When Lynn Sr. removed his green pajamas from a drawer from his side of the dresser, Rita continued looking through a pink colored photo album with the words "Lola's Pageant Album" written in gold letters on the cover. Beginning from the first page, there was a photo of Lola standing on the front porch wearing a pink dress for her first pageant. This was taken three weeks before her fourth birthday, way before the transformation of the little girl into a demanding, blackmailing and bad tempered child. Today Lola growled at Athena a girl in her class for taking the last strawberry milk box at lunch but Lola knew she'd be in trouble if she laid a hand on the other girl since Athena was her teacher's niece.
Once Lynn Sr. quickly changed into his pajamas, he went upstairs to brush his teeth, the last thing he did every night. After he closed the door Rita continued looking at the pictures in the album. When she was done Rita placed it back into the dresser drawer on the lower right containing some photo albums she kept in their bedroom. Lynn Sr returned just as his wife got under the covers.
"What a day," he uttered wearily as Rita turned her pillow over.
"Yes you're right," she muttered.
They remained silent for a moment then Rita turned slightly towards her husband.
"How's your hand dear," she asked with a concerned look on her face.
"The pain is gone," he remarked before sighing, "I just don't know what to tell everybody at work how I got this injury."
He then said something that really made his wife absolutely livid.
"I probably should have given Lola her dinner in the living room," he admitted in all honesty.
Rita sat straight up in bed and folded her arms in disbelief, "Are you serious Lynn," she almost shouted while getting a little red in the face.
"At least she wouldn't have bitten me," he protested.
"I think it was a complete mistake putting Lola into pageants," Rita admitted seconds later causing her husband to go wide eyed.
"I don't think so honey," he replied
'Really Lynn," she almost screamed, "the pageants gradually changed our little girl into a demanding little diva with an explosive temper and its time we do something about her tattling. We were lucky Mrs. Carmichael didn't find out she was Leni's sister when she assaulted her or else Leni probably would have been fired."
"I thought we agreed not to be like other parents by making a big deal out of tattling because it's easier to catch the kids doing something wrong that way," Lynn Sr. reminded her.
"You know what Lynn continue being afraid of the girls,' Rita said thoroughly annoyed.
Lynn Sr. got on the defensive with Rita's comment about being scared of his daughters.
"Rita how can you say I'm afraid of them, didn't I ban sleepovers after Leni and her friends caused that power outage by overloading the wall outlet with their hairdryers, when Luna, Junior and their friends wreaked the living room at their sleepovers, plus I scolded the kids about leaving the door unlocked when those burglaries happened in our neighborhood. I also grounded everyone for clogging the toilet until one of them confessed,' Lynn Sr. shouted vehemently.
'At least you showed some backbone on those occasions, but you came up with the crazy notion to make separate dinners when Lori and Leni fought because of the girls fight protocol," Rita continued.
Lynn Sr. then scoffed, "Please honey you went along with it."
"It's because Lori and Leni agreed to it and I was outnumbered, suppose it was three or more of the girls fighting would you have prepared three or more separate dinners?' Rita replied crossly.
"Don't be ridiculous Rita, I do seem to recall you were just as scared like me when Lori gave Fenton Fox to Lily and we ran out the house to avoid hearing that awful song, when the girls started fighting again after settling the dress dispute and we locked ourselves in here and when the kids invited so many of their friends over," Lynn Sr. continued with an angry tone.
"Okay I will admit to being scared on those occasions too, but I'm determined to not let them walk all over me anymore, I'm asking for your cooperation for us to start making changes to how we parent our kids," Rita continued.
"And I say we don't need to change anything, I don't want them to start rebelling against us, Luan could go back to her April Fools apocalypse, at least the girls have stopped using the protocol and the twins barely fight anymore," Lynn Sr continued.
"That's it, stop being so hesitant to put your foot down," Rita shouted.
Lynn Sr then heaved a sigh of frustration before continuing.
'I've had enough of this, goodnight," he replied indignantly before turning his back to his wife.
