Good morning, good morning. It's such a beautiful day.

Things had not been easy last night for anyone in the Garden Suite. As predicted, trying to fit four women, especially women with the generous proportions of the Granger Family, had been far too ambitious. Even with Sylvia’s slender frame, she proved an inadequate contrast to the bouncing, luscious curves of the other girls.

Everywhere you moved, you were going to brush up against something. Whether boob or hip, thigh, or, in one instance, a nose. Marley was quite sure that she’d been woken up at least three times last night with somebody’s knee jammed into the small of her back.

No matter where they turned, they couldn’t get comfortable. So by the time morning came, there were no longer any objections to figuring out some alternative sleeping arrangement that everyone could be okay with. Even Carly, who had enjoyed hugging Emmy tightly through the night, could see the merit in that.

Especially because she slept naked, and Emmy had found the experience to be rather disconcerting because of that.

“For the last time, I’m not going to turn into slime at night!” Marley put her foot down and crossed her arms over her chest. She knew her sister wasn’t being serious when she proposed that, but she wasn’t willing to entertain the idea even as a joke.

“Come on!” Carly said with a laugh. “We’ll get you a bucket and everything.”

“Is that really how a superheroine is supposed to act?” Marley raised her eyebrow and indicated to Carly’s costume for the day.

Carly wore a bright blue spandex top with long sleeves, and a modest neckline that nevertheless hinted at her prodigious cleavage. The stylized “S” on the front of her shirt was distorted by her prominent bust, making her look more like a pornographic parody of the superhero she was dressed as instead of an honest representation. Her short red skirt didn’t help matters either, revealing a good amount of her thighs. The only parts of her costume that seemed not to be sexualized were the red cape and tall red boots. A shoulder-length shock of blonde hair finished the look, making it clear to any comic book fan who Carly was supposed to be.

Supergirl! She was one of Carly’s favorites, although her fans always preferred when she took pictures of the character’s overtly sexual alternate-universe counterpart, Power Girl. If you asked Carly, though? This one was perfect.

She had shown Emmy a couple of embarrassing sides of herself yesterday. But today, she wanted to show her daughter that she could be a cool and admirable woman that any girl would love to have for a mother.

As Carly held her head up high and smiled at her sister, she nodded sheepishly. “…Sorry, you’re right,” she agreed, needing to set a good example for Emmy. “I really was just playing around.”

Marley relaxed into a smile and nodded.

“Well, we still need to work something out,” Sylvia stated. “My night with Daddy is coming up in a few days, but that’s only going to be one night. We really do need to find a long-term solution to this problem!”

Sylvia had been one of the staunchest advocates of the whole “let’s pile all the girls together in one bed” plan, but after sleeping through it? Nah. Even she had her limits.

“I know! Maybe there’s some bed plant in the store that we could buy,” she suggested. “Want to check it out? We haven’t really been making use of the Garden Suite’s functions, you know. It wouldn’t hurt to browse.”

Marley gave her mother an exasperated look. “I wonder why that is?” She asked dryly, glancing over at the cactus that had caused them so much trouble this round.

Sylvia laughed sheepishly and scratched her head.

“Besides, that wouldn’t help,” Carly pointed out. “We’re not going to be in the Garden Suite forever. If we don’t have a permanent solution, the problem will just pop up again when we change rooms, you know.”

“Good point,” Marley nodded.

“Wait, change rooms?” Emmy asked. Her eyes widened in surprise. “So we’re not going to be staying here the whole time?”

Sylvia scratched her head. “Carly didn’t tell you? No, every round we’re going to change to a different room, maybe even with different roommates! You three will still be together, but I’ll be with someone else.”

Marley nodded. “Sorry, there are a lot of rules like that. It just slipped our minds.”

Emmy shook her head. “No, it’s okay. Too bad though, this place looks kinda nice.”

Marley’s face lit up. “That’s right, it does, doesn’t it? Surrounded by so many plants, it’s just wonderful!” She let out a wistful sight.

