Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Restored Image: A tale retold

Chapter twelve: Will of the First Born

Ross, along with two of his friends, were hanging out in Ross's backyard on a well enough day in their hometown of Royal Woods, Michigan. "…Wait a minute," said one of Ross's friends, "A group of eight boys from that recently disqualified youth baseball team ganged up on you?"

"Yeah, man," Ross replied with a nod in the affirmative, "It all happened so fast that I didn't get all that good a look at any of them. Thankfully there's that video of the attack floating around, and the police are making use of it, but it is slow going right now."

Gesturing to Ross, the other friend asked, "Are you going to be okay, man? I mean, something like that is NOT something that one can simply sweep under the rug."

"Yeah, I know," the conceited blonde-haired boy remarked. Giving his friends a knowing look, Ross added, "I occasionally wake up in a cold sweat, ever since that attack."

"Is there anything either of us can do?" the first friend asked, "Ross, there is no way that we-"

"Hey, Ross!" an adult woman's voice called out, cutting off the first friend in the process.

"Yeah, mom?" Ross called back, "What is it?"

"There are these two older girls that are asking for you," Ross's mom called back, "They say that they're high schoolers related to some kids you know from your school."

Curious about the surprise visitors that he's gotten, Ross decided to go check out what's going on. "High schoolers are asking for me?" the conceited blonde-haired boy said aloud to himself in a mildly confused tone, "What could this be about?"

"Doesn't sound like it makes a lot of sense, dude," Ross's first friend remarked in a tone that showed that he agreed with Ross like the good friend that he is. Ross nodded once to the first friend in an agreeing manner before heading into his family's house, leaving his two friends that he had over to wait in the backyard.

…

Upon entering his family's living room, Ross saw his mom waiting in the living room with two high school-aged girls. The first high school girl looked vaguely familiar to the conceited blonde-haired boy; did she work at Gus' Games n' Grub or something? The other high school girl, however, was no one that Ross recognized.

About as tall as the girl who she came with, this other high school girl had long yellow-blonde hair that was in twin pigtails that draped a bit down her back. The girl wore a red Sherpa hat with tassels hanging off of the ear flaps, a dark green somewhat baggy t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, white sneakers, and, tied around her waist, a brown leather coat. The neck hole of the jacket was around the girl's waist so that her legs were partly inside of the coat, rather than the coat just covering the girl's rear end. There was also a white cloth bandage over the bridge of the girl's nose, although it gave off the aura that it was just there for aesthetic reasons, that it wasn't there to nurse any actual injury. Lastly, the girl had a thin, rectangular leather case over her back, peeking out from behind her right shoulder and left hip.

"You are the one named Ross, are you not?" the unfamiliar girl said as she pointed an accusing finger at the conceited blonde-haired boy. Ross was a bit intimidated by the girl's voice, which for some reason reminded him of Vikings storming the land and raiding the shore. That, plus the clearly grumpy aura the older girl gave off, tipped Ross off right away that he might be in some serious trouble. Oh well, it shouldn't be too hard for him to weasel his way out of whatever mess was involved, right? Especially considering that he was still recovering from the posse attack that he had gone through a short while ago.

"Yeah, that would be me," Ross replied with a nod, "Why do you ask? Is something wrong?"

"You are familiar with Astrid Ace, right?" the older girl continued, her tone and expression not changing in the slightest.

"Well of course I'm familiar with Astrid," Ross replied, surprised that this older girl apparently knew who Astrid was, "She's the cutest girl at my school." Giving the older girl a curious look, the conceited blonde-haired boy asked, "Why, is Astrid in some sort of trouble?"

"No, but I would literally say that you are," the first older girl said.

"Hey wait," Ross began as he turned to face the first girl, "Aren't you that one girl who works at Gus'? What was your name…Laila?"

"My name is Lori, not Laila," the first girl said, a mild hint of annoyance in her tone, "And yeah, I do work at Gus'. But that's not the point here."

"Then what IS the point here?" Ross asked, a mild amount of accusation and suspicion in his tone, "Why are you and this other girl here?"

"I was informed by my friend Lori here that you have recently taken to consistently bothering my younger sister Astrid with flirting that she does not want," the mystery girl replied, snapping Ross's attention back onto her, "Is this true, yes or no?"

"What? Of course I'm not bothering Astrid," Ross defended, "And for the record, she totally likes it when I flirt with her."

"Funny," the mystery girl scoffed in a grumpy tone, "Because after I was informed of what was going on, I asked Astrid about it myself, and she confirmed that you have been bothering her every time you see her at school, and she does NOT like it when you flirt with her."

