Episode : Hold, Please

Outfit :

! ¡ ! ¡ ! ¡ !

In the Alvarez house, holding music plays on the phone, with Penelope folding clothes as she eats her Cheeto puffs.

She was calling for the VA because her shoulder was in crucial pain.

"Abuelita, give me back my yearbook!" Elena shouts, as her grandmother runs with the school book on her hands, to the living room.

"Your quinces is around the corner, and we need to pick a boy to be your escort." The elderly woman tells the girl.

"There's no one in here. I just-"
"Then use your phone and Chapsmat somebody."
"You don't understand social media. Abuelita-"

"No, no, no. Of course I do. All you have to do is find a boy and twat at him."
"I hope you mean 'tweet'?"
"'Twat,' 'tweet.' Same thing."

"Not the same thing, Mami." Penelope joins the conversation. "Can you guys go fight somewhere else? I'm on hold with the VA."

"Okay, but Elena had to pick an escort by today! Or we will not have enough time to prepare."

"But I wanna go to the street fair... and my quinces his two months away!" Elena points out.

"Jajaja. Qúe funny!" Lydia mocked. "We still have to pick the other 14 members of the court. We have to choreograph the dances. We have to pick the weakest dancers and out them in the back and out a curtain in front of them. Elena, pick by the end of the day, or your escort will be Cousin Orencio."

"Cousin Orencio smells like a Dorito that died in a pool or Axe body spray." The girl tells her. "Good luck getting him out of Tía Mimi's basement."

Lydia saw this as a dare, so she marched to the phone, which Penelope was quick to protect.

"Don't touch that phone!"
Penelope, though, pulled it, making the pain worsen with a welp. "Elena. Just take the yearbook and pick somebody."

"Fine!" The girl grabbed the book and went to her room.

The grandmother sighs, "It should be fun! Pick whoever you want. As long as he is a dancer, and he is Cuban, and he is handsome, and I'm coming in."

Lydia left to go to Elena.
Penelope was again at peace, til the door knocked.
The woman got up and opens it.

"Alvarez, let's go! There's a street fair downstairs." Jill comes in, excited. "Beer, food... this!" She pulls out a toy sword that light up and made noise with movement.

"Did you buy that?" The mom asked.

"I won it... after spending 40 bucks at the ring toss." The friend noticed something. "Wait, are you still on hold with the VA?"

"No! I got right through."
The two women laughed at the joke.

"Wait, can I leave this up here for safekeeping?"
"Who's gonna steal that?"
"Schneider."
"Hide it in my mom's room."

As the woman did, the nurse explains, "Anyway, I can't go. Today's the day I finally get through to Jolene. She's my white whale. My Bigfoot. My meal cook by my mother using no pork products of any kind."

"Hey, I served. I get it. But I try to never deal with the VA. I stopped calling them about my punctured eardrum."

"That seems like a bad plan."
"Oh, thanks. I got it on sale." She refers to her dress.

Penelope tried to shout, "I'll see you down... Yeah, she can't hear me."

A woman on the phone started to speak, " Pain Management Department. Last name and last four digits of your social-
"

"Alvarez, 229-" Clumsily, Penelope fumbles the phone and dropped it. "A-Are you-Are you there? Say something."

" Please hold. "
"Not that!"

"Hi."
"Hey."
"Hey, Ms. Alvarez."
Alex, Andrea, and Finn comes in the room.

"Hey, guys. How was baseball?"

"Terrible!" Schneider exclaimed. "I mean, they played great. But my snack game was way off! The kids barley touched my black olive tapenade."

"Thanks for helping out," The mom tells him. "but maybe next time pick a food a kid would wanna eat... or has heard of."

"Yeah, and maybe next time, don't hand out masks with some random kid's face on it." Andrea tells the handyman, signaling up the big mask that had Alex's face on it.

"Cute, but creepy." She adds in, earning a good smile from Alex.

The kids all stood by the counter, as Andrea grabbed an apple for a snack, yet touched hands with Finn.
The boy smiles charmingly at the girl, which made Alex have a complexed expression that change into a happy one, seeing Andrea roll her eyes at Finn.

Lydia then comes in the room and groans, then gave an exaggerated whimper, and did it again-

"What, mami?" Alvarez snaps.

"Your daughter is so dramatic. No puedo más."

"Mami, don't worry, she will pick someone." Penelope then gave a groan.

"You okay, mom?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. I just need to talk to Jolene and get my shoulder squared away."

"Here," Lydia pulls out painkillers from the table, "take one of your pain pills."

"I thought you don't want me to take 'las drogas'?"

"The pain is your body is real. The pain in your mind is in your head."

As the woman takes the pill, Finn was curious when he sat down at the table.
"What happened, Ms. Alvarez?"

"It's nothing, Finn."

"Hey, don't be so modest. She jacked her shoulder up in Afghanistan, being a hero." Schneider informs, while Andrea and Alex at the table too, with the girl eating her fruit.

