I would appreciate it if you could pinpoint what problems you have with this story. It is far from perfect after all There is plenty valid criticism to have of it. Omega-Ultra and Discretion Assured helped make this a lot less bad than it originally was. You should check them out.
There were many grand questions that Victory thought about daily. Questions that she has yet to answer truly.
For example; is the multi-verse theory valid, or merely a childish concept; Aunt Lisa believed the answer was the latter, but Victory hoped the former was right; the thought of at least a version of her being tall and strong like her mother was comforting.
She wondered what the best way to terraform all the other planets in the solar-system to Support human life on a mass scale was. Finding a way to remake the gas giants had posed the biggest problem. She also wondered how best to set it up as she would be the queen of the solar system; and wondered if that would have made her mom proud of her. She was reasonably sure the answer to the last question was no.
But there was only one question that Victory had any concern about as she stood in the long line for the bathroom.
Why in great Einstein's mind would such a big house has only two bathrooms? This question plagued Victory's mind as she uncomfortably waited for the line she was standing in to use one of the bathrooms. Logistically it made no sense. At home, there were five. Sure their House may have been a bigger than Lynn's House, but honestly, it still seemed like a design flaw for a home of Lynn's size to only have two bathrooms. Worse yet, the old bastard was hoarding one of them to himself.
Victory dared to ask him why he wouldn't share the only other bathroom in a house that currently had over thirteen people in it. It was utterly unreasonable to keep it all to himself. Old man Lynn just rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "Of course it's one Junior's girls." before answering Victory's justified question in the most dickish way imaginable. "I'm letting you guys sleep in my beds, and eat my food. Be grateful I'm allowing you to use anything at all in this House. Many children would feel lucky to have one bathroom in their House."
Victory disliked Lynn after that. But she only truly begun to hate him after he told her ahe wouldn't be able to keep wakizashi sword. The one Aunt Lisa gave to her last Christmas. Lynn said she couldn't keep it because he thought Victory couldn't be trusted to act responsibly. It was infuriating; Aunt Lisa(a world reknown genuis), trusted her and she never did anything to betray that trust. She didn't carry her sword around at home, she just kept it on a board in her and Lacy's room at home, and occasionally wore it to feel powerful. But no, Lynn said she couldn't keep it. She begged him, and he stared at her coldly and repeated his declaration.
She started to see why her mom never mentioned the guy. The only good thing about him was his name, which he gave to someone who deserved it more.
Victory wanted to sock the man in his bony face; just like her mother would have, but managed to control herself because the man was the best way to keep the family together; well together, and have a semblance of a normal life. She suggested to Lyra that maybe she could replace Lynn with super realistic android.
Lyra explicitly forbade her from doing any harm on the bastard and said she would bend Victory over her knee and whip her butt if Victory tried.
It was a bit of a overreaction on Lyra's part in the sharp toothed girl's opinion. Victory was only joking — sort of.
Lyra had instituted a nine-minute time limit for anyone using the bathroom to make sure people didn't hug it. It was still mostly first-come, first-served situation though; The only allowances she got for who could skip ahead of the line were the twins to avoid any accidents that could happen.
So for the last five days, Victory was forced to endure the hell of waiting an ungodly amount of time just to clean herself or relieve herself. During this hellish challenge, She often did the only thing that she usually got her mind off of suffering — being a total nuisance to her dear cousins. And as luck would have it, Leia was in front of her, and Lyra wasn't in sight.
"Lei-lei, let me cut you." Victory used her most whiny voice, which was amplified by the seer excoriation of her full bladder.
The little blonde girl gave a massive sneer at the request. "First of all, you're not Lops or Lizy, so you don't get to call me that."
Victory chuckled at that. "But I'm the one who came up with the nickname." It was true. Victory called Leia it when the princess was a tot. Leia always got flustered and prissy at being called it. Victory even secretly videotaped some hissy fits of it to share with the rest of their cousins-with the exception of Lyra, and Liena of course.
