Next day, at the Santiago Household...
Ronnie Anne slept peacefully in her bed as the sunlight slowly entered her room through the window. She soon woke up when she was called by her brother:
"Ronnie! Remember you have school today!"
The tomboy yawned, stretched for a moment, got off her bed... and watched to her horror that her clothes had been replaced by Cristina's everyday blue outfit.
"What the heck happened to my clothes?!" the tomboy exclaimed in a panic.
Obviously, as Ronnie soon found out, there was only one conclusion to reach:
"Cristina!"
Meanwhile, at the Johnson Household...
The redhead, wearing Ronnie's outfit, pulled off a bunch of poses in front of a mirror, blowing kisses and winks at her reflection. And then her mother called:
"Cristina, you need to go to school! Get done dressing and move out!"
"I'll be there in a minute, mom!" the redhead responded, right before turning back to her reflection. "I still need to pull off some good shots."
In the middle of her narcissistic show-off, Cristina got an idea:
"Now, I wonder how my little puppets are doing..."
Another day...
Another potential problem for the Loud House to deal with. The first Loud to wake up was Lincoln, who immediately noticed the gift box Cristina left behind. Of course, since he already saw it last night, he wasn't particularly surprised to see it.
"Okay, time to find out what's inside this thing," he said before taking the gift... and hesitating. After all, he didn't want to bring even more problems to his family through carelessness. "I wonder from who it is, though?"
He took a look at the note, but all it read was:
From: Ronnie Anne Santiago
To: Lincoln Loud
"Huh? Ronnie sent me a gift? When?" Linc thought, narrowing his eyes and glancing at the gift box.
This all seemed pretty suspicious.
But nevertheless, the boy opened the gift box. Hey, if Ronnie sent it, then it couldn't be anything bad, right? Well, inside the gift was basically a letter, apparently filled to the brim with... something. On the letter was written:
This is what "they" think we would do. This is what "they" make to please themselves. This is what "they", regardless of our opinions, will make to satisfy their needs.
I hope you understand. Open the letter, and share my anger... and pain.
Advice: Have some bleach nearby.
Linc was left confused, but it would be better if he opened the letter and saw the contents for himself. He shrieked in horror upon seeing the content: A bunch of pictures of him and Ronnie Anne, and ocassionally some or all of his sisters. However, two specific details made him shriek:
They were naked. And doing lewd things. Naked lewd things.
"What the heck is up with these images?! And why would Ronnie send me these things?" Linc took another look at the images, then at the message written in the letter. "I mean, they're disturbing, no doubt about that, but I don't really see how these are supposed to make me understand her pain and anger. I might need the bleach, though."
Lincoln put the pictures back on the letter, and then he closed it before he heard a shriek coming from Lola and Lana's room. He ran there as fast as he could, and once he went in, he saw Lola jumping on her bed up and down while holding a pair of tickets.
"Lola, what's going on?!" Lincoln asked, covering his ears for any incoming screaming.
"I just opened a gift box I found near me, which was apparently sent by an admirer, and it had two tickets to the Blarney Rangers show in Dairyland Amoosement Park this weekend!" the diva explained, before screaming once more. "Do you know how much I love that show?!"
"I'm sure I can't know about something if I didn't know it existed before," Linc replied, rolling his eyes. "Speaking of which-"
And then Lana woke up. "Good morning everybody," she said, right before noticing the gift and reading the "From" and "to" part. "Aw, it's a gift from Luan. I wonder what she gave me."
Lana opened the gift box, and saw it was a Jack-in-a-Box type of game. The girl slowly pulled the lever and waited as the music played, and then slowed down... and down... and down... until it ceased to play at all.
Suddenly, the box opened and a demonic, grinning mask of Lynn popped out as maniacal cackling played. Lana, predictably enough, shrieked and cried at the top of her lungs as she reeled back and hit her bed, with the mask returning to the box as the tomboy twitched, clearly traumatized from what just happened.
And she wasn't the only one: Lincoln stood in shock, while Lola ran after her aid as soon as possible.
"Lana, please! Talk to me!" Lola pleaded, grabbing and shaking her twin sister. "Please, tell me something, anything!"
"Good to see Luan's sense of humor still sucks," Lana blurted before falling unconscious.
"Something tells me Luan didn't send that gift..." Lincoln thought, narrowing his eyes as he looked at his letter again...
Meanwhile, with Luna and Luan...
Luan slept peacefully before she was woken up by someone punching the wall. Once she got down, she saw it was Luna punching the wall with one hand, while in the other she held a letter. Luan snatched the letter and read it to herself:
Hey, babe, I heard you and Luan decided to break up.
