It was an average evening at the Loud house, and by that I mean it was loud as all heck. Luckily, it was so loud that Lynn Loud, the athletic daughter of the family, could enter the house without being spotted. Which was good, since she was covering her face with a paper bag, with two holes where her eyes would be.

However, just as she got ready to go upstairs, she was met with her other sisters-and Lincoln-all looking straight at her. "Lynn, why are you literally wearing a paper bag over your head?" Lori inquired, pointing at the bag.

"Yeah, a lampshade would look much better!" Luna added, earning an "are you serious?" look from Lori.

"Uh, I-It's a new fashion trend!" the jock answered. "The "Paper Mask!" You put up a paper bag on your head, and your identity is kept completely secret from everybody else!"

"Oh! I've heard about that!" then Leni reached for Lynn's bag. "Can I borrow yours?"

Lynn pleaded her older sister to not take her paper bag, but it was too late: Once Leni snatched the bag, it was revealed Lynn's nose was not only broken, but also bleeding. So of course, her sisters-and Lincoln-Immediately took her to her room and tried to treat her nose.

"Lynn, like, what happened to your nose?!" Leni asked.

"Yeah, how did you literally got it broken?" Lori added.

"Well... That's a bit of a long story..."

A little while ago...

Lynn and Polly Pain, both wearing boxing gear, exchanged a couple hits during their training, with Polly rather clearly holding back.

"Come on, Polly, that's the best you can do?! I can barely feel your punches!"

"I'm... Kinda nervous of going all out."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I have a very strong arm, so, I could accidentally wind up breaking some of your bones if I use too much strength, you know?"

"Polly, not counting Ronnie Anne, I'm one of the toughest girls in Royal Woods!" Lynn boasted. "So come on, hit me with everything you got!"

"Fair enough, you asked for it."

Polly threw a punch, and everything went dark.

Back at the present...

"So basically, I got cocky, asked Polly to hit me as hard as she could, and now I remember why her surname is Pain," Lynn bluntly clarified. "Apparently, it was supposed to be Payne, but her parents made a typo and they decided to roll with "Pain" for now."

"Well, why didn't you go to the hospital right literally away?!" Lori growled before dialing someone on her phone. "You know what? Forget the hospital, let me call the Santiagos. Mrs. Santiago should know how to treat broken noses effectively."

"And also try to call her up to teach Lynn how not to tempt fate," Lincoln blurted with a shrug. "That would be pretty helpful too."

Shooting an angry glare at the boy, Lynn promptly said, "Girls, can you leave me and Lincoln alone for a moment?"

The girls exchanged looks, and after wrapping Lynn's nose in bandages, the sisters left Lincoln and the jock alone... Upon which Lynn slapped him.

"Why did you say that, Lincoln?!" Lynn hissed as Lincoln rather casually rubbed his slapped cheek. "I mean, my nose is freaking broken, and you say I need to learn how not to tempt fate?!"

"Lynn, in any other situation, I probably would've picked your side and been sympathetic to you," the boy twiddled his fingers as the jock's eye twitched. "However, you literally just said that you got a broken nose because you asked, no, challenge Polly Pain to hit you as hard as she could, and you were caught off-guard by how tough she hit you. From what I can see, It's entirely your fault."

Lynn pounded her fists. "Lincoln, I'll beat you up if you don't rephrase that sentence right now."

"Okay, let's assume you'll really do that if I keep talking," Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "How will that benefit you in the slightest? Come to think of it, are the rest of our sisters really going to let you do that? Specially when mom and dad are in the house?"

Lynn hesitated, then lowered her fist. "Fair enough," the athlete rolled her eyes. "What do you suggest I do?"

"Just stay down and relax until Mrs. Santiago comes here," Lincoln brushed Lynn's hair, while the jock blushed and continued to look away. "Meanwhile, I'll call Polly and see if I can convince her to visit you after your nose surgery."

"Is a nose surgery really necessary?" Lynn inquired, her voice suddenly growing worried. "I mean, Polly did break my nose, but it couldn't have been that bad, right? J-Just put my nose back to normal with your own hands! No need to call Mrs. Santiago!"

