Lynn pedals faster. She told her sisters that she would return for their Saturday breakfasts today, but after getting Victor fed, changed, and getting the bicycle seat set up, she ended up taking longer than expected. She knows that they're going to give her crap as soon as she arrives, but she's sure that if she gets there quick enough they'll keep their mouths shut after a few minutes.
A car honks at Lynn after she crosses the street, but she doesn't pay any attention. She can see the restaurant, "Just a little more, Rookie. We're almost there," she tells Victor.
Lily glances outside from her seat and notices a red blur passing by the window. She doesn't point out that Lynn has arrived, and instead opts to listen to Lisa continue to drone on about her nanobots.
"...despite their miniscule size, they are able to hold an extraordinary amount of weight," she tells her sisters as she grabs the napkin dispenser and lets go of it, showing it to float in the air.
"So, why'd you make them? For giggles or boredom?"
Lisa doesn't appreciate the guesses, "Actually I was planning on some practical uses, such as being able to help Mother and Father at home. For example, if they should happen to fall or have any other sort of health malady, the nanobots will be able to help."
Lucy isn't so sure, "You think that they can pick up Mom and Dad on a moment's notice?"
To prove to them what the nanobots are capable of, she grabs her cup of coffee and lets it fall to the floor. Before the cup stops right before it lands on the ground, then gently lands on the floor without issue.
That still doesn't convince the sisters. A coffee cup is light and won't feel when it is being picked up by random nanobots. However, something else lingers on their minds about the bots, and they know that their sister wouldn't stop at just one use.
Lily asks, "What else can it do?"
"I'm working on a few things."
Lily and Lucy look at one another, then back at Lisa, expecting her to say more, "Like?" they both ask.
"Some simple tests - determining cholesterol and lipid levels, glucose, cardiac enzymes, even diseases as well."
"Neat," says Lily, before she yelps, feeling a sting in her arm, "What the heck was that?"
Lisa pulls out her phone, "Blood test. I also performed one on Lucy."
"And you didn't feel it?"
"I did. I just didn't scream about it."
Lily crosses her arms and scowls, "I didn't scream." She turns to Lisa, "So what did your test just tell you?"
Lisa offers them both a bandage, "Place these where you felt that pain," she explains, while she scrolls through her phone, "By the way, Lily, you should cut down on your sweets and Lucy, you're pregnant, again."
Lucy immediately blushes upon hearing that.
"Again? What are you and Rocky trying to go for Mom and Dad's record?" Before Lucy is able to answer, she notices Lynn coming in through the front door, "Okay, never mind, I've got something else to-"
"No, we are not trying to go for a record," Lucy answers, not hearing the last part.
"Are you trying to fool us?"
"Lisa, not now," Lily turns to Lucy. She hasn't had a chance to see Lynn since their visit a few months ago, so it might come as a shock when she sees her in person. "Look, you're going to notice something about Lynn, and it might surprise you," she stops there, hoping to pique Lucy's interest.
"Okay," is all the older sister says.
"That's it? No, 'what is it?', 'tell me', or something like that?"
"I figure that I can wait."
She groans, frustrated by her sister's lack of interest, "Trust me, you aren't going to believe it. You will see it with your own eyes, and you still won't believe what you're seeing."
"Is it really that noticeable?"
Lisa nods her head.
Lynn arrives at the table and takes a seat, "Hey, sorry, I'm late. It was really hard trying to balance Victor on his seat and lock up my bike at the same time."
Lisa is surprised, "You brought your progeny on the back of your miniature motorcycle?"
"What? No. A real bike with pedals and junk. Francisco is working on Dutch, and he can't watch Vic, so I brought him over."
"What's the excuse every other time?" Lily jokingly asks, before she is kicked by Lynn, hard.
While her two sisters are arguing, Lucy looks over at her older sister, even with the baby harness, she can tell that Lynn looks almost exactly like she did before she was pregnant, but there's something else too. Lucy looks at Lynn, then at Lily, and back to Lynn.
It has Lucy wondering, so she asks, "Is Victor sleeping through the night?"
"No," she complains. Lynn looks down at her son, "This little guy is up all hours of the night crying and refusing to sleep. The doctor said he might have colic, and we'll just have to ride it out."
"Why wasn't I told that he has colic?" asks Lisa.
"You care?"
"It helps… so that we know how to care for him when you drop him off."
Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "Anyway, we got some new bottles that say they prevent colic, but I don't think that they work, since he still gets up during the night." She notices her sisters staring at her, "What?"
Lucy doesn't say anything, trying to take the sight of her sister in. After the twins were born, it was easy to see that she and Rocky were stressed out and tired as they tried to adjust to two new babies. However, looking at her sister, it's as if her son and his erratic sleep schedule don't exist.
She reaches out to touch Lynn's face. Lynn leans away from her sister's touch, wondering, "What are you doing?"
"Your skin is really soft."
Lynn isn't sure how to take the compliment, "Thanks…?"
