Francisco takes a seat in the auditorium of Elena's elementary school. Honestly, he thinks that a graduation ceremony from one grade to another is silly. He understands high school and college graduations, but moving from third to fourth grade is hardly worth the ceremony. Still, he isn't going to stomp on his daughter's day and he wants to be there for her, especially since they haven't seen each other as often as they could.
Caroline walks into the auditorium; she spots Francisco and takes a seat next to him. The two exchange pleasantries, and sit quietly. Neither one knows what to talk about, aside from the usual conversations they have when Elena is around, however, both of them are often quiet when left alone.
"I know you think these things are silly, but it was nice that you were able to take some time off for this. It really means a lot to Elena," Caroline starts.
"Of course, I try, especially for the bigger things."
Back to silence.
The ceremony is set to start in half an hour and the silence is uncomfortable. All around them, parents are chatting, while they stay quiet.
"Did she tell you what she wanted to do after the ceremony?"
He shakes his head, "No," he says before he gives a slight chuckle. "But I can only imagine how many ideas are floating around in her head."
She nods. Both of them know how indecisive their daughter could be, so they know that it's easier to have as few options for her to choose from as possible.
"I figure a nice place to go would be either the zoo, the park, or a museum as the day trip. Although we'll have to do something about lunch," she suggests.
"I'll think of something before we go," says Francisco. "So how's the, uh, work going?" he asks in hopes of making things more comfortable.
"Great. Work's been going well. My firm is working on a case against a pharmaceutical company."
Francisco nods, "That's good. And your family?"
"They're doing okay," she keeps it short, she knows that he isn't really interested in them; not that she could blame him. In the past, they made is clear that they aren't fond of him, and despite both of their best efforts to get him in good graces, they never see him past being a lower-class bum.
"Are you doing okay?" she asks with sincerity in her voice.
He nods, but his eyes subtly told her that he isn't. She isn't sure if it was work or family or something else that was stressing him out at the moment, but despite not being together for years, she could still read him, however it is becoming more and more difficult as time passed.
"How about your back? Has it been holding up okay?"
When she met Francisco, she noticed that he had difficulties with his back. He mentioned at some point how that came to be, but it became worse as he continued to play baseball in college. Once he was forced to quit playing, his back somewhat improved, but he got worse when he got injured again on the job.
"It's fine," he says before nervously swallowing.
She wants to shake her head, but she turns to her head to look at the decorated stage; finding it easier to not bring up anything when this day is supposed to be about their daughter.
Lynn plays with the tassel on her graduation cap. The ceremony is set to start at ten, but the graduates were instructed to arrive two hours early to ensure that no one was late and so that they could all be ready when the ceremony started.
She is bored. The teachers instructed them to stay in line alphabetically which unfortunately means that she isn't near her friends; Francisco is near the front of the line and Margo is with the other group, far from hers.
Lynn catches a glimpse of her friend and begins to walk in his direction.
"Loud, get back in line," a teacher quickly tells Lynn.
She stops and immediately turns back to her spot in line. Lynn plays with the tassel again, everyone around her looks anxious, and despite seeming like a playful cat; she is anxious too. This is probably going to be the last time that she'll see her teachers, the last time she'll be surrounded by the students around her, and the last time that she'll see her friends on a near-daily basis.
One of the teachers begins to talk, but Lynn's mind began to wander almost instantly.
At the beginning of the school year, she was excited to finish high school, but now, in this long line filled with her classmates, she is nervous. Soon, she will be heading off to college, moving into a dorm, playing with a group of teammates that she barely knows, and studying stuff that is probably tougher than what she is used to, but worst of all, she is going to be away from her loved ones. Summer hasn't even started and she's already missing those around her; no more afternoons in the park, no more running around town having fun, no more seeing her friends and family members every day.
She shakes her head. She doesn't know why she is jumping ahead so far, summer is just about to start and she'll have three months before she has to head off to school.
"Here you go," the teacher said, as she handed Lynn a graduation cap topper with her future school's seal.
"What's this for?"
"You put it on your cap so that the audience can see what university you are going to attend in the fall," explains the woman. "Pay attention next time, Loud."
Lynn gives her a cheesy smile, before she walks away to continue handing out more graduation cap toppers. Lynn took off her cap and placed the topper on it. She stared down at the blue and maize seal, before placing the cap back on her head.
"Do you know what veritas means?"
Lynn jumps up in shock and is surprised to see Francisco, who is looking at her topper, "No, I didn't take Latin, remember? But at least I understand art and science."
"Are you sure that scientia means science?"
She shrugs her shoulders before pulling the cap off of his head and asks, "So why does your seal have an eagle? I thought you were going to be playing for the Broncos out in California?"
He shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know. I didn't design the seal, besides it's not like the mascot of your school is on your seal," he presses down on Lynn's head and rubs her cap, "Oh magic genie lamp, grant me three wishes."
She punches him in the stomach, "That's what you get for messing up my hair."
Francisco holds onto the spot that she punched, "Great, now my back and gut match."
"Mr. De Los Reyes, is this your spot?" asks the teacher, who returned after noticing him out of place in line. He shakes his head, before the teacher points him back to the front of the line, "Go to your spot."
He takes his cap from Lynn and tells her, "See you after the ceremony."
"So have you thought about where you wanted to go?" Francisco asked Elena, as the three walked to his truck.
After being told her options from her mother, Elena happily asked, "Can we go to the museum? The art museum, or maybe the science museum, no, maybe the history museum, and then can we get ice cream? Auntie Pam's, no, Mary Scooper's, maybe–"
Caroline interrupted her daughter, "How about we go get something to eat first, then you can decide where we go today. Sound like a plan?" She turned to Francisco, "What were those restaurants that you heard about?"
Francisco opened his mouth, and realized that he didn't put much thought into where they were going to eat. He saw Caroline, who was signaling him to think of two options to present, "There's uh…nice little bistro near here or maybe
Elena began weighing both options in her head, while failing to notice her parents quietly sigh after hearing her struggle on where to decide.
Caroline held back a laugh, and Francisco smiled; without fail, Elena always struggled to make decisions like these. Sometimes, he wished that she would be more decisive, but he knows that she likes to weigh all of her options and make sure that everyone is happy instead of just her.
"Can we go to the bistro?"
He nodded; relieved that she finally decided on a place before they traveled too far. Francisco parked the truck and walked into the little bistro, which he had a faint idea about. He knew that it popped up whenever he looked up a new restaurant, but he never made an effort to eat at the establishment; hopefully, it wouldn't disappoint.
The three took a seat. Unlike in the auditorium, conversation was much simpler with Elena around. She easily took the spotlight off of her dad, and he was thankful for it; especially since he wasn't too eager to answer every sympathetic question that Caroline may have had.
For dessert, Caroline was able to convince Elena to share a sundae at the bistro, rather than travel to an ice cream parlor, which would involve another lengthy time period from the girl.
The waitress brings out a large sundae, "Here's a treat for the happy family."
Francisco and Caroline begin to stammer, and she starts, "No…we're…yes, but not like that, we're together today, but for our daughter…I'm dating, but not him."
The waitress nervously nods her head and walks away from the table.
Francisco looks over at Caroline, and asks, "Dating? Why did you need to bring that up to the waitress?" he teases.
"I don't know," she groans. She turns to Elena, "So have you decided what museum you wanted to see today?"
The girl looks over at her parents as she takes a bite of her ice cream sundae, "I haven't decided between the art and history museum."
Lincoln types away on his laptop. He is readying his attack plan for the upcoming video game tournament, but the noises from outside his room keep interrupting him. All morning, his sisters would constantly enter the bathroom, and it made it difficult to concentrate. It almost made him miss his old room…almost; he enjoyed the larger room that Leni gave him when she moved out.
"Lincoln! Are you almost ready? We have to leave in a few minutes!" Rita calls out to her son.
The boy looks towards the door, trying to figure out what she meant, until he remembered that he is supposed to be getting ready to go to Lynn's graduation.
"I just need to brush my hair," he tells his mom.
The boy jumps up from his bed and quickly gets dressed before running into the bathroom to comb his hair. He quickly runs back into his room to get his phone before meeting his family downstairs.
Everyone looks at him as he descended the stairs, "What?" he asks.
"Took you long enough, Lincoln," Lola said, as she closed her compact mirror.
"It wasn't that long, and you're still doing your makeup."
"Touching up," she corrects, "A lady should always look her best, even when she isn't the center of attention."
Rita bbeins to count everyone, "Okay! That's everyone, Let's go!"
The family walks towards Vanzilla; each of them taking a seat as the parents make sure that they have everything for the graduation.
"Wait! I forgot lock the backdoor," exclaimed Rita, before running into the house. As she walked towards the van, the Loud matriarch holds Lily in hand.
"Again," Lana said without much thought as Lily takes a seat next to her.
Lily looks at Lana and asks, "What again?"
Everyone begins to mutter excuses as they averted their eyes from the youngest Loud.
Lynn Sr. looks up at the rearview mirror, and asks, "Lily, what were you doing? We almost left without you."
"I was in the backyard making sure that Charles finished burying his bone before we left."