So, how about you, me, on a date? At Dairyland Amoosement Park.
XOXO, "C".
And then Luna punched the wall again. "I can't believe that guy's nerve!" she yelled, startling the comedian. "Yes, I broke up with Luan, but that doesn't give this "C" guy the slightest excuse to try and date me!"
Luan went to Luna's side and put a hand on the future rockstar's shoulder, causing her to turn around and flinch. "L-Love! I mean, L-Luan! I didn't knew you... I woke you up, didn't I?" Luna said, earning a nod from the prankster. "I'm sorry, I'm just so upset about that letter the gift box had. Can you believe it?"
Luan looked away for a moment before using hand gestures to suggest something. Surprisingly enough, Luna understood perfectly well: "You want me to give this date a shot?"
Luan nodded.
"Well, I guess if you want me to, but I'll have to meet this "C" person in... person, before I decide anything!" Luna stated, with slight doubt on her part. "Anyway, what did your gift box have babe? I mean, sister?"
The comedian went to her gift box, took it from her bed, then opened it to take out... an acoustic guitar. However, while Luna visibly winced at the sight, Luan took a deep breath, sat down, and started to play it... very badly.
"Wait, Luan!" Luna went to Luan's side and sat next to her. "Here, let me show you how it's done."
Luan gave Luna a worried look and refused to hand her the guitar. Looks like the rock girl forgot a certain event.
"Okay, well, let's start with something simple then," Luna corrected, scratching the back of her head. "Try a do-re-mi."
Luan nodded and practiced as she and Luna exchanged blushes and-presumably-smiles, shortly followed by blushing and focusing firmly on the instrument.
Lori and Leni's bedroom...
Leni glanced between the letter she got from the gift box and a sweating, terrified Lori, because of a specific detail revealed by the letter:
Lori is Storge.
"L-Leni, I-I-I can explain!" Lori exclaimed, catching Leni's attention. "Listen, while you were away dealing with Luna and Luan's date, Carol Pingry came to me and told me that I was the new Storge, right before she turned into Luna and got beaten up by the real Luna!"
Leni closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she rubbed her forehead.
"Did that make sense?" Lori asked with a nervous smile. "It didn't make sense, did it?"
"There are others," Leni stated, giving Lori a serious look.
Lori, understandably, had no idea what she was talking about. "What?"
"Lori, do you know about the four types of love?" Leni asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, the four types of loves are Agape, Eros, Philia and Sto-" Leni narrowed her eyes as Lori put the pieces together. "Wait, what?! Are you seriously implying that there are people other than me named after the four loves?!"
"Indeed, but the most important question right now is, like: Who is Philia, Eros, and Agape?" Leni added. "We know you are Storge, but the rest are a mystery. Perhaps, we should keep an eye out for potential suspects."
"Huh, you're not sounding like a complete idiot for once," Lori remarked, rubbing her arm. "I'm not sure I like this way you're acting, Leni."
A vein briefly appeared in Leni's forehead as she gave Lori a murderous look, but the teenager quickly composed herself and said, "That's how you know things are dire."
"Kids! Remember you have school!" the Loud parents shouted in unison.
In that instant, all of the Louds rushed to get prepared and immediately bolted straight for school... except for Lisa and Lily. The latter 'cause she was a baby, and the former since she had nothing to do today, nor at the moment.
The little genius woke up and immediately noticed the gift box. She opened it with caution and saw it was-what a surprise-another letter, this one also from the "C" person. All it read was:
Check Lincoln's VR game. You may like what you find.
The small brunette threw the paper away... and promptly went to Lincoln's bedroom and boot up the game, which revealed the newly-unlocked Lincoln route.
"He did it!" she thought, gaining a proud smile. "Although, I wonder how it is like..."
The little genius scratched her chin as she thought about the situation...
At the school...
Lincoln arrived and saw Clyde and Ronnie talking about something, with the tomboy still wearing Cristina's clothes. When he tried to butt into the conversation, however, they quickly acted as if they had just met.
"What were you two talking about?" Linc asked, tilting his head. "And why is Ronnie wearing Cristina's clothes?"
"Nothing, what makes you think we were talking about something?" Clyde replied.
"Don't butt in on stuff that don't involve you, Lincoln," Ronnie said, blushing as she looked away. "As for the second part... that's a long story."
And just as Lincoln said his rebuttal, he spotted Cristina walking towards her locker, still wearing Ronnie Anne's clothing. "Be right back," he said before dashing straight for Cristina.
The girl smiled as Lincoln reached her and grabbed her arm to prevent her from escaping. The redhead, and Ronnie and Clyde, looked rather surprised at this action. Making things worse was that a couple of students also noticed and started to gather around the pair.