Lisa tries to take a closer look and then pulls out a pen and notepad to jot down some notes, "Fascinating."
"What?"
"It appears that you're gaining a more youthful appearance. I might argue that you appear as youthful as Lily."
Lynn groans, she looks over at Lily, and asks, "This isn't gonna be like when Mom and I took Leni to go kickboxing, is it?"
All three stay silent, remembering the way Lynn looked after that incident.
"That was surprisingly petty of her," says Lily.
Lucy is quiet, but Lily can see behind her covered eyes that there is something on her sister's mind. She elbows Lucy's rib, "You know, whatever book you're working on can wait, this is the book that's gonna make you a million dollars."
Lynn groans, "Not this again."
"Yes, this again. You're like a medical miracle, your secret should be told to the world! Lucy can write your story and you can laugh all the way to the bank."
"I doubt the money matters that much to Lucy. She already earns that amount," says Lisa, as she looks over at her older sister and tries to grab her arm.
"Yeah, she makes 'Kiss my ass, Comerica' kind of money," says Lynn, as she pulls her arm away from Lisa. "And what's Lucy supposed to write? I ate meatball subs and coney dogs through my whole pregnancy and months after my son was born, and I look as if nothing happened? No one's gonna believe that."
"Surprisingly, she's correct. Without proper scientific analysis, the assumption that her diet or exercise regimen caused this sort of 'bounce back', would be laughable at best," says Lisa, "Though, with proper scientific analysis…" she starts as she makes an attempt for Lynn's arm.
"What the heck are you doing?!" asks Lynn, as she quickly pulls her arm away from her sister.
"Trying to prepare your arm so that I may draw blood," says Lisa, "This way we can determine what was the cause of your sudden-"
"Well too bad, you're not gonna make a guinea pig."
"Are you sure? This could advance-"
"I'm sure."
Lily asks, "Why don't you use your- ow! What is this 'Kick Lily' day?!"
"No," Lisa says as calmly as possible. She eyes her sister again, waiting for an opportunity to get a sample.
Lynn notices the look on her sister's face and scoots away from Lisa. To steer the conversation away from her and whatever is going on, she asks, "So what's new with you two?"
With a smile on her face and tune in her voice, Lily mentions, "Oh, someone's having a baby."
"Really?" asks Lynn, "Haven't you and Scott only been dating for a few months?"
Lily immediately scowls and the two other sisters snicker, "Not me, dummy." She tilts her head towards Lucy.
"Good for you and Rocky."
Lucy turns over to Lily, "Thank you, Lynn." The younger sister shrugs her shoulders, "I didn't know until-" Lucy stops upon feeling someone's foot kicking her.
Victor begins to cry, and Lynn begins to rock him, but he doesn't stop. She gets up and tells her sisters, "If one of the waitresses passes by, let her know what I want to eat."
"What do you want?"
"My usual."
"So everything on the breakfast menu?" Lily jokes.
Lynn doesn't bother to answer her sister, though she is tempted by thought. However, the sting of a bug bite takes her mind off of breakfast as she smacks her arm, "Ow!"
Francisco leans against the wall as he looks around the gym. The class usually isn't so large, but apparently the other third grade class missed out on their weekly gym period a few days ago when Coach Packowski was out sick. So, to make up for it, the two third grade classes are going to have to share for the day.
A boy calls out to him, "Hey Francisco! Wanna race?"
He runs over to his classmate, who is standing near the edge of the bleachers. He points out, "First one to the end of the gym wins. David! Be our starter!"
David runs over and raises his hand. The two boys get ready to run, "Ready, set, go!"
The two boys run, they're pretty decently matched, though it's clear that Francisco is barely able to stay ahead of the other boy. However, before they are able to reach the end of the gym, a little girl from the other third grade class runs alongside them, trying to race against them. Both boys are confused, but neither one wants to let her win, so they push themselves to outrun her. Francisco's friend begins to lose steam and slowly goes from running to walking, but that isn't who worries the boy, it's the unknown girl from the other class.
Francisco runs as fast as he can but isn't able to cross past the bleachers before she can. The girl crashes against the padded wall and stumbles backwards. Some of the girls in her class check up on her, but also congratulate her for beating out the boys. Meanwhile, Francisco walks away, however, when he looks back at her, he swears that he sees her teasing him for losing to her.
He doesn't care and heads back to his friends.
"Dang Francisco, you got beat by a girl."
He doesn't take kindly to that, "So did you, Gavin. You were walking one second after she started."
Francisco wasn't too sure about that, since he was entirely focused on trying to beat the girl.
"No, I wasn't, I got a charley horse."
"Yeah, right," said David. "At least, Francisco tried, even if he did lose."
Coach Packowski blows his whistle, "Alright, everyone line up." The students do as they're told and wait for the coach to explain what they're going to be doing today. "We're starting a new unit today."
"So, no more dodgeball?" a meek little boy asks.
"No, we're moving onto baseball."
