Welcome back everyone! This chapter was a pain to write and I hope it lives up to your expectations. I'd like to take this time to think everyone for their kind comments and take a few moments to reply to them.
Mike the Red Engine: You are most welcome, expect to see more of Corey in coming stories.
Red the Pokemon Master: Hopefully the Miyamotos and Kat will keep that from happening.
Jster1983: How right you are!
DreadedCandiru2: Agreed on Luan and yes Luna really is off in her own orbit.
BattleUnit3: We are still digging man! Still digging! As for Lincoln's girls, see the note at the end of this chapter.
SpartanXHunterX: Read on for the milkshake spy!
Random123Games: Actually, based those atheists on ones I've meet in real life, right down to the quoting "Congress shall make no law…" line over and over like a Buddhist or Hindu chanting a mantra.
354wii: Hope this was worth the wait!
Tommy: Thanks! As for the grammar mistakes pass them forward always looking to correct and update!
Legal Stuff: Nickolodeon owns the Loud House. Temple-Shrine, Skyla and the Miyamotos are my own creation.
~*~*~*~Lucy~*~*~*~
Lucy locked the door to the restroom before pulling out her cellphone. She didn't really need to go, but it was a good excuse to get in some private reading time. Opening her kindle app she found what she was looking for, a digital gift from Lincoln, the latest MLP comic.
The goth girl suppressed a giggle while she read, her mind drifted back to that night her brother had stuck his neck out for her, giving up his convention, getting grounded and becoming the victim of the teasing she'd have received if not for Lincoln taking the bullet, those following weeks had been bad, worse than when Lincoln's teeth got destroy by Lynn.
At least the night after his teeth where destroyed had ended happily, with the twins, Lisa and herself rallying around their brother and spending a happy night with him watching cartoons on his old laptop until they'd fallen asleep. Lucy figured their mom must have walked in on them and decided instead of taking the little ones back to their own rooms tucked them all in with Lincoln.
What had happened to those days when they were so close? For that matter why hadn't Lucy spent more time with Lincoln after he gave up so much for her? Now he was banished from his own home and who knew where he was? At least she hoped all was well with those girls he was with, but where was he gonna stay tonight?
Tears fell onto the goth girl's cellphone "…Lincoln."
~*~*~*~Luna~*~*~*~
With Lucy in the bathroom, Luna had the room to herself, the perfect time to do some snooping and see just what her little brother had been up to.
Luna looked around the room her eyes falling on Lily's nightstand with a small stack of American comics on like Archie, Sonic, a Batman comic called Dark Knight Returns. Next to it were Japanese titles Negima, Tenchi, Assassination Classroom. A nagging voice in the back of Luna's mind spoke up, asking the question, why hadn't she or anyone else taken the time to try and show any interest in their brother's hobbies Like Lily had?
Luna silenced the voice, not wanting to deal with growing guilt that had already seeped its way into her conscience. She had felt bad for keeping Sam a secret from her family and from Lincoln most of all. There was a time where she would have thought of herself as his best friend in the house, then things changed. She wasn't all that sure how or why Chuck had told her that it was just the cross you had to bear for being a teenager. People liked to tease teenagers about their moody and mellow dramatic behavior, but the thing they often forget is just how damn hard it was trying to learn how to navigate life while riding a raging rapid of emotions. It seemed to make her moody and irrational and had pushed her brother further away from her. Now Lily was his best friend and she was just another bitch in the house that dragged him through the mud. Yeah, she knew how they were all treating him, you would have to be blind or stupid not to see it. She figured, like her, most of them just didn't care because of their own stupid reasons. Hers? Well, it was simple. Jealousy. Luna was bitter and jealous. She still wanted him to be her best friend in the house, and she hated how he had moved on to Lily, who she was also finding a lot of bitter feelings towards as of late.
Luna took a deep breath and let out a sigh that she almost expected, would have summoned Lucy. Thankfully the room was still clear and she continued her snooping.
She found his iPod sitting on his desk, another hand me down. She had gotten a new phone for Christmas and had given Lincoln the iPod with a lot of preloaded songs that she thought he would like. She went over and picked it up, turned it on, and scrolled through the list of songs and artists. The songs she'd picked for him where still there, but she was shocked to see what had joined them. A bunch of artists she'd never heard of AKB48, Hikaru Utada, Namie Amuro, and Myth & Roid, more Japanese stuff it seemed, scrolling down she felt her stomach turn.
