I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

The Family Tree Mishap

Ten-year-old Lilo Pelekai pursed her lips in frustration. Her large brown eyes surveyed the mess in front of her; hundreds of pictures covered every inch of the hardwood living room floor and glue blobs were splattered all across the coffee table. Her long black hair was tied loosely in a ponytail and her hands were covered in dried glue. "This totally reeks!"

Nani Pelekai entered the disaster zone that used to be her neat and tidy living room. Groaning, Nani pressed her fingers to her forehead. "'a'ohe! Lilo, what are you doing?"

"My homework!" Lilo hissed, glowering at the project outline her teacher had given out.

Trying to ignore the mess, Nani gingerly stepped around the piles of photographs and crouched beside her little sister. "You don't sound too happy about it."

"No kid is happy doing homework," Lilo informed bitterly. "But this shouldn't be that difficult!"

"What exactly do you need all these pictures for?" Nani asked, picking the nearest one up. She arched an eyebrow. "A photo of...what's his name again?"

Lilo let out a sigh. "Sparky, Nani. Do you know the names of any of the cousins?"

"How am I supposed to remember all six hundred and twenty five of them?" Nani rolled her eyes. "I'm amazed that you can."

"Anyway," Lilo got back to the original question her sister asked. "My teacher wants us to make a family tree. I got all the way up to me and you before I hit the road block."

Nani followed her sister's finger and for the first time noticed the giant piece of poster board taped to the wall. Pictures of family members from both their mother and father's sides were glued on with miniscule writing underneath each photo. But it only covered half of the board. "Lilo, you're already finished. Why do you have so much space left?"

Lilo looked at her in disbelief. "Uh...maybe because I still have over six hundred cousins, an aunt and uncle, your boyfriend, my dog, and many others to add on."

"You gotta be kidding me," Nani stated flatly. She should have guessed from the glossy photos that covered the floor what Lilo's intentions were.

"I'm very serious!" Lilo exclaimed. "I'm putting my entire 'ohana on here! I can't leave anyone out."

"You can add David, Jumba, Pleakley and Stitch, but that's it," Nani said firmly.

"But what about the cousins? What about Gantu? What about-?"

Nani picked up the piece of paper detailing the project expectations. "It says here that your teacher wants a brief history on each family member. You can't do that with all these aliens!"

But Lilo was stubborn. "That's where I hit a road block!" She jabbed a finger at the notebook in front of her. The pages were covered in brief notes. "I managed to interlock the history of a few dozen cousins so that it all fits so far, but I'm stuck on the rest!"

Nani rubbed her forehead. "Lilo, you're not getting it. The history is one thing, but how is your class going to react when they find out that all of these strange little creatures on the island are related to you?"

Lilo shrugged. "I figured they would be impressed."

"Noooooo," Nani drawled. "They'll start to get suspicious. Cobra Bubbles spent a huge chunk of his time making up stories for each individual alien creature and the reason for why they are here and how they're not dangerous and why they can do so many amazing things."

Lilo arched an eyebrow. "And everyone believed him? I love the islanders, but they really aren't the smartest bananas in a bunch."

"The point is," Nani snapped in frustration, "if you put every single member of our extended family on your poster you'll be undoing Cobra's hard work with your lolo made up histories. Jumba, Pleakley and Stitch. That's it. Understood?"

"But-"

"Don't make me call Cobra," Nani threatened, using the last weapon in her arsenal.

Lilo clamped her mouth shut and folded her arms, a scowl forming. The silent surrender caused Nani to nod in satisfaction and leave Lilo to brood and redo her poster.

"She's totally overreacting," Lilo muttered. "If no one on this island has figured out that we're housing aliens, then they won't figure it out at all."

Defiant and determined, Lilo picked up the discarded glue stick and a handful of photos. She had work to do.

...

"You really messed up this time." Mertle Edmonds smirked as she surveyed the chaos that was happening before them. Lilo was gaping in horror, hands pressed to her cheeks.

"I didn't think anyone would catch on!" Lilo howled, leaning against the stone wall in which Mertle was perched on.

