Lynn Sr. opens the oven to check on the ham. He loves family holidays, especially with his grandchildren around – there's always something magical about seeing a child enjoying holidays; their eyes sparkling as they look at decorations, teaching them family traditions, making memories that'll last a lifetime.
However, with his children scattered, they can't always come home for every holiday, especially if they alternate with their in-laws, but he understands and he tries to make the best of it.
He looks out in the backyard to see how Rita, Lucy, Lisa, and Rocky are doing with the table for their outdoor picnic. Then, he glances over at Lily, who is taking photos of his grandchildren as they run around in the backyard with their Easter baskets in tow. The two oldest are clearly competing with one another to get more eggs, while their baby brother toddles around the backyard without a care in the world.
When no one is looking, Arthur tries to sneak open one of the plastic Easter eggs, but as soon as it cracks open, the egg pops and startles the boy, who is now covered in confetti.
"Mom!" he complains, while running towards his mother.
Lucy grabs onto her son, and looks over at Lily, who is innocently biting down on a marshmallow chick. "Did you really have to put in gag eggs?"
"It's April Fool's Day!" she reasons. "Besides, confetti isn't that bad."
"Only because Mother and I removed the more problematic plastic ovum."
Both Rita and Lisa knew that Lily was probably planning something for the Easter egg hunt, especially when it fell on today of all days. To be sure that the day went on with as few problems as possible, they both checked for any gag eggs that Lily might have placed, and left some of the more tame ones as a little joke for the kids.
Lily pouts, "Well that's no fun."
"I don't believe that either parent was going to enjoy the stink bomb laced egg, or the one exploding like a firecracker."
The youngest sister scoffs, "Excuse me for trying to add a little fun to a family holiday!"
Rita calls out to her husband, "Lynn! How's the ham coming?"
"It should be done in about five minutes, but can you guys help take the side dishes to the table?"
The children watch as the grown-ups go into the house.
"Is it almost time for dinner?" asks Catherine.
"I'm starving!" exclaims Arthur, who runs towards the table with his siblings following after him.
Lily puts the camera away and picks up her youngest nephew to carry him to the table. She sets him down on his seat and watches as her niece and nephew look at the door waiting for the food to come out.
A thought occurs to the boy, and he asks Lily, "Do we have to wait for Aunt Lynn?"
"No, I don't think that she can make it, we'll probably get a video call, but that's it."
"So we'll get leftovers?"
Lily chuckles at what her niece says. During any family get-together, it's rare to get a to-go plate. Between all the people and Lynn's appetite, you were lucky to find an extra crumb in the kitchen, let alone have enough to take home to enjoy for another day.
"Maybe," Lily winks to her niece and nephews, "assuming that Dad didn't hold back at the grocery store."
The family brings out the dishes and begins to set the table. With each dish, the children's eyes grow larger. Any meal at their grandpa's is always a treat, but he definitely goes all out for holiday meals, with most of their extended family away with their own festivities, the kids were excited to savor the meal and take some home.
Everyone begins to make their plates, but are stopped by Rita who pulls out her tablet, "Wait! We can't start without the others. Lisa, can you help me?"
Lisa sets down a small device at the edge of the table. She presses on a button, and a large screen with a camera appears, "Whom would you like to contact first?"
"That's a heck of an upgrade from our usual set-up," says Lily.
"We were long overdue. If you'd like, Mother, we can also set up to call everyone at the same time, though that is based on our current Internet speed."
Little by little, the six windows pop up on the screen. Family members greeted one another, some amazed by the spread their father made, others getting interrupted by their own children, and others attempting to make conversation with each other through the screen.
Rita looks at the screen, surprised that she isn't seeing her missing daughter, "That's odd, I wonder where Lynn and Francisco are?"
Lynn Sr. looks up at his wife, "Maybe they couldn't pick up? Why don't you try calling them on their phones instead?"
Rita pulls out her phone to call the missing couple, but is interrupted by her granddaughter, "Grandma, I'm hungry."
"Me too!"
The two look over at their grandchildren, who are more than ready to eat, "Alright, let's eat."
The girl takes a deep breath and looks at herself in the mirror. Today is going to be the day, she knows that she's said that over and over again, but she means it this time. She's having a great hair day, she has the perfect outfit on, and she cannot keep putting this off anymore!
She already missed out on telling him when they were freshmen, especially after he won those ribbons during sports day, but she chickened out when his team went to congratulate him. Instead, she was stuck watching him from the sideline. For a long time, she's looked over in his direction, always with the same thought on her mind – to make Francisco her boyfriend, but each time, she's chickened out for one reason or another.
"He's never alone," she tells her reflection.
If it isn't his usual group of friends or teammates, it's a classmate or a teacher that he's making conversation with – it almost feels impossible to get him alone.
"Nope," she shakes her head. "You will make this work, somehow…" she says, clearly scared of being rejected.
