8:38 pm. So far, so good.

...

For now.

The vantage point of the middle of the staircase gave Lori ample room to scan the living room through the bars of the railing to not only make sure that any bedlam could be extinguished before it could start but to also keep an ear out for any potential shenanigans on the second floor.

She wouldn't be there for long, though—standing in the same spot like a stern-faced statue all night wasn't her idea of a fun or practical endeavor. Still, it felt like a necessary course of action after just having to take care of the sack race in the living room (using fine china as a means for obstacles, no less!) between Lynn, Lana, and Lincoln.

That little stunt earned all three of them a thirty-minute time-out in their rooms while also giving Lori a few gray hairs to worry about coloring out later.

In the end, even with the turn of the new year edging closer, Lori wasn't about to break her watchdog conventions for looser surveillance, no matter how many times her younger siblings complained.

Mom and Dad put her in charge of the house for the evening while they went out with some friends for some New Year's "shindig" (Dad's words, not hers) in Ohio. Not only had that left her tied down to the ball and chain of responsibility—a weight that kept her from having a fun night out on the town herself—but she had to be extra vigilant about her surroundings.

'Nothing like some sugary snacks and the promise of getting able to stay up 'til midnight to turn them all into little wild beasts,' Lori thought wistfully without a trace of malice in her thoughts.

Her humility wouldn't let her forget about her younger years and how all it took was half of case of triple fudge cookies and butter pecan ice cream to start literally swinging off the chandelier—the broken leg she got once she fell was a painful and long-lasting reminder about what hapless carelessness could wrought.

All the more reason to be more wary of her surroundings than ever before. She was grateful that Leni, Luna, and Luan (to a decent degree, at least) had a fair amount of restraint, which lightened her load a little bit. She could keep them and the former sack racers out of her mind for the moment.

'So, it looks like I only have to watch out for Lisa, Lily, Lola, and Lucy right now.'

Last time she checked on Lola, she was flaunting her singing skills with the kiddie karaoke machine that she got for Christmas as Luna observed and cheered her on. Besides having to tell them to keep it down a few times, they weren't a major hassle.

Leni had Lily in her lap as she and Lucy were watching TV. Lori thought that she'd have to intervene earlier, when the two were having a loud disagreement about which show should be on, but the answer to their problem literally crawled right up to them in the form of their baby sister. Leni was quick to come up with an appealing solution—she and Lucy would have a much better time looking at their adorable sister enjoy herself as she watched what she wanted.

The fact that Lori hadn't seen Luan for a while would've been much more unsettling had it not been for the fact that she had done a house-wide sweep for fireworks hours ago and rid the premises of anything that looked remotely like a cherry bomb. After last year's New Year's Eve prank, it was a miracle that Luan's surprise firecracker jump scare didn't give Mom a heart attack. Even if her absence meant that she was stewing up another prank, at least the most collateral damage would be to someone's ego.

And speaking of absences…

A sharp, rattling sound caught her ears, and her head turned towards upstairs in a jerky reflex. Just as she was about to think about the whereabouts of a certain toddler scientist, the noise shook her out of her mind's reverie. Dreading a dilemma that she thought she'd have to intervene in, Lori was quick to scale the steps to the top in seconds.

The sight of the hallway, moreso on the state of its disarray in its right side, made her stop dead in her tracks as she looked on at the messy carpet in flabbergasted stupor. With widened eyes and an agape mouth, Lori had no choice but to concede to the reality of...five...six...seven...t-ten crunched-up cans of cola littered as far as the eye could see!

Just then, before she could try to make sense of anything, a lone can rolled its way onto the scene.

Right through the open crack from Lisa's ajar bedroom door.

It didn't take long for Lori's confusion to crumble away, agitation taking its place.

"Lisa!" Lori shouted as she marched towards Lisa room with angry stomps in her stride, her presence further announced by the sound of her feet further crushing the soda cans in her wake.

Everyone knew what kind of trouble Lisa could get into herself into and that was when she was of sound mind. Lori didn't want to imagine the danger she could potentially put herself in when she was caffeinated to levels unfit for anyone, let alone a four-year-old.

Lori wasn't thinking about a gentle approach by the time she reached the door—with a hardy shove of her forearm, she struck it aside and found exactly what she expected. There was Lisa, her body twitchy from fear of the sudden intrusion and the effects her reckless soda chugging had caused her. She was sitting on the floor, her back against the bed with an open can of cola in her hands. The gaze in her eyes was glossy, and each spasm of her bottom eyelids only made her frightened stare more unnerving.

