Jackson steps into the backyard and takes a deep breath of the morning air. He turns his head when he hears a truck pulling away from his neighbors' driveway. He looks over at the passengers and notices that Lynn isn't inside. For the last couple of days, the house next door has been quiet, not surprising considering that Lynn has been upset that he accepted the responsibility that she once had. He hoped that a few days would have calmed her down, but it doesn't appear as though she's let it go.

He hears the sound of a door opening and closing. Jackson looks over and spots Lynn, who has a magazine in hand, take a seat which is strategically facing away from the man.

Jackson in an effort to get Lynn to open up, asks, "How are you doing, neighbor-ette?"

Lynn doesn't look up and focuses on her magazine.

Jackson rests his head on the fence and tells his neighbor, "Lynn, I know that you are still upset that I accepted this task, especially after you were already doing a bang up job–"

"Apparently a fucked up job," she says in an annoyed tone.

"Lynn, you cannot be so hard on yourself. I saw how you were last week, you were showing signs of stress and if I saw it after only spending a few minutes, then it is possible that–"

Lynn immediately snaps, "There wasn't anything wrong with me! I was fine!"

He is taken aback by her loud voice. She is breathing heavily, biting down on her lip, and tears are beginning to form in her eyes. She looks as though she is ready to burst, but it appears that her fingers, which are tightly gripping her chair, are keeping her from doing so.

"Lynn, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Why does everyone have to keep asking me that? At work, at home, and even you too! There's nothing wrong with me," she says wiping away the tears in her eyes.

Jackson knows to tread lightly, but he has never seen Lynn like this to know how to do so, "Well, it doesn't have to mean that there's anything wrong with you per se. Stress is a normal aspect of life, but you don't need to carry it around like a weighted barbell in a gym."

"Wait, what is that supposed to mean?"

He sighs, "It's a metaphor. The barbell is just normal stress and the added weight is additional stress."

"Not that...so you want me to let go?"

"In a way, yes. Some people find success through hobbies, exercise–"

"Doesn't work," she interrupts.

"What about talking? Sometimes we don't realize that there may be more bothering us that what we think."

Lynn groans. She knows why she's mad, there isn't anything else bothering her except being passed over for something; she didn't like it as a kid, and she doesn't like it now.

"You know what Jackson, there isn't anything else. I'm just mad at both of you. I thought that I for once in my life, someone didn't look at me like some damn screw up, but instead that's all everybody sees."

"Lynn, that isn't the–"

She gets up from her seat, "I gotta go," Lynn says as she walks inside to grab her car keys and leave the house to clear her head.

Lynn stares own at her notebook. For the last couple of minutes, she has been trying to pay attention to her teacher, but there is only so much interest she can have for science before she is ready to turn away towards anything.

Her phone buzzes, and when the teacher looks away, Lynn reads the message from Luan.

LYNN!
Do you have my script in your backpack?

Lynn is confused by what her sister said. She doesn't know why her sister's script would be in her backpack, until she remembers their morning commute – the family was running late and while they were begin driven to school by their mom, Luan was practicing her lines. After arriving at school, she and Luan were rushed out and she probably put it in the athlete's backpack by mistake.

Let me check

Lynn grabs her backpack off the floor and looks though all of the papers that she has neglected to dispose of, but eventually she finds a stack of papers that are stapled together. She pulls it out of her backpack to confirm that it is Luan's script.

I found it

Can you take it to the auditorium after school?
PLEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSSSSEEE

The younger sister sighs. She has a rare day off from her sports teams and she wanted to leave school as soon as possible, but Lynn figures that she can spare a few minutes to take her sister her script.

OK

When class lets out, Lynn runs to the auditorium. She has a few minutes until the first bus leaves, and she does not want to miss it because Luan had to accidentally put her script into the wrong backpack.

"In and out and then I can catch the bus with everyone else," she tells herself.

Lynn opens the door to the auditorium. It is mostly empty except for two people on stage who are kissing under the light. She doesn't want to interrupt the scene, but she figures that she can leave Luan's script with one of her cast mates so that she can head out.

As she approaches the stage, Lynn sees that the two people are Benny and Belle, who don't appear to be aware of her presence. She calls out to the couple on stage, "Hey! Are you guys rehearsing a scene or something?"