Leia scoffed but didn't deny the validity of Victory's statement. She just continued on her righteous tirade.
"Second, why may I ask, would your devious ugly mind think I would give you my spot?"
Victory shrugged her shoulders. "Because I'd make it worth your while."
Leia rolled her eyes at that but waited for Victory to respond. The long-toothed girl said nothing.
"So, what exactly are you offering, Little?" Leia finally relented as Victory knew she would.
"I'll spend more time with you."
Leia's shocked face was more than a little entertaining. "Have you've finally scrapped the last bit of sanity in your head? I just told you I don't like you."
Victory nodded. "Of course you don't like me. You love me."
The princess rolled her eyes. "Tell me, in your world, are you tall with normal teeth as well?"
"Nope, I'm my normal awesome self. The one you just love so much."
"I do not love you!" Leia hissed out while balling her hands into little fists.
Victory gave a dramatic gasp at the declaration. "But we're family!"
Leia shivered in abject disgust. "That's possibly the cruelest thing you've ever said to me."
Victory rolled her eyes. "When have I ever been the slightest bit mean to you?"
Leia's shocked face was priceless. The small tyke then went over a long list over all the many fun things, Victory has done to her over the years. Each one quite frankly more beautiful than the last. Some of which Victory has honestly forgot, but was still delighted to hear about again. By the time they had reached the bathroom door, Leia was still going, appearing to have forgotten they were standing in the bathroom line. Victory managed to skip in front of the princess.
"Leia, give me a moment I just need to use the bathroom real quick."
The princess groaned. "Fine, but if you think that I'm done, I'm not even half-way." She wagged her finger in Victory's face. Victory tried giving it a little bit, the girl jumped back, and cocked her hands up in fists. Victory gave her a toothy smirk before she entered the bathroom and locked the door without a second thought. She put her ear to the door and waited a couple of seconds.
"Little!" an enraged Leia shouted.
Victory smiled.
Lynn set down documents that had been finally transferred to him on the bed. Copies of his children's wills.
It was good enough news, mostly. His kids left Trust-funds for all of their kids; most with reasonable conditions;
All of their kids would only get most of the money after getting a college degree and reaching the age of 25.
They had also even set up college funds, which held amounts of money tremendously in them.
Lynn was not an unreasonable man regarding his children. He recognized them to be perverts and unrepentant ones at that. But that did not mean Lynn was blind to some of their virtue. Although he would never boast it as he once did, he could see they were intelligent(even Leni in her way). They were all immensely talented in things they loved; he may not be an expert in fashion or music or most of his daughters' ambitions and interests, but even he could tell children were great at them.
It was just that they could be unreasonable; case and point their insane want to fuck each other.
Lynn learned they could be unpredictable.
It was a relief to him to discover most of them had acted responsibly in terms of their kids, especially regarding the funding of their education.
Lynn would have paid for all the girls to go to college if their parents hadn't put money away from it. But he would prefer not. College is expensive.
His older daughters qualified for scholarship grants, and that certainly helped, but it was still taxing; well, it was at least it was before he discovered what they were doing. He and Rita had threatened to cut them off from any of their parent's money if they didn't admit what they did was wrong, agree to go to therapy, and stop the abuse of their brother. But only after days of pleading for them to act rationally. Their daughters had refused. Lori dared to even declare to him, "You literally can't stop love." when he and Rita tried to put their foot down. He wasn't even angry at the time. More genuinely befuddled for how his daughter could be so proud of what she was doing.
When Lincoln and younger daughters left, he and Rita tried the same tactic; if they wanted penny from their parents, they'd have started acting reasonably. It didn't work. He didn't know if anyone besides Lisa earned a college degree in anything.
However, there was some seemingly lousy news
Junior's oldest girl didn't have a college fund. Even Leni had made sure when the time came; her daughter would be able to pursue higher education. Junior set up a college fund for her youngest. It was odd.
