Chapter 7) The Next Morning Part 1
A Saturday morning in the Loud House without lots of noise and chaos was a Saturday when the Louds weren't at home. Or one where they had fallen ill. But under normal circumstances, the quiet of the morning rarely lasted past seven before being shattered like cheap glass. The din of the Loud children as they began to enjoy the day quickly filled the home and could be heard by the neighbors. And it was to this same cacophony that Lori Loud awoke.
It was the twins that she heard first. The two precocious blondes were arguing over which Saturday morning cartoons to watch. This was accompanied by the sound of Lily crying, most likely due to the twins accidentally making the baby girl drop her bottle or a toy that she had been playing with. Lori's sisterly instincts kicked in and she got up to go and solve the problem.
With a stretch and yawn, Lori stood and went to the door. And once she opened it, the noise immediately ceased. Suddenly all eyes were on her. It was only the twins, Lily and Luan in the living room, but it was still eerie to see them all frozen in place, staring at her as though she were an elephant in the room.
Lori did her best to pay no mind to her other sisters. It was Lily who she was concerned with. The baby girl was no longer crying, due both to Luan cradling her in her arms and a pacifier in her mouth. But all the same, Lori wanted to be sure. She approached her younger sisters and looked down at Lily.
"What's wrong, Lily?" Lori cooed, "Did your silly big sisters upset you?"
"She's fine." Luan said. "I think she just needs to be changed. I'll take care of it."
Luan hurried off with Lily to the baby's room so she could change her diaper. Lori found it suspicious since Lily almost never cried over a wet or soiled diaper. Plus Luan seemed to be in quite a hurry too. It was almost like she was looking for an excuse to leave. And Lori had a fairly good idea as to why.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Lori went back into her parents' bedroom. The moment she closed the door she heard the twins instantly resume their argument over what to watch. It would have made Lori laugh any other day, but at that moment she just wasn't able to. She could already tell that her day was going to be rough, at least when it came to interacting with her siblings if nothing else. With any luck, she would be able to keep busy enough with chores to make the day just fly by and then she could go back to bed.
The thought of being back in bed became very tempting to her. She could just curl up beneath the blanket, close her eyes and let sleep take her back into its sweet embrace. However, she knew better than to give into that desire when she already had a full day ahead of her. If anything, she should be preparing for it instead. She only wished that a nice, hot shower could help wash away all of her troubles as easily as it could take care of sweat and dirt.
Lori went over to the stack of clothing she had set on top of her mother's dresser and selected her clothes for the day. She would get changed after her shower, which she planned to take while everyone else was enjoying breakfast. After how dinner went the preceding night she felt it would be best to eat any meals separately from her siblings. At least until this whole thing finally blew over.
With her change of clothes in hand, Lori went to head up to the bathroom for her shower. But as she reached for the doorknob, she started to feel like there was somebody watching her. She turned around and was startled by the always unexpected and sudden appearance of Lucy. And as was the norm, Lori let out a small scream and jumped in surprise.
She could swear that she saw Lucy smile at her reaction.
"Lucy!" Lori gasped, feeling her heart still racing. "How long have you been in here?"
"I just got here. I need to talk to you about the gruesome crime that you committed."
Lori sighed, "I guess I should have expected this. Lynn had a talk with me yesterday about it. And I can understand that you'd want to do the same. Lincoln is you big brother and he's very important to you. Seeing what happened to him yesterday must've upset you a lot. I'm sorry."
"I know. And I agree with Lincoln when he says that you can be forgiven. Not that it would be my place to say otherwise. But there is something else. The real reason I wanted to see you."
Lucy held out Bun-Bun's severed head and body. She handed the two pieces of the torn toy to Lori, who looked down at them with regret. Out of all of the things she had destroyed, this would be by far the most difficult to replace. Even if she could find a perfectly identical stuffed bunny, it wouldn't make a difference. It had far too much sentimental value for Lincoln to just accept a new one in its place.
"I was going to perform funeral rites for him." Lucy said. "And I almost started to dig his grave this morning. But it occurred to me that you should be the one to do that. It's your fault that this happened, so you should take responsibility."
Lucy went over to the door, reaching out and placing her hand on the knob. She paused before opening the door, glancing at Lori over her shoulder.
"Once you're done taking care of Bun-Bun, then I'll be able to forgive you. I'll come see you again then."
The young goth then left the room. Lori set Bun-Bun's head and body down by her stack of clothing. A gasp sounded from behind her and she turned to find her mother standing in the doorway. The woman's eyes were locked onto Bun-Bun, but then swiftly moved onto Lori.
"I don't know why I'm surprised. It's not any worse than anything else I saw yesterday. But still, how could you do that to his favorite toy? You know that he's had that since he was a baby."
"I know." Lori admitted ashamedly. "But, it can be fixed, right?"
