Francisco opens the door to the bedroom, and sees Lynn attempt to sleep. He steps closer to the trashcan near her and sees that it is empty, but he knows that eventually she is going to heave into it again, like she has for the last couple of hours. He sits next to her and feels her forehead, which is burning up. He places an icepack on her forehead and sees her open her eyes.

"How are you feeling?" he asks.

"Like crap," she complains. For the last two days, she's been feeling sick, and was managing fine, but hasn't been improving and the vomiting has been getting worse. Rather, than letting her suffer, Francisco suggested that he take her to the doctor for treatment, but she insists that she'll be fine.

"Can you get up?" he asks as he tries to help her.

Lynn feels a sharp pain in her back as she moves and lays back down in bed. She bites down on her lip, "How the hell do you deal with pain like this every day?"

Francisco smiles and helps her back into bed, "Pain pills do help a lot. Are you sure you don't want any?"

She shakes her head, "How the heck am I going to take your medicine? Besides, I can handle it."

"I meant over the counter stuff, but okay," he says as he strokes her hand. "Do you want me to bring you something to eat?" she shakes her head. "Lynn, you've got to eat something."

"What's the point?" she groans, "it's just gonna come back up again."

He fluffs her pillow, "Because you need to put something in your stomach. I'm making some soup for you, so get some rest and I'll bring it up when it's ready.

"Canned soup?" she says with disdain, "Fine, but add water so that it's not too salty." As he heads out the door, "Wait! Can you get a hold of Lisa and tell her that I'm sick. She'll send me something to feel better."

Francisco can't believe that Lisa will be that overly concerned with with whatever trivial thing is ailing Lynn, but he knows that she wouldn't ask unless she needed the help, so he's willing to call her and get Lynn taken care of.

"Alright, I'll let her know."

He sends Lisa a text letting her know that Lynn isn't feeling well, and she lets him know that she will be there at her earliest convenience; which can mean any time, especially since Lisa doesn't drive and is highly dependent on Lily or someone else to get her around.

Francisco goes to check on his chicken soup, when he hears a whirring noise in the direction of backyard. He opens the balcony door and sees a drone flying in the air. A screen pops out of the drone and turns on, "Greetings, potential brother-in-law."

"Hey, Lisa…" Francisco says, unsure how drone Lisa is going to treat Lynn.

"Now where is my patient?"

"In the master bedroom."

"Very well, please clear out of the way, I do not wish to give you an impromptu haircut from the blades of the drone," she warns him before flying into the room.

Francisco clears the way, and the speed of drone's blades scatters all the lightweight items in the living room. He tries to organize it again, until he hears Lisa's voice in the hallway.

"Francisco, can you open the door?" He quickly runs to open the door, and drone turns around, "Can you close the door?"

"How will you get out?"

"I'll call on you again," Lisa says bluntly, before he closes the door. The drone turns to Lynn, and Lisa asks, "So what it is ailing you fifth eldest sister?"

Lynn heaves into the trashcan, "I think it's happening again."


Lynn grabs her backpack from her closet; tomorrow, is the first day of school, but not just any school, it's her first day of middle school. She's heard stories from her older sisters and they've mentioned how she would have more teachers, more electives, and more clubs to choose from; she can't wait.

Lucy looks at her sister's half of the room and, while normally messy, is surprised by how much she is tossing around to get herself ready for tomorrow. She takes a seat in her coffin and observes Lynn as picks out what to wear for school tomorrow.

"Maybe these basketball shorts and a T-shirt? Or what about the running shorts and my sleeveless tee?"

Lucy speaks up, "You know that Patchy Drizzle said that it's going to be cool tomorrow, right?"

Lynn jumps up after being spooked by her younger sister, "Where did you come from?"

The younger sister shrugs her shoulders and lies back down in her coffin. She can still hear Lynn moving things around in the closet as she searches for something what Lucy presumes to be a jacket or hoodie.

Luan walks by her younger sister's room, "Lynn, don't forget to backpack your school map, you don't want to get lost hall day," she laughs at her puns, "Get it?"

The younger sister sighs, "I know, I know," she says, frustrated by family's insistence that she can't get herself ready for school alone.

The next day, Rita is taking the kids to school, "Remember kids, you need to take the bus home today. I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon and I'm not sure when I'll be home. Lincoln, I'm counting on you to make sure that Lucy doesn't get lost." The boy nods as he accepts his mission. "Leni, Lynn, make sure you look for your older sister after school so you know what bus to take home, got it?"

The two girls nod.

Rita pulls up to the high school and drops off her two oldest daughters, "Have a good day!"

"Thanks mom," they say, before heading towards the school.

