Lynn Sr. and Rita Loud opened the door to the basement, with Rita flipping the lightswitch. "Okay, you guys," Lynn Sr. announced. "Luan's gone! Everyone downstairs!" On his command, the Loud siblings minus one collectively ambled down into the space below. Lincoln brought up the rear, but before he descended the stairs, he turned to face the camera.

"You might be wondering why we're taking such drastic measures," Lincoln said. "Well, tomorrow's April Fools Day, and that's reason enough! Luan's pranks go to a whole other level on April 1st, and we're always caught in the middle! Booby traps, switcheroos, live animals, pies in the face...it's just too much! But this year, I have a plan. So follow me!"

The camera followed Lincoln downstairs as the white-haired boy grabbed an old chalkboard from a dingy corner of the basement, blowing the dust off it as he wheeled it in front of his family members. Curious as to what was going on, Lori asked, "So what's this all about with this meeting in secrecy? I'm literally waiting for Bobby to call me!"

"It's a necessary evil, Lori," Lincoln replied. "I had to wait until Luan was out of the house before I could spring this on you."

Lisa's lisp rang out through the room. "Spring what, exactly? I have some important research waiting for me upstairs, so this had better be worthwhile."

"Trust me, it is..." Before Lincoln could finish his train of thought, his sisters' lines of questioning filled the air with a cacophony of protest:

"I have football practice in an hour, Linc! Can this wait?"

"I've gotta get to soundcheck, bro!"

"Did you really need to turn the lights on? The darkness was perfectly fine."

"POO POO!"

"I've got to...um...do some stuff!"

"There's pageants I've gotta register for!"

"I wanna go outside, Linky!"

Lincoln let out an irritated sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing that he had lost the crowd. With grim determination, he put the fingernails of his left hand to the chalkboard and slowly dragged them downward, sending an ear-splitting squeal through the room and silencing his sisters' overlapping complaints. "No, it can't wait, I'll be done before then, yes, GA GA, is it important, you can register later tonight, and you can, right after we're done here! OKAY?!"

His sisters nodded collectively as Lincoln grabbed a piece of chalk and began drawing a crude facsimile of a calendar. "I wanna start off by asking...does anyone here know what day it is?"

After a few seconds of thought, Leni's arm shot up in the air. "Ooh! Ooh! I know! Today's, like, today!"

The boy grinned. "True, Leni, but I need today's date. Anyone?" Lana raised her hand. "Um...today's the 31st, right?"

"That's right. March 31st, to be exact. And we all know what tomorrow is..." With a dramatic flourish, Lincoln pointed to his calendar drawing, which featured a giant 1 surrounded by a huge circle with ten arrows pointing at it. "Tomorrow is APRIL FOOLS DAY!"

Dramatic thunder echoed through the room as a panic bomb went off amongst his parents and sisters. Lola and Lana hugged each other, Lynn Sr. and Rita fell to the ground in the fetal position, Lori and Leni screamed in terror, Luna sank to her knees and let out a big "NO!", Lynn put on a football helmet and grabbed a hockey stick while gently placing another helmet on top of Lily, Lucy stepped back into a dark corner for camouflage, and Lisa pressed a button on the side of her glasses, activating a protective bubble around herself. Lincoln watched all of this unfold and remarked, "I take it you guys forgot?"

"We didn't forget, son," Lynn Sr. replied. "We just tried to ignore it and hope it'd go away!"

"Well, that's not gonna work, dad! April Fools is tomorrow, and this time, I have a plan."

"Funny," Luna said. "That sounds almost exactly like what you said last year."

"Let me guess," Lori cracked. "You're gonna try and lock her in a crate again, right? We tried that last year and look where it got us!"

"Yes." Lucy's exclamation and sudden appearance next to her sister sent the eldest Loud sibling jumping back in fright. "It got us pain and humiliation...but mostly humiliation."

"Really? Because I wound up in the heart of downtown last year. And I never could find the kitchen, now that I think about it," Leni added.

"It took so...darn...long to clean out Vanzilla," Rita said as her eyes glazed over.

"And upon reviewing my plan of action from last year, I've come to a conclusion: I made a mistake trying to lock myself in my room. The only way to beat Luan is to combat Luan. This year, we're gonna fight pranks with pranks. This year, we strike back!"

