Finally, the day had arrived: The day Lisa would return to the Loud house to determine whether her sisters-and Lincoln-actually changed for the better, and whether it was worth returning to the household or not. And it wasn't long before things kicked into high gear, since moments after breakfast, Lincoln heard the door being knocked, and opened it to find Lisa standing outside.
"Hi Lisa," Lincoln greeted. "Nice to see you again after a month."
"It's good to be back, I guess," Lisa shrugged. "So, how did our siblings do with the whole "work out their bad habits" deal? I know I'll come face to face with the answer in a moment, but I'd like to hear what you think."
Lincoln crouched down and brushed Lisa's hair. "Well, they tried as hard as they could in the short time they got. I like to think that, at the very least, you'll notice a notable difference."
"I hope so, too. It's for our family's own good," Lisa looked around. "So, who should we see first?"
"Yeah, who do we see first?"
The duo turned around as Darcy walked in and went to Lisa's side, with the prodigy explaining soon afterwards, "Oh, right, sorry I forgot to mention this, Lincoln, but Darcy insisted on coming along with me to help me judge whether it's worth returning here or not."
"She didn't have to do it, though," Lincoln frowned.
"Again, she insisted, and after thinking about it, I saw it as the best course of action," Lisa wrapped an arm around Darcy's shoulder. "After all, unlike me, Darcy has no real experience with any of my sisters; This is more or less the first time she'll meet them, so her first impressions will be with the changed sisters, assuming they changed at all."
Lincoln folded his arms. "Oh trust me, Lisa, our sisters did their very hardest to change for the better. You might find them to be a bit different than when you left."
Lisa and Darcy raised their eyebrows, and Lincoln took this as a sign that they needed to see the sisters for themselves first. And so, he started the tour through the house, and went straight into Lori and Leni's bedroom, one of the most dreaded rooms to barge into the house. However, this time, it felt relatively calm, specially since Lori was talking with somebody at the moment.
"Making sure we check up on Lori first is a decent idea, Lincoln," Lisa remarked as the kids walked towards Lori. "After all, not only is her habit a fairly common one, but given how prevalent it is, it should be relatively easy to find out whether she truly has changed or not."
Once the kids reached Lori, the young woman quickly noticed them, then turned back to her phone, "Call you later, Bobby, I have something to take care of first."
Lori hung up, saved her phone, and turned her attention to the kids. "Hi, Lisa, nice to see you again. Do you need something?"
"You actually put the call on hold to pay attention to me?" Lisa scratched the back of her head. "The old Lori would've never done that. Or at least, she would've said she would, but wind up forgetting about it."
"Well, get used to it, sis, because I'm literally a brand new Lori," the eldest sister stated with pride. "Granted, the one thing I changed the most is my phone addiction, but hey, that's still a big part of me, right?"
"Right..." Lisa looked at the ground with worry, before looking up and asking, "H-How's Leni doing?"
"She's over there, making some clothes like usual," Lori pointed at Leni, who was doing exactly that. "It seems to calm her down, at least, from what I know."
Lisa hummed to herself. "Checking Leni next might be difficult, because her habit's more of a psychological one, rather than a physical one."
"It's still worth a shot." Darcy argued.
Lisa smiled and nodded in agreement before she, her friend, and brother walked to Leni's side and caught her attention, prompting her to stop her sewing and focus on Lisa. "Hi, Lisa, I, like, didn't knew you had arrived."
"I decided to make my return a low-key one, because lord knows what would happen if everybody knew I was back," Lisa replied. "Anyway, go back to your sewing if you want, we can still talk if needed-"
"Well, the thing is that I can't exactly talk with you, while also sewing something," Leni scratched the back of her head. "If I tried, I could end up messing something up with the thing I'm sewing, so, I'm not going to try that."
Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Leni, what's your favorite color?"
"Well, I'd usually just go with "zebra," but that's a fashion term, and it'll make me sound dumber to you," Leni argued, scratching her chin as she thought about it. "So, let's just say I like black and white. There's just something about the fact that their combination can make some rather nice looking clothing that catches my eye."
Lisa remained silent for a moment, then took a deep breath and quickly left the room, leaving behind a confused Leni, and a concerned Lincoln and Darcy. She immediately went to Luan and Luna's bedroom, where the first thing she noticed was that Luna was nowhere to be seen. She took a quick look around, and eventually spotted some musical notes coming from the garage outside.
"Luna's at the garage, huh?" Lisa said to herself as she took a couple steps back. "Well, at least she's still mostly normal. Or, I hope she's mostly normal, at least."
"Surprising, isn't it?"
Lisa flinched and turned around to see Luan standing by her side. "Luan, don't tell me you took over Lucy's job of popping out of nowhere to scare people!"
"Nah, but she's started doing classes related to that," Luan replied, throwing a wink at Lisa before quipping, "Let's just say, she makes a killing on Halloween!"
