Hi, how are you? Well, we're getting closer to the homestretch with this one. Bit longer than the "couple of days" I claimed this would be done in the previous chapter. Then again, 8-10 days had kind of become the average for how long these past few ones have taken to be uploaded. But hey, better to take my time in making sure a fine finished product is achieved without adhering to vague and arbitrarily stated time frames.
First off, I'd like to address something a guest reviewer mentioned in the last chapter. No, I do not have any siblings of my own and as a result, it does kind of skew my views of sibling relationships to an idealistic degree and it can make it a little difficult for me to differentiate between what could be seen as playful teasing and potentially boneheaded phraseology, such as what Lincoln said about having his sisters' anniversary gifts thrown away as he did at the end of "Picture Perfect". I guess I've always thought he said that in a vindictive manner and if the reaction of his sisters was anything to gauge by, they might've thought so, too, hence why I made Lincoln ultimately feel remorseful to the point he was considering the admittedly extreme measure of taking the picture down. Yes, maybe he wouldn't go to such lengths or react like I made him do and I do get how some may see that as out of character of him.
And to JMbuilder, I think my best explanation for your concern is that Rita was so upset upon learning what had happened at the store that even if she really wanted to, she was so blinded in her disappointment that she wasn't just for that moment not in the mood for any recounting from Lincoln and simply wanted the day to be over with.
Today, the flashbacks are based on "Out on a Limo", "Dance, Dance, Resolution" and "Friendzy". Once again, another one of these, "Out on a Limo" in this case, will alter the events of what happened in that one.
That being said, read on, my...readers!
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.
A decently eventful morning came to its conclusion for Lincoln. He just a few minutes ago wrapped up a rigorous series of activities of the sporting variety with both Lynn and Lana. It was enough to warrant a nice, long period of respite within his room that it spawned into a nap lasting an hour and a half.
Having finishing up such rest, Lincoln got up and left his room. Right as he was got out, he came across Lisa coming out of her room, too.
"Ah, greetings, brother. What fortuitous timing in that I was hoping to seek a request from you." She said.
"Oh, sorry about that, Lisa. If it's going to be more help with an experiment, I'm going to have to pass..." Lincoln said back.
Lisa shook her head and patted her elder brother's shoulder, "Worry not, for that is not my request. Given that is it an hour and a half post meridian, I'm in the mood for some nutritious sustenance and assumed you can lend what some on the street may call a helping hand."
"Oh, well in that case, certainly I can! I'm feeling of the peckish sort myself, so I can help you out with that." Lincoln said delightfully, "Let me guess, would peanut butter and jelly be on your mind?"
Lisa smiled, "While I don't believe you possess ESP, you do have a tendency to know my preferred noontide specialty.. I shall await for such within the family living quarters."
Both headed on downstairs upon such an agreement struck. Lisa headed over to the living room while Lincoln rounded around the kitchen. He got to work on Lisa's lunch request first, that of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crusts cut off and the sandwich itself cut in half into isosceles triangles. Next, he put it aside for a moment he could search for something for his own consumption intake, but after some consideration, he might as well make due with a PB&J, too.
After making the second one for himself, Lincoln got out a plate, placed both sandwiches on it and just to round things out, he also got a pair of juice boxes for thirst quenching. With everything at hand, he returned to the living room.
"Okay, here we are, Lisa. I went with sandwiches for the both of us, plus some juice, too." Lincoln showed off.
"Ah, much obliged." Lisa said.
Sitting down to the couch next to his sister, Lincoln put the plate on the table in front of them before both retrieved their respective sandwiches and juice boxes.
Before finishing up in the minutes that passed, there was a topic worth discussing that the Loud family genius wanted to bring up.
"By the way, for what it's worth, Lincoln, I want to extend my apologies for how my latest experiment caused mild scathing to your supercilium region." Lisa said.
"What to my where?" Lincoln confusedly wondered.
"Put more simply, burning a portion of your eyebrows." Lisa clarified.
"Ah, that. It's all good, Lisa. Only the very most edges of them suffered any real harm, so it's not that big of a deal." Lincoln said assuredly, "Besides, it could've been worse. Imagined if Lori was the one helping you and something similar happened to her, no matter how minor the damage. You know how she gets with her eyebrows."
Both shared a quick laugh and then wrapped up with their lunch.
"My most gracious of thanks to you, elder brother, for this savory meal." Lisa said.
"No problem, Lisa. It was my pleasure." Lincoln responded with grin.
He sat up from the couch, gathered up the plate and empty juice boxes to take back to the kitchen. He threw away the juice boxes and put the plate away in the sink. As he scanned around, Lincoln noticed an empty mustard container curiously just sitting there on the counter. He assumed perhaps someone used it as part of their own lunch or something similar, but for whatever reason didn't dispose of it, so he chose to take the responsibility of throwing it away himself.
