(sammi's outfit for this chapter with white vans)

Sammi honestly was actually pretty good with cooking and she enjoyed it. Actually, ever since she was little she loved cooking. She even had one of those play kitchens when she was a little girl and would pretend to be a chef at a restaurant. So she was downstairs in the kitchen, helping Lori make food for a birthday party for her client who could be a potential work partner for her. 

Sammi was helping Dave chop celery while Lori put the meat in the oven. "Alright, that is in the oven." Lori closes the oven and gestures to the kitchen where food and some cooking supplies were at. "I'm gonna start on the petit fours and, you guys," She turns to face Dave and Sammi, her smile falling when she saw how slow Dave was chopping the celery. She puts one hand on her hip, pointing at the celery he was chopping. "Is that the same piece of celery you were working on five minutes ago?"

Dave smiles proudly, setting the knife down as he leans back against his chair. "But how precise is that dice?" Lori stares at him with an annoyed expression, both hands on her hips now. Dave looks at her worriedly. "Was it the rhyme or that you want me to move faster?"

Lori shrugs. "Does it have to be one?" Dave nodded and immediately went back to work faster.

Lori looks at Sammi with a relieved expression to see she was already working on her second celery piece. She stands behind her, putting her hands on Sammi's shoulders and smiles. "I am so glad you're helping." Sammi glanced up at her with a smile and went back to chopping celery.

Lori then goes back over to the kitchen island to start on the petit fours just as Alexa walks inside using the side door. "Hey." She smiled at her daughter when she walked by.

"Hey." Alexa greets. "How's, uh, how's it going? Need help with anything?" She asks, glancing at everyone with a nervous expression. "I need a distraction. I'm so nervous about Spencer getting on the team." 

Sammi nods in realization. "Oh, that's right. Spencer is trying out for his college basketball team."

"Yeah," Alexa smiles nervously. "And I really hope he gets in."

"Well, you can help me and Sammi with chopping celery." Dave suggested.

"I can't." Alexa shakes her head, walking towards the living room area. "I'm too nervous."

"Mom, I'm hungry." Lucas whined as he walked downstairs.

"Honey, I'm a little busy right now. You're gonna have to eat tomorrow." Lori responded. Lucas furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side, his lips forming into a frown.

"Or you could just get something yourself." Sammi chimed in.

Lucas points at her with a smile on his face. "Good idea." Sammi chuckled and shook her head while he walked over to the fridge.

"Oh, check it out." Dave grins. "Now I'm precise and fast. That doesn't rhyme, but-" He winces, stopping cutting and holds up his finger with a pained expression on his face. "Fudge nuggets, my finger!

Sammi glances at him with concern. "You alright?" 

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Dave replied, walking over to the counter. 

"Can I feel sorry for you tomorrow?" Lori questioned.

"No need." Dave shakes his head, grabbing a towel. "I'll use the, uh, pain as a motivator." He grimaces, covering the cut with the towel. "Ooh, am I motivated."

Sammi didn't even realize that Lucas had started chopping the celery his dad was chopping until Lori said something about it. "Oh, n. No. No." Lori had a panicked look on his face and Dave called out to him to stop him. 

Sammi watches with surprised to see that he wasn't doing a bad job at chopping celery. "Oh, you're chopping that celery so fast." Lori comments, walking over to stand by her son and her husband follows her. "And that dice is so precise." Dave looked at her with offense.

"Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I watch videos of this Japanese chef with crazy knife skills." Lucas admits. He smiles. "It soothes me."

Sammi's eyes widen and she glances at Lori and Dave raised eyebrows. "Okay, am I the only one concerned about that?"

Lori smiles at Lucas. "Sweetie, I am so proud of you."

Dave and Sammi exchange a look and they both look back at Lori. Dave looks at his wife with disbelief. "That's your response to that?"

"It is right now." Lori nods. She points at Lucas. "Keep chopping." Lucas smiled and went back to chopping as Lori went back to cooking. 

"I didn't know you were so good at that." Sammi said to Lucas, watching him chop the celery perfectly. She heard the doorbell ring, but she didn't make any move to answer the door since she noticed Alexa went to open it.

He smirks at her. "Am I better than you at it?"

"No way." Sammi scoffed. 

Lucas stops chopping and smiles when he gets an idea. "Let's make this more interesting by making a deal." 

Sammi raises her eyebrows, stops chopping, and glances at him curiously. "Go on."

