Gary, age twelve, and Robby, age nine, were sitting at home, arguing over the TV remote.
"I wanna watch Cartoon Network!" Robby yelled.
"It's not even that great," Gary argued. "I'm watching the Discovery Channel!"
They were each trying to pull the remote control away from each other. Gary pulled the remote so hard that it went flying into the wall and got stuck in a hole that it created at that moment.
"See what you did?" Robby said.
"That would not have happened if you had not started whining!"
"I'm not whining!"
Ron and Brandon entered the house.
"We have guests," Ron said.
"Guests?" Gary said. "What guests?"
"We're having a family of a dozen or so over," Ron said.
"That's a lot," Robby said.
"I did not approve of this!" Gary said. "Why didn't you call me for approval? What the hell were you thinking?"
"You're not in charge of the house," Ron said.
"Guess what? I am. You know why? Because I'm the SMARTEST. Have you forgotten that? What if they figure out that we paid you to be our dad?"
"Are you calling us dumbasses?" Brandon asked.
"They are not gonna find out!" Ron said. "Be quiet. I can hear them coming in."
The family walked into the house.
"Wow," Susan said. "This is a nice house."
"Where's the TV?" John asked.
"Be polite, sweetie," Lois said.
"You must be Ron's other kids," Hal said. "Correct me if I'm mistaking."
"Mistaking?" Gary said. "Why would you be mistaking?"
"I have this curse where I make wrong assumptions."
"You're not wrong. You're right."
"Yep," Robby said. "We're Ron's kids. We love each other."
"You call your dad Ron?" Jamie asked. "I call my dad Dad."
"We live a different lifestyle," Ron said. "I let them call me Ron to show that we are friends."
"That's a bit odd," Lois said. "A parent trying to be friends with his kids."
"It's not odd!" Brandon said.
"It's just that it's been so hard since my wife left me," Ron said.
"I'm so sorry," Lois said.
"See what you did, Lois?" Susan said.
"It's okay," Ron said. "I've healed a lot."
"Let's all just be quiet and see what's on TV," Robbie suggested. "You wanna watch TV?"
"Sure," Dewey said. "That sounds like a good idea."
"Maybe I'm just being paranoid," Malcolm said to you, "but I think there's something weird going on with this family."
Later on, Ron and Hal were sitting outside. They each had a bottle of beer. The Gundersons watched from a distance to make sure that he didn't mess up.
"Thank you, Tucson," Ron said. "That's what I always say."
"I'm really sorry about your wife," Hal said. "Can't imagine how you must feel."
"I'm getting better," Ron said. "Let's just change the subject."
"Okay," Hal said. "So, what did your sons get you for Father's Day?"
The Gundersons looked at each other.
"Something really good," Ron said.
"Can I see it?" Hal asked.
"Well, I don't have it yet. But I know that it's good. They're good kids."
The Gundersons went back inside. Malcolm was in front of them.
"What's going on?" Malcolm asked.
"I'm hungry," Robby said before running away.
"I have to use the bathroom," Brandon said before running away.
Gary was left standing in front of Malcolm.
"Summer's a great time to be out of school," Gary said awkwardly.
"I am good at pretty much everything at school," Malcolm said. "I'm a genius. But I got picked on because of it."
"Some people just don't understand how important we are," Gary said.
"I know, right? It's like, why can't they just accept us?"
"I know! We are their natural born leaders!"
"Totally."
Brandon and Robby entered the living room and looked at Reese.
"You look familiar," Robby said.
"I do?" Reese asked.
"He looks just like that guy Barry!" Brandon realized. "Just with different hair."
"Who's Barry?" Reese asked.
"He's this guy that we paid to..."
"Babysit us," Brandon said. "And he was really mean. He mooched on us."
"There's no way that he was meaner than Reese," Dewey said.
"Unless it's my evil twin!" Reese suggested.
"Evil twin?" Robby said.
"Years ago, Reese found a boy who looks exactly like me."
"Dewey was his evil twin. Billy Prescott did things for people like mow the lawn."
"Billy?" Dewey said. "Barry? This is getting weird. Does everyone have a look-alike who's name starts with a 'b' and ends with a 'y'?"
"I don't know," Reese said. "But I would like to meet this Barry guy to see if I could kick his ass."
"We would also like to see that," Brandon said.
"You should have seen him hanging last year," Robby said. "It was funny."
Later on, the Gunderson boys were having a discussion in the room where Ron used to sleep. There was a box with wrapping on it.
"Okay," Gary said. "We are going to give this to Ron at Glenn's barbecue."
"You're never gonna believe this," Brandon said. "That guy Reese looks like Barry!"
"Barry?" Gary said. "The guy we paid to be our dad when Ron quit?"
"Yeah," Robby said.
"It's a good thing Ron came back," Gary said. "He took that manager job for us. And he's been with us since. I don't think he's noticed that we have not paid him in the last few months."
The door opened. It was Malcolm.
"I knew that something was up!"