His heart warmed at hearing such an innocent answer; these are the moments that he had to remember as she grew up.
As they made their way to pick up Albert and Myrtle, Lincoln pulls out his phone to type his strategy on his phone. Soon, the sounds of his family began to fade away as he played out his strategy in his head. For weeks, he has been working on this and nearly every possible outcome has passed through his brain and he was sure that he and his team were going to win.
"Elder brother, should I worry that you are becoming like our eldest sister and beginning an addiction to your mobile device?"
Lincoln turns to Lisa, "I don't have a problem. I'm just trying to get down my plans for my game and I don't want to forget them. See!" he shows his phone to the unimpressed scientist. "Besides, I can put down my phone just like that," he says as he put his phone away to focus on his family.
The sound of the phone falling from his pocket alerted both siblings. Lincoln tries to reach for it, but he isn't able to fit his hand, but his could feel the phone with the tips of his fingers.
"C'mon…I almost got it," the phone stays put, and Lincoln admits a temporary defeat.
"Just don't forget to retrieve it."
"I won't."
Lily gets onto the step stool and taped the old 'Con-Grad-ulations!' banner on the doorway. For sixteen years, the banner has been hung and taken down for each and every sibling's party and this was probably the last time that that it would be put up, unless happy grandparents insist on hosting their grandchildren's graduation parties.
Lynn Sr. walks through the door with bags of groceries in hand, "Alright, got the burgers, the hot dogs, the ice cream, the drinks, condiments, buns, napkins, am I forgetting anything, Lily? I feel like I'm forgetting something," the Loud patriarch asks his youngest daughter, as he walks past her. The moment she came down from the step stool, he pulls her into a tight hug; dropping the groceries on the ground.
"I can't breathe, Dad…and you dropped everything on the ground."
Lynn Sr. starts taking deep breaths loosens the hug, before he tears up, "I'm just so proud of my little girl. My last little Loud walking across that stage to get her diploma. I'm not ready!" He wails.
Lily returns the hug. After ten other graduations, she assumed that he would have been cried out, but clearly he still has plenty of tears to shed for her own graduation.
Rita walks in with a pen and paper pad in hand, as she mutters to herself a list of possible rooming arrangements for the guests, "Probably put the kids in Luna and Luan's room, then Lola and Lana could sleep in their old room," Rita groans there just wasn't enough room for everyone. Between her children, their spouses, and her grandchildren; it was just too many people.
"Hey Mom, still haven't figured out where to put everyone up?" Lily asks as she tries to free herself from her father's hug.
Rita shakes her head, "Unless, we can get four people in a room, we won't have beds or space for everyone."
"Might I offer a suggestion, mother." Lisa walks into the room; a chalkboard in tow. She points to the somewhat crudely drawn figures of her two older sisters that resided in Royal Woods, "I recommend taking advantage of having two daughters with their own habitations; Lucy and Lynn could both probably take some guests in, and relieve the pressure that our eighteen visiting family members would bring upon our home."
Rita nods in agreement, surely they wouldn't mind taking in a small group.
"I don't have much room, but I'm sure Lana and Lola or Lincoln and Ronnie Anne wouldn't mind staying with us," Lucy states, as she startles her sisters and parents from behind.
Rita clutches her chest, "Thank you, Lucy. Now we just need to ask Lynn."
The sound of boxes falling in attic, has them look up at the ceiling, where Lynn is likely cursing while ransacking the attic for the sleeping bags and a crib for their nieces and nephews.
"LJ! Can you come down? We need to ask you something," the Loud patriarch yells.
Lynn heads downstairs, playing with a paddleball, "I'm almost done searching through all the boxes, I even found some pretty neat stuff I forgot about."
"Anyway, it turns out that we don't have enough room for everyone, so we were hoping that you could take in some people?" Rita asks.
Lynn looks at the chalkboard, "Are you sure? Cause my apartment only has one room, where would I put a guest?"
"We would assume that you could probably take Luna or one of the twins, since they are the only ones traveling without any additional guests," Lisa states.
"So where are they supposed to sleep? On the couch? 'Sorry, you traveled all this way from Chicago or Ann Arbor or Indianapolis. Do you mind sleeping on the floor or the couch? Thanks.' Are you sure that they wouldn't be more comfortable at a hotel or something?" asks Lynn.
"A good host would probably give their bed to the guest, as well find a way to accommodate their sibling rather than having said sibling spend money at a hotel," Lisa responds.
Lynn isn't happy about it, but without a good excuse, she gives in, "Fine, I guess we can figure it out somehow. So can I borrow some extra sheets or something?"
