As practice comes to a close, Elena grabs her gear. She is glad that summer, and by extension, baseball season are almost over. For two years, she has spent time trying to love a sport that she had almost no interest in, but her heart could never get into it as much her father. After two years, she is ready to call it quits. It was some sort of ride, but not what she would describe as fun.

She looks over at her dad, who is, like always, looking out at the field. The girl told herself for weeks that she was going to tell her father the truth about her and baseball, but every time she thinks about telling him, she chickens out. The season is almost over, and she promised herself that she is going to make this happen before she has to suffer through another season.

Elena walks to her dad, who is patiently waiting for her in the stands. Normally, at this time, he would be talking with Coach Lynn about baseball, which she wondered how they could only talk about it without getting bored. Nearly two seasons, and they still only talk about the same sport, how?

"Ready to go?"

She nods. At this point, she wishes that Coach Lynn wasn't absent so that she put off her news off for just a few more minutes. Then again, that would be a worse idea. If her father could be believed, they always talked about baseball, and the girl is positive that he may not want to hear her news after his and Coach Lynn's discussion on the sport.

As the two walk to the truck, Elena speaks up, "Dad, can I tell you something?"

"Sure, what is it?" he asks as he looks over at her.

"I wanna quit baseball. I don't like it, and haven't liked it since I started, but I figured since you like it that maybe I can learn to like it so that you can hang out with me for more than just during our weekends. And I know that it's your favorite sport, and I really, really wanted to like it, but I just don't. I want to do dance or singing or art class, maybe play an instrument like the piano or violin or the flute…"

"Elena…Elena…Elena," he tries to interrupt her rambling as she names more activities that she would rather participate in. "Honey, I don't care if you don't like baseball. I get it. Not everyone likes it; I'm not going to force you to do it. But if you don't like it, then why didn't you tell me? I would have understood."

She doesn't answer, but Francisco has idea of what she is thinking.

"Did you really think that if you started playing baseball, I would come by more often?"

She nods her head.

He sighs and looks at her in the eye, "Trust me, I didn't just start coming to see you more just because you started baseball. I've wanted to switch up my work schedule for a long time. It didn't just start because of baseball, I did it because I wanted to be there for your things. You got it?"

"Yes," she says quietly.

Francisco turns on the truck. The two sit in silence, until he asks, "So what instrument were you interested in playing?"

Elena perks up, "I was thinking piano, but then I would stuck sitting in front of it, rather than going outside to play music on beautiful days. Maybe the violin…but then I worry about pain in my neck…I guess I could try the saxophone, I could join a jazz group! And you don't hear of a lot of people doing that, but that would mean replacing the reeds a lot…and piano seems like it would be easy without having to worry too much about stances…and violin offers me flexibility to play wherever I please…oh! Maybe guitar? I bet it'll be easy to find a teacher and it the most popular instrument in the world…but everyone plays guitar…"

Francisco smiles and lightly shakes his head as he hears his daughter attempt to decide on an instrument to learn to play.

"How about this? There are three kinds of instruments, right? The gold ones, the string ones, and the ones you hit, right? Which one would do you think you would like better?"

Elena just glances at her dad; surprised by how poorly he classified instruments, and how he missed one group. She thinks quietly about his question. She isn't sure about which instrument she would want to play, so she shrugs her shoulders.

"Well, how about you just finish the season and then your mom and I can talk about what music lessons you can take. Deal?"

"Deal," she says with a smile.

Francisco pulls into the driveway, and they steps out of the truck. With the information that Elena just presented him, he wants to start discussing it with Caroline, so that they can find her something to do once the season is over.

Caroline opens the door, and smiles, "Hey, how was practice?"

Elena hugs her mom, "Messy. Can I go shower and change?"

Caroline lets her go, and the parents watch their daughter run inside. Francisco turns to Caroline and tells her, "She told me that she wants to quit baseball."

"She finally told you about that? I was beginning to think that I would have to tell you."

"She already told you?"

"Yeah, she's just been afraid of letting you know, since she thought that you would stop showing up like you did in the spring," she playfully comments.

He sighs, "How many times do I have to say it? I temporarily switched shifts."

The blonde laughs, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You know that I believe you. I just wanted to pull your leg a little."

Francisco smiles, and let out a very sarcastic, "Ha ha, so has she told you what she wants to do instead?"

