Hello, my glorious readers! Welcome to the second and in a sense bonus phase of this collection.
So I sort of touched on this in the first chapter and now I'll elaborate further. These last three chapters that you'll be seeing are taking place within the span of a single day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and of course the last one taking place at night. The day will consist of Lincoln just generally hanging around the house and doing various things with his family, while the whole flashback process remains the same, except for one new wrinkle.
So those first five chapters as you know each centered between Lincoln and one of his older sisters, both in regards to the flashbacks and the story between them. This time around, every flashback features at least two or more of the sisters. Now, you'll probably be quick to point out that some of the previous flashbacks have included more than one sister, but I'm talking in this case in prominent roles as opposed to secondary cases.
Okay, so the flashbacks for this one are based on "Cereal Offender", "Hand Me Downer" and "Picture Perfect." Now, just like with the flashback for "A Fridge Too Far" in chapter two, I'm doing as much an alteration of the events of "Cereal Offender" as doing something in its aftermath, so there you go.
And with that, enjoy!
The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.
The time was seconds away from approaching 7:00 AM on a simple Saturday morning. Once that time struck, a soft beeping from an alarm clock prompted the awakening of Lincoln Loud. He rose up from his bed and sauntered somewhat sleepily to shut off the alarm, then he took a moment to stretch and yawn.
Saturdays are sometimes a busy affair for Lincoln and most everyone else within the walls of the Loud house, but this one was going to be an easier, more relaxing day. Beyond the obvious benefit of no school, he didn't have any plans involving friends or himself going anywhere outside the abode. Instead, it was going to be a basic day of staying home and hanging around with his family, something he had no objections to and greatly welcomed.
After spending another minute to get more fully awake, Lincoln opened his bedroom door and walked down the hall where he was greeted by an oftentimes familiar scene, that being a modest line consisting of some of his sisters waiting to use the bathroom.
"Good morning, you guys." Lincoln greeted.
In response, he got a smattering of mixed reciprocal morning well wishes, some cheery and others a little more groggy. As the line seemed particularly slow right now, even if it wasn't a long as it tended to be, Lincoln didn't feel like waiting for the time being.
"Eh, you know what, I don't actually have to go that badly nor am I in a real rush to grab a shower, so maybe I'll get the morning going with some breakfast first."
With his intentions declared, Lincoln made a path down the stairs and rounded over to the kitchen. For today, a simple spot of cereal would likely suffice for now. He grabbed a bowl and spoon, then retrieved some milk and finally got a box of the stuff from cupboard, one he was quite familiar with.
"Ah, Zombie Bran, we meet again." Lincoln said in satisfaction, "We have quite the history together, don't we? My sisters almost cost us our first meeting together thanks to some tomfoolery on their part, remember? Luckily, they soon saw the error of their ways and a select few really went out of their way to make amends..."
A tensely quiet atmosphere dominated Vanzilla while Rita Loud drove her kids home from the grocery store, albeit without any products at all to show for. They had gotten themselves kicked out of said establishment as a result of some very wild antics and to say their mother wasn't pleased at all was a huge understatement.
In this instance, Rita harbored the most disappointment towards Lincoln. He offered to do the shopping for her in exchange for him getting a box of the newest variety of cereal, Zombie Bran. His sisters had also came along to help out, but as soon as they arrived, they instead inexplicably dispersed and goofed off, making Lincoln believe their offer to assist in the shopping was a farce. Regardless, he did manage to get the shopping done, including getting the cereal, but in the end it was for nothing. As a result of the aforementioned chaos plus a scuffle over the cereal, the kids were kicked out and left one mightily displeased mother of theirs in their wake.
"Mom, listen, I..." Lincoln began saying.
"Lincoln, what did I already say? For the final time, I don't want to hear it. You couldn't handle such a responsibility and don't expect me to delegate something like that to you again for a long time to come." Rita retorted tersely.
Sighing in defeat, Lincoln slumped his shoulders and lowered his head. His mom wasn't entirely inaccurate in his failure to handle things today, both in getting the shopping done and keeping his sisters in line.
Speaking of which, as they witnessed the exchange between their mom and brother, the sisters were filled with their own sense of guilt. But in particular, it was the three in the first row of passenger seats in the back, Lori, Leni and Luna, who felt more distraught than the rest. Given them being the three oldest siblings, they should've had their own heightened sense of responsibility in getting things done and keep the rest of their siblings in check. Instead, they were as guilty as anyone for the preceding madness that got everyone kicked out. Now, they felt the need to right the wrongs of the day.
