Adjusting his feet, Lincoln pulled with all his might. The rope in his hands met heavy resistance on the other end, the other end tugged and the boy had to brace his foot to not be pulled forwards.

On the other end of the rope, Charles' jaw was clamped onto the frayed Knot that sat at the end of the metre long rope the two of them were holding onto. Currently the two of them were playing tug of war and as much as Lincoln hated to admit it, he was losing.

Granted, it wasn't that unbelievable, Charles was a dog after all and had been cooped up for the past day and a half, maybe longer. So the canine had bounds of stored up energy that needed to be expelled before he began to go stir crazy.

Lincoln couldn't remember how long he had been playing outside but he didn't care to know, he was having fun and as long as he was having fun, he was distracted from reality.

When Lincoln was done putting all of his possessions away and finished sorting his room out he had a little explore of the house, mind you he stayed away from the girls rooms which left him to see the downstairs mostly. The house was certainly spacious but Lincoln imagined that it would feel far more crowded when everyone was in the house, he couldn't help but shudder at the thought of such as massive house being so occupied.

Feeling his hands begin to lose their grip on the rope, he snapped back into focus. Tightening his grip he tried to wrap his fingers around the rope further and pull harder, having very little success in doing so but that didn't matter. What mattered was wearing Charles down so he wouldn't be running around the house and annoying anyone later. Lincoln could still remember the last time that had happened, they were finding broken pot pieces for weeks.

In that moment Charles decided that the rope was no longer any fun, he let his jaw go, Lincoln went flying back with the force he had been using to pull backwards. Resulting in the boy to land on his posterior rather harshly, Charles began to run circles around the downed boy, trying to entice him to stand up again.

He threw the rope to the floor as he stood up, finding it pointless to hold onto it any longer. In a flash the dog zoomed past him and yanked the rope off the floor, dragging it along with him as he ran away from the boy.

" Hey! No fair! " He quickly gave chase, trying his best to keep up with him, the metre long rope flailed in the air behind Charles' body. Although to be fair, that was really smart of him to do that.

After several minutes of running around after Charles, being just behind him but never quite reaching him, Lincoln decided he needed to sit down and rest. He could feel his heart beat fast, his legs were getting sore and he felt like he was about to collapse. He slowly trudged up the wooden stairs and when he got to the small decking that sat outside the door he collapsed.

Carefully he readjusted himself so he was laid on his side overlooking the garden, from here he could see Charles continue to run around the garden. The long rope still flailed behind him as he ran, after a while he began to run in circles in an attempt to chase the end of the rope. Lincoln couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, wheezing as he tried to catch his breath. There was something inherently funny about a dog chasing something that they themselves were holding onto.

"Woah dude! You ok?" He flinched as the voice sounded behind him, he turned to lay on his back and looked up at whoever had snuck up on him. Stood just outside the backdoor was the red jersey clad jock girl, her hair was tied up in a pony tail and she was carrying a soccer ball in her hands. She was leaning over slightly to get a better look at him, possibly concerned at finding him laid down on the porch outside.

In an instant he could feel his heart begin to pound in his chest, his nervousness having returned full force. When had she gotten back? Were the others inside now as well? As if to answer his question a loud guitar rift echoed out an open window and he flinched at the loud noise, the jock, however, did not.

For a moment he was dumbfounded, until he remembered her question. He let out a few fast nods as he tried to control his breathing, both to regulate his breathing and to calm his nerves.

She looked between him and the garden, noticing Charles' antics for the first time. She looked back at him before shrugging, stepping past him she began to lightly toss the ball between her hands. When she got three steps away she paused before turning back to him.

"You play sports?"

For a moment the two of them looked at each other, Lincoln could feel his stomach tighten at the question, as he knew there was a hidden meaning to that.

"No." He shook his head as he talked. " Sorry. "

The girl shrugged her shoulders before turning away, giving off an uncaring sound. "Its whatever, no big deal."

Within a few minutes she started to go through a routine, from kicking the ball up into the air and bouncing it off different limbs, all the way up to kicking it against the fence and using her hands to catch it. As if she was both a striker and a goalie, and yes, he did know which roles both of them played... He wasn't that uneducated in sports.

