Today's story was a suggestion by Boris Yeltsin, thank you for the suggestion and the character!
Story 6: Some Sort of Christmas Story
Suggested by Boris Yeltsin
Prompt/Premise: Lana (age 17) introduces her family to her new boyfriend
It was a busy evening at the Loud House, Christmas Eve evening always was. Though this year it was a smaller gathering because the Loud kids had grown up and started having lives of their own. Lucy was back from college for the break, Lisa and Lilly were there, while Lola was out of town with some friends on a ski trip.
"What's with the additional chair, nobody else is will be attending dinner?" Lisa asked.
"Lana's new boyfriend is coming over," Lilly replied.
"New boyfriend?" Lucy asked.
"I'm as surprised as you guys are, Lana usually doesn't seem to be dating, drooling over guys type," Lilly replied.
"Well if Lisa can have a girlfriend then anybody can find love." Lucy said.
"What do you mean by that?" Lisa asked.
The front door opened; the girls peeked through the exit way to see what the mystery boy looked like. Rita was there to greet him as well.
"He's dressed how I would expect a boy Lana likes to dress," Lucy replied.
He was wearing a blue T-shirt with a classic car on the front, black track pants, blue and white sneakers.
"They have matching hair," Lilly said.
He had blond hair but was done in a number 2 buzz cut, another distinctive thing about him was that he was wearing an eye patch on his left side. It looked like a festive Christmas one, with a Christmas tree in green with a red background.
"You must be Lana's friend," Rita said, "Nice to meet you I'm Mrs. Loud."
"Hi, nice to meet you, Mrs. Loud, I'm Ryan…Ryan Morgan," he said.
"You have an interesting accent, Ryan," Rita replied.
"Thanks, Ma`am, I'm originally from Alabama, my family moved her a couple years ago," he replied.
The three girls were surprised that Lana had been interested in a boy from the south. Lisa looked over to see what Lana was doing. She was smiling but didn't seem to be nervous about her mother meeting a boy she liked. They tried to all get a closer look causing Lilly to stumble over Lisa's feet and the three of them collapsing on to the floor with a loud thud. The three people in the living room looked at them, and Lynn Sr. came out of the kitchen to see what that noise was.
"Hello, uh, how's it going?" Lisa asked with a coy smile.
"You were right, Lisa, gravity is strong," Lilly said.
"How did I get here?" Lucy asked.
"What is going on here?" Lynn Sr. asked.
"Hey Dad, this is Ryan," Lana said, "Ryan, this is my Dad."
The two guys shook hands and exchanged hellos. Lisa, Lucy, and Lilly tried to use the moment of distraction for escape, but Rita called their names right before they could make it up the stairs.
"These are my sisters, Lisa is the one with the glasses, Lucy is the one in all black, and Lilly is the one wearing the oversized T-shirt and no pants," Lana said.
"Hey, I'm wearing pants, they're shorts, at least, I think I am," Lilly said.
"Pleased to meet you," Lisa said.
"Yes, hello mortal soul," Lucy said.
"Nice to meet you ladies," he said.
Lynn Sr. heard a bell ring in the kitchen, and he ran to attend to that, Rita followed to help in the kitchen. This left the girls in the living room with Ryan. Lana invited him to sit on the couch with her.
"Too bad Lola's not here to see this," Lilly said.
"We must not intrude in our sister's affairs, let's leave them alone," Lisa said.
"You have a camera somewhere and are going to watch upstairs, aren't you?" Lucy asked.
"Sssh, or I wouldn't let you join me," Lisa said.
Ryan looked over and saw the girls whispering to each other, when he replied, "Hey why don't you folks join us, I would love to meet the lovely sisters of Lana."
"Yeah come on guys," Lana said.
"Great, we stuck around too long," Lisa whispered.
The three of them walked over to the couch, Lisa sat next to Lana and Lucy sat next to her, Lilly sat on the floor with her legs crossed and facing Lana and Ryan.
"So, what's with the eye patch, are you a pirate?" Lilly asked.
Lisa face palmed; Lucy sighed. Ryan chuckled.
"No, I'm not a pirate, I lost use of my left eye 5 years ago in an ATV accident," he said.
"So, there's like no eye there?" Lilly asked.
"It's still there, but it looks kind of scary so, I cover it up," he said.
"Pardon for my sister's direct questions," Lisa replied.
"It's alright, so Lana told me she has few more sisters who don't live here," he replied.
"Yes, there are 7 more of us around the world, including her twin sister," Lisa replied.
"And My brother," Lana replied.
"Such a large family; I live with my Ma, Pa, and little sister, Amy," he said.
"How old is this little sister?" Lucy asked.
"She's ten, "Ryan said.
He fished around for his phone, searched for a picture, and showed a picture of his little sister, who had curly blonde hair, with freckles on her face, and was wearing a simple yellow dress.
"She's two years younger than me," Lilly said.