It detracted Lori's irritation a bit, but not enough for her to not be stern.

"Lisa, what the heck do you think you're doing?!"

Her booming voice made Lisa drop the can in her lap, spilling its contents on the floor and on her sweater. Even hopped up with too much sugar for her to handle, Lisa had the wherewithal to attempt to mollify her older sister.

"G-g-greet-tings, e-e-ldest s...s-sib-b-b-ling," Lisa babbled, her effort of speech tripped up from panic and caffeine. "H-how m-m-m-m I-"

"Don't give me that 'eldest sibling' spiel! Lisa, you know better than to be drinking this much soda! Look at you! What on Earth were you thinking?!"

Immediately, Lisa took on an apologetic posture as her head bowed in what Lori presumed was shame. It made her heart clench and her gut squirm as her forceful words came back to bite her. She was hoping for a more immediate revelation than this, something that would have her realize her mistake without making her feel small.

But this? This was just downright uncomfortable. Not to mention somewhat hypocritical. After all, she was the one in charge. And she had somehow missed her four-year-old going this deep into her indulgence.

She had asked Lisa what was she was thinking, but now she reconsidered where she was coming from—she should've asked that with a mirror right in front of her.

Before she could form an apology, Lori was taken aback when Lisa suddenly stood to her feet and cross her legs as her teeth clenched within her strained frown.

"Uh, Lisa?" Lori asked worriedly, her brow creased in confusion. "Are...you okay?"

There was a brief flash of distress that shined liked a police beacon through Lisa's eyes before she made a mad sprint past Lori, her frantic murmuring of "bathroom" giving out a strong hint on where she was going. Sure enough, Lori poked her head out of the room in time to see Lisa making a beeline towards her destination.

Lori wouldn't intrude on her potty emergency, but wasn't about to let this go without a sister-to-sister talk.

Oh, and without cleaning up the mess in the hallway. Yeah, that was kinda important, too.

Lori rarely experienced things that both succeeded and failed to surprise her at the same time, and Lisa's four consecutive bathroom runs had done the trick.

On one hand, it wasn't much of a shock, considering that it was a tiny bladder versus ten cans of soda. On the other hand...dang, four times. Poor girl.

Finally, with Lisa's urge to tinkle seemingly put at ease, now Lori could do the both of them a favor by putting Lisa's guilt to rest. As Lori stood above Lisa while she sat on her bed, she let the silence between them give her room to survey Lisa's expression—her looming shadow made it a little tough, but she could still manage.

Those nasty jitters were finally gone, but looking at Lisa staring down at her lap with a sad frown was just as bad. She was able to flush out ounces of soda of her system, but not any lingering feelings of guilt that her harsh words had caused.

She was slow to bend down at the waist and reach out for a hug, hesitant to go further than Lisa probably wanted out of her right now.

"Lisa, I'm sorry, okay? I only acted that way because I..."

She clamped her mouth shut before her sentence could come out fully. She shook her head in self-reprimand while she retracted and stood up straight. She was pressed to also apologize for trying to come up with an excuse for her hastiness, but Lisa was more swift.

"You're apologizing?" she asked, looking straight into Lori's eyes.

Lori nodded and idly rubbed the back of her neck with her hand. "Yeah. I was way too snippy with you. You shouldn't have gotten into all that soda, but..."

She paused to consider her words, knowing full well that there was a chance that she could offend Lisa in a different way. Lori had to will herself to continue when she conceded with just getting it out of her system, thinking that the implication of Lisa not being able to handle herself couldn't be worse than yelling at the top of her lungs

"I mean, you're only four. You don't know better, and I should've known that. Besides, I also should've been keeping a better eye on you, anyway."

It was a foolish gamble to think that Lisa wouldn't look at least a little wounded from the subtext of her words, which was why Lori couldn't believe her ears from the way Lisa replied to her.

"Au contrarie. I actually do know better," Lisa said, her tone firm but free of indignation. "That was precisely why I chose to consume that much carbonated liquid in the first place, despite the costs it could have on both my body..."

Her cheeks suddenly took on a light shade of scarlet as she looked away and murmured, "...and my dignity."