Manowar, Sabaton, Hammerfall, Tyr, Blood Axis, bands Luna couldn't stand, with their music that seemed to glorify war and violence.
"Gah, where the hell did he find this crap?" She muttered to herself.
"You know Lori and I were already in here," Lucy said from behind.
The sudden sound of the young girl's voice had boomed out like an echo within the quiet bubble of the room. Luna was shocked that her skeleton had not actually lept from her skin and made a break for it, leaving a skeleton-shaped hole in the wall. She clutched her heart and whipped her head back around to stare daggers through her sister.
"Goddammit, Lucy!" Luna said in a hushed sort of shout, "you nearly killed me, dude."
Luna thought she saw a brief smirk cross her sisters face at this knowledge, and she could not blame her one bit. If she had been on the other side of this, she might have busted a gut laughing.
"Sorry," Lucy said as she went and sat down on Lily's bed, resting her head in hands looking at the ceiling, it was then Luna noticed the posters for Therion, Sabaton and the others on the wall, amazing how sometimes you just don't notice these things. Now to think of it where was his Muscle Fish clock or his Ace Savvy Poster?
Luna was getting more worried about Lincoln by the minute, but there was still so much anger and bitterness mixed in with it. What scared the rocker was that she was not sure where it was all coming from, but she knew exactly where it was being directed. Why didn't she care that Lincoln was getting the brunt of it all? She rubbed her eyes and hung her head low, catching sight of something on the floor. It was a small red corner. She reached down and picked it up this time she heard the soft sound of Lucy's Mary Janes hitting the floor and padding over to her, it was rare to hear Lucy moving around.
"Is that...?" The words stuck in the young goths mouth. She looked to Luna, curious about what she was going to do with it.
Luna looked back at Lucy, a mental conversation beginning with her own morals. She knew she shouldn't look at it, it was his own personal thoughts, not meant for the eyes of others. Though the, somewhat, rational side of her tried to justify it by saying that if kept a journal, took the time to write the words on paper, then you MUST want someone to read it eventually. Of course, that sounded like something Lola would have said, and anything Lola would say was never at the top of any list of advice to follow. Still ...
Luna cracked the book open, leafing through the pages as Lucy's head jerked up her hair parting showing one wide blue eye that was slightly red, had she been crying?
"What the heck Luna?!" Lucy yelled, taking a step forward her fists balling at her side.
"Chill Luce, I'm just taking a peek." The rocker tried to calm her sister down.
"If Lincoln had gone into your room and looked at your diary, you would be all over him," Lucy yelled, feeling the heat of her anger rise to add color to her face.
"Yeah but that's different."
"How? How is that different? Because he is a boy? Does him not being a girl somehow take away his right to privacy!?"
Luna thought about it. Was that what was really going on? Did they really treat him that differently just because he was a boy? She quickly pushed the thoughts from her head and snapped back at Lucy.
"As one of the oldest, I have a right to look." She yelled back.
"You are just a hypocritical bitch," Lucy said with such venom that Luna was stunned for a couple of seconds.
"What did you say to me?"
Lucy glared at her, "You heard me... Bitch."
~*~*~*~Lana~*~*~*~
Lana had finished catching Lisa up on the many different things that Lincoln had started to show more interest in. She also pointed out that he had stopped reading Ace Savvy and most other American comics for some reason, instead of showing more interest in things like manga and anime.
"Hmm, makes sense as many kids start to turn towards more Japanese influenced things these days," Lisa said as she took notes. "I find his interest in philosophy and religion interesting as well if disturbing in the latter case. We do NOT need a religious Loud."
"Amen sister," Lana smirked getting a chuckle from Lisa. Lana might pray from time to time but going full religion? No thank you, the idea of Lincoln becoming a bible thumper was terrifying.
"Lisa, can I ask you something?" Lisa looked up and nodded for Lana to continue. "Why did we never tell Lincoln about the Sister Fight Protocol?"
