Okay, here we are, next chapter in the little period of "filler" before we head to the Proto-Lola arc for real. And believe it or not, by the time you read the chapter, the last chapter of the arc has been complete for a while now. Let's just say you'll be in for quite a read when we do cross that bridge.

And again I will ask, what do you think of extra-long chapters for the climax of the story arcs? I don't remember anybody answering this question, and it's important to know if it's a good or a bad idea, so I can make sure this story's quality doesn't plummet to the ground. And yes, I know one little thing like length won't necessarily ruin the fic, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

But now, to the reviews:

1) Finnjr63: Thx. :)

2) Nobody245: It'll be a looooong while before it happens, but yeah, the P-sisters will do an enemy mine with the main characters at some point. Can't tell in what context, though.

3) Observant Guest: Just a heads up, it might be a while before Bun-Bun plays a super active role, since the story's about the main trio (Lincoln, Ronnie, Clyde) and the sisters first and foremost. Also, about Carlota playing a big role... oh boy, you're in for a treat.

4) ChernoMan: Really? You fell for that joke? Also, I'm starting to wonder exactly how long the "this is whack" feeling is gonna last. Hopefully I can redeem myself in your eyes soon enough.

5) animehero1000:

* Trust me, if Clyde and Ronnie's relationship is annoying you, then it might take a while before they get off the ground and become closer friends.

* Yeah, being more knowledgeable than everybody else sucks.

* Keep the award. Things are gonna get more ambiguous/threatening from now on.

6) Omega Ultra: Bun-Bun's kinda like a guardian, yes. Not a very good one unless ordered to, though.

Anyway, onto the chapter!


Episode 7: The Calm After the Storm! A School Day With An Extra Something!


It was the next day in the city of Royal Woods, and as everybody got up to the enticing call of the rooster, a disturbing realization hit the Loud family:

"Today's a school day!"

And so, the sisters, Lori and Leni in particular, immediately sprung up and got everything ready for this dreaded school day, while Lincoln... just remained in his bed, slowly getting up after waking up, only to suddenly wince as his headache started up again.

"Wait, why do I still have a headache?" Lincoln asked to himself as he got off his bed. "I'm fairly sure I should've gotten over it by now, so why is it still here?"

The boy sighed in frustration. "Well, no point wondering about that now. It's monday, and as much as I hate to say it, I have to go to school."

So, Lincoln changed from his pajamas to his usual outfit, left his room, and did the rest of his usual morning routine before heading outside, where he met a worried Clyde. "Hi, Lincoln, how do you feel?"

"Headache's still there, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be," Lincoln answered, forcing a smile as he and Clyde walked to the school together. "At the very least, I'm not going to throw up from stress overload anytime soon. My sisters are doing well, Lori and Leni are staying behind to watch the house, everything's okay."

"What about Lisa?" Clyde asked. "What's she doing?"

"Lisa..." Lincoln scratched his chin. "She's doing fine too, I guess... but honestly, I have no idea."

Speaking of Lisa...

The prodigy sat on her desk, looking at three figurines: One based on her, one based on Darcy, and one based on the Royal Woodroid 5000. And for some reason, they were all the same size.

"So, first I will allow Darcy entrance to my laboratory, and then I will guide her to the main room, where the Royal Woodroid 5000 is resting," Lisa explained as she moved the Lisa and Darcy figurines to the robot. "And then, once over here, I will explain everything to Darcy about how cool this is and the amazing things it will do for the city."

Lisa paused and turned to look at whoever she was talking to. "What if this doesn't convince her, I hear you ask?"

The scientist turned back to the figurines. "Simply put, I will explain the relation the robot has with the Blarney Rangers, Darcy and I's favorite show from the Blarney franchise, and bam, she'll immediately put all the pieces together and get, as Lynn would say, pumped up for the event!"

Lisa put the figurines on top of the robot figurine, only for them to fall off as she finished:

"And that's how I'm going to convince Darcy to join my mission to build the Royal Woodroid 5000!" Lisa finished with excitement. "So, what do you think?"

The person she asked the question was none other than Lily, who sat on the ground and glanced at the scene and her older sister for a moment. She then blew a raspberry at Lisa, who flinched and sighed as she asked:

"I need to take a simpler approach, don't I?"

