First off, dang it I forgot the 24 hour update thing (updated chapter 4 at 22 hours after 3) and so the last chapter may have been missed by some of you I do hope you check that one out if you want to see a story about Ronnie Anne and Christina.

Here's today's story , hope you enjoy it and thank you for reading! Yes, still do want suggestions, the next story will be one of the already done suggestions.

Story 5: Christmas Guilt

Prompt/Premise: Jody, the son of Lincoln and Jordan messes up a Christmas gift his mother had for his father.

Jody ran over to his mom's phone that was ringing and answered it. When the call finished, he ran to his mother. Jordan was in her office, one of the rooms in the house at 1218 Franklin Avenue, exercising on a treadmill.

"Mom!" the boy yelled.

Jody Loud was the eight-year-old son of Lincoln and Jordan, he had inherited his father's white hair, and freckles, his mother said he had her eyes. He was wearing blue socks and blue basketball shorts, with a long-sleeved yellow shirt.

"Just the person I wanted to see, is your dad home?" she asked.

"Uh, no, but Mom, I have something I need to…" he said.

Jordan got off her treadmill and wiped her sweat off with a towel. She walked over to the closet.

"I want to show you, what I got your dad for Christmas, "she replied.

She opened the closet and there was an old machine sitting there.

"What is that?" Jody asked.

"Well, back your dad and I were kids, we'd go to a place called Flip's, know that place that's now known as Speedy, anyway, he something called a Flippie, your dad loved them. When Flip sold his place a few years ago, the Flippie's went away. I saw an ad for the machine a few weeks ago and bought it from old Flip himself," she explained.

"Does it work?" Jody asked.

"Yep, he even gave me the recipe on how to make the things," she replied.

"Dad is going to love this," Jody replied.

"Oh, what did you have to tell me?" she asked.

"Uh…oh, Aunt Lana called, she's coming over for Christmas," he said.

Jordan paused, that news did jar her, she muttered her breath for a second and made sure her son didn't understand her.

"Did she say, she's coming over with company?" she asked.

"All she said was, since Grandma and Grandpa are on their Christmas Cruise, and she really doesn't want to go to Aunt Lori and Uncle Bobby's place, that she wanted to come over to see her brother for Christmas," Jody explained.

"So, it's just her?" Jordan asked.

"Yep, I guess so," Jody said.

The woman gave a sigh of relief. She loved Lincoln's family, but there were so many of them. Not just the ten sisters, but many of them were married, some had kids, it would have been too much on her plate if she had to entertain them for Christmas. The Loud siblings had put some money together to get their parents a cruise for Christmas so, that meant they were going to be meeting next door, like they normally would. Lori was spending Christmas with the Casagrande- Santiago family, Leni staying with her husband and daughter at home in Paris. Luna, Sam, and their twins were going to be with Sam's family on a trip in Crested Butte. Luan was on a comedy tour, where she had to do a show in Memphis the day after Christmas. She was sad that she wasn't spending Christmas with Benny, but the tour was important. Lynn was in Detroit and was going to be working on Christmas as she was the coach for the Pistons. Lilly was joining her as a guest. Lucy was spending the holiday with Rocky and with Rocky's family. Lola was spending it at her apartment in New York, she wanted to relax before she he had to get to LA for the Rose parade. Lisa really hadn't told anybody what she's doing.

"Huh, when is Lana coming?" Jordan asked.

"She said later today," Jordy replied.

"Good, I guess I'll set up the spare bedroom for her, after I take a shower."

"It's aunt Lana, you don't have impress her by smelling good."

Jordan laughed and ruffled her son's hair.

"I could do it, if you want," Jody replied.

"Set up the room?" She asked.

"Yeah," he answered.

"Alright, but you know you aren't going to find any gifts hidden for you in there," she said.

Jody paused he didn't look back, he aware his mother might have figured out his motive. Instead, he changed gears. There was another thought in his mind.

"Hey Mom, can Nick come over today?" he asked.

"Yes, I guess."

