Chapter Four
"Um… Girl Jordan… Could I talk to you alone for a minute…? Somewhere a little more private than this? When you get angry at me, like you have the right to do, I'd like it to at least not be public." Lincoln muttered. Girl Jordan was surprised at how nervous Lincoln looked. His whole body was trembling. His voice was shaking. His breath was coming in gasps.
"Sure… Hey, girls… I'll see ya later." She said, taking Lincoln's hand and heading into an empty classroom. She looked at Lincoln, sitting down with him and staring into his eyes.
"What's wrong, Lincoln? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I-I'm… I'm breaking up with you." He said flatly. Girl Jordan's eyes widened.
"Is… Is this a joke? It's not a very good one. You should leave the comedy to Luan."
"It's not a joke…" Lincoln muttered, turning a deep crimson.
"But why? I thought we were doing really well together!"
"We are… I love you… Jordan…"
"Then why?"
"Because I don't deserve you…" Lincoln muttered, tears coming to his eyes. Girl Jordan laughed again.
"What? What on earth are you talking about? Is this some stupid boy thing you're going through?"
"Well… Not exactly… I-I'm cheating on you." He said. This time, she didn't look amused at all.
"What?" She asked, her voice becoming sharp.
"Have you… Kissed her?"
"Well… Yes, but never anything sexual…" Lincoln muttered.
"Had sex?"
"No."
"Slept in the same bed?"
"Yes, but only when she was recovering from a panic attack."
"It doesn't sound like you're cheating on me. What the hell is going on? You're acting even weirder than usual! And you're the boy who walks around conventions with his underwear over his pants!" She snapped. Lincoln sighed.
"Alright, listen… I… I have feelings for this girl… I'm not cheating on you physically… But I am emotionally…
"You're a great girl… And you deserve my full commitment… And I'm… I'm just afraid I won't be able to give it to you because of my feelings for this girl."
"Who is she?"
"Please don't get into a fight with her." Lincoln pleaded. Girl Jordan scoffed.
"I won't. I just asked who she was."
"I… I can't tell you. I'm really confused about my feelings for her. I'm so ashamed of them, and not entirely for the reasons you're probably thinking… I just… I don't want to hurt her, but I'm afraid that if I tell her how I feel, that she will be hurt…"
"Who is she?"
"I… She's my sister… L-Lucy…" Lincoln muttered, closing his eyes, getting ready for her to either start yelling at him or to hit him and walk out. She did neither. He gasped as she wrapped her arms around him.
"Oh, Lincoln. It's alright… I can see why you're attracted to her."
"Um… What?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"She's beautiful… She's elegant, she's charming and sweet… She's got great fashion sense and she's really graceful. Her body is so slender and willowy…"
"Alright… I'm starting to wonder if you have a crush on her."
"She's really beautiful… I've never had a crush on a girl before, but if I were to go for a girl… Lucy's probably exactly the type of girl I'd go for… She's so dark and mysterious… And I think if you wanted, you have a good shot with her… She doesn't seem to care much about convention as far as relationships go. And she's crazy about you."
"Yeah, I know… It's flattering… But I'm scared I'll end up hurting her. She's my sister, after all… And she's thirteen… Don't tell me that's not at least a little bit weird. Like, it's cute when a younger sister or brother has feelings for their older sibling. When an older sibling has feelings for their younger sibling, it's weird and creepy."
"I don't think you're weird or creepy. Maybe a little misguided… But not weird or creepy."
"You mean because I have feelings for Lucy?"
"No… Because you tried to break up with me. If you end up in a relationship with Lucy, just keep me in the loop about it… I've always wondered what a threesome would be like in real life." Girl Jordan said good-naturedly, mostly to herself. Lincoln couldn't help but laugh.
"Wow… You're being way more understanding than I expected."
"Well… I'm not thrilled that you have feelings for another girl… But you were honest about it, and frankly… I've always wondered what it would be like to be part of a throuple."
