Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It wasn’t just any other Saturday at Striker’s the “family owned” game cafe/bar right outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It was the day of a joint 21st birthday party for Ashlyn and Ali’s daughter, Rowen, Whitney and Ryan’s son, Reid, and Becky and Zola’s son, Rhys. The whole family was getting the place ready for the party that night. Getting ready meant that Becky and Alyssa were blowing up balloons and handing them off to Rose and Mallory who kept accidentally letting them go before they could tie strings around them. When all the balloons in the pack were blown up, Becky and Alyssa turned around to see only about 10 of the balloons with strings attached to them tied to chairs.

“Guys what happened to all of the balloons we just blew up?” asked Alyssa.

Instead of answering her, Rose just looks up at the ceiling while Mal slowly backs away until she is out of the main room and into the safety of the kitchen.

“So what’s happening in here?” Mal asks her mom as she walks over to the oven to look through the glass door.

“We’re baking the cake. Well, I’m baking the cake, Tobin is sitting in the corner playing some game on her phone.” Christen states as she gathers the ingredients to make the frosting.

“Honestly, do you expect much more from ma?”

Chris sighed, “Sadly I don’t. Did you and Rose finish the balloons?”

“You could say that.” Mal dismisses as Rose comes through the kitchen door.

“Hey have you guys seen Aunt KO?” Rose directs the question toward Christen since she had just seen Mal.

“Not for the last hour, why do you need Kelley?”

Rose wanders around the kitchen inspecting the food before answering, “Becky said to find her because she’s the one who’s stupid enough to climb on a ladder to get all the balloons from the ceiling.”

“In that case, her and Sonnett are probably out back playing with the younger kids. Oh, and the tall ladder is in the back closet.”

“Thk ohh” Rose attempts to say with a mouth full of grapes on her way out the door.

Rose then heads outside to the back patio where there are benches, tables, chairs, and a small open space for people to play games. Currently, Kelley and Emily look to be losing a game of cornhole to a team of one of their 13-year-old twins Allison, Barnie’s 12-year-old son Jacob, and Niki and Molly’s youngest daughter, Hannah.

“What’s going on out here?” Rose asks as she sits down in one of the chairs.

“Just playing a game.” answers Kelley with a concentrated look on her face.

“Well to me it looks like you’re losing to your mini-me, Jacob and Hannah.”

“We are NOT losing.” Kelley whips around at the thought of losing.

“Whatever you say. Hey Ax, what’s the real story here?” the brunette directs to Emily and KO’s other twin, Axel, who is sitting on the deck reading a book.

“Momma is bad at this game and mom is a sore loser.” he states without even looking up from whatever his latest novel of choice is.

“Thought so. Aunt Kel I need your help with something so let Steph take your place.”

“I can’t do that because both Steph and Kristie refuse to play anymore. They finally won a game and now they don’t want to lose their ‘winning streak’.”

Rose finally gets Kelley away from the game by bribing Axel into being on his mom’s team with the promise that she would buy him any book he wants. Axel agreed only after saying that they actually have to go to the bookstore instead of buying it online. ‘The kid drives a hard bargain’ thought Rose as she and Kelley go back to the main room.

“So what did you need me for?”

“That.” is all Rose says as she points her chin to the ceiling.

“Okay, what exactly do you want me to do though?”

Rose holds up a finger to tell Kelley to wait a minute. She then goes to the closet to get the ladder. She sets it up in the middle of the room while holding one end and tells KO that she wants her to get them down so that they can tie strings to them.

“You know you’re crazy right?” Kelley says as she begins to climb the ladder.

“Says the one who is already climbing the ladder.” Rose looks up with a glint in her eyes.

“Yeah yeah. I’m just letting you know now that if I fall off this thing I’m going to have Em sue you. How did all of these even get up here in the first place? Why am I the one even doing this? Also, we have a problem because I can’t even reach these.” Kelley asks without even taking a breath.

Rose answers almost all of her aunt's questions leaving out the part about her and Mal getting distracted and letting go of the balloons. Her answer to Kel not being tall enough is to run and get a broom out of the kitchen to reach them with.

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Ashlyn and Ali walk through the front door, hands full of grocery bags, to Kelley swatting at balloons with a broom and Rose yelling at her which way to send the balloons. Ali looks at Ashlyn, they both nod and quietly head into the kitchen so that they are not spotted and dragged into whatever is happening.

Ali and Ash make it into the kitchen undetected and turn to Broon who seems unbothered by the yelling coming from the main room.

“Just ignore it, they’ve been at it for awhile. I’d give it another hour before they finally get them all down.”

Just as Becky finished that statement her son Rhys and Whit’s son Reid came into the kitchen looking very confused. Before either could say anything Ali, Ash, Becky, and Christen simultaneously say, “You don’t wanna know.”

“Glad that was cleared up, so what’s the plan for the rest of the day? We still have most of the day and a majority of the party stuff is already set.” says Rhys as he goes and sits on one the stools in the kitchen.

“All that needs to be done is the food needs to cook in the ovens and set out which can wait until closer to the party so I say we round up everyone and get some good old family bonding in with a day of games.” Broon suggests. “Would you two go grab Rowen and set up upstairs while we clean up a little and round everyone up?”

“Already on it!” Shouts Reid as he and Rhys are already out the door.

“So on a scale of one to ten, how bad do you think this ‘day of games’ mom has decided would be a good idea, is going to be?”

“I mean we all need a good laugh and Aunt Alex and Aunt Tobin screaming over who’s cheating in Monop Deal is a perfect way to start.” Reid laughs as they head upstairs to what used to be an apartment above the shop but was fixed up to accommodate the whole ‘family’ at once since the only house big enough is Becky’s and she refuses to have everyone there at the same time.

“Yo, Rowen, you up here?” screams Rhys.

“I’m right here, you don’t have to scream your heads off. What do you guys need?” she says from her spot on the couch next to Jane.

“So, Aunt Becky decided that we’re gonna have a day of games and asked us to get the place ready.”

“You guys do know that this can’t end well. Hell, it never ends well when everyone gets together, add in games and you have World War III.” Rowen states as she starts to move around all the chairs and bean bags to the walls so that there is a place to actually play.

“Well like we just said, everyone needs a good laugh so go pull out Monop Deal, Dutch Blitz, Jenga, and Sequence. Oh and a deck of cards. I’ll set up the PlayStation.” Rhys screams down the hall at Rowen.

“I’m way ahead of you on that. I’ve got all 3 packs of Monop Deal, plus all the other stuff.”

“Hey babe, I should get going. I need to go pick Andi up so we can get this god awful project done.” Jane mentions as she reads the ‘hurry up’ texts from Andi and gets up from the couch.

“Already?” Rowen pouts as she stalks towards Jane.

“Unfortunately yes, it’s due Monday and we’ve barely started.”

“This is what you get for signing up for summer classes. Oh, and you totally owe me for missing my party.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me! And I will 100% make it up to you next weekend. I’ll be back tomorrow.” Jane says as she heads downstairs.

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Within the next 15 minutes everything is set up and everyone has made their way upstairs.

Rhys, Rowen, and Reid stand up in front of the tv giving an outline of where everything is set up between the living room and kitchen.

“Okay, so listen because we are only going to say this once.” Reid says as he walks to the kitchen.

“Monop Deal is set up in three places, the main kitchen table, the folding table in the kitchen and between the red and blue bean bag chairs.” Reid points as he says each place.

“Dutch Blitz is set up between the black and grey bean bag chairs and Jenga is in the middle of the floor.” Rowen states as she goes and sits back down on the couch.

“Sequence is set up on the coffee table and FIFA is set up on the tv and all the controllers are with Rowen. Everyone have fun, no cheating, and no hurting each other.” Rhys says as he sits down at one of the Monop Deal stations.

Soon everyone has settled down and started playing games while those who just want to watch are standing around talking to one another.

Everyone is having a great time and an hour into it no one has yelled at each other. Alex and Tobin are continuing their Monop Deal tournament that has lasted for over a decade. They have recruited the So’Hara twins and Jacob to carry on their so-called legacy. Mal and Rose are going from game to game trying to throw people off course. Hannah, who Allie has taken under her wing, is talking circles around Kelley while they play Jenga. The 4-year-old is doing a pretty good job intimidating her aunt. Sam, Apple, and Alyssa are playing Sequence while Moe, Kling, and Lydia keep trying to get in on a game, lying saying that they absolutely understand the rules of the game. They eventually give up and start playing Dutch Blitz instead. Rowen, Sonnett, Ash, and Steph are having an intense FIFA tournament while shouting at the TV. Rhys and Reid are also playing Monop Deal but they can never remember the specific rules so they’re making it up as they go along.

Ali, Whit, Becky, Press, Syd, and Pinoe are all sitting around talking about how they think the party is going to go and how the shop has been doing recently.

Out back Niki, Ryan, Serv, Dom, and Cassius are grilling while Molly and Crystal are out at the store getting the stuff they forgot they needed.

Kristie had eventually pulled Steph away from FIFA so they could go get a mani/pedi before the party.

“You guys are lucky Kristie needs someone to go with her or I would of beat all of you.” Steph says as she starts stepping over the games laid out all over the floor.

“Steph you’re in last place, Kristie is doing you a favor.” Sonnett says without taking her eyes off the tv.

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A couple of hours later everyone decided they’d had enough family bonding and dispersed to finish cleaning up and setting up for the party. They expected everyone to start showing up soon. The game session ended with Alex and Tobin getting so mad at each other for ‘cheating’ that everyone else decided to call it quits before they end up not talking to each other for a week, again.

Everyone had just enough time to change before more people started pouring in for an even bigger so-called ‘family gathering’.

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Chapter Text

With the party finally getting into full swing, everyone who was not already there had arrived. Kristie and Steph made it back and both changed into their signature looks which are just crop tops and shorts, Steph adding a snapback to complete her look.

Rose and Mal’s friend Lindsey, who everyone called by her last name Horan, made it.

Heather and Carm both arrived after their pee wee soccer game. They are co-coaches, which mostly consists of them telling the kids to not pick flowers and trying to get them to run after the ball.

Christie came running in thinking she was late because she had to drop Reece and Rylie off at the airport. Reece had to go to U23 duty while Rylie had full national team duties. Cap thankfully didn’t have a camp as the coach for the U20s for another month.

Rowen and Reid’s friends, Kailen, Jessie, Labbe, and Kaylyn, who are all regulars at the cafe came. Rhys’ friends Raso, Catley, Sam, who everyone called Kerr, Alanna, and Kyah, who are regulars at the bar also came.

Once everyone arrived, the party started with everyone sitting at all the tables eating the fest that the boys and Niki grilled.

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After everyone had recovered from eating, Steph and Sonnett decide to get the real party started by turning on the sound system and trying to dance.

HAO, Carm, Alyssa, Molly, Ali, Press, and Alex rounded up the kids to go outside to play cornhole because they knew that they didn’t want to see the trainwreck that was bound to happen.

“Hey guys, that’s my wife!” screams an already slightly drunk Kelley who decides to join in on the fun.

“Get it McCaffrey!” yells Kristie with a drink in her hand.

Crystal quickly grabs 3 drinks and takes them to the trio in hopes of it helping their moves. She then starts to show them more dance moves, which they try and fail, to recreate.

Kling, Moe, and Lydia decide to be bartenders for the night. No one fights them on it because they know it’s inevitable. They start making some concoction they call the Red Card because, after a few of them, you’ll be out before the night is over. It’s way too strong but by the time they made a second round no one cared.

“So how long until everyone passes out?” Mal asks Sam and Rose. They had all decided to stay sober to watch the disaster unfold, plus Press put Mal on ‘replace Tobin’s drinks with water’ duty.

“Well at the rate they’re all going I’d say they will last maybe 2 hours, 3 tops.” Sam says, not taking her eyes off of the pinball game she’s playing.

“You guys know what would be really fun, instead of sitting here watching Sam play pinball, we could go and capture the night to hold over their heads for a while.” Rose says while waving her phone around.