"Wait, Mom, please don't put all the blame on Lincoln. If anything, it's really our fault how everything turned out. We promised to help him out with the shopping and we literally didn't do any of it at all." Lori said.
"We had no idea that he cut a deal with you behind our backs so he could nab his cereal." Luna added, "Sure, we didn't like learning about that, but compared to us trashing the joint and just acting all outta wack? I don't think it justified any of that."
"He kept telling us to behave ourselves and we never listened!" Leni brought up, punctuated with a saddened whimper.
"So as much you think he was responsible for all that happened, let it be known that more of the blame should be in our direction and we're really sorry, Mom." Lori wrapped up with.
For a second, Rita looked up to the rear view to see the sorrow in the faces of her three eldest daughters. She shook her head and sighed roughly.
"Girls, I'm certainly not suggesting you're innocent here, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that your brother here told me he could handle the shopping and completely failed in that respect." She said.
"Jeez, do you have to put it so harshly, Mom? Like Lori said, we're the ones who really...screwed up back there." Luna reemphasized, narrowly avoiding using a much more unpleasant word.
Rita groaned, "Listen, I've said my final word on this. Lincoln couldn't get the job done and you girls proved you can't exactly be trusted with this kind of thing as well. You will all have to do a lot in order to make me rethink that position, got it? End of discussion."
With such a judgment cast down, the remainder of the car ride home again was covered in a thick blanket of tense, regret-filled silence. The only sound cutting through such a minute later was a heartrending utterance from Lincoln that came off like a sigh transitioning into a whimper of complete defeat. For her part in reaction to that, Lori reached out and clamped down on his shoulder. He didn't bother in checking who exactly was doing that to him, but he did put his hand over the one affectionately squeezing on his shoulder.
Moments later, as Vanzilla pulled up onto the driveway, Lori had an idea. She leaned over and whispered something into Luna's ear, who in turn then did the same for Leni. While everyone else began stepping out of the van, they stayed behind.
"Uh, Mom, I know you're not in the best of moods right now, but do you mind if I borrowed the car for a bit?" Lori requested a little bit tentatively, "I need to run an errand and require Leni and Luna's help with it."
Rita looked back over to the three girl remaining inside. She likely had an idea as to what was this errand was in question, though she didn't want to openly ask about it. Perhaps in a small amount of guilt on her end for the harsh stance she'd taken particularly against Lincoln, she sighed and relented to the request.
"Fine, just don't take too long." Rita stated somewhat sternly.
She handed the keys to Lori before stepping out of the driver's seat. While their mother returned inside the house, the rest of the siblings were still outside minus Lincoln, who likely went back inside already.
Then, as Lori got out of Vanzilla to then get to the driver's seat, she was getting overlapping questions about why she plus Leni and Luna weren't coming along and what they were doing.
"Don't worry about us, guys, we'll be right back. In the meantime, how about you see if Lincoln is in the need of any company?" Lori explained to them, grinning in the end.
The rest of the sisters nodded in the affirmative at their eldest sibling's directive, some more sadly than others, as Lori climbed into the driver's seat, started the engine and drove off.
As their three oldest sisters were off in their errand, the rest tried talking to Lincoln and extending their apologies for what happened. Though appreciative of their efforts, he kindly told them that he need some time alone, so they respected his request reluctantly.
Eventually, much later on in that night, Lincoln was in the living room taking in a final hour of TV watching before bedtime. It was also during this time that Lori, Leni and Luna entered the room.
"Um...hey, Lincoln." Leni said kind of nervously. "What's going on?"
"Just...watching TV. Nothing more, nothing less." Lincoln responded listlessly.
"Mind if we joined you for a bit, bro?" Luna asked.
Lincoln shrugged, "I...guess not."
With that, the three of them sat down along with their only little brother, with Lori sitting next to Lincoln from his right side, Luna to his left and Leni to Luna's own left.
"Listen, we're guessing you've already heard something similar from everyone else earlier and it's about time we said the same thing..." Lori started out with.
She shifted herself in her seating to completely face her brother.
"Lincoln, we are so sorry for everything that happened at the grocery store. There's literally nothing at all that should excuse our behavior back there."
Lincoln sighed, "It's all right, I suppose. At the same time, though, I can't understand what possessed you guys to act in such a manner in a public place like that."
"Honestly, we have no clue on our end, dude, but again, no way can we justify wreckin' up the place or not doing any of the shopping." Luna said.
"We really should've known better..." Leni added simply.