She pulls up again into the middle school and the three sisters get out of Vanzilla, "Have a good day!"

"Thanks mom," they say as she pulls away.

Lynn looks at the middle school in awe. Despite taking a tour in fifth grade, it still amazes her to now attend this new school with new kids, teachers, and classes. With a smile on her face, Lynn walks inside for her first day of middle school.


Lynn walks in silence through the forest. Lucy insisted that the two sisters go on a leisurely stroll, and she didn't want to take no for an answer; which didn't help since Lynn blew her off a few days ago.

The older sister hears the birds and insects and sees the sun as it peers through an opening in the trees; she can see why this stuff used to bother her sister when they are kids, instead it looks like she's enjoying herself as she twirls her oversized umbrella.

Lucy notices the look on Lynn's face, "Are you okay, Lynn?" she asks.

The elder sister looks at her younger sister and flatly says, "I'm fine. I'm just…bothered that we're walking and you insist on that huge umbrella. There are trees keeping the sunlight out, why do you need an umbrella!?"

Lucy corrects her sister, "It's called a parasol."

"Whatever!" Lynn snaps, "Why did you want me come on this stupid walk anyway? You like the darkness, not the happiness of summer."

"I wanted someone to talk to about my book."

"Why me?! Wouldn't Lisa be a better choice? She's all brutally honest and whatnot, meanwhile, I can barely finish one of your books before you're handing me the next draft."

Lucy nods, "She is, but her thought process is too rigid. Her advice is almost always the same, and I can't branch out if I keep writing formulaic books."

"I guess," Lynn agrees. "So is this from the Lucy Loud collection or from the X.E. Brae one?"

"What do you think?"

Lynn shudders, regardless of which book she reads, it doesn't help, but she'd much rather read her poetry or toned-down romance novels, "Why did you have to go into that kind of writing? Couldn't you just stick to your poems and vampire romances?"

Lucy continues to walk, "Vampires aren't as popular anymore, and I did need money to get myself through school, we can't all get full rides to nice schools like you."

Lynn sighs, "Well it's not my fault that you preferred to sit under the trees writing poetry instead of actually being a kid, besides, Lori got one too, how come no one ever tells her anything?" she playfully defends herself.

Lucy shrugs her shoulders, and continues her walk. She takes in the scenery of the forest and makes mental notes so that she can add it to her book. She looks back and notices Lynn drag her feet as she keeps up with her.

"Are you okay?" she asks, with genuine concern in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm tired and want to sit down for a bit," Lynn answers before taking a seat on a log.

The goth is concerned. Normally, Lynn would be running around and exploring anything new that gets in her way, but to see her sister staring at the ground while staying still; made her worry a bit.

Lucy takes a seat next to her sister and quietly looks out at the trees.

"I'm not gonna talk, you know," Lynn says.

The younger sister isn't expecting her to do so; she'd rather wait for Lynn to open up when she's ready than to force her.

Lynn sighs, "I couldn't keep up with your book. I kept getting distracted by other stuff and I forgot to actually read it. I mean, I know that you like my help for some reason, but yeah…baseball sorta got my attention and I just kept rereading the same first paragraph and I can only read it for so long before I eventually get bored and tossed it aside. Sorry."

"It's fine," Lucy responds. She's frustrated that Lynn couldn't fulfill her simple request, but it's her own fault for thinking that Lynn is going to change; even as children, if it didn't' involve something that caught her attention, she'd immediately look for anything new to get away from her boredom.

In an effort to lighten the mood, Lucy turns to her sister, "Also, Lynn, I had one more thing that I wanted to tell you."


Lynn's homeroom teacher hands out school administration papers, and begins to call the students to hand them their schedules. The sixth-grader looks over her class schedule and silently cheers as she sees gym as her first class of the day.

"Now remember students, you only have five minutes between classes to get to your classrooms, so try not to be late," the homeroom teacher warns.

The bell rings, and the students get up from their seats to start first period. Lynn walks into the hallway and notices the large amount of students crowding the hallways. She stays put to take off her backpack and search for her school map. Her backpack is a mess that is filled with the administrative papers that her homeroom teacher just gave her, "Wait…did I pack my map?" She can't remember and rather than waste too much time, Lynn recalls her older sisters' advice – if you need help finding something, go find an upperclassman to help.

She walks up to an older looking boy and asks, "Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the gym?"

The student smiles, "Oh sure, it's real easy," he leads her towards some stairs, "just head down those stairs."

Lynn goes down the stairs and looks around for the entrance to the gym, "It's kinda weird that the gym is downstairs," she tells herself.