Caroline shakes her head, "She hasn't. I was hoping that you could get her down to one thing. Last week, she started with six different things, and I think I managed to get her down to four, can you help me out and see if you can talk her into doing one or two things?"

"I'll try…hopefully she doesn't trying adding more to music, dance, singing, and art," Francisco looks down at his watch, "I should get going, I want to get some rest before I go to bed tomorrow."

As he walks away, Caroline remembers something that she wants to ask, "Francisco, before you go. I have an upcoming work trip and I'll need to leave during the week, would you be able to take some time off to watch Elena?"

"Of course. Just let me know the date so that I can ask off."


A loud crash wakes the two parents. Neither one is a stranger to loud noises early in the morning, especially with six young children, but despite having being accustomed to their morning shenanigans, they are constantly on their toes to make sure that someone doesn't get hurt.

Lori and Lynn's muffled arguing could be heard by both parents, and soon the rest of the girls could be heard arguing.

Rita opened her eyes, "I got up first last time. It's your turn," she told her husband.

"Just five more minutes," he mumbled.

The yelling gets louder, and he can't ignore it anymore. He yawns, gets up from bed and walks out of his bedroom, where he sees what the girls were fighting about. At the top of the stairs, he sees his three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son sitting on a sled, looking as if they are about to go sledding down the stairs at high speed. Lynn and her brother slide down stairs and Lynn Sr. runs as quickly as he can and grabs both children off of the sled before it crashes into the front door.

Rita steps out of her bedroom, and sees what all the commotion is. She is surprised by the sight of the sled and her out-of-breath husband, who is holding their two youngest in his arms.

Lori yells from upstairs, "Dad! Lynn didn't listen when I told her not to sled down the stairs!"

He hands Lincoln off to his wife and looks over at his youngest daughter. Since the day she came home, she has always been a handful for both parents; long nights trying to get her to sleep, jumping off of random furniture, running around the house, and recently getting suspended from daycare.

She giggles in his arms and said, "Again! Again!"

"No, Lynn Jr. not again," he tells her. "Look at me," but she squirms as she tries to get out of her father's grasp. He pulls her up to eye level, "Lynn, no," he says sternly, until she takes a hold of his nose and tries to pull on it.

"Alright young lady," he calmly told her, "You're going to help me with breakfast. Follow me," he tells his daughter as he takes her into the kitchen. He sits her down on the counter, "What do you think that the family wants for breakfast?"

The father turns around and sees Lynn standing on the counter about to jump towards the floor, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no," he panics and takes hold of her. "Okay, that was Daddy's fault," he sets her down on the floor, "Let's try this again."

Lynn Sr. looks around, "Where did she go?!"

Rita walks into the kitchen with her daughter in hand, "If you want, I can take Lynn with me to visit my dad? Maybe new environment where she can run around outside will be good for her," she looks down at her daughter and asks, "Do you want to go see your Pop-Pop?"

"Yeah!" she happily says.


Lynn waited by the luggage carousel. Margo said that Tom was going to pick her up at the airport, which was not something that she was looking forward to. No, Tom isn't a bad guy or anything, but he and Lynn didn't have much in common; she's obviously into sports, while he was more interested in the science stuff that Lisa liked.

She pulled out her phone, and messaged Tom to let him know that she arrived and was just waiting on her luggage. It was only a week, but she planned on making the best of it, and maybe take in the sights and smells of such a large city.

Lynn felt her phone buzzing; it was Tom, saying that he just arrived. She looked at her phone and set her phone to the city. The city's weather showed up on the screen, and while she isn't fond of extremely hot summer weather, she figured that she can handle it. The luggage began to circle the carousel she got her luggage and walked out of the terminal. The heat took Lynn by surprise. She was used to Michigan summers, but this was something else. Her skin started to feel sticky and warmer than normal, and she was rather tempted to return to the terminal and wait until it got cooler.

She kept her eyes peeled for Margo's husband, who she noticed was bouncing around his car. Lynn walked over to him; surprised that he still hasn't acknowledged her presence.

"What are you doing?"

"My foot fell asleep. I've been in the car for an hour, and I needed to move them."

Lynn looked at him, confused, "An hour? Why? I get that it can be a pain to wait in traffic, but you didn't have to come so early, I could have stood around waiting."