"Yeah, that's quite the understatement..." Lori agreed with a very small, regretful laugh.
Lincoln twiddled his thumbs before sighing again, "Well...I don't know if I was that much better. The only reason I asked Mom to do the shopping for her was out of the selfish desire to get that cereal of mine. But she was right in that I was a complete failure today..."
He moved back further into the couch and brought his knees up to his chest, hugging them and shaking his head as he lowered it.
"Aw, Linky..." Leni expressed woefully, "Don't be so sad."
"Yeah, you're being way too hard on yourself." Lori added, rubbing his shoulder softly, "For one, Mom did not call you specifically a failure, and believe us, we'd never take anything close to something like that being said by anyone laying down, parental or otherwise."
Hearing that portion did make Lincoln a little bit better. But also sometimes after instances of today, he wondered what he'd ever done to deserve such caring sisters, as he was about to express.
"I'm not sure how I earned such understanding from you guys, since I was dumb enough to let something as small as a cereal box come between us." He said before groaning uneasily.
"I'll tell you why."
Those words from Luna, plus the act of her taking one of his hands within her own, made Lincoln lift his head up to face her.
"Because we're your family, little bro. We all stick together no matter what and are always willing to fess up to and fix any mistakes we've made." She said, bringing her other hand up to place it along his cheek, "Speaking of mistakes, I feel personally at fault for the gnarly business at the very end of everything. Had I not snatched away the cereal from you, none of us would've gotten into that scrap which finally got us kicked out of the store. You really could have gotten everything done and I all but completely took that away for you."
She exhaled, shook her head and then she brought her brother over into a hug.
"I'm so sorry, Lincoln…" Luna expressed in a slightly wavering voice.
After being within the hug for a few seconds, Lincoln returned the favor himself, putting his own arms around Luna and let that follow up act as his way of saying she's forgiven. Soon after, Lori and Leni joined in on the hug from their ends.
"I think after the work you put in today, Lincoln, you really deserve something for all your troubles." Lori said upon the hug ending, "Luna, do you mind?"
With a smile and a nod, the third eldest of the sisters sat up and headed upstairs.
"What's going on?" Lincoln asked.
"Oh, you're totes gonna love it!" Leni said happily, "We got you the..."
Lori reached around her brother and gripped her sister's shoulder, "Uh, Leni, I know you're excited, but best not spoil the surprise in front of him just literally seconds before he gets it.."
Leni nervously laughed, "Oh, right..."
Following a few more seconds, Luna returned with something in her hands. She placed the item right on the coffee table from where Lincoln was sitting. It was a rectangular box, one that was instantly recognizable.
"Wait...you got me my Zombie Bran?!" He stated in complete surprise.
"But of course we did! How else were we going to make it up to you?" Lori said.
Lincoln took the cereal box in his hands, then he looked up to Luna, "What was it doing upstairs? In your room, I'm guessing?"
Luna chuckled, "We had to stow it away somewhere, dude! We could've put it away in one of the kitchen cupboards were you might have stumbled upon it, which could've made for a nice surprise, but I kinda liked they way we did it just now instead."
Lincoln was absolutely stunned. To think that his sisters went out of their way to get just this one little thing he'd worked his backside off for initially touched him more than he'd expect. His brief doubts about what he's ever done to earn their love and care disappeared in an instant.
"Wow, just…thank you so much. You guys are the best." Lincoln said.
"It's no trouble, Lincoln." Lori said in return, "And let me tell you this right now. Whenever Mom thinks we can do something like that again, we promise you that we'll actually help out with the shopping for real as opposed to literally goofing off."
Smiling widely, Lincoln approached his oldest sister and embraced her, which caused Leni and Luna to also join in as well.
As he was crunching up that last bite of cereal, Lincoln let out a brief laugh. Though it really was unbelievable how something silly like that got between him and his sisters, it also warmed his heart how they can make it up to him even for something so minor.
Once he was finished, he put his dishes in the sink and made a return trip upstairs. By now, the line was now more, though he could sense somebody was occupying the bathroom at the moment. He waited until whomever it was finished up, revealing ultimately to be Lynn upon her coming out.
"All yours, Lincoln." She said, gesturing him to head on in.
"Thanks, Lynn." Lincoln said as he walked past her.
"Actually, just before you head in and take care of business, I was thinking maybe later on we could do a couple of sports activities together. What say you?" Lynn suggested.
"Uh...sure, no problem. It's going to be a nice day out, so yeah, why not?" Lincoln replied.
