Okay, here's chapter 3, and in this chapter... let's just say the plot will thicken. And I'll make sure to keep a weekly update schedule as well, but if I can't post in a weekly way, I ask that you stay patient and wait while I write the chapters. This isn't the only story I'm writing, and the subject in this story is a bit sensitive in a way, so I can't rush it to my heart's content.
Also, one reviewer asked how the phobia's name was spelled. I looked online, and I couldn't find anything, but I think the spelling I would go with would be A-ti-shi-phobia. Don't quote me on that, though, it's just a suggestion.
And hey, at least I didn't pick the other name for the fear: kakorrhaphiophobia.
But I've stalled for long enough, to the chapter!
The Loud siblings, outside of Lynn of course, walked downstairs and stood in the front door, waiting for the moment their parents would walk through it. However, after budging for a moment, the siblings realized something: The front door was actually locked for once.
"Uh, hello, kids! Are any of you there?" Lynn Sr. called from outside. "Could you please open the door for us? I left the keys!"
The siblings groaned and Lori opened the door, allowing the parents to come inside and reveal they had Burpin' Burger bags with them. Although this only briefly got the siblings' attention, since they immediately went back to their anger when the parents went into the kitchen.
"Of all the times you could've left the front door keys, it had to be today, didn't it?" Rita complained as she walked in and put her bags on the table.
"Can you blame me? That door's left open so often, I figured one of our kids left it open again!" Lynn Sr. replied, putting his bags next to Rita's.
And then the duo left the kitchen and noticed their children standing nearby, clearly upset at the duo, though they apparently failed to notice this.
"Oh hi kids, thanks for opening the door," Lynn Sr. told the siblings. "We brought you some Burpin' Burger food, would you like to eat?"
The siblings exchanged looks, and mere seconds later, everybody was eating the food at the kitchen, the parents eating a bit away from the kids since they were shooting angry glares at them. And as much as they tried to ignore the glares, they were just too blatant to do so.
"Our kids seem to be angry at us for something," Lynn Sr. whispered to his wife. "Did we forget one of their birthdays or something? I don't remember doing anything to warrant this reaction."
"They're probably just irrationally angry at something," Rita got up. "Let me handle this, I was known for getting angry for petty reasons."
The woman walked to her kids, and clapped, getting their attention.
"Listen, kids, your Dad and I couldn't help but notice that something seems to be bothering you," Rita stated, earning angry looks from them. "So, we'd like to know what it is, so we can help you."
Next thing the parents knew, they were put on the couch, their children surrounding them as Lisa came in dragging a whiteboard to the living room.
"Well, first and foremost, I think you need to know what happened in your absence," Lisa said as she took out a red marker. "'Cause believe us, this series of events will explain everything."
Lisa raised her arm... and realized she wasn't tall enough to reach the whiteboard. She tried to stand on the top of her feet, but that still wasn't enough. She then tried to jump up, but the most she managed to do was draw some rather crude lines before hitting the ground. So, growing exasperated, Lori walked to Lisa, took the marker, and drew a picture of Lynn as Lisa turned back to her parents and explained:
"Earlier this morning, our sibling unit known as Lynn Loud returned a couple hours later than usual from her practice. Not only that, but she returned with a bandage wrapped around her head."
Lori drew the bandage on Lynn as Rita remarked, "Oh man, she got hurt while doing one of her sports, didn't she?"
"Well, yes and no," Lisa answered as Lori drew the next scene; Lynn having a chess match with Penelope... or a crude interpretration of her, at least. "Yes in the sense that she did get hurt, psychologically, to the extent that she blacked out. However, the context for the damage was because she lost a match of chess. A defeat apparently so vicious, she collapsed from sheer shock."
"Oh my, it can get that bad?!" Rita remarked, before throwing an angry look at Lynn Sr. "I thought you said being defeated would only lead her to try and win at everything to regain her dignity or something!"
"Because that's what I originally thought!" Lynn Sr. exclaimed, nervously looking away as he added, "I-I've never seen her reacting to defeat that way before!"
"And I'm afraid, that's not all," Lisa stated as Lori erased the drawing, then drew Lynn with Lucy and Lisa. "Lucy and I went to her bedroom to try and get some information out of here, you know, to try and figure out how we could help her."
"You could remain quiet and not bother her," Lynn Sr. nervously suggested.
Rita slowly turned to her husband, and as soon as she gave him an "are you serious?" look, the siblings burst up laughing, with Luan even shouting, "I get it!"
"Oh, father unit, you're charming even when under pressure, huh?" Lisa remarked once the laughter ceased. "Luan could learn a thing or two about you."
"Or, like, a dozen," Leni innocently added.
"Hey!" the comedian shouted.
"Anyway, back to the topic at hand," Lori erased the drawing and drew a new one, showing Lynn standing in the middle of darkness, with a pair of eyes on top of her and with several negative words floating in the background. "Lucy took a look at Lynn's inner self, and found some rather disturbing information. More specifically, she found that there was a female voice constantly telling our athletic sibling that she was useless, worthless, and several other unpleasent words."
The parents exchanged worried looks as Lori erased the drawing, took the whiteboard away, and the rest of the siblings went to Lisa's side.
"With all this information, we've come to the conclusion that not only does Lynn have Atychiphobia, but that it's related to a trauma she endured in childhood thanks to a female presence," Lisa answered as she adjusted her glasses. "We want to know if you know anything about it."
"We don't know anything, sorry," Rita answered without hesitation as she stood up. "Now, if you excuse us-"
Lynn Sr. grabbed Rita by the shirt and pulled her back to her seat as the siblings went "tsk, tsk, tsk", with Lisa adding afterwards, "Silly Mother, your lack of interest in movies has betrayed you once again."
