Now even though I made what I thought was a good impression on Lucy, she still took her time to really opening up with anyone, even the most say to me was "what do you think of this poem?". And for the most part, that was exclusively done when we were both in our room.

At the time, I was still in elementary school, though I was in the sixth grade, so it was the last year where I'd be at Royal Woods Elementary. Regardless, that meant that I was still in the same school as Lucy. I would often run into Lincoln in between class, but I don't think I've ever actually seen Lucy there, even though I knew for a fact that she went there.

So during recess, I decided to talk to Lincoln about it. He's always been able to get along with all of his sisters, but more importantly, he seemed like the only sibling in the family that Lucy was at least neutral with. I wasn't sure if he was just really nice or a closet goth or if does her homework, but he seemed like the only person in the family she didn't hate.

"I asked her once. She thought I hated her." Lincoln said.

I almost lost my sanity during a three second pause. I had to know. "WHY!?"

"I really don't know. She's made a lot of assumptions. It's like she thought I had a grudge or something, but really, I don't remember doing a thing to her. I've herd her complain about Lisa and the twins, but I know for a fact I've done nothing to her."

"Ugh! This is so stupid." I said angrily. "I'm trying to be nice to her, but for all I know, I did something to get her mad too. Was it my bouncy balls? How I read her poetry? Was it that time I showed her where my one toe used to be? I just wanted to know if it looked infected!"

"I...think... it's because we have such different mindsets. And interests." He suggested. "During recess, she tends to be with her spooky friends. Usually somewhere with a lot of shade, very little sun, and usually far enough away from the four-square that you don't get hit by a dropped ball."

"Oooooh...wow, so I've never been near her at all then. Like...ever."

It felt like a bit of a wakeup call knowing that I was practically avoiding Lucy all this time, so I decided that I would invite her to join me to play four-square. I remember Lincoln trying to talk me out of it, but I kind of stopped listening to him after that. Now that I think about it though, I should try bonding with him more.

Anyway, I took what I learned and walked around the schoolyard for the rest of that recess so I could play with Lucy. You would be surprised by how hard it is to find a group of goth kids during the day. They sort of just blend in with the shadows they hide in. I had to keep my eyes peeled until I found she and her friends were hanging out at the school's brick wall the whole time. Stupid Sun shining on the wrong angle.

So I found the goth kids, and sure enough, Lucy was there too. They weren't playing a game or anything, but were just chilling in the shade. I don't remember at all what they were talking about. I just remembered that they all looked like a bunch of vampires. Accept for this one short kid that was laughing. I swear, he looked like a supervillain.

But that was what surprised me the most. Not the fact that one of them was laughing, but even Lucy Loud herself, the queen of gloom, was smiling. I had never seen that before. Even her one friend, Haiku, kind of just looked like Lucy with a visible eye, but even had a smirk the whole time.

I have no idea what they were talking about. All I knew was that it made my little sister happy. I kind of felt like I wasted my entire recess worrying about her, but I did at least learn goths could actually be happy, which kind of blew my mind by itself. In any case, my mind was at ease for the rest of school.

After school was when the flags started to wave again.

I still wanted to try bonding with her, so I waited after school to walk home with her. Lucy had been learning how to stuff dead animals from some of her older friends. A lot of us in the family have our own things to do after school a lot of the time, and with a family THIS big, there's always someone busy.

Lucky for me, I only had practice for one of my teams, so I didn't need to stay too late after school. So all I had to do was stand at the front of the school and wait for he to come out of the school.

Ended up waiting for about an hour. Once again, I felt like I wasted a lot of time. It wasn't even until her friend Haiku left that I found out Lucy had already left. No idea how or when, but she completely avoided me. I was a bit upset. I would've felt like I was stucked up too, but Lucy didn't actually know what I was planning on doing. The worst part of being mad at someone is when you can't actually be mad at them.

Now this is where my efforts proved to not be in vain, and I'm not sure if it was destiny or luck or whatever. There's a river that my rowing team likes practicing at, and I would often go by it on my way home. While following, guess who I see?

Lucy, hanging out at the old stone bridge above the river. She was sitting on top of the ledge, swinging her legs and just staring out at the river. I had no idea what she was doing. I was just glad that I finally found her.

So I walk up to her and said... "Hey Lucy."

She turned her head and replied in her usual tone. "Peter Freaking Murphy! You scared me. Someone should put a bell on you."

...

I only now realize the irony of what she told me back then.

In any case, I still wanted a a chance to hang out with Lucy outside of the house, so I jumped up on the ledge and sat right next to her. I looked out at the river to see what she might have been looking at...but all I could see was a boring old river. No one was swimming, no boats, no fish jumping up. There was nothing out there.

I felt a bit playful. So I grabbed her shoulder, shook her shoulder, laughed, and said... "Whoa. Saved your life there."

"Too bad. I would've like the swim." She said grimly.

She really made things difficult. I bet if she was that supervillain, she would've laughed. She made me wonder if even Luan could her laugh. I couldn't even tell if she was enjoying herself doing nothing. Then again, she never liked being with people. I remembered what Lincoln said, so I started thinking I was the problem. Here I wanted to hang out with her, only to start thinking she wanted to avoid me.

