Lynn Sr. pours the cake ingredients into the bowl and starts the mixer. His grandson's birthday is in a few days, but before the big event, he likes to get in a few practice bakes out of the way before making the sure thing. All throughout the process, he's been narrating to Victor to encourage him to speak, but he's also happy to have the company.

He turns off the mixer, and looks over at Victor, who is sitting in his high chair, "Now, I'm going to pour the batter into the baking pan. See?" he asks as he slowly pours looking over at his grandson.

Victor makes a grab for the bowl, hoping to put his fist into the batter.

"No, no, no, that's not for eating yet," Lynn Sr. says, taking the bowl away from his grandson. He whispers, "Now there's a secret ingredient." He quietly opens the cabinet to pull out a secret bag of chocolate chips. "Don't tell anyone," he says, showing the infant the bag.

He takes the baking pan and the bag and places them in front of Victor to show him the next step. "Now to pour," he says, putting in a few chocolate chips into the batter.

Victor watches his grandpa and smiles.

"You like that? Do you want to try?" he asks, holding the bag in front of Victor. He tilts the bag a bit, until the chips almost fall out, "Ready?" he asks with a smile.

The boy happily squeals, startling his grandfather. Lynn Sr. moves the bag and bowl closer to his grandson, who thrashes his arms about, pouring most of the bag into the batter, "Extra chocolatey, just the way your mom likes it. Well it doesn't matter, it's going to be your big day. You can have whatever cake you want for your first birthday." Saying that made it real, "I can't believe you're almost one."

Rita walks into the kitchen. She overhears her husband, who agrees as well, "I know. Where does the time go?" She picks up her grandson, "Let's get you out of that chair. Your parents are going to be here soon to pick you up."

As Rita takes Victor out of the kitchen towards the living room, the infant tries to get out of her grasp in an effort to be reunited with the bowl of cake batter.

Rita tries to hold onto the boy, but he is making it difficult. It sort of reminds her of Lynn. It feels like just yesterday, she was running around after her daughter, trying to keep her out of trouble, now she's doing the same for her grandson.

She takes a seat on the couch and places Victor on the floor. She holds his hands to get him to stand using his arms, hoping that he can figure out how to crawl. He's almost a year old and his primary methods of travel are rolling, dragging himself around and being carried by someone. For days, she has worked on getting him to crawl, but usually it ends with him getting distracted and dragging himself away.

She tries to prop him up by his arms in hopes that the position will get him to naturally move. He has no issue thrashing and kicking about, so it shouldn't be a problem if you ask Rita. However, as she tries to lean him forward, hoping that it will get him to move his arms and legs, she notices that he stubbornly won't move either limb.

A knock at the front door alerts the two and Rita sighs, "Well we can always try again tomorrow," she tells her grandson, as she lets go on his merry way.

Victor plops down on the floor and watches his grandma open the front door. Then his eyes light up as he sees his parents walk in. He reaches out for them, but they don't walk towards him. He grunts at them, but they still don't move. He can't believe that they're just standing there.

He grunts as loud as he can, but they still don't move. Rather than wait around for them, he lays down and decides to roll towards them. However, before he goes too far, Lynn walks over and picks him up.

"When are you gonna figure out that rolling is not the way to go?" she playfully asks him.

However, that has Rita wondering if Lynn is more concerned than she's letting on. She remembers being a worried mom with Lori. She would be up late thinking about how much she's failing her daughter if she didn't immediately hit every milestone. Luckily, she relaxed with each new kid, but it was definitely hard when it was just Lori.

While the younger couple gets Victor's things to go, Rita looks back towards the dining room, making sure that no one is going to walk in before she talks to her husband, "Do you get worried that Victor is falling a bit behind?"

He stops to think about it. He can't help worrying a little, but at the same time it isn't like their kids all did everything at the same time or on time either - Lily took a while to walk, Luna talked the fastest, Leni took the longest to roll over, and plenty of other things where the kids beat one another at hitting a milestone.

"A little, but I think he'll be fine."

"I guess I'm a little nervous for Lynn. You know how it is with first children."

Hearing that takes Lynn Sr. back. He remembers when Lori was little, and how he and Rita stressed over every little milestone, especially if she wasn't hitting it at the earliest time. Those first parent jitters definitely added some unnecessary stress at the time, but eventually they learned that it didn't matter.

"I know," he tells her. He looks his wife in the eyes and reminds her, "but they've got grandparents and siblings with kids to help them out. And there's always pediatricians to help out too."

Rita sighs, "I know, I just don't want Lynn worrying, or getting frustrated."

In the living room, Lynn is gently stretching Victor's legs. He looks up at her with a smile, and she smiles back, "No son of mine is gonna be a noodle-armed choirboy, but we can only do so much until you learn to get around on your own."

"Really?" asks Francisco as he looks around the room for Victor's toys. "Vic can throw pretty well. Not to mention his grip strength. Remember when he grabbed onto your hair?"

"Yeah, it's why I don't put him over my shoulders anymore. But you know, I thought that he'd be walking or crawling by now."

"It shouldn't be too long. Elena was around this age when she started walking, I think. Besides, you have six younger siblings, they didn't all have walking down at the same time, did they?"

"In all fairness, I don't remember when they did." Lynn looks down at their son, "At least try to get crawling down by your birthday, okay?"


Francisco yawns as he opens his eyes. He looks over at the alarm clock, which is set to go off in about an hour. He tries to close his eyes to get himself back to sleep, but he begins to hear his daughter cooing in her crib. If he stays perfectly still, she might fall asleep, but then she turns her head and looks him right in the eyes.

Elena reaches out to her dad with a smile on her face and Francisco can't help but return the gesture. He slowly tries to get out of bed, but with each little movement, he can feel his back ache after being in the same position for so many hours.

