Stella and Janie are sitting at the table while August makes breakfast and Cordell walks out.

"Morning, kiddos." Cordell greets before seeing August cooking. "Whoa. That looks uh, uh, ambitious. Is this a..." he picks the tool up. "A blowtorch?"

"Relax, I'm supervising." Stella says.

"Yeah, she can do so much with her nose buried in her phone." Janie says sarcastically and Stella gives her a fake smile.

"That is a hot skillet." August tells his dad who just tried to grab the skillet.

"Ah, mm-hmm, ah. Yeah, it is." Cordell agrees.

"And even hotter pancakes. I put some of Mawline's spicy jam in there." August states as Cordell gets a beer can to hold to help with the burn.

"Are they still camping?" Stella asks.

"Um, my best guess is they've probably checked into the Driskill Hotel by now. Uh, Stella, by the way, they wanted me to tell you good luck. And, sweetie? Your Laredo game, I'm--"

"I'm gonna try my best to make it to the game." Stella imitates him.

"Yes." Cordell nods.

"Clean your room. Hey, that skirt's too short." She continues.

"Ugh, dad." Cordell imitates Stella.

"Hey, if you can't make it to the game, uh, I can just show it to you when we get back from Laredo. I'm filming it with Ruby." August says.

"Ruby? This the same Ruby that told you to crash my undercover operation?" Cordell asks.

"She didn't tell me to." August states.

"Well, maybe not exactly, but she did say to give him an earful which happened to be when daddy dearest wasn't daddy dearest." Janie says.

"Which means she didn't tell me to." August says. "So, anyways, we are supposed to be filming the dance next Friday. But I'm, uh, I'm thinking about asking her to go."

"Yeah?" Cordell asks and August nods. Cordell and Stella look at each other.

"You don't think she'll say yes?" August asks.

"I think that is a tricky question." Stella says. "Can we talk about something simpler? Like gun control? Or dad's DPS hearing?" Cordell chuckles while Janie lightly kicks her sister in the leg.

"Wow. Very funny. You're out of luck on that one. It was postponed. Uh, which I do have to check on. Uh, Augie... be careful." He motions to the stove and blowtorch.

"All right." August says.

"Stella, sweetie, you'll be great." Cordell kisses his oldest on the head. "And, uh, Janie..."

"Bye?" She gives him an option to say.

"Yeah, bye." He kisses her on the head. "Oh, and don't let your brother accidentally kill himself."

"Yes, sir." She mockingly salutes.

"I'll see y'all soon." Cordell leaves.

"You weird smile when you text him." August tells Stella.

"No, I don't." Stella denies.

"Yes, you do." Janie argues as August scoffs.

"Shut up." Stella tells them.

Janie gets up and stands on the opposite side of the island from August and she grabs one of the already cooked pancakes.

"Wha--"

"You're taking too long. I'm hungry." Janie states.

August rolls his eyes and pours batter on the skillet before standing across from her.

"Do you think I have a shot?" He asks and Janie looks at him confused. "With Ruby? Will she say yes?"

"Augs, you'll be fine." Janie assures him. "Just... ask her and if she says no, then... it's her loss."

"Really?" August asks.

"Do you want me to say something else?" Janie asks. "I'm not promising you she'll say yes, but that's not because you're not, you know... dateable or whatever. Just... don't get your hopes up too high, I guess."

August sighs.

"Am I no longer your "camera assistant" now?" Janie asks, them having come up with the position of camera assistant so she could take the bus to the game.

"No, you're fine." August tells her.

+++

"Hey, Ruby. Check this out." August says, walking over to her. Janie looks over and is in hearing distance of them, so she pretends not to pay attention, but still listens in.

"Hey, you brought the big guns." Ruby grins.

"Yep. Oh, so I was actually thinking... for the dance we're supposed to cover next week, if, uh, I could..." he stops as a guy wraps his arm around Ruby's shoulders.

"Oh, hey. Perfect timing." Ruby smiles. "This is our newest AV member. Todd, August was just talking about the dance next week."

"Ahh, same one I'm taking you to, Rubes?" Todd asks.

"Yeah." Ruby nods.

Janie winces.

"Yeah, uh, I was just going to say that I could film it alone, so that you guys could go to the dance together." August says.

"Uh, excuse me?" Janie feels a gentle tap on her shoulder making her turn around. "Hi." The guy awkwardly smiles. "Sorry, you're just kind of, uh, blocking the way."

