Her eyes flicking in the dim light that filtered through the window, Leni awoke from another hazy dream to find herself in unfamiliar surroundings. Propping herself up, she looked from the window directly ahead to the double-wide closet at her right, before coming back to the queen-sized bed she currently occupied. "That's right, I slept in their room," she mumbled. 'I must have been, like, more tired than I've ever been. Coming to a place like this...' Still, she was here now, might as well do some digging.

The soothing noise of rain on the window and roof helped mask her already quiet footsteps as she rolled out of the bed, flicked on the nightstand lamp and padded over to the closet. The slatted doors creaked only slightly as she opened them, and inside was everything one might expect from a middle-aged couple; a small wardrobe, shoeboxes galore, her father's infamous tie collection. Off to one side was a box labelled 'albums', and it was the one that most piqued her curiosity.

Hoping that it didn't contain what was left of his karaoke collection, she was relieved to find books upon books of family photo collections. They would need so many even if it was just the thirteen members of the household to keep track of, but these included the entire extended family as well, a veritable army of Louds spanning the nation and generations. The focus of her search, however, was a little closer to home.

'Let's see just how great things were while I was away...' Flipping through reams of pictures taken over the past few years, she watched herself and her siblings grow up before her eyes. Lincoln's tenth birthday and Lynn's thirteenth, her own first day of high school, both Lisa and Lily's first moments after being born...

Those eyes began to sting with unwelcome tears and bitter hatred flowed freely from her heart as she cursed her elder sister and parents for making her miss it. 'You three took everything from me...it's about time I returned the favour.' As she roughly closed the book, the topic of pictures bred a malevolent idea in her mind. Perhaps her recently acquired collection could be put to yet another use...

Pawing at her eyes and drawing in a calming breath, she set the album back on the floor and decided to face the day. Turning the light off once more, she cautiously opened the door in case someone else happened to be awake. The living room was dark save for the muffled light of what must be dawn, and a quick glance at the clock on the entertainment center confirmed it to be 6:02 A.M. Noticing the television screen to be somewhat off, she discovered that it had been left on after her and Lucy's viewing party. 'Lucy...' She'd made a mistake last night, engaging with the goth girl the way she had. It appeared as though her sister had been prudent enough to put the tapes back though, or at least hadn't left them out in the open.

Resolving to deal with that loose end in a bit, she settled on crossing the room to turn the television off and continued on her way to the kitchen. With company in the way of Charles snoring and kicking under the table, she opened the refrigerator and snagged a carton of milk, popping the top and drinking her fill. Setting it on the counter, she took a moment to appraise her appearance; wrinkled dress, oily skin, and she didn't dare imagine what her hair looked like. 'A shower is in order.' It wouldn't do to take charge without looking the part. "Hopefully no one's up this time." With a great yawn, she reopened the fridge to replace the milk, making a mental note to prepare a smoothie late-

["What is this, sis?"]

["Just one of my famous smoothies! It'll help you, like, grow up big and strong! Like me!"]

["I don't know if I'd call you strong...but I guess it couldn't hurt."]

[...]

["Ugh, YUCK! What IS this, even?!"]

["It's got milk, almond butter, raspberries and kale in it! Like, all the protein, vitamins and minerals you need!"]

["Yeah, uh, thanks. I'll pass on this one, you do you. Can you pass me that Gator-8?"]

["Okay..."]

Her vision blurred at the edges, it was like she was there in the kitchen with her sister again. 'Why now, damnit? All I want to do is-'

["Give it a rest, Leni! All I want to do is grab a quick bite, I've got practice to get to!"]

["You need to watch what you're eating, Lynn, you can't just-"]

["I CAN just eat what I want. I know what I can handle, I don't want to look like a stick like you!"]

["You...I don't...ugh, like, okay. Forget I even said anything."]

["Sis, wait, I didn't mean it like that..."]

The carton and several other contents went crashing to the tile floor as she caught herself on one of the shelves, nearly bringing the entire thing down under her weight. Scrambling to right herself, she pushed off from the shelf, only to slip on the spilt milk and fall hard...on her tailbone. Leni's world became pain and her mouth shot open in a silent scream, back arching and recoiling from the movement. Her head throbbed as badly as it had every time before, but she counted herself lucky that she'd managed to avoid landing on it instead.

Falling onto her side, she laid there on the kitchen floor, trying to concentrate on anything other than the mental and physical agony that had engulfed her. A whimper at her foot caught her attention, and she cracked her eyes open to see Charles sitting there, ears drooped and eyes sharp with what she imagined must be worry. Waving him away, she gingerly drew her legs up and got upright enough to rest on her knees before crawling back to the counter and pulling herself up. As she made it far enough to lean her upper body on the counter, the sound of a jar rolling on the floor announced the dog's departure.

"Leni, what happened? Are you alright?!"