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Since they are celebrating their 21st birthdays, Rowen, Reid, and Rhys decide to go all out. They each finish 2 Red Cards before Kyah, Alanna, Catley, Kerr, and Raso convinced them to take shots with them.

Raso has commandeered a bottle of tequila from the bar to keep the drinks coming, yelling “Aussie Aussie Aussie” and the group replying “Oui Oui Oui!” before they all take a shot.

While this is happening Rose, Mal, and Sam start on their journey to capture the night.

Mal stops while following Rose around and says “Hey, have you guys seen Horan?”

“Uh, I think I saw her head upstairs awhile ago. Let’s go check.” Sam leads the way.

Rose just ends up following them with her phone still recording. They all head upstairs and go into the living room. They found Horan asleep on a beanbag chair with a piece of cake half eaten sitting on her lap. Sam went to move the plate but not before Rose got the perfect shot to put on her Instagram with the caption,

‘Partied too hard but the party just started. Horan passed out by 10. #partypooper #grandmafriend #couldntevenfinishhercake #shedoesntevengohere’

Back downstairs Ash, Tobin, and Niki are sitting at a table playing a drinking game they made up based on the events happening around them. The game consists of things like ‘Take a shot every time Sonnett and Steph try to start a dance battle with Crystal.’ Or, ‘take a shot every time Kelley tries to make out with Sonnett.’ To say the least, all of them are pretty drunk except Tobin, who is mostly confused about how her drinks keep turning into water. She knows Christen is behind it but just can’t seem to track her down.

“Tobs, I can’t really tell but I don’t think that’s vodka bud.” Ash says while looking at Tobin’s glass.

“Dude, it’s not. I keep pouring vodka but this is just water. I know Chris is behind it but I haven’t even seen her in a while so I can’t prove it but it’s gotta be her.” Tobin sulks as she slumps down in her seat.

The front door to the bar opens and a very confused Emma Sonnett walks into the mess that is Striker’s. She scans the place for her twin. She finds the table with Ash, Tobin, and Niki and asks them if they’ve seen her or Kelley.

“Yo, other Sonnett, what’s up?” a drunk Ash asks.

“Hey, Ash. Have you seen Em, or Kel?”

“Oh, you’re looking for the two who can’t stay apart for more than five minutes. You will find them on the dance floor.”

“Thanks Ash.” Emma starts parting through everyone who are way too close to each other with all the space they have. She finds them sloppy dancing on each other. She breaks them up long enough for her presence to be known.

“EMMA!” they both scream.

“Do you want a drink? Here.” Emily pushes one into her hand. Kelley thinks that since she’s late to the party that she needs to catch up and shoves her drink into Emma’s other hand. Emma just shakes her head and walks away from them with the drinks in hand, saying she will see them later. She places the drinks on the bar before heading outside to find her niece and nephew still playing cornhole. The younger ones have passed out lying on the blankets the rest of the adults are sitting on. She can tell that Axel and Allison aren’t far from the point of exhaustion either. She says hi to them and heads over to the blanket to talk to the gang of adults.

“So I see this is where all the cool kids are hanging out.” Emma says as she sits down.

“Be honest, how bad is it in there?” Press asks.

“You really don’t want to know. The bright side is your wife seems pretty sober. Can’t say the same about my sister and Kelley so I’ll take the twins tonight. Gives you two less children to deal with. I’ll tell Em and Kel before I leave.” Emma says while she stands back up.

Hey Ax, Al, do you guys wanna stay over at my place tonight?” Emma asks as she walks over there.

“Sure Aunt Emma.” Axel answers.

“Okay, go on to the car. I’ll be there in a second. I just gotta tell your moms.” Emma wave goodbye to the group outside before heading back into the bar.

Emma walks back to the dance floor and once again has to pull apart her sister and Kelley. “Guys, I’m taking the twins with me tonight ok? We’ll be back tomorrow morning.” Emma screams over the music. Both give her what looks like a thumbs up before she heads home.

Rose continues to walk around videoing all the antics. She passes Becky, Barnie, Whit, and Cap cleaning up and taking all the dishes to the kitchen. They seem to be ignoring everything that is happening around them. Mal goes to switch Tobin’s drink out again and finds Allie has joined the group and is passed out with her head on the table, sitting next to Tobin.

Sam calls Rose over to the dart boards. At one of the boards, Ryan, Dom, Serv, and Cassius were playing a very tame version of what was happening next to them. At the other one, Pinoe and Syd were in a very heated game. Syd had the strategy of just sitting down playing and was somehow still beating Pinoe. Pinoe wasn’t amused with her winning. After Syd was done with her turn she would call out to either Cash or Dom to get her darts because she refused to move. The guys eventually gave up their game to ref because Pinoe kept accusing Syd of cheating and said they needed refs to make sure it was fair. Rose can’t keep her phone steady because she just keeps laughing at Syd’s tactic and how much better she’s doing. As they’re walking away they hear Pinoe yell, “Yes, now you can’t cheat cuz we have refs!”

“Pinoe I don’t see how I can be cheating because I’ve been sitting in the same spot since we started.”

By this time Kailen, Apple, and Kaylyn had claimed a few bottles for themselves and are camped out at a table in the back of Striker’s.

“You know what’s weird? The amount of ways you can spell Kailen. You ever think about that Kaylyn?”

“I know right! Like why does your name have an I in it? Where is it? I can never remember.” Kaylyn stares at Kailen like that would bring her the answer.

“It’s between the a and the l. Like why does your name only have one n in it? I’ve seen it spelled with two before.”

“I don’t know, we should ask our parents about this. Oh! You know what I’m really happy about? My name isn’t spelled with a fucking c, like who does that?” Kaylyn passionately proclaims.

“Oh god, I would hate that. Let’s toast to that. Our names not being spelled with a c.” Kailen says as she raises her glass to Kaylyn’s.

Apple just tries to follow their conversation. The only part of it she follows is the toast which she happily raises a glass to.

Rose, Mal, and Sam follow along with the conversation from a safe distance to not be pulled into it but make sure they have it saved.

The trio heads to the bar to catch up with the birthday celebrators and see how they’re holding up with the gang that keeps passing them drinks. They make it to the bar where the other trio is half passed out, drunk off their asses, babbling to each other while Raso, Catley, Kerr, Alanna, and Kyah are nowhere to be seen. They decide to leave them alone and go sit on the other end of the bar. Behind the bar a sober Labbe and Jessie who are annoying the so-called ‘bartenders’ Lydia, Moe, and Kling who seem to be just as drunk as the rest of the party.

“So what do you guys call this again?” Labbe says while holding up a glass full of alcohol.

“It’s called the Red Card, how many times do we have to say it.” Lydia wines at Steph.

“Okay, but what’s in it exactly?” Jessie asks.

“Oh, that’s easy.” Kling starts out pointing to various bottles but doesn’t actually say anything.

Moe butts in, “There’s definitely vodka in it!”

“Right, right. I think at one point I put this in there.” Kling holds up a bottle of tequila.

“Really, I’ve been making it with gin.” a very confused Lydia states.

That’s all that any of the sober ones need to hear. They now know exactly why everyone who drank the concoction are very drunk.

“Well, that’s my cue to leave. Jane wants me to go check on Rowen and make sure your friends haven’t given her alcohol poisoning. She said all the texts she’s getting back are gibberish.” Jessie says as she looks towards Lydia who is covering her mouth trying not to laugh at Jessie’s ‘serious face’.

“Make sure they behave.” Jessie says, gesturing toward the three behind the bar.

“No promises.” Steph responds.

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The group outside with the kids took them all upstairs and set them up in one of the bedrooms. They go back downstairs and round up all of the other sober ones to help them get the not so sober ones at least upstairs.

As a group, Mal, Rose, Sam, Jessie, Labbe, Whit, Broon, Cap, HAO, Barnie, Ali, Alyssa, Press, Alex, Carm, and Molly all make several trips up and down the stairs shuffling the half passed out members of the family upstairs. They place waters from the fridge next to everyone in hopes that they’ll drink them before fully passing out. Becky offered the sober group to stay at her house for the night since she only lived a few blocks over. The group got the kids and went to Becky’s to get a couple hours of sleep in before they have to get back to Striker’s to wake everyone up and get the place ready to open by 9 am.

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Around 6 am, Broon, Whit, and Cap head back to Striker’s to wake everyone up. They let the rest of the sober gang sleep awhile longer since they weren’t ones who trashed the place last night.

Once they get back to Striker’s they head upstairs to where everyone is still passed out. Broon goes to stand in the middle of the room.

“EVERYONE WAKE UP. YOU HAVE LESS THAN THREE HOURS TO GET THIS PLACE PRESENTABLE FOR OPENING. ROWEN, REID, AND RHYS DON’T FORGET YOU OPEN TODAY.” Becky screams to ensure everyone wakes up.

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Chapter Text

“EVERYONE WAKE UP. YOU HAVE LESS THAN THREE HOURS TO GET THIS PLACE PRESENTABLE FOR OPENING. ROWEN, REID, AND RHYS DON’T FORGET YOU OPEN TODAY.” Becky screams to ensure everyone wakes up.

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Horan was the first one to wake. She was very confused as to why Becky was yelling so early.

“Beckyyyyy, I have a least 3 question for you about your yelling”

“Lindsey, why are you even here? I’m not yelling at you. You can go back to sleep. But the rest of you, I better see you downstairs in the next ten minutes.” Becky says as she heads back down.

She heads to her office to get the day started. She finds her door unlocked and inside Raso, Kerr, Catley, Kyah, and Alanna are sleeping on her couch and floor.

“Really? How did you guys even get in here?” Becky says walking around the room, nudging them with her foot to wake them all up.

“Morning to you too Becky. Ya see, R cubed were super drunk last night and Rhys gave me his keys so he wouldn’t lose them so we decided to find a quiet place to sleep. Do you blame us?” Raso says sheepishly as she shuffles out of the office.

Becky grabs the keys from Raso’s hands and just stares at her and her friends as she pushes them out. She shuts her door, rubbing her temples, trying to not think about everything that has happened in the last 12 hours.

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Upstairs Cap goes around making sure everyone is up before sending them to Whit who is giving out bottles of water and Aspirin. Whit then sends them downstairs to start the process of cleaning up the mess they made last night.

“Aunt Whit do we really need to get up?” Rhys asks while holding his head.

“Yup the three of you get to open today.” Whit says while ushering the three downstairs.

“Mom, this is so cruel.” Reid whines, wrapping himself around her hoping to get some sympathy.

Rowen just makes sounds of protest while following the other two down the stairs.

“You guys will make it just get some coffee.” Whit tries to comfort the trio.

Downstairs, Cap already has the coffee maker going and is passing out cups to the sleepy people. Ash, Tobin, Niki, and Allie have reclaimed their spots at the table they were at last night. Everyone could tell they weren’t going to help at all beyond pushing the mess off their table onto the floor. In fact, they are really just taking pleasure in telling Rhys, Rowen, Reid, Moe, Kling, and Lydia about all the spots and trash they missed.

Everyone else is too hungover and all collectively agree that those six should be the ones to clean since Moe, Kling, and Lydia made the drink that got everyone so drunk and it was Rhys, Rowen, and Reid’s birthday. The rest of them camp out at tables watching the cleanup crew suffer while they try to wake up.

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When the shop opened at 9 am, everything was clean and the birthday trio looked slightly less dead. Everyone else downstairs is at least awake now and are making small conversations, trying to remember the night. Horan has finally made it downstairs and doesn’t even question where her friends are. She just grabs a coffee and sits down with Ash, Tobin, Allie, and Niki.

The group at the table don’t mind the addition because at least it isn’t Kristie and Steph. It’s too early for that kind of energy.

“Oh my god. Have you guys seen Rose’s finsta? Apparently, she documented last night because her, Sam, and Mal stayed sober.” Horan turns the phone around to show the people around the table.