Some of the children sigh in relief, happy to be done with the dreaded game, not that Francisco understood why, he liked playing dodgeball, and he was getting really good at throwing the ball. Coach begins to explain the rules to everyone, but the little boy isn't worried, he has a good understanding of the game after watching it for so many years.
However, what concerns him more, is that he's never actually played the game. The only exposure that he's had in real life was holding bats or trying on gloves on the wrong hand at the store or playing with the stray baseball that he found on the side of the road once.
"Your teams are your classes," says Packowski. "Monday gym class, you're up to bat first!"
Francisco's class groans. They know that some of the other kids in the other class play baseball for the local little league teams, while their class has no one that plays.
Lisa takes note as she watches her nephew nap. At the moment, her parents are out on their morning walk and Lily is holed away in her room working on an app, thus Lisa has plenty of time to observe the boy without some sort of interruption.
She walks over to her lab bench and grabs an EKG machine. Lisa carefully installs the heart monitor probes onto the boy, making sure to not wake him up in the process. The machine begins to beep and Lisa watches on as the results print out. The boy's heart rate is normal, but nonetheless, it has to be documented in her notes.
Lisa pulls out her laptop and jots down her observations. There are some blank spots from the weekends, but at least his chart is the most filled out of them all. Unlike the other children, his visits are much more frequent, and it grants her plenty of opportunities to observe him.
A robotic voice asks, "Is there anything new with the subject?"
"No," Lisa answers.
"What about the giant bruise on his arm?"
"Nanobot side effect. Aside from that, he's still progressing like any other infant. In a way, that's a good thing, though I can't present that in my findings, especially after such a short amount of time has elapsed."
No one ever said that science was full of fictional excitement involving lasers and instant results that prove you right. No, science is a slow, steady, fickle mistress that can take years of work away when one suddenly hits dead ends.
"What about the blood tests?"
Lisa shakes her head, "Nothing new with him. Although the mothers are usually more interesting in that regard. I've been running plenty of tests on that sample, or at least whatever could be run before Lynn smacked it in her confusion."
Todd looks at the file Lisa has on her sister, "Only ten?"
"She was able to break my nanobot," she sighs, "It can withstand hundreds of pounds of force, but a simple smack by my elder sister was enough to break it. I should be happy that the sample collected was enough for those ten. Take that, Holmes," she says with a smile. "But I'm still trying to determine the cause of her complications during parturition and the current side effects."
"Is it similar to the effects the other subjects displayed?"
She's still trying to figure that out, but with such limited access, gathering information is difficult, "I don't know enough. Without expressed consent, I'll have a difficult time explaining my way out of the situation should it ever get traced back to me."
"You're a lawyer, didn't you draw up some sort of contract before starting?"
She groans, "I did, but I'm dependent on the subjects handing me information on a trimonthly basis. I would prefer to have daily information to determine where and how the subjects are doing."
Todd hears the sound of whimpering and warns Lisa, "Subject 212B-8422 is waking up." Todd takes the infant into his arms and rocks the boy, "There, there. Who is a good young male human?"
However, Victor doesn't calm down, and he begins to cry.
A lullaby begins to play from Todd's head and coupled with the rocking, begins to calm the boy. Todd continues to play the lullaby and places Victor back into his crib, where he lays there, staring at his aunt and her robot.
"Well, at least he's calmed down. Though next time, I would appreciate it if you didn't interfere by grabbing him before the test was completed. Now I'm going to have to start over."
"You say that now, but I doubt that you wanted to deal with his crying."
Well, she can't deny that.
Francisco stands by first base, waiting for the first pitch. He isn't sure what to expect from the other third grade class, but he doesn't expect that all of them can play well, and that's part of the good thing about third grade. No one is too big, nearly everyone is the same size and about the same strength.
The girl steps up to the plate. It's the same girl that beat him at the race earlier. He glares at her, still upset about the loss, but he's snapped back when he hears the ball make contact with the bat.
The ball flies to the outfield and his classmates are running to try and catch the ball. Francisco looks to see who will throw it to him, but two of the outfielders are running after the ball. All he can hope for is that someone can catch it and get her out immediately, or maybe throw it to him before the girl reaches him.
He can hear her footsteps and he turns around to see the girl steps away from reaching him. It doesn't matter now if his classmates get the ball, she'll beat them to first base, and she does. The outfielder notices that Lynn is already at first, so he throws the ball to the pitcher.
While everyone waits for the next pitch, Francisco is stuck being near the girl. The two don't talk, but he watches her. At the moment, she isn't paying him any attention, instead focusing on the pitcher and batter, but he's watching her. He tries to keep himself close to her in case the ball comes near them, so that he can get her out, but she still manages to get around him.
The girl at bat hits the ball, and like the previous one, it goes into the outfield, granting the opposing team enough time to get to base.
It continues for a few innings, and Francisco's class is soon down by three runs.
Before the fourth inning starts up again, Francisco runs over to the pitcher. He's been watching everyone, and he knows that the first girl in the line-up is a righty, in fact, so is the rest of the line-up. They might have an advantage if he throws the pitch, since they likely haven't faced someone throwing with the other hand, and that's where he can confuse them a bit.
