Awkward silence fell over them again before Frank speaks again — "You've taken a vow of silence?" Dwayne nods. "He's gonna join the naval academy and become a fighter pilot." Mrs. Hoover explains before sighing, "He's taken a vow of silence until he reaches that goal." She takes a bite of her salad. Frank nods, "You're kidding...?" He looks back at the teen and Dwayne merely glance at him as he chews on a piece of chicken. Taking that as his answer, a second of silence passes by before Olive runs in. "Hi uncle Frank!" She exclaims as she gives him a hug.

"Olive — boy! You're gettin' big!" Frank says as Olive walks to her seat. Mrs. Hoover places food on her plate as the young girl notices the bandages on Franks wrists. "What happened to your arms?" Mrs. Hoover stops her, "Olive.." Frank looks between them, "No, it's okay." He looks at Olive now, "I had a little accident, but I'm okay now." Silence passes by them before Mr. Hoover clears his throat, "So, how's the new routine coming?" He asked Olive as she takes a bite of her chicken, she wipes her hands.

"It's good." She says — mid chew — "When're you gonna let us see it?" Mr. Hoover continued and the little girl shrugged, "I dunno. It's up to grandpa.." Grandpa walks in as she finishes speaking, "A couple of days. It needs polish." He stops right before he sits down and sees the bucket of chicken. Jace looks at Dwayne, both knowing what was about to happen.

"What is this?! Chicken?! Everyday it's the chicken! Holy God almighty!"

Mr. Hoover tries cutting him off.

"Dad..dad.."

"Is it possible, just one time, we could have something for dinner—"

"Dad...dad!"

"Except the goddamn fuckin' chicken!?" He finishes as he looks at his son — Mrs. Hoover ignored him while Jace holds back a laugh, Dwayne notices and bumps his knee with his own — "If you want to cook or buy your own food, you're more than welcome to...." Mr. Hoover proposes and his father waves him off as he sits down, "Christ...y'know, at sunset manor.." Mr. Hoover speaks up, "If you liked sunset manor so much, maybe you shouldn't have gotten yourself kicked out of there..." His tone raising towards the end of his statement.

"Ahhh...!" Grandpa waves him off. He takes out a piece of chicken and starts eating. The air is tense because of him, so Frank tries to start up a conversation again, "So...when did you start?" He asks Dwayne, the teen looks at him, "With the vow?" Jace sighs, "It's been nine months — both of him being silent and me speaking for him." Frank looks at his sister, "Yep...hasn't said a word." Mr. Hoover joins the conversation, "You know....I think it shows tremendous discipline."

"Richard." Mrs. Hoover said as she looked at her husband — she was as sick as everyone else was of the "nine-step" program that he always went on about — Dwayne looked at his step-dad with annoyance as he chewed on a piece of chicken, Jace huffed, he once had a sit down with Mr. Hoover where the man tried to tell him about the nine-steps, Jace got up and left mid conversation. "I'm serious! I think we could all learn something from what Dwayne's doing. Dwayne has a goal — he has a dream — it may not be my dream," he points to his wife, "or your dream, but still...he's pursuing that dream with focus and discipline."

He smiles, "In fact, I was thinking about the nine steps-" Grandpa cuts him off, "Oh for cryin' out loud!" He continues, ignoring his father, "...about the nine steps, and, how Dwayne's utilizing at least seven of them in his journey to personal fulfillment." He smiles at his step son — Dwayne blinks at his words, not caring about what he's saying at all. "Richard..please." Mrs. Hoover begs — trying to stop her husband from bringing up the nine steps again as well as making Dwayne even more miserable than he is.

"I'm just saying!" Mr. Hoover says with a slight laugh, "I've come around and I think that Dwayne deserves our support in this." Dwayne huffs as he chews on a piece of chicken — dropping it onto his plate to get his point of not caring across. Frank looks at Dwayne and the teen rolls his eyes before facing back forward. Olive speaks up this time, "How did it happen?" Frank looks between her and his plate, "How did what happen?" She wipes her hand off on a napkin, "Your accident.." Mrs. Hoover speaks up this time, "Honey..."

She didn't want to pressure her brother into speaking about his suicide attempt but, Frank shook his head, "No, no, it's okay," he pauses, "unless you object.." Mrs. Hoover shakes her head, "No, I'm pro-honesty here. I just think...y'know...it's up to you." Frank nods, "Be my guest." Mrs. Hoover looks down at her young daughter, "Olive, uncle Frank didn't really have an accident," she sighs, "what happened was, he tried to kill himself." Olives brows furrowed in concern as she looks back to her uncle.

