(Author's Note: HAPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYY NEW YEAR! First update of 2019, hope you're all as excited as I am! Hope you enjoy:)
Chapter Fourteen: Beginning of a New Year
I yawned, frantically rubbing my eyes to try and keep the sleep from them. Despite how tired I may be, I can't go to sleep yet. I won't go to sleep yet. Tonight was New Year's Eve, and I didn't want to go to sleep just yet. Mom and Dad said that any of us who wanted to stay awake were allowed to, if we were able to stay up that is.
Naturally, we all wanted to stay awake. After all, it's the new year. The beginning of 2019! How could we not want to stay awake and welcome the new year?!
It really wasn't even eight o'clock yet, but I have been running around playing with Laura, the twins, and Lily all day long. Needless to say, I was pretty tired. Lana and Lola seemed to be fine right now, but the two of them have always had more energy then me.
Speaking of Laura, Mr. and Mrs. Ferrara were gonna be here any moment to drop off Laura. She and I asked our parents and got all four of them to agree to a sleepover tonight.
…
…
Between you and me, I'm honestly not sure how I got my parents to agree to this sleepover. Especially tonight of all nights. You'd think that having twelve kids all being awake and jumping around on New Year's Eve would be enough, and that's not even adding another kid.
My siblings and I really have some nice parents, we really should thank them more often and do some nice things for them.
"Lena!" I heard dad's voice from downstairs, "Laura's here!" I headed out of my room and quickly ran down the stairs, finding my dad standing at the door with Laura and her parents in the doorway. Laura's father had the same tan skin and black hair as Laura's mother and Laura herself, his being pretty neat. He wore a red collared shirt and blue jeans, along with a gold chain around his neck and a watch on his wrist (he always wears and uses his watch, even though he has a phone).
"Laura!" I cheered out happily.
Laura's face brightened, "Lena!" The next thing that I knew, I felt a strong force shoving into me and felt my back collide with the ground. I opened my eyes to see Laura smiling closing to me, the expression on her face actually creeping me out a bit, "Did you miss me?"
"Sure. I'd miss you a lot more if you were over there," I pointed to the living room.
Laura put a hand to her chin and seemed to think for a few moments, "Hmmmmmm…nah. I'm fine where I'm at."
I frowned, "Laura get off of me!" Laura's entire body went limp, "Laura, I'm serious!"
"Alright fine," Laura (finally) got off of me and held out a hand to help me up, which I took.
"Alright Laura," Mr. Ferrara spoke, "You better behave yourself. And you'd better make sure to not make the Louds want you out, because your mother and I won't be coming back to get you if they decide to kick you out before the morning," he joked, causing Mrs. Ferrara to smack him in the chest (playfully). Laura pouted, and I giggled at her expression.
"Don't worry Tony," my dad waved off, "We won't be kicking her out. You and Jessica can rest assured that Laura will still be here when you come over tomorrow morning?"
"Really?" Mr. Ferrara asked with a fake frown, and began laughing as Laura began hitting his legs in anger. By this point, I was laughing to the point where I was starting to have difficulty standing up.
"Alright then, we'll be heading out then," Mrs. Ferrara knelt down and planted a kiss on Laura's head, causing Laura to flail around a bit in embarrassment (to which her mother promptly ignored), "In all seriousness, behave yourself young lady."
"I will," Laura replied (translation: whined). Both of Laura's parents chuckled and Mr. Ferrara ruffled her hair a bit, to which she yelped and leapt back while frantically running her hands through her hair.
"Alright, we'll get out of your guys' hair," Mr. Ferrara said will a smirk, completely ignoring the annoyed protests of his daughter, "How about Jessica and I take everybody out to breakfast tomorrow? Not only as a little thanks for letting Laura stay over, but also for us all to go out for New Year's Day. Our treat."
"Oh, you both know that you don't need to," my mom said.
"We know," Mrs. Ferrara replied, "But we want to."
Dad chuckled, "We're not gonna get out of this, are we?"
"If you think you're going to win an argument when my wife has her mind set in her standpoint, you clearly don't know her," Mr. Ferrara stated and the two men shared a laugh.
