Lynn speeds down the road. She can feel the air hit her face and her smile grow as she begins to move faster. She doesn't care about the posted speed limits; she just wants to push herself to go as fast as she can, no matter what a certain someone says. Right now she is beating Andrew, who is currently trailing her, playing with her, if she's right. It didn't matter, she's going to make sure that he takes her serious the next time they race.

Francisco, who is in his truck, trails the two from behind. Despite how often he tells her, she insists that she can race faster than she really can. They both know that the vehicle can't go too fast, but it never stops her from trying.

Caroline, who is keeping an eye on the two in front of them, tells Francisco, "I can't believe you got her a motorcycle for her birthday."

"Her car was constantly breaking down, and she refused to get rid of it," he reasons, "so I figured a new toy would work out, though I didn't expect her to go all-in with the cool leather gear so quickly. And besides, Andrew has a motorcycle too; I'm surprised you didn't give him hell."

"Who says I didn't?"

Caroline knows that her husband enjoys some rather risky activities, such as mountain climbing, skydiving, and cave exploring; it's his way of keeping his skills sharp. However, since Parker was born, she has insisted that he slow down for their son's sake.

Francisco continues to follow Lynn and Andrew as they pull into the country club's gates. While he can't hear the two, Francisco can tell that Lynn is boasting about beating him to the gate. The security guard lets the group in and Lynn immediately races to find a spot to park her bike. She zooms past members and exiting cars as she makes her way to the spot that she has her eyes locked on.

Andrew pulls up next to Lynn, who takes off her helmet and looks around at the parking lot, "You know, I sorta thought that there would have been like a barrier to keep people out."

"Why? So that you can try to leap over?" asks Andrew.

"Yeah!"

Andrew chuckles, "Without a ramp, I don't think that your little bike could have done that."

Lynn scowls, mad at the accusation that her bike couldn't have made the jump. It may not be as big as other bikes, but she's been working on pushing it to its limits, "It beat you, didn't it?"

"I guess," he says, trying to play it off as well as he can, despite knowing that she really did beat him.

After Francisco pulls up into a parking space, everyone walks towards the entrance. They all notice that Lynn is walking faster than all of them, and Francisco knows what she is doing. He continues his stroll, keeping his eye on her as she leaves them in the dust.

Lynn turns around, "C'mon! What's taking you guys so long?"

Caroline and Andrew don't say a thing, but Francisco smiles, before telling her, "Go on ahead, we'll catch up to you in a bit."

"Slow pokes," complains Lynn, as she begins to run ahead.

Caroline looks over at Francisco, who clearly has his eyes locked on his girlfriend, "Am I missing something?"

Francisco doesn't immediately answer, but he eventually answers, "No, just thinking about how I shouldn't have waited so long to give Lynn her gift."

The couple doesn't say anything and they quietly catch up to Lynn, who is waiting for the other three. As they walk inside, Andrew looks over at the lounge area and notices his sister-in-law, "Oh great…she's back from Thailand," he mutters to himself.

"Andrew!" Caroline says in a hushed tone. "I'm going to go say hello."

"I'll be here with our guests."

Francisco and Andrew turn around and keep their eyes away from the lounge. Lynn looks up at both of them and then at Caroline's sister. She looks exhausted, but has no issue glancing over at the three and quickly rolling her eyes before going back to listening to her sister.

"What's with her?"

"She's always like that," answers Francisco.

"She's a snob," says Andrew, "Don't know how she can still think that though."

Lynn and Francisco ask, "What happened?"

Andrew closes his mouth and shakes his head, refusing to divulge more information. Despite the calm ambiance of the lounge area, he knows that someone is listening in on them, likely wanting something to gossip about, and he refuses to be responsible for that.

Caroline and Violet approach the group, and the two men know exactly what the older sister did – she offered to have her younger sister join them to meet with the caterers and the party planners.

Andrew puts on a fake smile, "Violet, how nice to see you again. How did you like your time in Asia?"

"It was hot and I felt sick the entire time," she says, as she walks towards the venue, ignoring Lynn and Francisco.

As the four follow Violet, Lynn keeps an eye on Caroline's younger sister. Francisco hasn't brought her up much, but by the looks of men's faces, neither one seems to think of her in a positive light.

Lynn slows down and whispers to Francisco, "What's your beef with her?"

As if Violet heard Lynn mention her, she turns her head to look at the couple before turning her head back to quietly talk to her sister. While Caroline has her back turned to the couple as she leads the way, Francisco can tell that she sighed at whatever her sister said.

"I'll tell you later."

The five walk into the venue and are met with the sight of employees putting up decorations to make the venue look like a magical forest. There are animal silhouettes on the walls, vines hanging from the ceiling, and lights to imitate the look of sunlight breaking through a heavily wooded area.

"This is what she wanted?" asks Francisco.

"It was the easiest decision that she made, I was not going to question it," says Caroline.

As Lynn walks in and looks at the decorations, "Dang, your guys do good work," she says in amazement.

"Of course they do, otherwise our dad will drive their business to the ground."

Lynn is surprised by what Violet said, but is more surprised that no one reacted to what she said.

The caterers spot the group and lead them towards a table away from all of the other workers. They present the four different meals that the family can choose for Elena's birthday. However, when they notice that there are five people when there were only told that they were meeting with four people.

"It's okay," starts Violet, "I'll share."

When the caterers present the different first course meals, Violet begins to eat off of Lynn's plate.

"Hey!" complains Lynn as she tries to take her plate from Violet, "Who said I wanted to share?!"

"Relax, I only want a bite," she looks over at Francisco and then back at Lynn, "I promise not to take your only meal today."

Lynn looks at the others, who didn't appear to hear Violet. Rather than let Violet get the last word, Lynn slides the plate towards her, "I insist, you look like you'd need it, especially after throwing up in Asia."

The two women glare at one another; neither one wants to let the other know that they are bothering the other. The caterer hands over some comment cards and looks over at the two women who aren't eating anything, "Is something wrong, ladies?"

