"And there's my report about the psychology of how the technology of smartphones can make people insecure," Lori said as she typed the last few words down for the night.
Lori had been working on her report all throughout the night so, she didn't have to worry about it being done last minute. As she learned college, the time of being responsible and getting things done the right way first and on time.
"Now it's time to relax and get some shut eye," Lori yawned.
As she laid down on her bed, her cell phone started to ring.
"Who in their right mind would literally call me this late?" Lori said both tiredly and bothered.
Lori looked at the caller ID and it was her little brother, Lincoln.
"That's odd, Lincoln never calls this late," Lori said.
She decided to hide her tiredness and poor-piss mood from her voice when she finally answered the phone.
"Hello Lincoln, what's going on?" Lori asked.
"Oh...hey Lori, I just wanted to see what's going on," Lincoln said.
"I was about ready to go to bed," Lori answered. "Is there something you needed?"
"Oh I was wondering if I could hang out with you tomorrow and maybe spend the night," Lincoln asked.
Lori was both confused and a bit glad at what Lincoln wanted. It was a while since Lori has seen her family in the flesh and it would be great to hang out with her little brother. On the other hand, why was Lincoln asking to spend the night with her, it seemed quite odd to her.
"Um...sure, I didn't have any plans for tomorrow so, that'd be fine," Lori said.
"Okay cool, well see you tomorrow Lori," Lincoln said.
"Yeah, you too. Goodnight." Lori answered.
She hung up the call and decided to turn in for the night, waiting for tomorrow. She closed her eyes trying to get some sleep for a bit before she hatched a little thought.
"Lincoln's literally gonna get a pretty good time tomorrow, I'll show him the absolute joys of college life." Lori yawned.
The following morning, Lori woke up to the sound of her phone alarm. She picked it up to show that it was 7 AM in the morning.
"Ahhhh...morning time," Lori yawned as she got out of bed. "As much as I don't want to clean as my first activity, I should because, Lincoln is coming."
Lori started to clean around her apartment such as sweeping the floors, washing and putting away the dishes, putting dirty laundry in the hamper, and putting clean laundry in the drawers.
"Phew...that was a bit grueling but, worth it for Lincoln," Lori panted.
She decided to make herself a cup of joe to relax before her guest got there.
"Ahh, nothing like a warm cup of joe to energize your day."
She drank her joe and later jumped right into the shower.
About half an hour later, Lori and her apartment were all ready for Lincoln.
"This was literally tiring but, it's so going to be worthwhile for Lincoln," Lori said as she relaxed on the couch.
Suddenly, there was a tapping on Lori's door.
She went over to the door. She opened it to reveal her brother Lincoln holding a suitcase.
"Hey Lincoln, what's going on?" Lori asked.
"Uh...it's been going fine," Lincoln answered.
"Got everything ready for the sleepover, pajamas, toothbrush, underwear?" Lori giggled.
"Yes, but please don't mention my underwear, it's embarrassing," Lincoln said.
"I am just messing with you, my little baby brother," Lori teased. "Anyway, do you want to head for lunch?"
"Yeah sure," Lincoln said. "Where are we going?"
"Just a place that's off my campus," Lori said. "They have really good pizza."
"Do they have the supreme kind? The toppings are like out of this world!" Lincoln said with total excitement.
"Yeah sure, I think they have that," Lori answered.
"Alright then, let's go try it out," Lincoln said as he rush to the door.
Lori chased after Lincoln. She knew she had to lead the way.
"Oh Lincoln, you are still like a little kid," Lori teased him playfully.
"I know I am," Lincoln admitted coyly. "Anyway, how is life in college?"
"The college is both busy and fun," Lori said. "Just have to keep up with work but, always willing to have some fun."
"Sounds really cool," Lincoln admitted.
"How are things going back home," Lori asked.
"Oh um...okay," Lincoln mumbled. "Is that the pizza place over there?"
Lincoln pointed to a restaurant with a sign that had Totally Pizza, Dude.
"Yeah, that's literally the one," Lori answered.
Lori seem to notice that Lincoln was trying to avoid the question, as well as thinking about her theories why he avoided. Regardless, she decided to keep quiet until it was the right moment.
"Cool! Supreme pizza, here we come!" Lincoln said.
Lincoln ran to the restaurant, leaving Lori behind as she checked the time on her cell phone before she noticed that she was alone and walked moderately fast to catch up with the white-haired boy.
"Lincoln, slow down!"
About a half minute later, they both arrived at the pizza restaurant, with a small patient line ahead of the two.
"Well, we will be waiting for a while," Lori said. "Why are things only okay at home?"
"What do you mean?" Lincoln wondered, turning to his big sister.
"It just seems like you don't really want to talk about it," Lori admitted. "Did something happen?"
"Well...sort of," Lincoln whispered. "It's just been busy and chaotic as always."