Then a troubling thought emerged in his head. What if Junior's oldest couldn't go to college because of her mental faculties?
Nothing in the girls' medical files revealed anything physically wrong. Mentally sure, he found out Lori's girl did have issues. The girl had a general anxiety disorder and OCD. Weird. None of his children were even especially shy about anything, except Junior's oldest, who had a tooth abnormality which didn't seem as serious as he feared.
What if he missed something in regards to her?
After a few minutes of going over his copy of Jr's medical file once more, he could see nothing in regards to her being 'special' or having any particular problem that would make college an impossibility. He'd find out what the issue was.
He walked out of his and Rita's bedroom and made his way up the stairs to see a person who might be able to answer his question. He did not go up the stairs often. Since his children moved out, there was the very little point: his kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom, all the things he needed where downstairs.
He and Rita talked about converting a lot of the bedrooms into something else. An exercise room for Junior and Lucy's room(though neither of the parents truly believed it would have a lot of use), they discussed making Lori and Leni's room into a knitting room(for Lynn of course), Rita once said she thought of making Lily and Lisa's room into a woman cave. They decided they should make a regular closet out of Lincoln's room again. But he and Rita never did anything.
When he finally made his way up the stairs, he saw the sharp-toothed girl was concerned about exiting the bathroom. Lola's girl appeared to angry at her older cousin for some reason.
But the interaction didn't appear to be escalating to violence, so he left them be for the time being, and went to the room he knew to be housing Luna's girl.
The girl was rocking and singing to Lisa's baby with a smile on her face. When she realized Lynn had entered the room, her smile dropped. The girl was respectful enough, and besides Leni's girl had been the only one willing to speak to Lynn without being prodded first. He could tell she felt no more warmth for him than most of her siblings. Dealing with him was merely something the role she has accepted as a leader demanded. He could admire that, at the very least.
"Is Junior's oldest mentally disabled?" Lynn asked bluntly. "Is there any reason she wouldn't be able to attend college?"
The girl stared at him. Then the girl started laughing.
It was the first time he's ever heard her laughed.
When he failed to join in, she quieted down, but she still held a small smile.
"Victoria is the most intelligent person in this House." she said, "I'm not exaggerating. The only reason she still goes to regular school is that her mother wanted the girl to have a normal childhood. Aunt Lisa said Victoria was even smarter than she was at that age."
At this, Lynn's eyes grew wide. Smarter than Lisa? That was hard to believe. Especially given it was one of Junior's girls. His sport's obsessed daughter wasn't stupid by any extent, but she often balked at anything she considered "nerdy". Yet, at the same, it made sense for why there was no money put away for college for the sharp-toothed girl. He and Rita had initially set up a college fund for Lisa. But by age three, the girl had proved that she would be able to pick any college she wanted. She won Junior Nobel prize, after all, so he and Rita had just put the money towards Lily's college fund.
"I see." he turned to leave but stopped. "Is there anything that you should tell me in regards to your cousins? Any potential problem any of them may have? I'll probably find out eventually, so it'd be best to tell me now."
Lynn hoped the girl said no.
"I know this may sound strange." Lyra began, and Lynn's heart skipped a beat, "But Lulu is a mutant." It was Lynn's turn to stare at the girl. He tried to discern if the girl was serious or joking. If the latter, his opinion of the girl would go down. If the former, he figures the girl is crazy, and probably needs to take the baby away from her as well as get Luna's girl some meds.
"It's hard to believe, but it's true. X3-73 show him all your legs." with that the older girl dropped the tiny bundle in her arms. Lynn rushed to catch the infant, but before he could things long, things that looked like spider legs sprang from her back to stop her fall.
He backed up immediately, horrified at what he just witnessed. He knew incest could lead to some defects in people, but this was obvioulsy well beyond that.
