After catching Leni leaving the house and returning soon after with Luna in tow, Lori was blindsided by the memory of her roommate's potential ordeal. 'No more putting it off. If she was going to do something with the phone today, she would have by now.' Vowing to exact her vengeance on Lola after their parents had left, she seated herself on the armchair facing the fireplace and brooded, wishing it was lit for dramatic effect.
'So Leni might very well be...pregnant.' During her search, she'd tried to think of a single instance in the past weeks or months where her sister had been out of the house, out of class or otherwise unaccounted for. 'Nothing. There's literally not a single moment I can think of where she could have hooked up.' The alternatives were even more bizarre and equally concerning, that something had happened at school or even in the house itself. 'But that still doesn't make sense, no one could have gotten in here without someone noticing!'
It was entirely possible, she conceded, that she was completely off base with this and that her sister was just sick. But that took her back down the path of what she could be sick with, and she was confident that it wasn't a typical illness. 'There's only one other thing...I just...there's no way. No, it has to be something else.' Bringing a hand up to rub at her forehead, she was left with no other option than to confront Leni directly about what had been going on. 'She got a pass this morning, but this time I'm not letting go without some answers.'
Rising from her seat, she heard her parents in their room discussing the last pertinents of their trip. They would be leaving in only an hour, and she realized she had a choice to make. 'Should I talk to them about this? If they leave and I don't say anything, it'll be an entire week of lost time, time we might need for...for something!' Getting them involved now could put Leni under even more stress than she had been, though, and that wasn't going to help them solve anything. No, one thing at a time. She would get her answers, and then decide whether to bring in support.
Having made up her mind, she began mounting the stairs when a flash of color and motion caught her eye. She looked up just in time to see a shock of pink vanish around the corner, and she crested the remaining steps two at a time to see her tormentor flee back into her room and shut the door. 'Little cretin.' She couldn't remember the last time she'd clashed so badly with one of her sisters, much less one of the younger ones. She and Lola often found themselves on the same side when it came to disputes and schemes, and she couldn't wrap her head around why the child would go to such lengths over collecting a favour from their brother.
'If I'd acted like that when I was her age, or literally ever, I wouldn't have gotten away with half as much as she does.' Continuing on to her room, she shelved yet another resentment she held as the oldest sibling. As she reached for the doorknob, she thought she could hear things being tossed about in the room behind her, much like she'd heard yesterday morning. 'I'd really rather not get involved in one of Luna and Luan's arguments, but...' but she didn't want to have to deal with it over the course of the week either. Making one last allowance before settling the score with Leni, she about-faced and knocked a few times on their neighbours' door.
The noises ceased long enough for her to hear footsteps scurrying to and fro beyond the door, before finally it opened and the younger of the room's occupants peeked out. "Oh, Lori. What's up?" Really? Not even one pun?
"That's what I want to know. Can I come in?"
Luan cracked the door open a little wider, scanning the hallway for something before quickly ushering Lori inside. Rolling her eyes, the blonde strolled in to behold an impressive mess. Clothes, props and musical gadgets littered the floor, though there was a bit more organization to this chaos than what she'd witnessed in her own room. "Looks like you'll be getting an early start on spring cleaning, huh?"
Running a hand through her hair and taking her scrunchie with it, Luan absently answered, "you could say that." Her companion's eyes widened at the otherwise simple gesture, the surest sign that the jokester was in no joking mood. As she continued rummaging through the piles spread about the room, Lori took a moment to inspect her surroundings, eyes finally coming to rest on the busted drum cover.
A low whistle pierced the air before she asked, "does Luna know about that?"
Her sister, in the process of lifting up a small trunk, let it fall to the floor as her shoulders tensed. "Yeah, she knows. That's why I'm trying to come up with whatever money's around here to help replace it."
Something about the way she said it didn't sit quite right with Lori. She knew as much as her parents about Luna and Luan's increasingly strained relationship. It was something that had happened to Leni and herself, was beginning to happen to Lynn and Lucy and would eventually happen with Lana and Lola. 'The joys of having a roommate.' They all managed it in different ways, but there'd never been a conflict quite like the one that now lingered between these two. If Lori had to guess, it was really because the two were so similar, rather than because of their differences.