Ashlyn covers her eyes, “I don’t wanna see my child like that. I also don’t wanna see myself like that.”

“What’s a finsta? Is it fences? Maybe she’s talking about fins? Surfboard fins? I’ve tried to get her to surf for years.” Tobin questions mostly to herself and passes the phone off to Allie.

“Really? MY child was sober last night. I thought I taught her better than that. She’s suppose to be here suffering with me. I’m going to text her. Here Tobin, look through this and see if there’s anything else I can yell at Rose for.” Allie hands the phone back to a confused Tobin.

Tobin scrolls through the so-called ‘finsta’ looking at all the videos of last night. She finds a video of Mal replacing her drink with water. “I KNEW Chris was behind me not reaching my drunk potential. She turned my own kid against me so she didn’t have to do the dirty work. She knew I wouldn’t suspect my precious Mal.” Tobin starts sulking again, telling Allie to also mention to Rose and Mal that she didn’t think the water switching was funny.

Just as Allie sends off the text, Mal, Rose, Sam, Jessie, Labbe, HAO, Barnie, Ali, Alyssa, Press, Alex, Carm, and Molly all come in with the Hannah, Jacob, and Hayden, who is Niki and Molly’s seven-year-old daughter.

“Oh thank god! Rose, Mal, come get your friend, she’s shaming us all with what Rose posted on her finsta. Also, someone please explain to Tobin what a finsta is.” Ash says as she walks over to Ali, resting her head on her shoulder for support.

Rose walks up to Allie, “Hey mom, how you feeling after last night?”

“You are my child, you will respect me,” Allie scolds as she tries to glare at Rose before remembering why she’s mad at her. “But you left me when you were supposed to get drunk with me,” she whined.

“Yeah, sorry about that but seeing everything that happened last night, I think I made the right decision.” Rose sits down with Sam and Mal at the table.

Mal leans toward Allie, “Why is my mom ignoring me?”

“She found out you pulled a disappearing vodka act on her last night and she is not amused.”

Mal turns to Tobin, “Ma, are you really that upset that you’re not hungover this morning? Mom told me to switch your drinks. I can’t say no to her. You know that no one in their right mind would say no to mom, so don’t be mad at me for that.”

“Okay, fine. We would all be dead if we said no to Chris.” Tobin concedes.

“Never forget that. Both of you.” Press says, coming up behind Tobin, rubbing her back.

“How are you doing this morning babes?” Ali asks as she and Ash walk toward Rowen who is somehow both leaning on the counter and wiping it down.

“Not great but better than Ma it seems.” Rowen gesture to Ash who looks like she’s sleeping while standing. “Drinking is fun while it’s happening but just real bad in hindsight.”

Sam starts makes her rounds around Striker’s checking in with everyone when she noticed two very big personalities missing.

“Hey, has anyone seen Em and Kel?” Sam looks around and no one seems to know.

Just as Sam is about to call one of them, both parties come bolting down the stairs looking around frantically before running off in opposite directions.

“Hey, where have you guys been all morning?” Whit asks.

“Not now Whit. Kel how could we do this!” Emily asks while running into the kitchen.

“Em if I knew, we wouldn’t be in this mess.” Kelley goes back to where the pinball machines are.

Crystal catches Kelley as she runs back out and Cap catches Emily as she comes out of the kitchen.

“Okay, I want you two to calm down and tell us what’s gotten into you guys.” Cap says walking Emily to a chair to sit down.

Kelley immediately turns to Emily wide-eyed, “Em, we have two of them! How did we lose BOTH of them?”

“I don’t KNOW how Kel, we just did okay. We had one job!” she says, burying her face in her hands.

At that moment Emma Sonnett and Erin O’Hara walk through the front door of Striker’s with their niece and nephew. Before anyone knew what was happening, both Kelley and Emily were out of their seats, picking their kids up and squeezing them into a tight hug.

“Okay, what did we miss?” Erin says as she and Emma both go and order teas from Rowen.

“You guys do know that you’re family and you don’t have to pay right?” Reid asks while making the drinks.

“Yeah, but I’m sure you guys don’t need any more people taking free drinks today. We do want you guys to actually make a profit today. It doesn’t look like anyone except people we know have been here.” Erin says while scanning the building.

“Also, I believe you missed your sisters going crazy thinking that they lost the twins.” Whit says pointing to Kelley and Emily who are asking their kids question after question.

“Really? I told them last night that I was going to take the twins and would be back this morning.” Emma looks exhausted at the thought of neither one of them listening to her last night.

“I saw a post on Rose’s finsta of those two drunk grinding on each other so I called Emma and asked her what was going on because I was just coming back from the beach. I went over there this morning to get some time in with my niece and nephew before bringing them back to dumb and dumber over there.” Erin explains to the group of people actually listening to her.

“Does everyone but me know what a finsta is?” Tobin questions everyone. She gets several nods in her direction but still no one explaining what it is to her.

Becky comes out of her office with a look that says ‘I don’t even want to know’ and announces, “Just so you all know, since drinking half of what we had stocked between last night and this morning, for the next month, every single one of you are actually paying for things. Enjoy the free coffee for today.”

Rose, Mal, Sam, and Horan go to the counter and order drinks to enjoy the last of the free coffee for a while. Once they get their drinks, Reid, Rhys, and Rowen come over to talk them and find out more about what happened last night.

Sam tells them that everything they could ever want to know about last night is on Rose’s finsta and that they don’t want to retell the events.

“Hey guys, quick question. So like I know I’ve met all of your parents, and I know that you guys have all said that your family is a little different than an average family, but there were over 50 people here. Hell, everyone is still here and I know that I kept hearing people being mentioned that weren’t here. Does someone maybe want to fill me in?” Horan looks back at her friends as she asks this.

“Ok this shouldn’t be too hard.” Reid starts as he starts looking around the place.

Rose starts naming people from one side of the bar, “Well, of course, you know all of our parents. Aunt Whit and Aunt Ash were best friends.”

“Oh and Aunt Becky and Aunt Barnie were too.” Mal states.

“Honestly I can’t really tell you anything more than that. It’s just always been like this.” Rowen states as she looks around to the others in their little group.

“Ya me either, when you really think about it, it is such a weird group of people that I call family.” Rhys states.

“Well, that only leaves one option then.” Rose says as she gets off the stool she was sitting on at the bar and walks to the middle of the room. “Ok everyone, I’m calling a family meeting. There are questions that we, as the youth, want answers to. So pull the tables back together and grab a seat.” Sam, Horan, and Mal have already started arranging the tables in a very familiar U-shape pattern.

“Okay you have us all here. What’s so important?” Broon asks.

“So what we want to know is, how did we end up here?” Mal asks with a confused expression on her face.

“Well ya see, when two people love each oth-.”

“Aunt Allie you KNOW that’s not what I meant.” Mal rolls her eyes at her aunt.

“Okay, but what do you guys mean by that?” Whit asks, genuinely interested.

Rowen opens her mouth a couple times before she figures out what she actually wants to say, “Like we know the basics of how a couple of you guys met, but why do we call people like Pinoe and KO aunts. No offense to either of you guys, I love you, but still.” Both women just shrugged in response. It was a fair question.

“And how did Aunt Tobin ever get Aunt Press to go out with her?” Rhys starts, realizing there so much he doesn’t know.

“Hey! I’ll have you know I’m very charming and attractive. “ Tobin interrupts.

“You sure are hun.” Press says, patting Tobin’s thigh.

“Also there’s Apple! When did you guys meet Aunt Apple? And mom, how did you end up owning this place? There is so much that all of us just accepted because we grew up with it.” Rhys continues asking question after question as they pop up in his head.

Broon looks down the table at all the people she considers her family. From Kristie and Steph to KO and Sonnett, to Ali and Ash and just says, “Well, it all started back in my junior year of college.”

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Chapter Text

Broon looks down the table at all the people she considers her family. From Kristie and Steph to KO and Sonnett, to Ali and Ash and just says, “Well, it all started back in my junior year of college.”

_______________________________

“Okay so before we get into this I feel like we need a new seating arrangement. Do you guys remember the groups you would hang out with in college?” Becky asks around the table.

Everyone nods after they think about it for a few seconds.

“Good. If you’re a child of someone in this room or we’ve met you in the last five years go sit in the chairs on the insides of the table. Everyone else, get into those groups. Husbands sit on the right end and Emma and Erin, if so wish to sit through this, you guys can have the left end.” As soon as Becky finishes talking everyone gets to moving seats, except Apple who doesn’t want to move and ends up sitting on the end with HAO on her right and Barnie at the other corner seat.

In the middle of everyone moving, no one notices the door open and Jane walks in. She looks up at the commotion happening around her and sees the chaos of everyone moving around with what looks to be a purpose. Before she could ask anyone what was going on she was dragged into the group and half pushed down into a chair by Rowen.

“So what did I walk into?” Jane tries not to draw attention to herself by whispering to Rowen. It wasn’t like anyone would hear her anyway with how much noise everyone around her was making.  

“Oh, you’ll see. Just sit back and relax.” Rowen barely explains while resting her hand on Jane’s knee.

Once everyone settles down, Rose and Mal both look around with confused expressions.

“Wait, Aunt Moe used to hang out with Kristie and Steph?” Rose asks.

“And how did Aunt Whit and Aunt Syd not kill each other?” Mal asks.

“I still don’t understand where Aunt Apple fits in this.” Rhys says looking in the direction of Apple who just shrugs in response.

“Okay but what about Aunt Allie and Aunt Alex? They aren’t even married to anyone in any of the groups.” Rowen looks around.

“Ok so these are all great questions but what about the fact that Aunt HAO, the responsible adult we all know and love, used to hang out with a group that consisted of  Aunt Ash, Aunt KO, Aunt Tobin, Aunt Kling, Aunt Niki, and Aunt Pinoe?” Reid just shakes his head as he looks at all the groups.

“These are all great questions, that we will hopefully answer along the way. Of course not one of us can tell you the whole story because there are so many parts but we are going to try to do it in a way that makes sense. We are going to go in chronological order and only one person can talk at a time, otherwise we’d never get through this. So who wants to start?” Broon looks around the table looking for any offers.

Horan looks up and just says, “I’m sorry, I thought I asked a simple question.”

“Oh sweetie, nothing is simple with these people.” Cap replies with a small laugh.

“I am naming myself storyteller of the group.” Kelley says as she stands up. Tobin and Ashlyn quickly pull her down while everyone in the room gets their protests out.

“Fine, don’t let me tell our part, but you guys are missing out on some truly amazing storytelling.” KO starts to sulk.

“If it makes you feel any better, I wanted you to tell your guys’ side.” Sonnett says from the opposite side and end of the table.

“Thanks babe.”

“Okay, Okay, Ash how about you tell our side. I think you’re the main reason we all hung out anyway.” Heather says.

Ashlyn thinks for a few seconds on where to start, “Okay so me and Niki have been friends since we were little. We were next door neighbors and quickly became best friends. By the time college came around, we both got accepted into UNC and obviously decided to be roommates because you literally couldn’t break up apart.”

“You still can’t.” Niki says from sitting between Kling and Pinoe.

“True. Anyway, we weren't very social, only hung out with each other kinda thing. We didn’t know anyone from home because we are both from Florida, but we had each other so it was cool. So, one day we were longboarding around campus because it’s the easiest way to get around. We saw this tall lanky girl dribbling a soccer ball while carrying a longboard around. She was obviously not looking where she was going and was about to walk into someone else so we both called out to try and stop the disaster. I’ll give you guys one guess as to who it was not paying attention to where they were going.” Ash said while looking towards the youth.

Everyone sitting in the middle of the table turns to look at Tobin. Tobin totally not paying attention looks up from her phone, “What?”

“Nothing Tobs, go back to playing ZigZag. Yes, you are all right but no surprise there. So she drops the longboard and the ball, both going in opposite directions while Tobs here is just looking stunned on the ground. I go and grab the board and Niki grabs the ball and we introduce ourselves to her. We start asking her if she’s ok and all that, right. Well, she goes and says,

“Whoa dude, nice Santa Cruz. Is that a 36’’ or a 40’’?”