Both teens break the kiss when they hear Lynn. Belle immediately grabs her script off the floor and Benny walks over to the athlete, "Hey, Lynn…what are you doing here?" he asks surprised to see her in the auditorium.

She looks at the two blushing teens; Belle, who is fixing her gaze at the script in front of her and Benny, who appears nervous to see her. Both of them are clearly surprised by the interruption, which confuses Lynn, who assumes that they should be used to performing in front of people.

Lynn digs out her sister's script from her mess of a backpack and hands it over to Benny, "Luan accidentally put it in my backpack. She told me to bring it here since my last class is closer than her's."

"Right! Right!" Benny declares. He takes the script from Lynn, "I'll make sure that she gets it."

Lynn looks around at the stage, which has a few stray background sets for the play. Luan has mentioned some details about the play and she's been rehearsing with the help of some of their sisters, but Lynn doesn't remember too much about the play other than it involving romance and a broken heart.

"Are you guys waiting around for the others?"

"Yes! We-We have to rehearse for our play. You know, it's, uh, complete student production. One of our classmates in theatre class wrote it and we're all in charge of bringing it to life. We have a few weeks to go until our premiere in April, but we are always…uh, we're always…"

Belle, in an effort to stop Benny's stammering, says, "Looking for stage hands. You can join whenever and we're always looking for more people to help."

Lynn scratches the back of her head, "Uh, theatre's not really my thing,"

"Well, that's too bad," Benny says, "well, I'll make sure that Luan gets this, so you can head out," he says as though he is trying to rush Lynn out the door.

She isn't sure why he's in a hurry to be left alone again, but Lynn doesn't fight it. As she walks out of the auditorium, she takes one last look onto the stage and notices the two teens huddled close together, whispering to one another.

Lynn pulls into the trattoria. She hasn't been here in a while, but she can't stand being at home, the gym isn't doing anything, and being alone at the park isn't going to solve her problem. She walks inside and looks around – the tables are full, staff is moving around, and there is no sign of the family.

Rather than stand around, she takes a seat at the bar and quietly stares up at the wine bottles. It has been six years since her last drink, and she can't say that she's ever been more tempted to drink a glass than she is at the moment.

The bartender walks over to Lynn, "Can I interest you in anything?"

"A glass of…whatever, you pick."

The bartender turns to grab a bottle of wine and places the glass in front of Lynn. Raffaelina, who was passing by on her way upstairs, stops in her place when she notices Lynn with a glass of wine in front of her. She steps behind the bar to relieve the bartender and places a glass of water in front of the younger woman.

"How much time are you going to throw away with that glass?"

Lynn, who didn't listen to the question, takes the glass of wine in her hand and looks at it before she brings it closer to her lips, but before she is able to drink, Raffaelina asks, "If you really wanted to drink, then why did you come here?"

Lynn stops what she is doing and looks up at her, "What?"

"If you really wanted to drink, then why did you come here? You know that we work here and we know that you don't drink, so why come here? There are lots of bars in the area."

Lynn sets down the glass and keeps her eye on the wine. Raffaelina takes the glass away from her and pushes the water towards her.

Rather than fight it, Lynn takes the glass and drinks the water, "There, I did it," she says in a flat tone. "Are you happy?"

"That's not important. Are you okay?" she asks.

Lynn groans, "Why does everyone have to keep asking me that?! I'm fine."

"Then why were you about to break your sobriety?"

She can't answer the question. On pure impulse, Lynn was only a small step from letting everything fall apart and she can't even say why.

Lynn looks down on the counter to avoid her gaze and mutters, "I don't know."

Raffaelina can see that she needs someone to talk to, so she takes her hand and offers, "Do you want to talk? In private?"

Lynn nods her head, and they towards the kitchen. Ever since the family changed their deli into a trattoria, Lynn hasn't come around much. It doesn't help that she's been busy with her dad's restaurant, but it isn't much of an excuse, especially when the family has been kind towards her.

"Are you hungry?"

"A little."

Raffaelina scoffs, refusing to believe that Lynn wouldn't be hungry. "Grab a plate, then we can go upstairs," she says as she waits by the stairs heading up to the family's home.