Lily nodded with a joyful smile.

Later, back at the school...

Lincoln and Clyde walked towards the building as they took a look around, noticing most of their classmates were also heading there, rather than trying to avoid the place. However, their attention was immediately caught when they spotted a certain figure leaning next to the entrance.

It was Ronnie Anne, but with a collar attached to her neck. And it didn't seem like a typical collar, for it had a timer going from 1 hour, 59 minutes and downwards.

"Hi, Lame-O, how are you doing?" Ronnie somberly greeted as the boys approached her. "Did you manage to recover from the headache?"

"I thought I would, but for some reason, It's still there," Lincoln answered, wincing and grabbing his head as the headache started acting up again.

"Then why did you come here?!" Ronnie asked, rubbing her forehead in disbelief. "Do you really think a place as stressful as the school is going to help you with your headache?"

"I came here in order to tell Mrs. Johnson about my condition, specially since, for some reason, neither mom nor dad did it before they left, and Lori and Leni are busy with their stuff," Lincoln put his hands on his pockets. "So, I have no option left but to come. Besides, it'll be far easier to convince Mrs. Johnson to let me go if she sees my injury, rather than just be told about it."

"And I'm going to be his support just in case something happens," Clyde added as he put a hand on Lincoln's shoulder, earning a smile from the boy as he added, "And since we're talking about why we're here, I thought you had changed schools, Ronnie Anne?"

"I thought so too, but for some reason, when we came back here through the tunnels, mom told me that I was going to go to the same school as you guys," Ronnie explained in frustration. "She didn't even explain anything, she just told me to go to Mrs. Johnson just in case I had any questions. And you can bet that I have a lot of questions!"

"And so do I," Clyde pointed at Ronnie's collar. "For example, what's up with that collar?"

Ronnie looked at her collar, and took a deep breath before putting her arm behind her head sheepishly. "Well, this is an embarrassing story, but get this: When I came back home, mom was quite angry that I suddenly left without telling anybody."

"A reasonable reaction," Lincoln remarked, with Clyde nodding agreement.

After showing her distaste at the comment with a glare, Ronnie continued, "And when I woke up, I had this collar attached to my neck, which started counting down how long I have until my cousin Carlota comes out of nowhere and drags me back to my house."

"That's not so reasonable," Clyde said, his eyes growing wide at the statement. "I mean, making sure you don't stay out for too long is good, but is it really necessary to put a collar on you, even when you're a pain to deal with?"

"Hey!" Ronnie yelled.

Suddenly, the school bell rang, causing Clyde to cover Lincoln's ears to protect him from the noise. It didn't stop his head from ringing and causing him pain, but at least it lessened it.

"Looks like we have to go in," Ronnie Anne remarked before walking to Lincoln's side. "Let's go to the nurse's office first to see if Lame-O's going to be okay."

"What?!" Lincoln yelled, his eyes shaking as he looked around his scenery. "Speak louder, guys, I can't hear you!"

"Yep, we need to take him to the nurse's office right away," Clyde stated, and as he and Ronnie ran into the building, he took the chance to ask, "By the way, Ronnie, why is your timer set to about 2 hours? Or am I getting it wrong?"

"Supposedly, we're only going to get some update on the school's status and nothing more," the tomboy casually answered. "It's nothing too long or expository, at least I hope it isn't, so once it's over, mom expects me to go back home immediately."

Clyde just hummed to himself as the journey to the nurse's office continued.

Meanwhile, with the older sister trio...

For Luna, the musician walked across the hallways of her high school, gently touching her bandaged forehead.

"My spinning head thinks I'm covered in an armor of glass, and I can't really blame it for it," Luna thought. "I mean, the headache itself calmed down to the point it doesn't bother me, but dang it, my head still hurts. I really hope this school day goes by quickly."

Then, she saw some of her classmates and other students looking at her in confusion, but once she turned around, she saw the source of the confusion was none other than her friend, Tabby, who sported a furious look on her face.

"Tabby?" Luna blurted as the girl walked past her. "Dude, what are you-"

"Bugger off, josser!" Tabby snapped at her friend's face, with evident rage in her tone. "I'm not in a good mood today!"

