NAOMI walked down the stairs after Gloria called her down, saying Manny was ready to go. The two of them were going to go shopping together, but would need to drop Manny off at Claire's house first.

"I'm pretty sure this is a typo." Was all she heard Jay say as he looked at the box for his model plane. She was going to ask, but Gloria ushered the two kids out of the house before she could.

"Wait, I need my shoes!" Naomi opened the door back up, but was pulled away before she could grab them. She walked out to the car in her socks.

GLORIA, Naomi, and Manny had arrived at Claire's house, Gloria and Manny telling Claire about the game he brought while Naomi ruffled through the closet to find a pair of Claire's shoes she could borrow.

She found a pair she liked, put them on, and walked into the kitchen, "Like my new shoes?" She held a small smirk on her face as she looked to Claire, knowing these were shoes she had misplaced for a while.

Claire looked between her sister's face and the shoes on her feet before sighing, "They look better on you anyway, keep them."

Naomi's face lit up as Alex entered the room.

"Okay, what about this?" She pulled out the bottom of the lilac shirt she was wearing to show it off.

"You're not even going to say hi to your family?"

"Hello Gloria, Naomi, and Manny." Alex turned back to Claire, "Okay, Mom, what about this?"

Claire didn't even look at her daughter, "No. You're wearing a dress."

"Mom, come on."

"What? It's gonna kill you to look like a girl for one afternoon?"

"But it's a wedding for some friend of yours I never even heard of."

"It's non-negotiable. You can borrow a dress of Haley's again."

"No, that sends an ugly message that I'm Haley."

"Then borrow one of Naomi's; you two are practically the same person."

Alex faced her aunt, "As much as I love you, no." Then her mom, "You know, instead of trying to force me to wear a dress, why don't you worry about getting Luke to wear some pants?"

Claire was a little sure with what Alex said, "What?" She turned around and looked out the window, "Why does he do this?" Claire went over to the window and started yelling at Luke to put pants on.

Naomi spoke to Alex, "Why don't you come with Gloria and I today? We're going to the mall and we could probably find something you like that isn't a dress."

Gloria agreed, "Yes! We can help you find something you like!"

Claire had returned from the window, hearing everything the two said, "That's. Really nice offer, but it's not really her thing."

Alex opposed her mother, "Actually, I'd love to go. See, you don't know what my thing is. You have no idea what my thing is."

"I know what your thing is. Your thing is to provoke, just like your sister's thing is to never come out of her room. And your brother's thing—"

Naomi pointed out the window, "There's your brother's thing."

GLORIA, Naomi, and Alex walked through the outdoor mall to a restaurant and sat down. "I was thinking after lunch we can go and do a little shopping." Gloria proposed.

"I'm not getting a dress." The youngest reminded the other two of her stance.

Gloria made a face as they sat down, "I don't care. I'm not your mother."

"I know. You're my grandmother."

Naomi widened her eyes, glancing between Gloria and Alex who she was sat between.

"Step-grandmother." The woman changed subject, "Anyway, today, think of me as a girlfriend. Three girls out for an afternoon of fun."

"What do you usually do with your girlfriends?" Alex asked the older women as she got herself some of the free bread they had been brought.

Gloria answered first, "I don't know, we go out, we talk, drink wine."

"Can I drink wine?" Alex asked hopefully.

"No."

"Some friend." She turned to her aunt, "What do you and your friends do?"

Naomi laughed for a brief moment as she thought, then answered, "Oh you know; shopping, the movies, school. All the fun stuff." Everyone at the table had mixed reactions to what she had said. Alex nodded along to what her aunt said and wondered to herself who out of her friends she'd want to invite to the movies; maybe Naomi could even drive them there so she didn't have to deal with her mom wanting to know all of their parents.

Naomi held a smile on her face to appeal to Alex's question. She too was once the girl's age (and not too long ago either) and wanted to help her, but not scare her.

Gloria eyed her step-daughter, both questioning if she was telling the truth or not, and if she wasn't, glad Naomi wasn't being brutally honest about some things. She brought everyone out of their thoughts, "Well, Alex, you can still talk to us about anything."

"Yeah, adults always say this, but they don't mean it. As much as I want to say Naomi isn't an adult, she's my mom's little sister, which is basically my mom."

Naomi scoffed, trying to ignore the comparison.

"When my mom says I can ask her anything, I really can't. She just freaks out."

The middle of the three spoke up, "We won't freak out. Shoot."

Alex thought for a moment, "How many men have you slept with?"

"Eight."

"One. Next."

ALEX had asked the two about any tattoos they have, only Gloria being able to answer as Naomi has none.

"I have a small flower on my ankle, and a tiny little butterfly on my... thigh."

"How high up?" Alex wondered, noticing the pause.