Jody set up the spare bedroom, it was easy; he put mint green sheets on the bed with a mint green comforter on top. The room was clean, mostly because it wasn't used much. His mother was right there weren't any gifts hidden in there, that he could tell. The doorbell rang.

"Check that out, Jody, I'm trying to get dressed," his mother yelled.

Jody opened the door, it was his friend, Nick McCann. Nick had dark red hair like his father, Chandler, but no freckles like his mother, Paige. He took off his Chicago Cubs beanie, blue jacket, to reveal his black long-sleeved shirt, he also was wearing dark blue sweatpants and red boots. He took off his white headphones.

"Hey, Jody," he said.
"Don't forget to put your coat and stuff in the closet, so my Mom won't get mad," Jody replied.

"Your parents aren't dumb enough to put the presents in the most used closet in the house," Nick sneered.

"I… was doing no such thing," Jody said.

"Yeah right," he said.

Nick put his stuff in the closet, except his headphones, which he plopped around his neck. The Loud house was decorated for Christmas both inside and out. Indoors, the lights were on some flickered some were still, there was a mixture of color lights and clear lights.

"Guess what?" Jody asked.

"Hmm, what?" Nick asked.

"You were supposed to guess."

"You should just tell me."

"Well, alright, my Aunt Lana is coming over today and staying for Christmas."

"Aunt Lana? Is that the one who sang at that awards show a few months ago?"

"No that's Aunt Luna."

"The one that tells those bad jokes?"

"No, that's Luan."

"The one that did the perfume ad in her underwear?"

"You're close, that's her twin sister, Lola; Lana's the one who races cars."

"Does anybody in your family have a normal job?"

"Anyway, she's coming here today, and she's the best."

"That is cool, wait, are any others coming?"

"No."

Jordan came down the stairs she was dressed in black jeans with a long white coat covering her, along with a gray scarf and white beanie hat. She looked at the key hook for her car keys and put them in her pocket. She grabbed her blue purse and took out her yellow wallet and took out a twenty-dollar bill.

"Here Jody, give this to the man when the food comes, and give me my change, when I get back," she said.

"Like I would take your change, Mom, well at least around Christmas time," Jody said with sneaky smile on his face.

"Yeah, uh huh, and Nick, I got you something to eat, there are 4 meals, your Dad and I get the other two," she said.

"Did you get stuff to drink?" Jody asked.

"There's stuff in the fridge, I hate how the ice melts before it's delivered and then when I ask for no ice, they put in there anyway, and I really don't want to go through that again; they really should have found a new way to…."

"Mom! You're spiraling," Jody said.

"Anyway, I'm going out to find more wrapping paper and few other things," she said.

"What about Aunt Lana?"

"Do I have to pick her up or something?"

"Nope, what about her food?"

"I'm sure she got something to eat."

She kissed her son on the forehead and walked out the door.

"Your father should be back soon," she said. "I love you, Jody,"

"Love you too, Mom."

Nick was snickering after she left the house.

"You love your Mom," he laughed.

"Yeah and you love yours, idiot," Jody replied.

"You shouldn't call me names, Santa will hear that," Nick said.

They went upstairs to play a video game before the doorbell rang again. Jody grabbed the money and ran downstairs and opened the door. He held his hand out with the money and noticed it wasn't the delivery person, it was Lana.

"I wasn't expecting to get paid," she joked.

"Oh, sorry, Hey Aunt Lana!" he said.

"Hey Jody, it's great to see you again," she said.

She picked him up and hugged him squishing him up against her bright yellow coat. Nick had come downstairs to eat, she saw him and was confused, but shrugged.

"I didn't know Lincoln and Jordan adopted," she said, as she walked over to hug him too.

"Aunt Lana, that's not my adopted brother, that's my friend, Nick," Jody said.

"Oh, sorry about that, oh well, do you think you both could help me with my stuff?" she asked.

"We have to put on our boots, so give us a minute," Jody replied.

Lana had brought only a couple rolling suitcases, and some wrapped packages. The boys were happy it wasn't like Lola or Leni or would have brought tons of suitcases. Lana had taken off her winter gear she still wore overalls with a simple t-shirt underneath, overalls were practical to her, they served a great purpose, including not worrying about a belt.

