Great Lakes Getaway

Great Lakes Getaway is the third one-shot of "A Day in the Life of the Gal Pals". In this story, which is split into two parts, the Gal Pals and Lincoln take a trip to Great Lakes City, where they explore the place with Ronnie Anne Santiago and Sid Chang while meeting their families and their friends, though Lincoln helps Bobby with his relationship with Lori after the events of The Trial.

## Synopsis

### Part 1

"Linc and the Gals are off on a weekend trip to Great Lakes City. Everyone is anxious to see the sights, have some fun and most importantly, touch base with Ronnie Anne and the rest of her family. But during their visit, Lincoln notices something seems amiss with a certain member of the Casagrande Family; Bobby.

Concerned; Lincoln, with the aid of his friends, decides to try and help lift his surrogate big bro's spirits. But will their efforts be successful or will Bobby only sink deeper into his depression?"

### Part 2

"Continuing from the end of part one; after a visit to the salon, the gang continues their trip around the city. However, a nagging thought keeps eating away at Lincoln's mind during their tour; did Bobby heed his advice and if so...did it work?"

## Plot

### Part 1

A van owned and being driven by Carol Pingery to Great Lakes City is filled with Lincoln and the Gal Pals, who are very excited to see not only the city but the Casagrande family as well. On the way, Lincoln tells everyone about what he knows the city has to offer and what he remembers about Carlota's brothers. In the Casagrande apartment, everybody is setting up for when Lincoln and co arrive, with Maria Santiago talking to the other tenants about letting members of Lincoln's group bunk with them. Surprisingly, they all agree, pleasing her.

The Gals arrive, and Maria tells Sid Chang and Sergio to get Ronnie Anne to greet them. Outside the building, Lincoln and his group of female friends exit and unload the van, discovering how homely the main lobby is and the Mercado situated next to the building, which piques their interest. However, Ronnie Anne shows up and greets the group, with help from Sid. After everyone is introduced, Ronnie Anne opens the doors to let the Gals meet her family, only for an eager and excited Lalo to pounce on Lincoln and greet him via licks in happiness.

Then Sergio shows up, catching the interest of Phoebe, who begins taking photos of him with her camera. Surprisingly, instead of being sent flying away, he actually does expressions and posses for Phoebe. This surprises Cristina, who gets told by Ronnie Anne about how Sergio was educated since his youth by Carlos Casagrande I, back when Sergio used to go by his real name, Cupcake. After this, everyone walks inside and heads for the Casagrande apartment.

Upon entering, the crew is greeted by the excited Casagrande family. After being greeted by Hector, his wife Rosa seats the guests around the dining table, having prepared several authentic Mexican dishes minutes ago. They taste them and get a new liking for Rosa's cooking. Suddenly, CJ, wishing to play pirates, invites Lincoln to play and agrees with him on letting the other Gals join in. And then, they're greeted by Frida, the family photographer, which piques Phoebe's interest, being a photographer himself. This causes Frida to get emotional with tears of joy, though she calms down feeling warmed that she met someone similar to her.

Frida's emotions catch the attention of Carlota, who enters the living room and notices the Gal Pals, the eldest ones noticing her back. Both parties squeal with delight now that they're having a reunion, having met each other and got along back in Spring Break. Then, Carlino discovers the Gals and acts "manly" in an attempt to seduce them, though it fails tremendously. After this, Ronnie Anne's uncle Carlos shows up, Ronnie Anne telling everyone about his smarts and him being a skateboarder. Phoebe and half of the Gals doubt it at first, but Frida helps Ronnie Anne with Carlos's skateboarding days and how she still lets him as long as he doesn't get hurt.

Walking into the Changs' apartment, Whitney, Dana, and Cristina are freaked out by a snake slithering on the floor, though Lincoln and Sid tell them about Becca's career as a zookeeper and her off-duty things of bringing animals home during the renovation of their habitats. Suddenly, Adelaide shows up the catch the snake, revealing its name to be "Noodle", and meets Lincoln and the Gal Pals. Everyone gets acquainted with each other, the Gal Pals learn about Stanley Chang's subway career, and some plans are made to have fun.

However, Lincoln brings up Bobby's name, which makes Ronnie Anne and Carlotta uneasy, and they tell him and the Gals that as a result of the trial that occurred that one Spring Break, he's been feeling uneasy learning everything about all that negative evidence against Lori exposing her rancid traits, and is conflicted on his choice of either calling off his relationship with her or keeping it intact. Lincoln wishes to help, though Ronnie Anne tries to convince him otherwise with the weekend being about him, yet Lincoln is consistent, having been a friend of Bobby for a while now.

After meeting Adelaide and Lincoln agreeing to play Princesses with her, Phoebe and Haiku agree to bunk with the Changs, with Cristina and Jordan staying with Mr. Nakamura, Paige bunking with Cory(who happens to be a gamer just like her), Becky and Dana(and possibly Kat) bunking with Ms. Kernicky(who, despite her age, is very skilled at paddleball), and Stella bunking with Georgia and Miranda. Yet, Lincoln still hopes to help Bobby, the Casagrandes supporting his decision now.