"First one to chop the most celery in five minutes the loser has to buy coffee for them for a week." Lucas suggested.

Sammi grins. "I could go for free coffee for a week." 

"Don't get all cocky now," Lucas chuckles. "You might not win." He outstretches his hand to her with a smirk on his lips. "So, is it a deal?"

A smirk made its way to Sammi's lips as she shakes Lucas' hand. "Deal." Sammi put a timer on her phone that was on the table by her for five minutes and the two young adults started to chop fast. Neither one paid attention to what was going on, but Sammi overheard that Spencer got on the team which made her smile. She had a feeling Spencer would get on the team. From what Alexa told her, Spencer seemed to be great at basketball. 

When Dave and Lori high five each other, Dave winces because of the cut on his finger, causing Sammi to side glance at him with worried eyes as she continues to chop celery. "It's okay." Dave speaks in a reassuring tone, but it was obvious he was hurting. "I can barely feel it." Sammi chuckled lightly, bringing her full attention back to the celery she's chopping since she didn't want to accidentally hurt herself.

Sammi didn't pay attention to the whole conversation between Alexa and Spencer, but from what she got of the conversation is that Spencer only made the team out of pity and not because of his talent. She knew that might be true, but it might not be. It sounded like Spencer didn't care about that if that was the case while it did bother Alexa. And, of course, Alexa didn't tell him it bothered her since she didn't want to make him not happy.

Spencer left to go tell the good news to his parents-Sammi thought it was sweet that he told Alexa he made the team before his parents-and Alexa then sat on the couch, getting on her phone. "Ow!" Dave suddenly shouted, causing everyone to look at him with concern.

Dave winces, leaning on the kitchen island. "That time, I stubbed my toe. It's doing that thing where it's gonna hurt more in two seconds..." Two seconds later he nods, pressing his lips together. "And there it is."

****

It turned out that Sammi did win the bet between her and Lucas so now he had to get her coffee for one week. Everyone was still helping Lori with the food and Jack and Jennifer were helping now which was good because there was only a few more hours before the party left. 

"Now, it says to hit them all with a dash of paprika." Jennifer read off the recipe on her iPad. 

"That's not a word." Jack argues. His mom hands him the glasses she wore and he puts them on, looking at the iPad. His eyes widen. "Oh, that's a word."

"It's the red stuff." Jennifer told him, taking the glasses back from him as he stood up and got the paprika.

"Wow, looking good." Lori compliments, walking into the kitchen with two pans. She smiles. "We might actually pull this off." She sets the pans down, walking over to stand by her husband. "Dave, I still see you have all your fingers." Dave shows his hands to her and smiles. Lori giggles slightly and as Dave goes back to work, she walks over to where Lucas and Sammi were decorating the petit fours. "Wow, you guys, those look beautiful."

"Thanks, Lori." Sammi smiled.

"After watching chopping videos, I move onto this pastry chef who decorates cakes." Lucas explains. He nods. "She's super talented." Lori smiled and nodded in response, silently telling him to get back to work by pointing at the cupcakes. Sammi chuckled, glancing at Lori with an amused smile as Lucas went back to work.

Lori goes back to what she was working on before she went over to the Coopers to grab the food she worked on there. "Everything smells so great," Dave walks over to the table. "But, uh, you don't have to worry about me sneaking a taste." He assures. Sammi glances at him with an amused smile when she saw he ate one of the crostinis Jack and Jennifer had made. He made a gesture for Jack and Jennifer to keep quiet. "It's hot." His eyes widen. "It's hot. Too hot!" He jumped around frantically and searched the kitchen for something to cool himself down.

"Hot?" A worried expression forms on Lori's face while she walks over to the table. "Wait, they're not supposed to be hot." She looks at the bottle Jack used. "What did you put in this?"

Sammi and Lucas stop decorating the petit fours, glancing at Dave with raised eyebrows when he turns the sink on. "Um, that red stuff." Jack points at the bottle Lori held. "This is cayenne pepper." Lori informed him. 

Sammi and Lucas looks at Dave with concern when he takes the sprayer of the sink faucet, spraying water down his mouth. "My mouth is on fire!"

"We're gonna have to redo all of these!" Lori whined, setting the bottle of cayenne pepper on the table. She picked up the tray before she over to the trash can while Dave turned the water off, walking over to the table.