Lisa looked at Lana as if she had just been asked why they all liked chocolate. Lucy had said it best it was a sister thing he would never have understood; this was obvious from how all he did was try to interfere and refused to butt out.
"Also, something I've been thinking about. The first time, right?" Lisa nodded for her sister to continue, "why did we block off the kitchen and bathroom before he was even told about the protocol? Then he tries to watch TV Lynn and Lola beat the crap out of him for doing that during the protocol, he STILL has a scar on his side from what they did to him. What did we expect him to do? He had no choice but to get involved or leave his own home. Why didn't we just use one of our bedrooms instead of the kitchen and bathroom? For that matter if Lori and Leni need absolute silence to keep from flying off the handle, they have more issues than a dress," Lana sighed and hung her head.
"Now we're doing this all over again. This isn't the first or second time he's been driven from here, don't get me started on the Squirrel suit mess. Three times Lisa, we've driven him from our home," Lana raised her hand Lisa thinking she was about to hit her instead she drove it into her own hand for emphasis, "THREE," Lana struck her hand again, "TIMES!"
Lisa stared at her sister and blinked, taking in the information and wonder just what she could respond with. For once, Lisa Loud found her mind empty.
"How could we… Can we keep doing this to him?" Lana shook her head waiting for a response from Lisa, for once the tiny genius was at a loss for words.
~*~*~*~Lola~*~*~*~
Lola Loud was not the smallest girl in the house, but she was close. At six years old, with her blonde hair and perky smile, she looked like the most adorable little girl in the house. She tried to give off an air of grace and dignity, though those within the house knew that beneath the painted on beauty was a little pixie of hellfire. When push came to shove, Lola Loud could often be the most feared creature within the walls of the Loud House. She had a way of gathering dirt and information that could be used against anyone and was able to rival Lynn what it came to fighting. Although Lynn had the skill, Lola liked to remind the sporty Loud that it was hard to defend yourself again a brick to the face in the wee hours of the morning. This led to a week of Lynn sleeping with a baseball bat.
Lola could be a real witch, she couldn't say the other word with a B in it when she was in a mood. Lola was often in a mood. And when she was acting like that she had been known to take things out on those around her, even her brother. So to say that she had treated Lincoln, not to mention her other siblings, badly over the years would be an understatement. But that didn't mean she didn't love him, far from it Lincoln was her Prince after all, but now she was wondering if Lisa cared. After what they learned from their trip to Liam's farm Lisa was still willing to call for the S.F.P.
The callousness of her young sister made Lola's blood boil. Still though, she was only one person, one tiny little ball of rage and fire, but still one person too small to fight all of them or honestly even one of them other than Lisa. That meant she had to just sit back and hope that they could eventually figure this all out. Lori hated it as well, and so did Luan, Lola could see it. The fact that they didn't speak up or put their foot down made the little beauty queen suspicious. Did they have a plan in place? If so, why didn't they include her? She was going to find all of that out soon enough.
As she started to make her way upstairs with a juice box in hand, she saw Lynn on her way down. The two glared at each other.
"What's your problem?" Lynn Jr. snarled.
"You," Lola snapped back.
"What?
"My prince is out there, not allowed back into his own home because you and the little brainiac are keeping him from coming home. And none you even care." Lola spat.
"He's a clever boy, he can fend for himself." Lynn shot back.
"He shouldn't have to," Lola said. "You are such a ... " Lola wanted to say it. Lynn was pushing her buttons and Lola just wanted to explode and release the beast. Say that word she wasn't supposed to say.
"A what?" Lynn said, baiting her.
Lola turned a bright red as the fire within her burned hotter, she was surprised that steam had not actually shot from her ears. Lynn stood there with a mocking grin, just tempting Lola.
"YOU'RE A BITCH!" Lola screamed.
The word echoed, and Lori shot around the corner like a bat out of hell. She looked up as Lynn had her fist raised to strike Lola, and Lola was cocked back to hit Lynn below the belt.
"LYNN! LOLA!" Lori yelled. "What the hell is going on here?"
Both girls looked down at a furious looking Lori, who started to climb the stairs motioning for both girls to go back to the top.
