The Mysterious 'Ship
Chapter 1: The Inciting Incident
It was clearing up by the time school let out for the day, and Luan could only thank her lucky stars as she stepped out into the fresh, clean air. Lori had the van, but she'd had to do some things for their parents after school and all save for Leni had no desire to accompany her.
"Hmm," Luan looked over the book she held close to her, her school bag bouncing against her back while her ponytail fluttered gently in the breeze. Sun glared up from the water soaked asphalt, and more than once she had to shield her eyes as she went.
"What'cha got there, Brah?" Luna asked as she caught up to her younger sister. When she looked at the name of the book and the author, she raised an eyebrow and fell into step beside Luan. "Seriously? I didn't know you were a horror buff."
Luan shrugged. "I'm not, but one of my friends highly recommended her, so I figured I'd give it a go."
Luna considered this as they started walking. "Well, I guess it's not as bad as some of the things out there, but Cuesta Tern can get pretty freaky, you know?"
"You read her?"
Luna shrugged. "I picked her books up from the library a while back. Her first three were pretty good, but I stopped reading her before I got to the newer stuff. Oh," Luna grinned now, "there was one scene, in her second book? Oh man, was it good!"
"How so?" Luan looked aside at her sister.
"So, this woman walks into her laundry room, she's looking for…" Luna thought for a moment, crossed her arms, sighed. "Well, I won't tell you what she's looking for, but the dryer's on, and when she goes to open it up?"
"Lemme guess," Luan hazarded, cringing, "a head? A torso? Her family cat?"
Luna smirked. "Nah, but I won't spoil it for you. It was freaky crap, though. I'm serious," she chuckled. "Don't read those things at night, is all I'm saying. The top bunk's not big enough for the both of us, and I don't think you really wanna sleep with Lynn or Lori, do ya?"
Luan laughed. "Well, at least I know she's a real page Terner!"
"Oh, ouch," Luna cringed. "That actually hurt, Luan."
"I was worried," Luan chuckled some more. "Something kept telling me it'd be for the birds!"
Now Luna stopped laughing and just stared at her younger sister. "You know, that almost makes me want to push you out in front of a truck, Luan."
But this only encouraged the other girl. "Oh, come on, Luna! You couldn't af-Ford to do that! Ha ha, get it?"
Luna just grumbled but said nothing.
Still giggling, Luan turned and looked the book over some more before stuffing it in her bag, grabbing her note book and going over some jokes she'd thought up at lunch.
Sure, she wasn't watching where she was going, but Luna was with her, right?
When they finally arrived home, the place was quiet. It did not stay that way for long, it never did. They were called the Louds for a reason, but at that precise moment it was actually pretty peaceful, and though a part of her told Luan to get to work on her studies, and another part said to work on her jokes, the third part of her urged at least a peek into the book she'd been loaned.
It was about an hour later, and due to a fight between Lola and Lana, that she'd realized she'd gotten sucked into the story and nearly cleared seven chapters as she laid back on her bed, her favorite pair of reading joke glasses perched on her face.
"Geez," with a groan, Luan put the book down. "Well, guess I should get to work, huh?"
With a sigh, she pulled her text books out of her bag and flipped them open on her bed. There was no way she would risk the next week's test's studying to the cacophony of downstairs, and she'd put it off long enough.
It was another hour and a half before, after one particularly good stretch of the arms, she flipped onto her back and decided to call it quits for a while.
And a smile graced her features.
"Now, the fun part!" she giggled as she reached for her notebook, placed it on her lap and went over each joke, looking for any mistakes, any accidental reference she didn't mean, for even the slightest mess-up (comedy was tough, she'd remark whenever someone asked how hard she actually worked) that could detract from the humor, the bliss a well-timed joke could give.
It truly was a labor of love.
But every labor of love needed a lab rat, she told herself after a few minutes.
"Oh, Lincoln!" Luan sang as she poked her head out her bedroom door. She ran her tongue over her braces and listened for her brother's voice. "Could you help me with something?"
No response came, so she figured he was downstairs in among the chaos.
"Lincoln?" she asked as she walked into the dining room. Lucy and Lisa sat around the table, the former engrossed in a poem she was working on while the latter was similarly engaged in a treatise of some sort. They looked at their older sister when she asked, "Hey, either of you see Linc anywhere?"
"He was in here a while ago," Lucy stated flatly. "But I haven't seen him for a little bit now."
Lisa shrugged. "He's probably upstairs. I saw him turn that way when he was finished with his studies."
Luan raised an eyebrow. "Upstairs?" she looked back. "Huh, that's odd. Maybe he didn't hear me?"
At about that time, Lola and Lana came in like a hurricane, a stuffed toy stretched thin between them. "Give it!"
"No, you give it!" Lana demanded back as they traveled through the dining room and into the kitchen.
Luan called out after them. "Have you two seen Lincoln?"
"No!" they both stopped just long enough to say before they went right back at it again.
Luan sighed, but said nothing.
With curiosity mounting, Luan started back up the stairs once more, her brother's bedroom her next destination. Lemme guess, she thought, a smirk gracing her features, that dork's got those headphones again, doesn't he? Thinks he'll get away with it a second time?
