Through Their Eyes
Third Year
Lynn Jr.
Why! Why the fuck did I have to be the first to know how screwed up my family is! Why me? What did I do, huh! Why!
Leni
Oh, wow! These colors would totes make an adorable set of footie pajamas! What did Luan say it'd be, though? Hmm, I can't remember, Leni held up the various swatches of fabric in her hand, eyed them with the light at their backs, her tongue pinched between both rows of pearly white teeth. Then her eyes went wide. Oh, that's right! It's gonna be a baby! a moment later, her face scrunched up in thought once more. But is it a boy or a girl?
It took a little longer, but finally she decided on a neutral color and, with a doll for approximation, began measuring out the pattern she had in mind. I so totally cannot believe that Luan's gonna have a baby! It's gonna be so cool, but I hope Lily doesn't mind. She does like all the attention she gets now!
As Leni hummed, she finished all of the measuring and, with shears in hand got to the nitty-gritty, cutting and trimming, sewing and hemming. Still, Mom and Dad were, like, totally ticked off about it. I guess I can understand, I think. And I still don't know why Lori, Luna and Lynn are acting the way they are, but Luan will be such a good mommy, I bet it'll turn out okay! I wonder who the daddy is, though? She never told us she had a boyfriend she was that serious about!
Speaking of boys, she held the partially finished outfit up to the light, inspected it, I sure hope she tells the little guy or girl all about what their uncle did! I bet they'll totes just love Lincy, and maybe it'll be good for him if the baby looks up to him for protecting its mommy!
Once again, Leni went back to work, her face softening as thoughts of Luan the night she made the revelation played through her mind.
'I mean,' Luan shook as she sat there on the couch, the entire family including their Pop-Pop either sitting or standing all before and around her, Lincoln off to the side looking for all the world like he was about to hyperventilate which, to Leni, made sense given how close he was to their sister nowadays, 'of course I used a, you know. But I mean, maybe once, when it was kind of a special day, and I thought it was-' Luan tugged at her collar nervously, '-safe.' Then, when their parents looked about to burst, she hastily added, 'But there was one time recently when the, you know, may have... kinda sorta... broke.'
Leni leaned back as the thought ended, rubbed her chin and mused, "I wonder what a 'you know' is. And how does it keep babies away? Maybe I'll ask Lincy, he always knows stuff about stuff!"
Lana
"Outta the way, Hops, coming through!" Lana couldn't help but grin as she hauled the last of the wood into the basement and set it up, the makings of a crib off in a corner. The planks now on the floor at its side, she dusted her hands off and eyed her handiwork, the grin growing as she said, "Man, Luan's baby's gonna have the best crib in the crib!" she paused a moment, Hops croaked, then her face fell and she looked to the frog. "I know what I just said, don't say it."
Hops' next croak sounded rather suspiciously like a, "Get it?" though Lana had no clue how that was possible.
With a bit of a growl, the blonde tomboy turned back to her work. "Enough chit-chat, we got a job to do!"
Both got to work after that, proving once and for all that frogs and little girls absolutely had a place in carpentry and the workshop, much to the dissatisfaction of sane people everywhere.
Then sane people everywhere were proven somewhat correct in their own assumptions when Lana accidentally smacked herself with the crib while trying to wedge a piece into place. She yelped, which surprised Hops, who jumped and bumped his head on the underside of a table she'd set up to aid their endeavors, causing a hammer to drop which nearly caught the tomboy square on the head.
When all was done, she stood off to the side and whistled.
"Wow, Hops, you sure are jumpy today," she shot the frog a grin, the unspoken words causing the frog to give her a glare of its own. Then Lana, feeling the urge, uttered, "Get it?"
Hops, if it was possible for a frog to groan, did just that.
"But seriously," again the frog seemed to groan. "What's gotten into you? You're almost as jumpy as Linc's been ever since Luan said she was having a baby!"
Hops croaked at that.
"No, really. I mean it. You have."
Again Hops croaked, displeasure evident to Lana's ears. Then another croak, this one of a far different tone.