Right as he tossed that container away and started leaving, Lincoln paused, then he chortled.
"Mustard...now there's something else that caused a real and wholly unnecessary divide between myself and my sisters." He said to himself, "All that resulting in that limo I got to ride in and how I briefly became a total snob after hanging with that Lord Tetherby fellow. Thankfully, everything ended well, especially after that rough night I had..."
At the living room within the Loud house, the sisters were all together watching TV, all while harboring a great deal of annoyance toward Lincoln. Earlier in the day, he won a mustard eating contest to earn the right to ride in a limo for the day. He also promised his sisters that after he had his own time in the limo, he'd come back and pick them up so they could all go the Burpin' Burger. However, that never happened because Lincoln got sidetracked by hanging out with an upscale heir named Lord Tetherby. In that time with the affluent man, Lincoln developed at snooty attitude and dismissed his sisters' furor at him as he prepared to attend a gala with Tetherby that night. Because of all that, the sisters didn't give much thought or care about him, believing he was living it up.
Their time together would be interrupted when a phone jingle caught their attention. The ringtone belonged to Lori's phone. She checked who the caller is, but it was from an unfamiliar number. Regardless, she chose to answer it anyway.
"Um...hello?"
"Hey there, Lori..." Came the surprisingly timid voice of Lincoln.
Lori lowered her phone and turned to the rest of her sisters in annoyance, "Ugh, it's Lincoln."
"Oh, great..." Lynn grumbled, "What's he trying to do? Bragging to us about what a great time he's having at that stupid rich guy's party?"
"After what he did today, too? Talk about having no class!" Lola muttered.
Lori groaned, but nevertheless went back to her phone.
"What do you want, Lincoln?" She asked him, "Not that we really care, and I say 'we' because everyone else is literally within earshot of this."
"I need you to get me out of here." Lincoln said, "Right now, you're my only option at this rate."
Lori raised her eyebrow in suspicion, "Get you out? Aren't you at that dumb gala you rubbed in all our faces earlier? And you have that limo of yours to get you to and from there, so why are you calling me in the first place?"
"I don't have the limo anymore, Lori, and I'm not at the gala either!" Lincoln shouted from the other line, "I'm lost somewhere in the middle of town and I can't think of any other way of getting back home unless you try to get me."
By now, Lori was softening her demeanor a little bit, but there were some among her who were more cynical.
"Methinks this is some hapless scheme he's pulling to try garnering our sympathy." Lisa suggested, "I would advise not falling for such dissimulation."
"I agree." Lucy added, "This sounds way too much like something I'd do to get you all to feel sorry for me...and it'd probably wouldn't work anyway."
Most of the other sisters were concurring with one another, but a heartrending sound coming from the other end of Lori's phone would put a halt on everything.
"Hey, was that Lincoln just now?" Leni wondered.
Everyone remained quiet and listened in more intently. Sure enough, they appeared to hear the sound of Lincoln ostensibly sobbing lightly.
"It sounds like he's crying." Luan said as she sounded a little worried, "Would he really fake doing such a thing?"
"I wouldn't think so, dude..." Luna agreed, joining in with the growing consensus of concern, "Maybe our little bro really is lost somewhere out there."
As the sisters began reversing course from their original feelings of scorn towards Lincoln to now being troubled about his condition and whereabouts, he spoke up again.
"Lori..." Lincoln said tearfully, "Are you still there?"
"Yeah, I am." Lori answered, "In fact, as I just said a moment ago, we're all listening right now."
Lincoln sniffled before he continued, "Listen, I'm so sorry for the way I acted today and for not taking you all to the Burpin' Burger. I don't what got into me, 'cause that's not who I am. You're all probably still mad at me, and rightly so. But still, I feel so alone and scared now and just want to go back home. So, can you come get me, Lori? Please?"
Lori released a very prolonged sigh, but got a determined look on her face shortly after. No matter what he did to her and the rest of their sisters, he was still their brother who they all cared for and there was no way she was going to let him suffer alone in the night.
"I'll be right over." She responded with assurance, "Can you try to give me a rough idea of where you are?"
"Well...there's this convenience store right where I just was." Lincoln said, "I think right across from there is a...laundromat, I think? And then I see a something that might be a salon or something like that…?"
"Hmm, you know, I think I may know where that is." Lori said confidently, "Don't worry, Lincoln, I be there as soon as I can."
Hanging up her phone, she got up from the couch as she retrieved and twirled the keys to Vanzilla around her index finger. She was almost about to step out the door when she heard a shouted requested.
