"I swear I'm losing my mind. Every week, how does this keep happening?" Francisco asks himself as he searches through his bathroom, looking for his keys, "First my belt, then my work boot, the remote, my measuring tape, and now my keys, why does this keep happening?!"
Francisco checks through his medicine cabinet, but comes up with nothing. He sighs; he and Lynn have been searching all over the house for the keys to his truck and neither one have been able to find them. At this point, he begins to settle with the idea of searching obscure places just to make sure that he didn't leave them somewhere randomly.
"I am too young to be losing my mind," he tells himself before walking to the kitchen. He sees Elena looking by the fridge, "Don't fill up before we get to Lynn's family's place. You'll ruin your appetite," Francisco tells his daughter as she opens the fridge door to pull out a water bottle.
"What if there isn't anything I like?" she asks as she closes the door.
Francisco looks through all of the kitchen drawers, "I'm sure you'll like something, after all, Mr. Loud is a professional cook."
Lynn walks in from the side door, "Alright, I checked the backyard, and nothing. Did you check the hook?" asks Lynn.
"No, Lynn. I thought that I'd search the rest of the house before looking where I usually put my keys," he responds with heavy sarcasm.
She scowls, "You don't have to be such an…a pain," she corrects herself after seeing Elena. "You didn't happen to see your dad's car keys, have you?"
Elena shakes her head and takes a seat on the couch; waiting for the two adults to finish looking for the keys.
Francisco groans as he steps out of his bedroom, "How the heck could they have disappeared? I put them on the hook last night and now I can't find them."
"Well, we can always take Dutch to my parents' place," she suggests.
Francisco turns around, "I'm going to search my bedroom again," he says, preferring not to get into a long conversation about Lynn's car.
"This is crazy," Lynn complains. "We've searched every room of the house for over an hour. Inside every drawer, under every pillow, couch cushion and mattress, all that's left are all the pockets in all your clothes."
Lynn takes a seat next to Elena. She is getting fed up with looking. All of this wasted time, and it is getting ridiculous that they couldn't find a set of keys. She turns to the girl, and asks, "Does this happen a lot?"
She shakes her head, "Not really. He's usually pretty good about knowing where his keys are."
"Lucky him," Lynn gets up, "Do you want something from the fridge?"
Elena shakes her head, "I'm fine."
Lynn opens the fridge to grab a bottle of water, when something blue catches her eye in the vegetable drawer. She opens it, and lo and behold, there are the keys. "Francisco! I found the keys!"
Francisco comes out of his room, "Where were they?"
"In your vegetable drawer," she responds.
"How the heck did they end up there?"
Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "So can we go now? I promised my dad that I was going to help him with his turgooseon."
"His what?" asks Francisco and Elena in unison.
She turns the two around, and drags them towards the truck, "Not important. C'mon! Let's go!"
"Alright, now who's going to be there?" asked Francisco, as everyone got into his truck.
This was the first time that Lynn has invited both him and Elena to meet her family, and Francisco is clearly nervous. He knew what this really was; it was Lynn's chance to tell her whole family about them in one fell swoop, at least that's what he thought. Frankly, he is nervous. He hasn't seen these people in years, he barely knew them, and now he and Elena are intruding on their dinner.
"Just my parents, nieces, nephews, in-laws, and sisters. Jeez! What's so hard about that?"
"How many people did you say that was? Twenty? And I'm not even including your missing brother, sister-in-law, and niece, plus I haven't met them all, or seen them in over a decade. Lisa is the professional mechanic, right?"
Lynn raises an eyebrow, which he couldn't see, "Twenty-one," she corrects, "And seriously? All these years and you still can't remember which sister is which?"
"There were a lot of you girls, cut me some slack," he defends himself. "At least I knew Lincoln right off the bat."
"Who doesn't?" Lynn mutters under her breath. She looks at the rearview mirror, and sees Elena staring out the window, "Do you want me go over the names with you again?"
Elena turns to Lynn, and shakes her head, "No, I think I got it."
"She gets it," Lynn points out to Francisco.
"She's younger and smarter, plus she's never met all of your siblings as a crowd."
"All I hear are excuses," she playfully teases.
Juan steps out of the garage with a laundry basket and calls out to his youngest son, "¡Pancho, llevate la ropa adentro!"
Francisco sighs. He hates being the main child that his dad calls upon to help him around the house when his parents are fighting. He looks at the basket on the floor of his kitchen and takes it his parents' room to get it sorted.