"Pretty high."

"Did you do it to look sexy? No, did you do it for a guy?Does grandpa like it?"

"No. No. And, yes."

"That's gross." Alex said as Naomi was now holding her ears so she couldn't hear, "I could've gone my whole life without knowing that."

Gloria shrugged and Alex wanted to switch the topic, but was stopped, "No, no, no. I've answered enough of your questions. Now it's your turn to answer one."

"What is it?"

"Why you don't want to wear a dress?"

"Because I don't want to look like Haley and her stupid friends." She emphasized stupid.

"I wear dresses and I don't look like Haley. Naomi wears dresses and she doesn't look like Haley."

"You are Haley, just 40 years older. As for Naomi, I think my mom had enough to handle with her and made sure her own sister wouldn't be a carbon copy."

"Ten." Gloria was focused on the age part of what Alex said, Naomi relaxing after finally hearing some type of non-insult from Alex.

"Twenty."

"Deal." She now had a saddened tone in her voice, "Alex, why are you fighting me on this?"

"It doesn't matter if I dress up. I'm not pretty like Haley or Naomi or you.

This was when Naomi had enough of her lounging. She took her hands out from behind her head where they were clasped and slightly slammed them down on the table, "For how smart you are that is really one of the silliest things you've ever said."

Gloria joined, "That's ridiculous. You're beautiful."

"I'm not." Alex's voice softened, "But that's okay, I'm the smart one."

"Uh, hello? You can be smart and pretty at the same time, you know? Just look at me, I'm a prime example." Naomi stared blankly at her niece as she held her hands up pointing back at herself. "Plus, one persons opinion, aka yours, is wrong in this because the cute busboy over there doesn't know that you're smart."

"What?" She froze.

"He's been smiling at you every time he comes to the table." Gloria whispered.

"He does not." Alex tried denying it.

"Why do you think we are the only people with bread?" She lifted up the basket as Alex looked around to the other, breadless, tables, catching the busboy in question as he walked back into the restaurant.

"Look, one day you're going to want to date a cute guy like that. And when that day comes, you're gonna want to look beautiful, and then you'll wear a dress."

Alex took what Gloria said into consideration before asking another question, "So, you ever kiss another girl?"

"That's no way to talk to your grandmother."

THE three of them returned to the Dunphy's house, greeting Claire and Manny at the kitchen table.

"Alex, I've been thinking and if you don't want to wear a dress to the wedding, it's not the end of the world."

Alex pulled up the end of the bag she was holding where the hanger was, "It's all right, I bought one." Alex laughed with Naomi and Gloria before leaving to her room. The youngest Pritchett took a seat at the table, stealing her sister's mug to get a sip of her tea.

"Do you see how she has to provoke me?" Claire told Manny, referring to Alex.

"We'll talk about it next week."

"Claire!" There was a series of bangs on the doors until it was heard opening, and Phil's voice was made clearer. It was obvious he was in pain as Jay steadied him through the door.

Gloria, Claire, Naomi, and Manny all got up from their spots and followed the cries of pain to see Phil with his arm around Jay who led him to the couch.

"Oh, my god! Dad?"

"Little accident, nothing big."

"I was in a plane crash."

"What happened?"

"I was threading the needle and somebody moved."

"No I didn't. You did it on purpose."

The four of them moved the pillows so Phil could lay down as he groaned in pain.

"That's the painkiller talking, he's a little loopy."

"How bad is it?" Gloria asked Jay.

"Well, the wing is cracked, the propeller's bent. But I can—"

"I mean Phil." She gestured to the injured man on the couch.

"I was in a plane crash."

"Thanks, Dad." Claire's voice was laced with sarcasm.

Jay walked around the back of the couch and stood behind his children, "I didn't ask him to be there. He insisted. He took a chance, this is what happened."

Claire faced him, "Kind of like the time you ran over his foot?"

"You ran over his foot?" Manny was in disbelief.

"It was a dark day." Naomi informed her step-brother.

"That was an accident." Jay tried to defend himself, but it didn't work. "You know, Dad, you did it on purpose. we all saw the tire marks on the lawn."

"I had just quit smoking." His so-called proof.

Phil groaned more from the pain, "Water."

Claire left to get him a glass, Jay following after her.

Gloria leaned over the couch and held Phil's arm, "You okay?"

"Gloria, thank God you're here."

"Don't worry I'm here, too." Manny placed his hand on Phil's arm. "And me." Naomi joined.

Phil, loopy as ever with his eyes closed and a wide smile, "Who are these people?"

AUTHORS NOTE...
hello! this chapter could be coming out a bit late, there's a bit of a power outage at my house right now but i have this scheduled to post so whenever the power comes back on, it'll be out!
sorry if it's late, but i hope you enjoyed!! 😊