"What is your age, Ryan?" Lisa asked.
"I'm sixteen, I turn seventeen in February," he replied.
"What's with that hair cut anyway, you look like someone from the 1950's," Lilly said.
"Lilly!" her sisters said.
"It's alright, I like it short, because I'm used to it and if I let my hair be long it gets puffy and unmanageable, since it's curly," Ryan said.
"So, what are your interests?" Lisa asked.
"I like working on cars, that's how I met Lana here, otherwise I want to go to college to be attorney," he replied.
"Very astute of you," Lisa replied.
"Yeah, what about you?" he asked.
Lisa was always proud to talk about herself and accomplishments. As soon as she put her hand on her chest, Lilly rolled her eyes.
"Well I've already graduated college, I have a PHDs in Education, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Mathematics, and History, and have D.D.S, M.D degrees," she said with pride.
"Oh, a lot of science stuff, I'm not good at that or math," Ryan said.
"She got all that stuff before she was five," Lilly added.
"No way, you're pulling my leg, how old are you?" he asked.
"I'm fourteen, almost fifteen," Lisa replied.
"Maybe she could help you with your work," Lana said.
Lynn Sr. called from the kitchen, telling the kids that dinner was ready, and they should wash up. Lucy offered to help her father with the food going to the table. Rita rubbed her hands together to warm them up from being out in the cold and putting out the trash. She washed her hands in the kitchen sink and walked into the dining room to meet up with family. There was a nice spread for Christmas Eve dinner with ham, Brussel sprouts, and pumpkin pie being the main features of the multitude of food.
"This is a nice spread, ," Ryan complimented.
"Thank you, Ryan," Lynn Sr. said.
"I remember when our normal dinners looked like this," Lana said.
"Yeah, me too, my large family has gone forth and doing their own things," Rita said with some sadness in her voice.
"Don't worry parental units, you'll always have Lilly," Lisa said.
"Hey!" Lilly shouted.
"Funny, the neighbors next door has more dogs than we have people here," Lucy said.
"Those ding dang dogs," Lynn Sr. said.
"Don't get him started, Lucy," her mother said.
Mr. Loud was proud of his Christmas ham; he had made a special glaze recipe just for the occasion. He cut tender pieces of meat for each person, while they moved their plates around to get the sides. Ryan waited a minute to see if everyone was done putting food on their plate.
"Who says the prayer?" Ryan asked.
There was an awkward silence for a moment. Lisa coughed for a second and in a surprise to the family offered to do the prayer herself. After that, they ate the dinner. Rita and Lynn Sr. were interested in knowing more about their daughter's new boyfriend.
"So, how did you two, meet?" Lynn Sr. asked.
"Oh, I was at Jack's working on cars, and he showed up with his Dad's station wagon, it was having a few problems and I helped him out," Lana said.
"I was surprised, I hadn't really seen a girl mechanic before, especially a young one, but she was pretty even with oil stains on her face and her dirty coveralls," Ryan said.
Lilly giggled, until Lucy kicked her in the shin.
"What kind of music do you like?" Rita asked.
"I'm particular to country music, my grandma got me into when I was a kid," he said.
"Why, I do like a little country, myself," Mr. Loud said in a horrible county accent.
Lana face palmed, not much embarrassed her, but that did. The dinner went smoothly, the family got to know Ryan, he seemed to be a nice guy, he didn't mind Mr. Loud's bad puns. Lana was at ease that he was enjoying his time with her family, since she didn't focus on finding boyfriends, and romantic things. She did hang out with boys, but she didn't think about dating them.
"I'll help with the dishes, Mrs. Loud," Ryan said.
"That's very kind of you," Rita said.
"I'll help too," Lana said.
"Me, as well, can't have Lana doing anything impure," Lilly said
"Who's going to help me put the leftovers up?" Lynn sr. asked.
"I know this is a roundabout way to get Lucy and I to help you, so we should skip the game and just do it," Lisa said.
"I bet students get away with nothing in those classes you teach," Lucy said.
"Well, the first day of school, you strike fear into them with a robot, they'll be very careful," Lisa said.
Ryan started to laugh.
"She's not joking," Lilly said.
"Yeah, Lisa can be kind of scary," Lucy said, "And that's coming from me."
Before starting on the dishes, Ryan went to use the bathroom. Lana thought to use this as a time to see what her family thought of him.
"So, what do you guys think?" Lana asked.
"He's nice, raised with proper manners, I can see," Rita replied.
"Yeah, you seemed to have picked a sweet guy," Lynn Sr said.
"When's wedding? I have to set up my calendar," Lilly said.
"His spirt seems very unoffensive," Lucy said.
"You really don't need our approval do you, as long as you love him, that's what matters," Lisa said.
"Oh, Lisa starts dating, and she becomes all love-y," Lilly mocked.
Lucy kicked her shin again. In the kitchen, Rita. Lana, Lilly, and Ryan worked on cleaning the dishes. Lilly was in between the girlfriend and boyfriend, that didn't stop them from exchanging glances with each other.
