Andrew walks into Lynn's Table. He's working under an unfortunate time crunch and he's hoping that Francisco isn't as indecisive as his step-daughter. After meeting with Caroline's parents a few days ago, the couple had to quickly think of a plan to get him and his side of the family to attend Elena's upcoming birthday party.

A young man at the counter notices Andrew, and greets him, "Hello, welcome to Lynn's Table. How many are in your party?"

"None, I was hoping to see Mr. De Los Reyes about an important issue."

He nods and walks around the counter to lead Andrew to Francisco's office in the back. The man knocks on the door, and both of them can hear Francisco letting them know to come in.

Francisco looks over at the door and sees Andrew. He wasn't expecting to see the man at all, at least until Elena's birthday party approached. The employee leaves the office. Francisco is unsure of what to say. The two rarely interact by themselves, and when they do, it tends to be quiet or about Elena.

"Would you like to take a seat?" he asks as they step towards his desk.

"Sure," Andrew says as he sits down, "Francisco, I'm going to cut to the chase, do you know about the Huntington Oaks Country Club?"

"Yeah, Violet takes Elena there any time she can. Why?"

"They have venue for events; they cover catering, decorations, everything. Anyway, Jacob has planned to throw Elena's fifteen there, but they may not let you or your family in."

Hearing that surprised Francisco, he knows that country clubs don't exactly let everyone in, but the fact that his family isn't going to be allowed to his daughter's birthday is too much, "What?! Why?!"

"The club is for people with memberships, you can get one–"

"How am I supposed to buy one?! I can't afford a membership, especially in Huntington Oaks!"

Francisco rests his head in his hands. Even after all these years, Jacob is still trying to remind him of what he cannot provide for Elena the way the richer man can. While he doesn't know the cost of membership at the country club, he can't imagine that it's going to be in his price range.

"Francisco, there are two ways to get membership – one is buying it, the other is being a resident of the town, or at least own a home there. It isn't a full membership, but it does grant you access to tennis courts, the pool, and the venue." Andrew pulls out his laptop to show him a foreclosed home for sale. "Look, Caroline and I think that what Jacob is trying to pull is underhanded, but we can get around it. Assuming that only your mom, brother, and Lynn are the other guests you want to invite, then we can handle two of them, and you can invite the third."

"Why go through all this? It's not like we're going to be the only guests at the party."

"True, but Elena can't invite anyone because she's a minor and most of the guests are friends of the family, so they might be more inclined to side with them. Anyway, this allows us to still follow the rules, without having to ask anyone who might back out later."

Francisco looks at the screen. The house is small, but he doesn't have all the money to pay the bank for it. At the moment, he's financially okay; however, the thought of his name being attached and having possible financial liability of a home in a wealthier city has him nervous.

Andrew can see that Francisco is hesitating, "I'm proposing this arrangement – you get the house in your name, Caroline and I are going to cover the expenses until we get someone to rent it out, we have financial responsibility. Now, there isn't going to be a mortgage, since we're buying it outright and we're going to insure it and cover the taxes. However, as far as tenants are concerned, you own it, so you have to assume repairs and the non-financial responsibilities."

"So if a tenant gives me rent money, I have to hand it to you?"

"In a way, we can iron out the financial issues when I bring my lawyer around. Now you're only going to lose gas money, time, and any labor you can do, but we cover the rest with the rent money. We only want to keep the house until Elena graduates, just in case this issue pops up again, and this way we don't spend hundreds of thousands for a membership that may not be used." Andrew closes his laptop and gets up from his seat, "We can go see the house later this week, but we have to own it before the eleventh."

Francisco is surprised by the date; he only has about a week to decide, "Why?"

"You need to own the property for six months to get the residential membership. I'm sorry we had to spring this on you last minute, but if we knew, we would have told you sooner."

Francisco sighs, "Yeah, I get it…"


Lynn walks down the path to Cesar's dorm. Classes are over, midterms are behind her and she is ready to enjoy Spring Break by kicking back and relaxing after all the cramming she did. Weeks of stress are finally over and carefree days are ahead of her, for the next ten days, she plans on playing, training, and catching up on the Dream Boat after a certain boyfriend barred her due to upcoming tests. She can't blame him, he wanted her to do well in her exams, but a little reality tv wasn't going to undo everything they studied, she tried to reason.

Her friends already made plans to head back home, but Lynn plans on staying behind at school. She thought about heading back to Royal Woods, but knowing that Cesar is likely to stay behind; she decided that she could wait until school was out to go see her family.

Lynn knocks on Cesar's door. She hears him call out to her, and when he opens the door, Lynn notices a packed bag and quickly realizes, "You're heading back home too?!"

"Yeah, I have some things to do back home and since I'll have plenty of time until my next exams, I could go back without worrying about studying and tests."

"Like you needed to worry," she scoffs, as she lays back in the bed across from his own, "You can probably tank the rest of your tests and still get a passing grade."

"I'm not risking that," he reminds her. "Why aren't you going home? I bet you would probably have more fun with your family than you would here by yourself."

Lynn looks over at him, "I thought that you were going to stay here. I figured that you wouldn't want to be alone. Instead, I find out that you're leaving without telling me."

He did neglect to tell her, but Cesar didn't do it on purpose. He recently received an email for an interview at Columbia for their graduate program, and he decided to schedule it during Spring Break. With Lynn living so close to home, he assumed that she would have gone home instead of staying put on campus, so he decided to go home as well.

Cesar notices the look on her face, and suggests, "You should go see your family, I bet they'd love to see you again and maybe your friends will head back home too."

That isn't a bad idea, her family and friends aren't expecting her, so she can probably surprise them when they get home, "Alright," she nods her head, "you sold me on the idea."