He watched as Charles ran past him and into the house through the doggie door, it was then that he decided that he too should go inside. Picking himself up from the floor he went to go back inside, he paused as he looked back to the sporty girl... He really needed to learn their names... He wasn't sure if he should have wished her luck or to tell her to have fun but quickly stopped himself when he saw the determined look on her face.

As he entered through the backdoor his sense were assaulted by both noise and smells, the intense aroma of spices and chopped foods invaded his nose while loud shouting and noises pierced his ears. The combination of both was almost enough to knock him down into his butt, instead he simply walked through the kitchen. Glancing at the man who he would one day have to refer as his step-father, the man was busy preparing tonight's meal.

When he got out the smells ceased to invade his nose and he felt slightly better. The noises, however, did not help to calm him down. He needed somewhere quiet to clear his head, somewhere where he could just relax. It didn't take long For his feet to begin to walk him towards the stairs, intent on returning him to his room. His safe haven in this chaotic and unruly place.

As he walked throughout the house he saw what several of the girls were up to, the twins were arguing over the TV, the eldest - Lori - was sat on the couch with them taking care of Lily. He cringed slightly when she peered up from her phone to look at him and he quickly averted his eyes, not wishing to draw her ire to him.

In the hallway upstairs he could hear loud music being played from one of the rooms, the sheer volume made it impossible to tell which room it came from but he took a guess that it came from one of the rooms furthest away from his own. He caught sight of the blonde with sunglasses standing outside - what he presumed was - her room, holding up two different pieces of cloth of different colours, one black and one white.

Opting not to figure out what she was doing he made his way for the end of the hall, as he entered his room he shut the door behind him. Letting out a breath of relief when he heard the loud noises being muffled by the walls... Slightly. It wasn't enough that he couldn't hear the noise anymore but just enough to be able to tolerate it if he didn't focus on it, there was only one thing that was able to do that would enrapture his attention that thoroughly.

He knelt down and reached under his bed, pulling out his case of art supplies. Setting it down he unzipped it, watching as the pens, pencils and other drawing supplies came into view. He was glad that none had come lose during the ride over or when he had placed the case under the bed.

Pulling out the notepad he began to flip through the pages, seeing the old drawings he had done. He also noted that the pages were beginning to get a little worn out but that was fine, he had almost filled up the book anyway and would need a new one soon. As he flipped the pages he took note of what he had drawn, many were drawings of Ace savvy, muscle fish or AARGH! related, while others were of his mother, Pop-Pop and even Charles. There were even multiple drawings of beautiful landscapes and buildings that Lincoln had found interesting to draw.

When he was done filling in this book he was gonna have to put it with the other three filled notebooks that contained his drawings. When he reached the end of his drawings he flipped over to the next plain page, his eyes scanned over it for a moment while he thought about something to draw... Anything.

There was the image of Charles from the garden But he had many drawings of Charles and another one would just blend in with the rest. He needed something more... Unique, at least that was how he felt it should have been. Something new while starting anew... Could that be considered poetic?

An idea came to his mind and he realised that he hadn't made a drawing like that one in a long while, the last one must have been so far behind in terms of quality that it would look ridiculous next to his newer ones. Pulling out a plain pencil and a ruler he began to draw in the guide lines all over the page. Ensuring that the entire picture would be to scale. He made sure they were extremely faint so they could be erased later, after a moment of hesitation he began to draw.

Slowly, carefully. Line by line he turned the plain piece of paper into a piece of art.

In this state he lost focus on everything that was happening around him, the music dulled down to naught but a faint noise. The constant chatter of the others was but a distant memory and his sole focus was on the drawing, he had almost... Almost forgot that he wasn't the only child in the house.

A single thought occurred to him, what would they think about his drawings? Would they like them? Hate them? Would they mock him? It wasn't something he had thought of originally but now that it had come up he couldn't stop the pool of worry from forming in his stomach. It was bad enough he was now the only boy (among the kids) but what would happen if they mocked him for not being... Well, manly.

He knew it was stupid to think such things, his mother had always said that one didn't need to do masculine things to be considered manly. In the same way girls didn't need to do feminine things to be girls, like his sporty step-sister who was outside, she was a girl but she was also a jock that seemed to love sports.

