As a warning, there is some Spanish in the past shots, but I left some context clues so that you can understand what is being said.
Lynn knocks on the door to Francisco's home. She bounces back and forth attempting to hold back her excited energy. Today is game day, but more importantly, today is their first date. Granted, watching sports on tv isn't exactly what anyone would call a date, but it is definitely something that both of them would enjoy.
She looks around at the exterior of the house, and she is rather curious what possessed him to buy such a large home when it was just him and Elena, but figures that she could ask him later.
"What is taking so long? You think you'd be more excited or something."
He opens the door, "Hey, come on in," he says with a smile, as he lets her in.
She quickly steps inside, and looks around; a few photos in picture frames, some souvenirs that he probably picked up at some games and some mismatched furniture. Not exactly what she expected considering that when they were kids he kept his room neat, well-furnished, and organized, and now, she isn't sure what happened.
"This is…interesting," she says, hoping that he wouldn't get offended.
Her eyes become fixated on a large recliner and the wooden coffee table where he has laid out some snacks.
"Sorry it isn't much, I wasn't sure how much food to get," he interrupts her thoughts. "Do you want a pop?"
She shakes her head and takes a seat on the recliner, "Umm…sure. Surprise me!"
Francisco goes into the kitchen and brings back some pop, and notices her moving around, as if trying to make herself comfortable on the recliner, "Are you okay, Lynn?"
Startled, she gets up, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just, uh…doing a good luck ritual is all."
"I can't believe that you're still so superstitious," he laughs as he hands her the drink.
"Ha ha," she laughs sarcastically.
She finally takes a seat on the reclining chair and begins to watch the game. Her eyes keep going back and forth from the screen and towards the furniture around her. Occasionally, she would begin to challenge calls, calling out the coach's plays, and cheer her team on to keep Francisco from wondering about her behavior, but she couldn't take it anymore.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Fire away," he says as he pulls out another bottle of pop.
"What's with the weird furniture?"
He is taken aback. Why did she care about something like this? She always struck him as the kind of girl that didn't judge on something as petty as furniture.
"Does it matter?"
"I've been in your room when you lived with your parents, you were more…more…" she pauses as she tries to find the right word.
"Coordinated?" he finishes the question for her.
"Yeah, more coordinated. Now you have this weird mix of furniture that looks like it was grabbed from the curb of people's houses."
He nods, "Close. When I bought this place it was falling apart, so I spent a lot of time and money getting it fixed up. I didn't have any furniture, so I looked online for something cheap. I found this apartment owner who had a delinquent tenant run out on the rent, and he sold whatever they left behind. I managed to talk him into a good deal, and I get a crappy dining room set, a coffee table, some kitchen stuff, this sofa, and that chair."
"Wow, way to win on someone's misfortune."
"I call it capitalizing, and it's much better than sitting on lawn chairs and milk crates. Besides, it's not my fault that the tenant ran away and left some stuff behind."
Lynn rolls her eyes, and pulls the lever to force the seat back, "This is really comfortable."
"I'm glad you like it?"
She pats the spot next to her, "C'mon there's enough room for the two of us."
He smiles, "Let me just get another pop. Do you want one?"
She nods as she scoots to the side to leave him more room to sit next to her. She feels something poking at her side. Lynn sticks her hand in the seat, "I found your Pistons bottle opener!" she, yells while proudly waving around the little trinket.
As he walks towards her, he looks at the item in her hand, "That's not mine. Was that in the chair?"
"You don't mind if I keep it, right?"
"Go ahead. I've already got a bottle opener."
"Nice. I've been wanting to replace the one I lost," she says happily.
Francisco takes a seat next to her as the game starts again, and while Lynn focuses her attention on the screen, he places his arm around her and enjoys the game.
The lights flash and wake up the young boy, he hears his mother call out to him, "Pancho, ¡levántate, ya es hora para ir a la escuela!"
The four-year-old boy shivers under his covers, he doesn't want to get up for school, he wants to stay under his blanket and sleep until it is warm enough to go outside again. He can't believe how cold it got overnight. When he heard his family talking about how cold it was going to be, he didn't believe them; after all, winters were never like this back home.
He peeks out from under his blanket and looks at his window, which is now covered in frost.
Francisco wraps himself in his blanket and walks towards his window. He uses his covered hand to clear the window and he looks outside; there is snow everywhere, and it is still falling.
The boy drops his blanket and quickly runs outside to go touch the snow, but quickly returns to his room, when he remembers to get ready for school; snow is still falling, he'll have plenty of chances to see and play with it.
As he walks to the kitchen for breakfast, his dad opens the front door and quickly closes it to keep the cold air from getting inside of the house, "Híjole está bien frio a fuera," he complains as he walks back inside and quickly turns on the heater.
Francisco's mother places his breakfast in front of him, "Al fin lo prendió."
He nods and eats his breakfast, as he feels the warm air fill the house.
"Finally!" Francisco hears Kiké say, "I thought that he was never going to turn it on!"
"Why didn't you just turn it on yourself?" asks Chuy.
"Because you know how dad gets about turning on the heater," Kiké complains as he grabs three light jackets, their only jackets, and tosses them to his brothers.
The two older boys sit down for breakfast as they overhear their parents squabble about their jackets.
"Te dije que necesitaban chamarras nuevas," the brothers hear their mom complain to their dad. "¿Cómo esperas que salgan a la nieve con chamarras ligeras?"
"Ay no mas llévalos a la tienda después de la escuela," Juan responds.
"Te dije ayer, que necesitaban nuevas chamarras y no mas dijiste, 'mas tarde'."
The two older brothers mutter to themselves, leaving the younger brother out of the conversation about what their parents are talking about.
"What are you talking about?" asks Francisco.
Chuy shakes his head, and before he can answer, Kiké tells him, "Mind your business."
The three quickly finish breakfast to have an opportunity to look at their first ever snowfall.
Chuy walks up behind Francisco and asks, "Do you want to go play in the snow?"
