A chapter about Lincoln and his friends. Enjoy.

Lincoln Loud could be described as many things: easygoing, goody-two shoes, compassionate, vanilla, and an overall Dudley Do-right. He'd also call himself 'the man with a plan' but no one was buying it. You could say that Lincoln was a saintly child who could do no wrong.

No. That is not who he was today.

Lincoln was in bed with a box of tissues lying all around him and a bottle of Tylenol on standby. He heard a few knocks at his door.

"Lincoln!" the voice said. "Come on little bro, you're gonna make us late!"

The eleven year old cleared his throat. "Oooh, I can't go to school. I don't feel so good," he replied, his voice scratchy and sickly.

The door opened to reveal his oldest brother Loki. He stood at the threshold, his face blank and his arms crossed.

"Oh come on," he began, "this trick?"

"What trick, Loki? Can't you see that I do-"

"Lincoln, I've used this trick literally a million times. I can spot faking sick when I see it," Loki interrupted.

'Dang it,' Lincoln thought as he pouted. "You're not gonna tell Mom and Dad, are you?"

Loki went into Lincoln's very cramped room, sat on the bed and smirked. "Is that what you think? After all the secret meetings we've had? Who do you think I am, Lexx?"

Lincoln snickered at the jab; as much as he loved his little brother, he could be an insufferable tattle-tale.

"I'll go down and tell everyone you're sick, but you owe me big time for this, dweeb," Loki said.

Lincoln rolled his eyes; of course it came down to this. "What do I have to do?"

"Take my shift for bathroom duty this weekend."

"Aw, really? But bathroom duty's the hardest!"

Loki smirked and looked toward the open door. "MOM-"

"Fine, fine, fine," Lincoln agreed.

Loki ruffled his hair. "I knew you'd see it my way. See you later, Stink-oln." And with that, Loki left the room.

After a few minutes, Lincoln looked outside of his window to see his family and Vanzilla driving off. He smiled and took out his walkie talkie.

"Cadet Lincoln to Miss Claudia, can you read me, over?"

"Miss Claudia to Cadet Link, loud and clear," his best friend Claudia McBride replied. "Did you fool your momma and daddy?"

"You know it," Lincoln said, a self-assured smile on his face. "Didn't suspect a thing."

"Damn you're good."

"I know. Everyone else?"

"Look out the window." Lincoln looked outside to see Claudia, Liam, Rusty, Zach, and Stella with their bikes next to each other.

"I'm coming down!"

Lincoln greeted all of his friends as he came outside, cheers and whoops abound.

Well, everyone except for one person.

"I don't think I'm comfortable with this," Zach spoke up.

Rusty rolled his eyes. "Zach, don't worry so much. No one'll notice a thing. Geez, what a pussy, am I right guys?"

Stella mock gasped. "You kiss your mother with that mouth, Rusty?"

"No, I kiss Lincoln's mom with it." Lincoln flipped Rusty off for that comment.

"Oh please, Rusty. Everyone knows how bad you are with the ladies," Stella said, smirking.

"Tell that to Polly."

"She doesn't count."

"What're you trying to say?"

"Fellers, fellers, c'mon, are we jus' gon' stand here and talk smack or are we goin' to Girl Jordan's?" Liam said, his voice exasperated.

"Country boy is right," Claudia rang out. "AUTOBOTS! ROLL OUT!"

A resounding "YES!" erupted from everyone else and they all hopped on their bikes. As they pedaled off, Zach frowned.

"What if our parents com home early or something?" the redheaded nerd questioned.

"Trust me, they won't," Lincoln replied, narrowly missing a parked car. "See what you almost made me do, Zach!"

"Hey, that's on you, old man!"

The six children continued on their way to Girl Jordan's house, laughing and joking with each other the whole way.

Girl Jordan's House

"OHHHHHH!"

The sound of seven eleven year old kids echoed through the living room as they were all invested in the video game in front of them.

"Link, it's that way-no, no over there, over there-"

"Where the hell do you think I'm going?!"

"I've so got you now," bragged Girl Jordan.

"You think so, huh?"

A few seconds later...

"Boom, headshot!"

"Aw, that's bull!" Lincoln complained.

"Anyone else wanna challenge the queen?"

"I got this," Zach said, snatching the controller away from Lincoln.

"There we go, you got it Zach!" Rusty cheered.

Zach pulled out a pill bottle from his pocket. "Gotta take these beforehand."

"What are those?" Rusty asked.