"You did? Why?" Mr. Hoover stops eating to interject, "I don't think this is an appropriate conversation to be having right now." A moment of silence passes by as they continue eating before Olive stops, "Why did you want to kill yourself?" She asks making her father stop and look at his brother-in-law, "Frank, don't answer that." Jace speaks up, "No, go ahead — please, I think we're all welcome to hearing your story." Frank looks at the teen with an awkward but genuine smile, he looks back at Mr. Hoover before looking at Olive, "I tried to kill myself—"

Mr. Hoover tries to speak over him.

"Don't listen honey.."

"Because I was.."

"He's sick and he doesn't know.."

"Very.."

"What he's.."

"Unhappy.."

Mrs. Hoover had been trying to get her husbands attention "Richard..Richard...Richard.." — she looks at him with disbelief. He looks at her, "What? I don't think it's an appropriate conversation for a seven year old." He exclaims. "She's gonna find out anyways." Mrs. Hoover retaliates. Olive continues asking him questions, "Why were you unhappy?" Frank looks at Mr. Hoover — no one can tell, but he feels victorious for winning the battle of wether he could speak or not — he answers her. "Well, there were a lot of reasons — mainly, though, I fell in love with someone who didn't love me back..."

"Who?" Olive perched up — "One of my grad students," he paused, "I was very much in love with him." Olives eyes widened as a smile came onto her face, "Him? It was a boy? You fell in love with a boy?" Frank nods, "Yes. I did, very much so." This is very new to Olive and she thinks it over before smiling, "That's silly." Frank sighs before nodding, "You're right. It was very, very silly."

"There's another word for it..." Grandpa pipes up — making Frank look at him. "Dad.." Mr. Hoover scolded silently and what sounded like — embarrassingly. Jace looks at the old man and rolls his eyes, he whispers something in Dwayne's ear which make him smile, that was the most he would do but a smile from Dwayne meant a chuckle or laugh. Olives brows quirked, "So...that's when you tried to kill yourself?" Frank shook his head, "Well, no — what happened was, the boy I was in love with fell in love with another man, Larry Sugarman."

Mrs. Hoover's brows furrowed, "Who's Larry Sugarman?" Frank sighed, "Larry Sugarman is perhaps the second most highly regarded Proust scholar in the U.S." Mr. Hoover raised a brow, "Who's number one?" Frank looked down at his plate, "That would be me..Rich." He looked at the man — knowing he just caught him trying to think he was just a nothing. Olive tilted her head, "So, that's when?" Frank shakes his head before speaking, "Well, no, what happened was — I was a bit upset. I did some things I shouldn't have done. Subsequently, I was fired, forced to leave my apartment and move into a motel."

"Oh, so that's when..?"

"Well — no. Actually, all of that was okay. What happened was, two days ago the MacArthur foundation decided to award a 'genius' grant to Larry Sugarman," he sighed, "and that's when..." Grandpa finished his sentence, "..You tried to check out early.." Frank nodded, "Yes — and I failed at that as well." Mr. Hoover looked at his daughter, "Olive, what's important to understand is that uncle Frank gave up on himself," everyone except Grandpa and Olive looked at the man with disbelief and annoyance, "he made a series of foolish choices, and then gave up on himself, which is something that winners never do."

Frank looks like he could just strangle him. Mrs. Hoover intervenes and smiles at Olive, "So, that's the story," she looks at her husband, "Let's move on." She looks back to Olive, "Olive, how's your new routine coming?" Olive answers as she picks at her food, "Fine. I told you." As everyone either eats or has conversation, Frank looks at the two teens, "Is he always like this?" He asks — referring to Mr. Hoover — they both nod, "How can you stand it?" Dwayne writes a note before showing it to Frank.

"I can't."

He looks at Jace and he nods, "Neither can I." He doesn't even have to look at the note to know what it says — he practically has everything about Dwayne memorized. Frank nods at both of them. Mr. Hoover addresses Olive, "Honey, tell Frank why you're doing your dance routine." Frank looks at Olive as he nods, "Yes...Olive, why are you doing a dance routine?" Olive responds with a smile, "For Little Miss Crab-Cakes." Frank nods, "Just as I expected." He jokes. Mrs. Hoover smiles at her daughter before speaking, "Honey, tell him what Little Miss Crab-Cakes is."