Giving him a thumbs up, Lynn went along with her morning while Lincoln proceeded with his routine in the bathroom. A use of the toilet and a shower later some ten minutes later, he went to his room and got dressed. Then, after getting that done, Lincoln reemerged and noticed the ladder leading up the attic was down. His curiosity rising, he chose to investigate.
Upon arriving, Lincoln didn't see much of anything and opted to leave had he not heard a sudden voice.
"Hey, Lincoln."
Yelping for a second, Lincoln looked around until he saw Lucy over at the darkest corner of the attic. She was sitting down with her bust of Edwin on one side, her pet bat Fangs hanging on the rafters just right above her and a séance board set up.
"Oh, hey, Lucy. What's going on?" Lincoln asked.
"Oh, just conducting some morning machinations with the spirits. You know, the usual." Lucy responded casually.
"Ah, well...don't mind me, then." Lincoln said awkwardly.
Though he may felt like leaving, Lincoln felt oddly compelled to explore the attic a little more in the meantime as his spooky sister conducted her own spiritual business. Going to the opposite end from where Lucy was, he panned around until a large box over on the left which caught his attention.
Going over to it, he realized it was a box of hand-me-downs, and right to the side of it were an odd little collection of items cobbled together. However, this collection he recalled was something quite special and it all came about after he learned a lesson about the true meaning of hand-me-downs…
In his room, Lincoln had been hard at work over something. He felt encouraged to do whatever it was after the day's events the preceded this moment and hoped it would act as a goodwill gesture and an apology for those very events.
Sighing with some satisfaction, Lincoln came out of his room and went downstairs, where halfway though he saw his five older sisters sitting together in the living room doing their various activities.
"Ah, just the five girls I was looking for." He said.
When they heard him address them, the sisters simply looked at him with pure disinterest. Giving what had happened earlier, it's not like he could entirely blame them.
"Look, I think I owe you guys a couple of apologies, so if you'll allow me..."
Lincoln arrived at the bottom of the stairs and approached his sisters.
"First to you, Lynn, in that I'm sorry again for borrowing your bike without your permission." He said regretfully.
"Uh, I think the word you were looking for is 'stealing', Lincoln." Lynn issued in correction, "But really, I already told you it's all good. Besides, that other bike Lori intended in giving to you that's now in my possession is satisfying my needs."
"Well, at least someone is getting use out of it..." Lori said with just a tinge of annoyance.
Lincoln's face grimaced somewhat. He obviously knew those words were indirectly referencing him over his hesitation in accepting Lori's old bike at the start of the day.
"Well, since we're on the subject, I guess I now owe you an apology, too, Lori. I'm sorry that I wasn't really too grateful when you gave me that bike of yours in the beginning and I'll freely admit, hands up in the air, that the girlishness of it all made it hard for me to accept it." He said, rubbing his arm, "But hey, like you acknowledged and as Lynn said, at least she's using it, which has to act as some sort of consolation, right?"
Lori glanced over at her brother, then she simply sighed and shrugged, "Sure, whatever, if that's how you literally want to look at things."
Lincoln nervously laughed, then allowed a couple seconds of silence to take hold before going on.
"But broadly speaking, I feel like apologizing to you all as a group." He resumed, "I'm sorry that I didn't quite understand the concept of hand-me-downs in the first place. Here I thought it was about getting some cool things from my older sisters, when in reality it isn't about what I was getting, but who was giving me them. I'll admit that maybe I didn't appreciate that actual hand-me-downs you gave me as much as you anticipated, but at the very least I should've been appreciative in those efforts of yours, and once again, I'm sorry."
After hearing their brother's apology, the sisters looked at one another like they were mentally conferring among themselves over everything. Seconds later, they returned their gaze to Lincoln.
"I suppose we can forgive you, Lincoln." Luan said on behalf of everyone, "We should at least be proud of the fact you have better understanding of this whole process."
"Oh, believe me, I do." Lincoln stated more upbeat, "And speaking of which, if you guys don't mind sparing a little bit more time of yours for me, there's something I like to show you all if you'll follow me to my room."
Perhaps in due part to his apologies and forgiving him, the sisters were willing to indulge in Lincoln's request and indeed allowed him in leading them to his room.
When everyone stepped inside Lincoln's room, the lone boy of the family presented to his sisters a most unique of surprises.