"Wait, can't we come with you?" Lana asked.
"I appreciate the thought, Lana, but I think I can take care of this myself." Lori replied, "You guys just stay here and I'll hopefully be back with Lincoln soon."
With that said, she headed off to bring back their lost brother.
In the time since her departure, the atmosphere within the Loud house was one of uneasiness as the remainder of the sisters waited anxiously for Lori to come back home with Lincoln along with her. To think earlier in the day they couldn't care less what he was doing since he began hobnobbing in the high life and how he neglected them in return. Now all that mattered was the hope that their only brother would be brought home soon in one piece.
Fortunately, their worries would soon be alleviated when heard the sound of Vanzilla pulling up on the driveway. A few seconds later and the front door opened up with Lori ushering Lincoln with her inside. A collective gasp was shared by their sisters once they got a good look at what their brother appeared to have been through.
"OM-gosh! Lincoln, are you okay?" Leni asked, getting down to knee level with him.
Lincoln gave his second oldest sister a sorrowful look and then walked past everyone and up the stairs.
"Hey, wait up, Lincoln!" Lynn shouted concernedly at him, "Where are you going?"
"It's okay, Lynn. He told me on the way back that he wanted to get a quick shower and a change of clothes first, then he'll come on back." Lori explained.
Just a little under ten minutes later, Lincoln did return having been scrubbed up and changed into his pajamas given that it was nighttime and all. He sat down on the couch, where Luan and Luna joined next to him from each side, Lynn and Leni next to those respective sisters, Lori sitting in front of him on the coffee table and finally all the younger sisters gathered around on the floor.
"So are you going to tell us what happened to you, Lincoln?" Luan inquired while she placed a hand on his back.
"Yeah, you looked positively ragged when you came back, little bro." Luna noted as she took a moment in checking over him just for the sake of it, "I mean, seriously, what did happen?"
"Well...I'm not entirely if I do want to talk about it." Lincoln stated, his voice beginning to quiver, "But safe to say I probably had it coming after what I did to you guys..."
He lowered his head down in shame and began quietly sniffling.
"Hey now, don't say something like that, Lincoln." Lori said to him, putting her fingers underneath his chin and making him look at her, "No matter what happened today between us, there's no reason to suggest what you went through tonight was something you had coming or deserved."
"Are you sure about that?" Lincoln questioned, "After all, I promised you all that I would take you to the Burpin' Burger in the limo and I completely failed in that respect. Not only that, but I acted like a total jerk, as if I viewed myself as being above you guys. Why didn't I deserve getting chased after by dogs, having my dress pants ripped off from a chain link fence while evading said dogs, getting mud splashed on me from a passing truck and getting thrown out by the gala's security and landing in a garbage can? I've been such a horrible brother to you all."
By now, his sniffling transitioned into very gentle crying. In response, Luna and Luan encircled their arms around him in a tight joint embrace.
"Lincoln, please don't beat yourself up like this." Luan said in an effort to console him, "I think I can speak for all of us that we forgive you for everything. All that matters right now is that you are back home safe with us."
"I guess so..." Lincoln said on top of more sniffling, "But still, I wish I could make it up to you all somehow..."
"There's no need to, bro. If anything, you being here is all we could ask for at the moment." Luna reassured him.
"Yeah, but if it does make you feel any better, we can still all go to the Burpin' Burger together tomorrow if you like." Lynn suggested, "I'd be down with that."
"Me too!" Lana shouted.
"Me three!" Lola added in kind.
"Same here." Lucy chimed in more softy.
"I too will admit to still having a hankering for convenient comestibles." Lisa said joining in on the growing consensus.
"Goo-goo!" Lily babbled happily.
After taking in a breath of air and then exhaling, Lincoln looked on at all of his sisters and showed them an appreciative smile. He may not understand entirely, but knowing that they had it in them to forgive him for his actions and still were interested in doing what they had originally planned out was something he'll be grateful for.
"You guys mean it?" He asked, "You'd still want to go there?"
"Of course we would, Lincoln." Leni answered sweetly, "We would love to do that just so we can do something together as a family."
As she said her piece, Leni scooted over a little so she could get herself involved in the hug of her brother that Luna and Luan were still engaging in. Soon after, everyone else joined in giving Lincoln one big group hug, something he immensely loved.
"Wow...I don't know what to say but thank you, everybody." Lincoln said, reveling in the affection of his sisters, "And how about this: I can try to call Kirby, the driver of the limo, since I do have his number handy. I'll apologize to him, since I was a jerk to him as well, and see if he could perhaps give us all one more ride."