"Oh, so now I'm so bad just from having a civilized discussion?" Mrs. Ferrara stared at her husband with a raised eyebrow and (for some reason) I felt bad for Mr. Ferrara.
"Well!" Mr. Ferrara yelled our, causing me, Laura, and my parents to jump a bit, "It's time for us to go!" He then knelt down to Laura's level, "Well, goodbye sweetheart. And wish me luck," I barely heard him mutter that last part.
"Good luck dad," Laura muttered, though she said it with a smile on her face. Mr. Ferrara stood up (kinda quickly if you ask me) and headed out the door with a final wave, Mrs. Ferrara quickly following suit (only she seemed a bit more…agitated).
"Alright then," dad closed the door before turning to us, "Well, you kids are pretty much free to do whatever. Within reason, of course," he emphasized, "You're both fully welcomed to stay up for the New Year."
"But if we think we have to, we will send you both to bed. We understand wanting to stay up to see 2019, but we'll send you to bed if we think it's better for you," my mom explained, "Deal?" She held up a hand.
"Deal!" We both cheered at the same time, each of us high-fiving her.
"Alright then, now both of you run off."
"Alright," Laura grabbed ahold of my hand and literally began pulling me up the stairs.
"I can walk on my own you know!" I called out to her.
"Yeah, but you're too slow!" Laura laughed back at me.
"Oh, hey there Laura," we both turned to see Lynn standing near the wall, constantly tossing a baseball up in her hand, "Didn't know you were coming over here tonight."
"Yeah, Lena here didn't want to go into the new year without me," she threw an arm around me and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Of course, that's really not much of a surprise."
"Yeah, totally obviously," I commented, but neither of them seemed to pick up on my sarcastic tone (possibly because I don't typically use that kind of tone so often).
"So, think the two of you are gonna make it to the beginning of the new year?" Lynn asked as she began tossing the baseball against the wall in front of her.
"That may in fact be the primary reason as to why I'm here, I'll help keep Lena awake till then," Laura explained.
"Well, of course. After all, who could sleep through you?" I shot back with a smirk. I yelped back out of Laura's grasp when she suddenly flicked me in the nose. Covering my nose, I glared at her in annoyance.
"And that's what you get for being a smart allelic," Laura spoke to me, in a condescending fashion as if she was my parent. As if she had any right to talk about that. "So Lynn," she turned to my sister, "You gonna make it to the new year?"
"Oh, definitely," Lynn answered confidently, "The key is to staying awake is to just keep moving and keep busy (1). And," she chuckled and shut her eyes, "Not to brag, but this is me we're talking about," the baseball (probably because she had her eyes shut) then suddenly hit her square in the forehead. We both let small chuckles skip through (I can't exactly speak for Laura, but I for one only laughed because the hit didn't seem to affect her. Like…at all), to which Lynn glared at us both. "Oh, think that's funny?"
"Not at all," Laura spoke sincerely before smirking, "I actually think it's quite hilarious."
"Oh yeah, funny girl," with incredible speeds (like, I legitimately could barely see her other then a red blur. It was like being the sister to the Flash), Lynn moved forward and wrapped an arm around Laura's neck. "Real funny girl," she began rubbing her fist along the top of Laura's head.
I felt sorry for Laura. I hated Lynn's noogies. They hurt, like…a lot.
"Let go of me!" Laura flailed around wildly, frantically trying to free herself from Lynn's grasp. Unfortunately, I knew that there was no way that she was going to get out unless Lynn wanted to let go. I mean…come on. Laura is five, and Lynn is a thirteen-year old who works out virtually every single moment that she has.
I mean…who do you think comes out on top in a test of strength?
"Hahahahahaha!" Lynn ran (the flat surface of) her hand through Laura's hair before playfully shoving her away. "Well, anyway…good luck to you both for staying up to see the new year. If you feel like you need some help in staying awake, you guys just let me know," Lynn called out as she began walking away.
"Okay Lynn," I called back as she made her way down the stairs.
"We won't be doing that, right?" Laura whispered to me.
