There comes a moment in every young woman's life when she must stretch out her wings, perch herself on the edge of the nest, and take a great big leap of faith into the world. Every youth - at least every youth that isn't a complete failure of a human being - leaves home at some point. These days, kids were staying at home later or coming back because the economy was bullshit. That's cool, nothing wrong with that, but there's a difference between living with mom and dad because you have to and being too chickenshit to man (or woman) up and become an adult. Unless you're severely autistic or otherwise handicapped, there's no reason for you to stay at home forever. Sooner or later, you gotta go on and git, as people in the south might say. For Lori Loud, that moment came when she was eighteen. She had graduated high school with honors and had been accepted at a good college halfway across the country. Her parents were helping her out with money, but once she set foot on that campus, she was pretty much on her own.

Lori had always been mature (especially after being tapped by her parents for seventeen years as a middle manager of sorts for her siblings), but even though she had been looking forward to being on her own, the prospect kind of scared her. I mean, for the first time in her entire life, she would be completely and totally alone. She wouldn't have Mom and Dad to fall back on. She wouldn't have them to wake her up for class if she overslept or to remind her to eat right. It was sink or swim and the only thing keeping her afloat would be herself.

As intimidating as that was, it was also exciting. She liked being challenged, and being a whole adult would be a challenge. She loved her family, but she was excited to go off and start building her own life. She was poised at the beginning of the next chapter of her life, and the more she thought about it, the more thrilling it became. It might be kind of cliched to say this, but she had her whole life ahead of her. She had the world at her feet and from here she could be anyone and do anything she wanted. A whole heap of blank pages waited ahead of her and she was pretty excited to see what twists and turns her story would take from this point on.

At the end of a long, hot summer, Lori packed her things into her car - an ancient hatchback with flecking yellow paint - and set off into the great blue yonder. She was so ready for this, but despite that, she had her misgivings.

Mainly about her sister, Leni.

To understand where Lori was coming from, you had to go all the way back to the beginning…or almost the beginning. Lori's parents were young and just married when they had her. They were so young, in fact, that they were still attending community college…and hadn't even been there very long. Immediately after Lori was born, Mom and Dad got on a baby making hot streak that had really never ended. Every year or so, Lori got a new sibling. Like most older sisters - and many older brothers - Lori was expected to help take care of her little sisters (and, eventually, her little brother). Lori was totally fine with this, as, for one thing, it made her feel mature and grown up. She changed diapers, filled bottles, cleaned up puke, and kept the others in line like a little general marshaling her even littler troops. Lori remained in her position until the moment she left for college, and the next in line of succession was Leni.

Look, Lori loved Leni, but she didn't think she had what it took to be the Oldest. Lori had a reputation among her siblings for being strict and severe. You know why? Because over the years, she had learned that that was literally the only way to keep order. If you weren't careful, they'd all get together and try to pull one over on you. If you didn't keep a firm hand, they would lose respect for you and do whatever they wanted, which usually resulted in the house being destroyed. The Loud kids were like a pack of wild dogs and if you didn't keep a firm hand, you would lose control.

And if you asked Lori, Leni just wasn't capable of keeping a firm hand. She was incapable, Lori thought, of commanding respect.

For one thing, Leni was a little slow. Some people are, there's nothing wrong with that, but those people probably aren't cut out for leadership positions. To be a leader, you have to be quick on your feet and know exactly what's going on at all times. You have to be smart, shrewd, and jaded. Leni was none of those things. She was too nice, too gullible, and way, way too naive. She was easily tricked and manipulated. Luna, Luan, and the others had done it a million times in the past. Lori herself had done it a time or two; she wasn't proud of that fact, but it was what it was.

Since she had her own life to worry about, she didn't give too much thought to how things would be once she was gone and Leni was in charge. She, Lori, had done her time and served her stint. She couldn't keep her siblings the center of her life forever. She loved and cared about them, of course, but that didn't mean she was going to spend the rest of her life obsessing over them and wiping their asses. Her time to leave and start her own life was now; everything else fell to someone else. When Leni was gone from home, Luna would bear the responsibility, then Luan, then Lynn, and so on down the line. They would each in turn leave and begin their own lives, passing the mantle onto the kid beneath them.

So it was.

