Congrats to PurpleNicole531, Mia Teresa-Davenport, Adeo1234, AlienGhostWizard14, Lady Cougar-Trombone (yay, Lab Rats marathon!), Dirtkid123 (haha, nice!), doomforzombies16, BTRlover1122, Rodrigo and rosepika13 for getting the answer right! Bree and Chase do work at Tech Town with Caitlin. ;)

Thanks to UnknownForNow too! That was such a nice comment! Hey - I'm digging the username, by the way. :)

Here it is! Can you believe it? The 30th chronicle! This story has got to be the longest story I've ever written, and it amazes me to think that I still have not grown bored with it (I think the show - and you guys! - being so awesome has a lot to do with it!)

Please enjoy!

Episode Tag to: Not So Smart Phone

Chronicle #030

"Interdependent"

03/02/14

8:04 PM

So it's the parents' anniversary week this week. Big D and Mom had been married two years to be exact, and so far things are going pretty good. There are rough patches here and there, but I think that's to be expected. For Mom, at least. She's technically related to a mad scientist, and she's basically a mom now to three bionic teenagers. Trouble's just always going to be in the ballpark.

I guess Big D's expected some tough things from the beginning, too. After all, he chose to spend the rest of his life with a woman who had a pretty destructive thirteen year-old son. I think I unintentionally made that clear when I tried to shake his hand the first night Mom introduced him to me, and in my attempt to hold out my hand I knocked over the huge antique lamp that was sitting innocently on our coffee table.

But even if the situation wasn't ideal, he didn't care. He loved Mom, and he was willing to love everything and everyone she loved no matter.

To be honest, it doesn't even seem like it's been that long, but I'm guessing it's because my involvement with their relationship wasn't as much as it was compared to when they first started dating. They were like teenagers. Every anniversary, every month, they're celebrating—and, in several instances, they want me in on it, whether by telling me about it or requiring me to be in it.

The wedding was probably worse. They took me to every wedding gown shopping, every tux fitting (although, I really had to be there since Big D included me in the entourage), and to so many cake tasting that for weeks, just the sight of icing made me want to throw up.

I was so tired from all the activities their wedding week that I had a hard time staying up during the reception.

Once we got settled down, though, they began to focus more on each other, which is alright with me. That's how it should be. And I'm too into my siblings' bionic business to get into their business anyways.

It all played out well. They work together as a team, especially in parenting. You know. The usual manner. They lay down the law. When one, more or all of their little hooligans break it, they both become judges. Then, when the verdict is made, they turn into the harshest jailers in town.

Good for them.

Bad for us.

But, I can't deny that their system works well. I'd like to think that Adam, Bree, Chase and I are not too bad compared to others, and despite the harsh climate we've been finding ourselves in when it comes to enemies, Big D and Mom still seem like they have everything under control.

Big D told me once that that's mostly because of Mom. She freaks out, yes, but as it turns out, he can get pretty frustrated, too. Apparently, during our brief financial crisis, she kept him from turning into a complete nutcase.

Then, with a smile, he added that she's a keeper. That's why he's doing his best to make sure she's happy, so that he'd never lose her.

No wonder he's so nervous about their anniversary dinner this year and what gift he was going to give her. He didn't say anything, of course, but I did gather as much when I saw his frantic search through eBay and Amazon for an ePhone 7 while Adam and Chase were having laughing fits over the shirt Trent gave Bree to wear if he had become the principal.

"You know no one will sell them online for a while," I told Big D after Adam, Bree and Chase left to go to a store to buy plain t-shirts so they can replicate the one that Bree had and, ultimately, to make a souvenir out of that horrible headshot.

Big D sighed. "I know. But it's worth a shot," he said. "I really wanted to get that for your mom, but Tech Town ran out. I don't know what I'd get her. I don't even know where I'd take her. Our anniversary's tomorrow, and I forgot to make a reservation at her favorite restaurant."

I frowned. "You forgot it was your anniversary?" I asked.

Big D turned his chair around to face me. He shot me a smile and said, "You'll be someone's husband one day, Leo. Believe me, there will be times when you'll forget too."

I thought about it. Big D's probably right.

"Anyways, it's not that I totally forgot about it." He stood up. "I just forgot that I don't have an assistant anymore who I could ask to do all the organizing for me." He sighed after making sure the controls on the capsules wouldn't go haywire in the middle of the night while Adam, Bree and Chase slept in them. "I tried to see if we can at least get in at that dinner theater place, but they're booked, too. Actually, all the places I thought of as backups are booked."

"Okay. Well, if you guys can't dine out, maybe you can dine in," I suggested. "Have a home-cooked dinner like last year."

"I thought about that, but I won't be able to do it," Big D said. "I have to meet with some lawyers tomorrow to see if I still have any shot at getting my company back. I'd probably be out all day."