Dave looks at Jack with wide eyes. "How much cayenne pepper did you put in-" He picks up the bottle of cayenne pepper, wincing when some gets in his cut. "Now it's in my cut!" He panicked, immediately setting down the bottle and grabbed the towel off the table. He grimaced, standing beside his wife and leaning his head on her shoulder as he held the towel tightly on the finger with the cut. Lori showed no signs of remorse or sympathy, continuing to throw away the crostinis in the trash can. 

Jack goes to take the glasses from his mom after she takes them off, but she takes it from him. "Don't." He looks at her with confusion. Jennifer shakes her head. "You don't want to see this."

****

Now most of the food was made, the only thing left to do was finish decorating the petit fours. Everyone was now in the kitchen packing up the food. "Alright, we'll just finish packing up these, and, uh, I'll head over to the venue." Lori sighs, smiling at everyone. "Thanks, everyone. I am so grateful." Everyone stops to smile at her and then she gestures for them to get back to work. "Back to work." Everyone goes back to work and Lori groans when the doorbell rings. "Oh, wasting precious seconds." She complains, walking over to open the door. "Precious seconds."

"Oh. Oh, hi, Spencer." Lori greets once she opens the door and sees Spencer there. "How are you?" She doesn't give Spencer time to reply and tells him, "Great, pack up the desserts."

Spencer glances at her with confusion, but he nods and walks over to the kitchen area. "Sure."

 Lori closes the door and walks back to the kitchen area and goes back to packing. "Hey." Spencer says to Alexa, standing at the table where she's making the carboard boxes that the petit fours would go in. Alexa sends him a small smile. "Hey. You didn't have to come over."

"I felt like things were a little weird between us earlier." Spencer explained. 

Alexa shrugs. "No. We're good." She picked up a tray of petit fours that Lucas had just got done decorating and walked back over to the table. 

Lucas looks up from the petit four he was decorating, pointing at his sister. "Gentle." A wide-eyed expression appeared on his face when Alexa did not place the tray gently on the table. She placed it on the table a bit harder than Sammi thought she would and Sammi looked at her with a bit of surprise along with everyone else.

"You sure we're good?" Spencer asked her. 

"I'm sure." Alexa responded, picking up one of the petit fours and basically drops it into the box instead of laying it inside. Lucas looked at her with disbelief as he leaned forward. As Sammi glanced at him, she could tell he was getting mad. 

"Okay, why do you care about the stupid video?" Spencer questioned, referring to the one that was of the team congratulating him and it was labeled 'Cancer Guy Makes Basketball Team'. 

Alexa picks up another petit fours and sighs. "It's not about the stupid video." She dropped the petit fours into the box again, only angering Lucas more.

Lucas throws the icing piping bag on the kitchen island and moves to walk over to his sister. "I have to step in." Sammi goes to grab his arm, grabbing his hand by mistake, but it still stopped him from walking over to his sister. He glances back at her with a bit of surprise, not expecting her to grab his hand. Sammi shakes her head. "I wouldn't if I were you." 

The same time Sammi had grabbed onto his hand, Dave put his arm out in front of Lucas to stop him. Lucas glances down at his dad's hand with an 'are you serious' expression upon seeing he was wearing an oven mitt and he looks at his dad with raised eyebrows. "It's my pepper protector." Dave defended himself and he moved his hand away when Lucas stayed where he was. 

"Well," Spencer picks up a petit fours. "If it's not the video, then what is it?" He dropped the petit fours into the box.

"I know how good you are. That's why it's so unfair." Alexa answered.

Spencer furrows his eyebrows. "What good does it good do me to be mad about it?"

"I'm not mad!" Alexa's voice cracks as she exclaimed, throwing the petit fours she held into the box and then walked into the living room area. Sammi held onto Lucas' hand tighter when he went to move forward with an angered look on his face, knowing that if he stepped in he might make things worse. He took a deep breath and 

"Yeah, you seem mad." Spencer noticed, getting up to follow his girlfriend.

"Okay, I'm mad." Alexa admits. "Yes, you had cancer, but you're well now. Okay, well enough to make your college basketball team by just showing up at practice and being that good. But it never stops being about cancer." 

"I know," Spencer nods. "And it sucks. And when I let it, it does make me mad. Really mad." He confesses with an angered expression on his face. Alexa looks at him with a bit of surprise. Spencer sighs, shaking his head. "But I don't wanna be mad." He shrugs. "Okay, it happened. I can't change that."

