"It's finished!"

"Oh my God, finally!"

"Good work, guys!"

They were in the basement. It was the only place to work without their parents taking note. Almost in sync, the Loud children stepped back a few paces to admire their handiwork. In the middle of the pack of Louds was a beautiful handcrafted vase. It would make the perfect gift for their parent's upcoming anniversary. Not only did it look amazing, but it had a familiar value to it too; each of the Loud children contributed in their own way. For example, Lori had driven to the pottery shop to have it heated and made solid, Lisa had done all of the measurements when sculpting it, Lana had gotten natural clay from right out of the earth from the lake—even Leni pitched in, picking out a decorative wrapping paper and bow.

Sure, some people had more important parts than others. Still, though, it was the thought that counted. The Loud parents would be overjoyed to know that each of their children contributed to the project in their own way.

Lori clapped her hands. "I'm sure they're going to love it!" She smiled. "Well, I'm going up to my room."

Agreement made its way around the Louds, and soon enough, they all began to make their way to the stairs to go on with their normal lives.

Life, however, would soon become anything but normal.

"I don't know," said Clyde, shaking his head. "It just seems like such an unnecessary risk."

The two were walking side by side, coming home from school. The day was bright, and the sun shined strong.

"We just finished the vase yesterday," said Lincoln, "and I really think I can make it even better. All I have to do is sneak to the basement when nobody's paying attention, open the box, and put some lights on it."

Clyde let out a sigh. "I mean, a vase with lights? I've never heard of anything like it."

"It'd be cool," Lincoln defended. "I mean, it would light up at night and everything... why not?"

"What if you drop it?"

Lincoln stopped. Clyde walked a few steps ahead before noticing, and then he, too, halted in his track, turning around to look at Lincoln, confused.

Then, Lincoln laughed. His hands went to his chest, and he bellowed joyous laughter. Clyde looked on in bewilderment.

"Clyde," he said, still giggling, "sometimes, you can be so silly."

Clyde shrugged. "I'm just thinking logically here. Any number of things can go wrong. Why not at least put on the lights with some help from your sisters? I mean, you said the vase was pretty heavy."

"It's not that heavy," Lincoln said, but then quickly backpedaled. Actually, he didn't know how heavy it was. Lynn did all the carrying, and now that he thought about it, even she, the strongest Loud for her age, had a bit of difficulty. "I should be fine."

"If you insist, but I'd still get some help if I were you."

Starting to walk again, Lincoln waved his hand in dismissal. "Nonsense! I want to surprise my sisters, too."

Walking, too, Clyde shook his head. "I don't know, dude… but if you think you can pull this off, I won't argue."

The conversation was left at that for awhile. For some time after that, the two friends walked in silence.

Lincoln couldn't help but to find Clyde amusing. His friend could be such a worrywart sometimes. After all, he'd sometimes have to breathe in a paper bag just to get himself under control.

Then again, what if Lincoln couldn't get away with this?

No, that was ridiculous. Clyde was just being Clyde, always being disquiet and timid. Lincoln liked Clyde a lot. They were best friends, after all, and they shared lots of interests and likes. But, sometimes, the white-haired boy couldn't help but to find his friend's antics amusing.

"You know what?" Lincoln said after a while. "If you're really this concerned about me, I'll let you help me."

"Oh? What do you want me to do?"

"Get on channel seven on your walkie-talkie tonight. You can guide me through the process."

Clyde nodded.

In due time, the two departed, and Lincoln made his way to the front door of his house. Before going inside, he turned around, sniffing the afternoon air. It was a beautiful day, appropriate for the current circumstances. Lincoln was going to make the Loud children's already amazing gift even better, and he'd impress his sisters in the process.

He liked making his sisters happy. Usually, engagements with Lincoln's siblings met fighting and arguments. They all loved each other, but, really, how easy was it to get along with one another when there were eleven of you living under the same roof? It was a welcome change of pace when they got along.