Lori winced, not needing Lisa to elaborate. Upon finishing of her final trip to the bathroom, Lisa had shuffled out with her hands behind her back and her head bowed. Lori, who had been waiting for her outside, was halfway through asking if everything was okay until she saw the thin stain that ran down her left pant leg. Before leading Lisa back to her room and getting her a fresh change of clothes to wear, she had sworn to not tell another living soul of the incident.

Lisa went back to looking right at Lori's face after her quick brush with humiliation had passed over her.

"And an apology is quite unnecessary," Lisa continued, sounding a little more reserved and ashamed this time around, "at least on your end. Looking back now, I can see why your discovery couldn't have been comforting to you. Forgive me for causing you alarm. It wasn't my intention."

The last word of that line piqued Lori's curiosity. What she had made out as a simple, childish indulgence was apparently more calculated than she gave it credit for.

"Well then, what was your intention, Lis?" Lori asked.

When Lisa's head perked up and her eyes revealed a little glimmer, Lori knew what she was about to get herself into. Sure enough, she found herself looking on as Lisa scrambled out of bed and began to pace around the floor in a small circle with her arms folded behind her back.

"I've been trying to fight against my accursed hypothalamus all night. It's meticulously driven me to sleep at precisely eight o'clock eastern standard time for as long as I can remember. Had I prepared myself for that inevitability beforehand, I could've invented something to aid me in my task. Unfortunately, because I have no plan, I've been forced to use more primitive methods. Ergo, I felt it necessary to fuel my body with a massive quantity of caffeine to keep myself up for at least another..."

She stopped and stole a quick glance at her wristwatch. "...three hours and five minutes."

Lisa had done everything to establish the "what" but neglected the "why". It took Lori about half a minute to wonder why Lisa would want to stay up so late. And considering how obvious the answer was, it shamed her that it took her that long to put the pieces together.

"Ooooooh, I get it," Lori said with a smile. "You're trying to stay up 'til midnight for New Year's Day, right?"

"Precisely."

"You know, now that I think about it, I remember that you missed out on it last year. Though, you didn't seem to care back then. What's changed?"

As if she had been scalded with a bucket of ice water, Lisa froze on the spot, looking just about as uncomfortable as she did the second she caught Lori at her doorway a few minutes ago.

"Uh..." Lisa's eyes shifted from left to right quickly, as if she was looking around for a path of escape. "...m-my reasons are my own, thank you."

Lori knew better than to let her unintentional impoliteness tick her off, especially since it was clear that she was nervous. Besides, she had better things to think about.

Like the perfect way to get Lisa what she wanted, after all.

"You know, you could always just sleep until it's almost time, and I then I could wake you up," Lori said. "That sounds way better than forcing down gallons of cola, right?"

Lisa's eye-shifting and squirming halted, just in time for the scowling and facepalming to begin.

"Confound it!" she exclaimed the second her palm met the bridge of her nose. "Why didn't I think of that?!"

It was a little vindicating for Lori to see her earlier words about Lisa's age have a place in reality, though she chose to express her satisfaction with an amused chuckle instead of an obnoxious "Told ya so!"

"Like I said, Lisa, you're only four," Lori replied. "You may have a lot of book smarts, but you don't know it all."

Whatever it was about that sage and gentle reminder quelled Lisa's bout of criticism enough for her to peel her hand away and giving Lori her undivided attention.

"You have my gratitude, Lori, but your kindness is unnecessary." She brushed out her signature gesture of self-confidence by pushing up her glasses along the bridge of her nose. "Thanks to all that caffeine, there's no way that I'll be going to sleep anytime so−"

Her declaration of assurance was cut off as Lisa dropped to the ground after falling backwards. Lori didn't even need to her her sleeping face and hear her light snoring to understand what had just happened.

"Mmhmm. That's what happens when I drink too much coffee all at once," Lori said to herself as she waked over to Lisa and scooped her up in her arms. "I guess a certain someone forgot about the aftereffects of caffeine."

This wasn't anything to fret about, given what Lori had wanted to do, anyway. On top of that, to see Lisa in a state of peace, after that cola scare, was just what the doctor ordered.

After tucking Lisa in and putting her glasses on her nightstand, Lori leaned down until her face was just an inch above Lisa's forehead.

"Sleep tight, Lisa," she whispered before placing a light kiss between her eyebrows. "See you in three hours."

With that, she flicked the lights off, walked out, and quietly closed the door.