It is never easy for Lincoln, Luan and Lynn to hide the fact that they are responsible for the prank against Maggie. More than the guilt they try to deny is the worry on how crucial can this impact on Maggie. As they vow to hide their guilt until they can come up with a plan, three of them face their conundrums on the very next day:
At class, Lincoln has his eye stared wide at the chalkboard, making Clyde concerned.
"Buddy, are you okay?" he asks, to which Lincoln nods.
Mrs. Johnson also notices this as she turns to Lincoln. "Lincoln, my dear, you have been staring like that for the whole day. Is there anything wrong?"
Lincoln then shakes his head "no" uncontrollably.
During cooking class, Luan is about to bake a funnel cake as she set the dough to the oven. However, she inadvertently overheats it, making it burn and causing the oven to let out fumes.
"Luan, your cake is overheating!" her classmate alerts her. But she remains irresponsive, due to staring wide-eyed blankly into space.
The smoke then gets detected by the fire alarm, causing the sprinklers to activate. Her classmates flee from the smoke, but Luan remains stagnant.
On soccer training, Lynn just remains at her post, several paces north of her opponent's goal net. As her team receives the ball and aims it to the base of the opposing team, the sports junkie stands stagnant and motionless from the proceedings.
Coach Pakowski notices this and signals her, "Loud, heads up! The ball is heading for you!"
But Lynn remains still for the entire time, giving the opportunity for the ball to hit her on the head.
"Lynn!" her teammates yelp, approaching her as a result.
"Are you okay?" one of her teammates asks her.
With Lynn on her stillest, she barely can move or even feel the pain on her head. But she can only say, "I see dead people."
There are more moments when the three attempt to hide their plight, but they end up failing: Lincoln during lunch, Luan at a class presentation, Lynn on hall monitor duty. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
It all comes down when the three siblings are at home. And more challenges to hide their come along the way, especially during dinner when the rest of the family notices Lincoln, Luan and Lynn with their bug-eyed stunned reaction.
"Are you three literally okay?" Lori asks them.
"Yeah, your face looks so suspicious," Rita remarks.
But Lynn suddenly bursts, "I swear mom! We didn't do anything wrong!"
Lincoln is able to salvage Lynn's argument in the same hysterical tone, "We swear mom! What Lynn said! It's not like we did something wrong!"
Then Luan butts in with a contradicting defense, "Actually, we really caused something. But we didn't mean it. But we were trying to fix it!"
Hearing that, Lynn tries to claw Luan away from her defense and clarifies to the family. But Lincoln butts in with his own defense, and so does Luan. This leads them to argue one another and cause another fight cloud in the process.
Their quarrel moves away from the dinner table and inches away to the kitchen. Because of that, Lynn Sr. takes action and blocks their way. "Oh you better stop now!" he insists, then pushes them to the carpeted floor with a broomstick. "Okay, into your rooms now!"
With that kind of scold, Lincoln, Lynn and Luan hurry to the former's room to resolve their case. Mr. and Mrs. Loud follow suit from behind.
"Now take this time to talk among yourselves what you have done…" Rita instructs them.
But Lincoln confidently assures them, "Don't worry mom. We'll be able to resolve this immediately. It's normal sibling talk. Hehe."
"Are you sure about this, honey? Because you three acted weird lately."
"Don't worry about it guys. We'll solve this in no time" Lincoln guarantees, pushing his parents away from his room. "Why don't you finish dinner first?"
"Okay, okay, so why are you pushing us away?" Lynn Sr. asks, "It's not like you're hiding from us or something. Lincoln?"
"Don't worry about it dad. It's sibling talk. Only operate with us, siblings. Don't worry. We'll be fine." And leaving that guarantee, Lincoln races to his room and shuts the door.
His parents are just left stunned at what just happened.
"Honestly, I am failing to grasp to what our children are doing," Rita comments.
"Tell me about it," Lynn Sr. responds, "I once had a hard time understanding Leni's language. When she went home late without telling home, she kept saying 'YOLO'. I tried to look it up in the dictionary and found it. And I said to myself, 'Goodness, the man who invented this word must be a loser.' Then I taught Leni a lesson."
"Don't tell me you physically punished her?"
"No, I literally taught Leni a lesson. It was fun. It was like this classroom setting. And there's a small chalkboard. And Leni was like a little kid, wanting to study. It was fun!"
Just at that remark, Rita slaps her faced in disgruntlement.
Back at Lincoln and company, just as the former secures his room from anyone in sight, he sighs in relief. "That was close."
"Sorry guys! I didn't mean to burst out like that," Lynn expresses her regret. "I just can't handle the guilt forever. This is madness!"
"I know. Me too," Luan replies, "I was at school, and I feel like a criminal just marching at the hallways. And I accidentally blurted out my classmate's secret admirer. And then I went out like crazy!"
"Well, at least it's not our scenario," Lynn reacts positively from what Luan said.
"Okay, okay. We are this close to revealing our crimes," Lincoln reminds them both, "What must we do?"
Out of a deep sigh, Luan firmly suggests, "I guess we have no choice. We have to admit our mistakes."