Tom snickered, "From what Margo tells me, you can't." Lynn nodded at the statement, "But I've been in the car for an hour, so that I can be on time to pick you up."

Lynn looked stunned, "An hour!? I thought you both lived a few miles away from the airport?"

Tom nodded his head, "We do…from the other airport. So do you want to get breakfast? It's going to be a while."

Lynn stood there stunned, 'An hour!? In the car? I guess I should've paid attention to the airport code like Margo said.'

"Sure, let's go see what we can find," she said as she loaded her luggage into the car.

As soon as Tom turned on the car, she didn't hesitate to turn on the air conditioning while having her face as close as possible.

'How the heck do they survive down here? It's so hot!'

"So how are Margo and the baby?" she asked.

Lynn's original intention was to be in town for around the time of the birth, but she couldn't impose and spend a week shortly after her best friend gave birth. In hindsight, it worked out for the best.

"Can I tell you the truth?" Lynn nodded, "I cannot get the baby to sleep at all. I pick him up and he starts crying and won't stop for hours and hours and hours," he complained, as he tried to rest his head on the steering wheel.

"Watch the road!" she yelled as he snapped back to attention and swerved himself properly to the lane. Lynn's heart raced at what just happened, "I get it. Babies can be tough. Take it from someone who's dealt with six younger siblings, but it gets easier." Her parents definitely made it look easy, by the time she came around, they were pros and could handle anything.

"Do you really think so? Because it seems impossible at the moment," he said as he turned to her.

Lynn quickly pushed his head back towards the road, "Dang it, Space Case! Watch the road!"


Rita pulls into her father's home, "Alright girls, we're here. Now is everyone going to be good while we're here at Pop-Pop's?" she asks, though she is specifically looking at her youngest daughter, who is too busy looking at her surroundings.

Lori and Leni responds, "Yes," but Lynn looks out at window; ignoring what is going on around her.

Rita takes Lori and Leni's hands and Lynn grabs onto Leni's hand as they walk to Pop-Pop's front door.

It isn't out of the ordinary for parents to want a break and talk to other adults, and Rita took full advantage of her father's retired status, whenever she could, especially with his boundless energy to keep up with his six grandchildren.

The family walked to the backyard and the three girls began to run around and play as Albert and Rita took a seat under the shade.

Lynn yelled as she tried to climb a tree, "Pop-Pop! Pop-Pop! Pop-Pop! Look what I can do! Look what I can do! Pop-Pop!"

Albert briefly turned to her, "I see you." He turned back to his daughter, "Are you okay, Rita? You look tired."

Rita smiled as she turned her tired eyes towards her father, "You've been saying that since Luna was born," she joked.

Both adults laughed, until Lori yelled for her mother. They turned towards the girls and saw Leni crying while Lori and Lynn are playing tug-of-war with a doll.

"Mom! Lynn took Leni's doll, even though it wasn't her turn."

"It's never my turn!" Lynn said to defend herself.

"Cause you never wait!"

Lynn felt her cheeks redden with anger and she jumped on her oldest sister. She clutched tightly on her older sister's shirt as she tried to get the younger sister off of her back. Both screamed as neither sister let go of the other, and Leni stopped crying as she tried to break the two apart.

Rita and Albert ran up to the three girls and pried Lynn off of Lori. Albert took hold of Lynn, who has tears forming in her eyes, and carries her away from her older sisters.

The girl buried her head in her grandfather's shirt, "They never let me play," she whined.

"Aww, I'm sure they'll let you, but you have to be nice too," he reassured her.

Albert sets her down near his seat, and waits for his daughter, who was busy comforting the two girls. He looks down at his youngest granddaughter and notices that she's already walking from him and towards a line of ants.

Rita picks Lynn up and carries her back to where she was sitting, "I want you to stay right here where I can keep an eye on you."

Lynn sat still for a minute. She began to tap her foot and then her fingers as she looked at her sisters. They were playing quietly with their toys under the tree, and she desperately wanted to join them. Lynn looked up at her mom and grandpa and noticed that neither one was looking down at her, so she quietly tried to move towards her sisters.

Rita noticed that her youngest daughter moving towards Lori and Leni, "Lynn, sit down."

The girl sat back down by the table.

Rita looked at her father, "Lynn and I have no idea what to do with her. She runs around the house, she doesn't listen to us, and no matter what we do to help her sleep, she keeps getting up from her naps and in the middle of the night."