Or not. She resisted the urge to intentionally slam her head into the counter as she slowly turned and angled herself to find Lori taking careful steps around the debris on the floor. 'Like, what the hell is she even doing up this early?' She lowered her head to hide a snarl. She should know better than to expect any amount of time to herself in a house like this, but it was becoming tiresome all the same. Looking up once more to reveal a strained smile to her sister, she replied, "I will be."

As soon as she'd cleared the minefield Lori rushed to Leni's side, checking her over for any injuries. "You didn't land on your stomach, did you?"

"Uh, no. Why?" Did it matter how she'd fallen? It was possible that Lori was as conscious about head trauma as she was.

Lori watched with concern as her sister adopted a weird smile, like she was in on some kind of joke. "No reason..." As Leni squirmed in her corner, it became clear where the injury had occurred. "Alright, wait here." She'd have had her sit down, but that likely wouldn't be an option for at least a short while. Picking up what she could and sweeping and scrubbing the rest, it wasn't long before the room looked somewhat presentable. While it wasn't the most ideal of circumstances, she thanked her luck that she'd been awake to hear the crash. That same luck seemed to have kept everyone else asleep, granting her the opportunity she'd been seeking to question her roommate.

Speaking of roommate..."So, where did you sleep last night?" Lori's voice held an edge to it that she couldn't quite keep out. Yesterday had been particularly trying, and her companion had a great deal to do with it.

"Luna and Luan's room...then Mom and Dad's." Leni would have preferred to omit that last part, but there were too many people who could speak to that fact now.

"What were you doing in Mom and Dad's room?"

Glaring at her interrogator, Leni spat, "trying to find a place I felt welcome at." Another dose of irony, that; finding sanctuary in her enemy's domain. "You locked me out of our room and with, like, everything going on with those two it was awkward."

The eldest sister nearly bit back, but she'd had time to cool down after their last encounter. "I know, that was my bad, and I'm sorry. Can you blame me, though? What were you thinking, letting Lola off the hook when YOU told me she was in our room?"

Leni considered the escape routes available to her before quickly dropping the idea; fighting off Lori would already be a challenge, and she was in no condition to force her way out regardless. Resigned to having this discussion, she answered coolly, "like, Lincoln made a pretty good case, didn't he? He even had me convinced by the end-"

Lori was in her face before she knew it, arms on either side of her and hands gripping the counter. "Enough. I'm tired of you guys jerking me around, I want to know what's really going on. NOW."

The move caught Leni off guard, and she very nearly reacted physically until the pain of her injury reminded her why that wasn't an option. 'Lori thinks we're all afraid of her...guess that's the way to go.' Quickening her breaths, she drew back as far against the counter as she could, attempting to look panicked. "Alright, like, I have something I need to explain-"

"I'll say!" For the first time in a long time, Lori found herself getting seriously angry with this particular sister. "This has literally gotten completely out of control, Lola and I were practically about to kill each other!"

'Good, that'd save me the trouble.' "I know, I know! I messed up, but just hear me out!" Leni placed her right hand over her heart. "At breakfast I told you that Lola was the one who went into our room, but..."

"But...?"

She drew her hand back to rub at her head while averting her eyes to one side. "But now I remember, it was just Lucy who was up, not Lola."

The admission staggered Lori, and she was thankful she'd been supporting herself. "You...Lucy...WHAT?! How do you mistake either of them for the other?!" Leni recoiled at the outburst, and she shifted her eyes and focused her ears to make sure it had gone unnoticed.

"W-well, their hairstyles kinda look the same, right?" Lori didn't share in the awkward laugh that followed. "I-I'm sorry, Lori! Lucy came into the bathroom after me yesterday morning. She scared me, and I, like, hit my head...she was the only other one awake up there besides Lincoln and me when we went downstairs, and I remembered the trouble Lola was giving Lincoln, and, and-"

Lori launched herself from the counter, shaking her head in disbelief at everything she had just heard. "All that work, that huge scene, for literally nothing. What am I even supposed to get from that? That LUCY took it? Or that you just blamed Lola to get her back for Lincoln?!" Hands finding purchase in her hair, she gripped at it, the pain in her scalp a welcome distraction from the pain in her mind and heart. "Why would you LIE to me?!"

'You're about to make another huge scene, you idiot.' Leni knew she had to act fast to prevent her sister from going nuclear. If there was one thing Lori loved more than throwing a professional fit, it was an opportunity to seem like the bigger man...err, woman. At the first moment that Lori seemed to have lost focus on her, Leni quickly thrust out her hips and rammed her swelling lower back into the corner as hard and fast as she could. The pain brought forth the tears she would need to pull off her ruse. Biting her lip to avoid crying out, she choked out, "it w-wasn't a lie! I just thought, the two of them, and getting hit, a-and I'm sorry! I've been acting so s-stupid lately, even m-more than usual..."

The double-team effort of Leni's tears and self-consciousness brought Lori's justified attack to a standstill. Just yesterday she'd been trying to decide how to deal with Leni having a pregnancy scare, and now she was tearing her injured sister a new one at six in the morning. 'How does it keep coming to this? How is it that I'm not allowed to stay mad at them?' She stared long and hard at the source of so much of her stress for the past two days...no, the past four years; no, make that six. Six years ago when her little sister's descent into madness began.