“Actually mine is a 39. Niki’s here is a 40 though. But for real, are you ok?” Ashlyn asks while holding her hand out to the girl.

“Oh yeah, I’m totally fine. Not the first time I’ve wiped out like that. I’m Tobin by the way. Do you guys wanna ride around with me for a while?”

“So yeah, Tobin was our first real friend outside of each other. We would mostly just skate and kick a ball around and try to force Tobin into going to class that she would end up sleeping through most of the time, even when we got her to go. That brings me to the next person we met, HAO. We all were majoring in communications so basically had every single class together. A couple of weeks after we met Tobin, we were all put into the same group to work on a project in our Human Comm class. Of course, Tobin wasn’t there so we just had to find our fourth person. Heather here somehow already knew who we were and came to sit with us.”

“Hey, I’m Heather. Do you guys know who this Tobin person is? I don’t even think I’ve seen her in class.”

“Yeah, actually she’s our friend and I wouldn’t put money on really ever seeing her in a class.” Niki states.

“Okay just for the record. Tobin and I had most of our classes together throughout college and I swear I only saw her in class maybe five times and that’s because either one or all of us dragged her in for a final.” HAO points out in the middle of Ash’s storytelling. “Sorry, you can continue.”

“So as I was saying, we're all in this Human Comm. class discussing this project,”

“Okay so how are we going to do this then?” Heather asks with curiosity. “I’m not allowing her to just not do her part.”

“Oh don’t worry, she’s good for it. We just get creative.” Niki assured her.

“Most the time we can trick her into showing up places by just skating wherever it is with her.” Ash addresses her question. “And when she’s there, she’ll do the work just so she can leave again.”

“The project took up most of the semester so all of us were together outside of classes most of the time and got pretty close.”

“Is that really all it takes for Tobin to do something? Trick her with a board on wheels? I’ve gotta try this.” Steph says from the other side of the table.

“No, you will not. You’ll hurt yourself.” Kristie says while hitting her on the arm.

“Guys let Ash finish. You’ll eventually get a turn.” Broon says from the head of the table.

“So, where was I? Oh yeah, so now we have the great battle that led us to KO. Now, the first thing I want to say about Kel is she somehow graduated with a degree in Environmental Engineering. Don’t ask me how I have no idea.”

KO butts in with a gasp, “Questioning my intelligence, Ash? And you call yourself a friend!”

“Anyway,” Ash rolls her eyes and continues, “Niki, Tobin, HAO, and myself decided to sign up for the campus-wide Human vs. Zombie game. If any of you don’t know what that is, it’s basically where people with bandanas around their arm are humans and can carry nerf guns around to ‘shoot’ the zombies and zombies try to ‘eat’ humans. They have bandanas around their heads so you can tell them apart. We were all humans and were camping out behind bushes trying to figure out how to kill a group of zombies walking in front of our dorm.”

“What are you guys doing hiding back here?”

“Who are you?” Ash questions. “If you wanna talk you better get back here before you compromise our positioning.”

“If you insist.” the stranger replies while joining the group behind the bushes. “So now can I ask what you’re doing?”

“We’re in the humans vs. zombie game and we’re trying to figure out how to get all of them in a short amount of time before they bust us and we’re turned into zombies.” Heather explains, gesturing toward the people standing on the other side of the walkway.

“So we’re in the middle of coming up with an elaborate plan to take down everyone. It involved some outrageous tuck and rolls and relying on our speed and stealth when this one next to me just goes,”

“Or, blondie, you could take out the one on the far left while angling your gun like this for the perfect shot. Short hair brunette can take out the one on the right by reaching around the bush. You with the tank on can just reach through the bushes and you can get the last one by sneaking out the left side and running up after a few seconds.” she just demonstrates while smiling at the group.

“So does it work?”  Allison asks with wide-eyes, clearly impressed by her mom.

“Of course it does. It was my plan and I backed it with science.” Kel gloats.

“It sure did work and we were some of the last humans standing but we, unfortunately, ended up with this one now in the group.”

“Hey, you guys love me and you know it. You three wouldn’t of even graduated if it weren’t for me!” Kelley calls out Ash, Niki, and Tobin.  

“Yeah yeah, that doesn’t even matter now. So, five down two to go. Next comes Kling and I’m going to let her tell this part.” Ash passes the story off to Kling.

“Okay, so you guys know how much I like to try out new recipes and we had a kitchen on the third floor. I would often try out new things in there. One night I decided to try a couple new recipes because it was a Friday night and I had nothing better to do.”

“Ha! She had no friends!” Moe yelled. Cap shot her a look and she settled back down, allowing Kling to continue.

“Anyway, when I was done it was almost midnight and I had realized I had made way too much food to store in my mini fridge. I figured that someone was probably drunk or just wanted food. Instead of just leaving it there for all, I went to try and knock on doors to see if anyone wanted some. The first door I knock on is these idiots having a Harry Potter movie marathon.”

“Hey, I’m Meghan and I accidentally made way too much food and I was wondering if you guys wanted any of it?”

“Kel who is it?” Tobin yells from inside the room.

“Shut up it’s someone offering us food.”

At the mention of food the whole gang is at the door.

“So what is this about food?” Ash asks.

“Well, I was just telling your friend here that I made too much and was wondering if you guys wanted some?”

“Oh yeah sure, we aren’t ones to pass up free food. So how about we all go grab the food and you can join us for the rest of our marathon?” Ash is already walking down the hall dragging Meghan along with her arm around her shoulder.

“Uh, sure I guess.” Meghan agrees.

“So that’s how I joined them. Ash, back to you.” Kling finishes her story.

“So after that night, we knew we all needed to hang out outside of the dorm. We had already spent too many nights camped out in Niki and I’s room. We couldn’t add another person because there was barely room for us. One night I had a great idea to go to this hangout spot I had been hearing a lot about recently called 99ers . None of us had been before so one Friday night we decided to all go. It was basically an old pub that a bunch of college kids went to because they barely carded anyone. So, we get there and sit down for a few drinks all having a good time. Awhile later we hear a commotion coming from around the pool tables. A short blonde is looking for some more people to play with her. We all head over because Kel insists she’s the best ever at pool.”

“Ash it’s literally all math. It’s my thing.”

“We for some reason believed her and head over anyway. We insisted on splitting up so that some of us are on the blond’s team but she insisted she can go up again all of us. It was one of the closest games of pool I’ve ever been a part of. She ended up beating us and we offered to buy her a drink for a hard-fought game.”

“Correction, we offered up Kel to buy her a drink because she talked us into playing.” HAO added.

“So do you have a name or are we just going to keep calling you ‘pool master’ all night?” Kling asks.

“As much as I would love that the name’s Megan.”

“So after one night of drinking and pool, we decide to make it a tradition to just go to 99ers every Friday and challenge people to pool.”

“Okay, so that all makes sense for some reason but is that why most of you have weird nicknames?” asks Jacob.

“Right, so basically with a Megan and a Meghan we decided to not confuse each other. Plus both of their last names are too long so we just shortened each of them. Niki will always be Niki because that’s just her nickname. I’ve just gone by Ash for the longest and those two just needed a cool nickname so we went with their initials.” Ashlyn explains.

“And we called Tobin Tobi for the longest time just because it annoyed her.” HAO adds in.

“But like, almost everyone here goes by a nickname.” Axel brings up.

“Yeah, so how did the rest of you guys get your names? Some of them are obvious but what about Aunt Cap?” Allison adds.

“We will get to all of that eventually, I promise. So I say you guys tell your story next.” Becky says while looking at Sonnett, Kristie, Steph, and Moe. All of them immediately start to argue over who gets to actually tell the story.

“You guys work it out we will come back to you. If you don’t, I’ll decide who gets to tell it.” Cap says while moving onto the next group.

_______________________________

Chapter Text

“Ok since they can’t decide on anything, Ali do you guys want to go?” Cap directs towards the left side of the table.

“Sure, I think Whit should tell this one.” Ali says while looking to her direct left at Whitney who just nods at her.

“So I think I need to backtrack some so we can get the backstory to this group. I guess I should tell you guys how I met Ash first… but wait that means I have to tell you how I met Niki.” Whit trails off after realizing that it’s going to be a longer story then she thought it would be.

“Wait, what?” Moe says while looking at Whit.

“It’ll all make sense. So I met Niki one summer because we were both counselors at High Meadows summer camp. Anyway, we were both about 17 at the time and after camp ended, we kept in touch every now and then through the years. When we both figured out we were going to the same college, we started talking and hanging out more. Niki was supposed to pick me up from the airport one day when I came back from visiting family. She couldn’t make it because she had class, so she sent Ashlyn.”

“Oh my god! I remember that! I spent the entire car ride rapping and you just laughed at me the whole time. Good times.” Ash says as she sits back in her chair obviously reliving the memory.

“So, the three of us hung out from then on. As much as I loved spending time with them, I also loved passing my classes. I constantly tried to get those two to go the library and study with me but we all know how Ash and Niki are. So actually, that leads me to how I met Christen. Ash and Niki were supposed to meet me at the library but they blew me off, probably to go play soccer with Tobin.”

“Actually we blew you off to go get ice cream with Tobs.” Niki butts in. “But that’s irrelevant, so continue.”

“Like I was saying I was at the library and saw Press, at the next table over, with the same History book as me so I went and asked her which class she was in and stuff.”

“Hey, sorry to interrupt your studying but I was just wondering what professor you have. I have Robisonreadyand I’ve been trying to figure out this chapter for the longest.” Whitney asks as she holds up the identical book up.

“Oh, hi. Um yeah, I have him too. What chapter are you on? I’m Christen by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Whitney.”

“So after that, we sat together in class and we struggled together.” Whit says.

“I think having each other was the only reason we made it through that class.” Press adds.

“You’re not wrong. So, let’s see, now we have Ali and Syd. That one is pretty simple. I met Ali because she and I worked together at the student bookstore.”

“That place was a nightmare, especially at the start of the semester and Whitney here was the only person I could stand.” Ali joins in.

“Ali and I would go into the back room together to pretend to look for items for customers just so we can get away from the crazy.” Whit continues. “And in those little five minute breaks, we’d get to know each other and started hanging out together outside of work.”

“Um, it was kinda life changing when we found out we lived in the same dorm.” Ali adds.

“Right! Ali and I only lived a few doors down from each other and Syd was her roommate. Ali introduced me to Syd and the friendship just clicked. Syd loved to party and I was more of a homebody and Ali was a perfect mixture of both so it just worked for us. Our favorite way to hang out was to have girl’s night every now and then. Which actually leads me to how I met Crystal and Molly. Ali, Syd, and I were planning a girl’s night. My roommate was home and she didn’t like having company. Syd and Ali’s room had turned into a disaster while Syd was trying to find the perfect outfit.”

“It was a co-ed dorm Whit, I always had to look good. Anyone could have been a future boo.” Syd says.

“Well, I couldn’t see their floor so we decided since it was a Saturday night and our building was basically empty that we would just go take over our floor’s lounge. We turned on some music, painted our nails and just caught up with each other. I think I’ll let Crystal take over from here.” Whit directs towards Crystal.

“So our sweet little Molly was my roommate, and that particular Saturday she was in super study mode because she had a test coming up. I was bored and trying my best not to bother her too much. I heard the music coming from somewhere in the hall and you know me, ya girl is drawn to a good beat so I had to go see if I could find the source.”

“So, what’s going on out here?” Crystal asked the three girls. She had seen them around her floor before but didn’t really know them.

“Girl’s night. Do you wanna join? We were just about to watch a movie.” the blonde asked her.

“Sure, do you guys mind if my roommate joins in too?”

“Not at all.”

“So then I went back into our room and begged Molly to come hang out and assured her that she could study on Sunday. I grabbed some face masks, some junk food and pushed Molly out the door. The rest is history.” Crystal finishes her part of the story.