Even after four consecutive graduation ceremonies, the Louds still struggle with leaving early enough to beat the traffic surrounding the high school. Car after car lined up trying to get in the parking lot via one entrance, and it didn't help that the spaces kept getting filled up forcing drivers to travel further to find a spot.
Lynn Sr. happily exclaims, as he stretched after getting out of the vehicle, "Phew, we made it, and with thirty minutes to spare! That's a new record."
"Good thing," Albert said, "Race you to the entrance, Lynn?" he asks as lightly elbowed the other man's ribs.
Lynn Sr. looks at the distance that they would have to cover, and shakes his head, "I don't think that I ca–I mean, I don't think that we should, you know, sweat stains, and whatnot."
Albert laughs, "How about speed walking, then?" he asks as he tries to walk through the parking lot as fast as he could.
Rita keeps pace with her father, "Dad, slow down. You don't want to replace your hip again."
The parking lot continues to get filled with more vehicles as more families arrived. The younger Louds chased after their grandfather, who was leaving them in his dust, and the older ones walk at a more leisurely pace.
"Hurry up, everyone! We need to get a good view and enough seats!" Lynn Sr. said with determination, despite his slowing steps.
The family snags a spot with enough seats for everyone and they begin to take out their phones and cameras to document the ceremony.
"Dang it…" Lincoln mutters to himself before remembering that he left his phone in Vanzilla.
He gets up from his seat, before Lynn Sr. asks, "Where are you going, son?"
"I left my phone in the car, I'm just gonna go get it before they start."
The elder Loud looks at his watch, "Okay, but hurry back. You don't want to be late."
Lincoln nods and quickly runs outside, where a heavily pregnant woman leaning on a car in pain caught his attention.
"Ms. DiMartino, are you okay?"
She smiles, "Lincoln, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Mrs. Ramirez."
He nervously laughs, "Yeah, I guess I forgot."
It was a tough habit for him to break, especially when his math teacher changed her name in the middle of the school year.
Lincoln walks over to her, and notices that her water broke. His heart begins to race; his teacher is in labor.
"I need to get to the hospital, I think the baby is coming," she says through her teeth.
"Do you want me to call for an ambulance?"
She shakes her head, and hands him her phone, "Call my husband…let him know…he can drive me…the hospital is only…a few miles away…"
Lincoln takes the phone from her and dials, "He's not picking up. Are you sure that you don't want me to call you an ambulance?"
He looks at the exit and figures that an ambulance would be a better idea than waiting around, so he makes the call.
Lincoln stays put next to the woman in labor and waits for the sounds of sirens. He continues to try to call her husband, but it just keeps going to voicemail. The paramedics drive past the crowd and quickly pull up next to her, and Lincoln was finally able to get a hold of her husband.
"Hello? Mr. Ramirez, your wife is in labor…oh, and this is Lincoln Loud, wait, I don't think that you're too worried about that," he shakes his head, "Sorry, we're at the high school parking lot, some paramedics are helping her right now," he notifies the soon-to-be father.
The paramedics put her on the gurney and helps her into the ambulance, Lincoln walks next to her, as he describes the events to the man on the phone.
"They're checking her heart rate…one of the paramedics is staying next to her…the other is stepping out quickly…he closed the door…"
Lincoln looks at the door, and begins to realize what is happening, "Wait! I can't go!" he says as he tries to open the door from the inside, but the ambulance begins to move, and Lincoln accepts his fate.
Inside the auditorium, Lori sees the clock on her phone and noticed that her younger brother hadn't returned despite being gone for so long.
"Where is Lincoln?" asks Lori, as she looks around for her brother, "The graduation is about to start."
The rest of the family members look around and Lisa pulls out her tracking device and notices that she can't find Lincoln's signal nearby.
"Uh, family, Lincoln's tracking chip isn't in the vicinity of the high school."
The family looks at the screen, and count fourteen blinking green dots, but they couldn't find the thirteenth. Lisa zooms out to see if she could find her brother's signal, but she couldn't find him within her tracking device's range.
"Where could he have gone?" asks Lynn Sr.
"What do we do? The ceremony is starting," asks Rita.
Lynn Sr. looks at his watch, "We've got two minutes, surely we can find him if we split up. We'll just have to miss the principal and valedictorian's speeches, but we should be back before Lynn Jr. gets her diploma."
"Father, may I suggest an easier plan," Lisa says, before tapping away on her phone, "I've released a drone to search the vicinity of Lincoln's mobile device. I can receive video footage of the parking lot right here on my device."
"That's easier?" asked Luna.
"Easier than all of us leaving at once and risking expulsion from the grounds before watching our fifth sister receive her ceremonial document of basic academic completion."
