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 seventeen: The Chandler tales, part two

Chandler McCann, an eleven-year-old boy who is a fifth grader at Royal Woods Elementary School, was relaxing at home one day after classes at his school were out for the day. The red-headed boy had no homework, so he was free to hole up in his bedroom on the second floor of his family's house, playing video games on his Playtendo Swap until it was time for dinner. And from what he had gathered, Chandler felt like he was going to enjoy dinner tonight.

It wasn't because his mom was making his favorite meal tonight, though.

Chandler was in a particularly good mood, given that his most recent gambit to mess with Francisco, the son of the man who Chandler's dad is competing with for that big promotion at the sewage treatment plant, not only worked, but it went off without a hitch. The red-headed boy even got Francisco suspended from the middle school, mostly because Chandler, his older cousin Kara, and two of Chandler's friends Frank and Richie, had planted evidence framing Francisco for an incident that sent a thirteen-year-old girl to Royal Woods General.

Having reached a good spot in the game he was currently playing so that he could pause, Chandler got up from where he sat cross-legged on the floor in his bedroom and stretched a bit. Looking over to the clock on the wall in his room, the red-headed boy saw that it was about time for dinner. Going back to his video game, Chandler simply saved his progress, brought his system to its home menu, then left things like that before leaving his room to go downstairs.

…

Due to Chandler's dad being absent for reasons related to work, it was just Chandler himself and his mom eating dinner that night. Mrs. McCann was a fair-skinned woman with a slim yet healthy body. She had wavy blond hair that almost reached her waist, she wore a black t-shirt and blue jeans that were held up with a belt, and a pair of sandals. Mrs. McCann's shirt was a bit stretched over her upper chest area, due to her undeniable…assets.

"So mom," Chandler began in a casual, conversational tone, "You said something about dad not being able to be here for dinner tonight?"

"Yeah, he and a few of his co-workers had to put in for some overtime," Mrs. McCann replied. After pausing for a bit to reconsider what she said, Mrs. McCann said, "Or rather, your father's co-workers had to. Your father himself, on the other hand, didn't have to but figured that if he took the overtime anyway, the additional time worked would make him look more eligible for that big promotion that he's trying to chase after."

The red-headed boy nodded in agreement, understanding the logic behind his dad putting in for that overtime, even though he technically didn't need it. "Oh, I got a call from your Aunt Koby earlier today," Mrs. McCann said to her son.

"Oh?" Chandler replied after he chewed and swallowed a mouthful of enchilada (his mom made some amazing Mexican dishes, despite being very much white), "How is Aunt Koby doing?"

"Your aunt's fine," Mrs. McCann replied, "But then again she's my sister, so it's kind of a given. Anyway, your Aunt Koby told me that her husband recently got your cousin Kara into some local youth football team here in Royal Woods."

Having heard what his mother had just said, the red-headed boy took pause. Chandler knew full well that his older cousin Kara absolutely loathed sports, only taking part in them because her father was trying to force his passion for sports onto her; as a matter of fact, the thirteen-year-old girl was a member of the recently disqualified youth baseball team, only being freed from her silent suffering when she told Chandler about her teams cheating and he (secretly) leaked word of it as a favor to her.

Chandler gently placed his fork down before turning to look at his mom. "…Kara's on a local youth football team, huh?" the red-headed boy asked.

"Yeah, I know," Mrs. McCann began in a knowing, understanding tone, "Koby told me that her daughter isn't all that much into sports as a whole. But your uncle insists that your cousin take part in as many sports as she can." With a mildly worried look on her face, Mrs. McCann added, "I think your uncle was more upset over your cousin not having to play baseball for the rest of the season than he was with your cousin's youth baseball team being disqualified." As Chandler picked his fork back up, his mom said, "Anyway, your cousin's first football game is tomorrow."

Looking over to his mother, Chandler asked, "Really?"

"I know that you're about as interest in sports as your cousin is," Mrs. McCann began, "But I still think it would be really nice of you if you went to your cousin's game tomorrow to be there for her."

"…Actually, yeah," Chandler replied, "I think I will go and see Kara's football game tomorrow."

