Good day. This is the second story of my big triple upload for this special day and, oh yeah, we're going there, folks.
Now, chances are there are two very fair and pertinent questions that'll be asked of me: "Ugh, haven't we have enough of these already?!" and "Even if we don't, what are you going to do different that hasn't been done dozens upon dozens of times before?"
For the second question at the very least, I'd say it's a case of "what can I not do that hasn't been done before". In other words, no death, murder, suicide, self harm, blood, violence, profane tirades, excessive angst, unnecessary additional cruelty, running away, police involvement or whatever else has been done a lot before, so there you go. Not that my goal was to create one of the "cleaner" fanfics of this variety, but that's how it turned out and I thought there was absolutely no need for the angst and drama factors to be ramped up to such an unneeded pitch.
It's also worth that this takes place right as Lincoln is made to sleep outside, but also this drastically changes a few other things as well, making this first story of mine in over two months that alters the events of an episode and will be the second to last for the foreseeable future that does so.
Additionally, yes, the character selection may indeed raise some suspicions and I will owe you all an explanation in due time later on, but until then, let's just get going with this and see what happens.
The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.
He just couldn't understand it. He was confused, baffled and one could even say very much in a clear state of bewilderment.
The confusion in question was how Lincoln was feeling right over the stunning predicament he found himself in right now as an 11-year-old boy being locked out by his own family and having to sleep outdoors. Anyone who could've been a witness to this would have rightly asked what lead to such a level of mistreatment to occur in the first place, although his family was far from the only guilty party in this equation.
The whole ordeal stemmed from a few days earlier. What happened was that Lincoln had been made to attend a baseball game that his older sister, Lynn, was participating in, which she and her team ended up losing. Lynn oftentimes didn't take losing in sports very well and decided on putting the onus on Lincoln for the loss, since he'd never actually went to any of her games prior to that and her team won each of them before. Thus, Lynn not only blamed her own brother for the loss, but even took the extraordinary step of claiming he must be bad luck. Such an audacious charge likely stemmed from Lynn's heavy case of being superstitious, as she wouldn't let anything affect or jinx her chances in any of her sports outings.
But as if that wasn't enough, she took the extra step in spreading the false claim of bad luck to the rest of the family and made them fearfully reconsider bringing him along for any engagements of their own or any other kind of family gatherings and events. In fairness, Lincoln didn't exactly make matters any better for himself when he chose to follow along with the unfounded accusation so that he could have an excuse to stay home and do whatever he wanted while everyone else did their thing elsewhere.
But at the end of the day, no matter if he went along with things or how he exploited it for his own gain, nothing excused the extent of which Lincoln had been treated tonight, being barred from his own bedroom on top of being sentenced to sleeping outdoors. And if things weren't unpleasant enough, he felt and heard the gentle sensation of raindrops falling from the sky followed by a low rumble of thunder.
"Great, just great..." Lincoln muttered softly.
He tried to take shelter underneath the tree in the backyard, but that proved to not be sufficient enough. His only option that was plausible now was to take refuge in the garage for the evening, which he didn't waste much time in going to.
Once inside, Lincoln now struggled with getting comfortable enough to order to get some sleep. The hard cement floor was definitely not helping at all.
"This gives out not comfort at all..." He said lamentably, "But I probably deserve it for playing along with this bad luck act..."
For the next few minutes, Lincoln tried in vain to send himself into slumber. He let out a frustrated groan as he shifted positions, not finding one that worked out for him.
Just as he was giving up hope in seeking a comfortable status, he could hear a pair of voices just beyond the garage and through the pattering of rain.
"You sure you've got everything?"
"I'm cool on my end. Just get the door."
He knew exactly who those voices belonged to and mere seconds after they'd spoke, the side door opened to show Luan holding an umbrella and Luna following behind her hauling a trash bag over her shoulder. Both were also clad in raincoats and boots as they both stepped inside while Luan folded up the umbrella and then shook it dry.
"Luan? Luna? What are you two doing here?" Lincoln asked.
"We'll fill you in on everything in a jiff, bro. Just give us a moment." Luna answered.
Once fully inside and having shut the door, Luan leaned the umbrella against the wall and Luna put down the trash bag, after which they then took off their raincoats and boots, revealing they had their sleepwear on underneath. Next, Luna opened up the bag and pulled out its contents, which included a couple of pillows and a blanket. Meanwhile, Luan was rummaging around the garage apparently looking for something.
"Hmm, I could have sworn that air mattress was stored around here somewhere..." She said while rooting around.
It took some doing, but Luan did succeeded in finding the air mattress in question in its deflated form. She pulled it out of storage while Luna approached from behind with a bicycle tire pump at hand.
"Why don't you go ahead and get things going with Lincoln?" Luna told Luan, pointing in the direction of their little brother, "I'll handle this from here."
Luan nodded affirmatively and headed over to where Lincoln was while Luna got to work on positioning and then pumping up the air mattress.
When Luan did come to Lincoln, he flinched anxiously away from eye contact or any touching as she tried reaching out to him.
"Lincoln? Hey, you all right?" Luan asked concernedly.
"Why are you two even here in the first place?" Lincoln inquired more bleakly, "Don't you know that I'm apparently bad luck? That should be more than enough to keep you away from me."
Luan reached out to him for a second time, and though he flinched again, he settled down a bit more as he felt her hand softly clamp down on his shoulder.
"Come on, don't say things like that." She said, "If you were really bad luck, would me and Luna put the effort in coming to you in the first place?"
Lincoln had to admit that Luan did have a point there. The times in which the rest of his family pushed him away to the point of sleeping outside of the house had damaged his trust of them somewhat. But now that at least two of his sisters were appearing to make an attempt to seemingly make amends did make him feel just a hint better, even if quite a bit of this whole mess was his own doing, too.
