Lily and Lisa walk through the doors of their father's restaurant, with the latter transporting a wagon with milk crates filled with cans, "Salutations, sisters," she greets them as she takes her seat.

"Hello…" they say, curious about the milk crate that she is carrying. None of them say anything; they know that as soon as they ask a question to Lisa about a potential experiment, she'll make an attempt to involve them.

After one second, Lynn spoke up, "Alright, I can't take it anymore, Lis, what's in the milk crate?"

"Really, Lynn? You couldn't have waited until after I received my coffee?"

"Nope," Lynn says as she shakes her head.

Lisa sighs, "If you must know," she pulls out a can from the milk crate, "Do you recall about eighteen months ago when I mentioned that I was working on a new formula to combat insomnia?"

"You mean coffee?" Lily jokes.

Lisa rolls her eyes, "No, I mean this," she pulls out a can, "Behold! A can of Lisa Loud's Insomnia-Prevention Energy Boost Brew, patent pending."

"You couldn't have come up with a less convoluted name?" Lucy asks.

"Well, excuse me, I was too busy creating this revolutionary beverage to come up with a more marketable name," Lisa retorts. "Regardless, I brought these canned beverages with me today, so that I may ask you, my dear sisters, to try my concoction and give me your honest opinion about it."

The three sisters have a worried look on their faces. Historically, being a guinea pig for one of Lisa's experiments is just asking for trouble, and with a name like Energy Boost Brew, they could only imagine what is in store for them.

"I can sense some trepidation coming from all of you. Understandable, considering my history of asking you–"

Lily scoffs, "Asking? I highly doubt that any of us ever consented to being a human guinea pig for you."

"Anyway," Lisa continues. "You will not be the first testers of this product."

Lucy asks, "So you've already tried it?"

"No," Lisa responds, "I've have some local college students be the first taste testers, however I'm hoping to expand the market and want to see how my beverage will fare with non-college students."

"Were there any side effects reported?" asks Lily, who is not entirely convinced.

"Anything that we ingest has a risk of a side effect, Lana and Lola can't eat rhubarb, our late grandfather was not allowed to consume high quantities of sodium, so what doesn't have a risk?"

"Water?" Lynn comments.

"Water poisoning at high levels," Lisa remarks, "So what do you say? Would you be interested?"

The sisters shake their heads; Lisa avoided Lily's question and it concerned the three sisters.

"If I recall Lily, you've wanted to code a new video game and Lucy, you mention being exhausted from wedding preparations, am I correct? You both have big projects and I'm sure that you could both benefit from having a few extra hours in the day."

Lynn glares at Lisa, while both named sisters turn away; Lisa is right, they are procrastinating, but that doesn't mean that they were going to jump on board and try some crazy drink from Lisa's lab.

"What? You don't think that I have anything important going on?" asked Lynn.

"Do you? You haven't mentioned anything for quite some time."

"Is that really the point? You couldn't have made something up?"

"Why does it matter?" Lisa retorts, "I was just giving the first examples that popped to mind, there's no reason that you anger yourself over a comment."

Lynn takes the can, "So what's in this stuff anyway?"

"Caffeine, vitamins, sugars, ginseng, ubiquinone," the sisters stared at her, "It's found in other energy drinks. Anyway, there's nothing that illegal in the can for persons under twenty-one years of age."

Lynn puts the can back on the table, "No thanks." The other sisters agreed.

"How about if I agree to pay all three of you five hundred dollars for your troubles, would that tempt you a little?"

Lucy shakes her head. Of course, a few hundred dollars don't mean much to her, but Lily and Lynn could use that money; the holidays just passed, but credit card bills still continue long after the cheer of Christmas and New Years'.

"No?" asks Lisa, "Then I guess there's no point," she says as she puts the can back into the milk crate.

"Wait!" Lily bites down on her lip, she doesn't want to participate, but she doesn't see the harm in just one can, "Can I at least take the can home?"

Lisa nods, "You may. Keep in mind that so long as you can produce proof that you consumed the beverage, I will still compensate you for the amount ingested."

"Are you serious, Lily? You actually want to participate in this experiment?" asks a shocked Lynn.

"Maybe…I don't know."

Lisa hands her younger sister a can, which only says Energy Brew A.

"You really couldn't come up with a good name could you, Lis?"

Lisa shrugs her shoulders, "I'll leave that to the marketing team." Lisa turns to her older sisters, "So what about you two, are you interested?"

They aren't, and they planned on standing firmly on that.

"Well, if you change your mind," Lisa hands each a labeled can, "There are three different types. I only ask that you take the drinks home, but you are not under any obligation to consume. Is that understood?"

Lucy looks at Lisa, "How can you be sure that we won't just pour them down the drain and collect the money?"

Before Lisa can answer, Lynn casually states, "She probably has cameras in both of our places," she turns to Lily, "And she's probably has more footage of you than mom and dad do."

"Actually, I do not possess cameras in either of your homes," Lisa states, "however, I will be providing you with an access code for a video journal and I will request that you consume the beverage in front of the webcam, so that I can ensure that you are not trying to swindle money out of my accounts," she turns to Lynn, "Understand?"

Lynn rolls her eyes, "Yeah, I understand."