"Great! I'm leaving tomorrow, if you want we can take the airBus to the airport and you can probably get home some other way."

"Wait!" she says, stopping him in his tracks, "if you're going to head back to New York, I'm gonna want pictures."

"Why? You don't trust me," he teases.

She blushes, "No! I just want photos of the city."

"You could probably find a lot of better pictures online," he reasons, "and it isn't like you're going to be that interested in seeing photos of Hunts Point."

She scoffs, "But what better way to see the real New York than photos from someone who lives there," Lynn reasons as she goes in for a punch. Cesar quickly moves away from her reach, and while he finishes packing, she tempts him, "I can send you photos of Royal Woods."

Cesar thinks about it. Despite spending nearly four years in Michigan, he didn't spend a lot of time exploring, opting to use his time to study to get into graduate school. Like Lynn said, he could probably ignore his classes for the rest of the semester and still do okay, but he isn't going to ruin his seven-semester Dean's List streak in favor of exploring.

"Alright, but go out and have fun so that I can see what the Wolverine State is all about."

She spits in her hand to shake in agreement, "Deal!"

Cesar looks at her hand and shakes his head.

"Fine!" she says as she cleans her hand on her shorts. "But you better have fun too."

"I'll take a photo of Yankee Stadium if you want."

"You could run inside, or bring me back something to eat," she jokes.

"Sure," he says going along with her, "Would you like me to bring you back a slice of pizza or a bagel? I can't guarantee that they won't be half-eaten though."


Lucy looks at the blank computer screen. Her publisher has been breathing down her neck and not in a good way. For weeks, she has been struggling with coming up with a new idea for a book, and all she can think of is the same premise that she's already done. After being in the writing game for years, Lucy isn't a stranger to writer's block, but she can't seem to get over it this time around as quickly as she used to.

"Sigh…" she says to herself as she looks at the blank computer screen. If she had an idea of where she wanted her story to go, it might be easier, but after so many stories, she doesn't know what else to do. Before, she could read some books and then get inspiration, but between three children, there isn't as much time. Not to mention, she used to bounce back and forth with her poetry, but her publisher insists on another Brae book instead.

As she stares at the screen, hoping for some sort of inspiration, Lucy can hear the SpaceChat ringtone and sees that Lily is calling her, she picks up and is met with the sight of Lily and Lisa, who is in the background doing paperwork, "Hey," says Lucy.

"Hey, Luce! How's your book coming?"

"Sigh, I don't want to talk about it."

"That bad?"

Lucy nods her head.

"Aww I was hoping that I could read something," Lily whines.

Without looking up from her paperwork, Lisa says, "I still fail to grasp your insistence at reading such books."

"I want to be included," Lily complains to Lisa, "Besides, they must be pretty good if Lucy can afford that nice, big house she lives in."

Finding an audience wasn't tricky for such books; on the contrary finding an audience for her poetry is harder. Despite submitting books of poems, her publishers aren't as interested and only agree to print them because they are afraid of her leaving them for another publisher. She knows that she has a loyal following online, but they can't buy as many books compared to Madame Brae's readers.

"Well, since there isn't anything to read, get this, someone actually called Lisa a miracle worker? Can you believe it? And all because of some headache medicine."

"Really?" asks Lucy, surprised that someone is reacting positively to a side effect.

Lisa looks up at the screen, "I refuse to acknowledge the idea of miracle workers, but yes, those were her exact words. I'm still running tests to determine how my medication caused this unexpected turn of events."

"So what happened?"

"That's classified."

"Even I'm not allowed to know." Lily notices that Lucy is still off, "What's wrong? Usually you're like a happy-depressed and now you're a depressed-depressed."

"I don't know. It's been happening for a while. It may have something to do with my publisher or something…I swear, it's like a terrible nightmare."

'So that's it? I'm such a nightmare to be around that you guys flaked on me? That I wasted my time trying to do something nice for you guys?'

Lucy shakes her head; Lynn's words also weren't helping her. The last time she saw her sister, she didn't say a thing, she didn't want to say anything since she is partly the reason that Lisa and Lily found out about Lynn's plans. However, weeks have passed since that conversation, and no one has made attempts to mend fences. This isn't unlike Lynn, she doesn't like facing her emotions, so she isn't going to try anymore after what she said, but it seems like Lily and Lisa aren't fazed either.

"Aren't all nightmares terrible?" asks Lisa.

Lily chimes in, "This is Lucy, we're talking about, nightmares a good thing to her."

"Fair point," Lisa says, "Perhaps a change of scenery will help with your creative woes?"

"Or talking to Luan or Mom? They're both writers, maybe they have some ideas."

"Luan's a children's television show writer, and Mom doesn't know I write these books, how would they be able to help me?" Lucy asks flatly.

"Isn't a writer a writer? They probably went through writer's block. Just ask, you never know."

"Sigh…I guess…"

"It isn't as though Mother is a stranger to romance novels, although I'm not sure how well-versed she is on the subject of erotic novels."

"Groan…"

Lily looks over at her sister. Despite her bangs covering her eyes, she can sense that something is bothering her, aside from the writer's block, "Is there something else on your mind, Lucy?"

"Sigh, do you think that Lynn is still upset with us?"

"It's probable. Our sister is rather emotionally charged, so it is likely that the events that occurred during the holidays have upset her. However, a more than appropriate amount of time has elapsed, so she should start overcoming her issues soon enough."

"Are we sure that Christmas didn't make things worse?"

"I fail to understand the issue, we were invited to the get-together."

"Yeah, and Chuy told us not to say that he invited us. I'm still not sure why he did though."

