Leni's future. Part 1: Know everything!
A modest bedroom, small enough that the casual observer might mistake it for a simple storage room rather than a space fit for the use of any person during the incredibly important period of rest known as "night".
The walls were a dull shade of yellow white. A little wardrobe was placed along the back corner of the room by the bed.
The almost minute amount of space available meant that the wardrobe practically touched the cheaply made oak bed on which a bunch of blankets were crudely flung. Tidily enough to make for a bearably comfortable surface on which to pass a night but little better than that. It seemed whoever arranged the blankets was in a hurry to finish.
Not one window let any trace of the light of the morning sun nor the glimmer of the midnight moon to enter the rather dim place.
Near the wardrobe and quite close to the door that led to the rest of the much grander building that this little room was stationed in almost like a sore thumb, lay another door which led to a slightly bigger toilet in which also stood a shower and sink complete with a well-polished mirror.
A large cupboard by the sink was well stocked with a plentiful supply of soap, perfume and other cleaning agents strong enough to lathe a person in divine scents that spread throughout the room they were in. A great deal of make-up also nestled on the shelf below the cleaning agents.
Gentle footsteps began to sound outside the room along with the jangling of keys. A quiet yawn stifled as the door was slowly unlocked.
The sound marking the end to another strenuous day filled with intellectually stimulating if somewhat exhaustive and monotonous work in a chain of strenuous days filled with intellectually stimulating and monotonous work.
A thin but quite tall young woman staggered quite wearily into the chamber, her hand brushing a part of her long blonde hair away from one of her brilliant bright blue eye before pressing a button to turn on the light which threw a dazzling globe of brightness over the almost pitch black room.
Shakily, she made the journey of a few steps to the wardrobe where after emitting another yawn, she took off her shoes and gently threw them on the floor by her bed. She began to change out of the pale blue dress that she wore during the day and after hanging it carefully into the wardrobe, begun to take out her pyjamas which were the same shade of cyan and to carefully put them on.
Usually she'd have brushed her teeth but she was completely dead beat from her work today and figured it couldn't do much harm if she simply limped into bed just this once without any of her usually nightly rituals.
Not that it was a bad thing she was so tired today since it clearly meant that she'd accomplished a lot compared to usual, she thought to herself as she turned on a less bright nightlight she kept by her bedside on the wall and turned off the main light.
She had never quite conquered her childhood fear of the bed bugs lurking under the bed even as an adult, especially with how lonely she felt at times despite having constant contact with her many friendly and cheerful co-workers in a job that she was glad to have despite its difficulty.
As she climbed into bed and tried to make herself comfortable, she took one last look at the closet in the wall where she kept some of her possessions besides her clothes as well as a beautiful family photo of the big and beautiful household she had once been a part of in her younger days as a much more excitable and lively schoolgirl.
She took especial notice of the two oldest girls in the photo, both so beautiful and stunning little ladies with the oldest one toting a stylish blue tank-top and brown pants,
her immediate younger sister dolled up in a garish blue dress with white hems.
Such a shame those two girls were no longer as close as they'd been in that picture anymore, especially when the younger girl had once been so very proud and dependent upon the older one to show her the way in the confusing and nigh-unnavigable maze known as "life".
And look a bit to the left, there was that handsome little prince of a little brother for the two girls, no less gorgeous in his own choice of a much more practical and humble choice of clothes.
A plain orange shirt with blue pants.
His hair was as white as snow on a cold winters day and his freckles, though strange for many people, the young woman had always found them so cute and special.
Her brother, she thought to herself as wistful memories bittersweet to the taste begun to flood back to her even as she begun to fall asleep, still eyeing the photograph.
Her one brother in a house of one boy and ten girls where she was one of the ten girls.
The woman's last thoughts as darkness washed over her and she drifted into the realm of dreams, was that she only hoped she had been among one of the better of the ten.
Rosalina Reena Star, more commonly known by her lab colleagues as "Miss Doctor professor Rosalina" or just "Rosie" during the less formal gatherings, was a dedicated disciple of science.
Asking questions, doing experiments, searching high and low answers and inventing new things to make the tedious struggle that was life a little more pleasant and a little less sad. These were her passions and her life's work that she had completely given herself up to.
Her ruthless desire to know as much as possible so that she could help others not to make the careless mistakes of herself in her youth, trumped all expectations from her family.
