Hard to believe a year has passed since I first forayed into fanfiction with this story.
In this chapter we will learn what the rest of the Loud House is feeling. I don't own The Loud House, I just think it's really cool.
Leni sat in shock. Another girl? Did I do something wrong?
"Her name is Julie." Chaz said. The sudden announcement of a name brought Leni back to earth, so to speak.
"Whuh? What's she like?" her beleaguered response was.
"Well… she's sweet, and funny, and always saying hello to me before and after service. Look, Leni, I'm so sorry that I didn't say anything sooner. But I could never cheat on you, this girl is tearing me apart," he said as he gripped the sides of his head.
"So," she paused. "What does this mean for us?" she asked nervously. Chaz took a deep breath before making his risky move.
"So here's what I'm thinking Leni," Chaz told her with a voice of assurance, hands cupping hers. "We go on a break, during which you're just as free to date anybody you want like I am."
With wet eyes, Leni pondered the offer she was given.
"I… guess that could work," she finally said.
"Great to hear," he replied, trying not to sound too eager. He then slowly stood up, looking down at his toes.
"Just remember Len, this isn't goodbye, more like..."
"A break?" she finished.
"Exactly! And don't worry, I know there's somebody else out there for you," he assured her. There was silence between the two for some time.
"Well…." he added nervously. "I'd better get out of here," pointing off in a random direction before moving his ass.
"Yeah, see you too," the blonde said, weakly. Miguel and Fiona walked over shortly after Chaz departed. They noticed how drained their friend looked.
"Hey, what happened?" Fiona asked with a hand on Leni's shoulder.
"I-I think we just broke up... I think," Leni said, confused.
"What does that mean?" Miguel inquired.
"He… told me there was another girl, but that he hasn't made any moves yet. He sounded... tortured, somehow."
"Tortured?" both friends shouted.
"Uh huh, so if anybody asks, he's not cheating on me, and I'm not cheating on him."
"C'mon Leni, our break is almost over," Fiona chided, before pulling the blonde into her arms for a hug, Miguel slowly joining seconds later. "It's going to be OK, I promise."
BACK AT THE LOUD HOUSE
It was later that morning when the remainder of the Loud House awoke. Luna picked up her phone, glancing at a text from Sam.
"Hey Lunes, I talked with my mom and dad, they're ok with me coming over, but only on certain days of the week. I can come by today and explain everything to you."
Luna responded back with a simple: K, see u soon.
She slid off her top bunk and walked towards her dresser to fetch her clothes. She glanced behind her at the bottom bunk belonging to her roommate Luan, noting it was bare.
Guess Lu had plans today other than snoozing.
Down in the living room, the rest of the family, comprising of Luan, Lynn, Lucy, the twins, Lisa and Lily were scattered between watching TV and eating at the table. Rita was still in her bedroom, working on her newspaper column.
"Good morning everybody," Luna announced. "So dudettes, what're your plans for today?"
"Well, I have to practice for a birthday party in a few days," Luan responded. "Benny will be joining me for my act, so I'll be leaving shortly to go over to his house."
Luna couldn't help but don a mischievous grin. "Does mom know about your plans?" she asked, shifting her eyebrows up and down.
Luan blushed, then turned serious. "I'll have you know that his parents will be home today, so even if we wanted to... you know, we couldn't."
Luna just laughed. "I'm only jonesing ya bra, I'm really happy that you found Benny."
Luan didn't retort, instead she turned and dashed up the stairs towards her shared room.
Luna then turned to the rest of her sisters. "What about you guys?"
"Skippy's mom is coming to pick me up for a hang session at his place, mom already said it was OK," Lana informed her.
Lola didn't turn to face her eldest brunette sister, keeping her eyes down towards the floor.
"Hey sis?," Luna questioned, getting at eye level. "Are you still upset about Lincoln?"
Lola nodded. "We all were sad that he was leaving again, but what if he likes it there so much, he never wants to come home. You heard what Uncle Avery said, he lives on a big farm, and he didn't mention having any kids, so Lincoln will probably get all that sweet rich guy money while we have to wait in line just to get one slice of pizza every now and then."
"C'mon Lols, you know mom and dad wouldn't let Lincoln just leave only to never return. Besides, if Uncle Avery went along with it, dad would NEVER forgive him, again," Luna reasoned.
Lola sighed. "I hope you're right, we have to make sure he comes back to a home where he feels we still love him. Do you really think we ask too much of Linky?"
Luna pondered for a moment.
"I'm not sure sis, but Link is definitely the most underrated member of our band, that's for sure."
At the top floor, Luan was coming out of her bedroom when the sound of static and a familiar voice came from behind the door of Lincoln's bedroom. It was Clyde, on the walkie talkie he used to communicate with his best friend.