Lori left home at the end of August and drove all the way to her new college by herself. Mom and Dad offered to come with her, but she decided to make the trip on her own. It was sort of a test, or maybe a declaration of independence. She felt on some level that making the drive was part of becoming an adult, kind of like crossing the River Styx into Hades or something. She was also kind of excited about the whole thing since she had never driven that far on her own. It was kind of an adventure. She ate at truck stops, slept in a rest area parking lot, and charted her own route using an old school paper map. Using the GPS on her phone would have been much, much easier, but that didn't require any skill. She wanted to prove to herself that she could do things the hard way and improvise if she had to.

A day and a half after setting out, she reached campus and moved into her dorm. She expected to have a roommate, but found out at the last minute that her roommate had dropped out before school even began. She had been apprehensive about the idea of living with a stranger, but was a little excited as well, since it would be a new experience. Instead, she wound up having the dorm all to herself…which was a new experience as well. She had been roommates with Leni for so long that she honestly couldn't remember ever having her own room or space. The dorm was so empty, so quiet, that it kind of freaked her out. The first couple days there, she left the lights and TV on nonstop to give the illusion of life and activity. It was strange to be all on her own, but she was kind of glad that things had worked out this way. She likely wouldn't have a roommate when she finally struck out on her own at the end of school, so she might as well get used to it now.

Much to Lori's surprise, she fell into the role of independent adult almost seamlessly. She really shouldn't have doubted herself, but this was uncharted territory and she wanted to play things safe. Better to be underconfident than overconfident, right? You know what they say about pride going before the fall. If you let your ego get the best of you, you'll wind up getting sloppy and making mistakes. If you aren't careful, you'll think you're above everything and wind up getting brought rudely back to earth like your name is Kanye West. Lori had no problem getting up for her classes, and she did not feel the urge to ditch her homework and go party, or watch TV, simply because there wasn't an adult standing over her shoulder. She did her homework at the soonest possible moment and wound up with loads of free time on her hands. Instead of squandering it, she got a part time job waiting tables at a restaurant across from campus. It was a sports themed bar and grill popular with both students and locals and got super busy on the weekends.

In her first month there, Lori made over 1,100 dollars in tips. She had to take the busiest shifts and bust her ass to get it, but for that amount, hell, she was happy to do it. She used some of the money to decorate her dorm, and then put some of it toward new clothes. Her car broke down shortly thereafter, and she wound up paying through the nose to have it fixed. She had the feeling that the mechanic took advantage of her because she was a young college kid who didn't know much about cars, the world in general, or how to negotiate, but oh well, it's not like she could fix it herself, A wise man once said "Sometimes you have to eat shit and learn to like the taste of it." She thought that was a weird piece of advice when she first heard it, but now that she was adulting part time, she understood it perfectly. Sometimes, you gotta swallow a bitter pill because hey, that's life.

Lori came home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, spending a few days with the fam each go around. She wasn't there long enough to really get into the politics of the household. She asked Leni how things were going and Leni swore up and down that they were going "super duper." Lori had no reason to disbelieve her, since she didn't see any monkey business going on while she was there. Then again, it was a holiday atmosphere, especially with her being home, so it wasn't like she was peeling back the curtain and peering into a normal day or anything. She and her family spent the whole time eating, hanging out, laughing, and playing in the snow. In hindsight, Lori wasn't even looking for signs that Leni wasn't doing well in her new role as oldest sibling. It was possible that her younger siblings were always on their best behavior while Lori was in town, that way she wouldn't realize anything was up.

After Christmas, Lori didn't go back home again until summer. She skipped spring break because she and a few of her friends went to Daytona Beach instead. She wanted to see her family of course, but she wanted to go to Florida even more. She spent a whole week staying in a nice hotel on the beach with four other girls and roaming the beach at all hours. She swam, soaked up the sun, ate at beachside restaurants, and visited little shops along the boardwalk. There was a mini amusement park with a Farris wheel and nearby was a place that sold the best ice cream and salt water taffy in the world.

At the end of the week, she went back to school feeling good and refreshed. As it so happened, she only had two months to go before summer started. She passed all of her year end tests and was good to come back in September. In early June, she left her serving job (until, maybe, next semester), packed some things into her car, and drove out to Michigan. Even though she had not lived in Royal Woods for nearly a year, she still thought of 1216 Franklin Avenue as home.

