Sup dawg. This is an alternate version of "Stupid Soup" that has some very apparent differences to the "official" version. At the recommendation of my boy Heitomos, I decided this version was just way too… Well… You'll just have to see:)
Please enjoy!
"Just what's so special about the special soup?" Carol Pingrey thinks as she follows Luna into the Loud house kitchen.
All thirteen Louds, and their apparent regular guest in Clyde, ritualistically huddle around and converse amongst each other as they get servings of the so-called "special soup." The labeling of "special soup" from Luna threw Carol off the first time she heard it, and she hasn't been able to shake off her suspicion since then.
While the others are all engaging in casual conversation about miscellaneous topics, Carol and her beloved Luna are silent. Despite the nice, fairly intimate moment they shared a short while ago, the former can't help but feel like anything she could possibly say would be forced and awkward.
So she decides it's probably best to say nothing… which gives her ample opportunity to overthink the soup.
Yes, she's about to have a home cooked meal, and the prospect would make her joyful in a normal setting. Given her lack of one since Mom and Dad opened the studio, however, and it's bittersweet.
On top of that, there are fourteen of them, and one little her. Sure, they're all smiling (except for creepy Lucy), but just why are they so happy? Is the soup really that great? So great that Luna would use it as her excuse to invite Carol over?
But what about the way her family is getting to her, and the way she kept apologizing? Surely she anticipated that to a degree- she even said so in the car. So, the soup must be worth the trouble of hanging out here as opposed to casa Pingrey.
"But why?!"
She is finally next in line, just after Luna, to get a helping. Luna briefly turns and smiles to her, then goes about her way in getting a seat at the dining table.
She looks to the pot full of what she's hoping is non-GMO hamburger and hopefully organic cooked vegetables, and the tantalizing aroma glides its way into her nostrils.
"Oh man… That smells… Good…" she thinks as she disregards her antipathy and scoops up a hardy helping.
"Okay Carol, lighten up. It's just soup? And I'm sure it IS worth whatever trouble for Luna to invite me over. It has to be! She likes me too, right?" she tells herself as she goes to have a seat at the table by her inamorata.
As she sits, Luna meets her with another little smile, and Carol smiles back.
"Right."
She sees all the other Louds sitting and getting settled in, all with little grins of their own as they continue conversation. The mother and father are talking to one another- almost whispering, and then they look to their new guest.
"That's Carol," Mrs. Rita Loud tells him with a smile.
"Ahhhh…" Mr. Lynn Loud, Sr. responds with a wide smile of his own, likes he's heard about her before. "Well hello, Carol."
She can't help but glance to Luna, maybe just for a little comfort. Again, she smiles for her, and again, she smiles back.
"Hello Mr. Loud. Thank you for having me," well-mannered Carol tells him back.
"Oh, it's no trouble at all…" he follows.
"Yeah! We've heard everything about you from Lori!" Leni excitedly proclaims. Then she leans over to whisper for only her to hear. "Sorry to hear you got that stick up your butt. It had to hurt being up there for so long, huh?…"
Despite her efforts, everyone hears her.
Carol furrows her brow. "Excuse me?"
Luna nervously cringes, and so does Lori. "Heh heh… how about them Roosters?"
Lynn is ready to jump up and share her two cents on the sporting matter, but Lisa stops her. "It's a manner of speaking," she informs her older sister, who promptly sits back down.
Luna leans in from her other side, "That was before you called her and apologized," she whispers.
"What?! I- heh heh, I didn't call her and apologize?" Carol stammers, feeling totally, unfairly caught off guard.
"Huh? But Lori said you'd need an operation to get the big stick out of your-" Leni starts up, but Lori smacks a hand over her mouth.
"Let's not dwell on the past… We've got this- beautiful meal to look forward to!... Right, Carol?" she contends, really just checking to see if Carol hates her now.
Under different circumstances, ones where gorgeous Luna and her lovely family aren't present, Carol may take exception to the new information.
But, she decides that Lori's right. The past is the past…
Plus, she's kind weirded out about how everyone's so interested in the soup. Like, really interested.
It'd be fine if maybe they'd stop staring at her and dig in… but, they don't. They just… keep… staring… smiling these creepy wide-eyed smiles like they're waiting for a black hole sun to wash away the rain.