"Leni, I want you to be absolutely honest with me." Lori's tone had darkened to the point that Leni actually became nervous that she might act out her anger. "Do you know anything, literally ANYTHING, about where my phone is or what happened to it?"

Gulping and tucking her chin to her chest, with no escape in sight, Leni buckled down and lied, "n-no. Like, I swear, Lori, I really don't."

She wasn't sure what to be ready for after Lori appeared to calm down, and had scarcely decided to begin talking her way out of this mess when the elder sister began closing in on her again. Lori's hand began to rise, roughly on the same level as their faces, and her muscles tensed in anticipation of a blow when the outstretched hand continued past and above her. "Scoot," Lori commanded while using her other arm to gently move Leni, "I need to get to the coffee."

The younger blonde warily observed as the older went about one of the family's time-honored morning rituals, eventually pulling a seat out as the machine began to brew the much-needed beverage. Resting her elbows on the table and rubbing at her temples, Lori finally asked, "Leni, what's been going on with you? You've been so much more...YOU this past week."

"Like, what is that supposed to mean?" Leni couldn't hide the edge in her voice, unwilling to roll over completely.

"I wish I knew," Lori muttered before taking in and releasing an explosive sigh. "How long have you been sick?"

Fully committed to more fighting, the abrupt change in topic threw Leni for a loop. "Sick? I told you, I'm not-"

"Don't lie to me," the seated sister warned, "not again. People who aren't sick don't throw up and fall down literally every morning." Lori's voice grew heavy toward the end of her accusation, the reality of it settling in. She'd kept promising herself to handle the situation, only to keep putting it off in favour of other issues that kept popping up around it. For this, and this only, did she accept a degree of blame for having messed up.

Face screwing in annoyance, Leni turned to look at the countertop. "Just, like, the past two days. That was what Lincoln was checking on Friday morning."

"Just two days? Why don't I believe that?"

Leni jerked back toward her, grimacing as she retorted, "if you don't want to believe me, then I can't make you. I'm not lying, just like I wasn't before." The two of them stared each other, eyes boring into each others heads until the brewer announced its completion. Leni had no reason to respond to it, and Lori knew it.

Reluctantly breaking the duel, Lori stood to fix herself a cup. 'I'm on a timer now, it won't be long before this wakes Luna and Luan up.' Doctoring her drink with a teaspoon of sugar and creamer, only then did she realize that the kitchen was still dark save for the gradually brightening morning light. Walking to the lightswitch, she glanced back at Leni and nearly dropped her mug. Backlit by the window, her facial features obscured...Lori knew it sounded childish, but it was as if she was looking at a monster in the dark. A monster that had haunted her once before, haunted all of them.

Flicking on the overhead light, both of them squinted, and Lori looked at her sister again. Aside from the sudden assault on her eyes, Leni didn't look any different than any other morning aside from her dishevelled appearance. "Leni...tell me about Ricardo." If she kept Leni on her toes, the ditz was sure to trip eventually.

Eyes remaining narrowed, Leni scoured her mind for any memory of the person she was referring to. She tried reading Lori's face for any clue on how she should feel, but an unblinking stoic visage rejected her. "Who?"

"Good one, but don't play dumb." Lori's sardonic smirk unsettled the younger sister, who knew there was something here she needed to be picking up on.

"Well...he's, like, alright I guess?"

'So there IS something there.' Lori mentally patted herself on the back. "Just 'alright'? How alright is he?"

Leni frowned at the vague line of questioning. "Like, as alright as Bobby, maybe?" She'd meant it as a subtle jab, but her sister seemed to have taken it a different direction.

Her smirk blowing into a full-blown grin, Lori pounced. "I KNEW it! You've been holding out on me!" Leni tensed in anticipation of another tongue-lashing, but this exchange seemed more enthusiastic than the other. "I've gotta ask, though, why him? Do you know how many guys on the football and soccer teams ask about you on a regular basis?"

'Ugh, pigs. Hopefully I wasn't so stupid I took anyone up on the offer.' Wiping that possibility from her mind, Leni scrambled to latch onto anything that might satisfy the other girl's curiosity. "I don't know, he just seems...nice. Once you get to know him."

A discussion with Bobby was definitely in order, Lori decided as she sipped on her coffee. "And just how long have you been getting to know him?"

"Like, a few weeks now. What's with all these questions?"

'A few weeks? That lines up with what I've read up on. Leni...' Lori had had to be careful as her and Bobby's nights out had gotten closer and closet to tonight; THE night. Leni hadn't been so studious, it seemed, and now they had a real problem on their hands. The irritability, the sickness, weakness; it all just fit together too perfectly. "Sis, how long has it been since your last, erm..." She'd never had a problem discussing this before now, but somehow the thought of trying to explain to Leni just what was happening to her left her feeling like a mother talking to her daughter about her first period.

