"Mum can you remind me why we're here again?" Adrian groans, sitting in the grass he picks at the grass while glaring at the field full of kids kicking the soccer ball.
"Because you love your brother and we support him." Gloria replies then yells "Vomos! Manny kick it!"
"Yeah sure… but can't I be at home right now?"
"Kid, if I'm stuck here so are you." Jay says from his position on the chair, drinking the beer leisurely.
Adrian winces as the ball is taken from Manny.
"If our family goes to your Karate ("it's Taekwondo mum!") then you have to go to your brothers soccer games" Gloria gives him a glare, "No! no! He tripped him, where's the penalty?!"
"Gloria, they're 0 and 6. Let's take it down a notch." Jay says while Adrian nodded.
[Jay and Gloria interview]
"We're very different" Gloria says with her hand on Jay's lap. "Jays from the city, he has a big business. I come from a small village very poor, but very, very beautiful. It's the number one village in all Colombia for all the… what's the word?" She turns to Jay.
"Murders."
"Yes Murders."
[end interview]
Adrian squints from the sunlight, hand reaching out for his phone when it was slapped by Gloria along with her glare, he then notices Manny standing still. Following his gaze Adrian sees him staring at a girl who is looking at him. The girl waves, Manny assuming it was from him shyly waves his hands back and lets the ball go past him.
"Come on Coach you've gotta take that kid out." A white lady gestures to Manny.
Gloria glares at her. "You wanna take him out? How about I take you out?"
"Honey- honey." Jay tries to intervene.
"Why don't you worry about your son? He spent the first half with his hand in his pants." Gloria doesn't stop and the lady leaves.
"I've wanted to tell her off for the last 6 weeks." A new man appears and grins at Gloria. "I'm Josh, Ryan's dad."
"I'm Gloria Pritchett, Manny's mother."
"This must be your dad" he points at Jay. Adrian watches amused.
"No, that's funny, actually I'm her husband, don't be fooled by the-" Jay he struggles to stand, "give me a second here."
Josh turns to Adrian, "If that's your husband than surely he's your brother."
Adrian frowns, his hands resting on his cheeks as he mutters, "do I look that old?"
That earned him a slap on the head as Gloria smiles, "this is Adrian, Manny's older brother."
Josh looks suprised, "But you look so young!"
"Listen here buddy" Jay who has now gotten out of his seat approaches Josh angrily. Before more words can be exchanged a loud whistle cuts through the air and kids scatter towards their parents. Manny dejectedly approaches us.
"Manny you were great out there!" Gloria says patting Manny from any dirt.
"Nah you were pretty bad out there Manny."
"Ay! Rian don't say that to your brother!"
"What? I'm just being honest."
"No Adrian is right Gloria. Manny should learn to accept criticism."
"That's right mum." Manny adds. "I've realised. I should quit soccer, it's a game for children."
"No you are not quitting. You would have stopped that goal if you weren't staring at that little girl." Gloria argues.
Jay and Adrian exchange shrugs.
"She is not a girl, she's a woman." Manny tries to say.
They reach the car and as we settle into the seats Jay speaks up. "You know Gloria, that little blowup with that other mum, why do you have to do it like that?"
"If somebody have to say something about my family. I'm gonna-"
"I'm just saying, you can take it down here a little bit, that's all."
"Yeah, because that's where you live down here. But I live up here!"
"You don't have to be so emotional all the time. That's all I'm saying. Adrian, Manny you're on this with me right?"
"I think mum's right Jay. We have to stick up for family." Adrian smiles.
"See! Rian gets me! What about you Manny?" Gloria says happily.
"I wanna tell Brenda Feldman I love her."
"Oh for God's sakes." Jay sighs.
"Manny she's 16." Mum adds.
"Oh! it's okay for you to take an older lover?" Manny argues.
"Hey watch it" Jay glares at Manny.
"Its okay to marry someone older than you Manny but not when the other person has a lover already." Adrian says.
"What?"
"Brenda has a boyfriend. Cut yourself from embarrassment Manny."
"What? Oh man… I was gonna go to the mall where she works and wear my white shirt, the silk one. I was gonna ask to get that first... "
"Manny it's going to be okay, let's go to the mall anyways and get you some icecream to cheer you up." Gloria says.
"I was gonna say. Not to be the evil step-father or anything but if you declare your love to a 16 year old girl in a puffy white shirt you're gonna hang on the flag pole by your puffy white underpants." Gloria glares at Jay. "What? The kid needs to toughen up."
Adrian nods.
[Gloria and Jay interview]
"Manny's very passionate, just like his father. My first husband, he's very handsome, but too crazy. Adrian got that from his father… not the crazy the handsome." Gloria laughs. "It seemed like all we did was fight and make love, fight and make love, fight and make love. One time I'm not kidding you, we fell out the window together."
"Which one were you doing." Jay asks with a chuckle. He turns to the camera. "I'm hearing this for the first time."
[Adrian interview]
"Oh wow, this is just like the- " Adrian coughs, " Huh what? You know about the whole- oh cool, so anyways I admit Manny's a lover boy and it does bother me how he gets too carried away. Especially with mum going too easy on him. So I lied, or not I don't remember, I think Manny does get rejected.. but honestly he's been rejected so many times I don't know what's "canon" anymore. I mean whoever this Brenda or Brohan or whatever is, she's not that important anyways… I think, it's not technically a lie is it?"
