At Maggie and Haiku's house, the latter entered the house while the former was sitting on the couch, reading some sort of book. The young poet tried to sneak her way upstairs and into her room without being spotted, but the instant she took a step, Maggie closed her book, revealing it was about how to sense when someone was trying to sneak past you."

"Helen, I know you're there."

Haiku stopped right on her tracks.

The emo did the "Come here" gesture to her sister, who looked at the ground as she obliged.

"Look, I understand that you may need some time to yourself, but if you need to go so far as to try to sneak past me, then something big has to be up with it," Maggie stated, putting her book down before brushing Haiku's hair and asking, "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure I should tell you," Haiku rubbed the back of her head. "You see, I was asked by someone you don't really like-"

Maggie narrowed her eyes and hissed, "Lucy Loud!"

"See?! I didn't even finish my sentence, and you already knew who I was talking about!" Haiku threw her hands up in the air. "Anyway, she asked me to come to her house to discuss some "poetic business", as she called it, and I was worried you weren't going to allow me to go see her."

"Well, sorry to say this, but that's pretty much an accurate guess," Maggie hissed. "Do you really think I would allow you to come to that house alone, with that stereotypical goth? Specially after what she did to you?!"

Haiku groaned. "Maggie, we've been through this before: My transition into becoming a goth was something I did on my own."

"But she kickstarted it!" the emo folded her arms and looked away. "She showed you the world of poetry! She helped you get used to the dark stuff! She turned you into another one of those goth stereotype that I hate so much!"

"I'm not asking you to come so you can interact with Lucy!" Haiku snapped, catching her sister's attention. "I'm asking you to come so you can keep Lincoln at bay!"

Maggie calmed and scratched her chin. "The boy with the white hair?"

"Yeah, him!" Haiku paced back and forth. "I want to try and help Lucy with a poem she's been working, but nine times out of ten, Lucy goes to ask for Lincoln's help, either right away or moments after I give her poetry advice! If I make her think that her brother's too busy with something else, she'll actually hear me out for once!"

"And what makes you think I want to or am abe to hang out that little boyfriend of hers for longer than a couple seconds?" the emo raised an eyebrow. "That guy made my birthday a lot harder to enjoy, and even after Luan did her phantomime thing, I still felt very bitter about the whole thing."

Haiku frowned and smiled. "Aw, come on, what could he have done that-"

"He destroyed my cake!" Maggie complained. "And if mom taught me something I'll value to the end of my days, is that cake murderers are the worst kind of people!"

"That's not exactly what I said, but sure, that works too!" Maggie and Haiku's mother shouted from upstairs.

"Listen, It's not going to be for long, I'll just discuss some stuff with Lucy, and you'll keep Lincoln occupied!" "Trust me, he's a pretty cool guy!"

Maggie lowered her eyelids. "Helen, you know I'm not into Ace Savvy."

"Okay, so he may not seem as cool as I make him sound like, but he's still a pretty nice guy!" Haiku clasped her hands. "And besides, I'm sure that if you ask him to apologize for the cake, he'll try to make it up to you."

The emo narrowed her eyes, but one little puppy dog look from her sister later, she sighed, "I guess it's worth a shot."

And so, Haiku jumped up and down for a moment before dragging her older sister to the infamous Loud house, then barge in to Lucy's bedroom. For some reason, though, Lynn wasn't there.

"Hi, Haiku, I was waiting for you," Lucy said in her deadpan tone, before noticing Maggie. "What's your sister doing here?"

"I'm here to keep your boyfriend or whatever he is occupied while you and Haiku deal with your poems," the emo bitterly answered.

This prompted Lucy to explain, "Lincoln's my brother-"

"You're dating your brother?!" Maggie exclaimed with a hint of disgust in her tone. "I told you this Lucy was hiding something sinister under her sleeves! Nothing that brings zebras to mind can be good!"

"Excuse my sister, she's a bit paranoid," Haiku replied, shooting a quick disapproving glare at Maggie.

"Nah, it's okay, I have a very similar sister back home," Lucy replied, waving her hand. "Granted, her paranoia is more focused on some sort of softball gods, but it's the same principle."

"If you need me, I'll be with Lucy's brother," Maggie stated, before turning to Haiku and whispering. "And seriously, the instant she starts acting weird, don't hesitate to call me."

Maggie stomped her way out of the room, and onto Lincoln's room, startling him in the process.

"Calm down, kid, I'm not here to hurt you or anything," Maggie stated as she walked to and sat next to the boy. "I'm just here to keep you busy while my sister helps your sister with her poetry."

"But, why?" Lincoln asked in confusion.