The principal begins to speak, and the Louds look at Lisa's screen as the drone searches the parking lot.
"Right there," points Lana.
"That's an old man," corrects Lola.
Lisa continues to pilot the drone, but can't find her brother in the parking lot. She takes a deep breath and continues her search through all of the cars and the neighborhood houses surrounding the school.
Lynn took a seat on the couch and crossed her arms as she muttered the sleeping arrangement to herself, "I guess I can sleep on the couch, it is only until Sunday, what's a few nights anyway?"
She isn't looking forward to sharing her apartment with her older sister, but everyone kept putting her on the spot to do so. For years, she has had to share her living space, and now that she finally gets one to herself, she has to share it again.
'Why are you complaining like little child? È sole un fine settimana!'
Lynn sighs, and even figured that there was no point in complaining, it is a weekend after all, 'I even snuck in some Italian in there too, all those weekends are becoming good for something.'
"Why does it sound like you don't want Luna to spend the night at your place? Is it really that bad, or have you grown accustomed to being alone in your home?" Lucy asks, while jotting down ideas in her book.
"Well, I always did want my own room, and I had to wait a long time for it too, so excuse me for being territorial. And maybe I like sleeping on a bed, did you think of that?"
Lucy notices the attitude in Lynn's voice, but everyone is doing their part and includes her, "Well, there's nothing we can do, unless one of the twins is willing to switch and stay with you."
Lynn scoffs, "I'm better off with Luna," she says, remembering how pampered and whiny Lola can get when she travels, and how she can only endure Lana's antics for so long before they both get into an argument.
"It's just a few nights, I think you can manage. Besides, you should get used to it, it'll probably happen again next month for your birthday."
Lynn groans, "Don't remind me of that! I'm not ready to turn thirty."
"Oh, it's not that bad, Lynn," her mother said, as she took a seat near the sisters. "Heck, I would kill to be thirty again."
Lynn responded, "I'd kill to be eighteen again with some the adult fun and none of the school."
Rita chuckled and Lucy had a small smile at Lynn's comment; not that any of them would blame her. To Lynn, however, it was more about being able to go back to her favorite year, before everything took a nosedive and before she had to say goodbye to him.
"I wouldn't mind going back to being twenty-four," Lucy responded.
"You want to go back to last year?" Lynn asked.
Lucy nodded, "It was the year I sold my first book, and the year I got this ring."
Lynn looked at the black diamond ring that she wore. Years of dating on and off again, and he finally popped the question; despite being financially strapped while attending medical school, Rocky wanted to make sure that she knew that he loved her.
Rita reminisced, "I remember when we saw him shopping for the ring. Your father was thrilled at the idea of another one of his daughters getting married…you know, before he remembered that his daughter was going to get married.
The sisters laughed.
The three women continued the conversation, until they heard a car horn outside.
Lynn quickly turned to Lucy, "Five bucks says that that's Bobby and Lori."
Lucy shook her head, "You always win at these bets, so there's no point in taking part."
Lynn stuck out her tongue, "You're no fun."
Rita called out the rest of the family members, and everyone went to greet their family.
The students walk towards the stage, and her heart is pounding faster and faster with each step she took; all the seats, the stack of diplomas ready to handed out, and family members surrounding them as their eyes looked at the graduating class.
Everyone takes a seat and the principal walks up to the podium, "Ladies and gentlemen, graduates, it is my honor to congratulate…"
Lynn knows where this speech is going. For each of her older sisters' graduations, the principal always had the same speech; it would mention the hard work that students accomplished, the future, college, and overcoming obstacles using the experience from past obstacles.
"…and once again, congratulations to the Royal Woods High School Class of 2021," finishes the principal.
The valedictorian steps up to the podium and begins to speak, but Lynn couldn't hear a thing that she was saying, even with the microphone.
She turns to the student next to her, "Can you hear her?"
He shakes his head. Lynn looks around and saw that some of the audience members were whispering; probably about how difficult it is to hear the girl.
As the speech comes to an end, the students stand up and line up towards the stage. The principal call out the name of the salutatorian and with each name, Lynn is getting more nervous; this is it, with these final steps, she is going to accept her diploma and move on with her life, and she isn't ready.
"Lynn Loud," says the teacher into the microphone.
Myrtle speaks up, "Everyone, Lynn's up on stage."
The family looks up from the screen, and see Lynn on stage, and begin to cheer her on as she got her diploma. The sound of loud whistling and cheers coupled with the brightness of the cameras grabbed the attention of everyone around them.
As Lynn steps down from the stage, the family returns their focus to the screen, but could still not find their missing son.