Leni's jaw dropped as she caught on to her sister's mode of thought. 'Are you serious right now? What do you take me for, some kind of slut?' Her face blazed with barely-restrained rage. 'Like, even if I was still an idiot, I doubt I'd start putting out as soon as I'm sure you did.' Resisting the urge to spit on her sister, Leni realized that this too could work to her advantage. 'She knows something is wrong, and this is what she comes up with? She doesn't WANT to believe I'm off my meds!'

Lori took her sister's beet-red blush to mean she'd finally cracked. 'Time to follow through.' Rising from her seat, Lori slowly crossed the room and leaned on the counter next to Leni. "Hey, listen up. LOOK at me." Slowly, Leni turned to her, her face a portrait of misery. Lori allowed herself to smile as her frustration melted away, replaced with understanding for her little sister's plight. "You know what this might mean, right?" Leni jerked her head once to signify she knew, and she continued, "and you know I'm literally going to stick with you all the way, however it might go, yeah?"

'You are so full of it.' Leni felt sickened by her sister's assurances, by her attempts to relate to her. Lori had never made time for her that didn't relate to her own desires, and that wasn't likely to change now. Not that it mattered, since this was a crisis of her older sister's own imagining. 'I almost pity you, you know? Like, How empty is your existence, how starved are you for something to take care of that you could come up with this in just two days? Anything to feel like you matter, right?' The need to let Lori know how she truly felt was burning a hole in both her heart and stomach, but she only had to be patient for a short while longer.

The welcome noise of a door closing upstairs alerted them to the end of their private moment, and Lori gave her a squeeze on the shoulder before going to the refrigerator and collecting a few items, fixing some of the previous mess at the same time. "We need to continue this later," she said, "but for now, just take it easy, alright? No more falls especially, if you need help with literally anything, just let me or one of the others know. That's an order, got it?" Leni nodded, and began shuffling out of the room, though she overheard on her way, "jeez, what am I going to do about Lola? If it really wasn't her, then I'm literally and completely screwed."

Looking back over her shoulder, Leni seized the chance she'd been waiting for. "Actually, like, I can take care of that if you want."

"Huh? What could you do to make up for what I did?"

"Well," Leni employed her brother's timid posture again, "it's also my fault for everything that happened. But I've got an idea!" Glad that Lori actually seemed to be interested, she continued, "you ripped her dress, right?"

"On accident, yeah, and in self defense too!" Lori couldn't bring herself to feel bad about that particular offense.

Tapping a finger against her chin, Leni put some effort into looking like she was thinking hard before suggesting, "well, how about I fix the dress? Or better yet, like, make her a new one! I can give it to her as, like, a peace offering on your behalf, and then when she's feeling up to it she can thank you!"

Lori considered a moment before agreeing, "that...actually doesn't sound like a bad idea. The way she holds grudges, she definitely won't want it from me right away. How soon could you do that?"

"Oh, I've got plenty of material, and I could check the attic too for anything else I need. Just leave it to me!" The younger sister flashed a thumbs-up at the older, before wincing slightly at the abrupt motion. "Right after I ice this ouchie. And get a shower." Lori smiled at her as she took her leave, and she nearly collided with Luna, who had just made it down the stairs. She didn't seem all there yet, and probably wouldn't be until she'd had her bitter nectar.

Ducking around the corner, she listened Lori go full 'disappointed mother' on their next-youngest sister. "Luna, I'm glad you're up. Is Luan up too?"

"Wha...? Nah, dude, she crashed and burned last night. Fell asleep before both me and Len."

"I see. Maybe that had something to do with the day she had? The day all three of you had?"

The sound of porcelain striking the counter a little harder than necessary signaled Luna's intent to put up a fight. She groaned, "c'mon, Lori, do we gotta do this now? We already sorted it all out, everyone's cool." As the two got into details regarding the drum, Leni left them to their devices and journeyed upstairs to secure the shower.

Locking the bathroom door behind her, she ran the water and disrobed before chancing a glance at the mirror. A hideous bruise had already begun to color her backside, adding to the rest of the mess that was her normally fabulous self.

Stepping under the flowing water, she allowed herself to truly relax for the first time since she'd regained her memories. 'So much to do, and, like, so little time to do it.' Both Lori and Lincoln would be out of the house tonight, so the pressure would be on to do as much damage as possible in that window. Luan and Lynn would be simple enough to deal with, but she was still undecided on whether to try to turn Luna into an ally. One day's worth of reopened dialogue wasn't a sure enough bet, she needed something concrete to pursue something that risky.

'The drum...maybe if I replace it...but she said it cost almost two-hundred dollars!' Surely she had some money put up somewhere, even if she'd just forgotten where it was, but it was a stretch to assume there as that much on hand. It wasn't as if cash just appeared without some very careful pleading to the parents or some hard work-

["Alright, Lincoln, just a little...bit...more! Whew, this is hard work!"]

["You're telling me! I'm doing most of the lifting!"]

Leni carefully grasped the support bar on the wall. 'Not this time.' It was difficult though, and highly disorienting, to hear herself think during this...whatever THIS was. It was like a lucid dream she couldn't wake up from.