Lisa, possessing intelligence as to know was decent comedy was, obviously didn't laugh at the joke. "I don't get it."
"That's fine," Luan took a deep breath. "It's something I came up right now, so it needs some touches to truly make it hilarious."
Lisa blinked twice, and stared intently at Luan as she waited for her characteristic laugh. But instead, the comedian put up a nervous smile and asked, "Is there something wrong with my looks?"
The prodigy didn't respond, she simply left the room, and walked straight to the next one, which just so happened to be Lucy and Lynn's bedroom. Unfortunately for the scientist, she could plainly see Lucy reading a book, so she basically lost the chance to be scared by her appearing out of nowhere, like she usually did.
Lynn wasn't around, however, so the scientist got an idea and took a deep breath before saying, "Lynn, I know you're there, don't worry about me being scared by you."
The athlete, who was about to sneak her way out, stopped on her tracks and entered the room, where she walked to Lisa's side and brushed her hair as she said, "Hi Lisa, how are you doing?"
"Well, so far, I've seen some changes in the household and... I don't know why, but something just doesn't feel... right," Lisa answered, twiddling her fingers as she looked elsewhere. "I mean, there have been changes to the habits that bothered me before, that I'll admit. However, the fact that our sisters are acting so differently as well... unnerves and disturbs me."
"Why?" Lynn bluntly asked. "Isn't that what you wanted?"
"Yes... but also, no?" Lisa scratched the back of her head. "I just wanted you to get rid of your bad habits, that's it. But these apparent behavioral changes, though maybe somewhat expected concerning the nature of some of the habits, still caught me off-guard."
And then Lisa realized who she was talking with. "In fact..."
Lisa looked around the room for a moment, then spotted some crumbled up balls of paper in the garbage bin, probably some failed poems from Lucy. And luckily enough, in that moment, Lucy turned to a notebook nearby, read something, then ripped off the page and crumbled it into a ball before throwing it away, allowing Lisa to quickly catch it before she turned to Lynn and threw it over her head.
The idea was for Lynn to chase after the ball and use it like a baseball, or futball, or anything as long as it turned into a sport, proving Lynn still had that habit. However, the jock just stood in place, shivering as she held herself back from chasing the ball.
"S-See? I didn't turn it into a sport!" Lynn answered, twiddling her fingers as she regained her composure. "Nothing to worry about, right?"
"No, Lynn!" Lisa snapped, angrily stomping her way out of the room as she added, "Quite the contrary!"
Lisa immediately stomped her way to the twins' bedroom, and if seeing Lola with a pair of reading glasses didn't make her terrified, if a little bit flattered, then the sheer... empty sensation of the room without so many of Lana's pets certainly did. Even the household's main pets joining in didn't do anything to fix the issue.
Nevertheless, this was the last room Lisa had to check, since Lily probably wouldn't have change during the month because, well, she was a baby, what could she do or change about the situation? So she walked forward to Lola, who was so engrossed on the book she was currently reading, she didnt even turn or notice Lisa's presence.
Not that the toddler prodigy minded this. She quickly walked to Lana, who was sulking on a corner. Just like Lola, she didnt even notice Lisa, but unlike Lola, this failure to notice her made the toddler worried, rather than relieved.
"G-Greetings, Lana," Lisa nervously spoke.
The plumber didnt respond.
"I noticed that some of your pets-"
Suddenly, Lana started sobbing, startling the prodigy into shutting up. Lisa realized in that moment her poor choice of words, but the damage was already done, and, being honest, the scientist was scared of saying something that would make the situation more sour.
So she saved her hands on her pockets and left the room, feeling both saddened and guilty because, one way or another, she was responsible for the change. And yes, this change was something that was needed, even absolutely necessary in some cases, but the prodigy never expected it to have such an effect on her sisters.
She didn't have time to think about what to do, though, since the next thing she knew, the prodigy found herself at the kitchen, where she spotted her Mother reading a Math book.
"Mother unit, what are you doing?" Lisa inquired as she took a seat next to the woman. "I don't wanna propagate gender stereotypes, but shouldn't you be doing dinner by now?"
"Okay, first off, your dad's the one who cooks in this house, not me, remember?" Rita answered, focusing solely on her book. "And secondly, you said it yourself young lady: I need to get my math stuff together."
"I don't think that's what I said."
"But it's the main thing I got, so I gotta fix it somehow."
"And what about dinner?"
"I already ordered a couple pizzas."
"There's 11 of us, mom."
"I said pizzas. Plural."
Having nothing else to add, the toddler left the kitchen, and saw none other than her siblings-and Darcy-at the living room.
"So, what do you say, Lisa?" Lincoln asked. "Are you coming back home?"
The scientist toddler turned to face her family, who were smiling with hope, and then turned to Darcy, who not only smiled in a similar fashion, but also nodded. She then turned back to Lincoln, who looked the most hopeful out of everybody, and with one look of his eyes, Lisa closed her eyes, shook a bit...
