On a small patch of land in the state of Kansas it was the usual day on the farm of the Loud family as the large group of eight children worked the fields. Times had been hard over the last few years as the soil produced less and less and a drought had taken a further toll. It was back breaking labor but it was necessary to feed so many mouths. Still, the family made due with what little they could produce and sell at the farmers market. Four of the eldest siblings, daughters Leni, Luna, Luan, and only son Lincoln helped their father Lynn Sr. to till the soil with hoes and racks while the three younger daughters Lucy, Lana and Lola planted and watered the seeds behind them. Meanwhile, the two youngest stayed with their mother Rita in the house, four year old Lisa helped around the house and infant Lily was too young to do much else but look adorable.
Technically speaking, the blonde haired 16 year old Leni was only the oldest on the farm. The eldest of the children, Lori Loud had left the farm a year ago to find a new life elsewhere. She loved her family and hated to leave them but she'd hoped she could find a good job elsewhere and send money back to help the struggling farm. The family had only received one letter from her about four months after she'd left. Since then, no more letters or money had come to the family home. Some of the kids and the parents figured she was struggling the same as they were in finding work and simply didn't want to write back until she could send something worthwhile. Either way, life went on on the farm and the ground needed to be cultivated if they were to make ends meet.
As the family worked tirelessly, third eldest Luna looked up for a moment and wiped the sweat from her brow. She looked around to notice the group was minus one person who could be aiding in this work getting done much quicker. She groaned in frustration as she realized exactly who that was. It was always the same. "Where's Lynn?" She asked the others who simply gave a shrug about the whereabouts of the fourteen year old. "Of course. I'll be right back." She walked off back towards the house.
"She's probably just taking a breather." Lynn Sr. said with a face that spoke volumes to his third eldest child. A look of sympathy for the daughter who bore his name. For Luna it was always the same thing; Lynn wandered off to do her own thing when she should be doing her chores and the parents always defended her.
"She's just a little frustrated."
"Lynn's been working hard. She's earned a little break."
"Let her have some time to herself."
She'd heard them all a thousand times before and Luna was getting fed up with it. With Lori gone it fell to her to manage the other siblings since Leni was far too nice to put her foot down around the others. On top of that...
"Don't be too hard on her Luna." Her older sister pleaded as she let out a cough. The last few months or so, Leni had been getting noticeably weaker and her slight cough had grown more frequent and heavy over time. Despite that she still insisted on helping out with the farming and housework. She was just too good a person to not help when she felt she could and definitely refused to get angry very often.
Luna sighed for a moment then put on a determined face as she continued on to find her sister. The others exchanged worried looks but after encouragement from their father, got back to the task at hand. After a few minutes walk, Luna could hear the repeated sounds of impact being made behind the family's small rickety barn behind the house that stood from a time when they had actual livestock that had long since been sold off or slaughtered. Along with the sound soon came a young raspy voice. "And here comes the pitch," she heard as she rounded the corner to see her younger sister Lynn Jr. toss a fist sized rock into the air and swung at it with a long stick in her hand as it came down to earth and propelling it a good distance away.
"And Lynn Loud knocks it out of the park folks! A home run!" Lynn looked into sky as the rock flew when suddenly the applause of the crowd rung in her ears and everyone cheered for the amazing feat they had just witnessed, She rounded the bases as children screamed her name and people tossed their hats onto the field. She celebrated herself as she rounded the bases with joy, basking in the acclaim and praise from the thousands of fans in the bleachers and the millions more listening over the radio.
"Lynn!" Luna's shout snapped the younger girl out of her fantasy as she turned her attention to her older sister. "What gives? You're supposed to be helping us with the fields, not fooling around back here. We've got work that needs doing, come on."
"I was just practicing." Lynn defended.
Luna immediately walked up and snatched the stick from her grasp. "You can 'practice' when we're done. You want to spend your time pretending to be some big star? Fine, but do it on your own time. We've got fields to till and crops to plant because if you hadn't noticed we're bare bones at the moment and you wasting time isn't helping. Now move it." Lynn shot her a dirty glare in defiance. "Don't give me that look, I said move it!" The elevated tone was enough to get her sister moving and she watched as Lynn grumbled while walking back to the field to rejoin the others.
"Luna," The older brunette heard her name called as she turned to the house and saw her mother standing at the back door with her baby sister in her arms. "Don't you think you're being too hard on her?"
"Mom, we need to get this done. Why should Lynn get to slack off when we're busting our butts to try and make this place half decent?" Luna responded.
