"Hello, everyone." Troy greeted, cheerfully. "We are going to be trying something new today."
"Troy why is Samara here?" Gabriella questioned.
Troy looked down at the 16 month old toddler, who was standing next to him. "I'm on babysitting duty. Everyone this my god sister, Samara."
"Anyway," Gabriella continued, "we're going to try something new. We took couples that we knew and we are going to advise them."
"It's basically couples therapy." Troy summarized.
Gabriella nodded, "Yes. And I am not feeling good today so this video will be short."
"Whats the matter?"
"I have a cold." Gabriella answered.
"Oh you poor thing." Lucille said. "I can make you some soup if you want. Or some tea."
"No thank you, Lucille."
"Anyway, we are going to interview my parents, Jack and Lucille Bolton." Troy pointed to his parents, who were sitting opposite of him and Gabriella.
"So Jack and Lucille, what seems to be the problem?" Gabriella questioned.
Lucille shook her head, "We don't have a problem."
"I doubt that." Gabriella told them. "Everyone has problems, even small ones like he doesn't do the dishes or something."
"He doesn't do the dishes. Or clean. Or cook." Lucille pointed out. "You don't do much around the house, actually."
"Lucille, you are a housewife. Did you forget that?"
"No, I did not, Jack. But you can still help me out from time to time."
Gabriella smiled, "Ok, good. We're getting somewhere. Jack, would you like Lucille to do something for your marriage?"
Jack shook his head, "No."
Troy scoffed and picked Samara up. He sat her next to him. "That's such a lie."
"No, it's not." Jack insisted. "I'm happy."
"You can always be happier." Gabriella said. "Why settle for a 9 when you can ha e a perfect 10?"
"Montez, you're such a perfectionist."
Gabriella shrugged, "So? Can you hand me that tissue box, please." Troy picked the box of tissue up and passed it to Gabriella. "Thanks."
"Dad, you never answered the question." Troy said.
Jack turned to Lucille, "Well, Lucille, you could be more outgoing."
"Excuse me?"
"You don't have to be such a stay-at-home mom." Jack clarified. "Go out, have fun."
"Good idea." Troy agreed. "You could use a hobby."
"Taking care of my family is my hobby." Lucille said.
"Mom, Marcus is 20 years old, living in an apartment at college. I'm 18. Yasmine is 16. We don't need a soccer mom anymore."
"So I should just stop?"
"You can wait until August when I move out. But until then, you have to continue. I don't care what you do after that."
Lucille huffed, "Fine. I'll try to be more outgoing."
"Go on vacation with my parents." Gabriella suggested, wiping her nose with a tissue. "They're going to the Carribean Islands for the summer. Barbados, Saint Lucia, Aruba, and then Jamaica. Soaking up the sun on a beach, surfing, great food. Just a good time."
"That's a good idea." Jack piped up.
Lucille picked at her nail polish, "Leaving Yasmine for the summer? I don't think I can do that."
Troy shrugged, "Send her to Texas. Grandma and grandpa would love to have her."
"I don't know." Lucille said, skeptically. "The thought of being on another continent without my children freaks me out."
"Mom, do you hear yourself? Your passing up on going to the Carribean to babysit Yasmine."
Gabriella let out a hoarse cough, that eventually turned into a fit. Troy gave her a firm pat on the back. "Being sick is disgusting." She turned to Samara, who had her hands covering her ears. "I'm sorry sweetheart."
"Ok Gabella."
"Close enough." Gabriella stood up from her spot on the couch. "I'll be back." She walked off.
"Oh and that's another thing." Jack said. "You coddle our kids too much."
"I don't coddle them. I love my children."
"Fine line, Lucy. You don't need to do their laundry."
Troy gasped, "Yes she does!"
"Troy you'll be going to college in a few months. You need to know how to do laundry."
"I know how to do my laundry." Troy said. "I chose not to do it because mom does."
"Well she should stop doing your laundry."
Troy shrugged, "If mom wants to do it, who am I to stop her?"
Lucille held her hand up to show that she was still in the room. "Guys, let's not talk about me like I'm not here. Fine, I'll stop doing everyone's laundry. Including yours, Jack."
"Me?" Lucille nodded. "Why me?"
"Since I'm such a coddler, I won't be doing anyone's laundry." Lucille said.
Troy covered his mouth to stifle a laugh, "Burn."
