It was a nice spring day in the town of Royal Woods, Michigan. The birds were chirping, the flowers were blooming, all was calm.

At Royal Woods Elementary School, all was going as it normally did. Lincoln was eating lunch by himself, which he noticed had been happening a lot more recently. After a rather comical series of events at the Sadie Hawkins Dance a couple weeks ago, Lincoln had somehow helped all his friends get girlfriends.

His pal Rusty was dating Polly Pain, a girl on Lynn's roller derby team who always wore her roller skates and loved to move fast. They were a perfect couple, due to the fact that Rusty was in a "bicycle gang" and also liked moving fast.

His friend Liam was dating Tabby, a girl who was an "honorary roadie" of Luna's band. The two of them both loved rocking out, so they were also a perfect couple.

Zach was with Giggles, a friend of Luan's from clown school. They were good together because they both had a great sense of humor.

And lastly Clyde, Lincoln's best friend. After years of an unrequited crush on Lori, Clyde was finally starting to move on. Slowly, of course, but it was better than nothing. He was dating Haiku, a friend of Lucy's who was also a Goth and a poetry fanatic. The reason she and Clyde got along so well was because of their crushes on people who could never love them back: Lori and a Dracula-esque vampire boy who just turned 200.

Lincoln was happy for his friends, though he had to admit it was lonely without them around. As for his own girlfriend, Ronnie Anne, well…

Before Lincoln started dating Ronnie Anne, he had a big crush on this girl named Cristina. As with most young boys and their first crushes, he wasn't sure how to go about it, and kind of obsessed over her. She found out, and was so creeped out that she transferred to the school's other 5th Grade class just to get away from him. But one day, after literally running into each other in the hall, Lincoln apologized as they were picking their stuff up, explaining why he had acted the way he had. Cristina said she would think about accepting his apology, and that had been the last he had officially talked to her.

However, a coupe days ago, Lincoln had seen Cristina and Ronnie Anne sitting together, talking and laughing with each other in the library. He later asked Ronnie Anne about it, who told him the two had been doing the same subject for their history reports, and upon finding out, had decided to work together. This in turn helped them find out they had a lot in common.

So, Lincoln's friends were busy with their girlfriends, and his girlfriend was busy with her friend. Thus, he was left all alone. Oh well, at least it was corn dog day.

As Lincoln munched on his corn dog, his teacher, Mrs. Johnson walked in. She looked all around the cafeteria, before spotting him.

"Lincoln!" she called out, approaching him, "I was wondering if you could help me with something."

"Sure," Lincoln shrugged, "Whatcha need, Teach?"

"Well, I need…" Mrs. Johnson started, before stopping and looking at Lincoln funny, "Excuse me?"

Lincoln instantly turned red, "Sorry, Mrs. Johnson. Just thought I'd address you in a friendly way. I realize as my teacher it was disrespectful, and it shall not happen again."

Mrs. Johnson looked at him sternly…before chuckling, "It's alright, Lincoln. It's just that none of you have ever tried to be friendly to me before. Anyway, the other 5th Grade teacher, Mr. White, had to run home to take care of a family thing, so I need to grade BOTH of our tests from last week by the end of lunch. Since I need to do that, I was wondering if you could run an errand for me."

"Sure," Lincoln nodded, "What is it?"

"I just need you to take this flash drive to Professor Thompson," she said, handing him a small, black flash drive.

"Who?"

"The science teacher," she explained, "You'll have him next year. His class is at the end of the back hall. Just tell him this is that information I got for him."

"Ok," Lincoln said, finishing his corndog in one bite as he took the flash drive from his teacher, who hurried away.

Stopping to throw his tray away, Lincoln looked around. He didn't see ANY of his friends anywhere, but it was no big deal. He'd find them when he got back.

As Lincoln hurried through the halls (while making sure not to run), he couldn't help but get a bad feeling in his gut, like he knew something was wrong. But that didn't make any sense, he hadn't seen or heard anything that would imply something bad. Maybe it was just the fact that the cafeteria had served green beans instead of French fries, and they weren't sitting well with the corn dog.

After a couple minutes, Lincoln made it to the end of the back hall. Facing towards each other on opposite walls were two doors. One read 'Science Lab' and the other read 'Prof. Thompson'.

