlfriend upset you so much?"

"Bobby, ever since you and Lori started dating, you two are so crazy for each other that it's started to affect you in a negative way!" the Hispanic tomboy sat down and took a deep breath, "Yes, Lori, probably has it bad too, but look at yourself! You can't even hold a job for long either because of your stupidity-no offense-or because you can't stay away from your phone for one second to focus, or even both!"

"Oh come on, Ronnie, we both know that with the economy and lower wage among these-" Bobby argued.

"Don't change the subject on me!" Ronnie snapped, stomping the ground. "Bobby, do you even care about whether this works out or not?!"

"O-Of course I do!"

"Then prove it! If Lori calls again while we're in our sleepover, hang up on her!"

The teenage guy flinched and took a step back. Did his younger sister really just ask that? She knew what Lori was capable of, and yet she was risking her wrath by requesting that?!

"Ronnie, you and I know well enough that Lori is an absolute beast if you anger her! And I may be stupid, but I'm not that stupid!" the teen guy retorted, folding his arms as his sister put on a pouty face. "If I don't call her back, she's eventually going to come rushing here demanding here, or even worse, break up with me in the calmest, yet most furious way possible!"

"She won't do that if you let her know it's for a good cause," Ronnie argued, leaving her brother speechless. "Look, just write her a message explaining to her what we're doing and why you can neither call her back or answer her messages. She'll surely understand and leave us alone for the time being. Now you go ahead and write her the message, and I'll go make some popcorn so we can enjoy a movie!"

Ronnie ran out of the room and went downstairs as Bobby, frustrated at what he needed to do now, turned off the game console and sat on his bed. He took out his phone... And saw he had lost one call from Lori.

Strike one.

He immediately called his girlfriend and took a deep breath, hoping she would understand. Once she answered, he greeted, "Hi Lori, how-"

Then she answered, with her tone clearly bathing in anger, "How dare you leave me hanging, Bobby?! Do you know the kind of heart attack you gave me?!"

The teenage guy gulped, realizing he had angered Lori. Strike two.

One more strike, and he'd unleash the beast, and that alone brought down his confidence by a notch.

"L-Listen, Lori, I-I have a very good reason for why I didn't answer-"

"It should better be, because if you don't justify what you did, I'm going to come up to your house and turn you into the most handsome human pretzel in existence!" Lori snapped from the other line, further downgrading Bobby's confidence. "It can't be anything more important than your girlfriend!?"

"I-I'm doing something with Ronnie Anne, but we'll be done soon!" the teen guy argued. He hesitated, knowing this could only bring him more problems, but he had no other choice: It was either unleash the beast, or risk the sleepover. And the second was definitely the least dangerous option. "Just give me like an hour or so and I'll be yours the rest of the time!"

After a couple seconds in silence, Lori answered, "Fine, but only an hour. If you take longer than that, you're literally going to regret it!"

Lori hung up, and Bobby sulked. He really had messed up this time. Then again, Lori was also at fault here: What kind of girlfriend talks to her boyfriend like that?!

But nevertheless, Bobby immediately forced a smile and a happy facade as Ronnie Anne came back to the room, holding a large bowl of popcorn on one hand, and a DVD on the other hand.

"I assure you that you're going to love this movie, Bobby!" Ronnie put the DVD on the machine and sat next to her brother. "I asked mom what kind of movies you like to watch, and she said "anything that comes from his bedroom," so I grabbed one of the movies under your bed-don't worry, I checked to see if it was rated r first-and picked up one with a guy with an energy sword for a hand."

"Oh, you probably picked "Energy Samurai: The Journey Beyond Deceit," Bobby remarked, his facade actually turning genuine for a moment. "Yeah, that's a good movie."

"Yes! I picked something good!" Ronnie joyfully shouted, before she turned serious upon asking, "By the way, did you manage to convince Lori to leave us alone?"

"O-Of course I did!" the teen guy hastily answered, looking to his left and right as he added, "I called her, we spoke for a bit, and she eventually understood that we were in the middle of something important!"

And just as Ronnie raised an eyebrow in suspicion, the movie started, and she focused on that, saving Bobby from digging himself too deep... For now, anyway. So, the duo started to watch the movie, and among the action scenes and other stuff shown on the screen, Bobby could only hope the movie would end by the time Lori called back.

Then fifty minutes passed, and the movie didn't feel anywhere close to ending. Ronnie did seem to enjoy it, though. "Go, Energy Samurai! Decapitate those cyborg ninja gorillas!" the tomboy shouted at the screen. "Can you believe it's only been fifty minutes and it feels like the movie has just started?"

"Fifty what now?!" Bobby exclaimed in disbelief. "How long is this movie anyway?!"

"I don't know, I'd expect you to know that since you were apparently the one who bought it, but let me see the cover, it'll probably have some information about it," Ronnie grabbed the DVD cover and read it out loud. "Energy Samurai enters the big picture with an adventure so amazing and epic, it'll take him over two hours to finally defeat the evil Cyborg Shuriken Gods-"

"Two hours?!" Bobby slid down to the ground in horror.