["It's too bad Lori didn't want to keep this frame, but I can always just, like, make another if I need a ride!"]

["Heck, I'd have taken it if it weren't practically the size of my room. This thing is amazing, Leni!"]

["Aww, thanks Linc, but this is nothing. You should've seen what I made for her after I heard her talking about Bobby's wood-"]

She actually laughed as she rested her back against the all and slid down to sit at the base of the tub. When had she had this conversation with him?

["T.M.I., Leni! Hey, wait, who is that?"]

["Excuse me, miss! Young lady, are you two getting rid of this masterpiece?!"]

["Well yeah, we've got like, no use for it."]

["I see! You know, I could take it off your hands for you, free of charge!"]

["Wow, really?! That would totes be-"]

["A generous offer, and we'd be willing to part with it...for a price."]

["What? B-but your friend said-"]

["Sister. My sister forgot that we have to make the money back that went into this beauty."]

["I did? Wow, it's a good thing you're so on top of things, Lincoln!"]

'Wow, I REALLY underestimated him. Like, what were we trying to sell, though? I wanted a ride...Lori always makes us do something in return...a picture frame? Window frame? No, BED frame-'

["Oh...very well, how much would ask for it?"]

["Well, considering the wood, and time and labor, I'd say about...four hundred."]

["...two hundred."]

["Three-hundred fifty."]

["TWO hundred-fifty."]

["Two-hundred fifty-ONE!"]

["LENI!"]

["I'll take it! Pleasure doing business with you, kids!"]

["Wow, thanks mister! Buh-bye!"]

["What a nice old man! So did we, like, do good?"]

["Well...something is better than nothing, so I'd say yes. And hey, people want to buy your stuff, Leni!"]

["Huh...they do, don't they? But, like, how am I going to design clothes if I'm busy carving wood?"]

["Who's to say you couldn't do both? Leni Loud, fashion AND interior designer!"]

["Oh, Lincoln, stop! You're just saying that!"]

["No, for real, sis. You've got two incredible talents, who knows what you could do with both of them?"]

["Lincoln...that's so nice of you to think that. Thanks, my favourites little brother!"]

The water streaming down her face wasn't just coming from the shower, she realized. Scrubbing at her eyes, she held onto the memory as tightly as she could, another reminder that throughout her entire ordeal Lincoln had been the only one who truly looked at her for who she was. It occurred to her that the memory she'd just recovered had an added significance. 'That memory came from a time when Lori could drive, which means...it happened within the past four years. Not only that, she'd have had to be at least sixteen.' That meant the memory was no older than two years at most, accounting for her sister's birthday later this year.

"YES! I knew it would only be a matter of time!" Riding a high of vindication, she tried to remember what might have happened to that money they'd made. That memory, unfortunately, didn't blindside her like the others had. "Of course. Well, I know who I'll be seeing next." She proceeded with her shower, and after drying off and freshening up she made it back to her room just in time to avoid the morning rush.

Discarding her towel and clothes, she went to the closet and began assembling her typical outfit when a shock of colour caught her eye. Wading in deeper, she discovered what looked to be a long-forgotten ensemble on her side of the wardrobe. Gathering the fabric up in her arms, she nearly dropped it again when she discovered what it was. "Like, my old look..." Drawing them back up, she cradled the articles of clothing almost like she would if it were Lily. A sky blue dress had covered a pair of small boots with fur trimming the tops and a small box with what looked to be a faux pearl necklace inside.

She reflected upon them for a moment, reflected on the last time she'd worn them. 'They were dragging me into that room with those...people...' She let them fall to the ground, backing away from the tainted remnants of her past. As she did, she noticed that there were some similar clothes on display, more appropriate to her current age and build. Reaching toward them and pulling back slightly, she shook her head and grabbed them, marching back out into the room and over to her bed. Laying them neatly on the mattress, she took a moment to appreciate that her former self's fashion sense had remained intact. "This, I can work with. Hmmm...I wonder what the others would think if I, like, wore this right now?"

No, she'd taken enough risks for one weekend. Deciding to play it safe until Lori and Lincoln were away, she donned another green dress and slipped on her sandals before taking inventory of the dress-making materials in the room. "Seems like plenty to work with. Still, I could check the attic for some inspiration. And while I'm on that topic..." Leni searched the closet, drawers and her bed for a wad of cash, to no avail. "Where's the one place where, like, no one would look in here?" She pivoted in place to eye each feature of the room closely before stopping at Lori's bed. Striding up to it, she lifted the mattress with one hand, the bedskirt with the other, and found her prize. "Heh, maybe I wasn't so stupid after all." Lori would never stoop so low as to make her own bed, so it was the perfect hiding spot.