Lisa turns back to the other sisters, "Hopefully you can complete the projects that both of you seem to neglect on a constant basis."

Lynn scowls at Lisa after hearing that remark again. She stares at her younger sister and makes sure that she finds a way to prove that she isn't just wasting her life.

Lisa smiles, 'At least I can always count on Lynn consuming it.'


Lynn stares up the ceiling, the shapes of she could see on the textured panels. When she stops to look at it long enough, she can see a game playing in her mind; she didn't know the players, or the team colors, or anything, but she didn't care so long as the game continues to excite her.

"Lynn," Megan calls out, but she can see that her roommate is still looking at the ceiling. "Lynn!" she calls louder, but she still can't beat a ceiling for Lynn's attention.

Megan grabs a piece of paper and folds it into a paper airplane and tosses it towards her roommate, but misses. The sound of the paper plane crashing catches Lynn's attention and she looks down at the crashed plane.

"Really? A paper plane works, but I couldn't get you to look down?"

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "What's up?"

"Is there a reason that all you want to do is stare at the ceiling–"

"There was a good game up there," Lynn says in her defense.

Megan looks up but just sees the textured ceiling panel. She tries to imagine what her roommate was seeing up there, but she reasoned that Lynn is just trying to avoid something. All last year, she noticed that whenever something important was due or about to happen, Lynn would search for any reason to not do it.

"What are you avoiding?"

Lynn groans, "Nothing."

Megan didn't buy it, "I know you. What is it?"

Lynn sighs, "I've got a test to study for and I don't want to do it."

It was always a hassle to get her to study or do schoolwork last semester, and only Cesar seemed to have had the power to get her to sit still long enough to study, but now he's gone and Lynn is on her own. As she sees the jock's eyes wandering towards the window, it makes her wonder why Lynn chose to continue schooling if she has no interest in much aside from sports.

"Lynn…Lynn!" Megan calls out to her roommate, who once again has her eyes wandering away from the class slides. "What are you looking at?"

Lynn stays quiet as she closes her laptop, "Nothing."

Megan shakes her head, "I swear how you studied last year is beyond me." She quickly realized her words and saw the look on Lynn's face, "Sorry…"

"It's fine. I'm over it," Lynn assures, "I had all summer, and besides I have other things to worry about than Cesar, who's off studying in New York."

"Okay…well do you want some help studying?" Megan offers.

Lynn nods her head. She didn't like admitting last semester that she needed help, but it worked out. She began to remember how even as a child her parents had to help her a lot with schoolwork, as well as teachers, friends, and even her siblings; which made her question how often she would have to use the school's tutoring services to get through classes.

"Lynn," Megan calls out, "I can't help you if you don't look down at your own slides and know what you're supposed to be learning."


Lynn begins stretching for her run. She was bothered by Lisa's words at the restaurant on Saturday, but despite telling herself that she should get over it, the words continue to bounce in her head. Running isn't anything out of the ordinary for her, and it definitely isn't a major project like a wedding or an app, but she has wanted to get some things done, especially after wasting away her twenties, "Don't have anything going? I'll show you who doesn't have anything going on. This week is going to be chock full of things to do!"

This is her opportunity to actually do something worthwhile. It's been so long since she's done anything worth mentioning to anyone and what does she have to show for it? Well, there's Francisco, but that's it!

She looks at the can and puts it back in the fridge, "Alright! Time to go," she tells herself. Lynn picks up her phone and begins playing an Italian lesson that she downloaded.

As she runs down the street, Lynn focused on the lesson playing through her headphones and her destination.

'I am an athlete. I do not quit. I am going to be a freaking success!'

The sound of an ambulance grabs her attention and she stops listening to the lesson as her eyes follow the flashing lights and siren. She checks on her phone and notices that short amount of time that has passed since she has started. She's miles from her destination, but she's going to make it like always.

As she arrives on the shores of the lake, she checks her watch, "Yes! Eight miles and– wait, Italian! Otto…miles! In your face, Lisa! Wait a minute…Lisa doesn't care about stuff like this. Wait! What do I care what Lisa thinks? So long as I'm happy that's all that matters…"

She takes a seat on a bench as watches as the water splashing on the shore. She pauses the lesson and reflects on her small list of tasks; at best it's just a to-do list, "Project…project…I thought that I would be done with them when I left school, but nope."

This is where she wishes that she had more direction in her life; instead, she's sitting on a bench in the middle of a workday wondering what she could do with herself. Lynn thinks about her own personal interests, but unless the Tigers suddenly have an opening for a softball player that hasn't been playing against others of her caliber, there isn't much there.

"Dang…what else do I like? I mean, I like sports, but what else? Have I really gotten to the point where my day is nothing more than just waking up and doing the same old thing until I fall asleep?!" she asks herself out loud. "Not even a day, and I'm already finding this to be a chore. I mean, I already knocked out the first thing. Learn Italian? I do that once a week. Cook a romantic meal? I have a gist on that, plus I'd need to go on a date for that to work. Fix the hole in my wall? Eventually…"

Lynn taps her fingers on the lap and wonders what to do before deciding to continue her run. As she arrives on her front door, she asks herself, "Maybe mom and dad have something that could help me out with this self-improvement crud."

Lynn drives to her childhood home and knocks on the front door, where she is greeted by her mother, "Hey mom."

