Lynn punches the air as she mimics her partner, "You're a pretty good boxer, do you do it professionally?" she asks the Boxing Man.

He stays quiet and mumbles numbers as he punches; he has never spoken to Lynn, but it doesn't stop her from trying or from joining him on their morning workouts.

As the two step towards the front of her house, she stops to stretch her legs for a morning run. She waves to him, "See you tomorrow!" which he doesn't respond to as he goes on ahead of her. Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "One day I'm gonna get him to say something."

Francisco walks through the front door, "Alright, I've stretched and I'm warmed up."

"Alright! What do you think today? Five miles? Ten?"

He rolls his eyes, "How about something that isn't going to take me hours to do?"

She scoffs, "Fine…how about a quick run to the Burpin' Burger? I want to try their new Breakfast Belcher Burger."

"I guess, I'll meet you there," he tells her.

Lynn begins to run ahead and Francisco watches her as he slowly follows her. While she thinks that he's still as slow as ever, he has been exercising in his spare time between the few odd jobs that he's picked up over the last couple of weeks.

"Alright Lynn, time to show you what I'm made of," he says as he takes a deep breath and begins running after her.

Years of pain has slowly gone away since beginning Lisa's medicine a few weeks ago, but he has kept it a secret until today; his back and knee feel great and he is ready to show off that athlete that Lynn saw buried beneath years of suffering.

He slowly runs to warm up, but begins picking up speed when he begins to lose sight of her. Francisco tries to keep her from noticing him, but Lynn turns around and sees him catching up to her.

"Loving that hustle, let's see if you can keep up!"

She begins running faster, but it doesn't take long for Francisco to catch up, "Is that the best you can do? Don't tell me you're slowing down on me?"

He's purposely riling her up and, predictably, Lynn isn't taking it lying down. She pushes herself as best as she can; she can see the Burpin' Burger and just as she's sure that she's left him in her dust, Lynn sees him get ahead of her.

When he arrives at the restaurant, Francisco rests against the doorway in an effort to catch his breath; he can't remember the last time that he was able to beat her in a footrace, but just being able to say that he was able to run was enough to make him smile.

As Lynn arrives, he wraps his arms around her to lift her up and spin around with ease; taking her by surprise.

"What the heck?! Since when can you do all this?!"

"Does it matter?"

"A little, have you been letting me win this whole time?" Lynn asks, as she is still trying to wrap her head around the information.

Francisco gently lets her down, "Nope, but maybe all this exercise has been doing me some good."

Lynn looks away from him and walks into the burger joint; muttering something to herself. She is sure that he has probably been doing well for some time, especially since he had no problem running as fast as he did and he hasn't complained at all. However, despite her shock and shyness, she is happy to see him a bit happier than normal.

She turns to him, "What did you do differently?"

Francisco winks, "Nothing. I just worked harder in my free time and I thought that I'd surprise you."

She blushes and walks up to the register to keep him from seeing the redness in her face.

The couple place their orders and Francisco pats his pockets and notices that he forgot his wallet at home, Lynn realizes what happened and rolls her eyes, "Again? Jeez! It's your turn, how many times is that this month?"

"Three."

"Three more times than normal," she jokes as she hands her card to the cashier.

"I promise I'll pay you back when we get home."

"You better," she says lightheartedly.

After receiving their food and drinks, Lynn quickly guzzles down her coffee, and begins jogging in place. Francisco can tell that she wants a rematch back to the house, but he shakes his head and shows her the bag of food and coffee that he doesn't want to drop.

Lynn asks, "Can't you just eat your burger here?"

"I could, but I'm still not gonna run."

She stops jogging and pouts, "You're no fun."

Francisco chuckles, "You say that now, but just you wait."

The couple walks quietly down the street. Lynn is itching to race him again, especially now that she knows he won't hold back, but any time that she makes an attempt to get ahead, he just stands in place and watches her until she gets back to where she started running.

When they get close to the house, Francisco begins to quickly walk, Lynn tries to catch up as they speed walk to the front door, but she notices that her shorter legs are not doing her many favors as he gets ahead of her.

He unlocks the door and rather than wait for her, he walks in after teasing her, "See you when you catch up."

In a huff, Lynn runs instead and heads to the door. She walks in and is presented with the money for their breakfast.

"Already? I think you can wait until after we eat."

"Well, I didn't want to delay the inevitable and I didn't want you to get the wrong idea."

"Wrong idea of what?" she asks, before she feels his arms wrapped around her and his lips on hers.

She drops the bag of food and pulls him closer to her. He presses her against the door and she wraps her legs around his waist. She isn't sure what came over him, but she isn't going to fight it; he's rarely this spontaneous and she has sort of wanted him to do something like this for a long time. Maybe it's the fact that they're alone in the house or maybe it was because she felt a teenager who was turned on by seeing him as the strong athlete that was able to best her for a minute; but all she knows is that she doesn't want to let him go or part from him.

"Wait!" Lynn says, as she breaks the kiss. She tries to think of something that she wanted to tell him, but all she can think of is how he's kissing her neck and carrying her to their bedroom. "Margo!"