Both girls shrunk back Lori had gotten mad before, even yelled a few times. This time though, it was as if she were channeling their parents. The stern and harsh tone in her voice made them listen and do as they were told.
Once at the top of the stairs Lori could hear yelling coming from Lincoln's room. She went and opened the door, finding Lucy and Luna going at it. Both girls were inching closer to each other and screaming like to drunken frat girls fighting over a guy.
"HEY!" Lori yelled, silencing both girls. "Out in the hall NOW." She commanded, to which the girls followed the instructions.
All four girls lined up and stood against the wall. Their eye dead ahead as Lori had turned from normal Lori to drill Sargent Lori.
"I want to know what you all were fighting about and I want to know now." She commanded. The girls all started to talk over each other. "One at a time." They all shut up.
Lori walked up and down the hall in silence, knowing that the others were looking on from downstairs and from their rooms. She paid no attention and just kept her eyes on the floor as she gathered her thoughts. She stopped in front of Lola first.
"You swore."
Lola nodded, feeling a wave of shame wash over her.
"Why?"
Lola looked up, switching her gaze from Lori to Lynn, she gave a sideways glare. "Lynn was pushing me, and I didn't like the way she was talking about Lincoln."
Lori understood this, Lynn was a master at pushing buttons, and Lola was like a little stick of dynamite ready to explode.
"I didn't say anything about Lincoln that isn't true," Lynn shouted, quickly shutting her mouth once she caught sight of Lori's glare.
Lori moved on to Lucy and Luna, pacing back and forth before stopping in front of the little goth goddess of the house. She knelt down to be eye level with her younger sister.
"And what were you and Luna fighting about?" Lori grilled the goth girl. She kept the same tone of voice, even though she did not often like to raise her voice to Lucy. Though there were times where she had.
"Luna was snooping in Lincoln's room," Lucy said, a bit more emotion in her voice than the girls were used to hearing.
Lori couldn't really do much about that as she had been snooping as well. She was looking for clues or signs pointing to what Lincoln had been thinking as of late. He had seemed off and she felt it, but like always she had put her own needs ahead of his. That was not the job of a good older sister, especially when that older sister had been thrust into a more motherly figure.
"And she was reading Lincoln's journal," Lucy said. "She said as one of the older girls she had a right to that." Both Lola and Lori blushed at this.
"Lucy you shouldn't have started a fight with Luna over that," Lori said.
"But ..." Lucy started to protest before being cut off.
"Not when I did the exact same thing," Lori said. "You don't know Luna did that, she could have had good intentions for looking through his stuff. Still, that doesn't excuse what either of us did, though I don't regret my actions. I wanted answers and I was, am" Lori corrected herself, "willing to do what I have to in order to find them."
Lucy hung her head, realizing that Lori was right. She had not yelled at her oldest sister for doing the same thing that Luna was doing. She began to realize she was not mad at Luna for going through his stuff, it was because she was part of the side that appeared to not even care about their only brother's feelings. Luna was once really close with Lincoln, now she seemed to not even care about his well being. This made her furious.
"Okay," Lori stood up and began to pace again. "I want everyone back in their assigned rooms until Mom and Dad come home. We can figure out everything else then, except you Luna, go back to your room, Luan can bunk with Lucy in Lincoln's room."
The girls all looked disappointed at their eldest sisters command, but dare not go against her wishes. They began to file off to their assigned rooms.
"Leni wait!" Lori tried to get her sisters attention. "Weren't you going to make smoothies for everyone?" She smiled and winked.
Leni stood there in a daze as her mind tried to put the pieces of this puzzle together. She remembered saying something about smoothies, and boy did she love smoothies. She also sort of remembered wanting to make some for her sisters. The rest of the reasoning was a complete blank to her.
Lori sighed and took her sister by the wrist. "Come on Leni, I will help you."
"Okay." Leni chirped.
~*~*~*~Leni and Lori~*~*~*~
Leni got all the ingredients from the fridge and cupboards, fruits and veggies to make her famous smoothies. Her siblings often commented on how she was so good at making them and they tasted like heaven in a cup, that some of her siblings suggested she try selling them. Of course, Leni soon forgot all about that.