Still he couldn't shake the feeling that the girls would look down on him because of the way he was and it worried him to think that being himself may have not been enough to get them to like him.

His fingers tapped against the pencil as he looked at the drawing. Faint lines and shapes were Sat in the centre of the page and to the untrained eye it would be nothing more then that but he saw what he was drawing. The front yard, fences, path and flowers made a set for the foreground. Behind that was the two story house... His old home. He hasn't drawn the place before, he used to consider it too mundane to do so but now he would never see that house again and it held such an important part of himself that he didn't want to forget it.

it would take several hours of work but he could get this done if he focused on it.

"That's nice."

At the sudden voice Lincoln let out a yell - definitely not the girly scream he could hear in his own ears, nope. - as he turned to face the speaker. The surprise being enough to force his body to begin to back away before he could see who was behind him. His body bumped into his notepad and case, sending the contents flying haphazardly around the room.

His eyes focused on the intruder as his back hit the back wall. Black hair covered her face to just below her eyes, obscuring his ability to make out her facial expression. The girl was wearing all black clothing with the exception of black and white leggings and arm sleeves.

As he placed a hand over his heart he could have sworn he saw her mouth twitch into a smirk for the faintest of moments. Truthfully he wasn't even sure if he had seen it, then a question entered his mind. How did she get in here? His door was closed and there was no way she could have gotten in without him knowing, the sudden volume changes when the door would be open would have been enough to grasp his attention.

That question left him more confused instead of helping him understand the situation.

And as if the world wanted to make things worse for him, his door opened with the force of a hurricane. Slamming into his bed frame with force, he flinched at the sudden noise and almost refused to look up at who else had entered his room.

A quick glance revealed that it was Luna, the purple clad girl who had barged into his room. The taller girl quickly looked between him and the black haired girl for a moment before she began to step forwards. Stepping over all of the scattered art supplies to the best of her abilities, she moved over to his side before kneeling down to his height. The boy avoided looking at her as much as he could but his only other option was to look at the dark clothed girl.

his entire torso tended when Luna put her hand over where his heart was and he became as stiff as a board. Giving a shake of her head Luna turned towards her younger sister.

"Luce dude, did you really need to do that?"

Luce? Was that her name or nickname? Lincoln couldn't decide and honestly, he was still too frazzled by the jump scare to be able to think straight.

The younger girl slowly turned her head towards Luna, giving off an impression of a hunted doll turning its head towards the protagonist of a horror movie. "Not my fault he didn't hear me."

For all it was worth, Luna wasn't the least bit fazed by her sisters creepy actions. "Lucy... dude, what did dad say about scaring everyone?"

" To try not to. "

Honestly, Lincoln wasn't sure why Luna isn't creeped out by Lucy's - her name was Lucy right? - monotone and empty voice. It was definitely worthy of being in a creepy movie all on its own.

"Right. And what did dad say about scaring Lincoln?"

For a moment there was a silent stare down between the two girls and Lincoln could feel his heartbeat climb up into his throat. Could it be considered a stare down if you couldn't see one person's eyes?

"Not too."

" Uh huh. " Luna moved her hand off of Lincoln's chest before leaving it on his shoulder. "Not too. Now. What compelled you to do so?"

As if the words were enough to break the girl out of her still stature, she slowly kicked one of her legs forward, causing a stray pen to roll across the floor. For the first time after laying his eyes on her, Lincoln realised that the girl before him was exactly that, a young girl. She must not have been any older then eight or nine, so it made sense that she would show such a childish action... She was a child.

" He didn't hear me come in. " by the way her head tilted ever so slightly, Lincoln guessed that she was looking towards the floor. He had always made a habit to observe people's movements down to the fine detail, it often made the difference between dodging a surprise punch and being hit by one.

"Did you knock?"

Lucy shook her head, her black bags swaying with the momentum ever so slightly but not enough to see her eyes beneath.

Luna let out a sigh before facing Lincoln.

"You alright dude?"

Taking a moment to process the question he slowly nodded his head before speeding up. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

His heart had slowed down to a more normal pace and the fear he had felt earlier had dissipated as the two girls conversed with one another.

"Alright." The rocker patted the boys shoulder before standing up. As she began to walk out the room she wrapped her arm around Lucy's shoulders . "Come on spooky, we gotta talk."