"Whoa, geez, alright, calm down!" Luna jumped back until until she hit a locker, where she stood there shivering as she answered, with a nervous smile, "I-I'll leave you alone now."

Tabby rolled her eyes and resumed her walk, allowing Luna to not only calm down, but analyze the situation:

"Okay, so, Tabby used British slang and words, which she usually doesn't use unless she is wicked emotional. She also doesn't go to this school, but she does come here once in a while when Sam or any of her other 'tives come here. However, she looked pretty ticked, so-"

"Laaaaaammp."

Luna jumped yet again, and this time, she came face-to-face with Sam, who slightly leaned left and right repeatedly, blushing surprisingly hard as she took several heavy breaths.

"Oh, hi, S-Sam," Luna nervously greeted as the musician wobbled closer to her. "Listen, about the music room deal-"

Without warning, Sam slapped Luna in the cheek hard enough to leave a hand print, and as Sam snapped at the rocker, all eyes turned to look straight at their scene.

"Don't you *hick* dare bring that up! I was so *hick* miffed about the whole deal, I had to *hick* go on the lash to try and forget it!"

"Yeah, and I'm very sorry about that," Luna stated. "Look, if there's anything I can do to make things right, just tell me and I'll see what I can do."

Suddenly, the duo were surrounded by the students as Sam pinned Luna against the wall, her hair covering her eyes as she said:

"Any*hick*thing, huh? Well..."

Sam looked up, her eyes seemingly glowing as she smirked deviously.

"I think *hick* punishment is in order!"

Naturally, Luna was scared, "P-Punishment?!"

And as Sam did... something to the girl, Tabby ran across the mob of people around the scene, only to gasp in shock once the got the front seat of what Sam had done to Luna.

Luna, realizing she was still alive, opened her eyes and looked around until she saw her neck, which now had a collar with a "Sam's girlfriend" tag attached to it. Before the rocker could wonder what it was, though, Sam turned to the crowd:

"Everybody, listen to me!"

Sam wrapped her arm around Luna's shoulder and pulled her closer.

"I have *hick* brand new girlfriend! And her name is..." one pause later, Sam sheepishly turned to Luna. "What's your name, again?"

Luna started blushing madly, and as she finally realized what the heck just happened, she couldn't help but yell, at the top of her lungs:

"Whaaaaaattt?!"

She yelled it so loud, in fact, Luan managed to hear quite clearly, despite being all the way in her Middle School.

"Good lord, even when we're miles apart, I can still feel like Luna's right next to me!" Luan remarked in exasperation. "But whatever, I need to say focused and find-"

Just then, the comedian spotted a familiar face right around the corner. It was her crush, Benny, who closed his locker just in time to notice the girl approach.

"Hi Luan," the boy greeted with a little smile.

"Hi Benny," Luan calmly greeted in return. "Listen, before you ask about my bandages, something weird happened yesterday that I'd rather not talk about-"

"You tried to pull off a prank and you wound up hitting your head too hard?" the boy quickly answered, tilting his head to the right.

A long silence passed between the duo, and during this silence, Luan couldn't help but think:

"Actually, now that I think about it, that could work as a legitimate excuse."

And then she broke to ice, "Anyway, you see, Benny-"

Then the boy repeated, "Anyway, you see, Benny..."

Luan flinched, but couldn't help but giggle as Benny beamed a smile at her. "Is this another one of your mimicry tricks?"

The boy smugly repeated, "Is this another one of your mimicry tricks?"

Luan shook her head. "Yup, it totally is."

Followed by Benny doing the same. "Yup, it totally is."

Luan folded her arms, "Okay, first my words, and now my movements?"

Benny did the same, "Okay, first my words, and now my movements?"

Luan frowned. "Stop it."

Becky repeated, "Stop it."

Luan stomped the ground. "I mean it!"

Benny just mimicked her moves. "I mean it!"

Both teenagers inhaled, and then exhaled a little, before Luan suddenly stated, "You're really good at this."

Benny shrugged and boasted, "Of course, I taught you all you know."

Then they said in unison, "Ha! Got you!"

Only to snap their fingers, also in unison, "Dang it."