"Nope."

"Not a thing."

The two begin to eat while trying to avoid eye contact with one another. While it was only a brief comment, Lynn can see why Francisco and Andrew don't think so highly of her. Rather than let Violet ruin the afternoon, Lynn decides to enjoy the food, unaware that she is eating most of the plate.

When Lynn's fork scrapes against the plate, Violet looks over at her; Lynn can tell that what the woman is thinking, even though she doesn't say a thing. As the next courses are presented, neither one says a word to the other, but Lynn has an idea of what is going on in the other woman's mind. She can sense how high and mighty she thinks of herself, and lowly she thinks of anyone but herself, and maybe her sister. Lynn wants to give her a piece of her mind, but she isn't sure if the woman is worth it.

As the caterers clear their tables, Caroline and Andrew give additional feedback, Francisco waits around for his appointment with the membership board, and Violet walks towards the door, "I should have stayed in the lounge," she complains.

Lynn rolls her eyes, "That would have been nice, then we could have actually enjoyed ourselves."

Violet turns around, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Every single time the caterers showed up, you rolled your eyes or looked like you were given dog food."

"That would explain why you ate it so well," she remarks, as she walks away.

Francisco looks over at the two. He can see the look in Lynn's eyes and knows that Violet bothered her. Lynn clenches her fists as she begins to march towards Violet. Francisco can see what is going on through her mind and pulls her into a tight embrace to stop her in her tracks, "Lynn, I love that you want to stand up her–"

"I can tell."

"But, please, just this once, don't. I don't want to give anyone any reason to not let us come back here, and I want you and my family to be here for Elena's birthday."

Lynn glares at Violet. She wants to wipe that smug look off her face, but she can hear the desperation in Francisco's voice. She takes a deep breath and decides not to lunge at the woman, for his sake.

Lynn sighs, "Fine…but you owe me."

"I promise to pay you back when we get home."


Lynn runs towards the baseball diamond. The sixteen-year-old looks around, expecting her teammates to be there ready to practice before the official practice begins, but no one is around.

"What the hell?" she asks herself, "Where is everyone? Well, it doesn't matter, more space for me."

She walks over to home plate and sets down her duffel bag. She pulls out some balls and a baseball bat and settles on simple hits. Lynn tosses a ball into the air and hits it towards outfield, "Can you believe it, Pep? No one's around to catch that beautiful hit," she says in her best announcer voice.

Lynn begins to run the bases, "Look at that! The other team isn't even trying to get the ball! This is going to be the easiest home run ever for Lynn Loud."

As Francisco slowly steps out of school, he spots someone running around the diamond. He walks over to investigate and he spots Lynn running around the bases.

"Hear that crowd roar! They are excited!"

He quietly chuckles as he watches Lynn pretending to roar like the audience. It's been a long time since he has seen her do her fake scenarios, but rather than say anything, he continues to watch her.

As Lynn approaches home plate, she notices Francisco looking over at her. She excitedly runs towards him, hoping to have someone else to practice with, "Hey! About time you got here. C'mon! I need someone on the mound."

He shakes his head, "No can do. I have to study."

"What? Why?"

"The SATs our teachers have been going over it for weeks, haven't you noticed?"

She has, but it's not like that's the only way to get into a good school. Lynn knows that she'll impress any scout that comes to see her play and she'll get a full-ride, just like Lori.

"Yeah, but I got better things to do."

Francisco looks around, "Like playing baseball by yourself?"

"Hey!" she loudly exclaims, "It's not my fault that everyone else decided to not come today."

"Well, we have to study too."

Lynn kicks the ground, "Well that stinks, but it isn't like you guys aren't going to get into a school, so why study so hard?"

"To have a better chance to get into a good school? We can't all be as lucky as you and have schools fight over us."

In a way he's jealous of her. He knows that Lynn is going to attract plenty of scouts; coaches have been praising her and it isn't a secret that she's a powerhouse on the diamond. Meanwhile, he's not sure if he'll get the attention of a scout who is willing to offer him a good scholarship to a decent school.

"Well, if you do decide to study, maybe you could join me at the library one day."

She feels her cheeks warm from the simple offer. They haven't studied alone before, usually because she would go to Lisa or because she found studying to be boring when forced to read her textbooks, but she is considering it since he offered, "Um…yeah," she nervously says, "you know, if I have time."

He smiles, "Alright, just let me know," he says before leaving her behind at the diamond.


Francisco rests his head on the faucet. It has been a few days, but he can still feel his stomach churning after eating that catered spread. He isn't the only one suffering, at the moment, Lynn is on the floor ready to throw up again, and from Caroline and Andrew said, they were sick as well.

Lynn looks up at Francisco, "That caterer is definitely fired, right?"

He nods his head, "Yeah…how the hell do they mess up four different kinds of platters?"

"I don't know," she groans, "which sucks…'cause I really liked mine."

"Do you think that Lola is willing to reschedule today?"

Lynn shakes her head.

Today, Lola agreed to help Francisco shop for the gifts that his family was planning on giving Elena for her birthday. Normally, Francisco would entrust his mother to buy his daughter jewelry, but the family decided to pool their money together so that they can splurge on getting something nice, and if Lynn is to be believed, Lola would be able to help him with that.

"Is there anything I should know?"

Lynn looks over at him, "Compliment her, don't question her unless you know your stuff…and compliment her."

"You already said that."

"Well it's important," she says before vomiting again.

Francisco groans, "I'm gonna go get changed…and maybe skip breakfast…"

"Don't say breakfast…" complains Lynn.

Francisco gets ready and heads to the jewelry store that Lola told him to meet her. As he pulls into the parking lot, he can feel his stomach in knots, but he is going to have to power through this; this is the only day that Lola is available to help him, and he can't miss it. As he approaches the shop's window, he can spot a blonde in a beautiful pink trench coat talking with the salesman.

He steps into the shop and both of them look his way, "Francisco, darling, meet Clark – owner of the best jewelry store in Michigan."