Lincoln rubbed his forehead, feeling a mixed sensation of pity and annoyance at his older sister's stubbornness. "Lynn, if we try to fix your nose without the help of an actual medic like Mrs. Santiago, we could end up breaking it even further! Just be patient and wait here while I go call Polly, okay?"

The athlete flinched, and eventually nodded and looked away, greatly upset at her situation. And so, time passed up until Mrs. Santiago reached, and the family decided to have Lynn get a surgery on the house soon afterwards. Apparently, Lynn's nose was in such a bad state that she either got surgery right now, or risk needing a rhinectomy, or in simpler terms, the loss of her nose.

Not a good compromise, to say the least.

And as that happened, Lincoln waited for Polly Pain to answer her phone, which she eventually did with a confused, "Hello?"

"Hi Polly," Lincoln greeted back.

"Oh hi Lincoln, what's up?"

"Well, I want to talk to you about something, that has to do with... Well, it's related to Lynn."

"Oh, are you talking about... that...?"

"You still feel upset about the whole "broke Lynn's nose" incident?" Lincoln asked.

"I'm not so much upset as I'm conflicted," Polly answered from the other line. "On the one hand, Lynn did ask me to hit her as hard as I could, and she was kind of being a boastful jerk about it. On the other hand, I wasn't aiming to break her nose."

"Well, she's currently undergoing nose surgery at the hospital," the boy answered. "I was hoping you'd agree to come see her when the surgery's done."

Unfortunately, Polly brought up a very good question. "Lincoln, even if I do agree to come see Lynn,what makes you think she'll be happy to see me?"

And, being unable to come up with an answer to the question, Lincoln took a deep breath and answered, "Well, it's up to you whether you come or not. No pressure."

Lincoln hung up, and lowered his head as he could only hope nothing would go wrong later that evening.

Later that Evening...

Lincoln heard someone knock the door, and so he opened it to show Polly Pain outside, twiddling her fingers slightly nervously. "Hi Lincoln, can I come in?" she greeted.

"Sure, Lynn is on her and Lucy's bedroom," Lincoln answered as the girl went inside. "She's alone right now, I made sure to check if Lucy was there or not, so you can go and try to fix the whole issue between you two, if you wish of course."

"Thanks."

So Polly went to Lynn and Lucy's bedroom, and there she saw Lynn sitting on her bed, looking at the window. Surprisingly enough, she could also notice her nose was different than before: it was smaller, yet clearly sharper in shape than the last one.

"So, got a new nose, huh?" Polly inquired, raising an eyebrow as she caught the athlete's attention. "I think it looks pretty cool."

"Yeah, Mrs. Santiago had to reconstruct it after you broke the last one," Lynn bitterly explained before turning back to the window. "Would you like to break this one too?"

"Lynn, we both know how it all went down back at the boxing match: You asked me to hit you as hard as I could, and I did as you asked," Polly replied while Lynn slowly turned her back to face the big-chinned tomboy. "I don't see how that makes me the bad guy-"

"Well, you could've held back just enough to hurt my nose, not break it!" Lynn snapped as she got off her bed and gave Polly the pointer finger.

"You would've complained about it," Polly bluntly answered.

Lynn flinched, but soon returned to her rant, "W-Well, you could've tried to argue it was a bad idea!"

Polly bluntly answered once more, "Again, you would've complained about it until I hit you."

Realizing her friend would counter every argument she had, Lynn shut up and heard as Polly said, "Look, we're not going to get anywhere near fixing this if we keep blaming each other, so let's just admit we're both at fault, okay?"

"Alright, we're both at fault, and we both paid for it," Lynn remarked. "Sorry for thinking you were a lot weaker than I thought you were."

Polly nodded and said. "Apology accepted."

Lynn then waited for the roller skater to continue, but she didn't respond for a while.

"Well?" Lynn inquired.

"Well what?" Polly asked in return.

"Aren't you going to apologize for breaking my nose?"

"Dude, you totally deserved it."

"I know, but, a simple "I'm sorry" would be nice, you know?"

"True, I'm sorry for using so much strength I broke your nose. I wasn't trying to do that."

"Apology accepted, Polly."

Lynn and Polly shared a high-five.

"Apology accepted."