"Anyway, speaking seriously now," Luan said, catching the guy's attention. "Have you seen Maggie anywhere around here? I want to see if she's doing okay, and if she'd be willing to let me try make up with her."

Benny sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Again with this, Luan? You want to try and make up with Maggie again?"

The comedian rubbed her arm and wordlessly nodded, making the boy state:

"Listen, I understand; You feel guilty of what happened, and you want to prove that you feel sorry about it. But you have to admit it, the way you want to do it is not the right way."

"So, what you're basically saying's that you don't know where she is?" Luan sheepishly inquired.

Without saying a single word, Benny shook his head and folded his arms before leaving the hallway, leaving behind a worried Luan... whose attention was caught when she felt phone vibrate. Good thing her phone's alarm was way down.

So she took out her phone, saw it was a message from her friend Giggles, and checked it:

"Knock knock."

The comedian's look turned into a "really?" one as she wrote her response:

"Who's there?"

Then came her response:

"Right."

Luan, stunned at the answer, said out loud, "Right who?"

"Right next to you."

The Loud joker jumped and nearly dropped her phone in shock, only managing to catch the object as she realized the one who said that was none other than Giggles, who casually closed and put her phone back on her pockets as Luan shouted:

"How did you do that?!"

"You'll learn eventually, but not right now," the clown girl said matter-of-factly. "Anyway, my "Luan is trying hard to make up for a bad joke" sense were tingling, and I had to come see what's up. Is this about Maggie again?"

Though hesitant to answer, specially seeing how Benny reacted, Luan twiddled her fingers and said, "Yeah, I was hoping Benny would know where Maggie is so I-"

"Luan, Maggie told us at the clown school, right in our faces, that she wanted to be left alone," Giggles folded her arms. "If you were to ask me, she just doesn't feel comfortable enough to try forgive you for what happened, and you trying to force it won't help anybody!"

"I don't know what's more embarrassing, the fact that I'm being scolded by someone dressed up as a clown, or the fact that everything you say's right and I can't really discuss with you," Luan sighed and rubbed her forehead. "What do I do now?"

"The only real thing you can do is leave Maggie alone for now, probably a couple of days, until she is back to her usual self," Giggles walked to her friend and handed her a balloon animal. "Think of Maggie like a balloon animal: If you try too hard to tie up her problems, just like how you tie up a balloon so the air doesn't leave, she's going to burst eventually."

"That's... morbid... but I think I understand," Luan crouched down and hugged the clown girl. "Thanks, Giggles."

Giggles wordlessly returned the hug, and patted Luan's back before telling her, "Now go and enjoy the rest of the day."

The duo separated, Luan nodded, and marched onward down the hallway... while she had a note reading "Throw pies at me anywhere but the head" on her back. Giggles couldn't help but quietly giggle before leaving the school.

And last but not least, at the yard of her Junior High, Lynn stood behind the benches, watching her crush, Francisco, practicing his bat swinging with an air baseball bat.

You know, like a baseball bat, but basically just air.

Lynn took a deep breath of confidence, and walked towards the boy in a "confident" walking cycle, completely missing how Margo and Polly were also on the benches, watching her walk by. Margo got a mischievous look and got up, only to be stopped by Polly grabbing her arm.

"Margo, whatever you're planning to do, I'm pretty sure it's not worth it," Polly sternly stated, earning an annoyed look from her friend. "We both know the kind of trouble you could get if you make Lynn angry."

"Relax, Polly, I'm just going to tease her a little, have a bit of fun," Margo waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "Besides, she needs to learn that she doesn't know her crush as well as she thinks she does."

"You wanna teach her a lesson?" Polly inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Margo nodded, and next thing she knew, Polly released her Margo from her grip.

"Fair enough, as long as it gets through Lynn's thick skull, be my guest," Polly sighed. "Although, what exactly are you going to do?"

Margo snapped her fingers, and a couple seconds later, a pile of papers being held by... something, ran straight to her. And once the tomboy grabbed the papers, the thing holding them prior was revealed.

It was a plush toy bunny that looked a lot like Bun-Bun, but with hair similar to Margo, a red spades symbol on it's cheek, and a red shirt.

One quick look at the papers later, and Margo smirked, "Just what I needed."

