As the sun was rising back in Royal Woods, a very tired Leni returned to the Loud residence. With visible bags under her eyes and her friends having to hold her up by her shoulders for her to walk, she was brought inside and carried to the couch by her friends Miguel and Fiona.
"Guys, I'm..." She yawned. "...not tired." Leni's breathing slowed down as she was placed on the couch.
"I'm sorry, Leni," said Fiona. "We looked everywhere, but we all need to rest. Your other sisters are probably at school by now." She looked at the clock in the living room.
"Look," said Miguel. "After you get some rest, we can help continue to look. Alright?" Receiving a small nod from the fashionista, her friends smiled at her and left her alone in the house. Using the last of her strength, Leni thought of another idea and decided to dial the only sister who could help her. Outside the house, Miguel and Fiona talked to each other and Fiona began calling her contacts on her phone.
Meanwhile, the parents were dropping off their kids at their schools, except for Leni who had been out all night looking for Lincoln. As they were being dropped off, they all looked either sad, lifeless, or both. Soon, only Lana and Luan were left and Vanzilla stopped at the high school.
"Mom, do you think we can help Leni search for Lincoln after school?" Luna asked her mom.
"Luna, I don't know what to think," said Rita, rubbing her temples with visible stress. "Your father and I are disappointed in you, all of you." She looked at her daughters.
"Mom! We can't bear the thought of our little brother out on the streets alone! Please!" Luna pleaded. Rita let out an audible sigh, but nodded.
"Fine, you can help look for Lincoln today, but after that, we'll look into your punishments, girls." Luna gave her mom one last hug before she and Luan headed into the building. In chemistry class, Luna was way more fixated on where Lincoln could possibly be. In her mind, her assignment paper was filled with words of her own thoughts, every place he might be at. Her worries did not go unnoticed, as her girlfriend, Sam Sharp, sat down beside her.
"Oh, hey Sam," said Luna, devoid of emotion. She was tapping her pen on the table, pushing her mind to where her little brother could have gone, but her mind was soon clouded with pain, pain that she caused him. It's your fault. You could have stopped it, but didn't. You wanted it to happen. You wanted to... hurt him! Those words broke her as she clutched her head, wanting these thoughts gone. But they kept coming and tears formed in her eyes, worrying Sam.
"Eh, Luna, are you okay?" Sam asked. Luna practically lost it then and there, but she simply cried and Sam gave her a hug. The whole class took notice and Sam looked at the professor, who nodded towards the exit awkwardly. Sam nodded and helped escort Luna out of the classroom so Luna could catch her breath. The couple found themselves sitting on a public bench near the school. Sam managed to calm the rocker down, but she still had to know one thing. "Luna, what's wrong?" Luna tried to answer, her breaths became hitched, but after a couple of moments, Luna calmed down again and began to confess.
"I messed up, Sam, both as a sister and as a person," she choked out. This piqued the girlfriend's interest, but she still comforted Luna.
"Hey, it's okay," said Sam soothingly, brushing Luna's back.
"No, it's not," Luna sobbed, covering her face in shame and hiding her tears. She finally told Sam everything that happened, knowing better than to hide anything. The rocker could not bear to look at Sam as she spilled the beans, knowing what kind of looks she could be getting. Once she was finished, the two were silent for a couple of minutes.
"Sam?" Luna wanted some kind of response from Sam, but she got nothing. If she couldn't see Sam's knee out of the corner of her eye, she would have thought she left after she admitted her terrible deeds.
"You idiot." That was all Sam said. Luna sighed sadly, preparing to be bombarded with hate and profanity. But instead, she asked a more soul-piercing question than any swear word a high school student could muster. "Why?" Luna was of course stung and was just too ashamed of herself to give an answer. So Sam decided to help get Luna's act together. "What are you even doing here? Go look for him!" Sam was mad, but Luna couldn't believe what she was hearing. Instead of lashing out, Sam was trying to help her.
"Leni went looking already after she found out," Luna explained. "She must have searched the whole town if she was up all night." She was unhopeful of the whole situation.
"Does that matter?" Sam hissed, still full-on mad. "Search the town AGAIN! Leave no stone unturned. He's your brother, for God's sake! The least you can do is help him!" Sam saw tears in Luna's eyes and felt a tinge of sorrow for her.