"True," Lori stated.
"...You don't miss home?" Lincoln asked.
"I've only been gone for literally a week," Lori answered. "But honestly, just a little."
Lori thought to herself about how the oldest sibling in the house would handle the rest of her nine sisters.
"I'm wondering how Leni's doing since she's the oldest sibling in the house now, I gave her advice and a rundown a couple days before I left. Please tell me her intelligence has improved..."
"Eh, same old Leni," Lincoln said. "But I'm pretty sure she'll improve soon enough."
"I hope so," Lori said. "I am worried about her when she's on her own."
"Yeah but, I am she will be able to live on her own," Lincoln said.
"Hey, Madam, Sir," the hostess called out. "How many are in your party?"
"Oh sorry...Tara," Lori apologized. "Just the two of us."
"Alright, I have a table for you two," Tara said. "Follow me."
Both Lincoln and Lori walked with the hostess to their table for lunch.
"Thanks, madam," Lincoln said.
"No problem," Tara said. "Your waiter will be out shortly."
"Okay cool," Lincoln said.
Both siblings sat down at the table.
"How's Luna and Luan doing?" Lori asked.
"They have been fine," Lincoln said. "Though, they are busy with their new jobs supporting the family now."
"Oh, that's literally nice for them." Lori proudly said.
"Yeah, it's nice except for not seeing them as much," Lincoln admitted.
"Eh, that's the unfortunate thing about a job, it takes away time," Lori said.
"I can see that," Lincoln said. "Life's pretty hard at times."
"Excuse me," the waiter said. "I am your waiter, Billy."
"Oh sorry, Billy," Lori apologized. "We'll take a large pepperoni with spinach and a pitcher of Figgy Fizz."
"Alright your order will be out soon enough," Billy said.
Billy walked to kitchen awaiting the customers' order.
"Figgy Fizz?" Lincoln asked confused. "What's that type of soda?"
"It's like literally cola with fig flavoring," Lori answered.
"Sounds both interesting and disgusting," Lincoln admitted.
"Don't worry, it's one of those things that sounds disgusting but, it's actually good," Lori said. "Like mustard and mayonnaise."
"Okay then," Lincoln said.
"So, do you still sleep with Bun Bun?" Lori asked, giggling as Lincoln started to stutter his words before he hesitated on his answer
"I uh… stopped sleeping with him?" Lincoln answered, getting more nervous by the second as Lori sarcastically said these words.
"Sure you did." Lori giggled. "I bet you still read it bedtime stories before you fall asleep."
"I do not," Lincoln retaliated. "Don't be so ridiculous."
"Okay, I will tell Lisa that Bun Bun is available to be a guinea pig to her experiments," Lori giggled. Lori's line broke Lincoln into stress and sadness.
"No please don't give Bun Bun to Lisa!" Lincoln screamed. "He's been my friend since little and he would be really sad and heartbroken without me, and I would be sad and heartbroken as well."
Lori chuckled.
"Okay, I won't tell her."
"Phew. Thanks." Lincoln said.
"No problem and it's okay if you still sleep with Bun Bun," Lori said. "Literally tons of friends that still sleep with their stuffed animals. But eventually, they'll grow old of them someday like I did with Fenton the Feel Better Fox until it got incinerated at the dump."
"I really feel bad that we had to take that doll away from Lily," Lincoln said.
"Same," Lori added. "To this day, I still can't seem to get over it. It's been years since they have marketed them in stores and there's probably not a single one left out there now."
"But hey, at least I dressed up as the toy to make it up to her," Lincoln stated to make Lori feel somewhat better.
"Well, there's that," Lori said with a slight smile. "I wonder if anybody in the house literally called you cute for wearing it."
"There were comments similar to cute, such as kawaii. But I have no idea what that means." Lincoln admitted.
"Kawaii is Japanese for cute," Lori explained.
"Excuse me, madam," Billy interrupted. "Your food and drink are here."
"Oh...sorry about that Billy," Lori apologized.
"It's fine Leni-"
"Lori."
"Oh, Lori. I always get that mixed up."
Billy walk to go wait on other people leaving the two Louds.
"So wait, people confuse you for Leni, Lori?" Lincoln asked.
"Yeah, it's been that way since literally the second grade," Lori said.
The two didn't speak to each while they chow down on pizza and chug the soda.
After lunch, both Lincoln and Lori walked out of the restaurant satisfied.
"Man that was a good pizza Lori," Lincoln said happily.
"Aw thanks for the compliment, Lincoln," Lori said. "Also your shoes are untied."
"Oh thanks, Lori," Lincoln said.
He bend down to his foot to retie his shoelaces. Unfortunately, a random dog was walking by and saw Lincoln's blue behind. Much like, what most dogs do to a mailman, he sank his sharp teeth deep down on the seat of Lincoln's pants.