Mum expected that she put her great person to person skills to use, perhaps as an assistant of some sort in a reliable, big name clothes shop.
Dad thought that maybe her keen nose for fashion could do well designing the beautiful clothes, jewellery and other cosmetic products of tomorrow.
None expected that the second child of the Loud family to become anything like the inquisitive and artful thinker she had become today, daily enrolling herself in complex tasks and calculations so hard that only a select few in the world could have any hope in trying to crudely imitate, let alone accurately emulate.
Big boards covered from top to bottom in vast sums that would leave entire universities of high scoring students scratching their heads angrily.
Written up manuscripts showing the results of the lab's latest experiments, so much had to be recorded that one experiment often required an entire thick book dedicated to detailing just how everything had gone.
The simpler of those books left their readers yawning loudly and stretching after the foreword chapter, half asleep already.
The more difficult to understand ones left the same readers clenching their fists in frustration, often accompanied by a splitting headache which made their head feel like it was on fire and burning up.
Their eyes felt as if they would close up from soreness at any moment.
A select few in the in a big, big world could find something other than unintelligible gibberish in these vast and incredibly heavy tomes that people like Rosalina and her team were called upon to compose time and time again.
By that logic, the Loud family could have already considered themselves favourites of the fickle and mysterious lady known as Lady Luck to have the pleasure at knowing one of these rare prodigies.
Perhaps having two of them in the exact same household and family meant that Lady Luck had decided to take them under her wing out of some sort of insatiable lust for them that words alone couldn't describe.
No one expected it.
Not a member of the family who had known Rosalina as a child expected her to somehow pick Harvard as her first choice for her place of higher education rather than a more moderate choice of university or possibly even to skip this very expensive and very risky stage of school altogether and go on to find a pleasant little job which would require far less raw effort and brainpower as such a place of thinking.
Even less did they expect that she would somehow graduate with flying colours rather than a simple pass where a mark less would have done her in when the time came.
That was the way most dedicated students who cared about their futures in trying to brave the long, tedious yet extremely precarious journey of school, ended up finishing their journeys.
The girl who thought that preparing and packing sandwiches for a trip meant to prepare them three weeks before the trip had even begun so that they were rotten and stinking piles of mould by the time the lunch break for the trip came.
A girl who'd failed her driving test an absurd number of times that defied all attempts at comprehension while her older sister passed it well the first time she took it and was to date the only driver in the house besides mum and dad.
Who screamed and shouted in terror instead of calmly reassuring and comforting her younger sister that ran up to her crying about a terrible nightmare.
And whose first reaction when the lights went out during an around the block blackout, was to cry that she had gone blind.
That sad list only went on, and her family had tried their best to disguise their scepticism that she'd accomplish this grand if very, very far-fetched and irrational dream.
Deep down though, they could only pray for the pretty blonde in the carefully picked fashionable blue dress.
Dad's head was hung low and he was close to tears as he pleaded for his daughter to reconsider her choice as she told him that she would be applying for Harvard and no other university.
He desperately reasoned that there was no way she could clear the requirements needed for something so out of reach. Something even the family genius, Lisa who had perfect scores in every subject and was only four to top it off would have difficulty in doing.
"I have to do this." Was the reply that the usually very ditzy blonde replied.
"I just have to".
And so with shaking hands and trembling heart, dad very weakly nodded as he took her finished form and silently made his way out of her room and into Vanzilla to deliver the form to the post office. He very nearly crashed several times as he drove there half in a dream.
He was sure that this time, his second child's optimism would really be her undoing and the thought of how she might react to the short postcard she would get in time with a big red "NO spells NO!" on it wasn't pleasant to think about at all.
She wouldn't get even a formal letter of rejection. Just the postcard since Harvard from his limited experience was a very busy place which had no place for dunces not up to their unreachable standards.
Would she throw a huge and painful tantrum, breaking things, many things?
Would her depression become so bad that she would need to seek help from a doctor, or start taking antidepressants or even worse be put into a straight-jacket since she'd be deemed a risk to both herself and others?
The family had already gone through one bout of depression when they lost someone very dear to them. Surely fate couldn't be that cruel?
Contrary to her family's beliefs, the girl had surprisingly good grades at school.
Not that she would brag about it much since she didn't like to brag since it was mean.
They had only gone up more in the recent year after the tragedy, so that she spent the remainder of the award ceremonies at her high school on the stage, shyly smiling to the deafening clap of every person in her year.
