Chapter 1: By George, I Think He's Got It!
A/N: It feels good to actually get back into writing!
Life decided to throw a Texas-sized wrench in most of my plans that involve unwinding or relaxing (this includes writing).
Oh, and by the way, I'm now in College, however, most of my work involves the use of my computer so I can continue to write more chapters and new stories should they come.
Due to the majority decision of option 3 in The Loud Collection chapter 5, I've come around to finally making it.
And before I let you go, I'd like to thank each of you who liked, favorited, and commented on my stories. It means a lot to me and it makes creating these stories and chapters all the more worth it.
Without further ado here's chapter 1 to 'I'm Gonna Be Me, Is That Okay With You?'
Disclaimer (even though it's obvious): I OWN NOTHING FROM THE LOUD HOUSE!
To any other person in Royal Woods, this would be an ordinary but pleasant Wednesday. Summer was over and fall was setting in, the leaves on the trees were changing from a vibrant or dark green to an eye-catching orange and brown. It wouldn't be too long before they start falling to the ground and people begin pulling out the rakes.
But I don't think you're here to read about the changing of seasons, no, you're here about a certain white-haired boy, aren't you? Well, in that case, let's mosey on over to Royal Woods Elementary and catch up on what our Ivory capped protag is doing, shall we?
Royal Woods Elementary (Main Hall)
Currently Lincoln and his best friend Clyde are walking down the hall to their next classes.
"So Lincoln, how do you think you did on Ms. Johnson's test?" Said Clyde with a rather chipper smile.
"Well, thanks to that study session at your place I'm pretty confident that I passed. From now on study sessions are at your place instead of mine." Said Lincoln with a sly grin.
"Agreed, Lynn's football and luna's music won't interrupt us at my place." Said Clyde with a small laugh.
They continued walking to their classes while making small talk about upcoming movies, games, comics, etc.
They soon stopped in front of Lincoln's next class which is an art class.
"Well, this is where we part ways Clyde, I'll see you after school alright?" Said Lincoln giving Clyde a fist bump.
"Yep, see ya Lincoln." Said Clyde walking down the hall to his class.
Once Lincoln saw Clyde walking to his class he opened the door to the art room and greeted a surprisingly young African American man with a shaved head, wearing a black button up shirt, and black jeans with black and white shoes drawing at his desk with his computer to his left and his nameplate in the front of the desk reading "Tyrone Harris".
"Afternoon Mr. Harris!" Lincoln greeted with a wave.
"Huh… OH, afternoon Lincoln how's your day been so far?" Mr. Harris asked looking up from the drawing on his desk.
Lincoln began making his way over to his own desk, "It's been pretty good so far, can't complain really, so what are we working on today, Mr. Harris?"
"Today is gonna be a free draw day Lincoln, your free to draw whatever it is you want to so long as it's complete it doesn't even need to be colored if you don't want to."
Hearing that Lincoln was excited to get started and brought out his paper and pencils and immediately began drawing… only to stop once he realized he didn't know what to even draw, to begin with.
The rest of the class soon made their way to their desks and upon hearing what the task of today was they happily got started with their drawings, while Lincoln was still stumped.
"Ugh what to draw, what to draw, come on Lincoln you can think of something right?" he thought with a noticeable grimace on his face.
Mr. Harris was watching Lincoln go through the dilemma that he has faced and seen all too often, the dreaded artist's block.
He's only been teaching for four years and in that time he'seen students who actually held an interest in art and who takes the class thinking it's an easy A.
With Lincoln, he could tell he genuinely cares about art and his work shows it, it was due to his work ethic and the quality that made him take a liking to the snow-capped lad.
His past assignments have been nothing short of mesmerizing considering what one would expect of someone his age.
He knew Lincoln had the potential to be something great in the world of art, all he needed was a push in the right direction.
After seeing Lincoln continue to struggle coming up with something to draw, Mr. Harris decided to come by and help him at least find an idea to run with.
The rest of the students were either busy with their drawings or talking with other students to notice Mr. Harris getting up and moving around the room.