Letting out a breath of air, Lincoln turned back around to face Luan again. She had a warm, reassuring smile beckoning forth, which in turn caused him to give his own best effort in smiling back.
"Okay, dudes, things are all set for us."
Both Luan and Lincoln turned in Luna's direction upon her speaking to see that she had the air mattress fully inflated and set up in the middle of the garage floor. She also had taken the liberty in positioning the two pillows and the blanket that were brought along on top of that.
"It might be a bit of tight squeeze, but I'm sure we'll make deal with it." Luna said, feeling impressed with her handiwork.
Luan nodded before turning back to Lincoln and motioned for him to follow along and join both her and Luna on this makeshift bed space that had been put together. All three would take a seat on the mattress, with Luna and Luan being next to one another and Lincoln sitting just right in front of them.
"So, you've might have already figured out what me and Luna have got going on for us right now." Luan said.
"But before we get to that any further, we really need to clear up the air with regards to all this bad luck business." Luna added more somberly.
"I'm not sure what needs to be cleared up." Lincoln said in a mix of sadness and resentment, "I get accused of bad luck by Lynn and she turns our whole family against me and makes them all paranoid."
Luna reached out and patted Lincoln on the shoulder, "Listen, we get it, bro. You have every right to be miffed about all that's happened. What our fam has done to you is simply unacceptable and outta wack with who we are."
Luan nodded in agreement and followed her sister's actions by also patting her brother's other shoulder, "She's right, Lincoln. Plus, the more you think about it, how this whole mess got started doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Lynn losing one baseball game is no reason for her to accuse you of giving out bad luck to her just because it was the first time you attended one of her games. That's something that both me and Luna have sort of recognized for a little while now, like right before you were needlessly sentenced to spent the night outside."
Upon hearing that last statement, Lincoln felt dismayed. When Luan told him moments earlier that she and Luna wouldn't have come to him if they viewed him as bad luck, he assumed they came to that conclusion at some point after he was forced outside. Now hearing this admission that they felt this way prior to that distressing decision, he was feeling just a bit resentful than before.
"Wait, what?" Lincoln said, narrowing his eyes towards his sisters, "You both felt this way before I got thrown out here? Are you serious? If that's the case, then how come you didn't say anything?!"
Luna let out a long sigh, "I wish we knew, bro. I really do."
"The only reason I can think is that perhaps neither of us wanted to be seen by our family as 'that person' questioning the idea of you being bad luck and maybe they'd get on our case..." Luan opined, trailing off at the end.
Lincoln folded his arms and averted his gaze away from his sisters, "Well, you should have said something anyway. You could have spared me all the feelings that I've been going through since then."
He attempted to maintain his hardened rancorous stance, but admitting those feelings of grief made it difficult to do so. Groaning softly, Lincoln looked down and shook his head.
"I just don't get it..." He lamented quietly, "Why did things have to turn out like this? My own family...pushing me away. And for what? Because Lynn couldn't handle losing a single baseball game and she had to blame put some sort of blame on someone for it? It had to be me? Just...why?"
He sighed deeply and brought his hands up to his face. As he appeared to be deteriorating emotionally, his two sisters got a little closer to him.
"We're so sorry, Lincoln..." Luna expressed solemnly as she reached out stroked her brother's hair, "None of this should have ever happened. And you're right, we probably should've said something in your defense, and it shouldn't have mattered if our family wigged out on us if we did so long as you were spared any of this."
Lincoln groaned anxiously, "Well...it probably doesn't matter anyway, since I'm kind of partly to blame for this whole debacle and had all this coming in a sense."
Both of his sisters lightly gasped upon hearing him make such an assertion to the point they both lifted his head up so he can face them.
"Whoa, hold everything, Linc. What makes you think that you had anything to do with this? That's crazy talk, brah!" Luna said in mystification.
Luan agreed with that sentiment, "Yeah, there's no way you should be pinning any blame on yourself for what's happened, Lincoln. Every little bit of this is a result of Lynn planting the seed of bad luck into the ground until it sprouted and blossomed out of control and pollinated our family with that unfounded claim. She basically turned them from a garden variety family to one flowering with paranoia."
Luan grinned and was on the verge of a laughing fit, realizing the inadvertent litany of plant-based puns she'd woven together. However, she stopped herself short, thinking this wasn't the best time necessarily to be comedic when she should be focusing on letting Lincoln know he's not bad luck.
"But in all seriousness, please don't blame yourself, Lincoln. It's not helpful for you or anyone for that matter." She said while softly giving him a comforting caress of his cheek.
Lincoln pulled himself a little further from his sisters.
"No, seriously, you two don't understand. I really am partly to blame for this..." He said.
He took a moment to recuperate, then proceeded to confess his unfortunate role in the whole ordeal.
"I went along with every accusation of bad luck Lynn made and didn't even try to refute it, and I did it for such a stupid, selfish reason..."
The moment of recuperation was fleeting as Lincoln quickly felt himself spiraling back down into regret and unhappiness. He closed his eyes in order to again gather up some willpower, all while Luna and Luan looked on sadly as they waited for their brother to finish explaining his side of things.
"I only went along with everything just so I could have an excuse to not come along with any of our family's engagements and be able to stay home and do whatever I wanted, because I haven't had any free time for myself in weeks! At first I thought I was having fun with that, but soon it became so boring and I was having doubts about it, which only got worse each time I was told I can't come along to some outing or activity with everybody. I thought about coming clean at some point today, but then came tonight, with me being forbidden to sleep in my own room and being locked out of the house for the night..."
Lincoln opened his eyes, and as much as he hated it and didn't want this to happen, a glistening within was forming as holding things together just wasn't cutting it anymore while he tried to wrap his explanation up, getting a little choked up in the process.
"So you see, I d-did have this coming t-to some extent, and how couldn't I have? It was for one of the w-worst of r-r-reasons. I had what was coming t-to me, I really d-d-did…!"