Francisco stops and looks at her, confused by what she said, "What?"

"She and her family are coming later this month and I wanted to pick them up from the airport."

"Is that it?"

"Yeah."

"Good," he says before pulling her into another kiss and taking her to their bedroom.


Lynn wakes up with vigor; today is her first tee-ball game and she is excited to go to the park with her family and spend time playing her favorite game. She gets dressed in her uniform and grabs her glove, so that they can leave and start the game.

She notices her brother snoring, "Wake up, Lincoln!" she loudly tells the sleeping boy.

He begins to cry after being startled awake and Lynn runs over to check on him. She waves her glove in front of him, but he still isn't calm. The girl looks around her room and spots a stuffed toy bunny that she borrowed from her brother after he fell asleep yesterday.

"Do you want Bun-Bun?" she asks in a pleading voice, hoping that her parents or older sisters won't make a big deal about her brother crying.

Lincoln sees Bun-Bun being bounced around and reaches out through the crib's bars to grab the stuffed toy.

Lynn hands over the toy, "Alright, you got your toy, we gotta get ready, I got a game today, and you're gonna come watch me play." She looks down and notices that Lincoln is falling asleep again, she nudges him, "Wake up," she whines, "we gotta go."

Lincoln begins to cry and Lynn panics, as she doesn't know how to keep him quiet. She tries to shush him, but it only makes the boy cry louder, and it isn't long before the her bedroom door opening grabs her attention.

Her dad is at the door, "What's with all the racket?" he yawns.

"Lincoln fell asleep, but we have to go for my game, but he can't stay up," Lynn explains.

Lynn Sr. walks over to his crying son; he picks him up and slowly begins to rock him to sleep. The boy begins to calm down and the man quietly sighs in relief until he remembers his daughter, who is haphazardly dressed for today's outing.

After placing Lincoln back in the crib, he leans down at eye level and looks at her, "Lynn, your game isn't until–"

"Why's Lincoln in his crib? We have to go for my game," she whines.

He picks up the girl and walks her over to the window, he opens the curtains and shows her that it is still dark outside, "See, there's no sun, so it's time for bed."

"But I'm not sleepy!"

Lincoln begins to make a fuss and Lynn Sr. carries Lynn out of the room, down the stairs and into the living room. He looks around and eventually finds what he is looking for, "See that clock? Do you see where the little hand is?"

"No, just the sticks on the numbers."

"Those are the hands," he taps on the hour hand, "That's the hour hand, when it gets to," he moves his finger in a clockwise direction, "here, then we can go to the park."

Lynn reaches out and grabs the two clock hands and moves them to the ten, "Now we can go."

The elder Lynn sighs; he knows that he's going to have to be a little more creative with her, "Have you had breakfast yet?"

She shakes her head, "Nope."

"Well, when I make breakfast, then we can get ready for your game," he tells her, hoping to buy more time.

"Can I have bacon for breakfast? Oh! And eggs! With toast! And chocolate milk! Can we have pancakes too?"

He sighs as he hears Lynn continue to name breakfast foods that she wants to eat. He shouldn't be surprised, his daughter was prone to running around like a wind-up toy and he can't imagine that she isn't bound to be hungry. He also could have worded his suggestion better, but he is running on a few hours of sleep after Lynn kept getting up from bed, excited for the game today.

"Well…" he slowly starts, trying to think of his words carefully, "how about when…when…the sun comes up, then I'll make breakfast and then we can get ready to go to the park for your game."

Lynn squirms out of her dad's hands and runs outside to the backyard to look at which direction the sun is going to come up from. She runs back and forth and goes back towards the garage and heads towards the front of the house.

"LJ! Stay in the backyard!" he tells her through the window. Lynn Sr. sighs; he doesn't want to play anymore, and while he understands that she's excited for the day to start so that she can participate in her first game, he just wants to go back to bed.

Rita walks up behind him and looks as Lynn is running around the backyard and climbing on the fence as if she's looking for something, "What is she doing?"

"Looking for the sun so that I can make breakfast…" he says in an exhausted tone.

She raises an eyebrow, wondering how both her daughter and husband got to that point, "Is she hungry?"

"Like always, I swear I wanna know where she puts it all."

"How about we deal with her running around the backyard yelling for the sun to come out," she says, as she points to Lynn, who is yelling at the top of her lungs.

Mr. Grouse opens his bedroom window and looks down to find the source of the commotion. He spots the little Loud girl, and yells towards the house, hoping to get her parent's attention, "Loud! Get your daughter under control! Some of us are trying to sleep!"

Lynn looks up at her neighbor, "Hi! Mr. Gross!"

"It's Grouse!" he corrects, and he slams his bedroom window shut.

She shrugs her shoulders and goes back to searching for the sun.

Rita opens the door to the backyard, "We should probably go get her before she wakes up any more neighbors."

"Wouldn't it be better if she just runs around a bit so that she can tire herself out?"

"Not if she keeps screaming as loud as she is."