"Well, that's sweet of you if you're able to, Lincoln, but I don't think that would literally be necessary," Lori said, "Not that it wouldn't hurt, but as Leni just said, the only thing that matters is that we do it together."
Lincoln smiled again as he reciprocated the hug that all his sisters were in on, at least to the best of his ability. Again, he really appreciated the willingness of them to be able to forgive him so easily for any misdeeds of his and he'll forever cherish that about them.
"Lincoln! Yo, Lincoln!"
Once again, much like earlier in the morning when Lucy did the same up in the attic, Lincoln was so lost in thought to the point he wasn't registering his name being enunciated. This time it took one hand shaking his shoulder and the other snapping fingers right in his face to regain himself. He turned to see Luna having been the one who got him unstuck and out of his trance.
"Oh, uh...hey, Luna. What's going on?" Lincoln asked.
"I should be the one asking you that, bro." Luna said, maintaining a grip on his shoulder, "You were just kinda standing there like the lights were on, but no one was home. Is there something up?"
"No, it's nothing serious, Luna. That being said though, it is the third time today that I zoned out while in thought." Lincoln observed, "It's been a result of thinking back to various times spent between us and our sisters, so it's nothing to worry about."
"Well, if you insist it isn't something worth getting worked up over, then I guess I won't bug you about much." Luna said while shrugging, then she smiled, "But hey, on an unrelated note, I do believe I heard you strumming along on that guitar I handed down to you some time ago. Sounds like you're still trying to get the hang of things."
Lincoln chuckled slightly and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, you can say that. I'm never gonna be quite as good as you are on that thing nor do I plan to or want to, but at least I'm giving it some effort."
Luna grinned warmly, "Hey, that's all I could ever ask for, dude. But since you brought it up, I was gonna have myself a solo jam sesh later on today, and maybe now instead I could use that time in helping you out some. How would you like that?"
"Sure, I can take you up on that." Lincoln answered affirmatively, "How does some point after dinner sound?"
Luna nodded, "I'm down with that."
Soon after getting a quick ruffle of his hair, Lincoln went past Luna so he could go back upstairs and take another moment of reprieve in his room. He thought another good idea to pass the time on by would be to read a couple of comics. Just for his convenience, there was a small stack sitting on his dresser that he can easily access. He perused through the stack to see which ones would be worth reading. Then, when he reached the bottom, he saw a piece of paper laying underneath all those comics.
"Huh, what's this?" Lincoln wondered out loud.
Grabbing the paper and giving it a look, it didn't take long to find out what it was. It was a letter written by some of his sisters that begun a reconciliation process after one of the more eventful nights of Lincoln's life, should one want to put it like that…
On a simple moonlight evening, Lincoln was taking his time in heading back home. He was trying to delay the inevitable in that the moment he stepped foot in the house, he was all but certainly going to be greeted by the visages of four very none too pleased sisters of his.
Taking a deep breath, Lincoln went up the walkway and slowly opened the front door partway. He peeked inside and appeared to see no one around. Perhaps thinking nothing would happen, he stepped fully inside, sighing as he closed the door.
But that would end up being wishful thinking when right as he turned around, those very four sisters, in this case Luna, Luan, Lynn and Lucy, were bearing down on him and "none too pleased" may have been too kind of a description when noting the displeasure they had on their faces.
"Oh, heh...hey there, girls...how's your night been?" Lincoln inquired anxiously.
"Oh, just the usual..." Lucy began calmly.
"You know, like hanging around with each other..." Luan added, also generally tranquil.
"Until we learned that a certain brother of ours just might've messed up big time!" Lynn said, dropping any pretense of subtly or cordiality.
Lincoln gulped and laughed softly, "Well, as much as I'd love to get into everything, but I best be headed for bed right about now..."
He tried walking past everyone, but that proved to be a fruitless endeavor. He immediately felt two pair of hands belonging to Luna and Lynn grabbing on to each of his wrists.
"Oh, you're not getting out of this one too easily, bro!" Luna said agitated, "You're coming with us!"
Not being to get another word in, Lincoln felt himself being pulled along by Luna and Lynn, while Luan and Lucy followed closely by to make sure he didn't attempt an escape.
An admitted nerve wracking few seconds from Lincoln's end later lead everyone out the back door and to the garage, and upon arrival, Lucy stood in front of the side door to guard it while the remaining three sisters stood in front of their confused brother.
"All right, Lincoln, you're not going anywhere until you give us the best possible explanation as why you handled everything so irresponsibly tonight!" Lynn shouted contentiously.
"Yeah, how could you ditch each your dates and leave them with your own friends, dude?" Luna added.
Though he was intimidated at first by the suddenness of his predicament, Lincoln decided he wasn't going to take this laying down. It was that crack from Lynn about calling him irresponsible that changed his attitude. If anything, the irresponsible parties were the ones standing before him.