"YOUCH!" Lincoln screamed in pain.
"Oh my gosh!" Lori said in fear, running over to the dog attempting to pull him off. "Bad dog! Get off of him!"
The dog refused to let go of Lincoln's backside, each tug making his teeth sink deeper into his denim pants. The longer the pain lasted for Lincoln, he noticed that his pants were starting to tear, growing more afraid that the dog would expose a part of his underwear.
"Hurry Lori, do something! He's a stubborn one!" he exclaimed.
"Can't you see I'm literally trying?" Lori said, growing concerned.
"Somebody, help me!"
The dog finally got off Lincoln tearing off a huge portion of his pants with him before running off the campus with the piece of denim in his mouth. Lincoln stood back up on his two feet, relieved that it was all over.
"I am glad that's over," Lincoln panted.
Lori was trying as hard as she could to hold in her giggles, whipping her phone out as she snapped a photo of Lincoln's backside.
"What's so funny Lori?" The boy said, turning to Lori's smiling face."Why am I suddenly feeling a draft?"
Lori showed her phone to Lincoln, in order to answer his questions.
"Take a look at what the dog did."
Lincoln observed the screen of Lori's phone before he froze in shock. He looked behind him, noticing a big tear in his pants, exposing more than just his underwear. He gasped, devastated about the humiliating incident.
"Dang it! These were a brand new pair too!"
"Lincoln, do you want a new pair of pants and underwear?" Lori asked as held in her giggles.
"Sure, anything to cover up this embarrassment," Lincoln answered.
After a quick trip to the clothing store, Lincoln was good.
"Why did you have to buy me heart underwear?"
"Why not? Plus they were literally the only ones I could find that would fit you."
"Well, it's embarrassing for me."
"Well, you could have either dog ripped underwear or heart underwear, and frankly some underwear with red hearts is better. I've seen men wear those most of the time."
"Yeah, I guess," Lincoln sighed.
"Besides, I remember seeing you wear your lucky bunny boxers when you were going to a contest," Lori said both jokingly and nonchalantly.
"Hey, I'll have you know that I still won and those boxers were a gift from Leni," Lincoln said. "So, where are we off to now?"
"Oh! You might want to get ready for this one. I'm literally gonna surprise you." Lori confidently answered.
"Oh! I'm all down for that!" Lincoln said.
The two of them stopped walking around the college campus for a brief moment.
"Alright. Close your eyes," Lori commanded.
"Okay. They're closed." Lincoln responded.
"Alright, follow me," Lori said, grabbing onto Lincoln's hand as they headed to the arcade. The white-haired boy wanted to take a few guesses to where Lori was taking him to.
"Where are we going, the spa?" He asked.
"Nowhere close, Lincoln," Lori answered.
"How about the gym?"
"There's no gym here on this campus."
"Huh…"
"Although they literally need to get one built here though."
Lincoln tried to make one more guess before he gave up.
"Is there an arcade or something?" he asked as they arrived at the entrance of the place, the sound of blasters and button mashing circulating around their eardrums before the boy opened his eyes to find that his guess was correct.
"Yep!" Lori answered with a smile.
Lincoln gave a big hug to Lori.
"Thanks for bringing me here, Lori."
"No problem," Lori answered.
She slip a twenty dollar bill into the pocket of Lincoln's jeans. "Don't tell our parents." She winked at Lincoln.
"You know me, I am not like Lola."
Lincoln winked back.
"But, anyway time for arcade games!"
Lincoln rushed into the building where he saw a multitude of blinking arcade games.
"This is awesome!"
Lincoln walk all around the arcade noticing all the different arcade cabinets.
"Wow, this makes Gus' Games and Grubs look like a Queasy Pizzas."
Lincoln continued on walking until he bump into another customer, accidentally pushing him forward a couple of inches.
"Hey, watch out mate. I'm in the middle of breakin' a high score!" he said before completing a level of a first-person shooting game.
"Sorry, dude! Didn't see you there."
"You seem to remind me of my little brother…"
"Really?"
"He's got white fluffy hair and tiny freckles like you, always competitive and would stop at nothing to make sure he wins."
"Oh, to be honest, I used to be like that sometimes, but not anymore after realizing that winning isn't all that serious."
Lincoln proceeded to walk off. "Well, continue racking up points I guess."
"Wait!" The customer said, causing Lincoln to pause. "I was just gonna ask if you would want to play one on one on this game with me, see who's better?"
"Sure, you're on!"
"Alright! Just a quick second to take down this last level before the showdown takes place."
Lincoln was secretly happy that Lori gave him twenty bucks now. He had a feeling that he will both win but, lose a lot of money. He just had to play his cards right and hopefully, he'll be lucky enough to bank in some dough.
"I am going to beat that kid like how Lana did to that alligator."