Francisco walks into the house with his toolbox in hand and is greeted by the sight of Lynn pacing back and forth around the living room as she tries to keep herself from staring at a clock. It isn't long before Lynn checks her phone to see how much longer it will be until Margo and her family's flight lands. She can't sit still; she is excited to see her friend again, but she is also groaning because of how slowly time is moving. She checks her phone again, "Seriously?! How has a minute not passed?"

Francisco takes a seat, and looks at his watch; Margo's flight is set to arrive at 11:30 and they still have over an hour to before she arrives, however, looking at Lynn it's clear that she wants to leave for the airport now. While he isn't as obvious as her, he is also excited to see his friend in person after so many years and to finally meet her family. He fixes his eyes on Lynn, who is bouncing around with nervous energy.

He sarcastically responds, "You typically have to let sixty seconds pass before you look at the clock again."

"Not helping," she complains. "And where have you been all morning?"

"One of the neighbors down the street asked me to fix her toilet, so I agreed to help her. Besides, I wasn't gone long, I was in and out before she could finish complaining to me about her 'no-good husband who won't fix it after telling him for two weeks that there was something wrong'," he says in a mocking tone as he imitates the woman. "Why did you agree to take a day off from work to do this? Margo's parents still live in Royal Woods; they could have easily picked her up."

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know. Just figured I'd be a good friend."

"Uh-huh," he isn't buying it. For the last couple of weeks, Lynn has been coming home more stressed than usual; she mentioned the managerial side of inheriting the restaurant, but she doesn't go too in detail about what that means or why she hates it. "You know you can't ignore your dad wanting you to take over every aspect of the restaurant," he warns her as he picks up a magazine to read.

"That sounds like a challenge."

Unfortunately, it does, and like her adolescent self, Lynn doesn't like to back down from a challenge.

Lynn continues her attempts to ignore the clock and decides to take a seat next to him. Francisco can feel her rapid tapping, and as best as he tries to ignore it, he can't, "Why don't you go online and find a video to teach yourself how to tap dance? I bet you could kill some time doing that."

"I already did it once when I was avoiding studying for a final."

He's somewhat surprised, "You taught yourself to tap dance to avoid studying?"

She gets up from the couch and does a simple step sequence, "That's all I learned, but anything is better than studying."

"You really hated school, huh?"

Lynn nods her head. It isn't a secret that she was never the academic type, but she knows that if she had the right motivation at the right time she could have been successful, at least that's what she tells herself.

"Is it almost time to go?" she asks the clock on her phone, "Seriously?! How much longer until we can leave?"

"It takes half an hour to get to the airport–"

"Not if you let me drive," Lynn interrupts.

"Then we would have to leave later."

Lynn wanted to give him a snappy response, but he is making a good point, but she can't help herself; she's excited to see Margo and her family.

Francisco turns on the tv and hopes to find something that can keep Lynn's mind off of the time; unfortunately, daytime television is typically talk shows and soap operas – not exactly Lynn-friendly programming.

"How about a walk through the park to get your mind off of the time?" he suggests.

Lynn isn't paying attention; she's staring at the clock. Rather than waste his time asking again or suggesting another activity, Francisco decides to bury his nose in the magazine and wait for time to pass.

As soon as the time on her phone shows 10:45, she immediately jumps up from her seat, takes the magazine from his hands and tosses it to the side, "Time to go!"

"I was reading that," he says, as she pulls on his arm and drags him to his truck.

After arriving at the airport, Lynn is waiting excitedly outside of the truck as she keeps glancing at the sliding doors, waiting for the family to come out of the terminal. She looks as passengers walk past her, but there is still no sign of Margo and her family.

Soon, she spots a familiar blonde hair, "Margo!" she yells out loud to get her attention, "Over here!" Lynn runs over to her to greet her friend.

Francisco watches from his truck and steps out to help the family with their luggage. He gives them a simple greeting; deciding to let Lynn have her moment, but she pulls him into the hug, "It's been a long time, Margo," he turns to her husband, "Nice to meet you…Tim?"

"Tom," he corrects, "Although I haven't looked at my birth certificate recently," he jokes.

Everyone gets in the truck and as Francisco drives away from the airport Margo looks out the window and begins to reminisce with each sight she takes in. It's been so long since she has had a chance to come back home, and she plans on making the best of this week.

As Margo and Tom stare out the window taking in the view, Nicholas speaks up, "I like that it's not hot."

"Yeah, me too," Tom and Lynn agree simultaneously.

Lynn looks at Francisco, "It was so hot when I went to visit; every time you go outside, even for a minute, you start sweating. At night, it was almost as hot, but at least the sun wasn't out," she turns to the back seat, "Tom, what did you say it was like?"

"Like taking a hot shower and then putting your clothes back on without drying off."

Francisco groans, "That bad?"

"We nearly spent the whole week inside with the curtains closed."

Tom corrects her, "We were outside for a bit, remember when you and I were trying to prove who was stronger, that was even the same day that you and Margo went to the beach."

"Okay, so a few hours, but we were still inside for most of the day."

Francisco looks up at the rearview mirror and asks the family, "Where am I dropping you guys off?"