"Let me pitch," he offers.
The boy holds onto the ball, "No way, I can keep pitching."
"Let me try," he insists.
Their team is already down three runs, all of them from the girl. She's clearly getting cocky, and he wants to knock her down a peg. Francisco isn't sure if this is only about her attitude or what happened earlier during the race, but he plans on giving it his all and wiping that stupid smile off of her face.
If only he had much practice throwing.
He takes a deep breath. Throwing a baseball is a lot more different than throwing a dodgeball, but he's seen how it's done, so hopefully he can remember how to do it and recreate it. He throws the ball, but all he can think is how it isn't fast or even thrown well, but as predicted, she didn't know how to hit it. Instead of hitting it towards the field, the ball bounces behind the third base line.
She's surprised, and she's not alone either. The rest of her team is surprised that she wasn't able to get a run in like the other times she's been up to bat.
Everyone grows silent as they watch the ball bounce away.
By the look in her eye, he can tell that she's not thrilled about what happened. He's not sure how he's going to replicate that throw, but he's got to try.
Francisco throws the ball again. She hits it again and this time, it's able to go into the field, but like last time, it's still a foul.
This might be his chance, she's getting angry, and that means that she might get sloppy. He throws another ball, but due to his lack of control, he throws the ball too close to her. He's sure that she'll hit it, but instead moves her hips to dodge it.
After ten attempts, Coach Packowski has enough of the spectacle, "Alright, that's enough, you're out!"
"What?!' she screams, "He didn't strike me out!"
"It's been ten pitches-"
"And they've all been fouls!"
"Tough toenails, Roberts, you're next!"
The girl angrily throws down the bat and walks away to the padded wall and proceeds to punch it repeatedly, stunning both classes.
Lynn yawns as she finishes cleaning up the counter. It's the end of the day and after spending hours in the kitchen, she is ready to go home, heat up some leftovers and maybe catch up on some tv shows until it's time for bed. Today wasn't too bad in the back, though it was mostly because everyone else worked so well that kept things from going to hell. She's getting the hang of things, trying to do her best to keep up with everybody, but she's losing steam in her attempts to do so.
However, it was a little worse up front from what Francisco said. There were plenty of people in the dining area taking their sweet time eating their meals, and aside from the group of people waiting to get in, some of the wait staff called out, so he had to step in. Unfortunately, he couldn't get to his own work and now he's trying to finish before they leave.
Little by little, the others begin to go home, until it's only her waiting around. She locks the front door, and heads to his office. From outside the door, she can hear him typing away like crazy, probably trying to finish quickly so that they can go and pick up Victor.
His phone rings, "Lynn's Table, Francisco speaking," she can hear him say. "Hey, sorry, force of habit. How's it going? Really? Yeah, no problem… I might be a little late though… Okay, I'll call when I get out of here… it was a long day, I'll tell you later. Bye."
That has Lynn curious, and she opens the door to see Francisco going back to his work. She takes a seat and looks at him, wondering if he'll tell her, but aside from the brief glance at her, he doesn't say anything.
Lynn leans back onto the chair and the creaking sound has Francisco look up. He can see the bored look on her face as she waits for him to finish his work. Rather than force her to sit idly by, he pulls out the keys to his truck and offers them to her.
She looks at the keys, but doesn't take them, "What's the point? It's not that far to my parents' place, and Vic and I are still going to have to pick you up."
Francisco sets the keys down onto his desk within her grasp, in case she changes her mind.
Lynn thought that that brief conversation would have given her a chance to ask about the phone call, so rather than wait, she asks, "Who was on the phone?"
"Caroline. She just came home after visiting her family."
That confuses Lynn. She knows that the two are on friendly enough terms, but she doesn't imagine that they call each other for little things like that.
"Turns out Elena wants to come over since she couldn't this weekend," he continues. "Can you pick up Elena while I finish up? I don't want to keep her waiting that long, especially if I take too long with this paperwork."
"I'm surprised that she wants to come over today. What's she gonna do while we're at work tomorrow?"
Francisco shrugs her shoulders, "I thought the same thing too, but I didn't want to say no. Besides, Caroline said it was fine if she wanted to stay until Sunday since she didn't come over this weekend. And, it's still summer, so it's not like she has to go to school the next day."
"Good enough for me," she says as she grabs the keys from his desk. "Tell her I'll be on my way, after I pick up Victor."
"I'll tell her to be ready in about two hours," he jokingly says.
Lynn rolls her eyes and laughs sarcastically at his remark before heading out. She quickly drives over to pick up Victor and then over to pick up Elena. Lynn knocks on the front door and is met by Caroline. She awkwardly says, "Hi. Is Elena ready?"
"She and Violet should be home in a bit; they went to the store to pick a few things. Did you want to come in and wait, maybe get something to drink?" she offers.
"No, I think we're good," says Lynn as she walks in and takes a seat and looks around the living room. It isn't often that she visits Andrew and Caroline's place, but it still takes her aback to see how different the home is compared to anywhere she's lived.