"Lynn," Rita says as she pulls her daughter into a hug, "what brings you by?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "I was trying to think of something to do, you know, besides sports and I was hoping that maybe I could find something around here."

"Well you father is out of the house, and I'm about to go meet with my publisher, but you're free to search the house."

"Neat. Is Lily around? I wondering if she wants to take a break and help me out for a bit."

Rita pauses for a bit. Since yesterday, Lily has been acting differently and it concerned both parents, but Lisa stated that she has maintained an eye on her younger sister's well-being, "Well, she's upstairs if you want to go see her."

"Thanks, mom," Lynn says as she runs upstairs to Lily's room.

Lynn opens the door and is greeted with darkness and a pile of Moon Mist soda bottles by the door. Lily is muttering to herself as she quickly taps her foot, staring at a variety of ideas on her board.

The older sister walks up to her younger sister and looks at the same characters that seem to have Lily's attention.

Lily turns around and sees her sister, "Lynn! What are you doing here?"

Lynn looks over at Lily and pulls out a chip from her hair, "Just coming to check on you…what's up with you?" She notices the frazzled look in Lily's eyes, "You look like you haven't slept at all."

"I haven't…every time I try to sleep a new idea pops in my head, and I can't just sleep and risk losing it," the younger sister turns to the wall of drawings and ideas. "Do you know what it's like to feel like your brain is arguing with itself?" She holds onto Lynn's shoulders, "Like no matter how much you want to do something it just isn't working out?!"

Lynn chuckled, "Yeah, all the time, but eventually you get really into something and you sort of ignore things."

"Really? Because the thing I'm arguing with my brain is driving me nuts," she grabs Lynn and leads her to her idea board, "I'm not sure if I should go with something like one of those connecting games with a storyline or something along the line of an MMORPG? If I do the connecting game it'll be easier, but those are a dime a dozen and very, very uninspiring. Although, I could just do an easier adventure game, but then I would need a team of people and I can't afford to hire people and Lisa won't help me."

"Is she busy with another project?"

"Yes! I mean a video game should be child's play to her although maybe one of her little robots in her bunker could help too."

"They can code?"

"I don't know, maybe? I feel like Tentacle could…wait, I think there was a living toaster down there, are you hungry?"

"I could eat," Lynn agrees.

The sisters turn towards the door, and Lynn catches sight of an unfinished bird puppet, "Since when have you been into these?" she asks as she grabbed the toy.

Lily turns around and sees the puppet in Lynn's hand, "That's a backup in case I give up on making the app and decided to be a puppeteer. What do you think about animation?"

"Isn't that harder than an app?"

"I don't know! I've never actually done it. How about stop motion is that easy enough?"

"Probably, but that sounds really slow and annoying."

Lily nods, "You're right." She walks back to the board, "Can you help me pick a set of characters?"

"Do you have darts?"

Lily shakes her head, and Lynn looks at the characters on the board; her eyes are drawn to the fiery princess, but at the same time her she would glance over at the three little ducks; the sound of a fly grabs both sisters' attention and the two stare at it as it flies around the room.

Lily grabs her book of drawings and tosses it at the fly and some of the drawings began to fall; leaving only the princess on the board, "Is that a sign?"

"I think so…"

"Let's go with it!"

The younger sister taps her fingers on the computer, but after less than a minute, she groans as she still had no idea what she is going to do the princess, "What do I do with you?!" she yells at the photo.

"Dang Lily, calm down," suggests Lynn.

Lily turns around and begins to point her finger at Lynn, "Don't tell me to calm down! I took a gap year for this, and still have nothing! Do you know how embarrassing it'll be to tell mom and dad that I wasted a bunch of time over nothing?!" Lily takes a deep breath and turns back to her computer, silently telling herself, "Look who I'm talking to, the woman who's only useful contribution is opening jars and sports."

Lynn, who is looking at the drawing board, mentions, "What about an electric swamp?"

"What?" Lily asks, surprised that Lynn didn't seem fazed by the yelling or insult.

"For the game. Maybe one of those endless running ones?"

"I guess, but I was hoping for something better, not just a simple game," Lily whines.

"Yeah, well sometimes life sucks like that and you have to take what you get. It's not the best, but have some options with that first stepping stone, the last thing you want is to be wandering around mad that you ruined your opportunities."

Lily smiles, "Thanks, and sorry about what I said."

"What did you say?"

Lily shakes her head, "Never mind, let's just get the story planned. I can only imagine what pops out of your brain."

"Oh yeah, because I'm the creative one," Lynn says sarcastically.

Hours later, the sound of knocking interrupts the two. Lily opens the door and is greeted by her parents, who don't appear to be pleased with their two daughters.

Rita asks, "Do you two have any idea what time it is?" Both sisters shrugged their shoulders, "It's three in the morning, you two have been cooped up doing who know what for nearly fifteen hours."

"Has it really been that long?" Lily asks, as she began to notice the lack of light from the window. "Wow, it has been."

The parents sigh. Ever since yesterday, Lily has been running around ragged, but wired up like a rabbit; however, with Lynn around, it seems as if both rubbed off on each other and have been stomping, screaming, and making excessive noise, much to the chagrin of the other house inhabitants.

