"Could you stop all that groaning already? I'm trying to get this curtsy down pat and all your whining isn't helping me concentrate."
After being told the bad news by Lisa, Lana was presently looking out the window in her room, moaning and groaning about being stuck inside. She just wanted to enjoy what Mother Nature had to offer and ironically, it was Mother Nature that kept her inside to begin with. Lana indignantly scowled at her sister's lack of sympathy for her plight. Of course, there was no way to explain how despondent she was of her current predicament. No way that little "Ms. Pink, Prim, and Perfect" would understand how she was feeling.
"Ugh, who cares about your stupid curtsy? Look at all that mud, Lola!"
She returned to pressing her face against the window and looked on at the giant lakes of mud that decorated their backyard. Such a sight could bring a tear to a glass eye!
"Miles and miles of beautiful mud!"
"Yuck! I'd rather not. The only time I like to think about mud is if I'm at a spa and Mom and Dad have ordered a mud bath for me. Otherwise, it's gross, icky, and makes your skin itch after it dries."
"But that's the best paaaaaart! Oh, actually, the best part is when you're out there and you're barefoot so you can make big splashes when you jump in it mud, especially when you let the worms wiggle between your toes!"
That was it. There was no way Lola could go on any further with the disgusting imagery her twin sister insisted on pounding into her head. She finally turned around to confront Lana, determined to put an end to her moping once and for all.
"Ew, ew, eeeew! Are you trying to make me barf?! Seriously, Lana, Lisa said that all you had to do was wait for another six minutes or so. Can't you wait for that long?"
Lana separated from the window again to look at Lola.
"But it's been way more than six minutes! I know it! And the rain seems to be getting even worse now! Look!"
Despite her sister's whining, Lola did have to admit that the rain did seem to be pouring down even worse than before and if she was being honest, she lost track of time a while ago so maybe it had been more than six minutes. She supposed she did have a legitimate gripe in all of this but there was no way she was about to admit that. Rather, she figured that Lisa could figure out what was going on and get Lana out of her hair.
"Well then, why don't you ask Lisa what the deal is?"
"Yeah, well, the thing is, I tried and when I got to her room, she had the door locked and wouldn't answer me when I called out to her. I guess she's really trying to keep up with her studies."
'Yeah, and keep her sanity.'
"Look, Lana, I know how much you looooooove mud and all but I love crushing the hopes and dreams of other contestants at beauty pageants more than that so if you don't mind, could I get a little bit of peace and quiet?"
Lana sighed. She didn't want to disturb her sister just because she wasn't getting her way but it still wasn't fair! The mud was practically beckoning to her to jump right in and have hours of fun in it but because of Mom and Dad's silly rule, she couldn't go outside and…
'Wait a minute…Mom and Dad! I think they're still in their room and I'm pretty sure the only person downstairs right now is Leni. That means…'
With her back currently turned to Lola, the most devious of grins spread across her face, rivaling that of her twin. She knew exactly how to get her mud fix and there was no way she was going to let Lola in on her scheme. She'd rat her out just get brownie points. Pretending to still be moody, Lana shuffled slowly out of their room, shoulder slumped and head bowed.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll just go watch TV or something. Good luck with your curtsy."
As she predicted, Mom and Dad were indeed still in their room. By the sounds of it, Lynn was in there, too, as she argued with her parents about the integrity of keeping up with her soccer practice, regardless of whether it was inside or outside. With the two biggest obstacles of her plan stationary, all that was left to do was sneak quietly downstairs, all while hoping that Leni would be too entranced with whatever she was doing to notice as she went outside to play in the mud for just a few minutes. What was a few minutes in the rain going to do anyways?
She tiptoed down the stairs, shushing the inanimate floorboards as they creaked and shrieked beneath her light steps, almost as if they wanted to alert the entire house to her getaway. When she was halfway down the stairs and was able to see the living room in full view, she saw a sight that made her heart sink and her skin turn clammy and ice cold. There was Leni, sitting on the couch, watching her favorite movie, Lawfully Flaxen. Why?! She'd seen that movie at least fifty times by now! Lana had been hoping that she would be in the kitchen, making a weird smoothie or something. There was no way she'd not notice Lana walking outside!
'It can't be that bad, Lana. It's Leni we're talking about here. She's probably way too caught up in her dumb chick flick to even notice anything around her. I just have to be as quiet as a mouse.'
More tiptoeing and floorboard creaking ensued until at last, Lana had made it to the bottom. She looked over at Leni again, who still seemed engrossed enough with the movie to not realize that she was there. Sighing in relief, Lana casually strolled over to the front door, her hand firmly grasped on the doorknob and ready to turn it…
"Lana?"
"…."
"Lana, what're you doing?"
"…."
"Why do you have your hand on the doorknob? And why are you looking at the floor like that? And why aren't you saying anything? Oh my gosh! Did Lisa make you drink something that made you lose your voice?! O-or are you pretending to be a mime?! But then, where's your face paint and costume? Plus, why do you look so sweaty and nervous?! Wait, you don't have a crush on someone, do you?! *gasp* OH! EM! GEE! That is the cutest thing ever! I have to go tell Lori!"