The younger boy nods, and the eldest brother leads him outside where Francisco has his first opportunity to play in the snow. The boy puts on his gloves, and both brothers walk outside, where the wind hits him. Neither the gloves nor the jacket are thick enough to endure the cold air, but Francisco tries to make the best of it as he runs outside, but slips on the ice, landing on his bottom.
Kiké laughs at his younger brother, who scowls at his older brother. He didn't like being made fun of like that, but he rarely had an opportunity to teach his brother a lesson.
Chuy hands a snowball to the boy, "Toma esto, Pancho," and nods towards the middle brother, hoping that the youngest brother gets the hint.
Francisco grabs the snowball and takes a deep breath before he tosses it at Kiké's face. The two brothers laugh, as Kiké gets angry and grabs some snow to throw at Chuy.
"Dang Pancho, you hit him right in the face," compliments Chuy, before noticing blood fall from his little brother's nose.
"Your nose is bleeding," Francisco told Chuy, as he points to his older brother's nose.
"Guess that makes two of us," he says, before picking up Francisco and taking him inside. As he passes Kiké, he notices the snowball hidden behind his back, and tells the youngest, "Make that three of us."
"You've got a bloody nose too!"
Kiké raises his eyebrow. Chuy gestures to him, and he wipes his nose, noticing the blood staining his glove.
"Stupid northern winter," complains Kiké, as he tosses the snowball towards the street.
Lynn walked through the door of her childhood home, "Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!" She looks around and sees her two youngest sisters sitting on the couch.
"Hey Lynn, about time you got here," said Lily
Lynn tried listening for her parents, "Hey Lis. Hey Lily, did dad forget something at the store again? I could have picked it up for him."
Lisa shook her head and commented, "Neither father nor mother are present. Lori went into labor yesterday, and our parents decided to go to the city for the birth of their new grandchild."
Lynn took a seat next to Lisa, "So why didn't you both go?"
"Too much homework," complained Lily, as she slumped into the couch.
"Scientific research/babysitting our youngest sister."
Lily glared at Lisa, and sarcastically corrected her sister, "More like conducting experiments without mom and dad here to say no."
Lisa glared back at her younger sister, and the two engaged in a staring contest, before Lynn interrupted them.
"So what about the others? It can't just be us for Thanksgiving."
Lisa turned to the older sister, and began, "Lori is clearly recovering from giving birth, Leni is on a business trip and has her family with her, Luna and Luan are both staying put in Chicago, Lincoln is likely with mother and father welcoming our new nephew, Lucy was invited to a cabin up north with her future in-laws and fiancé, Lana is staying put in Indianapolis, and Lola stated that she had tests to study for and did not wish to be disturbed. Thus the three of us are left here for the holiday."
Lynn sighed. The holidays weren't as fun anymore without everyone around. There weren't any more big family get-togethers like they used to have. Everyone was living their lives. Sure, they got together every once in a while, but life is getting more and more in the way; babies, in-laws, work, school, distance.
A light bulb went off in Lynn's head, "We could go the city, you know, go see the baby and everyone else."
Both sisters looked at each other with doubt in their eyes before Lily spoke up, "How are we going to get there? Mom and Dad took Vanzilla, and no offense Lynn, your car isn't that reliable."
Lynn scoffed, "It's reliable. There's plenty of room for us, and–"
"And there's more to traveling than just room. Proper maintenance of a vehicle is required for a road trip, especially when traveling with passengers during a time with a greater influx of vehicles on the road," Lisa mentioned.
"Fine! I can go myself!" Lynn exclaimed before she went out the door, and tried to turn on the car. The car stalled.
Both younger sisters looked at Lynn from the porch, Lisa with her trademark indifferent stare, and Lily genuinely feeling bad that her older sister couldn't prove her point.
Lynn walked back to the house, and took a seat in front of the tv.
"So what were you guys going to do for Thanksgiving?"
"Probably watch some tv, video games, and eat some leftovers in the fridge."
"I have a video conference with a colleague later today, followed by a meal consisting of father's leftovers."
Lynn couldn't believe it. Were they serious? How could they spend the one day of the year where it was okay to cook a really fancy meal for your family and gorge yourself on food like that? No way, not on her watch.
"No way! We're doing Thanksgiving right, even if it is just the three of us."
Lynn saw the remote and dove straight for it. "No one gets the remote, until we do Thanksgiving right."
Both younger sisters looked at Lynn as she took the remote and ran off with it.
"She is aware that you know how to change a channel without a remote, right?"
"I hope so. But is it really that bad to make this a good Thanksgiving?"
Lisa walked towards the stairs "It isn't, but I have my video conference to attend to."
"I'm sure they won't mind. Besides, better we agree to help now before Lynn's attempts get more drastic and she steals our phones or knocks out the satellite dish."
The genius nods, and calls out to Lynn, "Okay, we concede. We should celebrate this family-centric holiday properly, even if we don't have all of our family members present."
Lynn popped out from the front door, scaring the two younger sisters, "See! Now was that so hard?"
The three head to the kitchen and Lisa pulls a raw bird out of the fridge, "Behold father's uncooked holiday poultry masterpiece – the turgooseon. Does anyone know how to cook this?"
The girls just stared at each other. Their dad typically covered all big meals, and while the siblings and mother helped sometimes, none of them knew every single detail.
Lynn grabbed the tray from Lisa, "It can't be that hard. I'm sure we can come up with something."
She placed the stuffed bird on the counter, and looked at it; Lynn wasn't sure where to begin with the bird. Dad never banned anyone from the kitchen, but it isn't like she or the two sisters in the kitchen ever made many attempts to see how the star of their Thanksgiving dinner was made.
Lynn looked around the pantry for anything to season the bird. She randomly grabbed whatever spices got in her way. She opened the containers and sniffed them to see what combination her mind would concoct.
