The road ahead was dusty as Vanzilla drove on. Everyone was just about worn out by now, with all of them sleeping except Lori and Lucy.
"How come we didn't stay out in front of Onofredo's last night?" Lucy asked her eldest sister.
"It's a long story," Lori sighed, putting in her best effort to not swerve off the road and possibly crash.
Somehow, Lucy had a feeling something was up. Something had been up with her ever since Lincoln ran off.
"Lori, I know you're concerned about something. I can sense it."
No answer.
"You can talk to me, Lori. We're sisters."
"What if I don't WANT to talk about it?" Lori snapped. "Besides, it's not like I have an older brother out there I can literally run to whenever I feel sad or anything."
"But you have us."
"I'm the oldest. I'M the one who helps YOU."
"Well then, why didn't you help Lincoln when he was feeling down?"
Lori groaned with frustration and slammed her head on the wheel, honking the horn. "Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln... it's always about Lincoln, isn't it?"
Lucy couldn't bear to watch her suffer emotionally like this. "You're ashamed of something... aren't you?"
"Does it matter?" Lori asked sternly.
"Listen, Lori. I'll be honest with you. I can tell there's something deeper going on. You're ACTING angry, but I can see the fear and sorrow in your eyes."
"And? How are you so certain what's going on with me? You don't even know what happened with YOURSELF."
"...what's that supposed to mean?"
"WELP, there's Great Lakes City!" Lori shouted, trying to change the subject. "Wake up and smell the scents of the city, everyone!"
Chandler and the rest of the Loud sisters slowly lifted themselves up. "What are we doing in Great Lakes City...?" asked Luna.
"We're here to see Bobby, obviously," Lola responded, with a slight tone of disgust in her voice.
"I'm almost certain my boo-boo bear can help us," Lori explained. "Now stop complaining and stay out of my business."
She parked the van in front of the Casagrande building, as Bobby sat on the stairs waving.
"Babe?" As Lori got out the front seat, Bobby walked up to meet her. "What are you and your sisters doing here? And... who's that brown haired kid? Where's Lincoln?"
"Lincoln's missing and we're trying to find him," Lori answered. "That's Chandler, the MAIN reason he ran off."
Chandler shrugged. "Sure, Lori, keep telling yourself that..."
"Hey..." Lynn thought of something. "Where's Ronnie Anne?"
"Yeah... that's the problem," Bobby sighed. "Ronnie Anne is missing. We haven't seen her since we went to bed last night."
"Lincoln's little girlfriend?" Chandler chuckled. "Yeah... probably ran off with him or somethin'."
Lynn nudged him. "Don't judge my brother..."
Nonetheless, they all felt hungry right about then. Luna was the first to bring it up. "Hey dude... do you guys have anything we can eat? We're all low on money 'cause we've been spending it on hotels and restaurants."
"Oh, of course!" Bobby answered. "I'll talk to my mom about having a sorta picnic and letting you guys spend the night, so we can make plans for the morning."
"Thanks, Bobby boo-boo bear," Lori took his hand gently. "I promise we'll help you find Ronnie Anne once we're done here."
But as everyone was walking inside to grab some food, Lori just sat down on the stairs looking lonely for some reason.
Bobby (being her boyfriend, of course) noticed her solemn expression. "Babe? Is everything... okay?"
Lori looked out to the horizon. "...I'll talk about it when we eat," she said.
Within a few hours, Bobby and his family had gotten dinner set up at the local city park. Rosa and Hector Casagrande had prepared the main dish - enchiladas. Bobby had made some quick nachos and baked some jalapeno poppers for the appetizers, and Carlota and her brothers CJ and Carlino had set up the placemats and plates for the picnic.
During the meal, Lana and CJ played a game of pirates, with both players seeming to grow stronger with each attack. Carlino tried to flirt with Lori, but she just ignored him. Once he saw Lola brushing her hair and checking in her mirror, though... he was practically starstruck.
"Hey there, good-lookin'," he greeted as he walked up to her. "Are you a model? 'Cause you're super. Una reina superestrella."
"Beat it, creep," Lola pushed him aside bluntly. "I don't have time for you rowdy city rebels who have no idea how to treat a real beauty que-"
She suddenly blushed. Carlino had just taken her hand and kissed it gently. He was kneeling down in front of her, almost like a knight pledging his loyalty to his princess.
"Te serviré toda mi vida si me dejas... Su Alteza Real." (Translation: "I will serve you my whole life if you let me... Your Royal Highness.")
Lola giggled. "I have no idea what you just said, but it sounds adorable!"
Lana and CJ interrupted their romantic interaction just as quickly as it had started, as they bumped into them with their pirate gear. They both became red with fury and started chasing after them.