More and more students received their diplomas and as the last student crossed the stage, the school band begins to play.
The principal takes to the microphone one more time, "Let's give a round of applause for our graduates!"
The students tossed their caps in the air as the audience cheered for them all.
Lynn opened the door to her apartment and led Luna inside, "Here it is," she took her older sister's bags, "I'll go put these in my room."
Luna looked around the apartment which reminded Luna of her younger sister's old room; a few balls on the floor, some sports magazines on the coffee table, and even a small family photo on a shelf.
"Hey Luna, do you…a…or some…?"
"What? I can't hear you," Luna walked towards the room to try and hear her sister's question, when a poster caught her attention. She looked at it and wondered why it was so hung a bit low. Curiosity got the best of Luna and she took a peek behind the poster; seeing a hole in the wall, more than likely punched by her younger sister. "Dang it, Lynn…"
"So? Do you want a pizza or not?" Lynn asked; startling Luna, who quickly put the poster back.
"Pizza? At 10:30pm, dude? It's a bit late, don't ya think?"
"Yeah, but the Pizza Shack across the street gives away all of its pizza that didn't get pick up for half price, so…yeah," Lynn said as she walked towards the front door.
"Sure, cold pizza sounds good."
The sisters walked in silence. Luna wanted to ask about the hole in the wall, she wanted to ask how things have been since their last family reunion, "Hey Lynn, can I ask you something …"
"No, they can't customize your pizza! They're leftovers from the day. They're going to be a bit cold and weird, but I don't have a lot of money and they hate when you make a late night order before they close," Lynn complained.
Luna was confused, "What? No. I wanted to ask you about the hole in the wall."
"What hole in the wall? I don't know about a hole in the wall," Lynn said quickly, her eyes shifting back and forth.
"The one in your hallway, behind the poster. Are you okay? You're not–"
"I'm fine, Luna. I was just angry and I punched a hole in the wall, so what?! Who cares! I'll get it fixed one day," Lynn said; keeping her eyes focused on their destination.
"When? Before or after you punch another hole in the wall?"
Lynn clenched her hands into fists, upset at her sister's accusations, "You know what!? Forget about it! You don't have to babysit me, I can handle myself. I've done it before and I can do it again!" Lynn walked away from Luna, muttering, "I should've taken in one of the twins."
That was the problem that Luna saw, she wasn't sure if Lynn was just lying about being fine or telling the truth. She was even curious to know why she punched the wall in anger, but Lynn was getting defensive, and was definitely not going to give her an answer right now.
Unfortunately, the outburst spoiled the rest of the evening, and rather than enjoying a night catching up, the two spent it in silence until they went to sleep.
In the early hours of the morning, Luna quietly walked towards the kitchen, hoping to get a glass of water. She saw her sister lightly snoring on the couch as she for a searched for a cup, before noticing some dirty ones in the sink, "Dang it, Lynn."
She searched the cabinets hoping to find something that she could drink out of, when she didn't find what she was looking for, all she could silently say was, "Dang it, Lynn."
As the school band finished playing their instruments, the graduating class marched out of the auditorium and emerged from the rear of the school. Within the crowd, Lynn looks around for her friends to round them up and get a celebratory photo, but kept getting lost in a sea of blue and yellow.
She sniffed the air and tried to find the familiar scent of motor oil, leather, and sweat.
"Lynn!" calls out Margo, before pulling her into a hug, "I can't believe that high school is officially over.
She returns the hug, "Yeah, I can't–" her eyes were covered by the person behind her. "I know it's you, Francisco!"
He laughs, before uncovering her eyes, "I never could fool you, could I?"
She shakes her head, "Nope, and now you never will."
Margo pulls the two of them close, "Quick! One photo and then we go find the rest of our friends."
The three pose in front of Margo's phone and quickly take a selfie, "Give me a minute to text it to you guys."
The two phones ding and both teens check to make sure that they received the photo from Margo.
"Let's go find everyone else!" Lynn happily exclaim, before she sees her family running towards her.
"LJ! LJ!"
Lynn turns around to see her family with looks of worry as they try to catch their breaths, "What's wrong with you guys?"
"Lincoln…he's gone missing," said the elder Lynn, "We have to go find him."
Lynn opens her mouth, before Margo speaks up, "Do you need help looking for him?"
The group searched where they assumed that Lincoln would most likely be, but couldn't find him. Crowds began to form as families took photos with their loved ones, but the Louds were still searching for the missing family member.
Albert phoned the family, "I talked to one of the parking lot attendants. He mentioned that they saw a man with white hair and blue suit get into an ambulance before the ceremony started."
