Episode : Quinces
Outfit :

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"Eh?"

Penelope and Elena were sitting down, looking at the small jeweled crown the quince girl was wearing on her head.

The teenager states, "Mom, a tiara is a backward symbol of how women are only valued for their beauty. And now that I'm wearing one... I don't care. I look awesome. And it's super sparkly!"

The two shrieked in happiness.
The days were getting closer and closer to Elena's quinces, the birthday that the year was leading up to.

"I'm so glad you like it. Cause tomorrow's your quinces, and your only job is to be happy," Penelope smiles, before turning around to her crew, "Listen up, grunts."

The crew was only a total of five: Lydia, Schneider, Alex, Andrea, and Don.
The Wilkins man wanted to help, it was the least he could do after everything they've done for Andrea. Of course, he didn't know what he put himself into.

"In 55 minutes, we have the final venue walkthrough. And you hear that rumble? Oh, yeah. That's the wouldn't of 183 Cubans arriving in Los Angeles. 17 of whom will be staying in this room."

"Er," The landlord warns, "fire code-wise, I don't think that's gonna——"

"Shut it!" She gets down on the man's face. "I am going on no sleep and five Cuban coffees. Do you really want to mess with me right now?"

"No, ma'am," He answers, softly out of fear.

"Is she usually like this?" Don asked the two kids.

"Of course not," The girl answers.

"She's always like this," Alex comments, earning a shove from his friend.

"Don, Schneider. As the two transpo you guys have one job. Get the Cubans to and from the airport. I hope you brushed up on your Spanish," The mom orders.

"Claro que sí," The glassed man says, right before Penelope gave a sentence in Spanish, to which he replied with the same words.

"Okay, downloading Duolingo," The Wilkins man speaks, already pulling out his phone.

"I want it on the record that your tone is very annoying," Lydia tells her daughter.

The Alvarez scoffs, "Okay. You're kidding me, right? The day of my quinces, you screamed at Tia Mirtha because she brought hot pink balloons instead of fuchsia."

"Fuchsia is a royal color! Hot pink is what a girl wears on a spring break, before flashing her tetas."

The two of them argued in Spanish, which the two men had no idea what was going on, as the two kids were staring in slight amusement.

"Oye, why aren't you two documenting this?"

Yes, Penelope gave the two kids the job of savoring the moments of the quince event.
Alex is supposed to record, Andrea photographs.

"You want us to film and picture you two arguing?" asked the Hinojosa.

"We have hours of that. In here." Alex refers to their brains.

Lydia changes the subject. "Elena, your dress is in the closet. If you should happen to find a straightjacket there, please bring it out here, for your crazy mami."

The two kids both followed Elena as she went to go see her dress.
The three of them entered the room, to the closet, and saw it.

It was a beautiful white ballgown.
Andrea knew the girl would look like an absolute princess in it.
When looking at Elena, she gave a neat smile, not of excitement or adoration, but out of loveliness, a simple look.

"Do you like it?" Andrea questioned.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" The teen says, setting it down on her bed to try on.

"Come on, Andrea and I watched Say Yes to the Dress with Abuelita, this isn't usually the reaction girls have on having the dress," Alex explained.

"Hey, Abuelita worked hard on this dress. I will wear this and I will like it, no matter what. Besides, it's not a bad dress it's literally so pretty."

The two kids looked at each other, knowing that the dress wasn't all that Elena liked.
Yes, she was willing to wear it and like it, but she didn't love it, which is quite a deal since they are dealing with Lydia.

Meanwhile, Penelope states, "First arrivals are in 42 minutes. And Don, Schneider, I'm sorry that I'm in hyper-focus bitch mode, but really... thank you so much for doing this."

Giving the thanks and welcomes, the two men must hurry to the airport to await the arrival of all the Alvarez family and start their jobs.

Lydia looks to her daughter, scolding silently for her attitude toward the entire event.

"I just... Mami, I really need this all to go perfectly. Elena's been through so much this year," Pen says, "I mean, the divorce, she came out to us, her creepy little goth friend moved away."

"Ah, pobrecita Carmen."

"So whatever Elena wants for her quinces, she gets. Tres leches cake? I got you. All white flowers? I got you. Tables names after famous feminists? I had to do a lot of googling, but, Elena, I got you."