Albert rubbed his chin as he thought about how to solve his daughter's problem, "Do you take her out to the park? I bet running around with all those kids will wear her out."

"I take her nearly every day; it doesn't work."

"How about warm milk to help her sleep? It used to work for you."

Rita shook her head.

"What about tee-ball? My friend mentioned that his grandson just started playing, and I bet it'll be great for her. She'll get a chance to be outside, run around, and maybe learn to wait her turn," he said as he pointed towards Lynn, who is running towards her sisters, trying to get their attention.

Rita sighed, "Not yet, but at this point, we're willing to try anything."


Tom held on tightly to the car's handle, terrified of Lynn's driving, "Lynn, are you sure that this is a good idea?" he asked as she swerved between cars on the freeway.

Lynn scoffed, "We'll be fine. Besides these drivers sure as heck don't mind a little speeding," she said before taking a bite of her third chicken biscuit. "Man, these things are good. I'm glad I went and got the fifth one."

"You give me crap for talking while driving, but its okay for you to eat your breakfast while driving?"

"That's different," she said before taking a bite of her hash brown, "I can keep my eyes on the road, whereas you can't talk to me without forgetting that you're behind the wheel. Besides this is fun, everyone is going over the speed limit and the cops don't care," Lynn noted as she got passed by a cop.

"Fine, but can you at least stop swerving between lanes and slow down?"

"Fine!" Lynn slowed down a bit, and Tom sighed in relief. "So how much longer until the exit? I feel like we've been driving forever," she complained.

"You're telling me," he agreed with her whining. "But we only a few more exits and we're good."

"Still? Geez, why is everything so far away around here?"

Tom shrugged his shoulders, "We like our space?"

"Which space? The one around us or the one above us?"

"Both," he said with a smile.

Fourteen exits later and a lengthy drive through the streets, the two got out of the car, and Lynn began to stretch, "I can see why you complained, that was a long drive."

Margo noticed her husband's car pull into the driveway and went outside. She saw Lynn stretching her back and joked, "I hope you learned your lesson and will listen when I tell you to pay attention to the airport code."

Lynn ran up to her best friend and gave her a hug, "I did. But maybe next time, you visit me in the summer instead."

Tom and Margo laughed, as they took her luggage and led her inside.

He took her bags to her room, as he laughed recalling how Margo would complain about the summer heat, "And she still complains too sometimes."

Lynn whispered to Margo, "He was still talking?"

"He does that sometimes," she whispered back.

It was hard to believe that they hadn't seen each other in so long. Sometimes, Margo would make trips back up to Michigan, but usually those trips were for her to visit her parents; Lynn would see her, but not as much as she would want to.

The sound of crying caught the women's attention, and Margo excused herself to tend to her son. Lynn followed after her, and she caught up to her friend in the nursery. The blue and white room decorated with toys and baby supplies stopped Lynn in her tracks and she didn't walk past the doorway.

Margo took hold of her crying son, and she turned to Lynn, "Do you want to hold him?"

Lynn shook her head.


Lynn took off her seatbelt and jumped off of her car seat; she rarely gets an opportunity to ride alone with dad in the daytime and he said that she was in for a treat.

After Rita came home from her father's, she brought up the suggestion to her husband, and the two decided that playing sports may be a nice opportunity for her to socialize, learn to cooperate, and maybe burn up some energy to get some sleep later that night.

She looked out the window and began to name everything that she saw, "Tree! Lady! Tree! Tree! Man! Doggy! Hi doggy!"

The father turned towards her and panicked upon seeing his daughter, "Lynn?! What are you doing?" he pulled over and placed her back in her car seat. "What are we going to do with you?" he playfully asked her, as he lightly flicked her nose. He took a seat behind the wheel, and looked at her; squirming in her seat.

He and Rita have tried tiring her out in the past, and it rarely did anything to calm her down, but after hearing Albert's suggestion, they figured that they could give tee-ball a try. Now all the patriarch was hoping was that his daughter would sit still long enough to find some sort enjoyment in the game.

He got out of Vanzilla and took Lynn out of her car seat. The two walked towards the baseball field, where other parents and children are already gathered and ready to start practice.

"Alright, LJ. You've got to be a good girl and listen to your coaches, okay?"