Margo answers, "Do you remember where my parents live?"

"Wait, are you serious?! You can stay with us!" Lynn offers.

Francisco briefly looks over at Lynn; silently reminding her that they don't have enough room for three extra occupants.

"Lynn," Margo starts, "We don't want to put you out and I already told my parents that I was going to see them this week."

"Oh…so are we still going to be able to hang out?"

"Yeah, I promise that we will hang out before we head back home."


The four-year-old girl gets strapped into her car; despite spending hours awake, she is still squirming with energy. She hates the car seat, but her parents insist that she has to wear it like her baby brother. Lynn looks at her younger brother and he just offers her a big smile as he squeals in delight when Vanzilla moves.

Lynn looks at her older sisters, who are seated behind her. She can hear them talking and she wants to listen and hang out before her game. She unbuckles herself, but doesn't realize that her parents noticed her getting out of her car seat.

Rita takes a hold of her, "Lynn, you need to get back in your seat."

"But I wanna sit with the big kids," she complains.

"I know sweetie, but you know the rules, if Vanzilla is moving you have to stay in your seat." Rita isn't sure how many times she's had to repeat that rule to her fifth daughter, but the lesson never seems to stick.

Lynn pouts and gets back in her seat. She hates that she isn't allowed to be with her big sisters; she isn't a baby, she's a big girl, who is about to play her first game and she wants to be treated as such.

The girl squirms again, not noticing that her brother is copying her. She can hear a few words that her sisters are saying, but she can't make out every word. Rita looks back and notices that Lincoln is copying Lynn and smiles as the girl goes about her usual attempts at being with her big sisters.

When the family arrives at the park, they walk around looking for the diamond where the game is set to commence. Lynn Sr. takes out his video camera and films the family, "Lynn Jr. are you excited about today's game?"

She turns around and sees the camera; she smiles, "Yeah! I'm gonna play and then I'm gonna win!"

"What about your team?"

"Them too!"

The parents laugh at her response.

As the family approaches the diamond, the girls spot a playground and turn their parents; all of them with the same of idea of asking their parents if they can go play. They approach their parents and two adults are overwhelmed by their daughters who are talking over one another to ask their parents the same thing.

"Girls! Girls! We're here to watch Lynn play in her first game." The girls pout, they are at the park and all they want to do is have fun like their little sister.

Rita and Lynn Sr. look at each other. She pulls out her cell phone, "Well," Rita starts, "We do have some time before the game starts and it is a nice day out."

"Alright," Lynn Sr. says, "I'll get LJ to her team and I'll save you guys some seats."

The girls cheer and run towards the playground, while Rita follows behind with Lincoln in tow.

Lynn Sr. takes his daughter's hand and she looks behind her at the playground, "Where are they going? I'm gonna be playing soon!"

"Don't worry, we have plenty of time, your sisters just wanted to play for a bit, but don't worry, they'll be in the stands before you go up to bat." He points the camera to her, "I promise, now can you smile for the camera?"

She nods and does so, even while he focuses his new video camera on the players and their families.

Lynn looks around for Margo and as soon as she spots her friend, she runs over and gives her a big hug. She is excited to see her friend again, especially on a day like today where they face a team in a different park than normal.

"Are you ready to win?" Lynn asks.

Margo giggles and shrugs her shoulders, "Maybe."

"Don't worry, I worked hard every day for us to win!" Lynn proudly declares.

"Every day? My daddy only helped me yesterday."

Some of the other kids begin to chime in and Lynn listens as the kids bring up how they only practiced once, not at all, or a lot less than her.

The coach calls all the kids to follow him to the dugout, but as soon as Lynn notices the dirt on the diamond, she quickly runs to show off her running, much her dad's surprise.

"LJ! Follow your teammates!" Lynn Sr. yells upon noticing his daughter running around.

After Lynn finishes running around, he takes a seat and looks around for his wife and children; he can see that Lynn is about to go up to bat and he is afraid that they may miss her moment. He looks around and then spots a familiar head of blonde hair, "Rita! Over here!" he calls out to her.

She hears his voice and leads the kids to their seats. Rita takes a seat next to her husband, she whispers, "Did I miss it?"

"Not yet, what happened?"

"I had to take the girls to the restroom and you know how they can be in there."

Lynn Sr. nods his head; familiar with his children's bathroom antics, from Luna trying to sing while the walls echo, Leni forgetting why she is in there, Lincoln trying to remove his diaper and run around, Lori calling her sisters to hurry up, and Luan telling jokes to the women waiting in line for their turn.

Rita continues, "I'm just glad we were able to get here before out little hyperactive athlete had her turn…she didn't try running onto the field before it was her turn, did she?"

"Uh…" he doesn't answer, and just looks down at the field to film Lynn.


Lynn walks into the garage. She is mentally exhausted, but she knows that a few minutes of boxing will do her some good. She spots Francisco working on his truck, but she ignores him in favor of the punching bag.

He looks over at her and notices her putting on her boxing gloves; she is still silent and he breaks the silence by asking, "Tough day?"