There Penelope looked to the board filled with names and pictures. "And look at this seating chart. What! I mean, I'm a humble woman, but that's art there."

"And that reminds me, Victor's cousin Macho is bringing his girlfriend."

"Mami, we said no girlfriends."
"Apparently, they are in love."
Of course, Lydia circled her stomach, saying that the girlfriend was pregnant.

"Okay." The woman scanned the board like a robot cracking a code. "Fine, I got it. We're gonna move you to the Frida Khalo table, and the Oprah Winfrey table will go from eight seats to ten. You get a seat! You get a seat! Everybody gets a seat!"

"So... how are you feeling about... Victor?"

"Fine. Yeah, fine, and I have to thank for it. Between growing up Cuban and Catholic, I've got everything pushed way down.

"Your welcome, mija," She smiles, proudly.

"Anyway, Victor knows I don't want to see him until the quinces. And the kids still think he's staying at Schneider's because your bed hurt his back."

Finally, Elena and the kids come in. The two older women complimented and praised in Spanish of the girl in white.
The camera played and the flashes were taking of the moment.

"Thank you so much, Abuelita. It's beautiful," Elena says.

"What's wrong with it?" The grandmother gave a monotone voice.

"Nothing. I'm happy, I'm smiling."

"Exactly. You are not sobbing with joy. I have failed you. I have failed my family. I have failed Cuba." The woman turns directly to the video camera.

¡

It became the time that the venue was ready to be checked out. The venue planner guided the family to their room.

"Everything is all set for tomorrow. And I just want to say, you have chosen a perfect ballroom," The lady greets.

Suddenly, Dr. Leslie came in.
"Penelope. This place is an acoustical nightmare."

"Doc, what are you doing here?" questioned the nurse.

"Practicing my toast, duh."

"Oh. The toast is kinda my thing. So maybe you don't speak."

"Don't worry, Leslie," Lydia jumps in, "Elena's quinces is going to be a very special day for everyone."

The older woman was absolutely flirting with the man, fiddling with his shirt, giving the mother a shudder.

She then noticed that Alex was leading the camera to them. "No. Don't film that."

As they all walked away, Andrea says to Alex, "I can't wait for tomorrow. It's gonna be great."

"Yeah, yeah. While you're in your world of pretty butterflies and all, I'm gonna be miserable, in a stupid suit and tie."

"Ah, come on. I think a suit and tie would like quite cute on you."

As soon as the sentence left her lips, the boy's cheeks flushed with red, having him move away from the girl, giggling to himself like a schoolgirl.

"Why are you so giggly?" Elena raised a brow to her brother.

"Andrea called me cute," The boy states, "But don't you dare say anything about this!"

Yes, Elena knew her brother had a crush. It was very obvious from the two kids, the teenager didn't mind them at all if they were a couple; she actually did like the idea.

"Excuse me. Where is the dance floor?" Lydia asked the planner.

"Um, you're standing on it."

Seeing that it was just basically four large squares of hardwood, Lydia exclaimed, judgingly, "Are you kidding me? I have relatives who escaped from Cuba on a raft bigger than this."

Penelope asked the planner for a bigger dance floor, which someone spoke, "Give the lady a bigger floor."

All three kids quickly hugged the man, which turned out to be Victor, as Penelope had to quickly prepare herself for his sudden appearance.

"You're here," The mother says to the man.

"Yeah. I asked Papi to come so we could practice our father-daughter dance," clarifies Elena, "We have to do something really good to distract the audience because the song is super cheesy."

Lydia plays the song, as the sighs to the artist's name, in admiration and affection.

"Let them do that," Pen says to her mom, "You help me sneak in the booze we bought at Costco. Come on."

As all the people left, leaving just Victor and Elena, the two danced to the Spanish music.

"Don't worry. I found. more modern version for us to dance to," The girl awakes.

"Oh, I kinda like this one."
"Me, too."

"It's about, uh, how you look away for a second and you turn back and... your little girl's all grown up. It's actually getting to me."

As the two dances, the more and more Elena felt like telling him, the courage she had, she knew that it was the right moment.

"Papi, I want to tell you something."

"That I'm the greatest dancer you've ever seen? I know."