If she goes through with it, it'll be the first time that she's ever expressed her feelings for a boy, just the thought is making her heart race. She has spent so much time wondering how she would do it, and she can't spend the next two and a half years wondering.
"I can do it," she shakes her head, "No, I will do it, before today is over," she challenges herself.
A knock on the bathroom door grabs her attention, "Will you hurry up?! You're not the only one who has to get ready for school."
Lynn watches as Francisco flips through the channels. He has been wanting to find anything worth watching, but between the basic live tv channels, religious sermon channels, and Arabic language channels, neither one is finding anything to kill time.
"Nope…Nope…Nope…Can't you…change the channel…any faster?"
"Not if you want to miss something good."
She scoffs, "Just leave it…"
Francisco puts the remote down and looks over at his wife. Over the last couple of hours, Lynn seems to be losing strength. She was fine enough to see their son, but now that she's back in her room, it looks like she might pass out again. The staff has told her to rest, but between the bright, fluorescent lights, the noises from the hallway, and her own inability to fall asleep easily, she's struggling.
"I am so bored…" she complains, "When are they…going to…let me go…?"
Francisco, who is scrolling through his phone, answers, "They're keeping you under observation. You passed out, and your heart rate was nuts."
Lynn scoffs, "I didn't think I could get…a heart attack…or stroke…or whatever…the doctor called it."
He didn't think she could either. Even with her unhealthy diet, though, he can't deny what he sometimes saw and what Elena mentioned to him in passing. She had shortness of breath and struggled to finish her sentences or thoughts, though that last one wasn't too concerning considering her normal behavior. However, from what the doctors said, it was gestational hypertension. They assured the couple that with some rest, Lynn would get better, though they wanted to keep her under observation just in case.
"So come on down and see me – the King of Korean cars – where we treat you like royalty!"
"That commercial is so cheesy," says Francisco.
"I know…a crown…a throne…and a…a…sticky thing…"
"Right, it seems like a pretty stupid act to put on just to sell some cars."
She smiles, "Are my parents here?"
Francisco looks over at her, "No, not yet…?"
In all the hustle and bustle of the day, he neglected to tell anyone other than Elena about the birth. Francisco didn't see a point in having them wait around for hours, worried about what could go wrong since their son came a month early. He knows that Lisa would probably try to interfere, Lynn Sr. would be worried and pacing back and forth in the waiting room, and Rita would try to keep them from wandering around the hospital. Now with most of their troubles behind them, he figures that he can tell them.
He looks at some of the screenshots that he took. The staff didn't allow him or Elena to take photos using their phones; instead they're allowed to check in on the newborn through a NICU camera and website that they have access to. The pictures aren't great, but it shows his face with only the nasal tube visible, instead of all the others that were attached to him.
Francisco positions himself so that he and Lynn are in the shot, "Say cheese."
Lynn turns towards him, "What?"
He snaps the photo, but it comes out blurry and Lynn's mouth is open. "Okay, let me try that again," he says before taking another photo. It looks a lot better, not the best, but definitely better than the first one. "I'm gonna send this one and the ones I took earlier to our parents."
He sends out the photos to their parents, "There. How long do you think until somebody comes to visit?"
Lynn doesn't answer. Her mind feels foggy and she is exhausted, ready to conk out.
Francisco notices the look in her eyes, "Are you sure that you're going to want visitors?"
"Yeah…I just…" she starts before closing her eyes to fall asleep.
Lynn runs down the hallway. She hates when Vanzilla breaks down, especially in the winter; there's some people losing control of their cars, plows honking at them to get out of the way, and plenty of potholes to fall into. It was fine since everyone was able to help push the aging heap out of the way of on-coming traffic, but now she's running late and she knows that if she isn't quick, she's going to get in trouble. She stops running, hearing a school administrator as he leads the students that didn't get to class on time.
"Tardy sweep," says the man, who notices Lynn standing in the hallway.
Rather than wait around and get rounded up with the other tardy students, she runs for it.
He blows a whistle, "Loud! You are not going to get away with this," frustrated that he can't run after her without the other stragglers running off.
A hall monitor approaches after hearing the whistle, "What's going on?"
"Oh good, Mary, can you do me a favor and run after Lynn? She seems to think that she's going to avoid detention by running away."
She doesn't know what the man is thinking, she can't run after Lynn – the girl can beat out the whole track team without breaking a sweat. However, rather than dwell on that, she confidently nods her head; she has a job to do, and Lynn Loud is not going to get in the way.
"Yes, sir," she says as she runs in the direction of the delinquent.
Lynn runs down the hall, she briefly looks back, and when she notices that no one is chasing her, she slows down. She keeps her eyes and ears peeled in case any of the hall monitors find her before she gets to class.
The sight of a bright orange sash catches her eye and before the hall monitor is able to blow his whistle, she runs for it again. She can hear footsteps running after her; she knows that she has to hide from them, though she isn't sure if she's going to have to do it until the bell for first period rings or until she can sneak into her classroom.