She left college at sundown to avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic, and dawn caught her 380 miles from home. She pulled into a rest stop parking lot - the same one she slept in on her way out here, she was sure - and caught a few hours of fitful sleep. When she woke near noon, she was groggy, her eyes were grainy, and her neck ached. She hit up the vending machines, getting a drink and a snack, then got back on the highway. She was already looking forward to sleeping in her own bed tonight. As soon as she got in, she might take a little nap.

As she drove, however, she woke up a little, and was no longer exhausted by the time she crossed into Royal County. She took the Royal Woods off-ramp and followed Highway 10 through a stand of forest. She was surrounded by familiarity now and felt truly at home for the first time in months. The highway curved to the left and the trees fell away to reveal Royal Woods below. The road crossed the Royal River and turned to the right, Lori followed Main Street and then turned on Pine Street. She turned left, then right again, then turned onto Franklin Avenue.

She parked in the driveway next to Vanzilla and cut the engine. It was after five and the sun was beginning to take on that amber late afternoon hue that Lori always associated with summer. A warm breeze blew through the trees, and when she got out, the sunshine was warm against her skin. She grabbed her backpack from the front seat - which was filled with the most essential items she needed - and slammed the door. She locked the car and walked across the front yard. She followed the concrete walkway to the stairs, climbed them, and paused at the door. She had a key but for some reason using it felt wrong. This might still be her home but she was rarely ever here, and just randomly waltzing in struck her as…well, not good. She considered ringing the bell, but wound up using the key anyway.

Inside, Lucy, Lynn, and Luna were sitting on the couch, engrossed in a movie. They looked up when she came in and greeted her heartily, getting up and clustering around her in an excited mob. "How was your trip?" Luna asked.

"Did you see any road kill?" Lucy deadpanned.

"It was fine," Lori said, "and no, I didn't see any road kill."

Lucy let out a depressed sigh and hung her head.

Dad was in the kitchen making dinner, clad in a frilly pink apron. He came out wiping his hands on a dish cloth and smiled when he saw her. "There she is," he said happily. He walked over and swept her into a hug. "How was the drive?" he asked.

"Good," Lori said. "I'm a little tired, though."

"Your mother put new sheets on your bed so it's ready to go. You can take a nap if you want. Dinner won't be done for another hour."

Lori considered. "I might."

While Dad went back into the kitchen to continue preparing the evening meal, Lori carried her backpack upstairs. She wanted to see the rest of her siblings, but Lana and Lola both had after school activities, Luan was out with her friend Maggie, Lincoln was riding bikes with Clyde, and Lisa was, of course, locked away in her lab like the man in the iron mask, chained to her computer as she had been since she had gotten it. That was Lisa for you, always experimenting, always engaging in one "study" or another. Lori had tried time and again to encourage Lisa to be more social and less reclusive, but that's just how she was. Everyone has an inborn nature, a personality type, and trying to change who someone fundamentally was…well, that was as difficult as changing someone's race or height. You just had to accept that that's how someone was and work around it.

Lori stopped at Lisa's door and knocked. A few seconds later, it opened a hair and Lisa's face appeared in the crack. "Hey, Lise," Lori said.

"Hello," Lisa said.

They stared at each other for an awkward second.

"I just wanted to say hi," Lori said.

"Hello," Lisa repeated. "We can finish this conversation at dinner. As of right now, however, I am quite indisposed. If you'll excuse me." The little genius then unceremoniously shut the door in Lori's face. She didn't mean anything by it, it was just her way.

Curt and brisk.

Lori turned away and went to her room. Inside, she found Leni sitting at her sewing machine and working on a new design. "Hey," Lori said.

"Oh, hi, Lori," Leni said casually. It was like they had last seen each other six hours ago, not six months. "Like, when did you get in?"

"Just now," Lori said and dropped onto her bed. She threw out her arms and fell backwards, landing on softness and comfort. "I'm bushed."

Leni fed a swatch of fabric through the machine. "Tell me about it. I've been working on this cute top for, like, a week. I can't seem to get it right." She turned the machine off and sat the fabric aside with a deep sigh. "I know what I want it to look like in my head but…I don't know, my fingers just, like, won't carry out my vision. It's really frustrating."