“You got Molly away from her studying without a promise of wine? Even I’m impressed.” Niki with a fake shocked expression.

“Okay, so if Aunt Whit knew you all as two separate groups how-” Jacob starts but was interrupted by the sound of the cafe door opening and a small group of high schoolers shuffling in.

Rhys, Reid, and Rowen jump up and head back to the counter to take care of the customers.

“You three sure seem eager.” Kristie says as the trio gets to the counter.

“Yeah, well we just want to get back to the story.” Reid says as he tries to hurry things along.

“That and if we didn’t get up, mom would have started yelling at us.” Rhys says as he starts making the coffees that had been ordered.

“Smart kid!” Becky says as she goes around collecting the empty mugs from people around the table.

As soon as all of the high schoolers are set with their orders Rowen, Reid, and Rhys think they can get back to the story but even more people start to come in.

“Well, it doesn’t look like we will be able to get through this today.” HAO says as she stands up and stretches.

“How about we start doing family dinners once a week? It can be on Sundays since the bar isn’t open on Sunday night and that way we can all spend time together and we can tell more parts of the story every time?” Alyssa suggests.

“That’s actually one of the best things I’ve heard all day.” Apple states.

“I still want to know how you got here.” Mal points at Apple who just smiles back.

“We’re invited too, right? I could go for free food every week.” Kerr says still sitting in the middle of the table with Hannah in her lap.

“If you guys must come then yes. But please behave, or you’ll be banned for a week.” Barnie gives her a look that says she’s not kidding.

“Gotcha.”

“I can come too right?” Jane questions.

“How long have you been here?” Allie asks with a confused expression on her face.

“Uh..I don’t know. How long have the stories been happening?”

“What she means is sure you can come, you’re like family.” Ashlyn pats Jane on the back as she passes her.

“It was ONE question. I mean I’m invested now so I have to come back, and if I don’t come back every week everyone will blame me for starting this and giving up on it.” Lindsey says to Mal, Rose, and Sam as they all head out.

“Will playing with Harry help? Because we’ve got to go pick him up from my aunt’s.” Mal says as she climbs into her car. Rose rides shotgun as Sam and Lindsey squeeze in on either side of the car seat in the back.

“I guess playing with your adorable 2 year old brother will make me feel better.”

“Is he with Katie because I like her. She doesn’t get involved with things like Sunday dinner with 50 of your closest relatives.” Lindsey grumbles.

“Yeah, both of my mom’s siblings are smart by keeping their distance.”

“So why is Harry at your aunt’s house and not at the dinner? I missed that cute little face last night.” questions Sam.

“He was sick yesterday with a stomach bug so mom dropped him off before we came. She didn’t want any of the other kids getting sick. My aunt says he’s been fine all day today though.” Mal explains as they pull into Katie’s driveway and all pile out.

“Okay, another question. Why are we picking him up? I mean I love the little dude and everything but I was really hoping to get back to my bed ASAP.” Rose whines as she drags her feet up the front steps.

“Because my moms are helping to finish clean up Striker’s so it was either we clean or we pick up Harry.”

“Ok fair point.” Rose says as the door opens.

________________________________

Soon, all the customers had been taken care of, the tables had been put back in their spots and cleaned, and most people finally went home to, most likely, sleep.

A small group of people were still there which included Steph, Kristie, Kelley, Emily, Barnie, Niki, and Molly.

Kristie and Steph go over to the table where the kids are sitting, waiting for their parents to finally take them home.

“Hey guys! How’s it going?” Kristie asks overly excited. All of the kids look at her until Hayden speaks up. “Good.”

“That’s all we get? Come on guys we haven’t really gotten a chance to talk to you guys recently. We want to know your plans, your life goals,” Steph responds with a giant smile on her face.

“We’re kids.” Jacob says as he goes back to playing a game on his DS.

“Well I’ve been thinking about pursuing a career in either math or science, or both. I can’t decide between studying chemistry, physics, engineering, or maybe psychology but there’s not a huge market for that right now but I have some time to decide. There’s also bio but I’m not sure about that one.” Axel gets excited while telling his aunts his plans.

“Whoa there buddy. Slow down and breathe. Did you get those ideas from Kel?” Steph asks.

“Nah, I’ve been running my ideas past Aunt Emma. She says I need to be ambitious.”

“That you are.” Kristie says as she gets up from the table overwhelmed by all the information she was just given. Steph soon follows after her.

“I hope you two know what you’ve gotten yourselves into with letting Axel spend all that time with Emma.” Kristie says as she walks past KO and Em.

“What do you mean?” Emily says turning around to face Steph because Kristie had already disappeared into the kitchen.

“Have you heard his life goals? If not, you should ask him about them, they’re pretty extensive.”

“That’s my boy!” Kelley yells across the room and gives a thumbs up to Axel who is hesitant to return it.

_____________________________

Both Steph and Kristie go into the kitchen looking for snacks.

“What are you two doing?” Becky asks as she walks in.

“Looking for food.” Steph casually answers while opening the fridge.

“Guys, what did I say literally this morning? You have to pay if you want food for the next month. Also, you guys do know it’s Sunday right?”

“Yeah why?” Kristie says while still looking for something to eat.

“Well since it’s Sunday that means that the bar isn’t open tonight, and that means that you don’t have to work. So why are you guys still here?”

“I don’t know? Do you know Steph?”

“Nope.”

“Then can you please leave? For my sanity?” Becky asks while directing them towards the kitchen door.

“You got it boss. I know all this awesome can be too much to handle.” Steph says while grabbing a muffin on her way out.

Becky goes and locks up her office before calling out to Rhys, Reid, and Rowen, “Okay guys, the rest of us about to head out? You guys good to lock up?”

“We got it Aunt Becky. There’s only another hour before closing.” Rowen replies while sweeping the floor.

“Okay you guys have a good night.” Becky calls back.

______________________________

An hour later the trio had closed up shop and were just cleaning up a few things before they were free to go back to their shared apartment and sleep in tomorrow since Moe offered up herself, and Kling to open up.

“Wow who would’ve guessed so much would have happened in the last two days?” Reid says as he throws himself into Rowen’s car and basically lays down over the three middle seats of her Land Rover.

“Who knew we would learn so much about this family but also so little in a span of a couple hours?” Rowen adds as she pulls out of the parking lot.

“I haven’t even had time to fully process any of it to be honest. All I can think about is going to sleep.”

“Neither one of you better fall asleep before we get home. I will leave your asses in this car.” Rowen threatens as she hits Rhys on the shoulder.

“Yeah yeah we get it. No need to hit me.”

_____________________________

Chapter Text

Since it was the beginning of the summer and all the kids were out of school, everyone hangs out at the cafe a lot more during the days. When they were not working, one of the older ones would usually be roped into watching the younger ones. If all of them were busy or just weren't around, the kids would just hang around with the Canadians. The group was usually at the cafe anyway, battling each other in one of the many board games that were shelved along the walls and didn’t mind watching the kids because as they were basically kids themselves.

Since it was the middle of the week, Rowen and Reid were working the counter while Moe and Kling were in the kitchen arguing, as usual, as they bake and make the food. Sonnett and Kel were stuck running orders out to the tables.

Rose walks in with Hayden skipping ahead of her and Mal follows behind with Hannah on her hip. They had just come from their apartment where they tried to keep the kids entertained with Legos and Paw Patrol. Mal and Rose pick them up in the morning and look after them during the day while Niki and Molly work. At the end of the day, they bring them back to Striker’s for Niki and Molly to pick them up.

Rose walks over and stands behind the couch that Mal, Hannah, Hayden, Allison and Axel are sitting on. “So Axel, how about we go on that promised bookstore visit?”

“Yup!” Axel exclaims as he jumps up off the couch.

“Cool, Al you wanna come?” Rose asks the other half of the duo.

“Nah, not where I like to spend my time. You guys have fun though.” Allison replies, not looking up from her phone.

“Fair enough, but I’m going to buy us a puzzle.” Rose tells Allison as she follows Axel out the shop doors.

___________________________

Rose and Axel make it to the local Book Nook that Niki and Molly own. Rose goes to talk to Niki while Axel takes off towards the back.

“Hey Rose, what’s up?” Niki asks as Rose approaches the counter.

“Nothing much, I just dropped the kids and Mal off at Striker’s and I promised Axel a few days ago that I would buy a book for him.”

“You do know you’ll be here for about the next hour before he chooses the one he wants right?”

“Oh yeah, I figured it would be best to just get it over with.”

“Smart, so is there anything in particular you want to see?”

“If you would point me in the direction of your latest puzzle shipment please.”

“Of course you choose the puzzles. There over on the far wall.”

“I promised Allison that I would get us one.” Rose explains as she is already walking backward away from the counter.

“And I’m sure it was all her idea.” Niki says as she goes back to sorting inventory.

_________________________________

Rose is quick to pick out a puzzle with 3 French bulldogs on skateboards on it and heads to find Axel. She finds him making his way through the sections finding things he might be interested in before he narrows it down. He currently has what looks to be a psychology and history book under one arm while there is a graphic novel and 2 young adult books on the floor in front of him.

“So I’m like you’re favorite aunt now right?” Rose tries to catch Axel while he’s busy to ask, hoping he’ll answer in her favor.

“Sorry to break it to ya, you’re great and all but Aunt Emma is definitely my favorite.” Axel explains without even looking up from the shelf.

“Unfair! What makes Emma your favorite?”

“Well for one I trust her an-”

“Wait you don’t trust me?” Rose interrupts.

“Honestly I don’t trust a lot of you.”

“So what you only trust Emma and your moms?” Rose asks as if it’s the most absurd thing she’s ever heard.

“Oh yeah no, I don’t trust my parents. I love them but like mom this morning called the oven an big girl toaster so that’s what I’m working with.”

“Fair enough. So wanna tell me why you don’t trust a majority of the family?” Rose decides to plop herself down in one of the oversized chairs nearby.

“Are you sure you want to hear this?”

“Sure we’ve got time. I can always just take you home if we’re here after the cafe closes. Which reminds me, let me text Sonn and tell her you’re with me so they don’t think they lost one of their kids again.” Rose exclaims as she pulls her phone out of her pocket. She shoots Sonnett a quick text then turns sideways in the chair waiting on Axel to start his story.

“Ok so for starters you and Mal are always blaming stuff on us.”

“That’s so not true!”

“Saturday you tried to blame us for the balloons and knocking over the Jenga tower which is stupid because literally everyone knew that you two were helping with the balloons and you were openly trying to mess up everyone’s games.” he says after he moves down to the next shelf.

“Ok but you’ll understand in a few years when you can blame stuff on Hannah and Harry. Mal and I only have a short amount of time left to do it so let us have this.”

“Anyway, Aunt Allie is always asking us ‘what’s the latest cool slang us kids are using nowadays’ because she wants to stay ‘lit’ or something like that. Al loves it’s but I don’t understand why.”

“That’s not just you, mom has always been that way. You just get to a point where you say you don’t know enough times and she just doesn’t think you’re cool anymore and moves on to the younger ones.” Rose shrugs.

“Wow, that’s weird. You would think by now that she would’ve given up.”

“You would think that but she’s persistent and there continues to be younger ones to ask so she still thinks she’s cool. Who’s next on the ‘Axel doesn’t trust list’?”

“Well, Tobin calls Allison and I A1 and A2. She tries to make it into a cool nickname but I’m sure she just doesn’t know our names even though she’s known us all thirteen years of our lives.” Axel pulls a book off the shelf and holds it up to Rose, “How do you feel about memoirs?”

“Only read them if you really care. Otherwise, you’ll never get through it.”

“Good point.” He replaces the book on the shelf.

“You do know that Aunt Tobin called me Harry Jr. up until Harry was actually born right? She’s not good with names especially with how big this family is.” Rose says, sitting back up in her chair.