Lily pulled out some vegetables from the refrigerator, and quickly told Lynn, "Just don't make it too spicy. I like having functioning taste buds."
"I concur. We would appreciate having some edible leftovers for the next three days."
Lynn rolled her eyes, and continued smelling the spices. She wasn't sure what to do and decided to do as her dad would do – get creative. She randomly grabbed the containers that she liked best and shook the spices over the turgooseon. The younger sisters watched as Lynn randomly spiced the bird and made a mental note to be wary of how spicy the main dish may be.
Lily sautéed the vegetables, Lisa stirred the gravy, and Lynn was passing potatoes through a ricer. The smell of the turgooseon was wafting in the air, and rumbling could be heard from the stomachs of the three sisters.
"Is it almost ready, Lynn? I'm getting hungry," Lily complained.
"I don't know. Let me check," Lynn opened the oven, and the smell of the bird made their hunger more unbearable. Lynn poked it with a fork, "Just a little more. An hour tops."
"Well I've finished the gravy and I can assume that Lily has finished the vegetables. We're going to go watch some television," Lisa said as she walked out of the kitchen, "Do you plan on joining us, Lynn?"
"Go on ahead. I wanted to make one more thing."
Lynn pulled out her phone and looked for a football game to watch; she set phone down on the counter, and searched the pantry one more time for something else to add. Flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, pasta, cherries, marshmallows, sweet potatoes, dry mustard and paprika; she knew what she was going to make.
After an hour, the timer on the turgooseon rang. Lynn pulled the bird out and the younger sisters set the table. Lynn brought out the food and three sat down; ready to feast on food in front of them.
"This looks good! But do we really need this much?" asked Lily. "I get the turgoosen and mashed potatoes and gravy and vegetables, but did we really need all these sides? It's only three of us," Lily questioned as she looked at the extra sides and dessert that her older sister made.
Lynn shrugged her shoulders, "It's the one day when we can pig out, pass out, and not care, so why not?"
The younger sisters didn't want to bother fighting her logic, and decided that leftovers would be worth it.
"So what are we thankful for?" asked Lisa.
Francisco slouches down on the bench, and looks around at all of the party guests; almost everyone was older than him, and the only ones close to his age are babies being held by their mothers. He didn't recognize anyone around him, not the adults or teenagers or anyone, but somehow they all knew his name.
The adults are droning on and on, but Francisco isn't paying too much attention to what they are saying. The party is boring and all he wanted to do was eat and go home.
"Mami cuando nos vamos a ir?" Francisco asks his mother.
"Ahorita nos vamos," she assures him, but Francisco knows the truth, whenever either one of his parents ever said those words, it usually meant that they are going to be there for a while.
The boy begins to shiver and move around in his seat, when he hears his mother ask, "¿Quieres que te traiga un atole?"
Francisco raises his eyebrows, he isn't sure what his mother is offering him, "¿Que es eso?"
"Ahorita te enseño," she says, before going to get him the warm chocolate beverage.
The boy takes a sip of the drink; it feels grainy, but it's warm and tastes sweet, so he is happy to consume something to warm his body up.
After finishing the drink, Francisco walks over to the nativity scene that his 'aunt' set up; it is large display with a variety of little animal figurines surrounding a large makeshift manger with ceramic figures of Mary, Joseph, and a newborn Jesus in the middle. His eyes are drawn to a little goat that he wanted to play with and as his hand reaches over to the animal, he hears his mother call out and scold him for grabbing what is not his.
The boy walks back to his seat next to his mother and continues to look around until his 'aunt' mentions that food was about to be served. Francisco sits up straight as the women pass out the food. With warm bowl of pozole in front of him, the boy excitedly takes a bite, only to be disappointed in the flavor; it wasn't as good as he's used to, but he isn't going to complain.
After finishing his food, Francisco turns to his mother, "Mami, ¿Ya nos vamos ir?"
"Todavía no, tenemos que quedarnos para la oración."
Francisco buries his head; they are still staying. He looks around to see if the hosts are planning on starting soon, so that his family could leave.
An older woman with a book and a candle takes a seat and everyone gathers around them. A man stands next to her with a stick attached to a bell, and the woman begins the prayer. The man bangs the stick against the ground after each of her pauses.
As the woman continues the prayer; Francisco's eyes began to grow heavy. Her voice is monotone and is making the boy sleepy. He glances over at the little book that the woman is holding and she isn't even halfway done.
Francisco mentally groans, closes his eyes, and leans against his mother's lap.
Christmas – the most wonderful time of the year according to songs, but for the Louds, it was nothing more than a chaotic time filled with stress, endless shopping, and little sadness that they all couldn't get together every year.
Buying presents was difficult enough when it was just the thirteen immediate members, but now there are in-laws, nieces and nephews, and making sure that the presents even arrive in time to be placed under the tree. Thank goodness for Secret Santa.
Lynn and Lucy were at the mall; the crowds are making it difficult to navigate between the kiosks, and constantly pushed between the two.
"Stupid online retailers. Stupid taxes. Stupid price limit. Stupid shipping costs," Lynn muttered to herself.
"Would you prefer spending $50 per person just to get free shipping?"
"No, I- watch it!" she told to a random man who passed between the two. "I would prefer not having to buy things from so many different websites just because one family doesn't want presents from one place. That's a lot of shipping costs!"
"So I'm guessing that we aren't going to get one of your usual gifts this year?" Lucy asked.
Lynn shook her head. The family loved getting the tech gifts that Lynn would give them, but at some point it was becoming a predictable gift each year and she needs to switch it up.
People bumped into Lucy as she tried to keep up with her older sister, "So who did you end up getting?"
Lynn turned to Lucy, and with a playful smile said, "You."
"Ha. Ha. We don't count if we meet up for Christmas. I meant whose name did you get from Lisa's app?"
She sighed and said, "Lori."
"Gasp. That's rough."