Carly giggled at her sister’s passionate tone. “Well, we’ll think of something. Maybe if we talk to Dakota, she’ll have an idea.”

“I’ll pass on that one,” Sylvia said. “I’d rather do some more experimenting with my transformation, if you don’t mind. There are still a lot of people who I haven’t tested it on! Not to mention, I still haven’t thought about whose transformation I’m going to veto this round… I was thinking about maybe saving it for the challenge to see if I can use it for an edge, but I’m not sure… maybe it would help me on my night with Daddy?”

As much as Sylvia wanted to help with Emmy’s problems (as much for her own sleep schedule as anything else) she did need to think about her own ambitions as a contestant- she couldn’t just be dragged around on a leash by her roommates.

Sylvia’s goal here was to have a happy ending. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d get there, but right now the best option she had was to have things go well with Nick and end up together with him. She really needed to focus on how to achieve that.

“Didn’t you say you were going to get a makeover for your date with Nick?” Marley questioned, remembering her discussion with Sylvia some days ago. “You know, new hair, new clothes? All that stuff?”

“New clothes?” Carly raised her eyebrow. “First I’m hearing about this.”

“Yeah, it was a few days ago,” Sylvia said. “Remember? When I became your sister for the day? I wanted to try out a new style to really catch Daddy’s attention. I thought it would help me out. I’ll still do that, I think, though not right now. When it’s time for my date!” She hadn’t liked copying Carly’s transformation, even if it had made her feel included. She wasn’t Marley’s sister, after all. She’d done it once, as a favor, but she wasn’t completely comfortable with removing her position as Marley’s mother, even if it was only temporarily.

Emmy listened to all of this in confusion.

“I… I really don’t follow what’s going on here,” she said, shaking her head. “Sister… for a day? And Aunt Marley, you’re calling her mom… can someone please explain what’s going on here?”

The three women looked at each other as Emmy stared at them, **** for answers.

“…It’s a long story,” Marley said finally.

Well, not that long. Sylvia got through the cliffnotes version rather quickly, leaving Emmy with her jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out.

“…Seriously? That… that’s… weird.”

“You probably wouldn’t remember, since, well… you know,” Carly murmured, dancing carefully around Emmy’s own past experiences. “But yeah, technically, I was an only child, before Marley joined the picture. Why do you think she could turn into slime?”

Marley nodded, giving her sister a look.

Emmy just awkwardly shrugged. “I-I don’t know,” she admitted, shaking her head. She laughed sheepishly. “That’s so weird though, don’t you think?”

Oh yeah, no argument there.

“The important thing is that we’re all getting along!” Sylvia said with a cheery smile.

Emmy could agree with that.

Before she could ask any other questions, a knock on the door got their attention.

“Oh! Would you look at the time!” Sylvia’s eyes widened. “We should really head down for breakfast! I’m starving! You guys too, right? Marley?”

Marley always wanted to eat. And Emmy smiled, excited to have her next “official” meal.

Carly went to go see who was at the door.

“Oh!” Her face lit up and she smiled when she saw Dani. She’d been smiling a lot this morning, which was good. And the smiles even came without the accompaniment of tears, which was very good, compared to yesterday. “Dani! …And… Vivian. That’s kind of an odd pairing.”

“Is it that odd?” Vivian asked with a laugh. “We are roommates, after all!”

Carly nodded. She supposed that made sense. “Guess so,” she agreed. “What’s up, Dani? Everything… go okay last night?” She looked hopefully at her girlfriend, praying that the pleasant expression on Dani’s face was a good sign of how her threesome last night with Kim and Nick had gone. Carly had been pretty distracted yesterday, understandably, so she hadn’t had a lot of time to think about the position Dani had been in, but now that she was standing right in front of her…

“Last night went fine, Carly, no need to worry.” The chipper tone of Dani’s voice put Carly’s worries at ease. She smiled and nodded.