"That, and... I have grown up. And I've learned a lot about myself since you've been gone. And I've changed. Well, not 'changed', but, um... I'm gay."

The man starts to chuckle, "Yeah, and you're pregnant, too, right? Let's do all the shockers."

This wasn't how it was supposed to be...

"No," Elena stammers, stopping the dance, "Papi, I'm—I'm serious. I came out while you were gone and I was just waiting for the right time to tell you."

"I don't understand. Why are you doing this?" He scoffs.

"Okay, so this wasn't the right time. Just don't be mad."

"No, I'm not mad. You're just confused. I mean, you're 15. You don't know what the hell you're talking about."

The music stops. The two latinos turn to see Penelope entered.
"What's going on?"

"I told him," Elena says, with her face to the ground.

"Did you know about this?" He asked, with venom ready to be fired.

"Yeah," Penelope answers.

When Elena left the parents to talk, Victor quickly exclaimed, "Are you indulging whatever this is?"

"Uh, you mean supporting our daughter? Yeah, I am."

"No. She's not... She's not that way, okay? I've been gone for a year. What the hell's been going on here?"

"Look I didn't know she was gonna tell you, but now that she did, you're gonna have to figure out a way to be okay with it."

"No, I don't have to be okay with anything. She's mixed up, and you're her mother," He spat, "You aren't even trying to talk some sense into her?

"That's not how this works," She disagreed.

"Oh, so we're all just supposed to pretend like this is cool? Because it's not. All right? It's not."

The man left, as Penelope expected.
It was pure disbelief that she displayed, as Elena walked in to try and excuse her father's behavior.

"It's my fault. I kind of ambushed him and it's..."

All that the mother did was hug her daughter and comforted her. "You didn't do anything wrong, baby."

"Kinda worried he's not gonna come."

"What? No, no. He just needs a minute. He's not good with change. You should have seen him the first time he saw me without makeup. Whoa! 'Who are you right now?' 'Why don't you have eyebrows?'"

Though Penelope tried her best to try and comfort her out of humor, it still won't fully cover up the guilt and abandonment Elena could feel inside her, especially if it could come from her own father.

¡

For the Alvarez family came to the airport, the two men waited for them, even had a nice chat.

"I'm glad you're helping out, man. I thought you weren't gonna show up at all," Schneider honestly spoke.

"Yeah, I wasn't going to, but I couldn't say no to Andrea when she asked," Don answers, "Can you be honest with me?"

"Sure. What's up?"
"How is Andrea holding on with that... divorce?"

"Oh, man. I don't know if I should be the one you want to talk to... Why don't you ask her yourself?"

"Because you and I both know she will only say the answers I want to hear because she wants everyone around her to be happy. I want to know what I can do to help."

Schneider sighs to himself, "Okay, well. She's not holding on well. She saw the text that Becca sends you, about getting back together. It's screwing with her, she thinks you are just gonna leave her."

"Why would I leave her——"

"Because Andrea is, like, vulnerable. I mean, she saw her bio-mom, found out she has a half-brother, this entire divorce."

Don knew how much Andrea had been through, but he never processed it.
To experience so much, at 13, he couldn't imagine even putting on a smile to his face if he was in his position.

"Andrea needs to learn to process this, slowly. You just need to help her with that."

"But how?"

"You can always start by being there for your kid. Wish my dad did that for me."

"Really?" mutters the Wilkins man.

"I'm just saying, from my experience, a parent being there for a child is one hell of a gold star in my book. And, no one said parenting is a rule book. Parents make mistakes too, don't you forgot it."

Don looked to their landlord and couldn't help but applaud him.
Despite his childish manner, he could actually become a good family figure; he seems to be a pretty good man.

"Do you wanna be a beer sometime?" The man asked.

Schneider gasped, "Really? Like really, really?"

"You're not a bad man. I admire a guy who has a good heart, not like you meet a lot of people like that."

"Well, what can I say? When you reach my age, you will become kinder and wiser, like home man Morgan Freeman."

"You know I'm older than you right?"
"What kind of Paul Rudd-Mark Wahlberg water are you taking without me?"

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Translation/Meaning

"Claro que sí" - "Yes of course"

pobrecita - poor deer