Lori had noticed just how forgetful Leni had been as of late. It started with small things then had turned to more and more. She would forget her homework, forget to brush her teeth, and had even forgotten where she lived a few times. Lori was getting worried about her sister and roommate. Would the others be able to step up and help Leni if she went away to college? And what would happen to Leni if went away to school? Who would look out for her if she was able to get into college? Lori wondered why life had to be so hard. Why couldn't there be a cheat code like in those video games she used to play.
"So do you remember the plan now?" Lori asked. Leni nodded and hummed a little tune as she put the fruits and veggies next to the blender. "And you're sure you can handle this?"
"Lori, do you think I am stupid?" Leni asked. The tone in her voice was not a condescending one, it came off like she was actually asking her sister if she thought she was dumb.
"No Leni, I don't think you are stupid at all." Lori smiled touched Leni's shoulder.
"I keep forgetting things, and it's starting to worry me." She frowned.
"It's okay Leni, you always got us here to remind you."
"Good, I don't think I can make it without you guys." Leni smiled, she then went back to making up the smoothies for her siblings.
Lori wanted to hug Leni and cry. First, she had failed Lincoln, and now it felt like she was letting everyone else down as well. Lynn and Luna were turning into total bitches, Leni thought she was an idiot, Lisa was becoming a cold and emotionless know it all. She wasn't sure she could handle any more failures. This plan had to work for them to be able to try and put this family back together.
"Okay, so you remember the plan right Leni?" Lori asked.
"Uh huh." Leni nodded.
"Can you repeat it back to me please, just to be sure we went over everything right," Lori said.
"Well, first I make the smoothies," Leni said with a big bright beaming grin. "That's my favorite part. Then I take them to the girls one at a time. Luna, Lynn, Lola, and Lana." She looked at Lori to make sure she got it right.
"Correct."
"Then you tell me what to say to them to see if they are our side or on Lisa's side."
"You got it, sis." Lori hugged Leni.
Leni finished making the smoothies, and loaded them onto a serving tray, first stop was Lola's room, she had a bright pink strawberry and banana ready for the Princess.
Leni nodded, then put the earpiece in her ear and made her way upstairs to visit her two younger sisters. Lori would head to her room where Luan would be waiting, and they would guide her through the ... what was the word they used? Integration? Well, it was something like that.
Once Leni made her way to Lisa's room, she went to use her elbow to knock, the door opened to a video of the night of the first SFP and the sounds of Lisa and Lana howling with laughter as the video showed Lincoln being attacked by Lola and Lynn.
~*~*~*~Lisa and Lana~*~*~*~
"See right here," Lisa and Lana had been reviewing the tapes from the night of the first protocol, "Lincoln just wanted a snack and we decided the kitchen was the perfect candidate, what does he do after I fed him food from the trash? He goes right to his room and shuts the door; can you fast forward please?"
Lisa passed the mouse over, "here Lana, why don't you take control of this? I'm interested to see what conclusions you draw.
With a nod Lana switched cameras to the bathroom and sped up time, "here again, we took a public area and walled it off. Now I did over Lincoln the use of "old sloshy" which he did ultimately take, however it didn't take many uses before he had filled, I mean we were ALL using the same dang bucket
except for Leni. Still Lincoln didn't interfere until after this next time," Lana skipped ahead, "here he went down to just watch TV and then gets the tar beaten out of him by Lynn and Lola. Now and ONLY now do we tell him about the protocol and not to get involved while he is bruised and bleeding, if anyone else had beaten Lincoln like this we'd have their heads on a pike! Now he does try to interfere and notice this," Lana manipulated the cameras, "he realized his mistake, it's right there on his face, and went to his room and closed the door. What did we do? Decided nope, lesson time and kicked him right back out and kept making it worse for him till he fled. An, of course, the talking to he got when he came back."
Lisa nodded, "I see, of course looking at it like this it's no wonder our brother reacted as he did, I confess I have no idea why we didn't offer up our bedrooms and looking back on it, to attack our brother because a loud noise would make Lori and Leni lose it… Demanding silence in THIS house!? If you can't stand it Loud you were born into the wrong family."
It took Lana a few seconds to realize that Lisa had made a joke but the grin on her younger sisters face was unmistakable, a small giggled escaped Lana and soon both of them where laughing, as Lana slapped her hand down she hit the remote causing the video of the entire night to playback from the beginning as Leni eased the door open and flinched.