Freshly clothed and pampered, with a (small) stack of bills to her name, Leni was ready to face the day. An awkward gait still hampered her as she ventured into the hallway, but for better and worse no one seemed to notice as she strolled down the corridor to the twins' room. Knocking twice, she was puzzled to find the door opened by an unnaturally formal Lana, who held it for her and bowed with the other arm extended to invite her in. Cautiously accepting, Leni entered the frightfully pink room and almost tripped over Lana as the young girl swooped around her to pull out a chair from Lola's tea table. "Uh, thanks."

She winced as she bent her back at the perfectly wrong angle to fit into the child-sized chair."You're welcome, Leni." It wasn't her disturbingly attentive handler who answered her, though. "Would you care for a cup of tea?" Lola asked, prim and proper as a princess ought to be.

Leni nearly declined, but something about her sister's gap-toothed smile and the whole atmosphere in the room made her reconsider. "Like, that would be lovely!" Before she'd even finished speaking Lana was pouring her drink, and she averted her gaze to her other side, only to be met with the thousand-yard stare of her host's teddy bear.

"Very good, Lana. You can join us anytime, you know, if you want to." The older twin shook her head, a hint of dread to it as she set the pot back on their play stovetop and absconded to her side of the room. "Well, more for us, then! So, what brings you to our neck of the enchanted woods?" Leni jerked her head back, realizing she was the one being spoken to.

'Wow, she's in full roleplay mode. And what's up with the other one?' Somehow the entire scene she'd walked into was more intimidating than Lori had ever been. "Well, like, I wanted to talk to you about what happened yesterday-"

She was interrupted by Lola's cup slamming down on its saucer with an ear-piercing clink. "About how Lori tried to ruin my entire week just because her precious phone went missing? She's got some nerve, considering all the stuff she takes from us and how she treats us when she's in charge. I didn't do it, but I'm rooting for whoever did." There was fire in the little girl's eyes, a fire that Leni knew only too well. A fire she knew how to stoke.

Leaning over the table, or rather hunching over it, she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper as she shared, "you know, between you and me, I feel the same way." Surprise was evident in Lola's expression and posture, and Leni knew she'd pressed the right buttons. "And that's one of the reasons I knew you were, like, totes innocent."

The six-year old's confidence lapsed somewhat, replaced by a bout of self-consciousness as she confessed, "I really thought you were going to send me up the river. I'm sorry about what I said, you saved me last night along with Lincoln." Drawing in a breath and readopting her haughty attitude, Lola asked, "what do you mean about feeling the same way?"

"Well," Leni paused for effect, "I've been dealing with Lori's attitude problem for 'literally' sixteen years," she did her best impression of her sister and her catchphrase, to the amusement of the twins, "so I know how it goes. And I wanted to do something for you if you'd, like, be willing to do something for me." That definitely piqued her third-youngest sibling's interest.

"I'm not in the habit of owing people, you know. That's what started this in the first place."

Offering her a placating smile, Leni assured her, "it's not about either of us owing the other, what I want will help both of us. If you're alright with it, I want to fix your dress, the one Lori tore while you were fighting."

Lola's teeth and hands clenched at the memory. "I don't think that's something you could manage, but thanks for the offer."

"I wouldn't go that far. Like, not only could I fix it, but maybe make it even better than it was before." The two of them stared at each other in silent contemplation, and Lola stood to pace back and forth at her side of the table. Leni waited, sipping on the admittedly good tea all the while.

"And...if you did that for me, what would you want from me?" As full of herself as she was, Lola knew that she didn't have much to offer her big sisters that they didn't already have.

Folding her hands on her lap, Leni was every bit the image of the schemer Lola was known as. "I would want you to keep an eye on Lori." She let the request sit in the air a moment, her sister's confusion her cue to elaborate. "Like, if you see her doing anything suspicious, especially about the phone, I want you to let me know about it. If she uses another phone to call anyone, or talks to someone in private, anything like that, I need to know."

"Hey, isn't that spy-" Lana shut her trap as Lola zeroed in on her with a venomous glare. Leni had forgotten she was even there with how silent she'd been.

Returning her attention to Leni, Lola said, "she is kind of right, though. Isn't that spying?" Usually there was no need for anything of the sort in the house, everyone was fairly open with their business aside from Lincoln and Lisa.

"Maybe a little bit, but it's for a just cause!" Leni clapped her hands together, a devious grin shaking Lola's composure. "Don't you want to get back at her for what she did?" Her host hesitantly nodded her head as Lana looked on in concern. "Well, I want to help you get the chance I never got. We're going to give her a little taste of what it's like to get picked on." Lola's reluctance began to give way to her desire for revenge, and she drew closer to her big sister.

As the two plotted, the older twin looked on with a sort of primal, animalistic fear urging her to get away. She might not be as smart as Lola, or as old as the others, but she could tell that something had changed in their second-oldest sister since last night. Before she had been kind of a loopy, silly teen who was willing to play with them on the condition that it didn't ruin her makeup or clothes. Now...now she was like some combination of Lola and Lisa; she sounded smarter and was using those smarts for evil.

