Dateline: Thursday, April 30, 1981, 7:00 AM, Pacific Daylight Time.

"Dash, Ashley, Kim, get up!" Violet yelled from the kitchen. "Did you guys forget that you still have school today?"

"We already are up, Violet!" Dash said as he strolled into the dinning room, wanting breakfast.

"Where are the girls?" she asked.

Dash looked at his sister in a way that said, "You should know, you are a girl, after all." When she thought about it, she realized it was true. Sure enough, Kim was in the bathroom, with Ashley impatiently pounding on the door.

"Hey, there are other mirrors in this house, Snow White," Ashley jeered, "and other people have to use the restroom too, you know!"
"Well, I wouldn't expect someone like you to be patient with me," Kim said through the door. "You're the only one who can't appreciate my beauty!"

"Oh, I get it, it's because I'm blind, huh?" Ashley laughed sarcastically, then muttered a swear word under her breath.

That's when Violet came in and tapped the door politely. "Wrap it up in there, Kim, you're going to be late for school!"

Kim emerged from the lavatory. "Oh, we'll never be late, thanks to my Dashie-Washie-Poo," she cooed.

"Aw, Kim!" Dash whined. He had heard the whole thing. "Do have to say that in front of my sister?"

About that time, José stepped out of the master bedroom. He looked like he had spent the entire night awake.

"Hey there, handsome," Violet said as she stepped back into the kitchen. "How did you sleep last night?"

"Not well," he said, "I think I had too much to eat last night." José groaned and grabbed his stomach.

"Take some Pepto-Bismol, you'll be fine," Vi suggested. "You don't want to be nauseous for my super bacon, ham, and sausage omelets!"

"Mmm-mm!" Kim exclaimed as she moseyed over to the dinning table. "Dash told me about these! They're supposed to be absolutely euphoric!"

Ashley straggled behind. "Kimberly, you're building it up too much, there's no way any omelet can taste that good!"

She was wrong. They were so good, in fact, that Violet had to put a force field around the frying pan to keep them from getting seconds. "No, you guys, you need to get a move on! Now, move out!" And they did.

"It's about time, I thought they would never leave!" said José. He walked over to the apple of his eye and tried to plant one on her, but she pulled away.

"Not right now, dear," she said, "I have to go to work, remember?"

"Oh," he sighed, disappointed. "Okay, how about later, say around lunchtime?"

Violet turned back to face him. "Are you asking me out?" she wondered.

"Well, I, uh, I guess if you, I mean there's no reason why, you know, not that I'm…" José was rambling. He really liked Violet a lot, and he didn't want to say something that would screw everything up. Unfortunately, everything he thought of to say sounded like it would be detrimental to their future. He was so relived when Violet cut him off by placing a finger on his lips.

"Pick me up from the store at noon, and we'll have lunch at Olive Garden, okay?"

"Uh, okay," he said. He was already looking forward to spending the rest of his life with her as he watched her walk out that door.

Okay, José thought to himself, I'm going to watch some TV, then at noon I'll hop in the car and… He stopped suddenly when he realized that the car would be at the Black and White department store. Oh, great, our first real date, and I can't even make it there to pick her up! Or can I? He suddenly remembered that one of his powers was super-speed, like Dash!

"False alarm!" he said to nobody. "Everything is going to be okay!"

Or so he thought…

At noon, José got all dressed up, did a few jumping jacks to get his heart rate up to 100, then tore up asphalt all the way up to the fourth floor. It didn't occur to him that doing all this strenuous activity right before the big moment might not be such a bright idea until it was too late. When he found Violet's cube, he reeked of the combined odors of too much sweat at too much cologne.

"Um, honey," Violet said, "you might want to take a shower before we go." Violet was stifling a laugh. José examined himself, and was stunned with his fragrance.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" he apologized.

"Don't be," Violet reassured him, "I've seen just this sort of thing in the movies, it's really no big deal."

José hung his head. "I don't deserve someone as understanding as you, Vi."

"Oh, stop it! You're embarrassing me!" she responded, smiling.

"Well, now that we are both sufficiently humiliated, let's be going now."

When they got to the restaurant, José insisted on opening Violet's door for her. She found this gesture to be quite gentlemanly. Unfortunately, her suit jacket got caught in the car door when José slammed it shut. She didn't realize this until she got inside the building, when she noticed a very long thread on her jacket that lead all the way back to the red SUV.

"Remind me to call Edna about this when we get home, okay?" she joked.

"Oh, that won't be necessary," José said, "I think I can patch that up very easily."

"You can sew?" Violet wasn't expecting to learn something like that today.

"Yeah, I'd rather not talk about." He was blushing hard.

Soon, they were seated and had ordered a large plate of linguini to share. While they waited, they just sat there in silence.

"Well, I think we're off to a great start," Violet said, trying to get the ball rolling.

"A great start?" José questioned. "First I show up smelling like rotten beans, then you get your coat torn up, then I accidentally reveal to the whole planet that I know how to sew!"

"Okay, calm down, José. I'm pretty sure there are worse things that could have happened to us on this date." As soon as she said that, the waiter arrived with their food. Unfortunately, he tripped on God knows what, flinging the pasta every which way, but mostly onto Violet and José. "Like that, for instance," she said.

"Okay, it's official, this is the worst lunch date in history!"

"Well, look on the bright side. At least it can't get any worse!"

But as you all know, whenever anyone in a comedy says, "It can't get any worse," it always does. And this time was no exception. As soon as those dreaded words escaped Violet's lips, José noticed a group of people heading toward their table.

"Oh, no," he said. "Vi, baby, don't look now, but there are people coming this way, people I know."

Violet's curiosity was ignited. Who were these people, how did José know them, and what exactly were they doing here? When the group arrived, she saw that there was a man and a woman, about in their fifties, Vi guessed, and two little girls who looked like twins. The elder woman grabbed José in a tight embrace and said something to him in Spanish.

"Hola, mama," José said quite dispassionately.

(A/N: So, how was that? Does it need work? I've been meaning to tell y'all about the family Hernandez, but I didn't know quite how to do it. Once again, I apologize that my story is so freaking long! Quick question: is this still a novella, or is it so long that is now a full-fledged novel? Hit the review button and tell me how I'm doing!)