"Oh!" Janie realizes. "Sorry." She sheepishly steps aside, letting him get to the bus to put his bags in.

"No problem." The guy says, putting his stuff up. "I'm Flynn."

"Janie." She shakes his hand. "You don't look like you would be on the girls' soccer team."

"Yeah, no, I'm, uh, in the AV club." Flynn tells her.

"Oh. yeah, I, uh, I think August has mentioned you a few times." Janie says.

"Well, I just joined AV club, but, uh, August and I hang out sometimes, yeah. Kind of those in school friend things." Flynn says.

"Right." Janie smiles.

"Yeah." Flynn nods. "Go technology!" He quietly cheers making Janie smile a little. "And my sister's on the team, so not just here for the cameras."

"That would make two of us." Janie says.

"Oh, AV club?" He asks.

"No, uh, camera assistant." Janie says and Flynn looks confused.

"Uh, I... don't think that's a thing." Flynn says.

"It's not. We just wanted a reason for me to be on the bus." Janie says. "My brother and his, uh... friend are filming it or whatever. I guess you might, too, technically."

"Yeah, uh, well--"

"All right, let's go!" Trey yells.

"That would be our cue." Flynn says.

+++

They get to the hotel and Flynn is trailing behind August and Trevor and Janie is walking by August since Trey is letting them share a room.

Janie tunes the conversation out while being on her phone until they stop.

"How do I get a girl to like me?" August asks Trevor.

"Oh, man, I can teach you how to get a girl to like you, little guy." Todd says.

"Dude, we are literally the same height." August says.

"He actually might be taller." Flynn says, pointing to August.

"We're at a place with a pool. This calls for the UV-13 method." Todd says, putting his sunglasses on.

"Okay, but it's, like, freezing outside." August says.

"Yeah, no one's swimming." Janie says.

"Whatever." Todd says loudly, slightly cutting the girl off. "The point is there are vacation vibes. Works indoors, too. So when you're downstairs vibing by the pool, or not the pool, make sure to find that right light angle. From the sun, or the bulb. Either works. And how does one do that, you ask?"

"We didn't." Trevor says.

"No one." Janie and Flynn state at the same time.

"42 degrees. That's the angle deviation from the light's incoming rays and it looks kickass when it hits your shades." Todd says.

"Okay, Billy, is that even true?" August asks.

"Nobody should wear shades indoors." Trevor says.

"Yeah, only people who do that are douchebags." Janie states.

"It's physics. Of course it's true." Todd states, taking his shades off, and ignoring the other statements. "So, find that exact angle and walk 13% slower than you normally do. Girls won't be able to tell, which makes it the perfect slo-mo walk."

"Right. But, like, that's not something that I-I would usually do." August says.

"So?" Todd asks.

"So? I mean, what's the point of doing it if it's not the real me?" August asks.

They eventually leave and the twins make the way to their room.

"Oh, and by the way, if you walk 13% slower and act like an idiot, I will kill you." Janie says, opening the door after August unlocked it.

+++

They get to Thirsty Balls and Janie sees Bel and August talking while her and Flynn are talking with his sister and some of her friends.

"I see you chose being yourself." Trevor tells August, walking up to him.

"Yeah, well, I mean it's kind of hard to catch that 42 degrees of sunlight when it's cloudy out right now. I mean, besides, the only people who wear sunglasses indoors are idiots." August says and Trevor nods in agreement.

"Todd." Trevor says as they watch said guy dance in the goal.

"Yeah." August nods. "Plus, Janie also threatened to kill me if I did it and I do happen to enjoy living."

+++

It's nighttime now and the team and Todd are playing soccer. Trevor, August, Flynn, and Janie are standing by and watching while August films. Janie is standing closer to the field since she played a couple of times, but she stopped a bit ago and just stayed close.

Suddenly, 4 or 5 trucks pull up and circle the team making them huddle up. Janie flinches when one of the drivers drives behind her and touches her back before slightly pulling on her hair.

"Hey, pretty little thing." The guy smirks before circling some more. Janie grimaces, knowing the man is at least in his 30s.

"Hey, uh, is this apart of Thirsty Balls? I-I never played the game before." August says, looking through the camera lens. When the trucks start slowing down and come to a stop, Trevor throws his cup down and marches over.

August and Flynn follow him, trailing a bit.

