Aria wanted to go to the beach on July 3rd with her friends. Jackson was jealous as he had no friends.

"Have fun." Jackson says. He leaves the house to hang out at the park, alone.

Jackson sobbed at the park as he felt lonely. He sat in his favorite tree, watching the setup for the city's Freedom Fest take place.

Meanwhile, Luna was excited to reveal her new song. She looked at her adopted daughter, who was looking out the window. Clover had turned 6 a week before Luke's half birthday.

"What are you doing, sweetie?" Luna asked.

"Just looking out the window." Clover says.

Jackson watched groups of kids and families walking around the park. He felt very upset and lonely. He had no love. He had no friends. Even though he had people around him on his birthday, it was mostly family. No friends.

"Maybe I'm better off lonely." He says.

He also thought that it wasn't fair that he didn't get to have a second birthday. He loved that Luke had gotten that when he was his age. But he sees now that everyone just wanted him to celebrate once. He just wanted one day that was just about him. But now that his birthday was over, he just looked down, feeling lonely and friendless.

Mugman came to the park. He could see Jackson sitting in his normal tree.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our band is returning!" Luke says. The fans were ecstatic.

Luna frowned a bit. She wanted to perform but put it aside. Charity finally came up with a compromise, and that was that Elemental Strike and The Moon Goats would be the main stage performance before the fireworks show.

"Take it or leave it." Charity says.

"They're going to take my spotlight…" Luke says.

"Is it your anniversary?" Lucy asked.

Charity finally had enough and was on the verge of cancelling the entire event.

"I'll take it…" Luke says.

"I was just asking…" Lucy says.

Edwin came. "I have the decorations, mother." Edwin says.

Some cups named Handlebin and Thrust came and saw Jackson.

"Hi, we need an extra guy to play with us." Thrust says.

Handlebin sees Jackson had been shedding hot, milky tears most of the day. He was the sensitive one and just wanted to help.

"Oh crap, it's Luke's party planning anniversary…" Leni says.

"We can't celebrate it. I'm planning on celebrating Jackson's second birthday." Lucy says.

"That anniversary isn't until late August, remember?" Luan says.

Luke sobbed. "Jackson's getting better birthdays than me. I want my birthweek…"

"It will come. Freedom Fest will be centered around Jackson." Lucy says. But Charity convinced her to move it up a day. Freedom Fest was a community event.

"But Edwin wanted to do it today since Tina celebrates her half-birthday tomorrow." Lucy says.

"Just do it somewhere else!" Tina says trying to end this. Charity finally had enough and stormed out.

Lucy frowned and went to one of Jackson's favorite restaurants. Edwin began decorating.

Meanwhile, Aria was having fun, having won a sand castle competition.

Charity was just angry and frustrated. She sat in her office in the city and just ranted for 45 whole minutes before breaking down in tears.

Edwin goes to get Jackson and sees his new friends and looks a bit jealous, but says nothing.

Handlebin was comforting Jackson.

Edwin leads them all to Jackson's favorite toy place as confetti fell on him.

"Happy birthday, Jackson!" Mugman, Margo, Lynn, Lana, Leni, and Edwin say.

"W-What?!" Jackson just looked shocked.

"You said you wanted another day." Edwin says.

"You were spying on me?!" Jackson says, annoyed.

"No, you write on the walls when you're upset and your parents sent me to check on you yesterday. Like this cruel world, you didn't notice." Edwin says.

"We really just want you to be happy. If you want a week, we'll give you a week. If you want a month, we'll give you a month." Mugman says. "We know you never had good birthdays aside from your second and third."

Jackson sniffed. "Thank you…" he says.

"Edwin planned it." Lucy says.

Luke overheard this and got extremely jealous. That was his thing and they did a good job of it every year. But despite it all, he felt depressed.

Meanwhile, Aria won the best swimsuit award, then played limbo. The boys cheered. Aria tripped but a boy caught her as Aria blushed.

"Um…I-I…" She stammered, looking at him.

"You look cute. My name's Brock." he says.

(Not the Brock from the Adventure Kids)

"M-My name is Aria.." she stammered, unsure of why she was so nervous and felt butterflies.