Normally, when students are tardy and they're picked up by the tardy sweep, they'll get a detention slip, the teachers don't usually ask to see it, since the students rarely get away, and Lynn may actually get lucky if she can run to her classroom before anyone in the halls notices her.
She spots her classroom. Lynn looks around and quietly opens the door. She can see her homeroom teacher distracted in the front and even better, her seat is free. However, if she grabs her teacher's attention, she may be asked to show her non-existent detention slip, and she can't risk that. Rather than take any chances, she drops to the ground and crawls to her seat, praying that the door doesn't make a lot of noise or that the teacher won't look in her direction.
Some of the students in the back row notice Lynn, but no one says a thing; curious to see how things play out.
She is only a short distance away, when she notices a backpack, a baseball cap, and a familiar blue jacket in her chair, "What the?"
Francisco snickers as he takes his things from her seat. Lynn turns towards him. She recognizes his things and she isn't thrilled at the little gag he played on her, so she turns towards him and begins to play her own joke on him.
He isn't sure how clever Lynn thinks she is, but she can't believe that he isn't going to feel her messing around with his shoelaces. Without moving his head, he glances down at her to see her tying his shoelaces together. To mess around with her, he begins to tap his foot, forcing her to move away from his shoes. He stops his tapping and lets her finish, planning to take off his shoes as soon as she takes her seat.
Lynn gets up to her seat. She tosses Francisco's things to him between the aisle, but she attracts the attention of their teacher.
"Ms. Loud, nice of you to finally join us."
"I've been here, I've just been tying my shoelaces," she claims.
The teacher glances over at her. She knows that Lynn barely walked in, though she doesn't understand why her student lied about being in class. She knows that she probably got caught before arriving to class, especially with only three minutes left until the bell for first period rings. With such a short time before the students leave for their class, she doesn't press her student and continues what she was telling the students before she was interrupted.
While Lynn is distracted by their teacher, Francisco casually takes off his shoes, and pushes them away towards the side of his desk. He leans his hand over his shoes, ready to pick them up as soon as they are released from homeroom.
The bell rings.
Lynn looks over at Francisco, expecting him to trip over his laces, but instead, he walks out of the classroom, taunting her as he swings his tied shoes for her to see, "Hey!"
Francisco begins to run for it. He knows that Lynn is annoyed that her little prank didn't work, but he wants to have a little fun with her, especially since she thought that she was going to mess with him.
The two run between their classmates, over dropped backpacks, all while ducking under open lockers. Francisco keeps running, but he isn't as agile as Lynn is, who is quickly catching up to him. Before he is able to turn a corner, she takes him by surprise by jumping onto his back.
The students around them step back as they look at the sight. Francisco is trying to force her off of him, but Lynn wraps her legs around his waist while grabbing onto his jacket like a bull rider hanging on for dear life. The sound of a whistle blows, stopping the two teens. The two look over and see a hall monitor walking towards them.
"Great," mutters Francisco, "we haven't been back to school for more than an hour and we're already in trouble."
"We wouldn't be in trouble if you didn't run."
"Or if you didn't chase me."
Mary walks over to the two teens. She looks up at Lynn, who gets off of him and playfully shoes him, muttering something that the hall monitor can't hear. Mary notices him carrying his shoes with the laces tied together and quickly figures out that Lynn may be the cause of their running around in the halls. She doesn't take Lynn to be much of a prankster, but in the years that she's known her, Lynn doesn't mind taking an opportunity to 'play around' with her friends.
Mary turns to Francisco, "You're free to go."
He smiles, "Thank you," he says as he walks to class.
Both girls look at him as he leaves, but as soon as he turns the corner, the girl looks over at Lynn. On any other occasion, she might have been merciful and let Lynn go like she did Francisco, but unlike him, in a few short minutes, she's already racked up four reasons to get a citation and detention.
Mary pulls out her citation pad and begins to write.
Lynn is fuming at the thought of detention, but she's more bothered that Mary let Francisco go, "What was that?! He was running too!"
Without looking up, the hall monitor answers, "Meanwhile, you were chasing after him and then you jumped on top of him, which I believe is called roughhousing."
Lynn scoffs. She's done that plenty of times and it's never gotten her in trouble before, "That's not roughhousing, it was just friends being friends."
Mary looks up. She can tell that Lynn is upset, but she can't overlook how many rules Lynn has broken in such a short amount of time. Mary finishes writing the citation and hands it over, "And I probably wouldn't have said much, except that you came to school late, dodged the tardy sweep, and were running in the halls on top of that, so I couldn't overlook it."
Lynn takes the citation and crumples it in frustration. Mary looks at her, expecting her to throw the crumpled ball of paper onto the floor in frustration. Lynn notices the look on her face. She knows that she's expecting her to throw a fit and instead takes off her backpack and shoves the piece of paper in with all her other assignments from the previous semester.
"Dad! Hurry up!" yells Lily, who is tired of waiting so that the family can go to the hospital. "We clean up the backyard, put everything away, the dishes are soaking, and in all that time, he couldn't find what he's looking for?" she groans, "I wanna get going."