When she toured the school in fifth grade, Lynn spent most of her time looking around at the differences between the elementary and middle school, that she didn't pay too much attention to directions when she was being lead, though now she wishes that she did so that she could find something that looked familiar.

As she continues down the hall, she begins to worry about how much time is passing, "He wouldn't lead me down this hallway for no reason," she tells herself, as she tries to keep hope alive.

Lynn looks at the clock on the wall; time is almost up and she still can't find the gym. The bell rings and the sounds of the crowds begin to die down. She looks around and begins to panic; it's the first day and she's already going to get in trouble, especially if she misses her first class.

Lynn continues her trek down the hallway, until she is met with an intersection; she looks at both directions, both without a student or faculty member around and both seemingly identical to the other, and decides to head right and continue walking.

Time continues to pass and the bell rings again. Lynn sighs, "Great…now I have to search for my second period class."

She keeps looking around, but there is no one in the hallway, "Where are those stairs?" she asks herself, hoping to be able to retrace her steps.

Another hour passes, and her stomach begins to growl, Lynn looks around for a clock to see the time, but can't find one. She sits down in the hallway and pulls out her lunch from her backpack, "Some first day…" she tells herself as she takes a bite out of her meatball sandwich.

Over the course of the day, she struggles to find students, teachers, the gym, her classes, or even a set of stairs to go back up from the basement. Eventually, after the final bell rings for the day, she manages to find an exit sign, and sees students outside.

"Great…I spent the whole day lost…"

"Lynn!" Luna yells to get her sister's attention, "hurry up! We gotta take the bus home today."

"Okay..."

At home, Rita paces back and forth as she waits for the phone call from the doctor's office. When the phone rings, she quickly goes to answer it, "Hello, Dr.– oh, hello, Principal Ramirez, what? No, I dropped her off at school this morning. I'll speak with her as soon as–" the phone sounds and tells her that she has an incoming call, "I'll talk to you later!" she switches to the call waiting, "Hello?"

Upon hearing the doctor's message, Rita drops the phone; she's going to have another baby, "Lynn!" she calls her husband, "I have something to tell you."

At dinner time, the Louds are eating their meal; Lynn is poking at her food, annoyed by that older kid who gave her wrong directions. She wanted to ask her older sisters to see if they might know who he is, but she can hear them asking how she got lost when she supposedly had her map.

Rita looks over at her fifth eldest daughter, "Lynn, I got a call from your principal saying that–"

Lynn nervously shovels food into her mouth. She doesn't want to explain to her mom what happened at school, but before she can finish what she was going to say; her dad, who looks as if he is ready to explode, says, "Oh! I can't wait any longer. Kids! Great news! We're having another baby!"

The children erupt with pure joy upon hearing that they're getting another sibling, and Lynn quietly sighs as her older sisters' questions begin to take the focus away from her and her bad first day.


Raffaelina pours coffee onto the vanilla gelato, and places the bowl in front of Lynn. Unlike, other Sundays, Lynn looks more downtrodden than usual, and it begins to pique her interest.

"You didn't come last week," she says as she takes a seat in front of her.

Lynn takes a scoop from her gelato and quietly eats it, "I was sick. I couldn't get out of bed and had to stay home."

"Call next time. I wait like an idiot for you," she lightly scolds. She notices Lynn isn't doing well, and places her hand on hers and asks, "What's wrong?"

Lynn shakes her head, "Nothing."

Raffaelina pulls the affogato away from her, "Say it."

Lynn sighs, "Fine! It's happening again. I'm feeling all mopey, because my siblings are moving on with their lives and all I'm doing is sitting around feeling sorry for myself, while drowning my sorrows in coffee and ice cream. Happy?" she quickly asks before taking her affogato back from Raffaelina.

The older woman sighs. She doesn't like when this happens to Lynn, but she also knows that until she is ready to take those leaps, that there is no chance of her ever overcoming these issues.

"Why do you…think about your siblings like that?"

"I don't know. When it was my older sisters I thought, who cares? They're older than me, I'll get there, plus it is easier to ignore my feelings then. Now, I see my younger siblings doing better, and I wonder if I'm going to catch up." Raffaelina lightly chuckles, and Lynn doesn't appreciate it, "What the heck? I tell you my feelings and you laugh?!"

Raffaelina shakes her head, "No, but why worry? You have nice home, nice man, and when you get real job and not playing money, you have nice job."

Lynn sighs. She knows that Raffaelina isn't fond of her gambling as a source of income, but she isn't happy with any job that she took on; her longest job to date is being an assistant baseball coach, and she doesn't have that anymore.

"Why are you sad?"

"Because, I don't know where things are going. I know that having Francisco is nice, but I don't know what else I want."