"Excuse me? I'm the irresponsible one? Funny enough, what I would define as irresponsible is four sisters who in their infinite wisdom felt it was genius of them to plonk four dates on me at the same time likely without consulting each other or without asking me in advance if I would take part at all!" Lincoln countered coarsely, "I don't know if any of you realize this, but I'm a fully independent individual with the complete free will to choose how his own social life can go without being manipulated like I'm your personal marionette!"
Luna narrowed her eyes in his direction, "Well, how about I drop some knowledge on you and hope you pick it up. Maybe, and I do mean just maybe, had you told us for the get go that you weren't going to the dance, maybe none of this would have happened! Ever though of that, huh?"
Lincoln folded his arms, "Do you honestly think you would have given me that choice?"
"Duh, of course!" Lynn answered abrasively, "All you had to do was say something like 'I'm not going to the dance tonight' and that's it! No need to have lied to us and made your own grave like Luan told you earlier."
Lincoln scoffed, "More like I dug a modest size hole, then you made it much bigger and shoved me down it without any chance of escape!"
"Boy, you're desperate to pokes holes and dig to find flaws, aren't you?" Luan questioned, taking a brief moment to giggle at the puns she made, "But seriously, Luna and Lynn are right, you know. You could've been honest from the beginning and saved yourself a whole lot of trouble."
By this point, Lincoln was really starting to lose his nerve, "Guys, aren't any of you gonna admit to even the slightest bit of fault here?! You didn't see any problems at all on your end or that you're making a bigger deal out of this than it should be? In fact, should you allow me to ask something back without you all jumping down my throat, let me posit this to you. Obviously from the sounds of it, all your friends called you about tonight's events before I came back home. Now, did any of them sound annoyed when they did that?"
Each of the sisters took a moment to soften their stances just slightly and then they each shook their heads "no".
"Okay, next, did any of them use the word 'ditch' with regards to everything?"
Again, the sisters shook their heads.
"And finally, did any of them complain about whichever of my friends they ended up with?"
Thrice in a row, more shaking of the heads resulted from the sisters.
"Well, if that's the case, why are you getting so mad at me in the first place?!" Lincoln rounded out the line of questioning irritably.
At first, the sisters did appear to understand where Lincoln was coming from. However, it was a very fleeting moment and they quickly returned to their hardened stances from before.
"Hey, don't turn this around against us, bro!" Luna retorted, "It doesn't matter how our friends felt, because you promised us that you could handle them at the dance and ended up blowing it!"
"I DID NOT PROMISE YOU ANYTHING!" Lincoln furiously stated, that last nerve of his finally breaking, "You simply foisted upon me those dates while threatening and guilt tripping me into going without giving me an escape route out of things. And hey, like you all just admitted reluctantly, your friends ultimately sounded like they had a good time! Heck, I had a good time, too, not only because I went to the arcade like I originally planned, but I also did so with Ronnie Anne, and last I checked, isn't hanging out with her what you really wanted out of me in the first place?"
He took a moment to exhale before he resumed speaking, albeit this time in a more calm tone.
"But no, apparently as you just admitted, the feelings of your friends don't matter, which is all but a subtle admission that you never really cared about how I would feel about everything, too. And now, I don't really care myself. Now, can you try to leave me alone and let me get ready for bed?"
Exhaling a second time, Lincoln began leaving and none of his sisters tried to stop him this time, unlike their vigorous efforts in dragging him to the garage in the beginning. He got up to where Lucy was standing near the door, and after a moment of hesitation, she stepped aside allowed her brother to leave.
Once he had left, Lucy took a glance over to her sisters, "Sigh. Let's admit it, you guys, he is probably right on some level."
Luna, Luan and Lynn didn't respond, but their faces had gotten more sullen and all three did sigh together.
Several hours later, as the morning had begun, Lincoln slowly starting to wake up. He yawned and followed that up with a small groan. The previous evening's events made it somewhat difficult to get the best night's sleep in his case. Though feeling justified in his defense from that night against his sisters, there was a creeping sense of guilt that built inside himself in the time since then. Perhaps they did have a point in how he should've have said he didn't want to go the dance in the first place and thus the cascading sequence of events thereafter would've not happened.
Regardless, he sighed and got out of bed, but not even after taking a couple of steps, Lincoln looked down and saw a piece of paper on the floor. Judging by the fact it was only a couple of inches away from the door, it must have been slipped underneath at some point for him to find. He reached down and noticed it was a letter written directly to him as he read its contents.
"Dear Lincoln,
While we want to respect your wishes of leaving you alone, we feel the need to also somehow address everything from what you told us earlier and everything else quickly.
