There has been much to see during the tour of school, much to memorize too. For Lincoln, it had been somewhat stressful. Needing to try to memorize it all was a taxing task and left him somewhat drained mentally.
His mother made no comment on his current state, understanding that it was just how he was. But she also knew that Lincoln fretted about every little detail, she knew it was due to the way he had been treated previously and as much as she tried to make things easier for him, she knew she couldn't stop him from doing all he could to worry about himself.
Fortunately, Lincoln seemed to be alright around the McBride boy. It certainly helped that he seemed to be so understanding and patient in regards to Lincoln's silence.
Rita honestly believed that Clyde could become one of Lincoln's better friends if her son allowed himself the chance to get to know people.
She could only hope.
Having long since returned from their tour of the school, Lincoln had excused himself up to his room. Needing time alone to reorganize his thoughts.
The girls had also returned from their mall shopping trip, having now spread out across the house doing their own things.
Leni was busy in her room, the sound of her sewing machine was going off rhythmically yet randomly. Luna was rocking out to a new CD album she had bought, the twins were playing together - yes, truly playing together - in their own sort of fantasy setting game involving dragons, swamp monsters, Unicorns and princesses.
Lucy was nowhere to be found, supposedly this was normal but Rita didn't quite like it, Lynn was out in the garden breaking in several of the sports equipment pieces she had bought. Luan was busy both with watching Lily and reading a simple book on magician tricks.
Lisa was up in her room doing who knows what while Lori had decided to go out again, only after seeing Rita was actually in of course.
Luan herself was practically buried nose deep in the book she had brought, trying to figure out the secret to Lincoln's previous coin trick. While it was a simple trick on paper, in practice it was more complicated. And hey, if she learned new tricks for her birthday gigs then what was the harm?
Of course, she had been trying to figure out exactly how Lincoln had done his own, her little book made small mentions of deception and discretion to perform tricks whilst showing a few examples. But none of them seemed to match what he had done. Either Lincoln used a far higher level of deception then she realised or he had done it differently.
Either way, she was at a loss trying to figure it out.
Sighing, the comedian closed the book before putting it down. Pulling her notebook from beside her she began to look through her bookings, seeing when her next gig was. She always liked to make sure people booked at least two weeks in advance, so that way if the plans changed then they could easily cancel should need be. That and so she could properly prepare the party for the intended audience.
Kids, Goths, Sports maniacs. The only thing she expected out of her audience was that they be well behaved. She adjusted for the rest.
She looked up to Lily, seeing that the tot was chewing on a teething ring, she looked down at her book again. Making a note of the larger gaps in her schedule, whilst also trying to figure out what sort of act to do. As she needed to tailor it to each child.
"You don't mind if I sit in here so you?"
Luan looked up to see Rita gesturing to the armchair. "Not at all, I could use the company." The mother of one sat down in the seat while she looked down to watch Lily play on the floor, old maternal instincts kicking in and making her want to scoop the tot off the floor.
If only to see if she would react in the same way Lincoln did at that age.
"Reminds me of Lincoln." She looked over to Luan, seeing her giving her a questioning gaze. "When he was her age."
A look of realisation crossed Luan's face as she nodded, resting her notebook down she sat up straight as she watched Lily crawl after a few of her toys while keeping the teething ring in her mouth.
"What was he like?" She could see the fondness grow on Rita's face, the look of a proud parent as she remembered the early years.
"He was... Adventurous, mischievous, sneaky and just... oh so happy. Happiest little boy in the world, without a single worry." Rita's smile dropped slightly. Luan took notice of this but opted not to say anything, letting her continue as she pleased. "He used to draw all over the walls," Rita let out a mirthful laugh. "From the moment he could walk and hold a pen, he would draw all over the walls. I gave up trying to paint over it for a while, I just let him have his fun and when he grew out of it I painted over it."
"It got easier after Pop-Pop got a few colouring books for him, kept him distracted."
"Pop-Pop?"
A look of realisation crossed Rita's face, she turned to Luan and nodded.
"My father, he used to live with me and Lincoln, he always called him Pop-Pop and it just stuck. Their bond was... is unbreakable. There's nothing my father won't do for Lincoln, even if he is getting a little into his twilight years."
"Oh... that's nice I suppose." Luan twiddled her fingers around the corner of the book's page, her eyes darting away from her future step-mother.
Taking note of Luan's sudden shift in behaviour, Rita dropped the smile on her face as she leaned forwards in her seat.
