The next morning, Luke started to stir. Today was his 10th birthday. Luke rubbed his eyes and looked around to see Luna, who was awake and smiling at him.
"Happy Birthday, Luke!" Luna says.
"You remembered?" Luke asked.
"Of course, li'l dude. Your birthday is a very important day!" Luna says as she hugs Luke. "Today's about you!"
Luke grins as he climbs down from Luna's bunk and stretches. He then takes off his pajamas and goes to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
Luke sees no line. He soon runs in and notices a new Arctic blue toothbrush. Luke begins to brush his teeth with it, humming the birthday song to himself. After making sure his teeth were clean, he washes his face and combs his hair.
Soon, he goes downstairs. He didn't see any indication that anyone else remembered, so he goes to the living room and begins reading one of his Ace Savvy comics.
"Happy birthday, Luke." Lucy says, surprising Luke as she holds a paper.
"Thanks…" Luke sighed.
"Would you like to hear my birthday poem that I wrote for you?" Lucy asked.
Luke nods.
"Roses are red, violets are blue, Luke's birthday is going to be good, as a true one should." Lucy read.
Luke smiles and hugs Lucy. "I love it. Thank you, sis."
Lynn Sr and Lincoln were making a birthday breakfast for Luke. They made cinnamon rolls, bacon, scrambled eggs, and a small stack of blackberry pancakes.
Lincoln smiles. "Luke will love this breakfast."
"He sure will. Kids! Breakfast!" Lynn Sr says, but no one was coming down.
"I got it. Kids! Time for breakfast!" Rita says as the rest of the Loud kids come down for breakfast. Lucy joins them, but Luke doesn't come with her. Luke just starts crying instead, burying his face in the couch cushions.
Luna looks for Luke, and sees him sobbing on the couch.
"Luke? Are you all right?" Luna asks Luke, a look of concern on her face.
"They forgot!" Luke sobbed. "I know they did!"
Luna puts an arm around Luke. "What makes you think that?" she asks him.
"I didn't hear everyone talk about me, and I know that everyone has plans today! So, I understand completely!" Luke sobbed.
"Luke, is everything all right?" Lynn Sr asks him. "Why are you so upset today?"
"They forgot, I just know it! Everyone always forgets Luke! It will always be the same. Nothing ever changes." Luke sobbed.
"Luke! We didn't forget!" Lori says.
"Besides, I rarely have plans, or events for that matter." Lincoln says.
"Hey, what about my pageant?" Lola asks.
"You're not going." Rita says. "This day is very important for our family today."
Luke just looks away.
"I knew it…today isn't about Luke at all!" Luke sobbed. "I thought things would be d-different this year! But I guess I was wrong!"
"Come on, Luke, things will be different because you're looking at the man with the plan, and as a token of being the new family member…" Lincoln leads him to the dining table, then Luke slowly looks up to see a big birthday breakfast. "Happy 10th Birthday, Luke!" Lincoln says.
"Wow!" Luke says, his eyes widening with looks of surprise and shock. "This looks amazing…."
Luke sees a birthday throne and goes to sit on it. He can hardly believe what's going on.
This throne he was sitting on was one of Luan's Funny Business creations, minus the whoopee cushion.
"I love this throne a lot…" Luke smiles a little. He then helps himself to a little bit of everything at the table. Before he could start eating, however, Lynn Sr sets the small stack of blackberry pancakes before Luke, a single candle lit on it. The family sings to Luke, he makes the first of many birthday wishes he plans to make today, then he blows out the candle.
Everyone cheers for him after the candle is blown out, then everyone begins to eat.
"This breakfast is really good." Luke says.
After breakfast, Luan and Lynn wash the breakfast dishes and Luna helps Lincoln clean the dining room table. The throne remains at the head of the table, however.
Luke was watching "Audition" on TV.
Meanwhile Angry Luigi was rushing around crying.
"I'm all alone…" he sobbed as he looked down. "Why did Mommy have to go?''
He sniffed, looking down in sadness as his body glitched with black electric sparks. He decides to continue on as he arrived in New York.
"New York...Mommy always wanted to take me here." He sniffed.
Meanwhile, Lori and Lincoln were in charge of the invitations.
