Author Notes - Fun Fact About Me That You Probably Don't Care About: Luisa is my favourite character in Encanto, thanks to her highly relatable song and the fact that she spends, like, half her screentime just crying over how much she thinks she's a loser. Likewise, while Lori isn't my favourite Loud Sister (that honour goes to Lisa), she is probably my second favourite. So, unsurprisingly, we have a lot of Lori-playing-Luisa's-role in this story. While I will be giving most of the Loud Sisters their own scene, Lori does get a lot of 'screen' time.

Also, take a drink every time Lori's name is called out if you wanna die.

CHAPTER FOUR - TWITCH, TWITCH, TWITCH

Lincoln found the table had moved a little once again; Rita must've gotten Lori to move it to a 'better' position for the third time this month. It was a shame that the Loud family could never quite decide where the furniture should go, and always got Lori to move it for them. Well, why not? She could lift tables like they were feathers and full closets like they contained nothing but air.

'Breakfast is ready!' Lynn Sr yelled from the kitchen. 'Lisa can make the stove top cook the pancakes and stuff by itself. Can you believe that?! It won't even burn it now!' This little speech got Lisa to smirk; her gift was already demonstrating itself to be awesome.

'That's wonderful!' Rita said. 'Not even a day, and we've already found another great use for Lisa's gift!'

The five-year-old in question frowned. 'It's a very helpful gift, to be sure…'

Rita sat at the end of the table, with a second seat next to her for her husband. Most of the seats were occupied, but - by pure luck - one of the seats next to Lori was free! Just as his dad entered the room, Lincoln rushed into that free spot next to the oldest sister. While Lynn Sr served everyone some scrumptious bacon and eggs, his son couldn't stop focusing on Lori. For someone whose eye was 'twitching for ten minutes straight', she seemed just fine.

Couldn't hurt to ask though, right?

He cleared his throat, and spoke in a whisper, 'So, uh, Lori. Luna told me your eye was twitching all night, so…'

He flinched - Lori's gaze went from looking lazily at her eggs to staring directly into Lincoln's soul. Not even Lola could manage a look like that so quickly. There was hardly any emotion behind those eyes, perhaps because everyone had stayed up so late, but she never seemed this exhausted before.

'You okay?' Lincoln asked, half-confused and half-genuinely-worried.

'Yeah, I'm okay.' Lori replied, cutting up one of her eggs. 'It was just a long night. That's all.'

'You sure? Because Luna told me you were freaking out last night, and there was also the cracks, and I swear your door went out first, and-'

He stopped, and gasped. Mentioning the door must've done it, because - for the quickest of moments - he saw Lori's eye twitching, just as Luna had said. The sight, inexplicably, brought a big smile to his face and he (painfully) slammed his hand down onto the table hard enough to make all the plates shake.

'You DO know something!' He declared. 'HA!'

Only then did he realise that absolutely everyone at the table, even Lily, was giving him a collection of bizarre looks, each more confused and concerned than the last. Lana in particular gave him a strange expression that he had never even seen before.

'Uh, okaaay.' Lynn Sr said, as he placed his own plate on the table. 'Alrighty, let's have some breakfast.'

He sat down on his chair, or at least tried to before he leapt a good three feet away while giving out the most high-pitched and wailing scream anyone could possibly imagine.

'T-THERE'S A SNAKE ON THE CHAIR!' He shouted.

A big green snake slithered up the back of the chair, hissing delightfully at the man he managed to spook. Luan was laughing like mad, before she shifted into her father's form and recreated his shriek almost perfectly.

'Dude!' Luna cried, cringing some more, before she pointed to her ear. 'Sensitive hearing, remember? It was painful enough the first time round!'

'Oops, sorry!' Luan said in her father's voice, before she returned to normal. 'I just thought it was funny.'

Rita groaned. 'Luan, don't do that. Lana, can you call your snake away from your father?'

Lana rolled her eyes, but Rita got what Rita wanted. 'Come on, El Diablo. Time to get back to my room.'

El Diablo emitted an annoyed hiss, before he slithered out of the dining room and returned to Lana's bedroom. Hopefully, Lola wouldn't find him hiding in her bed once again. Lynn Sr, slowly and carefully, took his seat and breathed a heavy sigh of relief when nothing else came to attack him.

'On a related note,' Rita said. 'Ruidosa, can you deal with Lincoln?'