"Uhhh… Throuple?"
"Yeah, like a couple, but with thr…"
"Three people, I get it. Well… I'm not sure how Lucy would feel about you being on our dates… I'm not even sure how I feel about going on dates with Lucy… First of all, she's my sister… Second, she's three years younger than me… And at thirteen, a sixteen year old is a lot older than her… Third, everyone knows she's my sister… There would be no hiding that I'm in an incestuous relationship."
"Ah, you worry too much! I insist that you make it clear to Lucy that you're not breaking up with me."
"I… I was planning on that anyway. A relationship built on a lie is no relationship at all."
"You really are one of the most honest people I know, Linc… We better get to class… Unless you wanna spend Fifth Period just… Enjoying each other's company, eh? Eh?" Girl Jordan asked.
"Afternoon Delight? God, I feel like Luna, now… I think I would be too nervous that someone would walk in on us. But I do like the idea."
"I could get some of my friends to stand guard if you're really up for it… We could even try the Dark Side this time…"
"Star Wars reference… Classy, Girl Jordan… Real classy…" Lincoln said sarcastically at her offer of anal sex. She bowed cockily at his comment. He couldn't help but laugh at this. Even as elegant and beautiful as Girl Jordan was, she was still such a nerd… And she looked really sexy in the glasses she wore. Lincoln couldn't deny being tempted by the offer. But he still had to decline.
"I'm afraid I'll need to take a rain check on that offer, tempting as it is. Trig is the class I'm having the most trouble with. Lisa would skin me alive if I missed a day."
"Ah… Well… Better get going to your nerd class then, nerd. See ya at lunch." Girl Jordan teased. The end of period bell rang and Lincoln hurried to put his lunch back in his locker and head to Trigonometry. He didn't care much for it. But overall, he was pretty decent at it.
He still maintained his high grade point average. As an A- student, his friends were all fairly impressed with his academic abilities. He was hardly going to make Valedictorian or Salutatorian with his grades. But Lisa measured his IQ once and came up with an impressive 139.3.
"You're not necessarily a genius, Elder Brother, but being well above average, you're probably the second smartest in the family after me.
"Though I must confess that I've only gotten the consent of about half of our family to measure their intelligence… Most of them simply don't want to know… Primitive fears of inadequacy, I assume. Nonetheless, I've managed to ascertain that after you, Lucy is the most intelligent at an IQ of approximately 135.5, though her intellect is primarily creative rather than analytical and Lily's intelligence is difficult to gauge since she's so young.
"The rest of the family, I was able to learn their IQ through microscopic nanobots measuring their brain waves."
"You spied on our family with tiny cameras?" Lincoln had asked her.
"Ummmmmm… Nnnnooooooo?" Lisa denied with her usual guilty smile.
Lincoln laughed at this conversation. She had given him the chart of the family's intelligence from most intelligent (Lisa, and 428.9, though even she agreed that it was difficult to accurately measure her intelligence due to how imbalanced it was between social abilities and academic abilities. She could speak forty languages fluently, including seven dead ones, converse on physics, chemistry, biomechanics and calculus. But she still had trouble making and keeping friends.
Lincoln had been second, again at 139.3. She assured him that he was well above average, nearing superior intelligence. Leni was the dumbest (big surprise there), at 98. Only 2 points below the international average, but her main problem was not raw intelligence but how easily distracted and scatterbrained she was. Lisa noticed that lately, Leni was showing a better ability to focus. Frankly, Lisa had injected her with nanomachines to see if they would have a positive effect on her.
She first injected herself with the nanomachines to make sure they were safe and tested them for a period of six months before she anesthetized Leni while she was asleep and injected the machines into her spine. Already, Leni was showing much better motor functions, quicker reaction time, greater strength and physical abilities, and her academics were improved significantly as well. She was hardly brilliant in college, but she was paying attention and getting back scores between B- and B.