Something about her words made Lori laugh. She had always loved the way Leni described things. As Pop Pop might have said, Leni was a real card. "Just keep grinding," Lori told her. "You'll get it eventually."

"Yeah, I guess," Leni said. She got up. "I need to -"

The door opened and Luna popped her head in. "Hey, Leni, you ready?"

Leni looked confused. "Ready for what?"

"Remember? I need a ride to that gig."

The older girl furrowed her brows. "I thought that was tomorrow."

"Yeah, it got moved up."

Now Leni looked concerned. "Well, I'm kind of busy, I have to -"

"Come on," Luna moaned. "You said you would."

They went back and forth for a minute before Leni relented. She and Luna left together, and Lori was alone, splayed out on the top of her blanket and beginning to feel drowsy. She rolled onto her side, grabbed her pillow, and hugged it to her chest. She drew her knees up and allowed her eyelids to flutter closed. She'd just rest for a while, she decided.

In moments, she was asleep, and didn't wake again until Dad called up the stairs to tell her that dinner was ready. She sat up, groggy and disoriented, and looked around the room through swollen eyes. The afternoon light had faded and gloom pooled around her like black water. She pressed her hand to her flushed, achy forehead and winced at the hot pinprick of pain above her right eye. She felt even worse than she had before she laid down.

Ugh, napping sucked.

"I'm coming!" she croaked. She brushed her sweaty hair out of her eyes, stretched, and gave a big yawn. She couldn't have slept less than an hour but it felt like she had only been out two minutes.

Getting up, she hit the bathroom, where she splashed cold water onto her face, and then went downstairs. Everyone was gathered at the table…everyone except for Leni and Luna. Lori sat next to Lincoln and mussed his hair. "Hey, Linc," she said.

"Glad to have you back," Lincoln said.

Lori grabbed a piece of bread and began to butter it. "Only for the summer, though."

"Then back to the old grind?" Lincoln asked.

"Back to the old grind," Lori confirmed.

A few minutes into the meal, the front door opened and Leni came in. She walked up to the table and sank into her seat with a deep sigh. "I am starving," she said.

Before she could even pick up her fork, however, Luan stood. "Ready?" she asked.

"For what?" Leni questioned.

"I need a ride to that gig," Luan answered, "remember?"

A look of confusion flickered across Leni's face. "That's nor, like, for another hour."

"Yeah, but you know I like to show up early." Luan drained her milk and sat the glass back on the table. "Let's go."

Leni cast a longing look at her plate, then sighed and got up again. She hung her head and shuffled out of the house with Luan in tow. "Does that happen often?" Lori asked Lincoln lowly.

"What?" he replied innocently.

"It seems like…" she trailed off and shrugged one shoulder up and down. "I don't know, it just seems kind of like they're walking all over Leni."

"Nah," Lincoln said, "no one does that. It's just one of those days, I guess." He flashed a nervous, toothy smile and Lori raised her eyebrow. There was something sheepish in his tone, almost like he was trying to hide something. He pointedly ignored her and dug into his food, eating with manufactured gusto and a laser-like focus that she had rarely ever seen out of him, especially when it came to something as casual and mundane as eating dinner. It was kind of like she maybe touched a nerve. She sudden;y had the feeling that she was right, that Luna and Luan were taking advantage of Leni and that they weren't the only ones.

Feeling bad for her slightly younger sister, Lori made her a plate and put it in the microwave. She waited for Leni to get back and was surprised when it took the blonde a whole hour to return. By then, everyone else had vacated the table and gone onto whatever activities with which they occupied their evenings. Lori warmed Leni's food up and sat across from her at the table while she ate. "Giving rides is hard work," Lori said vaguely.

Leni's head bobbed up and down. "I know. It kind of sucks."

It took Leni several years and many tries, but she finally passed her driver's test right before Lori left for college. When Lori was the only driver at home, she put strict rules in place to ensure that her siblings didn't run her ragged and use her as their own personal car service. She usually required them to do something for her in exchange for rides, such as doing her chores. The reason for this was twofold: One, she didn't want to do her chores lol and she liked having them done for her, and two, it kept her siblings from going hog wild asking for rides.

