Hiiiii!

So...wow. I posted the last chapter of this OVER A YEAR AGO. And here's the second. Heh.

I'm really sorry about that. I was looking back at it this morning - at your lovely feedback - and I was like, you know what, why not? So here's a second chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

I love reviews! If you'd leave me one, that would be amazing! And I appreciate and read every single one.

-Homey

P.S. So...what did you think of the "Full House" superbowl commercial. Just...just wow. Not what I was expecting. *sigh* Everyone in the comments were like, "WHAT HAPPENED TO BECKY?!" Including my little brother.

P.P.S. Okay, so I really decided to write this because: 1) You guys deserve it. And 2) I stumbled across a One Direction/Full House crossover which is perhaps the weirdest but most fantastic pairing in the history of crossovers, so I decided to write this! Sans One Direction, which, you know, is probably best. Although Harry makes everything better. But so does Full House. It's a win-win, really.

Disclaimer: Hey guess what I didn't write this although I could have made a better Danny/Jesse/Joey Superbowl commercial than the professionals did. So I kind of wish I did own this. Just sayin.

Copyright HomeschoolGirl 2014. Please don't steal, because it's not very nice. And Michelle Tanner would not approve, and Stephanie would say, "HOW RUUUUUUDE!" and DJ would roll her eyes and flip her feathered hair over her shoulder. So just don't.

Stephanie "Steph" Tanner

17 Years Old

4 years after full house

Stephanie wasn't stupid. She knew something was up.

"What aren't you telling me, Deej?" She asked as she stood in her sister's bedroom, later that night.

DJ barely glanced up from her book. There was cake in the kitchen, but after blowing out her candles, she'd taken her piece and shot back up the stairs, claiming she had an English report to write. Her cake lay dangerously close to the edge of the bed, mostly untouched.

"Nothing," She said dismissively, turning a page. "I'm trying to read."

"No," Stephanie protested, wandering in. "You're hiding something. You haven't even eaten your cake. You love cake. Who do you think I am, Michelle?"

"Yes?" Came her sister's voice from across the hall.

"Not you," Stephanie yelled back. As an afterthought, she closed DJ's door.

"Come on, Deej," She said, sinking down onto the edge of her sister's bed. DJ, sprawled out on her stomach, was fixated on the same page. So obviously not reading. "You can tell me."

She glanced up at Stephanie and reached for her plate, taking a huge bite of cake. "Satisfied?" She asked through the mouthful. Chocolate crumbs sprayed onto the violet bedspread. Stephanie plucked the cake from the bed when her sister set it back down.

"Fine. If you're not going to eat your birthday cake, and keep your little secrets, I'll eat it."

"You enjoy that."

"I will," Stephanie huffed, standing up. She wrenched the door open, stepping out into the hall. She would have slammed it shut, but Danny had a strict no-door-slamming policy because, according to him, "It scuffed the wood." Instead she was forced to quietly close it behind her, despite being sorely tempted to disregard her father's rules. It was for a good cause.

She started downstairs, momentarily forgetting DJ as she remembered that Gia was supposed to call tonight. Gia had taken a huge step last year and completed both eleventh and twelfth grade in order to graduate early. She'd headed off to Berkeley back in September which, admittedly, wasn't that far from where Steph lived. But college was in a completely different ballpark from high school, and Gia was so busy Monday through Friday, Steph only really saw her a couple times a month. A couple times, she'd even gone to frat parties those days, and they hadn't seen each other at all.

It was difficult—Stephanie felt left behind sometimes. But that was a perpetual feeling she'd had just about her whole life, despite knowing she was loved. Jessee, when she told him this once, called it Middle Child Syndrome. Stephanie didn't quite grasp what that meant back when she was seven, but the knowledge that she may have been the least important of the Tanner kids resided in her stomach, even then.

She'd grown to embrace this, over time. It had taken awhile—starting with the time she backed the car through the kitchen. And again when she'd been afraid to quit dance class. A third time when that dork had stood her up and Danny had, embarrassingly but sweetly, rushed to her defense. So what if DJ got more congratulations, if everything Michelle did was cute? Stephanie was a hard worker as a result of this. She'd done more, made leaps and bounds in school and extracurriculars, in order to be appreciated. And she was.

Aunt Becky passed Stephanie on the stares. They shared a quick smile. Stephanie almost offered to take the clothes her Aunt was carrying, but Gia should have been calling any time now.

"Oh, Steph," Becky said, surprising her. She turned around, perched halfway down the steps.

"Yeah?"

"I meant to help you with your application today. Do you want to do that?"

Stephanie wrinkled her nose. "No thanks, Aunt Becky. Gia's going to call."

