Friday morning
"Rise and shine girls," Rita shouted from downstairs. Luna groaned irritably when she heard Rita's voice. Only Leni remained in bed.
"Why do we have to go to summer school?" Lana grumbled while standing behind Lynn Jr. in the line to the bathroom.
After everyone showered and ate breakfast, the girls dressed quickly then grabbed their backpacks. After school, Lynn Sr. would pick them up and take the younger girls back home where their grandpa Albert would be waiting to baby sit them. Albert owned a key to the house so he would let himself in before the girls arrived. The older girls would go back with their father to help out in the restaurant until work ended.
At Royal Woods High, Teresa Hart was surprised to see Vanzilla enter the school grounds as she was about to leave after dropping off Jeffrey. Susanna was sitting in the back seat.
"So they decided to send the hooligans to summer school," she muttered wryly before driving away.
"Have a nice day girls," Rita chirped as Luna and Luan exited Vanzilla with scowls on their faces. In the hallway, other students began whispering among themselves as Luna and Luan walked to their lockers.
"If looks could kill," one girl named Emma whispered.
"Looks like their parents are forcing them to come here," her friend whispered back.
The news about Aidan's attack spread like wildfire yesterday when Jeffrey told his friends about it. Jeffrey was home when the fight happened so his mother informed him about it.
Lincoln enjoyed a late breakfast at 9: 30 a.m then watched cartoons for two hours and fifteen minutes before heading over to Gus' to meet Clyde, Rusty and Liam. Lincoln couldn't speak with Clyde yesterday about the brawl and his parent's punishment since Clyde was in Hazeltucky visiting a cousin.
"So what happened on Wednesday," Clyde asked as Lincoln sat beside Rusty.
"Dad said Lola shoved this boy and grabbed a piece of cake he wanted, then my sisters except Lana and Lucy started arguing with him. He called them weirdoes and they gave him a beat down," Lincoln explained.
"Wow," the friends exclaimed in astonishment.
"Did your parents punish your sisters?" Clyde asked.
"Yes for most of the summer, they cannot watch TV or see their friends, Lynn is banned from playing sports, Luan cannot do any pranks and you won't believe this, all of them except Lori and Leni have to attend summer school," Lincoln explained.
"Ouch!" Rusty replied.
"And my parents took away their toys, hobbies, phones, laptops and everything was taken out their rooms except their furniture and their clothes," Lincoln continued.
"Wow, your parents mean business," Liam replied.
"Anyway let order pizza," Lincoln declared
Later…
The family just finished dinner an hour ago. The table was cleared as usual by the younger sisters and the kitchen was cleaned up by the teenage ones. At the moment Rita was sitting in the armchair reading. While the sisters read on the couch Lincoln was sitting on the carpet reading a comic book. Suddenly everyone was interrupted by the doorbell ringing by Mr. Winters the President of the Association.
"Now who could that be?" Rita asked with a slightly irritated tone.
Luan automatically leapt forward and peered through the window then gasped.
"There goes the neighborhood and they're all on our lawn protesting," she reported.
"My God," Rita uttered in alarm.
"They're probably still mad, should we pretend we're not here?" Leni whispered.
"No, your mom and I should talk to them," Lynn Sr. spoke resolutely.
They walked towards the front door and Rita opened the door. The neighbors who attended the emergency meeting were there including others who were informed by Mr. Winters.
The children crowded around the living room window and gasped upon seeing Barbara and Simon holding a huge sign with the words, "This is a nice neighborhood, not a jungle" written in big red letters.
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Winters," Rita spoke cheerily, then her tone became serious,
"If this is about what happened to Aidan, the girls have been punished for most of the summer."
"Well at least you're punishing them, but we'd like to discuss some issues with you concerning your children's disorderly behavior," Mr. Winters said solemnly.
"The first issue is regarding the attack on our grandson. Yesterday we called his parents and told them what happened. You should be lucky they're not pressing charges against them or you their parents," Mr. Douglas stated.
"In my day if girls behaved like that, they were sent to reform school," Mr. Miller's mom snapped. The Loud parents exchanged confused glances.
"She means juvenile hall," Mr. Miller explained.
Barbara walked up to their front door. "Mark my words if your daughters don't learn to control their anger, they could wind up in prison, especially your daughter in the pink dress," she warned.
"Do you know when the twins were selling lemonade, she scared two people into buying when they refused," Barbara added.
"Rita gasped, "No I had no idea, I was working overtime making extra money for our vacation."
Mrs. Winters then remarked, "The next matter involves the incessant noise your children constantly make."
"Why can't you both silence your kids? I bet your baby has trouble sleeping at night!" Mrs. Yoshida exclaimed.