"You're clearly overreacting," Ross dismissed in a casual tone, "There's no way that Astrid doesn't like me. I mean, what about me is there that she doesn't like?"

"…I shall only give you one warning, little one," the mystery girl said to Ross, her brow furrowing a bit in simmering anger, "You shall stay away from my younger sister Astrid or-"

"What?!" Ross interrupted, clearly not happy with the idea of being told to stay away from the cutest girl at his school, "What do you mean I have to stay away from As-" This time, it was Ross who was cut off when the mystery girl stomped her right foot forward so suddenly and hard that Ross, Ross's mom and even Lori all flinched a bit out of surprise.

"HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT ME, YOU LITTLE TROLL!" the mystery girl bellowed angrily at Ross, clearly angry to have been interrupted, "YOU WILL HOLD YOUR TONGUE AND LET ME SPEAK! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Lori said to her friend, getting the other older girl to back off a bit from Ross, "Easy there, Allison. There's no need to go all Thor the Mighty, God of Thunder on the kid. I mean, he's roughly Lincoln's age, for crying out loud."

"…" After considering Lori's suggestion for a moment, Allison said, "…Very well. But he will be keeping away from my younger sister." Turning her head slightly so that her gaze was barely just on Ross, Allison said in a threatening tone, "I'm pretty sure your parents would hate to hear that you've been bothering an innocent girl at your school, after all."

"I'm really sorry about how my son has been bothering your younger sister," Ross's mother said to Allison in an apologetic tone, "I'll speak with my husband about this when he gets back from work later this afternoon."

Allison nodded in acknowledgement of Ross's mom's apology. "I would hate to have to come back and redo this conversation with you," Allison replied, "You seem too kind a person to have to go through it. It's a shame your son doesn't take after you in that regard." The two high school girls turned to leave, with Allison saying, "Take care."

…

"…I still don't see why Astrid seemed so hesitant that I'd be the one to deal with that little troll who's been bothering her at school," Allison remarked as she and Lori drove back to the part of the neighborhood that they came from, with Lori in the driver's seat of Vanzilla and Allison in the front passenger seat, "I mean, Aggro handled that Chandler brat, so what's wrong with me getting that Ross troll to back off? I even got an apology out of the boy's mother."

"Yeah, I literally can't fathom the reason myself," Lori said, the sarcasm in her tone going by unnoticed by her friend in the passenger seat. After Lori's remark, both girls were silent for a bit. As she concentrated on the road, Lori allowed her mind to drift, drift to things that have been bugging her, such as how Lincoln ran away and why, and to miraculously finding Lincoln in the city that Bobby's family almost moved to.

And how she learned that Lincoln killed her in cold blood in a dream that he had a short while ago, a subconscious hint as to how truly upset he was with what had happened to him.

As Lori thought about this, her expression dropped from a neutral expression of someone concentrating on the road, to a resigned, almost sad look. Allison, who was mindlessly looking out the window, happened to turn and see this look that the oldest Loud sister had on her face. "…Something is bothering you, Lori, is it not?" the female Ace twin said, "Come on, I would be hearing about it."

"Your sister Astrid is eleven, right?" Lori asked.

"Yes," Allison replied in a mildly confused tone, "Although I fail to see how Astrid's age has anything to do with anything else."

"…My little brother's the same age," Lori began.

"Ah," the female Ace twin said in a tone of understanding, "I have heard that your younger brother Lincoln ran away a while ago, and that he has recently returned home to your family."

"Allison," the oldest Loud sibling went on, her tone sounding mildly conflicted, "How…how good of a relationship do you have with your siblings?"

"Hmm?" Allison replied in a mildly confused tone, "You mean to say how well I get along with all of my siblings?" After seeing the affirmative nod from Lori, Allison said, "Hmm, let me think about that. …Well, Aggro and I get along well enough. As well as twins who aren't the same gender as each other can get along, I mean."

"Yeah, I can just imagine what it would be like if either Lola or Lana was a boy while the other one was still a girl," Lori remarked dryly.

"As for the rest of my siblings," Allison went on, "Amy and I have gotten along as most would expect of us, although she still expects me to buy a replacement pet bed for Spirit after Fenrir tore up the last one. Alphonse and I seldom ever interact with each other directly, although I think it's safe to say that we're on good terms with each other. Astrid and I get along well enough, although ever since our father died in that accident five years ago, Astrid tends to seek out Aggro for pretty much everything."

