AN: And that's done! I already said this was a little story written mostly for fun, but it did help me and I think I've learned at least how to write the Loud kids decently. I have more ideas starring them I really want to develop, so more Loud House stories will definitely come in the future. For now, hoping that you've liked this short fanfic, I thank you for reading!


Part Three

Awards

Wait… did I just… win?

Suddenly, Clyde forgot about every conceivable safety rule. He slowed down his roaring kart, took off the helmet and threw it away, and started shouting his own delight. "I WIN! I WIN!" he cried, saluting a non-existent crowd until he reached the track's part right in front of the bleachers… and he proceeded to wave at the 'huge' crowd composed of the dumbfounded Loud parents, an excited Bobby and overjoyed Lily who waved back and four or five additional spectators spread around, all more or less shocked by the race they had just witnessed to.

Even the man with the dark attire seemed to be quite impressed as he hastily took out his phone and dialled up a number. "Greg?" he said, "Greg, I believe I've found something big in Royal Woods, a couple of kids Ravenwest won't want to miss. Listen closely…"

His call went unheard by the rest of the 'crowd' as the remaining participants of the race completed the winning lap. Behind Clyde came the kart driven (for real) by Leni Loud: the sixteen-year-old was currently busy in a similar behaviour to her brother's best friend, since she was cheering and waving around. Lisa simply sat on her seat with an unimpressed look, even though deep down she was happy with the results, too. The technology was working, she just had to improve the durability a little… now she had more important matters to attend to, like trying to understand how the heck did Leni manage to drive up until the last lap and score second place.

Following Leni, Luna drove calmly. She and her co-driver were apparently too much preoccupied sulking and pretending the other didn't exist to cheer for the third place on the podium, apparently, but even if they weren't admitting it their final position was still better than anything they were expecting.

Occupying fourth place was Lincoln Loud. The boy was busy trying to calm himself down and let the adrenaline charge inside his body die out, but even so his thoughts were currently specified on the final outcome of its own race. He was in fourth place, so he had not won… but he did have an effect on a certain brunette sportsgirl, though. And he wasn't sure whether he was going to like it or not.

Far from the first four, Luan marked the last place of the five karts who had managed to complete the race. Both her and Lana were quite displeased with their final result. Playing dirty had not payed off in the end, but they couldn't really blame anyone but their own ego for it. And Luan's jokes weren't helping in cheering Lana up, either.

Slowly, one after the other, the five finalists completed the lap, entered the pit zone and finally came to their definitive stop. They left their karts to the technicians around, with Clyde coming up with an absurd excuse about how he had lost his helmet due to a faulty belt, and eventually they regrouped toghether.

No one of them seemed to be willing to start a conversation though. After a minute of awkward silence, Lincoln decided to break the ice himself. "Sooo… congratulations I guess, Clyde."

"Thank you!" Clyde suddenly brightened up at the mention of his name. "You know, Lincoln, I might have found the last time fun, but racing with you and your sisters was awesome! I mean, your siblings can be a little intense…" he shot a glare at Luan and Lana as they nervously grinned in embarrassment, "…but all in all I couldn't ask for anything better than this one…"

"Well, of course you can't, you won," Lola grumbled. "You have to consider yourself lucky, if I was the one driving my vehicle…"

"Lola…" Luna started.

"No, I'm not taking no for an answer this time, 'dude'!" Lola cut off. "You and I have much to discuss about!"

"Like the fact that you two have been arguing and distracting each other continuously instead of lending a hand to the other and thus possibly gaining an overall better result altogether?" Lisa asked, even though with her tone it sounded more like a statement. Lola and Luna turned towards her with annoyance… but Lisa wasn't fazed by her glares and in the end the two Loud sisters had to divert their eyes from the genius.

"You can't blame the other for your own loss, sisters. Example, see me and Leni: a perfect union I'd say," she continued, with Leni smiling her approval.

"Yeah, a synergy I wouldn't doubt about," Lana sarcastically said. "Anyhow, what's about all that tech stuff I saw you carrying around half an hour before the race?"

Lisa suddenly became way less calm than before and started playing with her thumbs. "Well, I… I wasn't… uh… of course…" she stammered, earning a confused look by Leni. Lana simply rolled her eyes.

"If you're somehow accusing her of cheating… well… you know," Lincoln pointed out, with Clyde fast nodding behind.