"Una famiglia?" Raffaelina asks as she took a bite of her gelato.

Lynn blushes in embarrassment, "What?! No, I'm not ready."

"Not ready?!" Theresa says from the other room, "You've been for dating years and you're still not ready." She walks into the room, "How can you not be ready?"

"Maybe I don't want a family. Maybe I just want to live my life independently and see Francisco every once in a while. Is that so hard to understand?!"

Neither woman believes her. Lynn may not have been the type to ever mention having a husband or kids, but both could picture it, especially when she's dating a man with a child.

"So you grow up with a large family and say, I don't want kids?" Raffaelina asks.

"Yes! No! What does it matter?! Look, I'm not here to talk about having kids, or anything, I just wanted to get something off of my chest and ask how you have been, why don't you get that?!"

Both women stay quiet; Lynn just got defensive, now every one of her responses dealing with the subject is going to be met with short answers, glares, and explosive emotions. However, this time it seems a little different; her eyes look scared, and her mouth appears to be following suit, despite the loud words coming from her. Rather than make things worse, the two decide that telling her about their week can calm her down until she is ready to talk again…about anything.


Rita gets out of bed, at almost seven months pregnant, it's getting harder to move and keep up with ten children, but someone has got to do it. She gets changed and when she approaches the stairs she calls out to the kids, "Kids! Time for school," she hears her daughters' footsteps, "you too, Lincoln."

She hears her children getting ready, and she heads to the kitchen to pack their lunches. It's the first day back since Christmas break, and she already missed the lazy mornings that had her kids sleeping in for the past two weeks.

"Kids! Hurry up!" she tells them from downstairs.

Lynn Sr. walks out of their room, "Are you taking them to school?"

"Yeah, can you watch the Lisa and the twins, until I get back?"

He nods, and through a yawn, answers, "Sure. Let me just make breakfast."

After everyone is packed and fed, the seven oldest kids rush into Vanzilla to head to school. When the family is only blocks away from the first stop, Vanzilla begins to stall.

"Oh no…Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no," Rita says as she tries to turn the old vehicle back on.

The kids see the smoke coming from the engine and Lynn begins to cheer, "Alright, no school!"

The others join in her cheering, until Rita gets out of Vanzilla. She checks the engine, but she doesn't know how to fix it. She goes back inside, and thinks about calling for a tow truck; she figures that the five oldest can walk to school by themselves, and she can wait to take Lincoln and Lucy to school when she can.

She turns to the kids, "I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is that I can't fix Vanzilla, the good news is that we're close enough to the middle school and the high school that you girls can walk yourselves."

The five oldest groan at having to walk to school in the cold, but they don't have any choice unless they want to risk after school detention.

They get out of Vanzilla, and hear their mom, "Alright, I trust you girls to get to school as soon as possible, okay?"

"Okay," they say in unison before they start their walk to their respective schools.

Lynn begins to quicken her steps and soon she is running ahead of her older sisters.

Lori, who notices how far ahead Lynn is getting, yells, "You better not be cutting class!"

Lynn doesn't respond, instead she keeps running. She doesn't notice Luna and Luan as they run to try to catch up to her, per Lori's orders to make sure that the younger sister doesn't ditch school.

The two older sisters struggle to catch up, but when they see the school in sight, and see Lynn run through the front door they slow to a leisurely walk. Inside, Lynn slowly opens the door of her homeroom, and tries not to draw attention to herself as the teacher welcomes the students back to school.

She stops talking and calls on Lynn, "Ms. Loud, you're late."

Lynn nervously chuckles, "Yeah, rough morning."

"Just take a seat."

Lynn looks around, her usual seat is taken, but there she spots an empty seat that's far enough from the teacher, but close enough to the door.

She takes a seat and begins to slouch down on her desk. Despite only hearing the teacher remind students about school clubs, the girl picked up the habit after struggling to answer so many of her teachers' questions. Her sisters weren't kidding when they said that it's tough to keep up with every class' test and homework schedule; it's like they don't care that another class has a test the same day as another!

The bell rings to signal everyone the start of first period. The students begin to get up from their seats, and Lynn attempts to do the same, when she realizes that she can't get herself out of her desk. She tries to force herself off of the seat, but she remains stuck. Some of the students notice her struggling to get out and begin to chuckle.

"Lynn, it's time to go to first period," her teacher says.

The girl keeps trying to free herself; at this point, more students in the classroom begin to notice her unfortunate situation, and begin to laugh.

The teacher tries to help Lynn, but after failing, "Darn these old seats, let me call someone to help." The teacher notices all of the students who are watching, and tries to disperse them, but it doesn't do much good against her first period students who are coming in.

