So, this is the first in what will hopefully be a series of stories within the Loud House universe. Rather than upload multiple stories separately, I thought I would just publish them as one ongoing series. I have multiple stories planned. All of them will be connected, as if I were writing a season of the show, but some stories will be more connected than others. This story in particular introduces themes that I aim to carry through, such as Lincoln and Lynn Jr. improving their relationship, and Lincoln making a few new friends. For the record I have not seen every episode of this show, but I have seen most of them.
Also, a note about me, I am British, so if you come across a few British-isms I can only apologise.
Anyway, here we go with story number 1!
Lincoln In Goal
It was a sunny spring Sunday in Royal Woods, Michigan, and in the smallest bedroom in a house on Franklin Avenue, the only boy in a family of eleven children was stretched out on his bed in his underwear reading his brand new David Steele comic. His chores for the weekend were done, his homework was finished, every item on the checklist of favours that his sisters had requested of him was ticked as complete, his phone was on mute, nothing could possibly interrupt him.
Until -
"Lincoln!" yelled his mother as she pushed his bedroom door open. "What are you doing inside on a day like today? You should be outside getting some fresh air and some exercise!"
Lincoln groaned loudly and complained "Not this again, mom!"
"Yes, this again." she replied. "I don't mind you reading comics or playing your little video games in the evenings or when its raining, but right now the sun is out and you should be making the most of it."
Begrudgingly, the white-haired boy sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed and he placed his comic book on top of his desk, even as his mother leaned down to snatch up his usual orange polo shirt off of the floor where he had thrown it.
"Why don't you give Clyde a call?" she suggested as she tossed the shirt towards her only son. "Go to the park or something."
"Clyde and his dads are in a family therapy session with Doctor Lopez before she goes away for the week," replied Lincoln as he pulled his shirt on over his head. "And before you ask, Liam's busy on his family's farm, Stella is visiting her cousin, Zach and his parents are on a bigfoot hunt and Rusty's dad took him and his brother to New York for the weekend."
"Well, you must have some other friends you can call," Rita said to her son as he was picking up his usual pair of blue jeans. "You don't have to hang out with the same five people all the time."
She had a point. Lincoln did have a tendency to hang out with only a few of his classmates, even though he was on somewhat friendly terms with most of them.
"Fine," he said as he pulled up his jeans and fastened the button. "I'll call someone."
Rita gave her son a smile before saying "That's the spirit, honey." As she left the room, she missed him rolling his eyes behind her back. But he took her advice and pulled out his phone to begin scrolling through his contacts.
Of the boys he knew that Andrew, Artie and Chad were all no go's as they were otherwise occupied, and hell would freeze over before Lincoln ever willingly hung out with Chandler again. He didn't really like Darren, Kyle or Miguel too much, or Lance, Richie or Trent for that matter. As for Papa Wheelie and Flat Tire, well after the incident with the girl's bike and the whole Girl Guru business, they didn't really like Lincoln. He didn't really speak to Hassan, and Boy Jordan was hanging out with Andrew.
As for his female classmates, he only had the numbers of Mollie, Girl Jordan, Rachel and Paige. The first three were very unlikely to want to hang out with him, and things had been weird between him and Paige ever since he had given her a love letter and she had not felt the same way.
"I need to make more friends," Lincoln said to himself as he turned his phone off and dropped it onto his pillow. He pulled on his shoes, tied the laces, got to his feet and left his bedroom, passed the doors to the bedrooms of his four youngest sisters, turned and headed down the stairs and out the front door.
Fortunately he didn't have to look far to find something to do.
"Hey-o Lincoln!" called out a familiar female voice. He turned and saw it as Lynn, the sister immediately older than him. She was in her soccer uniform and had a soccer ball under her arm. "What are you doing outside?" she asked. "I thought you had a day of reading planned."
"I did," said Lincoln. "But mom came in and gave me the whole "its a nice day, you should be outside" speech."
"Ha! Sucks for you," laughed Lynn. "Hey, if you want, we could go around back and you can be in goal while I practice my penalty kicks."
"Sure, why not?" replied Lincoln, who at this point felt like he had nothing better to do. "Why are you practising for soccer though? I thought your season finished?"
"Last season finished," explained Lynn as they made their way around to the back of the house. "The new season is only a few weeks away. But before then, I've got a different event. Next weekend there's a five-a-side tournament being held across both Saturday and Sunday. Eight teams enter and try and advance as far as they can. No gaining points, no league table, just play and try to not get eliminated."
"Sounds like a long weekend," observed Lincoln.
"Oh, it will be," the pony-tailed brunette agreed. "But first prize for the winning team is a trophy and a twenty-five dollar gift card to the Burpin' Burger for each player. And burgers always taste better when you win them."
"I guess," said Lincoln as he moved to stand in front of the soccer goal. Admittedly, though, he simply had to take Lynn's word for it that a burger you win tasted better, as he had never actually won a burger before.