“So I know that you don’t trust Aunt Pinoe. No one in their right mind does, but do you have a specific reason?”

“Well she’s always asking me stuff like ‘You can read?’ and ‘Aren’t you like five?’ and honestly I’m never sure if she’s serious or is trying to be funny.”

“Hm yeah I have no idea on that one. It’s pretty 50/50 on which one it could be.”

Axel picks up his growing pile of books and walks over to the next row of shelves. Rose follows and throws herself onto the next closest chair to Axel. He picks up a book and shows the cover to Rose. It has a shark on the front.

“This reminds me. I almost forgot to tell you why I don’t trust Aunt Ash.”

“Is it because she’s obsessed with creatures that can kill you?”

“No, but good point. It’s because she’s always trying to bribe all of us to help her, Allie, and Moe prank my parents. Oh and then there’s Kristie and Steph. I’m pretty sure they’re each others only friend. They also always talk to us like they want something from us. My favorite thing to do is ignore them, but if I’m in the mood I’ll just talk circles around them until they get confused and leave.”

“Well I’m sure they’re more people on this oh so great list of yours but I’m gonna take a quick nap. Wake me up when you finally pick a book.” Rose settles back into the chair.

_________________________________

The cafe had just closed and everyone was rearranging the room so that the club could open. Right as the cafe workers were leaving and the club staff was coming in, the regulars Raso, Steph, Kerr, Lydia, Alanna, and Kyah, followed close behind.

“Oh great, it’s the Aussie posse, which means it’s a great time to get outta here.” Jane says as she pushes Rowen out the door.

“Oh and don’t think I forgot! I’m totally gonna kill you guys for getting R cubed so drunk the other night.” she says over her shoulder.

Hayley goes to respond but notices that they were already gone so she shrugs and walks over to the other girls. The Australians go and sit in their favorite booth while Sam goes to see if she can get any leftover cafe food from earlier in the day.

Rhys sees Sam trying to sneak past him and grabs the back of her shirt. “What are you trying to do?”

“Oh you know just going to see Steph and KMew.” Sam turns around to face Rhys.

“Yeah. I’m sure. I know you know heard what my mom said. I know your game Kerr so don’t even try it. There’s a reason why mom puts me in charge at night.”

“Fine, you caught me, but you didn’t catch her.” Sam nods towards Hayley who’s already back at the table handing out muffins.

“That’s not fair, she’s tiny and you distracted me.” Rhys starts to pout.

“I still have lots of tricks Rhysey boy, Gotta keep up!” Sam skips back to the booth.

“Do you guys do anything else besides come here to annoy me?” Rhys asks as he goes to stand at the end of the booth.

“Well I mean, we can only hang out at the house for so long and we don’t have to pay to get in here.” Alanna explains.

“Oh and most the time we can get leftovers.” Kyah adds.

“Yeah as long as you don’t get any smarter, and I think we’re good in that department.” Sam smiles up at him.

“I’ve had it with you Kerr.” Rhys just shakes his head at his immature friends and goes over to the bar to make sure everything is in stock.

“You guys got everything?”

“Kid, we’ve been at this a long time. I’m pretty sure we got this covered” Pinoe says as she writes down the new specialty drinks on the chalkboard.

“Don’t listen to her, mostly because she forgets to stock at least one thing almost every week.” Syd rolls her eyes.

Pinoe and Syd had been managers of the bar since Broon decided they needed more business. They were the ones who brought in lively crowds every night along with Steph and Kristie. Moe used to work at the bar until she figured out that it was actually a cafe during the day and she could get a job baking.

“Whatever you say Pinoe. Just remember why mom has me here. To keep an eye on you two.” Rhys says smugly as he walks to the back.
_____________________

Meanwhile Becky, Barnie, Cap, and Alyssa were at Becky’s house trying to create some kind of plan for the weekly dinners that were going to be happening from now until who knows when.

“I really don’t have any ideas except that we’re going to for sure need assigned seats.” Becky says as she sits on the couch and opens a notebook.

“Yeah, I feel like today’s group seating arrangement was good. We just need to make sure that Ash isn’t sitting next to Pinoe.” Alyssa points out. “I mean we could have Ash and KO sit next to each other but that’s not much better.” Barnie mumbles as she tries to think through the first group.

“Yeah, none of that is ideal but I also feel like there isn’t a perfect answer to that group of people so we’ll just try our best with that one.” Cap adds in.

“Ok so how about HAO, Ash, KO, Tobin, Kling, Niki, then Pinoe?” Becky asks while writing it down.

“That might be the best we get we’ll have to see about Niki next to Pinoe though.” Barnie adds.

“Ok next group then?” Becky adds on to her layout of the table.

Cap already worked through the groups “no-go” pairings , “So, we can’t have Ali and Syd next to each other because they’ll just gossip the whole time, same with Ali and Crystal, oh and since they’re sitting next to the younger ones we can’t have Syd and Kristie sitting next to each other. And I’m not sure where we have Allie, Alex, and Apple sitting but I don’t think it’s a good idea to have Apple and Allie next to each other, too much uncertainty.”

“What I’ve come up with is: Press, Ali, Whit, Syd, Crystal, Molly, Kristie, Steph, Sonnett, and Moe on the left side of the table and then Allie and Alex on the other end. I think Apple has claimed the right corner so I’ll just keep her there.” Becky explains.

“Are we going to do anything about the kids in the middle?” Barnie asks.

“I don’t know about you guys but I say, somewhat sadly, that they’re all pretty simple and we can trust them to sit there and not get rowdy like their parents.” Alyssa says while getting ready to leave.

“God help us for giving in on these dinners. It’s pretty ambitious.” Becky says shaking her head as she led the three to the front door.

“I think it sweet the kids are interested. This group’s history, as chaotic as it is, is special and they should know it so they can pass it on.” Cap says as she slips her shoes on.

“Yeah yeah, we’ll see if you feel that way after the first dinner.” Becky hugs the two before shutting the door.

Chapter Text

It was time for the first official Sunday family dinner and most of the adults were protesting as to why they were forced into a seating chart while their children are not.

“I mean come on guys, you have my name on a seat but not my kid’s. So you're telling me you trust them more than me?!” Kelley starts protesting by standing next to her seat pointing at it.

“Honestly yes, I do trust your kids more than you Kel. Now sit down.” Becky states as she brings out some food.

“Think of it like this babe: you’re more important than them.”

“Mom!” Axel looks up at being insulted by his own mother.

“Hey, you guys know I love you. I’m just trying to get her to sit down.” Emily whispers to the twins, placing a kiss on Allison's head as she nods understandingly. Axel just rolls his eyes.

As KO sits down another thought occurs to her, “Ok but what about Sam. I know none of you guys trust her.”

“Hey!”

“What?”, both Sams protest.

“Not you Big Friendly Giant. Sit back down.”

“Fine but I take offense to you calling me that.”

“Whatever, you all know I’m talking about Kerr.” Kelley waives of Sam Mewis.

“You do have a point, so Sam, this will be your official seat.” says Cap pointing to a chair on the end next to Emma. “Hopefully those two can try and keep you from acting up.”

“Oh great stick us on babysitting duty, not like we’ve done it our whole lives.” Erin mumbles to Emma who's now leaning on the table, rubbing her temples.

“Everyone needs to sit down so we can see if this group of children have decided who’s going to talk so we don’t have to decide for them.” Barnie points toward Moe and Sonnett who seem to still be trying to figure who will speak, while she passes around the food before taking her seat.

Everyone settles down and starts eating as Moe starts off her story, “Ok so,”

“We met in some class. I can’t remember which one.” Sonnett butts in.

“Like I was saying...yeah, me and Sonny here met in I think an English class?”

“I thought you said it was chem.” Steph tries to help.

“Ok only ONE of you needs to talk. I can't keep up.” Carm tries to delegate.

“I was selected and I'm trying. They won't stop interrupting me.” Moe states.

“Well the rest of you guys need to just let Moe talk. You'll have a chance to add in later. Ok guys?” Cap tries to appease everyone. The other three nod along because the last thing they wanted was for Cap to be mad at them.

“So where was I? Oh yeah so Sonnett wouldn't stop bothering me in the class we had together. She kept asking me stupid questions that I would ignore. However, we would always end up working together because the professor insisted we work in groups. So we're friends because I couldn't get rid of her. I guess that’s basically it for us.”

“For the record, the question were never stupid, Moe is just easily annoyed” Sonnett tries to defend herself.

“Emily, you once asked if I thought our professor has seen The Lizzie McGuire Movie.” Moe replies, confused as Sonnett's statement.

“Morgan, it’s a cinematic masterpiece. I can’t trust someone who hasn’t see it.” Sonnett is now out of her seat, angerly pointing at Moe.

“Okay you two, calm down. Can we just get to how you guys meet tweedle dee and tweedle dumb?” Pinoe asks.

“Hey!” Steph yells, “you better be glad that you’re all the way on the other side of the table and I don’t wanna get up, or I’d come and hit you.”

“Can you guys stop interrupting me? Sonny, you can take over and tell everyone how we got stuck with these two?” Moe rolls her eyes at everyone, annoyed at their antics.

“Sure! Ok so Moe was stressing out about a date she was going on. She called me one night wanting me to help her pick out the perfect outfit.”

Sonnett is buried head first in Moe's closet while Moe sitting on her bedroom floor with two different shoes on. 

"Forget it dude, you have nothing to work with." Sonnett walks past Moe and grabs her bag, "We're going to the mall”

Moe sighs and ends up following Sonnett who had already picked up her keys and walked out the door.

“Ok so I eventually find Moe the perfect outfit and now it's time to focus on me so we head into Bath and Body Works”

“We can leave as soon as I buy a new candle,” Sonnett says as she drags Moe into the store.

“Fine” Moe just follows as Sonnett excitedly wanders around. 

The duo heads over to the display of candles near the middle of the store.

“So we're minding our own business and a girl in a Bath and Body apron walks up to us right, and she starts asking if we need help with anything.”

“Can I help you guys find anything? Did you see our new seasonal scents?” a brunette comes and asks the pair.

“Actually, I was looking for a new candle to try. I’m thinking a fall scent but not a sweet one. More like a warm sweater and apple pie.” Emily tells the girl.

The sales woman hands Emily a candle with a picture of pumpkins and apples sitting in leaves on it. She decided to not keep Moe any longer and just buy the one suggested to her.  

They head to the counter to check out. A blonde woman with the nameplate "Kristie" checks her out.

“So who helped you today?” Kristie asked

“Oh um the brunette?” Sonnett says more as a question.

“I think her name tag said Stephanie?” Moe adds.

“Of course it was, well she doesn’t actually work here.” Kristie adds like she says it all the time.

“So what, this girl just stole an apron and made her own nameplate?” Moe asks perplexed.

The girl in question walks up to the counter.

“Yes actually, I sure did. Kristie here is my best friend and I love being here to annoy her. Thought I might as well be productive, you know, to make her job easier. I didn’t want to go through the whole application process. Plus KMew is the manager here so no one will get in trouble.” Steph just shrugs and walks off to go help another potential customer.

“We actually loved that weird friendship so after that, we would just go to the mall when we knew Kristie was working to annoy them.” Sonnett finishes.

“Wait just one minute.” Reid starts, “You worked there for free? With nothing in return. Well, that’s just crazy.”

“Like you don’t work here for free?” Steph challenged

“First of all, it’s a family business. Second of all, I get paid.” Reid finishes his spiel.

“I think that’s a good place to stop for tonight? What about you guys?” Carm asks as she starts to stand. The rest of the people in her row start to follow her lead when Rowen starts talking.

“Guys, I seriously can’t go another week without know how Aunt Alex and Aunt Allie got here.”

“Well, I think we have enough time for this quick story, right guys.” Becky says in the direction of Alex and Allie giving them a look that tells them they better keep it short.

“I mean it was all because of Tobin so it’s on her to tell you guys.” Alex says looking at Tobin who is still not paying attention.