Sitting on the bed was Colonel Crackers, Luan's original ventriloquist dummy who she handed down to Lincoln, but that was far from the only item present. The dummy also was wearing the shirt with the initials "LL" that was Leni's hand-me-down and right at his waistline was another one, Lynn's jockstrap. Finally, just right at his feet was the busted up, broken guitar that once belonged to Luna.
"So, I heavily doubt I'll personally ever get much use of out of any of the things you handed down to me, but I wanted to show that I can make us of them somehow and decided to incorporate all together like you're seeing them. Consider this another apology in a sense, too." Lincoln said, nervously grinning.
Like just before, the sisters shared another look with each other as they figured out what to make of this. Admittedly at first, hearing their brother straight up say he might not get personal use of their hand-me-downs was a little irksome. Still, just like how he said that he should appreciate his sisters' efforts for the time honored tradition of older siblings handing down mostly gently used items to the younger set, they felt obligated to do the same for his endeavor here.
"Well, it's creative, we'll give you that much." Luan said, then a humorous smile took shape, "You could even call it a cracking effort! Get it?"
"If you ask me, it's kind of a cute setup." Leni added.
"Yeah, better this than them collecting dust under your bed, I guess" Lynn expressed with a playful jab to Lincoln's shoulder.
"And on a related note, since we found out about this just recently, we also like to say how proud of you we are for handing down Lynn's bike to Lana. Looks like you did learn a little something from all of this." Lori said, smiling approvingly.
Hearing the approval of his sisters for his efforts, Lincoln felt relieved. However, he did pick up on the fact that Luna didn't say anything yet herself. He also noticed that she had something of a distant look on her face.
"Luna? Hey, Luna!" He said to her.
"Huh, what? Oh, sorry about that. Kinda spaced out there for a sec." Luna said after snapping herself out of her little trance, "But anyway, nice job, bro."
She gave Lincoln what looked a like a forced smile onto top of a thumbs up, then she rather unexpectedly left the room.
"What was that?" Leni wondered.
"Eh, could be something or nothing at all." Lynn dismissed somewhat casually, "Anyway, we should be on our way, too."
Following their athletic sister's lead, Lori, Leni and Luan also took their leave and allowed Lincoln to have some solitude in his room.
However, just only a couple of minutes later, he heard the door being knocked on.
"Huh? Who is it?" Lincoln inquired curiously.
"It's me again, dude. Mind if I come back in for a jiff?"
He was surprised to hear that it was Luna coming back soon.
"Um...not at all." He responded rather confused.
The door opened up and the rocker girl reentered her brother's room bearing a more distressed expression.
"What's going on, Luna? Is there something else you wanted to talk to me about? And regardless of that, what was the deal with you leaving so suddenly moments earlier?" Lincoln asked.
Luna sighed heavily, "Well, you could say I wanted to find an excuse to chat with you a little more without everyone else around."
Lincoln tilted his head to the side curiously, "About what?"
"It's about...well, that." Luna said, pointing to the broken guitar over on the bed.
She leaned against the door and folded her arms before continuing.
"When you got to talkin' about the hand-me-downs that we gave you, I have to confess that I started feeling kinda bad about my own contribution to everything. Then once you showed off this neat little setup you got here, it made me feel worse seeing how mangled up that old guitar looked compared to how in tact everything else was."
With another sigh, Luna motioned for Lincoln to join alongside her on his bed away from the hand-me-downs and then she put an arm around him.
"Look, the truth is that I intentionally broke that guitar before giving it to you assuming you'd make something out of it. Sure, you know how to restring my primary axe, but I should've taken from that you could repair an entire one by yourself. Also, it makes me such a total hypocrite because I take care of and value all my instruments and yet here I was all like, 'here ya go, bro, take this damaged axe of mine and make do with it', right?"
She lightly squeezed Lincoln with her arm, then she pulled back and put both her hands on his shoulders.
"So, I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm sorry for all of that, Lincoln. In a sense, I wouldn't have blamed you one little bit if you'd chucked that thing in the trash heap, but the fact you kept it around and even made it a part of your setup over there...that really does mean a lot and shows what a cool little bro you truly are." Luna concluded appreciatively.
After listing to everything, Lincoln put his hands around his sister's wrists and smiled.
"Luna, I wasn't ever going to throw that guitar away. Yeah, it being in the smashed state it was in made it a forgone conclusion that I'd never really use it, but never was I going to do away with it. It had to have meant something very dearly to you at one point and I'd never have the heart to just throw something like that away, no matter the condition and especially if it belonged to any of my sisters." He said wholeheartedly.
Luna grinned widely, "Oh, come here, little dude."