"Cristina, let me ask you something," Linc said. "This morning, some of my sisters and I wound up getting presents. Did you send them?"
The redhead refused to answer, right before shedding a couple of tears as she tried to break free. However, Linc's grip proved to be too strong.
"You're not getting away from me this time!" Lincoln declared. "You've been running away for too long, and now that I have you here, I'm not letting you go!"
And then, Cristina used her free hand to punch Lincoln, making him flinch and release her... right before he recovered almost instantly. The students all gasped in shock.
Cristina, in particular, looked almost flabbergasted. Not that she was the strongest girl around the school, Ronnie owns the title, but the fact Lincoln recovered so fast from her attack greatly angered the redhead.
"Cristina, we both know I'm not a fighter," Linc said as the redhead tried to find a way to escape. "I speak with my words, not with my fists. All I'm asking you, is if you really did send the presents to my house. So, did you or did you not send them?"
The redhead refused to answer, and gave Lincoln a defiant glare.
"Come on, Cristina, give me an answer! Don't make me do something I'll regret!"
Same result, and by this point, Ronnie and Clyde exchanged worried looks, getting a feeling they knew what was coming next.
"Okay, if you're not going to tell me anything... then you forced me to do this."
Lincoln went forward to Cristina, grabbed her arms and, just as Mrs. Johnson arrived at the scene, Lincoln gave her a passionate kiss, soon followed by the woman, Clyde and Ronnie gasping in sheer horror, while the student circle laughed and pointed at the pair. Not helping matters was that Lincoln held Cristina tightly so she wouldn't escape.
As the kiss went on, Cristina looked around to see the kids laughing at her shortly before seemingly transforming into shadowy figures with white masks, with their laughter echoing in her head as Cristina looked at the ceiling and cried, hoping that the event would end soon.
And it did end soon, for Lincoln separated from Cristina and the laughter stopped as the redhead stood paralyzed, her eyes having turned empty and soulless. Ronnie and Clyde went forward and saw Lincoln walk closer to Cristina, with the classmates' mockery slowly ceasing as he got closer... and closer... and closer...
Until, without warning, the redhead snapped at the boy and started to strangle him.
"Lincoln!" Clyde, Ronnie and Mrs. Johnson exclaimed in unison.
The trio immediately went to the fight and broke the duo apart, just as the fight got intense. Lincoln caught his breath as Ronnie and Clyde dragged him away, while Mrs. Johnson held back Cristina, who hissed and clawed all around the place like a cat.
"Fight's over! Everybody return to what you were doing!" Mrs. Johnson ordered.
The disappointed students left en masse, and Mrs. Johnson took her daughter with her as Linc leaned against his locker and calmed down. Luckily enough, Lincoln looked perfectly fine... that is, outside of the large scars in both his cheeks.
Once she was out of sight, Linc said, "Thanks guys, I really a-"
"You freaking idiotic braindead albino punk!" Ronnie said right before giving Lincoln a black eye. "You gave me a heart attack! Why did you kiss Cristina?!"
"She wouldn't tell me anything, I had to teach her what would happen if she didn't give me an answer!" Lincoln argued back. "And a kiss was the only thing I could think of!"
Ronnie got ready to throw another punch, but she then calmed down and leaned against her locker, clearly exasperated at the turn of events. "Hey, Ronnie Anne," Linc rubbed his shoulder and looked at the ground with regret. "About the kiss-"
"Yeah, that was the dumbest thing you've done in a while, you know?" Ronnie replied, putting her hands in her pockets, "After all that Cristina has done to you and your sisters, it should be pretty obvious to you that messing with her is not a good idea."
"How was I supposed to know she was going to react like that?" Linc replied. "I just wanted to learn if she sent the gifts or not, but she wouldn't answer me."
Ronnie remained quiet before finally saying, "She sent the gifts."
Linc turned back and asked again, "Did she make them all? 'Cause mine was said to have been made by you and-"
"No, I did make that one," Ronnie answered, sounding like she regreted her action. "The rest were made by her."
The boy looked at the ground as Ronnie walk away, but not before throwing him a steak to use as an eye bandage. "Well, now you kissed two girls," Clyde remarked. "I'm not sure about you, but I don't think that's as good as it sounds."
"It's not..." Linc bitterly stated.
"You have to be more careful next time, Lincoln," Clyde remarked, though he changed his tone to a more supportive one when he saw his friend start to sulk. "Listen, how about sometime after school, we hang out to clear your mind a bit?"
Lincoln just nodded, then promptly left, leaving behind Clyde to put his hands in his pockets and think about the situation.
