Flora really wanted to do something nice for Luke, especially after all he's done for her, so she figured the least she could do was finally make him a portrait. But before he left, he'd called her little picnic with Reggie a "date", and she couldn't stop thinking about it. Was it really a date? Did Reggie say it was? Did everyone else think it was a date? Should she have known it was a date? So many questions. The obvious solution to cure her troubled mind was to just ask the boy. But if it was a date, she'd feel bad for not realizing it sooner.

So she decided to ask someone else.

Setting down the drawing she'd begun, she made her way downstairs with the intent to find her father. The noises and smell of cooking food led her in the direction of the kitchen where she found him making dinner (and struggling).

"Hey, Dad. What...the heck is going on?"

"I found a bunch of these old recipes lying around, thought I'd give them a shot. You know, mix it up a bit?"

"So...we're not having spaghetti again for dinner?" she joked, earning a chuckle from the man.

"No, mija. Sorry to disappoint."

"No, no. I think it's great that you're trying new things. I heard it's a good step in...you know...moving on.," she told him gently, trying not to upset things.

"Yeah, maybe. I think for a while it was like...I was too afraid to cook anything because, well, that was her thing," he said sadly, referring to his late wife. "But, according to the law, I had to feed you guys something, so..." he joked with a grin, Flora rolling her eyes in amusement before she stopped short when she looked past him.

"Uhhhh, Dad? There's smoke," she said urgently, pointing to the stove. He spun around and jumped into action, quickly turning off the heat before rushing to open the windows and let the smoke out. Flora struggled to contain her laughter as he turned back towards her, but as he cracked a smile of his own she couldn't hold it in any longer.

"You know what? You distracted me, Flo," he jokes as he moves toward the stove to survey the damage. "Damn, I'll have to start over again."

"It's okay, dude. I can help you. I wanted to talk to you anyways," she patted his back as she moved next to him and stared at the burnt food in the pan. "Is that chicken?"

"It was," he said with a sigh before taking the pan and dumping the burnt chicken in the trash. "I was trying to make chicken pot pie, but I can't exactly make that without the chicken..."

"Well, we still have a ton of chicken that Tía brought over. We could just chop that up and use that. Though I'm not sure how well the spices will go with the pot pie..."

"No, that's a genius idea! Ugh, what would I do without you," he asked as he leaned down to kiss the top of her head before getting the chicken from the fridge.

"You'd probably give up and order pizza," she said with a smirk. "Do you need me to make the dough?"

"No, I did that already. It's chilling in the fridge."

"You know how to make pie dough," she asked in surprise as she looked up at him with wide eyes. "I'm impressed."

"Yeah, Eugene showed me how to do it a while ago. Never had any reason to make any until now," he explained with a shrug.

"Well, alright. Then how about you chop up that chicken while I chop these carrots," she ordered.

"Yes ma'am," he teased with a salute, making her roll her eyes. "Oh, hey, what did you wanna talk about?" he asked as they both got started.

"Oh, uh..." she starts, nearly forgetting why she came to the kitchen in the first place. "It's a little embarrassing."

"It's not a...uh...womanly problem, is it?" he asked awkwardly, glancing at her as her eyes widened in slight horror. "Because, you know, I could call up your aunt. I feel like might be better...ahem...equipped to have that conv-"

"No! Dad, no. It's not a "womanly" problem. Well...I guess it sort of is, but not the kind you're thinking about." Her cheeks grew red, already embarrassed about her next words. "No, it's more like...a relationship problem."

"Oh, boy. I knew this would come sooner or later," he mumbles to himself with a sigh. "You're dating someone?"

"No! No, just a little crush. Okay, well, a huge crush, actually," admitted.

"Do I know them?" he asked curiously, sparing her a glance as he scooped the chicken and carrots into a pot with the rest of the ingredients.

"No, he doesn't go to my school. But we recently hung out, and it was really nice, but I just assumed it was a friendly thing," she started as she got the pie dough out of the fridge and started rolling it out. "Until a friend of ours said something that made me think it was more than just friendly..."

"Mhmmm," he hums as he thinks. "So, your problem is you're hoping it was more than friendly because you like him, but you're not sure if he feels the same way?" he asks for clarification, earning a nod from the girl. "Oh, how history repeats itself."

Her eyebrows furrow in confusion at his words. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"Pretty much the same thing happened with me and your mom when we first started hanging out. I was so into her," he says with a fond smile, "but I wasn't sure if she was into me too. And then one day she gives me a mixtape, which back in my day was pretty much a declaration that you liked someone."

"So...then what happened? Did you ask her out?"