She reached her arms out and hugged him tightly, something Lincoln was all too willing to do right back for her.
"Thank you, bro, and I'll promise you the next time I hand something down to you, it'll be in as rockin' condition as that sweet little heart of yours." She said ever so profoundly.
"Lincoln? Lincoln!"
At first he didn't hear his name being called out, but one touch of his shoulder caused Lincoln to yelp and have his attention refocused. He looked his shoulder to see Lucy standing behind him.
"Oh, it's only you, Lucy…" He said, nervously laughing afterward.
"Was there something wrong, Lincoln?" Lucy asked, "You looked like you were lost in thought."
"Oh, it's nothing to worry about, Lucy. I was just thinking back to the hand-me-downs our older sisters gave me a while back and how I learned to have a greater understanding about how that kind of thing works." Lincoln explained to his younger sister, "Anyway, I should really on my way now."
He stood up, brushed himself off and walked right past Lucy. His hasty leave did make her wonder for a second, but she shrugged it off and returned to her séance.
Meanwhile, Lincoln returned over to his room for a moment. Looking at and engaging in some reminiscing made him remember something else. He knelt down next to his bed and looked underneath it. Besides the trunk full of all sorts of miscellaneous things inside, there's was something else pretty special he kept under there in lieu of a more proper storage place for it.
The item in question was a small acoustic guitar that originally belonged to Luna. After their talk where she expressed her regret for that broken guitar from before, she later followed up on her promise to give him something that was in more properly working condition.
With a smile, Lincoln put the guitar down for a second on his bed and then opened up one of the top drawers of his dresser to retrieve a guitar pick that Luna also gave him in conjunction with the instrument. Next, with that pick at hand, he sat down on his bed, brought the guitar onto his lap and figured that a good idea to kill some time would be to get a little refinement in technique.
Although he still held firm in his original statement from talking to his older sisters from before about how he may not get a whole lot of use from their hand-me-downs, which again lead him to combine them into one to make something out of them, he did feel a little more obliged for Luna's sake in trying to give this guitar a whirl here and there for her efforts in apologizing for the broken guitar and the kindhearted gesture for giving it to him in the first place. He obviously had no plans in becoming a professional or even an amateur musician if the numerous sour and messed up notes he hit were any indicator, but still, playing on occasion and getting better each time just as a casual hobby never hurts.
After getting some time in with the guitar, Lincoln put it away and left his room again. For the rest of his morning, he did a handful of other activities such as watching TV, helping Lola out with a couple new hairstyles of hers and being sort of reluctant assistant for Lisa during an experiment of hers, but if the ever so slightly burnt eyebrows on his end meant anything, he may reconsider doing such for his younger sister of the high intellectual quotient variety for a little while to come.
Following some recuperation in the living room, Lincoln started having this nagging feeling that there was something else he planned on doing. He was about to get a quick reminder as he was standing up from the couch, though.
"Lincoln, heads up!"
He turned just in time to see Lynn on the stairs throwing her football over to him. He leaped up and caught it narrowly just as it was hurtling toward the mantle of the fireplace.
"Whew..." Lincoln said in relief, then returned his attention to the ball's thrower, "Lynn, you might want to be a lot more careful! You might've nearly broken something!"
Lynn shrugged dismissively, "Eh, maybe. But hey, you caught and there's no damage done, so no harm, no foul, right?. It's not like, I dunno, that something such as our family portrait up over there would suffer as a result. Now anyway, come on, you said earlier you'd join me outside for some sporting activities. I also got Lana to come along, too, so hustle up!"
She dashed over to her brother and snagged the football from him, then charged onward out to the backyard. But before he could tag along, Lincoln paused for a second and looked up that very family portrait that Lynn just now mentioned.
"Heh...look at all us." He remarked to himself, "Absolute perfection, unlike my last two attempts at picture taking..."
The beginning of this day had started out quiet beautifully. It was the day of Rita and Lynn Sr.'s anniversary, and like every one of them, their kids had showered them with gifts, but one of them stood out more than the rest.
In that case, the one given to them by their one and only son, Lincoln, was that of a group photo of himself and their sisters. They were so overjoyed by the gift to the point of calling the best one they've ever gotten for any of their anniversaries. It wasn't easy for Lincoln to get it done along the way. The first photo he took was one he didn't think would work because all his sisters were caught up doing there own thing. As he put it at the time, that photo made them look like a picture of insanity, so he elected to take a second one, although his sisters weren't as enthusiastic this time around. That was perhaps in due part because of the numerous changes Lincoln made them go through, including swapping Leni and Lisa's glasses with each other's, putting a wig on Luna, placing marshmallows in the gaps of Lana and Lola's mouths where front teeth should be and even making Lily have to put on a pacifier that made her look like she had on a toothy grin. Add to the fact that he also made them wear matching sweaters to make things even more symmetrical and Lincoln's sisters all suspected he was doing all of this because he didn't like the way they normally are, so they spitefully flashed "perfect" smiles for the picture.