"Oh Lola, you flatter me, but I would have said the best this side of the Pacific."

The two laugh and Francisco politely chuckles, in hopes that it would speed up the conversation. He doesn't want to spend too much time, especially with his guts acting out the way they are.

Lola turns to him, "Alright, enough dilly-dallying, Francisco, do you know what you're looking for?"

"A ring, some earrings, and a tiara."

She takes Francisco's arm, "Perfect! You know that a girl only gets one special day and it has to count. Clark! Show my 'friend' your best rings." As they walk towards the ring display, she turns to Francisco, "Now, I'm never against the idea of a girl having the best jewelry she can, but the ring is the centerpiece."

"I guess…" he mutters, still feeling sick from the food poisoning.

Lola takes his face and forces him to look her in the eye, "Look, I'm going to need a little less of this 'I guess' attitude and more 'Yes'. Confidence, Francisco! If not I'm just wasting my time."

"Okay…I mean, yes."

"Excellent! Now I'm thinking a gold band. I mean, Lynn wouldn't have it any other way for herself."

He's confused, wondering why Lynn would care.

"Do you know what cut she would like? Personally I'm partial towards a princess cut, but Lynn isn't that type of girl. We both like a brilliant shine, so look around and pick out something that you think that your girl love."

Francisco is confused by what she is saying, but goes to look through the rings. Under the case's bright lights, they shine like twinkling stars, but he can't help but notice the price. The cheapest one is well over a thousand dollars. He knows that he has enough money to buy it, but if he does then he won't have any money left over to buy Elena earrings or a tiara.

He looks up at Clark, and with a hint of nervousness in his voice, asks, "Is this the best you can do?"

"Are you kidding?" asks Lola. "Are you really going to go cheap for such a huge occasion? What is wrong with you?!"

Francisco looks over at Lola, "I still have other things to buy, I can't throw it all on the ring."

She sighs, "Don't you know it's customary for the bride's family to pay for the wedding."

He raises an eyebrow, confused by what she is talking about, until it dawns on him, "What? What are you talking– did you think that I was looking for wedding rings?!"

"Well you have been dating for nearly ten years," she says in a matter-of-fact tone. "A woman can only hold out for so long."

"Look, I'm buying presents for Elena's birthday, and nothing more. She's turning fifteen, it's a big deal to us."

"Alright, what's the budget that you're working with?"

"Twelve hundred dollars," he answers.

Lola and Clark gasp.

"I can't believe that you…oh my goodness, now everything makes sense," Lola turns to Clark, "Place the items on my tab," she turns to Francisco and assures him, "Don't worry about the costs, I'll cover it."

"Excuse me? I'm not a charity case, Lola. I can find something for my daughter myself," says Francisco, as he heads towards the door.

He knows that he isn't wealthy, but hearing their reactions is too much. It was bad enough when it was Violet, then Jacob and Elizabeth; he isn't going to take it from Lola and the anonymous store clerk either.

Lola calls out to him, "Wait!" Francisco turns around and looks at him, "Look, you want to give your daughter a lovely present and I respect that. How about a repayment plan?"

That sounds better to Francisco.

"You will have to pay interest of course–"

"Interest?!"

"Hey, I offered to pay for it myself, because you said that it was special to the family, and because I was going to get Lynn to repay me behind your back," she quickly whispers the last part to herself, "so don't get mad if I treat you the way I treat others who ask me for a loan."

Francisco groans, "Fine, what's your rate?"

Lola chuckles, "You don't get to choose the rate."

"Really? I guess that shouldn't be a surprise, you are the most socially intelligent person out there. I bet if you didn't have a promising career in politics, you'd be a master financial powerhouse."

Lola giggles, "Oh Francisco, flattery will get you everywhere with me." She stops to think, "Alright, we can make arrangements later, but I'll only lower the rate if you answer some questions for me."

Francisco stops to think about it. He isn't sure what sort of questions Lola would want answered and he doesn't know how many he'll have to answer until the interest rate is lowered to something that he can manage, but his stomach begins to act up and he's desperate, "Fine…"

"Excellent! Now, question one – What the heck is taking you so long to ask Lynn to marry you?"


Lynn walks up to plate. She focuses her eyes on the pitcher in front of her. Her whole team is counting on her to hit the ball so that they can get the win. The pitcher throws the ball and Lynn locks her eyes on the ball. When it is within striking distance, she swings the bat. Upon hearing the cracking sound of bat, Lynn knows what happened – the ball is flying. Everyone looks up, their eyes following the ball as it flies over the fence.

"Home run!"

At the dugout, Lynn's team cheers as she runs the bases. Her team meets her at home plate to celebrate their win. They hoist her up and chant her name in glee, happy to win their last game of the season.

When Lynn is let down, the coach waves over at Lynn, telling her to come over and meet the woman that she was talking to, "Lynn, I want you to meet some, a scout over at Michigan."

"It's nice to meet you," she says, extending her hand for a handshake, "That was some game, say, I was wondering what your plans are after you graduate?"

Lynn knows where this conversation is going, despite her not listening anymore after the scout asked about her plans after high school. She knows that she's going to get an offer or a card so that they can talk about her going to Michigan. Lynn knew that it happened to Lori and she's more than ready for it to happen to her.

"I'm going to go let you celebrate with your team, but I hope you think about our offer."

Lynn nods her head, "Yeah!" she says despite not hearing what the scout said.

The coach congratulates Lynn, "I bet you can't wait to tell your folks the good news."

"Yeah…" she says trying to think about the scout said.

The coach notices that Lynn probably didn't pay too much attention after she asked what Lynn's plans after graduation, so she fills the teen in on what she missed.

After her brief celebration and conversation with the scout, Lynn runs home, ready to tell her family the good news. She can't believe her good luck, well, she can, between her good luck rituals and daily practices; she knew that she would get the attention of some great schools. Now she has proof and she can't wait to tell her family.