'A musician and a comedienne. An artist and an actor. Older and younger, competing for attention, just now starting to figure everything out...' It was a perfect storm, now that she looked at all the pieces together. She knew they had it in them to weather that storm — 'HA!' — and come out better for it, but as she also noticed the splintered spider prop off to one side, she knew it didn't bode well for the near future. If things important to both of them were getting destroyed..."How exactly did this all happen?"
Ceasing her own search, Luan told her about the encounter they'd had with Leni. "I was just messing, Leni's the only one that I can even get my stupid stuff to work on." She sat down hard on her bed and rested her arms on her knees.
"Hmmm..." While Luan definitely shouldered some of the blame, she wasn't the only one at fault. "It sounds like Leni should be in here helping you. Both of you could stand to learn a little responsibility."
Luan scoffed as she cast a wayward glance at the door. "Luna doesn't see it that way. The two of them came back from somewhere a bit ago, and it looked like everything was peachy between them. Leni, the way she looked at me earlier, yelled at me," her voice hitched in a way Lori hadn't heard in years...four years, to be exact. "Now she hates me again, and Luna hates me even m-more than she already did," she moaned as she tried to cover her face, but Lori saw what she was trying to hide.
Something maternal in her propelled the older sister, practically an adult, to crouch down in front of the brunette and gently take her wrists in her hands. Pulling them to one side, she saw the small but steady tears that Luan must have been holding back for hours now. "Luan," Lori cooed, "Luna doesn't hate you, she never has. If there's anyone in this house who gets you more than anyone else, it's her." After the younger girl stopped resisting, she released her hands and shifted to sit on the bed with her. She'd comforted all of them when they were younger, but as they grew up they relied less on her and more on each other, and she hoped she wasn't rusty.
"And Leni," whose role in this stirred a fleeting sense of dread in Lori, "well...she's literally incapable of hating anyone," a knowing look passed between them before she amended, "at least now she is. You know she'll have forgotten all about this by tomorrow." She raised her right hand to brush some of Luan's hair out of her face, using her thumb to wipe away some stray tears as the waterworks began to slow down. "Just because we don't always laugh, or join in the 'fun'," a wry grin broke at that, "doesn't mean we don't care."
Wiping at her own face, Luan composed her thoughts before answering, "You're right. Agh, look at me, getting all weepy and willowy over a...a toy. Maybe I should have taken up drama instead?" A small smile came free, and Lori could tell she was still upset, that she would be for a bit yet, but she'd move on from it. She was surprised, then, when Lori vehemently shook her head.
"No, not just a toy. If something's important to you, then other people should respect it. Luna's stuff isn't any more important than yours," Luan's mouth fell open at Lori's near-perfect paraphrasing of what her roommate had said, "but respect's a two-way street. You've got to show her that you respect her and hers before she'll do the same. Understand?" The brunette nodded her head before Lori tacked on, "and I don't know about drama, but you're definitely the best funnyman around here. Err, woman."
A much bigger smile, a genuine Luan smile, lit said girl's face. It was what Lori was hoping and expecting to achieve, and she'd pat herself on the back later for managing to bring it to light. What she hadn't expected was to get pulled into a hug, a hug that unbalanced both of them and sent them flopping over onto the bed. That got a chuckle out of both of them. "Thanks, Lori. I know we don't say it often enough, but you're the best."
It was an earnest sentiment, but it meant more to Lori than Luan could know. She'd been saddled with taking care of them alongside her mother and father for so long, she'd become jaded to their wants and needs. Being able to make some kind of difference, even as minor as just cheering up the one that tried to keep them cheered up relentlessly, eased some of the stress she'd been accumulating so much of recently.
"Kids, come down to the living room!" Their mother called. Well, then. Lori sighed as she accepted the missed window to speak to them with the consolation that one week wasn't going to be the end of the world. Untangling themselves, Lori gave her host a moment to make herself presentable before the two of them exited the room. Upon opening the door, she was surprised to see her own door opening across from her, admitting both Leni and Luna to the hallway.
An awkward few seconds passed as the two odd pairs simply faced one another. "Luna," Lori finally acknowledged.
"Lori," Luna obliged.
"Luan," Leni offered.
"Leni," Luan replied.