Olive nods and her face seems to light up, "Little Miss Crab-Cakes is a beauty contest for everyone in Maryland. But, you have to be six or seven years old and you have to be a girl." Jace jumps into the conversation, "I asked her if I could join — she said I'd be too much competition." Olive giggles, "He did try — but, it was against the rules." Frank nods before looking at his sister, she widens her eyes, "Don't look at me, this is Jeff and the new step-mom. It's big down in Florida." Frank looks back at Olive, "So, what do you think your chances are."

She straightens her posture, "I think I can win. Cause a lot of the new girls — they don't have the experience." Frank nods, "Well," he gives her a tight lipped smile, "good luck." Mr. Hoover joins the conversation, addressing Frank, "It's not about luck. Luck is the name that losers give to their own failings," Jace swore if he rolled his eyes once more, they'd roll out of their sockets, "it's about wanting to win, willing yourself to win. You got to want it badder than anyone." Olive smiled, "I do!" Mr. Hoover looks at her, "Do you? Really?" She nods.

He smacks his hands together before pointing at her with a smile, "Then you're gonna win." Olive smiled — happier now with the subject of this as well as being told she would win by her father. The two teens look at each other, every single time he just had to make Olive have that weird "winner - loser" mindset, they keep eating. "Richard." Mrs. Hoover says and he shrugs with a smile, "What? It's true!" He exclaims before giving Olive a playful wink, she grins.

"I was a runner up in Florida." Olive proudly announces. Frank looks between his sister and Olive, "When were you in Florida?" Mrs. Hoover looks at her brother, "Spring break. Jeff had custody for two weeks — Olive made it to the top of the Regionals down there." Olive smiles, "I was second place." Mr. Hoover speaks, "Sher, y'know, there's a message on the machine from Jeff." Taking a bite of her salad, Mrs. Hoover nods, "Yeah, did you hear what it was?" He shrugs, "I don't know, something about some — Little Miss Sunshine." Olive stops in her tracks, she looks up, "What? Little Miss Sunshine? What?!" She runs off.

Mrs. Hoover widens her eyes at the others before smiling, she follows the girl into the kitchen. Jace looks at Dwayne, "You think she got in?" As much as it would make Jace look lame, he was really into Olive being in the pageant — her doing something she liked gave him motivation, not to mention, he did some helping with her outfits — although none of them were used, Olive kept them for herself to wear, he liked helping her out with new dance moves and songs to dance to before Grandpa came in and began to help also. School got in the way and Jace couldn't help her anymore, so that's why Grandpa took over.

Dwayne shrugs, but his face reads as a maybe.

——

Mrs. Hoover and Olive approach the answering machine. The message light blinks — Mrs. Hoover hits it. "Sheryl, hey it's Jeff..." The voice comes through. "The original girl who won Little Miss Crab-Cakes had to revoke her crown — I don't know, something about diet pills, but anyway — that means that Olive won the Regionals, so now she has a place in the State contest in Boca.." Olive doesn't even need to hear the rest — she screams out of joy with "Little Miss Sunshine" also coming through her speech. Mrs. Hoover covers her ears as Olive runs out of the kitchen.

——

Jace smiles at the sound before looking at Dwayne, "She got in." The teen nods with the ghost of a smile on his face. Mrs. Hoover comes out of the kitchen, the cordless phone in her hand, Olive runs back to her mother, "I won! I won! I get to go to the championship!" She stops, "I gotta pack! I gotta pack!" She runs to her room. "Wait, Olive! Finish your dinner!" Mr. Hoover calls. "I'm finished!" Olive yells back. "What happened?" Grandpa asks.

"Apparently, the girl who won Regionals was disqualified. So, Olive has her place in the Finals." Mrs. Hoover answers before placing her free hand on her hip. "When are they?" Mr. Hoover says. "Well, I'm calling Jeff right...Jeff! Yeah, we just got it...yeah, she basically went crazy..no I didn't get that, the machine cut you off." Looking over, she mouths to to Jace, "Can you get me a pen and paper please?" The teen nods before stealing Dwayne's pen and notepad.

Dwayne — albeit annoyed — lets it slide.