The house would always get quiet whenever his parents fought, but it was quieter when his dad would get mad. He would always give the silent treatment to whoever angered him, while also ignoring their presence. At the moment, his dad was upset with their mom, and that meant that the three brothers are called upon to relay messages between the parents.
Chuy passes by and sees his youngest brother carrying the laundry basket. He grabs the basket from his younger brother as they walk towards the parents' room.
"How much longer are they gonna be fighting?"
Chuy shrugs his shoulders; usually these sorts of fights would be for a few days followed by dinner and then everything goes back to normal until the next fight.
"Just be patient, mom and dad will be fine before you know it."
The older brother sets the basket down and walks away while Francisco begins to match the socks, fold their underwear, and put everything in its own pile.
Kiké passes by, "What the heck are you doing?"
Francisco turns around, "Putting the laundry away, like dad said."
"Menso, dad told you to bring the laundry basket in, not put it away."
Francisco takes a ragged breath, and goes back to putting the clothes away. Chuy watches his two brothers; it's bad enough that their parents made the house tense, now Kiké is pushing Pancho's buttons and about to make the house more tense than it already is.
Chuy takes a sock and begins to help his brother, in an effort to take his mind off of his brother's words. Rather than leave, Kiké stands by and watches the two of them work.
"You know you can help, right?" Chuy says.
"No one told me to fold laundry; I wasn't even told to bring it in."
"Just help," Chuy tells Kiké.
The three brothers silently work putting away the laundry basket's contents. Usually when the house is tense the boys made an effort to keep themselves from rocking the boat, but usually one of them, frequently Kiké, would get fed up and inadvertently make things worse.
Kiké turns to his younger brother, "You know why they call you to help with the household stuff, right?"
The seven-year-old shakes his head and Chuy iss about to stop him from speaking, but Kiké starts, "Because you're the baby."
Elena looks out the window and sees the two-story house in front of her; her heart is pounding in trepidation. This is the first time meeting these people and she isn't exactly too sure about what to expect, aside from chaos.
'Twenty-one people…that's a lot…'
The three step out of the truck and walk up to the front door, Lynn stops and takes a deep breath, before knocking on the door.
No one answers.
Lynn tries again, and again, no one answers.
Francisco notices the doorbell and pushes the button, but before Lynn could warn him a shock ran up his arm and he yells a bit, "What was that?!"
"Guess mom and dad still haven't fixed that doorbell," she says while giggling a bit.
"That's not funny," he tells her.
It is, but in the spirit of the holiday, Lynn agrees and stops laughing.
A muffled voice can be heard from inside telling the house that the group arrived.
Lily opens the door, "Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!" she says as she lets everyone in.
The three walk inside, and Elena and Francisco take in the sights and smells of the holidays. Usually, when the two celebrate alone, Thanksgiving is a much more simple affair, but with the house filled with the smell of cinnamon, turkey, and pumpkin; it felt more true to the holiday.
Lynn yells out to the house, "We're here!"
Soon the father and daughter are bombarded as they are greeted by all of the family members and somewhere in the mix Elena and Francisco started losing track of who was who, who they greeted, and how much time had passed since they entered the Loud residence.
After some of the younger family members disperse, with their parents following behind, Francisco and Elena take a seat on the couch; trying to regain some sort of composure after the ordeal they just went through.
"That was…something," he tells his daughter, who only responds with a nod. Despite having some sort of experience with their own family, it is never as joyful, close, and chaotic as the Louds are.
"There you are, we need your help in the dining room, Francisco," Lynn says, as she pulls him up from the couch.
"With what?" he asks.
"We need a judge," she says as she forces him off of the couch, "Can you believe that my dad thinks that he can take me down in a cooking competition? I mean, I know he's a pro chef, but competitions are where I shine," she brags.
Francisco sighs and takes a deep breath. He quickly turns to Elena, "You can go play with the kids if you want, you don't have to stay here watching the parade."
Elena nods, but stays put as Lynn drags Francisco, "You gotta see what I have in store for you guys," she yells towards the kitchen, "It's gonna take my dad down!"
"It never hurts to dream!" Lynn Sr. yells back at his daughter.
The colorful parade continues on the screen. She isn't much of a fan of watching parades, but it is better than going outside with the other kids. The sound of screams from the kids as they play and fight with one another could be heard from inside, and Elena isn't comfortable with that sort of roughhousing.
