The 2025 WIP Big Bang & WIP Reverse Bang Are Open For Sign-Ups!
Welcome to a new round! We're bringing back the OG WIP Big Bang, which is for finishing fic and getting art to go with it, and introducing the first full round of the WIP Reverse Bang, which is for finishing artwork and getting fic to go with it. All fandoms/ratings/ships are welcome, including original works!
Schedule
All times are by 11:59pm PST. Convert time zones.
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Sign-ups Begin- April 1st
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Sign-ups Close- May 21st
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #1- May 22nd
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #2- June 15th
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Snippets Due- July 1st
Big Bang Art Claims/Reverse Bang Fic Claims Begin- July 17th
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #3- July 22nd
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Check In #4- August 6th
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Rough Drafts Due- August 15th
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Posting Claims Begin- August 23rd
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Posting Claims Ends- September 1st
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Final Drafts/Art & Fic Due- September 7th
Big Bang/Reverse Bang Posting Starts- September 8th
Penelope spent her life writing love letters, which didn’t seem like a terrible idea until the letters were mailed out and Schneider received one of them. Hoping to fool their exes, they agree to fake a relationship. But are they lying to everyone around them, or to themselves? aka my To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before-inspired AU.
Penelope x Schneider, ODAAT. available on ao3 with extra author’s notes.
Chapter 3: Penelope tries to bond with Alex during movie night; he and Lydia bring the family’s donations to Goodwill. Schneider returns from vacation and confronts Penelope. She panics.
While Schneider was away with Nikki over the weekend, Penelope splurged on a trip to the movies--luring Alex with the promise of food he didn’t have to sneak in.
She was trying to focus on silver linings instead of her anxieties about Elena, and the upsides included her new availability for Alex. Twice as much parent to go around could only lead to more bonding, right?
He had lobbied for an R-rated comedy, which she was definitely not willing to pay for. On her own, she would’ve headed right for the newest Bradley Cooper drama, but no amount of chocolate could convince Alex to sit through that.
So they compromised on an action movie--which would have the added benefit of covering up the sound of her soda later. Agreeing to buy concessions for Alex didn’t make her a different person. Her discount snacks were better than their overpriced junk, anyway.
He grinned at her over his bucket of popcorn while they waited for the lights to go down, and she considered her bribery a success. See, she could be the cool mom. Even if she had Raisinets in her cargo pants.
“Hey, Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you still miss Max?”
Where did that come from? The question hurt, mostly because it was so unexpected. With Max exiting her life right before Lydia’s stroke, neither Alex or Elena had mentioned him much in the last year. They’d all had other things on their minds.
She let the pain pass by before she answered.
“Yes, Papito, I still do. It’s hard to let go of people you love. Sometimes, a part of you misses them even after you’ve moved on.”
He nodded, sipping his soda.
“Do you think you’ll start dating again anytime soon?”
That question was even more out of character for her son, whose world had been so often self-centered since he first came into it.
Penelope narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you suddenly so interested in my dating life?”
“I was just wondering.”
”Well, I’m having fun the way things are. You and me, catching a movie on a Friday night, mother and son time with Elena away. Why would I want to date when I could be doing this?”
She grabbed a handful of popcorn and caught the way he cringed. Or flinched. Whatever it was, there was guilt there. Her mom radar went up.
“Alex, what is it? Is something going on?”
“It’s nothing!” He assured her in a rush. “It’s just...I kind of--did have a date.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. You wanted to go out together, so I rain checked it with Chloe for next weekend. But I mean, let’s be real, Mom. This can’t last forever. I’ll go off to college too, or modeling school, whatever, and then who will you hang out with?”
The trailers started playing, just in time, letting her wallow until the movie started.
Penelope couldn’t keep the sadness off her face as she watched Alex settle in with his snacks. He was growing up so fast on her. Too fast. And Elena was practically out of the house already.
She didn’t want to date just to avoid being alone, but hearing that concern from her teenage son? Ouch. So much for being the cool mom.
Now Penelope was glad that they’d picked an action flick. She was ready to watch some stuff blow up.
****
Alex emerged from his room the next morning waving his phone at her.
“Mom, that was the third text I’ve gotten from Elena since she left reminding us to take that stuff to Goodwill.”
“Good morning to you, too,” Penelope replied.
She was almost out the door, but her son had the luxury of sleeping in on Saturdays until baseball season started. He was taking full advantage of it.
“Seriously, she woke me up--and I need my beauty rest. She’s not gonna stop bugging me until you drop it off.”
“Alex...” Penelope shrugged into her coat, kissing her Mami on the cheek in thanks for the quick cafecito she had substituted for breakfast. “It’s all boxed up, we finished it before she left; it’ll get there.”
“I’m just saying, she’s gonna start texting you next, and I don’t think you’ll enjoy the lectures any more than I do.”
“Well, I’ve got plans with Jill today--and I’m about to be late. Mami?” She raised hopeful eyebrows in Lydia’s direction.
“Hmm?”
“Can you go with Alex to the Goodwill donation dropoff? I won’t be back until dinner.”