KO hits Tobin on the back of the head, “Dude pay attention.”

“What do you want? Also, don’t hit me dude what’s wrong with you.” Tobin complains.

“Alex and Allie want you to tell everyone how you met them. I was trying to get your attention because you’re never paying attention.”

“Oh, we’re still doing this? Ok, so Niki and Ash wanted me to go somewhere with them. I don’t remember where but neither one of them came and got me so I started to wander around town and I found this bar I recognized so I went in hoping that it was the one Ash and Niki were at. The bar was hosting some kinda trivia night or something. I knew the answer to the question they had just asked so I told the team who looked like they were struggling the most. Which also happened to be the closest table with those two sitting at it. I sat down and told them the answer. Then I just decided to stay and play with them.”

"Harry you are so bad at storytelling. That was boring. Why don't you tell them what the question was.”

“Oh right. Ugh, it was like ‘What chess piece can you only move diagonally' or something.”

“A BISHOP” Axle screams from the middle of the table.

“Whoa there dude we know you’re smarter than all of us but you don’t have to scream in my ear.” Jane complains moving her chair close to Rowen.

“Ok, I’m calling it a night. Everyone take your plates and put them in the dishwashers before you leave." Becky says, standing and starting to clear the table.

___________________________________

As everyone is coming out of the kitchen Jane tries to get Rowen out of the bar as fast as possible before they could be stopped by anyone.

“Where you going?”

Rowen looks down where she heard the voice coming from and sees Hannah standing next to the front door.

“We’re going out to watch a soccer game.” Jane bends down and picks Hannah up as she tells her.

“Can I come too?” the hopeful four year old asks.

“I happen to know that it's someone’s bed time soon but I think I know how you can have fun until then.” Rowen starts to whisper to Niki and Molly’s child.

Hannah’s eyes go big at the possibilities of what her cousin is about to tell her. “I think that a certain someone would have a lot more fun if they went up to Aunt Kelley, put on their sweetest most adorable voice and say ‘Aunt Kelley, you said you would give me $10’ and you can trust me, I promise you it will work.”

Hannah starts to wiggy in Jane’s arms so she can be let down. Before she runs towards an unexpected KO she gets out a “Thanks Row.”

As soon as both Rowen and Jane are in the car, Jane is pulling out of the lot. “So we’re actually going to a game?” Rowan asks now that she finally has a moment.

“Eventually, yes. Andi has her first game today. The team was invited to play the local NWSL team. They don’t actually have a league game this weekend because all the internationals are gone but they wanted some practice in. I figured we could go support her as part of our date night.”

“Oh yeah I think I heard about that from Rylie. She’s with the full national team right now and was sad she was going to miss it. So where are we going before the game then?”

“Nope, I’m not telling you. You’ll find out when we get there.”

A little while later Jane pulls into their first stop and looks over at Rowen.

“Yay Bruster’s! It’s been forever since I’ve been here.”

“I didn’t even know if you guys had them here. Honestly, I was surprised.”

“I’m glad we do. It’s some of the best ice cream there is. Why did you decide to come here?” Rowen asks as she gets out the car.

“Well, 1. Because ice cream 2. I needed something that wouldn’t take up much time because we’ve gotta get to the game soon and 3. We need to change into these.” Jane pulls out UNC shirts and hats for the both of them.

They both change and get their ice cream and head to WakeMed soccer park home of the NC Courage. UNC ends up winning 2-1. They played their hearts out and the hard work paid off. After the game, Andi sees two of her biggest fans in the stands and heads over to them.

“I told this idiot that you guys didn’t need to come.” Andi directs at Rowen.

“I love coming to your games, plus it was date night and honestly I wouldn’t want to spend it any other way then cheering on not only my friend,” Rowen pokes Andi’s sides a few time, making her squirm, “but my school as well. Go Heels!”

“Ew. Stop being cute. Now I feel like the third wheel." Jane says, reminding the two that she was there.

"Aw, is Jane sad because her girlfriend loves me more?" Andi says while wrapping Rowen in a hug. 

"Whatever Andi. Just a reminder, even though you guys won and you scored the game winner, you still suck.”

“Well I wouldn’t want to be reminded of that by anyone else besides my best friend.” Andi goes in to hug Jane and is just fast enough to grab her before she could fully turn around and make a run for it.

“Dude you’re sweaty, get off.” Jane eventually shrugs off Andi. The couple bid their goodbyes and head back to the car.

“Ok so we have one more stop before I drop you off.” Jane announces.

“Where could we possibly be going now? You do know it’s almost midnight right?”

“Which is why we’re going to the park.”

After about an hour of running around the deserted park in the middle of the night, it gets too cold for their liking and they head back.

As they pull into Rowen’s apartment complex Jane asks, “So I did good?”

“You did great babe, I had fun.” Rowen pats Jane’s cheek before leaning in for a good-night kiss. “Text me when you get home. Night.”

“Ok night.”

Chapter Text

“Wow this place looks so different.” a young blond with an accent said as she walk into Striker’s.

“I know, it’s been a couple years since you’ve been here and we’ve changed a lot recently.” Rowen replies while following her friend as they go and sit at one of the tall tables next to the bookshelf.

“I just can’t believe you’re back in town! FaceTime isn’t as good as having you here with me to annoy, also, there’s a lot I have to catch you up on.” Rowen says happy to have her best friend with her.

Ali comes downstairs followed by Ashlyn who is carrying a giggling Harry in her arms.

“Is that who I think it is?” Ali exclaims as she goes over and hugs the person sitting with her daughter.

“If it isn’t my favorite Harris.” She says while hugging Ali back.

“Wait who’s this?” Ashlyn comes and stands on the other side of the table and sits Harry down on it.

“Oh come on Ash you remember Katie. Her and Rowen have been friends since they were little. They would play soccer together in the park all the time.” Ali tries to remind Ash.

“Little Bow! No way man. Now I feel old. Where have you been?” Ashlyn shoots out.

“Well this one decided to actually become good at soccer and went on to play for school and then was drafted all the way to Kansas City.” Rowen starts to brag about Bowen to her parents.

“Well I just got traded to the Courage so I’m back, at least for now. So get used to me, I’ll be with my best friend as much as possible now.”

“Well we’ll see if you still have a best friend if you keep calling my mom your favorite Harris.” Rowen hops off the chair and heads across the shop.

“Row, you look just like your mom! You’re both just so pretty.” Rowen turns around to call out to Bowen, “Whatever, you can’t butter me up Bow.” She says walking to the kitchen, “You coming or what?” Bowen wink at Ali and waves goodbye then follows along into the kitchen.

“Hey guys, you remember Bowen right?” Rowen asks Reid and Rhys who are trying to hide out from their parents by ‘keeping Moe and Kling on track’.

“Oh yeah. Dude what’s up? It’s been awhile.” Rhys goes over and pulls Katie into a hug.

“So how have you been? How‘s the NWSL treating you?” Reid joins the conversation.

“Well Kansas was cool and I loved my teammates but the team is kind of at a stand still right now and then I got traded so I’m back here now. Can't really say I’m mad about it.” she shrugged, “What have you all been up to?”

“Where do we even start? The last couple weeks have been pretty weird. Rose called a family meeting because Horan was confused about this shit show group and so we’ve been having family dinners for the past 3 weeks because of it.” Rhys recalls the major events that had happened.

“I can come right?” A hopeful Bowen asks.

“That’s really your only question from all that?” Reid asked, truly baffled by Bowen. She just shrugged in response.

“I don’t see why not. Most people there aren’t really related to each other anyway. Plus you know a lot of them. Also Jane can use a suffering buddy,” Rowen decides it would be worth having more backup for dealing with Kel and Kerr arguing with each other.

Katie was clearly excited to be involved. Her eyes got wide as she remembered something she wanted to ask Rowen, “So you and Jane are still together then?”

“Yeah for about four months now but you can’t talk about that at family dinner.” Rowen remembers to tell Bowen before she starts talking about it in the middle of dinner.

“Um...OK, but why? Are you not out? Isn’t basically everyone here gay?”

“Ya see, Rowen refuses to talk about Jane because Aunt Ash and Aunt Whitney are still holding onto hope that these two will date. It’s their dream to actually be related.” Rhys explains as he stands behind a guilty looking Rowen and Reid with his arms around the both of them.

“But you do realize that they will find out eventually right? I know you and you don’t do well hiding this kind of stuff. Actually, how have you kept this from them for so long?” Katie starts thinking out loud directing it towards Rowen.

“Why do you think everyone else knows! Mom watched us walk through the door one day and immediately knew and questioned us. Everyone else figured it out within the week but it’s like an unspoken rule that no one says anything in front of Ma and Aunt Whit so dinners are off limits” Rowen explains.

“OK, well as much as I love trying to keep track of your weird ass family, is Becky here?”

“Yeah my mom should be in her office. Why?” Rhys asks, only kind of wanting the answer.

“I want to see if she will finally give me a job.” Katie exclaims as she pulls Rowen out of the kitchen and to Becky’s office.

Bowen goes up to Becky’s office door and knocks.

“Come in.” Becky yells absentmindedly while she continues to fill out the food truck order for the week. She hears the door open and wondered who wanted her attention. As she looks up from her computer and sees the large smile of Katie in her doorway.

“I change my mind, you can’t come in.” Becky looked back down, continuing to work, hoping Katie would just go away.

“You can’t already be annoyed with me, I haven’t seen you in forever. Also I was only coming to ask you if I could have a job here?” Bowen pleads with Becky.

“How many times do I have to tell you no until you accept that I will not be giving you a job.”

“Until you say yes.” Becky gives Katie a look that she knows mean to leave her alone.

“Ok fine. I’m leaving for now and we can talk about the job thing later.” She hurries up and shuts the door back before Becky can say no again.

“Well I think that went well. Who else is here?” Bowen says cheerfully while following Rowen back into the cafe.

Just then Allie comes from downstairs holding Hannah with Kelley following close behind.

“Come on Hannah. Just one more game?” Kelley pleads.

“Aunt Kel I beat you two whole times.” the four year old emphasis by holding up two fingers.

Sonnett looks up from the order she’s double checking, “Babe, you need to seriously stop challenging Hannah to Jenga. You know you’re just gonna continue to lose and it’s kinda embarrassing. Also aren’t you supposed to be, oh I don’t know, working? We’re about to get busy so I’m going to need help.”

Katie watches the whole interaction as she and Rowen goes over and sits with the twins.

“How did those two even get together?” Bowen asks as she also sits down at the table.

“We really don’t know. We’ve asked but it’s complicated.” Allison answers absentmindedly while scrolling through her phone.

“It’s not complicated, just don't know the truth. We get a different answer every time. Watch.” Axel calls Kelley over.

“Hey bud. How can I help you?” Kelley says as she reaches the table.

“Hey, just wondering, how did you and mom meet?” Axel asks.

“Oh well one day me and Allie were walking our neighbor’s dog because they were out of town and it got off the leash. We were running trying to catch it when it ran into your mom. It was love at first sight.” Kelley finishes as she walk back to the front counter.

“Well that’s a new one. Let’s see what momma says, I texted her to come to the table.” Allison says as she sets her phone down as they wait from Emily.

“What’s up guys? Need something?” Sonnett asks.

“We just have a quick question.” Rowen says.

“Ok shoot.”

“How did you and Kel meet?” Bowen was the one to ask this time.

“Oh. Well, both of us played soccer in high school with Moe and Moe thought we’d be good together and introduced us.”

“EM!” there’s a shout coming from the kitchen.

“I gotta start running orders or Moe is gonna flip. Talk to you cuties later.”

As Emily walks back into the kitchen, the twins give Rowen and Katie a looks that says ‘I told you so’ and go back to their individual tasks.

_____________________________________

Meanwhile, Horan and Sam were hanging out with Mal and Rose for the night.

Since there were four of them there, Sam deemed it the perfect time to teach her friends how to play Dutch Blitz. She would of tried to teach them how to play Sequence but she didn’t want to deal with that and figured the Dutch Blitz was an easier option.