"I fail to understand your rush considering our nephew is already born."
Lily turns to Lisa, "Maybe the hospital has shorter visiting hours on Sundays that fall on a holiday, did you think about that?"
Lucy's children look over at the adults, who are waiting around for their grandpa. None of them wanted to cut the day short, they know that they didn't find every Easter egg or get to play with everything in their baskets, but everyone is insisting on them going to the hospital to see their aunt and her new baby.
"Mom, can we go now?"
"Dad, I wanna eat my jellybeans."
"No jellybeans, you just had dessert."
The three whine.
Rocky looks over at his kids, then at his wife. They are both thinking the same thing, and while they wanted to go to the hospital together as a family, the kids are getting restless and are going to want to leave early.
"Should we meet you at the hospital?" asks Lucy.
Rita nods her head, "Sure, honey, we'll meet you there. We might be here a while."
She and her two youngest daughters watch as Lucy and her family drive off in the direction of the hospital.
Rita knows exactly what is keeping her husband. Like with all of their own children and their other grandchildren, he has a baby book that he bought shortly after finding out the news of a new baby. With every birth, he gives the new parents the book so that they can write in and fill with pictures of the baby's first year. It's a sweet tradition that he's kept going for years and one that she's sure that even her children happily anticipate.
Lynn Sr. runs out of the house with the wrapped-up baby book and his old camera, "I'm coming! I'm coming!" he says as he runs towards his daughters and wife. "I finally found it. Can you believe that I left it under–"
"Dad, I get it," says Lily, as she grabs his arm and leads him into Vanzilla, "but we wanna get there."
Everyone gets into the van and Lily steps on it to reach the hospital before visiting hours are over.
Lisa looks over at her father, who is fiddling with his old camera. She takes it from him in an effort to help him put it together, "I wasn't aware that you could still procure the necessary materials to keep this camera functional," she says before accidentally taking a photo of herself.
Lynn Sr. takes the camera back, "Careful, I only brought enough for a few photos and I want to save them for LJ and the baby."
"Dad, why don't you use a phone?"
"Because I'll have to print them later, and I want to put the photos in today when we see…" he blanks on the baby's name, "What did LJ and Francisco decide to name the baby again?"
None of the three remember. The photo that Francisco sent didn't include the boy's name card, and he also failed to say anything other than reminding them they had a son, so none of them know for sure.
"We'll ask when we get there," Rita assures her husband. "Lynn floated a few names at the baby shower with you girls, right?"
"It occurred afterwards, but I believe she did, though she had a couple of names in mind, so that doesn't help."
"Do you remember her favorite boy name?"
"Last I remember, she complained that Francisco was shooting down names because he wanted one that would fit with his last name and could be pronounced by his mom. Though it's not like he couldn't have told us what it was."
"What if they still haven't decided?" asks Rita.
The other three think about it. It is possible that they never came to an agreement and the boy is currently waiting around to be named.
"You know I could probably ask Elena," says Lily, "as soon as I hit a dang red light, I'm texting one of them. I mean, who does that? Sometimes it feels like they're trying to keep everyone in the dark or something. I get wanting to be surprised if the baby is a boy or a girl, maybe they didn't know, but it isn't like we were asking for their socials or PIN numbers."
"Knowing our elder sister, she probably assumed that she did inform us."
"How does that explain Francisco?"
Lisa shrugs her shoulders, "He probably went along with his wife's shenanigans or believed her if she mentioned telling the rest of the family."
When the four arrive at the hospital and notice Lucy and her family sitting in the waiting room.
The twins see their grandparents and run up to their grandparents, "Aunt Lynn looked like Death was coming for her!" they proudly exclaim.
"What?!" asks Lynn Sr., who looks like he's about to pass out.
Lisa and Lily are ready to catch him, but instead, with vigor, he runs as fast as he can down the hall to look for his daughter.
Everyone looks at him as he screams Lynn's name.
Lucy turns to his mom and sisters, and tells them, "Should we tell him he's running the wrong way?"
"No, he needs the exercise, plus I'm sure some staff will approach him soon enough," Rita says as she takes a seat next to Lucy. "Have you had a chance to see him?"
"They don't let anyone under fourteen inside, and we can't leave the kids with Lynn while Francisco escorts us."
"Wait," starts Lily, "he has to escort us?"
Rocky nods his head, "Hospital rules. But I heard that grandparents can go in alone, so long as you have parental consent."
"No fair. I wanted to see him," Lily complains as she takes a seat next to her sister.
Lucy turns to her, "You can still go in, but you'll need to get a hold of Francisco to escort you."
"Can't Mom and Dad do it?"
"No, and they only let a few visitors into the NICU anyway."
"Great, I guess I'll settle for photos now. Besides, it's not like they're going to let me hold him anyway."
"We can't hold the baby?" ask the twins. "Aww! Can we go home?"