"Lynn, you can spend the night, but maybe it's best that you don't spend too much time together for the time being," their mother says. "And Lily, I want you to clean up you room in the morning."

"Aww," they both complain like young children.


Lynn takes her seat in the classroom. It's test day, and she's ready to knock it out of the park and do well. However, if she's being honest with herself, she knows that she won't ace it, but at least getting a decent grade that she could bounce back from down the road is more attainable.

The professor walks into the auditorium with a large box of tests and a group of teaching assistants, who are ready to hand the out the exam.

"Everyone, please clear your desks except for a pencil," He grabs a test and shows the class, "This test has fifty questions and you will have the whole class period to complete it. After you complete the test, you will be required to show either me or one of the T.A.'s your Mcard so that you can turn in your exam."

Lynn quickly pulls out the contents of her pocket as she searches for her school ID and sighs in relief when she spots the card.

"The T.A.'s and I will be walking around to make sure that no one is cheating and to answer any questions that you may have about the test. I wish you all good luck, and you may begin your test as soon as you receive one."

The teaching assistants grab a large stack of tests and begin to hand them out to the students.

Lynn takes her test and looks at the first question, and sighs in relief, happy that she knew the answer.

'Easy! I got this!' she thinks to herself.

As Lynn reads the second question, the sound of the vents turning off distract her; she stares up at the ceiling before briefly glancing down and seeing the students taking their tests. She grabs her pencil and looks down at the second question again; it's much longer to read and partway through the first sentence, Lynn stops reading and moves onto the third question.

'Just one question,' she thinks, 'No big deal if I skip one, just come back to it. Heck, for all I know there's a hint down the road.'

She continues using this method for a few more questions, but the sounds of coughs, sneezes, and paper shuffling keeps taking her focus from the questions in front of her. She looks at her classmates and wonders how they are able to ignore all the noises around.

A T.A. whispers at Lynn, "Eyes on your own paper."

She nods and looks down on the paper, 'Why do tests always have to be in black and white?' she wonders as skipped another long paragraph of reading.

Lynn continues her method until she answers the last question, she goes through the whole test and counts how many questions she was able to answer on her own, 'Twenty?! What the hell?'

She looks up at the clock in the front of the classroom; those twenty questions lost Lynn over half of her test time, 'Four answer choices…I can probably get another eight if I just guess or something and that should be enough to get me a fifty, and then I'll just have to study harder for the next test.'

The professor writes on the board, '40 minutes remain' and Lynn begins to kick it into high gear to finish the test.

Students are beginning to leave the classroom and every time the door opened, her eyes wandered towards the door, before snapping back down on her test.

'Look at that,' she thinks as she looks down on a question, 'all those words and just to ask a simple question. I'll be fine! Just a few more correct answers and I'll be golden.'


Lucy tapped her pencil on the desk. There was so much to plan for the wedding, but none of it could start until she and Rocky decided on a date. She couldn't decide on decorations, send out invitations, or anything.

"A summer wedding is out," she told herself. "Winter's too cold, and spring is too cheery," she shuddered.

Well, at least she had a season. "Maybe October…or is that too cliché?"

"Too cliché or just the right time to get great decorations?" asked Rocky, as he gave her a kiss.

"Trying to start planning the wedding," she said before pulling him into another kiss.

The sound of the door opening startles the two and they look at the front door, where Lynn is standing after letting herself in.

"I hope you don't mind, but I figured that Lucy might want some help," Lynn said, offering her services to her younger sister.

Lucy isn't sure what would possess Lynn to want to help with a wedding, but she's willing to accept her older sister's help; who knows, maybe she has some good ideas. Rocky gives Lucy one last kiss before heading out the door. The sisters watch him leave and Lynn turns around to Lucy, who vanished from her seat. The sound of a can opening startles the older sister and she hears her sister in the kitchen, likely talking into Lisa's video diary.

Lynn walks in, but doesn't see her, "What the heck? Where are you, Luce?"

"Right behind you," Lucy says, startling her older sister.

Lynn jumps up in surprise, "You have got to stop doing that."

Lucy shrugs her shoulders, "Call it payback for startling us just now." She takes a seat at the dining table and opens up her laptop, "Do you really want to help me plan my wedding?"

"Not really, but mom and dad said that I can't go back to hang with Lily for a while, and Lisa's mean in a blunt sort of way, so I figure you're my best option."

"You have a car, you can visit Lola and relive your college memories," Lucy suggested.

Lynn shook her head, "No way. All she'll be doing is studying or hanging out with her sorority sisters, you'll be more fun than her," she declared as she took a seat across from Lucy. "Besides, this is huge, you're gonna want some help."

Lucy was taken aback; she didn't assume that Lynn would be the type to want to help with such a thing, but if she's willing offer, Lucy is willing to bounce ideas off of her sister.

"We haven't decided on a date yet–"

"Seriously? Haven't you guys been engaged for a while now?"

Lucy stares at her sister, "I still hadn't sold my latest book at the time and he is still in medical school–"

"Then he goes off to live in the hospital, right?"

"His residency," Lucy corrected.

"Then why did you guys get engaged and get a house? Won't he be busy or moving to that resident stuff?"

Lucy sighed, "Lynn, do you actually want to help, or are you just going to ask a bunch of questions about my fiancée's career?"