Lynn doesn't have to be told twice and immediately grabs a plate, which she loads with a heaping pile of pasta. Raffaelina rolls her eyes at Lynn's gluttony, but she should have known to expect it considering that she let her grab food on her own.

After Lynn gets her food, the two walk upstairs, away from the hustle and bustle of the trattoria to sit down and talk. Lynn looks around, the house looks the same as she remembers, and it gives her some sort of comfort in knowing that even though the deli isn't the same, the family home remains.

Raffaelina looks at her. She didn't invite Lynn upstairs to be friendly, she knows that Lynn is bothered by something and needs to talk, but like the first time they met, the athlete is stubborn and would rather not trouble people with her emotional problems.

As Lynn takes a bite of her food, Raffaelina asks, "I can wait, but you're going to run out of food soon."

Lynn takes a deep breath and puts down the fork, "Fine, what did you want to talk about?"

"Me? You were about to drink, you are the one that needs to talk."

She sighs and does her best to explain what has been stressing her out for the last couple of months to Raffaelina, "Well, work has been a little tough, but it's getting better. I had to handle a lot of the responsibility earlier this year, but like I said, better."

The older woman doesn't know if she should believe Lynn. She assumes that if she was stressed that it would be more impactful, but work stress can't be the only thing that is bothering her.

"And Elena is seeing someone because Fran–" she immediately stops herself from saying any more. As much as she's aware that he has made the year tough for her, she knows that she shouldn't be some gossip who shares too much.

Raffaelina stays quiet when she hears that. After having a private conversation with Francisco, she had a feeling that he had issues as well, especially after looking up the name of the doctor that he told her, but she also hoped that she was wrong.

"That can be difficult," she slowly says, "but we all have stress, you know that," Raffaelina says as she takes a seat. "What have you been doing to get rid of it?"

"Going to the gym."

"That's working?" she asks, surprised, since Lynn mentioned that it hasn't done her much good in years.

"I've…I've gone to the lake."

"Is it different?"

"Different enough," Lynn sighs, "Look, it doesn't matter, I'll be fine soon enough."

"Soon enough," she scoffs, "When have you been the kind of person to wait?"

Lynn doesn't appreciate the trait being pointed out to her like that, even if she does make a point. She has been upset for nearly a week and it doesn't get any better, although it is tough when she lives with the person who is annoying her, but that can't be her excuse forever.

"So I should just talk to him? Tell him why I'm upset and then I'll feel better?"

Raffaelina nods, "Yes, but it can't just be him. All this started somewhere–"

"I already talked with Megan and Bryton, he gives me a computer because he felt guilty for getting me started with drinking, and she accepted my apology, but doesn't want to talk to me anymore. Coach Hutchins is retired and it's not like it's her's or my professors' fault that I was a bad player and a crappy student."

"I didn't know that your life started in school."

Lynn looks over at Raffaelina, "You know what I mean. College is when things got tough; my life was fine before that."

"You were drinking after you left school," she points out, "Why?"

"You know why, I hated that my plans all went down the drain. When I was a kid, I thought I would be big time athlete on the world stage, instead I learned that I wasn't as good as I thought, and never amounted to much in school."

Raffaelina sighs; she's heard the story before, and despite telling her that she can succeed on an intellectual field, Lynn adamantly believes that she's incapable without someone helping her along the way.

"Have you ever told your family?"

"No!" Lynn immediately answers. "They don't need to know, and it isn't causing any problems, so why rock the boat?!"

Raffaelina sighs, "I can't make you tell them, but you might feel better being honest about yourself to them. You can't ignore that this was a part of who you were, you have gotten better, and you owe it to yourself to live an honest life."

Lynn crosses her arms, "And if they already know?"

"They're your family and they still talk with you, right?"

She nods her head.

"Then that shouldn't be a problem."

Lynn runs to the cafeteria. She is normally one of the first students to run in for lunch, but thanks to her math teacher asking her to stay behind, she is now one of the last students to get in line.

"Don't know why I had to be the only one to stay behind," she complains to herself.