She nodded and ran ahead towards all of the other children. Everyone was beginning to gather on the field and Lynn quickly ran towards the coach. The kids took a seat on the grass and Lynn followed their lead.

The coaches began to introduce themselves while Lynn looked down at the grass and noticed an ant crawling on the ground.

A girl with blonde hair next to her said, "The coach asked your name."

Lynn looked up, "What?" she turned and saw everyone looking at her. "Uhh…I'm Lynn Loud Jr."

With introductions out of the way, one of the coaches began to explain the rules for plastic ball tag, while the others were setting up for the game. Lynn looked at the other adults, who were placing cones along the bases. The children stood up and followed the coaches and stood inside the area.

The coach blew the whistle and the children began to run. Lynn didn't know what the rules were and she just ran around like the other children. She saw the coach walking around tagging children with a plastic ball and she ran away every time he got close.

More and more kids began to tire out and stepped out of the area to rest, but Lynn and a few other kids continued. The coach began to walk faster, and Lynn would run as fast as her little legs would carry her. Soon, she realized that she and the blonde-haired girl were the last ones left. The girl was soon tagged, but Lynn refused to back down. She ducked and dodged the coach, before he called out to her, "Alright, Lynn, that's enough."

The girl stopped and turned to face the coach, "Your face is red."

He nodded as he tried to catch his breath; he didn't expect her to keep running as long as she did.

Practice continued with the kids learning the bases, how to grip and throw the ball, and even learning to run around the whole diamond. Each time, Lynn noticed the same girl who would run almost as fast as her or kept up as long as she did.

When practice ended, the coaches encouraged the kids to high five each other. Lynn looked around for the little blonde girl, she held her hand up, "I'm Lynn Loud Jr."


Early in the morning, Lynn woke up and looked around the room. Her looked at her cell phone and saw that it was barely seven in the morning, "Dang time difference."

She quietly roamed the hallway to avoid waking up everyone, when she heard Nicholas begin to cry. Lynn sighed, "Guess I wasn't quiet enough."

She decided to at least help her best friend out by letting Margo get some extra sleep while she looks after the crying infant. She walked into his room, yawning, "What's got you all pissy this morning, Nick?" He quieted down a bit after hearing Lynn's voice.

Rather than take any chances, she stepped backwards towards the door, but he seemed as though he is going to get agitated again. She stepped up to his crib and picked him up before slowly rocking him around the room, "1, 2, 3…1, 2, 3…1, 2, 3…" she said as she made a poor attempt at mixing her movements to the tune of a waltz. "Aww so that's what you look like when you aren't crying or sleeping," she told the now quiet infant.

She took a seat in the rocking chair, "Sorry I can't feed you right now, kid. But you can wait for your mom. Then again…any wait for you is like forever."

Lynn mentally added up the days in her head, "I think you're what? Eighty days old? I guess a minute is a bigger portion of your life than mine."

Nicholas looked up at her with eyes ready to start crying again, "No, don't cry, uh, let's see…" she began to rock back and forth, as she hummed a little song. Lynn wished that she paid more attention to her sisters when they were caring for their children, or even their younger sisters; instead, she's trying anything that she could remember from movies and tv shows.

"It's interesting when you think about it," she told the infant, "To you, a minute is forever, but there are a lot of other extremes too. A lot of things can be the happiest and the scariest and the saddest. A soft blanket is probably the greatest thing in the world, and a loud noise is the scariest thing out there, but that's probably because your world is kinda small; it's just this house and this overgrown city. You'll eventually learn that things aren't that bad, but I get it, the first time will freak out any rookie. Everybody goes through it. First, its noises, then strangers, needles, make-believe monsters, heartbreak…but you'll get to appreciate the good, brave the scary, and overcome the sadness, and you'll get to experience a lot of cool things in life," Lynn said as she kept rocking him while she thought of some experiences. "Like the taste of your first piece of chocolate, learning to throw a ball, go swimming, make friends, go on dates, learn to drive, finish high school, all the fun stuff in the middle."

She looked down at him to notice Nicholas clutching her shirt and sleeping while pressed against her torso. "You can keep sleeping, but I need some coffee, we can't all sleep the day away."

Lynn looked up from the infant and saw Margo at the doorway, holding a baby monitor, "And here you are saying that you weren't cut out to care for babies."