Lynn bursts through the front door and sees everyone getting ready for dinner. She runs over to them and says, "I have great news!"

As Rita passes behind her with a stack of plates, she asks, "Hey Lynn, how was the game?"

"Good, we won."

Rita places "That's great. Sorry, we couldn't be there."

"Yeah, I get it–"

"Mom! I got a second place at the art show!"

"That great, Lincoln."

"Yeah, great, Stinkoln," Lynn quickly says to her brother before going back to her mom, "I wanted to tell you something–"

"Lana! No! We just got the grime off the carpet," complain Rita.

Lily runs down the stairs, "Mom! Lisa keeps trying to pluck my hair!"

"I only require one sample–"

"To clone me!"

"Lisa, remember that conversation we had together with the ethics committee?"

Lynn groans. She can't get a word in with all of her siblings talking over each other. She wants to tell them the good news, but she can barely get her mom's attention. Lynn tries one more time, but is interrupted again.

"Dinner is served!" says Lynn Sr. as he comes out of the kitchen with a large platter of fried chicken.

The family takes a seat and Lynn groans as she takes a seat next to her mom. Lynn stares at her mom, and then at her siblings, when she's sure that she is going to have her mom's attention, Lynn tries again, "Mom, I didn't get to tell you, but I talked to a scout!"

The family begins to quiet down as they hear what Lynn is saying.

"And she said that she has a spot for me on Michigan's softball team with a full ride too!"

Rita turns to her husband, "Can you believe it, Lynn? A full scholarship."

"I know, I'm so proud of you Junior," he says as he offers her the biggest piece of chicken.

Lynn smiles as she basks in her family's compliments. She knew that all those years of practicing and training weren't a waste, and now she has a chance to attend one of the best schools in the country.

"Fifth eldest sibling, you are aware that in order to receive admissions into your desired school of higher education, you must still apply in the same fashion as other applicants, correct?"

"What? No way!"

Lisa nods her head, "Yes, you must."

"Well that stinks," says Lana.

The congratulations begin to deflate into a murmur. The family wants to have faith that Lynn can get into Michigan, but they know that her grades and study habits are not going to make it easy.

Lynn looks around and notices the looks of beaming pride are beginning to wane and in a desperate attempt to recapture the magic, she asks Lisa, "You can help me right? I mean, I can probably get some extra tutoring and you can help me learn everything I need to know for that test that everyone is studying for, right?"

The two parents look at each other. They know that Lisa helps her siblings with school, but as the kids have gotten older, they have encouraged them to try doing well in school on their own; after all, Lisa won't be available to help once they're away at college.

"Honey, don't you think that maybe you should try studying on your own?" asks Rita.

Some of the siblings silently snicker at the suggestion. They don't want to be mean, but they can't believe that their mother would suggest that considering that Lynn was one of the siblings who used Lisa the most for tutoring.

"It's just one test."

"Which you would need to score extraordinarily well on to make up for your current grade point average," Lisa points out, "though boosting your current grades would help too."

"See! Lisa's on board," Lynn desperately tells her parents.

Lisa turns towards her sister, "I said no such thing. However, you do seem properly motivated, so I am willing to offer my services–"

Lynn cheers, "Yes!"

"but keep in mind, I am offering my services, but only if you promise to maintain some semblance of interest in your higher education."

"Good enough for me," declares Lynn, before she takes a bite of her food.


Elena looks at her reflection in the limousine's window. Despite the calm look on her face, she is nervous and she doesn't know why. It's her birthday, and it isn't as though she hasn't already celebrated fourteen other ones, but knowing that her dad and grandparents are going to be under the same roof for hours has her tense. She knows that they don't get along and she knows that they'll probably avoid each other as best as they can, but she does hope that they could put aside their petty fighting for one night.

The sound of her brother banging his toy truck on the floor grabs her attention, until he is quickly stopped by their mother.

Caroline looks up at daughter, "Are you excited?"

"I think nervous is the better word," sighs Elena.

"It's okay," assures Andrew, "just think of it like any other birthday. You never get nervous about those, right?"

In a way – she did. However, she was good about keeping that under wraps. She doesn't know why she gets nervous when attention is placed exclusively on her, especially since she's a social butterfly, but it happens. She can't help but think of what's going to happen at the party, but Elena hopes that she can appeal to her family and keep them from ruining this night.

The limousine pulls up in front of the church and the family steps out where they are greeted with the sight of Francisco pacing back and forth, presumably wondering where they are. When he sees the family walking towards him, he stops pacing back and forth to greet them.

He pulls Elena into a hug, "Happy birthday, Sunshine."

Elena returns the hug, "Thanks, dad. Where is everyone?"

"They're insi–"

Lynn opens the doors of the church and calls out, "Francisco! Are they here yet? Everyone's wondering where they are."

Francisco silently looks at her and smiles, "Yeah, they just got here."

Before anyone is able to step inside, Lynn calls out to Chuy and Alicia to let them know that Elena and the rest of the family arrived.

Francisco turns over towards Elena and warns her, "You may want to stay put, your grandma's gonna want some photos."

Immediately after saying that, Alicia and Chuy step out of the church. Caroline, Elena, and Andrew look at Chuy, surprised by his choice of wardrobe. They assumed that like everyone, Chuy would have gone for a more formal appearance, instead he looks like he is heading out to the country.

Alicia walks over to her granddaughter to hug and congratulate her before she insists on taking individual photos of her with everyone. While everyone is distracted with the photos, Caroline whispers to Francisco, "Did you tell him that this is going to be at a country club?"

"Yes, I told him plenty of times."

"Then why is he dressed in jeans and a cowboy hat?"

Francisco shrugs his shoulders, "I have no idea. Although to be fair, all of us did tell him that he's going to look silly."

"That's hardly a good excuse," Caroline complains. She sighs. She can already imagine everyone talking after they get a look at Chuy.

Francisco notices the look on Caroline's face, he knows what is going on through her mind and he assures her, "We'll keep trying, we still have a couple of hours until the party starts, right?"