She grabs a tray and gets in line to get her food. Lynn bounces back and forth, annoyed at the long wait, "What is taking so long? They never hold up the line like this," she complains despite the line moving at a steady pace.

After Lynn pays for her food, she looks around for her friends. Margo waves to her and Lynn quickly makes her way to the table where Margo and Francisco are sitting and talking. She takes a seat next to Francisco and almost immediately hears Luan, Benny, and Belle, who are laughing out loud with their group of theatre friends. It's a common occurrence in the cafeteria, but like most of the noise in the room, it eventually gets drowned out by the other students who are talking around them.

"So why did Ms. Evans keep you behind?" asks Francisco.

"Something about I need to focus if I want to pass her class, play on my teams, and get into a good college. I don't know why she's worried about me; I can just get a scholarship and be fine. Remember that girl on the tennis team that got into Princeton?"

They both know who she's talking about, but Lynn does have parts of the story wrong, and it wouldn't kill Lynn to study so that she can actually get into the schools that she'll probably get scouted by.

Lynn notices Belle looking over at Benny, as she laughs at his joke; Luan is laughing too, but he is facing towards Belle instead of his girlfriend.

Both friends notice Lynn staring off in the distance, it isn't anything new, but the two notice where she is staring and wonder why she is paying so much attention to the theatre kids.

"Lynn," Francisco asks, "what are you doing?"

She shakes her head. She looks over at him, and with a small smile, says "Nothing, just having a hard time ignoring them," she says pointing over at Luan and her friends.

Both of them turn over to the table, surprised that Lynn is focusing on them, considering that they sit at that table every day and she never says anything about them.

Margo asks, "What about them?"

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know, I guess I'm surprised that they're so loud."

Both friends turn towards the group of theatre kids but neither one notices anything out of the usual with them.

He looks over at Lynn, "They don't seem that loud to me. Shouldn't you know better?" he jokes.

She smiles and immediately proceeds to punch his arm for that terrible joke.

Francisco bites down on his bottom lip; he should have known that she was going to punch him, but it was worth it.

One of Francisco's teammates runs over to the table, "Hey Reyes, coach wants to see us. He wants to go over game footage and talk about the next few games before the tournament."

Francisco sighs, hoping to have had lunch to relax, "Alright, I'm coming," he tells his teammate, "I gotta go," he tells the girls, who both wave as he runs after the baseball team.

Margo, notices that Lynn staring at Francisco as he walks away. For years, she has noticed that her friend is friendlier around the boy, and it frustrated her to think that Lynn doesn't realize how obvious her crush on him is.

Lynn notices Margo looking at her with a knowing smile, "What?"

"Why don't you tell him?"

Lynn blushes, "Wh-What are you talking about? I don't like him."

That isn't what Margo said, but she doesn't point it out to Lynn, "Well, you do smile more when he's around, you laugh more, you look over at him more, and you do like sitting closer to him."

"I do not! He's my friend, that's it!" she stresses.

Margo immediately drops the issue, knowing that nothing good will come if she pushes the issue too much, but she couldn't help herself when she said, "I just think that you should speak up."

Lynn knocks on the door. She can't keep hiding this forever, but it isn't as though she's given her parents much reason to think anything was wrong with her, aside from constantly changing jobs, never seeing her walk across the stage at her 'graduation', and occasional secretive nature about her personal life.

Lily opens the door, "Hey, Lynn. What's going on?"

The older sister looks behind Lily for their parents; she was hoping to do this in private without her younger sisters around, but she should have known that it would be difficult with them living here.

"Are mom and dad around?"

"No, Lisa took them to the pharmacy, but they should be back in a bit. Do you want to come in and play some video games?"

Lynn gladly takes up her little sister on her invitation, despite the two sisters not having the best history when it comes to competing against each other in video games. The two take a seat on the couch and Lily pops in a fighting game into the console.

As the sisters pick their fighters, Lily taunts, "Prepare to go down. My team and I made it to the finals in the Michigan Video Game Tournament."

Lynn returns the gesture, "Pretty big talk for first loser."

"It was tournament style! We were last loser!"

"Still a loser," Lynn jokes.