Leni, she was not surprised to find, did no such thing. She didn't make her siblings "pay" for rides, and thus - she told Lori - they were constantly pestering her. Some days, she spent more time on the road than she did at home. It interfered with her ability to do homework and complete her designs. "Do you at least make them pay for gas?" Lori asked. "Luna and Luan both have their gigs, so they're making money."

"No," Leni said sheepishly. "It makes me feel guilty to ask."

That bowled Lori over. "Why? It's only fair that if they're going to have you driving them around, they at least put gas in the tank."

For that, Leni had no answer. She just mumbled something about not wanting to be greedy. Lori tried to pry more information out of her, but the none too bright blonde clammed up. Lori decided to leave her alone, and went back to her room. She would get to the bottom of this some way, some how, she reckoned.

That night, she lay awake thinking about Leni's situation. If their siblings were using and abusing her when it came to rides, where else were they taking advantage of her? God knows it wasn't hard to get one over on Leni. She was really gullible and would buy the most obvious and blatant lie as 100 percent fact. She thought of how Lincoln had acted at dinner. She was certain that he was involved. Oh, he had a reputation for being chill, laid back, sweet, and caring, but he was just as conniving and selfish as the others. She could totally see him manipulating Leni.

The more she thought about them using Leni, the more angry she became. Didn't they realize how screwed up it was to do that to Leni? It was like stealing from a blind person or talking mad trash about someone who was deaf. Leni was vulnerable and instead of sticking by her and taking care of her, they used it to their own self centered advantage. How messed up was that? She was supremely disappointed in all of them, and slowly her anger cooled to something approaching sadness. She halfway expected them to do this but she couldn't help thinking how low and dirty it was.

Yes, she was very disappointed.

Eventually, however, she slept.


Over the next few days, Lori kept a close eye on Leni as best she could. Her second day back, she got a part time job at Gus's to make a little extra money over the summer, so she couldn't watch her sister 24/7. She didn't have to, however, because after a while, her siblings, who had apparently been on their best behavior, naturally reverted back to their old selves. She caught almost all of them either manipulating Leni or flaunting her authority. She tried to call a sister meeting on Friday night, but Lori was literally the only one to show up. Even Lily refused to come; instead, she sat on the couch and watched cartoons. Lori had to step in at a few points to make them listen to Leni. Using the commanding tone that she had carefully crafted and cultivated over years of being in charge, she got them to do what she wanted in seconds flat.

The first time she did it, Leni flushed an embarrassed shade of fire engine red and thanked her in mumbling, reluctant tones. The second time it happened, Leni heaved a deep, frustrated sigh and walked away. Lori wanted to go after her and see if she was okay, but she had to focus on reaming out Lana and Lola. They were the ones to most recently flaunt Leni's authority. As usual, they got into a knock down, drag out fight in the hallway, complete with slapping, cursing, and hair pulling, and when Leni tried to break it up, they both laughed at her and told her to mind her own business. "Go color or something," Lana had said.

"Yeah," Lola added, "this doesn't concern you."

Lori was shocked at the things they had said to Leni and wasted no time in jumping down their throats. They deserved a good shaming and she wasn't going to cut it short for anything. They needed to learn some respect because apparently they had forgotten everything that Lori had taught them over the years. She felt like a mother. She even literally said "I raised you better than this." And it was kind of true, she had pretty much raised them. Or at the very least, she had a big hand in raising them.

Thankfully, both of them were thoroughly castrated. They put their hands behind their backs, looked down at their shoes like scolded dogs, and muttered that they were sorry. Lori crossed her arms sternly over her chest and glared down at them, nostrils flaring. That's how you knew she was really mad: Her nostrils would flare and her face would turn a light shade of red. "It's not me you should be apologizing to," she said. "It's Leni. You completely ignored her when she told you to do something and then talked back to her."

"But -" Lola started.

Lori cut her briskly off. "But nothing. Leni is the oldest and that means she's in charge. You're to respect and listen to her the same way you would me."

The twins exchanged a glance and then looked at Lori. One glimpse of her angry face killed any argument they may have had and wiped the smirks clean off of their faces. She lifted her brow and they both looked down at their feet again. "We're sorry," Lola said.

