Happy New Year everyone.
LC9
Only three days remained before the senior class graduated from Royal Woods High School. Leni managed to pass her senior exams by receiving a B- in all of her subjects. All those intense extra lessons definitely paid off at the end. She'd attended the prom last week Friday with a boy who was on the prom committee with her. Arrangements had been made for Rita and Lynn Sr to attend Leni's graduation on Friday June first with a police officer accompanying them. On June 29, a policeman visited the Loud residence to pick up clothes and shoes for Rita and Lynn Sr to wear which Albert handed over. There would be no school for Luan, Lynn Jr and the twins since the ceremony would begin at four pm.
Royal Woods Elementary – June 1st
In class, Lucy tried her best not to glance at the wall clock above the blackboard while solving eight multiplication problems Mrs. Brooks wrote on the blackboard. Finally to Lucy's relief, Cheryl made the announcement over the loudspeaker she'd been waiting to hear.
"LUCY LOUD YOUR PARENTS ARE HERE."
Lucy hastily closed her black notebook and stuffed it and her pencil inside her backpack. It was now 1:30 in the afternoon.
"See you on Monday Mrs. Brooks," Lucy said quickly while passing the teachers desk.
She noticed Harold siting on the bench near the Principals office and rushed over.
"Hi Lucy, are you ready."
'Just a minute."
Lucy opened her locker, retrieved a clear plastic bag with a black dress inside then followed Harold through the school doors. Harold started the minivan and drove to the Loud residence to drop Lucy off.
Fortunately Lincoln and Clyde didn't have school today. For the past two days, all sixth graders were doing end of year exams from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm with a half hour lunch break at 11:30 am.
Luan, Lynn Jr and the twins had arrived with Shirley at the Loud house at three pm, already dressed for the occasion. The McBrides and Lincoln would drive to the high school separately. The parents arrived with their designated female officer who wore a green dress and low heeled black shoes.
The officer did nothing to stop the girls rushing forward and embracing their parents.
'We miss you."
After breaking the hug Rita and Lynn Sr. posed with Leni wearing her graduation cap and gown in the living room with Lori snapping the photo.
Weeks later Albert, Myrtle, Shirley, Ethan, Cassandra, Lori and her siblings received invitations from Lucas and Sara four days earlier to attend their fourth of July barbeque in their spacious backyard which everyone enjoyed immensely. Clyde and his dads attended the McBride Independence Day barbeque.
Months later…
Finally the day arrived for the parents release from on Kingsley July 28. Rita sat in the passenger seat in Albert's station wagon while a slightly depressed Lynn Sr. sat behind her on the journey home. Rita started feeling somewhat apprehensive about returning to an almost empty house. With Lori and Albert's assistance Leni moved into Lisa and Lily's old bedroom in late February after the entire house was fumigated to get rid of the chemical residue left over from the incessant explosions that occurred from Lisa's failed experiments with her chemicals. Albert and Uncle Lucas placed Leni's bed where Lily's crib was originally and her sewing machine placed in the other corner. Lily's crib had been dismantled and stored away in the attic. Aunt Shirley had purchased a small dressing table for Leni since the white dresser belonging to the two older sisters now officially belonged to Lori and quarrels among the two girls ceased completely. Fumigating the house took place after Shirley and Ethan had the carpets replaced. Those four days Leni and Luna stayed with Jackie, Lenis friend and Lori and Albert stayed with Aunt Ruth.
Albert moved out of the master bedroom downstairs and relocated to Lucy and Lynn Jr. former bedroom yesterday afternoon. He made up the bed with clean sheets for his daughter and son in law then dusted all the furniture and vacuumed the carpet.
After Rita exited the station wagon, she observed the freshly cut lawn, then glanced upwards into the huge tree in front and noticed the toy airplane that belonged to Lincoln wasn't stuck in the tree anymore. Lincoln accidentally flew it into the tree almost three years prior and for some reason, he didn't ask anyone to take it down and nobody bothered to. Even the Frisbee on the roof wasn't there anymore. Mr. Grouse wasn't anywhere in sight, actually, since most of the Franklin Avenue residents were at their jobs and schools were in session, the neighborhood was relatively quiet.