"You put all of your weirdo alien cousins on your family tree." GiGi barked and Mertle gave her a reassuring pat on the head. "Not you, GiGi. You're the normal one."

Lilo's classmates had definitely been confused when she claimed that all the unique creatures on the island were related to her. It only took Elena's innocent comment that Lilo claimed to have been to outer space for everyone to come to a conclusion. Sure, Elena had been trying to diss Lilo by implying she was a liar, but everyone took her seriously.

"Why did they have to believe me now?" Lilo wailed as she watched the panicked islanders race about. When one of the cousins would come to close, they would scream and run away. "I always used to brag about aliens and going to outer space. No one believed me then!"

Mertle just shrugged. "Well, you just have the worst luck in history. Now you have the entire island in a fit because they think we're about to have an alien invasion."

"We already had one!" Lilo snapped. "But of course no one noticed the attack of the Leroys!"

Lilo would have been worried for the safety of the cousins if they didn't have the ability to take care of themselves. A few of them scampered by, and they often shot her irritated looks.

"Why does everyone automatically assume it's my fault?" Lilo cried as Frenchfry gave her a look of accusation.

"Because it normally is," Mertle drawled. She was enjoying herself immensely. Lilo hadn't placed Mertle on the board due to her personal request. GiGi may have been happy to be part of an 'ohana, but Mertle wasn't as enthusiastic, although the relationship between the two girls had become slightly more civil. "I'm just glad I managed to tear off GiGi's picture before anyone got a good look."

Lilo had only gotten halfway through the aliens when Elena made that comment. She was certain Lilo was fibbing and wanted to call her out on it. But it didn't exactly have the effect she expected.

Mertle peered at all the people running around, screaming and panicking. Many were grabbing their bags and loading their cars. Some were trying to apprehend the cousins with poor results. "Word really travels fast around here."

Lilo was at her wits end. "How am I going to fix this?"

Mertle chuckled. "Please, Weirdlo. Not even you can fix this train wreck."

It was then Lilo noticed Cobra's hulking frame over the sea of people. Squawking in fright, she clambered over the wall and crouched behind it. "Oh no! Did he see me?"

Mertle studied the large agent. He seemed to be hollering something at the people, but she couldn't hear it over the hubbub. "Nah. He's just trying to restore order."

Lilo breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe for the time being. "I wonder how he'll handle this."

Mertle watched as more agents filed into the area. "Looks like he called in his buddies. You're in huge trouble now."

"I didn't mean to start a fear-induced riot!" Lilo wailed. "I just wanted to show the whole 'ohana for crying out loud!"

Three rapid bangs were what it took to get everyone on the beach to calm down. Cobra's deep voice spoke stern orders, and soon everyone was slowly going back to their homes or hotels. Mertle whistled. "I'm impressed. He dismantled a Class-A riot like it was a jigsaw puzzle."

"Did he make up a story?" Lilo asked frantically.

Mertle's lips twitched. "Yup. He told everyone that it was just a prank. Everyone knows how you like to see chaos happen."

"I don't like it that much!" Lilo insisted, keeping to her hiding place.

"Well, everyone is going to be super mad at you tomorrow. How much you wanna bet that this story will be in the papers by tonight?"

"That's a bet I'm going to lose," Lilo muttered. "Ugh...I should have listened to Nani. How much trouble am I in?"

Mertle hummed thoughtfully. "Well, everyone on the island has probably been told that this was all a joke by you, so you have them to deal with. Cobra won't be happy...your sister won't be happy...Officer Kaiiko will definitely not be happy. Am I missing anyone?"

"The Grand Councilwoman," Lilo muttered forlornly. "That's it. I'm never doing my homework again."

It was then both girls became aware of the silence. "Shows over. I'm going home. If you're not killed when you get home, I'll see you at hula practice. That is, if they haven't banned you." Cackling, Mertle and GiGi headed off.

Lilo slowly began her walk home. She was halfway down the street when a familiar black car came to a stop beside her. Lilo flinched when Cobra rolled the window down, his black sunglasses glinting in the sunlight.

"Get. In. Now."