That does explain their visit after what happened, but she doesn't know what went on at that party. However, that isn't the problem. Lucy knows what she did was wrong and she let Lynn pretend that they were all going to celebrate with her. What made it worse for her was that she didn't say anything about it. Lily and Lisa both said what their problem was when it came to going with Lynn, but she didn't.

As Lisa and Lily continue their conversation, Lucy gets up from her seat, "I have to go," she says. "I need to take care of something."


Lynn looks out the window. It's a little past eight in the morning but despite the nearly thirty minute ride from the university to Detroit Metro Airport, Cesar and the other students, are departing early to be on time for their flights.

Lynn rests her head against the window, "Why couldn't you get a later flight?"

Cesar, who is settling into his seat, answers, "I wanted to get home early and this was the cheapest flight."

She groans as she rests her head against the window in an effort to get some rest. However, the bounces of the bus have her head bouncing back and forth. Regardless, Lynn doesn't change positions, and Cesar waits to see if she will learn her lesson.

As the shuttle pulls into the airport, a thought occurs to Cesar, and he asks her, "How are you going to get home?"

She cracks her neck after the ride, and answers, "I'll figure it out. Maybe I can take a bus or a cab?"

He looks over at her in disbelief, "You didn't plan how to get home?"

"What? You sprung this idea on me last night," she reasons.

"It only takes a few minutes if you searched online."

She gets up from her seat, "Call me spontaneous, besides don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I know the city, well enough," she says, not giving him a lot of confidence.

Cesar gets up and follows her out of the shuttle. She never mentioned how often she would go into the city, but at least if she gets lost, her family will be nearby to help her.

As he steps off of the shuttle, Cesar spots Lynn running in place, "What are you–"

Lynn stops running when she hears a sound coming from her backpack. She pulls it off and notices an old candy bar getting squished between her belongings. She looks up at Cesar, "Do you want it? You know, a little snack until you get home."

He looks at the bar. It's a little dusty and flattened, but accepts it regardless since it isn't often that she offers food to others, "Thanks," he says as he places it in his backpack, "So are you going to head out?"

"Nah, it's early. I can still hang around with you."

"That's going to be pretty hard once we get to security," he says as he begins walking towards the ticketing line.

She shrugs her shoulders, "Well it's better than nothing," she says.

Cesar doesn't say a thing and lets her follow him as he gets his ticket, his bags weighed, and as they walk towards the security line. He notices Lynn looking around at everything with excitement as if she's ready to wander into a plane or a control tower. He can't see what is so interesting about the airport, but with a large family, he assumes that she didn't fly much growing up.

As they get to the security line, he leans down and gives her a kiss, "I'll call you when I land."

She smiles softly and looks away from him, "Alright, but don't forget to send me those photos when I message you."

"Alright," he says before walking towards the security line.

Lynn watches over him, and when he is no longer in sight, she looks for a place to sit down. Despite what Cesar said, she's sure that she could get herself home without issue, even if the map on her phone said that it will take nine hours on foot.

As much as she would love to push herself to run the twenty-eight miles, she can hear Cesar's imaginary voice telling her that it's a dumb idea and to take the bus home instead. She checks her pockets for money, in hopes that she has a few bucks, "C'mon Lynnsanity, you only need two bucks to get home."

She pulls out a few crumpled one dollar bills from her pocket and settles on hopping on the two buses home.

After over an hour on the bus, Lynn crashes through the front door of the house, but is met with silence. It's not even noon yet, so her family is either at work or at school, which is fine for her surprise plan, but boring as she waits around for three in the afternoon.

She goes into the kitchen to grab something to eat before settling down in front of the tv to watch something until everyone gets home. After finishing her sandwich and struggling to find anything worth watching, Lynn remembers that she can probably find out if her friends are coming home.

She sends out a message to Francisco, Margo, Paula, Lainey, and Maddie; in hopes that one of them is available or if they're coming home for Spring Break. Francisco can't afford a flight back, Paula has doctor's appointments, Maddie is heading on vacation somewhere else, Lainey has tests to study for, and Margo won't be able to make it back home either.

Lynn slouches on the couch, "Well that stinks…"

She hoped that her friends could have joined her for some fun. While Lynn doesn't mind hanging around with her siblings, they may not be interested in the Spring Break she had planned. She starts to think of all the ways could spend it from riding dirt bikes, rock climbing, surfing, kayaking, catching a game, and hiking, but it's not going to be as fun without someone to join her.

Two hours later, the sound of Vanzilla sputtering grabs her attention and she quickly ditches the remote and sneaks into the dining room; ready to surprise the first person to come through the door. She can hear the sounds of her younger siblings talking and as soon as the door opens, Lynn dog piles on top of them.

The older sister laughs as her younger siblings are taken by surprise by her sudden appearance. Lynn never mentioned anything about coming home for Spring Break, but regardless, they are happy to have their sister in town after being gone for months.

The next morning, Lynn wakes up and gets dressed to go rock climbing. She has the whole day ahead of her and she plans on getting as much out of the week as possible. As she steps out of the room, she notices Lincoln stepping out of his room, dressed in his date khakis. The two make eye contact, aware that the other wants the keys to Vanzilla for their outing. Rather than let Lincoln beat her, Lynn immediately runs for it with her brother running right behind her. She and Lincoln make a grab for the keys, which are hanging on the hook by the front door, and they grab it at the same time.

Lynn tugs on the keychain, "Give it, Stinkoln, I'm going rock climbing."

"I'm going to the city," says Lincoln, as pulls the keys towards him.

"You can take a bus."

"So can you."

Rita hears the commotion from Lynn and Lincoln and heads over to the living room to investigate. She spots Lynn pinning Lincoln to the ground, both of them holding onto Vanzilla's keys.

"What is going on?" she asks.