"She's not dangerous to any extent." Luna's girl hastily said. "Aunt Lisa said some experiments she did had effected her pregnancy. She told Liena and Me in case she did something like this while the adults were away. Just so we could respond effectively. She's never hurt anyone, and won't do anything that weird unless prompted to by family after being referred to as X3-73 or in danger. She'll act normal again if you call her Lulu and tell her to." The girl then stared at the monster and held out her arms towards the creature. "Lulu be a cutesy baby." and with that Lisa's thing sprang to her sister's arms, retracting the long legs from her back on the way. She snuggled against the older girl's chest, looking like any other infant.
Lynn did not know how to process this. He knew his science-obsessed daughter had little problems in the way of ethics, especially concerning science. Lynn still remembers her nonchalantly gathering pieces of hair from her family to study the possibility of cloning them. Just so as she put it, "Have backups" in case anyone croaks. But this...to do something that could make a baby this was simply evil.
Lyra looked at him nervously. "Is this going to be a problem Lynn?"
The man was tempted to say yes and that he's calling the FBI. But looking at the baby's peaceful expression as it was rocked by her big sister stopped him "She really won't hurt anyone? She'll have to be left at a daycare while I'm at work and you're at school"Luna's girl vigoursly nodded.
Lynn sighed. "So long as she doesn't hurt anyone she could stay around" Lynn said reluctantly.
Upon leaving the room, he discovered the new house genius and Lola's girl wrestling on the ground. Luna's girl may have said the sharp-toothed girl was as smart as Lisa but all he could see was Junior.
"That all you got, Princess?" she asked after pinning the younger girl.
The sight of the long-toothed pinning her younger, weaker sibling, and taunting them reminded Lynn of the scuffles his sport's obsessed daughter and Lincoln had when they were kids. Though admittedly, the small blonde girl was putting up more of a fight than Lincoln typically did.
"Break it up," he barked.
Junior's oldest jumped from the ground, releasing her hold on her sister. Lola's girl got back to her feet and glared at the other girl. The girl just gave a mocking grin so much like Junior's.
"You're so much like your mother," Lynn told the sharp tooth girl. She stared at him as if he was crazy.
After what he just saw with Lisa's child, he didn't if she'd be wrong.
"That's probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me." the girl finally said.
Loan was in Lynn's basement doing one of the few things she has a fraction of ability in, playing video games. One might look at her weirdly for her choice of location. But she had a perfect reason to be down there and alone.
Everyone else was upstairs.
Loan was not a social creature, even in regards to her family. She did not have a shared room like most of her cousins did at home-the only other kid who didn't was Lemy. And Lemy only really started sleeping in his room the year prior. She, however, had been sleeping in her family's basement for years. She knew some people might think that's weird, but it was far more comfy for her than when she used to share a room with Liena. She hoped her cousins didn't take offense-she did love them. It was just that she didn't feel as comfortable doing what she liked when others were around her. It was weird. She knew it was weird. It just felt like they were judging her. Judging her habits, judging her body, dissecting her with their eyes, and seeing how willfully worthless she was. She felt wrong. She was glad she finally could set up a room down there. Lynn had finally gotten the rest of her and her cousins shipped to his abode. He only got two of the mattresses, so no one had to share a bed anymore.
"What are you playing?" A familiar monotonous voice piped up.
Loan gave an undignified yelp, her hands fumbled, and she almost dropped her phone.
She turned her head and tried giving a small smile.
"Hey, London didn't hear you come in."
London merely nodded.
"Well, I'm just playing some Pokemon."
London nodded again. "Lyra told me to tell you to help Lemy wash Lynn's Van. She says you can't just stay in the House."
Loan groaned in annoyance. "Do I really have to?" Loan asked, not being excited with prospect of leaving the House.
London sighed. "I hate the day too Loan. But Lyra wants you to get out of the House to some degree. And she told me if you failed to come out in a timely manner, I have to take your phone, and run. I already have your phone."