Caroline nods her head, "Yes…please, I want today to go well."

"Yeah, well it isn't like I want your parents to have another reason to look down on us," he mutters.

She sighs. Caroline understands his frustration, because she isn't looking forward to it either. While she knows that no one is going to outright antagonize him or his family, she can already imagine the web of lies that they are going to construct for their friends.

Lynn walks over to Francisco and Caroline. She notices the looks on their faces and asks, "What's with you guys?"

"Nothing," says Francisco. "Just a little tired."

She elbows him in the ribs, "Well perk up, we're partying until one a.m. and I'm not gonna be on the dance floor alone."

He chuckles, "Alright," he says as he takes her arm, "Let's get this ceremony started."

After stepping into the church and attending private mass, Francisco and his family drive Chuy to tuxedo rental shop in hopes of getting him more appropriate clothing for the party.

As they head to the country club, Chuy complains as he tries to loosen his tie, "I can't believe you guys are making me wear this. I look ridiculous."

"Well, next time listen when we tell you where the party is going to be," Francisco says as he drives. "Lynn, can you text Andrew and let him know that we're getting close."

"Already did," she says, "See! There they are."

Andrew waves at them, with a slightly annoyed look on his face. Lynn texted him over an hour ago saying that they were arriving, and while standing outside on an autumn day isn't nightmarish, it would have been nice if she warned him closer to when the family was actually set to arrive.

The family steps out of the truck to join Andrew, who calls Caroline so that they can help the family enter the club.

Lynn notices that the little boy is missing, "Where's Parker?"

"We thought that since the party is going to go into the night that he should stay home with a babysitter instead."

As the group approaches the venue, they are stopped by security guards. Caroline and Andrew warned them that on the night of the actual party, security was going to be tighter and unlike their previous visit, the guards are much more professional. Francisco, Caroline and Andrew produce their IDs so that the guards can confirm their memberships.

"Enjoy the party," one guard says as he steps aside to let everyone inside.


Lynn rests her head on table. She has gone over the questions in her practice book for nearly an hour, but she can't remember a single thing she read. Lisa thought that a quieter environment would help her older sister study, but the silence isn't making it easier for Lynn. She can hear every time people move in their chairs, pages turning, people clearing their throats, and the sounds of the whispers – she can't focus at all.

'What good is studying in silence if it's just as distracting as being at home?'

She looks up at the book in an effort to read one more question, but as soon as she tries, the words begin to blur and she groans; tired to reading the boring material.

Francisco notices a familiar brown ponytail and he goes over to see his friend, who immediately raises her head and looks over in his direction, "Hey Francisco," she says, before being shushed by the other library patrons.

He takes a seat next to her, "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Studying for the stupid SATs," she says as she turns the pages of her book. Lynn rests her head on the table again. "How the heck do people study for this ding-dang test?"

Francisco is surprised that she finally decided to study for her SATs, "Do you want a study buddy?" he offers. "It'll probably make it a bit easier, especially since you look like you're bored."

In a muffled whisper, she tells him, "I am." Lynn turns her head towards him, "Yeah, I guess you could join us. I'm sick of Lisa sighing every time I don't get a question right."

He looks around for her younger sister, "Is she looking for a book or something?"

"Nah, she's in the reference section straightening up her mustache, but don't say her name out loud," says Lynn as she points towards the librarian.

Francisco is confused, but he doesn't ask her to explain anything. He pulls out his notebook and pencils from his backpack, and scoots a bit closer to Lynn, so that he can see the practice questions from her book. She begins to get nervous as he gets closer to her and she tries to take a deep breath to calm her nerves, but it spectacularly fails. She's sure that he's going to notice her staring at him and ask her what's wrong, and she knows that she isn't going to be able to answer without sounding like an idiot.

"Excuse me, young man, but this is a private study session," says a voice from behind them. The two teens turn around and see a mustachioed Lisa in a tuxedo and top hat.

"Chill out, he's studying for the test too," says Lynn, completely focusing her eyes on her sister. "Besides, I might focus better with a study buddy."

Lisa scoffs, "I doubt that, considering that a few years ago you were romanti–"

Lynn snatches the glasses off of Lisa's face and tosses them towards the kids section to stop her from completing that sentence. Lisa crosses her arms, and does her best to glare at her older sister. Francisco looks over at Lynn and then at Lisa, neither sister is moving, and rather than let the standoff continue, he gets up to retrieve the pair of glasses. He groans as he picks them up off the floor, and despite the pain, he is able to walk them back to the table before crashing on the floor.

Francisco hands Lisa her glasses, "Thank you, however, as I have stated before, this is a private study session."

As he bites down on his lower lip, he asks, "Do you mind if I stay until my back stops hurting me?"

Lisa sighs, "Fine, you may stay until you are well enough to move."

He gives Lynn a knowing smile and she smiles back before Lisa demands Lynn's attention again. The younger sister grabs the workbook and shows Lynn some questions before going over how to solve the problems. However, as soon as Lisa starts talking, Lynn starts losing interest again. Lisa made it clear that Lynn would need an excellent score to make up for her grades, but despite the jock's best efforts, it's too hard to focus. Normally, she can scrounge up a decent enough grade after Lisa's tutoring sessions, but this test is too important and she doesn't want to screw it up after getting so many people's hopes up.

"Thus the answer to the question is?" Lisa asks.

Lynn quietly stares at the window and Francisco answers, "Unrestrainable."

The girls look at him. Lynn doesn't know why he said what he said, but Lisa is happy that at least someone is paying attention to her lesson, "Yes, that's correct," Lisa responds. She turns over to Lynn, "Thank you for listening," she says, chastising her older sister.

Francisco hands Lynn some highlighters, "Maybe if the words pop out you'll be able to focus more."

Lynn grabs the yellow highlighter and looks over at the next question. Lisa and Francisco stare at her as she stares down at the book. She can feel their eyes on her, but despite reading the question, nothing is sticking. Lynn looks down at the answer choices, but nothing is making sense. She grabs her highlighter and goes over a random word before saying, "Is it this one?" she asks, pointing at the second answer choice.