There were a pair of goalkeepers gloves that belonged to Lynn lying in the grass near the goal so he picked them up and put them on as his sister paced about, trying to work out the best spot to take her practice shots from.
Deciding that he might as well keep the conversation going while Lynn kicked the ball at him over and over again, Lincoln asked "So, who else is playing on your team besides you?"
Before answering, Lynn placed the ball down and took her first kick at the goal. Reacting fast, Lincoln was able to stretch his left arm out and knock the ball away from the goal with the tips of his fingers.
"Ooh, nice save, bro!" Lynn said brightly as she jogged over to pick the ball up. "Well, let's see. There's my best friend Margo, obviously. She's the one who found out about the tournament and suggested we enter."
Lincoln nodded in understanding before diving to his right to block her next shot, knocking the ball away with a swing of his right arm. Of all her friends, Margo was the most alike to Lynn. Both girls were completely mad about sports of every kind. In fact, the only sports team of Lynn's that Margo did not play on was her basketball team.
Lynn picked the ball up again and twirled it in her hands a moment as she said "Then there's Paula. You know, the girl who always has her leg in a cast."
"Yeah, I know Paula. She's in glee club with me."
Lynn grinned as she set the ball down. "Oh yeah. I still can't believed either of you signed up for that. To be honest, I never thought you'd be up for that kind of thing. You or her."
She took her third kick and this time Lincoln barely missed the ball and it hit the back of the net.
"I only really joined to support Clyde," he said as he picked up the ball. "I felt bad for Paula last time we performed though. She got stuck with backstage duties." He rolled the ball back to his sister who stopped it with her foot.
"Yeah, she was kind of disappointed by that." Lynn acknowledged before taking another kick that Lincoln saved.
"Only kind of?" asked Lincoln.
"Well, she joined glee club to make her mother happy. But when it came to actually performing, I think Paula was upset at being left out."
Lincoln threw the ball back to her this time and she caught it. "I can see that," he acknowledged. "I don't get why Mr Budden left the only girl out. Her singing was way better than Byron's."
"Hmm," said Lynn as she set the ball down again. "Then there's Naomi. You know her, right?" She kicked the ball back at the goal, but it wasn't her best kick. All Lincoln had to do was crouch slightly and he had caught it against his chest.
"Naomi..." he said, thinking hard. "Naomi… The name sounds familiar but you're going to have to remind me."
"You know Naomi," said Lynn. "Black hair with the tips dyed a pink-purple colour."
"Oh, her," said Lincoln. "Yeah, I know Naomi. She catches the same bus as us." He sent the ball back to Lynn. "You know, apart from Margo and Paula, I think she's the only girl you play soccer with that I've ever actually spoken too."
"So you won't have a clue who I mean when I tell you that the last girl is Candace?"
"I have no idea who that is, no." admitted Lincoln.
"Dark brown hair, bangs that cover her eyes sort of like Lucy. A couple of pimples on her chin… usually wears a red hoodie. Kind of easily mistaken for a boy..." explained Lynn as she lined up her next shot. She kicked it and it sailed straight by Lincoln, who was distracted by his sister's description of her friend.
"Okay, I know the girl you're talking about," he said. "But, yeah, I had no idea her name was Candace. And I've definitely never spoken to her."
"Well, you can change that in a little while," said Lynn as Lincoln passed the ball back to her. "They're all coming over to practice."
"Wow, really? You guys must really want those burgers."
His sister laughed as she put the ball back in place. "Yeah, kind of. But that's not all we're doing it for." She took her shot, aiming for the lower right corner. Lincoln managed to lunge sideways and kick the ball away. "Nice one bro! Yeah, we're also doing it for a pre-season warm up. It helps us get back into form, and identify any areas that need work."
"Huh, makes sense," said Lincoln as he walked over to pick up the ball from where it landed. "Not that you ever leave a sport alone long enough to be considered out of form."
He passed the ball back to her and she brought it under control as she replied. "You'd be surprised, actually. I've had a few practice sessions these last few weeks, but since last season ended I've mostly been focusing on basketball and lacrosse. That means I've been neglecting my leg work a little."
She kicked the ball and again her brother prevented the shot from going into the net.
"Well, I guess that's bound to happen. There's more hand work needed in those sports. But you're like the queen of all sports. Surely your kicking can't have gotten that bad since last season ended."
Again he rolled the ball back to his sister, who stopped it even as she gave him a deadpan expression. "Uh, Lincoln, I don't know if you've noticed, but I've taken seven practice shots and you've saved five of them. Based on past performances, either you've been doing secret goal keeper training behind my back or my kicking is off."
Lincoln thought about her statement for a moment before grinning at her and asking "Can't it be both?"
In answer, Lynn rolled her eyes and took her next shot. It caught Lincoln right in the chest and both his arms came up to securely lock it there.
"See what I mean?" she asked. "I wasn't even aiming there! That was supposed to go into the top left corner."