Meanwhile, Jackson danced with a girl named Shyla. He didn't know what to think.

She blushed, embarrassed. Their parents set this up and Shyla was not much of a talker. Unlike Jackson, who talked a lot and unlike Mugman, who knew when to shut up.

Shyla just listened to Jackson go on about his favorite TV show and the newest Dirk Dangerous comic. She forced a shy smile and nodded. She didn't hate him. She was always like that; she just usually followed whoever was her leader.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A loud shriek was heard from the beach as Shyla hid under Jackson's legs.

"Aria!" Chalice says.

Aria ran, blubbering as Tori holds her

Chalice noticed Brock on the ground.

"H-He tried to kiss me…" Aria stammered.

"Damn, what a woman…" he says. He knew Aria had her parents' fighting spirit.

"You hate her, don't ya?" Pembroke says.

"Nah, I love her even more now…" Brock says.

Aria ran to her mother, having no idea how she was supposed to react around boys.

Chalice explained everything to Aria.

"Ew…kissing sounds gross!" she says.

"It's your day, why worry?" Thrust asked.

"I don't care about my day. She's a person who matters." Jackson says.

"You'd sacrifice your day for an injured family member? I respect you." Thrust says.

"That was the best, though." Handlebin says as Jackson calms down and opens his gift, seeing a picture of Dirk Dangerous.

Thrust got him a set of cheerleader pom-poms.

"Jackson, there's a star who wants to see you!" Mugman says as Jackson's favorite music star was at the party.

Jackson couldn't believe that Rosie Mayfield was there, in the flesh. He nearly fainted on the spot.

With Charity, she felt frustrated as she looked down at the Freedom Fest poster on her desk. She ranted some more.

Lori finds her. "Mom, you need to calm down." She says.

"WHY DON'T YOU CALM DOWN?!" Charity shouted. She was clearly annoyed with the whole thing at this point.

"What's wrong?" Lori asked.

Charity ranted again and was still annoyed.

"This is seriously driving me insane! Everyone just wants something to happen and I can't win! I just can't win! Everyone wants to do this thing or that thing! And it's irritating as heck! AUGGGHHHH! I can't take this anymore!" Charity started sobbing.

"You need a vacation." Lori says.

"I am cancelling Freedom Fest! That is it!" Charity cries.

"You'll break your son's heart." Lori says.

"Well, everyone at home seems to just fight over how they want it to go, so I'm going to call it off!" Charity shouted.

Meanwhile, Jackson got Rosie's autograph. "Thank you." Jackson says.

"You're welcome." Rosie says.

Luke was getting ready. "Let's do this." Luke says, not aware of his mother's plan.

Charity appeared on the news in a breaking news bulletin from the local news station.

"Hello, San Antonio. This is your mayor, Charity Huntington. As you know, tomorrow would be our annual 4th Of July celebration. But due to disagreements between the entertainment and the vendors…it pains me to say this. Really, it does. But, Freedom Fest this year is cancelled." Charity says.

Luna frowned, feeling guilty as Luke froze.

"At least we can perform for Jackson." Mugman says. But Luke was feeling too guilty to think about that.

"Come on, Luke, he's my son. If we don't do this, he'll mentally break again." Mugman says.

Meanwhile, Aria and Brock were dancing as Brock spun her.

"I had to! I had to!" Charity cried. "This is all Luna and Luke's fault! And of course, Tina has to butt in!" Charity shouted.

Tina overheard that. Her normal birthday was on January 4th, so she usually celebrates on July the 4th but frowned

"Mom, look, don't worry about my half-birthday anymore. I'm going somewhere else. I just don't want you to feel pain." Tina says.

Charity was shedding tears and shaking.

"All they chose to do was argue! Argue! Argue! They couldn't be happy! They couldn't just deal with what was offered!" Charity sniffed.

"I'm sorry I butted in. I just wanted to help…" Tina says.

"You did nothing wrong…" Charity sighed.

Meanwhile, Jackson was eating.

Luke was there, not in a performance mood. He was riddled with guilt.

"Let's do this!" Mugman says as Elemental Strike took the stage.

"Everyone, this song is dedicated to the birthday boy, my son, Jackson!" Mugman says.

Luke sang with the band for a while as Jackson cheered.