"Sweetie she's just a bit frustrated, that's all."
"So am I. So is dad and everyone else, but we don't shirk our responsibilities just to daydream being rich and famous." Luna argued. "Dreaming about things doesn't make them real. It's just a waste of time." As she said this, her eyes shot dejectedly to the ground.
Rita Loud could feel the pain in her daughter's voice as those words left her lips. She stepped away from the house and put Luna in a hug as the girl returned it. "I know things haven't been easy and we've all had to make sacrifices and I'm sorry you've had to give up so much to help. I know your sister can be a handful sometimes but some of us just need to hold on to those dreams to keep us going, give us a little hope. I'll talk to her about doing her fair share, but could you just let her have her moments when she needs them?"
"I'll try mom." Luna said as they soon separated. "I guess I should give little sis some space, huh? Need any help here?"
"Now that you mention it, I could use some help with prepping dinner. Your father's recipes are a tough task to handle alone." Rita answered as Luna chuckled and headed inside.
Back out in the field, Lynn Jr. worked with her brother as he helped her to catch up with tilling as Lincoln could tell she was still in a bad mood. Lincoln looked a bit sad himself seeing his sister so down and decided to speak. "You okay Lynn?"
"No. Dumb Luna, always thinking she's in charge had to ruin my fun again. I swear sometimes she just makes me want to punch her so bad." Lynn growled as she slammed the sharpened end of her tool into the ground.
"Luna doesn't mean to be so harsh." Leni interjected to reassure and calm her sister down. "She's just focused on making this farm a decent place for all of us."
"Leni's right. Just give her time." Lincoln added.
Lynn forcefully pulled her tool back and cut a deep swath in the ground. "Shut it, Stinkcoln! It's not fair! Why does she get to stomp on everyone else' dreams just because she gave up on hers?"
"Come on Lynn, that isn't fair. Luna works harder than anyone else." Leni defended her other sister. Ever since Lori had left she'd done her best to keep the peace between everyone. More often than not it was Luna and Lynn's strong-willed personalities that collided most frequently. It was always "the unstoppable force" versus "the immovable object" with those two. Leni could understand both sides and that was a valuable talent to have in this family. It also meant she had one of the hardest jobs: keeping the peace.
"If that's the case she should be doing all this on her own. I'm sick and tired of doing this every single day and I'm tired of her getting on my back about it! Just wait. You just wait and see. I'm gonna make something of myself and be out of this dump forever." Lynn said with anger in her voice as she continued on.
"Lynn, please don't talk like that. This is our home." Leni said.
"And there's the problem." Lynn said as her brother and sister looked concerned. "Whatever. At least I still have something to look forward to when Margo and me go to softball camp now that dad and me actually scraped together enough money. Just a week or so more and I can drown out Luna for at least a couple of hours and rub it in her face when I finally start to make something for myself." Her siblings decided to just leave that sour subject be for the time being and focus on the task at hand. Evening was still a long time away and there was plenty of work to do before then.
Lincoln stayed by Lynn's side as they worked in tandem, or rather his best effort to keep up with his sister's pace as he decided to take the conversation in another direction. "So...did you get any home runs?" He asked calmly.
Immediately Lynn's expression lit up as she opened up again, this time with joy in her voice. "Oh man Linc, you should have seen it. I hit that baby right out of the park. I swear if I'd had a real bat that thing would have been sent to the next county." For all her aggressive tendencies and anger, Lincoln was one of the few that could calm his sister down when she was in a bad mood, despite the two having a less than stellar brother-sister relationship. Lynn could often be rough with him, wrestling him and hitting him with the occasional pitch when they played ball. On top of that her giving him the nickname "Stinkcoln" didn't help the situation. Even then, Lincoln could still cool her rage and sports was the main topic that could aid in that regard. He listened patiently as she talked on and on about baseball and legends of the sport and her dreams of joining the local girls softball team and one day being the first female player in the major leagues. However unlikely most of this seemed, it made her happy to talk about them.
After the family had finished the long day of hard work, they made their way back to the house just as the sun was setting. Lynn walked Leni as the latter talked about the dresses that she had made for some of the local girls. It helped to earn them a small amount of money but it was also something the older girl was very passionate about. Had they been in a big city, the family was confident that people would be lining up to buy the clothing that she crafted. As they approached the house, Luna sat on the porch, her gaze to the dirt at the foot of the wooden steps. She only turned up to look at the arriving group once Lynn came into view, something that clearly upset the younger girl as she averted her eyes.