"There's a hospital nearby, we can go search the facility," Lisa suggested, before the family jumped into Vanzilla.
Lynn Sr. noticed that Lynn wasn't in the vehicle, "LJ, we have to go!"
She sighs and tells her friends, "I'll see you guys around."
As she opens the side door, Lincoln's phone caught her attention.
As the family took their seats in the auditorium, Lynn pulled out her phone and called Lincoln, "Hey Stinkoln, where are you? You better not be trying to ditch graduation again."
The sisters shook their heads at the comment, remaining quiet until Lucy spoke up, "Still can't let that go, can you?"
"I've let it go. I'm just wondering where they are, I mean everyone else is here, and he's cutting it really close."
Lucy didn't believe her, but she was right, the ceremony is about to start and Lincoln still hasn't arrived. She looked around at her family; their father crying, Luan with the camera, Lola texting away on her phone, Lori with her arms around Bobby, and Luna keeping an eye on Lynn.
"Is there a reason that Luna is staring at you?"
Lynn shrugged her shoulders as she kept her eyes on the entrances, "I don't know. She's been like that all weekend. Every time I move in the apartment, she looks at me. I go the kitchen; there she is keeping an eye on me, I go to bathroom, and she stares at me, I go to the balcony and she stares at me; it's getting annoying."
"What did you do?"
"Why do you assume that I did something? Isn't it possible that she did something?"
"What happened before she started staring at you? You can't blame me for being curious as to why Luna is staring, so excuse me for assuming that you did something," she said.
"You're excused," Lynn said, purposefully ignoring the question.
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne walked through the entrance, and Lynn calls them, "About time you two got here."
Ronnie Anne groaned and took a seat, "We had to stop at the pharmacy, I think it's something we ate, right Lame-O?"
Lincoln nodded and clutched his stomach a bit.
Bobby spoke up behind them, "I told you that that hot dog looked a bit weird."
"I got it, Bobby. Now Linc and I are paying the price, because we wanted fast convenient food we could eat in the car. Happy?"
Lincoln pulled out a bottle of water and some medicine from a bag and handed some to his wife.
"Well at least you're here, Stinkoln," Lynn playfully told her brother.
Lincoln groaned, "Not now, Lynn. You can bring that up when my stomach isn't trying to turn itself into a pretzel."
"Bring what up?" asked Ronnie Anne.
"The time he ended up in the hospital because he lost his phone."
Ronnie Anne's interest was piqued; Lincoln always had a good story when it came to growing up with his large family, and she was trying to figure out how a lost phone turned into a hospital trip for her husband.
Lincoln sighed, "Is this really the place to be telling that story?"
"I think so," Lynn replied. "I mean it's perfect don't you think?"
He sighed. It does make sense, but he didn't want to bring up that story from twelve years ago, when they were supposed to be celebrating Lily's big day.
"Alright, I won't say a thing," she said out loud, before turning to Ronnie Anne, and whispering, "I'll tell you later."
The Louds burst through the entrance of the emergency room, and run to the front desk to get information. The tracking signal begins to show a fourteenth green dot, which confirmed that Lincoln is indeed at the hospital.
Lynn Sr. talks to the nurse, but begins to panic as he tried to find the right words, "O-Our son…missing…graduation…old man…emergency…phone…"
Rita places a hand on his shoulder to calm him down, "Honey, I've got this. We think that our son, Lincoln Loud, may have been admitted into this hospital."
Lisa scoffs, "Think? My tracking device has yet to be wrong after over five years of use."
The nurse types away on the computer, and shakes her head, "No, I don't see a Lincoln Loud in our system."
"Check again!" screams the Loud patriarch, surprising both himself and everyone around him. "I'm sorry, but please, check again!"
The sisters take a seat in the waiting room, as the parents stayed put at the nurse's desk.
Lori looks at Lynn as she played with the tassel of her cap, "Lynn, why are you still wearing your graduation gown?"
"I haven't had my picture with everyone, its bad luck."
None of the sisters could figure out where that superstition came up, but Lori knew that Lynn is going to adamantly keep her cap and gown on until she got a photo with everyone.
Lisa looks at her tracking device, "He's in the hospital, but I don't possess a detailed map of the facility to determine where he may be."
Lynn continues to move her head to play with the tassel, before Luna spoke up, "Would you stop doing that? How can you be playing at a time like this?"
She shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know, besides, I'm sure he's fine."
That didn't calm the nerves of anyone. All of them kept thinking of how Lincoln could have had to end up in the hospital, and nothing was calming their nerves.
Lynn takes off her cap and spins it around on her finger, before losing control and running over to grab it. After picking it up off the ground, she sees a sign for the cafeteria, which immediately got her stomach rumbling.