What little barrier that held things together emotionally for Lincoln had its foundation smashed as a few tears began to crawl down his face and some gentle sniffles came along, too. That was the cue in the minds of his sisters to bring him over towards them into a twofold hug of theirs, with Luna primarily holding him against her as Luan put her arms around both of them from the side. Neither of them said anything in the meantime, as all they did was allowed their little brother to let everything out for a period of time while they both held on to him securely and in comfort.
However, even though both of them were willing in consoling him, it's not like they also couldn't hide the fact that there was some disappointment in him as soon as they heard his side of things.
"I had it coming…I had it coming..." Lincoln repeated a handful of times between soft cries.
Luna released another prolonged sigh, "Well, bro, I don't think Luan and I will pretend that lying to get out of important gigs of ours was a smart move on your part."
"Yeah, but if you really wanted to have some time for yourself, all you had to do was say something. I'm sure we all would have understood and made some accommodations." Luan added.
Lincoln pulled away slightly again, "Wait, you would have? I...I-I didn't think I could afford the luxury of doing so. Then again, after what I did, there's no way I'd deserve it anyway..."
He let out a shaky, weepy sigh before returning back fully within the embrace of his sisters for a little while more. Afterwards, everyone parted ways and sat across from each other again.
"Look, it may have been the wrong thing for you to lie to us like that, Lincoln, no question about it..." Luna began, "But be that as it may, I still don't think it completely excuses what our family's done to you, at least not to the extent that's happened. With that in mind, I'll let Luan finish explaining what we're going to do to make it up with you in our small way, though as she said earlier you've probably clued in already."
Luan nodded and then smiled at her brother, "To prove that we don't view you as bad luck anymore and to show we're sorry for what you've been through and for not saying anything in your defense, we're going to spend the night with you here if you think that's okay. I mean, all the work's already been done, but still, never hurts to make sure you're fine with this."
Lincoln smiled back as he wiped his eyes, "Oh, well...sure. I guess I can be fine with that. Thanks, you guys."
Sharing smiles right back at him, Luna and Luan moved aside and pulled the blanket down from their temporary bed space to allow Lincoln to attempt in getting comfortable right in the middle. This was followed by Luan coming over and settling down on the left side of Lincoln and Luna on the right before she pulled the blanket over all three of them.
Right as they were getting more comfortable with their sleep setup, the rain outside really started to come down hard and some more thunder rolled on.
"You know, I have to say that I do like the sound of the rain." Lincoln remarked.
"Same here, bro." Luna said in agreement, "It does make for a nice melody."
"Yeah, it certainly isn't drab, dull or pouring at all!" Luan added jovially.
Both Luna and Lincoln shifted their gazes over to their comedienne sister, as in this instance they were quite confused over the pun being made.
"Get it? Boring….pouring...'cause they rhyme and I used pouring in place of boring after saying drab and dull..." Luan attempted explaining, but gave up and sighed, "All right, I admit that one didn't land or drop in like I hoped."
She let out a light chuckle, as did Luna and Lincoln before they all tried to get some sleep.
However, they would be startled when the side door of the garage was barged open by a figure in a hooded sweatshirt and was closed just as quickly.
"Ugh, of course it started pouring buckets as soon as I stepped on out."
The figure pulled the hood of the sweatshirt down to reveal that the unexpected visitor was Lynn. She took the sweatshirt off entirely to shake and wring it out. Like when Luna and Luan arrived earlier, Lynn also had her sleepwear on underneath.
"Lynn? What are you doing here?" Lincoln asked.
"Well, it's pretty simple, Lincoln." Lynn began to respond, "There's something that I..."
She was turning to face Lincoln right in the middle of her sentence, but paused when she saw Luna and Luan crowded around him in their improvised bedding, who were just as confused over Lynn's arrival.
"Huh? Luna? Luan? What's going on? Why are you guys here?" Lynn wondered.
"We'd ask the same about you if we're honest." Luan answered.
"Heh, well...I, uh...wanted to tell Lincoln something, I guess..." Lynn stated, her speech pattern becoming more uneasy while she approached them.
Luna arched her eyebrow up, "You think that's a good idea, brah? Haven't you done enough damage?"
Lynn gulped, "Oh, that...well..."
"Well, what?" Luan asked scornfully, "What excuse are you gonna make up to justify what you've done to Lincoln all week long?"
"I...I..." Lynn stammered, "I don't have any excuses, but-"
"So you just called our bro bad luck for no reason at all? Or because your ego can't handle losing a single ballgame? Which is it, LJ?" Luna pressed her sister firmly.
Lynn wondered if there was any point at all in trying to explain things if all she's going to get were contemptuous statements such as those, justified or otherwise. Because of it, she sighed and began heading back.
"Now you're gonna leave just like that? This coming from the one who so arrogantly accused Lincoln of being at fault for that loss? Seems pretty cowardly if you ask me." Luan said so very cuttingly.
Normally, having the label of cowardice placed on her would be something Lynn wouldn't ever take laying down, but it wasn't like her fellow ponytailed sister was wrong in this case. Here she was, someone who was so willing to throw her own brother under the bus for a simple loss at a sporting event, something she should be more able to take gracefully, and yet apparently was now too spineless to even listen to any sort of potentially well deserved criticism of her choice behavior towards Lincoln.
But right as she was leaving, she heard the voice of that very same boy who bore her brazen bad luck charge call for her.
"Wait, hold on, Lynn!"
She turned to see Lincoln pull himself up from the bedding shared with Luna and Luan and came up to her.
"Don't go just yet. I want to hear what you've got to say." He said.
This resulted in both of their older sisters getting quizzical and even mildly perturbed looks on their faces.
"What? Seriously, Lincoln?" Luan asked.
"Even after what she's put you through, bro?" Luna added.