"Are you okay?" a voice asks from behind, "You look a bit frazzled."
Elena turns around and sees Lily, who moves to take a seat. The younger girl nods her head, "It was…just a lot to take in."
"I bet," Lily says before the two sit quietly in silence. "It's been a while since we've met people who haven't met all of us at once, so we sorta forgot what it's like."
Elena nods and stares at the tv. She glances over at Lily, who also looks bored. "Would you like me to change the channel?"
Lily shakes her head, "No, no…unless you want to."
Elena hands the remote to Lily, "It's no big deal. Besides, there's nothing good to watch anyway."
Lily nods in agreement, "Tell me about. It's usually either this or holiday specials or some football game." Lily turns to the tv and sees a cord from her game console stick out. She is tempted to pull out the game, but Mom made her promise that she couldn't; especially since all of the kids would try to come inside to play.
The two sit in awkward silence. Neither one knows what to say, other than pleasantries. The parade continues on the screen and both are just mindlessly watching the screen.
"So…" started Lily, "Do you want to go outside?"
Elena shakes her head, "Not really. It seems a little crazy outside and–" a crashing sound is heard from outside, followed by Lori's muffled yells at one of the kids, "and that's sort of why I'd rather stay indoors."
The blonde woman smiles, "Not a wild child, huh? So you are the more responsible type."
"I guess, my grandma thinks it's because I don't have any siblings, so I get both of my parents' attention."
"Aww does that get lonely?" Lily asks the girl.
Elena nods, "A little, but that's what school friends and cousins are for."
"I guess…it just sounds strange, since they usually leave at the end of the day instead of having someone always around."
Elena can't relate, but she was curious; she's wanted a sibling. A younger sibling, or two, would be nice. They could share memories together as adults, play together, even getting into silly arguments over nothing. Yes, it is romanticized, but Elena doesn't care. However, the girl isn't jealous of the Loud siblings. It's one thing to have a sibling, but growing up with ten other siblings has to be pretty challenging.
"True, but I guess I'm just used to it, I mean you're used to all of your siblings, right?"
Lily opens her mouth to say something, but she tries to think of how answer. The problem with being the youngest in such a large family means that she doesn't remember her experiences with everyone under one roof. Her earliest memory is from age five, and by that point her two oldest sisters were gone and in less than a year, the next three were gone.
"Not really, when I was growing up it was mostly me, the twins, Lisa, and uh…Lucy, so I hardly grew up with all of my siblings either."
"Does it get weird?"
"Kinda, I mean, I think they still see as the little girl they knew when they each left the house."
"What do you mean?"
Lily gets up from her seat, "C'mon I'll show you."
"I'm not a baby!" Francisco declares.
Chuy sighs. He hates when this happens – Kiké makes some snarky comment at Pancho, who throws a small tantrum because he's getting teased. While he was normally good at defending his baby brother, the fighting between the two youngest was becoming more annoying as time passes.
"You're right, I meant that you're the little girl mom always wanted," Kiké teases.
Francisco is about to push his older brother, before Chuy got between the brothers stops the youngest's attack. He turns to Kiké, "What the hell? Can't you leave him alone for one day without getting into a fight with him?"
"Oh c'mon, it's fun, and it's not like you don't remember how mom was hoping that the little baby would be a girl," he says while staring at Pancho.
Chuy stays quiet. He knows what Kiké was talking about; when their mom was pregnant with Francisco, she would always lead them through the baby section in stores and gush over the girl clothing and pink accessories that she hoped to place on her 'daughter', and then Pancho came along.
Kiké got in Chuy's face, "That's how I know I'm right," he says with a sly smile.
Francisco looks at his eldest brother, waiting to see if he would say that his other brother was wrong, but he didn't say a word.
Alicia walked in to see her sons putting away the laundry, "¿Ya mero terminan con la ropa? Me tengo que cambiar."
"Ya mero," responds Chuy.
Francisco grabs his clothes and asks his mom, "¿Donde vas?"
"Dice tu papá que vamos a ir a comer. Mientras estamos a fuera, quiero que te portes bien, y hagas lo que dice Chuy, ¿Entiendes?"
Francisco nods his head, and notices Kiké mouthing out the 'baby' to his brother. Francisco sticks out his tongue and Alicia quickly reprimands him, "Pancho, no seas grosero," she turns to Kiké, "y tu tambien, Enrique. Quiero que se porten bien. ¿Entienden?"