Lincoln turned to look at where that corner was in comparison to his current position. "Wow, you were off! Are you feeling okay? Your vision's not blurry or something?"
"Ha ha!" Lynn fake laughed at him. "Seriously though. I might be in poor form, but you're doing really good. I was only half joking about that secret goalkeeper training."
Lincoln gave a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't know what to tell you Lynn. Guess I'm just in the zone or something."
Whatever it was, for the next twenty minutes or so Lynn made attempt after attempt to put the ball into the net, and Lincoln easily saved around eighty percent of them. The only explanation that came to mind was that for years Lincoln had been subjected to random shouts of "Think fast!" from Lynn, usually followed by a ball of some kind (or, on occasion, a burrito) being launched towards him as high speed. Lincoln might not consider himself much of an athlete, but he certainly had a good track record catching those random thrown and kicked balls.
Their practising only came to a stop when three girls walked around the side of the house. They were all Lynn's teammates for the upcoming tournament – Margo, Paula and Naomi.
"'Sup, Lynn-sanity?" asked Margo as she approached her best friend. "Your mom said you were back here."
"Margo, how's it going?" Lynn asked, approaching her bestie. They greeted each other with a chest bump, as was standard for them, before Lynn turned to greet the other two girls.
Margo, meanwhile, turned to the boy by the goal. "Hey, Lincoln. Helping Lynn with her practice?"
"Sure am," he replied, leaning casually against the goal, the soccer ball tucked under one arm. "And putting her to shame, I might add."
"Is that so?" asked Margo, turning to look at her friend with a raised eyebrow. Lynn quickly waived it off, some of her normal bravado returning now that her friends were here. "Pfft! As if. I'm just taking it easy on him is all."
"If you say so..." said Lincoln with a smug grin.
"Okay, this I gotta see for myself," said Margo.
"Bring it on, Roberts!" challenged Lincoln, rolling the ball to her.
"You're on, Loud!" Margo replied, as she took control of the ball. Like her best friend, Margo was rarely one to back down from a sports challenge. She lined herself up and took the kick. It sailed towards the upper right side of the goal and Lincoln knocked it away.
"Okay, that was good!" said Paula as the ball came to rest near her. "Hey! Do that again!"
She raised her crutch and used it to knock the ball back to a slightly embarrassed looking Margo, who promptly lined up her next shot and took it. This time Lincoln straight up caught it.
Lynn, Paula and Naomi began chuckling, which caused Margo to huff in annoyance and try to defend herself. "Whatever. He's had a chance to warm up. I haven't."
"Sure, that's it." Lincoln replied cheekily as he rolled the ball back to her.
This time Margo pelted the ball back without waiting for Lincoln to get ready. He lunged sideways and touched it with his fingers, but the ball still ended up in the net.
"That's more like it," said Margo, confidence restored.
"It was kinda close though," observed Paula.
"By all means, Price. You come and take a turn." retorted Margo.
With a shrug of her shoulders, Paula stepped up and took Margo's place. She took her shot and Lincoln promptly saved it.
"He's really not a bad goalie," commented Naomi.
"All thanks to my training of course," boasted Lynn proudly before looking around in puzzlement. "Hey, speaking of goalies, where's ours? Is Candace running late or something?"
"Didn't she call you?" asked Margo.
"No idea. We've been out here for a while and my phone's still inside." replied Lynn. "Why?"
Margo and Naomi exchanged a look before Naomi relied "You'd better give her a call. It would be better if she explains it."
Frowning slightly, Lynn turned and entered the house through the back door as Lincoln saved a fourth attempt from Paula.
"Okay, that's it," said the blonde. "Naomi, you're up."
As with Lynn, the trio of girls managed to get a few attempts past Lincoln but he still managed to keep up the same ratio of saves as he had against his sister.
Said sister soon came stomping outside, annoyance written all over her face. "Of all the rotten luck!" she exclaimed in frustration. "Who breaks their arm at a water park? Seriously, who does that? Now we gotta find a new goal keeper!"
"Uh… why?" asked Lincoln. "I mean, Paula's leg is in a cast but she's still playing."
"Yeah, but Paula's cast is made out of titanium or something," said Lynn. "Seriously, Paula. What is that thing made out of that you can still play sports without doing damage to yourself?"
"Oh, my uncle's a scientist." Paula replied. "Its an experimental substance he made. No idea what its called. Sounded latin."
"Okay then..." said Lincoln, clearly a little perplexed. He shook it off and turned to his sister and said "Anyway, I'm sure it's not that bad, Lynn. There's gotta be a dozen other girls you can call to fill out your team, right?"
"I guess..." replied Lynn. "Some of them are already busy next weekend though. Maybe Lainey or Maddie could step in if not...
"Uh, why are we talking about bringing in another girl when the most obvious answer is standing right here?" asked Margo, gesturing to Lincoln.
"Um… what?" asked the boy in question.