"Luan," Luna mumbled.
"Lori," Leni murmured.
"Leni," Lori huffed.
"Luna," Luan sighed.
Another quiet moment followed before they began moving toward the stairs as a group, two pairs that hadn't shared common ground with each other in a long while. They met their seven younger siblings at the stairs, and Leni swept Lily up into her arms, the baby laughing and flailing her arms as the others tried to figure out just what was going on between the four eldest. They arrived to find their parents flanked on all sides by luggage, a taxi visible through the window.
As they settled on the couch, their father commanded their attention. "Alright, Louds, listen up!" His voice, though not a shout, definitely lived up to their family name. "Your mother and I may have taken the occasional date night or trip for a couple days before, but this is the first time you'll be looking after yourselves for a whole week. I can't stress how important it is for all of you to keep the stress level around here to a minimum." That got a titter out of Luan, before she put her business face back on.
Rita took the chance to add, "now, if there are any problems — ANY problems, at ALL — I want one of you girls or Lincoln to get a hold of us. I have a feeling it won't come to that, but just in case you can't reach us directly, here's the number of the resort we'll be staying at." She handed Lori a pink post-it before making rounds to give each of them an unwanted kiss on the forehead, even the oldest ones; she'd have sworn, though, that she had to pull back just a bit to avoid getting headbutted by Leni during hers. 'Tired, indeed...'
"You can count on us, Mom, Dad," Lori declared, jumping up to stand at attention. She was swiftly followed by the others, even Lily! "I promise you, this will literally be the best vacation any of us has ever had!" That seemed awfully optimistic, but with the kids appearing to have sorted out their quarrels for the time being, it was enough to put their minds at ease.
A group hug followed, and lasted until an impatient honking came from outside. "Could you kids help us get this luggage out to the car?" Lynn Sr. asked, and was soon directing his very own moving company as they formed a line to convey each bag and parcel from one siblings to the next. Before they knew it, the children had assembled on the lawn and were saying their goodbyes. As he and his wife finally entered the vehicle, he beckoned Lori over. "Lori," his voice was low and deadly serious, "I know this is a lot to dump on you right now, but I think we've all noticed," he motioned to her, himself and Rita, "that something's up with Leni."
Lori's chest clenched as regret washed over her for not bringing it up sooner; of course they would see it too. "Y-yeah, for at least a few days now."
"Now, we can't be sure that it's not something going on at school, there's some evidence to that effect. Just...keep a close eye on her, and if she decides to talk about it, about anything, make sure to hear her out." He rubbed at his balding head as he sighed, "we owe her that much, at least." Swallowing hard and ignoring her instincts to spill her fears and doubts, she nodded. "That's my girl. Remember, let us know if you need anything."
"We know you can handle this, Lori," her mother reassured, "I can't think of anyone I trust more with my babies, even if you're one of them." She reached out to pinch one of her oldest daughter's cheeks, earning an embarrassed squawk and smile from her prey. The rest of the brood chose that moment to crowd in around them, and they all exchanged another set of "I love you!"s before finally the taxi departed, leaving the children to their fates.
Turning back to the house, Lori found her fellows making their way back inside, and leading the pack was Lola skulking toward the front door. She lunged forward and through them and fell upon her like a bird of prey. "Just where do you think you're going?"
"Uh, my room? What's it to you?" The six-year old demanded.
"Bad call, sis." Lynn mused; when Lori was on the warpath, it was best to make nice or make way.
"Good, good. Once you get there," Lori ignored the snide attitude to inform her, "I literally don't want to see you out again until you're ready to tell me where my phone is."
Wheeling on her, a hint of panic entered Lola's eyes and voice as she asked, "what are you saying?"
Jabbing a finger against her sister's nose, the oldest replied, "as of this moment, you're grounded."
For once, the little princess seemed at a loss for words. It was a brief respite. "I'm WHAT?" Lori pulled her finger back, justifiably afraid of losing it as her punished sister's face contorted in anger. The rest of them prepared to bear witness to another instalment of this new feud, but one of them was thinking further ahead than the rest, and it wasn't Lisa.
"Lola!" Lana cried from the side-lines. "Trial! TRIAL!"