Both siblings look up at their mother and Lynn lets go of her brother, "I wanted to go rock climbing, but I need the keys," she says as she tries to pull them from her brother.

"But you said that I could borrow the keys so that I could go see Ronnie Anne," Lincoln reasons, as he tries to pull the keys away from his sister.

Rita takes the keys from both of them. This is the moment where she wished that the university would allow Lynn to have a car on campus. Since the parents knew that, they never insisted on Lynn getting her own car, and now she has two teens fighting for the keys.

She turns to her daughter, "Lynn, I did tell Lincoln he could borrow Vanzilla, but you can use it tomorrow." Rita turns to Lincoln, "Which means, have the tank filled up when you get back. You're both going to alternate days, got it?"

"Yes, mom," they answer.

As Lincoln takes the keys, Lynn starts planning what she can do to solve her dilemma. She could take the bus, but she can't carry all of her gear, there are her sisters, but Luna and Luan work and they'll probably want her home early with their car. Lynn settles to call Leni, but the older sister explains that she's busy at work and won't be home until later that evening.

"What the heck am I supposed to do?" she asks herself.

"You could request a ride from Royal Rides," suggests Lucy.

Lynn jumps up, surprised by her sister. When she regains her composure, she tells Lucy, "What? No, I can't afford that, not for three days, and not for where I wanted to go."

She sighs. While she will still be able to use Vanzilla for four days, it isn't going to be the same and she'll have to hold back on some of her plans, but she's going to make it work, all Lynn has to do is figure out how to get around and the rest will be no problem.

"What about asking your friends? Can't they drive instead?"

Lynn stops and doesn't answer immediately, before telling her sister, "I'm flying solo this Spring Break, unless you want to come along."

Lucy silently looks at her sister. They don't have Vanzilla, but knowing Lynn, she is going to insist on figuring out a way to do whatever outdoorsy plans she had in mind. She knows that she isn't interested, but before she could say no, she looks at her sister, who is hoping for someone to join her. Lucy knows that the other siblings are probably going to say no, so against her better judgment, she nods her head and agrees to go.

"Sure, but we have to do things that I like too."

Lynn quickly says, "Yeah, sure, no problem," she takes her sister's hand and pulls her upstairs, "Hopefully we can find some of my old gear for you to wear. Are you good with a camera?"

Lucy silently sighs, almost regretting that she agreed to do this.


Francisco grabs his coat. He doesn't normally make a habit of leaving work early unless it's for a doctor's appointment or for work-related issues, but with the time limit that Andrew is placing on him, he has no choice. He needs to go look at the house for himself so that he can get started with repairs, and so that Andrew, or he, can rent it out.

He walks into the kitchen and calls out to Lynn, who is stirring a pot of soup, "I'm going to be out for a bit, but I'll be back as soon as I can."

"What? Where are you going?"

"I have to do something in Huntington Oaks. It shouldn't take long," he tells her.

"Huntington Oaks? What are you busting Elena out of school again?" she jokes.

Francisco chuckles, "No, but it does involve her, sort of, point is, I'll be back soon."

She looks him right in the eye, in hopes that his eyes will tell her if he's lying, "What are you hiding?" she asks.

He doesn't notice the lack of seriousness in her tone, but is instead surprised by the assumption, he nervously answers, "N-Nothing, at least I'm not sure." The answer confuses Lynn, and he can tell, "I'm looking into something for Elena's party."

Lynn stops what she is doing, "This early? It's April. How early do you have to plan this party?"

"You know how big this party is going to be, besides, her birthday is in six months, I'd rather plan ahead than have anything get in the way later."

She believes him; he would the type of person to plan months ahead for a party, "Alright, I'll see you later."

"Great, I don't be long. I promise," he says before giving her a brief kiss on the cheek.

When he's gone, she jokingly tells herself, "I'm such a good girlfriend."

"How?" asks Pete. He turns to Greg, "What did she do?"

"She's acting like she did something outstanding," he says, as he hands her a bowl.

"Was it?"

"No," they both answer.

Over half an hour later, Francisco is in front of the house. He looks through the window to see the inside of the house. He and Andrew won't be able to go inside of the house to see if there are any problems, but if Francisco's job is going to be repairs, he wants to be aware of what he is getting into. With Caroline and Andrew handling the finances, he shouldn't be worried, but they are doing him a huge favor and he doesn't want them taking on such a large risk. From the outside, the two-story house doesn't seem to be so bad – there are no broken windows, the lawn is kept well enough, and it has a new coat of paint and new roof. However, if his own house has taught him anything, it's that the outside doesn't always paint the whole picture.

Andrew pulls into the driveway and he notices Francisco looking inside, "What do you think, Francisco?" he asks as he steps out of his car.

He looks over at Andrew, "Does it matter? Isn't it your money that you're going to be spending?"

"Yes," Andrew answers back, "but you're going to be fixing this, and we still have to pay taxes and other expenses, so we have to get this fixed fast or we're going to take another big hit without earning anything."

While Andrew didn't say it, Francisco knows that he's reminding him of the huge favor that he and Caroline are doing for him. He appreciates the gesture, but the thought of being indebted to someone without a way to properly pay them back is weighing down on him.

While Francisco stands quietly, Andrew begins to go over his plans for the house with him. He is only armed with a basic blueprint, but if there aren't any big issues, then they should be able to get everything done in a quick amount of time.

"What if…what if I want to buy it, from you guys?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I mean, I don't have all the money upfront, so I can't get the foreclosure price, but what if we make an arrangement for me to buy it from you?"

Andrew thinks about it. The only reason that he and Caroline are buying the home is for Francisco to see the party, and as soon as Elena graduates from college, they are planning on selling the house. However, if Francisco is interested in keeping it as an extra source of income, then he isn't going to get in his way.