"Apparently, my sister's jealous of how frequently Lucy goes to you for poetic aid, and being a poet herself, she wants to try and help her too," Maggie shook her head. "The only way she could think about how to get Lucy to come to her for advice for once, was for me to keep you here, and make sure you weren't available.

Suddenly, the emo realized something. "And that's not to say that you helping your sister is bad or anything, it's just that Haiku wanted to be the one Lucy depended on for once."

Lincoln looked at the ground. "I guess that's fair."

And so, the boy got up, and the pair started to wait for Haiku and Lucy to finish. So they waited...

And waited...

And waited...

"You know, I always envy cartoon characters during times that have a lot of waiting in them," the emo sighed. "At least they get some sort of time skip to not deal with all the waiting. Meanwhile, we have to feel every single excruciating second!"

"Yeah, cartoons make everything look so easy nowadays..." Lincoln remarked, before asking, "So, how have you been since the birthday party?"

"I took up cooking lessons," Maggie casually revealed, rolling her eyes. "Mostly because I wanted to try and make a cake myself, mostly so that when my next birthday arrived, I could make a cake that could be ruined, while the one mom paid for was saved just in case something happened to it."

"Huh, that's pretty good to know," Lincoln twiddled his fingers. "You know, my sisters Lynn and Leni know how to cook too, have you seen them in your class?"

Maggie raised an eyebrow. "Is Leni a blonde with a blue shirt who's always talking to her boyfriend on the phone?"

Lincoln shook his head. "No, you're talking about Lori."

"Thank goodness then," Maggie sighed with a chuckle. "'Cause she's at the very bottom of the class. If she was the one you spoke about, I'd feel so sorry for you."

"That, I can believe," Lincoln laughed. "I'm not sure if you'll believe me, but Leni and Lynn are the only ones of my sisters that know how to cook: Luna tries to use the same tactics she uses while she plays the drums, with predictable results, and Luan bakes pies so often that might as well be the only thing she knows how to cook."

"Haha, I bet Luan doesn't even eat her pies most of the time," Maggie scoffed. "She probably just has them in check just in case she needs to pie someone in the face."

"You got it!" Lincoln replied. "Granted, I also know how to cook a couple things: Eggs, bacon, sandwiches, just very basic stuff like that."

"Really? It's good to know you got those skills," Maggie sighed. "They'll come in handy one day, I promise."

Silence filled the rooms soon afterwards, which was only broken when Lincoln spoke:

"I'm sorry about what happened to your cake. I didn't mean to destroy it so carelessly."

"Nah, it's okay, cuz today I was preparing a cake myself," Maggie replied. "If you'd like, once Haiku's done with Lucy, you could come with us so I can share a piece of it with you."

"Really?! Even after all I did?!" Lincoln chirped up, getting even happier when Maggie nodded. "Thank you so much! I'm going to need to bring some plates so I can save some pieces for my sisters, if-"

"Stop right there," Maggie put her hand over the boy's mouth. "I'm asking you and you alone to come eat the cake with us, none of your sisters are invited, our house can't survive nearly a dozen of you coming over. Besides, unless your sisters like Vanilla-Strawberry mixed cake, I don't think they would like it that much."

Lincoln shook his head. And so, sharing one last smile, the duo left the room and reunited with Haiku, who was just coming out of Lucy's bedroom.

"Geez, Lucy still has a lot of things to learn," the girl said, before noticing the duo. "Oh hey, you two managed to work out your issues?"

"Sort of, yeah," Maggie nodded. "But there's also another reason why he's coming with me. Or more accurately, he's coming with us."

Haiku raised an eyebrow, but quickly decided to shrug it off and return home. Once there, Lincoln, Maggie, and Haiku all sat at the table, with Maggie's cake sitting in the middle: It was a two platform cake, the first platform being vanilla flavoured, while the second was strawberry flavoured, and it had a bit of whipped cream at the edges and at the very top.

"Wow, you made this cake, Maggie?!" Lincoln asked just as Maggie and Haiku's mother arrived.

"Well, yeah," the emo blushed and shrugged. "It took me a long while, but I like to think it was worth it."

"Aw, you brought a new friend home!" Maggie's mother chirped, seemingly not realizing who this "friend" actually was. "I'm so happy you're starting to become more sociable, Maggie-"

"Don't get the wrong idea, mom," the emo rolled her eyes. "I just brought him over so he could help us gulp down all this cake I made."

"And I still have to say, the fact you made a cake both this big and this delicious is impressive!" Lincoln exclaimed. "You're an amazing cook, Maggie!"

"Thanks, but the best compliment you can give me right now is helping us get all of this cake eaten before 9 pm!" Maggie stated before taking out a flag. "On your marks... ready... set...go!"

And so, the trio started to eat the cake immediately, while the mother watched nearby, feeling satisfied at what she was looking at.