Back with Lynn, the girl stopped close to Francisco and waved hello, immediately catching his attention. "Oh, hi Lynn," he amicably greeted.

Lynn blushed and, almost instinctively, clutched her stomach. "H-Hi, Franci-"

Before she could finish, the girl felt an unpleasent feeling in her stomach, and she covered her mouth as she hoped that the feeling would soon go away. However, this didn't stop it from causing the girl to fall to her knees, and feel like she was about to vomit... only for it to stop at the last second.

And Margo stood still and watched it all happen.

"Are you okay, Lynn?" Francisco asked as he helped the girl get up. "S-Should I take you to the nurse's office?"

"No, I'm just... still trying to digest the ham I ate on the way here, since I was running late," Lynn sheepishly rubbed the back of her head with her remaining hand. "You know how time management can be a bit difficult when you have to deal with a large family. But I'm gonna be fine, don't worry."

The shock of the sight wore off, and Margo continued to walk towards the duo, with Polly still remaining back at the bench, hoping things would work out in the end.

"Does that happen often?" Francisco inquired, tilting his head to the right. "Getting up so late you have to run to the school while eating something to not arrive late?"

"Nah, not really, as far as I know," Lynn took a deep breath. "Anyway, Francisco... if you're free some time, maybe we could-"

"Oh hi, Lynn, hi Francisco," Margo casually greeted, carrying a large pile of paper. "Last week's exam results are up, and they tasked me to deliver them to the students, and guess what? I'll deliver both of your tests first!"

Lynn froze in place and turned completely white as Francisco waved hello and said, "Hi Margo, how did we do on the exams?"

The Loud jock turned around in a stilted manner to look at Margo as she quickly checked her and Francisco's results. She then briefly glanced at the stunned athlete, flashing a devious smile before answering:

"Oh, you know, I'm still in the middle, and you're still one of the best, Francisco."

Margo's smile turned into a smug grin.

"After all, there's nothing more valuable in an athlete than an ideal mix of strength and intelligence, wouldn't you agree?"

If Lynn was losing color out of shock before, then she had just lost all and any color she had, leaving her completely white as the boy wordlessly nodded, and Margo took out Lynn's exam results, bringing the jock back to her sense in order to try and stop those results from being revealed. And yet, no matter how hard she tried, Margo dodged her as well as she could before Lynn ultimately pinned Margo on the ground...

...Right next to Francisco, who simply grabbed the results, and whose face went blue in disbelief. And it remained like that as Lynn left Margo, snatched the results away and said, "F-Francisco, I-I-I can explain, honest!"

"Lynn... these results are... not very good," Francisco said, forcing a nervous smile as he handed the results to Lynn, whose face also went blue upon seeing what they were. "Are you just so happening to focus on your brawn more than your brains?"

"N-N-Not in the way you may think!" the jock replied, flailing her arms up and down. "I mean, yeah, I focus a lot of my efforts on my brawn, but I also have a tutor who's helping me focus on training my brains!"

"Who tutors you?" Margo inquired with a smug smile.

Lynn gestured to shush the girl, only to hear Francisco repeat, "Who tutors you?"

"My..." Lynn turned back to the guy, and took a deep breath. "My younger sister."

"The depressed emo poet who's seemingly unable to sound emotional?" Francisco inquired.

"No, the brunette toddler with glasses who also happens to be a genius prodigy!" Lynn hastily corrected, only to lay her head low in shame. "That's not any better, is it?"

"No, it really isn't," Francisco answered, only to get an idea, "But, if you aren't against the idea, maybe I could tutor you someday-"

Lynn blushed and chirped, "I'd love that!"

"Alright, we can discuss when we'll do that later," the boy put his air baseball bat down, "For now, I need to go do something. See ya, Lynn."

Lynn waved goodbye with a smile worthy of an idiot, and Margo giggled to herself as the sports boy left, with Lynn turning to her with an angry look shortly afterwards.

"Why did you make me look like a fool in front of Francisco?!" Lynn hissed, calming down for a moment when she felt a little dizzy on the stomach.

"Lynn, you need to realize that of all people in the team, you're the only one that thinks an athlete should be all muscle and no brains," Margo sternly answered as Polly reunited with the duo. "The quicker you learn that lesson, the faster you can quit acting like you're high and mighty."