Rita raised an eyebrow. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Everybody knows that, in movie interrogations, when people say they know nothing and try to get out as fast as possible, it means they're hiding something!" Lola proudly explained, folding her arms as she smugly added, "And you said that we wouldn't learn anything while watching movies several times!"
"I still don't get why you decided to watch "Crimes and Tiaras" 48 times, though," Lana remarked.
"It's just that good of a movie, okay?" the diva stated. "Don't judge me!"
"Okay, let's assume that we did know about Lynn's phobia before you figured it out yourselves," Rita answered, glancing at Lynn Sr. in disapproval before she continued, "Just how do you expect us to tell you about it? This is a delicate matter that needs to be discussed with time and effort."
"Knowing you, that, like, probably means that you'll stay out of it and hope we figure it out ourselves," Leni remarked, folding her arms as she growled, "Well, too bad, Mom and Dad! This time you, like, aren't going to get off the hook so easily!"
"Yeah, I mean, none of us had any idea Lynn had atychiphobia or whatever it's called because most of us aren't close with her," Lincoln explained, before pointing at the parents. "But you're our parents! And thought you're not there most of the time, you still know us really well!"
"Specially if one of you is secretly the reason the phobia exists!" Lisa sternly added. "And since the source is supposedly female, we, like we've probably said before, have to conclude that our Mother Unit has something to do with it."
"Kids, I said this before, and I'll repeat this as long as your refuse to get it," Rita folded her arms. "I don't have anything to do with Lynn's phobia!"
"Liar, liar, pants on fire!" Lisa growled.
"Yeah, Mom! Stop spitting lies before you set those perfectly good pair of pants on fire!" Leni exclaimed, earning an "Are you serious?" look from everybody else. "What?!"
"Kids, your mother doesn't know anything. If you want to get answers, you have to ask me," Lynn Sr. stated, forcefully barging into the conversation. "And, if it helps, I'll tell you all I know right now, no need to coerce me into doing it."
The siblings exchanged looks, and sat down as the man begun to explain:
A long time ago...
"Back when you guys were younger, Lynn was one of the most energetic of our kids."
The scene showed a much younger Lynn at the backyard, running around like any bored kid with too much energy would do.
"She was practically unstoppable! Even Rita and I had trouble getting her to calm down once she got going."
And then the scene suddenly changed, showing the younger Lynn in the middle of a baseball game.
"But all that change during one fateful game of baseball, an innocent one, for the most part."
The game went as normal, until it was Lynn's turn to be the batter.
"And then, it all fell apart."
Suddenly, everything went black as a loud *SMACK* was heard, with Lynn slowly recovering consciousness and opening one of her eyes to see she was looking at the sky.
"Lynn missed."
The girl got up, and covered her other eye, which felt bruised and pained for some reason. And then, several of the enemy teammates, and even some of Lynn's own teammates, cornered her and started throwing negative words at her.
"Afterwards, everybody was merciless towards Lynn; They told her she was worthless, useless, that they trusted her, and she let them down."
A long time later, the young Lynn, now with her bruised eye covered with a bandage, saw a 2nd place trophy on the school trophy case, an brutal reminder of her failure.
"Ever since that humilliation... that sense of defeat... or impotence... she would always remember this exact moment, to remind her of why she needed to be the best. Of why, otherwise, she would be seen as nothing but a failure."
The younger Lynn gritted her teeth and cracked her knuckles.
"And from there on, she was never the same."
Back at the present...
"And that's how Lynn got her atychiphobia," the man finished. "The insane expectations of the sports world got to her really bad. And I was hoping you wouldn't find out until later so we could talk this out in a calmer way."
"Nice try, Dad, but we all know you're saying nothing but baloney," Lori stated. "I mean, for one, we were there when Lynn was younger, and we never once saw her and her coach on bad terms before! I mean, we literally went to most of her events, we would remember something like that if if it had really happened!"
"And speaking of Mom, where is she?" Luan asked, pointing at the empty space where Rita used to be.
Everybody looked at their surroundings for a moment, and then spotted Rita trying to sneak her way up to the staircase. Luckily, the Loud siblings quickly dogpiled her.
"Kids, let me go!" Rita barked as she tried to break free. "For the last time, I don't know anything about her condition! Your dad already told you everything you wanted to know!"
"You're lying through your teeth!" Lisa exclaimed. "Everybody knows that humans, male or female, can hold up to several dozen secrets at once! Specially if they're parents, who usually have to hide sensitive information until they're children are at the right age!"
"What Lisa's trying to say is that we know there has to be something you're hiding from us!" Lincoln explained. "I mean, everybody in our family holds some secrets, so it's only fair to asume you're hiding secrets too!"
"Oh come on, that's just ridiculous!" Rita rolled her eyes. "Be honest, is there a single person in this household that holds that many secrets!?"
Lily made Rita raised her arm, and the Loud siblings raised their arms shortly afterwards.
Even Lincoln, which Lori quickly pointed out, "Lincoln, you're literally not a girl."
"Kids, stop it!" Lynn Sr. exclaimed as everybody turned to look at him. "Your mother isn't the one who gave Lynn atychiphobia, she doesn't even know the woman responsible for it!"
"And how would you know this, Father Unit?" Lisa raised an eyebrow.
Lynn Sr. looked at his surroundings and, seeing he had no other choice, he took a deep breath, and nervously said:
"Kids-"
And then, a familiar voice stated, "I'm adopted."
Everybody turned around and saw Lynn walking downstairs, holding a stern look as she stated:
"And it's time you learned the truth."