He went inside, passing past the usual scene of chaos. Luan was chasing Leni around with a plastic spider, Lori was having an argument on the phone, Lola was yelling at Luna for playing her music too loud, Dad was having trouble cooking dinner, one of his pots beginning to bubble up and make a mess… nothing was out of the ordinary. Lincoln would call it organized chaos, but this chaos was anything but organized… no, a better word for it would be canonical pandemonium. He heard Lisa say that once, and she was smart.

Still, he loved his family, and wouldn't trade them for the world.

The day went by, Lincoln electing to spend most of it playing video games. Homework could wait. Nothing bad ever came of putting it off, right? He'd get to it… eventually. Dinner came and went, and before he knew it, Lincoln was watching the sun go down over the distant Michigan mountain scape through his small window in his linen closet bedroom.

It was now bedtime, but Lincoln needed to stay up. He had a task to accomplish.

But first, he would need to wait. Everyone was probably still awake, and getting caught was not a part of his plan. He paced his room. He tossed a ball up in down in the air. He called Clyde.

"Come in, Clyde. This is Lincoln."

"Link? Are we doing it already?"

"No, Clyde, but we will soon."

Lola Loud, an empty cup in her hand, groggily walked down the hallway, making her way to the stairs. She had run out of water, and was thirsty.

Every night, her father set a pink plastic cup with water on her nightstand. Usually, she didn't drink all of it, and when she did, she didn't want to drink any more water. Tonight, however, she was a little bit more thirsty than usual. Maybe it had something to do with the fact by being chased with a worm by Lana for a lot of the day.

She made her way down the staircase, walking down slowly as to not wake anyone up. Once in the kitchen, she grabbed a stepping stool from the cupboard underneath the sink. Being only six, she needed a little help to reach high places. Not that she was always supposed to, of course. Once, she stole a bunch of chocolate that Lincoln had stowed away for a school project. In her defence, though, she wasn't the only Loud girl that took some of the chocolate. They all did!

She dragged the stool across the kitchen floor and in front of the sink, stepping up onto it and pouring herself a drink. A little too proud of herself, she hopped down from the stool and began to gulp down the water.

Suddenly, she heard a noise. Somebody was coming down the stairs.

Lola froze in place, afraid. If she was caught sneaking out of her room during bedtime, would one of her siblings tattle on her? If the roles were reversed, she sure would.

Her paralysis broke. As quickly as she could without making noise, Lola opened the kitchen cupboard under the sink and threw herself in, shutting the door behind her.

The Loud house had many, many repairs to be made. With thirteen people living in one place, even with Lana helping out, there was a lot of work to be done that nobody ever got around to doing, at least not for awhile. One of these jobs was to fix the small, narrow hole in the kitchen cupboard.

Lola pressed her head up against the inside of the cupboard, her cheeks squishing against the wood. She closed her left eye, allowing for better focus in her right; she strained to see who had interrupted her late night water run.

Lincoln, tiptoeing, came into the kitchen and quickly made his way to the basement staircase before going down.

Odd.

What was he doing?

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but a little investigative work never hurt Lola Loud. Still mindful of being quiet, she carefully exited the cupboard before making her way to the top of the basement staircase. The light was turned on, and she could faintly hear out Lincoln talking to somebody on the radio. The voice, however, was too faint to make out.

"Come in, slumberjack… yes, I'm in the basement… your job is to help me through this, remember? Two minds are better than one, Clyde."

So, he was talking to Clyde. What was Lincoln up to?

Being more careful than she had ever been in her life, Lola began to walk down the stairs, one by one, step by step. One wrong move and her cover was blown. Adrenaline took ahold of her. This was exciting. Is this what it felt like to be a spy?

At least, she reached the ground. She rushed to the other side of the room, hiding behind a cardboard box, her bare feet making very light patters on the cement floor. Still, Lincoln remained oblivious of his little sister's presence.

"Okay, Clyde, here goes nothing."

Lincoln began to walk across the room, heading straight past Lola. Her face went pale with fear as he walked by her. He was less than a foot away! Still, he didn't notice her. He was too focused on his task.