Lynn's fury turned into terrified confusion. "W-Wait, I'm the only one? Really?!"

Margo nodded. "W-W-What about Kiki?!"

"She was kicked out for being too stupid, or at least, that's what I heard," Margo nonchalantly answered. "I also heard that she's been practicing karate since then, but I'm not quite sure how true this is. Anyway, you needed to learn a lesson, and that's over with."

Lynn's eye briefly twitched before she clutched her stomach and her face went green. A couple moments later, she covered her mouth and her cheeks became swollen, and she darted off to some bush and hurled inside it as both Polly and Margo looked at the sight with surprise. However, while Margo looked with pure confusion, Polly was horrified.

The skater pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "You went too far."

Margo turned to Polly and asked, "I went too far?"

"You went too far," Polly ran to Lynn's side. "Come on, Lynn, I'll take you to the nurse's office."

And as the pair went to the nurse's office as quickly as they could, without triggering more stress vomit for Lynn, Margo stood still, looking particularly perplexed as she tilted her head to the left, and her Bun-Bun looked at her with worry.

"How weird, Bun-Bun, I thought that the average "star player" in every city received vigorous training to not hurl in stress, or be affected by stress at all," Margo blurted, only to take a deep breath and walk towards the school. "Oh well, that's in the past now. Come on, we gotta deliver this to the rest of Lynn's classmates as well, and also probably inform the janitor about what happened."

The animate plush bunny put on a look of "Wait, are you serious?" before they shrugged it off and followed the tomboy.

Later, at the nurse's office... on the Royal Woods' school...

Lincoln sat on a bed as the school nurse checked his ears, while Clyde and Ronnie sat at the chairs nearby, the latter with her head down and face covered by her hands.

And seeing that the nurse was none other than her mother, Mrs. Santiago, Ronnie's mood was probably justified.

"I didn't knew your mother was the school nurse," Clyde whispered to the tomboy.

"She wasn't originally, and I was hoping it would stay that way!" Ronnie whined, though quietly enough so she wouldn't be heard by anybody but Clyde. "I mean, it's bad enough that she's breathing on my neck at home, now I have to deal with her in school too? Come on!"

"Alright, Lincoln, the check-up's ready. First of all, take a couple of deep breaths in order to calm down a bit more," Mrs. Santiago stated as she separated from the boy, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.

However, once Mrs. Santiago used gestures and signs to explain herself, the boy obliged and took several heavy breaths. "Now, I'm going to go find you a special object that should help you avoid this problem again, and while I do that, I would like for either you or your friends to tell me what happened."

"We were talking outside when the bell rang, and since he was nearby to hear it, the loud ringing hurt his ears," Clyde explained, twiddling his fingers nervously as he continued. "I managed to cover his ears before it began, but it still hurt him a lot."

"Mhmm..." Mrs. Santiago glanced at Clyde and Ronnie before finding something. "Uh huh, here it is!"

The nurse took out a pair of white earmuffs, and put them on Lincoln's ears. She then helped him get down the bed before guiding him back to Clyde and Ronnie, who helped him stay up.

"Are you feeling okay, Lincoln?" Clyde inquired.

"Don't bother, Nerd-O, the earmuffs will make your voice sound muffled, if they don't outright mute it," Ronnie stated.

"Actually, I can hear Clyde just fine, for some reason," Lincoln said, and the trio promptly threw confused looks at Ronnie's mother. "What's up with these earmuffs, Mrs. Santiago?"

"These are a special type of earmuffs which are designed with the intent to selectively block out loud noises, while allowing much more manageable sound to be heard," Mrs. Santiago explained. "In simpler terms, with these earmuffs, you'll be able to hear anything that won't be considered noise, but anything far too loud loud will be blocked out, and you won't hear anything. Go on, give them a shot."

Clyde walked closer to Lincoln, and shouted, "Lincoln, can you hear me!"

Despite being right next to the boy when he said that, Lincoln simply turned to face Clyde and shook his head with a relieved smile.

"Good, the earmuffs work just fine," Mrs. Santiago walked to and opened the exit for the trio. "Now remember, don't take those off for the rest of the day, and you should recover from the headache soon."