While Lynn quietly looks around, Caroline can't help but look at the little baby boy next to her, as she gently rocks his seat. She looks at him and then at Lynn, surprised by her appearance despite having a young son. It has Caroline curious, but she doesn't want to say anything and risk offending her.
Caroline takes a seat and quietly tries to think of what she and Lynn can talk about. They are rarely ever alone and the last interaction that they had was about Francisco if she recalls correctly. This would be a lot easier if they had some common interests like she does with Andrew, or even if she knew where to start. Elena has mentioned a few things about her stepmother, but all Caroline has learned is that Lynn loves sports, has a large family, and is always looking for something to do, so that isn't much.
She notices Lynn's chef coat, and decides to ask, "How has work been?"
Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "It's been okay."
Caroline wishes that Lynn would have told her more, but after a long day, she probably wouldn't want to talk about work either.
"How are the…" she blanks on the team's name. "How's the hockey team doing?"
Lynn is confused and slowly says, "I think they might do good this season." She can feel the obvious tension from the other woman, so in hopes that she'll kick start the conversation, she asks, "How are your folks?"
"They're doing well. Even after being away from work for so long my dad still keeps stressing about the company. Mom tells him to relax, but he refuses to listen…"
Caroline continues to talk, and Lynn looks over in her direction nodding politely, but not really taking in everything that the other woman is saying. She picks up a few things like her mom spending her time with friends, her dad trying to still run his company, and some family moments from their trip.
Francisco looks at the flier that Coach Packowski gave him after gym class. A new little league season is about to start soon, and Coach said that he thought that Francisco should consider trying out or at least learn how to play after the game earlier today. His team still lost, but the opposing team wasn't able to get in many runs after he started pitching, which Coach saw as potential, and that's good enough for the boy.
The bus stops by his house and he hops off, excited to tell his family about the news. He runs through the front door and sees his mom in the kitchen, his brothers having a snack and his dad sitting down in front of the tv.
Francisco walks over to his dad. It's a long shot, but he might get lucky, "¿Puedo jugar béisbol?" he asks, handing over the flier to his dad. He wants to tell his dad more to convince him to let him play, but he's stuck, unable to say what he wants in Spanish.
Alicia walks into the living room and looks at the flier. She can't understand anything that it says, and neither can Juan, but they have enough of a gist of what it's for.
While his parents skim through the flier, he looks up at his parents. He's not the type to beg, especially since his parents typically shoot down anything that he and his brothers want, but he's not going to let this go. He wants to play baseball.
Unfortunately, Francisco can tell by the look on his face, that he's going to reject it. His dad is probably just trying to say it in what he deems 'the nicest way possible'. That's usually saying no and going on about how he can't afford it and how he would if he could.
Now if his brothers could be believed, that's usually a lie, saying that if his aunt or uncle or any of his cousins asked, Dad would immediately fork over the money.
Juan looks over at his youngest son, and tells him, "Vamos a ver."
Francisco isn't satisfied with the answer, but he knows that throwing a fit isn't going to resolve his issue. He's now going to have to get creative so that he can earn money for his own gear and fees.
Alicia watches her son walk to his room. He's clearly disappointed about what his dad said, but that's how her husband is - if it involves spending money, he's likely going to say no unless it's important, and even then, he might still complain.
"Deberías dejarlo jugar," she tells him. "A lo menos hará algo y no estará ahí aplastado todo el día como Chuy o haciendo vagancias como Kiké."
Neither brother likes being called lazy or a troublemaker, but it isn't false.
"Pero pa' gastar ese dinero, nos como que no se va aburrir."
The three have no idea where he got the idea that Francisco will get bored with the sport. For almost four years, he's been devotedly watching Tigers games, collecting cards, and trying to accumulate some sort of collection of gear. It's only a ball, but he still tries.
Alicia immediately calls him out on his lie, "Ay, eso no es cierto. A él le encanta el béis."
Juan smiles, knowing that he's been caught in a lie, so he resorts to the other issue - money, "Ay, pero, mira cuánto va costar todo lo que necesita y la fia para registrarlo."
She can't argue with that. It's going to be pricey, aside from the fees, the gear is going to be tougher to find at the discount shops, especially since her son is left-handed, but she hates seeing her son disappointed.
"¿Y si agarró un trabajo?"
That surprises the three. The only job she ever had was as a housekeeper, and that was years before they moved to Michigan, plus she might have a hard time since she can't speak English and can't fill out an application on her own.
"¿Haciendo qué?"
"Trabajando en una escuela," she answers. "Me dijo una señora que trabaja aquí en la primaria que todo el tiempo están contratando personas. Así tendremos un poco más de dinero y no siente como que estoy encerrada cuando ustedes se vayan a la escuela o al trabajo."
"¿Y los muchachos?"
Alicia scoffs, "Chuy tiene dieciséis y Kiké tiene trece, se pueden quedar solos, y pueden ayudar con Pancho."