The McCann matriarch looked to her son, giving a small but warm smile. "Thanks, Chandler," Mrs. McCann remarked, "I'm sure that your cousin will appreciate having some family be there for her during tomorrow's game."

The red-headed boy merely nodded in agreement before he resumed eating his enchilada. He figured that at the very least, going out to see Kara's youth football game tomorrow would get him out of the house for a bit. Maybe if he was lucky, Chandler would find a way to get Kara out of having to play on the youth football team.

But then again, given that the incident with Kara's old baseball team being disqualified due to their cheating, officials have been cracking down on all youth sports teams in Royal Woods rather hard. Because of that, the red-headed boy had every reason to believe that Kara's youth football team was legit, meaning that the thirteen-year-old girl was stuck between a rock and a hard place. But who knows?

Maybe something will come up.

Something did come up. During the game itself, in fact.

Chandler, from where he sat in the bleachers at the youth football game, saw at least seven kids on Kara's team dogpile onto one kid from the opposing team in order to keep him from scoring a touchdown. After the kid that as dogpiled on was escorted off the field, his team continued to play the game, ultimately winning against Kara's team.

As Chandler got up from where he sat and proceeded to make his way down the bleachers, he overheard a few adults getting into an argument. From what he saw, Chandler noticed a few parents chewing out the coach of Kara's team, accusing him of turning a blind eye to the brutal actions of the kids that he was supposed to keep in check.

After a particularly angry father gave Kara's coach an earful, Chandler learned from having overheard that earful that the problem that he and the other parents were complaining about was a rather persistent problem, and that the coach ought to count himself lucky that the kid that was dogpiled on didn't need to be treated at the hospital, unlike with a few similar incidents in the past. As it stood, the angry father, as well as most of the parents of the kids, were going to take action against the coach for his sheer incompetence and inability to properly reel in the kids that were on his team.

Sometime later that afternoon, while Chandler was hanging out at home with his friends Sid and Trent, both of whom came by to check out the new video game that Chandler got, the red-headed boy heard that not only was the coach of Kara's youth football team fired, but most of the kids on Kara's team, specifically those guilty of taking part in the dogpile, as well as other notable kids on the team known to be more aggressive than need be, were kicked off. Due to how many kids had been kicked off, Kara's team was too small to continue, so it was officially disbanded.

As a side note, Kara was NOT among the kids on her team that were involved in the dogpile, and she was NOT one of the kids on her team noted to have a troublesome record. …Not that she had been on the team long enough to have any sort of record anyway. Since Kara was, once again, not involved in any sort of sports, Chandler had no doubt that Kara's dad was already on the hunt for another sport to make Kara throw herself into completely.

"Hey Chandler," Sid began, getting the red-headed boy to look over, "You were at that youth football game earlier today, right?"

"Huh?" Chandler replied, then after realizing what Sid was saying added, "Oh yeah, I was."

"I heard that Lincoln Loud was on the team that won today's game," the red hoodie-wearing boy explained. With a bit of a troubled look on his face, Sid said, "I also heard that your cousin was on the team that lost the game today. Sorry about that."

Gently shaking his head in a gesture to show he didn't mind, the red-headed boy remarked, "Oh, it's no big deal. After all, Lincoln is a pretty tough dude, so any youth sport team that got him as a member should count themselves as lucky."

Trent, with a mildly confused look on his face, remarked, "You know, guys, I was under the impression that Lincoln didn't like sports at all, which begs the question. Why was he on that other youth football team in the first place?"

"Pfft, beats me," Chandler replied indifferently with a shrug. The three boys hung out for about another hour before Mrs. McCann said that Sid and Trent had to go home, as it was getting close to dinner time. Chandler's friends said their good-byes before taking their leave. Like it was the previous night, Chandler and his mom had dinner without Mr. McCann, who this time was out at a bar with a few of his fellows from work.

Chandler, glad to have so much time where his dad was NOT around, was okay with this.