On the roof, Lincoln meets up with Bobby, who is still conflicted about Lori as a result of the trial, leaving him wondering if he was right or wrong to view Lori the way he always had and exhausted after learning of all the strife Lori put Lincoln through. Being told this, Lincoln tells Bobby how much Lori regrets every bad thing that has happened because of her, though Bobby barely believes it, not having received any calls from Lori after all this time. Lincoln, in response, tells Bobby about Lori doing community service and attending anger management and sensitivity training classes, shocking him.

When Snapper was giving, Bobby was working at the bodega, only to lock himself in the dairy case as always, causing him to miss the trial's conclusion. Learning this, Lincoln told Bobby everything about the final verdict and about the sisters being sentenced to perform 110 days of community service to work off several damages to the town that they couldn't pay for, half of them(including Lori) to also attend anger management and sensitivity training classes, and Lynn Sr and Rita to take parenting classes. Know that Bobby has been made aware of all this, he starts feeling much better.

In the downtown district, Lincoln and his lady crew, with Sid, Ronnie Anne, and Carlotta in tow, all take a walk within it talking about Lincoln's conversation with Bobby and pay a visit to Margarita's hair salon, meeting the stylist herself, and agreeing to let her stylize their hairdos, where Lincoln cuts off the rest of the adventure for the viewer to stay tuned for in good time.

### Part 2

Everybody comes out of Margarita's with stylized hair, Whitney's poof looking a bit smaller, and Lincoln's hairstyle looking similar to that of Elvis Aaron Presley. He takes a selfie and posts it on social media, with his guy friends, his sisters, his parents, and the trio of officers complimenting it, including Gabriella Campos, who has been BFFs with Margarita for years now. The Gal Pals group with Ronnie Anne, Sid, and Carlotta in tow, decide on going to the city zoo as their next activity, agreeing to take the subway.

Before that, the Gals tell Sid about the group's origins, involving Lincoln and Clyde's middle school orientation, and other events that involved them and Lincoln prior to that one Spring Break, as well as Becky and Lincoln sharing their interests in Ace Savvy. Ronnie Anne gets confused, thinking that Lincoln would've grown out of it, only for Becky to take offense and contradict her by telling her that she's been a fan since age seven. She also tells her about Lincoln's checkmate series, and the $2500 he made off of it, surprising them. Ronnie Anne, allegedly keeping up her "cool" persona, dubs the comic "silly", giving Lincoln the idea to toy with her, by revealing that he based a character on her. Getting her interested via "mind games", he reveals to Ronnie Anne the character he based on her: Madame Roulette.

After the conversation, with Lincoln agreeing to base a character on Sid, they go into the tunnel and board the subway. In there, some turbulence is experienced causing a bodega customer named Maybelle to trip, only to be saved by Lincoln. Surprisingly, instead of thanking him, she starts to attack him, thinking he was an old man ready to loot her. Carol stands in his defense, revealing his name to Maybelle, causing her to have a realization after seeing the news talk about him multiple times. Everyone else starts having a realization after hearing his name and begins whispering to each other.

Maybelle apologizes for her outburst, Lincoln forgiving her and apologizing for surprising her, telling her that he wanted to prevent her from having a bad fall. Maybelle, despite having been able to save herself in some way, thanks him nonetheless and appreciates the decency that still exists in the world. After that, Ronnie Anne tells Lincoln about Maybelle's loyalty to the Mercado and her toughness. In response, Maybelle tells her about the lack of delinquency and degeneracy in maintaining order.

Shortly after, Stan Chang shows up from the conductor's room and checks if everything was alright. This results in Lincoln and Sid telling Stan what had happened and that things are fine now. With that, Sid introduces everyone to Stan, who is her father, and a conductor for the Great Lakes Area Rapid Transit system, which Stan would always shorten into its acronym form: the GLART. After that, the train makes a stop, and everyone gets off, thanking Stan for his services.

At the zoo, Lincoln, still with his Elvis look, looks at a rabbit zone and sees a scenario that mimics what used to happen back before the previous Spring Break, and remembers Lori and Bobby's romantic situation. Suddenly, Becca Chang, Sid's mother, gets Lincoln's attention and asks him what is going on, to which he tells her about the events of "White Hare" and that he has ten sisters, still crazy nonetheless. He then brings up Lori pairing up Lincoln and Ronnie Anne to maintain her own relationship with Bobby, which would later get on his nerves and give him the idea of telling Lori to worry about her OWN love life instead of whatever love life Lincoln might have. Only now, with the events of the trial having taken place, he is worried Lori no longer has a love life.

Seeing Lincoln getting depressed, Becca seeks out Carol to tell her what's going on. At the same time, Cici is playing chess with a silverback gorilla named Silver, who can communicate via ASL. After Silver has won the chess match, Becca tells Carol in secret about what Lincoln is going through, and the latter girl approaches him. Both she and Lincoln know what he going through, him hoping that things will be okay, and Carol reassuring him that they will be. Of course, Lincoln tells everyone the state Bobby was in on the roof, causing everyone to comfort him.