"Something wrong?"
Shaking her head Luan waved Rita off. " No, No. I'm just a little envious I suppose. We never got to meet our grandparents, from either of our parents' side. Dad didn't want his dad near us, mom... never had anyone to introduce us to I guess. "
The two of them fell into a somewhat awkward silence, admittedly, Rita wasn't sure how to deal with this. She quickly reminded herself that this was one of the small reasons she found herself wanting to be with Lynn, to have the new experience of handling the girls and helping them grow up.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that, I guess I just assumed... I shouldn't have, really."
"It's alright." Luan wiped a forming tear from the corner of her eye before taking a calming breath. "You can't know everything."
Now Rita felt horrible, knowing that she had dampened Luan's spirit because she hadn't thought about what she was going to say. She let her eyes glide over to Lily, just as the tot began to awkwardly walk her way over to her. The tot raised her arms as she giggled and she really did remind Rita of Lincoln when he was a baby. Obliging the One year old Rita picked her up before resting her on her knees, it felt nice to have the familiar weight there again.
The youngest Loud babbled away as she sat there, half chewing on her teething ring. Giving the toy a feel, she could tell that it was bought recently and was one of those that was not meant to be chilled before use.
"Maybe I can't know everything." She addressed Luan again, gaining her attention. "But I should have been a bit more tactful. I'm sorry. "
"No, you're alright. You haven't done anything wrong." Luan picked up both her books before standing up. "Anyway, I need to go sort a few things out, get things ready."
Rita waved her goodbye before turning back to Lily. Seeing the baby looking at her with wonder in her eyes. Rita smiled as she pressed her finger to her stomach, electing a small giggle from the baby.
"Something tells me you're going to be keeping me awake at night." Lily cocked her head to the side, not at all understanding what Rita was saying. She babbled slightly while she waved her teething ring around before resuming her chewing of it. "It's going to be oh so worth it though, I just know it."
Later that evening the girls - minus Lily - gathered in Lori and Leni's room for their weekly sister meeting. The nine girls were spread about the room, the youngest ones waiting for the meeting to start. The sibling meetings were a thing that was created a few years ago, in an attempt for the girls to get caught up with each other and let out any problems they had that week.
It prevented them from building up grudges or creating problems between certain sisters, the meetings also allowed each of them to cross reverence future plans whilst also creating new ones. The topic at hand was usually different each week.
Although most of them knew what this week's meeting would be about.
After determining that now was the best time to start Lori racked her knuckle against the drawers next to her bed, getting everyone's attention at once.
"Alright, now that we're all settled, I want to start this meeting off by saying that we all probably have something to get off our chest, so keep anything you have to say short so all of us can say something. Ok? "
A small chorus of 'Yes Lori' echoed around her as several of the girls nodded.
"Ok, let's start simple. Does anyone have plans next week? Or anything that may conflict with future plans?"
Luan raised her hand. "I got two birthday parties on Wednesday and Thursday, both in the afternoon."
"Me and Sam plan on meeting up for another jamming sesh at our buddy's house, probably Thursday or Friday." Lori waved Luna down as she took mental notes of everything.
"I may or may not have a game in the coming week." Lynn junior started, raising her hand to get everyone's attention. "Depends if the weather holds up or if plans change."
"Ok. Well, anyone else?" Lori scanned the room, getting small head shakes from each of her younger siblings. "Alright, anyone got anything they want to say or get off their chest?"
"Yeah." The girls turned to Lola, the pink princess having raised her hand from where she sat on the floor. "Are you going to be driving us to school? Cause I don't want to be Driven by Rita again."
"Why?" Lucy interrupted Lori before she could open her mouth, causing the younger twin to glance over to her. "You didn't seem to mind being driven to school yesterday."
"Yeah well... Things change, I didn't like it." Lola looked down to her painted fingernails, in an attempt to not have to look at Lucy.
"It's only because she didn't get to sit in the front and had to sit next to Lucy." Lana folded her arms behind her head as she laid down, giving the conversation very little attention. She knew Lola could and often would look for any reason to not like something.
"I would rather ride in her car then have the sweet spot in Vanzilla." As Lana said this Lola slapped her on the leg, although it didn't hurt her at all. The six year old mechanic hardly flinched.
"Girls. Stop." Prepared to get between the two of them, Lori sat at the very edge of her bed. "Whatever your preference, it doesn't matter, from what I understand the high school won't be open until Wednesday at least."