She stays silent; its days like these that make her miss the days of playing at a casino for a few hours to earn enough money for the month. It isn't the customers, she rarely interacts with them, it's her dad's insistence that she follow in his footsteps, including the mind-numbing paperwork.

Lynn punches the bag as hard as she can and Francisco hears the chain holding the bag up moving quickly with each punch, "Do you want to look online for a speed bag?"

Again, he is met with silence.

This isn't new behavior, but he is getting fed up with her behavior lately, "What's wrong with you?" Francisco asks as he holds the punching bag for Lynn.

Lynn continues to punch in silence; now she understands how annoying she can be to the Boxing Man, she just wants to train in peace, but she has to hear him ask questions. She knows why she's frustrated; ever since she agreed to take over the restaurant from her dad, he has slowly been taking her from the kitchen and forcing her to learn how to do paperwork.

"I don't want to do paperwork…" she mutters under her breath, "I just wanna enjoy my job in peace…"

It's happening again. Francisco knows the paperwork that her dad makes her do is a nightmare for her, but he also understands that when she agreed to take responsibility for her dad's restaurant that she would have to do what he did; whether she likes it or not. He doesn't tell her that, but her sake he will make an effort to sympathize just to calm her down.

"I can't blame you; I mean is that what you signed up?"

"Exactly!" she agrees, missing the point of Francisco's question. "I just want to cook not be a boring bookkeeper like Lori."

"And your dad can't do it anymore?"

"He can, but he won't because he wants me to do it and get the training from him, I can't learn everything! Every damn week I have to review my techniques, keep the kitchen clean, and help with the produce!"

"…help with the produce," he says at the same time as her.

She scowls at him, not appreciating that he is mocking her, despite him only repeating as Lynn has made the same complaints over and over again.

"If you're so damn sick of hearing me complain, I'll just leave you alone!" she yells before punching the bag and walking back to Dutch.

Francisco walks over to stop her, "Lynn, wait!" but she already slammed the door shut and he can hear the old car being driven away. "I should have stayed quiet," he tells himself.

Lynn speeds down the street; she is still frustrated, but if Francisco is so sick of hearing her then there's no point in telling him anymore. She stops at a red light, and stares out at the corner of her windshield; she is huffing in frustration, but now she isn't sure if work is the only reason why.

The sound of a horn makes Lynn lose track of her thoughts and she stares back at the driver of the other car, who is frustrated that she hasn't moved despite the green light.

"Where was I?" she asks herself. "Oh yeah…"

She had an expected to spend time with Margo and her family, but every time she called, the family was away somewhere in the state, and soon they were going to go back home and they wouldn't have had a chance to hang out.

Deciding to at least try again, Lynn dials Margo's number. She answers the call, "Hey, Lynn, I was just about to call you."

"You were?" she asks, surprised by the random luck.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you had plans this weekend; the boys wanted to go out to the lake and have a picnic or something and I wanted you and Francisco to join."

"Oh! Well, yeah, the three of us can join you guys."

Margo smiles, "Good, look, I'm sorry that we haven't been able to hang out too much; Tom created this huge itinerary and wants to cross off a lot of things from his bucket list and I figured that since you and Francisco work during the week, you probably couldn't get time off to run around and do silly tourist stuff."

Lynn scoffs, "No, I get it. I mean, it's a vacation, and you guys had your own plans," she says through her teeth.

Margo can tell that she is frustrated at the lack of time together, but she did think that Lynn would be busy with work, especially if she forgot to request some days off.

"Do you want to come over to my parent's place? We were just about to break out a board game," Margo offers.

"Yeah…that sounds nice."


Lynn looks at her teammate as he attempts to hit the ball off of the tee. She can feel her heart pounding; everyone told her that the game is just for fun, but she feels something funny in her stomach as she watches all of the kids on the field. She knows how hard she had to work, but she also knows that the other kids on her team make it look easy, even though they practiced less than she did.

She watches as the first boy walks up to the tee and tries to hit the ball. Lynn stares as she notices how he hits the ball. It doesn't travel far, but the boy begins running; that's exactly what she would do, but she recalls that he hasn't practiced since they last got together.

As each teammate goes up to bat, Lynn begins to wonder if she spent too much time practicing to accomplish the same thing as each of her teammates. All of them are able to hit the ball and run like her, but she doesn't understand why they are able to do as well as her when she spent so much time practicing with her dad.

Lynn watches as the other team as well; they can do everything she can do and probably the same way. She can't describe the feeling, but she's sure that it's like when she got sick eating her dad's Squid Ink Surprise a few months ago.

From the stands, the parents cheer and laugh as they watch the children's antics; from one girl sitting on first base, another boy waiting until the other team's player arrived to base to throw the ball, another girl chasing a boy even as he runs off the path to avoid getting touched by the ball.

None of the children are good, but everyone is in high spirits regardless as the kids enjoy themselves.

Lynn's stomach begins to feel funny; she feels sick and like she is going to look silly because she thinks that she will do something wrong. She walks around the dugout, but soon trips on her shoelaces.

