A/N: Wow. Now we've exceeded 100K words! I never expected to reach such a huge number with any story I've ever written, but especially not this one.

Thanksgiving with the Patel's was always a unique affair. If anything, they observed some form of thanksgiving every day, given how appreciative they were of how healthy and prosperous their lives are with each and every new day; this day was, in some way, mainly highlighted by the feast that consisted of a blend of both American and Indian cuisine ranging from stuffed turkey to lamb vindaloo, as well as the gathering of distant relatives. Ruby certainly did not mind Thanksgiving, but to get together for gatherings such as this often made her feel all the more out of place among her own family, given how out of touch she was with her own cultural heritage – something her older relatives found rather disconcerting, not just concerning her specifically, but with how the younger generations, in general, seem to care nothing for whatever cultural background they be descended from.

Because this was one of the nation's busiest weeks of the year in terms of holiday travel and accommodation, her parents had already returned to work the following day at the Royal Woods Riviera to keep an eye on things with as many rooms that had been booked for that weekend. They typically allowed their daughter some free rein of the hotel as she pleased, such as if she ever felt like taking a dip in the swimming pools or jacuzzis, or meander about the large and fancy lobby, but on a day like this, Ruby just wanted to stay home alone. As the afternoon passed, she had decided to prepare herself a little snack of microwaveable pizza rolls, the package of which she removed from the freezer, and arranged about half a dozen of them onto a plate, which she then stuck into the microwave and keyed in recommended cooking time. Even though the cooking time was never particularly long, they still needed a moment to rest in the microwave to cool off before consumption, lest all of that gooey pizza filling burn the inside of your mouth; rather than just stand around in the kitchen and wait, she decided to flop herself atop the couch in the living room and chill out for a moment. Regardless of the fact that this was still Thanksgiving weekend, the commercials on TV had already begun to advertise Christmas, including one that advertised a Christmas tree farm in her previous stomping grounds of Fern Valley; throughout the spot, a most apropos musical selection accompanied the visuals on the screen courtesy of Johnny Mathis…

O, Tannenbaum
O, Tannenbaum
How lovely are thy branches

The velvety voice of one of popular music's most beloved singers was soothing enough to lull Ruby into a little nap, all the while, she continued to hear that song echo into her subconscious… however, it was clearly not Mathis who continued to sing, as the vocals shifted into a higher octave, and a far more catty and menacing tone, courtesy of Amy Reynolds. The next thing that Ruby knew, she witnessed Amy as she used a long strand of Christmas tree lights to bind Shannon to a large, T-shaped stake, as she continued to taunt her in song.

O, Tannenbaum
O, Tannenbaum
How lovely are thy BRANCHES

As Amy emphasized that last word, she tugged far more tightly on the strand of lights as she finished binding one of Shannon's arms to the horizontal beam of the stake.

"This isn't funny, Amy!" Shannon insisted as she struggled to free herself from her bonds.

"Honestly, this is hilarious!" Amy argued before she followed up with another taunt. "And you know what the best part is? Ruby's not around to help you! Know why? Cause she's not your friend anymore! She probably was never your friend!"

After she finished tying Shannon to this T-shaped stake, Amy shoved a blown glass ornamental Christmas tree ball into her mouth to gag her into silence; then, to further add insult to injury, she fastened a star to the top of her head… and not just any star – a Star of David, as mockery of her Jewish faith. But what really made things even stranger was that all the while, another Amy captured everything on her cell phone camera as she live-streamed the entire ordeal… if two Amy's was not scary enough, that song continued to be sung in the background the whole time… by an entire choir of Amy's… they sounded nothing like a choir of carolers… they sounded more like a choir of poltergeists. This had gone beyond just being a nightmare – this incubus was an absolute horror.

The original Amy stepped away from the decorated Shannon as she and her videographer clone further tormented the bespectacled brunette with more of her catty brand of heckling.

"That is the ugliest Christmas tree I have ever seen!" Amy #2 spat as she continued to record everything.

"I know, right?" Amy #1 agreed. "It's quite a scrawny and spindly little thing!"

"You know why?" Amy #2 asked. "Like any living plant, a Christmas tree needs to be watered to stay healthy."

"Hey, you're right…" Amy #1 said as she magically produced a watering can.