"In a little bit," says Lucy, "We're going to go see if the nurses will let Grandma and Grandpa see your cousin."
The children whine, slouching in their seats at the thought of waiting around in a boring hospital waiting room.
Lily takes a seat next to her niece and nephews, "Don't worry, your grandpa will take some photos and then you guys can see little what's-his-name." She looks over at the couple, "Did you guys find out what his name was?"
"All we know is that Lynn is asleep and that Francisco was escorting his mom, so we haven't seen him yet."
Lily lets out a light chuckle, "Seriously? What's it gonna take for us to learn his name?"
"I don't wanna see him," complains Catherine.
"I wanna go home," whines Arthur.
His siblings agree.
Lucy sighs. She wants to spend a little more time waiting to see if Lynn will wake up or at least see her new nephew, but if her children continue to be cranky, then she's only going to make things harder on herself and Rocky.
"Fine, but first, let's get your grandparents and aunts checked-in and then we'll go."
The children groan, tired of spending their afternoon like this instead of having fun like they were promised.
Everyone walks over to check-in. They are given Lynn's room number and the four walk over to see how she is doing after the birth. Lily opens the door and everyone is met with a dark and quiet room. They can see Lynn laying in bed, her head is leaning towards the covered window and the tv's soft glow reveals her tired face. If they didn't know better, they would have been convinced that she truly did pass away.
"LJ…?" Lynn Sr. quietly mutters as he steps towards his daughter. "LJ?"
Rita takes his hand and whispers, "Maybe we should let her sleep. Let's go find Francisco."
The family heads back to the waiting room. Lily and Lisa take a seat while Lucy and her family head out. A nurse from behind the desk takes Lynn Sr. and Rita in the direction of the NICU, so that they can get changed into overgowns.
"This stinks," complains Lily. "We're adults, we can be trusted to put on a gown and wash our hands to see our new nephew."
"I agree that we can be trusted, but protocols are put in place for patient safety. Besides, it isn't as though we can't see him, we just have to wait until our brother-in-law can be found to escort us."
"Great."
Lisa gets up from her seat, "I shall return shortly."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm off to procure some sort of protective gear. I don't want to inadvertently come in contact with a nosocomial infection," she says before the man across from them goes into a coughing fit.
A sticky sound coming from the floor alerts Lily, after she raises her feet to back away from the man, "Get me something too."
The nurse walks the grandparents into the NICU. The room is filled with newborns attached to medical equipment, monitored by the staff. They feel a sense of anxiety as they pass the incubators. All of these children are so fragile, and while the couple aren't strangers to this sort of situation, it doesn't make it any easier.
"Here he is," says the nurse. "Now, I'll be right back. If the monitors start going off, let the staff know."
The grandparents nod their head.
Rita looks at her newborn grandson, then she turns towards her husband, who is keeping his eyes closed, bothered by the sight of the medical equipment. It's not easy for either of them to see their grandson attached to tubes and monitors, but Rita reminds herself that it's all so that doctors and nurses can watch over him.
"He's so cute. Honey," she says as she tries to take her husband's hand, "I know it's not easy, but we both know that you want to see him."
Lynn Sr. takes a deep breath and slowly opens his eyes. The photo that Francisco sent him didn't show all those wires attached to the boy, so he's sure that there must be an angle that he can look at him without being reminded of how fragile his grandson is.
He moves himself to where the camera is pointing at and keeps his eyes locked on the baby's face, "So what did they name him?"
They look at the name card above the boy's head, but the print and writing is too small for them to read.
"I wish I brought my glasses or at least my phone," says Rita. "Do you think you can read it?" she asks, pointing at the card.
Lynn Sr. tries to step back, hoping that he'll be able to see the letters better, but each time he moves back, he bumps into other incubators. "We'll ask someone when we see them."
As they stare at the newest little member of their family, the monitors begin to go off. The two are alarmed, but there isn't a nurse or doctor in sight that can help them. None of them know what to do, but before they are able to go off in search of someone, the monitors begin to quiet down.
"What the?" asks Rita, as she stares at the screen.
"He forgot to breathe. It's a common problem with premature infants," says Lisa, who is currently donning a doctor's coat.
They are both surprised to see her, though thankful that she appeared when she did.
"How did you do that?"
Lisa brings them around and rubs the boy's foot, "Premature infants can suffer from apnea due to their underdeveloped central nervous system and weak airways. Gentle rubbing helps to stimulate them so that they can resume breathing on their own."
Both of them quietly take mental notes, but a thought occurs to them, Lynn Sr. looks at Lisa, and asks, "How did you get in here?"
"I'm a doctor, there's no reason they can't allow me to check on patients," she says with an awkward smile.
"Right," the parents say.
Lynn stomps to class. She's mad about the detention and the fact that Francisco got away without any issue. She angrily mutters to class. It was already a bad morning, and all she wanted to do was have a little fun, but thanks to a school administrator and hall monitors, they ruined her morning until lunch.