“That’s great then! So what’s up? We were about to head down to breakfast, actually, if you guys want to join us.”

“You mean it?” Vivian’s eyes widened in surprise. “You sure it wouldn’t be an intrusion or anything? I would just hate to interrupt your family breakfast! It’s the most important meal of the day. Some of the happiest times of my life were when I got to share breakfast with my family.”

She sounded so sweet when she said that, but Dani felt like spiders were crawling down her back. With how clingy and **** for affection Vivian could be at times, she suspected that the other woman wasn’t exaggerating when she said that.

Carly didn’t pick up on it, though. Or if she did, she had enough social grace not to draw attention to it. She just nodded. “We’re going to the Banquet Hall,” she pointed out, “so it’s not like we’re going to be doing anything private.”

“Yeah, you guys should come!” Sylvia nodded. “The more the merrier! Right, Marley?”

“…Right,” Marley said hesitantly. She glanced at her sister. “Carly?”

For a second, Carly wasn’t sure why her sister was giving her that look. Then she got it. Her eyes widened and she turned to look at Emmy before turning back to the other girls.

“Actually, uh… not so sure, to be honest,” Carly admitted. Her face burned sheepishly. “I’m sorry… but I need to think about what’s best for Emmy.”

Carly was a people person by nature. So when someone came by in the morning, asking them to join for breakfast was like a reflex to her. But now she had a daughter to look after. Memories of how overwhelmed Emmy had been at breakfast the day before flooded her mind, and she knew better than to put her little girl back in that same position again, even if she did want to eat with her girlfriend like always.

It was a matter of priority. And as much as Carly cared about Dani, right now her biggest priority was to her daughter.

“Mom… it’s fine.”

Emmy came over to join Carly at the door. Her eyes moved from Vivian to Dani before finally resting on her mom. “Yesterday was… a lot. I was really overwhelmed. But… I need to think about the future, too. And I don’t want to stay cooped up in my room or guarded or anything like that. I can handle a buffet, okay? Or at least I’ll try to.”

“Don’t worry, I promise, Dani will be on her best behavior,” Vivian swore. It was just a light jab, she hoped Dani wouldn’t take it too personally.

Dani rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated grunt. “Oh come on,” she muttered, shaking her head. “You of all people?”

“Hey, you should know, when I say that, I’m really speaking for both of us,” Vivian said, flashing her a toothy smile. “Of course I’l be on my best behavior as well!”

She had to be. The thought of what would happen if she wasn’t made her feel ill.

Vivian had messed up a lot. She didn’t want to keep digging herself deeper.

Carly didn’t care one way or another about the back and forth between the roommates. She was relieved just to hear it. She smiled and nodded. “Well, alright then. Let’s get breakfast.”

“Oh, but Dani already ate,” Vivian pointed out.

Dani looked at her and her mouth fell open. “You… you didn’t have to say that!”

Vivian blinked. “Why? Was it supposed to be a secret?” She questioned.

When Vivian put it like that, Dani sounded kinda stupid. “Well… no,” she admitted, shaking her head. “Never mind. Just forget about it…”

Dani wanted to be there for moral support. Mainly, she just wanted to support Carly however she could. If that included going to breakfast with her, then of course she would, even if she wasn’t going to eat anything.

“Hey, what the heck, it’s all in good fun,” Carly said. She struck a pose. “A superhero wouldn’t sweat the small stuff!”

“Nice costume,” Vivian said, nodding. “That’s the, uh… what’s her name again? Superwoman?”

“Supergirl,” Carly corrected.

“Ah. Right, her.”

Vivian wasn’t exactly a big comic book nerd. Her attempt at bonding hadn’t gone very well. But the important thing was that she was trying!

“I think you look really great in that,” Emmy complimented her mother shyly. Carly made everything look cool, even though Emmy had only seen her in a few outfits so far.