The boys nod their heads and together say, "Si."
"Bueno, salganse," she says as she kicks the boys out of her room.
Francisco didn't know why he got roped into being a taste tester, but he didn't have a choice as he sat in the middle of the kitchen. At the moment, he looks at the two Lynns, who are competing for nothing more than bragging rights in a cookie-making competition.
"So what kind of cookie should we make, Francisco?" asks the older chef.
He shrugs his shoulders; Francisco isn't too overly picky over cookies, and at least this will get them to finish their competition a little faster, "I don't know, Thanksgiving or a classic, take your pick."
It isn't much to go off of, but both Lynns took note of his suggestion and got started. Francisco watches the two and difference in their cooking styles couldn't be more obvious; Lynn is haphazardly tossing ingredients into her cookie dough, and her dad is carefully measuring out and making sure that he has the best ingredients for his cookies. Francisco sits there watching them occasionally bump into each other, or take silly little jabs at the other's cooking skills.
"You're going down, dad!"
"I'm sorry, who's the professional with his own restaurant? Me!"
"Restaurant, not bakery! Which means that I'm still in this!"
Lynn Sr. laughs, "Keep dreaming, honey."
Francisco watches the two playfully give the other a jab their baking abilities, but saw the smiles on both of their faces. When he was growing up, he always wished that his family life would have more like Lynn's, granted not the insane size, but more willing to spend time together.
Lynn Sr. turns around and asks, "How have you been, Francisco? I haven't seen you in so long, and Lynn Jr. barely told us anything about you and your daughter."
Francisco looks at Lynn, who is searching through the drawers, "I've been good, uh…" he isn't sure what to say, "I'm sorry, Lynn mentioned us dating before today?"
She turns around upon hearing her name, "Yeah, I told them a few weeks ago. I didn't want them to make Thanksgiving weird."
"Why didn't you tell me? I was nervous at the thought of what everyone would say and you already told them."
She shrugs her shoulders, "I thought I did. Besides, at least you didn't hear the screams."
"We thought she hung up on us from all the noise," he wraps his arm around his daughter, "But, maybe tell him next time – honesty is the best thing for any relationship."
Lynn casually mentions, "This coming from the guy who has the shiny new cowbell that he only keeps at work?"
He nervously clears his throat, "Well I better get those cookies in the oven!" Lynn Sr. loudly declares, before preparing the tray of cookies.
Lynn and Francisco laugh. The competitors placed their cookies in the oven and set the timer.
"How much longer?" asks an impatient Lynn, who turns on the oven light and stares at the raw cookies.
"Just a few minutes, be patient."
Francisco looks at his watch, "That's not exactly Lynn's strong suit, Mr. Loud."
The men chuckle. It was, and still is, true. To her, a minute is an eternity, especially when it comes to something as boring as waiting. Normally, if there was something to do, Lynn Sr. would send his daughter to do it to keep her from pacing around the kitchen, but he didn't want to set the table long before it was time to eat.
The timer goes off and they both pull their cookies out of the oven and placed the cookies on the cooling rack.
Lynn tapped her foot, "Well it's been long enough, time to eat," she said as she reached for one of her cookies.
Francisco checked his watch, "Lynn, it's only been two minutes."
"Seriously?! What the heck? Are you sure your watch isn't off?"
Francisco rolled his eyes, "I can even check my phone too if it'll make you feel better."
He pulled out his phone and she looked at the time; three minutes have barely passed, and she was ready to just get to the judging already.
"Just a few more minutes and when my turgooseon is out we can eat," Lynn Sr. said as he looked at the cookies, which were still cooling off on the rack.
"Do you both do this every Thanksgiving?" Francisco asked.
"No, but it is a fun way to liven things up in the kitchen," Lynn Sr. said. After tasting his daughter's leftovers from last year, he was inspired to revamp his cooking skills to match her creativity, despite Lynn not being as interested in the food as she was in the competition.
"I guess, but why am I the judge? Wouldn't I be biased towards Lynn?"
"Thank you," they both said, before playfully glaring at the other.
Francisco had a deadpan look on his face and smiled a bit at their antics. When the cookies cooled, Lynn took two of her's and sandwiched cream cheese and almonds between the two, "Behold! Pumpkin cookie sandwich!"