Later on, when Lincoln got the picture framed, he was initially very pleased with the result. But after seeing how his sisters normally acted and contrasted that with the "perfect" way he forced them into in the photo, he realized that he made a huge mistake. So by the time he gave his parents his gift for their anniversary, he chose to give them the original picture instead, which his sisters were miffed at first, thinking he had used the "wrong" one. But Lincoln then explained he wanted to gift their parents with that one because it showcased who his sisters really were as opposed to the tacked-on, idealized and "perfect" vestiges on the second picture. Touched by this gesture, the sisters all then showed their appreciation for their brother with a group hug.
And then Lincoln just had to open his big mouth soon thereafter.
Not even five seconds into the hug, Lincoln would proceed to pull out a box and say that since his gift was so great, his parents may as well throw away all of his sisters' gifts since they'd look unsatisfactory by comparison. Unsurprisingly, they were displeased with such a proclamation. At that time, Lincoln justified the action in his mind as a way of sticking it to his sisters for how they revealed that all his previous anniversary gifts, all of which were crooked looking coffee mugs, had been thrown away and put into a box in the attic. He also likely did it as a special "screw you" to Lori, who apparently felt the need to keep reminding Lincoln about the supposed many other times he messed up their parents' anniversaries in years past aside from the coffee mugs.
Right now, however, Lincoln felt completely guilt ridden over his actions. He was currently laying down on the couch look at the picture hanging over the fireplace mantle for anyone and everyone to see. But he figured no one should be seeing it ever again at this rate, as he felt that it's forever tainted due to his stupidly choice words for earlier on.
Knowing what he felt like he must do, Lincoln pushed one of the living room chairs on over to the fireplace and scaled up it so he could then take the picture down. Right as he was doing that he heard a voice addressing him from behind.
"Uh, what are you doing, Lincoln?"
Knowing that inquiry came from Luan, he turned around and saw all his sisters having gathered in the living room. Some of them looked genuinely confused, Luan included, while others looked more miffed.
"Well, if must know, I'm taking this picture down because I no longer want it up here." Lincoln responded with a sigh.
Thanks to that admission, the sisters who were initially confused had now switched over to irritation like the rest.
"What?! You can't be serious, dude! What gives?" Luna asked testily.
"Wait a moment...you literally better not be thinking about replacing it with that ridiculous 'perfect' picture from before!" Lori said, scrunching up her face in fury.
"No I'm not replacing it with anything, because I dislike this picture about as much that so called 'perfect' one, too!" Lincoln retorted.
"For real? This one's bad, too? You're impossible to please!" Lynn angrily expressed.
Lincoln growled as he grew increasingly frustrated, "No, that's not what I mean, Lynn! I'm taking this one down because I can't look at it without being reminded of those stupid things I said after giving it to Mom and Dad. There, I admit it, it was stupid of me! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"
He flailed his arms up and down with each instance of that word, and he did it with such intensity that without realizing it at first, he lost his grip on the picture as it went flying in the air. Looking on in horror, Lincoln leaped forward from the chair and tried a desperate attempt to catch it, but he landed with a thud on the floor and the picture landed face down on the coffee table, the glass shattering and scattering upon impact as well as the frame being cracked into two, resulting in a gasp from everyone.
After the shock wore off, the sisters' reaction was to pull the younger ones away from any scattered broken glass on the floor and the table. Meanwhile, Lincoln groggily stood up and bore witness to the damage his recklessness resulted in.
"Oh no...oh no, no, no..." He muttered as he backed away and sat down on the chair he stood on moments earlier, "Mom and Dad are gonna be so mad at me, as if they weren't upset already for what I said before. I didn't like that picture anymore, but I didn't want to be broken..."
He scrunched himself up into a ball, released a shuddered sigh and buried his face into his knees.
"Who am I kidding? You were all right this whole time, especially you, Lori. I do nothing but screw up and crush Mom and Dad's souls on their anniversaries like you kept telling me again and again and again! First those coffee mugs, then the effort to make that awful 'perfect' picture, then those stupid things I said to you guys and now this. I'm just nothing more than one big fat disappointment on this day!"