"We're tired of being interrupted by the explosions and loud music," Barbara added.
"Well Lisa does research for the college and sometimes an experiment goes wrong," Rita defended.
"And sometimes Luna has to practice for local events," Lynn Sr. added.
Mrs. Hart spoke, "Sometimes my children cannot concentrate on their homework because of the loud music or the screaming."
"Almost every Saturday morning they're running around screaming their lungs out," Simon said.
"One time the athletic one almost broke my front window when her soccer ball bounced on a shutter. She didn't even say 'sorry' when she retrieved it," Mr. Winters said annoyed.
"And why can't they take their toys and bikes inside more often instead of leaving them on the lawn for weeks or months," Mr. Yoshida said angrily.
"But they took everything inside before we went on vacation," Lynn Sr. replied.
"Hello there's a toy plane stuck in that tree for almost two years," Simon declared then pointed to a tree.
"I was the one who called the police when they invited their friends over and almost caused a riot," Simon admitted. (From the episode "Friendzy")
"There was the night the music became unbearable and we saw fireworks flying out of the windows and surprise, you weren't home," Mrs. Stewart added.
"Your children are old enough to learn how to be considerate of their neighbors," Mrs. Hart declared.
"We're giving you an ultimatum, start disciplining your children because if we have to call the police on them again, we'll ask them to arrest you both for contributing to their delinquent behavior," Mr. Winters said sternly.
"Good night Mr. and Mrs. Loud," his wife said solemnly. Everyone began walking back to their houses.
The parents felt defeated as they turned and walked back inside. They looked at their girls who were sitting on the couch with Lynn Jr. and Lola looking smug.
"That was so humiliating, I'm surprised they didn't call the local news station here," their father said crossly.
"Will they really call the police if we attack another person?" Leni asked worried.
Lynn Jr. scoffed, "Please they're just scaring us."
"Well they sounded pretty serious to me," Lincoln admitted.
"You can talk Mr. Goody Two Shoes, they didn't single you out," Lynn Jr. replied with sarcasm.
"It's because I'm the only one besides Lucy who makes the least noise," he retorted.
Rita was strangely quiet all this time then finally spoke.
"Girls I hope you listened to every word they said, because more changes are coming once your punishments over. Lola and Junior you won't be allowed to drive your toy car or play sports in the house anymore. Luna you won't play your musical instruments with the speakers on full blast and Lisa no more experiments at night. Lori and Leni, you'll learn to share and stop the ridiculous squabbles over clothes and makeup," Rita spoke.
"And you girls are going to stop this aggressive behavior. You won't be pushing around each other or Lincoln anymore. If there's another fight over the TV it's going in my room and you can buy your own from your allowances. You're all going to learn some manners, which means Lynn Junior, you'll apologize whenever you pass gas or belch. You'll say please and thank you," Rita said then gave Lola a stern look.
"And no one gets dessert if they misbehave. If you're aggressive, don't do your homework or your chores or play your music loud, no dessert," Lynn Sr. added.
"And Lana, Lola and Junior I'm cancelling your birthday breakfasts, but you'll be allowed to eat dessert and watch TV for an hour on your birthdays," he added.
The twin's birthday was later that month and Lynn Jrs. in early August.
"Now your father and I have another matter to take care of," Rita concluded before they headed towards their bedroom to plan a chore schedule for the girls.
The Loud sisters remained silent while their parents headed to the master bedroom. Once Lynn Sr. closed the door, Lynn Jr. was the one to break the silence.
"He can't be serious, taking away our birthday breakfasts," she uttered.
"It's so unfair," Lola whined.
"I don't really mind not getting a birthday breakfast," Lana remarked.
A few more seconds of silence passed then Lori remarked, "I agree with that lady, we are old enough to be considerate of our neighbors."
The other girls glanced at Lori in disbelief.
"But we're kids they can't expect us to be quiet all the time," Lana said.
"I agree with Lana," Luan replied.
"Really Lori you shouldn't talk about showing consideration for anyone when you hog the bathroom just because you're the oldest," Lynn replied sarcastically.
Instead of getting annoyed with the athlete's remark, Lori said calmly, "Don't you get it, she said sometimes her kids cannot concentrate on their homework because of us."
"But conducting experiments are an important part of my research, it's not my fault when explosions happen," Lisa responded.
"Lisa sometimes you're doing them in the mornings before school," Lori retorted.
Lucy sighed. "I'm going to lie down," she droned.
"I think I'll watch TV on my laptop, Lincoln thought, then followed Lucy upstairs.
"Well back to the boring reading," Luna remarked.