Lynn walks into class, she takes her seat and pulls out a notebook and pens so that she can look like she's paying attention to her teacher's lecture. It's mostly for show, and she doesn't always write what she's supposed to, but she has to at least pretend to write something so that she looks like she's trying.
Francisco glances over at Lynn. Her notebook is mostly empty except for a few words and angry scratch marks, "What happened to you?"
"I got detention," she angrily whispers.
Francisco is surprised, "Just for running?"
"And being late, and running from the tardy sweep, and what I did to you. You know, they wouldn't have caught me if you would have played along."
He rolls his eyes. That answers his question, though he's sure that Lynn would only have gotten away with it for a little longer, since the vice principal and the administrative staff would have known that she ran away earlier in the day.
"Or if you didn't play a prank on me in the first place."
Lynn scowls at him; unhappy with his response. She looks up at the front of the class, where she notices that amount of information that her teacher wrote on the board. Lynn, who was unaware of how much time passed, tries to quickly write everything, but before she is able to finish, her teacher begins to erase the board.
"Dang it…" mutters Lynn, who quits writing.
Ms. Price finishes erasing the board and turns towards her students, "Now if you recall at the beginning of class, I mentioned a project that's going to be due next month. On the forms I'm handing out, you're going to see a list of requirements and on the board you're going to see the name of the partner that I've assigned for you."
The students groan; none of them are excited to get a project, let alone one where they can't even pick out their own partners.
Lynn leans over to Francisco, "What's the project on?"
He raises an eyebrow, "Weren't you listening?"
She shakes her head.
"Just wait until you get a form with the requirements and everything else you need to know."
Ms. Price turns on the projector, "Your assigned partners are on the screen, so please take a seat next to them, so that you can use the next ten minutes to discuss your project.
The students get up from their seats and move to sit next to their project partners. Francisco looks around at the students and notices that his partner stayed put in her seat. He takes the seat next to Mary, who smiles in his direction. It is definitely a stroke of luck to get paired with him, but having him next to her is making her lose her nerve. She shakes her head, she told herself that she was going to be confident today, and that does not mean being a nervous wreck.
She takes a deep breath and looks over at him, as he begins to read over the form that their teacher handed everyone.
Before she is able to say a word, he asks, "Are you busy after school? We can probably start working on the project in the library if you want."
"Yeah, that sounds good," she quietly responds.
The rest of the day goes by, but for hours all Mary could think about was how she was going to work with her crush on a project, in the library, after school. As soon as the last bell rings, she walks as quickly as possible to the library to find a corner where they can research and say what needs to be said without interruptions.
As soon as Mary finds a seat, she turns towards the library entrance, waiting for Francisco, so that she can wave him over. Mary's eyes lock on each passing student, hoping to find her project partner. Soon, she spots a familiar blue baseball cap and she smiles, ready to wave over at him, but notices that he still isn't walking into the library. She notices that he's talking with someone outside, and she leans over to see who it is.
It's Lynn.
Mary isn't sure about their relationship. For years, she's heard her classmates tease them, saying that they're a couple, but they always deny it. She figures that if they really did like each other, they would have already gotten together, but as she watches the two laugh; dread begins to build up in the pit of her stomach.
'What if he does like her? They always hang out together…'
She shakes her head. Mary told herself that she wasn't going to chicken out today and she is not going to let a little laughter hold her back.
Francisco walks into the library and she waves over at him. As he walks over to him, she thinks about how she's going to tell him, but then she starts thinking about his smile and how cute she thinks he is.
Mary can feel her heart racing, and mind thinking about how it will all go down – in the best case scenario, he'll agree to go out with her, but in the worst case, he'll make fun of her and tell her that she's a fool for even thinking that she is good enough for him.
She shakes her head; she's sure that he won't say anything along those lines, he's a nice guy.
"Hey," he says as he sits down, "sorry I'm late."
"It's fine."
Francisco begins to pull out a notebook and the project guide to look over, "So is there a section that you want to do?"
"Yeah…I would like…I'd like to…I," she's getting nervous. He looks over at her, curious to know what's wrong, but before he can ask, she confesses, "I like you."
Elena walks down the halls. With all the excitement to the day dying down, she's getting bored – all the adults are able to get some conversation going amongst themselves in the waiting room, and while Lily tries to include her, she just wants to be alone for a few minutes. She told everyone that she was going to get a pop and chips from the cafeteria, but instead she chose to wander around looking somewhere to sit down away from the other people around her.
A pair of arms wrap themselves around her waist. Elena yelps before turning around and seeing a familiar face, "What is wrong with you?" she asks through a giggle.
"What? I can't surprise you?" the boy asks before pulling her into a brief kiss.
"Not like that, you scared me," she playfully chides him. "What are you doing here? I told you that you could head home."
She didn't tell her dad how she got to the hospital, and in his sleep-deprived state, he didn't ask. However, seeing her in their current position is going to wake him right up, and possibly raise a lot of questions that she doesn't want to explain to him today.