Then ran away to the backyard as hard as she could.
Stunned, everybody remained frozen in place as they tried to figure out what the heck happened, and why Lisa did what she did. The only one who wasn't like this was Lincoln, who stated "I'll... go see if she's okay" before he ran to his second youngest sister's side.
After looking for her for a while, Lincoln found Lisa sitting underneath the tree at the backyard, looking... conflicted. So he walked to and sat by her side, with the prodigy trying her best not to notice him.
"So, how does it feel to see our sisters have changed?" Lincoln inquired, brushing the prodigy's hair.
"To be honest, it feels kinda weird," Lisa twiddled her fingers. "After spending so much time, years even, with the sisters who had those bad habits, it feels so... off-putting, to have those habits suddenly disappear. And the worst part of it is, I don't know whether it would be better if this remained temporary or not."
The last statement caught Lincoln's attention. "What do you mean if it "Remained" temporary?"
"Lincoln, I'm sorry if I sound a bit condescending, but you should know our sisters well enough to know how things usually work around here: Once they succeed in getting me to come back, they'll immediately forget everything they learned and go back to how they used to be, forgetting whatever lesson they learned in the process."
"Lisa-"
"Don't even try to deny it, Lincoln, that's how things have been in this household for years! Every time a Loud accomplishes something and learns a lesson from it, they suddenly forget about the lesson the very next day!" Lisa retorted. "Our sisters forget their lessons, you forget your lessons, even I myself have forgotten my lessons! The only difference is that you and I actually acknowledge how we've forgotten said lessons. But, our sisters-"
"Lisa, look, I understand that you may feel frustrated about this whole situation, but look at the bright: There's a chance that this time, the lesson will stick, and if it does, everything will change for the better!" Lincoln put a hand on the prodigy's shoulder. "So please, can you have a bit more faith in them?"
"Can I? I mean, for crying out loud, it took Lynn two freaking years to learn that it's more important to have fun in a game, rather than win it!" Lisa replied sternly. "And I'm willing to bet that the moment she doesn't need to remember that anymore, even that lesson will poof out of her mind like a brain fart! And we both know how gassy she can be with her body, I wouldn't be surprised if she was equally gassy with her mind."
Lincoln looked at the ground somberly. "Lisa, is there anything I can tell you that will make you be a bit more optimistic about this?"
Lisa folded her arms and looked away, mostly so Lincoln didn't see her start to cry.
"Is there something we can do?"
Lisa and Lincoln turned around and saw the rest of the family approaching them, all sporting worried looks.
"M-Mother... unit?" Lisa asked as Rita walked to her and crouched down to her size. "What do you mean by that?"
"Lisa, listen up: As a mother, one of my biggest fears is to lose one of my children, specially if I lose them because of something that I could've done differently," Rita shed a couple tears. "These past few weeks, not only I, but the rest of your siblings were completely terrified that whatever we did wouldn't be enough to get you back."
Lisa herself started to shed tears as well as Rita continued, "Sure, the fact we're so numerous could make people think that losing just one of us wouldn't affect us. Heck, if Luan had remained the same sort of jokester she used to be, she probably would've joked that your dad and I just had to make another child."
Luan flinched, but remained silent as she clutched her chest and held back her tears. For some reason, she couldn't tell whether it hurt that her mother thought that was the case, or that, deep down, it probably would've been the case.
"The house just wouldn't be the same thing without you, Lisa," Rita sniffed, putting up a weak smile. "So, if there's anything we need to do to get you to come back, we'll do it. You want us to get you some uranium? We'll see if we can find it. You want us to help you revive Trashy? We'll see what we can do. But there's one thing we can't do, no matter what."
Lincoln walked to Lisa's side, crouched down and put a hand on her shoulder as he finished his mother's sentence for her:
"And that is to stand back and watch as we lose you."
Lisa started sniffing and shedding even more tears as she uttered:
"I want..."
She glanced at Lincoln, who gave her a reassuring look.
"I... want..."
She glanced at the rest of her family, who also sported reassuring looks as they waited for her answer. Although, Lisa remained silent for a while...
And then, she hugged her mother, and cried:
"I wany my family!"
Lisa planted her face on her mother's chest as she cried out loud, prompting Rita to hug her to comfort her, which was followed by the rest of the siblings joining on the hug as well. And then Lynn Sr. arrived as well, simply because.
Sometime Later...
"So, was the plan a success, or was it a failure?" Lincoln asked. "I mean, the point was to change our sisters' bad habits, but when that was said and done, you decided you didn't want them to change. How should we take this?"
"Don't think about it too much, Lincoln," Lisa replied. "Changing the habits is good, that part will never bother me. But having our sisters change as well in order to make the message remain... it just feels too uncomfortable."
Lincoln frowned. "So, you're not coming back?"
Lisa turned to face her brother and smiled as she said:
"I will... On one condition."