"Yeah," Lana added, "we didn't mean to."

"Go tell Leni that," Lori said.

Sighing and dragging their feet, they both trudged off to Leni and Lori's room. They knocked, then went inside. Lori leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest while she waited. A few minutes later, they both came out again and went downstairs. Lori waited a few seconds, then went to the door and knocked. She poked her head in and found Leni lying on her bed with her arms outstretched on either side of her. "Knock, knock," Lori said.

"Like. come in."

Lori pushed the door open and came into the room, sitting on the edge of Leni's bed. "You okay?" she asked the younger girl. There was motherly concern in her voice.

"Yeah," Leni said, "I'm fine. I just…I'm tired of them not listening to me."

"I know," Lori said. "You have to be more forceful, though. They'll eat you alive if they sense weakness. You have to be a real Nazi like I was."

The younger girl exhaled. "I know, but that's just not me. I don't like being mean, I like being nice. I'm, like, totes a cinnamon roll."

For some reason, that statement, and the completely serious tone in which Leni had delivered it, made Lori laugh out loud. Leni pouted at her and she brushed a tear away from her cheek. "I'm sorry," Lori said, "I'm not laughing at you. I know you are and that's one of your best traits, but if you want them to listen to you, you can't be a cinnamon roll. You need to be, like, a Warhead."

"Sour and yucky?" Leni asked with a furrowed brow.

Lori smiled. "Exactly."

Leni did a double take, then pressed her finger thoughtfully to her chin. "I know it's hard to go against your nature," Lori said, "but sometimes you have to. Do you think I enjoyed being so strict? No, it was a real headache. Don't talk, don't do this, don't do that. I didn't want to be that way but I had to because if I didn't, they'd eat me alive. There comes a point where you have to buckle down and be a bitch."

A look of understanding fluttered across Leni's face, and she let out a deep sigh. It was clear that she understood what Lori was saying - Leni was slow, maybe, but she wasn't stupid. She could process information just the same as anyone else, she just needed a little more time to do it. If you asked Lori, Leni knew she was being used and taken advantage of, and she knew that it was wrong. She knew everything Lori was telling her, had figured it out for herself long ago, she just didn't know how to break out of her shell and address it. "I guess you're right," Leni finally said. "I don't know how to be a bitch, though."

"I can teach you," Lori offered. "Trust me, I've been called a bitch a million times, so I must be doing something right."

They laughed together.

"I don't know," Leni said uncertainly. "I, like, have to think about it. It's a big decision."

Okay, Lori could respect that. She would give Leni as much time as she needed. In the meantime, she would prepare the way for her, so to speak. Later that day, she caught Lincoln trying to fast talk Leni into asking him to go to the store for her after Mom and Dad told him he couldn't leave the house. He likely wanted to hang out with Clyde and figured that this way, he could get out of the house and then blame Leni if he got caught. Lori came up behind him, grabbed him by the ear, and dragged him away. He yelped and begged and moaned, but she was relentless. Leni covered her mouth in shock and watched with big, worried eyes. "I know what you're doing, Linc," Lori said, "and I'm not allowing it."

"I'm just trying to -"

"Don't even," Lori said through her teeth, "you're gonna win this one. Just back the hell off and give up."

She dragged him to his room, threw open the door, and flung him inside. He staggered, almost fell to his knees, and landed face first on the bed. Lori made a show of dusting her hands to add insult to injury. "And don't come out until you've thought about what you did and have an apology for Leni."

Lincoln kicked his feet and jerked like he was having a stroke. "Go ahead," Lori told him, "throw a tantrum like a baby. This is all on you."

With that, she closed the door and went back to Leni, who didn't look pleased. "I was going to handle it myself," she said sullenly.

Ignoring her, Lori said, "First lesson. Humiliate them so they'll think twice about messing with you. You embarrass them and they won't be so keen to come back for more." She gave Leni's shoulder a pat and then walked away.

The younger girl had a lot yet to learn.