"It's a one-time fluke. It's no big deal," Lynn said as she got up from the rocking chair and walked to the kitchen in Nicholas in her arms, passing Margo, who was waiting to take the infant into her arms.

Margo looked at her quietly told herself, "One-time fluke, and yet she's not letting go of him," she said with a smile on her face.

Lynn looked around the kitchen for coffee, she looked down at the infant, "You wouldn't happen to know where mommy and daddy keep the coffee, do you?"

He blinked back at her.

"Yeah, I figured. The only drink you know is milk, and you're so stubborn you won't stop looking for it."

Margo took the coffee out of the cupboard, and began to make some for both of them. She continued to look at her best friend who seemed to be having a conversation about the World Series with her son.

"Do you want me to name all the winners from 1903 to now?"

Nicholas blinked.

"I'll take that as a yes!"

Margo rested her head against the counter as Lynn began to spout out the winners of the World Series.


Lynn took a bite of her bread roll. After nearly three weeks of tee-ball, the girl did seem calmer after practice, but now her mind was completely preoccupied with the game and the new friend that she made.

"And then the coaches made us do exercises and I did more than everyone, even Margo!"

Lynn Sr. looked at his daughter, "Kiddo, don't talk with your mouth full."

Rita gave Lincoln a spoonful of food, "Well looks like you have a lot of fun at practice, Lynn Jr." she turned to her older daughter "Luan, how was your day?"

"Fun. In arts and crafts, we made paper flowers and–"

"And next week the coach said that we can collect the balls!"

"Lynn, don't interrupt your sister. You had your turn and we were all patient, now it's your turn to do the same for your sisters," Rita lightly scolded.

Lynn Sr. turned to Luan, "Honey, keep going, how was your day?"

Luan was about to start, when Lynn once again interrupted her sister. The youngest girl continued interrupting each sister and before Lori began to talk, Lynn interrupted her like she had her sisters. Lori's blood began to boil and she took her bread roll and tossed it at Lynn's head.

"Lori!" both parents yelled.

"She won't stop talking!" Lori complained as she crossed her arms.

"That doesn't mean that you throw your food at your sister. Now apologize," Rita commanded.

Lori took a deep breath, but with some bitterness in her voice, "Sorry, Lynn."

The parents looked at the clock and declared dinner to be over. Lynn Sr. took the two youngest and carried them up to bed. He placed a now sleeping Lincoln in his crib and tucked his daughter into bed, "Good night my little Lynnsanity Jr. Sweet dreams," he told her as he walked towards the light switch.

As the room went dark, Lynn asked, "Daddy, does Lori hate me?"

He whispered under his breath, "So close…" He walked back to his daughter, "No, why do you think that?"

"Cause she hit me with a bread roll, and cause she yells at me, and cause she tells me to go away, and cause–"

"Lynn, she doesn't hate you."

He tried to think of his words carefully. He understood where Lori's frustrations involving her younger sister came from, but he didn't know how to get his point across and make Lynn understand.

"She was just tired. You talked a lot–"

"So why was she tired?"

"Not that kind of tired. Her head felt tired because she wanted to talk. Does that make sense?"

He noticed that Lynn was beginning to squirm underneath her sheets, so her tucked her in one more time and gave her a kiss on the forehead, "Good night, sweetie."

"Good night, Daddy."

With the lights off, Lynn tried to close her eyes and sleep, but she couldn't; she thought about her teammates, the new girl that she met, grass, why grass is green and sometimes brown, why dirt is brown, why is tee-ball called tee-ball, and a variety of other things that her young mind doesn't understand.

She tossed and turned in her bed, she is tapping her foot excessively and she can't bring herself to stop. The house is completely quiet, except for her little brother's occasional snoring, and she can't close her eyes long enough to let herself succumb to sleep. Lynn wondered if anyone else struggled to sleep as much as she did, but rather than stay in bed, Lynn did what she always did when she couldn't sleep – go to mom and dad.

She opened the door of her bedroom and walked out with her stuffed tiger in hand. Lynn looked at the staircase in front of her and was ready to descend, when the sound of Lincoln snoring snapped her attention back to their shared room.

The girl looks around, but doesn't see or hear anyone bothered by the noise. She shrugs her shoulders and continues her trek down to her parents' room.