Lynn's eyes lit up in excitement. "Hey, yeah! Duh! It's so obvious. Lincoln, you can do it."
"I don't think so." he replied.
"Oh, come on, dude," said Naomi. "You've got to!"
"I'm nowhere near good enough-" Lincoln began to protest, but Margo cut him off.
"Not good enough? Have you not been paying attention?" She turned to his sister. "Lynn, go high."
Lynn took the soccer ball and launched it into the air.
Margo promptly jumped up and performed one of her famous bicycle kicks, impacting the ball in the air and sending it straight towards the goal where Lincoln, acting on pure instinct, threw himself sideways and caught it in his hands. The dive he took meant he ended up face down in the grass, but the proof was there, clear as daylight.
"Dude, you just saved a Margo Miracle!" exclaimed Naomi.
"A what?" asked Lincoln as he got to his feet.
"A Margo Miracle." said Paula. "It's one of her best trick shots. Hardly anyone saves them."
"Maybe I did just get lucky..." he offered.
"Oh yeah?" asked Naomi as she took the ball in her hand. "Hey Paula, give it your best shot!"
She threw the ball high and Paula leapt to up to meet it (how much she used her crutch to help launch herself was anyone's guess!) Her good foot connected with the ball and it rocketed towards the goal, only for Lincoln to punch it away.
Margo quickly caught up to the ball and kicked it back towards the other girls. Naomi, who was closest to the goal, took it and quickly sent it back towards the lower left side of the goal. Again, Lincoln kicked it away, straight back to Lynn. His sister wasted absolutely no time in taking another shot, this time aiming towards the upper right corner. It was a stretch, but Lincoln knocked that one away as well.
Again it was Margo who took control of the ball, before bringing things to a stop. "So that's a Margo Miracle, a Paula Power-Shot, a Naomi Knock-In and a Loud Rebound! Dude, you just saved each of our best shots."
"I did?" asked Lincoln, slightly surprised.
"Yep," said Lynn, putting an arm around her brother's shoulders. "Lemme explain. Margo and Paula like surprising the opposition by taking the ball high in the air. They usually send the ball over everyone's heads and into the goal before anyone can realise what they've done. They're tricky to pull off, but when they work it's so sweet! Then there's Naomi. She specialises in getting in amongst the other players, when the ball is near their goal. She gets in around them and knocks the ball into the net from close range. Sometimes she doesn't even have to hit the ball hard, just tap it in to the net. Then there's me. Some of my best shots are rebounds. That's where the goalie knocks the ball away, although sometimes it comes off one of the posts. Then I come in hard and fast, sending the ball back at the goal before the defence or the keeper can properly regroup."
Lincoln thought carefully about what she was saying, and that did line up with the four shots that he had just saved.
"And you just proved you can deal with them all," said Paula, simply.
"Um… yeah… I guess I did." he finally relented. "But come on, that doesn't mean I can play for you. Aren't you an all-girl team?"
"Well, we were," said Margo. "But its a mixed tournament, anyone can play. We just happened to have a team of girls."
"All we have to do is call and tell them your name," said Lynn. "No biggie."
Lincoln was still unconvinced. "I don't know, Lynn. I don't want to make myself look stupid. All the other kids will be like you girls. You've all played for years. I don't even know most of the rules of soccer."
"First of all," said Margo "if you play as well as you have been today then there's no way you'll make a fool of yourself. Second, we can tell you all the rules. Really, it's not that complicated."
Seeing her brother still looking unsure, Lynn stepped forward. "Please, bro?"
"I don't know..." he replied.
Lynn huffed in annoyance and asked "Really? So you're gonna make me do this in front of my friends, huh?"
"Do what?" he asked.
In answer, Lynn closed her eyes for a few moments, and when she opened them again she had gone full puppy-dog mode.
"Gah! No! Evil!" yelled Lincoln, clamping his hands over his own eyes.
The other three girls looked between the two siblings in bewilderment. "Uh… what's going on?" asked Margo.
"A cheap, dirty trick." replied Lincoln, doing his best to look anywhere but at his sister, even as she begged "Please Lincoln."
"No, Lynn. I'm not falling for this! I have been building up an immunity. The only sisters who can get away with this now are the twins and Lily! And probably Leni... And Luna… And maybe Lucy if I could ever see her eyes..."
"If you're immune, why aren't you looking at me?" challenged Lynn.
In the face of that challenge, Lincoln did the worst thing possible – he turned towards her and lowered his hands slightly, providing her with an opportunity to turn it up another notch. "Please, baby bro?"
The last of his resolve left him and his willpower came crumbling down. He really shouldn't have been surprised. He was a complete sucker for that manoeuvre, no matter which sister it was coming from.
With a heavy sigh he lowered his hands and relented. "Dang it! Fine. I'll do it."
"Boom! That's how its done, ladies!" Lynn yelled in elation before wrapping her brother in a tight hug. "You really are the best bro in the world. I promise you won't regret this!"