The following afternoon, Chandler swung by where his aunt, uncle and cousin lived. Chandler's uncle was out at the time, but both Kara and her mom were home. Heading out into the backyard of the place when his aunt told him Kara was out there, Chandler saw his older cousin dressed in a white martial arts practicing outfit as she was swinging around what appeared to be some kind of sword that was made of a few wooden slats.

As Chandler, with a curious and mildly confused look on his face, approached her, Kara saw him coming and stopped mid-practice. Kara also saw the look of confusion on her younger cousin's face, so she figured that she ought to give him an explanation. "Yeah, this is Kendo," Kara began to explain, "It's some sort of martial art involving wooden swords. Granted, I don't really feel like doing martial arts either, but at least this has gotten me out of doing sports."

"Sorry that you're still being forced by your dad into doing stuff that you don't want to do," Chandler said, "But at least you've Hey wait a minute." Deviating midsentence, Chandler said, "I think that Astrid's older brother practices Kendo regularly." Nodding to himself a bit, the red-headed boy said, "Yeah. It is Astrid's oldest brother who does Kendo. He's also pretty good at it, if what I've heard Astrid say on the matter is true."

Nodding in the affirmative, Kara remarked, "Yeah, Aggro Ace is an expert in Kendo. I also heard that he's recently taken one of Astrid's classmates from her school under his wing in order to teach them Kendo."

Chandler, with a curious look on his face, said, "Astrid's older brother is tutoring someone in Kendo right now?"

"I don't know who it is," Kara replied, "But I heard that Aggro's student has an older sibling who goes to Royal Woods High, same as Aggro himself." Gesturing to her wooden sword made of slats, the thirteen-year-old girl said, "Well anyway, I better resume practicing."

Looking at his cousin's sword, Chandler said, "So that's the sword that you and others use when fighting in Kendo, right?"

Nodding in the affirmative, Kara explained, "Yeah, this is a shinai." With a hint of annoyance entering her expression, Kara continued, "However, when practicing movements on my own, I'm supposed to be using a bokken. My Kendo instructor is just too cheap to loan out bokkens, as well as overly paranoid that some of my classmates or I might hurt ourselves or others if we had bokken as opposed to shinai."

"There's a difference?" Chandler asked.

Kara casually tossed her shinai to the ground in the backyard, walked over to a table on the patio, picked up a book that was laying there, and walked back over to Chandler. Thirteen-year-old girl opened the book and flipped to a page that denoted the various swords used in Kendo. Showing the page in question to her cousin, Kara said, "The one on the top is a shinai, which is the sword that I have. The one under the shinai is a bokken."

"…That looks like the wooden sword that I've seen Aggro carry," Chandler said.

"Well he's had sufficient time to train and practice," Kara remarked before closing her book and putting it back where she got it from. Walking back to where she had tossed her shinai to the ground, Kara said as she crouched down to pick her sword up, "Well anyway, I have got to get back to practicing. I'm pretty sure that if my dad came in and saw that I wasn't doing anything, he'd chew my head off."

The red-headed boy nodded in understanding, giving his regards to Kara before taking his leave. After saying good-bye to his Aunt Koby, Chandler left to go home. This whole business around this sword-based martial art seemed interesting to Chandler. The older brother of the cutest girl at Royal Woods Elementary School was an absolute wiz at Kendo, and now Kara was taking part in Kendo as well (although only to avoid being forced to throw herself into sports).

Chandler could not help but wonder what more would come of this.

Sometime later, Chandler was once again visiting Kara at her place while she was practicing her Kendo movements. The thirteen-year-old girl was still doing so with a shinai, as opposed to a bokken which is the norm for practicing movements on one's own. "Hey cous," Kara began as she took a break from practicing, "There's going to be some sort of Kendo youth tournament at the local youth center this Saturday."

Chandler, who was more or less lounging in a lawn chair, looked up from his handheld video game system that he was playing. Although he wasn't looking, the red-headed boy was hearing Kara practice, as well as hearing everything Kara said. "…How do you know this?" Chandler asked as he regarded his older cousin.