When the game starts, Lily immediately takes the chance to wave her hand in front of Lynn's face to block her from seeing the tv screen. In return, Lynn occasionally bumps into Lily causing her to hit the wrong buttons.

"Stop that!" they both yell at the other.

Lynn Sr., Rita, and Lisa walk in through the front door and are met with the sight of the two sisters pushing, shoving, and trying to block one another from being able to see the screen as they fight one another virtually.

When the younger sister notices her parents and Lisa at the door, she declares, "Pause," after pressing the button.

"What the heck! I was about to win! Unpause it!"

Lily refuses, "Nope, I don't– hey!" she complains after Lynn reaches over to unpause the game on her controller. "You cheater!"

"I'm not cheating," Lynn says, before the game declares her the winner, "Yes! I win!" she gloats.

The younger sister doesn't take it lying down and immediately shoves her sister, who in turn, retaliates with a shove as well. The two sisters go back and forth, though neither one's actions turns into anything more than a playful little whack at one another.

In an effort to stop his daughters, Lynn Sr. pulls his little namesake into a hug, "LJ! What are you doing here?" he asks.

"I wanted to talk to you and mom," Lynn turns towards her younger sisters, "alone."

Lily and Lisa look at one another and their parents direct them both to go upstairs. Both sisters are curious, but for the sake of appearances, they leave the three alone so that they can talk.

Lynn knows that she probably wouldn't get complete privacy, considering Lisa's strange need to bug the house, but she needs to at least know that only the people that she wants to know about her issue are listening.

The three adults take a seat in the dining room. Lynn takes a deep breath, but before she is able to say a word, Rita raises her hand, "Lisa, Lily, we said that we wanted privacy."

The two younger sisters angrily mumble back at one another, blaming the other for them being caught.

When the group is sure that the two sisters are not within earshot, they make another attempt at the conversation. The two parents look over at Lynn, who is fiddling with her fingers, presumably nervous about what she wants to talk about.

In a reassuring voice, Lynn Sr. reminds her, "It's okay, take your time."

Lynn doesn't waste time and says, "Mom, dad," she takes a deep breath, "I'm an alcoholic."

After dinner, all the siblings, minus Luan and Leni, run to the tv to catch the latest episode of the Dream Boat. Lana takes the remote and raises the volume to make sure that the two sisters in the dining room can hear the show, "Is that good?!" she screams to them.

Luan gives her sister an okay hand sign before going back to rehearsing her script with Leni. Every semester, when Luan has a new play to rehearse for, she tends to use a sibling to help her out when she's not in school. This year however, she is putting more work into it. It's her last play of high school and she and the rest of the graduating seniors want to make sure that they give it their all before their final bow.

As the narrator announces the show, the siblings stare at the screen; like every the episode, the siblings begin to talk over the tv as they discuss who will be sent overboard after failing to woo the prospective young woman.

Lynn looks over at how the woman stares shyly at the artistic suitor. In the last couple of scenes that the two share together, Lynn notices that she laughs more when he's around, she makes an effort to be physically closer to him, and that her interviews mention him more than anyone else.

During a commercial break, the siblings turn towards each other and begin discussing theories on who they think will get sunk at the Anchor Ceremony, who the leading lady will end up with at the final episode and judging the men based on their solo dates.

"You know that she's going to end up with Daniel!" Lola declares, without hiding her obvious infatuation for the princely man.

"Nuh-uh!" Lana starts, "She's going to choose Derek!"

The rest of the siblings begin to chime in with their opinions, all of them unaware of how loud they are and how difficult they are making it for Luan and Leni to go over lines.

Luan calls out to her siblings from the dining room, "Can you guys be a little quieter, Leni and I are play-ing," she laughs at her joke, "Get it?"

The siblings sigh and quiet down at Luan's request.

Leni reads through the script, "I thought that you were doing that Romeo and Juliet story."

Luan shakes her head, "No, that was our fall play–"

Leni points out towards the living room, "O, look! Methinks I see my cousin's ghost, seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body on a rapier's point: stay, Tybalt, stay! Romeo, I come, this do I drink to thee," she takes a sip from a carton of juice and flawlessly falls dead.

The siblings ignore the Anchor Ceremony playing on the tv to look over at Leni from the living room, all of them stunned after watching her performance.

