Inside the Zimmerman house, Carole sat at the barely-oblique mahogany dining room table with her husband Jared, her daughters Elaine (or Gwen, as she preferred to be called) and Johnnie, her seven-year-old son Parker, her aspiring rocker nephew, and the two guests who came with him. At first, dinner was relatively quiet among the seated until Carole asked, "So how was everybody's day today?"

"Alright." Jared answered calmly.

"Fine." Johnnie said.

"Amazing!" Parker squeaked.

Gwen was the last of the immediate family to speak up. "Everything was great until Re-Todd came back from Fontana." she grumbled. "And you wanna know what was worse than that? He came back with ticks on his butt! This must be the fourth time this month he's gotten ticks on himself."

"Well, be thankful you didn't get any on yourself." Carole warned her eldest daughter. "Besides, I'm sure Todd wasn't the only one to come back with those bloodsucking freaks." She then turned to the rest of the guests who were seated. "Anybody else want to contribute?"

Finally, it was Greg's turn. "Well... yesterday, I was making my way through Beach City, right? So I was trying to find a place to park and I happened to come across this Motel 6. Anyway, I parked right there and I was trying to get some fans, but they just didn't appreciate what I was doing..."

Eleven-year-old Johnnie, with her pretty dark brown eyes and gappy smile, prompted her cousin to go on.

"...so anyway, I was about to give up right then and there..." he continued. "...when this pretty little angel came along." He pointed, right then and there, at the lovely Rose Quartz. "I know it's only been a day since we met, but I think I might be in love."

"Congratulations, buddy." Zirconia cheerfully said. "You're under the influence of Projection."

"Projection? What's that?"

"Projection is where you see her... and your heart isn't what's keeping you alive anymore. It's just... her."

"Sounds like you know the feeling."

"Oh, Greg..." Zirconia shook her head and laughed to herself. "...you really have no idea how much Rose means to me, do you?" She sighed abjectedly. "I'd do anything for her, and I do mean anything. Why, I think I'd even-" Suddenly, she squeaked out loud. "Excuse me, I think I just projected in my outfit."

Jared instantly knew what she meant and pointed her towards the bathroom. "You might want to change in there." he suggested. "I don't want the kids to know where babies come from just yet."

Zirconia got up and headed that way while the rest looked on. After the synthetic Gem got in and shut the door behind her, everybody else got on with their conversations at the dinner table.

"Okay, where were we now?" Jared asked after a brief moment of silence. "Oh yeah, I think we were just talking about how our dear nephew met an angel last night."

"Yeah, that must be it." Carole agreed. "And I can hardly believe how beautiful she looks." She craned her neck to have a look at Rose's face.

"She looks like a Disney Princess!" Parker piped up.

Rose was heavily blushing at those comments; it almost felt like the blood vessels in her face were going to burst right then and there. It seemed like more of these comments would be coming her way when knocking could suddenly be heard at the front door.