Carol tenses up. "O-kay… This is awkward…"
She turns to Luna, who's smiling the same weird smile. "Well?"
"Well what?" Carol simply utters.
"Aren't you gonna eat?"
She looks down to her soup, and feels the warmth rising up to ghost her face.
"Uhm… Yeah…"
She takes hold of her spoon, and sees everyone still looking at her. She suddenly feels very uncomfortable sitting here with all of them.
Especially Clyde. Clyde weirds her out.
"Your soup's going to get cold, Carol. You really should take a bite!" Mr. Loud giddily tells her.
"Pleeeeease!" Both twins say, even clasping their hands together as they beg…
Carol feels her hand quivering as she picks up the spoon and eases it to the rim of her bowl. Despite the warmth from the dish, she feels cold and clammy.
"Maybe I should just go home…"
"Uhm… I think maybe I left the oven on," Carol fibs, trying to think of an escape.
Before she can make too much haste, Luna Loud rests her soft hand on her thigh.
Her breath hitches, and she almost drops her spoon.
She wanders her eyes down to see if the hand is really there, and it really is.
"Holy…"
Luna leans in, and with an alluring smile, whispers:
"Come on, babe… For me?"
"Babe?"
She forces herself to come back to reality to meet her deep brown eyes looking back to her with this irresistibly striking gaze. It's almost too much for poor Ms. Pingrey.
"Anything for you, Luna…" she wants to say, but she's literally dumbed by the gesture.
So, instead she dips her spoon into the soup, and scoops up a nice chunk of the stuff. As she does, Luna leans over and blows on it, all while fixing her eyes on Carol.
If there weren't children in the room~
Finally, the girl takes a bite of the soup. It tastes as good as it smells.
"Mmmmm…" she happily hums, looking up to see all the Louds still smiling.
Only… something's changed.
Where they were just creepily eager with their beaming smiles, now they're sinisterly sneering.
"Uh oh," Carol thinks. Uh oh indeed.
She turns to face Luna, and she looks just as devious. She chuckles to herself. "Sorry, dude… I should've told you it's Dad's special sleepy soup…"
She feels her heart begin to race, and actually drops the spoon now as she realizes just what this means for her.
She stands up from her chair, and grasps her chest as the others begin evilly laughing.
"Nighty night, Carol!" Lori taunts.
"Poo… Poo!" baby Lily says with a demonic voice.
The room begins spinning and turns black, and her head grows heavy and hazy. All the faces around her are so mean and scary, and she feels sick with betrayal and fear. "No… Please no…"
She looks to Luna again, who actually meets her with a look of concern, maybe even confusion.
"Dude? Dude…"
She comes to, and realizes that she literally just imagined all of that weird Texas Chainsaw stuff.
"Dude?" she hears Luna say again, and she looks to her. It's the real Luna, with real concern on her face. "Are you okay?"
She takes a moment to look around at everyone, and they're all minding their own and engaging in further casual conversation as they chow down on the special soup that evidently doesn't make people go crazy.
Even weird ol' Clyde seems well enough.
She fully convalesces now, and returns her focus to Luna.
"Uhm… Yeah… I'm fine…" she simply says, and she looks back down to her soup. It's still warm.
"What was I thinking?... I should trust Luna enough to know she wouldn't do anything to hurt me… God, Carol… Get over yourself!…"
She bucks up, and grabs hold of her spoon for real now. She glances over at Luna, who's casually eating her dinner.
It's all the motivation she needs to actually take a bite of what is almost certainly a normal and delicious family meal. So she does. And lo and behold, it's some pretty darn good soup
"Mmmm…" she hums for real now, "This is very good, Mr. Loud."
"Nmm, why thank you," he reciprocates with a cheek full of the stuff.
She looks once more to Luna, who just looks back with another sweet little smile.
"The part where she called me babe was nice though…"
She just smiles back before relaxing enough to enjoy her meal.
The minutes go by, and it allows Carol some time to just observe what it's like to be a member of the Loud family for an evening. Everyone takes turns talking about their day, sharing stories about friends, extracurricular activities, and showing genuine interest in each other's lives with comments and questions. There's a lot of smiling, and quite a few laughs from every chair, including both Carol's and Luna's.