"Thanks, those gifts are for Christmas, don't open them," she said.

"You got all this stuff?" Jody asked.

"Some of this is from Lola, she wanted me to bring the gifts to you guys," Lana explained.

"Oh no," Jody said.

"What's wrong with another gift?" Nick asked.

"If it's from Aunt Lola, it's something for girls, she keeps thinking I'm a girl," Jody said.

"I'm sure she got you something…somewhat good," Lana said.

"You don't sound hopeful," Nick said.

"So where am I bunking?" Lana asked.

"Oh yeah, let me show," Jody said.

Jody and Nick carried her suitcases to the room that should be staying in. Lana pulled out her wallet from her pocket, she never carried a purse, and gave both boys 10-dollar bills.

"Thank you for your help," she said.

"Cool, thanks Aunt Lana," Jody replied.

"Yeah, thanks, Ms. Loud," Nick said.

"So, where's your parents, anyways?" Lana asked.

"Dad is out, he said he was going to get some revisions done for his comic, but he's actually, getting a gift for Mom, and Mom is out getting wrapping paper and stuff," Jody said.

Lana had taken to a winter's nap, while Jody wanted to show Nick the Flippie machine. They walked into Jordan's office; Jody opened the closet to show him the machine.

"Wow, how'd your Mom even sneak this in the house?" Nick asked.

"My dad doesn't stay here all the time," Jody said.

"So, what's a Flippie anyway?" Nick asked.

"I'm not really sure, I think it's a drink."

"I wonder how this machine works."

"I think you put some stuff in it, like different flavors and pull a lever."

When Jody said that he literally pulled a lever, the one that was under the word cherry and it broke off. He realized this mistake, at first, he tried to put it back in, but it fell. He started to feel hot, nervous, and frantic. Nick figured he did something wrong and looked at it himself and stuck it in where it held.

"There you go, all fixed," he said.

"It doesn't move like it supposed to though, it's supposed to go back up," Jody said.

"That machine is old, your parents won't even suspect you."

"My mom had it checked out before she bought it, she's going to notice."

"Well there's three options: you tell your mom and Christmas is ruined, don't tell her and hope she thinks the machine is broken, or you accidently break it on Christmas day."

Jody's scrunched his face hearing his friend's weird suggestion. Nick liked making suggestions like a game show with three choices, many times his third suggestion was his worst suggestion.

"What are you talking about?" Jody asked.

"See, I got your attention; what you do is on Christmas day, your Dad opens his gift, and then you go over and touch that lever and make it look like it fell off. You are kind of admitting that you did it but looks like the machine was falling apart and they'll think it was just a slight accident, everybody wins!"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"It worked for my mom, she accidently broke my grandma's favorite vase that was at our house and she put it together and hid the cracked parts on the visible side, then when Grandma came over for a visit, my mom fake tripped and knocked over the vase."

"Why was your grandma's favorite vase at your house?"

"I think it was a gift, my mom didn't like it though."

"I think it would be easier to just tell my mom."

"Oh well, I'm going to miss you, when your mom grounds you for weeks."

"I thought best friends were supposed to be supportive."

"Family members are supposed to be supportive, best friends are supposed to be realistic."

Jody rolled his eyes.

"I have an idea, I can tell your mom that I accidently broke it, and I don't have to get you a Christmas gift, now," Nick replied.

"No, I couldn't let you do that."

"What? I came in here to wrongly play on the treadmill , then I opened the closet, to see if you guys hid your gifts int here, and I saw the machine, and I broke the little lever by accident; perfect story."

"You really want to get out of getting me a gift that bad?"

"Well, I did get you one, but think about it, it'd be a noble thing I did, like a knight jumping in and saving his squire."

"No, I have to do it myself, but thanks."

"Oh well, I tried."

The first thing Jody did was close the closet door and they both waked out of the room. Lana had woken up and was looking at a door.

"Hey, Jody, which door is the bathroom door?" she asked.

"The bathroom is down that way," Jody said.

"Thanks, funny that this used to be Mr. Grouse's house," Lana replied.