"My mom found out and thought that it would be an excuse to get me and her out of the house for a few hours," Kara explained, "Time away from my sports-obsessed dad." With a wry look of mild amusement on her face, Kara continued, "You might also be interested to know that Francisco will also be taking part in the Kendo tournament this Saturday."

Having just heard that Francisco, the boy that Chandler is trying to make look bad so that Francisco's dad, who is competing with Chandler's dad at the sewage treatment plant for a promotion, would look bad by proxy thus upping Chandler's dad's odds of winning out in the end, was going to be taking part in that Kendo tournament got the red-headed boy's attention. "You don't say, Kara," Chandler replied, his tone a sign that his interest had been piqued. Getting up from the lawn chair he sat in, the red-headed boy continued, "This could be another chance to frame Francisco for some manner of wrongdoing in order to make him, and thus by extension his dad, look bad." With a curious look on his face, Chandler continued, "Although I don't have any idea on what I can do, seeing as how I know nothing of Kendo."

"I do, cous," Kara remarked, getting her younger cousin to look at her. With a bit of an amused smirk, the thirteen-year-old girl continued, "Also, I know the prefect way to frame Francisco and get him into trouble at the Kendo tournament."

"Alright, Kara," the red-headed boy remarked as he gestured to his older cousin, "Shoot."

"Since the kids competing in the Kendo tournament will go up against each other in one-on-one bouts in an elimination-style deal," Kara began to explain, "They will all be using shinai. Shinai come in various lengths and weights, but the shinai that will be made standard in the tournament will all be the same length and weight."

With a confused look on his face, Chandler replied, "Your point being…"

"Screwing with Francisco will be as simple as swapping out his shinai when no one is looking with another shinai that is slightly heavier," Kara replied, "And it doesn't even need to be a really big difference. The shinai that will be used will all be about 114 centimeters long and 400 grams in weight. All we have to do is get a shinai that has a couple more grams in weight but still the same length as the tournament standard shinai."

"And…" Chandler said in a mildly uncertain tone, "…This will work?"

With a casual 'pfft' in a dismissive tone, the thirteen-year-old girl remarked, "It'll look really bad on Francisco when it's revealed that his shinai that he's using is heavier than the ones that everyone else is using. It's guaranteed to get him booted from the tournament." Although he was still unsure about this plan, mostly because he had no idea what Kara was talking about for the most part, Chandler nonetheless agreed to it. After all, if it further lowered Francisco's name thus further lowering Francisco's dad's name by extension, who was the red-headed boy to say no?

Clapping her hands together, Kara said, "Alright, cous! Just leave everything to me. I know what the standard shinai will look like for the tournament, and I know where to find one just like them for sale. All I have to do is buy one of the appropriate length and slightly increased weight, then everything after that will fall into place."

"I'm surprised that you're willing to go so far for me," Chandler remarked, "I mean, it's my dad aiming for that promotion at work, not yours."

Pointing to Chandler and herself with her left and right index fingers respectively, Kara said, "But you and I are cousins, extended family members. If one part of the McCann name scores it big time, other parts will get some bennies as well." Chandler, understanding his older cousin's reasoning, could not help but smile a bit in an appreciative manner.

Nodding a bit, Chandler said, "Alright, Kara. I'll trust you to have everything that you'll be needing to do your part before the Kendo tournament this Saturday." Kara gave her younger cousin a thumbs-up in response, signifying that she'll not be letting him down. The two cousins proceeded to resume doing what they had been doing prior to Kara taking a break.

The day of the Kendo tournament at the local youth center had come, and to Chandler's surprise, the supposed student of Astrid's older brother turned out to be Lincoln Loud. The red-headed boy, back before he discarded his conceitedness in favor of thinking logically and approaching things with a guile and subterfuge way of solving conflicts, used to regard the white-haired boy with contempt, as a nobody. But now?

Chandler was legitimately frightened of Lincoln. Also, Chandler now used Lincoln's actual name when referring to him, as opposed to calling him 'Larry' in an insulting manner.

Anyway, the first couple of rounds of the Kendo tournament had past, with Lincoln moving on to each successive round. Kara, although she got past a few rounds, was eliminated during the most recent round, and by Lincoln, no less. Everyone was currently relaxing a bit, as there was a bit of an intermission during rounds.