"Huh? Why's he so jumpy?" this made Lana think. "I dunno. Maybe he's just worried about Luan? Or maybe it has something to do with those weird bug-eyed looks Luna, Lori and Lynn have been giving him?"
The frog gave her a lopsided glance, the two silently eyeing one another before turning back to their work.
"Maybe," she spoke up after a moment, another thought coming to mind, "he knows who the dad is?"
Hops gave a noncommittal croak, but Lana didn't show if she noticed.
Lola
"Luan's kid is so lucky it's got an aunt like me," Lola mused haughtily to herself, admiring her right side in her mirror. "I mean, who else could have a hope of making them a catwalk champion?"
She grinned to herself then. "Well, second place champion. They would have to go up against me, and that's so not a fair fight. Sorry, kid, just the facts!
"Still," Lola sat on her bed, crossed her arms, "it'd be real nice if somebody would fess up and say who the daddy is. I really need to know what I'll be working with here, I'm not able to see the future! Does he have a big nose? Bald spots? What about the dad's hands? Heck, even an eye or hair color would do for starters!"
She groaned in frustration, then threw herself backward onto the mattress. "Doesn't anyone appreciate the hardships I have to go through? I mean," she snorted, "how can I even begin to help the kid succeed if nobody will tell me anything!"
Minutes later, she sighed.
"Well, complaining isn't getting me anywhere," sitting up, she hopped down onto the floor, then grinned mischievously. "But eavesdropping might," she said as she heard Luan calling out for her parents.
It didn't go unnoticed that Lincoln was calling for them, too.
Lola ducked into the vents. "Huh, where's Lucy? Oh, that's right," she snapped her fingers, realized what she did, prayed nobody heard her before whispering, "she should still be with Haiku right now.
"Wait a moment," she arched a well maintained eyebrow, "why am I talking to myself? Isn't this something Lincoln does? And what is up with that, anyways? Does he have problems? Well, more problems than reading comics in his undies?" she shook her head. "Not now, Lola! Get a grip on yourself and start thinking!"
There, that's better, this solved, she shimmied along the vents until four of her family's voices grew clear as day.
At first Lola's eyes narrowed in satisfaction; Luan was finally gonna spill the beans!
But why was Lincoln there, too?
Maybe support? Those two have been awfully close lately, Lola shrugged, but then she noticed her siblings becoming hesitant.
Very hesitant.
Come on, already! Just spill! Is it Mr. Grouse? Is that why she's embarrassed?
Then Luan's voice went so many octaves lower that Lola was sure nothing could have heard it. Not even all of Lisa's scientific doohickeys had a chance of picking up what she said.
Their parents agreed.
Not willing to miss a second chance, Lola pressed her ear as close to the vent as she dared, eyes shooting wide as she realized her dress was picking up every stray dust bunny in the whole house.
Then, her eyes shot even wider.
She didn't just hear what she was certain her perfect little ears heard, did she?
No, she couldn't have.
So she pressed closer, dared to look at her parents.
No way.
They were white as sheets!
"Luan," their mother croaked, barely able to guide herself into one of the chairs at the table, "please tell me this is a joke!"
Lola's face practically froze when her two older siblings hung their heads and said, at exactly the same time, "It's not."
And Lola was off.
As fast as she dared and quiet as she could be, Lola practically flew through the vents and popped out on the second floor looking like she'd taken upon herself the duty of dusting the whole house's ventilation system with her person. So fast, in fact, that she hadn't noticed where she'd popped out until she was staring Lynn in the face and, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, said, "I'm gonna need a ton of make-up for that kid."
Lynn realized what must have happened and nodded gravely as she stared Lola right in the eye.
Clyde
"It'll be okay, Lincoln, you'll see. I'm all in your corner, at least!"
Clyde said it, and he meant it. Ever since that day in the park, when he and his best buddy had heard Luan cry out, had rushed to her, saw what that ever-loving asshole had tried to do to her, he knew what side he wanted to be on.
And it wasn't because he saw what Lincoln could do if he really tried to hurt someone.
