In all the excitement, Cris decided to ask Tommy and Ryan if they wanted to join him in the pool once it was ready. "Yeah, sure! Last one in's gotta clean up later!" Tommy said, ruffling Cris' hair before running off without them. "Hey, no fair!" Ryan ran after him, Cris falling behind, laughing all the way.
"Try not to run in the house, guys!" Jeff laughed. He had just finished cooking up some pasta in a pot for some spaghetti and meatballs. The kids had ran past Alicia, who was coming back inside after filling up the pool. "Woah! Slow down, Tommy!" She giggled. "Sorry, Alicia! I'll try not to make a mess!" He said before charging into the pool, his shoes and shirt off so he was just in his shorts. "Cannonball!" He shouted before making a big splash in the decently sized pool. Instead of using the kiddie pool, Alicia just decided to go to Jeff's backyard and use his parent's regular pool. Shallow enough for teens and adults to wade in and relax, but big enough for kids to have watery fun.
She just shook her head and sighed with a smile before continuing in to talk with Jeff, the other boys rushing past her. When she saw Cris, that smile faded.
Jeff turned to look at her as he got started on frying the meat. "Need some help?" She asked him. "Ehh, I think I'm good. But it would make it go faster." He said. She went and prepped the tomato sauce while they talked. "Jeff...you ever feel like life just isn't fair sometimes? Like you wish you had more control?" The boy looked down at the phone in his pocket, the one with the Chronivac in it. "...Boy howdy, do I ever." He joked, but in a way that sounded serious so she didn't think anything was up. "Like...why did Mom have to get with another guy who would just ditch her like that? I mean, he left us with his problems!" Jeff raised an eyebrow. "That 'problem' being Cris?" Alicia shrugged. "Yeah, kinda! Like, if things didn't go the way they had, Mom would still be married and I wouldn't have to be a babysitter, at least not one for kids I don't have to live with." She said looking over at Tommy and Ryan playing with Cris.
"...You don't seriously think Cris is the problem here, right?" Jeff asked. "What do you mean?" The boy just sighed. "You blame Cris for your mom's marriage going under, don't you?" Alicia got a little anxious hearing that. "...I mean...well..." She really wanted to say yes, but after a moment of thinking, that sounded horrible. But even still... "...Look, I know this isn't really my problem. But you know Cris didn't ASK to be born, right? Sure, he was an accident, and don't ever say that to him but it's true. But just like how you had no control over your Mom's actions, he had no control over just existing in the first place. None of us did." He started putting the meatballs in the big bowl before moving on to the next wave. "I mean...your mom likes Cris, doesn't she?"
Alicia stood there in deep thought. "...Yeah. she absolutely loves him. Sometimes I think she spoils him more than she did to me growing up." She gave a half hearted laugh. "Then love him too. If not love, then at least care for him like I do with my little brothers. They're in our lives now. No sense treating them like dirt, right?" The girl knew she had to hear this, which was why she went to Jeff for advice. She could always count on him as a friend to tell it to her straight when the others at school would just try and distract her with fun and parties. Which were great, but that didn't stop her from thinking about it.
"Yeah, you're right. Thank you, Jeff." She gave the boy a big hug, him returning the favor. When they started smelling something burning, they both panicked. "Oh crap!" He immediately got the last of the blackened meatballs off the pan, turning on the vent in the kitchen. "Oops!" Alicia turned down the heat on the pot of sauce that was starting to boil over. The two of them laughed about it. "And this is why we don't cook." Jeff joked. "Hey, I think I'm pretty great at it." She scoffed. "Yeah, well now we got burnt meatballs." Alicia laughed at that. "Not all of them are burnt!"
After a while of joking around and cleaning up, they set the table with the mac 'n cheese and pasta and called in the kids. "Hey guys, dinner's ready!" Alicia saw Harry and the girls coming from the living room, and the boys coming from the backyard...soaking wet. "Ohhh no you don't!" Jeff stepped in front of them. He gave them each a towel. "Dry." After they toweled off, they seemed dry enough to at least not be dripping water on the floor. "Better! Let's eat." He spun around to get ready to have a sit down dinner with everyone.
During the feast, things got a little chaotic, with some of the kids playing with their food rather than actually eating it. Tommy tried to be the big brother in the situation and helped Jeff get everyone in check. Overall, though, it was fine.
During cleanup, the three of them were by themselves, the kids other than Tommy having gone back to their usual shenanigans. "Thank you for helping us clean up the disaster zone, Tommy." Alicia said. "It's no biggie! This is easy!" He said blushing a little from the compliment. She giggled seeing him get so embarrassed. The young boy walked over to Jeff when it was all said and done and gave him a big hug. "Thank you for the food, big bro." Jeff smiled returning the hug with a loving squeeze of his own. "Aww, it's no big deal, dude." He put his hands on his shoulders. "Now go watch over the others, ok? We'll call you back over if we need anything." Tommy nodded before running off to watch a movie with the rest of the group.
Looking at Tommy from afar, the two of them couldn't help but smile. "Tommy’s such a good brother figure. Always the most responsible and he's so kind and caring to everyone. He's so cute!" Alicia said. "Pfft, yeah, he's really cute..." Jeff stared at the dark haired kid, thinking back to when he was Mr. Smith. It's crazy how a big, strong man like that became such a cute kid. The teen’s thoughts began to wander, thinking about the first transformation when his former gym teacher shrunk down into Tommy...how hot and incredibly attractive he was when he started inching closer to his own age...that moment after his injury vanished and he was left a big, muscular highschool senior...he knew he had started getting less affectionate and more jockish as he grew up, that much he could tell from the way his personality changed as he got younger, but...maybe if he could just have him open up to him, teenage Tommy might just...a blush had formed on his face.
"Jeff? You okay?" Alicia's words helped snap him out of his fantasies. Jeff shook his head. "H-Huh? Oh, uhh...yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." After coming to his senses, Jeff thought about what he just thought of. This was his little brother. He shouldn't be thinking these thoughts about his future self. But...he knew what was in his future. He wanted to see that guy again. Jeff contemplated making Tommy the big brother for a while just to spend more time with him as a young adult. He knew what his goal originally was, but at eighteen, he hadn't gotten injured yet since he hadn't quite hit college yet. Maybe the three of them could have some fun together while the kids disperse back to their homes for the day.
Though, one could wonder how his dynamic with Ryan and his Lizzie shift if he got older than them? He did recall her crushing on Tommy, and Ryan was pretty much looking up to him like a role model already, even though he knew the kind of jockish teen he'd eventually become. A lot of questions, only one way to find out.
"So, what did you wanna do now? The other kids gotta leave soon. It'll just be you with Tommy 'cause Cris has to go back to the house with Mom and I got homework. I'm down for something before that if you are, though." Alicia asked.
Jeff began to make his next plans, looking down at his phone to check the time, when really he was looking at it because the app was on it.
"Hmm..."