"Lincoln? Come in Lincoln."
To hear the voice of Clyde desperate to reach his best friend, having no clue he wasn't even home, broke the heart of Luan.
"I know I really shouldn't go in his room when he isn't there, but… somebody's got to drop the bad news. Although…," a thought occurred to her. "If he's smart, he'll just text Lincoln and get the news himself."
"C'mon, buddy. Just pick up. I know you're probably still upset about my dad's kicking you out, but maybe..."
At this point, Luan made her judgement call and quietly entered the room of her only brother and picked up the receiver.
"Hey Clyde, it's Luan, Lincoln isn't here."
"Luan?, Why are you on this walkie?"
"Lincoln doesn't have a lock on his door, so it was pretty easy to enter, plus, and more importantly, you sounded like you'd been trying to reach him like this for a while, so somebody had to let you know."
"Oh, so where is he now?"
Luan thought about telling Clyde about her uncle and his 'rehabilitation program,' but figured it would make more sense to let Lincoln explain.
"Why don't you just call him on his phone? He'll explain things better than I ever could."
"I've already tried that, but he isn't picking up his cell. What if he's hurt? Or trapped in a well? Or he's..."
"CLYDE!," the normally mousy teen scolded before covering her mouth and glancing behind her. "Breathe buddy, Lincoln is OK, he's probably just getting a tour of the farm and left his phone inside," Luan insisted.
"Farm? What farm?" the puzzled voice said. With a sigh, Luan dropped the truth bomb.
"Guess it's up to me after all."
A knock came at the door. Luna got up to answer it, and the face on the other side revealed itself to be Sam. "Hey Lunes, how did things go with your brother, where is he by the way?"
Luna thought for a moment about the best way to tell her.
"Well, you see..." she started to say.
"Our male sibling unit isn't under this domicile at the moment, and won't be for approximately twenty eight sun cycles," Lisa interrupted with.
Sam stared incredulously, while Luna frowned at her younger sister. "I had this covered bra," she said through gritted teeth.
"My apologies then," she said before going back to examining her eleventh toe.
With her attention returned to Sam, Luna told the full story.
"Yeah, so Lincoln isn't here, and he won't be back for another month."
"Why? I just saw him yesterday as I was walking home."
"Wait!, You did? What did he tell… you know what, that isn't important right now," Luna said shaking her head. "I think Lincoln is going through an early mid-life crisis, thanks to what happened at the convention."
A frown found its way onto the blonde rockers face.
"Yeah, I was afraid that things were worse. Simon's having problems of his own, so I have to be at home most of the summer to make sure he does his schoolwork, correctly."
Lynn couldn't help but scoff at how comparatively tame Sam's brother sounded to her own brother.
"At least he still loves you, right?" the athlete asked while not looking directly at the guest.
"Uhm, yeah, of course he does," Sam replied confused.
Luna was reaching a breaking point with her younger sister's attitude.
"You know what Lynn, aren't you supposed to be grounded?"
"I don't know, mom and dad never clarified that my punishment would last longer than one night, and there's no way they're gonna make it last more than a couple weeks."
"What makes you so sure?" Sam asked with her arms crossed.
"Lynn's 14th birthday is in a couple of weeks," Luna explained.
"And the best part is, Stinkcoln won't be there to throw my cake at me," Lynn said in anger as she pushed herself off the floor and made her way upstairs.
Sam looked at her best friend, "What is she talking about? What happened last night after I left?"
Luna scratched the back of her neck, not keen on revealing her family's drama.
"Well, do you remember how we had a guest last night? And that was why you couldn't stay for dinner?"
Sam nodded both times.
"So it turns out that I have this uncle..."
"Could you two maybe go someplace where we don't have to hear you talk," Lola said rudely. Both teen rockers sighed with annoyance.
"Fine pink dudette," Luna caved. "Looks like we're going to my room, Sam."
With another nod, the two musicians found their way upstairs and into the entrance of the room she shared with Luan, who was nowhere to be seen.
Huh, I thought I saw Luan come up here earlier, oh well.
With a shrug, she closed the door until a small crack separated the duo from the chaos.
"So anyway," Luna continued. "I have this uncle that I never knew about, my pop's bro to be more specific."
"He must be pretty successful to have a cool black car," Sam noted. "I saw it when I was leaving yesterday."
"Yeah," Luna confirmed. "He's a doctor, so makes sense he could afford it."
"Does this mean you have cousins you never knew about?" Sam asked excitedly.
Luna shook her head.
"I don't think so dude, he didn't mention having kids, plus, being a closeted gay man for most of his life probably meant that by the time he met his husband, he was already too into his career to have a family."