"What?" Lori, caught off guard, soon realized what she meant. "No, WAIT-"
Not soon enough, though. "That's right!" Lola joyfully exclaimed. "I DEMAND A TRIAL!"
A chant began with that awful word, begun by Lola and joined by Lynn and Lana. "Trial, trial, TRIAL-" It followed Lori back into the house along with the rest of them.
They all knew what came next.
Lisa cleared her throat as she prepared to read from the inexplicably worn parchment in her hands. "Lola L. Loud, in accordancthe with Article II, Sthection C.1 of the Loud Family Charter on Non-Parental Administhtration, sthigned and appended by all presthent here, hasth invoked her right to trial by sthibling tribunal." A cheer sounded out at the oddly formal declaration, as the children crammed themselves into the dining room for another extraordinary rendition of their new justice system.
After Lori had been 'literally and viciously mutinied upon' by them the last time she was put in charge, Lincoln — with Clyde's assistance — had put forth an alternate method of making decisions when their parents were out of the house. Rather than Lori calling all the shots and earning the enmity of everyone, a council of three siblings, the oldest three present, would rule on their fates.
At the head of the table, complete with a decorative backdrop crafted by Luan and Lana, sat the trio of arbiters for the evening: Lori at the center, with Leni at her right hand and Luna at the left. "Alright, let's get this over with." Lori grumbled, still uncomfortable with having to share her authority — "My literal birthright!" — in the first place.
"You didn't start it right!" Luan cried before anyone else could get a word in. "If we're gonna go to this much trouble, we might as well get into the mood!"
"She's right. This is a solemn ceremony, and has to be executed in the spirit with which it was intended." Things happened at these trials that would seem extremely out of place anywhere else, and Lucy finding common ground with Luan was one of them.
Groaning, Lori stood and banged her makeshift shoe-gavel against the table. "Fine, all stand. Hear ye, hear ye, I now call this, the tribunal to convict Lola of stealing and hiding my phone to order." The crowd began howling with cheers and jeers in equal measure; so much for solemnity.
"Do you all hear this?! I demand that you recuse yourself, you're biased against me!" Lola raged, already standing on the table. Murmurs sounded out throughout the room, ranging from agreement to wanting to see the brat get her just desserts. Luna abstained from the ensuing vote to remove her, while Leni sided with her roommate. "This is gonna to be a sham trial anyway, Leni always votes with Lori!"
"I do not," the accused older sister shot back, "like, I only voted with her when Luan greased the kitchen floor, and when Lynn clogged the toilet, and when Lana's petting zoo escaped the basement!" She'd had to have Lincoln briefly coach her on the previous cases to maintain the illusion of her previous state.
A deadpan look graced Lynn's face as she piped in, "so, practically all of them."
"Well, to be fair, we WERE all guilty in those cases." Luan conceded, laughing at the memory of her own conviction. "Guess we really greased the gears for them!"
A collective groan followed. "All in favour of putting a gag order on Luan?" Lori asked her peers, to her target's shock. The somewhat smug look as she'd said it, though, left Luan with no doubt that it was a light-hearted jab.
"Gag order?! You can't do that, I'm the one in charge of gags around here!" That one got a more enthusiastic response, with the twins and Lincoln suppressing a laugh to keep up appearances.
With a smirk, Lori doubled down on her idle threat. "Keep it up and I'll upgrade it to a literal gag. Aren't you supposed to be taping this fiasco anyway?" Making a scene of her defeat, Luan slinked away to collect her camcorder, smiling all the way while the rest of the audience took advantage of the wait to talk.
Leni, closely following the interaction between the two of them, grew wary at the sudden familiarity "Like, what was that all about?"
Lori didn't face her, but acknowledged her out of the corner of her eye as she answered ominously, "just one more thing we need to talk about after this. You too, Luna," she appraised the other sister the same way, earning a confused look from her. As the three of them became embroiled in a silent war, they hadn't the attention to spare toward the showcase of the event.
In an advantageous position, Lincoln couldn't help but sidle up to the defendant and ask, "so, Lola, how are you going to collect your debt from behind bars?" The look on his face would have given Ronnie Anne a run for her money. Lana leapt between them on all fours, a low growl momentarily startling Lincoln, before Lola bade her to heel and patted her twin on the head.