"Wow, Kara," Chandler remarked to his older cousin as the two of them were talking in private somewhere in the youth center, "I never expected Lincoln to not only turn out to be the student of Astrid's older brother, but to be in the tournament here, nor did I expect Lincoln to go up against you and take you out. Sorry about that, by the way."

"I think that Lincoln was the boy that your friends tried to spring the trap meant for Margo on a few weeks ago back at Royal Woods Middle School," Kara remarked with her hands on her hips. Giving her younger cousin a wry look, the thirteen-year-old girl continued, "You never told me that he practiced Kendo."

"I had no idea that Lincoln would be Astrid's older brother's student," Chandler defended with a shrug, "But Lincoln isn't the focus here. Anyway, did you see Francisco here?"

"Yeah, he's still in the tournament," Kara explained. With a bit of a chuckle, Kara said, "Don't worry, cous. I already secretly switched out the shinai that Francisco was using without being caught by anyone."

"Well alright," the red-headed boy said as he clapped his hands together, "Now all one of us has to do is go up to one of the people that's monitoring the Kendo matches, preferably after a match that Francisco just finished, tell the monitor person that we saw Francisco switch his bamboo sword out for another one, then we just sit back and let the show play out."

"And to think," Kara remarked to her younger cousin, "Your dad, Francisco's dad and the head guy at the sewage treatment plant are all here watching the tournament. Imagine how they'll react when our secret plan unfolds."

"This'll only have one outcome, Kara," Chandler replied, "Our family moving on up." Chandler and his older cousin both exchanged knowing smiles before sharing a fist-bump.

Things not only ended up working in the red-headed boy's favor, but did so in such a manner that maximized how bad Francisco, thus Francisco's dad as well by extension, looked; it was the final match of the Kendo tournament, and it was between Francisco and (to the amusement of Chandler) Lincoln. Francisco, who failed to notice the increased weight of his shinai, did not know that he had an advantage, an advantage that ended up allowing him to score an undeserved win again Lincoln, winning the Kendo tournament overall. As the gathered audience as a whole cheered for the thirteen-year-old boy's victory (although Chandler could have sworn he heard at least one girl shout angrily that Lincoln had lost), the red-headed boy decided to carry out his and Kara's plan.

At Chandler's prompting, Kara went over to one of the judges for the Kendo tournament and told him that she suspected Francisco was using a shinai that wasn't standard for the tournament. The judge, who was under obligation to investigate any accusations of cheating, got the shinai that Francisco had used against Lincoln, then compared it to one of the shinai that were standard for the Kendo tournament. After a few brief moments, the judge made an announcement that was music to the red-headed boy's ears.

"Attention everyone!" the judge announced, "There's been a mistake! Francisco has been disqualified, meaning that the winner is actually Lincoln!"

The audience began to murmur amongst themselves or a bit in an overall confused and mildly concerned tone. Kara, having done her part, slipped away unnoticed, then joined up with her younger cousin. Together, Chandler and Kara slipped out of the gymnasium at the youth center where the Kendo tournament was being held, no one even noticing them leaving at all.

"Well that certainly put a few thorns in Francisco's dad's balls," Chandler laughed as he and Kara hung out at her family's place the following day. Gesturing to Kara, the red-headed boy continued, "That plan of yours actually worked out, cous."

Kara, with a mildly amused smirk, replied, "Just be sure not to forget me when you and your folks get to enjoy the perks that comes with your dad's significantly raised stature at the sewage treatment plant once he lands that promotion." Chandler, in response, gave an amused smile and a thumbs-up.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

END, RESTORED IMAGE: A TALE RETOLD CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Author's note:

This chapter focusing around Chandler, and to a lesser extent Kara, covers what they were up to during the events of the previous two chapters. There's not a lot presented here that I think most would have gleamed on their own from the aforementioned chapters, but I still figured that it was important to show here what was going on in the background while Lincoln was in the spotlight. Anyway, next time will give me a fair bit to work with, so there's that to look forward to.