The only Loud son had no time to think about how she was calling the house 'Ruidosa' again, for his chair moved away from the table so fast it's a miracle he didn't immediately fall out of it. The other chairs along that line moved across to fill the gap, pitting Leni right next to her sister, and Lincoln had to hold on tight as his own chair swung around and slammed into the new spot right next to his mother. He came very close to being chopped in half by the table.

'Now wasn't that a wonderful ceremony last night!' Rita said, trying to ease the awkwardness. 'Another Loud with another wondrous gift!'

'Indeed.' Lisa said, after swallowing an entire strip of bacon. 'I just wish… the whole family was there to see it.'

'Uh, w-what do you mean?' Lola asked, a small cloud already forming above her head. 'EVERYONE was there.'

'No, not everyone.' Leni said. 'We were missing Lu-'

'WE DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY!' Most of the other Louds yelled.

The room went awkwardly silent, and Lincoln got a glance at Lori's eye twitching again. Leni realised how awkward things had gotten, and just giggled.

'Oh, right, of course!' She said. 'I forgot we're not supposed to talk about her!'

'Well, that's fine.' Rita said. 'How did it go between you and Bobby last night?'

'Uh… totes awesome!'

Now Lori bent the fork in her hand without intending to, causing her eye to twitch even more. Fortunately, she was done with most of her meal anyway. Lincoln leaned backwards in his chair, getting another peak at her. She had her fists clenched, and the moment she noticed him looking at her she looked away immediately.

'Come on, Luna!' Lola said, clapping her hands. 'Gimme some of that gossip. Is he talking about Leni right now? Does he wanna get married? HOW MANY KIDS?!

'He's talking about his life plans right now.' Luna said, sounding like she was barely invested. 'He wants to get married. Tonight.'

'Tonight?!' Leni yelled.

'He wants eleven kids.'

'ELEVEN?!'

A bunch of little flowers sprouted in Leni's hair, in a manner that looked more messy than anything. Luan, who was sitting right next to her, snickered as she morphed into a Bobby lookalike and gave Leni a flirty look. That does not sound good out of context. Just to make it better, she made kissy faces too, and in a slight panic Leni shoved her palm into Luan's face and accidentally grew a little flower in her mouth. Luan had to return to normal and spit that flower out.

'Oh, sorry.' Leni said. 'But you were being totes annoying!'

That was enough for Lori, apparently, for she pushed her chair out and went straight out the door.

'Okay, I'm done.' She said. 'And I've got things to do. A lotta things.'

Lincoln gasped - he couldn't lose her now! If he lost her now, he wouldn't see her again until she came back for dinner. He gulped down the rest of his meal with very little chewing, almost choking in the process and dreading the inevitable indigestion.

'I'm done too!' He said, rushing out the door. 'SEE YOU!'

The rest of his family could only watch him in confusion; he was getting stranger by the second.

'Welp.' Lynn said. 'Stinkcoln's officially lost it.'

While everyone was too busy focusing on Lincoln and what the **** was going on with him, a little rat crawled across the table and grabbed one of Lola's bacon strips and quietly placed it on Lana's plate. Not quietly enough, unfortunately, for Luna heard the little patter of its footsteps and caught it in the act immediately.

'Lola…' She said. 'A rat's trying to steal your food.'

'WHAT?!' Lola shrieked, forming a thundering cloud in an instant. 'LAAANAAA!'

'I didn't tell Bitey to do that!' Lana claimed.

'Your gift is LITERALLY TO TALK TO ANIMALS! Of COURSE you told him to do it!'

The princess of the sisters readied her fist, prepared to launch into a massive fight with her twin right next to her. Meanwhile, Lana bared her teeth like a crocodile, fitting as a whole freaking crocodile rushed from her room into the dining room, causing most of the other Loud sisters to scream. With thunder on one side and a crocodile on the other, it was sure to be a twin battle of the-

'CLEAR SKIES, LOLA!' Rita demanded.

Lola, despite all the thundering, managed to hear her mother's command and the red in her face died down just a little. The cloud lightened and stopped raining, though it remained there. The smile on her face showed off all of her teeth, and didn't look natural in the slightest.

'Clear skies…' She muttered. 'Clear skies, clear skies, clear skies…'

'Lana.' Rita said, in a much more deadpanned voice. 'Send Chomper back to her den. Now.'