Neither brother likes the sound of helping out especially since it'll mean caring for their little brother, but the idea of being left alone until their dad comes home does sound nice. They both look at their dad, they can tell that he's not thrilled at the idea of her getting a job, though maybe the 'earning her own money' part might convince him.
"Como tú quieras."
Elena and Violet walk through the front door with their bags in tow. They were both expecting to see Francisco waiting in the living room, but spot Lynn getting up from the couch, ready to go home.
"Hey, Lynn. Sorry, I thought that Dad was going to come pick me up later, so I haven't packed a bag. Do you mind waiting?"
"Alright go ahead," she says as she takes her seat again.
Elena hands her bags to her mom and heads upstairs. Violet looks over at Lynn and then at the baby next to her. She doesn't recall all the details, but she remembers hearing that Elena has a new little half-brother. He's clearly very young, which is surprising considering Lynn's lack of postpartum body.
Caroline notices her sister staring and calls out to her, "Violet," the younger sister turns around, "can you help me put everything away?"
The sisters walk out of the room and when she's sure that Lynn is out of earshot, Violet says, "I need to get her trainer's name," says Violet. "If she can go back to looking like that after having a baby, they clearly know what they're doing. Maybe her skin regiment too. How old is she?"
"I think she and I are the same age, but don't ask her anything," she pleads.
"Why not? I'd consider it a compliment. I'm going to go ask Elena to see if she knows."
Caroline watches her sister walk away. She wants to stop her, but she knows that her sister is adamant about learning Lynn's 'secret' and won't stop until she knows it.
Violet knocks on her niece's bedroom door. She peeks her head inside and notices Elena finishing up her suitcase, "Hey sweetie, do you mind if I ask you something?"
Elena looks up, "Sure, what is it?" she asks, while trying to head out the door.
Her aunt blocks her only way out, forcing the teen to interact with her, "Does your stepmom have a trainer, and would you happen to know their name?"
Neither Lynn or her dad have mentioned anything about a trainer, not that they have much time between Victor, work, and maintaining the house. However, knowing them, they probably get in a small workout whenever they have free time.
"No, I think she designs her own training regiment. I don't remember, but I think she went to school for it."
"Really? Does she do it on the side?"
"No, she only works at the restaurant."
That gets Violet thinking. It wouldn't be fun to spend frequent time with her, but she isn't going to argue with results, and if she's lucky, she might be able to snag her up at a decent hourly rate.
She heads downstairs, but Elena can see that determined look on her face, and follows after her aunt, "Wait," she quietly calls out to her, hoping that Lynn didn't hear her. Elena takes her aunt's hand and leads her to the kitchen, "I don't think that it's a good idea to train with Lynn. I've seen her training, and she seems like she could be a rather intense coach," warns Elena. "I've seen Dad try to keep up with her and even as a former athlete, he falls behind."
Caroline overhears the argument that her daughter is making. She doesn't think that that's a fair comparison - Francisco has been injured for years and hasn't exercised the same way since his college days.
Violet scoffs, "How hard can she be? I'll ask her myself."
Elena is about to stop her, but Caroline puts her hand on her shoulders, deciding that there's no point in stopping her sister, who isn't going to stop until she gets what she wants.
Violet takes a seat in front of Lynn, "Hello. You have such a cute baby."
Lynn is confused by her sudden kindness, "Thank you…?"
"It must be so hard to get anything done at this age."
"Yeah, I guess…" Lynn isn't sure of what's going on, but she recognizes the tone in Violet's voice. It's a similar one that Lola would have whenever she wanted something and wanted to charm you instead of pay.
"What would you say if I asked you to be my personal trainer?"
From the kitchen, both Caroline and Elena were able to hear the brief conversation. They can't believe that she actually wants to go through with it, though they can't imagine that Lynn will want to. After their last interaction, it doesn't seem like they will ever get along, let alone choose to be in the same room, but with the right motivation, they might be willing to change their mind, at least in Violet's case.
Lynn isn't sure she heard Violet correctly, and asks, "Wait, you want me to be your trainer?"
"Thirty-five dollars an hour," she offers.
Lynn takes offense to that, "What? No way," she immediately answers. She may not have ever needed a trainer herself, but even she knows that they can be worth a lot more than that.
"Fifty."
Lynn haggles back, "One-hundred and fifty."
"One hundred."
"Fine, but you have to recommend me to all of your friends."
"Get business cards and you got a deal."
Lynn looks her in the eye. She isn't sure if she can trust that Violet will actually go along with recommending her to others, but she isn't going to say no to a good deal when it presents itself. Instead, Lynn nods her head and says, "Deal," surprising Elena and Caroline.
Chuy searches through the school district page. Scrolling through different job listings isn't how he wants to spend his night, but if it means helping his mom get a job so that she can leave his side immediately, then he's going to help her. Unfortunately, this late in the school year, there aren't many openings, but that isn't enough of an excuse for his mom.