Rather than delay the inevitable, Francisco quickly gets onto his feet and stumbles towards Elena's crib. As he approaches her, Elena squeals in delight, but Francisco quietly shushes her and takes her out of the room and into the kitchen.

"I can't believe it's almost been a year," he tells her.

It makes him wonder where the time went. It seems like just yesterday, he and Caroline brought Elena home from the hospital and now almost a year has passed. Francisco figures that it might have more to do with how monotonous his days are. Every week, he wakes up, goes to work, maybe works some overtime if he can, goes home, showers, plays with Elena and falls asleep somewhere around the house.

It's exhausting and he almost can't differentiate one week from another, but it's for a reason.

As much as he appreciates his mom giving them a place to stay and helping them with their daughter, Francisco would like a place of their own. At the moment, it's fine since they can put Elena's crib in their room, but she's getting bigger and she isn't going to fit in that little crib forever. Caroline recommended cleaning up Kiké's old room, since he might not ever come back home, but either way, it's a temporary solution, and he'd prefer an actual home for themselves.

He walks his daughter into the kitchen and places her on her high chair. Francisco knows that he isn't going to be able to get himself back to sleep, so he settles on having a slow morning while the rest of the house sleeps. He pours water into a pot and turns on the stove.

After he pours some ground coffee into his mug, he walks over to his daughter to entertain her while he waits for the water to boil. "It's only more week, Sunshine. Can you believe it? Now Daddy can't can't promise to make your birthday something amazing, but he's at least gonna make sure that you get a cake and a nice toy, does that sound nice?"

Elena squeals in delight and reaches out for her dad, who leans over to nuzzle her.


Lynn Sr. places dinner on the table, "Girls, put your gadgets away. It's dinnertime."

"I am aware, however I would like to finish writing this last paragraph. Sometimes I wish that I could bypass the grant proposal stage," she complains. "I'm almost tempted to send Lynn onto a variety of game shows to win a monetary prize."

Lily giggles, "I think you're better off asking anybody else for a loan than putting Lynn on a game show circuit."

Lisa shrugs her shoulders, "She's adept at physical games, smart enough to answer some basic trivia questions while struggling with more advanced questions, has a braggart personality, and I'm sure that if I allowed her to keep the vacation and vehicular prizes, she'd be willing."

The younger sister snorts.

"What?"

"Nothing, I just find it funny that in your head, it's easier to send Lynn onto a variety of game shows where she's only going to win a couple thousand dollars. I mean, sure if she wins the grand prize, you can get a million dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but isn't that over many, many years? Isn't it faster to use your knowledge of tax law and stocks and make as much money as possible in a short amount of time."

"I don't want to attract news attention that way."

With a knowing smile, Lily responds, "Sure, you don't."

The sisters go back to their devices.

"Girls, what did I just say?"

"Just one more minute, please," Lily pleads.

Lynn Sr. sighs, "Fine, but one minute, then you're both doing the dishes."

Without looking up from her phone, Lily starts, "You know, I thought about something. What was the point of your energy drink and pain medication? Weren't you supposed to make money off of that so you wouldn't have to beg governments for it? Though if not that, don't you have dirt on-"

"Under my fingernails!" Lisa finishes. "Yes, dear sister, I do. I will remedy the situation before partaking in my evening meal," she says, taking her laptop away from the dining room, "I shall return."

Lily and her parents watch Lisa as she scurries upstairs. They don't know what's going on, though they can't imagine it's a good thing if Lisa left as quickly as she did. They all look at one another and silently agree that whatever is going on, it's best that they pretend that nothing is happening.

As Lily puts her phone away, she looks at the plate in front of her, "Anyway, Dad, dinner looks great."

"Thank you, sweetie," he says as he takes a seat. "Let's eat."

Both father and daughter are ready to serve themselves, but Rita stops them, "Wait, not until Lisa gets back."

Lily groans, but she's willing to wait. After five minutes, everyone silently agrees that Lisa is taking too long, and Lily calls out, "Lisa! Are you coming down? Our dinner's getting cold!"

Lily doesn't hear Lisa say anything, and she decides to go upstairs to retrieve her sister before everyone's dinner gets cold. She looks in the direction of the bathroom, and notices that the door is open. However, no one is inside. She looks towards her old room, which Lisa uses entirely as her laboratory, and hears her whispering to herself.

"Will the subject return tomorrow?"

"Of course," Lisa says to Todd, "My parental units offer to care for him during the day. I only wish that his mother didn't cut back on her hours at father's restaurant so that we could have him here for a few more hours a week."

Lily isn't sure what the two are talking about, but she covers her mouth to keep herself from accidentally making a peep.

"And how are they progressing?"

"For the moment, he's somewhat within range and she's doing fine. However, we are looking at this in the long term, so there might not be anything noteworthy for a few more years."

"Girls! What's taking so long?" asks Lynn Sr. from the dining room.

Lily quickly runs to the bathroom before Lisa turns around. She didn't get a chance to overhear much, but she can't help wondering what her sister and Todd are looking for long-term. All she knows who it involves.

Lily closes the bathroom door as quietly as she can so that Lisa doesn't grow suspicious. She flushes the toilet and turns on the faucet to simulate the usual sounds. As she steps out, she makes brief eye contact with Lisa, but neither one says anything.

Rita looks over at her daughters, "What was going on upstairs?"

"Finishing up my grant proposal," says Lisa as she takes a seat and fixes up her plate.

"Just had to go to the bathroom," says Lily, who is avoiding her sister's gaze.

"It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the upcoming change in months, would it?"

Lily is confused, "What? No."

Neither Lynn Sr. nor Rita believe her. The bathroom is one of the top spots where their prankster kin set up traps for the coming day. While Lily hasn't pulled off pranks the way she used to in the past, that doesn't mean that she can't teach the younger children.