Lynn nodded in agreement. The point of the Lisa's Secret Santa app was to ensure that the siblings didn't have to worry too much about buying presents for all the siblings; thus only buying for one sibling and their family. They all agreed that it was a good idea, at first, but growing families meant that some siblings ended up spending more than others. For Lynn, that meant buying presents for five people, plus the family members that she spends Christmas with.
"At least the baby's easy," Lucy chimed in.
"For now. A few little onesies and I'm done, but the rest of them," she shook her head, "that's something else."
The two passed by a sports memorabilia store, and Lynn walked in.
Lucy followed, wondering why she was in the store when no one in Lori's family was interested in sports.
Lynn took a look at the framed jerseys, the replica helmets, bobble heads, and the variety of other collectibles in the store. She was sure that she saw a bobble head in his house and one when they were kids; she mentally told herself no.
A signed jersey? The autograph behind the frame said yes, but the price and Lynn's credit card said no.
A Detroit Lions football helmet? That was would be more for her than for him.
Baseball cards? He probably has a million.
"Anything catch your eye?" asked the sales clerk, interrupting her internal conflict.
Lynn shook her head.
Alicia begins to pull out boxes of Christmas decorations. At least one good thing about the house is the added space for everything her family's things. Before moving to Michigan, their home consisted of small apartment with two bedrooms, but now with the added space, she is able to put things away and be organized.
"Pancho, ven aquí, necesito tu ayuda," she calls out to her youngest son.
Francisco turns and sees all of the Christmas decorations that his mother is taking out. He knew what she wants; while he does enjoy the decorations, he doesn't enjoy putting them up and then taking them down, especially since his brothers and dad make a habit of disappearing when it needs to be done.
He walked over to her and slid the large box that she set down towards the living room.
"¿Estás emocionado por tu cumpleaños?" she asked.
Francisco nods his head, but it wasn't the truth, between celebrating Christmas, family parties, and posadas, everyone is too tired to celebrate his birthday; not to mention, that his mother always insisted on a Christmas themed birthday for him, but he didn't tell her that he didn't enjoy those.
"¿Qué quieres que te regale para tu cumpleaños?" she asked.
Francisco stayed quiet; he didn't know what he wanted for his birthday. If he was honest, he would have said a different theme for his party, but he was sure that that wasn't going to change.
"A hockey puck?"
He wasn't sure where that came from. The boy didn't know a thing about the sport, all he knew was that some of the kids in his class would mention it, but he never bothered to ask anything else.
His mother asked, "¿Un qué?"
He didn't know how to translate his 'request', and he wished that his brothers were around to help him, "La pelota para el juego en el…" he blanked on the word ice.
Alicia figured out what he meant, "Un disco de hockey, ¿Seguro? ¿No quieres algo mas?"
"Maybe…¿Cartas de beisbol? ¿Ala mejor una pelota? ¿Unos carritos?"
He didn't know what else to list, and at this point hoped that his mom had enough of an idea on what to give him for his birthday.
Lynn counted all of the poorly-wrapped presents on the table, "One for mom, one for dad, Lisa, Lily, the kids, Bobby, Lori, and Lucy, just one more present and I'm done."
Lynn sat down on the couch trying to figure out what to get Francisco. He was always difficult to buy presents for when they were kids, and to top it off she had to get him something good for both his birthday and Christmas.
"Seriously! Why did you have to be born near Christmas?" she asked him out loud despite no one being there to answer.
It already is a difficult task, since he hardly talks about himself, which leaves her with little to work with. Even their 'dates', for lack of a better term, consisted of them watching a game and some light conversations; he always worked in the daytime and weekends were out of the question until he told Elena about them.
She pulled out her phone and looked around the internet hoping to find something that she could give him.
"Let's see…baseball? Nah! But he does love the Tigers…and the Red Wings! Oh, maybe shoes, but I don't know his shoe size…what would he like? Boots? Dress shoes? Running shoes? Maybe…wait a minute! He doesn't like running, or attention on himself, or that milk cake he says that he got as a kid."
Her stomach rumbled, "Cake sounds good." She began to scroll through cake recipes, "Hmm chocolate marshmallow unicorn cake? Don't love the name, but it does look good." She went to her kitchen to search for the ingredients, "A cup of flour, two cups of cocoa, a bag of marshmallows…I'm all out." She made a grab for her keys, before remembering that she was searching for a gift for Francisco, "Focus Loud! This isn't a time of kid cake. Although cake with milk sounds good…milk…"
A few days later, Lynn arrived at Francisco's house and rapidly knocked on his door. She tried to keep herself moving as the cold wind hit her, "C'mon c'mon c'mon…answer the door already."
Francisco opened and door, and quickly let her in, "Lynn what are you doing here and why are in shorts and a t-shirt?"
"Not important," she said as she jumped into his arms. "Merry Christmas and happy birthday."
"A little early don't you think, Lynn? It's only the 17th, and my birthday isn't for another ten days," he gave her a kiss on the top of her head as she got warm.
"Well I'm not sure what your plans are for next week, so I thought I'd get a head start," she freed herself from his arms and pulled out a small rectangular box, "Open it."
He did as he was told and took out three tickets from the box, "Dairyland presents Iceland Udder the Milky Way. They really love their dairy puns."
Francisco looked at the tickets. Despite living in Royal Woods nearly all his life, he never had many opportunities to go see the yearly festivities; neither as a child or as adult. He had seen videos online and people would mention going during the holiday season, and now, thanks to Lynn, he had the opportunity to do.
"Thank you, but why three tickets? You know I haven't told Elena about us."
"I don't know how you and Caroline do Christmas with Elena, so I figured I'd cover my bases and get three tickets for you guys."
He saw the look in her eyes. There was a little sadness, but he couldn't tell what was causing it; rather than let her worry, he decided to pull her in for a kiss to reassure her. He slipped a ticket into her hand, and she looked up at him.
"I hope you get what this means."
She nodded her head and looked at the ticket, "Yeah, I think I do."