Francisco was hesitant to eat. Granted Lynn knows her way around a good sandwich, but watching her make desserts in a somewhat careless fashion made him made him fear the worst, but he decided to pull through for her sake.
"Wait! If you're doing something different than a normal cookie, so am I," Lynn Sr. declared, before grabbing some ingredients from the fridge and presenting Francisco with a small cookie parfait. "Behold my dessert, a chocolate chip and peanut butter parfait with dark chocolate syrup and pretzel crumble, bon appétit."
Francisco stared at the parfait, but ignored it in favor of Lynn's cookie sandwich.
'And Lynn continues her sandwich making magic…'
He stared at the cookie parfait. It looks delicious, but the idea of a chocolate chip cookie was beginning to hurt his head. He pulled out his medicine, "Can I get something to take this with?"
Lynn gave him a glass of water and a spoon, Francisco took water and swallowed the pill before taking the spoon and taking a bite of the parfait.
"It's good, but rich…"
"And Lynn's?" asked Lynn Sr.
"You could say that I'm being biased..."
Lynn cheered and began her victory dance, "Oh yeah! I win!" she stopped dancing and asked Francisco, "Wait, you didn't just give me the victory because I'm your girlfriend, right?" he shook his head, "Oh yeah! You gotta know your audience next time, dad."
Francisco walked over to the kitchen where Kiké was heating up some leftovers for dinner. He carried his school workbook in his hands and asked, "Have you seen Chuy?"
Kiké continued to stare at the microwave, "No, go check in his room. Now leave me alone," he said lightly pushing his brother away.
The microwave dinged and Kiké took his food; ignoring his younger brother who went to search for his eldest brother. Francisco knocked on Chuy's door, 'Chuy, I need help with my reading homework."
"Can't Kiké help you?"
"He's eating dinner."
Chuy sighed and let his youngest brother in. This is the part he dislikes most about being the oldest, the one in charge, the one that his brothers turn to when they need something. He doesn't mind helping his little brother, but when Kiké, who is perfectly capable of handling a second grader's schoolwork issues, can't help, Chuy gets annoyed that has to stop what he's doing to help.
The older brother invited Francisco into the room. He put his books away and placed his younger brother's workbook on the desk.
Chuy read the question to his brother, "Based on the story you read above, do you think that the story is fiction or non-fiction? Explain why."
While Francisco is reading the story out loud and trying to think of his answer, Chuy quickly skimmed through the story, and the boy finally answered, "Non-fiction."
Chuy shook his head, "No, Pancho. Non-fiction means that the story was based on real things that happen; crabs can't start restaurants."
"They can on tv."
Chuy smiled, "That's a cartoon. Now write in your answer."
Francisco wrote in his workbook and asked, "Can you help me with my math homework after this?"
He sighed, "Sure, but let me go talk to Kiké first."
The older brother walked over to the living room, where his brother was watching tv. Chuy took the remote and turned off the tv.
Kiké turned around, "Hey! I was watching that."
"And I was working on my project, now go help Pancho with his homework, so that I can finish."
"Hey, it's not my fault that I got my homework done early so that I wouldn't have to scramble the weekend before it's due. Now let me enjoy the fruits of my labor."
Chuy took a deep breath and through his teeth told his brother, "You're done with your homework, because I helped you with it, now help me by helping Pancho."
Kiké scoffed and took the remote from his brother, "Why? The spoiled brat can figure it out, I mean, c'mon, it's only second grade."
Chuy nodded, "Fine…" he turned to his room and called out, "Pancho! Kiké's gonna help you with your homework."
Pancho stepped out of his brother's room, "No! I don't want him to help me, he's mean to me!"
"Oh suck it up, mocoso. You act like this is new to you."
"Leave him alone and go help him, you act like it's going to kill you," Chuy complained as he pointed his brother towards the youngest.
Francisco, seeing Kiké dragging his feet towards him, grabbed his workbook off of the desk and ran to his room; locking the door and taking his chances on working alone.
Kiké turned around, "See! He doesn't want my help; now let me finish my dinner."
"I try not to worry about things like that when it comes to my family, but it's kinda hard when everyone knows me as the baby sister," Lily said to the girl, as they walked upstairs, "And then when you have such large age gaps I feel like my oldest siblings look at me like I'm my nieces and nephews."
Elena gave Lily a confused look, "They do that?"