"Guys, please! Lay off her for a moment!" Lincoln said to both of them, "If I was able to give you both the chance to talk things over with me in regards to what's happened, I think it's fair that we should do the same with Lynn."
Luna and Luan looked at each other for a second, realizing that their little brother did have a valid point. They looked back over to him and Lynn, both of them sighing and decided they were willing to give his suggestion a try.
"Okay, you're right, Linc. We'll give her that chance." Luna said.
"Yeah, fair is fair, I suppose. If you're willing, we should be, too." Luan added in agreement.
With that settled, Lincoln waved over Lynn to join him on the mattress with their sisters.
"So, what did want to say to me, Lynn?" Lincoln wondered.
Lynn didn't immediately respond, spending several seconds fidgeting around and preventing from making direct eye contact with any of her present siblings. Eventually, she did mutter something very quietly and indistinctly.
"Huh? What was that, Lynn?" Luan inquired.
Lynn again muttered, but still not audible enough for anyone to hear her.
"Dude, speak up a little more." Luna implored her younger sister, "We can't really-"
"I'm sorry, okay?!"
That sudden outburst from Lynn followed with her lifting up her head and showing a look of complete sorrow on her face.
"Lincoln...I'm so sorry…!"
Such an admission from her took her siblings by surprise and for a moment, no one else spoke up while they processed everything.
"Wait, you're sorry?" Luan wondered.
"Am I hearing an echo here?" Lynn responded, briefly coming off mildly annoyed, "Yes, I'm sorry!"
"I don't know, Lynn. Is sorry really gonna cut it? Personally, I-" Luna was in the middle of saying, sounding unconvinced.
"Luna! What did we just promise Lincoln?" Luan interrupted her, lightly batting her older sister's shoulder.
Luna sighed and frowned, "Right, right, sorry. As you were, Lynn."
"Okay..." Lynn said, reorienting her attention back to her brother, "Listen, Lincoln...I have to admit that maybe it was wrong of me to charge you with bad luck after my game a few days ago, and truth be told...I've been feeling this way since like the middle of this week."
"Wait...since the middle of the week?" Lincoln questioned her in shock, "Really?"
"Yeah..." Lynn answered sadly, "And I'm guessing Luna and Luan are here because they don't think of you like so, too?"
Luan nodded, "That's right, but we only came to that conclusion only just a little before Lincoln got put outside. But if we heard you right, Lynn, you've doubted that claim during the middle of the week? How did this come about and more importantly, why didn't you say so at any point between then and now?"
"Well, I could also ask the same for you and Luna if what you're saying on your end is true, but that's nothing compared to my situation..." Lynn admitted.
She again took a moment to regroup and finally attempted to explain her side of the story.
"I think what made me begin wondering if I was wrong to call you bad luck was when you were excluded from some of our outings, Lincoln, especially the ones when we all went as a family. I have to admit that I was really starting to miss having you around. I called you bad luck mostly out of frustration due to the loss at the game and wanted to find any excuse to blame something or anything at all for it aside from myself or my team. Never did I anticipate our family would take such a claim so seriously and force you out of other activities and such."
Like Lincoln before her, Lynn was beginning to show subtle signs of having a hard time holding herself together, but she tried her best and pushed forward.
"As for why I didn't say anything sooner? Well, Luna sort of touched on it just a moment ago. My ego may have gotten in the way of fessing up, because not only would Lincoln be understandably upset at me should I confess to making up the bad luck accusation and wasted everyone's time with that claim, but then I'd have to admit that perhaps I'm really the reason for my team losing that game. Maybe we did have some bad luck on our side, but not because of any one person bringing it upon us. It may have been temporary, because we did win another pair of games this week, but each time I looked up at the stands during them, I have to admit that not seeing Lincoln among my family sort of made them feel less important."
Releasing a shuddered sigh, she was getting closer to losing it as she concluded her explanation.
"But what sealed it for me was tonight. Again, I didn't think our family would ever take this whole bad luck thing as seriously as they did, but locking you out? That was a step too far and I really wished I did say something then, but that dang pride in me once more held me back, so I didn't do anything still. Finally, a few minutes after this thunderstorm began, I finally kicked my pride to the curb, looked out the window to not see you there and was willing to brave the rain to come here, assuming that's where you holed yourself up. So once again...I'm so sorry for everything, Lincoln. Every single bit of this is my fault!"
And with that final admission, Lynn's eyes watered up and she began quietly sniffling. She turned herself away from her siblings in shame and scrunched into a ball.
For Luna and Luan's side of things, any animosity for their younger sister based on the events of the past week that formed tonight was completely gone upon seeing her break down. They both wanted to come over and console her like they did with Lincoln, but they were beaten to the punch on that front.
Shifting closer to Lynn himself, Lincoln made her reluctantly turn to face him. She saw that he was looking sorrowful as well, then he put his arms around her, which she did a couple of seconds later, regardless of feeling if she truly deserved such affection for everything.
"Lynn, I can forgive you for all that's happened." Lincoln said softly.
"But...but...but why?" Lynn stammered tearfully, "H-h-how can you s-so easily forgive me?"
"Because...you're not the only one who's to blame here..." Lincoln replied, "Because a lot of this is truly my fault, too."
The moment those words came out of his mouth, Lynn pulled herself away from Lincoln and looked into his eyes. At first, she seemed stunned, then her face morphed into that of some anger.
"Oh no...don't you dare do this to me!" She said testily.
Lincoln reared back some, "What do you mean?"
"I'm not playing this game, Lincoln! You're not going to pull this act when you sometimes act like something's your fault even when it isn't! I'm the one to blame, not you!" Lynn shouted in a strained voice.
"Whoa, hey, hey, hey, ease up some, LJ!" Luna said, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder, "He's not lying, you know."
"What…?" Lynn confusedly said.