"Well, good for you," Crossing her arms, Alexa shakes her head. "But I am mad, and I can't change that."

"Okay." Spencer takes a step closer to her. "Now, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but...When I start to get mad, I just try to think of the positives."

Alexa glances at him with disbelief. "Positives? There is nothing positive about what we went through." She sat down on the couch, uncrossing her arms with an upset expression on her face.

Spencer sits beside her and is quiet for a few moments before he says, "If I hadn't gone to the hospital that day I was diagnosed, I would have never met my girlfriend."

Alexa's eyes soften as she glances at him and smiles a bit. "She must be pretty special."

Smiling, Spencer nods. "She's alright." He remarked, earning a chuckle from Alexa.

"Okay." Alexa is quiet for a few moments as she thinks. She then said, "If I hadn't gone to my survivorship appointment that day, I would have never met my boyfriend." 

Spencer smirks. "He sounds awesome."

Alexa shrugs and smiles at him. "He's alright." The couple then hugged each other.

Sammi had a smile on her face the whole time she was watching the scene and she quietly comments, "Awe." She whines, "I'm so single." The Mendoza's and the Cooper's smiled at her with amusement and laughed at her comment. 

Sammi didn't realize that she was still holding onto Lucas' hand until he gently squeezed her hand. She ignores the butterflies she felt in her stomach and glances at him. He smiles at her, playfully bumping his shoulder against hers. "Hey, at least you're not alone with being single." 

Sammi couldn't help the smile that tugs on her lips and nods. "Yeah," She knew she should probably let go of his hand by now since there was no point of holding hands, but she didn't want to and she thinks possibly he didn't want to either considering the fact he didn't let go of her hand yet. "You're right." Lori, Dave, and Jennifer shared knowing smiles with each other after watching Sammi's and Lucas' interaction. 

Lori picks up her phone when it dings. "Okay. Oh, it's Brian." She notices, referring to her client. She reads the text out loud. "Um, 'I'm sick. Have to cancel the party. Going to be all alone on my birthday. Sad face. Sad face. Sad face.'" She furrows her eyebrows. "Wait.." She scrolls down, her eyes widening as she saw how far the text went. "It just keeps going and going and going." She shuts off her phone, setting it on the kitchen island. "Guys, thanks for all your help," She glances at everyone with an apologetic expression. "But sorry, I guess it was all for nothing."

Jennifer puts a hand on her hip, staring at Lori with raised eyebrows and a smile. "Nothing? It's not every day that I get to eat somebody's canceled rack of lamb."

Lori chuckles, picking up one of the crostini's out of the bowl in front of her. "True." She grins after taking a bite out of it. "Ooh, angry Lori is good."

"Oh," Jack sighs happily after taking a bite out of one of the petit fours he took off the tray on the kitchen island. "I'm so happy Brian is sick."

****

Sammi sat at the table between Lucas and Jennifer. They were all now at the table, eating the food that they made. They weren't just going to let all the food go to waste. And plus it was really good. "Everything is insanely delicious..." Lucas speaks up. He smiles, elbowing Sammi. "And so well chopped."

"Because of us." Sammi chuckled.

"To Brian," Jennifer raises her glass. "For getting sick." They all picked up their glasses and raised them with smiles on their faces.

"You're welcome."

Along with everyone else, Sammi glances over at a sick Brian on the couch with a smile. "And thank you for not allowing me to be alone on my birthday." Brian said. He smiles at Lori. "Lori, you've really outdone yourself. This isn't the work of an employee, this is the work of a partner."

Lori's eyes widen and she smiles excitedly. "Really? Thank you!" Everyone smiles and congratulates her. "Oh!" Lori goes to give Brian a hug, but stops when Brian suddenly coughs loudly. Lori slowly walks backwards to the table with a grimaced expression. "You know, just remind me to hug you when you're well." 

"Maybe scooch a little further down the couch." Dave suggests and Brian does that. "Little further." Dave tells him and once again Brian moves further down the couch, now he was almost by the edge. "Little further." Brian set the plate of food he held on his lap and looked at him with annoyance but still moved down a little further.

A/N okay but the humor in this show is top notch ! it feels like almost every episode there's smth funny, i love it. also alexa & spencer are such a cute couple, i love them ! im defintely team spencer when it comes to either dylan or spencer for alexa