Andrew turns to Francisco and nods his head in agreement, "If you have some time, we can go see my lawyer so that we can draw up a contract."

Francisco is surprised that he agreed so easily, but he's happy nonetheless. This is his opportunity to earn some extra money the way he wants to, and while he isn't thrilled about being thousands in dollars in debt, on top of his own mortgage, be still wants to take the chance.

"Yeah, let's go."


Cesar runs for it. Today is his important interview with the admissions board and he cannot be late today. All year, and even his whole academic career, has been about getting into the best graduate school that he can, and while Columbia isn't his first choice, he isn't going to dismiss the opportunity that he is being granted.

When he reaches the bus stop, he looks around to see if the bus is on its way, but he can't see anything. He taps his foot anxiously as he tries to relieve the nervous energy, but it doesn't help his panicking heart.

All week, he has mostly spent his time cooped up at home helping his family out – that's normal, he used to do it before he left for school. However, Cesar hoped that he could have had a little more fun while he is back home, instead this is one of the few rare moments that he is leaving his neighborhood. A part of him wants to blame Lynn since she has been showing him videos and photos of herself doing so many fun things with her family; it makes him think of how much time he spends cooped up in a room studying instead of creating a bit more of a balance between work and fun.

The bus approaches the stop and when he boards the bus, the driver looks at him with surprise, but doesn't say a word to Cesar, who pays and looks for an empty seat. No one is paying him any mind, except for the woman near to him, who is looking right at his face. Cesar knows why she is staring, it's because his face is scarred.

'I can't believe I have to go to this interview like this,' he thinks to himself.

Cesar angrily sighs; thinking about the incident that occurred minutes before he left. He knows that he shouldn't have had chocolate in his bag, but one forgotten snack was all it took to send his brother into a violent rage, which resulted in his face looking as though he spent time in a back alley with a woman of the night.

'All these years and he still can't keep his hands out of my stuff.'

The bus arrives at his stop, and Cesar steps out of the bus and runs to be at the next stop to catch another bus. So long as there isn't a delay, he should be able to get to the university with five minutes to spare.

'Five minutes! Yeah, that's real professional! And that's assuming that I don't go in sweating like a pig. I told you that I wanted to be early for this interview, in case anything happened on the way over, and you said that it was only going to be a few minutes…' he complains in his head.

Cesar can feel his headache intensifying. Mentally getting mad at his family isn't going to accomplish anything, except cloud his thoughts. He pushes his fingernails into the palms of his hands and tries to forget what happened and focus on the interview.

His phone buzzes in his pocket – it's Lynn

What are you doing?

Cesar sighs; when she thought of this idea, it sounded fun, but right now it not the best time to look for anything to photograph. The bus approaches his stop. Rather than send a photo, Cesar sends her a message instead.

I'm about to go to a meeting, can I call you back when it's over?

She's not heartless, surely she can understand that he has something more important to tend to.

When's it over?

He sighs.

In a little over an hour, I'll let you know when I'm out. I promise

Cesar can feel his phone buzzing, likely with Lynn's response, but he doesn't have time to look, he has to run for it. He can see the sign as he approaches the building. Cesar looks at his watch, he only has a few more minutes until his appointment, and he is not going to be late.

He runs up the steps to go inside, and he looks around for the room where the interview will be conducted. In a few short minutes, he's going to start answering questions about his goals, why he wants to study at Columbia, and why he thinks that he'll be a great fit at their school. He has been going over the questions with himself for weeks, but anxiety never goes away.

'This isn't your top school…this isn't your top school…' he reminds himself. 'It's okay if you don't get in here. Heck, they have a less than ten percent acceptance rate, just go in with confidence and whatever happens, happens.'

Cesar finds the room. He knocks on the door and the person inside calls him in. Cesar steps into the office; his heart is pounding and over the course of the next hour, it all becomes a blur. There were occasional stumbles in his answers, but, in his opinion, they were good answers that would shows the admissions board that he would be a great asset to the school.

After shaking hands and calling an end to the meeting, Cesar walks out of the building, he can feel the weight on his shoulders lifting as he walks towards the bus stop. He doesn't know how he managed that interview as well as he did, but hopefully it works out.

As he waits by the bus stop, Cesar remembers that Lynn left him a message that he didn't get a chance to look at.

Good luck

He smiles at the simple message. Despite his family telling him the same thing, it meant a little more when Lynn said it, probably because she said it differently from his family and probably because she felt the need to attach a bunch of crossed fingers and four-leaf clover emojis.

I finished my meeting
I think it went well

"Despite looking like some diseased weirdo," he says quietly to himself.

As he waits for a response, Cesar hops on the bus. He looks out the window and thinks about what he talked about in the interview. Like always, it turned towards his family, particularly his brother and the challenges that came with growing up together. It feels silly to use his brother's issues to get ahead, but it always works at showing responsibility and pulling people's heartstrings.

When strangers hear the stories, they automatically begin to sympathize, but that's all it is to them – a story. They won't truly care for long; meanwhile he has to constantly be in worry mode for his brother and both of their futures. It's a lot of stress, but he doesn't have a choice.

When Cesar gets off at his stop, he walks towards the next one to get home. As he looks up at the sign, he realizes that he did everything that he had planned for Spring Break. Meanwhile, Lynn would send him a photo or a video of herself doing something fun or interesting, and all he returned were photos of shops and a mural.

It shouldn't bother him, he's used to it; it happened all his life. However, looking back at some of what she has shared with him, he wishes that he could do something without worry.

Rather than stick around by the bus stop, Cesar walks away.