Lucy walked ahead, muttering something about not liking to be touched as she walked ahead. As Luna walked past the threshold of his door she turned back to him. "Dinner won't be long dude, keep an ear out would ya. "

With that the door to his room was shut. For several minutes Lincoln Sat there trying to recollect himself, it was one thing to be calm but it was another to be collected. After a while he began to clean up all of the scattered art supplies, the last thing he needed was to start losing them after taking great care of them for over a year and a half.

When he slotted in the last item he did a double check to be sure that nothing was missing, thankfully nothing was but he made a mental note to place his art kit as far out of view as possible. He Was lucky that neither of the two of them had bothered to look at his stuff and were more focused on the current issue... I.E: him being scared to all hell and back.

On the bright side he now knew another of the girls names and was a small step closer to being able to get to know the girls... Or at least Lucy. As he recalled what Luna had said to Lucy, it sounded like Lucy had been scaring everyone else on a regular or semi-regular basis. Or at least enough to warrant her getting a warning about doing it.

He could still hear his yell - he refused to admit that he had screamed - in his ear. He hoped that none of the girls would mock him for being scared. It was perfectly normal to be scared... right?

"Kids, dinners done! "

Lynn's shouting pulled him out of his internal comversation, pulling himself up from his spot on the floor he made his way for the door. He paused as he checked his hat, making sure none of his hair was sticking out from under the edge, then he opened the door. Seeing several of the girls walking down the stairs.

He waited a moment before following, not wanting to invade their personal spaces or accidental knock into one of them. He was the last to enter the dinning room and found himself moving towards the only empty seat left. To his left was the girl in the Pink dress - Lola or Lana - he still couldn't remember, although he could have sworn he could see a faint footprint resting on her cheek. Probably the result of the twins scuffle earlier.

To his right was the blonde with the white sunglasses and seafoam green dress, when he turned to look at her he saw that she was looking right at him. For a fleeting moment he could see the look in her eyes, curious, much like when pop-pop was trying to figure out a crossword puzzle but when it came from her it set off several red flags and he quickly turned away from her to avoid her gaze.

Any time he saw a look like that one from someone he didn't trust he knew to stay as far away as possible so he couldn't be put through whatever it was they were thinking of doing to him. He made a mental note not to be in the same room as her alone, even if his suspicions could be wrong.

Safe was better then sorry.

Dinner was quickly passed out between them and the only boy stared at the meatball sub that had been placed in front of him... Not that he was complaining of course. It just surprised him that it was being presented as a dinner as opposed to a lunch as he could see that the bread had been well toasted and the cheese was melted into the rest of the sub, ultimately glueing it all together.

"Subs, Subs, Subs, Subs! " The red coated jock chanted as she was given her meal before she swooped it off her plate. As quickly as she got it she began to devour her subs with such a speed Lincoln would have thought she was in a eating contest, many of the girls around him actual looked on at their sister in disgust due to the food that was beginning to drip down her chin.

Looking away to not be sick he focused on his meal, slowly he picked it up before giving it a tentative bite. As quickly as that he could understand why the jock was devouring her food so fast, these subs tasted amazing. The mild cheese, the crunchy lettuce, the juicy tomatoes and the cooked meatballs all blended well together. Without paying attention to the other girls he began to eat his food, being far more careful with how he ate so he wouldn't come off like a slob or disgusting.

"Junior, superstar, can you please slow down before you start choking. "

Lincoln only paid a small amount of attention as the girls father began to address the jock but his ears were still open to the conversations around him.

"Sorry dad but you know I love subs, especially the way you make them. Everywhere else just can't do them the same as you."

Slowly each of the girl began to eat their dinners, the jock herself had excused herself from the table as she had already finished her food in the time it took Lincoln to eat a quarter of his first sub.

" What a slob. " He turned to the pink twin to his left as she spoke aloud, she turned to him for a moment before facing her sisters. "At least he doesn't eat like she does."

Suddenly Lincoln found himself under the gaze of most of the girls and he couldn't stop the sinking feeling from entering his chest. Slowly he chewed the food in his mouth before swallowing it down, only then did he reach for his glass of water. As he drank down his drink he tried to avoid their eyes and could feel his face heat up under their gazes.