"Let's see…Clyde, Rusty, Stella, Liam, and Zach. Luke will love to meet them." Lincoln says, listing his friends as Lori was on the phone.
"Be safe. Oh, you're bringing them? Okay, that's literally fine." Lori says before hanging up.
"The Casagrandes are on their way here." Lori says as Lincoln rolled his eyes.
"Why are they coming?" Lincoln asks Lori.
"I invited Bobby, then he told Ronnie Anne, then Carl overheard, and things got out of control." Lori says.
"I don't think a big party is a good idea right now. We're trying to make him feel welcome, not overwhelm him." Lincoln says.
You really wanna say that to my face?!" Lori growled.
"Guys, stop it!" Leni says getting in the middle.
Lincoln decides to invite Ronnie Anne anyway, since Luke would love to meet her. He calls her and lets her know, and she responds with "I would love to come!"
Lincoln smiles at this.
Luke was waiting for his party to begin as Lola noticed his trophies. "I gotta admit, that's an impressive record, almost as impressive as mine." Lola says.
"I won nearly every male child pageant in the state at age 5…." Luke says as Lola was stunned.
"Wow…" Lola says.
Meanwhile Angry Luigi was running as his stomach growled as he groaned.
"Haven't eaten, need food…but can't steal." Angry Luigi says as he thinks of a plan for getting food, and remembers a trick he saw on TV. He cried, gaining the attention of some people, and the police even came to see what was going on. However, Angry Luigi thought he was going to be arrested and runs off.
"Hey, come back!" One of the policemen says as they get in the car and drive after Angry Luigi. Angry Luigi sees this and looks frightened. He rushes into an apartment as he runs up and down the stairs passing by people. Nearby, a woman is doing her laundry. However, Angry Luigi accidentally tripped her as the woman looked really angry at him and tried to grab him, but Angry Luigi ran off.
Angry Luigi was back on the streets running.
"All this running is seriously getting me tired, I have to do something." Angry Luigi says. He noticed more policemen as he wasn't sure what to do as they closed in on him. Angry Luigi's body lit up and unleashed a barrage of electricity as he lost control. Everyone runs away as Angry Luigi runs off. The policemen try to shoot Angry Luigi, who ran away from the bullets. He then ran into an alleyway and fell into a secret lair.
"Where am I?" Angry Luigi asked himself as a silhouette loomed over him.
Luke had been taking a nap as he woke up to see Lucy looking at him.
"Luke, come with me if you want to see something cool." Lucy says to him.
Luke follows as Lucy leads him to Gus' Games & Grub. Luke has his eyes closed.
"Luke, you can open your eyes now." Lucy says before Luke does so and sees everyone coming out of hiding spots.
"Surprise! Happy Birthday, Luke!" They all say as Luke was stunned and looked around at his party and guests.
"This is absolutely u-unbelievable…." Luke says as he cries happy tears. Luke sees Arctic blue banners that read "Happy Tenth Birthday, Luke!" and "You're A Star!"
"Whoa! This is amazing!" Luke says. He also sees decorations themed around Ace Savvy, and there are even stand-ups of the hero himself. A table is piled with presents, and other tables hold party food made by the Gus' Games & Grub staff. Another table holds the blue velvet cake with an image of Ace Savvy and One-Eyed Jack, the message on the cake reading "Luke Is Dealing Out Justice! Today He Turns A Perfect Ten!" in blue icing. The cake has ten silver candles placed around the image. The cake is surrounded by card suit-patterned plates, blue forks, and bowls of different types of candy.
"Hey, Luke, I'd like you to meet my best friend, Clyde McBride." Lincoln says.
Luke smiles at Clyde. "It's nice to meet you, Clyde. Thanks for coming to my party."
"No problem." Clyde says.
"Oh, and this is Ronnie Anne Santiago." Lincoln says
"Happy birthday, Luke!" Ronnie Anne says.
"Thank you very much!" Luke says as the party begins.
He begins to play some arcade games, but he can't help but notice how good Ronnie Anne looks. Every time he looks in her direction, he starts to blush and smile.
Meanwhile, Angry Luigi was pulled into a room as he was tied up.
"Who are you?" a kid says as he wore a red shirt and black pants and looked like Angry Luigi.