Around her Luan and Luna quietly muttered out a yes as they pumped their fist, ignoring the slightly immature behaviour, Lori moved on. "Of course. I will still have to drive you to school as Rita will be beginning to work at her job too. So she can't drive you girls to school anyway."
"And I need dropping off too." Lynn informed them, referring to yesterday where she needed to get a lift with her father to her school.
"Don't forget that Lori has to drop Lincoln off at school with us as well." Several heads turned to Lucy, some a little surprised that she remembered but others were disappointed in themselves that that detail had slipped their minds.
"Yeah... Right." Lori sighed slightly as she realised that she would be stuck being closer to the boy, even if only for a short while. "So don't worry Lola, I have to drive you to school anyway."
"Anyway, if there's nothing else th-"
"No." Lucy stood up from her spot as she interrupted Lori, walking just a bit closer to her so she could try to look her in the eye. Or the best she could do with her own hair covering her face. "I have something I want to get off my chest."
Not waiting for any sort of acknowledgement or permission Lucy continued. "Ever since he's gotten here you've been acting very... cold to Lincoln, very uncaring. That's something I expected out of Lisa, not you."
"What's your problem? He's done nothing wrong."
Silence fell between them as the eldest and the goth had their own little stare down. Admittedly, Lucy had a point. Lori had been the least enthusiastic about everything that had been going on, she didn't like the idea that her father had gotten engaged, she didn't like that she was moving in and she really didn't like that Lincoln had been brought along too. Ironically enough, Lori had been one of the most enthusiastic about getting their father to regain a social life but the moment it had turned to romantic pursuits she had changed.
"She's got a point sis," Luna crossed her arms as she looked to Lori. "You haven't exactly been very friendly or co-operative with him. What gives?"
"I think you two are exaggerating, besides, if he doesn't want to talk to me or any of you, then that's his choice, not our problem. "
"The little dude is shy, he's in a completely different place now, he left his friends behind, he's trying to adapt to living with us. " Luna sat up straighter as her eyes narrowed at her eldest sister. "You aren't helping him to feel welcome here, me and Luan are trying to get to know him."
"In case you haven't noticed Lori, he gets extremely quiet around you. Even more so when you act demeaning towards him."
At this Lori put on a hurt face, bringing a hand to her chest in offence.
"Excuse me? I have done no such thing, I've simply made it clear to him that I have no interest in interacting with him."
"Exactly!" Luan sat forwards, leaning closer to Lori as both she and Luna were trying to glare daggers into her. "You've made it pretty clear to him that you hate him and he doesn't even need to ask us if you do, cause he knows you hate him."
Lori's face shifted between a mix of sceptical and offended. "Hate is a strong word girls."
"Yeah... cause I can feel the kindness roll of you in waves." Giving a knowing look to Lori, Luan crossed her arms. Her sarcasm didn't go unnoticed by Lori.
Being the ever so lovable ditzy girl she was, Leni scratched her head as she looked at Lori. "We're not at the beach Luan, how can there be waves?"
The rest of the sister's collectively facepalmed, this went unnoticed by Leni as she continued to stare at Lori in confusion, trying her hardest to see the 'waves'.
"Look, girls what does it matter? It's not like I'm going to be here for long anyway, I see no reason to let him get attached to me when I'll be leaving for college once school's over."
"An intelligent observation my eldest sibling, however, you must remember that it will take time for you to actually get in a collage. " Lisa was sat just at the end of Lori's bed, casually looking around the room with indifference. "So there is a chance, a high change in fact, that you will have to deal with his presence until you do get accepted."
"Of course it would be easier for you if you actually tried to study," seeing the look of annoyance being directed at her cause of her sly comment she quickly tried to save herself. "Of course I'm just a four year old, what would I know?"
"There's only one problem with that Lori." Luan shook her head on annoyance as she imagined the scenarios in her head. "What's going to happen every time you visit us? What's going to happen at every holiday and birthday? You'll come to hang with us and ignore him, you'll probably ignore his birthday too, knowing you."
"And that's not a joke."
"You know what? We're getting off track."
"Hey don't change th-"
"It's chore day tomorrow!"
Each of the girls grew silent, not at the notion of chore day but at Lori's apparent frustration. They knew better then to try to push anything with her while she was getting worked up.
"Now." Lori started, patting the side of her hand against the palm of her other hand. "I expect each of you to have any dirty clothes that are in your room ready for me to pick up by ten at the latest, with the amount of clothes we get through in a week I'm going to be washing them all day long."