"Lynn… can't…. breathe..." he choked out.
"Okay, Lynn-sanity," said Margo, coming over and prying Lynn's arms from around her brother. "He's just agreed to play for us. Maybe don't strangle him to death before he has the chance to play."
"Oh, right, sorry," said Lynn, somewhat sheepishly as she let him go.
"Wow, Lynn," commented Naomi. "That looked like some serious emotional manipulation there..."
"Nah, he's just a sucker for the ol' puppy eyes. Leni taught all us girls how to do it."
Lincoln crossed his arms over his chest and did his best to look disapproving "How dare you use something Leni taught you for evil."
No one bought his attempt at being stern and very quickly all five kids broke into laughter, even the boy in question.
Lynn wiped a tear from her eye and said "Right, come on girls. We've already seen that my bro is good in goal, but we've still got to get him match fit before next Saturday."
With that, they set about continuing to practice and, as the afternoon continued on, Lincoln could not help but notice that his sister seemed strangely elated. It was a level of happiness that he rarely saw from her, and he couldn't help but wonder what had caused it. After all, it couldn't be just because he had agreed to join her team, could it?
Soon the sun began getting low in the sky and eventually Margo, Paula and Naomi decided to head home for the evening, bidding the two siblings good night as they set off.
As the two Louds made their way towards the back door of the family home, Lincoln looked down at himself. He was covered in dirt and grass stains, his shirt was damp with sweat and nearly every muscle he had was aching to some extent. But despite all of that, he knew one thing – he had enjoyed himself immensely. Not only had he gotten a good physical workout, he had actually spent time getting to know the friends of one of his sisters. He had never really had much reason to get to know Margo, Paula or Naomi beyond exchanging a few pleasantries whenever one of them came over to see Lynn, but after today he was honestly starting to like them and could easily see all three of them becoming his friends.
They went in through the door and into the kitchen, where they found their father, Lynn Sr., working away on the family's evening meal. Three saucepans were slowly simmering on top of the stove while a glow from the oven told them something was cooking within while their dad peeled potatoes.
He looked up and saw them. "Hey, kiddos. Dinner's gonna be in about an hour or so. Go get cleaned up."
"Sure thing, Dad!" agreed Lynn Jr, before bounding through the kitchen and up the stairs towards the only bathroom as Lynn Sr turned back to his potatoes.
With a shrug of his shoulders, Lincoln followed in his sister's wake, though once he got to the top of the stairs he turned right instead of left and made a beeline for his bedroom. There he snatched up his phone from where it lay on his pillow and turned it on. To his surprise the notifications informed him that he had over one hundred messages. A quick check showed that it was from the group chat that he maintained with his friends Clyde, Liam, Stella, Zach and Rusty.
He made his way out of his bedroom and along the hall to wait outside the bathroom for Lynn to finish. As he waited he scrolled through the group chat to see if he had missed anything important.
He had not.
The conversation had finished well over an hour previously and none of it really pertained to Lincoln. In the chat, Clyde had reminded the others that Lincoln had likely turned his phone off so as to not be disturbed while reading (for as much good as that did him!) and, with Clyde visiting his grandmother, he was well out of range for Lincoln and Clyde's walkie talkies to work. Flipping through the conversation, Lincoln absently noted that Stella had not taken part in the conversation either. She was probably too busy seeing her extended family.
"Hey, Lincoln," said a sorrowful voice to his left, coming from seemingly out of nowhere and nearly scaring the life out of him.
"Gyaah!" he yelled as he jumped in fright, nearly dropping his phone. Turning to the owner of the voice, he let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the raven haired and black clothed little girl standing next to him, her jet black bangs covering her eyes.
"Oh, it's you Lucy." he gasped. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry," she said in her usual monotone. "I didn't mean to startle you."
In fairness, she rarely meant to startle anyone, but the young goth did have a tendency to suddenly appear out of nowhere and scare everyone. Not for the first time, Lincoln wondered if they should just tie a bell around her neck as if she were a cat. At least then the other family members might stand a chance of hearing her coming.
Lucy tilted her head slightly as she looked her brother up and down. "You're covered in dirt and grass stains." she observed.
Lincoln gave an awkward nod. "Yeah… yeah, I am."
"Have you been digging a grave?"
"No, Lucy. I have not been digging a grave."
"That's a shame. I think you would make a very good grave digger."
"Ooookaaaaay…." said Lincoln, wondering where on Earth this could be going. When Lucy said nothing he decided to just give her a verbal nudge.
"You don't need me to dig any graves for you, do you?"
"Not at the moment," she replied, solemnly. "The only pet funerals I have booked in the near future are a few goldfish, which we will flush, and a hamster and a canary, which I am more than capable of digging adequate graves for. But I might require your assistance should something bigger come up, like a labradoodle, or an over-fed cat."