Margo lends her hand to her friend, "Here," she says.

Lynn gets up and looks at her dirty shirt and loose laces. She is able to pat the dirt off, but she doesn't have the hang of tying her shoelaces yet. She tucks in her laces into her shoes and she tries her best to keep them inside.

The coach calls out Lynn and she nods as she goes up to bat. She takes a deep breath and looks at the ball, she is ready to make sure that she can make it fly further than any kid on the field. However, when she hits it, it doesn't travel far, but it doesn't stop Lynn from trying to do her best as she runs to first base.

A player on the opposing side stops the rolling ball and runs in her direction; forcing her to stop on the plate. While the coaches set up for the next player, Lynn can only think about how she expected for the ball to go far, but when it travels just as far as everyone else's she thinks about how she is dumb for spending so much time to accomplish the same thing as everyone else.


Francisco sets down his cooler full of food and grabs the matches to light a fire on the grill. He takes in a deep breath and lets the lake air relax him after a tense week. All week he has had to see Lynn upset and stressed, but he is hoping that this barbeque by the beach will settle her down and get her back her normal self.

Lynn walks up behind him, "Do you know what time they're coming?"

He looks over at Lynn, "I thought that Margo told you."

She stares at the fire, unable to recall what time Margo said that she and her family were arriving, "Well it doesn't matter, they're coming today and that's all that matters."

"Did Margo mention how many people are coming?"

"Just her, Tom, and Nick."

"Did you tell them not to bring anything?"

Lynn stops to think, but Francisco is sure that she probably forgot to do so; he sighs, it isn't difficult to relay some basic information, but somehow Lynn could make it harder than necessary.

"Who cares? Besides, we can carry around some extra food; no big deal."

"Yes, big deal, we're gonna have a lot of leftovers and Margo and her family are leaving in less than two days, so we're likely going to end up keeping most of it."

"I don't see the problem, and now you can stop complaining about spending money on slightly more expensive food," Lynn complains.

He can't believe that she's actually going to bring that into this disagreement; he's aware that Lynn isn't fond of his being more frugal than normal, but they have to make due until he gets substantial employment.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Elena can feel the tension rising, but she doesn't know what she can say to remedy the situation. She slowly backs away from the couple and let's them angrily stare at one another, while she quickly walks away and takes a closer look at a tree at the other side of the lake.

As Francisco responds to Lynn, she notices Elena quickly walking away from the two, "Where is she going?"

He turns around, and sighs, "Dang it…not again," he turns to Lynn and decides to make peace, "I think that we were a bit hasty and maybe it would be nice if next time, I handle the communication, so that this doesn't happen again."

She doesn't know what made him drop the issue, but Lynn isn't going to fight it and instead agrees so that things can get back to normal.

Francisco waves out to Elena in hopes of getting her attention. He knows that him fighting with Lynn made her leave, but with their short fight over, he wants her to return to the site in case anything happens while she is away from both him and Lynn.

"She'll be back eventually," she points towards the girl, who is slowly walking back to them, "see, there she is now. I'm gonna go get the extra food from my car and then we can start heating some up before everyone gets here."

"Are you sure it isn't because you're hungry?" he jokingly asks.

Lynn doesn't take too kindly to the joke and steps on his foot. Francisco feels his laces loosening, he bends down to tie his shoes, and out of habit, anchors his hand onto a steady item to lift himself up.

Elena approaches the site and notices that her dad has his hand placed on the grill, "Dad, what are you doing?!"

He looks up at her and wonders what she is talking about when he notices that his hand is getting warm; he quickly pulls his hand away from the grill and looks down to see redness.

She looks at the damage, "Didn't you feel that?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't that hot. I'm gonna go see if Lynn packed some burn cream for it and I'll be right back."

Francisco heads to the car and spots another car heading into the parking lot with familiar faces inside. Lynn waves to them and they honk their horn before parking next to her car. The family exits from the car and greet Lynn and Francisco, who accidentally shakes Tom's hand with his hurt hand.

He bites down on his bottom lip, "Lynn, did you pack the first aid kit?" he asks as he shows her the burn on his hand.

Tom excitedly opens the trunk, "I hope y'all don't mind, I brought some food."

"Great…" Francisco whispers under his breath as Lynn applies the burn cream.

She quietly tells him, "Be nice and eat until you feel your stomach is about to explode."

Tom pulls out a cooler from the trunk and places Margo's bag on top; he surprised by the weight and asks his wife, "Dang Margo, what did you put in your bag? Bricks?" he jokes.

"Just something for my friends."


Lynn looks through the chain-link fence. Everyone is eating a snack after the coaches called for a short break, but all Lynn could do was look out at the other team; she has been a nervous mess all day and it showed in her plays. Her team was losing, and she knows that it's her fault; she didn't practice enough…or maybe she isn't good enough if she needs to work so hard to only be as good as everyone else.

Lynn closes her eyes in exhaustion, but she is slowly woken up by the smell of lunch; she opens her eyes, and spots her parents in the stands waving her over to get something to eat. The girl drags her feet, and her parents notice her bad mood.

