{How the Lawrences and the Franks met in history. Sammy's and Wally's ancestors interact, forming the relationship their families have over the years until the current generation}

It had happened first in the previous century, nearly a hundred years prior to today, that a Frank and a Lawrence first had the displeasure of crossing paths. Things went fine at first but then, then they took a sour turn.

The man nearly dodged the flying paperweight that adorned the other's desk, a smirk plastered on his face as he reveled in the sudden anger of his co-worker.

"You imbecile!" the one at the desk marked 'Lawrence' growled out. "Have you no idea of what you're doing?!"

"I do," Franks replied casually. "You need to lighten up, Lawrence. The great war's ended, we're in times of peace, might as well have a good time and enjoy it!"

"Would you mind doing that during your leisure time instead of on the job and thus interrupting my work?" Lawrence replied, sitting down at his desk again and tidying it up like nothing had happened.

"I'd've thought you'd be happy about the war being over, since it's the whole reason you're here," Franks stated.

Lawrence sighed. It was true, he and his family had come to America in the beginning of the Great War in an attempt to escape it. Though they were Europeans, the Americans had still welcomed their work and, thankfully,they were not drafted into the war when America joined.

"Of course I'm pleased," he explained. "I simply have work to do, as do you. And thanks to your tom-foolery, I now have to redo some of my work. If I have to do overtime, you will hear of it."

Franks just shrugged and walked away from the bitter man.

Of course, that wasn't the first incident between the families, and it wouldn't be the last, merely one of the earliest.

.~.~.~.

Flash forward nearly a century to when the current generation first ran into each other. It started when Joey Drew first started the infamous studio.

"I can't do this anymore!" the old composure roared as he stormed out of the music compartment.

Joey let out a soft groan before forcing his signature smile. "What seems to be the problem?"

"These fools you call a band, that's what!" the man barked, gesturing horribly to the band members. "It would take a miracle to make good music with such… such idiots!"

"Not that his music's any better," Wally muttered, keeping his voice lower than the sound of his broom while he cleaned.

The composure continued to leave the building, slamming the door behind him with a call of his quitting.

Wally waited until he heard the man's car rev to life and leave the lot to speak. "Good riddance," he stated, earning a look from both Joey and Henry, who'd come to see what the commotion was about. "What? I's not like he's any good, anyone's better at that job than him."

"Unfortunately, we needed that song to stay on time," Joey groaned, pinching his nose.

"Wally's right," Henry spoke up. "We only hired him as a temporary one until we could find who we really wanted, now's our chance to contact that ones we were thinking on."

.~.~.~.

A couple weeks later, Joey was leading the new hire around, the young man being the new composure. It had turned out that he was hired behind Henry's back, a last minute situation during which Joey had found the musician's work online and hired him on the spot. Even though he wasn't talked to about the hiring, Henry stilled agreed since the young man was, indeed, good at his job.

Wally turned to see Joey leading the newbie towards him, feeling a little more tired but still interested when he saw Joey wave to him.

"Wally!" Joey called. "Wally, come meet our new music director!"

Wally walked closer, watching the man who followed behind their employer.

The musician was pretty small, probably around the same size of Susie, Wally noted. He had shoulder-length black hair, a red streak covering his right eye. At first glance, Wally could tell the other was at least somewhat oriental, though he was never the best at telling apart different ethnicities.

"This is Samuel Lawrence," Joey explained, gesturing to the newbie.

Wally nearly choked and quickly brought his hand up to cover his name-tag, an action that didn't go unnoticed by Samuel, who was kind enough not to comment on it. Wally grinned a friendly smile. "Why cello there," he joked.

Samuel gave him a disappointed look and turned away, pointing to a hallway. "And the offices are over here, right?" he asked, ignoring Wally completely in true Lawrence fashion when presented with a joke.

"Uh, right," Joey answered, looking a bit confused as to what had happened. "I'll show you your office."

"Nice meetin' ya, kiddo!" Wally called as the two left.

"Wally," Joey called later that day. "What was all that about earlier?" he asked.

"I dunno what you're talking about," Wally replied.

Joey just gave him a look but didn't press on. "Well, just so you know, he's actually around the same age as you, so maybe don't call him a kid."

.~.~.~.

Wally was careful to avoid Samuel, or Sammy as he was frequently called, for the most part, hoping not to tick him off or anything.

That didn't mean he didn't get in a fight with someone else.

While it was rare that he got in a real fight, he prided himself on being able to hold his own. That being said, never go up against a musician, especially a wind-player. Their higher lung-capacity was giving them the upper hand, their strength only making things worse.

Wally just barely managed to dodge one blow before another one entered his vision, along with something in the corner. He watched Sammy walk over to Norman and speak to him, gesturing to the fight in the middle of the room.

He was already on the floor when he heard yelling above him.

"Alright, break it up!" Sammy yelled, stepping between the angry brass player and the janitor.

"He started it," the brass player growled. Wally would have liked to say the man had lied, but he wanted to get his jaw into place again first.

"I don't give a flying **** who started it!" Sammy cried, glaring at the man with full force and causing everyone in the room to back off. He stood still in the silent room of stunned people, all of whom stared at him as if he'd bite their heads off. "Now then," he began, "it's clear to me that you're not busy enough if you decided to spend your time fighting."

The brass player shook his head and started to explain before he was stopped when Sammy held up a hand, returning to stunned silence.

"Scales, all of them, five times each, now," Sammy said as he pointed at the brass player. "If you finish too quickly and still find yourself bored, do ten more."

The brass player stuttered before turning to the music room, promptly getting started. Everyone else began to slowly return to their jobs, still surprised at the outburst. They hadn't seen much of Sammy yet, let alone see him angry in the slightest.

Wally slipped out while everyone was leaving, going to sit on the stairs outside the rear entrance of the building.

It wasn't long before he heard footsteps walking towards him, expecting Susie or someone.

"So," the voice of Sammy began, making the janitor nearly jump. "What does a painter do when he gets cold?"

Wally looked at him in confusion as the other sat down next to him. Briefly, he wondered if they had an ill painter in the building. "I… don't know…?" he uttered.

To his surprise, Sammy looked at him with a smile. "He puts on another coat," he ended.

Wally was shocked but then grinned and laughed lightly. "Didn't know you had a sense of humor," he stated.

"Well, you seemed upset, so I thought I'd at least try," Sammy replied. "Norman told me what happened back there, seems like the brass was ticked and you just happened to be there at the wrong time."

"You're… you're a lot nicer than I expected," Wally admitted.

"Why? Because I'm a Lawrence and you're a Franks?"

"How'd you-?"

"I read your name tag before you hid it," Sammy replied. "I'm not like my family, I don't understand their long-lasting hatred of yours. So far, you haven't done anything to warrant my hatred…. Aside from that 'cello' thing."

Wally grinned. "I that that was funny."

"Stupid is what it was," Sammy replied, though he didn't look at all mad about it. He checked his phone and stood up. "I gotta go, Joey, Henry, and I are supposed to talk about the schedule in ten minutes."

Wally stood up and followed him inside. "I got work to do anyway," he stated. "For a Lawrence, you're not half-bad."

"For a Franks, your jokes are," Sammy replied, flashing him a quick smirk before leaving completely.

{Bonus content from the past. Tomorrow, for the last chapter of the year, we see the toons... ^-^}