"Not on purpose, but sometimes I think they still look at me like a little kid, especially since I'm more interested in stuff like art, video games, and am good with the kids," Lily opened the door to her room and showed the girl her bedroom filled with gaming consoles and art supplies.
"Wow…" Elena isn't overly fond of video games, but her eyes began to wander towards the pencils, paints, and hand-drawn posters that Lily had sprawled around her room.
"Want to play a game?"
Elena shook her head, "No, did you draw these?" she asked as she pointed at the posters.
"Yeah, I've been thinking of some ideas for a video game, although I don't have much coding experience, but I'll probably use the characters in my…drawing book…where did I put it?" Lily searched her room for a said book, which she found under her pillow, "It's for an app, that I've been wanting to make."
Elena looked at the characters; the page is filled with random drawings of animals and little adventurers in a variety of different art styles. The girl is impressed at the blonde's versatility, and she silently wished that she could draw.
"You're a really good artist. Have you started making the app?"
"Sort of, but coding a game on your own is its own hell."
Lily turned the pages and Elena looked at the various drawings that Lily has done ranging from magical, to cute, to realistic.
"I started this book for fun, but soon it became cathartic."
"What do you mean?"
"I felt a little lonely in my teenage years, I had my parents, and some sisters, but sometimes I hear them say something that happened when I was really little, and I remember that I didn't grow up with them in the house. They went off to live their own lives, and I was in an increasingly emptier house, but at least I had Lisa and the twins."
"You forgot me," Lucy said; startling the two. "Here," she handed Lily and Elena a cookie, "Lynn told me to give it to you since dinner is still going to be a while."
"Did she tell you to give us a heart attack too?" the younger Loud said in a sarcastic tone.
Rather than respond, Lucy just handed Elena her cookie. Lucy stopped and stared at Elena through her bangs, but remained quiet, before smiling, "I sense something in you…"
"What?"
Lucy shook her head, "Never mind, I'm probably just seeing things." She turned to Lily and walked away without saying a thing.
"Rude!" Lily loudly said to her older sister.
"Does she always creep up on everyone?" asked the girl.
Lily nodded, her heart still pounding from the scare. She took a bite out of the cookie, "Dad went with pumpkin this time."
Lily noticed the girl staring at her drawings, "Lynn was right, you are the artsy type," she mentioned.
Elena's eyes lit up, "Yeah, I just started taking piano lessons, but I have an interest in art too."
"The museum kind? Cause the way she talked, I assumed that I wasn't going to win you over with cartoony doodles."
"She talked about us?"
"Lynn mentioned a few things, not that we wouldn't stop asking her."
When Lynn brought up the relationship to the siblings, the group chat exploded with questions; most of which Lynn ignored, but the siblings did get some basic information from her.
"I know that we asked her how long they dated, and she mentions how your dad didn't want to tell anyone," Lily casually mentioned. She noticed the girl's looking away from her and asked, "Are you okay?"
"It's nothing," Elena tried to convince the woman.
"You can tell me, I promise not to tell."
Based on her mentioning that the siblings kept asking about details in Lynn's relationship, Elena wasn't too sure if she should, but she is willing to give Lily at least an opportunity.
"Promise?"
Lily nodded.
"I'm just annoyed at him…" she said quietly.
Lily looked at her with sympathy in her eyes, "Why?"
"I'm upset that he doesn't tell me anything. I just found out less than a month ago, but he wouldn't tell me, even though I've asked and even though I've seen my mom date, but he assumed that I would throw a tantrum for something small," she took a deep breath, "Am I overreacting?"
Lily stared at the girl. She didn't know what was going on through her head, but regardless, she could sense the tension, "I don't think so…I mean, if he doesn't tell you anything, he can't be surprised that you'll get upset, although now that I think about it…"
The way Elena asked and the way Lily thought about it would mean that the girl got upset and that Francisco was right, but she isn't going to fault the girl for being upset at wanting to know a little about her own father's life. Even in the sibling group chat, Lynn was also secretive and mentioned keeping the relationship secret for over a year per his request.
"I guess I should apologize for being a brat."
"Eventually…that would be a good idea, but maybe sit down and talk to him…face-to-face?"
Luna's voice from downstairs grabbed everyone's attention, "Dinner's ready!"
Francisco rested his head on the armrest of the couch as he faced the couch. He looked over at Kiké and asked, "Why do we have to be quiet?"