Before Leni could jump out of her seat and run upstairs to tell Lori about Lana's apparent crush, Lana quickly darted over to her and grabbed her by the leg, looking up at her with pleading, puppy dog eyes. Leni was one thing but if Lori caught wind of what she was doing, she'd wind up chained to her bedpost to prevent her from escaping.
"Wait! Don't tell Lori! Please!"
"Awww, it's okay, Lana! I'll go make you the cutest outfit that no boy would be able to resist! So lemme guess…"
Leni leaned down to whisper to Lana.
"…it's Clyde, isn't it?"
Lana felt her cheeks redden at the thought of her pining over Clyde. She was quick to deny any romantic affiliations with him.
"What?! No! Gross! Leni, I don't have a crush on anyone! It's just that I…uh…well, you see…"
Lana fumbled about nervously as she looked up at Leni's expectant look on her face. This was going to be tougher than she thought. Sure, Leni wasn't the brightest bulb there was but that could only make things worse. Getting her to believe a lie was easy but she needed to make sure that Leni didn't react in a way that didn't ensure that she could make a quiet escape.
"…I wanna go outside for just the tiiiiiniest amount of time. Just a teensy-eensy bit so that I can..."
At the sounds of her plans, Leni was quick to criticize.
"Lana, that's totes against the rules! You know Mom and Dad say you're not allowed to go out there until it stops raining."
'Dang it! I should've known not to open like that! Now what do I do?!'
"Um, w-well, you see, Leni, the thing is…"
'Think, Lana, think!'
"I, uh, I…ummmm…have to go outside so that I can stop the…the, uh, spider army from…invading our house."
Leni's hard and angry stare finally broke and she became a stuttering, scared, neurotic mess at the mention of the "s-word".
"S-s-s-spiders?!"
Lana was ecstatic! This was her chance! "Uh huh! Spiders hate the rain so they like to sneak inside people's houses until the rain stops and since I knooooow how much you hate spiders, I'm gonna set a bunch of traps outside so that they can't get in here and scare you. But just in case I fail, you should go upstairs to your room because if there's one thing that spiders like more than staying dry, it's staying dry and watching chick flicks."
Leni didn't need to hear anymore. Just the thought of spiders sitting on the family couch to watch movies with her was enough to make her jump out of her skin.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, eeeeeeeeeeeew!" she screamed as she bolted upstairs to her room and closed the door behind her.
'Perfect! Look out mud, here comes Lana Loud!'
Just to make doubly sure that she wasn't going to get discovered, she went into the kitchen and unlocked the door that led to the backyard. That way, she could sneak out around back and find her way back into the house just in case someone just so happened to be looking for her and thought to look out in the front yard first. With that out of the way, she opened up the front door and gasped.
It was almost as if Christmas came early for her. There was a wide stream of mud that seemed to go on for miles, the same one that she had seen earlier and explained about to Lisa. It wouldn't be as much fun without the rain stopping and letting the mud harden up a bit but it'd still be fun nonetheless. It almost looked like a slip n' slide but with mud! She knew she had to try that out first.
Running out, she guffawed and chortled merrily as the cascading rain poured down on her face. She tossed her shoes aside, wanting to feel as much mud between her toes as possible. She paid no mind to her damp, cold clothes. She came out for mud and she was gonna get it if it killed her! The river of mud seemed to start at the far end of the front yard so she made her way to the sidewalk, just a few feet away from where it started. She then made a run for it, laughing and chortling at the top of her lungs as she ran towards the mud river and belly flopped into it, thinking that she'd slide all the way down with ease.
She did…much too easily.
She misjudged the steepness of the mud river. It had flowed so easily because of the short but steep hill that was in their front yard and by the time Lana realized her mistake, it was too late. She looked on in horror as she picked up in speed, whooshing down the hill with ease. She tried to turn her body away and roll into comparatively harder ground to make her stop but it was no good; the rain had made that impossible. What she saw next made her heart sink. The mud river ended in a pool...right in front of the giant tree that was in their front yard. Knowing what was about to happen, Lana shut her eyes, frozen in absolute fear, as her tiny body collided face first into the hard wood of the tree.
Her head was racked with pain and dizziness and her body was almost completely limp. She was lucky enough that the pool was shallow enough so that water didn't rush into her nose but she was otherwise near the point of blacking out. She felt something warm trickling down her head and sure enough, her weak, straining vision was able to figure out what it was as the brown, soupy mud darkened with crimson. One of her eyes stung as the trail of blood seeped into one of her open eyes and she let out a weak moan of pain.
"M-mom...Dad...h-heeeeel…p…"
Her faint, fading cry for help was further drowned out by the thundering, booming sky and pattering rain and it didn't take long for her brain to finally give into to the torture of what felt like thousands of needles pricking and poking into it, making Lana black out in the cold and rain.
A/N: I know that "A Bun In The Oven" wasn't exactly Fluff Central or anything but I've been wanting to mix into the dark, gorier elements of storytelling for a while now so I hoped that those of you, who like that sort of thing, are pleasantly pleased by what I've done here. Also, I know I mentioned three chapters beforehand but with the pacing this has taken so far, I think that four might be the magic number here. Anyways, don't forget to leave dem reviews behind and tell me what you think! (^_^)