They walked towards the house and Albert removed his spare key from his shirt pocket and unlocked the front door. The atmosphere felt a little uncanny to Rita after making her first step across the threshold in a long while. Albert was the first person to speak
"If you're both hungry, I made some chicken soup," he said.
"Thanks dad," Rita replied then smiled softly at her father
Rita glanced downwards to check out the new carpet while her husband looked around the living room and smiled upon noticing the family pictures on the walls.
Upstairs, the parents peeked into the bedrooms. Rita stepped into Lincoln's room and discovered the only furniture remaining there was Lincoln's bed. Sadness overcame Rita and she quickly closed the door and followed Lynn Sr. into the two younger girl's bedroom. The couple stayed silent for a moment.
"Remember when Lisa spent so many hours working on her experiments," Rita remarked.
Lynn Sr. nodded then they silently left the room. They entered Lana and Lola's bedroom first then Lucy and Lynn Jr, then Luna's and noticed no changes were made inside their bedrooms. Afterwards they peeked into Lori's room then headed into the bathroom.
The three adults sat at the dining table eating the chicken soup in complete silence.
'What do you both think about what Shirley and I did to the place?" Albert asked.
"Everything looks so refreshing," Rita replied.
'Yeah would you believe that Lori and Luna take turns mowing the lawn," Albert said, taking their parents by surprise.
"Really, we would have to bribe them to do that," Lynn Sr. said in amazement and Rita chuckled.
'Have you talked to the others lately?' Lynn Sr. suddenly asked.
"I visited the twins, LJ and Luan two weeks ago, Shirley told me they're doing well at school and are listening to her and Ethan," Albert responded.
Rita placed her spoon into the bowl after finishing her soup.
"So what should we do for the rest of the day?" Rita asked her husband.
"Well we could just relax and take it easy, you know watch TV. Tomorrow we can tackle how we're going to make a living and restart our lives," he responded.
"At least your sister Shirley helped pay off our mortgage years ago," Rita remarked.
"I'll start looking for a restaurant position tomorrow," Lynn Sr. remarked.
"I'll start looking at work at home opportunities for the medical billing course," Rita suggested.
Since Kingsley allowed inmates to study online courses paid by the City of Hazeltucky Rita picked medical coding and billing because she was already in the medical field. It gave Rita the opportunity to work at home for a medical institute or medical office but she chose the former. She decided using Lincoln's former bedroom as her office. She'd buy a smaller desk for a workstation and use the outlet hidden behind Lincoln's dresser for years to plug in her laptop and printer.
At eight thirty p.m Lori arrived home with Leni beside her in the front passenger seat. Both girls were totally exhausted from spending a hectic day at their jobs. The senior center residents had swarmed the Smoothie Queen during their day trip to the mall, with one particular senior nicknamed Scoots being quite hard to please regarding the smoothie Lori made for her. Despite their exhaustion, Lori and Leni couldn't wait to step through the front door and greet their parents after such a long time.
Rita and Lynn Sr were watching a sitcom and could hear Lori unlocking the door.
'That has to be Lori and Leni," Rita remarked.
Once the girls stepped inside, their faces lit up seeing their parents and rushed over to the couch. Lynn Sr began crying as usual.
"Mom, dad, how are you?" Lori asked
'I totes miss both of you," Leni added with a few tears running down her cheeks.
"We miss you too," both parents chimed in.
They remained like that in silence for another five seconds before releasing each other.
'Girls I made supper, you can have some," Lynn Sr said.
'When youre done, you can leave your dishes in the sink," Rita added
The girls entered the kitchen and found a cheesecake on the kitchen counter. Leni warmed some milk for both of them to drink with the cheesecake.
The next day Sunday 29, after breakfast Rita and Lynn Sr started reading the list of business places in Royal Woods willing to hire recently paroled inmates. A fusion restaurant caught Lynn St attention. Judging by the name Aloha Comrade was a relatively new fusion restaurant that combined Russian and ethnic Hawaiian food.
"This place sounds interesting."