"No. I was way too scared," he said with a chuckle as he stirred the contents of the pot. "I was dumb and kept telling myself she didn't like me back until she eventually got impatient and just asked me out."

"So...what you're saying is I should wait to see if he asks me out?"

"No!" her dad exclaims as he throws his hands in the air in frustration. "I'm saying don't be dumb like me! You tend to overthink things, Flo, and I apologize because you definitely get that from me. Sometimes in life, you need to just go for things. Take risks. And, you know, in the unlikely chance that he doesn't like you back? Then it's his loss."

Flora smiled warmly up at her dad as his words sunk in. The thought of confessing her feelings to Reggie scared her out of her mind, but so did most things. Her dad was right, she did tend to overthink. She let fear take over and it kept her from doing and saying a lot throughout her life. Well, not anymore.

"Thanks, Dad. I think I will tell him."

"Well, glad I could help, mija." He gives her a side hug, squeezing her arm before pulling away and focusing back on the food. "Alright, now, let's put this pot pie together and get it in the oven."

"Ugh, agreed. I'm starving."

After her nice chat with her dad, and eating the pot pie that they successfully made, Flora got back to work on finishing the drawing for Luke. Her eyes kept moving back and forth between the paper and the video of the band playing "Finally Free". She wanted to get Luke's vibe right, and the best way was to study him when he was performing and completely in his element.

A knock on the door startled her out of her concentration. If it was one of the guys, she was surprised since they didn't always have the decency to knock.

"Come in!" The door pushed open and Carlos entered with a wave, his tablet tucked under one arm. "What's up, lil man?"

"I'm searching the whole house again."

"For...???"

"For ghosts. Duh," he said like it was obvious. "Gotta check your room. You know, make sure no ghosts are creepin' on you."

"Oh, so you think we have pervy ghosts?" she asked with an amused expression.

"You never know, Flo. Heh, that rhymed," he chuckled to himself as he opened up his ghost sensor app. She rolled her eyes in amusement and went back to work as he continued his quick search. "So, whatcha workin' on?"

"Just a drawing for a friend," she explains. She paused as she felt him look over her shoulder.

"Hm. He's cute," he observes. She turns to him with a raised eyebrow which he just shrugs out.

"What? Just an observation. He your boyfriend?" he asks with a teasing tone. Flora resists the urge to gag at the suggestion. She'd grown pretty close to Luke lately, but the thought of him as anything but a best friend seemed crazy to her.

"Absolutely not. Like I said, it's for a friend."

"Oh good. You definitely need more of those," he says jokingly. She gasps and lightly hits his arm in mild annoyance.

"Ugh, rude. I'm already painfully aware of my tragic social life, I don't need reminding, thank you very much."

"Maybe you should join a club or something. I made lots of friends when I joined baseball," he suggests.

"Do you know how sad it is that my 12-year-old little brother is giving me advice on how to make friends?" She shakes her head in disbelief at the situation. "Julie and Dad barely have any friends either."

"I know. It's hard being the only popular one in the family," he said with a sigh.

"Oh, I'm so sorry you have to carry this burden all by yourself," she says sarcastically.

"Thanks. It's a struggle, but I can handle it," he jokes along with her, flashing a smirk.

"Alright, alright. You done with your little ghost hunt, dude? I got a drawing to finish."

"Yeah, I'm done, but is it okay if I hang out here?" he asks, flashing her an innocent smile that she didn't believe for a minute.

"Why?" she asks as she narrows her eyes.

"Fine. I'm trying to avoid doing my homework," he says with a sigh, his face scrunching up from the thought of his work. She laughs at him, rolling her eyes but nodding her head.

"Okay, you can stay, but only until I finish my drawing. Then I'll help you with your homework, okay?"

"Yes! Deal." He doesn't hesitate to hop on her bed and get comfortable, tapping away at his tablet. "It cool if I play some music?"

"Sure, just not too loud, okay?" she says dismissively, still focused on her drawing.

"Cool," he says before a Kanye West song starts playing, the two immediately bobbing their heads to the beat. "Oh, I love this one." He starts rapping along, skipping over any curse words.

"Me too, lil man."

a/n: okay i know this is ANOTHER filler chapter, but i just thought flora was due for some quality time with her dad and she deserves that. i honestly love ray, like he's just trying his best to care for his three kids considering his wife died not even a year ago and he's still grieving. king shit

anyway, hope you guys liked this chapter! i know it's a little short, but finals are coming up and my time is VERY limited, so this was the best i could do. chapters will hopefully be longer and more frequent when my winter break starts.

please vote and leave comments! they make my day! byeeeee!!!