The sudden spike in grades shocked everyone, but it shocked her little sister Lisa the most.
"How did you do it Leni?" the young scientist asked when the blonde fashionista showed off her honours certificate for exceptional grades.
Lisa wisely resisted the urge to release her opinion that she had less than discretely always regarded her ditzy sister as somewhat of a simpleton.
The almost perfect opposite of a scientist.
"I, I don't know. I just did."
And Lisa could only nod in reply to that.
Wise words indeed from a speaker so unexpected. Was this still the Leni that the family had all grown to love and cherish?
Tears.
Tears were shed the day that Leni Loud stood at the bus stop, holding a surprisingly small and lightly packed suitcase that no observer casual or devoted, would attribute to a shopping spree addled fashionista whose clothes cupboard was choke full to the brim.
Tears from both herself and the family she would soon become an almost complete stranger to.
The family that were the only people she felt she could trust in a doubtful and dolorous world where just about everyone was trying to take what didn't belong to them.
The bullies that had once forcefully cut in front of her at the shop to buy the dress she'd been saving up to buy for a forgotten amount of time were soft in comparison to some of those people.
Tears from her sisters and parents as they tearfully wished her to have a good time in university and to call back as often as possible.
To stand up and take what was rightfully hers and not to just give the no-good meanies what they deserved if any of them dared to pick on her.
"I'll be totes fine." She remembered telling them, brushing tears from her cheeks as the bus finally came and the door opened. "Don't worry about me."
She remembered a warm and enlightening hug demonstrating great unity and love between the her often scraping and arguing sisters whose varied likes and dislikes could not help but perpetuate friction at times though it was never in bad will.
A kiss on the cheek from her mum and dad and a pat on the back as the bus driver impatiently grumbled something incoherently.
Then a final wave from both her sisters and parents who were smiling despite already missing her as she watched them through the window as the bus began to move off.
A blurry image from how many tears were obscuring her vision by then, but still one that gave her renewed hope today when she felt the day was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right.
It could have been an even more amazing picture if one thing or rather one boy wasn't noticeably missing from it. But the past was the past and what was done was done.
Leni Loud did not go straight to Harvard university.
Deliberately, about two stops from where her intended destination was, she discharged the bus after sincerely thanking the driver and ventured on foot to a big and bright shiny building whose glowing lights lit the almost pitch-black night sky like a firework.
She went inside and walked straight to the reception, which was almost completely deserted with how little anyone actually used this building for what it was meant to be used for.
After politely greeting the receptionist and presenting her passport as asked after a small stack of notes had changed hands, in front of Leni was placed a stack of forms.
She read and answered the questions with utmost care, taking especial caution to read each section at least twice to make sure she fully understood everything the form asked of her.
Her undivided attention driven at nothing save the piece of paper before her on the table.
And at last she came to the final question.
Where after a long and tense breath to calm herself down, with a slightly unsure expression but firm and steady hands she wrote down what would go on to become her new self-chosen name.
She thanked the receptionist profusely as she handed the papers back and waited a few minutes to be given another stack of papers which she placed securely into her backpack which she had carried along with her suitcase.
Years later she would still wonder whether her choice that night was a premeditated decision that she had subconsciously been forming in her mind for a long time. Or was it a spur of the moment thing exacerbated by the idea that a new beginning beckoned now that she had left behind all that was familiar for her several states back in her home town Royal woods.
Shakespear once wrote that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.
Countless parental guidebook authors objected and insisted that naming was destiny.
Till this day the woman wondered whether one, neither or both were right.
But in any case, that night was the end of Leni Loud.
Since the girl that gingerly walked back out that building with the crumbling but still impressionable stone statue in its courtyard was not Leni Loud.
Not anymore at least.
Rosalina Reena Star looked so proud that morning when she quietly and dutifully passed through the corridor with her fellow freshmen and freshwomen into the main lecture hall to hear the official welcome into the prestigious place of learning that many had tried and failed to reach.
She had picked out a new dress especially for her first day, in the hopes of making the best first impression she could.
A special kind of dress whose splendour and pizzazz could best be summed up as being "a bit better than the previous one, with a price to match". Still pale blue in colour of course since that was her favourite colour.
She took a good long look at herself that morning to make sure everything was in order.
She took especial notice of her now blind and broken left eye that the doctors had all but confirmed was forever damaged.
Little sister Luan had really gone all out with last year's April Fool's pranking spree.