"It'll be okay." She heard Leni say as she noticed her hand clutched tightly around her elder sister's, something she seemed to do subconsciously moments before. Lynn kept holding on all the same as they got near to the front porch, everyone else piling inside for dinner and Luna getting to her feet. She didn't budge from her spot and just waited as the two grew closer before speaking. "Can I speak to Lynn, alone?"
Leni released her little sister's hand and walked up to Luna and whispered in her ear. "Luna, don't..."
"It's okay." Luna said assuredly which was enough for a still visibly worried Leni to look into her eyes and see the truth in her words. She smiled lightly and headed on as Lynn held her ground with an angered look. Luna, however just sat back down and gestured for her sister to join her. The younger simply walked over and stood on the opposite side of the porch steps. This made the elder girl sigh but she went ahead with what she had planned. "Listen, I'm sorry," This caught Lynn off guard as she expected a browbeating from her sister for their altercation earlier and her lack of work ethic.
"I shouldn't have said what I said and did what I did earlier." Lynn wasn't the best at reading people, but she was sure that her elder sibling was being honest here. "You know how tough things are here and we need everyone to make it count. I just want to give it our best shot and with Lori gone and Leni sick like she is sometimes I feel like everything has to fall on me to keep it all together and I push too hard. Look, I know this is the last place you wanna be right now and you see bigger and better things ahead of you and you think it stinks, worrying you're gonna be stuck here forever. I get it. I do. I've been there, you know?"
"I-I know." Lynn muttered. She was fully aware from the stories her mother told her and what she remembered growing up about Luna's talent with just about any instrument she put her hands to.
"Music was everything to me, my life. All I ever wanted was to make it big, play for halls full of people coming to see me." Luna explained as her voice quieted before she looked to Lynn with a new resolve. "But when Lori left and things got hard it just seemed wrong to up and leave too when I felt I could help. So I switched out my violin for a shovel and put my nose to the grind. Even then, it wasn't right for me to be so hard on you."
Lynn waited a moment before she responded. "Yeah, well maybe I wasn't making things easy for you all."
Luna got up and walked to her. "I know how hard it is to see this place as anything more than just a shackle when you want to spread your wings and fly."
Her younger sister chuckled a bit. "Now you're sounding like Lucy."
"Listen, I chose to give up on my dreams for this." She gestured to the fields around them. "But I know you have potential to go and get yours. I've always known that and maybe...maybe I was a bit jealous because I knew you'd do that and I'd still be here."
"You were jealous of me?" Lynn said full of surprise, never expecting her elder sister to say anything remotely close to that. "Luna, I'm sorry too. I do want to get out of here one day, but while I'm here maybe I can stop giving you such a hard time and help out without all the bellyaching. Deal?" She extended a hand to her sister.
"Deal, little sis." She reciprocated the gesture, neither being big on hugs. No more words were spoken as they got a call from the house that the food was getting cold and joined the rest of the family. Lynn was certainly not expecting this conversation or resolution from her sister, but it wasn't unwelcome. Even if they still had a few bumps in the road, it was a start and it definitely made the younger girl feel a lot better than she did before for the next few days.
One thing that didn't however was Lynn's least favorite day of the week, Sunday. That meant joining the family on Sunday service to the local church where many of the families in the community joined together. There were several things that bothered Lynn about this. First was having to cram the entire family into a single hay wagon driven by one of their neighbors just to get to the destination. It was a thirty minute ride with twelve people packed in shoulder to shoulder and it was miserable for all involved. On top of that, after being packed into the small wagon having to be packed into the small building with all the other families for an hour or more and having to make another thirty minute trip back was none too pleasant either. By the time they'd gotten back home three hours in the day were already gone.
The second was that when traveling with so many children it fell to the older siblings to keep an eye on the younger. Lynn didn't have to worry about Lincoln so much since he always had a good head on his shoulders. With Leni currently not at her best, the four younger sisters were divided between the Luna, Luan and Lynn. This usually left Lynn Jr. watching out for the black haired Lucy. In terms of the girls they couldn't be more different. Lucy's stoic, poetic and somewhat creepy nature was in stark contrast to Lynn's outgoing and sporty personality. She'd tried to bond with Lucy at her mother's behest but they never really clicked. One of the things that Lynn always wondered is where the younger girl inherited her black hair color. She often wondered the same about Lincoln's white hair, but she figured it helped the two stand out in a large family like this.