Leni opens her eyes and looks over at her siblings before getting up, "What did you think?

Lincoln slowly starts to clap and the rest of the sisters join in.

Leni takes a bow, "Thank you."

With the living room quiet again, Lynn speaks up, "I think that Devin is going to win the whole thing," surprising the siblings, who know that she normally picks the athletes over the artsy suitors.

Both parents look at her, surprised by what she just said. Neither one could believe it and felt as though they misheard her, but when she repeated the sentence, they knew that they heard her correctly the first time.

Tears begin to form in Lynn Sr.'s eyes and he pulls his daughter into a tight hug, "How could I have been so blind?" he sobs. "I'm such a terrible father."

Lynn looks over at Rita, her eyes begging her mom to help get her dad off of her, but she is still stunned after hearing Lynn admitting to being an alcoholic like she thought. After spending weeks sitting with the information, she is relieved that it is out in the open, but she feels guilt at knowing that her daughter has been going through this alone.

"Dad," Lynn says as she breaks herself free from her dad's grasp. "You aren't a terrible father; I just hid it from you guys, and everyone."

Lynn Sr. lets go of his daughter, but he still has tears running down his face, "But why?"

She looks down on the floor in embarrassment, "I don't know," she mutters. "It was easier. I mean…at first, I figured that there wasn't a problem, after all, it was just one bad test grade, then another and another, and softball wasn't any better, so the last thing I wanted to do was see you guys disappointed in me," Lynn points to her dad, who is still sobbing. "Like that."

He wipes away his tears, "I'm not disappointed. I just," he breaks down and pulls her back into the hug. Despite his daughter's assurance, he can't help but feel that this is his fault and he's sure that his wife feels the same way.

Rita walks over to her daughter, gently moves her husband aside and joins in to give Lynn a hug; it isn't much, but she hopes that it reminds Lynn that her parents care about her.

Lynn takes a deep breath. Jackson and Raffaelina told her that talking would be best so that she can let go of some of the pressure that she is carrying, and that will mean letting more out into the air.

"Do you remember when I was living with Mr. Grouse?"

Both parents nod.

"I got kicked out of my apartment for not paying rent, and he found me in the parking lot of a grocery store. He lied because he didn't mind me living with him so that his son would stop being worried about him. I was also hung over the during one of the twins' birthdays or something, I didn't graduate from college, I was in jail a couple of times, nothing major, but I ended up with community service, I was also…"

As Lynn continues to list off things that happened, Rita notices that her husband is about to bawl again. It's definitely a shock to hear that their daughter was in jail, homeless, and randomly waking up in strange places, but she decides to stop her daughter before they learn something that they may not be ready to hear, "Lynn, Lynn, that's enough." Rita takes a deep breath, "that's enough, for now. It's…"

Rita doesn't want to stop her daughter, but at the moment she has so many more questions about how she got to that point. In all the years since left home, neither she nor her husband ever noticed any reason that she would succumb to alcoholism, and now all these questions are popping into her head.

"Wh-When did you…when did you start drinking?" she asks.

Lynn remembers, but there's one detail that she can't bring herself to admit, and instead starts with, "I think I was maybe nineteen. I failed a test, my friends and I decided we would get a drink to forget about it. It wasn't much a problem for a while, but then Coach Hutchins would bench me because I wasn't keeping up, so I didn't get to play much. I tried working harder, but then my grades began to tank and soon the drinking happened more and more."

Lynn Sr. takes her hand, "Sweetie, why didn't you tell us you were struggling in school?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "Well, the first year went great, I didn't want you to think that I couldn't handle it."

"Sweetie, we could have helped you," says Rita.

"Yeah, remember all the nights that we would spend helping you with your schoolwork."

Lynn does remember those nights after dinner, where instead of watching tv or playing like her siblings, she had to spend working on homework because she wouldn't do it if she was left alone. As the years passed, her parents became more and more overwhelmed helping the siblings with their homework, and she had to learn how to do it herself.

"Yeah, I think that by third grade you guys couldn't understand my homework anymore," she says with a subtle smile to let her parents know that she was joking. "Are you guys disappointed in me?"

"What? No, we could never be disappointed in you."

