Royal Woods, Michigan.

A typical American town with seemingly nothing out of the ordinary, unchanged for years past. Just another one of those Washingtons, or Greenvilles or 'Quotidian-burgs', as I like to call them, If you visit the town, you will eventually come across a street termed as 'Franklin Avenue', which has dozens of houses on either side. Continue down the road and you will find one of them, whose exterior is painted white, roof tiled with black shingles - another mundane detail to note. Nevertheless, we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, as I can assure you this residence is everything but normal. After all, its not everyday you come across a family with 11 children.

Shocked? I figured as much. However we are not here to discuss what was going on in the heads of the parents'. We are here to learn about how one of the children from this household became the person he is now. The story of the person you all know or heard of.

The story of Lincoln Loud.

It was a beautiful summer evening in the small little town of Royal Woods. The blistering heat of the afternoon had died down, and the cicadas had started their sundown symphony of hums and chirps. From the serene view of the town, we cut to 1216 Franklin Avenue, specifically in a room where a boy was lying in his bed. He wore an orange polo T-shirt with blue jeans and white sneakers with red stripes. He had a chipped tooth and freckles on his cheeks. But most noticeable of all was his natural white hair.

"Sigh..."

Lincoln rose up from the bed and decided to stand up, tired from another day of mayhem and chaos at the Loud house.

"Man. I love my sisters and all, but sometimes don't you feel that you need a break to do your own things?" He mused to himself.

Bored out of his mind, he wandered into the room next to his. It belonged to two of his many sisters, Lily and Lisa.

"Maybe I'll find something of interest here...though I wouldn't count on it." He stood before a Lisa's bookcase, and started browsing for something to read. "Let's see...Biochemistry, Classical Mechanics, Optics, Organic Chemistry, Thermodynamics...Huh. Never knew there were so many branches of science. I thought there was only physics, chemistry and biology." After browsing for a while, he found a textbook titled, 'A Brief Introduction to the Art of Engineering'. Intrigued by its concept, he decided to take a look at it.

Lincoln wasn't a genius, but he was always had a fascinated with machines and how things worked. He was curious on how the press of a button can make a doorbell ring, how a twist of a key could start a car, and how the car itself moved. Even though the confusing equations explaining their working never made any sense, he always wished to one day be able to understand them, and make devices and inventions like that himself. Even when reading his fictional superhero comics, he often assigned logical and scientific explanations to the powers of the heroes and villains alike. It makes more sense that way. He also read Sci Fi novels at the Library, and sometimes even read books that belonged to his prodigy sister Lisa, who was nothing short of the smartest person for miles around, even if she was a child. He didn't want his sisters to know he was interested in science however. He always read at the times when he knew his other sisters were busy with their own things, or when they were collectively scheming up who knows what at their "Sister Meetings". He felt that if they were to know his secret, they would make fun of him, like they did with his other hobbies. There was also the chance that Lisa would try to put him down to prove that she was the smartest, as he saw her do it to others before.

He ultimately decided to give the book a shot. Since his sisters would never let him read in peace and quiet, he decided to read it at the park instead. He quickly grabbed his notebook and pen, just in case if there was something in the book worth noting down. After telling Lori that he is going out for a stroll in the park, to which she quickly responded "Yeah sure, whatever twerp.", he closed the door, and started his walk to his destination.

Lincoln felt the aura of the sun, warm and comforting. It was just like one of his bubbly elder sister Leni's hugs. The rustle of the leaves coincided with the giggles and the howls of laughter coming from the playground. Lincoln sat at a empty picnic table and started to read the book. On each of the glossy pages, he saw many different machines and inventions, from electric generators to MRI and CAT scanners. He was mesmerized by workings of the air conditioners, the loudspeakers, the computers, and the hydroelectric motors. He was so engrossed in reading, he completely lost track of the time. When he did realize the time, he picked up the book, notebook, and pen and dashed out of the park. Thinking of the image of Lori's red face and her threat of turning him into a human pretzel, he didn't look where he was going, and ran straight into the park bulletin board.

WHAM!

A streak of pain enveloped his head in a spilt second, and he fell backwards into the grass surrounding the board. Luckily, a teen passing by saw what happened and rushed to help him.

"Hey kid! You alright?"

"Yeah" He mumbled out. Standing in front of him was a teen about 17 years of age. He was wearing navy blue trousers with black shoes, a light blue shirt with a striped blue tie. He was wearing rectangular rimless glasses and had a simple haircut. Everything about him gave off a "I'm smart" vibe.
They sat on a bench, and soon Lincoln was feeling much better. The teen helped him get on his feet.

"Next time try to watch where you are going. Last thing you want is a concussion...trust me, it sucks."

"Yeah... I'll be more aware next time." Lincoln replied. Lincoln brushed off his jeans and shirt, and was about to leave, when the teen inquired,

"Say, you got an Engineering book there?"

"Mm-hmm." Lincoln replied.

"So your one of those geeks huh?" The teen snickered.

"..." "Hypocrite much?" Lincoln thought.

The teen laughed a bit, then said,

"Relax. It was a joke. I also love machines, I even made a few myself."

"Oh really? Like what?"

"From really simple ones like a remote catapult to a motorized model of the Solar System."

"Must be real fun I guess..."

"Yeah its fun until the catapult ends up hitting your little sister in the face and gets you grounded..."

"Ouch." Lincoln winced.

"Yeah...Say are you participating in the County Science Fair this month?"

"There's a Science Fair this month?"

"Yup." the teen said, pointing to a poster on the bulletin board. "Its on the 28th. People from all over the county will participate. The winner and the runners up get a medal, and entry into the Michigan State Fair of Science and Engineering. Once you get there, its every participant's dream! If your project's worthy, college professors and scientists may accept you on a scholarship to their labs, which I heard that are very high tech. Trust me, you'll give a million to be there."