Over the next week, Lori had to work crazy hours, so she wasn't around as much, but her siblings were all on their best behavior. They knew that if they tried something with Leni, they would have to deal with Lori, and no one wanted to deal with Lori. If Leni was the good cop, Lori was the bad cop, the cop that planted drugs in your car, beat you with a nightstick for no reason, and eventually killed someone, leading to riots, defund movements, and civilian oversight boards. She knew good and well not to let those little bastards walk all over her. They might get away with it when Leni was around, but now she, Lori, was here, and all the games stopped.

Well, not all of them. Luna, Luan, Lynn, and some of the others still pestered Leni for rides without offering gas money. One time, Luna and Luan asked Leni, and Lori stepped in before Leni could reply. "I'll do it," she said.

She drove them to their places and asked for gas money.

Neither one had any.

You know what Lori did? She drove them right back home. "You know the rules," she told them. "You have to pay for gas."

Both of them were furious at her but didn't dare say anything. They glared at her with red faces and watery eyes, and Lori mocked them in the rearview mirror. "You gonna cry because you're not getting a free ride anymore?" she asked. "You mad because you knowingly got into this van with no money on you even though both of you have plenty of it? Go ahead. Cry for me."

Neither one did as she ordered, but that didn't matter. Lori was back and for the first time in a long time, she felt…maybe not good, but normal. She had fallen back into the pattern she had held before leaving for college in the first place and she realized now how much she missed it. She missed home, she missed Royal Woods, she missed her family, and she missed being top of the Loud kid food chain. Being in charge, being respected and obeyed, was great, and Lori didn't know how much she enjoyed it until she went without it, then gained it back.

Pretty soon, Lori had edged Leni out of the picture completely. The siblings, by some natural, unspoken consent, no longer went to Leni for rides, help, or advice, they came to Lori. When Mom and Dad went out on their date nights, Lori took the mantle of control and told everyone what to do, including Leni. It was just like the old days. Sure, Lincoln and their sisters went right back to calling her a Nazi behind her back and resenting the hell out of her, but she didn't care. When left to Leni, this place had fallen apart and devolved into glorified anarchy. Every home, just like every nation, needs a strong leader. That leader in this case was not Leni, it was Lori.

Lori was aware that this arrangement was only temporary and that she would eventually have to hand the keys to the kingdom back to Leni, but until such time, she was going to exercise full authority and she was going to thoroughly enjoy it.

She tried to give Leni a few lessons in how to do things, but Leni kept ignoring her. She could sense strong resentment from Leni, especially in the way Leni looked at and spoke to her. Leni was constantly pouting, rolling her eyes, and speaking in tense tones. That really started getting on Lori's nerves. She was trying to help Leni clean up her mess here and she was being completely ungrateful. That was some red hot bullshit, if you asked Lori. She wanted to confront Leni over it, but rejected the idea and decided not to. Leni would either watch and learn, or she would be all pissy and then flounder as soon as Lori left again.

In the middle of July, Lori changed shifts at work after one of the morning crew was fired due to a TikTok video they posted bashing the company. The dumbass wore their whole uniform (complete with name tag) and called out the name, location, and address of the place before smack talking both it and the boss. Look, Lori wasn't some bootlicker who believed you had to eat the boss's butt 24/7, but come on now. Use some common sense. You're really going to post something like that online and expect not to get fired? Are you retarded?-Anyway, Lori picked up the 7-3 shift, which meant she was able to spend more time at home. She worked diligently to whip her siblings into shape. She forced Lisa to leave her lab and spend time with the family between 4 and 6, and limited the amount of gigs Luna and Luan could participate in. She banned Lucy from her secret dark place, and compelled Lincoln to move his comic reading to the living room.

Lori's reasoning was that everyone needed to be together for a while, that way she could work on all of them at once. What essentially wound up happening, though, was this: Everyone was mad and resentful, and all the time they spent together in the living room was eaten up by awkward silences and dirty looks. Lori also kind of began to abuse her authority. She enjoyed the rush and thrill of her siblings listening to her and jumping on command. She made Lola, Lana, Lucy, and Lisa wait on her and Leni hand and foot. "This will show them who's boss," Lori told Leni.

For her part, Leni wasn't comfortable with this and told Lori so. "I don't want to show them who's boss."

"Too bad," Lori said.

