Ok so here is chapter two in the three part Lucy Halloween story. I feel a bit better with the chapter after going through it again and reworking it. We will see how it goes over.

Some quick responses.

To the guest who asked about the band The Remedy. Yes that is a reference to The Cure. I can't say I am their biggest fan, but I have loved all the songs I have heard so far. I want to try and write something going off Just Like Heaven someday as that is my fav from them.

Mike The Red Engine. As always thanks for the review, it's always nice to see that you like my stuff.

Part 2: Change of Plans

The week had dragged by, most of the Loud family had all continued to work on their plans for the up coming holiday. Luna spent most of the time in the garage working out songs that her and Sam could play together. Luan worked on her act, and Lori texted back and forth with Bobby. Lincoln however, let Lynn do all the planning for their big night with the twins, he had other things he needed to focus his attention on.

Lincoln had tried to get Lucy to talk to him for the whole week, now fully aware that he had wronged his sister in some way. She insisted that she was fine and just wanted to be left alone. On many occasions he considered assembling his sisters into a meeting to discuss the situation. He had decided against it, figuring they would not want to be bothered with it, saying that Lucy always appeared depressed. It was just Lucy being Lucy. Lincoln decided that he could handle the situation himself. Yet at every turn he was met with a stoic and somber response, and Lucy would walk away with a heavy sigh. Lincoln was starting to run out of ideas, he was unsure what he had done to let his sister down and make her feel more depressed than she normally appeared.

The night before Halloween he entered the living room to find Leni, Lori, Luna, Luan, and Lisa all sitting on the couch. The Grand Jack O' Lantern was on ABS, a yearly tradition that the Loud family liked to gather together and watch. This was the fourth time the channel showed it, now appearing as a desperate attempt of feed off the viewers' nostalgia factor for cheap ratings. It was, of course, working just fine. He took a seat on the floor and leaned up against the edge of the couch, not paying attention to the dancing kids on the television screen. His mind was lost among a storm of daydreams and contemplation, pondering over his sister and what he could do to help her. When the commercial came on, an add for a new reality show that reeked of even more ratings' desperation, all of his sisters stopped watching and began to talk amongst themselves or play on their phones. Lori texted Bobby about the show and plans for their get together. Lisa explained to Leni that the grand jack o' lantern was a fictional character and that it would do no good to write to him. Luan tried out several bad jokes on Luna, each one receiving a sarcastic drum roll after each punchline.

"Uh hey guys have you noticed how down Lucy seems lately?" Lincoln asked. The question gathering the attention of his sisters.

"Seems pretty normal to me." Lori said, her eyes still glued on her phone.

"Now that you mention it bro, she does seem to be a bit quieter than normal." Luna added.

"She doesn't read her poems around me anymore." Lynn said. "And she spends a lot more time in her secret place." Lynn made air quotes with her fingers when mentioning the secret place.

The behavior his sisters brought up seemed to only cement the fact in Lincoln's mind that Lucy was sad and angry about something. Only now it seemed that it was not just him, it appeared to be with the rest of the family. Lincoln racked his brain to figure out what his family could have done to make Lucy feel and act the way she had been. It all started with when she saw him and Lynn making plans to go trick or treating with the twins. Could she have been jealous that she was not invited? That was more than possible, though she should know that she was always welcome to join them, in fact he would have asked before everything had suddenly went to hell in a hand basket. He was at a loss of what could have been troubling her.

"Ahem." Lola cleared her throat.

The rest of the Loud children all turned to the entrance of the living room where Lola and Lana stood, looking like a tiny dynamic duo of dirt and glitter. Lola and Lana were twins in their natural physical appearance only. Beyond the blonde hair, button noses, and missing front teeth, was a clash in styles that were like night and day. Lola, the princess of pink, was as girly as they came. She was like a cute lollipop with a devilish center. Behind the pink dresses and cute smiles were a little girl who could find dirt better than a vacuum cleaner. And she was not above holding that dirt over the heads of those it belonged to. Lana was the complete opposite of her twin, a little girl who was not afraid to play in the mud or dig through the dumpsters. Her overalls were often caked in clumps of the mud she rolled in and smelling like she spent the day playing in a pig pen. Yet under all the dirt and grime beat the heart of a girl who was nearly as sweet as her older sister Leni.

"What is it?" Lynn asked.

Lola pulled a severally wrinkled piece of paper from behind her back and held it out towards her siblings. Lincoln took the paper and laid it on the floor rubbing his hands over it to smooth it out. As he looked it over he noticed that it was a list written in Lucy's hand writing and in ink that could have easily been mistaken for blood. The list was of a few activities that Lucy had planned for her siblings to all do together on Halloween. Lincoln's heart sank as he realized the mistake he had made. Lucy did not care about dressing up to go out in search of candy, all she wanted was to spend time with her family doing the things she enjoyed year round. It all made sense to him, this would be the one time of the year when the rest of the family would enjoy doing those things that Lucy did on a regular basis. Lincoln wondered how he could have missed this.