"Ah. Why'd you stop? We came to play." One guy says as they all stand around their trucks.

"We were just leaving." Trevor tells him, standing a few feet in front of all the other kids. Flynn and August stand by the team, Flynn going to his sister.

August goes over to Janie and grabs her wrist, dragging her to the team, too. Janie gets her wrist out of his grip only to hold his hand, her anxiety skyrocketing.

"Oh, don't be a buzzkill. You see, this is Northside Nation land and we didn't get a party invite. So, if you leave, well, I got to collect the field fee. Them's the rules."

"We don't got nothing to pay with so we're just gonna go." Trevor tells him.

"Ah." The guy hums, looking at the team before he looks at Janie. "You got plenty to pay with."

August glares at him and his grip on Janie's hand tightens protectively.

"Listen. I get it. If I was your age and still lived with my parents I wouldn't want to go home, either." Trevor says and the men laugh and ooh.

"Brass balls on this one, huh?" The guy laughs. "I got an idea. Let's play for it. If any one of you can score on me, we'll leave." He says while walking by them. He passes the twins, his eyes staying on Janie and August steps to the side, making Janie be completely behind him, their hands going behind his back so the guy has no access to her.

As he is now in front of the goal, the team turned and spaced out slightly and Janie stands next to August, holding onto his arm with her free hand.

"Who can score on me?" The guy asks. He looks at Janie. "What about the pretty, little thing?" He asks, glancing over her.

Both twins tighten their grip, August out of protectiveness, and Janie out of fear.

"I can." Stella states after looking away from her younger siblings.

"Stella.." Bel tries to stop her.

"Stella, don't." Trevor tells her.

"Whatever. If it makes these idiots go." Stella says.

"Feisty. Now, I like that." The guy says. Stella gets the soccer ball and places it on the ground. "Give it your best shot."

Stella kicks the ball and then a gun goes off, somebody having shot the soccer ball making everybody flinch.

The men cheer when Trevor attacks the guy. The siblings yell for Trevor to stop and the guys standing up point their guns at Trevor.

They hear honking and a truck is speeding their direction. Cordell jumps out of the car and starts fighting the guys. Trey jumps out and starts yelling to the kids, Micki having parked in front of the group to protect them from the guys.

"Go, go, go! Everyone behind the dunes now!" Trey yells at them. "Go, go, go, go, go, go!" He yells and they all run for the two giant dunes, August letting of Janie's hand to make her run ahead of him. "Go, go, go!"

They all get behind the two dunes while the fight continues until the gang drives away, aside from a few.

+++

Cordell and Micki are in the police station filling stuff out after having gotten everybody to the station.

"Thanks for the help. I've had run-ins with a few of these fellas in the past." The woman behind the desk says, glancing to the three gang members sitting down. "Northside Nation."

"Yeah, no, I'm, uh, I'm familiar. We, uh, took down a faction in Austin once. Though, those arrests lacked tonight's pizazz."

"I'll be sure to make note of that. We have space in the cruisers to take the kids back to the hotel, but, uh, we're a few seats short." She tells them.

"Uh, we'll take mine. The shutterbug, the one attached to his side, and the redhead outside, those are my kids." Cordell informs.

"Of course she's yours." The guy mumbles as the cop leads him towards the cells. "Your little girl was out here looking for some trouble. As soon as I'm out, I'll find her, and I'll give her the kind of trouble she's looking for. I bet she'll like it. And that other one... I'll find her too and give her something she'll like as well."

The guy slams his body into Cordell's and the cop begins to lead him away, but Cordell grabs the guy and pulls him back, glaring at him.

"You know what? You just picked up an extra 12 months behind bars, for violating Statute 61-5-27: criminalizing the actions of individuals who assault officers or their families with threats of violence or harassment. Get him out of my sight."

Cordell lets go of him and the cop leads him away.

"Wow. Deescalating and not retaliating? Color me impressed. You, uh, did get the statute wrong, by the way."

"I was close."

"No, you weren't."

The door opens and Trey walks in with the three siblings walking in behind.

"Trey, hey." Cordell greets.

"I'm gonna catch a ride back with LPD." Trey tells them as the siblings sit on a bench. "I, uh, I got to start calling parents." He says, hugging Micki.

"Of course. Hey, uh, I appreciate you putting your ass on the line for my kids." Cordell says.

"And I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am they ran off." Trey says.