"Oh," Sam nodded in understanding. "Is he older or younger than your dad?"
"He's older… Anyway, you're still curious as to where Lincoln is, aren't you?"
"Oh yeah, that's right. I mean, I have a pretty good idea what happened to him."
"Yeah, as you might have guessed, he's with that uncle who came by yesterday."
"I'm sorry," Sam halted Luna. "But can we call him something other than 'the uncle?' It just feels weird."
"Fine, sure. He's Uncle Avery."
"OK, cool," was her only response.
"So the short answer is that Link will be working on Uncle Avery's farm until we go pick him up on the Fourth of July after a picnic of sorts."
"And where is this farm exactly?"
"Hazeltucky, of course."
Sam looked into the eyes of her friend, noting remnants of sadness.
"Are you OK Luna," she asked while hugging the brunette rocker.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, I just love him so much, and I worry about his future."
SPEAKING OF WHOM...
Dressed in his sky blue shirt and denims, Lincoln walked with his uncle towards a shed about 50 feet from the villa.
"Sooo, tell me about my grandpa," the boy inquired. "All I know about him is that he was apparently a hippie who owned Vanzilla."
Uncle Avery chuckled, ruffling the hair of his nephew.
"Oh, Lincoln, your grandfather was so much more than that." His face then turned downcast, something that wasn't lost on the boy.
"It's OK if you don't feel like talking about him," Lincoln assured. "I didn't mean to…."
"Lincoln, it isn't your fault," the man said sharply. "Let's just start the tour and I'll explain."
The uncle and nephew reached the shed in little time, and once the door was unlocked and opened, a shiny grey golf cart was lit up by a sole bulb above.
"Wow, that's a pretty fancy looking golf cart, the paint job makes it look more like one of those off-road vehicles I hear Ly-…," he almost mentioned the sister he was most angry at. "I mean, it looks nice," he finished simply.
"Well it drives even better," Avery assured as he flipped another nearby switch which opened the garage door, rendering the light bulb moot.
"Well, get on Lincoln, there's lots to see," he commanded. Lincoln didn't hesitate and hopped in the passenger side while Avery slowly walked over to the drivers seat and started the cart.
"Wait, should I close the garage door once we're outside?" Lincoln asked.
"Nah, don't bother," Avery assured the boy. "There's nothing worth stealing, and no place for anybody to hide anyway."
With that, the cart slowly exited the building and got onto the dirt path the duo took to get there. With lumpy fields on both sides of them, Avery began his story.
"So his name was Jacob, your grandfather. He was a college professor at UM, where he taught history. Ahh man Lincoln, I think you would have adored him, and your sisters would have loved him too."
"So if you don't mind… What happened to him?"
"Well, he started to change, after Mom died. I was still in high school, and your dad was about your age. Dad just… didn't seem to have the energy to care for his kids as a new widower, so I had to pick up most of the slack, even took a couple of years off before applying to college after I graduated just to help ends meet. I guess he thought if his younger children didn't see him this way, they could stay innocent, but I have a feeling that Lynn thought dad was playing favorites."
"He shouldn't have done that, did you not have any other family that could've helped?"
"Well, dad was also a very proud man, so he acted like he didn't need it, so I just… went along with it. He went to work same as usual, but he wasn't the kind of man who took his medicine on the regular, something about 'government control' or something, so when your dad and Aunt Shirley finally left home, there was nobody there to keep an eye on him. If I had to guess, he probably had an undiagnosed mental problem til the day he vanished, and most likely, died."
Suddenly, Avery's eyes seemed to light up once he recalled something else.
"You know what though?" he asked rhetorically. "Your grandfather did have an old friend who would check in on us every now and then. In fact, he helped fund your father's semester overseas. The funny thing is, he always seemed to like your dad more than me, like a godson or something."
Avery came to a curve in the path and instead of veering to stay on the flat dirt, he slowed the cart until it came to a stop right before it could hit the softer earth.
"Also, he was the friend I mentioned in the story yesterday who helped toss me out of the wedding," he said in a low distant voice. Lincoln hesitantly placed his left hand onto his uncles right knee, patting it softly.
"It's alright, the past is the past. I'm sure my dad will forgive you if he hasn't already."
Avery looked at his young nephew. "Yeah, I know. Thank you, Lincoln," he said calmly before turning the wheel sharply and continuing along the path.
"OK, so changing the subject, what made you decide to become a doctor?" the boy asked.
"I'll admit, it wasn't easy coming to that conclusion. Even though my grades in high school were phenomenal, I didn't really have a direction in life, but I still had a lot of friends, so it didn't really matter to me. But, when I finally got to college, I had access to all of these medical journals, so I did some research on what killed your grandmother."
"How did she die?"