"Your dad is Mugman…I'm blind." Thrust says.

She arrived at Tori's house. "Whoa!" Aria says.

"I know!" Tori says. "What do you want to do?"

"Call my grandma." Aria says, worried after seeing the news.

Tori nods and calls Charity.

Charity tearfully answers. "Hello?" She says.

"Grandma?" Aria asked.

"Aria? What's wrong?" Charity asked.

"I saw the news." Aria says.

"Since your dad and Luna and several others can't agree on anything, I had to…" Charity says.

Aria hung up and sobbed. She was in disbelief. Her body was shaking as she was having a panic attack. Tori knew how to handle panic attacks and quickly calmed Aria down.

Aria fainted as this was too much on her.

Meanwhile, Jackson got ready to hit the pinata. He used his father's old golf club to hit it as candy fell out. Handlebin and Thrust cheered for him.

"Can't wait for my cake!" Jackson says.

"Yeah! wait you want it now but the party is going on" Margo says

"But Grandma Charity needs some cake…" Jackson says sadly.

Tori called Jackson. "Jackson, Aria fainted. She saw the news." Tori says.

"Aria fainted." Jackson says as Edwin looks down.

"She what?!" Chalice asked.

"Aria, no!" Luke says, shocked.

For once, Lucy was not playing favorites with Luke. For once, Lucy was actually mad with him

"This is your fault." Lucy says.

"I thought it was your fault." Luan says.

"I resolved Jackson's birthday issue quickly so it wouldn't stress Mom out too much, but you and Luna just had to fight and argue!" Lucy says.

"Lucy just scolded Luke…" Luan says.

Lynn laughed. "Nice job, you finally grew out of the 'favorites' phase." Lynn says.

Margo brought out Jackson's cake as it was his favorite. Jackson just stared at it, no longer smiling.

Ace Savvy came to Jackson's party. "I heard it was a special day!" He says. Jackson looked surprised by this.

"Me! It's my birthday. Can I get your autograph?" Jackson asked. "Actually, make that two, because I also want you to sign my cousin Aria's new Ace Savvy poster." He holds it out.

"Sure." Ace Savvy says. He signs an autograph for Jackson and signs Aria's poster.

Soon, everyone sings to Jackson as he smiles. Leni was recording.

Jackson wished that Aria would be okay.

Later, he got Charity some cake and put it in a box for her. He came to the family meeting that was called in her office, cake box in hand.

"What's going on?" Jackson asked.

Luan had to explain the situation in a way that Jackson would understand.

Jackson sighed.

"You all know why you're here!" Charity shouted as Lori took Jackson out of the office for the time being.

"I did nothing except make a nice sculpture for Beau's birthday." Lisa says.

"I'm now addressing the two siblings who made me cancel Freedom Fest this year!" Charity says.

Luke cries, guilty. Luna just looks down in shame.

"You two couldn't agree on anything! And because of your egotistical behavior, the CPS has talked to me about putting Aria in the custody of Mugman and Margo. Because it would seem that you haven't changed a bit." Charity says, looking at Luke.

"I'm sorry! I really am! Just leave Clover out of this…" Luna says.

"I am. Don't worry." Charity says. "But you two basically chose to ruin Freedom Fest for everyone in the city. And you're going to apologize to all of San Antonio for ruining this for them."

Charity then called all the local news stations.

Aria and Tori played sleepover games for some time. Then they ate some snacks

They then saw a news report of Luke and Luna apologizing to the whole city.

"What else do you two have to say for yourselves?" Charity says as the cameras are still on.

"We're sorry for ruining Freedom Fest!" They both say.

April and Gemma were in San Antonio for a few days and they saw this on their hotel room TV.

Aria sees this on TV and begins to cry and shake. She hated this whole thing. " I don't wanna stay at home or anywhere that has war…" Aria sobbed as Tori held her.

Aria remembered arguments when she was at home. She remembered how egotistical her father acted. She remembered that Luke always chose winning over her, how she heard that he would never give her a chance.

Aria screamed and sobbed, overwhelmed as she mentally snapped.

"He was never proud of Aria!" Aria sobbed as Tori comforted her.

End of chapter, but not the end of this plot