“Si, Lupita. Go have fun with your friend, we will handle it.”
“Great. Thanks. The things I’m getting rid of are in my room, next to the closet.”
“You know, this would be much easier if Schneider had not taken his girlfriend on a vacation.” Lydia frowned. “He could carry much bigger boxes than myself or Papito.”
“Hey, I can lift heavy stuff,” Alex protested.
“Yes, but you should not have to! You should save your strength for wooing your future wife.” Lydia patted his face.
“Luckily for us--and Alex’s future wife--none of the boxes are all that heavy,” Penelope said. “And there aren’t too many of them. Now, I really have to go. I’ll see you both tonight.”
****
Absorbed in work and school, Penelope didn’t give their Goodwill donations another thought until Tuesday, on her way out of the hospital. The two boxes she’d packed in her room were gone, concluding that chore.
Or so she thought.
Penelope was digging in her purse for her keys when she saw Schneider striding her way. “Oh, hey! I thought you were gonna be off the grid with Nikki for another couple of days.”
“No, that trip is kind of...over. That whole thing is kind of over.”
“Again?”
Hurt crossed Schneider’s face before he buried it. He was really good at that, she’d learned--mostly from moments when she was the one hurting him. Way to go, Penelope.
“I mean, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
“Eh, I will be. Eventually. It’s not like we were engaged, right?”
Schneider shook his head. “That’s not why I’m here, though. Nikki may have dumped me for one of the jock dads at St. Bibiana’s, but that doesn’t mean I think you and I should blur the lines on the rebound.”
She stared at the creased blue paper he held up as he continued.
“Not that I’m not flattered, obviously. You’re the most badass woman I know, an amazing mom, anybody would be lucky to--”
Penelope’s field of vision narrowed to the letter in his hand, a letter that she definitely recognized. She didn’t hear the rest of his sentence. She could only hear her heart pounding in her ears, making her wonder if she was about to pass out there, next to her car.
How did Schneider get that? What was happening right now?
“I found it slipped under my door when I got home. And honestly, Pen, if you needed to tell me this stuff, you could have just done it in person--we’ve had enough late night chats that nothing’s really off limits at this point.”
She took a deep breath, trying to focus on a technique that worked for her during panic attacks and after nightmares. Since the moment felt like an actual waking nightmare, slowly counting backwards didn’t help much. He was still there. Waiting.
“Schneider, that letter--it’s not what it looks like, I swear. I don’t want to date you. At all. I wrote it because...”
She was still trying to find the words to explain something much too complicated for a parking lot when she saw motion past Schneider’s left shoulder.
Max was exiting the hospital and heading straight for them, holding a bright white envelope in one hand.
It didn’t take a genius to know what he was coming over to say.
Which was good, because Penelope’s mind was not exactly in top condition. It was already a five-alarm fire up in there, and every part of her was screaming I cannot deal with this.
In the fraction of a second she had to consider her options, Penelope acknowledged that the mature response would be to face it now--to explain the situation to her ex-boyfriend and her best friend at the same time.
Or, she decided, as she felt both men’s eyes on her and her palms started to sweat...she could do literally anything else.
Going with her first impulse, Penelope reached up and grabbed Schneider’s shirt with both hands, pulling him toward her. Before Max could get one step closer, she kissed Schneider like her life depended on it.
She couldn’t have explained to anybody why kissing Schneider seemed like a better idea than letting Max think she was still pining over him. Right then, she just needed Max to stay back. To leave them alone.
Did it work? She wondered. She couldn’t check without breaking off the kiss, but the silence seemed promising.
Of course, the quiet only emphasized the situation she was now in. She was kissing Schneider. She was in a hospital parking lot, a few yards away from her ex-boyfriend, kissing Schneider.
Pressed against her, Schneider didn’t react. Not after the initial moment, or several more. He let her kiss him, but he didn’t kiss back. And that was fine, Penelope told herself. That was better.
“Thank you,” she said when she let Schneider go. He stood there, flushed and baffled, looking at her like he had never seen her before.
Though confusion was written all over his face, Schneider nodded. “You’re...welcome?”
Penelope wasn’t willing to push her luck any further. She couldn’t avoid the embarrassment forever, but at least she had managed to postpone it until she got home. She needed time to figure this out.
Without another word, and without glancing back to where Max was probably still holding his own letter, she got into her car and drove home.
****
Her reprieve was brief, not that she’d expected any different. She caught the aroma of dinner as soon as she walked through the door, and barely had time to praise her Mami’s cooking before Schneider arrived.
“Oh, good, Schneider, you are home from your vacación,” Lydia said. “I made enough for you to join us, just in case.”
“Hey,” Alex added from his spot at the table. “You’re back early, right?”
“Yeah, Nikki and I broke up.”
Schneider offered that explanation to Alex, but he was looking at Penelope. She shook her head in response, hoping the tiny movement would go unnoticed by the others. Hoping that Schneider would understand. Not now. Not in front of the family. Please.