"More then likely, no we won't," I whispered back. Hey, I love my sister…but I don't have any reason to really want to find out about what Lynn would have in mind about helping us to stay awake. Knowing her, it'd be all kinds of exercises that I'm certain that Laura and I won't have any interest in participating in.
"So," Laura began leaping in a circle around me (don't even ask why she was doing that) , "What should we do to pass the time until midnight?"
"I'm not sure," I admitted, "Why don't you come up with something?"
She put a hand to her chin, "That's…an interesting question," she sighed, "So many choices, aren't there?"
I laughed, "There sure are."
Laura grabbed my wrist, "Come on, let's go bother one of your siblings." Just as she was about to head off, I saw movement in the corner of my eye.
"WAIT!" I called out, pulling her back to me.
She yelped out loudly, looking back to me with wide eyes and a hand over her heart, "WHAT...the HECK was that about?!"
"You should look where you step," I said, pointing to a large clear ball on the ground. Within the ball, was a brown-furred hamster. Quite an adorable one, if I do say so myself. I picked the ball up, "You almost stepped on this adorable little guy, isn't that right Geo?" I rubbed a bit on the hamster ball, and smiled as he began to rub his cheek along the inside of his hamster ball. I turned back to Laura, "He'd more then likely be alright, but you could have really gotten yourself hurt," I held Geo up in front of Laura's face, "Go on…apologize."
Laura looked at me with a "Seriously" expression, but my conviction was firm. She rolled her eyes (clearly doing so as obviously as possible), "Fine," she looked to Geo, "I'm sorry Geo."
"Thank you," I turned to Geo, "Isn't that nice Geo?" He smiled and nodded, "Alright, run along you," I set Geo down and he rolled off.
"Hey guys," the two of us turned to Luan walking over to us with a wave and a smile, "Didn't know you were coming over, Laura."
"Yep. Someone's gotta help this one," she waved over to me, "awake for 2019. Not to mention, figured I'd put some excitement into this one come the new year, which is something I can tell she has some issues with," she "whispered" that last part, but I could still hear her as clear as day.
"Hey!" Remembering seeing Mrs. Benson do this to Brock and Brad at one point, I grabbed ahold of Laura's ear, "That's not funny."
"Let go of me!" She shoved my side and pulled away, glaring at me while she covered/rubbed her ear. "What are you?! My mother?!" I simply responded by sticking my tongue at her.
"Come on now guys," Luan walked up and put a hand on our each of our shoulders, "There's no need to fight. We should all come together and see in the new ear," we both groaned at Luan's pun while my comedy-based sister just laughed at her own joke, "I'm going through a list I made to try and decide what should be my first joke of 2019."
"That's pretty good Luan," Laura smiled at Luan, seemingly ignored the "Say what" look on my face as I stared at her, "You know, you should head off into your room to have perfect peace so you can decide on the proper joke."
"Hey, that's not a bad idea," Luan commented (amazingly), "You know what? I think I'm gonna do that. Wanna start the new year off on the right note. See you guys in a few hours, gotta get to work." With a wave goodbye, Luan rushed to her room.
"Not a bad idea," I complimented my best friend, a smirk on my face.
Laura chuckled in response, "Thanks, I know."
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(A Few Hours Later)
"Wait…you're telling me that Bailey straight up punched that girl?!"
I chuckled, "Yep, straight up. Completely took the rest of us by surprise. One lesson that I for one learned is that I do not want to get on her bad side."
"You're telling me," Laura laughed out loud.
Suddenly, the door flew open. Both of us turned to the doorway to see Lana coming into the room with Charles, our family's white-furred dog with a black furred ring on his back and around his left eye. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Getting a little eavesdropsy there, aren't we?" Laura commented.
"Hey, we weren't eavesdropping! Charles and I were running through the house, and we just heard you guys talking with the open nearly shut," her eyes narrowed, "What're you two trying to hide?"
"We were trying to have a talk in some semblance of peace and quiet in this house," Laura shot back.
Lana scoffed, "Yeah, whatever."
"Lana."
"Yeah Lena?"
"Why are you…on all fours?" I asked, finally realizing that Lana was currently on all fours like Charles.