Heck, even Clyde was ready to do some damage if the guy came for Luan, standing between her and the two other males since Lincoln seemed wholly capable and Clyde didn't want to become a casualty of friendly fire.
But as he watched the older girl cradle Lincoln after the other guy fled, even Clyde knew something had changed.
He just didn't know what.
Or even just how much.
"Lincoln did what!" when his father came in that night, told him what had happened to his best buddy because of that now thankfully long gone piece of human excrement, Clyde couldn't believe it. He was so in shock, he ran into the side of the door twice as he hurried to get ready to go!
Busting two pairs of glasses, even!
It didn't matter, though. The moment he was able to see Lincoln, it'd be worth it. His best buddy needed to know he still had Clyde in his corner.
Especially after all the trouble he'd already been given at their school.
Trouble that didn't just stagnate, but increased exponentially after the second attack when he finally returned.
"You need a lesson in respect, Snowball?" Clyde's blood went cold as he watched kids nominally just like him as they cornered Lincoln on the playground, his friend defiant even if sincerely worried.
Worried, that is, for his sisters who were at that moment watching from afar, Lola chomping at the bit to be let loose.
"Get lost," his buddy said, staring the tallest of the boys right in the eye. "Don't you have a serial killer to worship or something? You already seem to like making rapists into saints."
Clyde paused. So too did the other boys. Frightened or no, his best buddy had a pair on him!
Of course, the comment earned him a punch in the stomach and, when he went down and curled into himself several of the boys started kicking his legs and back. It was, Clyde was sure, Mollie and Girl Jordan who'd screamed for the teachers.
What Clyde wasn't so sure about was whether it was himself who broke the taller kid's nose or not.
At least, not until several of the kids including Lincoln's younger sisters vouched that it was
All he really knew was that it was the first full-fledged, knock-down, drag-out fight he'd ever been in.
And, while Clyde was sure his dads wouldn't approve, he was kinda sure Lincoln and he won that fight.
"Oh, my poor baby!" his father bawled, arms wrapped tightly around Clyde as he stood there near the hospital entrance with a fresh pair of stitches on his forehead. "Don't worry, we'll make sure to get at least four bags of ice, a tub of ice cream, and anything else I'm forgetting right now!"
"Dad, please!" Clyde did his best to wrestle free, managing to at least loosen if not release the grip Howard had on him. "Besides, aren't I in trouble?"
Harold looked taken aback. "Why?"
Clyde looked equally so as he said, "I broke a kid's nose? I got in a fight? I swore and called them names, even! Any of that ring a bell?"
Then his fathers exchanged only one quick glance before looking back at their boy as Harold asked "Are you sorry?"
Clyde looked over, saw Lincoln sitting more downcast than he'd ever seen his best buddy in the waiting room, his sisters all around him trying to lift his spirits while his parents signed paperwork. Then he turned back to his fathers, shook his head and stated firmly, "Not one bit."
Harold and Howard once again looked each other in the eye and Clyde swore they were trying their hardest not to cheer as Howard, smiling happily as he swept his son up into a hug, said, "Good. That's our young man, right there."
For his part, Harold wrapped his family up in a hug as Clyde knew he was trying his damnedest not to cry.
Hey, even Clyde knew there had to be someone in the family with a grip on their emotions!
He just wasn't entirely too sure why he wasn't in trouble.
Not that he was complaining, though!
But, even if it hadn't been for his best buddy that he'd jumped into the fray like he did the reward from Lori definitely made it all worthwhile.
"Thank you so much, Clyde!" she'd said just milliseconds before she gave him a huge kiss on his least bruised cheek.
Seconds later, she was squealing in surprise and fright as Clyde collapsed into a bloody heap on the floor, his fathers and Lori freaking out when the nosebleed decided to make its appearance.
Lincoln could only chuckle as he later sat there at his best buddy's side, a blood transfusion being deemed necessary while Lori excused herself to find an entirely new outfit. Like he'd been there for Lincoln, now his best buddy was there for him.