"That is a list of everything that Lucy wanted to do with us tomorrow." Lola said, an air of superiority about her.

"She wanted to spend the day with us." Lincoln said to himself in a heart broken tone.

"Why do you two care so much?" Lynn asked, defensively.

"Muah?" Lola gasped. "Why I always care." She turned away and stuck her nose up in the air. She received an elbow to the side from her twin. "Fine, I usually don't."

"We found the schedule and then heard Lucy crying in the basement about a week ago." Lana told them.

"And why didn't you tell anyone?" Lincoln said, his voice growing with anger. He was annoyed, yet it was more with himself then it was with the twins.

"We tired to talk to her but she kept shutting us out." Lola said.

"Of course she did dude, she's was headed for a heartbreak." Luna told them.

The Loud children all looked at each other, a collective sadness floating in the air. They never realized how much the holiday meant to Lucy, yet when they thought about it, it made perfect sense. They were ashamed with themselves, some more than others as, despite the news, they had still wanted to follow through on their plans for the holiday.

"We have to make this up to her guys." Lincoln said.

"What do we do bro?" Luna asked.

"We cancel all of our plans and do everything on this list." Lincoln told them.

The idea did not sit well with certain members of the family who had really wanted to help their sister out, but still wanted to continue what they had planned. Lori wanted to spend the night at the party with her boo boo bear, she missed him terribly and was worried about their relationship. The distance between them was putting massive amounts of stress on both of them. Luna wanted to spend the evening with her special lady, they had been dating for a little while yet had not found the time to play together. Sam was not as musically gifted as Luna was when it came to the instruments, yet soared miles above her when it came to her vocal skills. And of course, Luan hated to cancel gigs at the last minute, it made her feel unprofessional and looked bad on her business. Her business was greatly important to her as she often felt it was all she really had. School was hard with a total lack of friends, and she was not the smartest student. Then there was Leni, poor Leni, who sat on the couch and shivered in fear at having to face all of those child eating monsters that roamed the streets on Halloween.

Lola could see the lingering hesitance on the faces of her older sisters. She was never one to be described as being overly generous or kind. She had made more than a few pageant judges run away from their tables in tears over her brief career. And often put her family through a special kind of hell from time to time. Yet she still had her soft and tender side, sure it was buried deep down within her, but it was there. And the sounds of her older sister Lucy crying got to her. She hated to see any of her siblings cry, yet with Lucy it was different. Lucy cloaked herself in darkness, sometimes to the point where her family would have to ask if she was in fact depressed. She would tell them no and then things would go back to normal, but it would always sit in the back of their minds, that little lump of doubt that made them listen for hidden meanings in the little goth girls poems. So when Lola heard her sister crying, something that she had never actually heard before, Lola grew concerned for her.

"HEY!" Lola yelled. "I don't care what plans you made. You're going to cancel them and spend time with Lucy." The glare on her face could have made a Navy Seal soil his pants. Even Lana looked to her with a bit of fright. Lincoln though, he looked to his little sister with a big smile, his heart swelling with pride.

"What about Bobby?" Lori whined.

"What about Sam?" Luna asked as well.

"Bring'em." Lincoln said. "Bobby is practically family buy now. And Sam is always welcome to hang with us."

"I guess I can get Giggles to fill in for me at the party." Luan said. "She has been working on her mime act and wanted to try it out. I just hope if things don't go bad she won't give me the Silent treatment." Luan threw her head back and laughed. "Get it?"

"Maybe we should let Luan go do her gig dudes?" Luna said.

"Ok fine, I'll be Ghoul." Luan laughed again. "Seriously though I'll tone it down."

"Right, well then it's settled." Lincoln said. "Tomorrow we start Operation Make-Sure-Lucy-Has-The-Best-Halloween-Ever-And-Also-Think-Of-A-Short-Name-For-This-Operation.

After the impromptu meeting was adjourned, the siblings all went their separate ways. Lori went to her room to call Bobby and inform him of the change of plans. Bobby was more than happy to hang with her family, telling her that in the end all that mattered was spending time with her. Lori told him how much that meant to her and how much she loved him.

Luna went to her room and called Sam, who also loved the idea of spending some time with her girlfriends family. Luna asked Sam how she was so lucky to find a girl like her, with Sam telling her that they were both lucky. Luna wanted to tell Sam how much she loved her in that moment, but stopped herself, still worried about finally dropping the L bomb.

Luan called Giggles, who was excited to finally try out her mime act. The young girl had spent much of her brief career playing the part of a clown and looked forward to broadening her set of skills beyond just juggling and tossing pies. Luan gave her the details and told her to call if she came across any trouble. Giggles told her not to worry and to just have fun with her family.

Lynn, Lisa, and Lana all tried to convince Leni that ghosts and monsters were not real. The poor blonde nearly hyperventilated at the thought of all those scary monsters and the children they ate. Lisa prepared a power point presentation on why monster could not exist. This seemed to some what ease the blondes mind as she really enjoyed the cartoon drawings of the monsters.