After scrolling through multiple school job listings, he eventually spots one position near Hamtramck. It isn't that far, only ten miles away, however, without a car that might be a problem. She wants a position in Royal Woods since she knows how to get around decently enough, but beggars can't be choosers.
"Hay una posición en Hamtramck," he tells her.
Alicia doesn't know where that is, "¿Donde está?"
Chuy pulls up a map and shows her how far the town is from their house. It doesn't look too bad, but even his mom should be able to see that it'll be tricky to get around without a car. It takes three buses to get there, and he's sure that she isn't going to like doing that without someone to help her figure out the buses.
"Mete mi aplicación," she tells him.
Chuy sighs, but does as he's told. He tries to look on the bright side like both of his brothers are, though they don't know that the position will only have her missing in the morning, she'll be here after school. In a way it's a good thing, since now they won't be in charge of Pancho, but a bad thing since they'll have to get themselves off to school alone.
He fills in the blanks with her information and when he finishes, he tells, "Es todo. A ver si te llaman."
With a smile on her face, she quietly says a little prayer, hoping that she'll get the job and get called in to start soon.
Chuy looks up at her. This isn't the first time that she's wanted to get a job, but it's the first time that she's actually put in an application. Most times, Dad was able to convince her that she was needed more at home than out, and it was true, especially once Pancho was born. Then, it was also difficult to find steady work, since she didn't have many skills. However, now that he and his brothers are getting older, that excuse is going out the window.
Now the three are going to have to adapt to the upcoming changes from Mom not being around in the morning to see them off to school, but it shouldn't be too bad, since she'll eventually get home before they do. At the moment, she doesn't have a car, so until she gets one or until she's comfortable taking the bus alone in the dark, she's going to have to rely on Dad to get to work.
Well, at least he doesn't have to worry about that.
Over the next few days, things are a little tense at home and everyone can sense it. Alicia constantly awaits for a call from the district, and the boys can see that their dad isn't thrilled about the idea of her being out of the house. He's always been like that, and while the boys don't like the idea of things changing, they are taking things much better than Juan.
Chuy isn't thrilled about the added responsibilities, but he figures that he can get over it if it means his mom is happy, Kiké is unusually happy at the thought of their mom having some sort of career, and Pancho is happy because he's getting to play ball like he wants to play.
A few days later, Alicia receives a phone call for an interview at the school district. She gets the job and surprisingly, Juan buys her a used car so that she can get around. No one was expecting that, though the boys are sure that their mom talked him into buying it so that she wouldn't be home late for when they got home.
The three brothers look at the car and Kiké tells his brothers, "He doesn't have money for Pancho's stupid baseball crap, but somehow he has money for a car."
"It's used," says Chuy.
"Still had to cost more," he looks down at his little brother, "What have we been telling you?"
Pancho nods his head. Dad easily could have paid for him to play little league, and it sort of has him wondering if there wasn't something else going on that he wasn't aware of. He sighs, the life of an eight-year-old…
It doesn't matter, at least he's able to play baseball like he wants to.
Lynn looks at her laptop screen. After picking up Francisco and getting Victor to bed, she has been researching what it takes to be a personal trainer, while also weighing a new possible career against the one she currently has. She's been working there for years, which is an accomplishment considering her work history, but her dad entrusted it to her so that she can keep running it, not run off because it got hard, or she got bored.
Then again, that's how she's run her life - jumping from one thing to another whenever she got bored, it was bound to happen. The only difference this time was that she has her dad and Francisco on her ass to keep her from straying or running the restaurant into the ground. Now, a job fell onto her lap to do something that she likes, and she wants to take it.
Francisco walks into the living room, "Hey Lynn," he notices the bruise on her arm, "That bruise still hasn't gone away, huh?"
Without looking up from her computer she shakes her head,
"What're you doing?"
She looks up from her laptop and asks, "How would you feel if I, you know, decided that I wanted to work less at the restaurant?"
He isn't sure where that came from, "What? Why?" he asks, as he takes a seat next to her.
This is what she didn't want to explain. How she feels bored with her job and is ready to move onto something else. She used to do it plenty of times in her twenties, but back then she didn't have people depending on her - no son, no husband, no dad who gave her his dream, she only worried about keeping herself afloat.
Then there's her coworkers, who seem to be doing well between the four of them, and she isn't planning on stepping completely away, just for a few hours.
"I figured that it would be better, you know, with Victor still being so little, that way we don't have to keep shuffling him around for so many hours of the day."
"So did you mean like a 'working part-time' sort of thing?"
"Kind of, but I mean, doing something else would be nice, and everyone seems to be doing great with Jan, so I was thinking about taking on some side work as a trainer."
"A personal trainer?"
"Yeah, I think I can do it."
Francisco isn't sure about that. On the one hand, he knows that Lynn would be great at it, but considering her usual regiments, he can't imagine that she'll keep clients around for too long. Then there's also the idea of her working for someone else at a gym where she's likely going to have to answer to a boss, and considering how she gave up little league because of nosy people, he can't imagine that she'll stick around for too long.