Lincoln came home, he was holding some bags from some stores. He looked around to see if anyone was around.

"Jordan, who's SUV is that out there?" he called.

He quickly went to up to his office to put stuff he bought away. There were voices in the hallway so, he went to check it out by opening his door. There he saw his sister, son, and son's friend standing in the hallway.

"Hey, it's Lincoln!" Lana said.

"Dad, you're home, didn't even hear you come in," Jody said.

"Well, I did call, but I guess you didn't hear me," he said.

Lana ran over and hugged her older brother. He could smell her scent a mixture of motor oil and orange grease soap.

"I didn't know you were coming over for Christmas," Lincoln said.

"I called your wife, and got your son, I assumed he told everyone," Lana replied.

"You're weren't home, I did tell Mom, though," Jody added.

"I'm glad you are staying over," Lincoln said.

"Oh, I read that book you did with 10 short stories about living with your sisters; I don't ever remember us having a kid table for every dinner," Lana replied.

Lincoln rubbed the back of his head and blushed.

"I had to take some artistic licensing for the publisher," he said.

"Like having all of us go crazy for the British tutor you had?" Lana questioned.

"Hey, you know you did," Lincoln said.

Nick and Jody walked away; Jody still had the worry of the incident in his mind. Nick was still thinking about what Lana was talking about with the books.

"I wonder if that thing about your Dad eating sauerkraut and peanut butter was real," Nick said.

"Nick, I can't think about that, I'm still in trouble here," Jody said.

"Do you want me stay with you for moral support when you tell your mom?" Nick asked.

"No, I've been around when your Dad or Mom yells at you; it's awkward, I wouldn't want to put you through that," Jody said.

"Dude, your parents are chill, your mom will be a little annoyed, but she won't be that mad at you."

"I still feel bad though, my mom got my dad an impressive gift and I messed it up."

"Maybe you could try and fix it."

"How?"

"Look it up, but you have to make sure your parents aren't around."

Lana came downstairs, she was wearing her bright yellow jacket. Jody and Nick stopped talking to wonder what she was doing.

"Aunt Lana, are you leaving already?" Jody asked.

"I'm coming back, just going to get me some grub," she said.

"Oh," Jody responded.

"Hey, do you want to come with me?" Lana asked.

"I have to walk Nick home before dark," Jody replied.

"Come on, I can drive you both," she said.

"Maybe next time, we have private stuff to talk about," Nick said.

"Oh, yeah I see, I understand," Lana replied.

Lana opened the front door and walked out. Nick looked over at Jody who seemed relieved that he got out of that.

"How do you do that?" Jody asked him.

"Better than you are going umm and being confused for 20 minutes," Nick replied.

"Let's go," Jody said.

Jody had thought instead of just telling his mother from the start, he'd work to it. But first, rack up some "goodness points" by putting the dinner dishes into the dishwasher without being asked, took the dirty clothes to the basement, and took a shower without being asked. Lincoln was confused and Jordan was convinced he was trying to get in some last minute in good with Santa points. Jody was laying on his bed, wearing just shorts and reading a comic book.

"I see Lincoln has passed down something," Lana said in the doorway.

"Huh?" Jody asked.

"I like your room, it's kind of messy, and the Christmas stuff is cool," she said.

"Is this a way of you telling me I need to clean my room?" he asked.

"Nah, if I say that, then that's not the real me, it's someone pretending to be me; I was wondering if you wanted to watch some Christmas specials," she said.

"I uh…"

Jody did want to watch, he enjoyed Christmas specials, and wanted to spend time with his aunt. He always felt Lana was the coolest of his aunts, and he felt bad about not going with her earlier. His mind was still stuck on what do to about the broken lever. He could try and fix it when, everyone was asleep that night.

"Yeah, let's go," he said.'

"Does your TV work? Your parents are watching a very boring Christmas movie," Lana questioned.

"Oh yeah, we can watch in here, you can use my computer chair," he said.