Which was good, given he'd just gotten his fluids all over Lori's chest and panties.
"Clyde!" Lincoln began panicking when Clyde realized this, the boy declaring he could die happily now as the monitors began beeping and blaring wildly.
Of course, the happiness of the moment died down rather quickly, Lincoln's school life becoming so hellish that he was eventually home schooled.
"It's probably for the best," his buddy said one Saturday awhile later as Lincoln stayed the night.
Clyde asked, "You sure, Lincoln? I'm behind you all the way no matter what."
But while Clyde supported Lincoln's leaving, he'd made his decision.
He wasn't.
They may have chased Lincoln out, may have even chased Luan out though Clyde wasn't sure what happened there exactly. But they weren't gonna chase him out. Not Clyde. Not anymore.
"Wow, Johnny Dorko," Ronnie-Anne chuckled after Clyde managed to run off a bully who'd tried menacing Mollie for her support of Lincoln. "You've really manned up these days."
Clyde arched an eyebrow. "I have?"
Ronnie-Anne gave him an incredulous look. "Have you been paying attention to yourself! You just freaking chased a guy off who, might I remind you, made you and Lincoln almost eat trash one time before I came along!"
He stood there in silence for a moment. But only a moment. "I did?"
The girl smiled and started laughing. "Dude, did you find your backbone at Rent-a-Spine or something?"
"I really scared one of my old bullies off?"
Ronnie-Anne practically grinned ear to ear at that. "And it was actually pretty awesome!"
Clyde could barely contain the smile on his face.
A week later, however, while he wanted to smile harder he also couldn't help but freak out.
"What will Lincoln say?" he groaned there in his bedroom, the pictures of Lori set aside thanks to this latest turn of events. "I mean, even she said they were just good friends, nothing more than that. But what if he didn't think so?"
Clyde panicked.
But old Clyde wouldn't be allowed back in control. New Clyde was in town, and he was the boss now.
So, even though it was getting close to dinner, Clyde resolved to talk with Lincoln that same day.
When he left, he'd asked his dads to keep dinner warm, said he needed to do something absolutely important. The two understood as their son darted out for his best friend's place, though they couldn't help but worry, something they'd told him when he returned later that night.
He understood because his dads were awesome like that. Even if he'd never tell them such a thing.
"Hey, Buddy, what's up?" Lincoln asked as Clyde entered 1216 Franklin Ave, the Louds all congregating downstairs as dinner was prepared.
Clyde wanted to bite his lip, to run away, but he refused. Instead, he said, "Uh, hey, Lincoln? C-could we talk?"
He'd noticed a few of the sisters giving them looks, but Lincoln shrugged and took him upstairs to his bedroom where, once inside, Clyde threw all his carefully considered explanations, carefully worded arguments, and a few pleas he'd thought up and just said, "Ronnie-Anne asked me out."
Lincoln's eyes went wider than saucers. "What did you do!"
"I—well, you see what I did—I mean-" Clyde started scrambling.
But Lincoln, completely out of left field in Clyde's opinion, started checking his window and even testing the door for strength. "Listen, Clyde, you need to find a safer place than here! Ronnie-Anne knows where I live and the others might invite her in accidentally and why are you sighing in relief? This isn't the part where you sigh in relief, Ronnie-Anne can and will murder you if you really ticked her off!"
Clyde couldn't help it. He started to laugh. "No, Lincoln! Not like that!"
It took a few moments, but Lincoln finally calmed down and, when he heard the news, plastered a grin across his face.
"That's awesome, Clyde!"
"It is?"
"Of course it is!" his best buddy hugged him close.
But Clyde had to ask. "Wait a moment! What about you and her? Aren't you, like, I dunno…" he petered out, obviously at a loss for words.
Lincoln just shook his head and laughed as he patted his best friend on the back. "Good friends. Maybe not as great as you and I, though. Of course," he put as irate a face as he could on now, "If you even think of trying to two-time by asking me out, then we'll have problems."