She notices the looks on her family's face, "I'm serious, no pranks in the bathroom."

"So pranks around the house are still in play?" asks Lisa.

Lily crosses her arms and pouts at the accusation.


Alicia looks through Caroline's phone and is amazed by the photos. Each birthday seems rather elaborate compared to what she and Juan used to throw for their sons; not surprising considering some of the other photos that Caroline has shown her before. Regardless, it's not the type thing she was used to seeing for a young child's birthday.

Caroline shakes her head, "I know that we shouldn't, but Elena deserves something nice."

Alicia keeps her eyes on the phone. From what she was able to understand, Caroline might want to throw something a little more elaborate than what her son might be comfortable with, not that she would be against the idea. Her boys have definitely taken after their father in the celebration department. While she would love to do something nice with plenty of friends, family, food, and decorations, they would be content with a piece of cake and a nice meal, and there's no way that she's going to let her granddaughter be subjected to that.

However, she knows her son is already working hard to earn money for his family so that he won't want to spend so much on one party.

Francisco and Chuy walk through the door and greet the women.

"What are you two doing?" asks Francisco.

Caroline hands him the phone, "Looking through some of my old birthday photos."

The brothers look at the photos, scrolling through the photos filled with smiling children, clowns, magicians, fortune tellers, zookeepers, loads of candy and treats, and of course, a giant pile of gifts. It's definitely not that kind of birthday party that any of them ever had growing up, but it reminds them a bit of the parties that they would see on tv.

"I was looking through them to get some inspiration for Elena's birthday."

Francisco stays quiet. Caroline hasn't said anything, but he's a little worried that she would want to throw a big party like this for Elena. He isn't against celebrating, but in his mind it would be something small between them.

"I was thinking about maybe hiring a clown or something."

"A clown?"

"Yeah, some of the neighbors mentioned a business nearby that they used to call, I think it's called Funny Business Inc. I figure an hour shouldn't be too bad."

That doesn't sound too bad to Francisco, then Caroline brought up the idea of extra guests, treats, and goodie bags. He understands wanting people around to celebrate, but invitations means tending to so many extra people and worse, it means spending more on the party.

"No, it's not, but I was thinking that it would just be the five of us. Why would you want to throw such a big party?"

"It's not a big party, just some friends, family, and neighbors."

"It sounds like a lot of people."

Caroline looks over at him, "It's not like I'm planning on inviting the whole town for a week-long celebration. Maybe we can have some people over for a couple of hours, but it'd be rather rude to not offer some form of entertainment for them."

Under his breath, Francisco mutters, "Well I guess it's easy to say when you don't have to work as hard for that money."

Caroline looks over at him, "Excuse me, what does that mean?"

"What?"

"What you said under your breath. Look, I understand that work is tough on your back, but you voluntarily take on overtime whenever you can-"

"I do that so we can have some money saved up for ourselves, so that maybe we can get our own place or just have a nest egg in general. Why should we be spending so much on a single party, when it can go to better use?"

"It's one time. Not every day. Besides, it's her first birthday. She's only going to turn one once."

"She's going to turn every age once too, that doesn't mean that we need to make such a big deal out of all her birthdays. It's not like she's even going to remember this one."

"That's not that point. This is your daughter's birthday, I didn't think that I would have to talk you into at least wanting to do something nice to celebrate the occasion."

"I don't mind celebrating, but I don't want to stress out over something that I assumed was only going to be the five of us."

Chuy and Alicia quietly watch the two argue from the kitchen. The couple typically doesn't fight, so this is a first for them, but neither one knows what to do. While Alicia can't understand what they are fighting about, she's sure that it has to do with what Caroline wants for Elena's birthday. Neither she nor her eldest son move from where they are standing, but they turn their heads to avoid looking over at the couple.

The sound of Elena's cries gets her mother's attention, and Caroline walks away to their shared room while Francisco stays put. He notices the looks on his mom and brother's face and he decides to head out to the front door to get some fresh air.

Chuy and Alicia finally feel like they can breathe, but they know that the tension isn't going to go away so quickly.


Lynn holds Victor's hands and tries to lean him towards her so that he can start walking, but all he does is let his feet drag along the floor. She and Francisco figured that if he won't crawl, then they can get him walking instead. They have been at it for weeks and he still isn't making headway. Lisa, Jackson, and Victor's pediatrician have mentioned because he was born prematurely that they should treat him as though he is one month younger than his current age, but even then he's cutting it a bit close for both parents.

Kiké, who is scrolling through his phone, looks over at the two parents. They are trying to get the boy to do something. Sometimes they try to get him to walk, other times, to talk, but it doesn't matter, all he does is stare at anything that makes noise, "Well at least you know he isn't deaf," he says to himself.

Francisco glares at his brother, not appreciating the comment. It was bad enough that he decided to come back after being gone for a couple of weeks, he doesn't need his comments. However, he is still a little worried about his son. He knows that babies hit their milestones at different times, but he wants to see some sort of attempt from Victor. Francisco places a little step stool in front of himself and places his hands to show his son how to lift himself up a bit.

"Jeez, I didn't know your back went bad again," Kiké jokes.

Both parents ignore him.

Lynn places Victor's hands on the step stool, and tries to lift him up, but at some point it just looked like she was carrying him instead of helping. She sets him down, making sure to keep his hands on the stool, but Victor loses his balance and lands on his bottom.

Francisco sighs, "It's okay, little man, you'll get the hang of it soon enough."

"Before or after he starts preschool," mutters Kiké.

Francisco scowls and gets up. He doesn't like hearing his brother talk like that and he knows that Lynn doesn't like it either, and rather than wait around for it to get worse, he takes his brother out of the room to knock some sense into him, "Will you stop that?" he says, holding back his anger.