It took all of Lola's effort not to let out a giant sigh of relief. Quickly, she snuck to the other side of the cardboard box, once again hiding behind cover.

She watched on as her brother moved aside a few cardboard boxes. Soon, he revealed the vase.

"Here's where Lynn put it!"

The vase? What was he doing?

Lola watched on as Lincoln grabbed onto the vase with both hands. His arms began to tremble as he attempted to lift it.

"T-This is heavier than I thought, Clyde."

In pure horror, mouth agape, Lola watched as Lincoln lifted up the vase, trying to put on the table. His grip, however, was weak. He faltered, stumbling backward, and in less than a second, it slipped from his grasp.

It fell to the ground, shattering into many pieces.

"No!" he cried. Helplessly, he kneeled to the ground, trying to put the shattered remains back together in a desperate act. "Clyde…" he said. "I, uh, I gotta go."

Lola ran upstairs to gather her sisters and bring them down to the basement.

She had a plan, and it started here.

"No, no, no!" muttered Lincoln. The vase that he and his siblings had worked on for over a month was in front of him, broken beyond repair. Once his sisters found out, he was dead meat.

Maybe he could get away with this. He could hide the pieces, throw them out or something. Nobody would know he broke it.

Then again, Lincoln didn't think he could live with the guilt of that. No, he had to confess. He'd do it tomorrow morning.

Suddenly, a stampede of angry Loud girls began to rush down the staircase. Once in the basement, they made a beeline straight to him.

Lincoln gulped.

"Do you know how long we worked on that?" Luan.

"OhEmGosh! Linky really did shatter the vase?" Leni.

"Lincoln, you idiot!" Unknown. The crowd was beginning to merge into one giant, angry blob in Lincoln's frightened mind.

Slowly taking small steps backward was Lincoln, and slowly approaching him and closing the gap between them was his sisters. Quickly, however, he ran out of room. Lincoln's back was against the wall. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

Sweating now, he held up and waved his hands while shaking his head. "G-guys, hear me out, you d-don't understand!"

Lynn rolled up her sleeves. "Oh, I understand alright." She gritted her teeth. "For whatever stupid reason, you broke that vase, and now you're going to pay."

Lincoln closed his eyes. It was over. He was going to be mauled by nine angry sisters, many of whom were bigger and stronger than he was. If only they let him explain himself. If only they calmed down and talked this out.

But, no. They weren't going to give him the time of day. It always ended up like this. Lincoln was always being singled out. Maybe it had something to do with being the only boy in the family, maybe it had something to do with being a total spineless pushover. He was a white-haired, bucked tooth loser, and he always paid the price for it. Whether it be the only one in the family being not told what sister fight protocol was, or the squirrel suit incident when they thought he was bad luck and even made him sleep in the backyard for a night, he was always the odd man out, the freak, the loser.

Now, he was going to be hurt. Badly, probably. He had no hope of defense or escape. He was trapped, just like he always was, just like he always will be. The blob of Sister—no, not sister, but Sister, capital S—in front of him was closing in fast.

Unnoticed by the Loud girls, tears began to run down his cheeks.

"Stop!"

Lincoln's eyes shot open, and his fears, just for a second, were put on hold. Right in front of him, facing the crowd of Sister, was Lola, holding her arms out as if to protect him. Was… was she rushing to his defence?

"What Lincoln did was stupid, selfish, and a waste of everyone's time for the past few weeks," she said, and paused. "But… but, what will beating him up right here and now do? No, I call a sister meeting. To Lori's room! Now!"

Relief that was tidal in scope washed over Lincoln in an awesome wave. He had just narrowly escaped the beating of a lifetime. But… why? Why did Lola rush to his rescue? Out of all the Loud children, she had the absolute shortest temper.

The next few minutes went by in a daze. His vision was blurry, in part because he was in shock, in part because of the tears obstructing his vision. The blob of Sister went away, up the stairs, out of vision, leaving Lincoln behind, confused and scared for what the future would bring.