First, we do want to apologize for the very rough way we handled you by dragging you out to the garage. That was wrong of us and if we really wanted to talk to you, it should've been done so on your own merits.
Second, you were right, we should've been happy that our friends did actually have a good time no matter how slighted we felt about your actions at first. Speaking of feelings, we should've also put more thought about how you felt before saddling you with those dates. We really thought at first we were helping you out, but never did we consider how complicated things could get for you, and yes, we will also concede that we didn't talk with each other beforehand, too.
Finally, just broadly speaking, we are sorry for all that happened altogether. We still maintain that you should've been more honest and upfront about not wanting to go to the dance, but on the same token, nothing we did helped your situation, either.
So if you're still too mad at us, we get it and we'll leave you alone still. But if you are willing to talk things over, we're ready when you are. Once again, we're sorry.
Love (and we really do emphasize that word to express how we feel about you),
Luna, Luan, Lynn and Lucy."
Meanwhile, those same four sisters were downstairs together in the kitchen, where Luan and Lucy sat at the table while Luna and Lynn were leaning against the counter, all looking they had a troubled night between them.
"So, did anyone get much sleep after last night?" Lucy asked.
"Pretty much a neg on my end, Luce." Luna responded with a sigh, "Well, maybe I did, but everything with our bro made it a heck of a challenge."
"Yeah, I'd try to make a joke about everything to lighten things up, but...I'm just not in the mood now..." Luan said with her own distressing groan.
"You know, I'll be the first to straight up admit that we're the ones who truly messed up, not Lincoln." Lynn opined sadly.
No disagreement was shared with that statement among the rest of Lynn's sisters, and as their rumination of the previous night's argument with their brother continued, they all heard the sound of the somebody coming down the stairs slowly. Their attention turned over to the noises and seconds later, they saw Lincoln coming on in once he saw them gathered.
"Oh, uh...good morning, Lincoln." Luan said, trying to put on a decent enough welcoming smile.
"Morning, you guys..." Lincoln greeted back, albeit with some hesitance.
He walked further inside the kitchen to join in with his sisters, all of which seemed unsure how to proceed with things if at all.
"So...I got your letter." He said following some awkward silence.
"Oh, well...that's good." Lynn said, laughing uneasily afterward.
More silence followed as Lincoln looked around anxiously and rubbed his arm.
"Are you okay, Lincoln?" Lucy asked.
Lincoln sighed and looked like he was about to speak, but he lowered his head and frowned.
"Aw, something's gotta be up, little bro." Luna said concernedly as she approached him, "I'm guessing it's something to do with all the business from last night?"
Lincoln simply nodded, indicating that he was perhaps ready to talk again about that very subject. By then, Luan, Lynn and Lucy had also joined in being around him, too, all prepared in helping out.
"All I had to do was say that I didn't want to go to the dance..." He said softly after more silence had passed, "Nothing else would've happened if I'd been totally honest with you. Everything else was my fault because I didn't say anything..."
He put one of his hands over his face ashamedly and shook his head.
"Now, hang on, Lincoln, you shouldn't be blaming yourself entirely." Luan spoke up, "Yes, it would've helped if you'd been upfront about your plans for the night, but really, that hardly excuses us piling on a bunch of dates on a moment's notice believing you would juggle them all at the same time."
"You were also right in that we really should have considered how you would feel about such an impossible arrangement before it was made." Lucy added.
"That's all true, but hey, chin up, Linc. You did manage to make our friends all happy by having them each get matched up with one of your friends with who they sounded like made for solid pairs. That should count for something." Lynn noted.
"But in any event, we're all sorry for our part of everything, bro. You know that already for reading that letter of ours, but it probably means more hearing it from us in person." Luna said.
Following that apology, Luna moved the hand of Lincoln's that covered his face and lifted his head gently so he could look up at her.
"And speaking of apologies, Lincoln, we're sorry again for how rough you were treated once you came back home." She continued saying, "Being the oldest of this group, I'll take full responsibility for that."
"Although technically, I was the one who came up with that whole routine of us dragging you to the garage and everything, so maybe that part's truly my fault." Lynn mentioned, raising her hand to draw everyone's attention.
Luna glanced over to Lynn and put a hand on her head, "Yeah, you're right, LJ, but you suggesting it and me giving complete approval of it I'd say are two separate things in this case. So really, I'm the one at fault here if you ask me."
"Sigh..." Lucy enunciated, "How about instead of any of us saying anyone is entirely at fault, we just instead all admit that we each in some way made last night difficult and leave it at that?"
Luan chuckled mildly, "Maybe you're right, Lucy. Better than to be a bunch of professional mopers trying to one up another on that front. With that said, I believe I know one way we can all make it up to Lincoln right now..."