Francisco stared at the cake box in the fridge. He knew what sort of cake was in there, but he couldn't be sure. The boy opened the box and saw a rectangular cake with white frosting on the outside; he still wasn't sure what sort of cake his dad and brother got him.
Juan quietly walked up behind his youngest son and told him, "Pancho, cierra el refri. Estás dejando salir el aire frío."
He quickly closed the fridge, and walked away to the living room, where his older brothers were watching tv.
"Chuy, what kind of cake did dad get me?"
Before the eldest brother could respond, Kiké blurted out, "You're favorite – pastel de tres leches."
The boy crossed his arms and slouched down on the couch; he hated tres leches cake. In hindsight, he wished that he told his mom to get him a different kind of cake, but like the theme, he knew that it would probably fall on deaf ears. No matter whose party it was, whether it was a cousin or sibling or adult, it was always the same cake; it made him wonder if the baker knew how to bake anything else.
Alicia passed by and saw her three sons sitting down on the couch, she loudly said towards her her sons, "Tengo que hacer todo yo mismo."
All three could sense the anger in her voice, and got up to help their mom clean the house.
This was the part that all three boys hated; whenever company came over, their mom would become a mess as she tried to make sure that everything was clean for when the guests arrived. They understood that part, but it always seemed like a pain considering how stressed the matriarch would get because of party preparations, and especially to impress someone that they knew she hated.
Kiké walked up to Chuy, "Is tia Socorro coming?"
"Probably."
"Oh joy," Kiké said with heavy sarcasm.
They knew when their aunt arrived it was usually followed by comments comparing the family's living situation to hers or correcting each of the boys' 'improper' behavior or bragging about whatever she could; and it bothered them all.
Francisco innocently asked, "Why is she invited if we don't like her?"
The two older brothers shushed him in case their parents asked what they were talking about.
"Because if mom and dad don't invite her then she'll hear about it from someone else and if she doesn't complain someone else will."
It sounded silly to the boy; invite everyone in the family whether anyone wanted to or not, it just seemed better to invite people you liked.
Elena jumped out of the truck; excited to go to Dairyland and see the snowy event with her father. Their Christmas days were typically spent watching movies with popcorn, especially since they celebrated the day before instead of the actual day. Now they finally had a chance to do something different and fun.
Francisco caught up to her, "I told you to wait, not jump out as soon as I pulled into the parking space," she looked a little down, "C'mon let's go have fun."
The two walked through the gates; the tickets they had were good for the Subzero Ice Cream Room, filled with ice statues, and for the Milky Way Walk.
Elena pulled him towards the ice room, which is unsurprisingly cold, even when both were dressed for the winter conditions outside.
After donning the provided coats, the two walked through the large room and explored the many ice sculptures, such as the pirate ships, space ships, and tropical island displays. The two continued walking while Francisco took pictures of his daughter playfully interacting with the ice statues. Both stopped when they reached a giant three lane slide made nearly entirely of ice. Elena's eyes shined and she couldn't look away from the attraction.
Francisco saw the look of pure joy in her eyes, and despite the constant fear of falling on the somewhat slippery floor, he made sure to keep quiet so that she could enjoy herself.
"Dad, do you want to try the slide with me?"
He wasn't sure. Ice plus bad back equals difficulty getting back up. There were some adults around watching and he was tempted to stand with them, while Elena enjoyed herself. He looked down, about to respond when she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the staircase; there wasn't much point in fighting and he decided to go for it.
From the bottom, the slide didn't seem as intimidating; from the top of slide, the view changed his mind rather quickly. Elena took the lane next to him, and went down; he followed soon after. The somewhat uneven structure and slipperiness of the ice had him going downhill faster, bumping the sides along the way. The patrons at the bottom moved out of the way and he ended up crashing into a wall.
"Dad, are you okay?" Elena said with worry in her voice.
"He should be okay, but he should probably get on his feet before a kid crashes into him."
Both looked at Lynn who was standing next to him, she extended a helping hand and got him to his feet.
"Coach Lynn, merry Christmas. What are you doing here?"
"Merry Christmas, Elena, Mr. De Los Reyes. My parents went out of town for the holidays and I thought I'd check this place out for fun."
"That's so sad. You don't get to have your family around for Christmas?" asked Elena.
"Don't worry, my sisters stayed behind. They just aren't big fans of merriment and being outside."
The light bulb went off in Elena's head, "Do you want to spend the day with us? We can go see the Milky Way Walk together."
Lynn looked up at Francisco, "If it's okay with your dad. I don't want to get in the way."
Before he could even respond, Elena looked up at her dad in hopes of getting him to agree with her. He opened his mouth, but Elena interrupted him, "He said yes."
"Did you know she was going to do that?" Lynn asked quietly, when Elena was out of earshot.
"Of course I knew. Why do you think I returned that ticket to you?" Francisco whispered as he took photos of his daughter. "She's a little too friendly with strangers for my liking, and she takes it a step further with people she knows."
"You're such a sneak."
"I may be a sneak, but at least we can spend some time together without her getting too suspicious."
Lynn nodded in agreement. He was right. Elena invited her to spend time with the two of them, and now she had a valid excuse to hang around the two without it attracting too many questions.
The three made their way to the Milky Way Walk, and took in all of the sights and smells around them. There were decorations everywhere, lights on every pole, the smell of cocoa and peppermint wafting in the air and light-up displays with cartoony arrangements.
"Look a polar bear juggling penguins!" Elena said as she ran towards the lights.
The trees had large ornaments hanging down from the branches, and the sounds of train whistles and horseshoes on cobblestones could be heard from speakers near their respective display.
The speakers began to play the 12 Days of Christmas, and the light display began lighting up with each number that was being sung.
"Every time I hear this song, it reminds me of when my family and I sang the 12 Days of Christmas every year, except with personalized lyrics, of course."
Francisco smiled at the thought of the Louds singing in front of their house; then he sighed.