"What?" Kiké asks with a knowing smile.

"Stop insulting my son. I mean seriously, what sort of man insults a baby?"

"I'm not doing anything."

"Yeah, just rolling your eyes, chuckling whenever he can't repeat a word or crawls away from us."

"It's just nervous energy," claims Kiké.

"Bull," Francisco says. "You mean everything you're doing. Now, I'm nice enough to let you stay for a few days, but if you're going to keep this up, I'm going to kick you out without a second thought."

"Calm down, it isn't my fault that your kid is stupid. He's almost a year old and can't even figure out how to get up on furniture or say something resembling a word."

Francisco shoves his brother, "He's not stupid-"

"But you are afraid he might be."

Those wouldn't be the words that he would use, but he would be afraid of the thought of there being something wrong with his son. It's too early to tell, but he won't deny that he's been worried since Victor was born. At first, it was a fear of blindness from being born premature, then the lung infection, now it's him being delayed. It's silly to be worried about something like this, especially when he's so young, but the thoughts are still on the back of his mind.

He turns his head slightly away from Kiké, who sighs, "You aren't as fun if you take it that seriously." Trying to think of the best way to give his brother a bit of hope, he groans, "Why are you going around thinking that shit. What're the chances it happens to the little guy?"

Francisco is confused, "There's a chance, we aren't exactly young parents in our twenties."

"Wow, way to have faith in your kid."

"I'm sure Victor will get it, but…" he doesn't want to finish that sentence. Now that Kiké brought that thought forward, he's struggling to put it back.

Lynn, who was overhearing the brothers, takes Victor outside. It was bad enough remembering that her siblings' kids were walking and talking sooner, she didn't need to hear doubts from Francisco, or his brother, or even her own parents. However, as she looks down at her son, she can't help wondering if they're right.

She takes a deep breath and reminds herself that he's going to be okay. Lynn whispers into her son's ear, "Don't listen to your uncle. He's an idiot anyway. You're gonna get this, you're not a sprinter, you're a marathoner. You don't go charging out of the gates, that's how you burn out faster. No, Vic, you're gonna go at your own steady pace, and when everyone else struggles, you're gonna strive. I know it."

She takes a seat and sets him on her lap and they look around the backyard. A pile of snow from a tree branch falls to the ground, capturing the gaze of both mother and son.


Francisco scowls up at the ceiling. He definitely didn't see himself ending up on the couch because of some silly little argument. Growing up, he wasn't a stranger to seeing this happen once in a while to his dad, though he can't recall the reasons it happened. Now, here he is in the same boat.

He knows that he's right. Their finances aren't the best right now. They have to save whatever he earns so that they can get themselves on better footing, not spend it on a birthday party that's going to be forgotten years from now. He isn't against a few things like a cake, presents, and balloons, but hiring an entertainer, inviting lots of people, and giving them a goodie bag is too much.

Heck, his parties growing up were pretty darn simple, so it isn't like it's going to be the end of the world if Elena doesn't have all those nice things. All he remembers his family needing is someone to talk to and plenty of food and beer. Everyone was perfectly fine with that.

Francisco turns his body towards the tv, but he can feel his back ache after laying in the uncomfortable position for so long. He settles on moving his head and thinks about how all he wants to do is go back to sleep in his own bed. He would have done it too, but it was hard to ignore the tension in the room and rather than deal with it, he decided to leave the room so that he can get some sleep.

He tries to turn around again so that he can get into a more comfortable position, and while he succeeds, the ache lingers, "I am definitely going to feel this in the morning."

He could have gone into Kiké's room, but he can't find the key to unlock the room and he doesn't want to bother waking his mom for it, so he settled for the couch.

Francisco tries to close his eyes, but he can't get his mind to stop thinking about the party. Since he and Caroline haven't talked since their argument, she and his mom have been taking care of things. However, with his mom's limited budget spending on a party shouldn't be one of her concerns.

He sighs, not wanting to waste precious night time when he should be resting for work in the morning. Francisco closes his eyes again, in the hopes that he can quietly get himself to sleep, but then the sounds of Elena's crying get his attention.

A small light from the hallway turns on and Francisco tries to turn his head away from it. Elena hasn't had issues sleeping through the night for a long time, so this is taking him by surprise. However, he's sure that Caroline should be able to handle it, but when the crying doesn't stop, he decides to see what is going on.

Francisco rolls off the couch and slowly gets onto his feet. He walks over to the room and he quietly opens the door, where he spots Caroline trying to rock Elena to sleep. She briefly stops when she notices him, but then goes back to soothe their daughter. He walks over to her and offers to take Elena for a second.

Caroline hands her over and the infant slowly quiets down to a few whimpers after she feels her dad holding her. Francisco isn't sure if she'll start crying again, but regardless, he takes her out of the room so that her cries don't bother the rest of the household.

From inside the room, Caroline can hear Elena for a few more minutes, but when her daughter stops, she sighs in relief, happy that Francisco was able to quiet her down. She waits for him to eventually walk through the door, but it doesn't happen.

In the living room, Francisco looks down at his daughter, who is quietly staring up at him. He begins to rock her and thinks about how much she's grown since he and Caroline brought her home. In those twelve months, she's learned to crawl, reach out for her parents, sleep the whole night through, scribble on paper, and babble to herself as she goes about her day.

"One year… it has been a good one…" He stares into her eyes, and mutters, "dang it…"

Shortly after Francisco walks inside, sets Elena back down in her crib and walks out the room without saying a thing.

"Thanks anyway," Caroline says to herself before going back to bed.


Lily looks out the window and stares at the dreary sky above. It's already spring, but you wouldn't know it based on the rain clouds and foggy window panes. Unfortunately, the cold weather forced her nephew's first birthday party to be held inside, with all of the guests cramped into the first floor.