Mr. Harris walked up to Lincoln and tapped his shoulder to get his attention, when Lincoln looked up to him Mr. Harris leaned down to Lincoln and said, "Hey Lincoln it looks like your having trouble, care for some advice?"
Realizing some advice could really help him Lincoln nodded his head and told Mr. Harris, "Yeah, some advice would help me greatly right now."
Mr. Harris chuckled, "Lincoln you to stop overthinking it."
"What do you mean?" Asked Lincoln with a puzzled expression.
"What I mean is that instead of coming up with a thousand different ideas of what to draw just focus on one that appeals to you the most."
"One that appeals to me the most…"
With that said gave Linc a pat on the back and went back over to his desk.
With the advice, his art teacher gave him Lincoln began to focus on what appeals to him the most, and after a few seconds passed Lincoln had a light bulb moment and immediately went to work on his drawing.
45 minutes later
"Alright everyone class is about to end in ten minutes, go ahead and turn in your drawings." Said Mr. Harris to the class.
Lincoln got in line behind a few other students to turn in his work with a satisfied smile on his face.
Once he turned in his work he returned to his desk and began gathering up his supplies so he'd be ready to go once the final bell rung to go home.
Once those ten minutes were up to the final bell rung and the students were leaving the class and on their path home. Lincoln was about to do the same until…
"Hey, Lincoln, can you stay for a minute, Id likes to talk to you real quick." Asked Mr. Harris who was leaning back on the edge of his desk.
"Uh, sure Mr. Harris is something wrong?" Lincoln asked with a worried expression.
The art teacher shook his head no and held up Lincoln's drawing with a smile on his face, "I just wanted to compliment you on your drawing."
"Oh really, well uh… thank you, Mr. Harris." Lincoln said rubbing the back of his neck with a small smile on his face.
"No need to be nervous Lincoln, in fact, you should be proud of what you made here it looks great and with this level of detail put in with such a short time shows you have some skills Lincoln, keep it up."
With that said Mr. Harris laid the drawing down on a nearby desk. The drawing itself showed a city at night with a full body image of Ace Savvy with a heroic pose standing over a balcony with his icon showing in a spotlight in the distance, his cape had the faces and symbols of other Ace Savvy characters on it.
The drawing had surprisingly well-done shading and coloring which made Ace practically leap off the page.
In short, it didn't look like a fifth grader did this, it looked like something a professional would do as a promotional piece.
Mr. Harris gave Lincoln a pat on the back and said, "Lincoln, I'm gonna be honest with you, I think you have talent, some genuine talent. If you keep up this level of skill, I can definitely see you going far with it Lincoln. As a matter of fact, I've been talking with the principle lately and if everything works out fine we may have a new art club for the school, what do you say Lincoln… if the club goes up would you like to join?"
Lincoln was processing the information that his art teacher gave him and he was feeling quite a mixture of emotions, most of which is happiness and pride considering his teacher not only likes his work but believes that he has talent, true honest to God talent.
Lincoln mainly used art as a hobby since he started doing it once he got into comics but to have someone actually compliment and praise his work brought a feeling that Lincoln rarely felt… it was the feeling of accomplishment.
Lincoln always felt like he lived in the shadows of his sisters and would not find what he himself was actually good at.
Recently Lincoln believed that he would be known as the only boy in a family of girls and only that.
Don't get him wrong he loves his family to death, but to constantly see that trophy case filled with so many trophies for all of their activities and to see his 'Most Improved Brother' trophy being the only one for him just brings a guy down you know.
But no more… no more sulking, no more being in the shadows of your sisters, no more doubt, and DAMMIT no more with that self-defeatist attitude!
With a newfound sense of determination and enthusiasm Lincoln donned a bright smile on his face, Lincoln looked up to Mr. Harris and said," Mr. Harris I would love to join the art club once it starts and I will take your word on improving on my art skills, sir…" Lincoln then gave a sheepish grin, " If it's not too much to ask… could you help me with finding ways to improve my art and how to find my style?"
"Now what kind of art teacher would I be if I didn't help you improve with your art skills? Of course, I'll help you Lincoln." Replied the teacher with a big smile on his face.