"Wow," Lincoln muttered, knocking on the door, "This guy has his OWN office. Fancy."

After a moment, a short, grey-haired man opened the door. He looked down at Lincoln, "Yes?"

"Professor Thompson?" Lincoln asked, at which the man nodded, "Mrs. Johnson said she got some stuff for you." He handed the man the flash drive, which he eagerly took.

"Wonderful!" he exclaimed, "Young man, do you know what this is?" Lincoln shook his head. "This," Professor Thompson eagerly pointed at the flash drive, "Is what your teacher's uncle, who was a renowned scientist, was working on before he passed away. If I can complete his theories, the world can have a better tomorrow. Do tell Mrs. Johnson I greatly appreciate this." At that, he closed the door, leaving Lincoln by himself.

"Well, that's cool," he shrugged, "Whatever was on that thing sounds important, so at least it can be used by someone who apparently knows what he's doing."

As Lincoln turned and started to head back to the cafeteria, he heard a light creak. Turning, he saw the door to the lab slowly open. Raising an eyebrow, he figured it just wasn't shut right. He walked over to shut it, when it opened all the way.

Curious, he looked inside to see if someone was in the room. There shouldn't be, seeing as it was lunch hour.

Looking around the dark room, he noticed it was set up like a traditional lab: about a dozen 4-person desks, each with a sink on it. There was a chemical shower in the back, as well as a couple hazmat suits.

"Looks like 6th grade won't be so bad," he muttered, fully stepping into the room to get a better look. It definitely looked like it would be an interesting class, mainly using chemicals, like what Lisa used.

'tink'

Lincoln looked over to one of the desks to see that a beaker had fallen off.

"Strange," Lincoln muttered to himself, as he walked over to pick it up. He looked at the desk and all around it, but there didn't seem to be any reason for the beaker to have fallen. The only thing he could come up with was that maybe the person who had used it last had set it on the very edge of the desk, and it just finally fell off.

Crouching down to inspect it, he noticed that the beaker itself was undamaged, though a tiny bit of liquid had poured out. Now, having a genius scientist for a younger sister, Lincoln was educated on basic lab safety, including handling spills. Looking at the beaker, there was no label on it to tell what it was.

"Should I get someone?" Lincoln asked out loud, "Or should I just clean it up?" Taking a sniff, Lincoln didn't notice any strange smells in the air, and looking at it, he noticed that the spill was relatively small. He could easily wipe it up in a couple minutes, whereas getting someone to help would likely take at least 10 minutes.

Deciding it was pointless to waste time, Lincoln headed over to the wall where the paper towel dispenser was. He noticed it was empty, yet on the edge of the counter was another almost identical to it.

"Odd," he muttered, taking a couple paper towels from it. Weird that someone would put one holder on the wall, but not both.

Deciding not to dwell on it, Lincoln pulled a couple more towels out, noticing a light scraping sound as he pulled. Paying it no mind, he headed to the spill and quickly cleaned it up. He then walked back to the counter and threw the towels in the trash can. He then headed back to where the spill had been and checked to see if there was any residue or if it had made the floor slick.

As he wiped his finger where the spill had been, he suddenly smelled smoke. He turned around…

Just in time to see the trashcan burst into flames!

"HOLY COW!" Lincoln cried in shock, jumping back. Looking around the room, he noticed a fire extinguisher by the door. He ran over and grabbed it, before running back to the trash can. Staying a safe distance away, he pulled the nozzle and sprayed at the fire, feeling relief as he watched the flames die down…

Only to have his mind blown when the flames started back up and actually started "crawling" on the stream of foam. Lincoln dropped the fire extinguisher and threw himself over the teacher's desk, right as the extinguisher exploded in flames, sending bits of fire everywhere.

Peering over the desk, Lincoln saw that not only had the blinds caught on fire, but so had the instruction manuals on all the students' desks. Each desk lit up, and the beakers that had chemicals in them exploded.

As the room started filling up with smoke, Lincoln ran to the door, knowing he had to get out of there. However, right by the door was a coat rack, and the sole coat on it had caught on fire. By the time Lincoln noticed this, it was too late. He bumped into it and knocked it out into the hallway, where it brushed against the student artworks on the wall, quickly setting them on fire in a domino effect.