Lola was on her way to her room to prepare for her nightly beauty rest. She had recently had her mom pick up a new sleep mask that was supposed to help get deeper into the pours, giving her skin a healthier shine. As her hand went for the door she felt someone touch her shoulder. She turned to see Lincoln standing behind her.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?" He said.

Lola sighed but agreed and followed her brother into his room. Lincoln's room was smaller than hers, but she was surprised by the amount of junk he was able to keep in it. In the far corner his comic book collection had started to grow from a small stack to a tower that loomed over the room and threatened to bury anyone who got near it. Lincoln shut the door behind him and motioned for Lola to take a seat on his bed.

"I wanted you to know that I am proud of you for helping Lucy, and standing up to the others for her." Lincoln said with a smile.

Lola began to blush. It was not often she got complemented on her kindness or caring. It felt good, like a warm feeling that settled in the pit of her stomach, sending waves through out her body. She would have to consider doing it more often.

"I just thought it was time I did something nice for someone." Lola said.

"And what is the real reason?" Lincoln asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Lola I have spent eleven years surrounded by girls. Eight of those with you. I know when there is something else going on."

Lola's eyes darted to the ground, not wanting to look at her brother. She could have figured that he would have been the one to ask her why she was standing up for Lucy, he was always the first to notice when something was off with his sisters. Lola being kind to others happened so infrequently that it was bound to raise a few eyebrows and beg for a few questions to be asked. She had just hoped it would have been her twin that asked those questions, lying to Lana was easy as she never wanted to push the subject. Lincoln was like a dog on a hunt, he would sniff around until he finally got what he was looking for.

"It's nothing Lincoln." Lola said, trying to brush it off.

"Come on Lola." He put his hand on the young girls shoulder. "You know you can trust me."

Lola looked up at her brother. She knew she could trust Lincoln with anything. For that matter she knew she could trust anyone in her family with anything, they were family and they would always have each other backs. Still, her fear of opening up to Lincoln was there holding her back. She didn't want to make trouble where there was none, causing anyone to worry for no reason. Yet Lincoln's pleading eyes tugged at her heart and made her open up.

"I'm worried about Lucy." She said.

"Because of the whole Halloween thing?"

"No." Lola said.

"Well then what is it?"

Lincoln sat next to his sister on his bed and looked down at her. Lola looked at her feet, which were dangling off the bed. Peaking out of the bottom of her pink dress were two mock glass slippers that her mother had bought for her a little while back. She watched at how they caught the light in the room and sparkled like real glass. It was a welcome distraction.

"I can't explain it really." She said, her eyes still on the shoes. "Something about when Lucy cried scared me. I know she acts all dark and depressing most of the time, but ... I have never heard her cry before."

Lincoln put his arm around his little sister and pulled her in close to him. He never really thought about how the younger girls would react to Lucy crying, the older kids had heard it a few times now. It was rare, and it scared them the first time they heard it after she dawned her goth life style as well. They made sure to keep an eye on her, watching for any kind of red flags that could indicate there was more to her depressing demeanor than she was letting on. They had forgotten to take into consideration how their younger siblings would feel if they heard or saw Lucy cry. Certainly none of them could have predicted the way that Lola would have reacted to it.

"I know you guys think I'm a brat and all." Lola said.

"Lola, no on thinks ... " Lincoln started to say before getting cut off by his younger sister.

"No, it's fine Linky, I accept it." Lola looked up at her brother. "I can be a brat. But I do care about you guys. And I don't want anything to happen to any of you. I guess it just worried me with Lucy crying, because of how she is."

Lincoln hugged Lola tighter, stroking her hair and telling her it was all going to be ok. The embrace broke the young girl, tears suddenly began to roll off her cheeks as she buried her face in her brothers chest, letting it all come out. The thoughts and fears that had built up inside of her, concerns for Lucy, all had come pouring from her eyes and stained her brothers shirt. Lincoln told her that Lucy was just a complex little girl, perhaps a bit mature for her age with unique views and choice in lifestyle, but she was going to be fine. After a minute Lola regained her composer and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes on her pink gloves. She got off the bed and made her way to the door, stopping and looking back at her brother.

"Linky." She said. "Are you sure that Lucy is going to be ok?"

"I'm sure." Lincoln said. "Try not to worry so much, if she was hurting she would come to us."

Lola smiled at her brother and left the room. Leaving Lincoln to wonder if what he had said was true or not. Would Lucy come to them if there was a problem? He assumed she would, but that was going off his own hopes more than what he really thought or felt. If anything the past week showed that she liked to bottle her emotions up and hide them from those around her. How were they to know what Lucy really felt about anything? Lincoln wondered if he should talk to Lucy about her feelings.

Well two down and one to go. Just for the record I want it known that I find Luna's musical puns a pain in the butt to write. Which sucks because I am starting to really like writing her and Sam.