In all honesty, Lincoln had no idea what to say to that. After a few moments, he decided the only thing that he could really say was "Okay, Lucy. If you get asked to hold a pet funeral for a labradoodle or an over-fed cat, I promise I will help you to dig the grave."
"Thank you, brother. Your offer of assistance is appreciated."
To the casual onlooker, absolutely nothing about Lucy's pale face would have suggested that she was in any way appreciative of his offer. Thankfully Lincoln knew Lucy very well, well enough to see the ever so slight difference from her normal expression.
As much as he loved Lucy, he was quite relived when Lynn stepped out of the bathroom a few moments later, having taken a quick shower. She was now dressed in a bath robe and had her wet hair covered in a towel, tied up in that way that every girl and woman seems to know how to do, but Lincoln could never figure out no matter how many times Lori and Leni demonstrated it.
Mindful of Lucy waiting her turn, Lincoln took a very quick shower, making sure all the dirt was off of him before heading back to his bedroom. There he put on fresh clothes and laid back on his bed to finally enjoy some reading before dinner.
Before long, however, his dad was calling him and his sisters into the dining room for dinner. As everyone met up and took their seats, Lincoln noticed that Lynn Jr.'s good mood from earlier had not dissipated in the slightest. In fact she seemed to be almost ready to burst from excitement as she took a seat next to him.
As everyone began eating, their mother began the conversation. "So, how was everyone's day? Did anything good happen?"
"YES!" said Lynn Jr. a little too loudly, getting surprised looks from everyone.
"Uh, okay, sport," said Lynn Sr. who was slightly taken aback at his namesake's sudden outburst. "So, what happened?"
"You know my soccer tournament next weekend? One of the girls had to bail because she broke her arm at the water park." explained Lynn Jr.
"Oh, honey. I'm sorry to hear that," said Rita sympathetically. "I'm sure you'll find someone else to fill the spot though."
"That's the best part," said Lynn, excitedly wrapping an arm around her brother's shoulders and pulling him towards her. "I already found the perfect player!"
Everyone stopped eating and stared at her as if she had just grown a second head or something.
"Lincoln?" asked Lola, one of the twins, after several moments of silence. "You asked Lincoln to join your soccer team?"
"I did," said Lynn, brightly before her expression changed to one that looked slightly hurt. "Why wouldn't I?"
Everyone around the table shared looks before dad offered up "Well, Lincoln doesn't usually play competitive sports, while you hold yourself to such a high standard and… well..."
The end of that statement hung awkwardly in the air for a few moments before Lynn Jr. said "Well, Lincoln's gotten really good in goal lately. Even Margo, Paula and Naomi were impressed. It was Margo's idea actually. It took some convincing, but he's gonna do it, aren't you Lincoln?"
Lincoln had actually been kind of stung by his family's initial reaction, but Lynn's obvious excitement caused him to perk up and reply "I sure am. It's going to be great."
"It sure is," agreed Lynn. "With me scoring goals for our team while Lincoln defends our goal, we can't possibly loose. Right bro?"
"Right," he agreed. Deep down he was not entirely convinced that things would go quite that smoothly, but something about Lynn's smile and confidence was positively infectious at the moment.
"Well, bro," said Luna, the rocker sister who was seated on the other side of Lincoln. "If you're even half as good as Lynn says you are then I'm sure you'll have no problem rockin' the competition."
Lincoln brightened at the confidence shown by his third oldest sibling. "Thanks Luna."
Dinner continued on from there. Once everyone was done, Luna volunteered to do the dishes, though she very quickly roped Lincoln into helping her. So, as everyone else made their way into the living room to watch television, Lincoln and Luna carried all the plates into the kitchen to begin washing up.
"Okay, bro," Luna began as she started wiping down the first plate. "Time for some truth talk. I actually had an ulterior motive to bringing you out here."
"You did?" he asked as he took that first plate from her and began drying it.
"Here's the thing bro, you probably noticed how excited Lynn is by this whole thing, right?"
"Kind of hard not to."
"Yeah, well that's probably because she's wanted this for a long time."
"Huh?"
Luna smiled at her brother's clueless reaction. "Look, dude, when you were born, we were all excited. Me, Lori, Leni and Luan. All of us thought it was super cool that after so many sisters we finally had a baby bro to call our own. But no one was more excited than Lynn. See, even as a toddler, she was into all these sports. Ever since she was aware of sports, she wanted to play on every team she could, and she got real excited about the idea that you would play on those teams with her.
"We were all like that really. Leni wanted to make you the best dressed boy in all of Royal Woods. Luan wanted you to be her comedy sidekick. Lori wanted you to be the coolest kid around. Even I had my own ideas about who you should be. I might not have been the rocker you see before you today, but I loved music even back then, and I wanted to teach you to play every instrument I knew."
"Oh," replied Lincoln. "I never knew that you all felt that way."
"Well, that's just the way things go, bro. Everyone has thoughts on what their younger siblings should be. But we all forgot one thing."
"What's that?"