As the guests slowly arrived, Francisco watched them all. No matter how often he saw them, he didn't seem to ever be able to attach a name to a face; the men dressed identically in jeans and button down shirts and the women never looked the same from one party to the next; it was confusing.
Over the course of the afternoon, random family members wished him a happy birthday and would give him a gift box, which he would try to sneak a peek inside of, or an envelope with a card inside.
One of Francisco's 'uncles' stopped and called the boy, "Pancho, ven aca," he took out his wallet and handed the birthday boy a twenty dollar bill, "Feliz cumpleaños."
Alicia looked down at her son, "Pancho, ¿Cómo se dice?"
"Gracias," he thanked the older man, before handing the money to his mom for safekeeping.
He was rather excited about that twenty dollar bill; it was the most money that he's ever possessed, and his mind was going crazy wondering what he could do with it.
His older cousins pulled him towards some of the games that were set up around the living room. Unlike last year, his birthday was now being held entirely indoors, which left everyone cramped in the main areas of the house due to the cold outside.
Despite enjoying himself with games, the birthday boy's eyes kept wandering towards the gift table. Wrapped boxes and gift bags overshadowed the snacks in his mind; which was easily mistaken by his dad.
"¿Quieres algo de comer, Pancho?"
He shook his head; he wasn't hungry he just wanted an opportunity to peek inside the bags while everyone was distracted either talking or eating.
"No, el quiere abrir sus regalos," Alicia corrected.
She knew that look on her youngest son's face. She took his hand and led him towards the table and called everyone's attention.
This was the part he hated most, everyone was staring at him as they all waited for him to open each gift. He didn't know why he was nervous, but he didn't like everyone placing their attention on just him as he opened each present that his parents handed him. With each present it got easier, but he still didn't enjoy the excessive attention and photos that were being taken.
At the end of the night after all of the guests have left for the night, Francisco opened one of the envelopes and pulled out a card. A twenty dollar bill dropped on the floor; he picked it up and continued to the next envelope. Each successive card contained a generic birthday message and money for him.
"¿Qué vas hacer con tu dinero, Pancho?" asked his dad.
The boy wasn't sure what he wanted to do with all the money that he was gifted, but then he remembered the commercial from earlier that day.
"¿Podemos ir al parque con las vaquitas?"
"¿Dónde?" his dad asked, confused by his son's request.
Chuy helped his brother, "El quiere ir a Lechelandia, es el parque con todos esos comerciales en la tele del festival de luzes."
Francisco nodded his head. The commercials on tv made Dairyland look so much fun, and he hoped to be able to go with his family.
Juan gave his son a smile, "Está bien, pero tal vez esperemos cuando haga un poco de calor para que todos podamos disfrutar del viaje, lo prometo."
The boy smiled. He wanted to see the festival of lights right away, but he was willing to wait so that everyone could enjoy the trip in warmer weather, besides his dad promised him.
Francisco received a text message minutes before midnight. It was Lynn, and she was asking him to meet him at the lake where they would train. He knew what she was doing, she did it when they were kids, and honestly, he couldn't believe that she was still pulling this stunt after so many years.
He saw her and standing by the water, "You have got to be kidding me! I asked my neighbor to watch my daughter for this?"
She turned around and smiled, "Hey! There you are. What took you so long?"
He approached the shore and saw a towel, a blanket, her phone, and thermos, which he assumed was filled with something warm.
"Are you seriously going to do this?"
"It's New Year's Eve, and I've got to do it, for good luck."
"Lynn, when are you going to stop with these crazy good luck rituals? They don't work, and this one is just stupid and dangerous."
"Yeah, well it may be stupid and dangerous, but they work for me. I haven't done this in years and figured I should try again."
Francisco sighed and shook his head. He didn't know why she needs to do this, but he knew that she wouldn't listen if he tried to stop her, so he saved his breath.
"Are you going to join me?"
"You're kidding, right? I'm not going in there. It's already freezing out here and you want me to dive into icy water, no thank you."
"Weakling," she taunted.
"If it makes me weak to not blindly jump into a lake in the middle of winter, then yes, I'm a weakling."
She grabbed her phone, and handed it to him, when her phone's alarm went off, she went up to him, and said "Happy New Year!" She gave him a quick kiss and ran into the water before he had time to react.
He didn't understand her sometimes. All these years, all these crazy superstitions, and now here she was diving into freezing lake just for good luck. Honestly, she was something else. The man saw her swim a good way's out, before she quickly swam right back. He got the towel and thermos ready for her. She struggled to fully get out of the water, and he helped her take the last few steps out of the water.
"Lynnsanity, you're crazy," he said to her as he covered her in the towel.
She was trembling, "Y-Y-Y-Yeah…but-but at l-l-least I'll have good…good…good luck."
He sighed, "Sure, whatever you say."
He placed the blanket over her and opened the thermos before he handed it her. She took a sip, and her trembling was slowly stopping. He led her back to her car, and helped her inside.
Francisco sat in the driver's seat and attempted to turn on the car, but it stalled, "Is there something wrong with your car?"
She nodded, and looked away from him like a child who was about to get scolded. He sighed, knowing the real reason for why she called him so late. He looked out at the view from his seat; there was no moonlight, no stars, just a bunch of a clouds looking down at the couple.
"Any reason that you really needed good luck this year?" he asked.
She looked out at the view and said, "Kinda…but I mostly wanted to wash away the bad."
Francisco flipped through all of the channels; nothing was grabbing his attention and he was hoping to watch some cartoons before his parents sent him to bed.
Kiké tossed a slipper at Francisco's back, "Would you stop changing the channels already?! Pick one and stick with it."
The boy stopped changing the channels and left it one the Spanish language broadcast of the New Year's Eve festivities.
"Pancho, ya es hora para ir a dormir," Alicia said.
Francisco whined, "Pero quiero ver el año nuevo."
"¡Ya! Es hora para dormir," commanded Alicia, as she pointed towards his room.