Lana sighed. 'Chomper, you gotta go.'

The crocodile frowned, but not before Leni gave her a little bouquet spawned from thin air. Chomper blushed, strangely enough, before she dragged herself back to Lana's half in the twins' bedroom.

'If I may inquire,' Lisa said. 'Does anyone know why Lincoln would want to follow Lori?'

'He's begging her for answers.' Luna replied. 'Why, I couldn't tell you.'

'Maybe it's to get away from this crazy place.' Lynn remarked, seeing the storm cloud flare up again. 'Speaking of which… TOODLES!' And she dashed away to the massive racetrack in her room, before Lola could start another hurricane from her rage.

Lincoln had followed Lori much more closely than he ever had before. Usually, when she left for the day, the others just let her do her work on her own. No one ever really seemed to question why she would usually disappear until dinnertime, perhaps because that's how it had been for as long as Lincoln could remember. While he couldn't remember how it was when he was only a few years old, his oldest memories of Lori were fleeting at best.

'Lori!' He called. 'I wanna talk to you! LORI!'

But, as he followed her into the thick of Royal Woods, she did not pay him any attention. Did she just not notice him, or was she ignoring him on purpose? She had travelled straight down the hill, paying no mind to anything else around her. Not even the little kids asking her to lift something heavy just so they could gawk at it.

'Lori, please, I need to-'

'Lori, Lori!'

Lori had just barely passed a single block on this suburb when a man already approached her. Though he hardly saw him himself, Lincoln recognised him as the man in charge of that college Lori really wanted to go to. How strange it was to the Loud boy that she never actually went there.

'What is it, Coach Niblick?' Lori asked, without a hint of annoyance.

'My golf cart ended up in a water trap again!' He said. 'Can you fish it out?'

'I'll get on it.'

Lincoln, from just half a block away, had to do a double-take. Clearly, she was on her way to something else, but she accepted this job without a second's thought or any hesitation at all. Before he could wonder about this, however, Lori was already on the move again.

'Ah! Lori!' He said, running after her.

It didn't take them long to arrive at the church, where the Priest stood seemingly awaiting Lori's arrival. Lincoln stared at that big tall building for quite a while, glancing at the area around it. Wasn't that church a few blocks away just a month or two ago? He wasn't religious, so he rarely bothered to check out the church, but it looked odd.

'That big tower is in the way of my garden!' A woman pleaded, approaching Lori. 'My flowers will never grow if the tower keeps them in the shade.'

Lincoln approached the two women with a hand raised. Now, this was an obvious solution - Leni's flowers could stay alive and well no matter the weather, and could definitely survive a little bit of shade. Alternatively, Lisa oughta be able to invent something, in a snap, that could somehow redirect a bit of sunlight onto that little garden.

'Okay Miss,' He said. 'If you don't mind having someone else's flowers and just want something that looks pretty, I'll fetch Leni. If you want your own flowers, then Lisa-'

'Will do!' Lori said, turning around from the conversation like her little brother wasn't there.

'L-Lori…?'

Not only did the woman completely ignore his perfectly fine suggestions, but Lori took yet another offer without another word. Without even finishing the first one yet. He stammered out her name a few more times in confusion, and found himself speechless when Lori - with nothing but her own bare hands - lifted up the church itself into the air, foundation and all. His jaw dropped, not because he was surprised she was that strong, since it was her literal gift and all, but because he could not believe that that was apparently the solution to this problem.

'Alright,' Lori said. 'Where do you want it to go?'

'Over there!' The priest said, pointing to a blank lot a few blocks away.

'Got it!'

Lori proceeded to carry that massive building down those few blocks, having to take extra care to make sure she didn't break any other buildings with it, until she reached that empty lot right next to the bar of all places. Lincoln stood in place, watching her with his mouth agape, when she placed the church down into the lot and dusted her hands off.

All the while, she had a tough and rather stoic expression on her face. Only once she was finished did Lincoln remember what he was supposed to be doing.

'LORI!' He yelled.

His voice was lost in the wind, because Lori found her being approached by several more people. Her eye twitched for a moment, but otherwise did not let up that determined look and posture. There were so many people surrounding her, in fact, that she could not see Lincoln getting closer.

'I need you to reroute the river so my crops can grow!'

'On it.'

'We've got some platinum that needs to be flattened into usable plates!'