His shoulders tensed where he stood, like her silent plea was a blow he had to absorb. But when he finally looked away from her, smiling at Lydia and taking his seat, Penelope knew he would let it go for now. “So you can see why I needed a nice, comforting family dinner this evening.”
“Oh, pobrecito Schneider,” Lydia said, patting his back before she sat down across from him. “You can do better.”
They were waiting for her to settle into her place at the table, but Penelope couldn’t join them until she knew for sure. She headed for her bedroom, straight to the spot where her army duffel would be.
Or where it used to be.
“Mami?” She returned to the table and sat, trying to sound calm. “What happened to my duffel bag?”
“I don’t know,” Lydia said, pouring herself some rum as though her daughter’s world wasn’t spinning out of control in front of her. “Where did you see it last?”
“I keep it in my closet,” Penelope snapped back. “It’s been there for years. Where did I see it last,” she added in a mutter.
“You do not need to take that tone with me,” her Mami scolded her. “I did not touch your ratty old bag. I do not know where it is.”
“Well, I know I didn’t move it, and it’s gone. So can anybody explain to me how it up and disappeared?”
Lydia thought it over. “I suppose...if it was in your closet...it might be at the Goodwill.”
She clamped down even harder on her temper. “Why would it be at the Goodwill?”
“As I said, Lupita, I have done nothing wrong. But your boxes were next to the closet. So if it is missing, that may be why.”
“It was just an old duffel bag, right, Mom?” Alex was halfway through his dinner, but he couldn’t ignore the tension in the room. “You can get a new one.”
“Not everything’s replaceable, Alex. That old bag had a lot of memories attached.” She picked up her fork and tried to focus on her food while her mind reeled. It also had five incredibly personal love letters tucked into the inside pocket. Letters she’d never wanted their subjects to read.
Now Max knew she never got over him, and wanted him back. God, after more than a year, how pathetic he must think she was.
And that didn’t begin to address the other letters. How long until those came back to haunt her, too? What about the man currently watching her while he ate, pretending that he wasn’t? How could she possibly explain any of this to Schneider?
She stabbed at her salad, lost in thought until she was done eating.
Worried she might snap at him next, even Schneider was quiet during the meal. The scraping of utensils against dishes filled the silence until Penelope cleared her plate and went to her bedroom.
Schneider swallowed loudly after Penelope left, but didn’t offer up his usual attempts to paper over the unease that lingered behind her.
Instead it was Lydia who broke the silence. “Lupe hasn’t used any of her old bags in years. I do not understand why she is so upset about this one.”
“Maybe she’s going through menopause,” Alex offered up.
Schneider’s fork clattered loudly onto his plate.
Lydia shook her head. “No, that can’t be the problem, Papito. She is far too young.”
“It can start between the ages of 40 and 50,” Alex argued, ignoring the way Schneider was gaping at him. “Mom’s just inside the window.”
“This is very inappropriate talk,” Lydia scolded him, standing up to clear the rest of the plates.
“Elena wouldn’t stop lecturing me about it, okay? She wanted me to be ready when it happened in case she was moved out already. You know how she never shuts up.”
Schneider left Alex sitting alone to go find Penelope--normally she would be back out with the family after dinner, but if she was going to try this hard to avoid him, she wasn’t giving him much choice.
With Lydia at the sink and Alex’s face in his phone already, Schneider doubted the others would even notice him gone.
He tapped lightly on her door. “Penelope?”
The long silence wasn’t comforting, but eventually he heard a quiet “Come in” and let himself in.
“Hey,” he said as he shut the door behind him. “You know, Max seemed just as confused as me, back at the hospital. He just sort of stared at me, once you drove off, for the longest five seconds in history, and then he left without saying anything.”
“Yeah?” Penelope was looking at the floor more than him, but he could tell she was listening.
“Yeah. I think he wanted to talk to you too. Which made me even more confused. What’s going on?”
A brisk rap on the door sounded before it opened--not giving either of them time to respond.
“Mami.”
“It’s time for dessert,” Lydia told them. “What are you two doing in here?”
Penelope ignored the gossipy insinuation in her tone--she knew better than anyone that it was her Mami’s way of hoping something interesting was about to happen, whether it actually was or not. “We were talking about dessert, actually. I was asking Schneider if he wanted to go with me to get ice cream.”
She raised her eyebrows, hoping he would follow her lead. “What do you say? Dessert run?”
Whatever he was thinking, or feeling, Schneider kept it to himself. “Sure, Pen. Sounds good. My treat.”
“Oh, Schneider, you are such a generous man,” Lydia told him with a hand on his arm--laying it on a little thick even by her usual standards.
“Mami, calm down. It’s ice cream, not new shoes.”
“Lydia, did you want new shoes?” Schneider perked up, and Penelope grabbed him by the arm to pull him past her mom before they could get any ideas.
“She doesn’t need you to buy her shoes. Let’s go.”
Penelope rushed him to the door with one hand on his back, nudging him forward as she opened it.
She was in such a hurry, she almost shoved him directly into Ben--who was standing on the other side, hand raised to knock.