Despite hearing her mother's words, she can't help but feel that she did disappoint them, especially when Lynn had such high hopes for herself.

"If anything, it feels like we let you down," he assures his daughter.

"But it's my fault that I didn't say anything."

"That doesn't matter, Lynn. We're sorry that you didn't feel like you could tell us that you were having a hard time."

Lynn looks down at her hands, embarrassed after admitting so much to her parents without care, but she will admit that she does feel better. For years she has wanted to do this, but never knew how to do so, apparently all she needed to do was stop thinking and blurt out everything.

Rita and Lynn Sr. glance over at each other. It was difficult to hear their daughter struggle alone and in silence, but despite their exhaustion at hearing Lynn's story, they can see that she looks as though a huge weight has been lifted.

Lynn Sr. asks, "Have you been…sober for long?"

"About six years. I'm normally pretty good, but this year has banged me up a bit. Some friends told me that talking would have helped and it did. It helped to open up."

"Well, we're glad you were able to find some peace."

"Things aren't gonna get weird, right? Because I put it off for a while thinking that you guys would freak out a little more."

Rita looks over at her husband. He reacted as expected, although Lynn may have imagined a bigger spectacle given his history, "I don't think that anything is going to change, but Lynn, sweetie, don't be afraid to tell us if something is wrong. We're always going to be here to help."

Lynn smiles and walks over to give her parents a hug, happy that she doesn't feel like she has to hide this anymore.

The next day at school, Lynn walks down the hall and spots Benny and Belle standing by the lockers. She can hear the two laughing and doesn't think much of it until she stops at her locker and briefly looks over at them. They are both smiling at one another as they read a shared script between the two.

Margo walks over to her friend, "Hey Lynn, did you catch last night's episode of the Dream Boat?"

When Margo said Dream Boat, something clicked inside of Lynn's brain as she remembered what she was thinking about the contestant and her interest in the artistic suitor. She looks over at Benny and Belle and can see some similarities between the two on tv and the two in front of her.

"Yeah, you know, I was thinking about what you said, about the feelings and junk and how I should speak up."

Margo is surprised that her talk finally sunk in, she was almost afraid that Lynn would never admit her crush on Francisco. After having gone on dates herself, she always hoping that she and her friend could go out on double dates, but Lynn always seems hopeless, and Francisco is no better.

"So do you think I should tell her?"

Margo is confused, "Her? Who are you talking about?"

"Luan. I keep seeing Benny hanging around and being friendly with Belle, I think that they like each other."

"Umm…" Margo doesn't know what to say. She turns over to the two teens, if it wasn't common high school knowledge that Benny and Luan were dating, one could easily confuse Benny and Belle for being boyfriend and girlfriend. She can see what Lynn is referring to, but Margo also knows the mess that can occur if she's wrong.

Margo turns to Lynn, and whispers, "Are you sure?"

"I don't know…"

"Well be one hundred percent sure, I doubt that you want to cause any problems between your sister and her boyfriend on a hunch," she warns.

"I know," Lynn says as she and Margo walks away from Benny and Belle.

That night, Lynn passes by Luan's room on her way to the bathroom. She can hear crying from behind the door, and she stops to peek inside the room. Luan is sobbing into her pillow as Mr. Coconuts pats her on the back, trying to reassure her.

Lynn slowly opens the door and Luan looks up from her pillow. She tries to clear her tears, despite knowing that her eyes are puffy from crying, but she doesn't want her younger sister to worry about her.

"Hey Lynn, what's up?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing," says Lynn as she takes a seat on the bed. "What happened?"

Luan shakes her head, "Nothing…"

Mr. Coconuts speaks up, "Except that she and ol' Benny-boy have made like a banana and split."

"Mr. C! Why did you tell her that?!"

"What? It's not like she wouldn't have noticed, you both go to the same school."

Lynn watches the interaction between the two in silence. After so many years, she used to it, but it's still weird to hear Luan talking to herself through the puppet.

She finally interrupts them, "So you and Benny…?"

Luan nods her head, "He said that…" she can't say it without feeling tears in her eyes again. Benny was her first boyfriend, and is now also her first heartache.