"Oh, come on, we've learned the lesson! No need to put more emphasis on that," Luan said. "Besides, I don't see where the problem was… I just made the race a little more pied up!"

Everybody groaned. "Not good, sis, not good," Luna said while shaking her head.

"For once I agree. Clearly you've reserved that little surprise because you felt the need to!" Lola affirmed. Luan and Lana, though, instead of feeling offended, watched her oddly. "What?" Lola asked in puzzlement, only to remember what she herself did during the race and realize that she had basically just insulted himself. "Wait, wait, wait, that's different! That was needed!"

"Needed? Was it needed to reduce me to this state, Lola?!" boomed the voice of the eldest loud sibling. Everybody whirled around to look at the new arrival and they all screamed in fright.

"A swamp monster!"

"We're all doomed!"

"Save yourselves!"

"HUSH! It's me, Lori!" she said, trying to get another batch of algae remains out of her air. "I'm going to wash myself up now but once I'm done you're all soo going to get it, especially you Lola and Luna!"

"What? I didn't do anything!" Luna protested.

"You let her! And I'm not taking no for an answer!" Lori replied.

"But… but…"

"I'd agree with her if I were you," somebody said, startling Luna up who shrieked in fright, ultimately causing the rest of the Loud kids to do the same (except for Clyde who was too busy trying not to pass out to the presence of his crush). "Lucy! How are you able to appear out of thin air even outdoors?!" Lincoln asked.

"You just have to pay attention, brother," Lucy simply replied. "I have no hard feeling against none of you, though. I've gained plenty of ideas for my poems, mostly dealing with the fear of failure and such. It was fun."

"Yeah… You know guys, she's right. Not on the poem part," Lana said. "It was fun. Like Clyde said, we've been a little hard on each other, but that was part of the game."

"To be honest, I was expecting far worse!" Lincoln exclaimed.

"I was totes expecting Lisa to have added up some kind of tech contraption to our kart and start using it against you all, but guess she didn't!" Leni tweeted, much to the embarrassment of the four-year-old beside her.

"I guess I had to expect the unexpected given who I was racing with," Clyde, now revigorated, said.

"And I guess I would've had to focus a little more on the fun part of it…" Lola finally admitted.

"Well, all in all I think it was good, even if I ended up in last place!" Luan finished. "Of course, me and Lana ended up being the last because we weren't accustomed to karting, but clearly that is not true anymore."

Everyone watched Luan.

"Is that a request for a re-match?" Lincoln said, raising an eyebrow.

"Mmmh… maybe…" Luan grinned... and, of course, the Louds grinned back. A day where a challenge from one of the siblings to the others went unanswered was rare, indeed.

"Oh, forget about it! I just have to get changed, I cannot let Bobby see me in this state!" Lori muttered, and turned around to return to the changing room. Too bad she had not realized that right behind her there was Bobby Santiago himself.

"Lori… is that you?" Bobby timidly asked. Lori didn't answer, but she simply fainted on the spot, with Luna and Leni coming to her help and Clyde suddenly marching up to 'defend' her from the guy who had just 'knocked her out'.

"Kids! So, did you have fun?" Lynn Sr. announced as he, Rita and Lily came to join the group.

"Yeah, we did…" Lincoln said smiling. Lynn Sr. face, though, quickly turned into a frown.

"Me and your father have a lot of talking to do with all of you. Do you have any idea how much in danger have you put each other in?" Rita started, ignoring the fidgeting Lily she was holding. "Pie bombardment, trap laying, aggressive riding and bumper-car-grade behaviour!"

None of the kids dared to answer. "You have to realize, kids, how irresponsible it was of you to do so!"

"Your mother's right, kids. Do you have any idea how much it's going to cost us with the damage to the kart track?" Lynn Sr. continued. "I mean, those were quite a few amazing moves you pulled off, but we can't afford to… what? …oh, yeah, and it was very bad of you to do so, too," Lynn Sr. specified once Rita fired a soul-piercing glare at him.

"He's not wrong, people," the manager of the track interjected, entering the conversation unannounced. "And on top of the damage your daughters, son and son's friend did to our premises, we have to take into account the long list of rules you've been told and effectively went all the way down to break. So, let me begin with a fast report of it all: carrying unauthorized objects on the track and inside the track, fifty dollars per kart. Clear unruly aggressive behaviour against other participants, thirty dollars per kart. Damage of track's property including asphalt being soiled by cream and kart tires exploded by foreign extraneous objects, for a grand total of…"

Lynn Sr. almost passed out and Luan and Bobby had to help him out to prevent him from falling off. Lola, Lana and Lisa simply stared at the spectacle, unsure how to react.