Stepping out of the room, Lincoln watched in horror as the hallway slowly caught on fire. Snapping out of his shock, he quickly ran over and pulled the fire alarm…

Only to cry out in anger when the handle broke off in his hand.

Fearing for his life and the lives of all the students in the school, Lincoln looked around, trying to formulate a plan. Why wasn't the sprinkler system going off? It should have started automatically once the smoke detectors went off…

"CRAP!" Lincoln cried out, suddenly remembering that yesterday some students had flushed a bunch of junk down the toilets in the boy's bathroom, damaging the pipes. As such, the whole water system had been turned off while it was worked on.

Knowing he didn't have a moment to lose, Lincoln dashed down the hall, past the flames, until he got to the hall's other fire alarm. He quickly, yet carefully, pulled it down, and sure enough, the alarm went off.

BBBBBRRRRRRRRIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!

Instantly, the students exited the cafeteria. Thankfully it was right by the front doors, so everyone made it out pretty quickly.

As Lincoln raced down the hallway, he couldn't help but think one thing: he had just started a fire that was likely going to damage the majority of the school. Even though it was an accident, there was no way he was getting out of this scot-free.

"That doesn't matter!" he scolded himself; he had to find out if his friends and family were ok.

Outside, across the street from the school the teacher's were trying to maintain order. Quickly gathering the students up in their respective grades, they each began taking attendance.

Lincoln burst out of the school, one of the last to do so. He frantically looked across the street, trying to see if his friends and sisters had made it out ok.

He sighed in relief upon seeing Lucy, Lola, and Lana (the only three sisters that went to school with him) standing together, right in between their grades.

"Lincoln!" Mrs. Johnson was looking around, "Lincoln Loud!"

Taking a deep breath, Lincoln jogged over to his class. Immediately, his friends surrounded him.

"Lincoln!" Clyde cried, throwing his arms around his best friend, "I freaked out when I couldn't find you."

Lincoln patted his best friend's back, "It's ok, Clyde, I'm fine."

"Glad you are, Lame-o," Ronnie Anne said, wrapping her arm around him after Clyde had let go, "Where were you?"

"Oh…" Lincoln froze as all his friends' eyes fell on him. There was no way he could tell them he had started the fire, he would be in so much trouble. "I uh…had to run an errand for Mrs. Johnson."

Before any of his friends could speak up, four voices cried, "Lincoln!"

His sisters and Mrs. Johnson ran over to him. The twins tackled him in a hug, crying that they were glad he was safe. Lucy stood over him, and stated in a monotone voice that she was also glad he was safe. Mrs. Johnson sighed in relief as she checked his name off her attendance list.

"Oh thank god!" Mrs. Johnson cried, "Everyone is accounted for!"

Despite hearing that there were apparently no injuries or casualties, this did not soothe Lincoln's thoughts as he watched his school slowly burn. Burn to the ground because of HIM.

"I am so screwed," he muttered to himself, as the fire engines pulled up.

"And in other news," the news anchor read, "The back half Royal Woods Elementary was burned to the ground today. By some honest-to-God miracle, no one was hurt."

In the Loud house, all the siblings sat together on the couch. Lucy, Lana, and Lola sat in Lori, Leni, and Luan's laps, respectively. Like all the other parents, Mr. and Mrs. Loud had been horrified of the thought of their children's school catching on fire.

As soon as the kids got home, they were swamped by their older siblings. They hugged them and thanked the lord that they were alright. Now, just before they were to have dinner, they all gathered in front of the TV to watch the news report on what happened. As stated, the younger siblings were in their older siblings' laps, while Luna held Lincoln's hand.

Lincoln was standing at the side of the couch, staring at the TV with dread. Even though the fire fighters had managed to put out the fire before it completely burned down the building, half of it was still gone. Because of him. Sure it had been an accident, but that didn't make it any easier.

"We just now have the official report," the news anchor stated, "We go live to the scene of the crime with the fire chief."

"Crime!" Lincoln cried out, causing Luna to rub his hand and tell him it was ok.

The fire chief appeared on screen with one of the roaming reporters, "Well, it was hard to determine what happened at first, though thanks to some investigating, we know for certain this was arson."

Lincoln's eyes went wide. How could it be considered arson when it had been an accident?