"What's wrong, LJ?" her dad asks, concerned about her bad mood.

"I'm not good enough…everyone is just as good, but I was too slow…" she complains.

Her parents are curious about where this attitude came from; as far as they knew, Lynn worked hard for the runs that she achieved, but it didn't seem to matter because the other kids were doing just as well.

Lynn Sr. hands her an orange slice to chew on, "Do you want something else to eat?"

She nods her head after finishing the piece of fruit. The parents can sense her foul mood, they know that Lynn struggles with keeping her emotions in check, especially with her competitive nature, but they hope that regardless of the outcome that she can accept it gracefully and learn that it isn't the end of the world.

Lynn Sr. hands her cut up hotdog with mustard and hands her a piece. She takes a bite, but the condiment drips onto her shirt and she groans at getting another stain on her clothes.

The coaches call the players back onto the field and Lynn is stopped, "Wait," her dad calls, he ties her shoes, "There, now you'll be ready play again."

Lynn looks down at her shoes and walks away to meet her teammates. Everyone is chatting away, but she ignores them in favor of sitting in the dugout by herself. She doesn't notice when her friend walks by to compliment her on the hit that she made, but she notices her friend's sad look.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing…"

Margo stays quiet, but she notices the mustard stain on Lynn's shirt and asks, "What happened?"

Lynn crosses her arms, "Nothing! Just a stupid mustard stain."

The blonde girl can tell that Lynn isn't taking the team's losing well and it's affecting her ability to play. She is sure that her friend is good, heck probably the best, but she got into her own head and won't budge.

"You know, my older cousin said that stains like that are good luck."

Lynn doesn't believe her, "No they aren't."

"Uh-huh! My cousin said so," Margo confirms.

The brunette isn't sure, but when she sees the look on Margo's face, she slightly nods and tries to hype herself up for her next turn at bat.

The coach calls Lynn up to the tee and sets a ball up for her to hit. She can feel her heart pounding; she wants to tell herself that she can do it, but she knows that she can't, especially after a day like today.

Lynn looks down and spots the little yellow stain; suddenly, she feels calm, she can do this, she isn't going to mess up or anything. She takes her bat and hits the ball, and as the other kids are chasing after the ball, Lynn runs as fast as her little legs will carry her and goes to first base. The coach encourages her to keep running until she thinks she should stop.

She can hear her family cheering from the stands and she keeps going as the other kids go to catch the ball or throw past one another. Lynn stops at second base and looks around; a girl has the ball, and she stays put until her teammate goes up to bat.

She is excited; none of the other kids were able to get to second base with one hit. Lynn glides her fingers over the mustard stain and thinks how it helped her, even if it was just luck. When her teammate hits the ball, she runs once again; she can hear the coaches from the opposite team encouraging their players to chase her with the ball, but with all her strength, she outruns her opponents and makes it to home plate.

Lynn's teammates run to congratulate her, but all she can think about was how the lucky mustard stain helped her be better than she expected.


Nick looks in awe at the scenery around him; back home everything is usually brown and the trees typically made way for the bayous, but here, he was able to see forests and lakes that looked like it came from a picture book. He's seen the beach before, but everyone insisted that this beach is different than what he was used to back home. He steps closer and closer towards the water; it's bluer than back home. He keeps going forward; hoping to set his foot in the water, when he hears a voice call out to him.

"Nicholas!"

He turns around and sees his mom with her arms crossed. "Can I go swimming?" he asks. For the past couple of days, he was mostly shuffling around with his mom, dad, and grandparents, but now he has an opportunity to go outside and do something fun – starting with going in that water.

Margo walks over to him, "Give us a few minutes to set up and then we'll go in the water."

Lynn passes by with a few chairs and a parasol, "I'll keep an eye on him while I set up, you can get your things and I'll make sure he doesn't sneak into the water alone."

Margo has an idea of what her friend is planning, and while she agrees to have her watch her son, she still keeps an eye on the two.

Lynn can feel Margo's eyes and sets up the chairs, but as soon as she is sure that her friend isn't looking, Lynn walks over to Nick, "Do you want to go in the water?" He nods his head excitedly, "Did you put on sunscreen?" He nods again. "You didn't have food recently, did you?" he shakes his head, "Then let's go!" she declares as she picks him up and runs towards the water.

Elena sees the sight by the shore, "Dad, Lynn's taking Nick into the water."

"Lynn!" he yells. She stops in her tracks and turns around, "Don't take him in yet! Help us finish then you can both go swimming."

Margo, Tom, and Elena look at him, then turn to Lynn who begrudgingly turns around and lets go of the boy.

"Some things never change," Margo laughs.

The others join in. Despite not seeing each other in nearly four years, and not seeing Francisco in over decade; to Margo, it felt as though they were teenagers.

Nicholas runs up to his mom, "But mom," he whines, "I wanna go in the water."

Lynn rests her head on the boy's shoulder, and looks up at the others with her puppy-dog eyes, "I can watch him, and it's not like the coney sauce can't be heat up in a heartbeat. Besides," her eyes look down on his little life jacket, "he's going to be safe and the water isn't too deep."