Clyde and Lincoln looked at each other. "Maybe it'll take some time before the re-match, won't it?" Clyde said.

"Huh-huh." Lincoln nodded. "But don't worry though, from now on I'm not going to doubt about your proposals Clyde. I will be always in from a kart race!"

"That's good to hear… I have to ask though… where is Lynn?"

"Lynn!" Lincoln looked around, but there was no trace of her sister around here. "Oh boy… I gotta apologize to her."

"She might pummel you down to a pulp if you go looking for her."

"She will do it regardless of me trying to do so or not, Clyde. Besides, I owe her an explanation for what happened… we've been both a little aggressive on each other during the race."

"I know where she is," Lucy suddenly said, scaring Clyde and Lincoln for the second time. "I saw her walking to the changing room without a word, pouting, after she was helped out of her kart. She's all right, but if you ask me… you might need to have a word or two with her before she decides to do the same first."

Lincoln nodded his approval. "I guess we'll have to wait once we're all good to go."


Lincoln and Clyde stood in wait in the lobby of the circuit. The latter was currently admiring the shiny trophy that had been handed over to him as a prize for his victory… a nominal trophy, mind you, not much bigger than one of his hands and definitely not made out of gold or any type of precious metal, but it did show who was the winner. The former, on the other hand, held Lily in his hands, who seemed to have a huge interest in the object herself.

Bobby Santiago was currently listening to the Afro-American boy and his account of the race, since Lori didn't have the force to tell him anything after her black-out. Clearly, the two of them could get along as long as the blonde wasn't involved, something Lincoln didn't fail to notice. The Loud parents waited nearby while discussing with Harold and Howard McBride, who had just arrived to personally pick their son up. Apparently, they were too much preoccupied to simply let Lynn and Rita give a ride to their son and wait for his arrival at home… and the call they made upon which a flustered Lynn Sr. had answered had scared them, even though the man wasn't anxious because of a hypothetical accident.

As Lynn and Rita tried to find a way to contain the damage done by the kids and consequent money loss with the help of the McBrides' advices, Lincoln continued to stare at the entrance that brought to the changing rooms, in wait for the arrival of his sisters. And soon enough, the nine of them appeared.

"Hello, girls!" Howard greeted once he saw the approaching group. "How did it go?"

"'Twas fine. Not my best performance, but at least we've been having cakes of fun!"

"Luan, I swear to god, if I hear another cake or pie joke from you…" Lola growled.

"Now, now, no need to get angry now, sis," Luna interjected. "It was cool. I must say, your son sure knows how to handle the wheel!"

Harold laughed at her remark. "Well, if anything, all the hours he's been spending playing with his console did help in some way!"

As the McBrides parents and the girls proceeded to begin listing singular facts about Clyde, who suddenly felt a little self-conscious, Lincoln looked around until he found his next target: the only sister who wasn't supposedly enjoying the gossip session. "Wish me luck, Lily," he said to the little girl before letting her on the floor to go meet her sisters.

He made a long sigh, but he still walked forward until he was right in front of Lynn Jr.

The girl raised her head and glared at him with narrowed eyes. She wasn't happy to see him. "Ahem… Lynn?" the boy began.

"What?" Lynn's tone wasn't ecstatic, to use a euphemism. "What do you want? Wanna boast a little more?"

"No, of course not. I didn't win, why should I?"

"You didn't, sure, but you did get something done… didn't you? Are you happy now?"

Lincoln knew that her sister would get on the defensive fast, so he decided to answer accordingly. "Lynn, listen… I'm sorry, okay?"

"Sorry? You got me to withdraw, Lincoln. Wasn't that what you wanted?"

"I wanted to win, and maaaybe I wanted to win over you, but I didn't want to get you in an accident. I'm sorry for what happened!"

"Please!" Lynn replied. "Even if you were sorry, you cannot expect me to simply move on, Linc! I always give one-hundred-percent in every competition I participate in, regardless of it being the final of the championship or a casual family race. Look how that ended up half an hour ago! What's going to stop me for failing again?"