Stepping even closer to her brother from his left side, Luan pulled Lincoln into a hug, which then lead the other three sisters to do the same with Luna in front of him, Lynn to his right and Lucy from behind. Soon enough, he was surrounded in a four way sisterly embrace, something he took great relief in.
"Thanks, you guys..." Lincoln simply said.
Lincoln had a particularly big smile as he recalled that hug he was wrapped in near the end of that scenario. Besides apologizing, his sisters also promised that they'll give him much more advance notice should something like that ever happen again with regards to setting him up with anyone and he reemphasized his own commitment to be more honest on his end of things, too.
Having finished up another bout of reminiscence today, Lincoln refocused his efforts back into comic reading like he initially planned.
For the next hour, Lincoln was hooked on the adventures within and the only thing that took his focus away was from a sudden knocking on his door. He paused for a moment, expecting who it was to announce themselves, only for more knocking to come next.
Sighing somewhat in annoyance, Lincoln sat up from his bed and opened up the door to see Lori standing before him.
"Uh, hey there, Lori. What's going on?" He asked.
"Don't you remember, Lincoln? We literally talked about this yesterday that we planned a sibling meeting around this time right now." Lori answered.
"Oh, wait, you mean now now?" Lincoln asked with the added emphasis.
"Uh, yes, that's the plan." Lori said, sounding just a little impatient, "So are you coming?"
Though thoroughly confused, Lincoln nodded, "Um...all right, yeah, I'll be right over."
With a simple exhale, Lori turned and walked down the hall back to her and Leni's room, the usual locale for meetings. Meanwhile, Lincoln gathered up the comics he was just reading, put them back on the dresser and then he also made the walk on down to join in on the meeting with his sisters.
From there, the usual manner such meetings proceeded went on. For Lincoln, it was a little hard for him to focus, since for all intents and purposes, this meeting was nothing too out of the ordinary. So little attention he was paying to it that, once again, he found himself thinking back to another time in the past, one that also revolved around a sibling meeting to settle one of their dumber exploits in recent memory. Needless to say, it was about a certain metaphorical card none of them were keen on playing ever again…
In the evening hours, the Loud siblings had gathered in Lori and Leni's room in order to settle another bizarre and frankly ridiculous situation they'd gotten themselves into. The banging of a heeled shoe like a gavel initiated the meeting into order.
"Okay, guys, we know why we're here..." Lori began with, "We need to figure out proper system about how we handle both inviting friends over for activities and when we individually take turns doing such activities and what have you ourselves. The floor is now open to any suggestions."
Right away, Lori noticed Lincoln raising his hand up in the air.
"Yes, Lincoln?" She inquired.
Lincoln stood up, "Actually, it's not a suggestion I have, but there's something I'd like to say if I'm granted the opportunity. I'll make it quick."
Lori took a couple seconds to contemplate his request, and ultimately granted it, "All right, but like you said, make it quick. We literally can't waste too much time now."
Permission having been granted, Lincoln went to the middle of the room so that he could have the full attention of his sisters.
"Listen, I think I can be man enough to admit that this mess was pretty much my fault. None of the madness that followed wouldn't have been possible today had I not invited Clyde over and abused the friend card like nobody's business yesterday." He conceded unambiguously.
Almost as quickly as he admitted to such, he went to take his seat back on the floor.
"Well, um...thank you, Lincoln, for taking responsibility on your end." Lori said, genuinely surprised by the brevity of his statement, "Now with that out of the way we shall..."
"Hold up, Lori, can I say something now?" Lynn requested while interrupting her sister, "And no, it's nothing to do with suggestions, but instead it's something I wish to say to Lincoln."
"Ugh...fine, as long as it's quick as what he's already said." Lori said, starting to get a little annoyed.
Lynn nodded and took her turn in getting up, then directing her attention straight to Lincoln.
"You know, in a sense, Lincoln, maybe I'm actually the one who's really at fault. Yes, you abusing the friend card wasn't so cool of you, but you may have not gotten the idea had I not invoked such privileges myself at first when I invited Margo to watch that double header a couple of days earlier." She theorized.
Lincoln was surprised by such an idea, "Uh, I don't know if you should take any blame for this, Lynn. Put it this way, at least in you and Margo's case, all you did was watch a pair of baseball games, unlike what I did with Clyde where I pretty much wrecked you guys' day all for my own benefit."
"True, but still, I don't mind admitting some fault here." Lynn said, "But it's not just about that, though. I was also the one that really got the ball rolling in each of us inviting ever larger numbers of friends all in the name of getting our way."