"Birth control pills. They're for your mom," Zach replied, a cheeky look on his face.

"Good one, Zach!" Stella said, high-fiving him. Rusty flipped both of them off.

Girl Jordan turned toward Lincoln. "Can you get the nachos out of the microwave?"

"On it." Lincoln moved away from the scene and went into Jordan's kitchen. It was a modest sized place with nothing super decorative about it except a few tiles on this sink. He moved toward the microwave and spotted a strange bottle on the counter next to it.

Looking back at his group of friends and back to the bottle, Lincoln shrugged and took a sip from it.

"PFFFFFTTTT!"

The ash blonde boy spat out the...whatever it was almost immediately as it touched his mouth.

"EEEECCCH!" Lincoln said. He grabbed the nachos out the microwave and went back to his friends. He came back to see Zach, Rusty and Liam cheering over the girls.

"I gotta admit, these fancy-schmancy video games o' yers look pretty swell," Liam admitted.

"Yeah, you really gotta it, country boy," Claudia said.

"Ah don't thank ol' Liam's gon' have time fer it, cuz he's always playin' his banjo and russlin' up some cattle," Rusty said, doing his best Liam impression.

"Do I really sound like that?" the redhead asked.

"You kinda do," Lincoln said as he rubbed the back of his head.

Liam laughed it off. "Aw, c'mon fellers. What good are friends if y'all can't rag on 'em e'ry now and then?"

"You're right, Liam." Lincoln looked down at his hands. "Hey, does anyone have aloe vera? My rope burn is serious."

"That happened one time!" Rusty argued over everyone's laughter.

"Oh, oh, I got one," Stella interjected. She cleared her throat and fluttered her eyebrows. "H-hey, Lynn. You're sooo handsome. I just lick the sweat off your brow..." Stella proceeded to mock faint and everyone laughed once more.

Claudia rolled her eyes. "My nana told me if you wanna get a boy's attention, you gotta be direct."

"Do you get everything from your nana?" Lincoln asked.

"Not everything. My good looks are all me, Link."

"Don't flatter yourself."

"You've got some weird friends, Lincoln," Girl Jordan said.

"I know."

Hours later

Everyone was lounging on the couch looking at their phones. Sounds of 'hahs' and 'hehes' could be heard. Girl Jordan herself felt a mischievous smile envelop her face.

"Guys, remember this video?" she called out in a sing-song voice. Everyone, excluding Stella and Liam, groaned at what Jordan was implying.

"Jordan, no," Lincoln whined.

"Don't remind us of that! That's not cool," Claudia chimed in.

"Oh pipe down, it's funny," Girl Jordan retorted, still smirking.

Stella looked over at her and snatched her phone. "Let me see this."

"Stella-"

As soon as Stella saw the video, she burst out into a fit of laughter so hard that she fell over. Lincoln and his friends rolled their eyes at the display.

"Ha ha, very funny," Zach snarked.

"Y-y-hehe-you guys left in-in-" Stella couldn't finish her sentence as the laughter raged on.

Liam chuckled along with Stella; although the southern boy forgave his friends, he still found the video to be hilarious. "Y'all were the laughing stock of fifth grade the next day," he reminisced.

"Come on Liam, who's side are you on?!" Rusty exclaimed.

"The funny side."

"I thought we were friends, man," Zach said.

"We still are, this right here's just funny."

"God, you suck," Lincoln said.

Stella had stopped her torrent laughter enough to make a statement. "Ok, seriously you guys, I'm sorry. It's not funny anymore."

Jordan showed her the video once again and Stella burst out laughing. "Oh hell yes, it is!"

Groans could be heard from Lincoln and his friends afterwards.

After a few more hours, the gang said their goodbyes to Girl Jordan and moved toward their bikes.

"Y'know," Liam began, "that Girl Jordan is swell."

"Yeah, it is cool to have another girl in our group," Claudia admitted, which got her dirty looks from her male friends. "I-I mean, not that-that there's anything wrong with you guys-"

"Cloudy Storm, you're making it worse," Stella said.

"OK."

"Anyways, wow, I can't believe we did this," Lincoln said. "Actually faking sick and ditching school."

"Jeez Lincoln, you act like it's some kinda naughty, dirty act," Rusty said. "It's not that bad."

"Yeah, and you call me a pussy," Zach mocked.

"You are."

"Up yours, Rusty."

Stella and Claudia rolled their eyes. "Boys, behave," Claudia admonished.

"Yes, mothers," the boys all said in jest.

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