"Heh… right." Said Lincoln slightly embarrassed for asking such a needless question.
With all that said Lincoln and Mr. Harris shook hands, Lincoln grabbed his drawing, and they were both out of the classroom and down the hall until they split off with Lincoln going out the main door and Mr. Harris going out one of the side doors to his car.
Royal Woods (Elementary School Yard)
Once Lincoln was out the door he saw Clyde leaning against one of the stair railings looking at his phone with a bored expression.
"Hey Clyde, sorry about having you wait for so long." Lincoln said rubbing the back of his neck.
Clyde looked up from his phone elated to see Lincoln finally.
"Geez what were you doing in there Linc? I thought I'd be walking home without ya."
Lincoln was always thankful that Clyde wasn't the type to make a big deal out of something if it were his sisters he'd have an earful the whole way home.
They began walking down the road to their houses, Lincoln saw that this was the perfect opportunity to tell his brother from another… er… 'mother', what happened.
"Sorry, I was talking with my art teacher, once class ended, he wanted to compliment me on my drawing."
Clyde donned a curious expression, "Really, can I see it?"
Without a word, Lincoln took off his backpack, opened it up, and brought the 'critically acclaimed' drawing for Clyde to see.
Needless to say, Clyde went bug-eyed at the drawing.
"Holy shitake mushrooms (Clyde is a good boy) you drew this!? This looks like an actual artist from the company drew this!"
"Yeah, I drew it once my art teacher gave me some helpful advice about what to draw. He also wanted me to join the up and coming art club for the school and I agreed." Lincoln said with his signature buck tooth smile showing.
"Dude you obviously have gotten much better compared to when we made 'The Full House Gang'. It's a good thing you did choose to join dude. This is pure talent that needs to be honed."
"Heh, Mr. Harris said the same thing." Lincoln said with a chuckle
"Well, that's how you know its true then Linc." Clyde handed the drawing back to Lincoln who put it back into his backpack, "Oh! I've forgotten to mention that I've been working on my storytelling a lot more and I think I've been getting better at it."
Lincoln gave Clyde a suspicious look, "Have you been writing erotic stories about Lori again?"
Clyde gave Lincoln a look of shock, "HOW'D YOU… I mean no… none of my stories have been about Lori… heh heh." Said an embarrassed Clyde who was sweating profusely.
Lincoln simply shook his head with a small smile.
The duo soon met the road where they part ways and after they did their best bro handshake, they parted ways to go home.
Lincoln was alone with his thoughts and quite frankly Lincoln thought today was too good to be true.
He knew without a doubt he passed Ms. Johnson's test, the school was serving tacos for lunch, math class had a substitute who didn't have the lesson plan so it was a free period, English was… well, English, and he made a drawing that was praised by his own teacher speaking of which…
When it came to drawing or art, in general, he always did as a hobby and never took it seriously, but to think that his teacher not only loves his work but sees potential in him just made his day… hell, his month really.
He was snapped out of his thoughts once he heard the all too familiar myriad of noise coming from his home. He was contemplating on telling his family about his drawing and what happened today… but if Lincoln knew one thing about his sisters, its that they don't think too highly of comics or anything superhero relat- HOLD THE PHONE!
"What am I thinking, as much as my sisters meddle in my life they would probably be ecstatic about me finally finding my talent even if it involved comics."
With newfound enthusiasm, Lincoln marched onward towards his home, walked up the porch steps, and opened the door.
Lincoln's young life was about to change from here on out.
End Of Chapter 1
A/N: For the sake of context Mr. Harris is based on my art teacher when I was in high school. He instilled a great sense of motivation in me to keep drawing and I wanted Lincoln to feel that same sense of motivation.
I wanted to bypass Lincoln going through the motions of self-doubt and that defeatest mindset he often gets in other stories (no offense to those type of stories) but...
There are simply so many stories of Lincoln feeling like dirt that I felt like making one where Lincoln looks within himself and pushes forward in the crazy and unpredictable and often unreasonable game called life.
I don't know if I'm going to be doing any pairings and if I do it won't be loudcest (since it wouldn't make any sense with the story).
Thank you for reading and I'll see you guys next time!