"Yeah, and while we're on the subject, Lincoln, we were all talking just before you joined us and we realized that this friend card silliness featured a symptom of a bigger problem that we thought had been taken care of long ago." Luan added.
Lincoln turned his head curiously, "And what would that be?"
"To put it simply, we came to the conclusion that today's follies were technically the byproduct of the observable fact that we as a sister collective used our tenfold numbers advantage to, as some on the street would bluntly say, gang up on you and as Luan so amply implied, it has been more than a serious time cycle since such disadvantageous tactics were deployed." Lisa explained with intricacies signature of her.
As the resident genius wrapped up her explanation, most everyone else muttered in agreement, except for one in the moment.
"Well, I'm guessing we are literally not going to solve to the issue we came together here in the first place tonight, are we?" Lori opined following an annoyed sigh.
"Uh, why is it so important for you that we get that done tonight, sis?" Luna asked once she heard her older sister sound off, "We have all the time in the world to settle such stuff, ya know."
Lori rolled her eyes, "Well, pardon me if I feel this was something that needed to be settled posthaste and promptly before another such incident ever happens again."
Despite the delay in such settlement, she sighed once more and shifted her gaze to Lincoln.
"But in any event and in all honesty, they're right, Lincoln. We did have to resort in conspiring behind your back the other night and teaming up against you today, which is something that we thought we all have improved on in not doing that much of it anymore, only for us to backslide into old habits again." Lori admitted regretfully.
"Yeah, no one likes feeling that everyone is against you, and you know that better than any of us, Lincoln." Lana said.
"No doubt about that." Lynn agreed, "The only other times someone other than you had experienced such a feeling that I can think of are when we rebelled against Lori that one night when she was left in charge of us, or Lucy during that time she thought we were walking all over her, or heck, even me when you all thought I needed to be taken down a peg because of how much I bragged whenever I'd win during our game nights."
For his end of things, Lincoln grinned weakly and chuckled, "Well, yeah, I'll admit to not liking most of the times before when you all came as one against me, but today? I don't blame you in a sense. It might've been the proper response to what I did yesterday."
"But was it, though?" Lucy questioned, "I'm not so sure myself."
"Yeah, I mean, it'd be one thing if you'd pulled the friend card for like a week or afew days, then we could possibly excuse doing what we did today to you initially. But just one day? I dunno, that seems outta proportion, bro." Luna said.
"Plus, when you take you and Clyde on one side, and how we each brought one friend over at first, that's a 20-on-2 disadvantage against you." Lori noted, "No matter how you look at it, that's literally as unfair as it can get to you, Lincoln."
"And things got worse once we started really acting like dummies and brought a whole bunch more friends and turned the house into a mess." Lola said, shuddering a little, "I don't want to relieve that!"
"Me neither!" Leni added, "Like, what were we thinking?"
"Okay, okay, I get everything, you guys!" Lincoln stated concernedly, "I understand that you all feel bad about today's fiasco and so do I, but let's just say we all did our part in contributing to the chaos and we'll all vow to never again let that happen. With that said, and like Lori wanted us to do in the first place, let's get to work on how we'll take turns in doing stuff around the house and such."
After he said that, the sisters all shared a smile in Lincoln's direction and all verbalized scattered agreements and words of understanding to him.
"Well, all right, then. Thanks, Lincoln, and if I may, I'll speak for everyone else in also vowing we'll continue working on not ganging up on you too much again, or really toward any one of us for that matter." Lori said unequivocally, "Now, let's finally get back to business..."
"LINCOLN!"
In an instant, Lincoln was shocked back into reality when all his sisters shouted his name.
"AH!" He yelled out, shaking his head, "What?!"
"We were trying to get your attention and you weren't answering us! What gives?" Lola said peevishly.
Lincoln grumbled indistinctly before speaking up again, "It's nothing. Don't worry yourselves none."
"It doesn't seem like nothing, bro. This sounds awfully similar to how you were when I ran into you earlier." Luna mentioned.
"Huh, what do you mean, Luna?" Lana asked.
"Well, Lans, a little while ago I found Lincoln kinda standing around in the kitchen and he claimed to be lost in thought about thinking over times together with us." Luna replied.
"Wait, what now?" Lynn wondered, turning over to her brother, "What does she mean by that, Lincoln?"
Lincoln sighed in frustration, "Seriously, it's nothing! Please, you guys, don't get so worked up about it!"
As he said that, Lincoln stood up and chose to leave the meeting abruptly. After his departure, the sisters shared looks of concern among them.
"Yeah, there's definitely something up." Lori said, getting scattered agreeing statements from everyone else.
Ooh, a little bit of intrigue to end this one. And then there was one...and we'll all be together again when that time comes.