"I'M quitting soccer. It is a game for children." Manny told Gloria as they, Jay, and Naomi walked to the car after Manny's soccer game had ended.

"No, you're not quitting." She protested, "You would have stopped that goal if you weren't staring at that little girl."

"She is not a girl, she's a woman."

Gloria stayed quiet, letting Manny have his own view as they got in the car. Manny sat next to Naomi in the back seat.

"You know Gloria, that little blowup with that other mom, why do you have to do things like that?"

"If somebody says something about my family, I'm going to—"

"I'm just saying, you could take it down here a little bit. That's all." Jay held his hand low.

"Yeah, because that's where you live, down here," Gloria mimicked his hand height, "But I live up here!" She raised her hand higher in a fist.

Jay tried again, "You don't have to be so emotional all the time."

Naomi laughed, "Says you, old man. I saw you crying after you found out I gave Manny the last slice of the cake."

"Hey!" Jay eyed her through the rearview mirror, "It was a good cake and I had been looking forward to it. At least someone enjoyed it, right Manny?"

"I wanna tell Brenda Feldman I love her." He had not been paying attention the conversation at all, looking out his window.

Hearing the name, Naomi almost barfed right then, "Ew! Manny, Brenda is my friend! If you tell her you love her she'll think I'm one of those kids with a creepy sibling!"

Jay and Gloria tried to talk him out of it, "Oh! For God's sakes."

"Manny, she's 16."

"Oh! It's okay for you to take on older lover?" He deadpanned, making Naomi laugh as Jay and Gloria were not impressed.

"I wanna go to the mall where she works."

"Manny, we're going there anyway to drop me off at work."

"Perfect! But first I need to get my white shirt, the silk one."

Gloria gave in, "Okay, if that's what you really want to do."

But Jay had other thoughts on the situation, "Seriously, not to be the evil stepdad, but if you put on a puffy, white shirt and declare your love for a 16-year-old, you're gonna be swinging from the flagpole in your puffy, white underpants."

Once again, Manny seemed to pay no mind to the other side of the conversation as he gazed out the window, "Stop the car." He unbuckled his seatbelt before Jay could fully slow down, ready to open the door.

"Where are you going?"

When Manny shut the door behind him, Gloria spoke to Jay, "You see, you hurt his feelings."

"Yeah, well, if it toughens him up a little bit, then... Oh geez, he's picking flowers."

Naomi leaned forward from her seat in between Jay and Gloria, facing the woman, "When dad wanted me to toughen up he made me join taekwondo and boxing. I'll teach manny a few things to actually toughen him up." She sat back in her seat and looked out the window to see the pile of flowers Manny held, "I'm calling it now, I'm losing a friend today."

"IT was definitely weird growing up having the oldest dad and the craziest mom, let alone my only siblings were already out of high school." Naomi sat on the couch at home, talking to the interviewer as the camera crew recorded.

"Sometimes I feel like my mom loved me more than my siblings just cause of what she named me. Instead of calling me by my name she'd always call me by what my name meant; Joy, short for enjoyment. Nessie, short for pleasantness. I don't get why she did it, but she did. Whenever I hear those nicknames I remember why I was born in the first place." She laughed nervously as she looked between the camera and the interviewer, "At least I wasn't called a mistake, right?"

MANNY was the first of them to reach the balcony on the stairs as he looked to the other side of the railing, "Brenda Feldman." Brenda was standing at the Photo Booth stand she worked at, clearly bored with no business at the moment.

Jay reached the balcony and saw Manny holding a piece of paper, "What is that?"

"A poem I've written for Brenda Feldman" He told Gloria.

"Of course it is."

Naomi turned her wrist over to check the time, placing either of her hands on Manny and Jay's shoulders, "Well, I have to go now. Manny, good luck."

She walked up the rest of the stairs and went in the direction of Hollister already wearing her branded Hollister shirt, having changed when they got home. She clocked in, folding and hanging new shipments of clothes. The store wasn't as busy as usual, but Naomi liked it. She could focus on the things that took a little more time to do without her work being put on hold to help customers.

Almost an hour into her shift and the first 'customer' of Naomi's shift entered the store. Matteo took a look around the store for a few minutes, the same thing he'd do every week, before meeting her wherever in the store she was to ask for 'help'.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Do you know if there's a smaller size for this?" He held up a pink shirt, "My sister's been dying for this but she's only 10 and this is too big."

Naomi folded the pair of jeans she was holding before bringing a hand to her chin, pretending to think. "I think we might have smaller sizes in the back. I can check if you'd like."

He smiled at her, fully preparing to go along with the skit until he burst out laughing. Naomi joined in with light laughs, returning to folding clothes and organizing the shelves.

His laughter died down, his feet following after Naomi's as she walked around the store. It was quiet for a bit as he watched her work, giving her a little bit of silence before he started rambling about his week to her. It was nothing new.

The first time he visited her at work, it was definitely awkward. They had never hung out before and were barely considered friends. Matteo had been mowing her dad's lawn for the past year, as well as worked for Jay doing some odd jobs. He'd seen her around the house and, extremely obvious to Jay, had developed a small crush on her.

Naomi was a bit oblivious to this, or at least she didn't actually think it was serious.