Francisco sighed as did as he was told. He dragged his feet as he went to brush his teeth and walked to his room.
His mom followed behind him, and got him in bed, "Buenas noches, Pancho, y Feliz Año Nuevo."
"Good night," he said quietly, before his mom gave him a kiss.
After the lights went off and the door was completely closed, Francisco could hear his family in the living room. It was muffled, but he knew that everyone was talking, probably eating snacks and drinking soda and enjoying the tv special.
He got up from his bed and walked towards his door. He creaked it open and saw his dad looking at him as he was passing through the hallway, "Pancho, duerme te. Ya es bien noche."
The boy sighed; he still didn't want to go to bed. He closed the door, and waited for his dad to be gone, and opened the door one more time. He carefully walked towards the living room, and stayed hidden in the hall, as he heard his family and the tv special in the background. He wasn't sure what time it was, but he assumed that it was almost time for the New Year.
Time passed, and his eyelids felt heavy, despite his family's chatter. Before he knew, he was sitting down on the floor, then laying down, then he rested his head on his arms and then he rested his eyes.
When he woke up, he was in his bed, waking up to a quiet house.
"Happy 2008," he said to himself.
Enrique knocked on the door, and waited for his younger brother to answer the door. His eyes shifted and looked around at any potential witnesses. When a bright light from a car's headlights shined in his direction, Kiké ducked underneath the bushes in front of Francisco's house and waited for the car to pass.
He sighed in relief, "Just a jackass with high beams."
Kiké knocked on the door again, "Hurry up! It's not that late!"
Francisco stumbled out of bed; muttering questions about who would be knocking on his door at two in the morning.
He looked through the peephole and cursed to himself. He opened the door and asked his older brother, "What are you doing here?"
The older brother walked past him with bags in hand, "You know for someone who does you such nice favors, you sure are an ass."
Kiké haphazardly left his bags in the living room, and walked into the kitchen, where he proceeded to raid Francisco's fridge.
The younger brother explained, "I'm an 'ass', because I hate when you just drop in without a phone call or message."
"You know that's not changing anytime soon," the older brother said as he continued to sniff around for something good to eat. "So I'm guessing that you haven't bothered to fix up that guest room of yours, and now I'm stuck sleeping on the damn couch because you're too broke to get a cot?"
"I'm too broke, because of you," Francisco accused.
Kiké scowled and approached his younger brother. He got closer to his face and whispered, "And that isn't my fault. Don't you blame me just because I was trying, and am still helping you. Let's not forget why you're in this mess in the first place."
Francisco looked down at him, and then walked over to the linen closet. He brought out some blankets for his brother, and took his brother's bags.
"Most of the dirty laundry is in the larger bag."
The younger brother sighed and took the bag to the garage. He searched through the bags and took out sealed plastic bags from his brother's luggage before putting the rest in the washing machine to handle in the morning.
Francisco opened his eyes and yawned. He looked around at the dark bedroom, but wasn't sure what time it was, but all he knew was that he was thirsty. He walked towards the door, and noticed light coming from underneath, realizing that his parents were still awake; he opened the door to get a cup of water.
As he walked down the hall, he felt a tension in the air. The lights of the living room were still on, and he knew that his parents were in the room, but there was no sound coming from the tv. He quietly approached the living room where he could hear his parents whisper.
The boy tried to listen to what his parents were saying before he heard Chuy whisper his name to get his attention.
Kiké walked over to him and grabbed Pancho's hand as he dragged him away from the living room, he whispered to his older brother, "Otra ves estan peliando."
Francisco looked over at his older brothers. He turned to Kiké and asked, "What are they doing?"
"Fighting, you idiot. They're always fighting, ever since you were born," he said in spite.
Chuy slapped the back of his brother's head, "Don't tell him that."
"Esfes lafa verferdadfad," Kiké responded before taking his own shot back at his brother.
"Peferofo efesofo nofo defebeferífíasfas dificirfirlefe," Chuy said quickly to not arouse their youngest brother's attention.
Francisco hated when his brothers spoke the way they did; every time that they spoke in code, he knew that they didn't want him to understand what they were saying.
"Pancho, just go to bed, everything will be fine," Chuy assured the boy.
"But I want water…"
"I'll get you some in a bit, just go back to bed," his oldest brother demanded.
Francisco did as he was told, but Kiké's words rattled in his brain. With each step that he took towards his bed, the words kept replaying over and over again. He buried himself under his blanket, and could feel his throat getting tighter and his eyes watering at the idea that all the fighting was his fault.
He never looked deeply at his parents' relationship; in his few years of life, he always assumed that the arguing was normal for all parents, but to hear that his parents fight because he was born saddened him.
The bedroom door opened, and Francisco quickly wiped his eyes before he peeked out from under the blanket.
Chuy looked at his younger brother, "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."
Francisco nodded. He set his attention on the cup of water in his brother's hand and Chuy took the hint and handed him the cup of water.
Francisco looked over Elena's shoulder; she was making Valentine's Day cards for classmates, and even going the little extra mile by adding a lollipop and chocolate to them.
He sat down next to her, and took a lollipop for himself, "Having fun?"
"Yeah. I'm almost done, just a few more. Are you planning anything for Valentine's Day?"
Francisco's heart stopped as he looked over at his daughter. Did she know? Was he getting sloppy? Did she sneak a peek at his messages?
"No, what makes you think that?"
"Cause mom had plans this weekend with her boyfriend. I thought that maybe you did too."
"Honey, I'm not seeing anyone, and I haven't seen anyone."
He remembered when Caroline introduced Elena to her first boyfriend after their break-up. When the relationship didn't last, it made Elena a bit sad, not only because her mother was sad, but because she liked him too. He wasn't ready to do that to her. If he and Lynn didn't work out, then what? She would be upset, and it'd be much more awkward at softball practice.
"So you aren't interested in anyone?"
He shook his head, "No, I'm not interested in anyone, or even dating at the moment."