Loan looked at her hands and realized her phone was missing from her hands, and London's.
London marveled at this. "How did you_"
"Lois has been showing me a little sleight of hand." her cousin explained.
"Are you going to get going, or should I get disappearing?" Lois asked her.
Loan got up from the bed, which prompted London to hand over her phone.
Loan, with great reluctance, proceeded to come up with her new solitary domain.
As she reached the top of the stairs, she looked back to see if her younger cousin was following her.
The girl was nowhere to be seen, of course. How she did it, Loan was too afraid to ask.
"Over here cuz," London said from right behind her. Loan jumped slightly. Due to her being on the basement step, this was noticeably a bad thing. Or at the very least would be if her suite-loving cousin hadn't grabbed her and kept her from falling backward.
"I'm sorry, Loan. I forgot my mother's rule about not doing this sort of thing when people could fall over." actual worry had seeped into London's voice.
Loan tried giving what she hoped to be a reassuring smile. "It's ok London, we all make mistakes. Just be careful, please."
London nodded and skittered off to do whatever London does.
When Loan got to the front yard, Lemy was washing the windshields; she smiled at Loan and handed her a towel to get scrubbing.
He handed her a wet rag, and for the next half-hour, the two just cleaned the Van.
"This thing is a piece of junk of, huh?" Lemy said, rubbing furiously on a stain on one of the doors.
Loan did not think it'd be nice to agree with the statement explicitly.
"It could be better." Loan meekly said, scrubbing a windshield.
Lemy still trying to get rid of the stain. "I mean, our Van wasn't especially cool, you know with the 'loud and proud' thing on its side, but it still didn't look it'd fall apart if you'd use it."
Loan could not say she didn't feel similar in regards to their new primary mode of transportation.
The thing was old, smelly, and although she wasn't mechanic like Aunt Lana, she could see that the VanVan was well past its natural life.
"I did like our old van a little more." Loan meekly agreed.
"A little?" Lemy asked a tone conveying a sense of finding what Loan said being ludicrous. He managed to scrub away the stain finally. With a look of mild satisfaction, the small boy moved on to working on the doors.
"Come on, Loan admit it; this thing sucks," Lemy demanded.
Loan frowned, knowing the boy would bother her until she'd agree with him. "I suppose it does suck just a bit."
"This Van is a family heirloom girl. Show it some respect." Lynn piped in from the porch, having just decided to come out during the worst possible time for Loan.
Loan's face became flustered. "And it's great, Lynn." she put her hands up in a sign of submission.
She did not like getting into a confrontation. She felt the easiest(also safest), course of action was to give up whatever the person who was mad at her wanted to avoid a bad outcome for herself "I think it's awesome. Best Van in the world!"
At the corner of her eye, she saw Lemy roll his eyes.
Lynn did not seem to buy her lie but didn't press her on it. Instead, he went over to the hood of the car and pressed a hand on it.
"Vanzilla has been in the Loud family for generations. She'sbeen passed down from father to son since my grandfather. Hell, she was with me on my first date with my wife, she drove me to my wedding. I love her. "
Loan marveled at the show of affection. It was far more than her grandfather has shown her or any of her cousins. Heck, he still referred to the girls as just 'girl' and Lemy as just 'boy.'
Up until this moment, she thought Lyn Loud Sr was simply a man incapable of love. It was honestly weird seeing him being open to showing his emotions. It was kinda insulting that he'd see a rusty old van as more worthy of such affection than his own grandchildren. She glanced at Lemy. A look of annoyance had crossed his face. CpLoan guessed he was thinking the same thing. She knew she had to speak before he said something reckless.
"So does that mean you'll give the Van to Lemy someday? He is the only boy in the family." that was a genuinely dumb thing to ask. As soon as she said it, Lemy scornfully pronounced, "I don't want it."
