Ana woke up the next day feeling guilty. She saw the angry looks as she got ready for school, not bothering to wake Kat up.
"Ana, honey, we need to talk." Charity says. "Don't worry, you aren't in trouble with me. I just want to talk with you for a bit."
"I knew it was too good to be true!" Ana sobbed, breaking down, thinking she was going to be an orphan.
"Sweetie, it's okay to admit that you're vegan. I am willing to accommodate that at our mealtimes. But to announce it at the dinner table, it just seemed very sudden to a lot of your siblings." Charity says.
"I just hate seeing animals get killed." Ana sniffed.
"And that's okay. But it really threw your siblings for a loop, thinking they have to eat vegan stuff, too. But I assured them that they can still eat what they want. I'm going to have vegan versions of the week's meals prepared for you from now on." Charity says.
Later, everyone was getting ready for school.
"You caused Luke to run away. That wasn't nice." Lisa says.
"Yeah, now people are going to think we abused him again and starved him, too. It's hard enough as going to school unbothered is no longer an option. People always ask us what the next Luke update is." Lucy says.
Ana soon arrived at school as kids started calling her a vegan freak. She began to tear up. Miss Allegra put a stop to the name calling immediately.
Meanwhile, Kat shot awake. "Eh?" Kat asked, looking around her room.
"I'm late!" Kat says, but her vision was blurry.
"Am I Getting blind or did that battle injure me more than I thought?"
"Sweetie, do you remember when we went to the eye doctor before school started? Well, he told me there was a chance you were going to need glasses." Charity told her.
"I don't think it's the eyes. It's my whole body. It hurts." Kat says, revealing her scars from last night. Charity manages to heal them in minutes, then gives the eye doctor a call to make an appointment.
Kat rushed off and saw Luke and his friends talking about what Ana did. She turned into a small bird just to spy on them.
"The whole ninja thing is kinda weird." Lonnie says.
"She tried to starve Luke. Who does that?" Remy asked. "He was hungry when he came to my place at 10:45 last night. My mom cooked him the rest of our spaghetti peperoncino and salad, then he slept on our couch. Then he had breakfast with us this morning before coming to school."
They gasped as Shane felt bad. Shane held Luke.
"Come on, Luke. It's time for your first trip to the school counselor for this school year, anyway." Shane says as he walks off with Luke. Luke goes to see her as Shane waits outside for him.
"Hello, Luke." Mrs. Larson says. "How are you, sweetie?"
"I'm not okay. My step-sibling drove me away from home, thanks to her announcing her vegan beliefs at the dinner table and forcing me to starve." Luke says.
"I'm so sorry that happened. Did you talk to your mom? I'd think that would help." Mrs. Larson says.
"My mom said she'd accommodate her diet, but it still makes me upset that she had to tell everyone at the dinner table while we were eating." Luke says, annoyed.
"Did anyone mention anything about animals that may have triggered it?" Mrs. Larson says.
"My sister Luan made a joke about it." Luke says.
Meanwhile, Penny found Ana during a break.
"Ana?' Penny asked as Ana was crying out of guilt.
"I'm sorry I talked behind your back. I still forget that you're just a kid." Penny says.
"Did I hurt Luke?" Ana sniffed, guilty. "I knew I should have waited to announce my vegan beliefs, and I did it at the wrong time."
"What happened?" Penny asked.
"Luan was joking about dead animals and I couldn't help myself." Ana sniffed.
Penny holds her, knowing Kat and Ana love nature. "You're not at fault here. You're just a growing girl who didn't need to hear any of that." Penny says.
After school, Charity took Luan aside and had a stern talk with her about what went down last night. Luan looked down in shame.
"It's okay to make jokes at the dinner table and all, but there's times and places for certain jokes." Charity told her.
"I understand." Luan says.
"You owe Ana an apology." Charity says. "Then you have after-dinner dish duty for the rest of the week as punishment for what you did to hurt her feelings."
Luan nods, looking down.
With Luke, he didn't head home. He instead headed to Mary Scooper's Scoop-a-torium. He had an after-school shift there 5 days a week and sometimes worked weekends, but only when he was needed on the weekend.
He sat behind the counter in his work uniform, scrolling through his phone as it was slow at the moment.
Lonnie, who worked the same shift with Luke, noticed him.
"Are you okay?" Lonnie asked.
"Why should I even go home after work? All it's going to be is everyone at each other's throats and insensitive jokes and other things." Luke says. "And I'm sure dinner is gonna be some sort of vegetarian dish, so why even eat at home tonight?"
Lonnie patted his back, taking pity on him. She knows that he's going through a lot right now.
Later, Ana came home for dinner. Luan apologized profusely to her, and promised to do better.
Charity had quite the meal prepared for that night's dinner which was going to be chilled gazpacho soup, grilled pineapple with coconut sour cream drizzle, pulled brisket soft tacos, slow-cooked black beans with lime & crispy onions, and guacamole with homemade sea salt tortilla chips. Dessert would be homemade cinnamon ice cream sundaes with sweet tortilla chips.
Ana would only be eating the gazpacho without the croutons and yogurt, grilled pineapple without the sour cream drizzle, and the black beans. Charity also arranged to make Ana's sundae with a non-dairy ice cream made with oat milk.
Ana smiled and sat at her place at the table. "Dinner looks delicious!" She says and starts to eat her gazpacho soup.
Luke later came home from work and smelled the brisket tacos. He made himself a plate and sat at the table.
"How was work?" Luna asked him.
"Work was fine, I guess. Same old, same old." Luke sighed as he ate his dinner.
"Sweetheart, are you okay?" Charity asked him. Luke then started talking about his day at school before he went to work.
Ana goes to Luke. "I'm sorry." She says. Luke looked at her.
"I forgive you. I know you're not at fault here." Luke says. Ana smiled and went to finish her dinner.
After dinner, the sundaes were served. Luan was washing the dinner dishes and would eat her sundae when she finished them. Everyone else was eating their sundaes and watching the newest episode of The Dream Boat.
Lucy had a poem convention this upcoming Friday. Luke and Shane would have a game to cheer at that night, but Luke would try to make it for the poetry slam at the very least.
"Okay, everyone, my new movie is coming at the end of the month." Lola says.
"Can't make it." Lisa says. "I'm busy."
"Remember, Lola, not everyone will have time to come to every movie you premiere. With school back in the mix, everyone is going to have something to do or something to work on. You can't expect everyone to drop their plans to go to a premiere, okay?" Charity reminded her.
"Yeah, we're going to watch the epic smackdown between Lisa and Penny." Kat says.
"Yeah, the bot-off sounds exciting!" Ana says, finishing her sundae.
Meanwhile, Rachel was worried about Luke. She couldn't help but wonder if he was okay.
"Something on your mind, sweetie?" Gabriel asked her.
"Luke is on my mind." Rachel says.
"Oooh…" everyone at the table says.
"What about him, cupcake?" Gabriel asked.
"He starved last night. All because Luan made a dead animal joke and Ana announced her veganism while everyone had dinner. I know Luke forgave Ana, but I'm still worried about him." Rachel says.
Gabriel hugged his daughter. "I know, sweetheart." He says.
Friday arrived and Luke went to the poetry convention just to support Lucy. He could only stay for a little bit before he had to go to practice. She understood and was just happy that he came for her. Luke smiled and listened to her read at the convention's poetry slam.
Soon, it was time for the results. Haiku won as Remy smiled at her.
"You two are back together?" Lucy asked Haiku.
"Yeah." Haiku says. "We've been back together for 3 months now. And we just went steady yesterday."
Lucy smiled, happy for Haiku.