Lucy walks into the restaurant. She needs to get this conversation over with, and if Lynn isn't going to talk with her, she has to go herself. She has had the whole car ride over to think about what she is going to say, and while it isn't a now-or-never moment, it needs to be done.

She walks through the front door, and like most times, she isn't noticed by the staff behind the counter. Rather than wait around, Lucy decides to walk towards the kitchen, knowing that Lynn is likely to be there. She quietly opens the door and notices that her sister isn't inside.

"Where are you?" she quietly asks herself.

When Lucy arrived, she noticed that Francisco's truck and Lynn's car weren't in the parking lot, but that doesn't mean that one of them was there, just that the vehicle is missing, likely with Francisco out of the restaurant. Lucy decides to try a few more places before making an attempt at grabbing a staff member's attention.

Lucy walks into the manager's office and sees Lynn eating her lunch. She has her sister cornered, so long as there isn't an air vent or a loose ceiling tile that she can use to get away. Lucy watches her sister, and for a minute, Lynn doesn't seem to notice that Lucy is in the room, until she clears her throat. The older sister notices the unexpected guest.

Lynn jumps up, "Geez! How the heck are you so quiet?"

"Years of practice," Lucy says as she takes a seat in front of her sister.

Lynn has an idea of where this is going. Since their conversation, Lynn has not gone back to their Saturday breakfasts and Lucy probably wants to talk about it, but she doesn't. Lynn quickly scarfs down her lunch and before Lucy is about to say anything, she gets up.

Noticing that Lynn is leaving, Lucy blocks the door, "Lynn, we have to talk."

"Why? We already did, remember."

"Sigh…but I didn't say what I needed to say."

Lynn remembers; Lisa and Lily did all the talking, but Lucy sitting in silence while their younger sisters talked isn't an excuse; Lucy could have said something.

"I think you did," says Lynn, as she looks for any sort of escape. She feels trapped and with Lucy blocking the only exit, Lynn resorts to something she hasn't done in years, trying to escape through the air vents.

As Lynn takes off the vent cover, Lucy walks over to her and takes hold of her sleeve, "Stop being childish, we can have a more civil discussion," she says as Lynn continues with her silly plan.

"I'm not being childish," Lynn complains, as she thrashes her arm, trying to pry Lucy off. "Why the heck won't you let go?"

Lucy can feel her grip slipping as she asks, "Why did you think that you could hide in the vents like a little kid?"

Lynn stops thrashing around. She looks down at the floor and doesn't answer her sister. She feels like when she was a little girl and when she would get in trouble, but she didn't do anything wrong. Heck, she's the one with the power; Lucy owes her an apology, not the other way around.

She takes a seat in Francisco's chair and looks at her sister, ready to hear what she is going to say. Unlike Lisa and Lily, Lucy knows her better. All those years sharing a room helped the younger sister learn what made her older sister tick, and vice versa, however, there are still missteps every once in a while.

Lucy sits down in front of her sister and makes another attempt at speaking with her like adults, but she doesn't know where to start. During the car ride over, she thought about how she could start this conversation, but it always lead to Lynn getting mad.

"Are you going to say anything?" asks Lynn.

Lucy looks up through her bangs and at her sister. The only way that this is going to go well is if she's honest, "I knew you were going to invite us to Ford Field, and I told Lisa and Lily."

"Oh…" is all Lynn could say.

It's like being a teenager all over again – her family doesn't want to go to games with her and she feels silly for bothering to try.

"I also told Rocky and we took the kids up north the week of the game."

Lynn sighs, "For a while, I thought that it was Lisa who figured it out, but I guess you would know me better."

Lucy nods her head. It has been a dream of Lynn's to attend special major sporting events whenever she could, and she knew it. This was another one to tick off, and while Lynn did attend it, the experience was made null.

"Tell me the truth, Luce, am I really such a bad person that my own family doesn't want to be with me? Is there something wrong with me?"

Lucy wonders how such an idea could have come up from missing a game, but it wasn't just one; the family tried to avoid games with her whenever they could. They were happy when Grouse could take her, because it meant that they didn't have to deal with her insane rituals, but after so long, Lynn was bound to start connecting dots.

"No, there isn't anything wrong with you. You aren't a bad person either, but you are a lot at games."

Hearing that still didn't make the sting any better. Her family could tell her that she is fine, but regardless, she felt like there was something wrong with her and that she was bad. Lynn isn't sure if it has to do with feeling as though she got away with things during her drinking days, or because of all the times she got disciplined by teachers, parents, and other people, but whenever moments like this happen, she feels like she did something wrong.

If she forgives Lucy, then they could stop talking and go on their merry way, but that isn't going to be fair to her. She did all of this for her family, to spend time with them, and they ran off before she could even present them with the tickets. A part of Lynn wants to stay away from her sisters and be mad, but the only thing that that would accomplish is put her one step closer to drinking and keep the family split apart. It's bad enough that she and Luna are still tense around one another, the last thing Lynn needs is to have a tense relationship with another three sisters.

"At least you're trying…" Lynn mutters to herself.

The younger sister hears her words. She doubts that Lisa or Lily are going to try to mend fences any time soon since they will probably find ways to justify their actions, so she wants to try her best, at least so that Lynn will have a little hope that her family doesn't think that she's 'bad'.

Lucy is going to regret saying this, but she offers, "If you ever…want me to go to a game…" she swallows, feeling her throat tighten as if her brain is telling her to stop talking, but she continues, "…I could go with you…"

A knock on the door interrupts them, and Rob opens the door, "Your break's over, Lynn. Time to get back to work."

Lynn gets up from her seat without answering her sister. She doesn't know what to think about the offer. On the one hand, this is her chance to get her sister to join her, but she isn't sure if there's a point if Lucy is only going to get them to move on.