"Let me take a closer look." Rita said, approaching the item in question. "It's not as bad as it looks. You should be able to reattach the head easily enough. Think you're up to the task?"
Lori nodded. She had done some needlepoint in the past, so she was confident she could handle this. It wasn't like she could make it any worse. But to be safe, she would try practicing with something else first. She wouldn't want to return Bun-Bun to Lincoln, only for his little, stuffed head to fall off again.
Mentally adding the new task to her list, Lori returned to preparing for the day ahead of her. She grabbed her change of clothing and left her parents' bedroom. By this time she expected that all of her siblings would either be eating breakfast or enjoying their Saturday morning, which hopefully meant that she wouldn't need to wait for the bathroom. And the thought of a nice, hot, soothing shower only made her more eager to get up the stairs.
Unfortunately, as she reached the top step her hopes of making it into the bathroom were dashed. She caught a glimpse of Lynn entering the bathroom and shutting the door behind her.
"Dang it." Lori muttered.
Normally, this wouldn't signify a long wait. Lynn was an early riser and usually one of the first to shower so long as nobody beat her to the punch. So Lori could only believe that the jock had to use the bathroom for other reasons. And aforementioned 'other reasons' didn't necessarily require a long time. But Lori has seen a rolled up sports magazine tucked under Lynn's arm before she had shut the door. That could only mean that Lori was going to have to wait a short while. If she was lucky, no more than five to ten minutes.
Regardless of the length of the wait, Lori moved in to secure her place as next to use the bathroom. She could only hope that by the time Lynn was finished that the air would still be breathable. Past experiences had proven that entry to the bathroom after Lynn had bombed the bowl could result in having to deal with some stomach turning levels of unpleasant odors.
An odd noise caught Lori's attention. Thankfully the noise wasn't coming from the bathroom, but rather from the other side of the hall. From Lincoln's room. It was at this moment that Lori noticed that her brother was in there. And he was rummaging through one of the trash bags filled with his destroyed possessions.
"Lincoln?" Lori called out softly, so as to avoid startling him. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to find my book report." He answered without bothering to look up at her. "Or I guess I should say I'm trying to find all of its pieces."
"Oh, right. Your book report." Lori said with a nervous laugh. "The one that was probably in your backpack. The backpack that I tore in half and then ripped up everything that fell out of it. I'm really sorry, Lincoln."
"I know. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of shredded paper to look through."
Lori turned around to leave her brother to his task. But before she even went to take one step back towards the bathroom, she turned back and entered Lincoln's room. She knelt down beside him and placed her hand over his own. He felt her guide it away from the bag and he looked up at her just as she started to speak again.
"It's my fault that pretty much everything you own is going to be put out with the trash. So it should be me who has to go through all of this to find your book report. Let me take over, I literally don't care if I have to spend all day looking. I'll find every piece and put it back together for you."
Lincoln pulled his hand back harshly. He gave Lori a stern look and stepped backwards to put some space between them. For a moment he seemed to be a bit angry and resisting the urge to say something. But he took a breath and then seemed more calm and ready to speak.
"I appreciate the offer, but no thank you."
"Are you sure? Because I really want to do anything I can to help you."
"Yes, I'm sure!" Lincoln snapped. "Now please just leave me alone! That's all that I want you to do!"
Lori accepted her brother's choice and respected his request. She felt hurt that he had spoken to her with a tone like that, but she knew she could only blame herself for it. He was clearly still upset and would most likely remain that way for a while. The only thing she could do was let him have his space and try again in a little while.
As she left the room, Lincoln took his unhinged door and slid it in front of the doorway, blocking the inside of his room from view. Lori went back over to the other end of the hall, hoping that Lynn would finish up her business soon. She really needed that shower.
Suddenly, a loop of rope flew over Lori and tightened around her body, pinning her arms. She was then pulled backwards and fell onto her rear. She turned to look behind herself and she found Lana, Lola and Lisa to be the ones responsible. Lana was wielding the rope while Lola held a princess wand in one hand and Lisa...Lisa had something that worried Lori very much. It was a super-soaker, the contents of which were most likely nothing that Lori wanted in contact with her person.
"W-What are you doing?!" She asked in a mild panic.
"We are insuring that you won't endanger our elder brother again." Lisa stated.
"Yeah! Luna told us to keep an eye out in case you tried to bother Lincoln!" Lana added
"I wasn't trying to bother him!" Lori said defensively. "I only wanted to help him!"
"We heard him yell at you just now." Lola said. "So we know that you were bugging him. You're gonna leave him alone or else! I've got a princess-fairy wand, and I'm not afraid to use it!"
Lola waved her want to emphasize her point. Lisa scoffed, earning a dirty look from Lola.
"What?"
"Apologies Lola, but I sincerely doubt that your plastic replica of a fictional item could prove to be an effective weapon."
The blonde pageant princess narrowed her eyes at her younger sister and then gave her a quick rap on the head with her toy wand.