The teacher calls on the school cook, who, armed with peanut butter, looks at Lynn and asks, "Sorry, kid. We're gonna have to grease you out. Got any nut allergies?"

Lynn shakes her head before the cook begins to slather her with peanut butter. She is able to free herself from the seat and she immediately runs out of the classroom to go to her locker and ditch her peanut butter stained hoodie.

When she arrives at the locker room near the gym, Lynn notices some girls giggling while pointing at her. She tries not to think about it, but as she changes into her gym clothes, she can feel the sweet paste on her ponytail.

'That's why they're laughing…'


Lynn tries to catch her breath as she walks onto the shore, Francisco isn't far behind; it has been a while since they've done a competitive swim like this, but it took her by surprise that she no longer has the same lead that she used to have on him.

She turns to the man and says, "Hey, look at that, you're finally catching up."

"Maybe if you didn't jump ahead I can finally beat you," Francisco says as he steps out of the water.

Unlike other times when they raced, Lynn is no longer able to keep the large lead as well as she used to; while she still beat him, Francisco is definitely making strides, especially when compared to when they first started.

"Yeah, right, I can still beat you even if I let you have a five minute head start," she boasts.

Francisco playfully rolls his eyes, and lets her have her moment. He isn't sure if she is letting him believe that he is getting better or not, but it does feel good to be able to feel as confident as he did in his youth.

The two begin to head towards the parking lot, "So, I guess I'll see you next week?" Francisco asks.

"Yeah…no, I mean we can still hang out."

"I guess. I just don't want Dutch to break down when you drive at night," he tells her, worried about the jalopy that she insists on owning.

"No, I mean to spend the night, or stay the next day or so?" she says, hoping that he would get the message.

"Oh," he begins to stumble in his words, "I thought that you weren't ready to hang around when me and Elena have our days."

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "It had to happen eventually. Why not tonight?"

He doesn't have a reason; he's just stunned that Lynn finally wants to spend the night before he got Elena for the weekend. "Okay, then. Let's go home."

"Let's," she says, as if trying to match a wager.

He looks over at her and wants to be sure, "Do we need to go by your apartment to get something for you to change into?"

Lynn has spent the night before at his house and she does have the occasional habit of leaving some clothes behind, but that doesn't mean that she has enough clothes to change into for the next few days.

"I'll be fine. Besides, I'll just borrow a shirt and pair of shorts from you," she suggests.

"Again? Let's just get you an overnight bag at least."

"Why do you have such a problem with lending me something to wear?" she playfully asks.

He gives her a knowing look, "Because you don't fit into them and they hang off of you."

"I thought that you would like that."


Lynn runs down the hallway. After what happened during the standardized test, she figures that all she has to do is avoid the entire sixth grade class for another two months when summer starts, or wait for someone who to do something more humiliating; whichever comes first.

She spots her locker, and goes to grab her textbook, when she hears a girl say, "Hey, look! It's Farty McStink Pants."

The other kids begin to point and laugh at her, and Lynn quickly walks into her locker to hide from everyone. She closes her eyes to keep herself from seeing their laughing faces, but she can still hear them calling her 'Farty Pants'. She wishes that the metal door could at least keep the noise away so that she could ignore her classmates' taunts, but it doesn't work.

A few minutes later, Lynn notices that the crowd has dispersed and that there isn't anyone in the hallway. She breathes a sigh of relief, as she can finally get out of the locker, but as she tries to open it she realizes that she's stuck inside, "Dang it…"

She bangs her head against the locker in frustration as tears begin to fall from her eyes. This whole school year has been a nightmare for Lynn; the teasing, the academic struggles, and losing most of her old friends, she hates middle school.

She wishes that she could have experienced it the way her sisters did, they never mentioned being teased or any of the bad things that happened, just a lot of schoolwork. In less than two months, the school year is going to be over and all she'll have to remember is being a laughingstock and hating school.

"Just a few more weeks," she whispers to herself, and then she can have the summer to get away from everyone that teased her; but then she has to deal with her new baby sister and whatever happens next with her siblings.

She frowns and tries not to dwell on that, "It's fine…I can do this…I can do this…I can't do this…" she says as her voice cracks and tears threaten to spill again.

A custodian can hear crying as she passes by the lockers in the hallway. She looks up and assumes that she might have just been hearing things. As she pushes her cleaning cart, she hears the crying again; she slows down and tries to listen in on where the sound is coming from.

The custodian presses her ear against the locker, and Lynn sees the woman through the slots, "HELP!"

The custodian jumps away from the locker, but hears shuffling inside the locker. She peers inside and notices a pair of eyes staring back at her, "I'll be right back."