Cheered up, Lincoln tells him Bobby's reaction to Judge Snapper's sentencing, which confuses everyone. This results in Lincoln that Bobby missed the sentencing that led to Lori and her family performing 110 days of community service, and half of the family(including Lori) taking anger management and sensitivity classes. The reason he missed the part was from locking himself in the Mercado's dairy case, causing Ronnie Anne and Carlotta to get frustrated that Bobby would always forget to keep the door open because of how the mechanism is set up. Everyone is informed by Lincoln about how the classes would go on overtime, and that he wonders if Bobby will call Lori and how she will answer. This causes Becca to encourage Lincoln to pray that things will be fine.

After the zoo trip, the group is making its way back to the apartment complex, Lincoln praying to give Bobby the strength to take his advice. Suddenly, Vito Filliponio, a senior citizen of possible Italian heritage, notices and abuses Lincoln, thinking that he's Jimmy the Rat, a loan shark who used to bother him long ago. The Casagrande girls and the Gal Pals rush to Lincoln's aid and convince Vito otherwise. He starts regretting his recent actions, and iron things out, with Lincoln revealing the origin of his trademarked tooth. Ronnie Anne and Carlotta introduce Lincoln to Vito, a frequent Mercado customer, a longtime friend of Hector Casagrande, and gossiper worried about being reported to the police, often acting as a fearful retired Mafiosi. After sorting things out with Vito, everyone resumes their walk back to the complex.

That night, everyone gets to sleep, with Lincoln checking up on Bobby and finding that he's trying to contact Lori, having tried to contact her earlier after that conversation on the roof. Turns out, he was sending text messages because of missed calls and wants Lori to regain his trust for a long enough amount of time to become his girlfriend again.

The next day, the Gal Pals take a tour with Sid and Ronnie Anne across the city's school. There, they discover a poster for some kind of Lucha Libre Robotics club and asks about it, resulting in Ronnie Anne and Sid telling everyone about the events of "The Two of Clubs". Some point during it, Sid would express the anxiety of her and Ronnie Anne "losing two hours of hangtime a day", which would result in "10 hours a week and 40 hours a month of not hanging out". This would remind Lincoln of Clyde, who he might consider making a friend of Sid. After talking about the club, the group is met with Sameer, Casey, and Nikki. Ronnie Anne's very first friends since she moved to the city. They all get to know each other, then go to the city park.

At the park, two teams of five partake in dodgeball. One is Ronnie Anne, Sid, Jordan, Nikki, and Cici. The other is Lincoln, Stella, Sameer, Casey, and Kat. The first team is close to beating the second, but only briefly, thanks to Stella deploying the team's snake formation, and using a dodgeball to "knock out" the other team's members. Lincoln's team is the winner, thanks to Stella, who Ronnie Anne looks like she is about to beat up, only for her to give her a notepad and pen, and ask her to teach her those sweet moves.

After that, Nikki talks about how fun the Gal Pals are, and Carol echos it the other direction, then gets an idea of rewarding them. She gets Ronnie Anne, Sid, Sameer, Casey, and Nikki to kneel, and takes out her comb, asking them if they agree to maintain their friendships with the Gal Pals, to answer calls for help from them, or to simply hang out with them whenever possible. They agree to this, and Carol, the 'leader' of the Gal Pals, makes the five the newest members and exchanges her number with them, gaining theirs in the process. Lincoln would address a confused Sameer that the males of the Gal Pals group would be known as honorary members, which Lincoln would dub the Bro Squad(and later Guy Squad). With this "initiation" done, everyone finds picnic tables to feast on some lunch.

Meanwhile, Bobby gives Lori a phone call, her community service routine having been performed for the day. He tells her that Lincoln told him everything and that he missed the final verdict of the trial from being stuck in the dairy case again. They both converse with each other, and Bobby tells Lori that they will take time to talk with each other, which is his advantage to give Lori a chance to prove that she wants things to be normal between them again. He also gives her hope that she will get through her classes, and the two of them agree that for 30-40 minutes, they can talk about how Lori did in class. Improvements would give Bobby a reason to give it another shot. Otherwise, he would be discouraged. After that, the call ends, and the Casagrandes are happy for Bobby.

The next day, the Gal Pals spend some peaceful and quiet time with the other tenants of the apartment complex. After that, Lincoln and the Gal Pals part ways with the city slickers and bid them farewell, Sid and Carlotta having created a cheer/chant for the Gals that they are now members of. Carlotta, Margarita, and a few other females in the city have also become Gal Pals crew members. The original members might come back someday to visit Becca at the zoo the moment that a new family of polar bears arrives, which catches the interest of Cristina and Jordan, being admirers of polar bears. Afterward, Lincoln and the original Gal Pals depart while listening to everyone sing the city's Gal Pals chant. Once the chant is done, Whitney's poof expands back to its original state, much to her dismay.

Back in the Casagrandes' apartment, Bobby gives Lori a phone call and asks her how her anger management class went.