She made Luna and Luan clean Leni's half of the room and make her bed. She made Lisa and Lincoln do all of Leni's chores. She even forced Lily and Lana to make Leni smoothies. She used the rest of them as her own personal slave army. Lincoln asked for a ride, and Lori made him wash the van beforehand just because. Lola needed a lift to a pageant, and Lori made her put a full tank of gas in. She did the same to Lana, but after scrounging pennies, Lana didn't have enough, so Lori refused to drive her anywhere. Lana cried and begged, even getting down on her knees and balling her hands as if in prayer, but her pleading fell on deaf ears.

"Maybe if you guys did what I said and listened to Leni, I wouldn't have to do this," Lori said and crossed her arms. "But you disobeyed me, and this is what you get when you disobey me."

A surge of power went through Lori and she felt like she was floating on air. It was just like the old days. Boy, she missed this.

Little did she know, however, that everyone else was quickly getting sick of her. Luna and Luan called a sibling meeting, excluding Lori and Leni, and everyone laid their feelings bare. "This crap is going to Lori's head," Lola said.

"She's on a mondo power trip," Luna agreed.

The door opened and Leni walked in. The chatter died and everyone looked at her like she had three heads. "It's okay," Lincoln said, "I asked her to be here."

"I'm, like, sick of Lori too," Leni said. "I want to help."

They put their heads together and came up with a plan. The next morning, Lori sat down to a breakfast of eggs and sausage. As soon as she was done, her eyelids grew heavy and she felt suddenly drowsy. She reeled and then flopped limply face first onto her plate. "It's harmless," Lisa said of the drug she had hidden in the food. "

When Lori woke, she was tied to a chair with duct tape and jump rope. She was sitting in the middle of hers and Leni's room and her siblings surrounded her. She sneered at them and tried to work herself loose from her bonds. "I should have known you'd try this again." She shot Lincoln a dirty look. "Let me guess, this was your idea."

Lincoln started to speak but Leni cut him off. "No," she said, "it was mine."

A look of shock flickered across Lori's face. "You? Why? I'm trying to help you here. You fucking ingrate."

"No you're not," Leni said. "You're, like, doing this for yourself. You're drunk on power and you're throwing your weight around just because you can."

Lori gasped in shock, even though she felt a stirring of revelation deep down inside. As if to rid herself of it, she gasped again. "I am not," she said. "You couldn't hold this place together without me. I'm just cleaning up your mess. You think I want to spend my summer doing this?"

Everyone started talking at once. "You're going way out of line with this stuff," Luna said.

"You're being downright cruel," Lola said.

"Yeah," Lana added, "worse than you ever were before."

Each one of them took turns calling Lori out for her behavior over the past week. Lana first, then Lola, then Lisa, then Lucy. Lincoln recalled the time she dragged him into his room and flung him onto the bed, and Lynn angrily recounted the time she drove her to practice, then drove her home without dropping her off because she didn't have enough for gas. "You said a gallon is 3.95. You only have 3.75. I guess that means no football for you. I almost got cut from the team over that."

As she listened, Lori's stomach filled with leaden dread and her head grew so heavy with shame that she could no longer keep it up right. She lowered it and stared down at her lap, the fight, piss, and vinegar having gone out of her. As her siblings listed her crimes against them, Lori felt lower and lower. At the time, doing them, it didn't seem like such a big deal, but hearing them all replayed back to her, she could clearly see where she was wrong, how she was wrong, and why she was wrong.

When they were finished, Lori took a deep breath. "You guys are right," she confessed heavily, "I went way over the line. I guess I just…" here she trailed off. "I just got carried away. I guess I really am a controlling Nazi deep down."

"Well…you're not wrong about us not listening to Leni," Lincoln said. "We do kind of take advantage of her."

Now it was everyone else's turn to look ashamed.

"We'll do better from now on," Lola swore to Leni.

"Yeah," Lana piped up.

"So will I," Lori said.

They united her and had a big group hug.

In the coming weeks, Leni became more assertive and the others stopped trying to take advantage of her. Lori stepped back from her role as oldest and let Leni take over. She did great and Lori was super proud of her. At the end of Lori's vacation, they hugged in the driveway. "Thank you for everything," Leni said.

"Don't mention it," Lori said.

Lori got in her car and drove off.

She was going to miss her fam.

Next time she came home, though, she was going to leave her Nazi side at school.

THE END