"I want to, but where do I start?" said a distraught Luna, tears streaming down her face.
"You once told me that you two were the closest of siblings," Sam explained motivationally. "As such, you know your brother better than anyone else." While Sam was angry, she knew it was better to help Luna rather than beat her further into her ground and kick her while she's down.
"You're right," said Luna. "I can't let my baby bro wander on these streets alone. I couldn't even call myself his sister if I didn't try to fix this mess. Thank you, Sam. I just hope things are better with my other sisters." Almost as if on cue, Sam's phone buzzed and when she checked it, she noticed something on it and frowned.
"Probably not," she murmured. "Check this out." On the phone was a detailed description of a missing boy, and worse, it was labeled as family abuse. The details written had a perfect match to Lincoln Loud when it mentioned his white hair. The description had been posted 15 minutes ago and Luna could already feel a knot in her stomach. The post had already garnered over two thousand views and were still climbing, so Luna didn't even dare to look at the comments, but a small piece of text caught her eye. The text listed all seven sisters involved. The remaining sisters not listed were Lori, Leni, and Lily.
"Oh dear lord," said Luna, feeling like she was going to throw up when she saw her own name. Her heart froze in fear, knowing of the upcoming trouble that was about to unfold for her and the others. Sam comforted Luna despite this, as she needed all she could get.
"Sorry, Luna," said Sam. "But maybe school isn't the best option right now. You should go start looking for him." Sam did feel bad for her girlfriend, as she had only exploded for a second.
"Alright," agreed Luna. "I'm sorry I messed up."
"I'M not the one who's supposed to be hearing an apology," Sam continued. "Look, just go. Maybe I can convince our band members to help lessen up the heat you might get at school."
"But I deserve it."
"Well, I say otherwise. So what are you waiting for?" Sam finished. With a final sigh, Luna left the school grounds and made her way towards... actually, she didn't know where she was heading. But that wouldn't deter her from what she wanted - to find her little brother and apologize to him.
Hours passed in school and after classes, the remaining Loud sisters had it out for them. Students and teachers alike would not speak to them and even though that was to be expected, all three grade schools had gotten wind of the post that went viral in mere minutes, hence the reason behind the silent treatments. Luan was shown the post by Benny of all people, her crush. Tried as she might to contact him and explain everything, it proved to be difficult when she found out her number was blocked. So she tried asking Maggie, another of her only friends, to find out where Benny was at, but she just watched her in judgment without a word.
Out on the soccer field, Lynn Loud Jr. kept missing all her shots, her mind clouded with all the bad things she ever did to her only brother. Her beliefs in supernatural forces and luck would drive her to do the first awful thing. Most things were relatively minor setbacks, but a few were considered God-awful and after this time, she was ultimately paying the price. After missing several shots, in a fit of frustration, she kicked another ball aside and flopped down on the grass, lying on her back, panting. To add insult to injury, her coach approached her, telling her that she was temporarily suspended from all sports, though the reason it was temporary was because the post of Lincoln Loud reported missing could have easily been a rumor, like a photo of a young boy edited to be kissing a teenage girl. Nevertheless, the punishment sunk in and actually managed to hit home for Lynn. Her mindset unable to take any more, she ran and hid in the bathroom and for the first time in forever, she sat and cried.
For the dark and gloomy Lucy, her pain and sorrow for what she did came over her the moment she found out her brother was gone. After realizing that it was posted online exactly what they had done, she was expectedly mocked and harassed in the lunchroom and class until she crawled back into her own safe place - the school vents. The young poet had also been kicked out of the Morticians Club, but that was the least of her concerns owing to her mourning over her brother's disappearance. Although the young girl didn't smile, it didn't mean she didn't carry emotions. She just had a different way of dealing with them that she didn't show publicly.
The twins were shunned by their class as well. Lana wasn't allowed to bring any more pets in and had to sit only with Lola, as no one else wanted to even come near them. Lola had it rougher since she was no longer treated like a queen, but instead a nobody. The twins knew what they did, but it seemed to be too late, as the damage had been done and apologizing to everyone wouldn't do justice.