The next morning was Christmas Eve. Jody woke up and remembered he forgot to get up earlier. It was too late; his mother would be up exercising in her office. He got up and opened his blinds, it looked like the perfect Christmas Eve day, there was fresh snow on the ground to go sledding in. It was Christmas Eve, he should have felt happier than he did, but he felt like there was a weight pressing on him- He needed to tell her.

"What are your plans today, Dear?" Jordan asked.

Lincoln was sitting on the couch reading his tablet. When Jordan walked into the room, wearing her power blue bathrobe, and holding a coffee cup.

"This isn't a way to see if I am getting out of the house, so you can wrap my present is it?" Lincoln asked.

"Depends, did it work?" she asked.

"I still have to wrap yours and a few others," he said.

"Oh, you got me something?" she asked in a fake surprised tone.

"Maybe, I could take Jody sledding today, I have Big Red, it might be time for him to try it out," he said.

"That'll be fun, I expect Nick will be around later, he's always around later," Jordan replied.

"Hmm, we got Chandler and Paige gifts, right?" Lincoln asked.

"I thought you were supposed to do that," she said.

Lincoln's eyes got bigger. He felt frantic that he had forgotten to do something, just long enough for him to start to stammer, Jordan started to laugh.

"You really should have seen your face; I got it under control."

"That's not the Christmas spirit."

"That's called real love."

Jody got up from his bed and ran out of his room. He went to see his mother in her office, only she wasn't in there. At first, he wanted to check on the machine, but it was too much a risk, he felt.

"Good Morning," he said to his parents.

"Merry Christmas Eve," his mother said.

"Morning Jode," Lincoln said.

"Where's Aunt Lana?" he asked.

"She's still sleeping, I think," Lincoln said.

"I think I heard her last night doing something; she must be one of those late-night people, both ways, she's a good guest, though," Jordan said.

"Do you want something eat?" Lincoln asked.

"Yeah sure," Jordy replied.

"Good, I'm going to make bacon, eggs, and waffles," Lincoln said, "You want some, Dear?"

"Of course," she answered.

"Come one Jody, you can help me," Lincoln said.

"Ugh, I should get shirt, bacon might not be a good idea otherwise," he said.

"True," Lincoln said.

Lincoln went to the kitchen, Jody waited a few seconds, he was going to tell his mother what happened. Just then her phone rang, and he couldn't tell her right then and there. He turned around to get a shirt on when Jordan called him.

"Jody, it's your Aunt Leni, calling for you," Jordan said.

Jody grabbed the phone; it was indeed his aunt calling from Paris. She was always confused by the time difference between Michigan and France. It was midafternoon there, while nearly nine where they were. Jordan walked off to take a shower, she mouthed the words "Leave her phone on the table when they were done talking." That meant he lost his chance to tell his mother. That was the theme for the day.

His father surprised him with getting to use Big Red. Big Red was Lincoln's sled when he was kid, it was the second big red, he got for Christmas at eleven-years-old from Mr. Grouse. Lincoln told Jody the story every year. Nick had come over and joined them. Later, Jody thought he could reveal what happened to his mother when they were making cookies, but he couldn't get the words out right.

"I'd forget about it, your stressing yourself out too much," Nick said.

"It's not that easy, the guilt is eating away at me," Jody said.

"It's not like you did something wrong, the stupid thing broke because it's old, anybody could have pulled that lever and broke it," Nick replied.

"What?"

"Think about it, if I had pulled it, it would have broken right off, it probably was broken, in the first place, They probably never pulled that one, there's like 4 of them."

"You aren't just trying to trick me, are you?"

"No, I'm honestly concerned, you should be happy on Christmas Eve, especially when you didn't really break the thing."

"Maybe Nick was right," thought Jody. Maybe the lever was going to break at any moment. It was a lever it was supposed to be pulled if it broke that easily then it was defective. He went from feeling guilty to feeling confused, was Nick right or able to convince him of something to make it seem like he was right.

"Come on, there's only so many Christmas Eves you get, and you don't want to remember this one as the one you moped around," Nick replied.

"I guess so," Jody replied.

Jody, for a moment, had let his guilt go. He and Nick spent the rest of the day playing video games, watching Christmas movies and specials. When it was time for Nick to go home, they let Lana drive them. She drove Jody back on a scenic route to show him some of the Christmas lights. After spending some time with his family, he went to bed and fell asleep quickly. Then he woke up, it was Christmas Day!