As Lynn walks, she grabs the attention of patients and workers alike, who were both curious of her attire, but still congratulated her.
In the cafeteria, Lynn pulls out her brother's phone and saw the time; it is lunchtime, and while the usual Loud tradition was going home and enjoying a cookout amongst the family members, she is sitting in a hospital cafeteria eating a cold and bland sandwich.
Rather than return to the emergency room, Lynn wanders around, figuring that it is better than sitting around with people moaning in pain or her sisters who are rightfully worried about their brother.
"Are you lost?" a voice asked from behind.
Lynn turns around, "Nope, just wandering around."
"Well, hospitals aren't for 'wandering around', where's your family?"
"In the emergency room looking for my brother," Lynn responds.
"Is he okay?"
Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "Aside from having white hair since birth, I think so."
The custodian laughs, "Wait, white hair? Is he wearing a blue suit with his hair slicked back?"
"Maybe? I left before seeing him."
"I think I saw someone who looked like him in the maternity ward. Do you want me to lead you to him?"
Lynn nods and she follows the custodian. As soon as she caught sight of Lincoln she calls out to him, "Hey! I found you," Lynn says before thanking the custodian for helping her find her brother. "Man, did you scare everyone."
Lincoln laughs nervously, "I didn't mean to. I was just going to go get my phone and the next thing I know, I see Ms. DiMartino in the parking lot after her water broke and I end up getting in the ambulance with her."
Lynn chuckles before handing him back his phone; she almost couldn't believe the story, but it's not like her brother would lie about something so ridiculous.
She looks at the babies through the window, "Which one is the baby?"
He shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know. I don't even think that the baby is born yet."
"There we go," Rita said as she placed the pictures of Lily's graduation in the album. "Soon, we'll start filling it with all the pictures from your ceremonies," she told her grandchildren.
Rita patted the old book, which has been in the family since Lori graduated high school. Each page is filled with photos of her children's high school graduation, and it warms her and her husband's hearts when they look back and see the memories and pride in everyone's eyes.
Isabella, Lori's oldest and only daughter, took the book and skimmed through the album, "Where's mom's picture, grandma? There's Aunt Lola, Aunt Lucy, Aunt Luan."
Rita took the album from her, and turned it to the front, where the pictures from Lori's graduation were. It was the family's first high school graduation and everyone was ecstatic to see the oldest young Loud graduate.
Alfredo, Lori's son, looked at the photo in disbelief, "That's mom? Are you sure, grandma?"
"She looks so pretty in this picture," Isabella states, "And look at how little aunt Lily is!" the girls squeals at seeing her now adult aunt as an infant.
Rita turns the pages and the kids sit nearby to look at the photos of the graduations. Each picture is filled with smiles, tears, and the graduate with every member of the family.
"Wow, grandpa is crying in mom's photo too," said Alfredo. He turns the page, "Hey! It's aunt Leni!"
Charlotte and Giovanni tug on the book to get a closer look at it.
The boy looked up at his grandmother, "How come aunt Lisa looks tired, grandma?"
Rita took a closer look and tried to recall, "I don't remember. It was so long ago," she lied. Rita remembered; Lisa was exhausted from trying to write about her concerns involving graduation requirements to the Michigan school board. However, Rita didn't feel like going into further detail with the children at the moment, so she feigned innocence.
The children looked through all the photos; each graduating Loud in a large family photo, an individual photo, some with friends, and one with each member of the family.
"Look, Miriam, its mom," said Melinda, as the older twin pointed out her mother to her younger sister.
Rita smiled at the photo; Luan had such a bright smile despite what happened months before her last days of high school. She gave her little granddaughters a kiss and turned the page to continue reminiscing.
Giovanni looked up at his grandmother, "How come Aunt Lynn's family photo is all white?" The boy turned the pages of his mother's photo and saw a lot of blue and yellow in the background, but not in his aunt's photo.
"And how come everyone looks tired?" asked Charlotte; referring to the bags under everyone's eyes from the stress that day.
Isabella pointed out, "And why is Uncle Lincoln pointing at his phone?"
"And how come you got a picture of a lot of babies?" Alfredo asked; Ivan moved his head towards his older brother when he heard the word 'babies'.
"And who's the lady in the bed? Why is she in bed?" asked the twins simultaneously.
Rita tried to take in all of her grandchildren's questions and comments, but they kept asking more and more questions. The woman got the children quiet and began, "That's Lily's principal, back when she was a teacher at the high school, and that little baby," Rita said as she pointed to the baby boy in the photo, "is Salvador Lincoln Ramirez."