"That you are, and were always going to be, your own person, dude. Sure, you developed some appreciation for the things we each like, its how you help us out so much. But you also developed your own hobbies and interests, which we all had to accept. And we did. But I know for a fact that, deep down, Lynn never gave up on the idea of you playing sports with her."
"You really think so?"
"I know so, dude. She's never exactly been shy about it. Think about it; all those times she's tried to get you to do parkour with her, or used you as a sparring partner for kick-boxing. Heck, look at the way she threw herself into training you when the 'rents signed you up for football! She thinks there's a sport out there for everyone and wants to find the one that the two of you could do together. But sometimes she gets frustrated with you."
"Is that why she's sometimes, you know, mean to me?"
"Sure seems that way, bro. I think sometimes she gets it into her head that if she can just toughen you up a bit you'll come around to wanting to play basketball or something. And she might be a little bit jealous too. I mean, you might not really play instruments, but you've never been shy about rockin' out with me. You help Luan perform birthday parties for children. And while you're not much for fashion or trends, you've always been willing to take part in girl talks with Lori and Leni. That just leaves Lynn who didn't get a sports buddy out of you. No matter how much she's tried, you've always resisted – I'm not sayin' that's a bad thing. I'm just tellin' you how she feels."
Lincoln thought for a few moments before asking "So, why are you telling me this Luna?"
"To help you prepare yourself, bro. You know as well as I do that she can go overboard sometimes. Since she's wanted you to join one of her teams for so long, she might end up getting too excited and doing or saying something that will upset you or put you off playing on her team. All I'm sayin' is you might need to have some patience with her, okay?"
"Yeah, I get it. Thanks."
Unnoticed by both of them, Lynn Jr. stood to the side of the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. Having been in such a good mood, she had gone to offer to help Lincoln and Luna with the dishes, only to discover them talking about her. At first she had been hurt by the idea that they were talking about her behind her back, but what hurt even worse was that everything Luna was saying was right! And with that acknowledgement came one very important thought.
What if she did blow this?
What if she couldn't help herself? What if her ego took over like it usually did? What if she got too boisterous? What if she was too hard on Lincoln in training or during a match? Luna was right. Lynn had wanted Lincoln to play on a sports team with her for a very long time.
She used to envision that while playing softball, she'd run from from third base to home and then turn around to high-five her brother as he made it home after her. She used to envision darting between players in basketball and passing across to Lincoln so he could shoot the shot, or the two of them charging the opponents' defence in football together.
Lincoln agreeing to play soccer was like a dream come true, even if it was only for a five-a-side tournament played over one weekend.
So the question remained: what if she blew it?
As quickly and quietly as she could, she left the dining room and darted upstairs to call Margo, Paula and Naomi.
On Monday Lincoln and Lynn both had appointments with the dentist after school and Naomi had a tutoring session, while on Tuesday Lincoln and Paula were both busy with glee club and Lynn and Margo were attending roller derby practice. As such the team of five were not able to all get together until after school on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, not everyone got the memo.
After the final bell of the day, Lincoln stood at his locker, packed the necessary books into his school bag and slung it onto his shoulders before taking out the bag containing his sports kit. Lynn and Margo had persuaded Coach Keck to let the five of them use the school's soccer pitch to run some drills for a couple of hours.
Lincoln shut his locker, suddenly revealing his five best friends standing right there next to him.
"Heya, buddy," said Clyde with his usual cheer. "Ready to head over to Gus' Games and Grub?"
"Uh, change of plans, pal," replied Lincoln. "I'm doing soccer training with Lynn. I'm sure I told you guys that already..."
Clyde's eyes began to water as he fell to his knees and asked in a very over-dramatic way "WHY? Why must things change?"
"Okay, ease up there buddy," said Zach as he and Rusty reached down to pull Clyde back to his feet while Stella turned to Lincoln.
"You told us you were playing on Lynn's team this weekend. You didn't mention anything about training first." she explained.
"Ah," said Lincoln in realisation. "Well, sorry, but I did promise Lynn that I'd be there today."
"Well, it cain't be helped none," said Liam in his usual rural drawl. "Are ya lookin' forward to the tournament at least?"
"Yeah, it should be fun," Lincoln agreed. "Lynn's actually doing a good job of teaching me more about soccer. Normally she gets frustrated when I make mistakes, but I think Margo's helping her be patient with me. Even if we don't win, I think this will do a lot of good for helping me and Lynn get along better."
While Stella, Liam, Zach and Rusty commented how nice that was, these words were apparently another trigger for Clyde, who wailed "I knew it! I knew this day would come! You're replacing me with one of your sisters as your best friend! I always kind of thought it would be Lucy or Luna, but still!"
Lincoln exchanged looks with Stella, the girl giving a clueless shrug of her shoulders in reply. Lincoln turned back to Clyde. "Clyde, buddy, I'm not replacing anyone with anyone else. You're making a scene over nothing and people are starting to stare."