Lana looked down to her own body, "What? Like I said, Charles and I were running through the house. So of course I had to run like this. Not only does it help keep up with Charles, but it also helps establish us as equals while we play," Lana moved her head to Charles and the two of them rubbed their cheeks against one another with smiles on their faces.
"Should I ask?" Laura asked me after the two of us spent a few moments just…watching Lana and Charles in silence.
"I wouldn't," I admitted.
"So, what were you guys talking about?" Lana asked us after a few more moments of rubbing her cheeks against Charles'.
"The time Bailey Benson punched some annoying girl in the face at the mall," Laura admitted.
"Oh yeah!" Lana laughed out loud, "I remember that. That was pretty funny." Laura laughed in agreement, and even I couldn't help but agree. Suddenly, Charles began barking out before quickly racing out of the room. "Oh," she turned to us, "See you guys later. Charles, wait up!"
"I'm hungry," Laura said a few seconds after my sister left with Charles.
"Well, let's go get some food," I suggested, to which Laura nodded. Both of us leapt off of my bed and headed to the door.
"Hey there you guys," we both looked to our side to see Leni coming out of the bathroom.
"Hi Leni," I greeted with a smile, whereas Laura just waved (but she did it with a smile, so I'll give her a pass). "How are you feeling?"
Leni yawned, "I'm feeling pretty sleepy. But, I'm still trying to make it to the next year. I even stayed up last night to prepare for tonight." Laura and I shared a slightly worried look.
"Are you sure you're alright Leni?" Laura asked, "It's not very healthy to go like that without any sleep."
"Oh yeah, I'm fine," Leni waved off, "See?" She held her arms outwards, "I'm okay. Oh wait, I think I left my phone in my room," Leni turned to the right to her room…before promptly running straight into a wall.
"Leni!" I quickly ran to my sister's side, Laura not far behind me, "Are you okay?!"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Who put that wall there?" Laura and I just shared at one another in confusion. "Oh well. Wait!" Both of us flinched at her louder tone, "I may have left my phone downstairs." Leni headed to the stairs, Laura and I being close behind. "You know, this is why you keep your phone on hand. You never know what you'll have to-," suddenly, Leni completely disappeared from my view before I heard multiple loud thumping noises. Looking down in shock, I saw Leni on the floor in front of the first step while she was slowing standing up.
I quickly ran (not something I usually do) down the stairs, concern lacing my face as I tried to help my sister up, "Leni! Are you okay?!"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Leni said as she stood up before giving me a bright smile, "Like I was saying, you'll never know when you'll have to use your phone for something really important. Oh, and…ow," she rubbed one of her arms as she walked away into the living room.
I looked at her in confusion as she walked away, but I then felt a hand on my shoulder, "Just…leave it be. She seems fine, and I'm still hungry (2)," Laura spoke to me.
"I…alright," I gave up and followed Laura into the kitchen.
"I'm telling you Boo Boo Bear, we have to make our next date special. After all, it'll be our first one of the new year," Laura and I heard Lori's voice and saw my eldest sister leaning against the counter, talking to Bobby on her cell phone. Laura tapped me on the shoulder and gagged very loudly at Lori's conversation with Bobby. I couldn't help but giggle. "Very funny you two," we both turned to see Lori looking at us with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, nothing Boo Boo Bear. Just Lena and Laura acting like they're funny."
"I don't know what she's talking about, I am funny," Laura commented. Lori rolled her eyes and walked out of the kitchen, giving us a rather lazy wave as she did so. The two of us shared a look and a chuckle.
"So…what have you guys got here?" Laura asked as she opened the refrigerator door. Just as I was about to say something-.
"Hey you guys."
"AHHHHH!" Laura and I wrapped our arms around one another in terror as we leapt off of the ground. We both turned to see Lucy standing there, quick and emotionless as always.
Laura turned to me, "Why does she not have a bell on her?!" She then turned to Lucy, "And you…need to stop doing that. You know, you're going to give someone a heart attack one of these days if you keep doing!" Lucy opened her mouth to reply, but Laura wasn't done, "And if you say anything that implies that being a good thing, I will walk out of this house right now."
"Sigh, no one understands my viewpoint of the universe," Lucy replied.