She turns back to her sister and brother-in-law, who are decorating the living room, "Are you two still planning on taking your one-year-old to a ball game tomorrow?"

"I don't see why not," starts Lynn. "He's got winter clothes, we've got winter clothes. We got him a pair of soundproof earmuffs and it's only gonna be a three hour game. We can handle it."

"I thought that we were gonna go early to buy Vic a souvenir."

"Yeah, we are gonna do that. Make it four hours."

Lily shakes her head, "You two are nuts."

"I've been telling them the same thing," says Elena. "But they insist."

"It's one game," groans Lynn, "It's an early afternoon game, and we've been planning it for months."

Francisco watches the three, but he doesn't get involved. This means a lot to the parents. They weren't able to take Victor to a baseball game last season because Lynn was being too cautious and after he got sick, they figured hockey would be out. Now, their son is healthier and with a game falling on his actual birthday, they don't want to miss the chance.

"You two aren't planning on taking him to a hockey game the day after, are you?" asks Elena.

"Of course not," says Lynn, "They're out of town, but we're going to the final game of the regular season."

Lily and Elena shake their heads. There's no talking a pair of sports nuts out of taking their young son to a live game. The two decide to check on the food, leaving the couple to finish decorating the living room.

Francisco finishes setting up the streamers. He hops off the stepstool and looks around the room - streamers, confetti, balloons, party games, snack tables, and a giant cake waiting to be cut. It's a lot more decorated than he envisioned for a one-year-old's birthday, but the Louds are definitely not afraid of going big for birthday parties.

"What do you think?"

"I think it looks good," says Lynn. She crashes down on the couch, but a bunch of confetti shoots up into the air, littering the carpet around her. She looks up at her husband, "Aren't you happy we're doing this here instead of at home?"

Francisco nods his head as he takes a seat next to her, launching more confetti into the air, "Yup."

"Besides, Lisa's robots can clean all this up."

A robotic voice from behind, calls out to the couple, "We are not your servants."

Lily passes by with a wrapped present, "Your programming says otherwise." She sets the present down on the table, "Is the birthday boy still napping? I wanted him to help me with his first prank," she says with a sinister smile.

Lynn and Francisco feel a chill run down their spines. They were afraid that she would use Victor's birthday as an opportunity to exercise her prank muscle to torment everyone at the party, or worse, mold him into a future evil prankster. They know that Lily hasn't done anything too crazy since she was seventeen, but that doesn't mean that she can't pass on her knowledge to a new little protégé.

"He's…uh, upstairs napping…" Francisco says with a hint of fear in his voice.

Lily eyes the two, "I guess, I'll just wait until he gets up. I'm glad you guys found my little confetti cannons," she says as she walks out of the room to help her parents finish setting up.

When Lily is gone, Lynn immediately tells Francisco, "We are not leaving Victor alone with her."

"Don't you think that a little much?" asks Lucy, spooking the couple.

"No! You know Lily, remember how she was going to quit pranking at fifteen, and then changed her mind. It was the worst two years of Mom and Dad's lives. We are not risking that with Victor."

Lucy can't blame them. They don't know what Victor will be like as he grows up; he could be rambunctious, thoughtful, or anything in between. However, nearly everyone can agree that it's best not to add sociopathic prankster to the list of possibilities.

The younger sister takes a seat. With Victor napping, there isn't much to do aside from sitting down and catching up. Her twins are luckily being entertained by their grandparents, while her two youngest are napping upstairs, which gives her some time to sit back and relax before they all get hopped up on sugar from the treats their grandpa made for them.

Lucy's twins run into the living room, "Can we have some cake?" asks Catherine. "Grandpa says he won't give us cake unless you say so."

"Yeah! I want cake too!"

"No, we have to wait until Victor wakes up from his nap."

Catherine groans, "Why?"

Lynn interjects, "Because we haven't sung Happy Birthday to him."

"Then wake him up," pleads the girl. "We're hungry."

The twins try to pull their double please face, but Lucy shakes her head, "Nope, now go find a game to play and we'll call you when it's time to eat."

The twins try to argue, but Lucy points to the dining room and the two drag their feet out of the room with scowls on their faces.

Upstairs, Lisa quietly walks into the room. She walks over to her nephew's crib and watches him as he sleeps. Now that he's approaching his first year of life, she wants to increase her observations and possibly run some tests to determine if he's developing properly.

"Are you sure about this?"

Lisa looks down at the boy. If she doesn't start now, he'll learn to talk and it'll make things more difficult, since he can blurt out what's going on to his parents. If only the subjects were more interesting in their first year of life. She doesn't have much information from the other subjects, aside from some notes from the parents, so she's going to have to get a little more creative with how she approaches this.

"I'm sure."


Caroline and Alicia quietly decorate the living room. No one else is going to come, but both women agree that they should at least make things look a little nice for the day, though Caroline isn't sure that she would have picked Halloween decorations. She knows that party supply stores are chock full of skeletons, bats, and Day of the Dead stuff this time of year, but there should have been something more appropriate for a one-year-old's birthday.

The two look at their work, satisfied with what they were able to accomplish with their limited budget. While Francisco did eventually begrudgingly give them some money from their savings, she decided that the best course of action would be to throw the small party, so that they're both satisfied.

At the moment, the four adults are waiting for Elena to finish her nap so that they can have their lunch, take some photos, and open presents. Caroline looks over at the clock on the wall. It's been over an hour since she went down for her nap, so she should be waking up right around now.

She gestures to Alicia, "I'm going to check on Elena."

As she approaches the room, Elena begins to cry out. Caroline sighs and walks towards her daughter. All week she has been extra fussy and it has been wearing her down. She looks over to the kitchen, where Francisco and Chuy are chopping up vegetables, in hopes that the younger brother will do something to help out. However, it seems as though neither one can hear her daughter's cries.