“Guys how many times do I have to tell you that the ones in your Post piles have to go in DESCENDING order.”

“I don’t understand this game.” Lindsey says while holding way more than three cards in her hand.

“This is hopeless.” Sam slumps back on the couch giving up on teaching her friends.

“Yay! Now can we watch Stranger Things?” Mal says as she goes and turns on the Playstation and opening up Netflix before getting a response.

“You guys are actually impossible. Why do I still hang out with you?” Sam says defeated.

Mal responds with, “Sammy, we love you but you’re too smart us to follow sometimes.”

“Like a fun time to you is playing a complicated card game that takes longer to explain than to play. WE think watching a show about children fighting a monster with their Eggo loving alien friend is fun.” Lindsey joins in.

“Yeah. We can’t all finish college like you.” Mal says.

“Or you know, even go to college.” Linds adds.

“Why do you two keep bringing that up like it’s a good thing. I truly don’t understand you two.” Sam shakes her head. “You know Rose at least you finished, and that’s why I like you the most.”

“Honestly, I’m not even offended by that.” Mal shrugges.

“I mean, I wasn’t even that good in college but thanks! I will not disappoint you Samuel. Also I have a question.”

“I have a feeling I don’t want to know so I think it’s best for you to keep it to yourself.”

“No it’s really important. Kinda been thinking about is all night so I really need to know”

“Fine, what do you want to know?”

“Ok so why do you put your two cents in when it’s only a penny for your thoughts?”

Sam gets up off the couch and walks around the apartment gathering her stuff.

“Sam, no, you can’t leave me hanging like this! It’s going to drive me nuts!”

“Google it.” Sam says before walks out of the apartment without saying another word to anyone else in the room.

Chapter Text

It was once again Sunday night and everyone was crowded around the tables in what now seems like a natural order. Rowen pulls up a seat for Bowen where Jane sat last week. About five minutes after everyone has sat down with their food, Jane walks in late as usual.

“Aw man Bo, you really have to take my seat?” Jane wines as she goes to stand behind her.

“Sorry bud, Rowen said I could sit here. Guess you have to find another seat.”

Jane mutters something to herself as she pulls Rowen up by the elbow, sits in her seat and sits Rowen back down on her lap, all the while Rowen is giving Jane her deadliest glare.

“This is only fair.” Jane states while stealing some of Rowen’s food.

“Don’t push it.”

“Damn Row, you been taking notes from Kriegs? That’s her ‘Ashlyn you really messed up this time’ look.” Kling adds in.

Ali shoots the same look at Kling who just shrugged it off.

“Can we just get on with it? Row, who’s your friend?” Kristie wants to get on with the other stories like everyone else does.

“Oh yeah. Everyone who doesn’t know, this is Katie but you can call her Bowen or Bo. She just got traded to the Courage.” Rowen introduces her to everyone while Bowen waves with a mouth full of food.

Kelley laughs at whatever she is been thinking about. “Ha, Rowen and Bowen. That’s good.”

“Oh my god, like Row your Boat, get it? Ro and Bo. Oh or RoBo cop.” Kerr spews her stream of conscious.

“Hey I thought of that first.” Kelley gets mad at Sam.

“Yeah? Well I said it first.” Sam replies and sticks her tongue out at KO.

“Everyone stop fighting or dinner is cancelled.” Alyssa says, tempted to just walk out of the cafe and never come back.

Everyone agrees to behave for the rest of the night.

Cap decides it’s time for everyone to sit down and listen if they want to hear more stories, “Ok so I think we are the last group to go and it’s really a short story.”

“I bet this is going to be good guys.”

“Yeah did you guys meet at a basketball game?”

“Or a cooking class?”

“This cafe?”

“Were you all RAs? You seem like the type to be RAs.”

Everyone was talking at once trying to get their guesses in.

Alyssa had enough of everyone for the evening, “We were all on the intramural soccer team together. That’s how we met. Nothing special about it.” she gets up, grabs her plate, takes it to the kitchen, and leaves out the front door without saying another word.

“I mean, it was a little more exciting than that but yeah what she said.” Carm adds in.

____________________________________

As dinner was about to come to a close, R squared, Mal, Rose, Sam, Horan, Cassius, Jane, and Bowen all get texts from Andi in a group chat called ‘We Out’ with various beach themed emojis. (Text conversation as if reading it from Rowen’s phone)

Wife: We’re i fficially going on vacay! We Out!!!

Babe: can’t wait

$: ^

Mal-lorry: I’ve needed this.

R3: I’ve been packed for the last week.

Kiwi: wait, what’s happening?

Herb: Going to the beach. U in?

Kiwi: Totally.

Kiwi: Linds, who’s the cute girl sitting beside you?

Samuel: Um…

Kiwi: you wish! other side idiot.

The Great Horan: Jessie, she’s been coming to the cafe for awhile now with her group of friends. Doesn’t talk much tho.

Wait, guys. We should probably tell the fam that we’re leaving.

R2: They’ve been staring at all of us for the last 10 minutes.

Wife: Also, Rylie and Reece are in. They’re going to fly back late tomorrow evening and then we can leave from the airport.

Ok cool. We can figure out cars and stuff after we address the other 20+ people sitting at the table looking confused.

_______________________________

“So is there like something you guys wanna tell us or are all of you gonna continue to stare at your phones?” Ashlyn attempts to break the spell everyone is under.

“So you guys know how we’ve been planning this trip for the last couple weeks?” Rowen directs towards her parents.

“No”
“Of course. You guys finally got it all figured out?” Ashlyn and Ali replied at once. Ash gave Ali a confused look but Ali was ignoring her.

“Yup, Andi is in her last class now and we are just going to pick up Reece and Rylie up at the airport tomorrow before we go.”

“Well that looks like my cue to go. Rylie just texted me asking to pack their bathing suits and sunscreen for them.” Cap gets up from the table and takes her plate to the kitchen and as she comes out address the youth again, “I mean you guys seriously couldn’t wait like a couple hours so they could pack their own stuff?”

“Sorry, we want to get a full couple days in.” Lindsey is the only one to address Cap as she is picking up her keys.

“I think we can officially say that dinner for tonight is over. We still have a lot of things to tell you guys if you still want to continue to do these after you guys get back but I’m sure you all want to go and start packing and get ready.” Becky announces to the kids after she instructs them to make sure everyone puts their plates in the dishwasher.

Everyone starts to get up to follow Becky’s orders before they make anyone else mad tonight. Everyone just stands around after all of the real adults leave for R squared to lock up.

________________________

Mal and Rose are sitting in one of the corner booths by themselves trying to figure out how to best go about their new personal mission. They were constantly trying to mess with people or get people together and most of the time it ended with them giving up and only Sam figuring out what they were doing the whole time. This time they were determined to get Jessie and Bowen together.

“Ok I think this plan might actually work because we know that Katie thinks Jessie is cute.” Mal says in an excited but hushed voice.

“I mean it always helps when we know at least one person is into the other. Ok let’s do this.” Rose agrees as both her and Mal walk over to Jessie who is sitting at one of the tall tables waiting for Labbe to be done talking to Kailen so that one of them could give her a ride to her apartment. She knew that she would of been better off just driving herself today but didn’t want to go through the hassle when Kailen was already at her place playing video games with her. She looks up to see Mal and Rose standing on the other side of the table she’s sitting at.

“Hey JFlem.” Mal greets in an overly excited voice for it to be 10 at night.

“Sup guys.”

“We just wanted to know if you wanted to come to the beach with us?” Rose asks as nonchalant as possible and when Jessie takes too long to think about it Mal jumps back in, “I mean we figured you’d rather come with us than have to deal with the Australians for multiple days, especially Sam and Kelley arguing all day.”

“Well when you put it that way why not? Sure, so what’s the plan?” Jessie finally agrees as she is sure it’ll be better than being stuck with two of the most immature adults she has ever met.

“Well we only really know that we are meeting here tomorrow night at about 9 so we can pick up Reece and Rylie from the airport by 10 and then we’re driving through the night to Hilton Head.”

“Why Hilton Head?” Jessie questions at the choice because Myrtle beach is so much closer.

“We went to Myrtle too much as kids so we wanted to change it up. So it’ll be 3 of us driving and we’re going to figure out car arrangements when we leave. You can just park at one of our places or just here.” Rose explains everything that was already planned. “And we’re meeting here early to figure out the whole who’s driving and who’s riding with who thing because as you know it’s only like a 5 minute drive to the airport.” Mal adds in.

Just then Mal and Rose both get a text from the group chat.

Andi: Don’t forget we are going shopping as a group to get snacks for the ride at about 2pm. So that gives everyone time to go back home and finish packing last minute.

Everyone responds with a variety of thumbs up emojis and oks. They pass on this information to Jessie who just says ok, reiterates the plans for tomorrow and heads over to Kailen and Steph who seem to be towards the end of their conversation.

As Jessie approaches the front door after she got Kailen’s car keys, someone steps in her path. She looks up to see Rowen’s friend, she racks her brain trying to remember the girl’s name but before she can continue the slightly taller blond starts to speak.

“Hi I’m Katie.”

“Hey. I’m Jessie.”

“Ha you have a funny accent.”

“You’re one to talk kiwi.”

“I’m surprised that you can tell the difference between a New Zealand and an Australian accent.”

“Well, I unfortunately have spent enough time with the idiot Australians.”

“You’re cute. Wanna go on a date with me?” Bowen asks hopefully.

Jessie doesn’t even answer and walks towards the door.

“So after vacation then?” Bowen half screams across the room.

From their booth Rose and Mal have a clear view of everything that just happened.

“What was that?” Rose directs at the slightly older girl across from her.

“I think it was her attempt at flirting? I mean she did ask her out.” Mal replies just as confused as Rose.

“Yeah she’s definitely going to need our help.”

“Oh yeah.”

_____________________________

Even though it is almost 2pm, everyone that is currently parked at the local Walmart waiting for the rest of the group that looks like they just woke up. The only person who seems like they’re been up for a while is Andi. She rounds up everyone giving each group a different list of things to get so that they could do this in the most efficient way possible.

Even though Rose, Mal and Cassius were in charge of getting sunscreen, Cassius leaves the store to go across the street to stock up on alcohol for the trip while Rose and Mal quickly get distracted in the men’s flannels section because it was summer and they were on sale. At the end of the shopping spree they end up with 14 flannels (one for everyone) that are all slightly similar in color and no sunscreen.

Everyone heads back to the cafe when they get done shopping and moves all of the bags that don’t have cold food in them into Rowen’s car since she’ll be one of the people who drive. They figured it would be best if they take the three biggest cars which leaves Rowen driving her LR4, Cassius driving his truck, and Rose borrowing her parents 4Runner for the trip.

________________________

Later that night, 30 minutes after they were suppose to, everyone shows back up at the cafe with energy drinks, duffle bags, and beach chairs. This was the main reason Andi insisted meeting at 9, she knew no one would be on time.

“Glad everyone finally made it. So Rowen, Cassius, and Rose are driving. Everyone start loading the chairs into the truck while the bags can go in the SUVs. We need to get moving and we still have to organize who’s riding with who.” Andi tries to get everyone moving.

“Oh. Mal, Linds, Katie, and Jessie are riding with me.” Rose speaks up so that she and Mal can continue to work on their plan to get Bowen and Jessie together. They decide to get Lindsey to ride with them as well to act as a buffer and the fact that she’s their friend and has no idea what they’re planning.

“Why did I agree to this again?” Jessie asks no one in particular as she puts her bag in Rose’s car.

“Ok then I’m taking Reid, Rhys, and Sam.” Cassius decides these are his best options and he trusts Reid to take over driving duty at some point.

“Cool, so it’ll be me, Jane, Reece, and Rylie riding with Rowen. Let’s finish getting packed up and go, Rylie just texted and said they’ve landed.”

Everyone loads into the cars and sets off to pick up the last two members of their vacation