"Wow, I never knew the about the opportunities!"

"I just hope that prodigy Lisa Loud doesn't show up. At the end of the fair, she rates our projects as "miniscule" and "nothing innovative" and gloats about her knowledge... how she will be the future 'representative of science'. What does she expect? We build a freaking particle accelerator?" The teen said, now slightly agitated.

Lincoln didn't say anything to this.

"Ah I'm getting worked up for no reason. Say, what's your name?" He asked.

"Lincoln." said the white haired boy, offering a handshake.

"Jack. Nice to meet ya." They both shook hands.

"Well I hope you have a good one then. In my opinion you should participate. Even if you do not win anything, the experience and the fun of participating is always there." He responded.

"I'll think about it. See you around."

"See ya!" The teen walked out of the park, crossed the street and turned a corner.

"Hmmm...interesting. I never thought of participating in a science fair. Who knows how many projects and experiments will be there..."

He thought about the different devices at the State Fair. However, when realizing the time, Lincoln dashed over to his house, realizing that it would definitely be past curfew by now. He slowed down once he saw the house come into view. When he reached his house he stepped unto the porch and slowly opened the door, peeking to see if anyone was inside. Seeing the coast clear, he creeped in and slowly closed the door. Now all that was left was to enter his room, and nobody would notice...

...Unless his sister happened to be right behind him.

"Ugh, Where were you Lincoln?" Lincoln jumped and nearly fell off the first step of the stairs. He looked at Lori, who was looking at him with an unamused glare.

"You know that your curfew is at 7:00." Lori said, making Lincoln jump.

"Yeah...I-I sorta lost track of time while walking in the park." he said sheepishly.

"Next time that happens twerp I will literally turn you into a human pretzel! I am not going to be grounded for a whole week just because you simply 'forgot' to come before 7!"

"Okay Lori, I'll be more vigilant from now on."

"You better!" Lori said, and with that, she stormed out of the room.

However, before he could walk to his room, a small finger tapped on his back. He turned around to see none other than Lisa.

"Yes Lisa?"

"Male sibling unit, it appears you have a publication regarding structure designing and subsequent assemblement of a device made up of various constituent materials to provide aid to the human race."

Lincoln stared at her with a blank face. "I swear I think she makes up those sentences to flex her vocabulary on us..."

She facepalmed and said, "I mean to say you have a book on engineering in your hand."

Realizing he still had the book tucked in his arm, he responded to her. "Ah yeah, I do."

"What are you doing with it?" She inquired. "Why would he have my book on engineering on him?"

Lincoln started to sweat a little.

"Uhhh... I-I just found this in the yard, and was gonna return it to you, yeah..."

Seeming to accept his excuse, she took it. "Hmmm...Very well."

Lincoln then left for his room.

"Apart from the fact that I never bring books into the yard, the increased rate of perspiration and his stutter seem to indicate that he is lying. It looks like I will have to find out myself later." Lisa wondered as she entered her own room.

Relieved that Lisa bought his excuse, he sat in his chair, and thought about what the teen had said earlier.

"Maybe he is right. There's no harm in trying, and the experience is always beneficial. Now all I need to do is decide on a topic that I like."

Browsing through his laptop, he found many topics of interest, like solar power harvesting, electrical conductivity of salts, Lens magnification etc., though he was unsure of what his project could be based on.

"So many ideas...so less time. How will I find one...?"

A lightbulb went off in his head.

"Clyde! How could I forget? He is the perfect partner for a project like this. We can think and create dozens of projects together!"

All through dinner Lincoln was quiet, excited for his discussion tomorrow with Clyde. This raised a few eyebrows of his sisters, who were confused why he wasn't as attentive as he used to be.

"And that's how I beat Lindsey Sweetwater AGAIN... I always knew I could count on you Lincoln. Lincoln?"

"LINCOLN!"

Startled, he dropped his spoon into his place and held his ears.

"Geez Lola, are you planning to burst my eardrums?!"

"I will if you won't listen to me! You probably don't even know what I am talking about."

"Oh fine, continue..."

Lola's gloating as well as the other dinner conversations drained out as Lincoln's mind slowly drifted from the table to his imagination. He could see himself giving the scientists and the professors a detailed analysis of his invention and receiving applause.

After dinner was over, Lincoln went straight to his room, and rushed past Luna, who wanted his help.

"Hey bro! I need some help stringing my Axe, could you do this musician a favor?

"Sorry Luna, I need to take care of some stuff." He said as he closed his door.

"Alright bro, maybe tomorrow then." After saying that she left.

After closing the door, Lincoln decided to message Clyde to see if he wanted to group up with him for his project.

LL: Hey Clyde, you got a minute?
CM: Yeah. What's up?
LL: Heard there is a science fair on the 28th.
CM: Yeah, the county science fair, what about it?
LL: Was thinking of participating. You interested?
CM: Sure. Always wanted to participate in one.
LL: Sweet. Talk to you at school then.
LL: Gn
CM: Gn Lincoln.

Lincoln decided to finish up his remaining homework so that he could discuss on what to do at the science fair with Clyde tomorrow.

"Man. I can't wait to participate. I always wanted to do some project unrelated to school. Who knows. Maybe I'll be a runner up and get to visit the State fair."

With that, he switched off his lamp and went to sleep, to a dream where he was one of the best scientists around.

Hey guys, Yanwiz here! Hope you liked the chapter of my very first fanfic, "The First Step of Passion". Feel free to review and give out suggestions and constructive criticism. Stay tuned for the next chapter, which will probably be out soon.

See ya! ;)