"This really was a mistake..."
Meanwhile, with Cristina...
The girl, still crying over the kiss, sat down and listened as her mother scolded her. "Could you please explain to me what happened between you and Lincoln that wound up with you two kissing and you strangling him?"
Cristina didn't respond. After all, why would she need to? Her mother saw the event, she should know full well what happened: Lincoln kissed her, humilliated her, and she would have punished him had it not be for her mother and those meddling kids. That's the full story, no more, no less.
"Cristina Johnson, I can hear, and I know you can talk!" Mrs. Johnson growled, slamming her ruler on her daughter's desk. "Plus, I don't have time to waste, so tell me what happened!"
And then, the unbelievable happened: Cristina spoke with a hint of fear.
"Lincoln came asking me something I wasn't comfortable with," she said with a sorrowful tone, clearly trying to gather sympathy. "And when I couldn't answer him, he had the audacity to kiss me in front of our classmates."
"And what were you thinking by strangling him afterwards?!" Mrs. Johnson scowled.
The girl flinched at the yelling, but she managed to recompose herself quickly enough. It's not that she wasn't used to this kind of response from her mother-it's the only response she's gotten since her plan started-but the mere fact that she had failed to manipulate her sent a chill up her spine.
Not that she had manipulated people before now. Nuh uh.
"I wasn't thinking logically by then. I was too angry at the scenery around us," Cristina twiddled her fingers and looked at her desk, remembering how the students laughed. "The people surrounded us. They laughed. They pointed at us. I think I even found a couple of them snapping pictures of it."
And by this moment, the girl forced herself to remember the event: many people shrouded in the darkness, with no notable features other than white smiling masks. But there was one guy she could see: Lincoln. And he wasn't exactly a sight she would like to see anytime soon.
But then, the girl was literally slapped back to reality.
"But that didn't happen! I mean the laughs and pointing, that did happen, but nobody took a picture of anything!" Mrs. Johnson met Cristina face-to-face, with the girl starting to cry once more. "Do you have anything in your defense?"
The girl stuttered and looked around as she desperately tried to think of something to say. Normally, she would probably either brush off or only give the smallest of hints, but those were not an option in this situation. For she was talking to her mother, and there was no way out of this one.
Either she defended herself, or kept her mouth shut. And the woman wouldn't accept the latter option.
"It's his fault this happened in the first place. It's always his fault whenever something happens!" Cristina whined, slamming her fists into the desk. "You should be blaming him, not me!"
With that said and done, Mrs. Johnson got up and took a deep breath before stating: "We'll talk about this later, for now, go back to your classes. And when we get back home, you're grounded. You may take a couple minutes to take a breather, but after 5 minutes pass, I want you in the classroom, paying attention."
The redhead gaped at the statement, with her face frozen with that expression as Mrs. Johnson left the room. And then, to add insult to the injury, she returned only to give the redhead a simple message:
"And give Ronnie back her clothing! It's not okay to steal clothes!"
With that said, the woman left for good, and the girl's expression changed to a furious one as she processed what just happened: First she's essentially grounded in school, and now she was being forced to return Ronnie's clothing? Why? She looked so much better in those clothes than Ronnie did!
Then her expression changed again, this time to a somber, defeated one as she put a hand in her cheek and looked at her reflection in the window.
However, the reflection looked vastly different than the real deal: The eyes were bulging and bloodshot, her hair was a frenzied mess, and instead of tears, she was crying blood. She also sported a demented ear-to-ear smile, and was basically stuck in a sraightjacket.
But even then, they both said the same thing:
"Damn it..."
-Next Chapter Preview-
"Listen, last time we went to a vacation Bobby paid for us, things... didn't go as well as we had hoped," Lola explained, with Lynn and Lana shivering in response. "Maybe we should think about this whole deal before we take a decision."
"Okay, who wants to go to Dairyland?" Lori asked.
Lori immediately lifted her hand, followed by a hesitant Lynn, Lisa, Lana and Luna, which was soon followed by Luan and Lola raising their hands too. "And who wants to stay here?" Leni asked.
The blonde raised her hand, followed by Lucy and Lincoln. "By the way, when Lori asked who wanted to go, she meant legitimately and not because someone else will go with her," Leni explained, and Lori nodded in agreement.
Lola and Luan promptly raised their hands for staying at home. "Huh, looks like we got a tie," Lori remarked, putting her hand in her hips. "So, how do we break the tie?"
"We'll do that for you."
Everybody turned around and saw Mr. and Mrs. Loud standing nearby, arms folded behind their backs. "Oh hi, we haven't seen you in a while," Leni obliviously remarked.