"Uh, Lilly could you help me with this trash, by putting it outside," Rita asked.
"But Mom, it's cold out there," Lilly whined.
"Please, remember tomorrow is Christmas," Rita said.
"Alright fine," Lilly said.
Lilly grabbed the trash bag and muttered something as she walked out the back door. Rita looked at Lana and Ryan and smiled. "She'll be a little while; you can talk a little now." Lana smiled as her mother walked into the dining room to check on the others, and found they were distracted by the airing of "A Christmas Story" on TV. The food was still out, but Rita also seemed to like the movie. Meanwhile outside, Lilly was putting the trash outside, when she felt something licking her leg, at first, she jumped. Then realized, in the faint light, it was a dog, a big brown dog.
"Hey, there, Dog, you aren't ours, where'd you come from?" she asked.
Then she noticed a bunch of other dogs walking up the stairs on the porch into through the kitchen door. She panicked and ran to the dogs, the dog that found her followed her.
"Come on dogs, no, no!" she yelled.
The dogs did not care, because they were dogs. There must have twenty dogs, all of them from the next-door neighbor, who was a dog breeder. She made it up the stairs trying to shoo the dogs, but they got spooked and ran into the house instead. Inside, Lana and Ryan were talking to each other and were so deep in conversation they didn't hear the noise of 20 dogs padding into the house until they heard Lilly's yelling.
"What's going on?" Lana asked.
She then saw the pack of twenty dogs with Lilly stumbling after them trying to grab one of them by the tail, like it would change its direction. The dogs made it to the dining room, Lana started to try and shoo the dogs herself by making loud noises.
"The food!" Ryan yelled.
He ran into the dining room and the dogs were up on their hindlegs and licking at the dishes they could reach, and some other dogs were trying to grab at the food they couldn't reach. Then the sound of crashing dishes came when a dog was able to get the ham down. Ryan tried to scare them by barking and growling, the rest of the Louds came into the dining. Lynn Sr screamed like young girl and fainted.
"Oh no, they've gotten to the food," Lana said.
She tried to bang pots and pans, but the dogs were so happy to eat, a couple saw Lucy and Lynn Sr and started to lick them. Lisa ran upstairs.
"How'd they get in here?" Rita asked.
"Lilly let them in," Lana said.
"I did not, they came from next door, and probably because you didn't fix the fence," Lilly protested.
"You didn't close the door," Lana said.
"You didn't close the door," Lilly repeated back.
"Girls, cut it out!" Rita yelled.
Then the dogs started to jump and turn around and ran through the kitchen back out the door, Lisa had a whistle in her mouth that she kept blowing. It was a dog whistle; she chased the dogs outside the house. There on the floor was the mixture of torn pieces of ham flesh, broken dishes, flatware, cranberry sauce stains, and other debris. Lynn Sr. woke up, but he started to cry.
"Those ding dang dogs look what they did!" he yelled.
"It's not my fault, I was putting out the trash, like Mom said, why would I ruin things like that?" Lilly said, tears running down face.
"The ghosts of Christmas present frowned upon us today," Lucy said.
Lisa came back inside; she was out of breath from blowing that whistle.
"Well folks, there's no use in crying over spilled food, Lilly, it's alright, I know it's not your fault, you were even trying to stop those dogs, Lana and I should have paid some attention as well," Ryan stated, "Let's get this cleaned up and make this house look just as good as when I saw it earlier."
Mr. Loud wasn't very spirted though; he had worked hard on his meal. Ryan put his hand on the man's shoulder to console him.
"It's alright, at least we go to enjoy it, and at least nobody was hurt," he said.
"Except his ego," Lucy said.
"I think he's trying to help the situation, elder sister," Lisa replied.
Lisa grabbed a remote from her pocket and pressed a button then a noise was heard coming down the stairs, a robot stopped in front of Lisa.
"Alright, clean up this mess," she commanded.
The robot did what she commanded. Ryan was speechless he'd never seen a real working robot before.
"Kind of a shame I had to introduce Mother's gift before I wrapped it, but might as well, say Merry Christmas," Lisa said.
"You made that for me?" Rita asked.
"Yes, I thought it would be best to give you something to help you around here in your advancing age," Lisa replied.
"Gee, Thanks," Rita replied.
Ryan looked at the time and wanted to get back home before his sister had to go to bed, so they could his family tradition of the reading of the Night Before Christmas. Lana frowned; she was going to miss him. He said goodbyes to the family and Lana came with him, since she was his ride. They drove to his house Ryan grabbed inside his coat and pulled out a gift.
"Merry Christmas, Lana," he said.
Lana grabbed something wrapped from under her seat and handed it to him.
"Merry Christmas, Ryan," she said.
"Hey, do you mind if I…?" he started to ask, when Lana moved over her shifter and kissed him on the smiled and returned the favor.