Laura deadpanned, "Why does that just stand like an excuse to say weird stuff?"
A few moments of silence. "Not weird. Different."
"Oooookay," I got between them, "Let's try to be nice please."
"We are being nice," Lucy stated.
"Yeah Laura, what are you talking about?" Laura asked, both of them looking at me like I was the one who was acting crazy.
I just looked at them both, who each just stared at me, "Alllllrighty then. Lucy, do you know if we still have pudding cups?" I asked, wanting to move the conversation forward.
"In the pantry."
"Thanks," I headed over to the pantry and took out two chocolate pudding cups.
"No problem. Now, if you'll both excuse me, I have some last-minute poetry to write before 2019 begins," with that, she walked out of the room without another word.
"You have some interesting siblings," Laura chuckled as she got out some spoons.
"You know you're jealous," I smirked as I handed her a pudding cup and she handed me a spoon.
"Yeah, a house without peace and filled with vicious animals that are at each other's throats twenty-four seven three sixty-five. It's just glorious," Laura commented with a smirk as we opened our pudding.
"Hey!" We both turned to see Lola standing in the doorway, hands on her hips and a frown on her face. "You guys better not have taken the last of the pudding cups!"
"There's still plenty left in the pantry," I immediately stated, pointing to said pantry with my spoon.
"Oh…good," needlessly to say, this quickly made her way over to the pantry.
"That was a close one," Laura whispered to me as we walked out of the kitchen.
"You're telling me," I replied. As Laura and I took a sit on the couch, I heard someone coming down the stairs. Turning, I saw Lincoln and Lisa walking down the stairs. The former being on his handheld game console, and the latter writing on a clipboard. "Hey guys," I waved.
"Hey you two," Lincoln waved to us, only looking up from his game for about two seconds before turning back to it. Lisa didn't even look up from her board, just waving at us. "Doing well with staying up?"
"Yep, been playing for the last few hours," Lincoln answered.
"Science rests for no one, not even in the coming of the new year," Lisa stated.
I suddenly heard a loud cawing and felt something land on my shoulder. I turned to see the yellow-feathered form of the family bird Walt. I smiled, "Hey Walt," I rubbed his head a little.
"We got another visitor," I looked to see Laura picking up and holding our family's black-furred cat, Cliff. I saw Cliff pointing to the clock that hung above the TV, showing that the hands were almost at midnight.
"Guys!" I called out through the house, "It's almost midnight!" In barely ten seconds, everyone had immediately rushed to the living room.
"Alright dudes, are we ready for 2019?!" Luna yelled out, jumping on the couch and holding her hands out in that sign she always holds them in (I think they're called the…"sign of the horns"?).
Lily cheered and clapped happily in mom's arms.
"I've almost got my joke ready," Luan said as she scribbled down furiously on a notepad.
"My poem is almost ready as well," Lucy spoke a bit lifelessly, holding a book in her hands.
"Guys, Shhhhhh," Lincoln shushed us all before grabbing the remote and turning on the TV to the ball drop. It was effective chaos out there, and coming from a Loud sibling that's really saying something.
"Alright everybody, here we go," dad said as the ball began to drop.
We all started chanting, "Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four...three…two…ONE!"
"HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!" Luna called out, playing a loud note on her guitar.
"Yay!" Leni cheered, grabbing Laura and I in a hug.
"See?" I spoke to Laura, "Isn't this fun?"
She rolled her eyes, "Yeah…fun. That's the weird to use." We both shared a laughed as my family cheered and yelled and hollered as loud as they could in joy and excitement. Well...at this rate, 2019 hopes to be a fun year.
...Perhaps, interesting would be a more appropriate word.
(Author's Note: Annnnnnnnd scene!
(1): That's my strategy for when I'm trying to stay awake.
(2): She's not being rude. She just knows that Leni is fine. Perhaps…she knows more about the universe then she lets on?;)
Hope the chapter turned out alright. I'm starting to run low on ideas, so feel free to let me know of any. No promises that they'll be done, but it'll at least be a contender.
Constructive critism only please, no flames.
Review, favorite, follow, and I'll see you guys next time:)