"Wait! I need to get out of here!" Lynn yells.

A few minutes later, the custodian returns with her supervisor. The supervisor looks inside the locker and notices Lynn staring back. She pulls out her keys and frees the girl.

Lynn jumps out of the locker. She looks up and hugs the two adults to thank them for letting her out of her confinement, "Thank you," she notices the time on the clock, and realizes that she's missed the bus and is going to have to walk home.

Lynn sighs, "Dang it…"


Lynn opens her eyes, it's eight in the morning, and the other side of the bed is empty. She searches for Francisco with her eyes, but as soon as the water in the shower gets cut off, she turns towards the bathroom.

She yawns, "Morning."

Francisco smiles at Lynn, as he notes how messy her hair is, "Sleep well?"

He doesn't know why he asked that; Lynn typically tosses and turns for over an hour as she tries to get herself comfortable. She's mentioned before how she used to find ways to fall asleep as a kid, but he refuses to let her toss a ball at the ceiling or the wall, especially after she's accidentally hit him too many times.

"Where are you going so early in the morning?"

"To pick up Elena," Francisco says as he struggles to bend over to tie his shoes. Lynn, noticing the pain that he is in, hands him one of his pain pills, "Thanks," he says, before taking the pill. "I'm going to go pick up Elena and then I was thinking that we could go out for breakfast. What do you think?"

"Why can't we have breakfast here?"

Francisco gets up and heads towards the door, "I thought that I would treat you both to breakfast this morning."

"I guess," she says as stretched.

"I'll see you in a bit," Francisco says as he closed the door.

Lynn stays put in bed. She isn't in the mood to leave the house so early in the morning and would much rather have breakfast here. A light bulb went off in Lynn's head and she rushed towards the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and noticed the lack of breakfast foods.

"Still!? How the heck do you have leftovers when you barely have any food in your fridge?"

Frustrated, Lynn tries to see what she could make, but a handful of chorizo, bacon slices, tortillas, milk and a jar of peanut butter isn't exactly screaming breakfast. Almost ready to give up, Lynn notices that Jackson is returning from his morning walk.

Lynn runs outside, "Hey, Jackson! Do you by any chance have any eggs or something to make breakfast?"

"Good morning, Lynn. I'm doing well, thank you for asking. How are you doing this morning?" Jackson says.

There isn't sarcasm in his voice, but Lynn could tell that he probably doesn't appreciate the first thing coming out of her mouth is to borrow food.

"Sorry…I'm doing fine. I was hoping to make some breakfast for Francisco and Elena. Do you have anything that I could borrow?"

Jackson jumps off of his stilts, and nods, "I think I have some foods I could part with, follow me."

Lynn follows the man, and walks into the house. She looks around at the masks that are hanging on the wall, an indoor fountain, sleds, tribal masks, swords, and from spending so much time gawking at everything, she trips on a lamp cord.

"I have got to get rid of that lamp," he extends his hand out to her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she says as she rubs her head. "Where did you get all of this stuff?"

"Oh, some are from my trips abroad. I used to be a teacher and my travels took me to all sorts of exotic lands."

"Really? I always thought that teachers got paid so little," Lynn says as she pulls out an umbrella while accidentally discharging something into the floor. "What was that?!"

Jackson leads her away from the room, "Nothing, but I prefer that you don't touch anything."

Lynn complies until she sees a drone and is drawn in by the shiny body. She's tempted to play with it, until she sees a strange-looking mouthpiece, "Hey Jackson! You played sports?"

The man walks into the room and sees what she is holding, "Oh yes, I picked that up during my travels by the Indian Ocean, although freediving with the Sama-Bajau earlier that year did help make things easier. Speaking of sports," he starts as he takes the mouthpiece from her, "Have you ever heard of a sport called buzkashi?" Lynn shakes her head, "I'll tell you about it one day. Let's go."

Jackson leads her to the kitchen and grabs a wicket basket from his dining table, "This should be good to carry the food. What would you need?"

Lynn keeps looking around at his house, "I don't know, whatever makes a good breakfast, so eggs and flour should be enough."

The man grabs a few of each item, "I'm guessing Francisco still hasn't gotten the hang of having basic food staples in his pantry?"

"No!" she quickly responds, "I mean, how hard is it to do?"

"Well, you have to understand that before you came along, he only had to buy extra food for the weekend, and based on the takeout containers, I'm imagining that he doesn't do it often."

"I guess, but he's going to have to learn. I can't keep asking you to help," she takes the basket, "I promise to bring you the first plate of food."

"Can I make a request then? I've been growing some potatoes in the backyard and I'm hoping for some home fries."

"Consider it done!"