Lynn pulled on her parents' blanket. Rita opened her eyes, and saw her daughter staring at her, "I can't sleep."


Margo looked over at Lynn and Tom who had their hands locked trying to push the other back. All she recommended was for them to get some fresh air in the backyard, maybe get Tom to tend to the garden, but instead her friend and her husband accidentally pushed each other in the shed and there are now, trying to push the other back for fun.

"Why is this hard?" Lynn groaned as she started losing her footing, "Seriously, you're a rocket scientist, why am I losing?"

Tom laughed, as he began to push Lynn back with ease, "I guess Margo forgot to tell you that I used to play football in college. I've pushed tackling sleds with push back than this."

Margo shook her head, Lynn obviously doesn't like being talked down to like that, and it wasn't going to end well; no, she wasn't going to get angered, but Margo knew that Lynn would just keep pushing until she won.

Lynn kept pushing back, with a renewed sense of vigor, but was confused by Tom who just mumbling under his breath, all she could catch was, "Fight! Fight! Fight for red and white…"

"Red and white? Are you cheering me on?" she playfully asked.

He shook his head, continued his muttering until he managed to push her to the backyard fence, "…and we will go to victory." He wiped the sweat from his brow and had a good laugh. "You got way tougher at the end, Lynn."

As Lynn tried to catch her breath, she looked over at him, accepting defeat, "Yeah…well I used to play a bit of football in high school…before I realized that baseball was better," she said with a cocky smile.

"I never realized that kickers were that tough," Tom told Lynn, unaware of her real role on the team.

Lynn growled, "I wasn't a damn kick–"

"Lynn! Do you want to go to the beach?" Margo quickly asked, in an attempt to diffuse Lynn, "You've never seen to the ocean, and there's no better day to see it."

"Is it blue, today?" Tom asked with optimism in his voice. Margo handed her phone to him, and he smiled, "Yes!" He walks to his son, and tells him, "I can't wait for you to see this. It's the best way to experience the…"

He looked up at Margo, who was shaking her head, "I was planning on this being a me and Lynn thing."

"But we don't know how long the water is going to be blue for," he almost whined.

"We can take him when he's older, but Lynn's never had a chance to see the ocean and what better time than now."

Tom conceded, "Well, Lynn, you're in for a treat. Enjoy it."

The couple noticed Lynn's silence, and they turned to see her playing peek-a-boo with Nicholas.


Rita yawned as she placed Lynn in her car seat. She isn't fond of doing these late night drives, but sometimes it's the only way to get her daughter to fall asleep. It was a ritual that Rita hoped Lynn would have outgrown, but after almost four years, Lynn is still clinging.

"Mom, why are stars shiny?"

Rita responded flatly, "I don't know."

"How do they make houses?"

"I don't know…" Rita yawned.

"Are trees just big flowers?"

"No…"

They still haven't left the driveway and already Lynn spouted out three questions; Rita is tired, but she silently prayed that the drive would help the girl fall asleep.

She turned on Vanzilla and heard a ticking sound, "I thought that your father fixed that already," she told her daughter.

Lynn tried to get out of her seat, "Look! There's Mr. Gross!" she pointed at her neighbor, who was driving home, presumably from one of his night fishing trips.

"It's Mr. Grouse, Lynn," Rita looked at the rearview mirror and saw Lynn almost successfully unbuckle her seat, "Lynn Loud Jr.!

Lynn immediately stopped trying to unbuckle her seat and decided to look out the window.

The streetlights illuminated their path, and Rita was tempted to make a U-turn back to the house, but as she looked in the rearview mirror, she could see that Lynn was still wired.

"You know, when you were a baby in my tummy, I remember that you would struggle to sleep too," Rita reminisced to her daughter. "Some nights, I would be awake all night, and you would be kicking me, but by morning, you would be nice and quiet…at least until lunch time," she laughed.

Lynn giggled, and her thoughts went to food, "Can dad make spaghetti tomorrow?"

Rita sighed, "I'll ask him, but–"

Lynn pointed at a glowing neon sign, "Mom, what's that?"

"It's a–"

"Is there chocolate in your bag?"

"I didn't bring my bag–"

"What's that tick-tick-tick sound?"

"It's Vanzilla. Remember, I said that–"

"Does Vanzilla have a mommy van and a daddy van?"