Lisa popped her head through the top of her bubble and asked, "What are you saying, brother?"

"I'm saying that there's twelve of us, and one of Luan. The numbers game is ours, and there's no reason that we can't come up with some good pranks of our own! Remember, according to her rules, anyone that steps foot on the Loud property on April 1st is fair game. That includes her."

The dawning realization struck his sisters and parents like a thunderbolt. Devious grins soon filled the room as Lana exclaimed, "Luan comes in the front door, and BOOM! Mud pie right in the kisser!"

"I could shake up a can of soda or something!"

"Syrup and feathers!"

"Hockey pucks!"

"Stage dives!"

"My phone!"

"Tiaras and mirrors!"

"GA GA!"

"Of course! There's plenty of things in this house that we can use! God, why didn't we think of this sooner?"

"So what do you say, Loud family? Are you ready to get your prank on?"

A collective "YEAH!" echoed as everyone put their fists in the air, only for the celebratory mood to be darkened as the sound of applause rang through the room. Standing at the foot of the basement steps was Luan Loud, a smug, brace-filled grin plastered on her face, her hands filling the room with mirthless applause. Her siblings and her parents blanched and began sweating as she started to speak.

"Well, well, well. Do I hear what I think I hear? My family thinks they can beat me at April Fools pranks?" She paced in front of the group, staring everyone down as her harangue continued. "You don't really believe you can win, do you?"

Even though she was terrified, Lola jabbed her finger at Luan and exclaimed, "Sure we do! There's only one of you, and twelve of us! The odds are in our favor!"

"Yeah! And, like, so are the evens!"

Luan laughed, but it wasn't a normal laugh. "Oh, sister, even with the twelve of you against me, there's no way you can pull this off. I am the queen of April Fools, and it's high time I reminded you of what I'm capable of. Tomorrow, prepare yourselves for a Prank-pocalypse of epic proportions!"

Lincoln stepped forward, rolling up his sleeves as he did so. Steel-eyed determination was on his face as he answered Luan's threat with one of his own:

"I can't wait."

Luna walked to Lincoln's side, placing her hand on his shoulder in solidarity. Slowly but surely, the remaining members of the Loud family surrounded their only son, returning Luan's glare with twelve more, each one as determined as the next.

"How about a friendly competition, Luan?" Leni asked. "You think you're the queen of April Fools? Well, there's twelve of us here who can't wait to knock you off your throne. So, here's my idea. Every successful prank that gets pulled, gets you a point. Whoever's got the most points at the end of the day wins."

The relative complexity of her idea sent everyone into a state of shock, including Luan. However, she quickly regained her smug composure and replied, "And what are the stakes?"

Lynn replied, "If you win, you get to prank us all at your April Fools level for the rest of the week."

"And if we win," Lori added, "the title of 'Queen and King of April Fools' gets passed to us, and you can never pull another prank again."

Luan tapped her finger against her chin in an exaggerated thinking motion. "Hmmm...those are some high stakes. I don't know if I can accept..."

In the meantime, Lincoln had spotted out of the corner of his eye one of Luan's rubber chicken gags. He grabbed it and thrust it in her face, exclaiming, "What's the matter, Luan? You chicken?" He let out an exaggerated laugh before spitting out the final two words: "Get it?"

The initial shock of Lincoln's threat startled her, but Luan regained her confidence just as fast, replying, "Oh, I get it. And I accept your stakes." She extended her hand to shake on the deal, with Lincoln eyeing it up and down, looking for a joy buzzer, something that let him know it was fake, anything. Regardless, he shook her hand, sealing his family's April Fools fate.

"May the best prankster win."

"Good luck, everyone." Luan tossed a wad of dough towards them, which was caught by Lynn Sr. "You're gonna knead it." She began to laugh as she ascended the stairs, shutting the door behind her with an echoing slam. At that moment, Luna delivered a quote.

"As a wise man once said, 'pray for the best, prepare for the worst, and expect the unexpected.'"

"Cool quote, Luna," Lana replied as the family ascended the stairs. "Didja get it from one of your rock bands?"

"Nah...I found it on the internet."