"We found traces of a man-made fire starter," the chief stated, "Made out of vegetable oil and tequila, it was almost undetectable, though we were able to find it. Apparently someone laced the school's science lab with it, thus starting the fire."

Lincoln felt his mind go blank. The liquid he had cleaned up. That must have been the fire starter. But how? I mean, of course it would cause a small fire to grow, but how could it just cause the trash can to burst into flames? Lincoln hadn't recalled seeing or smelling anything in the trash when he got the paper towels, just some crumpled up papers.

"Do you have any suspects?"

"Well, according to street cameras, no one was seen entering the school who wasn't supposed to. That means it was likely an inside job. Because of general disdain for school, we naturally suspect it was a student," the fire chief explained, before turning to face the camera, "And just so you know, you little punk, when we catch you, you will face the utmost punishment for your crime. I'm not in charge of the school, but I can say for certain that expulsion and juvie will be part of your punishment. If I were you, I'd turn myself in, because dragging this out will only make it worse."

Lincoln felt himself go white as he started trembling. Expulsion and juvie would follow him for the rest of his life! He'd be lucky if he could get a job as a Burpin' Burger janitor.

"Bro, you ok?" Luna asked, pulling him in for a hug. The rest of the sisters looked at their brother, noticing the concern in his face.

"Y…yeah," he forced out, "It's j…j…just scary to think that someone at my own school would ac…ac…accidentally start that giant fire."

"Oh no, Lincoln," Lola spoke in a haughty tone, "A fire like that is NOT accidental! Some punk started it, more-than-likely as some super prank. They'll probably lay low for years, and then reveal it was them before they flee the country!"

"That's a bit overdramatic, don't you think?" Lisa asked, rolling her eyes, "More than likely it's just some pyromaniac who harbors an extreme dislike of school, who finally just snapped. They'll likely be caught within a week at most, because those kinds of people always slip up and give themselves away."

"Yeah, and then the jerk who started it will get what's coming to them!" Lori exclaimed angrily, wrapping Lucy in a bone-crushing hug, "No one tries to hurt MY siblings!"

"Ow," Lucy emotionlessly stated as her older sister crushed her.

"Yeah, this hot head will go up in flames when he's caught," Luan joked, earning groans from her siblings.

As the sisters started getting riled up, Lincoln couldn't help but feel extremely nervous. But he shouldn't be, right? The fire was an accident, and no one was hurt. So in that case, there was really no reason for him to ruin his life by confessing.

Right?

That night, as Lincoln looked online, he grew weary at all the news of the fire. Nearly everything he looked at had some message along the lines of "We will find you!" Even though no one knew he was to blame, he couldn't help but feel everyone knew exactly who they were addressing when they wrote that.

Deciding to take his mind off what happened, Lincoln decided to go to Bplus, one of his favorite gaming websites.

As he logged on and looked at the wide variety of games, he couldn't help but appear to notice a…certain type of games.

The Flame Prince.

Firefighter Extreme.

Escape Prison.

Forest Fire Beware.

Feeling nauseous, Lincoln slammed his laptop shut and decided to read an Ace Savvy comic. He reached under his bed into the box where all his comics were located and grabbed a random one.

Ace Savvy vs. The Fire Aliens.

He tossed it aside and grabbed another one.

Ave Savvy vs. The Mad Arsonist.

He again tossed it aside and grabbed another, muttering, "Third time's the charm." He picked it up and looked at the cover.

Ace Savvy in Whodunit!

Now feeling extremely queasy, he put the comics back in the box and picked up his stuffed rabbit, Bun-Bun.

"Ok, Bun-Bun," he muttered to his cherished childhood toy, "It'll be fine, right? I didn't do anything wrong, right?" Of course, the toy merely stared back at him, not saying or doing anything. It had been years since the last time Lincoln had actually tried to have a conversation with his toy.

Despite it only being 8:00, and his bedtime not being until 10:00, Lincoln decided to just get ready for bed. He could sleep in tomorrow, seeing as school was cancelled for the rest of the week (it was Wednesday). Over the next 4 days the burnt rubble would be cleaned up, and then school would resume the following Monday, with any classrooms that had been damaged having class in some trailers that would be placed on the football field. Science class cancelled until they caught the arsonist.

"I'm an arsonist," Lincoln muttered, slightly unnerved by the thought as he changed into his pajamas.