As soon Shannon saw the watering can, her eyes nearly shattered the lenses in her glasses; being wrapped up in a strand of lit Christmas lights, she knew that by sprinkling water on her, Amy would quite literally be electrocuting her. She attempted to scream, though it was muffled not only by the ball in her mouth, but the ever-increasing volume of the Amy choir as they continued to sing a minor key rendition of O, Tannenbaum. Amy slowly sauntered over to Shannon, and just as slowly raised the watering can higher and higher, while she tilted it nearer and nearer to aim the spout over the top of her head. Already, a panicked Ruby could not only smell smoke, but also hear a smoke detector alarm beeping, as she awoke to the smell of smoke, and the sound of the smoke detector alarm beeping.

Her upper body sprang into an upright position and her head snapped toward the direction from which the smoke and the alarm came, which turned out to be the kitchen. She dashed over to the microwave and flung the door open, only to get a face full of smoke in doing so. She choked from the dark and arid clouds that obstructed her breathing, so she stepped over to open the back door while she also grabbed a dish towel and waved it before the smoke detector to create some ventilation to filter as much of this smoke out of the room as she could; she theorized that she must have accidentally tapped the zero button on the microwave key pad one time too many when she set the cooking time for her pizza rolls at one minute. As the smoke gradually began to dissipate and clear, she could see inside the microwave the scorched plate that bore six blackened and cremated pizza rolls; so much for her little afternoon snack. Even so, it was not just this little mishap that killed whatever appetite she may have previously possessed, but the frightening little day dream she had just experienced also killed whatever chilled mood she may have previously been in.

Finally, the smoke detector ceased with its piercing and deafening chirping, and she tossed the dish towel aside, while she also left the back door wide open to continue to let any remaining smoke billow out of the room. Although she knew the visions she had just witnessed were nothing more than a dream, it compelled her to check and see if Shannon really was okay, just for her own peace of mind. As the smoke continued to dissipate, she stepped into her bedroom to grab her cell phone from where she had left it charging, and immediately launched one of her social media apps upon unlocking the screen. Once she accessed her Instacram account, she bypassed her feed from those she followed and went straight to the profile of Broadwaygirl1924; she noticed, much to her relief, that Shannon had apparently posted a few new photos since earlier that morning – one of which appeared to be quite a scenic view of some colorful fall foliage that was captioned, 'Wisconsin is always so beautiful this time of year.'

Wisconsin? What was Shannon doing in Wisconsin? Unless, perhaps, she had left the state to visit relatives for Thanksgiving? Do Jews even celebrate Thanksgiving? Ruby was unsure of any of this, but as she swiped through the photos of Broadwaygirl1924's most recent post, it appeared to answer some of those questions – including a group shot that had been taken of Shannon sitting on the front porch of a house among three other kids who looked to be about her age, though one boy appeared to be a couple of years older, while another boy and a girl appeared to be a couple of years younger. Like her, they each possessed brown hair that was either wavy or curly, and the younger of the two boys also had freckles on his face; they also were dressed rather conservatively in dark and somber-colored formal attire. Come to find out, these other kids were Shannon's cousins who lived in southeastern Wisconsin, and yes, like other Americans, they, too, celebrated Thanksgiving; another swipe revealed a photo she had snapped of their family's Thanksgiving spread, with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and other traditional favorites.

Ruby was, at least, relieved to see that Shannon was, indeed, alive and well – not that she wouldn't be; again, it was just a bad little dream she just had. But still, it had been a while since the two of them had any contact with one another, and she so longed to communicate with her best friend again, even if it was just a brief little text to let her know she had been thinking of her. As soon as Ruby brought up her messenger app to send Shannon such a text, an incoming call interrupted her, of which the name, number, and contact photo revealed to be her boyfriend.

"Hey, Spence…" answered Ruby.

"Hey, babe," greeted the voice on the other end. "Me and the guys are heading over to Royal Woods Cineplex to see a movie; you in?"

"The movies?" She asked.

"Yeah, we figured it'd give us something to do on this extra-long weekend," he explained. "You comin'?"

In actuality, Ruby really was in no mood to go see a movie, but, perhaps, it would provide her with the kind of distraction she needed to take her mind off of her problems, so she accepted the invitation, "Yeah, okay, sounds cool."

"Sweet," he said. "See ya there!"

"Yeah, see ya…" she parroted back to him as they ended their call.

With that arrangement made, Ruby stepped back into the kitchen to pull the scorched plate with the blackened pizza rolls out of the microwave to discard them into the trash can – and cover them with other items that were already contained within, in the hope that her parents would not find out about the little mishap… at least the smoke had cleared enough that she could shut the back door and lock it before she grabbed a dark red hoody, pocketed her phone, and left a note for them regarding her whereabouts in the event that they may return home while she was away.