"'Hero?'" The woman scoffs, but automatically sat down next to Finn to explain. "Kabul, 2004. I was assisting in surgery when a mortar hit close to the OR. The blast caused a pallet of surgical gloves to fall on my shoulder. The last part is not as impressive. But still, it is a war wound."

"Well..." Finn stood up and saluted, "I thank you for your service, Ms. Alvarez."

"Yeah, don't do that."

"So," Alex spoke up, "Can we have some money for the fair?"

"Sure. Grab ten bucks from my purse."

The two boys then had a displeasing expression, while Andrea continued to eat her apple.
That reminded of Andrea to grab herself some money... at her house.

Alex then groans and sighs like what Lydia did, after his third attempt, Penelope turns to him.

"What, papito?"

He explains, "Well, it's just we need at least 20 to do anything fun. But it's okay." He pulls out his sad puppy eyes. "We can watch the other kids have a good time."

"That sounds great. You don't even need the ten dollars."

"Okay, we'll take the ten!" Andrea gets up, with the boys following her.

"Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Guys don't go anywhere. I have kind of an exciting announcement." Schneider calls out to everyone in the room.

"Something went terribly wrong in your adult diaper?" The mom jokingly guessed, looking at his baggy sweatpants.

"It's athleisure wear." He corrects. "But the good news is, after months of planning, the members of my college band have finally put aside our differences... and we're reuniting to play at the fair this afternoon."

No one said a word.

Everyone just stared at Schneider, unimpressed, until Andrea notice the silence and clapped so it wouldn't be that awkward.

"Thank you. But for the rest of you peeps, maybe this will entice you."

Schneider then puts on his sailor cap on, and still, no one seems to care.

"Nope." Penelope deadlines.

"Well, it should, because my band, Full Sail, plays yacht rock."

"Que es el yacht rock?" Lydia asked.

"Mami, don't ask-"

"Yacht rock..." Schneider swoops in. "is the easy listening music, but even easier to listen to. It's cool, but not too cool. Soulful, but not too soulful."

"I'm excited, but not too excited." The nurse tells herself as a joke.

"They pay you, right?" Andrea crosses her arms.

"Oh no, I had to grease a few palms to make it happen." The handyman answers.

"So basically you're paying them?"
"I don't want to get into the economics of it."

As Schneider continues, the three kids walked toward the door, with Alex grabbing the 10 dollars.

"But this guys are really important to me. These guys were like family. I used to show up at their dorm rooms unannounced and just hang out for hours and hours and hours."

"I can't imagine what that would feel like." Penelope sarcastically spoke.

" Hello? " The phone speaks.

Penelope quickly shushed everyone up, having them leave the house.

"Yeah, I'm here. Did you find Jolene?" Penelope asked the phone.

" Just one more question, ma'am. "
"Sure. Anything."
" Was that 'Phillips' with a 'P', or 'Fillips' with an 'F'? "

"What? Alvarez! With an 'A'!" The veteran shouts.

" Hold, please. "
Then the dial tone hums.

"Wait, wait. Hello? Hello?"

¡

"Could you guys stop being impatient. I'm grabbing my money." Andrea tells the boys, as they all walk to her apartment.

"At least hurry up, everyone is already down by the food stands." Finn tells her, making the girl want to punch him 10x times hard.

Andrea quickly ran into her house and went to her room.
She grabbed her purse that had held her 20 bucks. As she was walking out to the front door, in the kitchen, her father looked at his daughter in confusion.

"Are you going to Alex's again?" He asked.

The girl stopped herself and avoiding eye contact with her dad as she answers, "A-Alex and I are going to the fair, with F-Finn and Maddie, you know then rest of them."

"Oh, well, have fun. By the way, your mom is picking up some fast food tonight, so text her whatever you want."

Andrea nodded and quickly left and to the front door.

For the past week, it had been hard to be in the same room as her dad.
She felt guilt, really guilt.
She wanted to tell him about the affair, about how Becca was literally making her keep her secret.

But, she couldn't.

If she did, she'd be ruining her family. She would basically be breaking whatever was left of their love for them all.

As the brunette was about to open the door, Becca stopped her, by whistling to grab her attention.

The adopted cuban-mexican sighs as she makes her way over to her mom.

"Keep up the good work." Becca whispers, sneakily giving something in Andrea's hand.

The girl looked closely to see a 20 dollar bill in her hands. She crunched the bill in her fist and gave the mom a distasteful look, before walking away and joining the boys, who was impatiently waiting for her outside.

¡

Penelope was eating her Cheeto Puffs relaxingly. She was done folding laundry and just was trying to pass the time.

" Did you know that over 40% of trips to the emergency room are caused by preventable accidents? " The automatic robotic voice gave trivia.

"That seems high."

Suddenly, Lydia, Berkowitz, and an injured Schneider came into the house.

"What happened?" The mom asked.

"It was a totally preventable accident!" Schneider calls out. "We were setting up for the show and our keytarist threw a decorative anchor at me."

"Okay, I'm sorry you're hurt, but it sounds like I missed the best part of your show."