For the young scientist, any of her schoolwork that was deemed dangerous was confiscated. And worse, not even Darcy wanted to speak to her, which bummed her out. Lisa wasn't the most emotional Loud, as she had no problem experimenting on her fellow siblings and any hell she put them through. But in this case, she did feel sorry and truly regretted her part in driving her only brother away. Also, from her point of view, it didn't take a genius to figure out just how badly she and her sisters were screwed. She couldn't just fix this mess by finding Lincoln, as even if they did, the police were more than likely already involved in the matter at hand, and so they would question the whole family. Whether Lincoln told the truth or not, he had still been driven to run away from home as a result of domestic abuse, and so the police would be quick to take action.
Finally, school was out for the day and the Loud parents arrived quickly to pick up their children. They were met with vicious look and their daughters approaching looking completely miserable.
"Mom, there was this post, and-" Luan started, but Rita cut her off.
"We know, sweetie," said Rita. "Your father and I got at least twenty calls after it went online."
"Our phones were ringing off the hook!" said Lynn Loud Sr. "Or rather, ringing out of our pockets. Wait, where's Luna?" He looked outside the car window.
"Don't worry, she texted me," said Rita. "She left school after only one class to try and find Lincoln. She should be back in a couple of hours." There was visible disappointment in her voice. The drive home was quiet, but what more could be said? What's done was done, and the Loud family was paying the price in school and at their jobs. The Loud sisters were just glad that the school nightmare was over... for now. But they went straight from one nightmare into another when they saw a familiar car parked at their house. Rita opened the front door and they were greeted by a frightening sight. There stood Lori Loud, the eldest of the Loud siblings, standing before them looking pissed off. The family could think of better circumstances under which to have Lori home.
"I MOVE OUT THINKING THAT NOTHING BAD IS GONNA HAPPEN, THAT YOU HAD EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL WITHOUT ME! BUT THEN I GET A CALL FROM LENI AND I HEAR ALL ABOUT THIS?!" she freaked at them. She too had received the post that her baby brother was reported to be missing with little to no trace of where he could have gone. "YOU LITERALLY OWE ME AN EXPLANATION HERE BECAUSE I THOUGHT I HEARD WRONG WHEN SHE TOLD ME YOU POUNDED MY LITTLE BROTHER INTO A PANCAKE ALL BECAUSE OF SOME STUPID ROOM!" The others let out audible gulps, as Lori showed no signs of slowing down.
"Lori, honey..." Rita tried to say.
"DON'T SAY 'CALM DOWN'! NOT RIGHT NOW! AND DON'T THINK YOU'RE AVOIDING YOUR PART TO PLAY IN THIS! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?! YOU BEAT OUR BROTHER TO A PULP AND MADE HIM RUN AWAY BECAUSE HE DOESN'T FEEL SAFE AROUND YOU!" Lori cut loose with her heaving breaths and had to stop to take air in. She even coughed a little. "I thought... that nothing bad would come... after I moved out... but you managed to prove me wrong... in the worst way possible..." Lori's voice grew tired from shouting, but she had strong motivation to carry on. "As for you two, you're clearly bad parents if you have to rely on your own older kids to take care of the younger ones. Of all the worst things that could happen in my absence, this has to be the worst... possible... thing! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't literally turn you all into human pretzels right now."
"Look, Lori... we didn't mean to. We just got really angry when Leni chose Lincoln," Lynn tried to explain, though it seemed to come across as trying to save face.
"Don't you dare blame Leni or Lincoln," warned Lori. "Leni just wanted to be a good sister. You all knew that they were close as siblings. And she knew that Lincoln lived in a closet for most of his life and thought a larger room with a sweet sister would make him happy. But no, you didn't care and you wanted the room for your own selfish gains!" she scolded. The other six sisters currently present looked down to the ground in shame. They all felt terrible that they drove Lincoln away, but Lori screaming about it didn't help at all. It made them feel even worse. "Wait, where's Luna?" asked a still irate Lori. "I want a word with her..."
"Right here," answered Luna, having made her way back to the house on foot with something familiar in her hand. At first, she was shocked to see that Lori had returned and realized that she gave him a healthy dose of a reality check seeing the other sisters with tears coming from their faces.
"There you are!" Lori snapped. "Of all the sisters I expected better from yo-" Luna cut her off quickly.
"Yeah, yeah," she said. "You can berate me later, but look what I found!" She held out an orange hoodie in terrible condition covered in cuts. The whole family could recognize this hoodie from anywhere. It belonged to Lincoln.