"Yeah, Lincoln told us the very same thing before you came along, and maybe it's your turn to give him that chance in hearing him out." Luan recommended to her.
On that note, Lynn glanced back at her brother and softened her stance. As she did that, he took a deep breath and proceed to explain again his side of things.
"Lynn, you may have called me bad luck, but I made things worse because I willingly went along with everything just so I could have an excuse to not come along to any sort of family engagements and have some free time to myself. I know now that was the wrong way to go about things and I truly believe because of it, I share a good amount of the blame for this as well and for that, I'm sorry." He said fully in regret.
For the second time, Lincoln reached out and hugged Lynn right as he teared up for the second time. At the same time, Lynn was having a hard time processing him claiming any responsibility for the debacle that has occurred. Nevertheless, she hugged him again and joined in on crying again herself. Finally, as they witness this heartrending scene of regret between these two, Luna and Luan came along and put their arms around their younger siblings and held on to them for the next little while.
When it appeared that Lynn and Lincoln had settled down, their older sisters disengaged from the group embrace and let them have another moment in working out the past week's events.
"Lincoln...I'm not entirely sure how to take what you've told me, but no matter what, I'm really sorry again for my end of things." Lynn said.
"And I'm sorry for mine, too." Lincoln reciprocated, "Can we now say were good again?"
Lynn smiled and gently gave his shoulder a jab, "Always, Linc."
Lincoln smiled back before he and Lynn shared another brief hug.
"So, what exactly are you guys doing anyway with this setup if I may ask?" Lynn wondered.
"Well, the idea is that me and Luna wanted to stay the night with Lincoln as our way of making it up to him for when we went along with the bad luck stuff and just so that he wouldn't feel so lonely." Luan explained.
"You know, you can join us if you'd like, Lynn." Luna offered up.
"Ah...no thanks. You guys look plenty comfy yourselves." Lynn said with a chuckle, "Plus I told Lucy that I'd be back soon, since she knew about my plans to come out here and try to make things right, so I should be on my way."
With that said, Lynn stood up, walked on over to pick up and put back on her black hoodie and was about to head on out, but not before glancing back over.
"Oh, and Lincoln, I promise you that we'll make things right with the rest of our family tomorrow." She said with a smile.
After that promise was made, she opened the door, put the hood up and braved the elements again to head back inside the house.
Meanwhile, Lincoln rejoined his remaining sisters in their cramped makeshift bedding, now in a much better mood than before.
"Wow...I can't believe the turnaround with Lynn." He noted.
"Yeah, but now that I think of it, it isn't that crazy, bro. I mean, sure, what she did on her end wasn't so cool, but once you knocked it into us to hear her out, she really did redeem herself in our eyes." Luna said, "Underneath that tough sporty girl lies a genuinely good heart and honestly, we shouldn't think differently."
Lincoln agreed, "True, and though she can be rough and impulsive, I've never doubted within myself that she, like any of us, can be willing to admit to her own faults and do what it takes to try in making things right, like whatever she has planned for tomorrow."
He looked at both of his sisters and had a tiny frown on his face.
"Speaking of faults, for what it's worth, I want to again apologize for taking advantage of this bad luck nonsense for my own pursuits."
"It's no trouble, Linc. As long as you did come clean at some point like you said, I'd say that's the best we can ask for." Luna told him, stroking her hand along his back.
That frown reverting to a smile, Lincoln laid back down as did Luna and Luan while they tried to make the best of their incommodious, on the spot sleep situation.
"Oh, might at as well ask, but besides wanting to make it up to me and all, how did this whole idea of you two staying here with me come about anyway?" Lincoln curiously asked.
"Well, it was largely my idea to be honest." Luan answered, "At first, I only wanted to do this myself, but after some insistence from Luna, I let her come along, too."
Holding back a chuckle, she grinned deviously and leaned over to Lincoln to whisper something into his ear.
"But between you and me, I'd say Luna tagged along because she sometimes gets lonely if I'm not around in our room."
"I heard that, brah." Luna teasingly said, reaching out and lightly pushed her sister's forehead with her fingertips.
After that playful bit of teasing, finally the three of them got comfortable to the best of their ability in getting some sleep, with the now more gentle pattering of the rain helping out in that front.
In the morning that followed, Lincoln fluttered his eyes open. For a second, the surroundings of the garage looked befuddling, but the events of last night quickly came back to him. He sat up, stretched around a little and yawned.
"Well, good morning, Lincoln."
Hearing that voice belonging to Luan, he looked over in front of him to see her and Luna sitting across a couple of feet from where he was situated.
"Oh...good morning, guys." Lincoln returned the greeting, "Have you been up for a while now?"
"A little bit, yeah. We thought about waking you up at some point, but then we didn't want to rankle you in your slumber and wait until you got up on your own." Luna replied with a smile.
"Uh, okay then." Lincoln said somewhat confused, "Well, with that, wonder how Lynn is going to working things out with our family regarding all that's gone on, since that's been weighing on my mind the other night."
Coincidentally enough, the garage's side door opened up and like that other night, Lynn came on inside, drawing the surprised attention of her siblings.
"Hey, good morning, you guys." She said.
"Lynn? What brings you back here?" Luan wondered.
"Simple, I'm about to enact my game plan about how we're gonna fix up everything about the whole bad luck ridiculousness." Lynn responded.
Lincoln looked on feeling lost, "Uh...what kind of plan?"
Lynn smirked confidently, "You see, I have everyone else in our family gathered in the living room thinking I'm gonna lay out what will happen at my latest baseball game later on today. But little do they know that I'll be bringing you in so we can right the wrongs of these past few days."
"Wait...what? But won't they completely freak out when I do arrive?" Lincoln inquired anxiously.
"It doesn't matter, little bro." Lynn said, shaking her head, "One way or another, we're gonna get this settled between everyone, so why don't we hop to it? And that means both of you as well, Luna and Luan."