"I know, I can't believe it's that long either, but then again, you bought it for a reason," Ronnie put the cover down, then noticed the empty popcorn bowl. "Oh look, we're all out of popcorn-"

"I-I'll go get more!" Bobby exclaimed as he suddenly got up. "You, meanwhile, stay back here and... Uh..."

Bobby took out an Ace Savvy comic and showed it to his sister as he said, "Read a comic book!"

"You know, I heard from Lori that Lincoln likes to read Ace Savvy comics," Ronnie grabbed the comic and started to read it. "But I never thought you would actually have a couple of them yourself. Where did these come from?"

"Well, back when I was Lincoln's age, I really liked the Ace Savvy comics," the teenager sheepishly admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "Granted, they weren't the franchise that they are today, but they were still very enjoyable back then. Anyway, I'll be back soon!"

The teenage guy ran out of the room and Ronnie just shrug off his hurry and returned to her comic. As for Bobby, first he did as he said and refilled the bowl with popcorn, then he called Lori, who answered immediately.

"Hello, Bobby Boo-Boo Bear!" Lori greeted, showing she was in a far better mood than before. "How's everything going."

"I-It's going fine, nothing you need to worry about," Bobby answered, taking a look to his left and right. "The movie Ronnie and I are watching is going to last at least two hours, so I had to go and call you before it was too late."

"How deep are you in the movie?" Lori inquired.

Taking a deep breath, Bobby hesitantly answered. "Fifty minutes."

"Wow, that is one long movie you're dealing with," Lori remarked, with Bobby rolling his eyes in an "you have no idea" manner. "But, now that we're alone, can we discuss what I wanted to talk with you before?"

Bobby took a deep breath. "Lori, I'd love to, but here's the thing; if I don't return soon enough, Ronnie could get suspicious and-"

"It'll be quick! Promise!" the Young woman answered. "I assure you, it'll be over long before you notice!"

The guy, however, wasn't convinced so easily. "I-I don't know, babe-"

"Bobby, I'm going to be blunt; I'm starved for you, it's been nearly an hour since we last talked, and you know how hard it is for me to spend so much time without talking with you, and without anything to keep my attention out of it!" Lori whined.

And as she continued, the faint sounds of someone walking downstairs could be heard, just not by Bobby. "Lincoln is playing videogames, Luna is playing too loud to listen to me, Leni wanted to go to the mall alone, I have nothing else!"

Then, the door was opened. "But, babe, look-"

"No, Bobby, you look; either you spend some minutes talking with me and prevent me from going nuts, or else-"

"Bobby?!"

The guy turned around and saw a furious Ronnie standing at the door, and her look grew angrier as Lori asked, "Is that Ronnie Anne?" loud enough to be heard from the pone.

"I-I'll talk to you later, babe," Bobby said before he quickly hung up his phone.

"That was Lori, isn't it?!" Ronnie asked, her anger resurfacing.

Bobby flinched and scratched the back of his head. "Uh..."

"I can't believe this!" Ronnie stomped the ground while shedding tears. "You never told Lori we were in the middle of something important?! I legitimately try to live this time we have together, alone, with nobody else, and yet you didn't even have the courtesy to tell other people, specially Lori, to leave us alone?! How do you expect me to bond with you if you won't even tell your girlfriend about this!?"

From simply looking at his sister's tears, Bobby could tell if he didn't do something right now, everything would fall apart. "R-Ronnie, w-wait, I can explain-!"

"No! Don't even bother explain anything, you dingus!" Ronnie sniffed and hesitated before adding, at the top of her lungs, "If you won't even put Lori aside to spend time with me, then this clearly won't work, Roberto Alejandro Martinez-Millan Luis Santiago, Jr.!"

Upon hearing that, Bobby took a step back as Ronnie, tears falling down her cheek, promptly broke down and cried like the kid she was before running straight for the door. "R-Ronnie, wait, give me another chance!" Bobby exclaimed, causing Ronnie stop just as she grabbed the doorknob. "I-I'll tell Lori not to bother us, I promise!"

After remaining silent for a moment, Ronnie turned to her brother and, giving him a furious glare, hissed "Too little, too late!" before leaving the room and running back to her own, crying all the while. And with that out of the way, Bobby somberly walked back to his room and sat on his bed to think about what happened... At least until Mrs. Santiago came inside.

"Bobby, I saw Ronnie running back to her room, crying about how your sleepover was a complete failure," the woman sat next to her son, who looked away in shame. "What happened?"

"I messed up big time, that's what happened," Bobby answered, his eyes firmly looking at the ground. "Ronnie wasn't very happy when I called Lori in the middle of our brother-sister bonding sleepover party and told me to tell her to leave us alone, but when I tried to do that, I just couldn't."

Mrs. Santiago raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

"Lori was really angry, and since I didn't want her to unleash her wrath upon me, I tricked Ronnie into thinking I had told her to leave us alone while in reality, Lori would only wait one hour before she blew up. I tried to call her fifty minutes into a movie Ronnie and I were watching while I was getting some popcorn, but Ronnie found us out and... Well, I'm sure you can figure out what happened next," Bobby further explained. "Now my sister's upset with me, and it's all my fault."