"Order, order!"

Angry murmurs filled Lori's bedroom.

"Listen," said Lola, trying to speak loudly over the noise, but not loud enough to awake her parents downstairs. "I said, listen!"

"What gives, dude?" said Luna, crossing her arms. "Lincoln broke the vase. Do you know how long we spent on that thing?"

Lynn threw her arms up in anger. "Why didn't you let us get even?"

"You have some explaining to do," snapped Lori.

"While it is true that Lincoln broke the vase," said Lola, speaking over everyone else in the room, and it's also true that he deserves to be punished… I don't think attacking him is the best way to go about it."

For the first time since they piled in Lori's room, the Loud children grew silent.

"What do you say we do then?" asked Lucy, curious.

"Listen closely," said Lola, smiling. "I propose… a war?"

"War?"

"Yup. Instead of just beating Lincoln up and having it all be done, we should mess with him for the next few days. Eat all of his favorite cereal, even if you don't like it. Stall extra long in the bathroom when he's next in line. Hide his stuff. You know, things like that."

Quiet murmurs made their way around the room as this was thought upon.

Eventually, Leni spoke up. "I don't know Lola. It seems kind of mean."

"Mean?" Lola laughed. "Mean is breaking a vase that we spent over a month working to make. Mean is selfishly trying to get the best seat in the van during a road trip. Mean is forcing everyone to "go green" for a school project while you use up a trillion watts of electricity yourself in the basement to play videogames with friends!"

"Oh, no," said Luna, "We're bringing up stuff from the past, now?"

"Sure!" yelled Lola. "Why not? None of us are perfect, sure, but doesn't it always seem that Lincoln causes the most problems for us?"

"I don't like where this is going, little dude. We can't single out Lincoln like that. He's our brother."

"Lincoln has a lesson to learn. If we teach it to him, we'd be doing him a favor."

Nobody could argue with this logic.

Lynn stood. "I really wanted to throw Lincoln around a little down in the basement… but, I guess this is the next best thing. Maybe even a little better." A nefarious smile spread across her face.

Lola clapped. "That settles it Let's take a vote." She looked around the room, smiling. "Raise your hand if you support the war."

Immediately, Lynn, Lola, Luan, and Lori rose their hands.

"I'm not sure about this," admitted Lana, "but Lola's my twin, so I'll just take her side."

Lisa sighed. "I don't normally care for the family's banal affairs, but the prospect of using some of my more, erm, aggressive inventions on Lincoln in the name of war actually does interest me." She raised her hand. "I'm in."

"I did spend lots of time working on that stupid vase," said Lucy, sighing. "Sure, I'll help."

That left just Luna and Leni, both of whom didn't appear to be comfortable with the prospect of a war with their little brother. Luna sat on Lori's bed, arms crossed, and Leni looked worried.

Lola huffed, and crossed her arms. "Well?"

"I… I guess, sure, whatever," said Luna. "Let's… let's just not go overboard."

Lola nodded. "Alright." She faced Leni. "Leni, that just leaves you."

Leni twiddled her thumbs. "I really don't think this is a good idea. I mean, like, Linky messed up and all, but do we really have to declare a war on him?"

Lola approached Leni slowly, and then put her hand on the teen's shoulder.

"Leni," she said. "After this is over, Lincoln will learn his lesson, and things will go back to normal." Lola gently took her hand off on Leni's shoulder and gentle put her hand on her cheek, moving it so that she looked her younger sister in the eyes. "I promise," she said slowly.

Leni had no choice but to agree.

In August 2017, I uploaded chapter one of a fanfiction called "Singled Out". Over the next few months, I worked on and uploaded new chapters until it was finished. The story, in my opinion, was bad. Everything went downhill about halfway through. Needless subplots took time away from the main plot. The ending, too, was horrible.

This story will have a very similar concept, but now that I have some writing experience under my belt and I've learned from the mistakes of the first Singled Out, I assure you that this fic will be much, much better.

You have my word.