"Maybe it's because Aggro doesn't regularly threaten to send people straight to Viking hell?" Lori deadpanned. Jerking a thumb over her shoulder to the backseat, where Allison's case that she had over her back was currently laying, Lori continued with a mild hint so suspicion in her tone, "I mean, we aren't going to play a round of golf today. Why'd you bring your golf club?"

"I have my reasons," the female Ace twin replied.

"Uhh huh," Lori said, "So anywho, back to business. How do you get along with the rest of your siblings?"

"Andy looks up to me," Allison began, "And out of all of my siblings, I would say that Andy takes the most after me." With a chuckle, Allison added, "Andy once told me this one story how he was holding his own against some notorious bully at his school until the principal came in and took said bully to the office."

"Uhh huh," Lori said. It did not surprise her that at least one of Allison's siblings took after her, at least to some extent. And bully-hunting sounds like it would be right up Allison's ally.

"Argent respects me, along with the fact that as I'm technically the oldest of my siblings, I have authority over managing the group as a whole when our mother isn't home," Allison went on.

"Oh yeah, you're a few minutes older than Aggro," Lori remarked. After a few seconds, Lori asked, "So, how do you manage your younger siblings when you're left in charge?"

"It varies from time to time," Allison began to explain, "Although the general thing I go for is that so long as everyone doesn't make a whole lot of noise and doesn't do anything that would warrant a visit from a police officer, then I won't put the fear of Odin into them." With a bit of a chuckle, the female Ace twin added, "I mean, it's not like I'm some sort of dictator who makes everyone sit in their rooms quietly and not allow them to do anything at all."

"Heh, yeah," Lori chuckled, her tone sounding partly nervous but overall guilty.

"The youngest of my siblings is Anna," Allison said as she finished talking about her younger siblings, "And she tends to stick close to Aggro, similar to Astrid."

"Well little girls have something of a tendency to view their older brothers as great, invincible heroes," Lori remarked, "Bobby's told me stories about how Ronnie Anne stuck to him like glue when she was much younger."

"I see," Allison said. Arching an eyebrow out of curiosity, Allison asked, "So Lori, what's with this sudden interest in how I get along with my siblings? Is it because some of them are friends with some of your siblings?"

"…Truthfully, my relationship with my younger siblings has been kind of rocky over the last couple of years," the oldest Loud girl admitted in a resigned tone that had just a hint of sadness to it, "I think that my connection to my younger siblings started to take a dip right around the same time that my popularity started to go up, back when you and I were twelve."

"Ah yes, I remember what happened back then," Allison remarked in a tone that radiated with a hint of fondness that came with recollecting the past, "The whole deal that led to you becoming the most popular girl in school. It stayed throughout middle school and accompanied you all the way to high school!" With a mildly curious look on her face, the female Ace twin asked, "Umm, was this dip that you speak of pre-make-over or post-make-over?"

"Post make-over," Lori replied instantly, "It was literally post-make-over."

"Hmm," Allison said, "You worry that your younger siblings don't like you." It was more a statement than a question.

"You don't know the half of it," Lori remarked, a hint of bitterness in her tone. Lori's expression became even sadder and resigned as she reflected upon Lincoln running away, especially on how she played a contributing role to prompting the white-haired boy to run away in the first place. Lori's change in expression did not go by unnoticed by Allison, who gave Lori's right shoulder a soft pat in a gesture of support.

"You are too hard on yourself," Allison said, "You're acting like Fenrir whenever he poops on the living room carpet."

"I'm sorry," Lori apologized, "It's just…it's just that I literally keep screwing up when it comes to trying to get along with all of my younger siblings."

"…Your siblings are aware that you love them," Allison began, "Are they not?"

"Of course they know," Lori said. After a couple of seconds, Lori added in a mildly unsure tone, "…Or at least, I hope that they know. I mean, I certainly haven't given them many reasons to think otherwise ever since I became and stayed popular."

"…You do love and care about your siblings, yes?" Allison asked.

"Of course I do!" Lori replied instantly.

The female Ace twin leaned back a bit as she crossed her arms over her chest, regarding Lori with a mildly amused look. "Well then, Lori," Allison remarked, "It's clear to me that you have to make it clear to your siblings that you do in fact care about them, and make sure that they don't forget it, either."

"…Yeah," Lori remarked as her spirits started to lift a bit, "That sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the tip, Allison." The female Ace twin nodded once in acknowledgement before both girls turned to face out the front window of Vanzilla. As the Loud family's ancient family van drove along the road, Lori said, "So Allison, your dog poops on the living room carpet as well?"