Clyde looked at him for just a moment before the two started wrestling for a few minutes, laughing as they did so.
After a few more minutes of chatting, of congratulations, both boys were mobbed by nine of Lincoln's sisters as they walked back down the stairs.
"We heard through the vents."
And Lincoln smacked himself in the face.
Of course, Lori gave a look Clyde's way as she said, "Wow, what am I? Chopped liver?"
Then, as the boy opened the door and paused, Lori ducked her head around the dining room corner and declared rather louder than many expected, "And that's after I had your blood coating my panties!"
This not only made Clyde blush, but also made one Bobby Santiago, who was standing on the other side of the door, literally stop mid-wave as he stared his girlfriend right in the eye, unable to vocalize his thoughts given that his mind had probably fried at that exact moment.
Lori, meanwhile, just gawked in embarrassment while Lincoln and Luan about bust a gut laughing so hard and Clyde hurried on back home, leaving all that behind.
The rest of the year was somewhat better than Clyde expected. The next year had its ups and downs, Ronnie-Anne and he briefly broke up three times, all of which eventually got ironed out. First had been her thinking he'd cheated on her, which he hadn't. Second was when he accidentally called her by another girl's name (his Nana's, so that was easy to clear up since, as he told her that night, he cares so much for both of them and he had called his Nana Ronnie-Anne once, too). Then the third time, which happened around July, was when he hesitated as they talked about whether their relationship had a future.
He hoped it did, he told her later on.
She did, too.
Of course, all three of them hung out when they could, though mainly in Hazeltucky if only to get some peace. He tried convincing Lincoln to maybe ask one of the girls he used to know out, maybe Girl Jordan or Mollie since they were single and asking after him, had even suggested maybe Joy, but Lincoln never took the offer.
Even Ronnie-Anne made a few suggestions, and not all of them female despite Clyde's misgivings.
"Hey, Clyde?" he asked one day as they sat there in a park in Hazeltucky. Ronnie-Anne had excused herself to the bathroom, so the two were alone at that precise moment.
"What's up?"
Lincoln put his chin in his hands as he watched some younger kids play in the sun-bathed grass. "What if..." he paused, scratched his cheek in thought, sighed, shook his head, then looked away as he continued, "what if I already had a girl in mind?"
"Who is it?" no wonder his best buddy wasn't biting! He already had a girl he was interested in and oh no it was Ronnie-Anne, wasn't it? Clyde knew it'd be bad, dating the girl his best friend had his eyes on! He just knew it!
"And it's not Ronnie-Anne, so don't worry about that," Lincoln chuckled, reading his friend's thoughts almost word for word.
Sighing in relief, Clyde then asked, "So, asking again; who is it?"
Looking back on it, Clyde really wished he could have put two and two together sooner and without any help. He'd seen the changes in Lincoln and Luan, had realized things changed between them after that first encounter.
But even as Lincoln seemingly tried and failed to work up the courage to tell him, Clyde was too blind to see it.
It didn't help that the peace was shattered as Ronnie-Anne sent a peeping tom flying for trying to record in the ladies' restroom.
Clyde couldn't help but notice all three of them seemed rather more capable of dealing the hurt out as of late. He blamed this for pushing all thoughts of Lincoln's mystery girl from his mind before it was too late.
Then, that third year, he found out.
Mainly because Lincoln's parents asked if Lincoln could stay at his place for a few days while they tried to think of what to do.
"I screwed up," Lincoln whimpered as the two sat there in Clyde's room, the two still up long after the lights went off. "Now Luan can't even drive her car around without someone else with her, and I'll probably be shipped away, and I won't be able to see the baby if they even let her keep it!"
Clyde knew this was bad. He knew it, not because Luan was pregnant, and not because it was with Lincoln's, her little brother's kid. Not because Lincoln was, for all intents and purposes, basically just kicked out of his house at the age of fourteen, if not how they put it. No.
He knew it was bad because, no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, he could see just how heartbroken his best friend was. For a girl.
For his sister.
For a girl, his sister, who was his lover and the mother of his child.