But as their guest reaches the bottom of her bowl, this sullen feeling comes to her. Even though Lynn, Sr. and Lynn, Jr. have both done well to acknowledge her presence with some questions about golf and the two girls' journalism project, she feels like something is missing.
Her eyes make their way over to Lily being fed by her mother from her high chair. The way the child brightly smiles, and the way Mrs. Loud smiles back at her with this rosiness in her cheeks…
It makes her miss having a family of her own…
She checks her phone, just to see if maybe Mom or Dad has tried to call or text. Unsurprisingly, neither one could be bothered.
She quietly sighs to herself, accepting that things won't be like they were before- probably ever again.
But when she sees that baby's smile, the way all these people love each other, and the stup- beautiful freckled face of the girl she likes…
She smiles at the thought that, it can be better.
It's a miracle… Carol finally helps Luna finish her Trigonometry homework.
The two teenagers stole away to the garage after finishing their special soup- without incident. After some awkward small talk about the weather of all things, Carol got busy helping Luna work through her cosines and tangents, thankful that she could focus on math and not… other things…
After completing the final exercise for the assignment, both girls stand up from their padded spot on the floor and stretch.
"Dude… Thanks so much for helping me. I mean, the numbers I understand- it's all the other crazy stuff that bugs me out," Luna tells Carol.
"Hey, it's no big. It'd help if we didn't have such a crappy teacher," Carol quips with a snarky scoff.
"Right," Luna simply agrees, and they share a weak little laugh before the infamous awkward silence makes itself known.
Carol rubs her arm, Luna rubs her neck. They look anywhere but to each other.
Luckily for Carol, it's Luna to speak first.
"So…"
"So…" Carol repeats with a little shrug.
Luna rubs her neck again, and paces around a little before following up.
"Uhm… So what are you gonna do for the rest of the night?... I mean, are you like- heading out soon?"
"Oh…" Carol voices, just sort of letting it out.
"Do I have to go home?"
No matter how hard she tries, she just can't meet her brown eyes. It just makes her too nervous.
"Well…" she begins, rubbing the back of her neck now. "I actually hadn't thought about it…"
Why would she? This was the only thing she had to look forward to: soup and Luna. And now… just like their- whatever it was on Saturday, this too is coming to an end. No more Alan Jackson, no more being weirded out by Clyde, no more mushy apologies that lead to skin-to-skin contact…
No more Luna… Just Carol alone with her thoughts in her big empty house.
But, as much as it sucks, she tells herself that she should just try to enjoy what time she has left this evening with her new favorite person.
"I guess I'll probably just- go home and watch a movie or something… Maybe get caught up on homework…" she tells Luna, trying to stay strong.
"Oh…" Luna simply responds with… not very much excitement.
Carol waits for more, but she says nothing else. Luna just looks to the floor, fidgeting her hands together like… like maybe she wishes she could say something else, but she can't.
It makes Carol feel like she needs to say something else, something perfect to just let Luna know how she feels- everything she feels.
But she knows she can't. It's all so sudden, and if she tried, she'd likely just say something stupid and ruin the image Luna has of her.
Still, she knows she has to say more, even if she's falling apart at the seams.
"I uh- doubt my Mom and Dad will come home. So I'll have time for that stuff… And… I don't think any of my friends will wanna see me… So…"
Luna just nervously winces what's supposed to be a smile.
"I'm blowing this… Why the heck did I even bring that up?... She doesn't wanna hear about my problems…"
"Why- Why do you say that?" Luna says with a stutter. "I mean, did something happen, or what?"
Carol looks to her, despite the trepidation. "Or… does she?"
She thinks it over for a moment. "Maybe she's just asking to be nice. Or she wants to know me better… Maybe she doesn't really want me to go either, and this is just her way of keeping conversation going… Ugh, I don't know… But I honestly don't even care. She's asking, and that's good enough for me…"
"Man… This is gonna be hard. I'll come off as some kind of hypocrite or something. And what if she gets- turned off? Like, I don't want her to think I'm asking for a pity party…"
And because of these thoughts, she decides she's going to keep her woes to herself.