Angry Luigi was frozen in fear.
"Whatever. Why do you look like me, are you a robot?" Alem tuber asks.
"Okay, leave him alone!" a girl says. She was wearing a pink sweater, black jeans, and pink sneakers. This was Chrissy Andrews.
"Why?" Alem tuber growled.
"He's your twin and pretty cute." Chrissy says as she blushes a bit.
Angry Luigi was stunned.
"I mean, you both look the same and both share the same last name. He was supposed to be brought here." Chrissy says.
"Dumb move. This place has some evil organization within it. Rumors have it that the owners of it abuse kids. Like, they adopted an autistic kid out to a member of this organization to do chores for them and they beat him with pipes when they weren't done right. Anyway, I'm busting out of here, so I need you to take my place while I set up some bombs." Alem tuber says as Angry Luigi nods.
"Okay, bro." Angry Luigi says with a thumbs up
"We're not brothers." Alem tuber says as the door opens to show Mr. and Mrs. Clusterfield. The kids gulp fearfully at the sight of them before Alem tuber looked at the screen and groaned.
"Hey, Luke, are you having a crush on a girl?" Lola asked him.
Luke jumps in alarm at Lola's sudden appearance.
"W-What are you talking about?" Luke asks Lola.
"You've been looking at Ronnie Anne for 15 minutes." Lola teased.
"I d-do like her…" Luke says, blushing.
"Ask her out!" Lola says.
"I'm not sure…" Luke says.
Ronnie Anne approaches Luke. Luke then faces her.
Lola watches as Luke wasn't sure what to say.
"Um…you look pretty today…" Luke stammered.
"Thanks. You look nice, too." Ronnie Anne says to Luke.
"W-Would you like to…hang out with me sometime?" Luke asks Ronnie Anne.
"Sure. I'd love to." Ronnie Anne says.
Soon, Luke gets hungry. But he sees the siblings didn't save any food for him as Luna and Lucy tried to stop them. Luke begins to cry.
"Worst day ever…" Luke sobbed.
Lynn Sr and Rita glared at their kids.
"How could you?!" Rita says, furious with her kids as they noticed Luke running away.
"Luke, wait, please!" Luna says.
"Never! I'll never forgive you!" Luke screamed as he ran away.
Angry Luigi grabbed Alem tuber and ran upstairs. Angry Luigi looked scared as the twins started packing quickly. The duo jumped into a rainbow-colored slide as they popped out in the basement and fell into a wall.
SMACK!
"Let's go." Alem tuber says as a pair of evil scientists named the Clusterfields arrived, wearing black uniforms with hazard signs and some goo on their black gloves. They stretched their arms forward and grabbed onto the kids, restraining them as Angry Luigi let out several green electric sparks, shocking the Clusterfields, making them drop the boys. Alem Tuber leaped up as he delivered a swift punch to Mr. Clusterfield's face, sending him flying across the room as he lands on the wall and caused a crater to appear. Kicking Mrs. Clusterfield away, Angry Luigi grabbed onto his brother as they ran out of the orphanage into the starry night as there was an explosion, causing smoke to file out as bricks were falling. While the duo was running off, a 6-year-old Chrissy woke up with a big red bump on her head.
"Where to now?" Alem tuber asked. Angry Luigi shrugged as the ground broke open and they fell into a sewer as the water took them around the sewers. The brothers closed their eyes. After a while, Alem tuber decided to be a nice guy for once and grabbed his brother, then flew out of the sewers. All of a sudden, they bumped into Luke.
"Ow!" Alem tuber says, holding his head as Luke runs off crying.
"That kid looks familiar." Alem tuber says as Angry Luigi tries to think.
Luna and the others ran past them.
"Luke, come back!" Luna called out.
Luke sniffed.
"You kids are grounded for life!" Rita shouted as the other Loud kids looked ashamed.
"Luke, we're sorry, really." Lincoln says.
"No, you all love to lie! I'm calling child services or the police!" Luke says, crying.
Luna starts tearing up. "Luke, please….I tried to stop them…."
"No! Luke hates you all!" Luke hissed.
"I'm sorry." Lucy says. "I tried to stop them, too."
Rita hears this, and Luna and Lucy are soon ungrounded.