[Interview end]
They reach the mall, and Manny now changed into a white silk shirt that he insists on wearing anyways, lead them to the food court.
Manny stops at the entrance and reaches his palms out to Jay.
"What this?" Jay stares at Manny's hands.
"Money, for the ice cream."
"Manny that's rude." Adrian shoves Manny a bit and he turns to him with a glare.
"No it's okay Adrian. Manny, write this down. There are times in life where you have to work for things. You shouldn't expect it to be handed out to you."
Manny looks dejected. "Well… I thought that since we're at a mall, mum and you would want to go around. And me and Rian can go get the icecreams ourselves…"
Mum turns to Jay with a glare.
"Ah fine, here's 50 buy yourselves something nice." He gives the money to Adrian instead.
Adrian and Manny got a cone each with multiple scoops, and walked around, browsing various stores and Manny insisted on going into more fancy stores with high class dress shirts. As they were browsing Manny pointed to Brenda and they saw her holding hands with another guy.
"You were right Rian. She does have a boyfriend…" Manny sighs.
Adrian pats him on the shoulder.
[Adrian interview]
"Aha- see! So it isn't a lie"
[interview end]
The boys met up with Gloria and Jay as he exited a hip hop store dressed in new clothes. Adrian raised an eyebrow to that and looked at Gloria. She smiles and points to the group of old people in track suits speed walking. He nods in understanding.
…
Once the shopping was done, they headed over to Cam and Mitch's house. As they entered, Mitch grabbed Jay's hat and Phil went in to shake Jay's hand.
"Hey Jay!" Phil laughs. He turns to Adrian and gives him head a ruffle. "Hi Adrian."
Claire swoops in and kisses Gloria in greeting, "Gloria hi. How are you?" Then she turns to Jay and gives him a hug. "Hi dad."
"Hello Gloria." Phil gives Gloria a hug. "What a beautiful dress."
"Thanks Phil." Mum smiles.
"Okay?" Phil says confused and reaches to feel Gloria's dress.
Claire slaps Phil's hand away while Adrian frowns.
Shaking his head, he heads over to the couch to sit next to Manny.
"So Mitch how was the trip?" Jay addresses Mitch who's now standing in front of everyone.
"Good. We didn't just go to Vietnam for pleasure. We kind of have some big news." He says nervously.
"Oh god. If cam comes out here with boobs, I'm leaving." Jay's already holding a cup of scotch.
"Dad." Claire sighs.
"I hope he didn't embarrass you mum." Haley says as she stares at her phone.
"Oh don't mind her. Haley had her first boy over today and Phil shot him." Claire explains.
Phil's looks at Mitch embarrassed and Mitch looks concerned. "Anyway, so about a year ago, cam and I started feeling this longing. You know, for something more- maybe like a baby."
"Ohh that's a bad idea." Jay cuts in. "If your bored you should get a dog. Not a baby."
"I support you Mitchell, even though you are not my son." Gloria glares at Jay.
"I think what Dad is trying to say is that Mitchell, you're a little uptight. Kids bring chaos and you don't handle it well." Claire chimes in.
"That's not what Dad's trying to say. That's what you're saying. And it's insulting in a whole different way."
"Okay, people let's chillax." Phil says.
"Hey, where's Uncle Cameron?" Alex asks.
"Thank you, thank you. Someone who's not insulting me notices he's not here."
"Ohhh. So that's the big announcement? You two broke up." Jay says and Mitch looks offended. "Well a baby's not gonna help and you know, let me tell you. You're a little better off because he was a bit of a drama queen."
"No no no no stop, stop. You come into my house and you insult me and my boyfriend who by the way is not that dramatic-" on cue everyone hears circle of life play.
Cam walks in wearing red robe and in his arms is a baby. He raises the baby as the chorus plays.
Mitch sighs. "We adopted a baby." He explains. "Her name is Lily."
Everyone gasps and Cam screams, "exciting!"
"Just turn it off." Mitch tells Cam.
Cam argues. "I can't turn it off. It's who I am."
"The music."
"Oh yes the music." Cam turns the music off and addresses the crowd. "Come say hi to Lily!"
Everyone approaches and coo at the little girl. Adrian hangs around the back and glance to Jay whose looking dumbstruck. He turns to Adrian who gives him a questioning look.
Jay sighs. "Excuse me. Okay, I know that I said I thought this was a bad idea. But what do I know? It's not like I wrote that book on fatherhood. I've been trying all my life to get it right. I'm still screwing up. Right Manny?"
"I wrote a song about it in the car." Manny says.
"Of course you did. Anyways I'm happy for you and you should know I'm not here to spit in your face. I'm here to blow at your back."
Multiple "I don't understand" comes from the crowd.
"It's supposed to sound better in Spanish."
Gloria says the saying in Spanish and everybody agrees, still confused.
"I'm pretty sure the direct translation is protect him from trouble and not be the trouble." Adrian adds.
"Ooh" everybody's says. "That's beautiful."
Lily begins crying and Mitchel picks her up from Claire's hands. "Do you want to see grandpa?"Mitch turns to Jay.
"Are you kidding? She's one of us now. Let me see that little potsticker." Jay chuckles. "Hey! You're a little cutie aren't you?"
Gloria smiles at the family but then she noticed Adrian standing towards the back, they make eyes contact and she quickly pulls him in.
"You were a cuter baby" she whispers.