"The things that come out of Fenrir's rear can slay a dragon, I tell you," Allison remarked with a bit of a laugh in her tone.

"Feh, can't be any worse than my family's dog Charles," Lori said.

"Why?" Allison asked, "What kind of dog is this Charles of yours?"

"He's a Pitbull Terrier," the oldest Loud girl began to explain, "Although admittedly a fairly small one even though he's a little over four." With an eyebrow ached out of curiosity, Lori asked, "Why? What kind of dog is Fenrir?"

Later that evening, Lori was laying on her bed in her and Leni's room back at the Loud family residence. The oldest Loud sister was staring up at the ceiling above her bed while her ditzy younger sister worked away on something over at the sewing machine. Lori was thinking about what happened a few years ago, about how Royal Woods had very nearly changed for the worse. If someone were to try and stop what was going on back then, they would have had to put their reputation among the various social circles of Royal Woods middle and high school age students at considerable risk.

Since Lori didn't actually have much of a reputation back then (as in none at all), she figured that she had nothing to lose. The efforts of the first-born Loud sibling had paid off, the day was saved, and she became popular, with the first thing happening being that some girls who wanted to bring Lori into their circle decided to give her a make-over, turning her into what she looked like today.

Lori couldn't help but wonder if that make-over from back then had done more than just change her physical appearance.

"There we go!" Lori heard Leni say cheerfully as the sounds of the sewing machine came to a stop. Getting up from her bed and looking over, Lori saw that her younger sister had finished yet another one of her fashion design projects. As always, the fashionable Loud sister's work was flawless, but Lori had no idea what Leni had just made. From the angle that Lori was looking at it from, the garment that Leni just made looked like some sort of waist-length sleeveless jacket.

"Leni, what is that supposed to be?" Lori asked as she pointed to the garment that her ditzy younger sister had just completed.

"Oh!" Leni said with a hint of surprise in her tone, "Lori, I totes forgot that you were even here! You were, like, awfully quiet for a while!" Getting up from her sewing machine, Leni showed Lori the garment that she had made. "It's a haori coat," the ditzy Loud sister explained, "I really like the one that Aggro wears, so I asked him about it, and he told me about haori coats. I looked them up on the internet, found a bunch of different kinds that all looked pretty, took some notes and made some sketches, and proceeded to make one for myself!"

Leni slipped her homemade haori on, twirled around in place, and said as she faced Lori, "So how about it, Lori? What do you think?"

"It's very lovely," Lori remarked, honestly impressed by her younger sister's work, "But isn't Aggro's a bit longer than this one that you made?"

"Yeah, but I thought the waist length ones that I saw were cuter," Leni explained, "Although if I had enough material for it, I'd totes go for making one as long as Aggro's." After taking her homemade haori off, Leni continued, "Hey Lori, while we're on the subject, what sort of music do you think Aggro likes?"

"This again?" Lori said, her tone sounding mildly unamused, "Seriously, Leni. Ever since you and Luna came to watch the golf game my team had before the game where I used Allison's golf club, you've been thinking about Aggro, rather than helping me figure out an idea on how I can convince Allison to join the varsity golf team. You need to focus!"

"Sorry," Leni replied in a mildly guilty tone, looking down to the floor in shame.

Lori mentally face-palmed upon seeing her younger sister's reaction to her snapping at her, realizing that she had, one again, just made one of her siblings upset, something that the oldest Loud sister was wanting to avoid. "No, Leni, no," Lori began in a gentle, apologetic tone, "It's not your fault. I'm just a little frustrated with things that are going on right now, and I snapped at you. I should be the one apologizing here, not you." Walking over to her ditzy younger sister, Lori stood in front of her, gently laid her hands down on Leni's shoulders, and looked her right in the eyes. "I'm sorry, Leni," Lori said.

With something of a cute giggle, Leni said, "Apology accepted." The ditzy Loud sister then threw her arms around Lori, drawing her into a hug. Lori did not know what to make of Leni randomly drawing her into a hug like this, but the hug did tell Lori one thing.

She was making more progress on reconnecting with her younger siblings.

END, RESTORED IMAGE: A TALE RETOLD CHAPTER TWELVE

Author's note:

Lori is still concerned with trying to repair her sibling relationship with Lincoln, as he did just recently return after having run away from home, but that does not mean that she's going to simply ignore trying to rebuild bridges between her and her various sisters. Also, Lincoln didn't make a physical appearance in this chapter, but since this was a Lori-focused deal, I don't think that having Lincoln in it was an absolute necessity. Anywho, next time will see the main plot of this revamped story return, with a somewhat familiar vengeance.