"You drive a hard bargain, Leni, a lot harder than I gave you credit for." The older sister expressed her appreciation of that blunt honesty with a crooked grin. "Alright, I can watch out for Lori. And in exchange, I've got a list of changes to spruce up that dress for my next pageant!" Leni had been expecting something like this, but that list quickly outran anything her skills would be able to prepare in one day. "No rush, although it'd be just great if I had something to show off to my friends Wednesday!" Lola fluttered her eyes to seal the deal.

Leaning back as far as the tiny chair would allow, Leni drummed her fingers against the table before finally saying, "I think we've got a deal." They shook on it, a dark pact that Lola didn't understand the significance of now sealed. Downing the last of her drink, Leni rose from her seat and gave an exaggerated curtsy to the little princess. "Like, thank you so much for having me, sis! We'll have to get together like this more often!"

Her ego expanding exponentially, Lola crowed, "we certainly will! See how nice this is when everyone actually plays together nicely, Lana?" She shot a smug expression at the silent twin, and Leni briefly wished she knew just what she was missing there before shrugging it off and making for the door.

Back in the hallway, the sound of two doors closing in unison alerted her to another's presence, and she turned to see Luan rubbing tiredly at her eyes as she finally woke up. The brunette took a moment to realize she wasn't alone, and offered a little wave and a small smile before carefully treading down the steps.

'Good, she still thinks we're on the same page. She's definitely first on the shit list tonight.' A heady anticipation filled her at the thought of finally being able to act out her vengeance. Now that she'd secured Lola's help, she had some research to do on Lynn's behalf, and there was a particular person she'd need to go to for that. Swivelling to the left, Leni was confronted with Lincoln's door. Knocking twice like before, she stood patiently. A minute later, she knocked three times, and waited two minutes. 'I guess I can't blame him, he dealt with all of us yesterday.'

She had just turned to pursue her Luna contingency when her brother's door creaked open behind her and a loud yawn issued forth from it. "Mornin', Leni. What's up?"

Spinning on her heels, she folded her arms behind her back and sang, "good mooorning~! Just wanted to see what my favouritest little brother is up to!" She had a sneaking suspicion he'd be suspicious of HER when he got his wits about him, so she practically barged into his room at the same time as she asked, "mind if I hang out for a bit?"

"Oh, sure! Come on in." He didn't even seem to realize she was already making herself at home as he closed the door again, shuffling back to the bed and plopping down on it. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, he observed her observing his room, observing it with judgement no longer clouded by some foreign substance. He was conflicted, though, as last night's spectacle came back in haunting detail. "So, how's it going this morning?" He noticed the odd way she positioned herself as she sat, like her back or rear end were in pain.

"It's been a pretty crazy one, that's for sure. How about you? Looks like you got some well-deserved beauty sleep!"

"No, not beauty sleep, I told you!" He laughed as their conversation that night came back to him, and on that note he frowned as he remembered what she'd had to do with that trial getting out of hand the night before. "Leni, I need to ask you a few questions about what happened with the phone. What happened last night was the real crazy thing."

Frowning, she fell back onto the bed. "I owe you that much. What did you want to know?"

Lincoln stared at her in complete shock. She had been expecting this, expecting him to go after her. That could only mean..."Leni, did you take the phone?"

'Straight to it, huh?' She knew it was inevitable, but she'd hoped to enjoy some more time with her brother before having to mislead him. Still, she could tell a great deal of the truth to him, and she owed him that as well. "I did." She turned to him, and her heart railed against her as she saw the hurt etched onto his face.

"But...but WHY? Why take it, and why blame Lola? Why let things get so out of hand?" He asked desperately, unable to rationalize her actions with the caring young woman he'd become privy to just two nights ago.

Leni looked back to the ceiling, letting her arm cover her eyes as she resolved to tell him as much as possible. "I took it to, like, teach Lori a lesson. You saw how ready she was to tear Lola up, right?" Lincoln nodded, glad to at least be getting what he thought was the full story. "All that over a phone. A phone she uses all day, every day. She spends more time with that phone than she does with her own family, and I wanted to teach her a lesson."

Though he didn't quite agree with her methods, Lincoln COULD agree that Lori was distant from them, and wilfully at that. "But that's no different from Luna spending all her time with her instruments, or Lucy with her secret dark places. That's not the only reason you took it, is it?" He'd promised to help her through this, and that meant helping her realize when she was wrong as well.

'Of course he can see through me.' She thought, letting her arm fall away to stare at his ceiling. 'He can't see all the way through, though.' Sitting back up, she wrung her hands as she admitted, "you're right, it's not. Like, I was so mad about what Lori was making me do with the medicine, I just...I just wanted to get back at her somehow. I didn't think it would cause trouble for everyone else, though."

He wasn't quite convinced yet. "Alright, but why did you blame Lola? I hadn't even thought about it until the trial, but there was no way you could have seen whether she dd it or not. We were both downstairs after we woke up."

Lip quivering, Leni conceded, "that was a lie. She was trying so hard to give you a hard time, I wanted to give her something else to focus on. Lincoln, I'm so sorry." The two of them faced each other, a heaviness in the air from both the lie and the truth. "I made a stupid decision, and dragged you and everyone else into my petty grudge. I know I've got, like, no right to ask, but can you forgive me?"