"Thank you, Lana, you'll get a treat later." Turning her attention to Lincoln, she adopted a face of pure innocence. "Oh, my poor, naïve little brother," she reached up to pat him on the head as well, "if you wanted help digging yourself even deeper, you should have just asked!" As he shook her off, she brought her hand down to grab him by the collar, pulling his head to her level so she could whisper in his ear, "I know all about you and your little 'girlfriend.'" His smug mug, inspired by that self-same 'girlfriend', shattered into a nervous mess as she assured him, "you might get rid of me for one week, but I'll make sure everyone else meddles in your business for the next seven years."
He jerked back and she released him in concert, causing him to overcompensate and fling himself onto the floor."H-how? How could you know?!" He'd taken every precaution to keep his burgeoning relationship a secret; not even Lori knew all the details, and she was dating Ronnie's brother! Lily must have sensed his discomfort, because she crawled over to him and began babbling and giggling. Despite himself, he grinned uneasily as he mock-exclaimed, "not you too!" He sat up and swept her up in his arms, earning a peal of laughter from her as he sprung up from the floor.
"Lincoln," she crowed as she stood atop her chair and towered over him, every bit the vision of the (evil) queen she believed herself to be, "you ought to know by now what happens when you make Lola MAD." He didn't need to know that she'd just been bluffing, using the thing she most remembered him being bothered about to try and gain leverage. Luan returned, delaying their back and forth as Lori rose once more.
"Order in the court!" The head judge declared, before turning her attention to the rest of the assembly. "Be seated. So, who's going to serve as the defence? I think-"
Referencing the charter again, Lisa quickly reminded her, "It isth the right of the accusthed to sthelect histh or her own defender." The brainiac had been unofficially chosen as the moderator at trial, as Lori had a well-documented history of railroading the proceedings at every opportunity.
"I choose Lincoln!" The defendant announced, drawing his attention from keeping Lily entertained. As he acknowledged her and the devilish toothy smile she was wearing, he'd have sworn he saw the serrated teeth of a shark despite that gap that nearly assured her a pair of his and Luan's buck teeth down the line.
Handing the infant off to Lynn, he inquired, "Why me? Wouldn't Lana know more about what you were doing?" What was her game here?
Lacing her fingers together and resting her elbows on the table, Lori elaborated, "Lana isn't an impartial defense here." Over Lola's protests that she wasn't an impartial judge, she continued, "both she and Lynn were in on a plot to find it and use it aga- err, use it for their own purposes. She could say literally anything about Lola's whereabouts or intents and we'd be hard pressed to argue with her."
"We're not attached at the hip, y'know," Lana groused, "though that would have been pretty cool..." She blissfully ignored the sidelong glare from her thankfully not-conjoined twin.
Determined not to be involved, their brother fought on, "why not Luan or Lucy, then? Heck, Lisa knows more about how this works than I do!" The former, however, was the designated record keeper and was currently manoeuvring her camcorder to get numerous angles of the proceedings.
Pointing a damning finger at him, Lola drove the final nail into his coffin. "You were the one who was up at some unholy hour this morning. You KNOW I didn't do it! Assuming, of course, that it wasn't you this whole time." A series of gasps sounded off at the possibility, with Lincoln rolling his eyes at the melodrama.
"So, can any of you dudes think of any reason why our bro isn't a good choice?" Luna tended to be ambivalent to these meetings, but it was clear there was a lot of baggage surrounding this case; after her run-in with Lori that morning, she was curious as well. The boy in question raised his hand, waving it about wildly when he wasn't immediately called upon. "What's good, Linc?"
Standing to begin pacing along one side of the table, he reasoned, "Lola has been hounding me to pay back an unjust debt for days now, so who knows what she's going to do if she doesn't win? This is practically blackmail!" A new argument began between him, Lola and Lana over their exact roles in the events of that Friday morning.
Lori sighed and rubbed at her temples as she looked to each of her fellow judges in turn. "All in favour of appointing Lincoln as the defence?"
"You got this, bro!" Luna threw the horns to emphasize her support, and had to be held back by her fellows from hopping onto the table as well.