Lisa looks down at what her sister highlighted and at the answer she chose. Lynn is technically correct, however, Lisa is sure that it was a fluke considering that highlighted word isn't important to answer the question.

The younger sister flatly answers, "Yes, that is correct."

"WOO!" cheers Lynn, before immediately being shushed by everyone in the library. "Woo," she whispers.

Francisco pats her on the back and congratulates her, "Alright, Lynn."

Lisa pushes the book towards her, "Would you like to try answering some of the other questions?"

"Sure," Lynn happily says, invigorated by her small success. She lightly punches Francisco and proposes a challenge, "I bet I can get more questions right in less time than you."

Francisco doesn't care about Lynn's challenge, but he decides to humor her. Lisa sighs, it isn't how she normally conducts a study session, but it appears that the boy is able to get her sister's attention, so she agrees to let them have their so-called 'competition'.

The young girl turns the pages towards some practice math problems, "I'm giving you as much time as you need to answer the questions on these two pages. Go."

Lisa looks over at the clock to keep track of the time. She's sure that the two teens won't take too long, but if her hypothesis is correct then Lynn should be done in shortly.

As the older sister quickly glances at the book and then down at her own paper, she scribbles her responses before loudly declaring, "Done!", as she hands her answers over to Lisa.

The librarian walks over to the three and Lisa immediately begins to turn away. Librarian Wetta turns to Lynn, "Excuse me, young lady, but we have been very patient with your outbursts, now I'm giving you one last chance or I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Do you understand?"

Lynn nods her head. When the librarian walks away, Lisa begins to look over Lynn's answers, while Francisco continues to work on the problems. As Lisa correctly hypothesized, Lynn didn't take long to answer the questions correctly, however, she's sure that her older sister guessed in an effort to finish quickly. While the test isn't going to penalize Lynn for not showing her work or even understanding what she is reading, college is going to be much tougher for her sister if she gains admission into a school that she isn't academically suited for.

Lisa sighs, "You answered all of the questions correctly." Before Lynn is able to celebrate, Francisco hands Lisa his answer sheet, stopping Lynn in her tracks. The two look over at the young mustachioed girl as she grades his answer sheet. "You missed two questions." Lynn is about to celebrate her victory over Francisco, but Lisa interrupts, "However, I commend you for actually working out the problems instead of randomly picking answers and hoping for the best."

Lynn knows that her sister is taking a knock at her, and tells her through clenched teeth, "I tried."

Lisa shows her sister her answer sheet, "You only wrote answers," she holds up Francisco's answer sheet, "He actually worked out the problem and showed how he arrived at his solutions."

"I didn't know I had to," complains Lynn.

Lisa turns the page in the book and asks her, "How about you try to solve these problems? Remember, this test will gage how prepared you are to attend a university, don't leave it to lucky guesses."

"Gee, way to put the pressure on."


Kiké walks along the golf course. He regrets wearing his tuxedo since he hopped the fence, but he's sure that it's the only way that he can get around the country club without security trying to tackle him to the ground. He can't believe that he has to go through such lengths to attend his own niece's party, but since his family can't help him, he has to do it himself.

"Stupid golf courses…" he mutters under his breath as he walks along the fairway. "Only thousands of yards to go!"

As he approaches the main building, he can hear muffled music. He knows that Elena's party is going on inside, but he also knows that as soon as he tries to walk in he's going to get kicked out by a security guard. Kiké hides behind a nearby tree and looks inside the venue, "Alright, which one of you rich bastards is going to help me get in?"

Violet steps outside to clear her head, and Kiké smiles, knowing that he can get her to get him into the party easily.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite flower in the world? How are you, Violet?" asks Kiké, as he approaches her.

She steps back upon hearing a man's voice, but when she sees Kiké, she groans in disgust, "Ugh! You're one of his brothers, what do you want?"

"To be let into the party. The post office lost my invitation, can you believe it?"

"Well good luck, because I'm not going to help you."

"Really? What a shame," he says, before pulling out a packet of cigarettes and popping one in his mouth, "Do you want one?" he offers her. When he sees the hesitation in her eyes, he knows that he has her trapped, "Sorry, I didn't know your little Sajja oath prohibits cigarettes too."

Violet glares at him, and he gives her a knowing smile. She can't believe that he knows about that, she was careful not to talk about it to anyone outside of her family.

Kiké leans over and whispers in her ear, "Next time, keep an eye out for who's listening to your little conversation," he says before pulling up a photo on his phone so that she can see what he knows.

As she looks down at herself in the picture, she tightly balls her fist, "Fine…" Violet says through her teeth, "you want in? I'll let you in, but you better delete that photo."

He gives her a kiss on the cheek, "Anything for you," he teases.

Violet scowls and pushes him away in disgust. She leads him around the venue towards the entrance and explains to security that he is her guest. The security guard proceeds to let the two into the party.

Before Kiké is able to step away, she grabs him by his tie, and through her teeth, says "Delete that photo."

Kiké throws her his phone, "Fine, do it yourself," he offers.

"There better not be a physical copy."

"Not a single one you'll see," he says as he walks away. "Now if you'll excuse me, I should go say hi to my family."

Kiké walks around the venue. He is in awe at decorations, the food being handed out to the guests, and even the party favors, "Dang, all this from selling insurance?!" he asks himself. "I'm in the wrong line of work."

While he looks around for his family, he notices an all-too-familiar sight; like most quinceañeras he's attended in the past, the adults are sitting around chatting as they eat and drink, teenagers are dancing and little kids are running around, "All the money in the world and some things never change."

Kiké spots his family sitting around. With all the noise, no one notices when Kiké walks over to surprise them all, "Man, I thought that a country club quinceañera would be more fun, but it's still the same crap as the ones we had to go to." Everyone looks up at Kiké, stunned at his sudden appearance. He takes a seat and grabs Francisco's plate and begins to eat. Kiké looks over at his older brother, "I'm surprised that you didn't dress like you usually do at these things."