Of course, Lynn takes against it, "WHAT?! No way! No how! Do you even know what's going to happen if we reveal ourselves as the people responsible for this mess?! The school's gonna cancel on all privileges. And worse, they're gonna pull us out of all the clubs. I can't afford to be dropped out of my teams, just because of a phony prank! I can't!"
"You're the one who asked for this, numb-chucks!"
"Shut up, pony face!"
Just as Luan and Lynn growl at each other, they start to beat each other up, creating another fight cloud.
Because of that, Lincoln steps up to them, "Okay, will you two stop this?! I thought we're supposed to resolve this for mom and dad's sake?!"
At that reminder, the two sisters stop quarreling. But they still push each other on their own directions.
"Look, the guilt is just gonna get worse. We have to do something about it," Lincoln reiterates.
"We have no other choice Lincoln. We have to admit our mistakes," Luan proposes.
Lynn then immediately rebuffs, "Oh no! Not with this girl saying 'no'."
Luan then gives her concern to appeal to Lynn, "Look Lynn, I do pranks for fun. I don't mean to harm them in a way that's devastating. But now, it has gone too far. And I realized that this is no laughing matter. Pun sincerely intended."
At that moment, Lynn empathizes with Luan's perception of their prank's comeuppances. With that in mind, she suggests a fortified plan with a different side, "How about this? We'll try to…make friends with…'Maggie'. And once we gain her trust, it will be alright."
"How does that help the situation?" Lincoln addresses.
"Trust me. We just need to do nice things to her to make us think we are good. Then, she will forget the whole conundrum because we helped her. How's that?"
"Lynn, I don't think this is right," Lincoln points out.
"Then what do you suggest, little bro? Walk in there and confess that we are the bad guys in this story. Luan, let's face the music. Don't you want your clown business to look bad after what we've done? We've got to think straight about this. There's another way around."
Luan then ponders on this case. Her defense was that she actually can feel her prank made unintentional damage to a person, and that she deserves punishment for her pranking. That is contradictory to Lincoln's perception, where he knows that the three of them is accountable to their mistake, and that they must undergo the regulatory sanctions of their actions. But for Lynn, she believes that they could at least show good deeds to Maggie (and somewhat apologize to her for their mistakes) to remove their guilt, settle rifts with her and avoid confronting consequences. Though secretly, she just does not want to be demoted from her sports extra-curriculars.
All of these are valid arguments on a case that they never thought we go too far. But what was done is done. From there, Luan resolves to Lynn's suggestion.
The next day, Lynn, Luan and Lincoln proceed to the guidance counselor and claim that they represent for "Funny Business Inc." who volunteer to cheer up Maggie. Of course, the counselor delightfully accepts them and takes them to the student lounge where they see Maggie being consoled by her emo friends through a candlelight vigil-like ritual.
"Here we appease for her dignity to return to her and to bring her life," the fat emo friend recites, as her friends chant along.
Abruptly, the counselor knocks on the door to call out their attention. "Maggie and company, we have some friends for you. They say want to cheer you up." Lincoln, Lynn and Luan then wave at them nervously as they see the sullen look on the faces of the emos.
"What do they want?" her friend asks.
"We are just here to bring peace and joy and other happy stuff to Maggie. We just hope to lift her spirits up," Lynn says.
"Her spirit is at peace. She only needs a period of reflection," Maggie's emo friend with the low bangs mentions.
"Well, shouldn't you kids be at class now?" the counselor assesses.
Realizing that, Maggie's friends walk out begrudgingly.
"We'll be with you in spirit," her fat friend promises.
"In spirit," Maggie utters.
As Maggie's accomplices walk out, the three walk in hesitatingly with Lynn being pushed to the front.
"Okay, plain and simple, just try to cheer her up. But don't ever address anything about her case. We halt her case as of the moment, since we investigated that Maggie may have triggered a PTSD from the…incident," the guidance counselor exposits, making the three feel guiltier. "Now, I will leave you all to her. I hope to see good results. Good luck!"
As the counselor walks away, the three approach Maggie.
"What do you want?" Maggie berates then firsthand, "An extra service charge for my birthday party?"
"What? No. We are here to cheer you up. And to support that you are not the only person with…that….thing you are dealing with," Lynn friendlily affirms in a failing way.
"News flash: I have friends who can support me. I don't need the company of a little boy with old man's hair, a bucktoothed clown and the worst gym classmate ever to support me."
"Woah, such guts for you to say that!" Lynn then proceeds to march towards her. But Luan stops her.
"I'll handle this," Luan says. "Listen Maggie, we know how tough it is to be a victim. Let's not discuss it further. But, why don't we turn that frown upside down? Because there is more to life than that. Definitely, something worse than that."
"Tell me about it. I'd have to suffer hearing my mom sing karaoke," Maggie reacts.
"Now, give us a chance. If this doesn't work for you, then we'll completely walk out. What do you say?"
Once Luan gives that selection, Maggie ponders on the chances of her day getting worse. Nevertheless, she reluctantly accepts their option with a frown.