So much mayhem and "fun" and big massive pranks set up all over the house so that they were all but impossible to avoid this time round.
They had been dialled up much more this time too, probably to show how far Luan had come in sixteen years of learning the art of comedy and laughter.
Suffice to say that the entire ordeal didn't end well for the ditzy blonde, or her left eye.
She preferred not to think about the days she spent trembling in hospital. Though the days she spent trapped in an uncomfortable bed connected to machines that occasionally beeped to break the uncomfortable silence that settled on her room when the doctor wasn't there.
Until now Rosalina would have been happy simply wearing a patch over where her no long working eye still remained, but the university as she was told was a big and important place.
And a big and important place meant you had to look your very best for everyone so that you didn't ruin the delicate atmosphere and make them uncomfortable.
And the only sort of weirdo who waltzed headlong into a state of the art learning facility with something as ridiculous and unprofessional as an eyepatch could only mean one of two things to the master of fashion who was still as knowledgeable on the subject of looks and trends as ever despite how much she'd already changed.
You were either a mean and untrustworthy pirate out to plunder some booty and spoil everyone's day. Or you were simply a lazy dresser who had probably been raised in a barn and didn't know the first thing about looking presentable for the sake of at least giving the impression you were worth anyone's time.
But the bus would arrive soon to take her and she had to "think on her feet" as Lisa would have put it.
What was a fashion-conscious dresser to do about such a terrible thing.
Had any other girl (or boy for that matter) from Rosalina's family been put into the same problem their day would probably have ended with the sad realization that the classmates and indeed schoolmates they'd be forced to spend the next three foreseeable years with were bound to at best politely ignore them and refuse to talk them and at worse forcefully shove them away or even make them the school clown that everyone laughed at.
No self-respecting student wanted that.
A few moments later, Rosalina was cheerfully sitting on her seat on the bus happily admiring her handiwork in the small mirror she had taken with her.
She'd covered the place where her badly injured eye was with some of her very pretty blonde hair and made it so that in the absence of a very strong wind or a very curious or very stupid bully, her hair would stay as she had arranged it so that it continued to cover her eye and a small part of her face near that eye.
For some reason she couldn't quite explain herself despite years of battling to keep ahead of the latest in the ever changing trends of appearance, Rosalina already liked what she had done with herself and was already wondering why she hadn't considered this change in style a lot sooner.
The idea that while most people were little more than an open book, she was going to become a lot more complex than that.
She would vigorously learn and learn until she could proudly and without exaggeration announce to everyone who still thought she was the simple valley girl that struggled to comprehend even the most rudimentary of instructions, that the inner machinations of her mind were very much an enigma now.
To say that her new classmates loved her style would be a gross understatement.
At the start of the first lecture she could already feel the admiring eyes of at least a dozen if not more upon her rather than the very important first year summary which was crucial information that if missed could have led to an early kicking from a university whose students already had to go through hell and back just to get into.
She stayed silent and focused completely on the teacher at the front but still the stares didn't subside. Was she really so attractive to warrant this much attention from a bunch of strangers she had hardly gotten to know yet?
No one tried to distract her from the lecture though and everyone she came across was more than helpful in guiding her to the classrooms when she asked for directions.
Her classmates seemed to get especially happy when she asked some of them if she could sit and work on the first project with them and when lunchtime came, there was already a very comfortable place at the table reserved for her so that she didn't even need to ask for a space.
This would be a good first year, Rosalina thought.
Perhaps her family really had overreacted when they told her that moving far from home to a new and unfamiliar place was nothing to be taken lightly.
The first step in a great journey had been made but there was always more to come.
So there you have it. Chapter one of the future Louds. Amazing how the passage of time can change a person is it not?
As a final word from me, the author, I really hope you enjoyed my work since I love the Loud House and its characters (Lincoln is my favourite as a confession).
I really look forward to your reviews whether positive or negative since as an inexperienced author, I welcome any sort of constructive criticism to help me improve.
As an aside note also, I would like to throw in my two cents on my opinion that I don't like how the show seems to play up Leni's "stupid moments" a little too much for my liking.
A good character with good intentions should be doing good things and as it stands, Leni usually causes more problems than she solves despite being supposedly one of the nicer sisters.
What further challenges await our good friend Leni in the hard, rough university and how her sisters are faring for now however, are the subject of a future chapter.
Until next time, bless you and have a good day.