The kids nodded and walked out of the nurse's office, with Mrs. Santiago giving a stern look to Ronnie Anne before closing the door. And then she leaned closer to it and waited for a second until she heard the tomboy shout:

"Everyone! Lincoln and Clyde are boyfriends!"

And as her daughter laughed out loud and Clyde seemingly chased after her, or at least got enraged judging by his growls, Mrs. Santiago pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

Meanwhile, with the younger sisters...

"Mortician's club... mortician's club..." Lucy hummed to herself as she looked around the club doors. "I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be easy to identify for a mortician like me. Granted, I'm just an in-training mortician, but still..."

Lucy needed something to help her calm down after the horrors she saw yesterday. Even if her headache had minimized or even outright vanished, the memories of the things she saw wasn't something that could easily be erased. And so, she had only one option left: Go to Haiku for some help. Sure, she may look as gloomy, if not even more gloomy, than Lucy herself, but Haiku had a motherly side that made Lucy feel comfortable, regardless of the situation.

Her other side was so motherly, in fact, that when Lucy finally found and went into the mortician's club, her yelling at her clubmates looked more like a mother scolding her children-

Wait, what?"

"We've already had this discussion several times before," Haiku sternly scolded her fellow clubmates, putting a hand on her hips as she pointed at a skeleton laying on the ground, which was recently dug out. "Just because you dug out a corpse that was supposedly "underneath the school," that doesn't prove that the school was built on top of an Indian burial ground! The skeleton doesn't even look Indian at all!"

"W-Well, it may not be an Indian corpse," the member with buck teeth said, only to get an idea. "B-B-But maybe, there was a murder in the spot where the school was built, long before it was built!"

"Besides, this is the third skeleton we dug out this week," the bald member added. "How do you explain there being so many skeletons buried under the school, huh?"

"Need I remind you that whenever the skeleton of the science class needs to be replaced, Principal Huggings comes to us in order to help him bury it to get rid of the smell?" Haiku folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. "I mean, take a look at this skeleton for a second, doesn't it look just like the one that needed to be replaced nearly a month ago?"

The members exchanged stunned, perplexed looks.

"See? This is why Lucy's the only member of this club I can take seriously," Haiku bluntly stated, rubbing her forehead as she used her free hand to point at the door. "At least she isn't spouting theories about the dead 24/7! Now take this skeleton back where you found it and bury it again!"

The other club members nodded and grabbed the skeleton before bolting straight out of the room, making sure not to run over Lucy in the process. Once that was done, Lucy went inside and casually asked, "Haiku?"

Haiku herself flinched and turned to look at the girl with worry. "L-L-Lucy! I didn't expect you to come here, what do you need?"

"I was wondering if I could get to hang out with you for a moment, since I need something to help me calm down," Lucy briefly remembered the sights she saw inside her counterpart's sphere, only to shake it off and wave her hand. "But I can tell you about that later, what happened with our clubmates and that skeleton?"

"Oh, it was nothing that you need to worry about Lucy, it was just our clubmates digging out some random corpse by some stranger's orders, because they got convinced it was proof of the school being built on top of an Indian burial ground... again," Haiku pinched the bridge of her nose. "I swear, they can be quite a handful at times. Anyway, you said you needed someone to help you calm down?"

Lucy actually smiled as she walked closer to Haiku, then took out from her back a Princess Pony book. "Please read this to me."

"A-Are you sure about that, Lucy?" Haiku grabbed the book and opened it as she and the young emo sat on top of the club's coffin. "I mean, you usually prefer it when I read it to you on private, and anybody could come in at any moment."

Lucy got off, walked to the door, closed it, then bolted and leaped to Haiku, landing straight on her lap.

"Can you read it now?"

Though surprised at first, Haiku smiled and nodded before she started reading the story to the goth, with Lucy moaning in relief as Haiku used her free hand to brush her hair in a gentle manner. It would be weird for anybody else to see someone like Lucy be so serene and happy, but not Haiku. Seeing Lucy like this was one of the best things she could ever hope for, specially if it helped her in any way.

And as that happened, the twins were walking alongside a large mob of students, both from their age, older, and younger, with Lola waving her hand like she was a member of royalty. Lana wasn't particularly impressed, or amused, at this action.