Lana rushed to Leni's side helping the older girl steady herself and saving her cargo from falling across the floor, "you okay Leni?"
Leni nodded and smiled down at Lana handing her and then Lisa a smoothie.
"To what do we owe this delightful gift?" Lisa asked.
Leni looked at her brainy sister with a dumbfounded expression as she tried to understand what was just said.
"Why are you handing out smoothies Leni? Looks like you made one for every girl here," Lana said, hoping to simplify things a tad.
"Oh," Leni said, rubbing the side of her head, "I just thought I would be nice, with everything going on today thought a treat would lift everyone's spirits. Well gotta get going! Lots of smoothies to hand out, have a good one girls!" With that, Leni hurried out shutting the door behind her.
"Okay, Lisa, was it just me or was Leni acting funny? Plus she kept rubbing the side of her head, does she have an earache?"
"I'm not sure, it almost looked like part of that spy kit we got for Lincoln awhile back… Before he put it up after he got caught spying on the older girls becoming a woman talk" Lisa rubbed her chin.
"Ummm, it wasn't that he was listening in on, he was trying to record bird sounds it just happened the bird he was listening to landed near Lori's window, he turned it off… She didn't?" Lana's jaw dropped open.
"Yes, a rather severe punishment too, I wonder…" Lisa started typing.
"Whatcha doing?"
"A thought occurs to me, what are the experiences of other men that had a large number of female siblings," Lisa started reading.
"Good idea, lemme get my laptop and help."
"Just use the other terminal," Lisa nodded to a keyboard near Lana.
Soon both girls lapsed into silence.
~*~*~*~Leni~*~*~*~
As soon as she'd open the door the listening device let out a loud shriek that left Leni with an earache and trouble hearing for a bit, thankfully Leni could clearly see that both girls not only were okay with the protocol but found Lincy's suffering funny. Well, she hoped what happened would prove a good lesson. She made her way to Lola's room and knocked.
"Come in!" Lola said from the other side.
Leni whimpered as she realized she couldn't open the door with both hands being full. She racked her brain for the solution to this problem until a light bulb had gone off in her brain. She removed her shoe and shifted her weight back onto her left leg, leaning and bringing her right foot up to the door. She carefully gripped the doorknob with her toes, that tried to turn it and push. Her feet had slipped a few times and Leni had nearly lost her balance and landed on her butt, almost spilling the smoothies.
She let out a frustrated snort and grimaced at her new rival within the house. The doorknob was not being very nice. She made another attempt, trying to be very careful, but this time almost fell forward, slamming against the door.
"Oh for crying out loud!" Lola yelled through the door.
Leni could hear the stomps of a terrible not toddler in pink with a crown. Soon the door swung open and a little blonde girl with a grimace that could rival the Hulk stood before her.
"What?!" Lola yelled, her features quickly softening as she noticed the smoothies in Leni's hands. "Oooh smoothies, gimme gimme gimme."
Leni pulled the sweet treats back, protecting them from the greedy little princess.
Leni smiled down at the pink twin, "okay, okay, now then," she walked in, "hey Lola, can I ask you something?"
"Sure!" Lola started to happily sip her smoothie.
"So ... " She waited for Lori or Luan to speak into their end and tell her what to say they hadn't said anything since she went into Lisa's room.
"What is in your ear?" the princess asked.
Leni's face went beet red as she struggled to figure out what to say finally hearing her sisters through the device.
"Tell them it's a hearing aid!" Luan blurted out.
"Why would she wear a hearing aid? For that matter can she even hear us?" Lori said.
"You got any other bright ideas?" Luan snapped back at their eldest sister.
Leni stood there like a tall beautiful, and very sweaty, statue trying to think of what to do. She was not the smart one, not even close, but she had people telling her all the time that she was not dumb. No, Leni's were not dumb. They were smart when they had to be when the time came to use that thingy in their heads. Brains! The thingy was called brains.
"I was playing with one of Lincoln's toys, must have forgotten to take the earpiece thingy out," Leni said.
"Oh." Lola shrugged it off and sipped at her smoothie.
