It was a typical evening at the Loud House, which is to say chaotic. All the homework was done, and chores completed so the infamous brood had the rest of the day to do as they pleased. If one dared to go close enough, if they could brave the torrential bombardment of speakers screaming death metal from the garage, they could various silhouettes through the second story windows jump and wrestle with each other. One window even buzzed and flickered. There were only two windows that seemed devoid of the typical commotion. One was a modified walk in closet, and the other was an odd mixture of a bedroom for two and an Eyetube studio.
Sitting in front of the camera was a teenager with short brown hair. He wore a white shirt with yellow shorts held up with suspenders. He wore a gag arrow hat, and Groucho Marx joke glasses. In one hand, held a rubber chicken, and operated a female ventriloquist dummy with the other.
"As always," he grinned, showing his full set of braces, has discarded his props. "This is Lane Orville Loud of LOL Productions, reminding you to..." He gestured towards the camera, and tapped a button on a remote next to his foot, activating recorded clip of a large crowd shouting.
LAUGH OUT LOUD!
"Goodnight, everybody," He cheered blowing a kiss to the camera. He tapped another button, and heaved a sigh when the red light on the camera dimmed.
Lane got up and stretched. he walked over to his computer and saved his recording. He plopped down on the swivel chair, intertwined his fingers and cracked his knuckles. "And now for the hard part," he said.
Before he could get started, someone knocked on his door.
"Lane," asked a familiar high pitched voice. "Are you done? I need your help with something!"
Lane dropped his head, and chuckled. "Yeah, Lexx!"
The door opened to reveal a little boy barely older than six. His blond hair was immaculately coiffed, and topped with a crown. He was wearing a pink glittering dress. Lane spun around in his chair, and started laughing when he saw his little brother.
"So what's the problem that needs addressing," he chuckled. "Get it?"
Lexx growled, walking inside Lane's room. "I'll have you know lots of guys played girls in plays, Lane" Lexx huffed, exposing the two front teeth he was missing.
"If you say so," Lane smiled, ruffling his little brother's hair, grinning at how he fussed and failed arms until his hair was back in neat condition. "So, what do ya need?"
"Well, you see, our theater teacher told us we had to come up with a video compilation, and we had to draw our subjects from a hat. I got comedy, so I was sorta hoping..."
"Say no more little bro," Lane said. "You've come to the right place. What do you need?"
"Everything really. I tried looking for funny things to film, and didn't find anything. Even if I did, I didn't have a camera film it, or a computer to edit it," Lexx explained.
"And when do you need this done, Lane asked.
"I was hoping to be the one to get it in first, so tomorrow?
Tomorrow!? Lexx Do you know how long it takes to edit these things?" Lexx shrank back a bit. "And why do you need to have this done so soon anyway?"
"because we're being graded on time as well as quality. whoever does the best work the fastest gets ribbon," Lexx explained. "I figured you could help me get it."
Lane stole a quick glance at his own unedited video recording then down at his little brother.
"Okay, Princess," Lane grinned at Lexx's pouting face. "You know how to use this stuff right?"
"Uh-huh," Lexx nodded. "Mr. Connes taught us how to use editing programs." Lane deflated a little. "Too bad I don't have anything TO edit."
I wouldn't say that, Lane said. He walked over to his closet, opened it, revealing multicolored mountains of cassettes. I invite you to be the first to lay their eyes on Comedy Fort Knox!
Holy Shamoley, Lexx exclaimed. How long have you had all this!?
"Oh I've been building these babies up for years," Lane grinned, buffing his nails on his suspenders.
"And they're all cool with this?"
Lane shrugged. "Well, I have to ask before I use some of the extra juicy stuff." Lane leaned in close to Lexx. "And believe me there is some juicy stuff in here!"
"And you're letting me use these?"
"Just make sure you give my channel credit," Lane said. "As long as you don't break anything knock yourself."
"Really?"
Yeah Later. I'm gonna go get me a beer.
Lexx froze and looked at Lane as he walked out.
"A Root beer" Lane exclaimed giggling like a madman. "Get it?"
With that, Lane walked out, and Lexx was alone with piles of material for his project. Lexx took another look at the stacks of tapes and noted their color. There were eleven of them in total, each a different color and a different size. He hummed to himself as he associated each color with a different sibling. The smallest pile of cases was light blue. There was no surprise there, nor the sea-foam colored pile which had a lot of tapes. Lexx whistled at the sizes of the purple and yellow stacks. The red stack was surprisingly small, and there were only a few black colored cases. Lexx groaned at the pink pile, and the identically structured dark blue pile. Finally an unsurprisingly small pile of tapes in both green and lavender. Lexx certainly had a lot to choose from.
"Wait," Lexx said out loud. "Where's...?" His question died in his mouth as he peered behind the ten piles of tapes and the numerous sets of Lane's iconic outfit. He saw it: a pile so numerous in number, it threatened to topple over and and engulf the others, and all of them orange.
Lexx gazed at the mountain of orange cassettes, his grin growing by the second.
"Jackpot!"