"Good night," Rita replied irritably, then both turned off their lamps and settled down under the covers.
In the morning Rita and Lynn Sr woke up irritated, not bothering to say good morning and Rita not receiving the kiss Lynn Sr gave her every morning on her cheek before leaving their bedroom to prepare breakfast and to make sure their kids were awake. The couple kept up a stony silence at the breakfast table while their children remained oblivious to the tension between the parents while chowing down their breakfast except for the two eldest girls Luna and Leni.
After dropping off the three older girls at school Rita continued on to her work.
At the High school, only a few moments remained until the first bell. As other students milled around their lockers talking to friends Luna approached her sister Leni just as the blonde teenager closed her locker and locked it.
"Say Leni," Luna began when Leni was facing her, "When we had breakfast, did you notice mom and pop star acting kinda distant with each other," Luna questioned.
'Could they had like some kind of argument last night while we were sleeping," Leni asked suddenly getting worried.
'That must be the reason why, of course we couldn't hear since the paper thin walls were replaced when we had the termite problem," Luna said.
Leni knitted her brow in thought. "I wonder what they were possibly arguing about," Leni speculated.
"Probably there's an overdue utility bill they were having a row about, but since dads restaurant is doing so well and mom has a better paying job I don't think that's the reason," Luna admitted.
The sister's conversation would have continued if not for the first bell summoning every student to get a move onto their first classes of the day.
"See ya later Leni," Luna said.
Leni couldn't concentrate fully during the first class, History, her mind being preoccupied on thinking about various reasons on what her parents could have quarreled about.
The second oldest girl knitted her brow and muttered under her breath, "What could they have been arguing about?"
Eventually Leni stopped pondering about it once the class ended.
Later the atmosphere at the dinner table was slightly better since Rita was absent due to the fact she attended her book club meetings on Fridays. After dinner the children finished whatever homework remained before heading downstairs to watch the finale episode of this seasons Operation Dessert Storm.
Next morning at breakfast Lynn Sr. had an important announcement to make
"Luna, Luan, LJ and Lincoln, a couple are celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary at the restaurant next Saturday so I need your assistance. Lincoln, you'll help Grant clear tables and you're on dishwashing duty with LJ, Luna and Luan you'll help Grant with serving guests," their dad continued.
"What about the rest of us," Lana wondered
"I'll call Pop-Pop and ask him to come over to babysit," he replied, causing eager smiles to appear on the younger sisters faces.
"Lori is coming to help too," he continued.
"That means you cannot embarrass your father so you're all going to behave yourselves," Rita warned as she entered the room carrying Lily.
"Okay Mom," they replied in unison as Rita plopped Lily into her high chair.
They continued eating as Rita fixed a plate of food for Lily to eat.
In the afternoon while Lola remained under punishment her siblings attended the movies by taking the bus to the mall and Rita stayed home to watch Lola. Sunday was April Fool's Day but for the first time since the twins wore diapers the family weren't sneaking around making plans to avoid Luan so everyone relaxed and enjoyed the day. The weekend over, the next day was the start of the long awaited hiatus from school and extracurricular activities for the children of Royal Woods, Spring Break. Lori was a different matter however with Spring Break happening two weeks prior for her. Rita decided to give Lola back her driving privileges it being Spring Break, even though Lola was still grounded from tea parties, having dessert and watching TV. Leni had to work however but her boss Mrs. Carmichael gave her Thursday and Friday off. Tuesday as Lincoln, Liam and Clyde relaxed in the backyard gazing at the clouds their friend Stella came over carrying her new pet, an out of control rabbit named Jazzy that Stella asked Lana to train which the animal loving girl agreed to do on the condition that Stella pay her with crickets. Hours of failing to get Jazzy under control passed so Lana decided to call it a day (the rest of the episode plays out here except Lola doesn't have sleep rampages). On Friday afternoon with his sisters in attendance, Lincoln was practicing some magic tricks in the living room as Rita who stayed home busied herself with some household tasks.