"And Mom's going to be out all day at work tomorrow too," I said.

"Yeah, she is."

At this point, I was starting to figure out that the situation Big D was in was pretty desperate. He wanted to have a great time on a great date, but things just didn't work as well as he hoped they would.

One of the good things that come from continuously dealing with parents as judges is that you learn how to make deals. Besides playing the 'plead guilty for a better sentence' card, we also learned how to hunt for goodwill where and when we can find it, because it ultimately results to a 'get out of jail free' card.

I had a number of advantages at that point. I know almost everything that Mom likes; I had the time that Big D lacks. And, if everything goes accordingly, I had a wild card on deck that could just make this a win, not only for me, but for the rest of their little outlaws.

I smiled as a plan formed in my head. Then, I told Big D I got it.

He raised his eyebrows. "You got it," he said, not really believing me.

"Yes. I do," I assured him. "All I need is fifty dollars for a three-course meal for you and Mom, and the rest will be taken care of."

Big D eyed me at first, wondering if he should fork over the money. A few minutes later, he took out a few bills from his pocket. "And what's in it for you?" he asked suspiciously.

I smiled, maybe too widely than what I had intended. "I'll think about it," I promised.

Since it was a little late already when Adam, Bree and Chase came back home, I had to wait until breakfast the next morning before I can put the proposal on the table. Thankfully, when the four of us got up, Big D and Mom were already about to leave for their respective agendas for the day. Mom gave us quick hugs, which were quite lost on Adam and Bree, both of whom were dragging around the kitchen like typical teenagers on a weekend morning, and Big D just told us that he'd see us later on that night—with a pointed glance at me, letting me know that he was expecting that I'd follow through.

When they were gone and the four of us were having breakfast (or, in Bree's case, staring at breakfast with a very disturbing look in her eyes), I began making the offer. I cleared out my throat to get their attention. Then, I asked, "Big D's offering immunities to grounding if we help him with something. Who wants it?"

Chase frowned heavily then looked at me.

Bree refocused her morning death stare from the withered hash browns on her plate to me.

Adam raised his hand.

I shrugged. "Okay. That's one," I said. "No other takers?"

"Wait," Chase said. "Immunity. From Mr. Davenport. Are you serious?"

"Yeah," I said.

"What exactly does he need help with?" Chase asked.

"Who cares?" Adam said. "Vin's hosting a scavenger hunt around the city next Saturday. If Mr. Davenport wants a guard dog, I'll happily put on a leash and bark at people just so I can go."

Bree looked at him. "Like you don't always bark at our neighbors," she pointed out.

Adam grinned. "You gotta admit. It's kind of funny when the kids scurry away," he said.

Before they could start arguing, I told them that what we had to do for Big D was less…whatever it was that Adam thought it would be. I told them that I promised Big D I'd take care of their anniversary dinner, and if it all goes well he's letting me make demands. Well, reasonable demands, at least. Then I said that for the amnesty to work for them, they have to actually help.

When Adam asked what the plan was, I told them. We serve them dinner, provide short entertainment. I told them that, yes, I know it sounds lame, but Mom loves things like that. Having it come from us? She'll be over the moon.

And if she loves it, then Big D will too.

Thus, the guaranteed immunity.

Of course, I had other reasons for my plans, but I didn't tell them.

Adam, as he had made known from the beginning, was completely on board. He volunteered to pick up the food and do whatever needed to be done. He also was the first to sign-up for our mini talent show. He said he wants to tell a story using sock puppets. I wasn't really sure what story he had in mind at that point, but his puppet shows are always interesting anyways, so I just went with it.

To my surprise, Bree also agreed to participate. At first I thought that the only reason why she was doing it was because she wanted the chance to have an out should she be grounded when it comes at a bad timing, but now I think she did it because she likes the idea of doing something for her parents for their anniversary, just like any other normal girl at some point in her life. She said she'd assist Adam in setting up and, if we were serving the food, she'd do that too. As far as what she would do, she said she wasn't opposed to doing something but she just didn't know what to do.

"Well, you and Chase could come up with something," I offered. "I mean, if he's on board."

"Yeah, I'm on board," Chase said. He thought about it. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

We had a pretty good discussion on how we would go about the dinner after that. We agreed on a timeline: order their food at 4:30, pick up at 5, set up everything at the piano room at 5:30, dinner at 7. We wing all the good stuff.

With that set, the four of us separated. Adam headed straight to the lab to revisit his sock puppet collection, Bree went downstairs to get her ePod, and Chase vanished into the Piano Room to canvass it.

Meanwhile, I got on the new mountain bike Mom bought for me to make what had to be the most expensive and the most annoying purchase in my entire life.