"So I don't want a single bit of stray clothes. Lana, Lynn. This goes especially for you two."
The two mentioned girls grumbled slightly, for two similar yet different reasons. Lana never liked to have her clothes clean to begin with. Lynn's was more habit than anything but it ultimately tied back to the time when she refused to wash anything back when she considered just about everything to be Lucky.
Luna's eyes widened, noticing something that seemed to slip Lori's mind.
"So." Luna let a knowing smile etch onto her face. "I guess that means you'll be washing Lincoln's clothes too?"
"What?"
"I mean it is your job after all. So I figured that you had known that."
Luna could see the faint look of disgust crossing her eyes, Lori could hardly handle washing their father's clothes, resulting in their father to have to wash his clothes by himself on a separate day. Now she would have to wash Lincoln's clothes as well, although Luna doubted there was anything but grass stains. The rocker relished in the way Lori seemed to mentally squirm.
"Of course," quickly regaining Lori's focus on her, she could see the way her eyes wanted to burn into her. "You could just teach him how to wash his clothes himself, he'd have to spend the day with you tomorrow though. "
Seeing the look of surprise cross Lori's face Luna quickly stood up, stretched her arms high while letting out a fake - yet real sounding - yawn. "Anyway, I'm getting tired and we've all got to be up early tomorrow. I'm off to bed, you should all get to sleep soon too. "
"I do need my beauty sleep." Lola agreed with the rocker as she began to stand up.
"More like beastly sleep." Luan gave a small chuckle at Lana's comment before she stood up herself.
Seeing that many of them were leaving, those that did not sleep in this room got up to leave themselves. Lori made no attempt to keep them in her room.
"I still don't get it." Lori looked over to Leni, seeing her staring at her. "Where are the waves?"
Lori groaned as she ran a hand down her face. "Don't worry about it Leni, just get ready for bed."
"Ok." Happily, Leni skipped off to the bathroom after grabbing a few PJ's. Leaving Lori to her thoughts.
Across the hall, Luna and Luan were chilling in their room, Luna being slightly smug at having made Lori uncomfortable. It probably wouldn't do much for her attitude but the rocker was going to enjoy the moment while she could.
Across from her, sitting on a beanbag, Luan looked at her sister with a bit of skepticism. She understood where Luna was coming from but she couldn't help but feel like Luna was being a bit too... brash.
"Are you sure that was a smart idea?" Of course she had to voice her opinion. "I mean, you just kinda forced Lori to be stuck with Lincoln for the day. I don't think that's good for him."
Giving Luan a quick nod, Luna had to agree. "I know, that's why I'm gonna try to keep an eye on him during the day, make sure she doesn't try to do anything."
Standing up Luna began to scrounge around for her headphones. "Besides, it's not like Lori would do something on purpose. Not unless she wanted to deal with Rita."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Hearing the bathroom door open, Luan quickly stood up. "Well, I'll be back in a second."
"Have fun."
Luan rolled her eyes at Luna before quickly turning to her.
"Oh I will, cause it's going to be a whiz." She's doubled over laughing for a moment. "Get it?"
"I really wish I didn't dude."
Chuckling slightly Luan edged closer to the door. "That's what you get."
The next day, the girls all got up at a somewhat decent time. None were keen on wanting to do anything but all of them knew that they had to do it anyway.
After getting ready in the morning, Lisa herself sat back on the sofa with her calculator and the bills, working it all out while paying each one of them.
Lucy and Lynn worked together to wash and dry up the dishes from the night before, and anything that had come out of people's rooms. Mainly left over drink glasses.
Luan and Lola went about emptying each of the bins in each room, much to Lola's continued disgust and annoyance. Her twin Lana was busy cleaning up after the houses many, many pets. Even to the point where she had to go out into the garden to clean up some of Charles'... excrement. With a scooper of course.
Leni was busy cleaning the bathroom, unclogging the drains and tidying anything that had been left a mess.
Luna was busy hoovering the floor of each room in the house while humming to herself. The only person who wasn't doing chores was Lily herself, she was being looked after by Lynn Senior and Rita while the two of them were cleaning their own room and the living room.
However, the rocker kept her ears open. As The last two people were far from everyone's eyesight. Lori and Lincoln where both down in the basement, getting through the literal mountain of clothes.
Or as everyone but Lori liked to say.
Sitting around on her phone while the washing machine did the work.