"Is it really necessary to wave your hand like that?" the plumber inquired, folding her arms. "I mean, we're surrounded by guys! Who's going to even care about the way you wave your hand?!"

"It doesn't hurt to stand out from the rest, dear sister," Lola smugly answered. "And I know you could do that too, but you just so happened to have gotten my looks. It's hard to stand out when you look almost exactly like someone else."

Speaking of standing out, Lola noticed the trio of Ronnie Anne, Clyde, and most importantly Lincoln, among the 5th grade students. "Oh look, there's Lincoln!"

"Lincoln?" Lana chirped. "Where?!"

The twins turned to look at the trio of Lincoln, Ronnie, and Clyde walking alongside their classmates, and the rest of the students. They then basically barged their way closer to the trio, until they were right next to them.

"Hi Lincoln!" Lola cheerfully, and loudly, greeted at the top of her lungs.

This prompted Clyde to answer, "He can't hear you. The earmuffs block out loud noises so it doesn't hurt his ears."

"Hi, Lincoln," Lana greeted with a fairly calm tone of voice.

"Hi, Lana," Lincoln greeted in return. "How have you and Lola been?"

"Just fine, I guess," Lana walked closer to Lincoln and grabbed his arm as she continued, "We were talking with each other about some stuff, but then one of the teachers walked into the room, and then..."

The duo moved a little ahead of everybody else, leaving Lola to stay behind with Ronnie and Clyde.

"Wait a minute, how can he hear Lana, but not me?!" Lola whined. "How do those earmuffs work?!"

"They're a special type of earmuffs that cancel out and mute any noise that would be considered way too loud, but allow more normal or quiet sounds to be heard," Clyde explained to the pageant princess. "Think of it like this: It's not you, it's the earmuffs."

"And also you," Ronnie nonchalantly added.

Clyde threw an angry glare at the tomboy. "Ronnie!"

"Hey, what did you expect me to say? That it was acceptable for her to greet Lame-O as loudly as she did?" Ronnie sternly retorted, returning the angry glare at Clyde. "You can't tell me that she wouldn't have driven him deaf if it wasn't for those earmuffs!"

"True, but still, you can't just say that to a six-year old girl and expect her to just take it!"

"Going from what I heard, Princess-O here, as well the rest of Lame-O's sisters, expect him to just take what they say from time to time," Ronnie narrowed her eyes. "If that's the case, then It's only fair that I expect her to take what Lincoln would've taken in another situation!"

And as the duo continued to heckle and fight like an old married couple, Lola hung her head low, and hope that things would go by quickly.


-Next Chapter Preview-

"Hey everybody, Lola here!"

The scene showed Lincoln, Clyde, Ronnie Anne, and the twins sitting at an auditorium alongside their classmates, while Principal Huggins' got ready to speak. And then two particular figures appeared: Penelope and Chandler.

"If the announcement wasn't enough, then this jerk girl called Penelope certainly made my blood boil!"

Next scene showed Lincoln talking with Ronnie and Clyde about something, before it cut to show the twins at the nurse's office, with Lola being checked by Mrs. Santiago before she seemingly started to narrate something.

"Although, judging by what she seems to be about, maybe I should keep my distance and warn Lincoln about her..."

Back with the trio, Ronnie Anne leaned closer and closer to Clyde, seemingly trying to get him to spill the beans about something, before they were approached by a certain trio: The biker trio.

"Actually, you know what? I'll tell him later! You know why?!"

One of the trio handed Lincoln a pamphlet just as the twins returned, and then threw a glare at them as Lincoln realized something and seemingly freaked out.

"My luck is finally changing! A beauty pageant is coming!"

Lincoln explained his dream to the twins as he showed and put focus on the crown in the pamphlet.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Lola looked at the pamphlet in awe, while Lana sternly folded her arms and said something. And then it showed them walking back home, with Lola looking she was about to scream in joy any second now.

"A Truly Astounding Announcement! Wait, the Crown of My Dream Actually Exists?!"

The final cut showed Leni and Lori looking at somebody as they woke up, with Leni going as far as to wave and say hello.

"Don't miss it!"

The person turned out to be Carol Pingrey, who freaked out and backed away until she clashed with the boiler in the basement.