Luan considered all the ways she could mess with her brother if he had started using those dang things again. When finally she got to his door, stood there for a few moments first to listen for any signs of movement and then to consider what she'd say when she confirmed he was in there, she stretched out her arm and was about to knock when-
"Huh?" she murmured, her voice so quiet only she could hear it. Her little brother was saying something, but what?
Looking over her shoulder, she checked to make sure the coast was clear of parents before she got to her knees and put her ear to the door.
"-and that cute little nose! what I wouldn't give to kiss it, To hold you, even if everyone knew-"
Luan pulled away. Blinked.
What?
She put her ear to the door again, but heard nothing more. Her brother was whispering, that much she knew, but about what she didn't quite get.
'And that cute little nose,' she mulled the words over in her head. Replayed them. 'What I wouldn't give to kiss it,'?
Her eyes widened. Lips began to tremble. Then the laughter, the oh so joyous laughter, threatened to bubble up within her, to burst forth and spill out of her chattering mouth.
Was this really what she heard?
"'To hold you, even if everyone knew?'" Luan giggled quietly when she finally came to her bedroom door and slid inside. She had to clamp her hand over her mouth to hold it in, it was just too cute, she told herself. "Oh my! Lincoln's got a crush!" she squealed into her pillow as soon as she was sure she was alone and in the clear.
After she was through kicking her legs, she considered this; the most likely suspect was Ronnie-Anne.
Luan cringed. Admittedly, she didn't quite know how she felt about him crushing on the girl after what had happened between them. Sure, it was primarily the sisters' faults for meddling the way they did that got their brother decked in his own front yard, but how was she, or any of the siblings to know Ronnie-Anne would be so physical?
But to hear him talk like that?
The warm fuzzies threatened to overwhelm Luan then and there, and she was sure she might actually die if they did.
She sat up, looked around; she had to find Luna, and Lori, and Leni, and Lynn!
Then her face fell.
No.
She couldn't, she realized. If she told anyone and Lincoln found out, he would know she was eavesdropping, and on him in his own room, at that. And besides, he'd told them all that he didn't quite appreciate the meddling the last time.
But Luan was sure he just didn't see how helpful his sisters could be. Especially when it came to romance!
Luan tried to get her mind off of this development, tried focusing on her jokes, her schoolwork. Heck, even Cuesta Tern wasn't as interesting now that she had this little mystery on her hands. She could barely get through another chapter when Luna finally walked in.
"Hey," Luna flopped down onto the floor beside her bed, looked at Luan. "What's up with you?"
Luan bit her tongue; no matter how much she wanted, she couldn't tell her. Not even Luna. "Not much," she almost didn't risk that.
Luna looked at the book. "Heh, good read?" when Luan didn't reply, only bit her lower lip now, Luna chuckled. "Must be if you're acting like that."
"Huh?" Luan blinked, looked at her older sister. "What'd you say?"
Luna just laughed, but Luan couldn't believe she actually didn't hear her sister; this stuff with Lincoln and his mystery crush was more pervasive than she thought.
She had to know more, she decided, and when she heard Lincoln's bedroom door open a little later (the slight creek gave him away) she sat up as calmly as she could and made her way out the door. Luna, thankfully, was in her own little world now as she rocked out with her headphones and read a magazine on her bunk.
"Hey, Linc!" Luan called out as she saw him turn to walk down the stairs. The boy looked normal, from his clothes to his, well, admittedly abnormal hair. Nothing like a boy madly in love. "How's your day been?"
He shrugged, smiled. "Not bad. Yours?"
"Eh, same same," she offered. Then she said, "So, how's school? Anything interesting going on?"
But he offered nothing more. Not one bit, not one tasty morsel of info. As Luan watched him walk away, she fought to keep her arms from crossing.
When she got back to her room, Luan plopped down onto her bed and, as she laid back, rubbed her chin.
This needed investigating.
But she was just one gloriously charming comedienne!
But her brother's love life was counting on her.
That settled it, she told herself, desperate times called for desperate measures.
She rolled off her bed, rummaged through the area underneath for a box of props. When she'd found it, and found what she was looking for inside, she pushed it back, placed the wrinkled fedora on her head and did her best no nonsense look, brow creased, arms crossed, and corner of lip turned up.
It was time Luan, Soft Boiled Detective of Love, took on a case.
Meanwhile, Luna was blissfully unaware of all of this as she continued rocking out to her music.
A/N: Alright, this is a mystery I wrote way back in 2019, one of the first times I'd ever written in the mystery genre (the first was a quite literal mess, and the less said about it the better) for original works OR fan fic and just now FINALLY got around to editing for posting, but that's no excuse for my lack of experience. Just some info in case you're curious.
That said, one thing I'd like to mention is that this was never meant to be an unfair mystery that requires you have knowledge of how it'll end to solve it. Hopefully I left enough clues littered throughout that, if you're paying attention, you'll be able to figure out the answer toot-sweet (in a hurry). If not, or in case it's too unfair, I do apologize.
Now, with everything out of the way, hopefully you'll have some fun reading this, maybe even figuring out everything before Luan does! And as always, thank you for reading and choosing to spend even a moment of your time on my work!