Clyde could remember all the jokes he'd heard about such things over his life, and he also recalled him and Lincoln laughing at a few.
They didn't seem so funny anymore.
And though Clyde was kinda grossed out, if he were being completely honest? For his best buddy, the guy who was there for him so many times?
All that didn't matter one whit.
"Come on, Lincoln," Clyde said as he pulled the boy into a one armed hug. "Just hang in there. I'm sure things will turn out alright."
"How?" Lincoln whimpered quietly, his face in his knees. "How, Clyde? I probably won't even be able to find my kid if they give it up for adoption."
Clyde paused. He wasn't too sure how to process this.
And then it finally all clicked. This was more than just a girl, just his sister, just Lincoln's lover of three years.
This was the mother of his child.
This was his child.
His first child.
And although Clyde still wanted to be at least a little disgusted, he found himself unable to work up the effort now.
Instead, all he wanted now was for Lincoln and Luan to be together again. With their child.
He pulled Lincoln close, and began tearing up, too.
The next day, they'd discussed the facts. It wasn't like their parents could keep Lincoln and Luan from each other once they were adults, that was true. But still, their child, if even allowed to be born, was the main problem.
Clyde actually floated the idea of kidnapping the kid, which made Lincoln choke a laugh out. This caused a ripple effect of lightening the mood and, later that day, they'd decided that even Ronnie-Anne should probably be made aware of the whole situation.
And when she was?
"What. The. Hell."
Just those three words were spoken, though in varying tones, and not always all at the same time as she sat there on Clyde's bed. Sometimes with different punctuation marks, a question mark here and an exclamation point there, maybe even rearranged. But for much of two hours, the girl just sat there, staring at Lincoln bug-eyed and wondering.
But by the time it got close to her needing to get home?
"Not saying this isn't the creepiest moment of my life so far, Lame-o," Ronnie-Anne groused jokingly with Lincoln as the three made their way out the front door. "But I hope things look up for you. The both of you," she looked down, squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them and looked Lincoln square in the eye, "together. Especially if she means that much to you, and after everything you've gone through. And don't worry about me, I'll either get okay with it or learn to live with it. Either or."
"Thanks, Ronnie-Anne. I mean it," Lincoln whispered as he gave her a hug when she held her arms out.
She thumped him on the back after a moment and laughed. "Heh, well. Just remember, you two owe us big time. You're still Clyde's best man, and now she gets to serve as our maid of honor."
"Wait, what?"
That was said by both Lincoln and Clyde who was just exiting the front door.
"You know exactly what," Ronnie-Anne said much more loudly as she shot Clyde a toothy grin. "Our wedding!"
Meanwhile, his dads about fainted dead on the spot with smiles on their faces.
Clyde knew that look. It was the same look they got when they got to plan a friend's wedding.
But worse.
"Thanks a lot, Ronnie-Anne," Clyde moaned as they walked. "Now my dads will never stop."
"Good!" Clyde had already known she would be of exactly zero help on that matter.
As Lincoln laughed at his friends' antics, Clyde realized something and, given Ronnie-Anne was there in case it fell flat, he eyed Lincoln and said, "Hey, Buddy?"
"What's up?"
"I just realized something," when the other two looked at Clyde, motioned to get him to continue, he grinned wide and said, barely above a whisper, "just think, this says so much about your sisters if even their own brother wants one of them!"
He was happy to see even Ronnie-Anne getting a good chuckle about it, but it lifted his spirits even more to see Lincoln actually get a full belly laugh at that comment.
"When the heck did you turn into Luan, Clyde?" his best buddy said, laughing through tears.
Clyde almost burst out laughing but jumped away and said," Whoa there, Romeo! I'm already taken!"
And all three of them started laughing harder as Ronnie-Anne's place came into view.
As the two boys left Ronnie-Anne's house behind, Clyde wrapped his arm around Lincoln, pulled him close and said, "Good to see you can still laugh, Buddy.
"It'll be okay, Lincoln, you'll see. I'm all in your corner, at least!"
End of Third Year