Gabriella walked back into the living room, holding a bottle of red liquid in her hands. "What did I miss?"
Lucille pointed to the bottle, "Sweetie, what are you drinking?"
Gabriella shrugged, "I don't know. Yasmine gave it to me. I think it's Theraflu."
Troy grabbed the bottle, "You're just chugging this stuff down like it's water. That's not safe."
"Relax. I'm fine."
Troy gave the bottle back to Gabriella, "Just don't kill yourself."
Gabriella ignored Troy's comment, "I've seen enough therapy shows to know about this next trick. Turn to each other."
"Huh?"
"Turn to each other." Gabriella repeated. Lucille and Jack turned to each other. "Hold hands."
"Is this necessary?" Jack questioned.
"Yes. Now you are each going to say something you like and dislike about each other." Gabriella explained. "Troy and I will give you an example." She turns to Troy. "What do you like, no love, about me?"
"Everything."
"Bullshit." Gabriella said, sharply.
"What do you mean?"
"You can't possily like everything about me. I don't like everything about me. Stop trying to take the easy way out."
Troy sighed, "I like your bubbly personality."
Gabriella smiled, "Me too."
"You like my bubbly personality?"
"No." Gabriella answered. "I like my bubbly personality."
"Ok, so what do you like about me?"
"I like your confidence. I like that your honest."
Troy gave her a thumbs up of approval, "Good. Now what do you dislike about me?"
"You forget everything." Gabriella told him.
Troy frowned, "I don't forget everything."
"You forget my birthday last month."
"Sorry. It was finals week. You know how finals stress me out."
"Don't excuse your behavior."
"I made it up to you." Troy pointed to the white gold Tiffany & Co. charm bracelet on Gabriella's wrist. "I bought you that bracelet."
"After my birthday."
"Let's move on. Thats so 2011."
"What don't you like about me?"
Troy pondered that for a moment. "You get jealous easily. And you're like a klepto."
Gabriella scoffed and drank some more of the medicine, "I'm not a kleptomaniac."
"Do you know I only have 5 shirts in my closet. The rest of them, are at your house."
"You leave them there."
"And you steal the rest."
Gabriella rolled her eyes, "So sue me for taking my boyfriend's shirts. Or put me in prison. You were fine the other day when I was wearing your shirt."
"Well that was because you had nothing on..."
Lucille snapped her fingers, stopping Troy from continuing his sentence. "This is about us. Not you two."
Gabriella nodded, "Ok, so you..." She was cut off by a yawn. "Gosh, I'm so tired."
"Are you ok?" Lucille asked.
"Yeah, I'm just really sleepy."
Lucille held out her hand, "Hand me that bottle." Gabriella gave Lucille the bottle. She sniffed it. "Honey, this isn't Theraflu. This is NyQuil."
"NyQuil?" Gabriella repeated.
"Yeah. NyQuil has that smell that sends chills down your spine. I know that smell anywhere."
"I'm going to kill Yasmine."
Troy laughed, "You've been drinking NyQuil straight out of the bottle. That was very dumb of you, babe." He turned to Samara. "Gabriella hasn't been using her thinking cap, has she?"
Jack looked at his watch, "Can we speed this up? My dad needs me in a meeting very soon."
Gabriella let out another yawn, "Yeah. You and Lucy say what you guys like about each other. And what you dislike." She put her head on Troy's lap and closed her eyes. "Or we can just all take a nap. I like the nap idea a lot more."
"Brie, we aren't going to..." Troy looked down at Gabriella, who felt like a dead weight on his lap. "Gabriella? Gabriella?"
"Did she fall asleep?"
"I think she did." Troy replied.
Samara burst into a fit of giggles, "Gabella, sleep." She kissed Gabriella's head. "Night night, Gabella."
Troy lifted Gabriella's head up and stood. He picked Gabriella up and tossed her over his shoulder. "Ok that's all the time we have for this week. Mom, dad, we made some progress. Now, I have to take Samara home and take Gabriella to the hospital to make sure she didn't fall into a coma or something." Troy held out his hand for Samara to hold on to. "Come on, Samara."
"What a minute!" Lucille stood up. "We didn't get to finish."
Troy groaned. "Oh. Dad, help out around the house more. Mom, get out of the house more." Troy smiled. "Problem solved." He turned to the camera. "See you guys next week."