"Oh, my dear son, don't say that! It was because of both you and Lori that caused this all to fall apart, which isn't exactly better, but you don't need to put all the blame on yourself," Mrs. Santiago pointed out, then put a hand on Bobby's shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. "But it's not too late to fix it: I'll go deal with Ronnie Anne, while you call your girlfriend and explain to her what happened, and why you can't call her for the moment."

"Do you think she'll be willing to listen?" an unpleasant image popped in Bobby's mind. "Will she even understand without going crazy?!"

"If your girlfriend is as caring and kind as you claim she is, then she should be able to understand," Mrs. Santiago brushed Bobby's hair. "And if she doesn't do that, just break up with her. 'Cause you deserve better."

With that said, the nurse left the room and Bobby called Lori's phone number as he thought, with pure worry:

"Babe, please be understanding."

So he sat there and waited for Lori to answer... And she eventually did.

"Bobby Boo-Boo Bear!" Lori cheerfully greeted. "It's been a while since we last talked, and the fact you hung up on me did make me a bit upset, but I forgive you-!"

The teen guy took a deep breath. "Lori, I can't speak with you right now, I really messed up something with Ronnie and I need to fix it right away."

"So, you're basically going to abandon me for your sister?" Lori guessed, and Bobby's ensuing silence spoke for itself. "I mean, I know about family values and everything, but what could be so important that Ronnie takes priority over me? And I'm not asking to sound overly self-centered, I'm legitimately curious."

"When I got home from work, mom suggested I had a sleepover with Ronnie Anne to try and bond with her," the teen guy explained. "However, when I tried to call you in the middle of it, Ronnie wasn't very happy about it, and she told me that if I cared about her and the sleepover, that I would tell you to not call me again as I was in the middle of something important."

"Oh lord, and when I talked you in that angry tone before, you got cold feet and had to trick Ronnie Anne," the Young woman guessed, her tone conveying a sense of complete shock. Again, Bobby's ensuing silence spoke for itself. "Oh babe, I'm so sorry, I... I wish I could help you somehow."

Then, Bobby got an idea. "Well, what if I told you there's a way you can help?"

Later, with Ronnie Anne...

The devastated tomboy sat on her bed, curled up in a fetal position as she looked at the ceiling. Then, soon afterwards, somebody knocked her door. "Come in," she somberly said.

"Hi, Ronnie," Bobby greeted as he entered the room and walked to his sister, though Ronnie made sure it was clear she wasn't happy to see him. "Listen, there's someone who'd like to talk with you."

Bobby handed Ronnie his phone, and once she leaned it close to her ear, Lori spoke:

"Hello, Ronnie. Listen, I'd just like to apologize for getting in between you and your brother today. I honestly had no idea you two would try to develop your bond, and thanks to the fact I acted so aggressive, I caused Bobby to chicken out and trick you. I probably, no, scrap that, I definitely should have been more considerate about what was happening, and try to be a bit more patient with Bobby. And yes, I know, the fact that I've been dating him for months should logically mean I would've learned about that already, but sometimes I just lose my patience, you know? But now, I know what happened, I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again, and I want to let you know that... Well, I'm sorry for what happened."

"Wow, you said all of that without saying "literally" at least once," the tomboy remarked, sounding legitimately impressed.

"I know, that was literally one of the hardest things I've tried to say in my entire life," Lori quipped, causing the tomboy to chuckle. "But, just to end this already, I'm sorry for what happened and I hope you and Bobby can bond now that I've decided to leave you two alone. So, goodbye, have a good bonding."

Lori hung up, and Ronnie Anne returned her brother's phone back to him before the duo exchanged smiles. "So, what would you like to do now, Ronalda?" Bobby asked, covering his mouth a Little too late.

However, Ronnie didn't seem to mind. "Oh, I know what I want to do, Bobby," she said with a sultry tone. "I know what I want to do..."

Moments later...

The Santiago siblings were facing off once more in the PS3 version of the dancing game, with Bobby still being utterly terrible at the game.

"Come on, Bobby, put up some effort!" Ronnie exclaimed, clearly in a playful tone. "It's no fun when you make it so easy!"

"Oh yeah?" Bobby replied, equally playful. "Well, if you continue to try and force me to do better, then I'm going to spoil the entirety of the Energy Samurai movie!"

"What?!" Ronnie turned to her brother, but continued to dance. "No way!"

"Yes way!" Bobby continued to dance, but this time looked at the screen. "I've seen that movie 34 times, I already know what's going to happen in it. Spoiling it would be a piece of cake!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Don't tempt me!"

Then, without warning, the game said "It's a tie!" and Ronnie turned around to see her and Bobby's scores were equally low, around 2000 points. Once she saw that, Ronnie turned back to Bobby and, with a little smile, leaped at him and playfully bit him as the pair started to laugh.