The final reason was that she really never saw the point of it. To her it just seemed a waste of time, time that she could spend doing what she wanted on the time she wasn't working out in the fields. To add to it, Lynn could never really follow what was being said despite her parents, older siblings and even Lucy seeming to take something away from it. She just went through the motions with her family and pretended she actually got the gist of what was being said even while the long ride home was filled with discussions of the morning.
The afternoon came as everyone was at home taking some time to themselves. Inside the house, Lynn Sr., Rita and Luna were looking over the families expenses and adding up the numbers. "You're sure Luna?" The father asked with a concerned voice.
"No doubt about it." His daughter responded as she circled several numbers in the book in front of them and pointed to each with the pencil in hand. "I've gone over it about a dozen times now. We don't get it now the price will be almost double next month and there's no way we can afford that."
"How do we tell Lynn? We made a promise to her." Rita said as she looked out the window to see her fifth eldest child playing before she and the other two traded concerned glances.
Behind the house, Lucy sat writing in a small book she kept with her at all times in case she was ever struck with inspiration. Today however she was only nearly struck, not by inspiration but by Lynn's old worn baseball that she only ever took out for special occasions. It struck the back of the house near Lucy's head with the girl barely fazed by it. "Sorry Luce." Lynn shouted as her younger sister grumbled slightly before picking up the ball and tossing it back with impressive skill. Lynn caught the ball in the palm of her hand and had to admit it stung a bit. "Nice. You sure you don't want to help me practice?"
"No thank you." The black haired girl got up and made her way to the old barn where she was certain to have another secluded spot to write. Lynn shrugged and kept on practicing with Lincoln as he tossed the ball to her again and she did practice swings with her "bat".
"Spoilsport." Lynn said as she watched the younger girl trudge off. "Well Lincoln I guess it's just you and me for practice again. Thanks for being my pitcher. Have to get in as much practice as I can for the big day."
"No problem Lynn. I know it's hard to get much work in by yourself and Margo's house isn't exactly close by." Lincoln responded as he tossed the ball and Lynn clobbered it, sending it flying as the two watched in amazement. "Wow! You're going to kill it at tryouts, Lynn."
"I know. Finally get to show everyone what Lynn Loud Jr. can do." Her confident smile turned into one of genuine appreciation as she looked to her brother. "You know, I really have to thank you little brother. You're like the only one around here who gets me. Well you and Leni but you're always helping me out, in practice and with Luna and all and I...I just wanted you to know that I appreciate all of it." She is surprised as the boy pulls her in for a hug.
"I know things around her aren't perfect but I'll always have your back Lynn. Always." He said as he hugged her as tight as he could with Lynn feeling a bit awkward at the display of affection before she soon pried them apart.
"Okay, okay. No need to get all sappy on me." The two then heard the call for dinner and collected their things before joining up with the others to make it back to the house.
"Hey Lynn, when you finally do leave, you think I can come with you?" Lincoln asked to Lynn's surprise.
"Really? I'd thought you'd want to stay here and whip this farm into shape."
Lincoln shrugged his shoulders in response. "I do, it's just...I wanna see what else is out there and experience it myself like Lori is doing. The farm is still our home and I'm never going to give up on it but it would be nice to see something different, you know?"
"I hear you little brother. But don't worry, I'll still come back and visit and I'll bring a whole bunch of new stories with me. Though, if you did want to travel with me for a bit that would be pretty great. The two of us against the world." She placed a hand on his shoulder as the two made it back to the house and joined the family for supper.
Once inside, everyone gathered around the table in the kitchen. The large circular table was custom built or rather modified. The main body of the table was cut in two halves with two large hinges in the center connecting the individual parts. This was done to easily put the table away until it was needed to give everyone access to the small kitchen during the day until it was time to eat. As it stood, once the table had been set, the food laid out and everyone seated, it made it extremely difficult to move about in the room until everyone filed out in an orderly fashion. Lynn and Lincoln were two of the last to arrive and sat next to each other flanked on the right by Luann and the left by Lucy. Once everyone was seated and Lynn Sr. finished saying grace, everyone dug into the food and began to discuss among other things their activities during the day as well as what was planned for tomorrow.
An excited Lynn sat back in her chair as she knew what she had anticipated was only a short ways away. Three seats down from her, Lana wolfed down her food and turned her attention to Lynn Sr. "Hey dad, can I get a rifle for my birthday?"