"Like, totally! I believe in you, Lincoln!" Despite her support, Leni was worried about the prospect that he would actually uncover what she'd done. For all the grief they gave him about his comic book and superhero hobbies, he was a surprisingly good detective when it came to matters around the house. His insight, combined with Lola's sixth sense for any weakness her siblings revealed, could get her into trouble. To give voice to her concern would only draw even more attention, though...
With the three in agreement, the head of the tribunal banged the gavel before Lincoln could respond. "Ugh, fine." He moved to sit next to Lola, ignoring the scowl that was becoming a permanent fixture on her face. Leaning in next to her, he whispered, "alright, be honest with me. Did you take the phone?"
"Of course not, I even explained why you should know already!" Lola hissed, a fist clenching furiously at her side. "I ought to, though, after all this."
While he privately had his doubts, he'd honour the spirit of the court. "In that case, what were you doing this morning?"
The six-year old turned her nose up, one hand absently patting at her hair as she answered haughtily, "enjoying my beauty sleep after it was so rudely interrupted the day before. Speaking of which, you're the one who should be on trial."
"Be glad I'm a fan of truth and justice, I could tank this case if I wanted to." With that threat lingering over her head, Lincoln sighed and asked, "can you think of anyone else who might have done it?"
"...No, not really. Even I know better than to go into her room. I think the only people who don't are Leni and Lily, and obviously they get a pass."
Lincoln considered everything he knew about the whole thing. 'If it wasn't Lola, there's really only one other person who would've had the opportunity to do something with it...' He didn't want to suspect Leni of being involved, but she might harbour a grudge against Lori for what she'd been through all this time. In fact, Leni had been the one to level the accusation at Lola in the first place. A pit formed in his stomach as he quickly found himself in a position to condemn her after the connection they'd just achieved.
Though really, what harm was a hidden phone going to do?
Maybe there was a way to resolve this while both helping Leni save face and getting Lola off the hook. Putting the case together in his head, he prepared his opening remarks. "Ladies and gentleman," he motioned to himself for the latter, "we're gathered here today to get to the bottom of a case that's threatening to split this family apart." A lot of raised eyebrows followed that dramatic assertion, but he soldiered on. "The Loud House is a house of plenty, as long as we're not talking about money, and its not often that someone gets accused of thievery."
"You mean like you thieving my bike?" Lynn helpfully suggested. She got a roll of the eyes for her trouble.
Coming to stand behind Lola's seat, he gripped the back of it and continued, "Lola has been accused of taking Lori's phone, that we all know. But there are many missing pieces to this puzzle," this time he had his deck with him, and he whipped it out successfully to the mild surprise of his audience, "and I aim to put them together. Assuming, of course, that all the pieces are present." He spread them out on the table with a sweep of his hand, revealing their hastily drawn mugshots on the cards.
Leaning in and making sure he had everyone's full attention, he detailed his argument. "If we were to search the twins' room, top to bottom, and no trace of the phone showed up, I suggest it'd be likely that Lola didn't steal it." All he had to do was prove that Lola was innocent, not necessarily who was guilty!
"If only it were that easy, Lincoln," Lori interjected. "Who's to say she didn't put it somewhere else in the house? Lord knows I've looked everywhere else, in every nook and cranny, and it's like it literally vanished."
"But you haven't, in fact, gone through the bedrooms yet?"
"...Not all of them, no."
Everyone seemed nervous at where this was going, particularly Leni and the twins. 'I already saved, like, everything I need over to my phone,' Leni thought, 'but I didn't want her to be able to get a hold of anyone without me knowing.' This was considering that he would actually find it, though. Even Lisa hadn't noticed yet, and the thing was sure to have been buzzing with a hundred calls and texts from Bobby; she couldn't remember if she'd turned it off that night.
"Lisa, could your metal detector find it?" Lincoln inquired, and the colour began to drain from his second-oldest sister's face. She'd tempted fate; he was unravelling her now days-long scheme in a matter of minutes.
Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, the child declared, "indeed it can. We will, of coursthe, have to go room to room in order to locate it though."
"N-now, let's not get ahead of ourselves here." Luna suggested, to everyone's surprise. "Yeah, you might find a phone, but you've gotta take peoples' privacy into consideration too!" Leni was particularly curious about what their heart-on-her-sleeve sister would want to keep hidden, before quickly reaching a conclusion and averting her gaze.