It took me a while to get back home, but when I did I saw that I may have been gone too long. I found Adam surrounded by piles of mess in the kitchen, icing a cake, while Bree was on Big D's laptop, seemingly upset about something. When I asked what happened, Bree told me that watching a few episodes of Cake Boss inspired Adam to bake a cake for Big D and Mom. I headed to the kitchen, frustrated over how everything looked and how that might just be a big deduction on our good kids points, when Adam gave me a sample.

It may not have looked it, but it was a pretty good cake.

I asked Adam next what was wrong with Bree, and he told me that she and Chase still had not agreed on what they would do for that night.

By the time I approached Bree, Chase had come into the living room with a list of suggestions. I asked them how things were going. I got hit with a wave of blaming and complaining, both of which they directed toward each other.

"Okay," I said after they finished their rants. "From what you guys said, I understand that you two are leaning on something that involves music."

"I guess," Chase said, scratching his head, "but we have different preferences. I like light classical, Bree likes cheesy pop songs."

"They are not cheesy!" Bree refuted. "And at least they're from this century!"

"Alright, alright," I said, standing between them before Chase could respond and everything goes downhill. "What about this? The three of us find a good song. And Chase, since you rock the guitars anyways, we can pick something that will sound good as an acoustic. Fair enough?"

Chase frowned lightly. Then, he nodded. "Fair enough," he said.

"And you, Bree," I turned to her. "Since you like singing, you can do that."

"Sing?" Bree asked, half confused, half nervous.

"Yeah. Here," I said, gesturing for her ePod.

With her permission, we went over the playlists that she had. Paramore and Sara Bareilles are the recurring theme in her music, and although there were some that might suit the event we were planning for, none of the ones we considered made her any less stressed over having to sing them.

But a few playlists down, I found a cover for a song that fitted the occasion best and wouldn't be too hard to do.

"How about this?" I asked, showing the screen to Chase.

"Hey, I know that song!" he said, smiling widely. "Yeah, I can definitely do that."

I showed it to Bree next. She stared at it. Unsure, she crossed her arms, her brows wrinkling lightly. For a while, she said nothing. She looked at me when she decided. "I guess I can do that too," she said.

I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was very nervous. So, I offered, "Would you like for me to…?"

A small smile came up Bree's face when she read what I was thinking. "Do you mind?" she asked. "I'll take Fifth Harmony."

I'll admit, when it comes to belting out a tune, I'm okay. I'm not as good as Mom is, but I'm not as abysmal as Eddy. But if stepping out of my comfort zone would help Bree step out of hers, hey, I'm game. "Boyce…" I checked the screen for the name of the other group—"Avenue it is," I said.

We were all set after that.

The four of us had enough time to practice before setting the plan we agreed on into motion. Everything went without a hitch. The food was ready on time, the table was set just as Big D came home. He gave us a nod of approval when he saw it before going to their room to get ready. While he was away, Bree, Chase and I snuck into the room where he kept all of his instruments so Chase could pick which guitar he could use.

Mom came home while we were doing that, but we didn't really know until later because Big D took her to the garden so she wouldn't see anything before it's time.

They stepped in at seven.

We were on the clock after that.

We drew straws to see who gets to do what. Bree served the drinks, Adam the appetizers. I got the main meal, and everybody got a kick out of watching me trying to balance big plates with heavy food on them.

Chase, meanwhile, had the desserts.

As they were finishing their food, the four of us piled in like we were going in to get our mug shots taken. It was awkward trying to intro our little showcase, but it was the main move in our plan. So, I got it over with, said it was part of the dinner, Bree, Chase and I were doing a song, Adam's going to do a puppet show – boom. Intro.

I looked at our audience once.

Big D seemed super impressed.

Mom, being that she's Mom, picked up her phone to record us.

When everything was ready, we just began.

With Chase on the guitar, Bree and I took a shot on JT's "Mirrors."

It went well on my opinion. Chase did great. Bree was nervous, but she got rid of it as the song went along.

Adam's puppet show got us beat, though. Contrary to what we all expected, his story was very related to the occasion: he gave us a play-by-play from the time Big D met Mom online to the wedding. There were funny stuff, some romantic stuff (Adam slightly gagging while he told those parts), and a number of truth bombs that blew up on certain people's faces.

My favorite? "I love Tasha, and I don't think I can live without her. But I don't know about her kid. Her kid kind of annoys me sometimes."

Apparently, Chase was not the only person who couldn't stand me when he first met me.

All that aside, before the four of us bailed to leave them by themselves, I announced to, well, told Mom that Big D asked me to give her his anniversary present. Big D looked horrified, and he probably thought I was giving her something that would make her upset with him as a payback to what I've found out, but Mom's already too taken away by the sight of the gift wrapped box for him to stop her.

When she opened it, everybody, besides Bree, was surprised.