The look on Lynn's face didn't seem annoyed at the declaration. If anything, he looked...relieved?
"That's fine. The boy doesn't need to take something that so obviously fails to live up to his high standards." Lynn said. His tone didn't carry a whiff of anger.
Loan wanted to ask why he was so calm after his grandson said he'd not continue a tradition Lynn expressed such fondness of. But was too afraid to ask. Might get him mad at her again.
Lynn examined the work Loan, and Lemy had been doing with a critical eye. He finally grunted.
"Well, she looks well enough now, and I have to go to the store to stuff for dinner."
"You're welcome," Lemy said in a sarcastic tone.
Lynn just looked at him. "I didn't say thank you, boy." before getting in the Van and driving away.
Lemy was in Lincoln's old room doing what he and his mom did best. Rocking. Albeit not as loud, he usually did because he didn't feel like dealing with crap from his cousins. So he was smoothly rocking. He found the existence at old man Lynn's house slightly less terrible once all his and his cousin's stuff was shipped to them. Because he finally got his hands back on his fender-the guitar his mom when he was 6-years old, and best gift a boy could ask for, He was going to be an awesome rockstar one day despite the complaints from his haters-his haters being some of his cousins who have no taste in music. His mom said he was great, and that's all that mattered. Whose he's going to believe? His mother-a super famous rockstar who made loads of money because so many people recognize her awesome skill or his snooty cousins?
Lemy may not have had some brainy nerd like Aunt Lisa or Little, but he knew it was smart to listen to the experts rather than the people who have no experience in what they're talking about. It was was just basic common sense. Now, if he wanted to be a snooty princess, he'd go to Leia.
If he wanted to be a mad scientist, Lemy would go to Little.
If he wanted to be generally creepy he'd go to London, Lemy would go to his cousins if they had something useful to say and consider listening to them. Because say one thing about Lemy Loud say he's a reasonable guy. And reasonable people listen to the experts. But none of his haters are experts in music, so he doesn't have to listen to them.
Besides, Lyra always said he was getting better and keeping practicing. She wasn't a rocker like him and mom, but she was great at music; even their cousins had admitted she had the skill(probably because they were afraid of her), and she was annoyed about how it's essential, to be honest. She wouldn't lie to him about this. To him. If she thought he was as bad as his stupid cousins, she'd be honest.
Aunt Lily also said his playing was cool. And she was his coolest Aunt. The one who didn't treat him like some kid. So that's like three really great people who recognized his talent right there. They wouldn't all lie to him; Unless they all knew how it would hurt Lemy to tell him the truth.
Lemy shook his head to shake out those thoughts. His mom said negative thinking like that would just mean bad mojo for him. And he believed it.
For the first time since the news, he's been slightly chilled. Only slightly but still.
The situation still sucked, but at least he was miserable with his stuff. Aunt Lola said that it was better being loaded and sad than broke and unhappy or something like that. He could see what she meant by that now once he was finally able to decorate Lincoln's room with his Mick swagger and Smooch posters that his mom and Lincoln gave to him.
Being surrounded by all that rock felt right. He wasn't happy, but he was surrounded by things that made him happy, at least. That had to mean something.
He closed his eyes and imagined his mom was in the room with him, cheering him on. Lemy brushed his eyes when they began to water, and continued on continued strumming. He only stopped when Lyra knocked and told him to open up his door. Lemy rolled his eyes, but got up, and opened it anyway knowing full well he was in for a lecture for breaking Lynn's dumb rules.
Lyra went over to the bed, sat down, and patted the spot next to her. Lemy sat down.
"You're getting better," Lyra said in the same encouraging voice she always did after he played.
Lemy smiled broadly at the praise. Lemy knew he was great, but it was still nice to hear someone else see he wasn't wasting his time.
"You're not supposed to keep doors closed or locked," Lyra said, finally being the usual buzzkill he knows.