Writing the information down, Mrs. Hoover speaks over the phone, "Uh-huh, in Boca Raton. This Sunday? Can you take her? You can't put it off? No, it's just...we have to figure this out. No, I'll give this lady a call and we'll figure it out. Right...bye." She hangs up. "It's Sunday? Can Jeff and Cindy take her?" Mr. Hoover asks and his wife shakes her head, "They're going to Maui." They all look at each other. Olives footsteps can be heard as she runs to and fro.

Mrs. Hoover begins cleaning up — her husband following her while Grandpa follows behind him. Frank, Dwayne and Jace stay at the table, "You wanna play tic-tac-toe?" Jace asks making Dwayne shake his head. Jace groans, "You're no fun." Voices rise from the kitchen as the adults walk out, Mrs. Hoover tosses a box of popsicles on the table, "Here — this is desert." A moment of silence passes before she grabs a popsicle and opens it. Mr. Hoover sighs, "Okay, I'll drive the bus."

"No! I'll take her on a plane!" Grandpa exclaims — everyone ignores him. Mrs. Hoover considers her husband's idea, "What about Dwayne and Frank?" Jace clears his throat. "Oh no, Jace — honey don't tell me you're trying to go." Mrs. Hoover says. Jace sighs, "Well, I would like to go." Mr. Hoover shakes his head, "You'd be miserable — it's better if I just take her." Before the teen could say anything, Mrs. Hoover shakes her head, "What about Dwayne and Frank...and Jace.." She repeats.

Mr. Hoover shrugs, "Uh...they can stay here — besides, Jace, you're barely at your own home yourself — what about your bird that you always talk about?" Jace looks at him with a look of annoyance, "Well...he flew away a month ago — hasn't been back — and you know my parents are probably passed out on the floor, high out of their minds." Silence falls over them as Dwayne gives Jace a fist bump under the table.

"Well uh...they can stay here." Frank, Dwayne, and Jace look at each other. "Richard, I was told explicitly I could not leave Frank by himself. No offense Frank." Mrs. Hoover says and her brother nods, "None taken." Mr. Hoover shakes his head, "Well...I guess we can't go then! I mean, unless we take Frank, Dwayne, and Jace with us!" Silence falls over them, everyone looks at the three of them. Dwayne begins to vigorously shake his head.

Both Mrs. Hoover and Jace begin pleading with him.

"Oh come on man! It'll be cool — plus, you'll be able to say you did something this summer." Was Jace's proposal.

"Dwayne, please. Think of your sister." Mrs. Hoover begs.

Everyone stares at him, Dwayne then pulls out his pen and notepad. Jace begins reading it out loud as he writes, "This..is...unfair...all...I...ask...is..that...you..leave..me...alone.." Dwayne stops writing and folds his arms. Pacing, Mrs. Hoover turns back to her son and speaks, "Dwayne — flight school. I'll give you permission for flight school. Come on, it'll be fun — Jace wants to go, you might as well too." Dwayne looks at her before sighing.

He slams his fists on the table before holding a hand out for her to shake. She shakes his hand. Everyone is relieved and Mrs. Hoover kisses his head, Dwayne begins writing again, "But...I'm...not..going..to...have..any..fun.." Jace reads out. "We're with you on that one." Frank says before sighing. Olive re-enters with her bag now packed. She's breathless and flushed with excitement.

"Grandpa? Is Grandpa coming to Florida?" She asks and her mother nods, "We're all coming." Olives eyes widen, "Even Jace?" She asks and Jace answers instead of her mother, "Yep, I wouldn't miss this for the world." Olive runs over and hugs him quickly before giving her Grandpa a hug. "Sheryl, wait." Mr. Hoover speaks up. "Olive, come here." He kneels down to be eye level with her.

Olive stands in front of him with a smile still on her face. "Now, there's no sense in entering a contest if you don't think you're gonna win. Now, do you think you can win Little Miss Sunshine?" Mrs. Hoover starts to object but he raises a hand — cutting her off. Jace looks at the interaction and raises his brows, surprised at the fact that Mrs. Hoover isn't ripping her husband to bits cause of that action. Olive listens to his words and suddenly — she doesn't seem so sure. "Yes or no, Olive. Are you gonna win?" He continues.

Olive then begins to nod before speaking, "Yes!" Mr. Hoover smiles at her before slapping the table — he stands back up, looking at everyone else.

"We're goin' to Florida!"

——