"Cervical Cancer, something only women get. From that day forward, I made a solemn vow that I would eradicate that horrible disease from the Earth's face. You see Lincoln, my card might say OBGYN- MD, but thats more of a side thing, I'm actually an Oncologist with an OBGYN specialty."
"Oncology means cancer, right?"
"Mm-hmm," he responded sadly. "So, I think it's my turn to ask you some questions. Let's start with..." He paused before snapping his fingers. "Do you have a love interest?"
Lincoln was a bit taken aback by the personal question, though it did get him pondering.
"Well… not really. I mean, there is this one girl that I've kissed, twice."
"Oh, tell me more," he said, genuinely intrigued.
"She also happens to be the little sister of Lori's boyfriend."
"Well, dating an in-law isn't incest, its just not very common to begin with."
By this point, the golf cart was passing a large barn with peeling, brown paint.
"I think I know what your first job for Maurice is going to be," Avery said. "Don't worry, we'll pick up some supplies for you before Maurie returns home. Just so you know though, any work related items we buy for you will come directly out of your first paycheck."
The cart continued down the trodden path before coming to a pond located down a hill. There was also a picnic table a few meters from the pond's edge.
"Not a bad place to have lunch, huh?" Avery gestured. Lincoln didn't respond, his face seemed focused towards his shoes.
"Hey Uncle Avery, you're not going to tell anybody about what my family did, right?" he finally spoke.
"I don't see how that would do any good. You're talking about how they locked you out for that dumb reason?"
Lincoln nodded. "I mean, I still don't hate them, but at the same time, I can't help but feel lonely as the only boy. I mean, even my dog Charles turned against me. I had to sleep in the cold rain, outside of his doghouse."
Avery turned away from his nephew, his hands gripping the wheel until they turned white.
"Yeah, I'm still not going to get authorities involved. But I think you've earned the best three days of your life. At least... so far."
"So do you have any experience looking after kids?"
"Only your father and Aunt Shirley. So Lincoln, I was wondering what you wanted to have for dinner tonight? Once Maurice returns it's going to be all home cooked stuff, so this is your chance to enjoy something you've never had before. How about I give you some pamphlets of nearby restaurants and you'll decide."
"Cool, I'm thinking a steakhouse where I don't have to dress up."
Avery smiled. "I think we might be able to do that."
BACK IN ROYAL WOODS...
Lori was on break at her job at Lynn's Table. As expected, she was on her phone, when suddenly, she received an incoming call from Carol Pingrey, her former rival.
"Hey Carol," Lori answered
"Hi Lori, how's my future roomie doing? I hope I didn't interrupt anything important."
"No, no way, I always have time for you." she assured. "What's up?"
"Oh nothing major, I was just calling to invite you to my graduation party next Saturday."
"Oh… cool, sure, I guess I could make an appearance. What time?"
"The festivities will start around 11 in the morning, feel free to bring something to share."
"Huh, it's kinda odd that you'd be throwing a party almost two weeks after you've graduated."
"Well, it was the only time my extended family could come to see me. Remember, we only got so many tickets for the ceremony, so we had to delay the family celebration."
"Oh, OK, I understand. So are we still on for today, going to the mall and picking out stuff for our dorm room?"
"You bet, we don't want to wait until all the cool bedding and accessories are already taken."
"Great, I'd better let you go then, unless there's something else."
"Nah, that's all I've got Lori. I guess your break is almost over, right?"
"Yeah, pretty much. See you after work," Lori bid her friend cheerily.
MEANWHILE...
Meanwhile, in the master bedroom of the Loud House, Rita was inspired by recent events when writing her 'family' column.
"What happens when your child needs outside help, and the stigma behind it," she said aloud.
It was then that her phone rang, the name revealed to be her father Albert.
"Hi honey, how's my girl doing today?"
"I'm OK dad, how are things at Sunset Canyon?"
"They're grand, in fact I can't wait to see my whole family tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Rita questioned before reacting with silent horror, "That's right, we're supposed to visit you this weekend, for your birthday."
"Yup, just you, Lynn, Myrtle, and my 11 beautiful grandkids, especially my little mini-me Lincoln."
Rita gulped. That's what I forgot!How's he going to react when he finds out Lincoln is with Avery?
Wow, so working a full-time job has really kept me away from my writing, especially during the holiday season. I hope the rest of you are happy the new year is here. (I know I am.) Here's to hoping this year gets much better than it started off.
On a sadder note, I lost my grandfather early October (not COVID related). Much of the description of Avery and Lynn Sr.'s dad was inspired by him, with some embellishments of course. I will miss him dearly. In his memory, I would like to dedicate this entire story to him, a lifelong reader.
Until Next time.