"Hey white hair and orange shirt kid, You going to start this game or not?"
"Oh yeah, ready to take you down!"
Lincoln and the boy began their game. Though Lincoln probably got too cocky boasting about his skill, he wasn't doing as hot as he normally could. Two minutes in and halfway through the round, he missed some of the targets and kept getting hit by oncoming attacks.
"Wow. You're not good at this, kid."
"Just warming up, you'll see what I'm capable of in just a minute."
After thirty minutes into the battle, The white-haired boy inserted the last bit of change he had left, growing more determined after each round, but he still lost to his opponent after more than 40 tries to beat him.
"Sorry kid, you don't seem like a champion to me because it looks like I won over forty times!"
The boy slammed his fist on the machine. "Aw dang it!" he walked out of the arcade, feeling both dejected annoyed at himself for the awkward but embarrassing battle against the boys. "Welp, I can't believe I wasted 20 bucks on that competition I lost, I hope Lori isn't too mad about that."
He sees Lori looking at her phone on the bench in front of the arcade.
"Hey Lincoln, how did the arcade games go?"
"Not that great, I blew all my money on a competition with another kid."
Lori brushed it off like it's no big deal. "That's how we Louds are, sometimes we are too competitive for our own good!"
"Yeah, that's true."
Just then, the dog from earlier came back and went running towards Lincoln, his heart dropping at the sight of his unexpected encounter with the animal
"Oh come on! What is with that crazy beast?"
Lincoln jump into the arms of Lori but the dog got a hold of his leg. His audible growling soon drew in a small crowd of onlookers, watching the entire procedure go down. Lincoln was completely stumped on what to do, knowing that the dog would embarrass him for the second time in one day. He enlisted on his big sister for some assistance.
"Lori, help me! I don't know what to do."
"I can't believe I'm literally saying this, but Lincoln, take off your pants."
"What? My pants? No way! Why should I do that?"
"Trust me with this. This dog seems to have it out for your pants. So, take them off!"
Lincoln hesitated for a good amount of seconds before he decided to give in. "Oh alright!"
He involuntarily removed his pants, leaving him in his fresh white boxers with red hearts. At least, the dog ran off and started chewing about on Lincoln's new pants like a fresh milk bone from a pet market. The onlookers silently giggled at the unlucky child as his face turned bright red in total humiliation, chattering about his misfortune with subtle sympathetic comments before they all walked off to resume their business.
The kid was understandably mad about the ordeal, lamenting on how a terrible visit down Lori's college campus turned out to be. "Man, this is the second time that mangy dog has encountered me like this."
Lori sympathized with his little brother. "Gee, I'm really sorry about your somewhat bad day here on this campus, Lincoln. If there were something I can do to-"
"Eh, I have experiences that were worse, so it's alright"
"Come on Lincoln, let's go to my dorm."
"Okay but, can you at least carry me? There's absolutely no telling what that dog's gonna do to me next, it might come back for my boxers!"
Lori sighed in defeat. "Alright, fine."
So for about a half hour, Lori carried Lincoln all the way back to the dorm room she lived in, but not before a few onlookers commented about how cute the two of them were together as they both blushed with awkward sheepish smiles.
"Good lookin' out, lad!" A student complimented.
"Thanks, Lori!"
Lori nodded in gratitude, but she was tired by holding her brother and carrying him around the campus.
"Anyway, I am going to get ready for bed. This has literally been quite the day."
Lori was sort of annoyed about that dog attacking Lincoln and making her carry him. Though, she felt proud that she was able to help him during his time of need, no matter what the two of them went through just to give his little brother a good time around the college life.
"Might as well help Lincoln out."
Lori pulled out the couch bed and set it up for Lincoln to sleep on. "I'm pretty tired myself," he said.
Lori saw Lincoln outfitted in his heart boxers and orange t-shirt along with his arms hiding something behind his back.
"Lincoln, what are you hiding?"
He quickly answered his sister, as if there was nothing to be ashamed of. "Oh...nothing..?"
The oldest sibling of the Loud family walked over to Lincoln and started tickling him for a good few seconds, influencing the little brother to giggle with a smile, soon revealing that he brought his stuffed bunny, Bun Bun on the campus this whole time. What would Lori think of his brother now that she knows about sneaking his bunny with him? He was clearly embarrassed that he still sleeps with it, but he proceeded to beg to his sister to keep it a secret between the two of them.
"Please don't tell anyone."
"I won't tell Lincoln, my little baby brother."
He softly laughed. "Stop teasing me."
"It's alright. Anyway, while I am going to get ready, I have the couch all ready for you. Come on."
Lori did her usual nightly routine. After she was done, she saw Lincoln sleeping like he did when he was little on the sofa.
"This is so cute to resist," she whispered.
She took a picture and captioned it "my baby brother".
The End.