Lincoln woke to the sound of the crowing rooster. "Where do these birds come from?" as he pulled the sheets off himself, dragging himself to the bathroom. Turning on the shower Lincoln waited a few minutes to see if it would warm up, but he soon realized it wasn't changing temperature. "Hmm, something must be wrong with the water heater," Lincoln realized, so he headed back into the boiler room, "This is where Luan almost buried Lily in laundry," as he found the pile of clothes.
Lincoln looked around a door marked maintenance; using his master set of keys to get in and finding a toolbox, Lincoln was able to do some work to get the water heater working again. "Guess I can take a shower now," as he headed past the pile of clothes. He paused for a moment to look at the pajamas he was wearing, "Maybe I throw these clothes in and see if something fits." As he sorted out some clothes that looked about his size.
After getting cleaned up and having a set of clothes that fit him within a size or so Lincoln made his way back to the main office, "Let's take a look and see what this place has to offer." As Lincoln read over the paperwork, he heard the door open.
"'Scuse me?" he heard a voice. Confused that someone would come in he came out from the back room, "Is this place finally open?"
Lincoln went over to the front desk and saw a hefty sized trucker. "Can I help you?"
The man leaned over the counter to see Lincoln, "Who are you?"
"I'm Lincoln Loud, I, well my family owns this motel. Can I help you?" He looked at the man.
"Well I needed to rent a room afore I go back on the road. How much?" the trucker grumbled.
Lincoln looked around the counter and found a sheet, "Wow, Luan actually wrote up prices for rooms and services too, she really goes all out." Lincoln looked down the list. "Well that depends on what type of room you want."
"Oh right, yeah I got a solo, so I just need one bed." The trucker explained.
"Alright, I got a room that just needs a quick cleaning and I can have it for you at $50." Lincoln grabbed a room key.
"Fantastic, here's the fifty, I'll be back in a few, gonna hit up the diner down the road." He said as he passed the bill to the boy and walked out the office.
"Huh," Lincoln looked at the money in his hand, stuffing that in his pocket he quickly grabbed his set of keys and looked for a room where the cleaning supplies were kept. After getting a cart he went to get the room cleaned up for his first customer. He thought about it for a moment though, "Maybe I should get some more rooms ready, just in case I get more customers." And so, Lincoln spent his morning cleaning up some of the rooms on the off chance that he could rent them out.
At around noon Lincoln started to get a bit hungry after working so hard in the morning. "Should get something to eat," the boy said as his stomach growled. Lincoln walked back to the main office, to lock up, flipping a sign that says 'Out to Lunch' on the door.
Heading down the road a bit he went back into The Roadkill for some lunch. The bell tinkled as the door below pushed passed it, alerting the hostess to the new customer. "Welcome to the Roadkill," an old lady with a lazy eye said to the boy. "Hey ain't you s'posed to be in school?"
"Uh, no," Lincoln lied.
For a few second the woman looked him over, "Okay, good enough for me. Let's get you seated." As she took a menu and walked him over to a booth. "Now what can I get you started with?"
Lincoln sat in his seat and looked out the window for a moment. "I'll have some water," he requested as he thought about the best way to make the money he got last. He read through the menu for a minute before the sounds of the radio caught his attention.
"And in not local news, a bit of panic at a middle school softball game when the Royal Woods Squirrels lost the semi-finals. One of the players seemed to have a breakdown and began ranting about hidden brothers." The news caster said.
"Hey uh," Lincoln said getting the attention of the person next to the radio, "Could you please turn that up?" he politely asked, which the customer shrugged and obliged. "Thank you."
"Yeah, she really dug out, get it, because she began digging holes in the field to see if he had buried himself. Then scored a home run, when she ran all the way home screaming about softball gods." The report went on to say.
Lincoln slumped in his seat, "Wow she lost, and I wasn't even there this time." A part of him happy that Lynn had lost the game but hearing how she was taking it didn't make him feel good. Turning his head to the side he continued speaking, "I guess that's what you get when you put all your faith in, well faith, softball gods? Really? Who taught her that stuff, or that dance?"
The hostess walked back over with a glass of ice water and a pitcher, "Hey if you want to talk to the invisible people like the town kook, you need to do it in the kook booth," she said pointing to a corner of the diner that had padded flooring and walls.
"Why didn't I notice that last night?" Lincoln scratched his head. After a second, he shook himself out of it, "Sorry just have a habit of verbalizing my thoughts, makes it easier to think. I'll have eggs, bacon, grits, sausage," he gave his order, choosing to have a protein filled lunch instead of greasy burgers.
"Alright, how do you want your eggs?" she said writing his order down.
"Oh uh, basted," he replied. As the hostess left to give his order to the cook he turned back to the window and watched as an old van pulled into the motel parking lot and a family getting out.