As the sun begins to set, Lynn walks through the front door, and is bombarded by the chaos of her house. Everyone is busy and she hopes that she doesn't have to explain why she is late coming home.

She drags her feet up the stairs and tries her best to ignore everything around her, until her stomach rumbles, "Dang it…"

She groans and heads to the kitchen to find some sort of leftovers to snack on until dinner. Lynn sees her dad at the table and she takes a deep breath to keep him figuring out that she's not in the best mood.

"Hey LJ, I haven't seen you all day," he tells her.

"Yeah, I was just outside."

Lynn notices that her dad is beginning to doze off; nothing new considering that he did the same thing after each new baby was born.

He snaps awake, "Oh hey, LJ. When did you get home?"

Lynn laughs, "I think you're tired, dad."

He yawns, "I know…but I have to wake the baby…she's been so quiet…" he drops his head on the table. Lynn shakes her dad awake, "Where's Lisa?!"

"Somewhere, why?"

He looks around and checks on the bottle of formula, "I have to make sure that she gets fed."

"You mean Lily?"

He stops to think about it for a minute before he realizes that he accidentally misnamed his youngest daughter.

Lynn offers, "Do you want me to feed her?" She notices that her dad is only blinking his eyes and not paying much attention to what she's saying, "I'll take that as a yes."

Rita walks into the kitchen after taking a nap, "Hey Lynn, I haven't seen you all day."

She shrugs her shoulders, "I was just outside."

"Okay," Rita notices her husband falling asleep at the table. "I'll go take him to bed so that he can take a nap. Are you in the mood for takeout for dinner?"

Lynn's ears perk up, "Yeah! Can we have pizza?"

The bottle warmer dings.

Rita nods, "Sure, can you do me a favor and feed Lily?"

Lynn nods and takes the bottle upstairs. She notices Lana running away with their puppy in her arms and can hear Lola growling from their shared room. As Lynn walks towards her baby sister's room, she glances over at Lola, who is smoothing out the wrinkles in her dress with a menacing stare in her eyes.

The sixth grader turns around and walks into Lily's room, she asks out loud "How the heck do you get a bigger room than me?" She looks into the crib and sees Lily opening her eyes. "Guess what I got? It's your bottle," she tells the infant, who just blinks. "Huh, I was sort of hoping for a little more of a reaction."

She shrugs and places the bottle in her sister's mouth, but it quickly falls out. Lily begins to cry and Lynn grabs the bottle and holds it for Lily to drink from.

Lynn watches the innocent baby continue to drink from her bottle, "You're lucky," she tells the infant, "No one makes fun of you, everyone helps you, and takes care of you, and you get to–" the sound of snoring interrupts her, "That's not you, is it?" She looks around, and follows the sound of the snoring coming from the baby monitor. She looks down at her baby sister, "I guess someone accidentally got them mixed up. I'll fix it later…fix it later…That's it!" she realizes, before losing her idea, "Wait...I lost it. Let's try again. How do you fix it when people are messing with you?"

The next day at school, Lynn minds her business and school is going okay for the first few minutes as everyone heads into homeroom.

A random boy along with a group of his friends notice Lynn and begin their taunts, "Hey, look! It's Farty Mc–"

Lynn, remembering Lola's menacing eyes, grabs him by the collar and slams him against the lockers. She raises him off his feet and forces him to stare at her as she gives him a glare with a fire in her eyes, "Don't call me that!" she demands. "Got it?!"

He nervously nods and she drops him. He scrambles to his feet and joins his friends as they run away from her.

She sighs; it's not the most ideal way to solve her problem, but at least he won't pick on her anymore.


Francisco steps out of the truck, "So I was thinking we could have breakfast at that bistro that we went to for your graduation. I heard that they serve a good breakfast."

"You want their silver dollar pancakes, don't you?" Elena asks with a knowing smile.

Despite his best attempts, her father is not the best cook and she will gladly take any opportunity for them to eat out instead of suffering through an overcooked and salty meal.

"Maybe," he says, knowing that he's been caught.

As the two step into the house, the smell of pancakes, eggs, and bacon in the air grabs their attention. Both walk towards the source of the smell and see Lynn finishing up some bacon, while chopping potatoes.

"Morning," Lynn says as she walks towards the fridge, despite leaving the cooked bacon on the pan.

Francisco turns the stove off and asks, "Lynn, what are you doing? I told you that we're going out for breakfast."

As Lynn pulls out some orange juice from the fridge, "Well you guys were taking so long, I figured that I could make breakfast here."

Francisco looks at his watch, "I was only gone for thirty minutes."

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "So do either of you want orange juice or did I just squeeze these oranges for nothing?"