Although, when it came to the first wash, that was typically how it went. Over the years Lori had developed a routine on how to wash the clothes. She would start from youngest to oldest, putting in both Lily and Lisa's clothes together, along with a wash sheet to absorb leaking colours.
While then first wash was doing, she would - as she is now - sit on her phone. Just waiting for it to finish. Truthfully there wasn't much to do in the mean time anyway, the basement was almost always left untouched and was, generally, tidy.
After the first wash was done, she would move it to the dryer, put in a second load, then wait till the dryer was done. Then she would fold what was dry, moving herself between each machine and the finished clothes as need be until she had gotten through it all.
She knew she could have turned her attention over to the boy who also occupied the space but she didn't want to have to speak with him until absolutely necessary. Her eyes glanced over to the boys small pile of clothes, while nothing compared to the girls growing piles, it was still something she didn't want to deal with.
Much to her chagrin, Luna had informed Lincoln that he was getting help from Lori on how to get his clothes washed. Despite not wanting to be near her, Lincoln still obliged to do so after Luna had informed him to tell her about anything Lori had done.
The boy was spending his time reading one of his comics, he had been made aware that this would have been a lengthy process. Still, even with a colourful distraction right in front of him, he couldn't help but look over to Lori every now and again to make sure she was still there.
He was certain that at any point she would just get in his face for some reason or other. He really didn't want to have to deal with that... ever.
While he had plenty of clean clothes left up in his room, Lincoln was sure his mother would be disappointed if he didn't keep on top of his washing, especially now that there were so many other people who needed to do the same as well. The other main distraction was that tomorrow he would be participating in his first day at RWES and that was a weight on his mind.
He didn't know anyone at the school, he didn't know how things were played out between the students or who to avoid and who was alright to approach. He would just have to do his best to remain inconspicuous and undetected, something that he had gotten somewhat good at back at HES.
Eventually the washing machine came to a stop, Lori put her phone away in her pocket, turned to the machines and then proceeded to open both. Pulling out the wet clothes she deposited them into the dryer before turning that on. That left her with needing to get a second load on.
One quick glance to Lincoln and she realised that she could be done with him a lot faster then she originally thought, normally she would push up the ages for the washing - save for Lola's dresses, those needed steam cleaning - but there was nothing stopping her from throwing in his clothes now and getting him out faster.
Standing up straight she put on her best authoritative look and voice. "Lincoln," when the boy looked to her she pointed to the washing machine. "I think it's best we get your stuff done now, don't you think?"
Eyeing his clothes the eleven year old slowly stood, picket up his clothes and slowly walked closer, struggling slightly with the uneven, unorganized pile. just before he was able to put it into the machine, Lori placed a firm hand on his chest, causing him to flinch and tense.
Either she didn't notice this or didn't care but Lori quickly picked up each item from his pile, reading the washing instructions before putting it in the machine while also taking note of the stains. Such as the small grass and mud stains on the legs of one pair of jeans. Soon the pile was reduced to just the underwear and socks, seemingly refusing to touch them willingly, she gestured him to throw them in. And he did, without much in the way of grace.
Noticing that he was still wearing the same hat from yesterday, Lori figured that he wouldn't mind if that too got washed. Pinching The top of the hat she began to pull, one hand reaching over for the washing powder, therefore, Lincoln was out of her line of sight.
Feeling the cotton on his head begin to lift filled the boy with a surge of panic and strong sense of fear. Shooting his hands up he grasped the hat by both sides, he pulled it down as he ducked down and began to rapidly back off from the older girl.
Feeling the item slip from her fingers Lori spun on her heel on instinct, spilling much of the power over the top of the washing machine and ultimately, herself.
Growling in frustration she turns to the boy, who was halfway across the room, half curled in on himself as he stood there holding his hat much farther down his head then it had any right to be.
"Look what you did!" She gestured to all of the mess. "What the hell is your problem!?"
Backing off from the shouting Lincoln slowly moved closer to the bottom of the stairs, tears began to form in the corner of his eyes, his heartbeat could be heard in his ears and his legs trembled slightly.
Whether Lori took notice of this or not was unclear.
Before either of them could register it, Lincoln had already begun to run up the stairs that lead out of the basement. When the door slammed shut Lori snapped out of it before turning around and slamming the box of washing powder on top of the machine.
"Stupid boy. Making a scene out of nothing."
She slammed the machine shut, filled it with the cleaning products and then turned it on. Thus leaving her alone to her thoughts... and phone.