Rita grew impatient with the girl's excessive question, "Lynn! Enough already! I want you to go to sleep, so that I can sleep! So please stop talking and try to sleep!"

Everything went silent after that.

The only noise inside Vanzilla is a ticking sound.

Rita sighed and rested her head on the steering wheel; she couldn't believe that she snapped at her daughter like that. Luckily, there were no cars around, so she could stay put for a little longer, but she still felt terrible for what she did.

She raised her head up, "Lynn, I'm sorry I snapped at you like that. I know that you may be sad, but mommy is tired, but that doesn't mean that I should have yelled at you because I know that you're tired too. Can you forgive mommy?"

Lynn didn't answer.

"Lynn?" Rita turned around and noticed that her daughter is snoring, she smiled, "At least she's finally asleep."


Lynn sped down the freeway, "So how far away is the ocean? I can't wait to go swimming."

"About an hour away."

"Are you serious!? What the hell isn't an hour away in this city?" Lynn complained, "Other side of town? An hour away! Airport? An hour away! Your college? An hour away! That boardwalk you told me about? Is that an hour away! What about a burger place? I bet that that's an hour away."

"It's not that bad," Margo laughed, despite knowing that Lynn probably won't change her mind.

"It just seems weird when compared to Royal Woods. There I can get around no problem, but here, I have to sit in a damn traffic jam just to get anywhere. How do you do it?"

Margo just smiled at hearing her friend's complaints; she understood. When she first arrived, she couldn't believe how big and far away everything was in the city; now she was used to it, but hearing Lynn's complaints brought back memories. She remembered freaking out that she wouldn't fit in, or that she would get lost one day by riding the bus, or that she would not be able to handle the homesickness; now it just seemed like a distant memory.

"So, what was Tom talking about the ocean not being blue and whatnot?" Lynn asked.

"It's not always blue, so when it is, people make a big deal about it."

Lynn turned to Margo, "That's just weird."

Margo turned Lynn's head back towards the road, "Eyes on the road. You know, you give Tom so much grief, but you're no better than he is," she joked.

Lynn kept driving. The scenery looked like a boring shade of brown once you passed all the houses that looked alike, a mall, and some of the large stores along the way. The brown made way for a bunch of trees, but the scenery was still boring. Lynn's eyes stared in front of her, but she couldn't concentrate on her environment.

Margo noticed her friend getting too close to the car in front of her, "Lynn! What are you doing?"

Lynn shook her head and realized what was going on, "Oh sorry."

"You're not

"So are we almost close? I feel like I've been driving forever," whined Lynn.

"We're almost there. Once you cross the big bridge and see the water, you'll know that we're close."

"Big bridge, got it!" Lynn pressed harder on the pedal, and Margo held on as tightly as she could.

"The beach is still going to be there, you don't have to kill us."

"I'm not gonna do that," Lynn boasted as she swerved to avoid another car.

After crossing the bridge, and finding a more secluded beach, they pulled into a parking spot, Lynn looked out into the blue ocean; the smell of salt in the air and sounds of tourists were always what she imagined when she pictured beaches. People were barbequing, families were laughing and enjoying the scenery; it reminded her of home.

Margo spoke up, "It's not that different from the beaches back home, except the water is salty and usually not this clear."

"It really isn't…" Lynn absentmindedly said as she stared at the blue ocean.

Lynn ran towards the sand. She kicked off her shoes and tossed them and her socks to the side as she made her way into the water. The waves crashed into her legs, and the water moved back and forth as Lynn stared like a curious child. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, she was used to it from her occasional overnight beach trips, but it was nice to enjoy the novelty of seeing the ocean for the first time.

Margo looked at Lynn as she splashed around for a bit like a kid; knowing that she wasn't going to get out any time soon, Margo took off her shoes and caught up with her friend.

"So what do you think?"

"This is nice," Lynn started, "Thanks for bringing me out here."

Margo smiled. It was nice to have some time alone; no baby, no husband, just two childhood friends enjoying themselves like old times.


Twelve chapters

If you're still reading this story, I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to so, especially since I don't think I've actually done so.

Unfortunately, the cliffhanger from last chapter somewhat continues. It wasn't an intentional cliffhanger, but for now, your imaginations will have to fill in the gap.

(My suggestion, pay attention to the little details, even the tiny ones that you don't think matter, they may pop up somewhere else down the road)