"D-Do you need a certification or something before you start?"
Lynn points at the laptop, "Nope, no certification needed."
He reads the page that she's looking at; she's right that she doesn't need a certification, though it will help with getting a job at a gym. Granted, the gym knows her well enough, so they'll know that she's cut out for the job, and with her degree, she can earn a good amount of money doing something that she loves.
"Do you have a lead on a job?"
She nods her head, "Yeah, Violet wants to pay me a hundred bucks to go to her place and help her train for an hour."
Francisco looks at her, surprised at the client's name, "You're considering working for Violet? Violet? The same woman that you argued with when we tasted the catered meals for Elena's birthday. You want to work for her?"
She shrugs her shoulders, "Kind of," Lynn takes out her phone and looks for an email, "She said that would hire me for an hour, three days a week."
A hundred dollars for an hour isn't a bad thing, but three days a week for an hour each isn't much compared to what she would earn at the restaurant.
"I figure that if she brags to her friends at the club, I might be able to score another client for the other two days or for another session on the same day. Then, if I get enough clients, I can hand the restaurant to you, except for maybe some of the big decisions."
He laughs, "Yeah, I don't think your dad will like the part about you only making big decisions."
"Okay, but I'll just come by whenever you guys need me or if you're short-staffed. I really want to do this."
He can see that she does, so he nods his head and says, "Great," as he takes in everything Lynn is saying. He isn't sure what to think or to react to the news. On the one hand, the money situation will get a little tighter since she won't be working at the restaurant as long, but if they stop eating out as much they can probably get around that. However, that still means that the kitchen will be down one person, and he'll have to hire someone to fill in for Lynn. If he's right.
"Wait, do you want to leave now, or are you slowly going to cut back on your hours while you get more clients?"
"I figure that I could probably cover while Jan's at school, so there's always four of us in the kitchen."
That doesn't sound so bad. Jan only goes to class for a few hours a day, and if he's lucky, he might be able to get her to stay on full-time after she finishes school later in the year.
He nods her head, "Okay, I think that we can make it work."
"Great!" she says before giving him a kiss. "I'm gonna go get a regiment ready for her, so we can start next week. Woo! Can't wait."
With Lynn gone, he quickly walks outside, so that he can take everything in. He's been supportive of Lynn going back to work, but the idea of her cutting back isn't so bad either. Yes, Victor will still get shuffled around between grandparents, but it won't be as long, of course, the truck is going to get a lot of wear and tear, but they can probably get around that if she uses her motorcycle. They're also going to have to work on the schedule so that the employees aren't down one person when it gets busy, but they've done it before, and they can do it again. And they'll still have her help.
It seems like some of the problems are solved once they get the schedule set up. In the quietest voice he can muster, he happily cheers to himself, unaware that he has an audience.
"What's got you in a good mood, neighbor?"
Francisco looks over at Jackson, who is watching him from behind the fence, "Not much."
The older man doesn't believe that. Francisco is not the type to pump his fist for joy at nothing, maybe a sports game, but not nothing.
Francisco looks back at the house, "Lynn wants to cut back on her hours at work."
Jackson is confused, "I'm sorry?" he asks, not sure of why that would make him happy.
"She wants to cut back her time at the restaurant, and maybe pursue something different, career-wise, which'll give her some more free time to stay home with Victor," he quietly says.
"Francisco," chides Jackson. "You didn't strike me as the type of man who would have wanted his wife to stay home while her husband goes to work."
"It's not like that. She's still going to work at the restaurant, she'll just have a different job on the side, doing something she likes. It'll be less hours there and some here taking care of Victor."
He notices the look in Jackson's eyes. It doesn't look great that he's happy that his wife will be able to stay home more often with their son.
"Hey! She's the one who brought it up. I didn't try to sway her one way or another, and I would have been fine if she decided to keep working at the restaurant."
"Would you be quietly cheering to yourself if Lynn didn't bring up changing her current job?"
He wouldn't, and he knows it. Even when she brought it up at the Burpin' Burger, he was quiet about the idea, but either way, he was true to his word and was fine with her returning to work.
"Fine, I wouldn't, but it isn't for me either. Think about Victor. Children that young should be at home, not forced out of the house, spending most of their waking hours with their grandparents, and you know it. Sure, it's still family, but it isn't us." That last part sort of gets Francisco thinking, "It's sort of weird," he starts. "A few weeks ago, I thought about how clingy Lynn was with Victor, now I'm happy that she wants to stay home with him."
Jackson looks over at his neighbor, "Are you sure that that's the only reason?"
Francisco isn't sure what to think about that, and he quietly looks over at the fence wondering what is truly on his mind.
I'm sure that the idea that Lisa was running an experiment on Lynn was noticeable early on, but now it's out for the audience to know in case you didn't. When will our protagonists learn about this and will it happen? I can't say, but it is planned. It's part of my fun this time around as well as the hidden references that I don't plan on revealing in my Author's Notes, though I do hope that you are able to find them.
As always thank you reading and see you next time.