The three adults give in and let them hit the water; figuring that they can finish setting up while keeping both of them distracted.

Francisco looks out into the water and sees Lynn playing with Nick; Margo, who is also looking, "Even after all these years, she still can't let him go."

"What?"

Margo turns to him, "When she came to visit, she was pretty attached to him. Honestly, I was afraid that she wouldn't give him back if I didn't say anything," she jokes.

"She almost didn't," Tom adds, "I think even on the car ride back to the airport she was playing with him."

"That…doesn't sound like Lynn," Francisco says, surprised to hear such things about her, "You know, except for those kids that she babysat, she never struck me as the type to even like kids, although…" he points out to Lynn, who is pretending to be a sea monster and chase the boy.

"Speaking of kids, where did Elena go?"

Francisco points out to her, "She's resting on the dock reading a book from her summer reading list."

Margo glances over at Elena, "You know, Lynn mentioned that she made the honor roll, you must be proud of her."

Francisco sighs, "I guess…"

"What does that mean?"

He struggles for a bit before he starts, "You know that her mom and I are separated," Margo nods, "Well, she spends so much time with Caroline and her family; I sometimes don't feel like I play much of a role. How much do I really raise her when I have her Friday afternoons to Sunday evenings?"

Margo's eyes soften after hearing Francisco talk. She knows from some conversations with Lynn, that he wishes that he could have his daughter around more, and she can imagine that it's hard to not be around often.

She places her hand on his shoulder, "Don't sell yourself short, those days add up."

"That's what Lynn tells me too sometimes."

"Maybe you should listen."

The two laugh. Francisco looks out at the water and watches as Lynn plays with the boy; he begins to wonder what is bringing out this happier side in her. It isn't exactly a rare sight, but he can feel that there is something different than normal. He shrugs his shoulders, figuring that maybe it's Margo's presence that caused the change in her demeanor.

Tom opens the pot that Lynn brought, "What's in here? Chili?"

"Coney sauce."

"What's the difference?" he turns to Margo, "or is that what you guys call chili up here."

She sighs, he's been like this all week; comparing things and being surprised by how different things are in Michigan versus their hometown, "No, it's for the hotdogs – coney dogs."

Tom closes the lid, "Should we hit the water first?"

"I wouldn't mind eating, plus it'll get those two out of the water for a bit," Francisco says, pointing out to Lynn and Nicholas.

"Maybe you should heat some of the food up so that they don't have to wait too long," Margo suggests.

Francisco agrees and opens the cooler to get the burgers and hotdogs cooking. Tom looks over at the grill; it wasn't his idea of a barbeque, but it's a cookout, so he'll keep quiet, and not just because Margo was getting sick of him saying silly things.

"So where did you two meet?" Francisco asks.

"Government class," Tom answers. "I think we were reading a court case and we got grouped together because we were sitting close to one another."

"Then we talked by the bus stop, exchanged numbers, and whenever he wasn't in a rush to go home, we would hang out around campus," Margo reminisced.

Tom nods, "We would hang out by the pond by the architecture building, the fountain in front of the library, sitting where the Satellite was before they closed it, catch a concert at the park in front of the dorms; you know stuff like that."

"Stuff like what?" ask Lynn and the kids, surprising everyone.

"Oh, just taking a trip down memory lane," Margo answers. "Speaking of, I brought something that you and Francisco might appreciate." She pulls out a large scrapbook from her purse and opens up to show everyone pictures from when the trio of friends were teenagers.

Elena and Nicholas take the book and look through the pictures; there are photos from a soccer game, the photo in front of the movie theater with a group of friends, a beach volleyball game, swimming at the pool and a field trip.

"Look, dad! All the leaves change color, and does it snow every year?!" he asks, as he spots a photo of a snowy Christmas field trip.

Tom looks over at the photo, "Dang! No wonder you aren't afraid of driving in the snow, Margo," he laughs.

"When the snowfall back home is the equivalent of dropping a Flippee on the ground, no, I'm not going to be afraid, although I do love the day off from work."

Lynn, Francisco, and Elena laugh.

The smell of the burgers grabs the boy's attention and he asks, "Can we eat? Miss Lynn promised we were going to eat burgers and hotdogs and coke."

Margo looks over at Lynn, who just responds, "What? Swimming builds up an appetite and I had to stop him from drinking the lake water."

Francisco and Margo roll their eyes, but let out a chuckle at her antics.


This is what I hate about falling behind, it screws up my update schedule and then it's hard to catch up, but hopefully, I can get back on track for both of our sake

To answer the review question, I don't really get on either site; nothing is stopping me, but I never got into the habit of looking through either one to say, "I'll post my story here." Maybe when the chapters are rewritten, but even then, I'm not sure.

I don't have much to say about the the other reviews. Yes, an OC could probably fill the same role that Francisco serves now, but considering that he isn't used in the show, it doesn't seem to me like there's a difference in using either one; I created a character in the way I wanted. The difference? I used a character that showed up on screen.

Anyway as always, thank you for reading, everyone