"Because Chuy has to finish his project, and he says that you're annoying," Kiké joked.
Francisco knows that that part isn't true, but decided to not call his brother out on it, for Chuy's sake. He knew that as soon as he began to get on Kiké's nerves, hell can begin to break loose, and it isn't worth it for a little comment.
The silence is beginning to eat at both brothers. For days the three have kept quiet, and now they had to continue all while flipping through channels trying to find something interesting to get their minds off of the boredom.
Out of nowhere, Kiké started, "This silence is getting annoying."
Francisco nodded, "Why were mom and dad fighting?"
Kiké shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, probably the usual – family, money, or always being stuck in the house. If I were you, I'd start hanging out with friends at their houses."
"Why?"
"For one, I get sick of seeing your face," Kiké joked, "but just get out of the damn house when this happens. I mean c'mon, do you really like sitting in your room avoiding mom's war path or dad's extra chores?"
Francisco shook his head.
"Exactly! At least have an excuse or something."
"What about bringing a friend over?"
Kiké stared at his brother, "Do you ever wonder why we don't bring anyone over? Better yet, have you ever heard mom and dad mentioning family members?"
Francisco nodded, "A little."
"I bet you've heard a lot of bad things, right?"
"Yeah…"
"That's sort of why. Trust me, Pancho. People are easy to read once you know them, and before you know it, you'll know what they'll say and do before you even do a thing or ask for anything; it makes life so much easier."
Francisco responded and Kiké simultaneously said, "Yeah right."
"See!" Kiké responded, "I'm right, and I bet you can do it too if you think about everything you know about us."
"So what if you don't know someone?" asked the younger brother.
"Easy, do what mom says – assume the worst in people."
It isn't the best advice to give an elementary schooler, but better that the boy learns the lesson now than waiting for his parents to talk about his friends behind his back or to his face.
Chuy walked in, and saw his two brothers sitting down quietly watching tv, "I'm done with my project."
Neither one did anything different.
Chuy took a seat next to Pancho, "What's wrong with you two?"
In a snarky tone, Kiké responded, "Nothing, we're being quiet like you wanted."
Pancho shook his head and realized that there may be some truth to his brother's words. Chuy usually asks if anything is wrong with his brothers, and Kiké makes some remark that makes everyone think that he's annoyed.
The door opened and both Juan and Alicia walked through the door.
Chuy looked over at his parents, and asked, "¿Dónde fueron?"
Their mom passed by, and before she could respond Kiké and Pancho mouthed, 'a Manny's.'
The two brothers noticed each other and Kiké gave a small smile. Their dad was not very creative with their date nights and it always meant that the couple would go to the same place nearly every time.
"Les trajimos arroz," Juan said as he set down a to-go container of fried rice on the kitchen table.
The three quickly ran towards the container and began to eat the food, without saying a thing; like always.
Lori is pouring champagne into the flutes, and she notices how quiet her children are being. All afternoon, she could hear her two oldest, but now they're quiet, and she knows that the kids are up to something when they're both quiet.
"Lynn!" she calls into the kitchen, "Can you finish pouring the champagne? I think I hear Isabella and Alfredo are up to something," Lori says as she hands the bottle to her younger sister.
"Wait! Hold on!"
"The non-alcoholic one for Lily, Lisa, and Francisco are in the kitchen," Lori quickly tells her, before going off to search for her children.
Lynn looks at the table which is mostly set; place cards on every plate, the good plates and silverware set, and the beautiful centerpiece that Leni worked on all in place. Lynn poured the champagne into the flutes and begins to place them onto a carrying tray. The family usually didn't make a habit of drinking alcohol with meals, but special occasions did mean that they would partake of one drink.
"I think I've got a little more room," she says to herself after placing the flutes. She places the last flute on the tray and slowly walks them all to the table.
"LJ! LJ!" the sound of her father almost made Lynn lose balance, "Are you almost done? I'm going to need your help getting to the food to the table," the Loud patriarch says, trying to get Lynn's attention.
"Almost," she says taking the bottles from the counter. "Just give me a minute."
"And don't forget that the juice boxes for the kids are in the fridge."
Lynn places the drinks and went to the kitchen to help her dad bring in the food. The family goes to the dining room and each begins to help to place the food to begin their meal.
Lily enters the dining room and saw the champagne by each of the seats, "Ooh champagne, do I finally get a chance to taste the real thing?"
