Between season 6 and season 7; a week after Regionals

"So anyways, then a literal food fight broke out. It was complete chaos."

Finn laughed as Piper told him about her most recent family dinner celebrating her grandfather's birthday over FaceTime. She was out of town for the weekend on a family trip and had called him to vent.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "It took me half an hour last night to get all the mac and cheese out of my hair. That's why politics is usually off the table at family dinners, but Uncle Enzo just can't help himself sometimes."

"Your family isn't real. There's no way anyone can be that crazy," Finn told her as he rolled over onto his back on his bed.

She harrumphed and shook her head. "There's a reason my siblings waited years before bringing their significant others to a full family event."

Finn simply hummed in response, thinking that he would love to go to one of these family dinners she always told him about just to see the craziness in person.

Another thought suddenly occurred to Piper, and she huffed. "Oh, and Aunt Betty spilled her wine all over my favorite dress, so now there's a huge stain on it, and I can't get it out."

"Is she the alcoholic?"

"No, that's Aunt Carla. Betty's the one with emotional support dog though."

"Oh."

"But just between you and me, she doesn't actually need a support dog. She just registered him that way so she could take him on her flight to the Bahamas with her." She shook her head distastefully and muttered, "So unethical."

As she grimaced, a text notification from Henry suddenly popped up on Finn's phone asking where he was. Finn sat up, glancing at the clock on his bedside table. He'd thought he had plenty of time before he was supposed to be at Ozzy's house for Bro Night (their first Bro Night without Noah). Apparently, he'd been talking to Piper a lot longer than he realized. With a groan, he immediately jumped off his bed to find his shoes while holding his phone in his other hand.

"Crap. I'm supposed to be at Ozzy's right now. I gotta go, Pipes."

She frowned but nodded in understanding. "Okay. I'll talk to you later."

Finn promised to text her later then ended the FaceTime call as he frantically searched his cluttered room for a hoodie. As he pulled his grey one on, he looked in the mirror above his dresser and ran a hand over his curls. Since A-Troupe was on a break for the holidays after winning Regionals, he hadn't been straightening his hair like he usually did. His curls were on full display in all their curly glory since his shower that morning, and he sighed in despair. There wasn't anything he could do about it now, but if Piper hadn't noticed his hair on their FaceTime call, the boys definitely wouldn't notice it either.

Or at least, that's what he had thought until he walked into Ozzy's basement, and the first thing his friend said was, "What's up with your hair?"

Kingston and Henry both pulled their gazes away from their video game long enough to see what Ozzy was talking about. Self-consciously, Finn held both hands over his head and said in a panic the first thing that came to mind, which just so happened to be: "Oh, that. Uh, yeah, I got a perm."

Ozzy blinked then nodded and looked back to his video game. "Cool."

A perm? Finn let out a deep breath and shook his head at himself as he joined the rest of the boys on the couch and Kingston tossed him a game controller.

Why had a perm been the first thing to come to mind? It's not like he had a habit of lying so easily. Why hadn't he just told them the truth- that his hair was curly and he usually kept it straight because he didn't like having curly hair but had been feeling too lazy to bother straightening it all holiday break? Now he was going to have to roll with the perm thing for the foreseeable future.

Great. Good job, Finn. You seriously botched that one.

Oh well. Nothing he could do about it now. This was his life now. He was the bro with the perm. Time to accept it and move on.

(He just hoped Piper wouldn't judge him too hard for this because of course he would end up telling her the truth eventually. He always did.)

---

🙃