"Actually, why don't you dudes get a jump start and go right on ahead?" Luna suggested, "Me and Luan are gonna stick on by here for a bit so we can get all stuff we brought with us organized."
Lynn raised her eyebrow, but then she shrugged, "Whatever, I guess. But I really do want you guys there for everything, so make it quick. Now, let's get going, Lincoln."
Though still both confused and unsure about what Lynn was going with this, Lincoln stood up and joined along with her. She opened up the door and her brother almost stepped outside, only for a certain detail to catch his eye.
"Ugh, the grass looks pretty wet from last night's storm. Don't know if I want to step all over it and track stuff into the house, being barefoot and all." Lincoln observed.
"Eh, that won't be much trouble at all." Lynn said, crouching on down, "Hop aboard."
Showing that she wanted to carry him, Lincoln hitched a ride right on Lynn's back and she hauled him along until they reached the stairway leading up to the back door. Once she allowed her brother to get off of her, she began very cautiously creaking the door open, an action that Lincoln was puzzled by.
"Lynn, why are you…?" He tried to ask.
"Shh, zip it or you might give away everything!" Lynn advised him, putting her hand over his mouth.
He was still pretty lost about this whole situation, but Lincoln assumed he had to abide by his sister's command nonetheless.
Lynn quietly ushered Lincoln inside and then she ever so gently closed the door behind them.
"Okay, so the reason I'm telling you to be quiet is that no one in the living room knows I went outside to come get you." Lynn explained to her brother, "They think I'm in here to nab myself a protein shake before talking about today's game. So now what I want you to do is stick here for a moment and give you some sort of verbal cue to come along, then we'll go from there, got it?"
"Uh...sure?" Lincoln said tentatively.
Before he could have any more time in wondering how this will all go down, Lynn stood and first went over to the fridge to grab herself a protein shake, likely so that it can look convincing that she was in fact getting on. Next, she headed over to the living room and began addressing her family.
"All right, sorry that took me a little longer than expected. Had to pick out just the right one that'll help boost my energy reserves for the big playoff today. But before I go any further, I wanna say how much it means for me that you all come to my games. You're really what drives me to give it my all, and I do mean all of those in my family."
The extra emphasis in those last few words made Lincoln believe that was the verbal cue Lynn mentioned she'd use just a moment ago. Taking a deep breath, he slowly made is away into the living room, and like he potentially feared, his family didn't react that well to his arrival.
"Lincoln?!" Rita said in shock.
"What are you doing back inside?!" Lola shouted.
"Hey, cool it, everyone, would you?" Lynn said, "I went out to get him to first place to tell the truth."
"What?! But what about his bad luck, LJ?" Lynn Sr. asked worriedly.
"Yeah, you might be jinxing yourself by being near him!" Lana said.
Lynn Jr. let out annoyed sigh, "Look, I brought him back in because I want to talk about everything that's gone on and..."
Right as she was in the middle of her thought, everyone's attention was turned when Luna and Luan finally made their own entrances.
"Oh, hi Luna! Hi Luan! Wait, what were you guys doing in the kitchen? Weren't you still in your room?" Leni inquired curiously.
"Uh, no, we just came in from the backyard, dude." Luna answered.
"The backyard? What were you doing there?" Lucy asked.
"Well, it's because we spent the night with Lincoln in the garage and..." Luan was saying.
"Wait, what?! Why would you do that?!" Lana interjected.
Lola released a horrified gasp, "Then you both must be tainted by Lincoln's bad luck, too!"
Most everyone else gasped and started panicking and fretting in place. But one very displeased sports girl put a halt to it when she slammed her fist on the coffee table.
"Dang it, will you all just can it and let me explain everything?!"
Stunned into silence by Lynn's outburst, the family's attention was drawn to her as she exhaled before speaking again in a more calm tone.
"Okay, first of all, the reason Luna and Luan stayed with Lincoln overnight was because they both felt bad for him after he was made to sleep outside as well them regretting taking part in the events of keeping him out of recent outings of ours, and the reason I know this is that I too went outside and talked things over with them. You know why I did that? Because I wanted to talk with Lincoln specifically, and now that everyone's here, I can get back to what I was saying which is…."
Pausing for a second, Lynn closed her eyes and prepared for the worst before continuing.
"I was completely wrong in referring to him as bad luck. He isn't that at all and I completely made the whole thing up."
She sighed and opened up her eyes, expecting her family to be furious at her, perhaps rightly so. But instead, they looked at her with nothing but shock written on their faces. She took their pause in their reactions as reason for her to go on.
"Now the thing that's likely on your minds now is 'well, if that's true, how could you possibly call him that in the first place and when did you change your mind on that?" Well, I might've only said that to him because I was so frustrated with the loss of the baseball game from earlier in the week and in the moment I wanted to blame anyone or anything than myself or my team, and since Lincoln hadn't come to any other recent games of mine, I just decided to impulsively think he must've had something to do with that loss. But that changed midweek as I began missing having him around and never got around to saying anything sooner because I was too proud to confess any wrongdoing until last night, but I'm glad that I finally did."
Lynn glanced over to Lincoln, giving him a smile as did he in return, then she turned back and went on.
"And listen, I'll take full responsibility for calling him back luck and getting the ball rolling, but honestly, I'm not exactly pleased with a lot of you, either. I never expected you to react in the paranoid fashion that you did, which was one of the reasons besides missing Lincoln in general that made me start regretting everything, and there are a handful of you I've become more disappointed at than others, like you for example, Lori."
"Huh, what now?" Lori said, raising her eyebrow as that accusation catching her off guard.
"I mean, you are the oldest among our sibling group and being the oldest I would think means you having the common sense to believe that something like Lincoln being called bad luck may be complete bunk!" Lynn explained.