'Will do.'

'My big brother Rusty got himself stuck under a fallen bookcase again. He's okay, but he'll get bored soon!'

'I'll deal with that.'

'Are you going to clear up all those fallen logs?'

'I'll get right on that right now!'

The townspeople lobbied a few more requests at her, but it didn't really seem to matter. Lori was already on her way to her next task, looking more bored than anything. Lincoln, once again, stared at her in shock before he remembered that he was supposed to be following her.

'That can't be right…' He murmured to himself. 'Why is Lori accepting so many requests before she's finished the first one?'

Slowly, he was beginning to understand why she would seemingly disappear all day. He swallowed a lump in his throat - she wasn't really doing all of this work every single day… was she? Determined to find out more, he kept after her.

'LORI!' He called. 'I need to ask you something! Lori, listen to me. Lori, say something to your little brother. Lori, where are you going?! Lori, how many times do I have to say your name before you turn around and listen?'

Lori didn't say a thing to him, as though he wasn't there at all, even as she finally arrived at her destination - it was the closest thing to a highway that Royal Woods had, and the entire road had been blocked off by a massive circle of traffic cones. It didn't take a genius to figure out why: a truck had been tipped over, and the massive logs it was carrying had tipped out everywhere over the road. Fortunately, some 'Lynn-Ger Chicken' fixed up the driver's injuries, but the road was still a mess.

Lincoln followed her into this area he probably wasn't allowed to be in, unseemingly stubborn to get answers out of her. By this point, he wondered if it was even worth going through all this trouble. Without a gift of endurance like Lori's or super speed like Lynn's, his own legs were beginning to ache after so much walking. Couldn't get an animal to ride on like Lana could either.

He watched as Lori got her hands under the grate of the fallen truck and pushed it back onto its wheels with ease. Sometimes, he forgot just how strong she could be thanks to that little gift of hers. Without breaking a sweat about it either. Pianos, trucks, even churches… he was certain that there was nothing that Lori couldn't lift.

'Hey Lori,' He said, following after her as she headed for the first of many thick logs. 'I was just-'

'LINCOLN!' She yelled, turning around in an instant.

He flinched.

'I am trying to get some important work done.' She said, getting her face uncomfortably close to his. 'And I can't do that if you are in the way literally all the time!'

Lincoln gulped, and stepped back just a little. Of course, that wasn't so suspicious since Lori was never known for being kind and patient. Still, it just left him further convinced that it wasn't time to back off. So, he followed after her even after she went and picked up one of the big logs and carried it over her shoulder.

'I just wanted to have a talk.' He said. 'I - WOAH!' He had to duck under a log as she turned around. 'Luna told me your eye was twitching all night.'

Lori sighed. 'Lincoln, it's fine.'

'And then your eye twitched when I mentioned the door thing!'

She acted as though she wasn't listening, though he could see her free hand clenching up so hard the skin was turning white.

'Lori, I-'

She narrowed her eyes, ran a quick mental calculation regarding the log in her hand, and then threw like it was a twig over her head. It soared over the walls of the truck precisely where it needed to be, not threatening to bounce out or knock it over again. And all she did afterwards was dust her hands off.

'Okay.' Lincoln said. 'That was pretty cool. But seriously, it sounds like the whole crack thing got you nervous.'

Unbeknownst to him, Lori could feel her blood pressure spiking beyond belief. She clenched her fists. Her eyes twitched. She grinded her teeth until they hurt. And then there was a little detail that only Luna would be able to hear:

Her breath got heavy and harsh.

'Not only do I want to get to the bottom of things,' Lincoln said, adopting a nervous smile. 'But I'm starting to worry about you. You seem really-'

Whatever Lincoln did, that was her breaking point. She spun around and gave him the most contorted and angry - yet most pained - glare he had ever seen from her.

'I'M LITERALLY FINE, LINCOLN!'

Author Notes - I will always love Luisa yelling out 'NOTHING'S WRONG' at the top of her lungs. Despite me being as thin as a twig, I relate to her so much. She's just a big ball of anxiety, like me! And I truly believe that Lori's gotta have a lot of stress going on as well.

If you're worried about there being too much Lori, well... much like Luisa, after her major scene she will spend most of the remaining movie doing nothing but crying and having anxiety attacks. Again, relatable. ... Now I'm wondering if I'm making my readers worry about me.