Lynn stays quiet and rests her head on the table. Lucy begins to type away on her laptop, and notices the bored look on her sister's face as she stares at the lines on the table.

"If he moves, then I'm staying here, and it'll be a long-distance relationship until he completes his residency, then he'll apply for jobs in the area. Do you think that you can find a florist that can make black roses?"

"Probably, although knowing Lisa she'll volunteer to make her own, remember the snapdragons she made once?"

Lucy let out a subtle laugh as she remembered her younger sister's attempt at botany, which literally ended with tiny little flames engulfing the garden.

"What about aster flowers?" Lynn suggested.

"What?"

"They're a symbol of love according to this website…but also daintiness," she scoffed, "Nah, you aren't Lola. Maybe a…canthus, that one means fine art and artifact, you like artifacts!"

Lucy looked over Lynn's shoulder and saw the word, "That's artifice, not artifact," she corrected.

Lynn searched online for the definition, "Found the definition! It means clever or artful skill; that describes you. And it also means an artful stratagem. What's stratagem mean?" Lucy is about to speak up, when Lynn interrupts her, "An artifice or trick in war for deceiving and outwitting the enemy; that sounds more like–"

"Lynn," Lucy calls, "Let's take it back to flowers."

"What about the venue?"

"We're getting married in the backyard. It's quiet and we have enough room for everyone."

"Wait, did you guys pick a date? If not then this whole thing is pointless!"

Lucy took a deep breath and stares at her screen. Hearing her sister took her back to her childhood years where she struggled to get a word in or struggled to stay on track without eventually jumping to another topic. Lucy knows that her sister means well, but she can't get any work done if she keeps changing the focal point.

'Sometimes I wish that she could go back to being an athlete so that she can obsess over that.'

The younger sister looks up and notices that Lynn has disappeared, "Lynn?"

"I'm in the kitchen!"

Lucy walks in and sees her sister taking out Lisa's can from the trash, "You actually took this stuff? I thought that you didn't care about the money."

"It never hurts, and it can help pay for something."

"I guess…you know what I just thought of?"

"No, Lynn, what?"

"Would you want your bats to deliver the rings? Can they be trained to do that or would it be weird because it'll be a daytime ceremony? I guess you can do it at night, but then the after party and leaving for your honeymoon. Oh! Have you thought about where you would want to go?"

"Lynn, can you go? Now," she demanded, fed up with her sister's energy.

"Jeez, you too? And here I thought that we were sisters," Lynn said, feigning hurt.

"We are, but maybe we can do this when some more family members around," she said through her teeth.


Lynn stared at the screen of her laptop as she waited for her professor to post the grades from her first test. While she is aware that she struggled to study, she is sure that the questions that she knew outweighed the amount of questions that she didn't know.

Megan walked into the room and noticed Lynn tapping her foot as she continued to refresh the page waiting for the grades to get posted.

"When did the professor say that grades would be up?"

"He said today. I thought, hey, it's five p.m. and you said in class that grades are going to be up almost immediately to get it over with; well you're cutting it a little close!" she yelled at her professor through the laptop.

Megan laughed, "That's what you should have told yourself when you were turning in your lab reports last semester."

"Those were a pain in the ass to do."

"And I told you how to do them, remember? Take notes on the teacher's in-class summary and rewrite them in your own words. You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you did that."

Lynn nodded her head and refreshed the page. The grade appeared on her screen and she loudly said as she lightly tossed her laptop, "What the hell?! I actually studied and only got a forty-four on that test?!"

Megan took a look the grade and pat Lynn on her back, "That's okay, let it out."

Lynn growled, but didn't say a word. All that work and it didn't do much good, granted she shouldn't have left her studying for the last two days before a test, but assumed that she would have earned a better grade than a lousy forty four.

"Do you want to go to the gym and let out some of that anger?" Megan asked her trembling roommate.

Lynn shook her head, "No. I just want to be mad for a bit and maybe get something to eat," she said through her teeth.

The roommates walked to the dining hall and met up with Bryton. Lynn walked past him and grabbed a tray. He turned to Megan and asked, "What's with her?"

"She failed her test."

"I thought you she said studied?"

"She did, but she still failed."

"How bad?"

Megan didn't respond and Bryton figured that it had to be a horrible grade if she didn't want to talk about it.

Lynn arrived with a large tray of food and angrily bit down on a buffalo wing, "All that work and for what? I mean seriously, what the hell is that?! I might as well not have wasted time studying!"

Megan tried to cheer her up, "It's not so bad, I mean, everybody gets a bad grade here and there.

"Yeah, but if I couldn't pass that ding dang test–"

"You can study harder," Bryton mentioned, "or…you can let the stress out some other way." The girls both looked at him, "We're all nineteen, right?" They nodded, "And we've got access to a car, all we need is some money and we just go across the river from Motor City."

In a hushed tone, Megan chastised, "You want us to go to Canada to get a drink?"

"Well we can't if you take too long to think about it. Look, Lynn had a bad week, I've had a bad week, and I don't know about you Megan, but I think that we deserve to let out some steam. Besides, none of us have anything going on tomorrow."

"Nor do we have a car."

"We can rent one, all we need is about thirty dollars and we can quickly drive to and from."