A devious grin curled Lynn's lips as she asked, "and just what have you got to keep private?" That one earned her a heated look from the rocker. Lily looked back and forth between them, her giggling a stark contrast to her sitter's sultry expression. The infant then began making "Bzz! Bzz!" noises, and the younger kids watched and listened in confusion as first Luan and then Lori and Lynn began cackling, apparently at Luna's misfortune if the angry red tint to her face was any indication.
Looking at Lynn, or in her general direction at least, her roommate involved herself in the debate. "Privacy is the last thing separating everyone in this house from animals," Lucy monotoned, but Lynn knew her well enough to know she was effectively pleading. "The violation, the humiliation, the-"
"Alright already, I get it! Sorry."
"Luna's right, Linc!" All eyes were on Leni as she came to her next-youngest sister's defence. "Like, just imagine if someone went into your bedroom looking for the phone and they found some of those special comics under-"
"Woah, WOAH!" Lincoln shouted before she could continue, frowning as she mouthed a quick 'Sorry!' to him. That predatory hunger entered the eyes of his three recent nemeses, and he moved relocating those comics — not actually his, thank you very much! — near the top of his priorities. "Alright, fair enough. But we still have to come to some kind of agreement!"
Lori commanded their attention with a bang of the gavel. "Listen up, this is how we do this. We'll start in Lisa and Lily's room and work our way up by age; the kids have less to be concerned about as far as privacy goes than us." She swept a hand to refer to herself and her fellow teens.
"Says you!" Lana and Lola said simultaneously, getting stuck in a small "Jinx!" fight before Lana finally won. The younger twin continued, "who are you to decide who does and doesn't have something worth keeping private?" Lana and Lucy nodded in agreement.
Even Lisa joined her cause, "in the interestht of common decthency and consthideration for your well-being, I should warn you that there are a number of top-sthecret projects sthtrategically placed around our room." That made six siblings opposed to the search, including a voting majority of the judges.
It was enough to make Lori crack. "I'm the BOSS, that's who," she seethed as she stood from her seat, "and I'm getting tired of you questioning that!" Ignoring Leni and Luna's insistence that she was trying to hijack their three-person panel, she bowled over them and continued, "unless you're hiding something that's going to get you grounded, like you're going to be ANYWAY, then we're checking your room first then!"
Sensing the impending storm, Lincoln weakly offered, "Lori, we have to be fair to everyone here, remember what you agreed to!"
But the damage was done.
Lola slammed her hands on the table, face red and eyes starting to glisten. "So it's all out in the open now. You're going to punish me whether I did it or not! Why are you treating me like this?!"
"Because you're acting like a spoiled brat, as usual, that's why! And it's about time someone did something about it!"
The other nine siblings watched with growing fascination and concern as a war of words erupted across the table, all sense of tact and decorum thrown to the wind. Leni had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning like a madwoman. 'Like, this couldn't have gone any better even if I'd been trying to do it!' She found herself sympathizing with her little sister, though, who it seemed was getting her lesson on how awful their older sibling was especially early.
"I'M the spoiled one?! You lord your drivers license over us, get to treat us like dirt and spend every waking minute on your phone with your precious Bobby! I feel sorry for him, sorry for how STUPID he is for CHOOSING to put up with you!" Lola's diatribe left the others in terror of what was coming as they backed from the table.
Teeth gnashing, Lori fired back, "If you think he has to put up with something horrible, you have no idea what it's like for me. I have to spend MY spring break watching all of you, ESPECIALLY an ungrateful 6-year old monster who gets literally everything she wants and ruins everyone else's lives when she doesn't! Maybe spending your entire break in your room, with no friends or parties or ANYTHING you take for granted will teach you a lesson!"
'I've got to put an end to this before someone does or says something we all regret!' Dashing out of the room, Lincoln vaulted the stairs and disregarded the privacy they'd just been speaking of to collect two items from his sisters' rooms. On his way back he failed to notice the pets cowering near the top of the stairs, particularly Geo, upon whose ball he tripped. A startled scream escaped him as he rolled down the stairs atop the ball, the hamster squealing all the while, maintaining his balance only through what could have been divine intervention.