"Wait, honey, don't you think you're going a bit too far? I mean, there were other guests." Lynn Sr says.
"Fine, just don't do it again." Rita tells them.
Lynn Sr goes to quickly make some more snacks.
Luke decided to open gifts. He looks at them all, wondering which one to open. He then decides to open Ronnie Anne's gift first.
Luke opens it and pulls out an Arctic Avenger plush toy. He then smiles at Ronnie Anne.
"Thank you." Luke smiles and picks Luna's gift to open next. Luke pulls out a keyboard and gasps with excitement.
"Sweet! Luna, this is amazing!" Luke says.
"You're welcome." Luna says with a smile as Luke goes over to Lincoln's gift and sees a new Ace Savvy comic.
"Awesome! Thanks, Lincoln, this is an awesome gift!" Luke says with a smile.
"Anything for my new brother." Lincoln says.
"Hey, Luke?" Alem tuber asked.
"What?" Luke asked.
"What were the names of the people who hurt you?" Alem tuber asked.
"I can't remember. And don't ask me those questions anymore." Luke says and goes back to opening gifts. He then opens Lynn's gift and takes out some new sneakers and a soccer ball.
Luke smiles. "Thank you, Lynn!"
"No problem, you really needed new sneakers." Lynn says.
"Open mine next!" Leni says.
Luke opens Leni's gift to reveal a new sweater in a nice shade of Arctic blue.
"So nice, Leni. Thanks!" Luke says, hugging Leni.
"Hey, Luke." Lucy says, appearing out of nowhere as she is holding a gift.
Luke opens the gift to reveal a journal and pen set. "Thank you, Lucy." Luke says as he hugs Lucy.
Lucy was smiling a bit.
"You're welcome." Lucy says.
"Lucy actually got someone a gift?" Lola says, stunned.
"She must love Luke a lot." Lana says.
Luke opens Sam's gift next, revealing a guitar.
"Whoa!" Luke says as he smiles at Sam. "Thank you for this incredible gift!" Luke says.
"You're welcome, Luke!" Sam says.
Luke was not sure what gift to open next. Eventually, he chose Lisa's gift. He opens it and sees a scooter.
"Wow! A scooter!" Luke smiles and tries it.
Luke went pretty fast as he was soon in the air. He then lets out an angry scream.
Lisa used a remote control to bring Luke down. "Sorry, I guess I should have run more tests on it." Lisa says.
Luke opens Luan's gift next. It was a funny joke book.
"Oh, cool! Thanks, Luan!" Luke says as he hugs Luan.
"You're welcome, everyone needs to laugh!" Luan says.
"Where do we go now? We're lost." Angry Luigi says to Alem tuber.
"Hmmm…I'm not sure, but I like to go solo, so you're on your own. See you later." Alem tuber says as Leni overhears this and felt bad for them.
Luke overhears as well, and hides under a table, beginning to feel sad again.
Alem tuber dashed off as Angry Luigi frowned before sighing.
"Luke, what's wrong?" Lincoln asked.
"Has my spotlight disappeared?! It has, hasn't it?!" Luke asked as he slowly tears up.
"No way!" Lincoln says.
"Dude, today is about you and no one else." Luna says.
"Who's making you feel that way?" Lincoln asked.
Luke pointed at Angry Luigi. "He is!" Luke cries.
Angry Luigi felt guilty and ran off at super speed, leaving a green trail. He sighed, walking around Royal Woods alone. "I ruin everything. My mom would be alive if I wasn't so useless." he sobbed.
Alem tuber spied on him as he stood on a tree branch.
Luke smiles a lot bigger. Now that the spotlight was back on him, he opened more gifts.
Luke opens Lola's present for him and sees a crown.
"An amazing crown! Thank you!" Luke says with a smile as he puts it on.
"Yeah, you're welcome." Lola says.
Luke then opens Lori's gift and took out a new phone.
"Sweet! Thanks, Lori!" Luke says.
"You've earned it." Lori says as Luke opens Lana's gift.
Luke took out some Burpin' Burger coupons.
"Um…Thanks, Lana." Luke says.
After gifts, Luna was playing music as everyone was dancing.
Luke goes to Ronnie Anne pretty nervous.
"Would you like to dance with me?" Luke asked.