"I stand corrected. Also, ouch." Lisa said, rubbing the sore spot on her noggin. "Now, let us inform Luna, as she requested."
Lisa went to the door to Luna and Luan's room and opened it, stepping inside. After a moment she came back out with Luna in step behind her. The rocker glared at Lori and grabbed the rope that was still around the blonde, pulling her back up onto her feet.
"So you were bugging our bro again, huh? I thought I told you to leave him alone!"
"I thought you were told to leave me alone!" Lori countered with a scowl.
"Not gonna happen. Someone clearly needs to teach you a lesson. It's about time for you to pick a fight with someone your own size!"
"I wasn't trying to...I am NOT fighting you, Luna!"
"No complaints here. Just makes it easier for me."
Luna cracked her knuckles and smirked confidently at Lori. She had the younger sisters move away to give her some room and she then untied Lori. Even if Lori didn't fight back she wouldn't want and unfair advantage. Besides, she was hoping that Lori wasn't going to keep her word.
But before anything else could happen, the door to Leni's room suddenly opened. Leni stepped out and gave Luna a passing glance before heading downstairs. Lori quickly figured out what was going on and silently thanked her younger sister. And just as Lori expected, a few moments later a powerful, angry, female voice was heard throughout the entirety of the house.
"LUNA LOUD!"
"Uh-oh."
Rita stormed up the stairs, her eyes locking onto her third oldest child. The three younger Louds all shied away as their angry mother advanced on Luna. Luna's earlier confidence and attitude quickly diminished under her mother's fierce gaze, the girl smiling meekly up at the woman. Rita only scowled in return.
"Leni tells me that you're picking a fight with your sister. She also told me about what you did last night after dinner. Did your father and I not make ourselves clear yesterday?"
"Well, yeah...but.."
"No 'buts' young lady! You, and all of your siblings, were told NOT to get involved with each other's problems! And I am in no way pleased that you've gotten your younger sisters involved too!"
"I didn't..."
"Don't you dare lie to me! Leni heard everything that happened since you sister was speaking to Lincoln. So she knows that you did! You are on thin ice as it is, so don't press your luck!"
Rita then turned her attention to her three younger children, giving them a disapproving glare.
"And as for you three, I am going to give you all one, last warning. No more getting involved with each other's problems! And Lisa Marie! What is that in your hands?"
"Nothing!"
Lisa hid the super-soaker behind her back. But she did so hastily and ended up inadvertently squeezing the trigger, launching a blast of some viscous goop into Lincoln's door. The gunk struck the wood with such force that it cracked, nearly causing the door to fall onto a startled Lincoln.
"Dang it." Lisa grumbled over her faux pas.
"Hand it over." Rita ordered.
Lisa relinquished her super-soaker to her mother. Rita took the altered toy with caution, making a mental note to secure it someplace safe for the time being. She would have Lisa disassemble it later, under her strict supervision. But until then there were other matters for her to attend to.
"I don't know exactly what this is supposed to be used for, young lady, but you know how I feel about you making dangerous things. You aren't allowed to do anything science related until tomorrow. Understood?"
"Yes mother." Lisa sighed.
"Good, now you, Lola and Lana please go downstairs." Rita instructed, watching said girls head to the stairs before turning her attention back to her older daughters. "And as for you, Luna, unless you want to be grounded from all musical activities, you are going to assist Lori with all of her chores today. In fact, you can get a head start right now by washing all of the windows in the entire house. And I want you to think about how you've been treating her while you're at it. Do you hear me?"
"Yes, mom." Luna said, heading downstairs to get started.
"And when your sister and I get back, the two of you can talk." Rita added just before turning her gaze back to Lori. "Alright, hurry up and finish getting ready. I want to get to the grocery store before they get too busy. Your father, Luan and Lily will be coming with us. Luan has a birthday party to perform for, so you can help her get her things into the van."
"Okay, I just want to shower and get dressed. Then I'll be ready to go. And...thanks."
"Happy to help, honey. But next time, just come to me the first time it happens. You might be in trouble right now, but that doesn't mean that I won't step in to help you if your sisters are on your case."
"I'll keep that in mind." Lori said with a smile.
Rita went back downstairs and Lori resumed waiting for her turn in the bathroom. At long last she heard the toilet flush and a minute later, Lynn emerged.
"It's about time." Lori commented. "And I had better be able to breathe in there!"
"Of course you'll be able to." Lynn said. "But you may not enjoy it too much."
Lori shuddered, but didn't hesitate. She still wanted that shower and she wasn't going to let a little obstacle like a bad odor stop her. All she had to do was march in there and get the hot water running. Then it was a simple matter of getting under said running water and the smell of her body wash would overpower anything less pleasant. She'd be able to tolerate the stink long enough to accomplish that much.
However, once she set foot into the bathroom, she found that she was wrong. Very, very wrong indeed.
End of Chapter 7.