Chapter 6

In the last chapter, Lincoln purposely distanced himself from his family to avoid being asked to help his younger sisters with anything and the conversation between Susanna and Mrs. Hart while waiting in line was to make a contrast between the parenting styles of the Loud parents and Mrs. Hart.

The Loud parents headed home, totally embarrassed at their daughter's savage beat down of Aidan. While walking away from their angry neighbors, they heard Mrs. Winters say, "Let's start cleaning up this mess."

When the sisters pounced on Aidan, he fell backwards and knocked over the table with the cake and the few cookies that weren't consumed.

"Well there goes looking at the fireworks tonight," Rita thought, "We have to do something else besides just grounding them," she then muttered.

"What's the matter Rita?" her husband asked.

"We need to take drastic measures to punish the girls. Did you see how everyone gave us those death glares?" she asked her husband.

"But what drastic measures?" he asked, knitting his brow.

Just then the parents saw a teenage girl with dark brown hair hurrying towards them carrying her smart phone.

"Mr. and Mrs. Loud, wait up!" the girl exclaimed, then stopped before them to catch her breath.

"I saw the whole incident, I saw your daughter in the pink gown shove Aidan when he was about to pick up the last slice of cake," she finally said.

"WHAT!" Lynn Sr. in total disbelief.

"I have it on camera," she replied, then turned on a video clip on her phone.

The parents were stunned to watch their little pageant queen shoving Aiden then snatching the cake from the table and shouting, "Princesses first!" When the video reached the spot when the sisters jumped on Aidan, Rita couldn't bear to see anymore after five seconds.

"We've seen enough," the mother declared in embarrassment. The girl quickly turned off the video.

"Thank you so much for showing us the video, what's your name?" Lynn Sr. asked.

"My name is Kelly," the girl responded.

"Perfect, if the girls lie to us, we can say someone told us what happened," Rita said.

"Mr. and Mrs. Loud I swear I won't put this on the internet," Kelly explained.

"Thanks again Kelly," Rita said.

Kelly said, "Bye Mr. and Mrs. Loud," before leaving. The parents continued home.

Once they reached the front door, Rita said, "Let's work on how we're going to punish the girls before calling them."

Meanwhile, the peeved sisters were laying on their beds. Luna had changed her shirt because the cake landed on her when the table overturned. The twins were playing a game on their phones.

"I should have given that boy an atomic wedgie," Lori thought.

Children didn't call her the "Wedgie Queen" for nothing back in middle school during her "Awkward Phase," when boys called her "brace face" or "metal mouth" because of her braces. When she began giving them wedgies for calling her those names, they soon learned fast enough not to do it anymore.

Meanwhile, Lucy asked Lynn Jr, "What happened to you?" when the athlete entered their bedroom after using the bathroom.

"This lame-o shoved Lola when she wanted the last piece of cake and grabbed it from her," Lynn Jr. lied, "Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lisa and I got in his face about it. He had the nerve to say she pushed him, so we gave him a beat down when he called us a bunch of weirdoes when we asked him to apologize to Lola."

Lucy was surprised at the idea of Lola needing her other sisters to help her attack someone else. "You should have seen how he looked afterward," Lynn Jr. gloated, showing no remorse whatsoever. She picked up her basketball and began throwing it into the net hanging on the door.

Lincoln heard the front door opening and looked up from the TV and saw his parents. He asked them, "Hey mom and dad, what were my sisters fighting over this time?"

"Well son, this boy wanted the last piece of cake but Lola shoved him aside then snatched it from him then your sisters started arguing with him. He called them weirdoes and they ambushed the kid," Lynn Sr. explained.

Lincoln flinched a tiny bit.

"Anyway your father and I will be working on a suitable punishment before we call your sisters," Rita told him.

Lynn Sr. closed the door of the master bedroom after he and Rita entered.

They sat down on their queen sized bed and started brainstorming.

"We're taking away their phones, toys, laptops and hobbies including Lucy's coffin, no dates, socializing with their friends and they won't be allowed to watch TV or have dessert," Rita stated.