"Sure!" Ronnie Anne says.
Luke shares a lot of dances with Ronnie Anne.
Luke later goes and tries some of the snacks. "These are really good." Luke says.
Lucy smiled, happy that Luke was having a good time.
Luke looked around and smiled as he noticed a piñata.
"A piñata?" Luke said and grinned harder.
"Okay, everyone, Luke is going to go first." Rita says.
Lynn takes out her lucky baseball bat and gives it to Luke as Luke hits the piñata. He then breaks it open in two swings, allowing candy to spill out. He gets his share of it before allowing the others to get some.
"Yay!" Luke says cheerfully.
Lucy goes to make sure the cake is still in one piece, and sure enough, no one has made an attempt to touch it.
"Phew…" Lucy says before going back to the others. "I really hope no one is out to ruin this day. Wait, why am I acting this way?" Lucy asked herself as she really never put this much effort into helping a sibling. She never really showed her emotions around anyone before.
"So, Luke, how's your first actual birthday?" Leni asked.
Luke smiles. "It's wonderful. And so much fun! Too bad it's ending soon…"
"Yeah…there's always next year, though." Leni says
Lincoln smiles at Luke. "You still have gifts from my friends to open later. But in the meantime, let's go get ready for dessert."
"Yeah!" Luke says, following Lincoln to the dessert table.
"Lynn, we should really think about Luke's education after this. I don't know, but I have a bad feeling that he doesn't have as many opportunities as he should have. I mean, after all that he's been through, his self-esteem must be really low." Rita explained.
"True. I think he should be in Lucy's class just to make sure. I mean, Lucy can be off, but I think she could lead Luke into the right direction." Lynn Sr says as Lucy overhears and begins to think about this.
Luke smiles at the dessert spread. "This looks really amazing!" Luke says, clapping his hands in excitement. Luke smiled at the cake as well. "This is the best cake I've ever seen!" Luke says.
Lynn Sr lights all ten candles on the cake as everyone begins to sing.
Luke looks around, acting as if something is missing.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Luke, happy birthday to you!" everyone sang as Luna was noticeably the loudest.
Then the next verse starts to be sung.
"How old are you now? Are you 1, are you 2, are you 3, are you 4, are you 5, are you 6, are you 7, are you 8, are you 9, are you 10!" everyone sang.
Luke plasters a forced smile on his face as he responds: "I'm 10 years old now!"
Luke thinks of a birthday wish, but is very quiet at this point. Lincoln did notice Luke was upset due to having siblings in the past.
Luke just blows out all ten candles and goes off to be alone, Luna and Lincoln looking very concerned for him.
"Don't mind if I do…" Lola says.
Lucy stops Lola from taking the first slice of cake. "That's Luke's job." Lucy says. "We need to wait for him to cut the cake. Then we'll eat it."
Lola huffs impatiently. "Fine..." she says and sits back down.
Lincoln and Luna spot Luke on a nearby bench.
"Luke, what's wrong?" Luna asked.
Before he gives them an answer, he stomps back inside, slices the cake, then comes back out, two slices of his cake in his hands.
"SOMETHING WAS MISSING! YOU DIDN'T ASK ME ABOUT THAT! BUT IT'S TOO LATE NOW! I'M GOING HOME!" And with that, he storms home, cake slices and all.
Luna and Lincoln looked down ashamed.
"What have we done?" Luna says.
"We really messed up." Lincoln says.
They go to the house with the others. "Luke, what did we do wrong?" Lori asked.
"We were supposed to dim the lights. Luke likes that on his birthday and half-birthday, too." Lucy says appearing out of nowhere and scaring everyone.
"Seriously, how do you do that?" Lincoln asked.
"Really dimmed lights." Lola says.
"Who celebrates half birthdays?" Lisa asked as Lynn Sr looked insulted.
"Kids, you have school tomorrow, so you should all get ready for bed, except for Luke, we need to talk with him." Lynn Sr says as the kids, except for Lisa, groan and head upstairs.
"Luna, I think we should find those kids. They said they were lost. We should have helped them." Leni says, looking worried.
"We literally have 14 people in this house." Lori says.
"I don't care, we could make it work." Leni says.