Elena pulls out some cups, "Sure, I don't mind having orange juice."

"Great!" Lynn hands her the pitcher, "Here you go. I'm gonna go set the table."

Elena looks at her as she keeps going back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room. Francisco tries to steal a slice of bacon, before Lynn steals it from out of his hands. She places the slice of bacon on a plate, before moving back to setting the table, then stopping to take her socks to the laundry basket, only to return to the kitchen before realizing that she forgot to put said socks in the basket.

Elena whispers to her father, "Is she okay?"

Francisco nods. This isn't atypical behavior coming from Lynn, but he could understand his daughter's concern; after all, neither one has spent an extended period of time together since Lucy's wedding.

Francisco pours himself a cup of orange juice and is surprised by how sweet it is, "Lynn, where did you get this orange juice from?"

Lynn stops for a minute as she tries to think about the answer, "I made it using the oranges you had here, although I think my hand slipped when I added sugar."

"I can believe that," says Francisco as he leaves the cup on the counter to help Lynn set the table, "How about we set the table and you can go change," he offers.

Lynn stops and looks down before looking back at him, "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

Neither father nor daughter say anything; Lynn still has messy hair and looks like she just rolled out of bed.

"Nothing," says Elena, to end the silence.

Lynn shrugs her shoulders and the two sit down for breakfast. Elena looks over at the spread, unlike other times when she eats at her dad's, it looks better, but the overly sweet orange juice made her wary of the food. Her dad's cooking is already lackluster at best and she is hoping that Lynn is able to cook better than he is.

"Are you just going to leave the chopped potatoes in the bowl?" Francisco asks, as Lynn begins to join them.

"Right! The potatoes! Give me a minute and I'll start making home fries," she tells them as she walks to the bowl.

She prepares the potatoes and starts talking with them, "You know, Francisco; this would be a lot easier if you had better kitchen equipment. I mean, sure you have a blender and toaster and juicer and oven–"

"Lynn, are you just going to name all my kitchen appliances?"

"No, I'm just saying, it wouldn't kill you to have some things that could make things a little easier. Plus, your grocery shopping habits still suck," she tells him as she places the potatoes in the pan. "Although, maybe I'm just complaining too much," she says as she walks towards them and pours herself a glass of orange juice.

Elena warns her, "Shouldn't you stay close by in case they begin to burn."

She gulps the last of the juice in her cup, "Probably."

Lynn paces back and forth as she waits for the home fries to cook, "What the hell is taking so long?!"

Elena whispers to her dad, "It's only been thirty seconds."

"I know; she's like that," he tells her.

He stays quiet and listens to pan, only to realize that no sound was coming from that direction. Francisco gets up and sees what the problem is, "Lynn, you didn't turn on the stove."

"Dang it!" she complains. She turns on the stove and taps her feet as she waits, "C'mon! Hurry up already!"

"It's only been fifteen seconds, give it time," Francisco tells her. "Look, Elena and I are gonna eat some of this food before it gets cold," he says as he takes a plate.

Lynn takes the plate back, "No way! This is for Jackson. He was nice enough to let me borrow this food, and I told him that he's getting the first plate."

She turns over the home fries and once it's finished cooking, she prepares a plate, "Now, you can deliver him the food before it gets cold."

Francisco goes along with her request, although he can see what Elena meant by something being off with Lynn. When he returns, there is a plate of food by his seat; he sits down, and the three begin to eat breakfast. Elena takes her first bite and lets out a sigh of relief that it tastes good. The three quietly eat and make some light conversation.

He speaks up tell Lynn, "You can go get changed quickly. We won't steal your food."

"What is your obsession with me getting changed? Besides it can wait."

Elena knows why he wanted her to change; Lynn is wearing one of his T-shirts and a pair of his shorts. She knows him, and he likes to keep people from asking too many questions about his personal life, and while some time has passed, Elena figures that he doesn't want her to bring any more attention that could make it worse.

"You act like you're expecting some tv show to just bust through that front door and film us, it's fine!" Lynn responds before taking another slice of bacon.


It's been a while since I've talked to you guys, I haven't really had much to say that would add to any chapter, but I figured that I'd mention a few things, lately I've been going back to the earlier chapters to fix them from past tense to match the current present tense, I've completed some sentences that I apparently forgot to finish, and adding some details, overall, it's nothing huge, just something that I've been wanting to do to make things a little better. I've still got a ways to go, but I'll get there.

The call-back to chapter 11, Lynn being sick, is the same as it was then, obviously, but unlike then, it's less descriptive and I'm not planning on keeping you wondering for long what is/was wrong with her.

So give it a guess, and you'll find out one day

And as always thanks for reading.