I wanted to get to the bottom of it. "So why are you out here. Would've thought you'd be home by now." I finally asked her.

"I like coming out here at night. But sometimes, I'll come here just to think in peace." She answered. There was a pause after, so I almost thought I'd have to say something again, but I guess she wanted to think before saying something. "I sometimes don't want to be at home."

I still had what Lincoln told me on my mind. I started feeling a bit hurt myself at the thought, but I had to ask her directly to know for sure." Lucy, do...do you hate me?"

She looked at me funny when I asked her that. "Why would I hate you? You should be the one to hate me."

From there, my emotions made a complete 180. I was upset at the idea of Lucy hating me, only to then be confused as to why I would hate Lucy. I was a little mad that she left school without me knowing, but I didn't want her to know that.

"Come on. Let's head home." I told her.

She let out an annoyed sigh. She didn't say the word sigh like she's known for, but actually sighed for real. After that, she jumped down, grabbed her backpack, and started walking home without me.

I followed after, but I didn't jump down, but rather walked on the bridge's ledge since it was more than wide enough, just to try to look relax. "Listen buddy, I don't know what's going on in that head of yours, but I do like you, and I want to at least try and get along with you. You're my sister after all."

"You have eight more of those at home. Soon, nine." She said.

As we reached the end of the bridge, and run up ahead and jumped right in front of her, so she would look at me as I asked my next question. "Do you not like our sisters?"

She looked down, trying to avoid eye contact. Then again, I never know when she makes eye contact. "They...it's...it's really complicated. Don't make me talk about it."

It was then that she looked more down than ever. I don't how, but I managed to touch a sore spot with her. She didn't hate Lincoln, she didn't hate me, I just couldn't figure out what her problem was with our family. And because she refused to talk about it, I wasn't even sure if she knew.

I needed some more time with her. "Want to play something when we get home? Your pick."

So the good news was that I managed to cheer her right back up.

The bad news, I ended up feeling a bit bummed out myself. As we got home, Lucy brought me straight to our room, got our pets, dimmed the room, and...well, it's kind of weird to really explain the preparations. Now even though Lucy wasn't smiling her, I had a good feeling that she was at least relaxed. We didn't even start yet, and we were already having more interaction than we ever had before.

"So tell me, how we play science, and shouldn't we get Lisa for this?" I asked her

"To perform a séance, we must sit in a circle, hold our hands, and allow me to serve as our medium. I have to say, it's nice to have another human to do this with. Now when we're ready, we can start talking to Great Grandma Harriet."

"Uhh, Lucy? Grandma Harriet died last year. You know that, right?"

"Sigh. I guess I'll have to explain this slowly to you...again."

Now me not knowing how her séance works isn't an important detail. I probably shouldn't have even included it. But in hindsight, her saying the word sigh instead of actually sighing for real is quite a good thing. That's how she acts now, and we've kind of accepted it as a sign that she's actually happy. It's good to know that I did make more progress than I realized.

"Okay. We're all ready now." Lucy said. "I just need to pee real quick and we can get the show on the road. Be right back."

So I had to wait another minute or so before could actually start her spooky séance. Since it had been a few days, I decided to use the chance o catch up on a little reading. I had finally learned what proofreading meant, so I was sure Lucy would've been thankful if I took a look at what she wrote.

So I walked over to her bed, picked up her poetry book, and took a look at her newest entry. Oh boy, was it ever a good thing I decided to proofread it. It was pretty bad.

The Spotlight

The first to enter it became admired
All eyes on her, receiving their praise
Then the second comes, the first fired
Her time in the light wwas only a phhase

No one wants to leave the light
Theyy say it belongs only to me
But even wwith aall of their might
They will become nothing to see

I sstole theiir fame
only to be replaced
Robbbed of my flame
In what felt like a haste

A new oone steals our light
which is with all of ourr fate
As with every nnew blight
This will feel all of my hate

I mean, geez! Look at all of those spelling errors. I'm terrible at writing stuff, but even I could stop all of those. I understand if you typed up a few mistakes on a computer, but how could you write that many with a pen?

It did feel like quite a sad story though. I've been the star in my school's Track And Field events for the last few years, and it really hurt me if suddenly, someone new came along and kicked my butt at everything. Lucy once told me that writing of any kind can be interpreted in anyway the reader like, so i feel less dumb for not completely getting it.

By the time I finished reading and put the book down, Lucy had came back. I ran right back to where I was sitting to pretend I never moved, just in case she didn't want me to read her stuff without her around.

"Okay. Now everyone gather around, as I begin to speak with Great Grandma Harriet."

I will say, I didn't particularly care for sitting in the dark, holding hands with our cat and dog, and pretend to talk to our dead Grandma. But it was something Lucy liked for whatever reason. And for the time being, I was willing to play along.

"Grandma Harriet knows you were the one who broke her pearl neckless." She told me.

But after that, I made sure to avoid every one of her séance if possible. It got too freaky too quickly.

Author's notes: Screw it. I don't care if it has comedy in it, I consider this a hurt/comfort story and that's what I'm branding it as. At the very least, I feel it shows starting from this point on.

Also proud that I hit the 2000 word mark. Feeling like I got my writing groove back on. My one concern is that I may have made the secret too easy to find this chapter. Makes me wonder if the other two have been found yet.