"I saw the picture that you sent me and I didn't feel like doing chores, so I came here to see you."
"More like you snuck away from your dad," she corrects.
"You're one to talk," he teases. "I don't see you hanging around with your family," he says as he leads her to a pair of empty seats.
"He's talking with my abuela and I do not have the energy to deal with the Louds right now. I love them, but I need a break from feeling everything all over again."
"Wait, what?"
Elena goes into detail how the family is behaving - Lynn Sr. close to bawling at the sight of the pictures he took earlier, Rita trying to console him, Lisa looking at all the photos her father took while occasionally trying to sneak back into the NICU, Lily chatting with her siblings trying to catch them up on what's going on, and her grandmother quietly taking everything in.
At least she doesn't have to worry about her grandmother, stepgrandmother, and dad causing a commotion.
"That doesn't sound so bad."
"Try handling it on a few hours of sleep."
After her dad and Lynn went to the hospital, she wasn't able to fall back asleep. All she could think about was what was going on at the hospital, wondering if her brother or Lynn were going to be okay.
Luckily, they were, but she only found out after Noah offered her a ride to the hospital.
Elena rests her head on his shoulder. She closes her eyes, feeling exhaustion begin to consume her, but she can't fall asleep, people are going to be looking for her and she'll have to get back to them.
She sighs, "I should probably get going."
"Already?"
"My family is going to miss me, and I don't know how long my dad is going to handle his in-laws with very little sleep."
"I can stick around. I don't got much going on right now."
She smiles. She couldn't see his goofy smile, but she knows that he's playing around, "You don't have to stay, you can go home."
"What are you trying to get rid of me?" he jokes. "I wanna stay."
"Why?"
"I don't know, maybe a pretty brunette with green eyes is keeping me here."
Elena can feel her cheeks warm at the compliment and she pulls him into a kiss.
"What's going on?"
Francisco is surprised to hear his project partner confess to him. Aside from the letter that he received a few years ago, no girl has ever told him that they were interested in him. Now a girl is telling him to his face that she likes him – no notes, just words and a shy smile.
"Will you be my boyfriend?" she says, almost scared of his reaction.
He looks at her. She looks at him, waiting for an answer. He's never thought about her like that, he will admit that she's got a cute smile and pretty eyes, but again, he never looked at her as a potential girlfriend.
Francisco starts to weigh his options – he could go along with it and see where this relationship goes, or he can reject her and make the rest of their time together as project partners awkward as they're forced to work together.
"Umm…sure…"
She squeals, but immediately quiets down when she remembers where she is.
Francisco is surprised that she responded so positively, he was sure that his response would have made her wonder if he was serious about the relationship. However, as he sees the smile on her face, he can see why she isn't asking anything, she's ecstatic. She moves her seat closer to him and she tries to look him in the eye for more than a few seconds.
He's a little surprised, but as soon as he hears footsteps coming towards them, he drags his seat away from her, "Hey…can I ask you a favor?"
"Yeah, what is it?"
"Can we keep it between us? At least until the project's over."
She's surprised to hear him say that, "What? Why?"
"I-I don't want anyone to bug us or make a big deal out of this when we're working on the project." Francisco can see that she's disappointed, "We can tell people later, but for now, I think it's best that we don't get a lot of distractions."
He can tell that she isn't happy to agree with him, so to make her feel a little better, he takes her hand when no one is looking.
Lynn Sr. pulls Francisco away from the teenagers. It wasn't what either man was expecting when they went to look for a vending machine. The older man knows what's on his son-in-law's mind, especially as a father with ten daughters. Before, he wouldn't see much reason to interfere, Francisco seemed like a level-headed enough dad that wouldn't let his emotions get the better of him when it came to his daughter. However, he heard his tone and saw that scowl. Emotions can definitely be running high today, so to keep the younger father from going too far he offers a little advice from someone who has been in his shoes multiple times.
"Francisco," Lynn Sr. says, as he tries to make eye contact with his son-in-law, "look, I know you're tired, but trust me, I've seen all my daughters with their dates growing up, but confronting them when you're feeling like this isn't the answer."
"I didn't know a thing about this. How am I supposed to be okay with finding out that she's been with a boy long enough to already be kissing him in public?"
"Take a deep breath," instructs the older man. Francisco complies, "I think that you should talk to them, get to know the boy, and before you know it, you'll feel a lot better. Trust me you don't want to be a crazy, overprotective dad without reason."
"But–"
"No."
"But–"
Lynn Sr. shakes his head.
Francisco looks over at the young couple, "Fine…"
The two walk over to the couple and they all take a seat at a nearby table. There is a quiet tension, and no one says a word. Noah holds Elena's hand, but the second he feels Francisco's gaze on the two, he lets go. Francisco isn't sure where he wants to start. He's sure that if he opens his mouth, whatever he says might sound aggressive, especially if his face shows how he's really feeling.