"You made it right. That's what counts." Cordell says.

"Yeah." Trey mumbles. They shake hands and Cordell pulls his hand back, hissing before he laughs and Trey looks at him.

"Kidding. I got you. I got you." Cordell tells him. "Listen, if we ever need a veteran liaison with medic experience."

"Get lost, Walker." Micki tells him, lightly shoving her boyfriend towards the exit.

"I'll be calling." Cordell tells Trey.

"I'm right here." Trey says. Cordell laughs and Micki and Trey leave. Once they're gone, Cordell looks at his kids, glaring at them.

"If I wasn't so relieved, I would be cuffing you right now." Cordell states. "What were you thinking? Were you thinking? Did you--" He's cut off as Janie stands and tightly hugs him, August immediately following her lead.

"Guess I finally figured out what it takes to get you to my games." Stella jokes before joining the hug.

"Hey, dad... just one small thing before we go back to the hotel." August says.

+++

They get to a fence and August, Bel, Stella, Trevor, Janie, and Flynn all walk away while Micki sits in the bed of the truck and Cordell leans against it.

"Why'd you have us stop here?" Bel asks.

"I think your parents are trying to reach you." August says. Bel looks at her phone before fireworks go off.

"Well, fireworks. Now you can give them back." August says, handing Bel a firework. "Look, I know it's not the same as seeing your mom and dad, but..."

"How'd you..." Bel trails off, amazed.

"Well, Stella gave me their number. She also helped set this up, too." August explains.

"I'm so sorry. I should have realized something sooner. I mean, I'm your best friend." Stella says.

"Hey, why don't you help her light those puppies off?" Trevor suggests, tossing a box of matches to August. "Let's have a show.

They set it off and watch as the fireworks go off.

Janie nudges August making him look at her. She nods to Bel before she walks away with Flynn a bit.

"You know, your brother's a good guy." Flynn says.

"Yeah. He's the dorky, loveable guy you can't really stay mad at much." Janie says, lightly chuckling.

"Hey, I know this is soon, but, uh... I don't have a date... and you don't have a date. "So, maybe, uh..."

"Wanna go to the dance together?" Janie asks.

"I mean, if you say so." Flynn smiles. "It-i-it doesn't, like, have to be as a couple or anything. Obviously, we met today. But, y-you know, like friends o-or acquaintances or something--" He stops as Janie laughs making him smile.

"Yeah. Yeah, that would be good." Janie nods.

"Sweet." Flynn grins.

+++

Janie is standing next to August while the team warms up.

"All right, ladies, listen up!" Trey gets their attention. "What you went through last night... was fairly intense for a non-wartime setting. But today's game, let's just... let's just have fun."

"Coach Bobby would never say that." Bel says.

"Right. What Coach Bobby would do was neglect the fact that he was supposed to be watching you all. Say hello to your new head coach." Trey informs and they cheer. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right, all right, let's get warmed up."

Bel jogs over to August so Janie steps a few feet away.

"Hey. Last night was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me." Bel tells him.

"The fireworks? Oh, it was, uh, it was nothing. I hear people like to do that." August says.

"Want to go to the dance? As friends. I hear a lot of people do that, too." Bel says. August agrees and Bel nods and goes to warm up with the rest of the team.

"Augie and Bel sitting in a tree. K-I-S--" August cuts his twin's quiet singing off.

"Are you gonna sing that every time I talk to a girl?" August asks.

"Maybe." Janie shrugs.

~ ~ ~

Janie walks up the bleachers and sits next to her dad.

"So, you threaten the daylights out of him?" Janie asks, referring to Trevor.

"Not today. It will happen soon, though." Cordell says. "And, uh, Flynn will probably getting that, as well."

"Dad, come on. He's a harmless dork. He's like a puppy. There's no need to threaten." Janie tries to persuade.

"He's taking you to a dance and you're my daughter. There is very much need to threaten." Cordell says, giving her a smile.

"I met him yesterday, he's only a friend. Not like a date date." Janie says.

"I'm sorry, you met him barely 24 hours ago?" Cordell asks.

"Wh-- I mean-- well, August knows him. They hang out in school sometimes and he's in the AV club." Janie tries to defend. "And, you know, I'll know him better in a week."

"Fine." Cordell reluctantly sighs.

"Well, is Bel getting a "what are your intentions with my son talk"?" Janie asks.