"This is why Full Sail broke up in the first place. Too many passionate personalities. I wanted to open with Toto. Skip wanted to open with Steely Dan." The handyman explains.

"Oh, you can't open with the Dan. They're dangerously smooth." Berkowitz comments.

"What are you doing here, Doc? Why aren't you at work?" Penelope asked her boss.

"What? Who, me? Well... you know, I always love a good street fair. And-And since you took a half day off of work, I thought... maybe I should, too. YOLO! It stands for, 'You Only Live Once.'"

"But why didn't you tell me you were gonna be here when I saw you earlier?"

"What's with all the questions?" Lydia tried to cover up."Is this Castro's Cuba or America?"

"You-You know I could take a look at that eye for you myself, but there was a lot of second-hand doobie smoke at that fair and, uh... I worry that I may have a bit of a contact high." Berkowitz tells Schneider.

Penelope has to play a bit of doctor for a moment. "Here. Let me see. Is that glitter?"

"It's called 'stage sparkle'. Can you please just get it out?" Schneider asked.

"If I had a magnifying glass, I could probably get it out."
"Oh, I have one in my costume trunk. Halloween box. Tool kit—Man's tool kit."

Penelope quickly left to go and patch up Schneider, while Lydia was left to look at the phone with Berkowitz.

Lydia and Leslie were left alone, in complete utter awkward silence.

" Remember to self-screen for testicular cancer. " The phone spoke trivia.

"Good advice." The doctor comments.

"My husband always asked me to check for him." Lydia smirked to herself. "Daily."

"So, um... Thanks for inviting me to the fair. You don't think Penelope suspects that we went together? Or am I just paranoid from all that grass?" Berkowitz asked. "I don't want her to think that we were on a date or something."

Lydia laughed, "No, she wouldn't think that. It'd be ridiculous."

"Well, ridiculous is a little strong, but... Lydia... you were so wonderful to me at my birthday party. And I would just be very happy if we could continue whatever this is."

Ironically, romantic holding music plays.

Lydia tried to spice things up. "Can I make you a café cubano?"

"Sí, por favor." The doctor spoke, in the foreign language. "Rosetta Stone."

When Lydia got up to make the coffee, a device beeped for Lydia.

"Oh, espere. It's time to make my pills." She says, pulling out a long pills case from her purse.

"Actually, I'm glad you reminded me." He said, pulling out his pills case from his fanny pack.

As the doctor sat down, Lydia poured water for them seductively, before sitting down beside him in the table.

"So... here is to Vitamin D." The woman holds up her pill.

"Vitamin D." He copies her.

They both take their pill and pulled out their other pill.

"And, uh, estrogen replacement... to keep me young."
"For my cholesterol... so I don't die."

Before the two could take the medicine, Penelope walks in.

"What's going on here?"

"Nothing! We're taking drugs." Lydia spat, in a hurry for a cover up.

¡

Andrea had wasn't really feeling the fair.

After what her mom did, her whole mood changed.
As a whole group with Alex and the boys and Andrea with the girls, they split up for a bit.

When Maddie and Casey were heading to the photo booth, Andrea would've gone, but she just was out of it.
When the girls wanted to go on the carousel and the ferris wheel, Andrea tried to make herself smile and enjoy her time... but there were times in the middle where she would just engulf herself in that guilt she had.

The Hinojosa was just eating a small soft pretzel in a table, as the girls were trying to win a stuffed panda.
She was alone until her best friend came.

"Hey," Alex greets, sitting up on the table. "What's up? Maddie was saying that you didn't feel so good."

"Y-Yeah, I just..."

Andrea did not want Alex to know anything about this.

"I feel a bit sick, kinda light-headed. I should just head home-"

"What? But you've been waiting for this for the past few days! I remember you clearly saying that you wanted to win a stuff animal, so I could be checked off your bucket list."

"Well, I suck at all these games, and besides they're rigged. But, seriously, I'm gonna head back."

Alex gave his disappointed look. "Okay, do you want me to walk with you?"

"No, no. You should stay, I'll cal-"

Andrea searched her purse, then her pockets, and everywhere on her.

"Crap, I forgot my phone at your house. I'll go get it."

"Let me-"
"Don't worry about me, I'll FaceTime you when I found it. Take my tickets, go win one of those cool swords."

"Drea, what's the-"

"I'm fine, Alex! Just go with Finn and then, geez." Andrea snaps.

She quickly bolted out there.
The girl felt bad for leaving her friends, especially to Alex, but she just wasn't ready.

What she was starting to realize is that, her secret was absolutely destroying her inside.
That alone was making her become quiet, reactive, and overall not herself.

She felt like this secret she was keeping wasn't going to be a secret no longer.

! ¡ ! ¡ ! ¡ !

Translation/Meaning

"No puedo más." - "I can not anymore."
las drogas - the drugs
que es el - what is the
espere - wait/hold

A/N

For all you wondering,
Meet Becca Wilkins

played by Amanda Peet
and Don Wilkins

played by Mark Wahlberg