Ruby sat on one of the benches within the lobby of the Royal Woods Cineplex, where she awaited the arrival of Spencer and his friends; she was a little surprised by the volume of business the theater had seen on the day after Thanksgiving, but, this was the weekend for new holiday flicks to be released, and it would seem that was a prime time for moviegoers to see them when they opened. Among the garble of indistinguishable noise that vibrated in her ear canals, she recognized one sound in particular… a rather distinct and familiar laugh… she knew that laugh. Her eyes scanned the crowd of people who meandered throughout the lobby, until she finally spotted the source of the laughter she recognized by the concession stand: a certain yellow-clad girl with a brown ponytail and braces across her teeth she recognized as Luan; to see that she was engaged in conversation with the same purple-clad girl who belted out the national anthem at all of Spencer's football games seemed to confirm her suspicion that Luna Loud must very well be one of her many sisters, as well as Lori from the school's sport club. She also noted another tall blonde girl with sunglasses atop her head, who appeared to lovingly play with and nuzzle an adorable, giggling, and raspberry-blowing little baby bundled in a lilac onesie. They were not the only blonde girls she took notice of; she saw another pair of blonde girls who were obviously much younger and appeared to be twins: one whose pink outfit made her look like a little princess, and one whose scruffy outfit with the denim overalls made her look like a little handyman, as a tug-of-war over a king-sized box of candy ensued between them, while yet another little girl with unkempt brown hair, large glasses, and a green turtleneck appeared to try to intervene in their struggle. There were still more in tow with this bunch: another scruffy-looking girl – a freckle-faced, ponytailed brunette in a red and white jersey who alternated between shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth and chucking a handful at the only boy in the group – a freckle-faced, buck-toothed boy in an orange polo shirt and blue jeans, who also appeared to possess curiously prematurely white hair. But most curious of all was the one little girl among them who stuck out like a sore thumb; with her long black hair, little black dress, and eerily pale skin, she very much looked like a little vampire without fangs, as she just stood among the chaos of these kids without reacting to any of it.

So, these must be the Loud siblings… it seemed as though they surely lived up to that family name; Ruby still could not even fathom how any of them could live with such a huge, rambunctious family as this… it made her all the more curious to meet them to see if they really were anything like their outer appearances and behaviors denoted – if nothing else, it would be nice to see Luan again.

Just as Ruby arose from the bench to begin her trek across the lobby over to the concession stand to meet the remaining nine siblings she had yet to become acquainted with, Spencer finally arrived with his pals, Brandon, Carlton, and Horatio, who, likewise, brought their own girlfriends along with them, Tiffany, Brittany, and Sophia, respectively.

"Hey, babe!" Spencer called out to Ruby to garner her attention. "You been waiting long?"

Ruby turned to face her boyfriend and said, "Oh, no, not too long…"

By the time she took another look, the Louds had disappeared from the concession stand, but a quick glance down an adjacent corridor showed they had just entered theater number two, which featured Naughty Elves: a low-brow, family romp about a ragtag bunch of elves who stir up all kinds of wacky shenanigans and mayhem at Santa Claus' workshop.

Spencer, meanwhile, was struck a little curious by how distracted his girlfriend seemed and asked, "You expecting someone else?"

"Huh?" She responded when she returned her attention to the guys. "Naw, I was just, like… wondering… what movie we're gonna see?"

"We already settled on that…" explained Spencer.

It came as no surprise to Ruby that the movie Spencer and his friends had settled on was Suit Up: a coming-of-age tale of a young man who ends up inside the mascot suit of a football team, but would rather actually play for the team… it was all she could do to mask her dread in being lassoed into seeing such a flick. She knew Spencer had other interests outside of sports, but it was almost as if in this particular world of his, there was nothing else in life but sports… she began to miss the more layered and cultured version of the boy she originally got to know and started to date.

The jocks and jockettes enjoyed the amusing, yet frustrating story of the scrawny and wimpy young man who wished he could get out of the suffocating foam rubber cartoon character suit he always got stuck in, and into a suit that consisted of shoulder pads and a helmet, but after about half an hour, Ruby started to think of any excuse she could formulate to slip out of the theater, even for a few minutes… she just could not get past the dull plot and the performances that were either stilted from some actors, or over-the-top from others. The problem was Spencer had a rather tight grip as they held hands during the movie, which almost made her feel like she was being restrained; sure, she wouldn't mind holding hands with her boyfriend in the theater, but he had a such death grip on her, which made for quite an uncomfortable experience.