"I was told that I would look ridiculous."

"Well, you look weird in the monkey suit," he remarks. Kiké looks at everyone, "So what'd I miss?"

Andrew answers, "Dancing, the bouquet of flowers–"

"So all the ceremonial stuff? Well, bound to happen when you cross a damn golf course on foot." He turns to his younger brother, "Now why the heck wasn't I invited to this?"

"We didn't expect you to come," answers Francisco.

Kiké scoffs, "Just because I was running around Asia doesn't mean that I'm gonna miss my niece's birthday, Pancho. So anything good happen?"

"How'd you get in?" asks Lynn.

Annoyed, Kiké responds, "Well, my little half werewolf, I asked and was let in."

Lynn snaps at him, "Yeah, right."

"I'm serious. Go ask security if you don't believe me," he turns to Caroline, "in fact, your sister insisted that I be let in."

No one at the table believes him. They all know that Violet isn't overly fond of Francisco's family, and while Kiké can be charming when he wants to be, they doubt that Violet was nice enough to overlook her dislike of the 'uninvited' guest.

Andrew decides to ease the tension, and asks, "How was Asia?"

"Not bad, I accidentally joined an acrobatic stunt show in Borneo. That's what I get for trying to get a better view, although I did take one back to my hotel room," he remarks before stealing a plate of hors d'oeurves from a caterer. "I also wanted to spend some time at a temple in Thailand," he says in Caroline's direction. "except they kept me away."

"They must have sensed something evil about you," mutters Lynn.

Francisco lightly chuckles, but he tries to keep her quiet nonetheless.

Kiké looks around, "So where's the birthday girl?"

Caroline looks over in her daughter's direction. Elena is currently talking with her grandparents, who are probably introducing her to one of their friends. With Elena getting older, she knows that her parents are going to start pushing the girl towards making connections in an effort to assure her a good future. While Caroline appreciates the idea of helping her daughter, she's afraid that they might be as controlling with Elena as they were with her.

"Ooh, fun! Let's go see what little lie they concocted about me," he says as he walks over to them.

Caroline turns to Francisco, "How does he know about that?"

Francisco shrugs his shoulders, "I have no idea."


Lynn tosses and turns in bed. She can feel her heart racing. Tomorrow is the test and she's sure that she can guess her way into a good score, but Lisa warned her about what would happen to her at Michigan if she did. She knows that she struggled to get through school, but that isn't new, she's always struggled, but college is going to be whole other ball game and she isn't sure how she's going to do it.

Lucy can hear her sister. Sounds from Lynn's side of the room aren't rare, but they have been more frequent since the older sister has begun studying for her exams. She knows that she's nervous but her muttering is becoming more distracting.

The younger sister calls out, "Lynn…"

She doesn't stop muttering.

"Lynn…" Lucy says a bit louder.

Again, Lynn keeps muttering.

"Lynn…" says Lucy as loud as she can, "can you please stop muttering? It's late."

"I thought you liked the darkness."

Lucy doesn't find humor in her sister's words, "Please…I just want to sleep."

"Fine," says the older sister, "I'll go," her stomach begins to growl, "to the kitchen."

Lucy lets out a sigh of relief as she can finally get a little sleep before her sister returns.

Lynn walks downstairs and towards the kitchen. She's sure that a little food will calm her nerves so that she can get some sleep. As she opens the fridge, she starts to think about what sort of questions she's going to see, what her friends were saying about the test and Lisa's words. She knows that she isn't the academic type, and she's gotten by before, but she was warned that with her current grades, she's going to need a high score to make up for them.

Her mind begins to go to a dark place. Sure, she knows that if Michigan doesn't pan out she'll have plenty of other schools asking her to attend when she graduates. However, that still means that she'll have to do well on the test so that she can get into those schools. Her friends have told her too that if she doesn't do well tomorrow, then she can always retake the test or even try the ACT too, but she doesn't want to keep putting in so much effort for another test.

Lynn groans, "How am I supposed to raise my GPA, if I don't even want to study hard for another test?" she asks herself. "Nope…whatever I know, I know," she convinces herself. "I can do this…it's just like a game, except without fans or buzzers or going off of intuition. I mean, just 'cause Lisa said that I shouldn't guess, doesn't mean that I can't. I've guessed before and it worked out, I can just use the rest of high school to become a better student." Lynn grabs some deli meats and vegetables to make herself a sandwich, "It's perfect, if I guess, then I should be okay, just need to pull out some good luck rituals before the test, maybe get a horseshoe or a cricket or something and I'll be fine…" she tries to convince herself as she absentmindedly makes her sandwich.

Lynn Sr. drags his feet towards the kitchen. He's hungry and tempted by the leftovers in the fridge, "One little slice of pie isn't going to be the end of the world," he convinces himself. As he steps into the kitchen, he stops in his place when he notices his daughter muttering to herself, "LJ?"

She turns around, "Hey, Dad, what's up?"

"Both of us," he jokes. When he notices that his daughter isn't laughing, he stops and points towards the large sandwich that she is making, "Do you mind sharing your sandwich?"

Lynn shrugs her shoulders and takes the sandwich towards him. Lynn Sr. grabs a knife and cuts the sandwich in two. He offers her a piece and the two quietly lean against the counter.

He looks over at her and wonders if there's a reason that she's up late at night eating a sandwich in the dark, "Something on your mind, kiddo?"

She stays quiet, "Not much. I was just hungry."

He can believe that, though, after she came home from the study session at the library, he noticed that Lynn was frustrated. He knows that the test is probably stressing her out, she isn't the academic type, and she's probably putting a lot of pressure on herself to do well on the test.

"I'm just…" she tries to think of the right words to describe her feelings, but the best that she can think of is, "mad. Like, I'm going to screw up tomorrow and there isn't much I can do. I try to study, but it isn't going well and all I can think about is how I'm gonna screw up my chance of going to Michigan because of this dumb test."