Lori though over her younger sister's words over for a moment, then she prepared her own response.
"Well, for what it's worth, maybe I literally didn't by into the whole bad luck stuff my from the start, and I would've told Lincoln that, but the fact he wrecked my golf clubs might've made me too upset at him to do so. Plus, regardless of that, I figure he would be smart enough to know there's no truth to such a claim, though I did find it suspicious he didn't say much himself as far as I know." She said, turning her attention to him near the end.
Lincoln laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head, "Well, truthfully, there's a reason for that, Lori, because I..."
"Hold that thought, Lincoln." Lynn interrupted him, "I still need get a couple of things out there myself."
Next, she turned her sights over to the second youngest of the siblings.
"Lisa, there's something I'd like to say to you now. I can say with absolute certainty that you are the smartest person in this family, which is why your reactions to all of this is all the more confounding. You use science to dismiss things like superstition quite easily, like that time you waved off each of Lucy's fortunes during our trip to Grand Venture State Park. Yet somehow you believed in the whole bad luck shtick that I kicked off just like that?"
Like Lori before her, Lisa contemplated what had been said by Lynn and she too had her own realization.
"I must concede the point you've made, my fifth eldest sibling." She admitted with a sigh, "I should've seen through such piffle and hokum, but alas, the only theorem I can muster up for such lack thereof was conforming to the mass hysteria and groupthink that unfortunately gripped this whole household, and for that, I suppose I owe my elder and only brother an apology for that."
Lincoln smiled a little, "It's okay, Lisa, but speaking of apologies, I should be-"
Lynn held her hand up towards him and made her buzzer noise, "One more thing and I'll finally let you have the floor, Lincoln."
Finally, she directed her attention to those who really recently earned her dissatisfaction the most.
"But above all else, there no people I've become more disappointed at than you, Mom and Dad. Looking back, I'm amazed you didn't come down on me once I accused Lincoln of being bad luck. I'd imagine Mom would've been all stern like 'young lady, what did you just say?!', then Dad might've come in and followed that up with perhaps something like 'LJ, I can understand being upset about losing a ballgame, but calling your brother bad luck is not the way to handle things!'. Instead, nothing! Worse yet, you said nothing when Lincoln was made to spend the night outside, all while a friggin' thunderstorm rolled along! Neither of you, or anybody besides apparently myself, Luna and Luan noticed that?! I mean, jeez, I'm not intentionally trying to make you all feel bad or make it sound like the three of us were the only ones who cared about him in that moment, but dang it, really now?"
Those last three thoughts really got under Lynn's skin if her agitated demeanor when delivering them were anything to go by, and to their credit, her parents were starting to look remorseful on their part.
"You know what, you're totally right, Lynn." Rita confessed after a heavy sigh, "Come to think of it, your father and I really dropped the ball here, and that's with everyone, not just you or Lincoln."
"I'm in agreement." Lynn Sr. added sorrowfully, "Maybe it took you driving it into us just now, LJ, but at the same time, we should have done a better job handling this mess, just like when we should've done more stepping in during the fiasco with the sister fight protocol and others instances when things really got out of hand."
He sniffled, eyes welling up in tears, as the most trouble detail his namesake daughter brought up really began to sink in.
"And now that you mention it...how could we possibly been so irresponsible enough to allow our only son to have him be made to stay outside in the rain? Even if he managed to take shelter in the garage, that initial idea of...of him..."
The image was too hard for Lynn Sr. to bear. His sniffling became outright sobbing, while Rita draped an arm around as she wasn't holding up that much better herself. She then looked to that very son of theirs they feel like they completely failed.
"Lincoln, can you come over here for a minute?" She requested.
He acquiesced to his mother's request, joining in by sitting between her and his father in the couch.
"Listen, honey, we're so sorry about all that's happened these past few days. It would be one thing if any of your sisters were the only ones who did such things, which would still be reprehensible if that were the case, and they did play their parts in everything in any event." Rita said, sharing a disapproving look to each of her daughters.
For their part, all of the girls had regret written on their faces, even Luna, Luan and Lynn despite their own efforts in making it up to Lincoln, for they too still nevertheless had a role in last night's unconscionable act just as their mother said. However, Rita sighed, as she knew that they ultimately didn't share all the blame.
"But either way, your father and I don''t have a lot of room to complain because we share the bulk of the responsibility for what happened last night in particular. That was borderline neglect on our part and no matter if we got swept up in the hysteria like Lisa suggested, that doesn't excuse you having to be put out to the backyard."
"We...we...we really...failed as parents, son." Lynn Sr. added, trying to regain his composure, "But we'll try to be better...and….though we'll understand if you hold any sort of resentment against us for a little while...we can only hope you can forgive us."
Lincoln didn't give it a second thought, "Of course I can, Mom and Dad."
He hugged them both immediately afterward. The fact that their son so easily forgave them just like that took Lynn Sr. and Rita off guard, but that didn't prevent them from hugging their son in return, all while the girls watched on with smiles on their faces.
"Now, it sounded like before Lynn Jr. cut you off twice, there was something you wanted to say, Lincoln?" Lynn Sr. inquired.
Lincoln nodded somberly, "Yes, I do..."
He got off from the couch and stood in the center of the living room so he could face everyone. Taking a few seconds to work up that last little bit of willpower, he inhaled and exhaled, then he proceeded to bring up his side of the week's unfortunate events.
"Listen, I did not like it when Lynn called me bad luck after her baseball game. It was baseless, out of line and even hurtful to a degree. Yet despite that, just her saying that would not be enough for you all to act how you did...if it weren't for me, because I share some blame for all this."
Aside from Luna, Luan and Lynn Jr., that admission completely stunned his family.
"What?! What on earth makes you say that, Lincoln? You're the real victim in all this!" Lynn Sr. said absolutely befuddled.