Lynn finally spoke up, "What about passports? I'm not gonna get myself in trouble and lose my scholarship over a drink or smuggling."

Bryton sighed, "Fine, jeez, I just wanted to have a little fun pretending, but if you want some, just lend me some money."

Lynn sighed and thought about the proposition in front of her. Crossing the border would be impossible without a passport, so she is stuck where she is, and even if that wasn't a problem, carrying alcohol while underage back into the country would get her a jail cell or a fine, so she shook her head.

"How about this? I find a senior who's willing to look the other way for us? Would that interest anyone?"

The girls thought about it, and Megan spoke up, "Alright…but only if we all do it."

The two looked at Lynn. She didn't want to actually drink, but she didn't want to stand in her friends' way, and a little bit wouldn't be so bad to forget some of her other problems, "Alright…"


COME OVER
I need your help
And bring your tools too

That's what Lynn's text said, but with work, he isn't able to just show up on a whim just because she asks. As soon as he clocked out and got a toolbox from home, Francisco drove to her apartment, and saw broken drywall accumulated in a trash bag on her front door.

He knocks on the door, and Lynn quickly opens that door, she's covered in dust and happily tells him, "There you are! What the hell took you so long? I texted you hours ago!"

"I have work, I can't just leave whenever I please," he said as he walked in and noticed that she seemed to have ripped out the drywall from her hallway. He turned to her, "What the heck did you do?!"

"I was trying to fix a hole in the wall, and I saw video online that I can do it myself, and it said that I have to remove any loose pieces…but they were all loose."

He can't believe that nearly the whole wall was loose, but he can believe that she got bored and pulled out parts of the wall or she completely misunderstood the instructions she heard.

"Why didn't you just ask your landlord to fix the wall?"

"Because I punched the hole in the first place, and I didn't want to lose my security deposit and he's gotten mad me before and warned me to stop breaking stuff," she admitted.

Francisco looked at the damage, "And you think that fixing the wall by yourself would have cost you less than the original cost of damages?"

"Oh shut up and help me…please?"

He smiled and rolled his eyes, "Only because you said please." He walks towards the living room, "Alright, where's the replacement drywall?"

"The what?"

Francisco took a deep breath, "The replacement drywall," he said through his teeth. "Please tell me you bought it."

She smiles, "I did, I'm not an idiot, I bought the stuff at the store; it's in my room."

"Why is it in there?"

"I didn't want to block my way out the door in case I didn't finish this tonight."

"Where did you plan on sleeping then?"

"Yeah, I didn't plan that far ahead."

He pulls out his knife from his toolbox and removes the rest of the damaged drywall. Without looking at her, he asks, "So this isn't the first time that you've wrecked your apartment?"

"They've all been accidents!"

"Like?"

She rested against the wall and tried to recall, "There was the time that I broke into my own apartment from the balcony after forgetting my keys, broke a hole with a cricket ball, screwed up some plumbing for me and my neighbor, and you know, the usual."

He turns to her bedroom door, "Okay…well I'm going to go get the drywall–"

"Wait!" She stops him, "Let me get it, you're helping me out I should at least help."

"And the screws too," Francisco said as he stays put and waits for Lynn to return, "Can I ask you something?"

"What?" she responded through her bedroom door.

"Why did you punch this hole in the wall to begin with?"

She peered out of the room, "It was when I got mad at you."

"What did I do?"

She pulled out the drywall from her room, "It was when Elena told me that you didn't want to date."

He took the drywall from her, and scored it to fit on the empty space, "You know that I'm sorry about keeping it for so long, right?"

"Yeah…I thought that things were going well and hearing from her that you didn't say a thing kinda pissed me off…"

He nodded, "I get it, and I'm–"

"Don't say it," Lynn interrupted. "Now what's the next thing we – I mean, you need?"

"The drywall compound. If you want you can mix it yourself, it just has to have the consistency of peanut butter."

"Got it," she said as she walked to get the materials for him.

She began to mix the compound, "You know, I thought that this would be much easier to do, you know, fixing the wall, but dang, it's hard."

It isn't, at least to him, but Francisco isn't going to make her feel bad about the repair. He let her apply the compound in an effort to let her practice, and as she's doing so, he asks, "Is there any reason that you chose today to fix your wall?"

She looks at him, "Kinda, but I needed it fixed, and it's nice to see you between the week, c'mon, do I really need an excuse to see mio…dang, I forgot the word, ragazzo! Wait, I think that means boy," she hands him the compound and searches for her phone to check her Italian.

Francisco watches her walk away and finishes the job quickly as he walks after her. He notices her sitting on the kitchen counter listening to a lesson.

"Seriously?"

"Si. Although, I think I'll probably switch Spanish. It seems easier since I just need to remember stuff from school and you can help me."

"I hardly speak it and you want me to be your tutor? No way."

"Aww serio? Wait I think I forgot a part, let me go back to Italian."

"Lynn, I want to finish cleaning up and I want to go home."

She sighs and puts her phone away, "Fine, I'll be good." Lynn handed Francisco a bottle of water, "Thanks a lot for helping me out with the wall."

He nodded his head, "You're welcome, but maybe next time call me before you try a home improvement project like this."

She laughed, "Fine, but I'm not making any promises."