"Right, sorry. I forgot." She smiled sheepishly. "Why don't we do it tomorrow, though? Over ice cream?"

"Sounds good."

"Okay, honey. I better take this. The boys are about to get ready for bed, and all their pajamas are dirty."

"Sure," Stephanie replied. She went and sat down on the couch, curling her body toward the phone, poised to pick it up the second it rang.

Applications. To be honest, Steph had forgotten about Aunt Becky's promise to proofread her submission and essay last week. She'd been overbooked for Wake Up San Francisco, so when Stephanie approached her to ask her to lend her eyes—Danny would be too neurotic, Jesse too nonchalant, throw-caution to the wind, Joey too joking to do the job properly—she'd said yes, but next week. Work was too insane.

Aunt Becky seemed the best person for the job, either way. Steph didn't mind delaying. She had a week, maybe two, before the deadline for San Francisco State. Plenty of time, as far as she was concerned. And if she did miss the deadline, she could just pick another college at random. Stephanie didn't really care where she went, as long as she was going somewhere. She hardly even knew what degree she wanted—her plan was to get the electives out of the way, maybe take an English class or two. Then go from there.

Her family had come forth with a plethora of suggestions starting as early as last March, of course. Danny's had been for Stephanie to be a doctor. "You're very talented, honey," He'd said, spooning some green beans onto her plate. "I think you'd love the atmosphere."

Sick people. Dying people. No thanks.

"How about, like, a writer?" Uncle Jesse had asked, taking a bite of mashed potatoes. "You were always good at that, Steph."

"I don't know, Jess," Danny interjected anxiously, eyeing Stephanie for any signs of consent. "That's not a very secure job."

"Aw, Danny. She could do it," Jesse replied. He told Nicky and Alex to stop fighting and turned back to his niece. "It might be hard, sometimes, Stephanie. But the benefits would be worth it."

She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe—"

"Or you could be a teacher," Joey chimed in, as if this was a revelation. He sat up straighter. "That'd be perfect for you, Steph! Just swell!" He slurred his S, purposefully, and spit shot into Jesse's face. He grimaced, wiping it with his napkin.

"Joey's right, Steph," Becky agreed. "You're great with kids."

"I am?" Stephanie considered this.

"Yeah," Becky went on, scarcely giving her time to think on it. "Nicky and Alex love you. You're they're favorite babysitter."

"We don't need a babysitter," Alex grumbled.

"Yeah," Nicky agreed. The twins were seven, now, and going through that stage of childhood rebellion. They were firecrackers, that was for sure. And there were two of them.

"What do you think, guys?" Stephanie asked, smiling at them. "No teaching?"

"Nope," Alex said crisply. Nicky nodded his agreement.

Becky scoffed. "Boys, Stephanie would make a great teacher. What are you talking about?"

Nicky and Alex went off listing all the reasons she wouldn't be, with Becky offering up her amused protests every now and then, and Steph tuned them out. Until she felt a tap on her arm.

"What, Michelle?" She asked her youngest sister, annoyed.

Michelle rolled her huge blue eyes. "Who spit in your cheerios, this morning?"

"Sorry. I'm just frustrated."

"Well, can I tell you what I think you should do?"

Stephanie sighed, sinking down in her chair. She pushed her food away. "You might as well. Everyone else already has."

"I think," Michelle said, taking the untouched garlic bread off her sister's plate, "that you should be a veterinarian."

Stephanie laughed. "Now that's a horrible idea."

"What? No it's not. You can get a degree, and then I can go into practice with you. We'll be called the Tanner Animal Sister Savers. I've already drawn our business cards."

"Michelle, I love comet, but I'm horrible with animals. That's what you want to do."

"It's a noble aspiration."

Stephanie hated when her sister talked like she was above her. She was eleven, for pete's sake.

"Okay, so it is," She allowed. "It's just not my noble aspiration. Got it?"

And with that, she yanked the garlic bread from Michelle's hand before she could put it in her mouth. This erupted a whole other can of worms as Michelle yelled Danny's name and told her Steph had taken her food.

"No I didn't! She took mine!" Stephanie shouted back.

"Liar! Food thief! Food thief!"

"Girls! There's a whole basket of bread on the table!"

The one thing Stephanie could say she was thankful for that night was DJ being out with Steve. That was one less person to offer up their unwanted two cents. But only one less.

It was the way of the Tanner household. Everybody always had to poke their nose where they weren't wanted, because they claimed they cared.

Frankly, Stephanie was tired of people caring. She wanted to find her own way.

The phone rang. The frown left her face and she smiled, reaching for it.