Francisco slouched in his desk as his classmates happily colored their art projects. Since the night before after hearing what his brother said, he kept quiet, saying no more than a few grunts when spoken to. That morning, between the craziness of his brothers and classmates, no one noticed his sour mood.
He didn't want to be in class surrounded by all of his classmates, he wanted to be outside on the playground where he could play and try to forget his problems.
The boy stared down at the area in front of him, which only had a blank sheet of paper and a few stray crayons.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at his teacher, who in a calming voice asked, "Francisco, are you okay?"
He silently nodded.
"Do you want to sit with me in the reading chair?"
He shook his head.
The teacher was about to ask him another question, when a loud crash and crying grabbed everyone in the room's attention. The teacher quickly went to check on the student, and Francisco grabbed a crayon to color a sheet of paper, so to not arouse anymore attention from his teacher.
He began to draw trees, stars, water, and a little house; that's where he wanted to be – all alone.
His teacher came back to check on Francisco and noticed that he was drawing, "That's a nice drawing, Francisco," she complimented.
He looked over at his teacher for a bit, and gave a slight smile before going back to his drawing.
No, Tuesday the 15th is not particularly special, at least not for the average person, but it was the perfect day to just kick back and relax without all of the expected pressures of the previous day. For all Francisco knew, Lynn just invited him to hang out, have some dinner, and watch a movie; nothing too mushy for either one of their tastes. Now all she had to do was wait for him.
Right on cue, Lynn heard the knocking at the door. She opened the door, and saw him carrying some bags.
Lynn snuck a glance and saw the inside of the bags, "Really? You still think that I'm a chocolate fiend?"
"Are you?" he asked as he stepped inside and left the bags on the kitchen table.
Lynn stayed quiet, and followed after him. She helped him pull out the various treats, and he pulled out a bottle of wine, "I wasn't sure what we would be doing, but I thought that you might appreciate it."
She looked at the bottle, "I thought that you couldn't mix pain medication with alcohol?" she said, turning her head towards the oven.
"I can't. I bought it for you," he said leaving the bottle of wine on the kitchen table.
She looked at it, and turned to him, "Thanks." He looked at her. She noticed, "What?"
"Would you like me to get you a glass?"
"No thanks. Besides, it'll be rude to drink when you can't," she said as she took the wine bottle and stored it away.
Francisco shrugged his shoulders and sniffed into the air, "What smells good?"
"A surprise."
Francisco turned on the oven light and leaned down to see inside, "Lasagna?"
"I know you liked my dad's recipe, so I figured that you might want to taste it after all this time, but I made it better."
"What did you do to it?" he asked. He knew her; she can be kind, but also reckless, or maybe that was his own paranoia playing tricks on him.
"Nothing," she said, trying to feign innocence. "But I tweaked it a bit and now it's a Lynn-sagna Jr."
"Great…" Francisco said with some trepidation in his voice.
As Lynn offered him a plate, he sneaked a whiff of the dish; nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but he was going to proceed with caution.
The couple sat in front of the screen deciding on what movie to watch. Lynn flipped through the movie selection screen, and Francisco attempted to eat the meal in front of him. Apparently, the difference between the Lynn-sagna from his memory and the Lynn-sagna Jr. in front him was the amount of spice and cheese in the dish. He struggled to cut through the cheesy noodles, and managed get a piece before struggling with the cheese string that kept the lasagna intact.
"Are you sure that you don't want wine?" he asked as she reached for some water.
"I'm fine. Now what movie do you want to watch?"
Francisco didn't respond, which she knew meant that he didn't care. He stuffed his mouth with some lasagna, and Lynn took the opportunity to ask, "So have you dated since you split up Elena's mom?"
He flew into a coughing fit. Lynn laughed and handed him some water.
Despite going out for months, neither one was making an effort to ask about their lives after they stopped speaking in college. Lynn's imagination would run wild with the possibilities of how he and Caroline stopped dating, and what happened afterwards, but she figured that it was best to just ask directly.
"C'mon it's not that weird of a question!"
Francisco stopped coughing and looked at her, "Maybe I don't want to tell you. Maybe I just want to relax and watch a movie and eat a nice meal."
"Will you tell me if I tell you how many people I've dated?"
"I'm not that curious to find out," he knew that she would probably tell him anyway, but he didn't want tonight to be about exes or the past; he wanted to just kick back and mindlessly watch a movie with Lynn.
"Three, well four, if I count you," she said despite his protest.
Francisco set down his plate and took the remote from her to pick a movie. He scrolled through the screen, without turning to her, "I'm still not telling you."
Lynn tried to look him in the eye, but he continued to stare at the screen, "How do you know that that's what I wanted you to do?" Francisco turned to her. She had a knowing smile on her face, "Gotcha."
He turned back to the screen.
"Oh c'mon is it really that bad? I won't laugh. I promise I won't react," she begged.
"I know you, Lynn. I know what you're going to do," he responded before abandoning the remote.
She crossed her arms, and with a huff, "You don't know everything."
He nodded, "You're right. I don't. I mean I want to know you better eventually, just like you do me, but why rush it?"
"Are you serious? What rush? We've been 'dating' for months, and we still act just like friends! The only difference is that–"
Francisco leaned in to give her a kiss, she pulled him closer and deepened the kiss, but he broke it before she was ready to let go. He quietly finished her earlier statement, " –we do that. Now is that enough proof that we aren't just friends, or do I need to tell you my shoe size?"
Lynn lightly pushed him away. She tried to hide her smile, "No, no. I get it…but are we, you know, going to move a little faster at some point? Maybe tell someone?"
He knew where she was going with that suggestion. Yes, they've been dating for a few months now, and his restricting schedule made meetings difficult. Even now, he would probably have to leave shortly, and could he blame her for wanting to at least get it out in the air? He hasn't even told Elena that he's been seeing someone, let alone just introducing her coach as his girlfriend.
"Maybe, but for now let's just keep it between us."
"Alright…"