"Okay, it's settled. Tonight, we sneak out and find 'em." Lynn says.
"Luke, tomorrow you're going to school. Don't worry, Lucy will keep an eye on you. And you'll make lots of friends." Lynn Sr says as Luke crossed his arms.
"My day was supposed to be perfect!" Luke says and runs to his room sobbing, ignoring everything that was just said to him.
Later that night Leni and Luna snuck outside and went to the woods.
"Wait, what were their names?" Luna asked as Leni shrugged.
"Oh, this is going to be hard." Luna says "Hey….um….little kids?!" Luna called out as there was no response.
"Luna, I'm scared, let's get home." Leni says.
"Come on, don't bail now!" Luna says as they look around. They then see a red blur pass by as it was moving around, taking tree branches and dashing off.
"Come on!" Luna says as she and Leni run and stop to see Alem tuber and Angry Luigi by the fire.
"There you two are!" Luna says.
"I'm really sorry about what happened to you." Lincoln tells Luke.
Luke ignores Lincoln and goes to bed.
Luna and Leni snuck in holding the twins.
"Phew, I did not expect to be attacked by a bear…" Luna says panting.
"Ok, li'l dude, what's your name?" Luna asked as Angry Luigi looked down shyly avoiding eye contact.
"It's okay, I won't hurt you. In fact, we're going to look after you for as long as you need us to." Luna says.
"Really?" Angry Luigi asked.
Luna nodded.
"I'm Angry Luigi but my real name is Brandy." Angry Luigi says
"I'm Alem tuber and I'm awesome at a lot of stuff, not to mention I'm really strong." he bragged.
"I love his style. Looks like I don't really need Stinkoln anymore." Lynn says.
"Mom is going to be livid if she finds out about this - Oh, sorry, Boo-Boo Bear, it's nothing really." Lori says on the phone.
"Way to be a sister." Luna says sarcastically.
"Come on, we should get to bed. We have school tomorrow." Lynn says as she takes Alem tuber to her room.
"This is my room." Lynn says as there was a lot of sports balls all over the place.
"Awesome, you've got everything!" Alem tuber says.
"Wanna play catch?" Lynn asked.
"Heck yeah!" Alem tuber says.
Lynn got ready. Alem tuber tossed the ball so fast, it went through the wall and into Mr. Grouse's window.
"Oops…" Lynn says.
Luna took Angry Luigi to her and Luan's room.
"Okay, li'l munchkin, this is where the party is at." Luna says as Luan wakes up from this.
"What's going on? Wait, why's he here?" Luan asked still sleepy
"He's sort of lost, so I kinda took him in." Luna explained as Lincoln was heard cheering off screen.
Luke lays awake, all kinds of angry thoughts crossing his mind. Luke felt ignored and unwanted by this point.
"Hey, Luke." Lucy says, looking at him. "I'm sorry for everything. I understand if you're mad at me." Lucy says.
Luke didn't say much.
"I want you to know that you're really special to me. I'm not sure why, but you are." Lucy says.
Luke still says nothing as he planned to leave home that very night.
Later, at 3:00 am, Luke was planning on running away. However, Lucy was right by the door.
"Hey, Luke." Lucy says.
"Let me leave! I want a family that knows how to give me a perfect birthday!" Luke says.
"Please reconsider! I really don't want you getting abused or hurt. I know it's hard living in a large family, but I'll help you." Lucy says.
Luke glares at the stairs, then at Lucy.
"I wanted my birthday to be PERFECT! No one listened to me when I tried to tell them my favorite birthday tradition! So, now I'm gone and I will never come back! Goodbye! Forever and ever and EVER!" With that, he leaves, feeling angry and very upset.
Lucy hits her knees and starts to cry in the middle of the empty entryway, seeing Luke leave because of how her siblings acted today. She soon falls asleep by the door, tears rolling down her pale face. Luna appears at the top of the stairs, watching this scene.
"What have we done?" Luna thinks as she looks at Lucy crying herself to sleep.
They found two new family members. And Luke has now gone missing! Will he be found? Will the Louds redeem themselves? Only time will tell, and all will be revealed in the next chapter!
A/N: Luke will be with Ronnie Anne. Feel free to give me a suggestion for a ship name through private messaging only.