"It's Christmas!" he shouted.

He looked out the window and it seemed strange, the sky was gray, and it was raining outside. That didn't matter, it was Christmas. He ran to his parents' room and woke them up. Jordan muttered under breath, and Lincoln tried to get some focus. He ran out of the room to Lana's room to wake her up as well. He ran downstairs ahead of them only to find the presents weren't there, and the Christmas tree and decorations were gone.

"Wait what?" he said.

He started to look around, was this some prank? He opened the entry way closet and found the flippie machine in there. It startled him. It was unwrapped but had a tag that said to Jody Loud, the boy who broke this machine and now must pay for what he did.

"But, But…" he stammered.

He ran from the closet and noticed Santa Claus was sitting in a chair.

"It's true, it was a last-minute addition to the naughty list," Santa said.

"But I didn't mean to do it, and Nick said that it wasn't my fault," Jody pleaded.

"Ha! Blaming others, such a horrible thing to do; maybe I should put you down for next year as well," Santa said.

Jody tried to scream but it didn't come out. Instead Santa covered him coal. That's when he woke up. It was 5:37 in the morning. He realized it was a dream, but it worried him.

"I've got to tell her," he said.

So, he got up from his bed and ran to his parents' room. The best thing he could do was jump on the bed.

"Mom, mom there's something I have to tell you," he said.

"Yeah, yeah give me a minute," she said in a long yawn.

She got up from bed, and poked Lincoln.

"Get up, it's Christmas," she said.

Before Jody could try to tell his mother, Lana had run into the room. She was wearing a large overshirt with a Ford logo on the front.

"Come on, it's Christmas!" she yelled.

Jordan and Lincoln starred at her for a moment. She had the most earnest smile on her face that Lincoln and Jordan couldn't help but smile too. They got up and walked into the hallway with Jody following in back. He felt his heart pounding. Downstairs, there were presents under the tree, the decorations were still up; Jody's dream wasn't a premonition as Lucy would say.

"Jody, do you mind if I present your dad with my gift to him first, I'm really excited to show it to him?" Jordan asked.

"I uh, Mom there's," he said.

"I know, but I really want to show him," she said.

He nodded; he could tell her when she noticed the handle was broken. Lana put her hand on Jody's shoulder.

"Well, this gift must be impressive," Lincoln said.

He walked over to the gift that was wrapped in orange and white paper, it wasn't evenly wrapped and seemed to be wrapped with pieces of wrapping paper taped together.

"I wrapped it myself," Lana said proudly.

Lincoln tore the paper off and his eyes grew wide. He made a strange noise and smiled. For the first time in years he had seen a Flippie machine. It was like seeing an old friend.

"Ah Jordan, how? This is amazing!" he said.

"Mom," Jody was about say what he did but, Lana covered his mouth.

"Jiggle the levers, they all should work now, they were shoddy, and really needed to be cleaned, and one of them was broken, and re parried it," Lana said.

"So that's what you were doing, with your toolbox yesterday," Jordan said.

"Hey, I love my brother and my sister-in-law, and they needed a good gift, I also replaced the plug," Lana explained.

Jody looked at Lana, he was confused. She looked at him and whispered to him to come with her to the other room for a moment.

"Aunt Lana, I broke that one lever," he said, "I was showing Nick and the lever broke."

"I know, you two weren't exactly quiet," Lana said.

"You heard us?"

"Yep, I was looking for the bathroom and overheard you guys talking; I waited a while and walked into the room and looked at the machine, it was pretty old, knowing Flip, it was probably junk when he got it years ago," she said.

"I was feeling so bad; I didn't want my Dad's gift ruined," he said.

"I know, well you told somebody, we can keep this between us," she replied.

"I don't know," Jody replied.

"Eh, it really wasn't your fault, that thing was held on with some electrical tape and what I think was either peppermint or spearmint gum, so really it's more a thing that happened," Lana said.

"Thanks, Aunt Lana," he said.