JAY and Gloria had picked Naomi up from work on the way to Mitch and Cam's. As soon as she saw her dad's new outfit, she wanted to bawl her eyes out; it hurt to see.

"Dad, what the hell are you wearing?" She was so stunned she couldn't even grab her seatbelt to buckle up. Manny grabbed her hand and guided it over to the seatbelt to make her not forget to put it on.

"It's my new style, kid. How do you like it? Aren't I hip?"

She agreed with him for his ego, hiding the fake puke she gave from his view.

STANDING outside of Mitch and Cam's front door, Gloria, Naomi, and Manny had to wait for Jay to knock on the door even though the Dunphy's walked in moments before them. "Knock, knock. We're here! Coming in!"

Jay peeked his head through the door, making sure the coast was clear.

"Don't worry, Dad, nothing gay going on here."

The four of them piled in the door, Claire giving her sister a hug after Jay, "How was your day?"

She shrugged, "Same old, same old. Besides the fact that Dad has now confused me concerning his mental state. The fit is not fitting like he thinks it is." Mitch pat Naomi on the back as she passed by him to say hi to everyone else.

Jay asked Mitch about the trip they took, getting a short answer before Mitch started talking to everyone as a group.

"But about that, I have something that I need to tell you guys. Um, we didn't just go to Vietnam for pleasure. We kind of have some big news."

"Oh, God. If Cam comes out here with boobs, I'm leaving."

"Dad."

"I hope he didn't embarrass you, Mom" Haley kept looking at her phone.

"Don't mind her. Haley had her first boy over today and Phil shot him."

Naomi's eyes widened a bit, then returned to normal. As much as she wanted to think this kind of thing wasn't a common occurrence, it was.

Mitch gave Claire and Phil a concerned look before continuing, "Anyway, so about a year ago, Cam and I started feeling this longing, for something more, like, maybe a baby."

"Whoa. That's a bad idea." Jay cut Mitch off.

"What do you mean 'bad idea'?"

"Well, kids need a mother. I mean if you two guys are bored, get a dog."

Naomi whispered to herself from her spot next to Alex on the couch, "'Need a mother' my ass." Alex tried not to laugh. She was closer to Naomi than Haley, even though those two were closer in age. She had heard so many of the jokes Naomi made about her mother, or lack thereof.

"Okay, we're not bored, Dad."

"I support you, Mitchell, even though you are not my son." Gloria turned to face Jay, somewhat taunting him with her words.

Claire butt in, "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."

Mitch tipped his head side to side, "That's not what Dad's saying. That's what you're saying. And it's insulting in a whole different way."

"Claire is right, though. At least about the whole 'chaos' part." Claire held out her hand to Naomi, saying a small thank you as the younger sister continued, "I remember when I had my first taekwondo match and you guys all came and you needed to sit down and take a breather just cause of how many kids were running around."

Jay and Claire laughed simultaneously, talking over each other as they remembered that day. Phil spoke over them, "Okay, people. Let's all chillax."

"Hey, where's Uncle Cameron?" Alex was the first to bring up him not being there.

"Thank you, thank you. Someone who's not insulting me noticed he's not here."

"Ohh! So that's the big announcement? You two broke up. Well, a baby wasn't gonna help that anyway, and you know, let me tell you. You're a little better off because he was a bit of a drama queen."

Mitchell got annoyed with what Jay was saying, "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—"

~NANTS INGONYAMA BAGITHI BABA~

The lights went low and as Cam walked out a spotlight was on the baby he held up in the air.

~ITS THE CIRCLE OF LIFE~

"We adopted a baby. Her name is Lily."

Everyone started getting excited, the sudden addition of a family member not what they thought was happening today.

Cam yelled, "Exciting!"

Mitch spoke to him unenthusiastically, "Just turn it off"

"I can't turn it off, it's who I am."

He now turned to Cam, "The music."

"Oh, yes, the music." Cam shut it off, returning the lighting back to normal as well, "Come say hi to Lily!"

Everyone stood up and surrounded Cam, talking to Lily in baby voices, holding her wee little hands, and getting photos with her. Claire was holding Lily when Jay interrupted them, "Okay, I know that I said I thought this was a bad idea. But, what do I know? I mean, it's not like I wrote the 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. Naomi helped with the bridge."

"See, even with the kids who know the world themselves know I mess up. Anyway, I'm happy for you and you should know that I'm not here to spit in your face, I'm here to blow at your back."

"I don't know what that means." Everyone was confused with his choice of words.

"It's supposed to sound better in Spanish."

Everyone turned to Gloria, "Voy a ser la brisa en tu espalda, no quien te escupa en la frente."

Hearing the same words in another language none of them understood, everyone said it was beautiful and awed at the thoughtful words.

Jay was a bit confused how they switched up, but ignored it for now, "Anyway, Mitch."

"No, it's okay, Dad."

Lily started crying, Mitch going to take her before bringing her over to meet her grandpa.

"WE'RE from different worlds yet we somehow fit together. Love is what binds us through fair or stormy weather. I stand before you now with only one agenda, to let you know my heart is yours Feldman comma Brenda."

Jay took off his reading glasses and started laughing at what he had read, "I mean, seriously."