Finally, she leaned over and whispered, "Spence? Spence? Can you, like, let go of my hand please?"

"What for?" He whispered back at the seemingly unusual request.

She quickly fabricated a fib in order to get out of the theater for a few minutes: "I, like, gotta go to the bathroom…"

"Now?" He asked. "Come on, babe, things are gettin' good!"

"All that soda's got my bladder about to burst," she lied, because even though the two of them shared a soda, as most young couples do, Spencer was the one who had drunk most of it.

Reluctantly, he let go and said, "Alright… but, hurry back."

"Yeah, sure," she said.

The way she dashed out the door convinced him that she really did have to go to the bathroom, but she really was just anxious to get out of there, and once she was in the outer corridor, she breathed a sigh of relief. She stepped across the way and dropped down to a bench, where she wriggled her numb hand, hoping to help pump some circulation back into her tingling fingers. She could hear faint sounds of laughter come from another theater down the hall – the one that featured Naughty Elves, and thought as long as she pretended to take a bathroom break, she might sneak in there for a moment. She pulled her hood over her head and cinched it tightly in attempt to obscure her face in case any security personnel happened to see her sneak into another theater without a ticket. Into the darkened room she stepped, where she was met with a few animated dopey elves up on the silver screen who had turned the toy manufacturing department of Santa's workshop into a veritable madhouse with their bumbling incompetence, which provided the audience with their laughter – once again, Ruby was able to pick out a certain laugh that sounded akin to a girly hyena; she snuck down the aisle and to where Luan happened to sit at the end of this particular row of seats.

"Hey, Luan!" Ruby whispered and removed the hood from her head.

Luan was surprised to see who had addressed her and whispered back, "Ruby? What are you doing here?"

"I was over in theater five seeing Suit Up with Spencer and his buds…" she explained.

Upon hearing that title being uttered, the scruffy, freckle-faced girl in the red and white jersey who sat next to Luan dove into the conversation: "Suit Up? Aw, man, I wanted to see that one…"

Luan turned to her immediate younger sister and reminded her of the vote the lot of them had before they made their family trip to the Cineplex: "Majority rules, Lynn…"

A chorus of shushes were hurled toward the teenagers before the sporty girl went back to chowing down from her tub of popcorn, as Luan returned her attention to the Indian girl who had crouched beside her.

"One of your sibs?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, this is my sister, Lynn," said Luan. Upon hearing her name uttered, the sporty girl turned her attention to Luan again as her big sister explained, "This is Ruby, she was in our drama class at school."

"Sup." Lynn, Jr. greeted her with a nod before she went back to her tub of popcorn again.

"So, how's Romeo & Juliet?" Ruby asked.

"It's going great!" Luan exclaimed a little too loudly, which garnered another chorus of shushes and similar epithets. She quietly resumed her tale, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm kinda glad you and Spencer quit the play; all I ever wanted was to get closer to Benny, and now that we're Romeo and Juliet, this all I could have ever hoped for, and more!"

"I didn't know you had a thing for Benny…" marveled Ruby.

"Yeah…" said Luan as she blushed a little. "Since middle school… I was so scared about kissing him, but then I found out he was sweet on me, too, so now, we're more than ready for the play next Friday!"

"Aww, that is, like, so totally sweet!" Ruby gushed.

"I know, right?" Luan asked.

Finally, a large and corpulent teen boy who sat in the row behind the Louds had had enough, and amidst more shushes, he dumped his bucket of popcorn onto the head of the ponytailed girl who would not silence her metal mouth.

"Shut up, already! We're trying to watch a movie here!" He barked.

After she had witnessed what had happened, the other ponytailed girl in the red and white jersey hopped out of her seat and confronted the jerk who sat behind them: "Hey, you can't dump a bucket of popcorn on my sister's head! Only I can do that!"

Not wanting to waste any of her own popcorn, she turned to the sister who sat on her opposite side, who happened to be Lucy; she snatched the bucket of burned and overcooked popcorn from her little sister –much to her annoyance- and dumped it on the boy's head in retaliation – much to his annoyance.

"I was eating that…" growled Lucy as she snatched Lynn, Jr.'s bucket of popcorn away from her.

"No! That's mine!" Lynn, Jr. growled in return.

A tug-of-war ensued over the bucket of popcorn, which caused a major disruption for others in the theater – including their siblings, who tried to calm them down, but no such luck; with one good yank, Lynn, Jr. pulled the bucket out of Lucy's grasp, which showered popcorn onto the moviegoers in the rows behind them.