"He said that he likes someone else!" finishes Mr. Coconuts.

When Lynn hears that, she feels as though her skin is freezing over. Her suspicions were right and now her sister is crying. At the moment, Lynn wanted to hunt Benny down and make him pay for hurting her sister; she imagined the bruises, the broken bones, and the blood that she would cause so that Luan would feel better. However, after Lynn calms down, she remembers that even if she did anything to Benny, or even if she told her sister what she thought was going on between him and Belle, it wouldn't have changed anything – Luan would still have gotten a broken heart and she would still be crying.

Lynn pulls her sister into a hug and gently pats her back, unsure of what to say except, "You're gonna be okay…you may be hurtin' bad, but we got your back," she assures her.

Lynn pulls into the driveway. As she steps out of her car, she spots Jackson meditating in his backyard. Today has been long enough, and she was tempted to go into the house instead to think, but if she learned anything, it's that she's better off going with her gut.

As she heads over to talk with him, he opens an eye and spots her walking towards him, "Good afternoon, Lynn."

She looks over at him, but when he meets her gaze, Lynn turns away from him, "Hey Jackson...I, uh, I wanted to, you know, apologize for this morning. I know that you were only trying to help..."

Despite Lynn facing away from him, he can tell by the tone in her voice that she's being sincere.

"I humbly accept your apology."

"Thanks," she says. Lynn is about to turn around, when she notices that he is going back to meditating.

In an effort to not disturb him, Lynn walks back to the house, but Jackson asks, "Would you care to join me? It's a beautiful evening and it never hurts to stop and smell the roses."

"Do you mean that literally?"

Jackson opens his eyes and notices the roses in front of him, "Yes, although both definitions can apply. I know that you said that it didn't do much good before, but I can guide you if you'd like?"

Knowing that she has nothing to lose, Lynn jumps the fence and takes a seat next to him on the grass.

He instructs her to cross her legs, close her eyes, and take a deep breath, but as soon as she does, she begins to squirm, 'C'mon, Lynnsanity! It's just sitting how damn hard can it be? I can't believe that I did this in kindergarten. How the hell did I put up with it? Nap time helped, I guess, or was it recess? The teacher giving us cookies was definitely the best part. Man, I'm hungry. I should have asked for a to-go box at the trattoria.'

'Lynn Loud, we just had snack time, you can't possibly be hungry.'

She opens her eyes, 'What the heck was that?'

'How do you expect to move onto first grade if you can't learn to behave?'

"I just wanted a cookie!" she yells out loud, surprising Jackson. Lynn turns towards him, "Sorry, is it normal to hear your kindergarten teacher's voice when you meditate?"

"Umm...no...would you like to try again?"

"Do I have to? Sitting still like this is so boring! It's like school, but instead of having my eyes open, I have to close them."

He shakes his head, "No, I'm not holding you hosta–"

Lynn gets up from her seat, "Great! Do you wanna watch the Lions game with me?"

"I'm fine, thank you for the offer, but if you ever want to try this again, I'd be more than happy to help. We don't even have to meditate, we can also talk."

"Yeah, I guess we could try again someday."

It took me so long, but I'm glad that I finally wrote a solo Lynn chapter without Francisco in the present day. I've been wanting to do that since chapter 17, I think, but it just couldn't happen until now. I'm also happy to have Lynn admit her alcoholism to her parents (Yes, Lily and Lisa spied on the conversation and Lynn always assumed that Luna and Leni would have blabbed to the others, but that didn't really happen) and you guys, finally got to see why Rita said that Luan was upset at the end of chapter 8

If you're curious about Leni's little acting stint, it's a reference to a young Liliana Mumy in this YouTube video ( /YaTl21yXRJg), just jump ahead to 9:42 to see it

To answer the new reviews, yes, I do have a DeviantArt account, but I haven't been on the site for a few years and I haven't logged in for more. I don't know why I got it considering that I can't draw and I never uploaded anything until I started writing fanfiction, but it exists.

To the other guest, I am flattered that you want to recommend this fanfic for other readers, I know that I probably won't share it myself due to extreme shyness, but like I said, I am flattered that you think it's good enough to be recommended to others

As always, thank you for reading everyone