Noticing her son's discomfort, Rita slyly tapped her elbow into her finances ribs and used her head to gesture to the scene wordlessly. Taking the hint the father of ten spoke up.

"So, anyone got anything they would like to share?"

Pulling their sights away from Lincoln most of the girls began to eat, some noticing the hint to not stare at the boy. Surprisingly - to Lynn at least - Lori was the one who spoke up, despite being on her phone at the same time as she texted away with other people.

"Yeah, high schools closed tomorrow. You should have gotten a text about it earlier." True to the elder girls words their father had received a message from the school district regarding the schools temporary closure.

"What caused the school to be closed down? " Rita asked, intrigued in the sudden closing of the school. For a moment Lori couldn't find something to say, not having expected to be spoken to by her father's fiancee.

she grimaced as she remembered the finer details.

"Several boys went around putting firecrackers in the toilets during classes, it damaged the toilets and caused one of the upper floors to flood toilet water everywhere."

"The schools closed until further notice but they've already gotten people in to start fixing the damages, so it shouldn't take long for everything to be cleaned."

Multiple girls nodded in agreement to their eldest sister, surprisingly, the overall wearing twin exclaimed that it sounded cool. Lincoln himself shuddered at the image of toilet water flooding the halls of the school, it wasn't hard as it had happened several times at Hazeltucky, much to the disappointment of the parents as each time the school would be closed for weeks as everything was sorted out.

"Well thats... Unfortunate. At least you'll get to have a sleep in tomorrow morning and a three day weekend right?"

Lori scoffed. "Hardly, I have to get up to send everyone else to school in the morning, since dad is unable to do so with needing to go to work and no-one else has a driver's licence. "

Lincoln made a quick mental note to remember that Lori had a licence as he finished off his first sub, if he ever needed a lift he could - hopefully - ask her for a ride. He would have to be sure to not overdo it with asking though. He picked up his second sub as he continued to listen, noticing that several other girls were almost finished too.

He could see his mother think about what Lori had said and he could give an accurate guess as to what she was going to say next.

"Well, if that's the case... Why don't I do it, give you the day off. "

All of the girls looked at Rita for a moment before glancing between themselves, Lincoln could see that Lori was tempted by the offer but there was definitely some background underthought that kept her from jumping onto the offer immediately.

However, Lori had no ground to stand on to make an argument against the idea. On top of which it would have made her look bad to decline such an offer, especially from her father's fiancee, who was just trying to help her out.

"If you don't mind doing it, the younger ones can be quite rowdy if left unchecked."

" Hey! " No-one paid the pink twin any mind when she shouted out, although Lincoln made another mental note to be careful with what he said incase he could insult someone accidentally.

"I don't mind, it would give me a chance to see the town and learn where the schools are, besides, I think you need a break if you've been running everyone to school everyday."

Lincoln could see the conflict grow on Lori's face as she tried to find a reason to convince his mother that she couldn't do it but Lincoln could tell that his mother had won already. He knew it, his mother knew it, sadly Lori didn't know it... Yet.

"The van can be... Difficult to drive, are you sure you'll be able to manage it?"

" Oh no, I don't trust myself to drive the van yet. Besides I've still got my car outside and I'm sure there will be enough space to fit these four. " Rita pointed to the twins, Lucy and the speckled girl. A five seater car driving five people? Easily done.

Realising that she couldn't say anything else she relented, she excused herself from the table as she had finished eating. She deposited the van keys on the coffee table before making her way upstairs, intend on getting to her room.

"Oh, dad." The man looked towards his rocker daughter, giving her a nod to continue talking as his mouth was full of food . "Is it alright if Sam comes round say... Noon-ish? We want to do some practicing this weekend."

Giving a nod Lynn Senior swallowed his food. " Yes but remember the rules. Go in the garage, take regular breaks and be sure to keep all doors open young lady. "

Luna blushed slightly at that before nodding furiously. "Will do pops."

With that each of the girls slowly disbanded from the table, cleaning their plates off before leaving them in the sink. Each of them went to continue their own thing, the conversations from before left Lincoln confused, why would Luna need to keep the doors open?

A/N: I've got nothing to say... Nothing At all.

Enjoy reading.