Lisa passes by behind her with a robotic table with a screen tuned to Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, "Younger sister, I cannot fathom what reason you have to want to partake of an alcoholic beverage."
Lily shrugs her shoulders, "I'm just curious."
"Then continue to be curious," Lori says from behind. "You don't drink until you're twenty-one."
Lily whispers to Lisa, "Says the one who crossed the border on her nineteenth birthday."
The rest of the family take their seats and Lynn Sr. raises his glass, "I just want to thank say how happy I am to have nearly everyone here. Son, I think I speak for all of us, when I say congratulations on the birth of your daughter."
"Thanks dad, sorry we couldn't be there," Lincoln says from the computer.
With a recent birth, neither one wanted to make a three hour trip to go to a crowded house, so the new parents opted to stay home and see the Louds via screen.
Lynn Sr. begins to tear up, "Well, even though I don't have all of my children physically here," he tries to pull himself together, "I'm just happy to know that you're all here, especially since I have some exciting news–"
Rita interrupts him, "Honey, I thought that you were going to mention that later?"
"Oh, but I have all my children here and I think that maybe they'll have something to say about a joining me in the kitchen?"
The siblings all look at each other. Their dad has offered all of his children jobs at his restaurant, but excluding summer jobs as kids and Lori's occasional bookkeeping, none of them have expressed any actual interest of stepping into a professional kitchen as cooks.
The Louds begin to murmur between themselves, but none of them outright say yes to their father's offer.
Alfredo, who has some cranberry sauce around his mouth, speaks up from the kid's table, "Grandpa, do we get to take home leftovers?"
The other grandchildren begin to speak up about their interest of joining grandpa in the kitchen; the comments clearly showing that the children are taking their grandfather's words literally.
"If you work for me, sure!"
The children stop and Luan's twins speak up, "No, thank you."
The adults laugh, and everyone begins to mention everything that they are thankful for before the toasted as they took a sip from their glasses and began to indulge on the feast presented on the table.
With the Louds busy playing or cleaning, Francisco pulls Elena to the living room. After seeing the closeness between Lynn and her father, and even all of the other Louds, who are happily enjoying the holiday, Francisco decides to set her aside and talk about the elephant in the room.
Before he begins to talk, Elena started, "Dad, I'm–"
"I'm sorry," he apologizes. "I should have at least been more open with you," he sighs, "This is harder than I thought, you know my family, we never apologized for anything, but that's not the point…um…I know that you've mentioned your mom dating, and I know that you've never heard a thing about that part of my life, not that there's much to it, but," he takes a deep breath and stares out the window looking at the children playing with their grandfather, "I definitely have regrets and there are definitely things–thoughts, that I wish I could take back," his throat feels as if it is closing on him.
Elena notices anxiety in his eyes, "Do you want me to get you some water?"
"No, I think that I was afraid of the relationship not working, I mean it was easier when I was in school, but at some point life gets much harder and things begin to get tougher, anyway I'm rambling," he runs his fingers through his hair, "I didn't want you to get hurt if things didn't work out. I know that it's a silly excuse, especially when I could have just mentioned that I was seeing someone, but sometimes bad habits are really tough to break."
"What bad habit?"
"Doing things behind people's backs; it's a nasty habit you develop when you think you know what people will do and you're afraid of their reactions," he sighs, "and that wasn't fair to you. You didn't give me any reason to believe that you would react negatively or anything just because I started dating Lynn, and I should have at least had faith that you could handle this, especially since you're getting older."
"Well I was bothered, mostly from the secret, but I think you know that…and thanks for telling me why…" She pauses. She wants to ask what's going on in his mind. He clearly seems bothered by something, but she doesn't think that he'll tell her why.
"I don't…I don't expect you forgive me right off the bat, but I'll try to be more honest with you in the future."
She nods, and decides not to push him at the moment. The anxious look in his eyes made her think that he's probably drained himself emotionally, and asking the questions that she's had on her mind for long is probably not going to help.
Elena pulls him into a hug, which he returns and she suggests, "Do you think that it would be rude to ask for some more cookies?"
Francisco clears his throat, "I'm sure that the Louds won't mind if we ask for another cookie."
The two walk to the kitchen, and on the way, Francisco notices Lynn cleaning underneath the table on her hands and knees, "What are you doing?"
She continues to scrub the floor, "Just trying to get a stain out."