"You most certainly can not, young lady!" Rita quickly shot down the notion of her daughter getting any kind of firearm.
"But mom, what if I need to protect the farm from thieves and robbers?" Lana defended.
"We'd have to have things worth stealing for that to happen, Lana." Lynn joked as Leni and Lincoln joined in the light laughter much to their younger sisters annoyance as she huffed and slumped in her seat with her arms folded. Across the table Luna looked to each of her parents with concern as she had decided to be the one to break the bad news to her little sister. Seeing Lynn in a much better mood lately and the two getting on a bit better as a result was going to make this sting all the worse.
Finally steeling her nerve, Luna cleared her throat and made her intentions known. "Lynn? I have to tell you something." This got her younger sister's attention as she looked over to her. "I...I need to..."
Lynn looked at her with curiosity as the other siblings listened in. "Huh? What is it?"
Although she tried her hardest to say what needed to be said, the words just wouldn't come out. Lynn Sr. saw this and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's alright Luna. I can tell her."
"Tell me what?" The daughter who shared his name inquired further as she and the others now knew something was wrong.
After a brief few seconds Sr. spoke. "LJ, we've been going over the budget and well...the prices for some of the farm supplies went up and well," He paused as he looked over to his wife and then back to Lynn Jr. who was now close to realizing where this conversation was going. "We can't afford for you to go to camp right now."
Lynn Jr. simply sat in silence as her head sagged down to the surface of the table, obscuring her eyes from everyone else as her hands were clenched into fists in her lap. The family all traded glances with one another with the exception of Luna who kept her eyes on her sports loving sister, feeling bad that she couldn't muster up the courage to tell her herself. Rita was the one to break the dead silence as she attempted to lift her daughter's spirits. "Don't worry honey, I'm sure we can start saving now for next year and..."
"Next year?" Lynn said in a low voice as she looked across the table with a furious expression, tears streaming from her eyes. "Next year?! That's the best you can do?"
"Please dear, I know it seems like a long time but..."
"No! I waited, I saved up the money and now you're going to make me throw it away for some stupid farm junk?! This...this isn't fair! You lied!" She got up from the table in a rage, not caring as she hit her back against the wall as she pushed her chair back.
"Lynn, it'll be okay." Lincoln tried to put a reassuring hand to her shoulder only to be pushed away as she pushed passed her other siblings to leave.
Luna immediately got to her feet as well and made her way around to the younger girl. "Sis, don't be like this, please." This caused Lynn to turn to her as more tears began to rush from her eyes.
"Don't give me that. You're the worst of everyone!" The younger brunette said as her sister stopped in her tracks. "You made me think you actually cared about me. What, did you just say all that stuff to get me to quiet down? So I'd be shuffle along like everyone else here and not complain when I got the bad news?"
"It's not like that. Just listen. I never..." Luna tried to explain only to be cut off yet again.
"I don't want to hear anything you have to say! You really were just jealous of me leaving like Sully, Mazzy and Sam left you behind to live 'your' dream!" Lynn's words caused Luna to flinch and got her visibly angry.
"Lynn Loud Jr.!" Rita called out to her daughter to get her to stop.
"Take that back!" Luna demanded to Lynn, seething with rage. "Take it back right now."
Leni tried her best to lower the tension as she got up slowly. "Come on everyone. Let's just calm down."
Lynn ignored her pleading as she continued in on Luna. "What, you gonna cry Luna? Well guess what? I ain't gonna end up like you, like any of you, breaking my back on this forsaken place as some pathetic loser dirt farmer!"
A loud "smack" rang out in the room, everyone holding their breaths for a second as time seemed to stand still. Luna had run her left hand across the face of her sister for her words. Luna's hand was still stretched across her body as her younger sister held the reddened right side of her face, in complete shock of what had just transpired.
"Luna!" Both parents scolded as Lily, who had been whimpering since the argument started burst into a full cry.
"Apologize," Luna ordered the girl. " To everyone." The two locked intense stares as the younger girl appeared to be fighting back some liquid in her eyes and her nostrils flared in rage as she breathed heavily. Suddenly Lynn dropped her hand from her wounded cheek and rushed out of the front door, ignoring her parents and other siblings cries for her. Luna looked at the open palm that had stricken her sister moments before. Her gaze then turned to her family who were a mix of disbelief and displeasure at her actions. She plopped down into the nearest empty chair and covered her face with her hands as her head hung low. It was a heat of the moment move, spurred by a mix of frustration and misunderstanding, one that just made things a lot worse.