Lemy shrugged his shoulders and gave the best defense his mind could come up within a short notice. "It's a dumb rule." he laid out.
Lyra rolled her eyes at Lemy's reasonable argument.
"It's a rule and not an exactly bad one at that," Lyra said.
"We didn't have it at home." Lemy groaned in annoyance.
"This, unfortunately, maybe our new home now," Lyra said with the ability not to grimace. Lemy starred at her as if she was ludicrous. He knew Lyra wasn't lying, but she was still wrong. She could get odd ideas in her head.
"This isn't home," Lemy said through gritted teeth.
He took a deep breath to help calm him down before continuing.
"Home has our aunts, home has Lincoln, home has m-mom!" explained in a calm, rational way he could. He only really started screaming at the end. A great show restraint, in his opinion.
Lyra shook her head. "In any case, it's Lynn's House, and we're living here. Our mother taught us to respect the places owned by others."
Lemy groaned. "Come on; I just closed the door because I didn't want to suffer any of the whinings of some of the lose_" Lyra's eyes narrowed. Lemy recognized he had to choose his next words very carefully. "I mean, I didn't want to bother our super cool cousins with my music. So really, when you stop to think about it, I'm being considerate." Ha. Good backtrack, Lemy.
"You never seemed to have a problem with playing at home. " Lyra sounded confused.
"Mom was at home." Lemy pointed out again.
Lyra just looked at him. Lemy sighed, knowing he had to continue. "Mom, was there to cheer me on. You know to tell me how good I am. "
"I compliment you lots of times." Lyra said quickly, "I mean it too, Lemy."
Lemy nodded. "And that's good, but when mom did it was kinda better." He grimaced as soon as he said it. Lyra didn't look mad, but he still felt stupid. It was just hard to say what he needed to say sometimes.
Lyra just looked at him patiently to organize his thoughts.
"It feels a little bit more I don't know valid or something. I mean, mom became a great star everyone respected. If she said, I was good, that means I'm good. " Lemy said hoping he was making sense.
Lyra smiled at him and gave his shoulder a careful squeeze. "I understand what you mean. Our cousins could be a bit mean spirited sometimes, but you shouldn't let it get you down."
Lemy nodded to his sister. She could get weird ideas in her head, but she could also make sense. She could be reasonable.
"You still need to respect the House's rules." and she could be equally unreasonable.
He grunted.
"Lemy."
"Ok fine, I'll leave my door open," Lemy said.
Lyra smiled at him and patted his back lightly.
"Thanks, Lemy," she said.
Liena set the goulash and cheese bits down over the dinner plates. Lynn's cooking ability proved to be well worth her mother's praise.
Still, dinner proved to be not as high an affair as it had been at home. It was tense. Everyone was so quiet. At their home had dinner, the time had been a time of constant chatter. No one, besides the adults, was allowed to use phones at the House. If one wanted to seek entertainment, they'd have to talk to their family.
Though it wasn't a rule of Lynn's House, everyone was silent at the table.
And Liena knew their grandfather was a significant part of that reason.
"Tell the kids dinners' ready." the man ordered as he washed his hands in the sink.
"Lynn, could we please talk?" Liena asked.
The man did not turn around but responded.
"What do you want girl?" though she been helping out in the kitchen for days, Lynn still wasn't much warmer to her than her cousins.
"Could you please tell them they could talk during dinner."
He turned to look at her at this.
"They're scared. This House is a new place. They're still trying to get a handle on what's ok with you."
Lynn stared at her for a bit. Liena started to get nervous.
"That sounds-" Liena's heart skipped a beat, "Like a reasonable enough request."
Liena gave him a smile and went to get her cousins.
When everyone assembled, Lynn stood at the head of the table.
"You may talk at dinner," Lynn declared before sitting down. He gave a small nod towards Liena.
The conversations weren't as loud as the old House. But they did happen.
For Liena, it was a good enough start.