Lucy turns towards her sister, hoping for answer before she goes, "Lynn?"

"I'll think about it," is all Lynn can say.


As Leni passes by Lynn's room, she peeks in and checks in on her sister before they head out, "Are you ready?"

Lynn, who is busy packing, tells out to her sister, "I'm coming, just give me a minute," she says. Leni leaves her to finish as Lynn stuffs the rest of her clothes in her duffel bag before looking over to her sister. Lucy can sense her sister's eyes staring at her and looks up from her book, "See you when school's out for summer," says Lynn, before limping out of the room.

Lucy watches her walk away with a noticeable limp after falling off of her dirt bike yesterday. All week the two of them were on one adventure or another, mostly doing things that Lynn wanted, but occasionally making pit stops to do something she wanted too. It wasn't the Spring Break that Lucy envisioned, but she isn't going to argue that she had some fun whenever Lynn made stops to cemeteries or haunted locations in the area.

After Lynn leaves the room, Lucy goes back to reading, but is interrupted by the sound of her sister's ringtone. She looks up and sighs, annoyed at the sounds coming from the device. Lucy calls out to Lynn, but it falls on deaf ears. Lucy can hear the front door close, and she knows that she's going to have to walk it over before Lynn and Leni head out.

The phone buzzes and Lucy sees a message from someone named Cesar.

I just landed

Lucy doesn't know who he is and Lynn never mentioned him at all.

We can get dinner when I get back to the university

She can hear footsteps coming up the stairs and Lucy looks away from the phone.

Lynn walks in and asks, "Hey Luce, have you seen my–" Lucy immediately hands over her sister's phone, "Thanks," she says, slightly weirded out by her sister's action.

As Lynn walks down the stairs, she notices the two messages on her phone. She quickly reads them and before she gets in Leni's car, answers them, offering Cesar a ride back to the university.

I'm already on the shuttle heading back
Thanks anyway, I appreciate it

Leni notices her sister texting and wonders, "Who are you texting?"

Lynn freezes. She hasn't told her family much about Cesar, aside from calling him her tutor, but definitely not as a boyfriend. After she came home during the Christmas Break, Lynn regaled her family with details of her first semester at Michigan, but has not brought them up to speed about what happened since she went back to school.

"A friend," she says with a shy smile on her face.

Leni notices the smile. She isn't sure what has her sister smiling, but she assumes that it might have to do with softball season starting or heading back to school; she was definitely more excited about it than anyone expected the last time she heard.

Lynn stares out the window and she can't help but notice how slow her sister is driving. She wants to get back to school already and preferably before dinner.

"Leni, can't you drive any faster?"

"But I'm going as fast as the signs tell me to go," she says, pointing out a speed limit sign as they pass it. Lynn groans, "Don't worry, we'll be there before you know it."

During the drive, Leni could see that Lynn was squirming around in her seat as though she wants to jump out of the car and run to school herself. Leni decides to go a bit faster for her sister's sake and presses down on the pedal enough to be between sixty and sixty-one miles per hour, however, Lynn doesn't seem to notice.

The sight of a black and white car grabs Leni's attention and she quickly presses down on the brake pedal, surprising Lynn, who asks, "What's wrong?"

"I didn't want to speed in front of the policeman."

Lynn begins to laugh, "What are you talking about? You aren't speeding."

"Yes, I was," Leni says, "I was going sixty…" she begins to count with her hand to figure out how many miles over the speed limit she was going. "sixty-and-a-half miles. That's over the speed limit!"

Technically, Leni is right, but Lynn isn't going to bother trying to explain that half a mile isn't going to get her in trouble. Instead, she turns the conversation onto Leni's recent promotion and Lynn's plans now that softball season is starting.

As they approach the city limits, Lynn feels her phone vibrating, and sees a message from Cesar.

Are you almost back?

Not yet
I'm almost there
Ten minutes

Alright, meet me at Pizza House

Lynn leads Leni towards the restaurant, and as soon they stop, the younger sister unbuckles her seatbelt, "Thanks for the ride, Leni."

"Wait!" says the older sister as she calls out, "You forgot your bag!" The smell of pizza hits Leni and she is tempted to go inside and enjoy a slice of pizza with her sister.

Lynn limps back to get her bag, "Thanks, I almost forgot about it."

She notices where Leni is looking, and knows that her sister is going to want to eat an early dinner. Lynn doesn't have a good reason to tell her otherwise, and she was hoping that this could be more of a her and Cesar thing, not a her, Leni, and Cesar thing.

What she doesn't notice is that Cesar spotted her from inside, "Lynn," he says as he steps out of the restaurant. "I was wondering where you were."

She flinches and looks over at him and notices the scabs on his face, "What the heck happened to you?"

"What happened to your leg?" he asks as he points towards the boot on her foot.

"Dirt biking, now answer my question."

"Chocolate."

"Really? It looks more like someone scratched your face, uh…" Leni doesn't know what to call him.

"Oh right, I didn't introduce you guys. This is Cesar," says Lynn, "and this is my sister Leni," she says as she points to her sister.

"Hi, I'm Leni."

He is confused, but goes along with it, "Nice to meet you, Leni, I'm Cesar. Did you want to join us? I ordered extra pizza."

"How do you know it's extra pizza?" asks Lynn.

Leni smiles at the invitation, "I'd love to."

As they take a seat at the table, Leni begins to get acquainted with the man. While they wait for the pizza to arrive, she learns that he is a soon-to-be graduating senior and one of her friends.

As Leni looks around the pizza parlor, a thought pops into her head; Lynn hasn't been able to help, but Cesar seems like a smart, and sociable enough person to answer her questions, "Hey Cesar, you wouldn't happen to know Ann Arbor would you?"