Lucy was sitting on a bench far away from everyone else. She opened her coffin-shaped purse and pulled out the photo of Lori and the dirty blonde boy, then looked back up at Lori herself, who was sitting down with Bobby.
Lisa sat down next to her. "Lori still won't talk?"
"I've tried multiple times," said Lucy. "I know she's upset about SOMETHING, but she won't tell me what it is."
"It must be really deep..." Lisa looked down at the photo.
"So deep, she'll really only talk to Bobby about it." Lucy crossed her arms. "Sigh. I think we should try at least one more time."
"Well said, elder sister."
Just ahead, Bobby put his arm over Lori's shoulder. "Can you tell me what's going on, babe?"
Lori just stared at the grass.
"...it's about Linus, isn't it?"
"Yeah..." Lori finally responded. "I'm glad I told you about him a while back, honestly. No one else close to me really knows about him, except my parents. But they don't talk about him much anymore. I'm the only one in my house who still struggles with memories of him."
Bobby pulled his girlfriend closer. "Losing people is tough... when my dad passed away, I thought I was pretty much done being happy... until I met you, that is."
Lori smiled slightly. "It literally sucks being the only one in my family who thinks about Linus almost every day..."
"Who's Linus?"
Lori and Bobby jumped with shock. Lucy was right behind them, with Lisa catching up.
"Um... an old friend, duh!" Lori stuttered. "Y'know, he died, I was all sad, and... yeah!"
Lucy wasn't falling for it. "You said, 'it literally sucks being the only one in MY FAMILY who thinks about Linus almost every day.'"
"Well, I'm the only one who knew him... right?"
"We'd expect you to talk to us about a mere friend, but I suppose not. You never talk to us about these things anyway."
"No more beating around the Ilex verticilata," Lisa demanded. "Explanation. NOW."
Lori was almost yelling now. "Linus was just a friend, and that's all there is to it!"
"Then what was this picture doing in your drawer?" Lucy once again pulled out the photo, handing it to Lori, who took a long look and let out a deep sigh.
"OK, OK... we have an older brother. I lied."
"...why?" Lisa glared.
"Shame, Lisa! If you're so smart, why didn't YOU figure it out?"
"I may be smart, but I can't just read your mind like a picture book! You need to tell us these things! You're our ELDEST SISTER!"
The other Loud sisters heard what was going on, and they came running.
Luna was furious. "So we have a big brother we've never even met, and yet you just tell Bobby about him but not us? Not LINCOLN?"
"I dunno, Luna," Luan started to chuckle. "I think they've got some kinda secret BROTHERHOOD goin' on?" She laughed at her pun, but Luna bared her teeth and slapped her across the face.
"LUAN! Can you not make a pun for five minutes? This is SERIOUS!"
"Guys, let Lori breathe at least!" Lynn yelled.
Lucy nodded, then turned back to Lori. "OK... I'm only going to ask you once... what happened to Linus?"
Lori took a deep breath. "It all started when I was just five years old..."
"Linus and I went to the same elementary school. I looked up to him like a hero. He WAS my hero. He comforted me when I was sad or scared, and he always had my back."
"Linus always did well in his classes... at least until he started fifth grade. He was being pushed into things he was having trouble learning, and he was afraid if Mom and Dad found out, he'd get in big trouble with them."
"Then the report cards came out. We were all on our way home from the park, and the report cards had come in the mail. Linus knew his long record of high scores on his assignments had been broken, and he couldn't imagine how Mom and Dad would feel about his bad grades this time."
"Leni was in the car. Luna, Luan, and baby Lynn Jr. were visiting Pop-Pop. Leni was gazing at the wonderful blue sky just ahead, her seat belt loose, and I was resting on Linus's shoulder trying to cheer him up."
"Then the crash happened."
"After the crash, I woke up... and Linus wasn't there anymore. Leni had fallen out of her seat and bumped her head against the front chair. I scrambled to find my beloved brother, but he was nowhere to be found."
Lori finished her story with a wimper. "We never saw Linus again... and Leni had gotten a bad head injury from the incident. She came out alive and well in the end, but she was never the same again. I didn't want to live with sorrow for the rest of my life... so I started telling her that I was the oldest."
"You manipulated Leni like that?" Lucy scolded her.
"If I was gonna be in charge of all my younger siblings, I wanted to look strong! Not like a mourning lost child!"
Lana scowled at her. "Y'know, if you had just told us about all of this BEFORE Lincoln ran away, we'd probably wouldn't be mad right now. But now we've lost a big part of our family because you trust Bobby with your secrets more than you trust us."
"Who's gonna play castle with me now?" Lola added. "Who's gonna listen to Lucy's poems or Luna's songs? Definitely not YOU, because you're so hyperfocused on your dream life with Bobby in the Bahamas!"