Lisa gauged her second eldest sister's IQ again just a month ago and it came up 110. She had jumped from slightly below average to between average and above average. Her ability to focus and maintain coherent conversations without going off on non-sequiturs and nonsensical comparisons was definitely improved. She never told Leni that she had done this, since she was sure Leni would not have approved, and nor would any of the rest of the family.
Lincoln found out later when he questioned Lisa about why Leni was suddenly so… intelligent… Even Lincoln said that was a word he never thought he would use to describe Leni. She was a lot of things. Smart was not one of them.
He sat down in his Trigonometry class.
"I was beginning to worry that you would be late, Loud." Mr. Johanssen said in his slow, deep Finnish accent. Lincoln got in just as the bell rang.
"Sorry, sir… I…"
"I don't care to hear excuses. You were just barely on time. Please be more conscientious next time. You can hardly afford to miss my classes." He wasn't doing badly in Trig. At a B average, he was doing pretty well, with Lisa's assistance. Lisa often claimed that it was beneath her abilities to be assisting him with something as elementary as trigonometry. But she continued to help him because he assisted her with her social skills, and she felt she owed him something in return.
Lincoln didn't know how he managed to get into Trigonometry. Math was hardly his strong suit. He was pretty good at it, but by and large, he was better at the social sciences and biology. He was even better at the 'soft sciences' as Lisa called them, psychology, sociology, etcetera. Still, he took extensive notes in Johanssen's class and when the bell rang, he told them they would be having a test on Monday on everything they had learned up to that point.
This worried Lincoln. He would need to study all weekend for that, but he couldn't skip out on his date with Lucy… He had promised… He owed it to her after the way he had treated her. He sighed as he went out to his locker, preparing for his next class.
When school was over, he ran home. He had gotten in really good shape. Again, he was hardly a bodybuilder, and he was no Lynn Loud in terms of fitness, who had already gotten an Olympic silver medal in Triathlon, only missing out on the gold because she sprained her ankle during the foot race. She refused to quit, though and still came in second. If she had been full health, she would have easily come in first, since she had broken various foot speed records going at 33 miles an hour.
Still, she wasn't satisfied with 33. She wanted to get up to 45, but for the time, she was working on getting to 35, and three years after her first Olympics, she was up to 34.8. She would be ready for the next Olympics, ready to kick ass, take names and look awesome doing it, as she said. Turning into his driveway, he walked into the house, seeing that Lucy was already home.
"Hello, Lincoln… I apologize for anything I may have done to anger you yesterday… I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me… She muttered. Lincoln looked at her and walked over to the couch, sitting down next to her.
"Lucy… You didn't do anything wrong… I'm really flattered you feel so strongly about me, and I look forward to our date tomorrow… I was just… Having some issues…
"Hopefully I'll work them out by tomorrow so I'm not burdening you on our afternoon together… But Sunday, I really need to spend the whole day studying…" Lincoln said.
"You have a test on Monday? Our date can wait until next weekend." Lucy said. Lincoln shook his head, kissing Lucy on her forehead. He knew he wanted more than that. He wanted to take her lips, but he wasn't ready for that yet. She had kissed him on the lips, but he wasn't ready to do so to her.
"No. We're doing it tomorrow. We'll go wherever you wanna go."
"There's a poetry club that I'm reading at tomorrow. You'll be there to listen to me?"
"Of course…" Lincoln said, taking her hands in his… The pressure was building for him. He could barely stand it. Her perfect, smooth skin, her lovely pink lips, her beautiful hair… Everything about her was so amazing and beautiful. He just wanted to claim her for himself before another guy took her.
Girl Jordan was surprisingly alright with his feelings for Lucy… But he still wasn't. He sighed and walked back up to Lisa's room, where he asked if she would help him study for his Trig test. She nodded and put the chemicals away, clearing the air by having them sucked into a cleansing turbine and taking a shower before coming back in and sitting down with Lincoln.