"Lynn, hear me out: what happened back there could've happened to everyone. See how Lucy and Lori ended up? That wasn't something I expected for sure… at least, not before I saw the mischievous looks on Luan and Lana's faces before the race started. Yet, even you cannot defy fate if it wants to mess with you."

"Well, I should be able to do so!" Lynn retorted.

"Not really, athletic sister of mine," Lisa butted in out of nowhere. "According to my calculations, the combination of having seven karts in a race all driven by amateurs and the added weapon utilization of Luan and the twins had a notable effect on the chance of at least one accident happening. I find more unexpected the fact than only two of the karts in-game weren't able to reach the finish line."

Lynn turned around with a twitch and fired her most menacing glare to her little sister, but Lisa simply looked at her with her apathetic face, the one she usually wore when she knew she was right.

"I have no idea what Lisa just said, but she's right in saying you shouldn't think about it too much, Lynn," Lori said, now in her usual attire instead of the swamp monster disguise, approaching the three of them with the rest of their siblings behind her. "Sometimes there are things we really are not in control of. We can only do our best to prevent them from happening again."

"Not to mention that you were, indeed, driving a kart for the first time in your life… no one of us did before, even if we consider Lincoln's videogames!" Luna added.

"So, maybe you shouldn't think about it too much, Lynn! You'll win for sure, another day!" Leni said.

"I mean, if I did, why wouldn't you?" Clyde joked as he joined the group, earning a few chuckles from the Loud sisters around.

Lynn didn't answer any of her sisters' attempts at showing her the flaws in her line of though, but the scowl suggested she wasn't convinced yet. Lincoln, thus, decided to go for a very simple question.

"But, Lynn, tell me… did you have fun?" he asked, emphasising the 'fun'.

Lynn was going to retort angrily at him for asking her such a stupid question when she had finished her race with a close encounter with a hay barrier, but then her mind raced to what happened before then. Her initial overtaking to Lincoln's surprise and his following mistake, Clyde failing to keep up with her pace, the various shenanigans her sisters carried over as she kept the first place and the moment where her brother returned and began the duel for the first place with her.

"Uhh… a little, I guess?" she whispered, unable to lie to the presence of the eleven people around her.

"Poo-poo!" Lily suddenly cried, flailing her hands at the confirmation from her place in Lori's arms, with the rest of the Loud sisters either smirking or smiling.

"Called that!" Lana commented, followed right after by a "Been there…" of Lola.

"Besides, why should you feel like you're the last of the leaderboards?" Lucy added. "Lori and I got wrecked before you, and I'd argue Luan has the last place de facto."

"Hey!" Luan protested, but she kept her silence once receiving the glares of the nearby sisters. Lucy's sentence did have a result, though, and Lynn finally couldn't stifle a chuckle coming out of her mouth.

"Heh… good enough, you have a point…" she finally confirmed. But her face suddenly turned into a fierce look as she looked at Lincoln.

"But don't think it ends here, champion-wannabee!" she said with resolution, "Next time you won't be so lucky as to have me out of the game! You're in for a re-match!"

Lincoln really would have liked to just shrug the challenge off, but how could he do so in front of all her sisters?

Besides, Lynn didn't properly lose today.

"You bet I am!" Lincoln replied, hands on his hips and grinning.

"Me too!"

"Me three!"

"I suppose another test won't hurt…"

"I see another race coming in, dudes!"

With the rest of her sisters cheering to the offer, Lincoln was finally content in achieving his goal of getting Lynn out of her sulking mood and joined in the discussion made out of taunting promises and playful gibes. Clyde simply let the family have their space and went back to join his dads, who were willing to leave by now.

Lynn Sr. and Rita walked over to the group of their son and daughters. "I guess you're all good now, kids?" Rita asked with a smile.

The Loud kids whirled around hastily, expecting the worst, but both Rita and Lynn were apparently smiling. "Yes, I guess… but…" Lincoln started.

"Oh, don't worry Lincoln, we're no more angry with you. We believe it was just your way to spend time together, so we can't really be mad…"

The Louds let out a sigh of relief.

"Of course, it was still reckless of you to do all of that without permission, so…" Rita continued.

"YOU'RE ALL GROUNDED FOR A MONTH!" Lynn Sr. announced.

And the thoughts of an early rematch all died down with the collective groan of the Loud siblings. But despite their punishment, their opinion about the discipline of karting had fully changed for the time being.

END