"Kiddo, you know that that's not the only way to get into a good school," he reminds her. "You've been the captain of all of your sports teams, so that shows leadership potential and I bet you have plenty of coaches to get a letter of recommendation from." He sees that Lynn is still upset, "Picture this, you have a rookie on your team that is scared to step onto the plate and needs a pep talk, what would you say?"

Lynn tries to picture what she would say. She would tell that little rookie that to trust their gut, to ignore the pressure from everyone around them, because they know what they're doing, and while it may be their only first shot, it isn't their only shot.

She lets out a sigh of relief and he knows that she has calmed down a bit. He remembers the pressures of testing and he wouldn't want to go through it again, but he also knows that his daughter is going to be okay once she makes an attempt at the test.

Lynn Sr. takes a bite out of her sandwich, and nods his head in approval, "I'm so glad I have another little chef in the family. This is delicious!"

She smiles, "Thanks."

"You know, the restaurant's doors are always open, and I would love to pass it on to one of you kids," he says with shining eyes.

"I don't know, dad. Me in the restaurant?"

"If this sandwich says anything, I think you can do it."

"Sure," she says, not believing that she'll ever be the type to work at the restaurant.


Kiké begins regaling his family of what he learned from talking to Jacob and Elizabeth's friends, "Get this, so apparently Chuy is a mid-level manager at one of the Big Three, Pancho is an engineer, mom is a stay-at-home wife, I'm an international sales representative and this one is a chef at Corbett's Lodge," he says pointing at Lynn.

Caroline sighs, "I can't believe that they are still doing that," she silently tells herself.

Andrew takes her hand in an effort to calm her down.

"I can't believe they care enough to concoct the damn story. I mean you and Pancho split years ago, why bother with trying to make any of us look good?"

Caroline knows – it's so that her parents' friends will think that Elena is of 'good stock'. She knows that in a way they were always embarrassed by what happened nearly sixteen years ago, and it appears that those feelings never went away.

Francisco looks out at Elena dancing with her friends. He can feel himself getting upset that she would much rather be with them than her own family. Lynn notices him staring out onto the dance floor and she takes his hand and pulls him out of his chair. She knows what he's thinking about, and while she hasn't experienced it herself she figures that he needs something to get his mind off of Elena.

The two step onto the dance floor. As the music plays, Lynn wraps her arms around him and whispers to him, "You're gonna be okay," she reminds him. "It's part of life unfortunately."

"I know that…but…"

"You don't wanna let go?"

"Yeah…I mean, I've been singing the same song for years, but it's true," he says as he looks over at Elena, who is surrounded by her friends. For most of the night, he has seen her in passing or had short conversations before she is whisked away by friends or other guests. He can't be upset, there are lots of people around and she is expected to at least interact with them, but he starts thinking about how things are changing. She isn't a little girl anymore and soon enough, she'll be a grown woman who won't be around as much, busy with her own life.

"It's not like she's going to forget who you are."

"I know that," he sighs. "I just wish that I was around a little more is all."

Lynn smiles. It's such an innocent answer, "Well, it's not like you can't make the best of the time you've got, and I bet that if you stop and plan out some cool things she'll remember them forever, or maybe we could take some pictures? But that kinda defeats the purpose if we have to stop and take a photo. You know what? How about we just live? We have three, maybe four years to do something memorable, I mean sure we can't buy her a country club birthday, but we could, we could think of something that she'll love, like concerts or father/daughter art classes or maybe we could get you two a motorcycle and we could spend the summer riding all over the state."

He smiles before letting out a chuckle, "I don't know, Lynn."

She pokes him in the ribs, "Hey! I don't wanna hear that quitter's attitude. You gotta stop worrying about what Jack and Liz can buy her, sure you aren't gonna match them dollar for dollar, but you see her more, you know more about her, and I know that she would rather see you than them. You're her dad and just because you think that you didn't have the best fifteen years doesn't mean that you're gonna have a buncha crummy ones to come. You have plenty of time to make great family memories."

Francisco pulls her into a tight embrace. It isn't easy to let go and he knows that his feelings aren't going to go away over night, but he loves the way she tries to brighten his spirits with her little pep talks.

"One thing, before the end of the year. We're going to make one amazing memory."

"I'm holding you to it," she says as she pulls him into a kiss.

Elena looks over at her dad and Lynn as they dance to the song. She felt a little bad that she has been spending most of her time with her friends instead of her family, but she's glad that they are at least having fun too. Between deciding on decorations, the theme, learning choreography, and every other decision that had to be made, she hasn't had time to sit down and relax in months, let alone talk with her loved ones. Now everyone wants her attention as they compliment her dress and the party, take photos, or take her to have fun as a group.

One of her friends takes her hand, "Elena, c'mon! Someone wants to talk to you," she says in a singsong way.

The birthday girl looks to where her friend is taking her and she blushes, "Okay…I'm coming."

Hours later, as the guests begin to leave and the celebration comes to a close, the family gathers around at one table to chat before heading home. Club employees begin to clean up the venue and for the first time in hours, Elena is about to sit down and talk with her family.

Her parents give her a hug and Francisco asks, "Did you love your party?"

"Yes, and I loved my gifts too," she reminds them. "Thank you."

Lynn bites down on some hors d'oeuvres, "I was sort of curious why the forest theme?"

Elena shrugs her shoulders, despite knowing the answer, "It reminded me of one of my earliest birthdays."


I did not expect it to take me over a month to write this chapter, although working on the other the last chapters simultaneously probably didn't help. I can't make promises for when the next chapter will be posted, but hopefully I can finish the story before the year is out.

As a bit of good news, I recently learned that I was added to the TVTropes fanficrec page, which I believe brought me some new readers, so I want thank you and everyone who has read and recommended this story to others, it's incredibly nice to know that people enjoy this story and want it read by other fans

Thank you for reading, and see you next time