As he turned off his light and climbed into bed, he thought to himself, 'There's no evidence that I did it. Just lay low, and it'll all blow over.'

Lucy, Lola, Lana, Clyde, Rusty, Liam, Zach, Ronnie Anne, and Mrs. Johnson were all tied up and gagged in the cafeteria. They were struggling to escape, with no luck.

"Well, well, well," a voice snarled, as a figure entered the cafeteria, "Looks like the gang's all here."

Everyone's eyes went wide as they saw who the figure was: Lincoln. Instead of his usual orange shirt and blue jeans, he was wearing a stereotypical "gangster tuxedo" complete with a black fedora.

"Oom!" Lola cried, trying to ask what was going on.

"Glad you asked, little sister," Lincoln smirked at his captives, "You see, the fire I started the other day failed to take you out, so I'm doing the only obvious thing: starting another to remove the thorns in my side."

Their eyes all went wide as they cried into their gags and struggled to escape.

Lincoln pulled out two bottles, one of tequila and one of vegetable oil, and a lighter. He smirked dangerously at the group as he began pouring the bottles all over them. They tried to shake the contents off, to no effect. In seconds they were each practically drenched.

"Now, time to light it up," Lincoln grinned wildly, seeing the looks of fear on his friends' and sisters' faces. He lit the lighter, and dropped it to the ground right in front of Mrs. Johnson…

Downstairs, the sisters were sitting in the living room, just lounging about, each doing their own thing. Of course, the older sisters were still watching over Lucy, Lana, and Lola, as well as Lisa who was checking them to make sure they hadn't had any negative effects of the fire, despite the fact that they hadn't been anywhere near the flames.

Lori was texting Bobby, asking if Ronnie Anne was ok. Luna, Luan, Lynn, and Lucy were making sure their friends were ok. Lisa was checking Lola and Lana, and Leni was playing with Lily.

Despite the events of the day, all was relatively calm.

"AAAAHHHHH!"

They all jumped up in shock.

"What the heck!" Luna cried, as they all looked up the stairs, "That came from Lincoln's room."

They all stopped what they were doing and hurried up the stairs to their brother's room. They threw the door open and found Lincoln on the floor, tangled up in his bed sheets. He was flailing around, and had a look of terror on his red face.

"Bro!" Luna cried, dropping to her knees and grabbing Lincoln by the shoulders, "What happened? What's wrong?"

"I…I had a dream…a nightmare," Lincoln sputtered out, "The fire was…the fire! Oh god!"

Luna wrapped her brother in a hug and held him close, rubbing her hand on his back. The rest of the sisters looked at each other with concern. Lincoln was clearly handling the fire the worst out of the four siblings. After all, Lucy and the twins barely seemed affected by it.

"Linky, it's ok," Leni spoke up, getting down on her knees and wrapping Lincoln in a hug. Lily, who was still in Leni's arms, also hugged her brother, looking at him with sadness as though she could tell he was upset.

"Yeah," Lori said, joining the group hug, "The cops will find out who did this, and they'll pay."

"They'll get what's coming to them, that's for sure," Lynn said, as the rest of the sisters slowly joined in the hug, trying to comfort their distressed brother.

Lincoln looked at all his sisters, and tears started to spill from his eyes. Even if the fire was an accident, he knew he needed to come clean, otherwise the guilt would tear him up inside. Not to mention the punishment would probably be worse.

The punishment. Even if he explained the fire had been an accident, would he still be punished with expulsion and arrest? After all, the fire chief said they found traces of a man-made fire starter, which honestly didn't make any sense. But then again, the trash can just bursting into flames and the fire extinguisher accelerating the fire didn't make sense either. Why had it happened? Was it just rotten luck? Was he cursed?

It didn't matter. What mattered was that everyone thought the fire was started on purpose, and everyone was looking for the "culprit" responsible. He couldn't come clean, because he knew his life would be ruined, and his family would probably disown him. The same family that was currently giving him all of their love to make him feel better. This just made him cry harder.

So, Lincoln accidentally burned down part of his school, but everyone thinks it's arson. Now, as police search for the culprit, he's slowly letting the guilt get to him.

But were you paying attention, dear readers? Clearly, some things aren't adding up.

R&R