She starts gathering up her things. "It's nothing…"
As she puts her books and notes inside of her backpack, she feels Luna's eyes upon her. She pretends it doesn't bother her, but she just wants to explode.
"I'm sorry Luna… I wish I could just tell you I like you, but I just can't…"
"Too bad I'm out of data- it's gonna be a long night without Fletnix…"
"Hey, C," Luna says, looking at her with contagious nervous energy. Carol stops herself, and looks up to meet her dauntingly beautiful brown eyes.
"…You know, you don't have to go just yet if you don't want to," she continues. "I mean, if you've got stuff to do or like, you just don't want to- I understand…"
It takes everything the Bold Navy clad girl has not to smile the stupidest, widest smile of all smiledom. The "Hallelujah" chorus plays in her head.
But she plays it cool. "Uhm… sure…" she says, and she hurriedly finishes getting her things together before standing up straight and dusting off her pants. "That sounds cool. I mean- yeah, yeah!... I like hanging out with you!..."
Luna smiles. "Hey, cool… Actually, if you want to, you could just- stay the night if you wanted? I'm sure the 'rents won't mind…"
Stupidest smile of all smiledom. "Hall-elujah!"
Luna giggles, and Carol realizes she's failed to contain her enthusiasm.
But she honestly doesn't care. This is a best-case scenario: no lonely house, no time for sad thoughts… Just Luna, Luna, Luna!
"You want me to stay the night?" she all but blurts out.
Luna keeps smiling. "Well- yeah. Yeah I do… It'll totally be cool. We can watch a movie or something, I can see if Lori will let you borrow some PJ's… Saaay… We could maybe even have a little jam sesh with the violin! I never got to see you play…"
"Yeah, that last one's not happening," Carol thinks, but all that comes out is a happy little giggle of her own.
All those bad feelings have just wooshed out the window! If she was any better, Lisa might try to clone her.
Looking at Luna's pretty smiling face just makes it all the better.
"She's so amazing… I swear, it's like- just when I think maybe I've seen the best of her, she surprises me again…"
"If only I knew that when I said those things about her…"
"Luna… Thanks."
She winces. "Heh… For what?"
"…Just, for everything. I mean, this is gonna sound so lame, but you're so cool… Like, even after all that crap I said to Whitney, you've still been so nice to me."
"Hey, I already told you I'm over that, man."
"I know, and I appreciate it," Carol says, skittishly clasping her hands together before her. "But, you don't get it…" she says, and she sighs.
Luna raises her brow, and Carol has to look away for a moment to work up more nerve.
"Here we go…"
"The other day when we had detention- the second time," she's sure to clarify, and Luna coolly nods. "…When I got outside the school, I heard my- friends talking about me," she begins, her smile faded.
"…They said that they didn't really like me anymore, and that they didn't miss hanging out with me…"
Luna waits a moment to be sure she's finished, then she reaches out to put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Dude… The heck with them. Who cares what they think?" she says.
Carol's smile returns, and she rests her hand on top of Luna's. It feels really nice.
"I know… I just, I realize now that- that I've been needing to make changes in my life."
She looks to Luna's eyes, and she smiles back.
"I'm not so good with mushy stuff," she quips with a little chuckle.
Carol chuckles too. "I'm not either… I guess I'm just trying to say that- you know…"
"I rock?" Luna finishes for her with a devious little grin.
Carol just smiles.
"Yeah… You rock."
They just look at one another for a moment, sharing these warm, lovely smiles…
But, as Luna said, she doesn't do too well with "mushy stuff." So she breaks her hand away from Carol.
"Heh heh… So, you're staying?"
Carol pretends like she's reconsidering as she dons a playful thinking face, but she's wholly decided that she's leaving her BMW parked in the Loud house driveway tonight.
"Hmm… What the heck? I'll stay the night."
"Cool," Luna happily says, and the girls make their way to the door.
Well, that's the Doki Doki Literature Club version of Carol Likes Luna. I'm not gonna lie, I was tempted to explore this craziness even further, maybe even with an AU spinoff, but let's be honest: that would be horrible hahaha.
So, thank Heitomos for talking me out of publishing this version for the official story canon, but hopefully it was also a fun read.
Thanks a lot for everything true believers. Now go outside and play.