He's confused by the question, until he realizes that Leni thinks that Ann Arbor is a person. He isn't sure how to respond, but he's had plenty of practice answering these sorts of questions throughout his lifetime.

"Not really, but I could send Lynn pictures on Swifty Pic."

"Yay," she squeals, but then she has a better idea, "What's your username? That way I can see them in case Lynn is too busy with softball or some other sports," she says as she pulls out her phone.

Cesar looks over at Lynn, who shrugs her shoulders. She doesn't appear to be bothered by the idea of him being online friends with her sister, and he goes ahead and gives her his username.

'How do people like him keep finding me?' he thinks to himself.


Lynn steps out of the restaurant. The day is over and it is already closing time. Everyone has already gone home, but she is stuck finding another way home. Normally, she and Francisco ride together, but since he took the truck to run his 'errand' and hasn't returned, she has to find another way home.

She pulls out her phone and tries to get a hold of Francisco. Lynn knows that she should have done this over an hour ago, but between closing the restaurant and not keeping track of the time, she didn't call him.

Deciding to give him one last chance, she calls him; figuring that if he's close, she won't have to walk home.

Francisco answers, "I know I'm late, but I'm right by the Burpin' Burger."

"Oh good, dinner's on you," she jokes.

Lynn can hear Francisco sigh, "You know that if I stop by the drive-thru you're going to be waiting longer, right?"

"Yeah, but I really want a Fire in the–"

"Fire in the Belly Burger with extra Dragon Sauce," finishes Francisco. "I see you don't want to sleep tonight," he jokes, "and you're making sure I don't either."

"Ha ha," she laughs sarcastically, "Why do you think you're getting me a cookie dough milkshake?"

He laughs, "Fine, but give me a few minutes."

Ten minutes later, Lynn can see Francisco pulling up in front of the restaurant He grabs her bag of food and shakes it, as if calling out to her. Lynn runs over to the truck and notices sheets of drywall and lumber in the truck bed. When she opens the passenger side door, she sees bags from the hardware store, making her think that he might be working on another home improvement project. As far as she's concerned, she hasn't broken anything, but it isn't going to stop him from trying to teach her something again.

The smell of the food hits Lynn, who takes her bag of food to munch on some French fries while they head home. As the smell wafts up to her nose, her stomach growls in hunger, and she ignores everything that Francisco had in the truck in favor of the food.

"You know, I wouldn't have to wait if you let me drive Dutch to work," she says.

"Why would you do that? We rarely run errands after work and we tend to leave at the same time – it doesn't make sense to bring in two cars. Besides, Dutch has been stalling again, why do you want to worry about that after a long day of work?"

"So I'm not stranded while you take forever running errands," she answers. "What's with all the stuff in the back anyway?"

"You won't believe it, but I bought a house."

Lynn chokes on a fry, "What?! Why?"

"Technically, my name is on it, but Andrew loaned me the money so that I could get it now. He isn't going to charge me interest or anything, but until the house rented out, he's going to let me borrow the money to cover everything to fix it and any other expenses that come my way, then I'm going to pay him back," he assures her.

"Seriously? That doesn't answer my question – why did you buy it?"

Francisco sighs. When he stops at a red light, he looks over at her, and says, "It's the only way we would be able to attend Elena's fifteen. Caroline's parents want to have it at the Huntington Oaks Country Club and my side of the family wouldn't be able to go unless we have a membership or someone with one invites us as a guest."

The light turns green and Francisco quietly drives. He has mentioned to her the way that Caroline's family behaves towards him, and despite how many years have passed; they don't stop. Most the time it isn't a problem, at least that's what Francisco says, but whenever they can cause him a little strife, they take the chance.

Lynn looks over at him, "Okay…I guess that makes sense. You know, we probably could have figured out something else if you wanted."

"Yeah, but I needed to act fast in case we couldn't. Besides, I can work on the house in my down time. Since I'm not always busy with work, I can use my spare time to make the necessary fixes and before I know it, there's a tenant."

As Lynn hears him, she knows that he's got his mind set on doing this, and she's sure that he can without it affecting his work at the restaurant, "Are there that many people that rent in Huntington Oaks?"

"There are some," Francisco answers, "and I can always market it towards college kids who want to save money by living off-campus. Let's see," he says as he taps his fingers on the steering wheel. "I'm probably not going to find a lot of students renting in the summer, so I can use the whole time to fix it. If I check the price of some of the nicer dorms and stay under it, then it shouldn't be much of a problem finding someone. Granted, I would prefer someone who will stick around more long-term, but how many people am I going to find that want to rent long-term in Huntington Oaks? Not many, and since college kids go in for the short-term, then I can set the price per month a little higher, unless I can talk someone into renting all year."

She laughs, not maliciously, but because of how well-thought out he's planning everything.

"What?" he asks; not understanding where she's finding the humor in what he's saying.

"Nothing, just thinking about how this all happened in one afternoon. I mean, you buy a house, I'm guessing you saw what needed to get fixed, bought materials, and now, you're planning to rent it out in what – a few months?

With confidence, he says, "Come August, I'm going to be ready," Francisco snaps his fingers, "It'll be a few tough months balancing both the restaurant and the house, but I know I can do it," he says with a smile.

Lynn smiles, "Alright, I trust you, but remember what your first job is."

He takes her hand, and assures, "I know."


Hello everyone, it's been a while since my last chapter, and I'm sorry to have made you guys wait for so long, but I'm glad to have finally gotten this done. Hopefully, I can get the next chapter done before the month is out, I hate making you guys wait and I definitely don't want another repeat of May

As always, thank you everyone for reading, and see you guys next time