"No, not entirely, Dad…" Lincoln disagreed, "Because you see, aside for the brief moment Lynn made that claim, I didn't even try in refuting being called bad luck and even flaunted it around all so I can have an excuse to not be brought along to whatever engagements or events any of you have. See, I've had next to no free time in these past few weeks and once my nonexistent 'bad luck' seemed to take a hold around here, I selfishly used it to my advantage just so I could stay home."
As he confessed to everything, Lincoln admittedly had difficultly maintaining eye contact with his family as the guilt for his actions was getting to him. He closed his eyes, feel to his knees and sighed depressingly. Only when he felt a pair of hands on his shoulders did he look back up to see his mother kneeling down in front of him.
"Sweetie, if all of this is true and if you really wanted some time for yourself, why couldn't you have said something sooner?" Rita asked, "It's not like everyone is to be compelled to attend every little event there is. Your sisters can vouch on that, right, girls?"
Lincoln looked on as each of his sisters agreed with what their mother just said, which if anything made him feel just that little bit worse and made his choices appear all the more pointless in that moment.
"Hold up, you guys don't go to everything engagement of ours? I...I...I didn't know that." Lincoln said, now having his own moment of shock, "But as to why I didn't say anything, Mom, I guess maybe I was worried that if I did request not to go to any select events, I'd get some kind of lecture about how I'm letting down everyone in my family who does go. Then again, with the lengths I went to lie about having bad luck, I probably did let you all down and in a sense, perhaps I did deserve what's happened to me."
Rita brought Lincoln into her arms, "No, no, no, don't say that, Lincoln. Yes, I'll admit and speak for everyone that lying about something like this was not something you should have ever done. But like your father and I said, nothing justified you being forced outside and we are relieved that despite it raining outside, you did manage to find adequate shelter and we're lucky enough to have some of your sisters to keep you company. Call it an act of serendipity if you will."
She shared a quick glance with the two daughters of hers who did stay with Lincoln that night, plus the one who was finally worked up the courage to confess that her charge of bad luck was unneeded, then she let go of her son and then his father joined alongside him.
"Now, if you're wondering if there will be any sort of consequences for lying to us, I think for now what you've been through may have been enough." Rita said.
Lynn Sr. nodded and put a hand on his son's back. "I'd say so, too. But the only thing we can ask of you, Lincoln, is that if you ever need some free time, just tell us and we'll try to work something out."
"Yeah, I'll do that in the future, I promise you all." Lincoln said affirmatively, "And I'm sorry for not being more truthful from the start."
"And I'm sorry again for my end of things, too." Lynn Jr. stated as she quickly came over to her brother, "And in the future, I won't demand against your will that you come to any of my games if you don't want to, or do anything stupid like threatening you with my baseball bat like I did with for the earlier game."
When that little detail slipped, everyone but Lincoln gasped.
"Oh, heh...yeah, I did that, too." She admitted with a weak, nervous laugh, "But if it makes you all feel any better, that was probably just an empty threat and I'd never, ever seriously hurt him like that to get my way. So, uh...sorry."
She was perhaps just about to be on the receiving end on a series of chastising from her family, but Lincoln cut them off at the pass.
"Eh, that's okay, Lynn. I probably thought the same thing that you wouldn't do that myself. You're much better than that despite what others might think." He said.
Lynn smiled, "Well...thanks for that, little bro. That means a lot coming from you. But anyway, there's one other thing I want to say. Just in case anyone still has doubts about how sorry I am for all this or if any of you are frankly crazy enough to still think he's bad luck..."
She turned to her brother and put her hands on his shoulders.
"Lincoln, assuming you want to, I'd like you to come to today's baseball game along with everyone else, because nothing else matters to me more than knowing that everyone in my family is in attendance to be by my side and encouraging me to give it my all."
Lincoln smiled and threw his arms around his sister, "You know what...I'd love to come, Lynn."
Positively elated with that answer, Lynn returned the embrace of her brother, and sure enough, the rest of their family joined in as well, happy and delighted that this awfulness with bad luck and such was behind them. Once again, it goes to show that anything calamitous can be thrown in their direction, but they will have the power to feel regrets, make apologies, seek forgiveness and achieve reconciliation, because they were as close as any family as one could ever find, and nothing can or will ever change that.
Okay, there we go then. Now, on to that explanation I owed you.
As you may have noticed, this was the second story of mine in a row based on a most despised episode where Luna and Luan factored in heavily in helping out with Lincoln, and as I said, that may come off as suspect. I will say for the full sake of disclosure that Luna, Luan and Lincoln in that exact order are my three favorites of the siblings, with Lynn also being my fifth favorite and in case you are wondering who'd round things out for a top 5, Lori would occupy the fourth spot. But I want to say definitively that favoritism hardly was a factor in choosing who I wanted to talk it out with Lincoln and such. I guess my thought process, should you call it that, was going through a process of elimination of who could possibly be most sympathetic to Lincoln's plight, however much was his own fault. My thinking is that there were those who may be upset enough at him (Lori), easily dense enough to by into (Leni), just young enough to (Lucy, Lana, Lola and Lily) and willing to chuck whatever principles out the window they have (Lisa) to believe the bad luck nonsense, which whittled things down to Luna, Luan and even Lynn when she had her part. This might not be the best of explanations I will wholly concede, but it's better to have something, no matter how far fetched, than being just like "accept it and deal with it", which is obviously an unbecoming attitude and way to handle things.
And finally, yes, I know this story appears to breach the 10,000 word mark I set for myself, but that is only because of the author's notes added in and the actual story itself is just below that. Again, the reason put such a limit on myself is that it sounds like a nice number to set as a benchmark of sorts and having author's notes go beyond that doesn't really count in my mind.
Whew, I think that's all. Next up in the second part...yes, there's is a second part to this! Yep, this is another two-shot of mine and that'll come when it's ready!