He smiled and checked his watch; it's getting late and he needed to get going, "Do you need help cleaning up? I can stay to help, but I'll have to leave in a little bit."

"What? Where are you going?"

"Home, I've got work tomorrow."

"You don't want to stay?"

"I'm sure you'd like that, but I don't want to rush in the morning, I didn't bring a change of clothes, and I'm sure that you don't have anything that fits me–"

"Fine, forget I asked. I'll just clean up my apartment myself."

He turned and smiled, "I know what you're doing."

"What?" she asked, feigning innocence.

He sternly told her, "I really can't stay, but I will help you clean up a bit."

"Alright!"

"But clean up first!" he told her.

"Fine!" she groaned as she quickly pushed all of the excess drywall and materials into her room.

"I meant really clean up, not stuffing it under your bed," he told her as he approached her room.

He looked inside and noticed the mess that she made by pushing the mess further inside instead of out. As kids, he's been in her room, and while he's aware that she is the messy type that would rather have fun than do tedious work; as adults, he's only been in her room once, but he didn't recall it being as messy as it currently was.

"Do you have a broom and a maybe a shovel?" he asked.

She shook her head, "I have a broom and dustpan, but don't worry, I'll just push it back, so just move," she said.

He sighs, "Just pick up the pieces instead, and stop spreading dust everywhere and making a bigger mess."

"You just can't let me have fun, can you?"

"You can have fun, but maybe think things through before acting on impulse?"

"Fine," she said as she bent over to pick up the stray pieces of drywall and screws that littered her floor.

Francisco picked up the tools that she left on her bed, and as he made his way towards the door, he notices Lynn searching under her bed.

"What are you doing?"

"I think I found something down here," she said with her arm reaching out under the bed frame.

"Lynn, just finish cleaning."

She didn't listen and pulled out a small suitcase. She opened the suitcase and revealed that it is actually a turntable, "Wow, I forgot where I put this," she told herself.

Francisco looked at her as eyed the device. He never pictured Lynn the type to have a record player, normally her type of music is more in line with modern techno and dance music that gets the blood pumping, but seeing with the device made him curious. She never mentioned that she enjoys old time music, nor does she appear to be the type to want such a device for the aesthetic, so how it came into her possession brought up some questions.

She looks under the bed and pulls out a small box labeled 'Records', "Dang, I forgot that I had this. I thought that I left these at mom and dad's place."

"What is it?"

She looked up, "Remember my old sports buddy from when I was a kid?"

"Your old neighbor?"

"Yeah, well he died a few years ago, and when he did he left me some his things; it was mostly his sports memorabilia, but after his family boxed up his things I found this box and the record player. I told them, and they said that wouldn't know what to do with it, and let me keep it, and yeah…I forgot that I put it under my bed." Lynn looked through the records and an idea popped in her head, "When was the last time we danced?"

"Lynn, you're just trying to get out of cleaning up."

She pulled him closer to her, "You didn't answer my question."

He sighs, "The last we danced was prom night, I think?"

"Then we're long overdue," she declared. "Wait, I need to pick some music," she closed her eyes and pulled out the record from the box. She placed the record on the turntable, put the needle on the record, and quickly stepped towards Francisco before the song began to play.

Buddy Holly's Everyday began to play and neither one could move. Lynn buried her face into his shirt; she looks up with a big smile on her face, she asked Francisco, "Why are you smiling like that?"

As he tries to hold back a laugh, "Me? What about you?"

"I'm only smiling because you're smiling," she lied.

Neither one moved to the song and as the lyrics made way for the instrumentals, the two began to laugh and Francisco asked, "Why does it sound like Christmas music?"

Lynn shook her head and pulls him closer, "I don't know, but c'mon, let's dance a bit before the song ends."


The two girls waited in their rooms. Bryton assured them that he would meet them after his senior friend procured their drinks, but as time passed, the two were getting a little worried. Doubt began to settle, but neither one is ready to admit it to the other.

"I can't believe that you actually agreed to this, Lynn."

She shrugged her shoulders, "I'm pissed off from that dumb test, so I needed something to take the edge off."

Normally, she would go to the gym, but that hasn't worked since end of last semester, so the she settled on something that other students have done to take the edge off after dealing with stressful tests – drinking. It's only one night and so long as they weren't too rowdy, they won't get caught and would only come out with a hangover the next morning.

The two girls continue waiting for Bryton to knock on the door and Lynn begins to incessantly tap her foot waiting for him to arrive. She couldn't believe that she is actually going to do this, but what's the point of college if you don't try something new; last year, she broke into a bell tower…she stopped her train of thought and stared at the door.

Bryton knocks on the door, and Megan lets him in, "About time, I felt like I was sitting around waiting with a woodpecker."

"Ha ha," Lynn laughed sarcastically, "So what did your friend bring?"

Bryton quickly closed the door and pulled off his duffel bag to reveal three large bottles of alcohol, "One for each of us," he said as he handed each of them a bottle.

The girls were a bit intimidated. At best, they only wanted to drink one bottle between the three of them, not have one entirely to themselves. Bryton hands each of them a bottle. He and Megan open the bottles and clink their bottles.

"To forgetting bad grades," Bryton declared.