Next, he hugged his legs tightly and began sniffling a few times. In the whirlwind events that transpired these last few seconds, the sisters slowly began to have a change of heart. Though those words Lincoln said after he gave their parents the picture did understandably stick in their craws, seeing him reach the beginning stages of a complete breakdown was softening their initial stances of choler.
"I take back what I said just now about not liking that picture. I'll get a new frame for it and I'll simply live with the awful things I said in affiliation with it as long as it makes you guys plus Mom and Dad happy..."
While Lincoln sat there in deep regret over everything, he felt a hand being put on his shoulder.
"Lincoln?"
He knew that it was Lori speaking to him, but he was too ashamed to look at her.
"Lincoln, look at me, please." She said softly.
After a moment of hesitation, he gently looked up to see his oldest sister kneeling down and expressing sorrow on her face.
"Listen...no one here going to pretend that your attempts to make the perfect picture or what you said about having our anniversary gifts being thrown away didn't make us feel very annoyed..." Lori began, taking a moment to sigh before continuing, "However, with that said and upon reflection...maybe we shouldn't have reminded you of those past anniversary gifts of yours and I especially didn't need to put it so harshly."
Lincoln released another shuddered breath of air, "But it's not like you were wrong..."
"Well, right or wrong, I don't think it was the best for me or anyone to put down so casually your past efforts. You were only trying to do your best for Mom and Dad to make the right gift for them and we should try to recognize that better in the future." Lori said.
As this was going on, Lynn had gone over to the broken picture frame and flipped it over.
"What are you doing, Lynn?" Leni asked her.
"Just seeing if we can preserve the picture itself at the very least." Lynn explained, "I think we can just carefully pull it out and..."
What she may have not realized at the moment is that there was some glass actually still in tact within the frame and as Lynn tried to get the actual picture out, she pulled it at an awkward angle and ended up accidentally tearing it in half.
"LYNN!" The sisters shouted in horror.
The reaction from everyone caused Lincoln to see the now torn up picture for himself, and if he wasn't already saddened enough, this did him in only further as he now started to tear up. Right away, Lynn went over to his side.
"Lincoln...I...I...I'm so sorry!" She stuttered.
She sat down next to her brother and tried pulling him into a hug. He struggled at first, believing he didn't deserve any sympathy for all his transgressions, but he relented soon after.
"What am I gonna do now…?" Lincoln wondered as he wept.
"Maybe you mean 'what are we going to do?'" Lori corrected.
Lincoln looked back again at his oldest sister, "What do mean by that?"
"I mean what if we helped out by taking another picture together, getting it framed and giving it to Mom and Dad as another gift?" Lori suggested.
Everyone else sounded off their approval of such an idea, though Lincoln was a little unsure.
"You mean it? You'll actually want to do that, even after everything I've done?" He asked.
"If anything, we should do that both to help you out and as way to make up for everything on our end, too." Lori said.
"But what about how or when Mom and Dad will find out what happened to this picture? I know they're gonna hate hearing about this..." Lincoln said worriedly.
"Do not worry about that, little bro." Lynn told him assuredly, patting his back, "We'll be right by your side to explain everything and to tell them about our plan to take a new picture for them, too."
After getting such reassurances, Lincoln took a deep breath and finally allowed a smile to come across his face.
"Wow...this means a lot to me, you guys. Thank you so much, and I'll promise you that I won't force you into some kind of idealistic vision of mine again. Instead, I'll let you be just the way you are, which is the perfect, real and loving sisters I'll always treasure."
Touched by his words, the sisters gathered around Lincoln and formed one of their group hugs. He may find it a little difficult to understand how they are willing to make amends with him so easily whenever he does something really stupid like he's done recently, but the fact they will do so and also admit to wrongdoing on their side as well shows just how tight their bonds really were and how nothing really can break them.
Sighing happily, Lincoln smiled widely. Compared to the previous two ones, this picture really was the best one. It mostly no frills, just he and his sisters all together smiling, but the simplicity of it spoke volumes greater than any unrealistic ideas of "perfection" could ever dream of.
"Hey, Lincoln! Are you coming or what?!" Lynn shouted.
"Oh, right! Coming!" He responded.
He took a quick second to glace at the picture once more before he finally went to the backyard to join Lynn and the recently included Lana in some hearty, fun-filled sports activities to close out his morning.
Another one completed! The next one is coming in a couple of days and I'll see you at that point!