"Huh looks like I might have some more customers," Lincoln realized that maybe this could be more than a temporary thing.
After his quick lunch he went back over to the motel and the family was standing outside the locked door. The father groaned out, "Finally someone's here."
The wife chiding remark didn't do much to make Lincoln feel good, "Honey, he's an old man, don't be rude."
Lincoln sighed, it didn't happen too often but every once and a while people thought he was a geriatric. "Actually, I'm twelve," he said as he unlocked the door and the family followed him in.
The two children looked at him, "Wait you're younger than us, how can you work here?" the daughter asked him.
"My family owns this motel," Lincoln shrugged.
"Shouldn't you be in school though?" the son questioned.
Lincoln waved off the question, "I'm taking a break from school, just you know, getting this place back into working order." Technically none of that was a lie, just not the truthful way of saying it. "So how many rooms will you be needing?"
The father grabbed his wallet, "Just one, with two beds."
Lincoln turned to his sheet and noticed he had a few rooms that fit that description, "Great that'll be $60," he told them the price.
"Wow, that's much lower than what we were expecting," the mother happily said.
The father smiled, "I know, now I don't have to use my credit card."
Lincoln laughed meekly, realizing he had no idea how to process a credit card. The desk didn't have a swiper thingy. "Yeah, that's how we do it at Buttz Motel."
"Haha, daddy he said Buttz," the daughter laughed.
"I think one of my sisters got to choose the name," Lincoln rubbed the back of his neck. Pretty sure that Luan had put a lot of detail into this prank, as she always did. As Lincoln took the three bills that were handed to him, he turned and grabbed a set of keys off the hook. "I'll show you all to your room."
As Lincoln walked them over to the door, the son asked a question, "Hey, why does that room not have a floor?" causing the procession of people to stop and look in. It was the room that had been gutted and dug out as a pit to trap Lana with rhubarb pies.
Lincoln pulled on his collar and thought up a lie, "Uhh, we're remodeling."
The father asked a follow up question, "Why would you need to dig so deep though?"
Lincoln sweated, "Indoor pool?" he shrugged.
The daughter looked dejected, "Darn, it would have been nice if it was ready now."
Lincoln chuckled, "Yeah, contractors and stuff, can't uh, find one that won't rip me off."
The mother slapped her husband on the shoulder, getting his attention, "Sweetie isn't your brother a contractor?"
"Yeah, he is, he's installed pools before," the man said. "Before we leave I'll give you his number, he's honest, except when it comes to cards."
Lincoln got his second customers settled in their room and on his way back to the office he thought about it, "Is this something I could do? Be a manager?"
Author's Notes: Has Lincoln found his calling, or will this venture come crashing down?
First off glad that I managed to get a few followers and some reviews, nice. People dig this.
For now the Loud's will be small parts of the story, eventually they will make their way back into Lincoln's life, for better or worse. I am trying to keep the tone of a cartoon, so some things will be more comical than a real life situation would be, so I probably won't do the, "Cops get called, major legal issues, thing."
I'm also not going to come off as heavily bashing people, only so many ways to point out the characters flaws. So I might try a different approach to the apology part than other people do.
Right now Lincoln is on his own, that will change once he picks up business, there's only so much one employee can do, especially if they are twelve.
So let's jump into Review Review
LittleAlex61910 Well Belle is 16 in this, so this is her after school job to save up money for college, as I figure that Lincoln didn't get to far into Indiana, which is cool because Notre Dame is decently close to the border. So she may not end up mothering him, but she will play an important role in his life after this.
Momijifan Low-Ki not sure, maybe people are just getting into a trend of using more background characters.
Me (Guest Reviewer) Yeah, he's going to have to start hiring people for stuff. As for his age, actually federal law you can work at a family owned business at the age of 12. Since the Louds own Buttz it's fine for now. There will be other questions raised however.
As for the distance, I looked at walking distance from a place closer to the beachy area of Michigan,then to Notre Dame as I wanted to have a famous location to use if I wanted to. So a little kid walking for around 12 hours could probably have made it decently far. So he's probably only like an hour drive from Royal Woods, but that's still a decently far distance.
ShadowMaster91 the cartoony is what I am trying to go for. I want the tone to feel like it's a real episode. If Belle becomes a love interest it won't be for years. She's 16, he's 12, so it's only a four year age gap, but he's too young to think about girls like that and she's told old to look at him that way. I intend the story to progress for a few years, so maybe when's he's getting to 16-17 he'll be interested in her, but that's quite a ways away.
JannaKladerash not sure if CPS will be called by the school, but someone's going to notice Lincoln is gone. As for Lincoln continuing his education, he's smart he'll figure something out.