Lynn stares at the bottle. Her friends are already taking sips, but she can't bring herself to actually start. She hears her parents, her siblings, her friends back home, her teammates, and her coach telling her no, but she begins to scream in her mind. She bites down on her bottom lip; it was much easier when training and working out helped her deal with her anger and frustrations, but nothing is going to help her when she can barely get her act together. When she was younger, she assumed that she would have some sort of grip on herself by this point, instead she feels like a helpless child that has to throw a tantrum to get someone to listen…but then she can't do that, everyone is too busy…

She grabs the bottle and takes a large swig; attracting the attention of her friends.

"Dang Lynn, slow down," Bryon warned. "You want the bottle to last you more than an hour, right?"

"I'm fine. I mean, I'm just trying to catch up with you guys," she assured them as the warm sensation began to flow down her esophagus.

Bryton chuckled, "I think you passed us," he said as he placed his bottle near her's and pointed out that she has consumed more in one go than he has.

Lynn pressed her forehead on his, "Then you better catch up to me," she giggled.

Megan shook her head, "No, but maybe we should slow you down," she suggested, as she looked around the room for something that they could use to distract her.

"Look in my bag," Bryton said. "I might have something that could help."

Megan searched through his bag, and found the bag that the drinks came in, a stack of cups, and the receipt; she scanned the prices, "Bryton, your friend didn't upcharge you for buying this stuff for us?"

"He did."

"Well I don't see it on here."

Bryton sighed, "Don't worry about it, now start setting up, I wanna see how good Lynn would be at beer pong."

Lynn spoke up, "This isn't beer, though."

Bryton pat her head and helped Megan set up the cups. He hands Lynn a ping pong ball, and she immediately tosses it into a cup. Both looked at her, somewhat surprised that she made it so easily; they hand her another ball, and she sinks it in again.

Megan suggests, "How about you go a little further back?"

Lynn complied and still managed to sink the ball into the cup. Each time, the friends came up with more seemingly difficult shots, but the athlete kept succeeding at the game.

"Dang," Megan started, "I thought she was kidding when she said that she doesn't lose games."

Lynn laughed, "Like I'd lose at a game like this."

A light bulb went off in Bryton's head, "How about a moving target?"

Neither a cup on a skateboard or Bryton zigzagging through the room or blindfolding her managed to stop Lynn from making the shots.

"We should have filmed all of this," Bryton suggested.

Megan sarcastically responded, "Oh yeah, because a sophomore drinking while doing little shots is worth expulsion or some punishment."

"I wasn't going to post it."

"Better this night never exists on tape."

"Finished," Lynn declared at her friends, who are stunned that she finished the whole bottle before they did. They knew that she didn't want to drink, and while it probably isn't the smartest way to help her get over her anger at failing a test; the two were happy that Lynn was able to forget for one night.

They noticed Lynn looking at the bottle with a smile on her face, as she raised it, appearing as though she's about to spike the bottle into the ground like a football.

"Don't!"


Lynn and Lucy walk into their father's restaurant together, talking about the week's events. In the older sister's hands were all seven cans that Lisa gave to Lynn last week, which she plans on handing back to Lisa.

"You didn't drink a single can?"

"No," Lynn responded, "Why is that so hard to believe?"

"I don't know…maybe I've been away from you for too long."

The two sisters notice Lisa sitting at their usual table alone. Normally, she and Lily would arrive together, but neither one made a big deal assuming that Lily was either with their father or in the restroom.

Lisa looks up from her laptop, "Greetings fifth and seventh eldest siblings. How are you doing today?"

Lynn hands the cans to Lisa and sits down across from her with a smug smile on her face.

"You weren't interested in the money or advancing my research?"

"Oh gee when you put it like that," Lynn said sarcastically. "No, but I still managed to get something done this week."

"That's good," Lisa says with little interest, "Lucy, how was your week?"

Lynn interrupted, "Hey! I wasn't done."

"I couldn't tell, besides I have no interest at the moment, since you did not participate in the experiment, but we can converse with you after Lucy explains how her week went."

Lynn looks at both sisters as Lucy describes the week, the older sister isn't listening. She gets up from her seat and walks into the kitchen where she sees her dad chopping vegetables, then she walks into the restroom, hoping to find her youngest sister.

"Lily? Are you in here?"

No one responded, and Lynn returned to the table and asked Lisa, "Where's Lily?"

"After a week of no sleep, our youngest sister has succumb to her exhaustion and is currently sleeping in her bedroom," Lisa pulls out her laptop and shows the two sisters, "She appears to have only consumed one bottle and I'm currently monitoring her vitals. Lucy will you be available to drive me home? After our meal, I have to input the information that you and our youngest sister provide, and I wish to do so in a timely manner."

Lucy nods and asks, "Sure, but why does Lily's room look like it was hit by a tornado?"

Lynn quickly responds, "She kept bouncing around from idea to idea and couldn't make up her mind for days, after that, it seems like she stuck to something and kinda forgot everything else."

"Why does that remind me of you?" Lucy joked.


Buddy Holly's Everday always seems to make me smile every time I listen to it after a lot of time passes, but the first time I heard it and the first time others hear it, they get a little smile on their faces, so I thought that I would have a little fun and include a little bit of real life in the chapter.

Give it a listen and hopefully you'll get a little giggle out of it too

As always, thank you for reading