Comparatively, Emmy was still wearing the clothes she had on yesterday. With a laugh, she gestured to her own outfit. “I mean… this is nice too, but…”

Vivian locked her mouth tight. She looked like she was going to have an aneurysm. Dani took note of that and elbowed her in the side.

“You need to breathe,” the tomboy said, almost sarcastically. But she was serious. “Come on, you don’t have to dance around it.”

“Dance around what?” Marley came over to join them with Sylvia following after her. The six women stood clustered in the entryway.

“We didn’t come here for no reason,” Dani informed the others. “Yeah, it’s good to see how you’re doing, Carly, obviously, but this isn’t a social call.”

“Oh?” Carly was more intrigued than disappointed. “What’s up you guys?”

Dani looked at Vivian again.

Vivian took a deep breath. She had to do this right. She wanted to seem like a generous benefactor here, not get on anyone’s bad side.

“I was thinking about this all day yesterday,” she said slowly, glancing over Emmy before landing her eyes on Carly. As Emmy’s mother, she was the one who Vivian had to sell on this idea. “About how unfortunate it is that Emmy only has the set of clothes that Dakota revived her in. So I was thinking, maybe we could all chip in and buy her some new clothes at the boutique? You know, the one Kim works at?”

“Oh!” Carly’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even think about that!” Going to the boutique seldom ever crossed Carly’s mind, since her daily outfits were chosen for her. But now that the idea had been put out there, it was perfect!

“Of course Dakota would make everyone pay for Emmy’s clothes,” Marley said, rolling her eyes. “She couldn’t just give Emmy a full wardrobe out of the goodness of her heart, could she?” Not that Marley had any idea where to put those clothes. Their closet was stuffed full of Carly’s cosplay outfits, her own clothing, and the few pieces Sylvia had. Did they even have room for other clothes?

“She wouldn’t do that,” Sylvia said, shaking her head. She looked a little sad. “She let me pick out whatever clothes I wanted when I first was created, which was fun, but… you know how her fashion style is.”

Carly remembered what Sylvia’s original costume looked like, a mismatched display of different styles and even eras of clothing. She wasn’t sure Sylvia had any room to talk about the style of another person, frankly.

“I didn’t like the dresses she picked out for me, so she eventually just let me choose for myself,” Sylvia said, making a face. “Still, it was nice.”

“Well, that settles it, then!” Carly said, putting her hands on her hips. “We’re going to go pick you out some new clothes, Emmy! I mean, if you want to, of course. What you’re wearing now looks great on you too. No pressure!”

The last thing Carly wanted to do was become one of those overbearing moms who tried to turn their daughter into a carbon copy of themselves, and then get upset when they expressed their own individuality. They had an example of how awful that could be right here.

“…Yeah. I think I want new clothes,” Emmy said sarcastically. She appreciated her mother’s consideration for her, but did she really think Emmy was in any position to say no when, again, this was the only set of clothes she actually had?

Carly seemed to realize how ridiculous that sounded too, because she gave her daughter a sheepish smile and scratched her cheek. “Well, uh, okay then,” she said awkwardly. “We can go after breakfast. Or before breakfast? Whatever you want!”

“Uh…” Marley looked at her sister in alarm.

But Carly quickly caught herself. “What am I saying?” She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Of course, of course we’ll go after breakfast. Shopping is nice and all, but getting a balanced breakfast is important! Yep, definitely!”

Carly had been so focused on being a “cool mom” who wanted to account for her child’s wishes that she’d almost forgotten that as a parent it was her responsibility to make sure that her daughter had a healthy diet and received all the nutrition she needed. Of course she couldn’t think about skipping breakfast, what kind of example would that set?!

And besides, as much as Emmy may have wanted new clothes, she was pretty clearly looking forward to eating breakfast today. So it was a win-win for everyone!

“Great!” Vivian was just relieved that everyone was getting along. She clapped her hands together. “Breakfast first, and then shopping!” She really wanted this outing to be a success. She wanted to show everyone that she could look out for them and make a positive change for everybody.