"Sounds perfect," Lynn Sr. added.

"It's also time for some tough love. We're stripping their bedrooms of everything except their furniture and their clothes," Lynn Sr. added.

"But I'm thinking something special for Miss Lola, she has been snatching things away from others lately. We'll remove her mattress and she can bunk with Lana," Rita said.

"Mrs. Hart said her son has three more weeks of summer school. We're sending the girls except Lori and Leni. When summer school ends, they'll go to the community center day camp," she continued.

"Wait a second, they can't come home to an empty house after school, mmmmm, they could stay with Mr. Grouse until we leave work," Lynn Sr. suggested.

Mr. Grouse had changed his work hours to part time from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

"What if he says no?" Rita asked

"I'll offer him money," he replied.

"Perfect, I'll stay home tomorrow to supervise the girls," Rita said.

"And we'll give them plenty of chores on the weekend," Lynn Sr. added.

"Are we ready then?" Lynn Sr. asked. They walked out of their bedroom. Once Rita saw Lincoln she immediately thought of something.

"Mom do you want me to go upstairs," he asked.

"No I need you to stay," she replied.

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"What's taking them so long to call us?" Luna asked her roommate Luan.

"Hopefully they've fallen asleep and forget all about punishing us," Luan replied. She was wrong, Rita was at the bottom of the stairs.

"Girls, could you get downstairs, Lana and Lucy you too," she shouted. A few seconds passed and the girls didn't budge.

"NOW!" Rita yelled, and within seconds they were rushing downstairs.

The girls were sullen faced as they entered the living room. Lori became puzzled at Lincoln sitting in the small armchair and thought, 'Why is he here?"

As they settled on the couch, Lori crossed her arms defiantly. Their parents stood before the siblings in stony silence with serious expressions on their faces.

Their father finally spoke. "I hope you're all proud of yourselves, attacking a poor boy like a pack of wild animals over a piece of cake," he declared angrily.

"Lori you're the oldest, you should be showing a better example for your sisters," Rita told her.

"Just ground us already," the eighteen year old snarled impatiently.

Her father shook his head. "Oh no, grounding you is too easy, your mother and I have decided to take some extreme measures," he declared.

"Consider the most of your summer over. This means no TV, no dessert, no dates, no hanging out with your friends, no family trips to the movies, Lola no tea parties, we're taking away your smart phones, toys, laptops and all your hobbies including your coffin Lucy. Luan there will be no pranks, Luna and LJ your musical instruments and sports equipment will be stored in the garage until further notice," Rita stated.

Lynn Jr. decided to act out of character by being melodramatic in order to change her parent's minds.

"No mom you can't. My life is meaningless without sports, it will be like cutting off my oxygen supply," Lynn Jr. pleaded.

"Spare us the drama Lynn Leslie Junior, you aren't making us change our minds," Rita replied sternly.

Lucy raised her hand. "Mom, I wasn't involved in the fight," Lucy said.

"Me neither," Lana added.

"Lana you disobeyed me by taking Hops to the party when I specifically told you not to," Rita reminded her, "And look what happened."

"And Lucy not everyone especially senior citizens will take kindly to someone asking them to play a corpse at a pretend funeral," Lynn Sr. explained.

"We're taking away everything from your rooms except your furniture and your clothes to teach you a lesson, but Lola…" then paused nervously, "We're taking your mattress," their father continued.

Lola's jaw nearly reached the floor, then she released an ear shattering, "NOOOOOO," causing everyone else to cover their ears.

Unlike Lynn Jr. this was no act. Lola was genuinely upset at hearing she wouldn't be able to have the comfort of the beautiful bed she won at the Little Miss Royal Woods pageant when she was almost five years old.

"You can't take away my beautiful bed," she uttered squeakily.

"Please I swear I won't lose my temper anymore," she pleaded frantically.

"Too late," Rita answered.

What Lola didn't know was that Rita had more surprises for her she never revealed to Lynn Sr.