"So…does your mom know him or his family?"
"They know of them, but not as my boyfriend. In fact, I'm pretty sure you and Lynn probably know his dad."
Francisco tries to think of which parents from Elena's school he and Lynn have met, but they rarely interact with anyone from her school, so he isn't sure who she could be referring to.
Noah notices that Francisco doesn't know who Elena is referring to, so to help out a bit, he mimics his dad, "So come on down and see me – the King of Korean cars – where we treat you like royalty!"
Lynn Sr., who recognizes the commercial, asks, "Your dad is the guy from the commercial?" Noah nods his head, "So does that make you the Prince of Korean cars?"
He doesn't like the nickname, "Yeah, it's working out for Dad, plus it lets us drive Italian sports cars."
Francisco looks over at the teen, then back at his daughter, who looks away from him so that she doesn't inadvertently reveal that that's how she got to the hospital.
Lynn Sr. notices his son-in-law biting down on his lower lip, "So how long have you two known each other?"
"A little while," answers Elena. "We met at a party, and then we started hanging out a bit."
"I think it was around the start of the school year."
"That's when we met," starts Elena, "but we didn't actually get together until later," she says while looking at her dad, making sure that he heard that last part.
Francisco stays quiet. He can trust Elena, but he can't have her doing all the talking, so he decides to ask Noah some questions, "Are you in any clubs?"
"I sort of wander around in the club department, but I hardly ever have time since I work with my dad."
"At the dealership," starts Francisco, "Do you ever have fun with the cars off the lot?"
"Dad!"
Lynn Sr. looks over at Francisco, upset at what his son-in-law implied.
"Well, I do have my own driver's license, but Dad makes a big deal out of any of his employees driving a car off the lot for their own amusement. Luckily, I've got my own car."
Hearing that the boy in front of him has a license and his own car worries him a bit, that at minimum makes him slightly older than Elena. Now it isn't the worst thing imaginable, since he and Caroline agreed that she could see someone at least one grade above her, but it doesn't mean that he is completely onboard with the idea, especially now that it's come true.
Francisco turns to Elena, "Why didn't you tell anyone about you two dating?"
"It hasn't been that long."
That was a lie.
The two have been seeing each other for months, but she didn't want him worrying about her on top of everything else that he had on his plate at the time. As for her mom, she knew that she would tell him, so she had to stay out of the loop as well.
Now all she has to worry about is making sure that Noah doesn't open his mouth and spill that it's been longer than she said.
She sees the confused look on his face, and before he is able to open his mouth, she tells him, "Right, Noah?"
He sees the look on her face and immediately nods his head.
However, Francisco sees it too, and before he could ask anything else, Lynn Sr. pulls him away, "Well, it was nice meeting you Noah. Elena, we'll see you later."
"I'll see you all later," she responds, doing her best to hold back her sigh of relief.
As the two older men walk towards Lynn's room, Francisco looks back at his daughter and her boyfriend, who look over at him.
"Feel a little better?"
"I think so…" he answers, though he is still unsure if the conversation actually put him at ease, especially the end.
Lynn Sr. places his arm around Francisco's shoulder, "Good. Look, I know that I haven't met her that much, but she seems like a good girl, and he seems nice."
"Yeah, he just drives around with his license in a sports car that costs more than every vehicle I've ever owned."
"Now c'mon, Francisco, do you know how many boys I'd have to reject for driving around in cars more expensive than mine?"
"All of them?"
"The point is, that shouldn't be the reason you don't try to see some good in him. You trust your daughter, right?"
Francisco nods his head.
"Then trust that she made a good choice in her boyfriend."
He sighs, "Fine, but I'm still going to be a little upset that she kept it from me."
"Um…sure that's fine…but this isn't what today is about, it's about you and LJ and your new son, Victor…" starts Lynn Sr., hoping that Francisco will finish the sentence by telling him the boy's middle name.
"We haven't settled on a middle name yet," Francisco states, "mostly because I haven't liked the ones that she suggested."
"You didn't like Lynn for a name?"
Francisco is confused, "That isn't one of the names that she suggested; we're still thinking about it, besides, one of the names sort of sounds like it."
Lynn Sr. pouts, "Sort of isn't the same."
"Still really close, especially when you know the namesake."
That night, when Lisa is sure that everyone is asleep, she pulls out her laptop, and begins to log the events of the day and any relevant information about her newest nephew, "…the drive home was relatively uneventful. Mother and Father talked amongst themselves, presumably due to their grandchild's premature birth, while looking at photographs taken earlier in the day. Doctors anticipate that he will remain stable assuming that his breathing issues are kept to a minimum, and should be home withing a few weeks."
Lisa connects her scanner to her laptop and scans the photos that her dad took at the hospital of the newborn.
I told myself I wasn't going to do this, that I would wait it out, but apparently I couldn't help myself. At least if you guys did decide to hold your breath it wasn't for years (lol)
Anyway, I'd like to welcome you back, thank you for reading