As much as it hurt to know that she'd lied to him, Lincoln couldn't imagine how he'd react if he'd found out the same things she had about herself. 'She at least tried to make things right by letting Lola off the hook. And now she's coming clean to me, so that's a good start'. Sliding over and taking her hand in his, he shushed her, "it's alright Leni, I forgive you." The look of shock, followed quickly by a shaky smile, made him feel as though it was the right thing to do. That didn't mean she was completely off the hook, though. "There's one thing I want you to do, though."

"Anything." She'd meant it when she told him she was in his debt, even if she knew what the request was going to be.

"You need to give the phone back, and apologize to Lori. I know you're mad at her for what she did, and I kind of am too, even if I don't know the whole story." Leni set aside her vitriol long enough to take heart in his wisdom. "But I think she learned her lesson by now, and if it goes on any longer it's just gonna make her think that maybe she was right all this time."

'Never change, Lincoln.' She hoped he'd never have to learn the lessons she had, though if she had her way it would be a nonissue. "Yeah, it's gotten to that point. Buuut...I'm going to wait until tomorrow to do it."

A suspicious look was aimed her way as Lincoln questioned, "why the wait?"

"Well, she's going out tonight, I think. I just want her to realize there's a life beyond that phone, that she needs to be more involved with the people, places and things around her. If you want me to do it now, though, I will." So much for avoiding risks. By placing the choice in his hands, she had to hope she'd made a compelling argument.

'It really would be nice for her to give it a rest for a while...' Her faith turned out to be well-placed. "Well...I agree that she could spend a little more time away from it. But you HAVE to give it back tomorrow, alright? Consider that the favour you said you owe me." He smiled at his clever spin on her promise, and she smiled with him, proud that at least one of them was still able to take the high road.

"I promise, Lincoln." She crossed her heart to make it official, and that hatchet was buried. "So, you're also going to be gone tonight, right?"

"Oh, yeah! Lori's going to take me over to Clyde's on her way to Bobby's. Oh, but are you and Luna gonna be able to keep the others from making this place a pile of rubble?" He hadn't considered that the two typical leaders would be gone at the same time.

Making a show of examining her nails, Leni assured him, "like, I think we've got this under control. Plus, I'm going to talk to Luna, Luan and Lynn about...about everything tonight."

"Really? You're sure it's not too soon?" Lincoln silently thanked Clyde for talking him out of revealing her secret.

"I'm sure. I want to get this out of my system, and now seems like the best time." He didn't have to know exactly what she wanted to get out of her system.

Lincoln grinned at her, releasing her hand and pumping both of his fists. "Alright! It's gonna be completely different in the house now; completely great!" Seething anger took a backseat to bubbly warmth once more as Leni viewed his display of support. Something just beyond him caught her attention, and she found her gaze returned by Bub-bun, whom she hadn't truly looked upon when she gifted the toy to Lincoln all those years ago. He followed her line of sight to the doll, then back again, and his face became rosy as he picked it up. "Oh, this. I, uh, I know that I'm probably too old to keep holding on to him, but..."

"But...?"

"But, he's still my favourite toy, and my favourite birthday present I ever got." Leni was speechless at the admission, and even more so when he handed the doll to her to look at. The stuffed bunny had been worn with time, but looked to have been lovingly cared for all these years. Still as perfect as she'd made him, aside from the seam where his arm had-

["Happy birthday, Linc!"]

["Wow, thanks Leni! What is it?"]

["Well, you've got to open it up, silly!"]

She briefly recognized Lincoln uttering her name as she fell onto her side on the bed.

["Let's...seeee...oh wow, he's so cute!"]

["Really, Leni? He's seven years old. And a boy."]

["Like, so what? He's not old and bitter yet like you are, Lori."]

["EXCUSE ME?!"]

["Just kidding! You need to lighten up, or you'll get wrinkles. Well, even more wrinkles!"]

["Why you...get BACK here, Leni!"}

{"Leni! Talk to me! What's wrong?!"}

{"LENI!"}

Lincoln tried everything, from snapping his fingers to clapping his hands near her ears and hollering at her, but nothing seemed to be breaking her from her trance. "Leni, snap out of it! Oh man, I need to get a glass of water to throw or something!"

~"L-Lincoln..."~

{"Lincoln, come on! Let me see him!"]

["Lynn, wait-"]

["No, you'll just rip him up! Give him to me!"]

["Luan, give him back-"]

["Youre BOTH going to ruin it. Hand it over!"]

["Luna, no!"]

[...]

["See, I told you. You tore his arm off!"]

["Me?! You wouldn't stop pulling-"]

["You're BOTH to blame! Look, you made Lincoln cry!"]

["Lincoln cries all the time, what's new?"]

["Girls! Apologize to your brother now!"]

["Ugh. We're sorry, Lincoln."]

["Lincoln..."}

{"Lincoln..."}