"Speaking of Linky," Leni started trying to keep her thoughts together as best she could. "I was ... hmm, what was I thinking? Oh yeah, I was wondering how you felt about all of this protocol stuff?"
"I am not a fan," Lola said folding her arms, Leni gave a big bright smile, happy that at least one of her younger sisters was worried about their brother and his well being, "and," Lola continued her teeth barred taking a step forward her eyes firmly on Leni's ear as she jabbed a finger at the earpiece, "I want to know what you where thinking when you made it and didn't bother to include Lincoln in it, Lore! Yeah I know you are listening, let me guess. Luan's with you, am I right?"
Once again Leni froze, the scarlet in her cheeks draining to a pale white. She instantly went from a deep blush to be the pale ghost-like version of Leni Loud within seconds of what Lola had said.
There came a panicked cry from the earbud that now dangled from the perky blonde's shoulder like a jungle vine. If not for the sheer panic that she found herself to be in, Leni might have imagined a tiny little jungle man swinging on the jungle vine with an earbud. She often did things like that.
"Um..." Leni squeaked out, more words jumbled and caught up on themselves, stuck on the edge of her tongue. "I am not, uh, not sure what you are talking about." She attempted to lie. Leni's were not very good at lying.
Lola looked at Leni like a parent who caught a child mid-lie, yet the child still tried to make it work.
"Leni, I lie for a living, you are not going to be able to get this past me," Lola said.
"How do you make a living lying?" Leni blinked.
"The less you know the better sweetie." Lola smiled. She walked over to Leni and grabbed the earbud, bringing to closer to her face for inspection. "Hmmm, see the problem is you guys are using a child's toy for a professional job."
Lola looked at Leni and motioned for her sister to hand over the equipment. She put the earbud in and attached the listening device to the front of her sash.
"Can you hear me?" She asked. There was a long pause then finally a deep sigh.
~*~*~*~Lori and Luan~*~*~*~
"Yes Lola, we can hear you," Lori said on the other end.
"Okay so first we need to get a better device, I think I still have the one I used to hide in my crown when I would spy on the competition at the beauty pageants. " She went to her desk and started to rummage around. "The other thing you may want to consider if you are going to Lisa's room is that her machines may cause interference."
"We already found out the hard way," Lori responded upset with herself because she had not thought about that, surely Lisa had some sort of devices to interfere with other devices. She was pretty sure that was the reason her cell phone would always act up when she was walking near her room, now to think of it Lily, Lincoln and the twins complained a lot about cellphone interference. This plan was starting to melt like the ice in their smoothies.
"So what do we do?" Luan asked.
"I literally have no idea, I just hope Leni was able to get the information we needed without tipping off the other sisters, okay Lola bring Leni with you to my room," Lori said.
Soon Lola and Leni arrived the later flipping down onto her bed.
"I blew it." Leni sighed.
"You didn't find anything out from the others?" Luan asked.
Leni sighted, "I walked in on Lisa and Lana laughing at a video from the night of the protocol. Lola's the only one against it."
"You did it Leni," Lori told her sister, a big bright smile that nearly matched Leni's. "You went out there and you did it."
Leni suddenly felt proud of herself. She had done it. She had not failed the way she thought she would have. Maybe, just maybe, she was smarter than she gave herself credit for.
Downstairs the girls could hear the front door open. Their parents were home.
So, this is the end of one of the hardest chapters we've written yet. Now then we have a poll we are about to put up on my profile page.
Here are the deal folks Zoinks81 is not comfortable with writing a polyamorous relationship so we decided to put the issue to YOU the reader.
We are going with the following options:
First Skyla and Lincoln only. This will involve a VERY small rewrite of Kat's role in the story to a concerned friend and give her a subplot about not being over Chandler.
Second three-person polyamory of Skyla, Lincoln, and Kat. The story will continue as is.
Third option full harem. Skyla, Lincoln, Kat and a couple of other members planned to be involved.
If you want Lincoln and Kat go read Zoinks81's work and send a PM to Zoinks81 (not me) telling him I want more Katcoln!
Poll is opened until the 30th and only votes on the poll on my profile will be counted not comments. Good luck folks!
…Oh by the way, anyone notice who was forgotten?