In the kitchen, Francisco pulls out the food from the fridge and slowly walks it over to the grill in the backyard. That one night of sleeping on the couch definitely took its toll on him, and even after spending his nights sleeping in Kiké's old room, his back hasn't gotten better. The couple has been quiet since their spat earlier that week, and while they are getting along on the outside, they haven't made much of an effort to talk out their issue. Chuy knows that it won't come from his brother, it was rather normal for no one in the family to apologize to one another, instead things are tense until the two quarreling decide to let things go. However, Caroline didn't grow up like that and he's sure that she's going to want to hear Francisco actually apologize.

"Wanna pop?" he offers his younger brother.

Francisco takes the drink and continues looking over at the skirt steak, "You think Mom can handle a little pink in the middle."

"I think so, just so long as it isn't bleeding all over her plate she should be fine." Chuy looks down at the grill, "Remember how Dad used to overcook the fajitas? It was like eating hockey pucks."

Francisco chuckles, "I've bitten one before, pucks are softer," he jokes, "But at least we never had to worry about food poisoning like with his undercooked chicken."

The door opens and both brothers spot their mom, "¿Vamos a comer adentro o afuera?"

"Donde sea," answers Francisco.

"Chuy, ve saca la mesa para que comamos aquí."

The older brother sighs as he heads into the garage to the foldable table to set up.

Alicia keeps an eye on her older son, and when he is out of earshot, she approaches her younger son. For about a week, he and Caroline have been avoiding one another and she thinks they are being ridiculous now that they are celebrating Elena's birthday. However, since she can't tell the younger woman, she'll tell her son what's on her mind.

"¿Qué está pasando con ustedes dos? Tu y Caroline deben de estar celebrando el cumpleaños de Elena, pero ni uno ni el otro está hablando."

Francisco isn't sure what his mom is expecting out of him. Things will eventually get back to normal soon enough, and it isn't like Elena is noticing anything.

"Hablamos en la noche," is all he can say without looking at her.

The fight was about the party, after a couple of hours, if Caroline still has any lingering issues it won't really matter. Though now Francisco has to worry about his mom's lingering emotions. Even though he can't see her, he can feel her staring at him as though she's expecting a better answer from him. He would have one, but waiting seems like the best option.

Alicia sighs, "Pero hablen. No nomás digas que lo vas hacer, hazlo. Ya no eres niño chiquito, tienes veinticuatro años, no se van a ir tus problemas nomás porque los ignoras."

She notices Chuy coming back with the table, so she heads inside. Francisco lets out a sigh of relief, feeling like he can breathe again after having his mom lecture him about his problems.

Chuy walks over to his brother, "What'd Mom talk to you about?"

Francisco sighs, "Just wanting Caroline and I to make up already. Also, tell me the truth, was I born in 2002 or has Mom been lying to me my whole life?"

"Did she say that you were a year older? 'Cause I thought that same thing too for the longest time. Anyway…"

Despite wanting the same thing as their mom, he doesn't think that it's his business to tell the couple to resolve their issues, but he is silently thankful that their mom started putting it in Francisco's head.

The girls walk out of the house and begin setting up the table with pop, plates, and sides. Caroline brings Elena out and Alicia calls out to her son, "Ya deja eso, vamos a tomar fotos."

Francisco quickly moves the meats to the higher rack so that they don't burn while the family sings to Elena. He can hear the song coming to an end, so walks as fast as he can, figuring that whatever is left on the grill can take a few extra seconds on the fire. When he reaches the rest of his family, the girl looks up at him with a smile on her face.

Caroline places the cupcake in front of her daughter and both her and Alicia begin taking photos before Elena smashes the treat in front of her. Caroline chuckles as her daughter tries to eat the frosting and pieces of smashed cupcake off her hand.

The smell of smoke grabs Francisco's attention and he notices a few pieces of meat burning on the grill.

He walks away, but Elena is upset that he's disappearing, and she babbles out loud in the hopes of getting him to stay, eventually, she is able to piece out a sound that is able to get him to stop, "Da!"

Francisco and all the adults look over at the birthday girl, who begins to smile as her dad approaches her, "Da!" she repeats. "Da! Da! Dada!"

Caroline quickly switches the camera to video mode and tries to capture the moment before her daughter stops talking. Francisco takes a hold of the girl and she continues repeating the word to him.

Later that night, Caroline looks through the photos that she took earlier today. She stops at the video that was taken of her daughter's first word. She was happy to have been able to capture it, though she is a little jealous that 'dada' was her first word, but she's not going to admit it out loud. Either way, she's happy that her daughter is starting to speak. Soon, she'll be speaking in full sentences, reading books, going to school… going to college…

Caroline looks over at Elena in her crib as she babbles to herself, "It's going to be a long time until that last little milestone."

The bedroom door opens and Francisco walks in, "Hey, is now a good time?"

Caroline nods her head.


Lisa pulls out her voice recorder, "Subject 212B-8422, after 364 days of life, the subject is currently not within average height or weight range for infants of the same age, even with premature birth status taken into account."

"Why don't you run blood tests?" asks Todd.

She turns off her voice recorder, "I would, however, I don't want to risk another contusion due to the nanobots. That and his piercing screams would alert his parents." Lisa takes a pen and tests his reflexes. She sighs, "There is always an MRI, but I don't think that he'll lay still long enough now that he's had his nap," she says, looking down at the boy, who is reaching out towards her and the robot.

"We could restrain him."

Victor rolls over towards the bars surrounding the crib. Both Lisa and Todd watch him, hoping that he'll lift himself up, but he doesn't.

"I don't understand. He displayed the skill months ago, how could he forget?"