Lori straight up snapped. "OH! Lincoln's so much more fun! Lincoln's so much cooler! Lincoln this, Lincoln that, Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln!"
"Wait..." Lucy tried to understand. "Is that why you yell at Lincoln so much? Because he reminds you of... him?"
"Why do you need to know? Can't the SPIRITS tell you? Besides, we're trying to find Lincoln anyway, and once we bring him back I'll be a hero to this family... and Mom and Dad will be proud of me!"
"So let me get this straight... the only reason you want to bring him home is so our parents don't see you as a failure?"
"Well, not necessarily! I already failed Linus... I don't want to fail my parents too! You all look up to me, and I don't want to los-"
"Oh, PLEASE don't act like you give a crap!" Lynn yelled. "All you care about is your oh-so-precious boyfriend! Man, you might as well be married to that phone considering how often you use it compared to spending time with us."
"WHAT?" Lori was practically screaming now. "It's not like YOU girls haven't done bad stuff yourselves! Luan, you almost got us KILLED on April Fool's Day! Lola, you mercilessly attack people when they disagree with you! Lynn, you're always shoving your victories in people's faces because you think you're better than the rest of us!"
"Yeah, we get it, we've all done bad stuff!" Lynn responded blatantly. "That doesn't mean you get to constantly shame us for it! That's why Lincoln ran off, isn't it?"
"Now hold on JUST a minute!"
"Babe, please..." Bobby tried to hold her back, but she pushed him away and stormed towards Lynn.
"You think I LIKE being a jerk? Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to keep this family under control? And with Linus gone, it's harder! No one ever checks on ME, nobody asks how I'M doing, no one ever cares how I feel. It's always 'Lori, help me with my kid problems! Lori, could you drive me to the mall or this concert or beauty pageant or whatever? Lori, I need your comfort because someone at school hurt my feelings!' Well, what about MY feelings, Lynn? What about ME?! Do any of you even love me at all? Huh?!"
All of her sisters, and the Casagrandes, just stood there in silence.
Chandler kept his hands in his pockets nonchalantly. "We can all learn something from all this, I guess."
Lori growled. "Well, what did YOU learn, Chandler?"
But he just shrugged, smirking a bit.
"Exactly! You didn't learn ANYTHING! Because you refuse to see things from your victim's side of the story!"
"Sounds just like you, honestly," Lucy retorted. "Except you're doing it to your own family, which is far worse."
"Yeah, what she said," Chandler confirmed.
"And be warned. Bobby doesn't love you for who you are around us. He loves you for who you are on the phone."
Lori was now up in Lucy's face. "Just leave me alone, you pathetic emo brat!"
All of the other sisters gasped. "...excuse me?" Lucy was growing stiff with fury.
"You heard me!" Lori shouted.
Lucy took the photo away from her and put it back in her purse, walking away. "Fine. I'm sorry I ever tried to help you."
"Well, I'M sorry you were ever adopted!"
The whole park fell into silence. Not a gasp, or a scream, or anything.
Then Lucy started to sniffle a bit.
She tried to cover it up, slowly trudging back to the Casagrande building where she could cry with no one else watching.
"Now look what you've done!" Luna yelled. "You just shattered everything Lucy has ever believed in!"
Lana, Lola, and Lisa in particular couldn't believe what they had just heard. Lucy was adopted. They had so many questions.
Luan looked like she was NOT going to crack a pun.
And she didn't.
"Lori... by hiding all these truths from us, you only make us feel worse the longer it takes for us to find out. And for what reason? So you can be worshipped as the so-called 'oldest child' who can never do anything wrong? We're your sisters, you could have just told us a long time ago and we'd all be just fine. And you know what? Yeah, I think Lincoln is definitely cooler and more fun than you, because Lincoln cares about everyone. All you care about is yourself."
Bobby just got up and left the area, leaving Lori to face her sisters.
Lori sighed, not with irritation, but with what sounded like acceptance that she has lost.
"I'll go now. I don't want to hurt anyone anymore. Maybe I'll find Lincoln... and if I do, I'll be sure to buy him plane tickets to get him back to Royal Woods... so you guys can be happy with him... without me..."
Lori picked up her bags and started to slump away. Somehow, Luna now realized the true sorrow she was going through. "Lori... wait..."
But it was too late. She wasn't turning back, probably never would.
"I'm gonna be real..." Lola stated with a sigh. "Lori had a point. I don't think we're any better than she is when it comes to appreciating Lincoln when he's around... "
Luna nodded, as she turned and ran down to the Casagrande building to try and talk to Lucy, with Lisa following close by.
Lori just kept walking. Even with her many efforts to being the perfect big sister, she had still managed to fail.
She needed Linus now more than ever.