"Oh my—Donald! You got me an ePhone 7?" Mom turned to him with a hearty smile. She hugged him tightly. "Oh, honey! You're the best!"

While Mom was squeezing all the air out of Big D's lungs, we started cleaning up the plates. So they could be by themselves, we told them goodnight then left.

Before I could go downstairs, Big D caught up to me, somewhat confused but was smiling lightly. "Where did you get that phone?" he asked quietly so Mom wouldn't hear. "I waited in line for that for days and didn't get even one—How?"

I shrugged. "We got it from the company store," I said. "During the shopping sprees Bree and I convinced Principal Perry to go to, we managed to convince her to get the new phones for her and her cats. The line was super long, but we made her promise the first guy in line that if he purchased all of those phones for her, she'll buy him one, too."

Big D raised his brows. "And he said yes?" he asked.

"Haven't you seen her? Who'd want to cross that?" I said. "Anyways, I remembered that she kept three of her phones after she returned all the other things she bought. She's using one, and you don't want to know what the other one's soiled with. But, the third one, I made a bargain for."

Big D smiled. "Okay. So how much do I owe her?"

"You? You owe her seven hundred bucks. Me? I'm supposed to clean her car every day for a month."

"Ooh," Big D said, probably feeling bad about my end of the deal. "Maybe I can hire someone else to do that for you?"

"No. She wants me to do it," I said. I could tell he was going to offer more suggestions, but I just shook my head. I smiled. "Don't worry about it, Big D. Just…go back to Mom. She'd start wondering what's taking you so long."

Big D thought about it. He wanted to say something, but he saw that I would just tell him the same thing, that he should worry about Mom and not me. He smiled and clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Thanks, Leo," he said. "I owe you big time."

"That you do," I said as he walked back to the Piano Room.

Clean up wasn't bad. By the time I got downstairs, Adam, Bree and Chase were almost done throwing away all that needed to be thrown away and cleaning all that we didn't clean up already earlier. Adam and I put away all the dishes in the dishwasher, turned it on, and decided that we should call it a night.

Before I went up to my room and they went down to the lab, Chase asked me to make sure Mom didn't post anything she had recorded.

I told him I was on it.

Before reaching my room, I caught a glimpse of Big D and Mom dancing to their wedding song. I couldn't remember the title, something about when someone tells someone they love them or something, but I do remember that it's a Diana Ross song.

Believe it or not, Big D is a fan of the Queen of Motown.

After I got ready for bed, I figured out then the real reason why I even volunteered to do this in the first place: it makes Mom happy.

I think that fact overrides any opinion I have of any matter. Not all the time, of course, but it does on all situation where it counts, like when Mom asked me years ago if it's okay for her to date again, or when she and Big D told me that they wanted to get married, or when they dragged me into an encore of their dance at the wedding.

As long as she's happy, I guess I'm alright with it.

The great anniversary dinner brought a lot of good results. Big D and Mom tag teamed to make us a big breakfast this morning. Big D also told Adam, Bree and Chase that their training was postponed, and they had the rest of the day off. They were excited about that.

They were in a good mood all morning.

This afternoon, after the four of us came back from the movies, was a different story. Apparently, Mom got upset at Big D because he accidentally fried her old phone by placing it beside his renovated field destabilizer.

Married life. I don't know whether I should look forward to it or not.

Signed,

Leo Francis Dooley

03/02/14

11:11 PM

The Bree Chronicles

In Not So Smart Phone, what was the game Adam and Chase played that Leo recorded? Reviews are loved, and answers are rewarded with shout outs!

I just realized a few weeks ago that I haven't done any story recommendations for a while, so I thought I'd take this time now to do that.

First, three words. Bionic Wars. darylnewman99. This story has colored me intrigued! It's still on its starting stage (it's only got two chapters so far, I think), but the plot just drew me in. In the story, Leo's stuck having to make a decision: forsake his own freedom to save his family or reveal a secret and risk the lives of the people he loves. I'm really looking forward to see how this goes. I try my best to support (and encourage support for) the Leo writers in our neck of the woods anyways, but I think this one is worth checking out.

If that's not for you and you're more of a Chase reader, I think you'll enjoy daphrose's I'm a Weapon. It's an alternate reality story wherein Donald never got to save the kids, and Chase had to live with Douglas from childhood on. To be honest, I had to stop reading at one point in the story because it broke my heart to the point of almost crying when I saw the situation Adam, Bree and Chase were in. It doesn't help that daphrose is a great writer who can bring out raw emotions in her story without necessarily meaning to.

And one last one! If you like reading sibling bonding stories, read PurpleNicole531's Day at the... series. I haven't gotten around to all the stories currently in the series, but I read Day at the Mall two nights ago and liked it. :)

Alright. See you guys next chapter!