Todd takes the boy out of his crib, and he begins chewing on the robot's arm, "Perhaps he requires nourishment?"

She scoffs, "I doubt that's a problem for him, but I shall offer him something to quell his hunger for a few minutes." Lisa pulls out a briefcase with a variety of medicines that she has in development, "Let's see now, that one's for dysmenorrhea, this one's to treat CVA, this one slows Alzhemier's disease, ah, here it is," she says as she pulls out two pills from an amber bottle.

Lisa walks over to her nephew and shows him the pills. He reaches out for the green pills, but she quickly moves her hand away, "These aren't candies, nor are they a replacement for real food, it's a combination of leptin and proopiomelanocortin which should temporarily satiate your hunger. Though it does contain a day's worth of calories."

"For an adult or for a child?"

"Hmm… this does contain a day's worth of calories for an adult, so he is rather young to be taking these," Lisa quietly begins to do calculations in her head, "Alright, according to Fried's rule, you should be fine with about eleven milligrams."

Lisa heads over to her desk to cut the pill for Victor. Todd notices that she is taking longer than anticipated, so he rolls over to the desk to assist her. He sets the infant down on the ground to keep him out of the way.

"What is taking so long?"

"It's not easy to cut such a small pill into less than a tenth of its size using a regular pill cutter."

"I could use my heat vision."

"No! The heat could alter the medicine."

Todd tries to take the pill, "There are other methods."

"I'm fine," she stresses, trying to take the medicine back from him.

The two go back and forth, until Lisa stumbles to the floor and drops the medicine, landing in front of Victor. The infant reaches out for the green pill and before either Lisa or Todd are able to stop him, he swallows the medicine.

"Oh no, oh no, oh nonononononono," Lisa picks up her nephew, then turns to Todd, "How can we induce vomiting within the next thirty seconds?"

"Perhaps putrescine will do the trick."

Lisa runs to her chemistry set to synthesize the chemical, but groans, "Curses! I don't possess succinonitrile."

"The thirty seconds are up."

"Great. Perhaps 2000 calories won't be a problem for him?" she tries to convince herself, "After all, at his age, he only needs 920 calories. He only consumed 117.4 percent more than necessary, which…" She stops talking, figuring that she can't talk herself out of this.

Rather than dwell on the problem, she takes a deep breath and tells herself, "Okay, there's nothing we can do now. All we can do is keep an eye on him in the event he begins displaying any sort of side effects."

"What sort of side effects?"

Lisa doesn't want to admit that she doesn't know. After all, these pills are still in the testing phase, and haven't been consumed by humans other than a few college students. The students have mentioned feeling full for about twenty-four hours after consuming the pills. However, the ones that did try to eat, mentioned feeling ill and vomiting immediately. Others mentioned elevated blood pressure, nausea, fatigue, headaches, and diarrhea, which may be more difficult to notice in an infant.

"Let's just say anything out of the ordinary."

She walks to her blackboard. She already knows what chemicals she has, all she needs to do is determine what she can use to synthesize a possible treatment until her nephew finishes metabolizing the pill.

"Todd, keep your eyes on the subject, we have to ensure that he doesn't get into anything else."

"Do this, Todd. Do that, Todd. Maybe Todd wanted to enjoy the party downstairs," he complains while picking up the boy.

Victor tries to squirm out of Todd's arms, but the robot won't let go of him, "He is definitely more energetic."

While Lisa is scribbling on the blackboard, the bedroom door opens and Lynn walks in, "Hey, there you are."

Lisa stops moving her hand, and avoids turning back towards her sister.

Lynn tries to take Victor from Todd, who is unwilling to let go of him, but she prevails, "Why didn't you tell me he was awake? We could have taken him downstairs to enjoy the party."

"First birthdays are more for the family than the infants, besides," the sounds of loud shrieks from Lucy's children interrupts her. "He only just woke up."

"He seems wide awake to me," says Lynn as she inspects her son. "C'mon, time for cake and presents."

Lisa quickly follows after the two. She's sure that their father has a celebratory cupcake for him to consume and she's sure that that might be enough to force the infant to feel ill.

In the dining room, Lynn places Victor on his high chair. All the guests are standing around as Lynn Sr. walks in with a large birthday cake. Lily pulls out her camera and starts recording as their mother lights up the candle on cake.

As everyone sings the song, Lisa stares at the boy, who is eyeing the cupcake in his mother's hand. When the song is over, Lynn places the cupcake in front of him and he immediately smashes it with his fist. Lisa can feel her heart racing. There's no doubt that he's going to take a bite and immediately feel sick, but she won't know what else will ail the infant.

Victor takes a bite from the cake in his fist and happily consumes the sweet treat.

Lisa stares in disbelief, surprised that nothing happened. He continues to eat, while everyone gathers around to grab a slice of the cake. Sure, not everyone who consumed that pill felt the urge to vomit, but most of them did, and that has Lisa wondering why he appears to be doing well.

"Lisa, have some cake," offers her father.

She shakes her head, focusing her attention on the birthday boy. With his cupcake devoured, he reaches out for the larger cake that is getting smaller with each knife cut. He begins to whine, catching the attention of his mother, who offers him a bite of her cake slice. The boy happily eats the treat, but it isn't long before he's reaching out for more food.

Victor begins to thrash around in his mother's arms, which takes her a bit by surprise when she almost drops him. Lynn takes him towards the table and grabs a plate of food. The boy happily eats every bite that his mother offers him, and after the plate is empty, he reaches out for more.

Meanwhile, both of them are unaware of Lisa staring while silently taking mental notes of what she is witnessing. Even after consuming every snack on the plate, he appears to be faring well and on the contrary, it seems as though he's actually craving more food.

Francisco, who has also been noticing how much food Victor has been eating, asks, "Lynn, don't you think he's had enough?"