"That's it!" The teen boy snapped just as he had gotten Lucy's bucket off of his head.

In less time than it took to tell, a full-scale food fight had broken out in the theater, much to the disapproval of many a parent and other guardian who happened to be in the theater with their own families – some of whom began to call for security, a manager, anybody to come in and restore order.

Lana jumped up from her seat and began to chant, "SOMEBODY THROW SOME BOOGERS! SOMEBODY THROW SOME BOOGERS!" in hopes that somebody in the theater would throw one of her favorite cinema-exclusive confectionary treats: chocolate-covered lima beans.

It was more than just Boogers that flew through the air; popcorn, gumdrops, peppermints, ice cubes, nachos, hot dogs, pizza slices, pretzels, and other concessions came from every direction, with almost no indication of who threw what from where or why. Among the garble of young people clamoring and arguing loudly, some of the things that could clearly be heard included: "This is literally insane!", "O-M-GOSH! So rude!", "Poo-poo! Poo-poo!" and "Don't you dare get any artificial butter stains on my cashmere coat!"

There was no way Ruby wanted to get caught up in any of this mayhem, and as she dodged a hailstorm of flying foodstuff, she managed to slip out of the theater just as a pair of security guards rushed in to diffuse the situation. If she were to confess, the sudden food fight that broke out in there was certainly a lot more entertaining than Suit Up had been thus far; she just hoped that this would not get Luan and her siblings into any kind of trouble. After that little ordeal, she dreaded her return down the corridor into theater five, but she knew that if she stalled any longer, it would seem suspicious to her boyfriend… unfortunately, she had already been gone for quite a while as it was, which did, indeed, arouse Spencer's suspicions when she finally returned to her seat next to him.

"What took you so long?" He whispered.

"Uhh… when I went to wash my hands, there was, like, no paper towels, so I had to go over to the concession stand to look for some napkins to, like, dry my hands…" she lied.

"Oh," he responded. "I wish I knew you were going by the concession stand; we could use some more popcorn…"

"Got it!" She offered; this provided her with another excuse to get out of seeing more of this dreadful movie as she grabbed the nearly-emptied bucket they had been sharing and dashed out of the theater once again.

As she made her way back down the corridor toward the lobby, she witnessed a herd of people being escorted out of theater two, among them were the Loud siblings, though strangely enough, they appeared to be unphased by this – as though they were actually used to such; little did Ruby know that the Loud siblings actually were used to getting kicked out of such establishments for their unruly behavior, whether it be restaurants, or even public swimming pools… it's a wonder that southeastern Michigan had not ever filed a petition to have this family forced out of their region, let alone the entire state.

This day was intended to be something of a breather after the previously chaotic Thanksgiving the Louds had just had with the visiting Santiago and Casagrande clan - all because neither they nor the Louds could bear the thought of Lori and Bobby having a life of their own to spend Thanksgiving with each other, rather than with their respective families, as had long been their traditions; even if things were eventually worked out, and the Louds extended the invitation of having the Santiagos and Casagrandes join them at the movies, the large Hispanic family was rather anxious to get back to get back to Great Lakes City and put this wild holiday behind them - a trifle disappointing to both Lori and Lincoln, to be sure; it had been a while since either of them had got to spend time with Bobby and Ronnie Anne, respectively, and both of them had looked forward to seeing a movie with their respective love interests (although, it wasn't difficult for Lincoln to imagine Ronnie Anne jumping right into the food fight).

Even so, Ruby gave it another thought, and reconsidered that maybe it was a good thing that she never had any siblings who could cause so much trouble as this… but if she did, she'd rather have just a sister… like Shannon.

Yes, I am aware that this was a weird chapter. To tell the truth, this is one of those chapters that was kind of written at random early in the development process of the story, and I had pretty much made it up as I wrote... it definitely shows, doesn't it? Even I wondered just how I went from Ruby having a nightmare (daymare?) of Amy torturing Shannon to the Louds provoking a comical food fight in a crowded movie theater in one chapter.

Speaking of the Louds, I also confess that this chapter was mostly an excuse to expose Ruby to the rest of Luan's siblings, even if she didn't really interact with them.

In hindsight, I can see that this chapter has pretty much contributed nothing worthwhile to advance the story, and for that, I apologize; but, I also assure you that this will be the last time a filler chapter will interrupt the story - not only will we get back on track next chapter, we'll remain on track from here on out.