"Tell that to him, he keeps reaching out for the stuff."

"It doesn't mean that you give in."

Rather than let Lynn continue to feed their son, Francisco takes Victor from the high chair. He knows that Victor can be a bit of a glutton, but all the sugary snacks that he's consumed can't be good for him, at least for getting him to sleep later tonight. So he decides to pull the plug and take him into the living room to play with his cousins. He sets him down in the playpen, and walks towards the couch to sit down.

Lynn and the other adults take a seat in the living room as they talk amongst themselves. Victor turns towards them and he reaches out for his parents, but they aren't paying attention to him. His fingers latch onto the bars of the playpen and he pulls himself up. He shakes the bars and makes noises to call out to them, but aside from a glance from some people, no one comes over.

He doesn't want to be in the playpen, he wants to be out there, so he tries again and eventually, Elena walks over, and she asks her dad, "Should I just let him out?"

"Yeah, just don't let him roll around."

"Why?"

"I don't want to risk him throwing up."

"It wasn't that much food," complains Lynn.

Lisa interjects, "Either way, he does make a point. The infant has consumed a fairly large amount of calories, that puts him at risk of hurling out what he has consumed."

Lynn sighs, "Fine, listen to them," she tells Elena.

The girl takes her brother out of the playpen and takes him towards the other adults. When Victor no longer feels his sister's hold on him, he places an arm out in front of him. The other adults quietly watch him, trying to keep quiet so as to not startle him.

Victor looks over at his parents, who are smiling softly at him. He places his other hand in front of the other. He lifts his torso up a bit, appearing as though he's on all fours. Lynn leans down with open arms, thinking that he might actually crawl towards them. Francisco calls out to him and Victor begins to move.

Everyone watches as he moves towards his parents. Slowly, but steadily, he reaches his mom, and she lifts him into the air, "I knew you had it in you, Rookie!"

Later that evening, Lisa heads up to her room. She pulls out her laptop and begins logging her day. There wasn't much to note after witnessing her nephew crawl towards his parents, aside from the clean up and everyone heading home. She hoped that in the few hours that the guests were around, something more noteworthy would have occurred, though she can't deny that she was happy that her nephew was finally able to slowly approach his parents.

"Somewhat delayed development, weeks past the typical range for children his age," she mutters to herself, it's all still true, but now she has to add 'capable of consuming large quantities of calories' to her notes. She doesn't know what that pill did to Victor, but whatever happened, it definitely had a positive effect on him.

"He seemed fine from what the cameras picked up," says Todd.

"Aside from his appetite. I might have to talk to Lynn and see if there are any digestive issues that he might have suffered from after leaving the party."

"What do you think could have been the cause of it?"

Lisa sighs, "It could be that the pill has an opposite effect on children, or maybe it's his genetic makeup, or…"

It is possible that the circumstances of his birth might have also played a role. She pulls up the file on all of the other children. Unlike Victor, their files are more sparsely filled, with information coming in once every few months. Originally, those children were meant to give her an idea of what to expect from her nephew, but now thanks to him swallowing that pill earlier, it might lead her into some information that might have been missed.

Lisa quickly goes through some of the childrens' files. She never thought to ask how their appetites were developing, but it is possible that the parents might have noticed and it was overlooked by her.

"Hey, Lis, Dad wanted-" she stops talking when she notices both Lisa and Todd stiffen up, "What are you doing?"

Lisa is startled. She looks towards the door, making sure to cover the laptop screen, "Nothing, I'm recording my day-to-day activities as usual."

Lily eyes her sister, waiting for her eyes to give her away. Lisa's a terrible liar, and her face betrays her like no other. However, neither Lisa's eyes or mouth do anything, so she decides to let it go.

"Okay… Dad wanted to know if you want leftovers for dinner."

"I shall go downstairs later to retrieve my evening meal. Thank you," says Lisa, as if trying to gesture her sister out.

Lily pretends not to have noticed what Lisa did, and decides to make conversation, "You know, I'm kinda sad you guys didn't let me teach Victor how to prank. What kind of April Fool baby doesn't know how to prank?"

"The kind that are only a year old. Not to mention, considering what we had to endure at the hands of both you and our fourth eldest sister, you can't blame anyone for not wanting a new prankster in the family."

Lily scoffs, "Luan's twins aren't so bad."

Lisa eyes her sister, silently reminding her that the girls, whose mother regaled them with many pranking stories growing up, are rather cunning pranksters on April Fool's Day. While none of them have been at the receiving end of their pranks, knowing that their father runs out of the house is enough to paint a picture.

"You say that as if Lana didn't find him wandering the streets."

"Again, it's not so bad. Besides, Luan stopped doing April Fool's Day years ago."

"Only because the police department got involved. It also didn't help that your former classmates were willing to follow her and her pranking principles to terrorize Royal Woods."

"She's a good teacher, you can't deny it," Lily defends.

Lisa rolls her eyes.

The two look at one another, neither one moves or says anything.

"You can go back to whatever you were working on, I won't bother you."

"It's private."

"You mean your journal?"

Lisa scowls, "No, and it's called a log."

"Sure."

The two sisters stare at one another.

Lily slowly walks out of the room. She can sense Lisa's eyes on her. The older sister doesn't move until Lily closes the door behind her, but she isn't aware of when the door is opened once again and an eye peeks in the direction of the laptop.


Can you believe it's been a year since I posted this story? I was sort of hesitant to post this chapter with how weird the site has been these last couple of months, but I couldn't pass up this anniversary. I also want to thank you all for sticking around reading, favoriting, commenting, and following my story. I know that I haven't been as consistent, but regardless I do my best to get this story out for your guys. So once again thank you, I truly appreciate your support both in reads and comments by everybody