He was right of course, but upon hearing him say those words, the crowd consisting of Girl Jordan, Boy Jordan, Andrew, Artie, Mollie, Kat, Trent, Lance, Hassan, Rachel, Richie, Penelope and at least a dozen others had the decency to quickly turn away and at least pretend to be busy with other things.
As Clyde continued to cry Lincoln tried a different tactic. "Come on, buddy. What happened to all that stuff about our middle school reputations that you were so worried about the other week, huh?"
Clyde wiped his eyes and sniffed. "You're right. Sorry. I'm just over reacting..."
Just then Lynn arrived on the scene, followed by Margo, Paula and Naomi. "Yo, Lincoln, you ready for practice?"
"You know it, Lynn." he replied, holding up the bag containing his sports kit.
Lynn grinned and threw an arm around his shoulders and announced loud enough for everyone in the school hallway to hear "Take a good look girls, because I'm about to turn my bro here into a sports star. You're welcome."
"Lynn!" Lincoln protested, his entire face flushing red as more than a few of his female classmates giggled.
"Ah, I'm just messin' with you bro." she said with a laugh before leaning in and whispering "But seriously, prepare to catch the attention of some girls."
"If you say so," he replied, not entirely believing her as Margo came over to him.
"Don't worry about her, Lincoln." she said, pulling him away from his sister. "She's just excited to have the best goalkeeper in Royal Woods playing for our team."
"Yeah, thanks for stepping up dude," said Naomi. "We'd be sunk without you."
"Now with you on our side, we can't possibly lose." added Paula.
Lincoln eyed all three girls with suspicion. Were they just teasing him or were they actually trying to talk him up in front of the other girls in the school hallway?
"He's friends with her friends too?" wailed Clyde. "I can't take this any more!" he pulled out his phone and hit the first number on his speed dial. "Hello, Doctor Lopez? I know I wasn't supposed to call you in the middle of your vacation to Switzerland, but I'm having a bit of a breakdown..."
He walked off as he spoke, head hanging low as Rusty and Zach followed after him to make sure he didn't do something stupid.
"You know," began Stella, hands on her hips. "I'm beginning to think this Doctor Lopez isn't worth all the money Clyde's dads pay her. I mean, he never seems to get any better. I'll bet she paid for that trip to Switzerland with what she earns from him alone."
"She does seem to go on vacation a lot," agreed Lincoln. "Last month she was on a trip to the Seychelles. And then there's the new pool she built like three months ago."
"What the heck is McBride's problem this time?" asked Lynn, perplexed.
"He thinks you're gonna replace him as Lincoln's best friend," explained Liam.
"Oh. Well do him a favour and tell him I'm not trying to steal his spot." said Lynn. "The only position I'm after is Luna's spot as Lincoln's favourite sister."
Lincoln blinked in surprise at that statement before commenting "Luna's not my favourite sister."
Lynn gave him an odd look before asking "So, Lucy then?"
"Nope."
"Lana?"
"No."
"Leni? Luan? Lily?"
"Okay, stop." he interrupted her. "I've told you all before, I don't have a favourite sister. I like you all the same."
Lynn looked absolutely unconvinced and asked of those around her "You guys buyin' this?"
"Nope," answered Margo, Paula, Naomi, Stella and Liam in unison.
"Well, believe whatever you want, Lynn, just know it doesn't change the fact that I don't play favourites. Now, are we going to practice for the soccer tournament or what?"
"Alright, let's get going," agreed Lynn, dropping the topic for now. As Lincoln turned and led Paula, Margo and Naomi towards the front doors of the school, Lynn moved to follow but a sudden thought had her stopping and turning back to one of Lincoln's friends.
"Liam, I meant to tell you, the new baseball league is starting up soon. Can the Royal Woods Squirrels count of the return of the Cow Pie Kid?"
"Darn tootin' I'll be there," replied Liam, eagerly. "My arm's better than ever, so I'll be pitchin' as good as I ever did."
"Sweet! I'll let you know when the first training session is." said Lynn, backing away to follow her teammates. "Oh, and Stella! You better believe that I'm finding a sport for you too."
And after dropping that bombshell on Lincoln's best female friend (well, the one who did not live in Great Lakes City, anyway) Lynn turned and hurried after the others, catching up with them just in time to hear Margo ask Lincoln "So, you don't even have a loose ranking of them in your head or anything?"
The training session that Lynn had worked out was relatively simple. After some stretching and a jog around the outside of the pitch to warm their muscles up, they spent ten minutes on a passing exercise. To start with they just stood in a circle and passed the ball to the person on their left, with the only major challenge being that every so often Lynn would call for them to change direction, meaning they now had to pass to the person on the right.
Then Lynn made it trickier by adding a second ball. Now they had to focus on not only passing the first ball (which was white with black spots) to the person next to them, but also passing the second ball (which was yellow with black spots) to the second person along. This meant that Lincoln had to pass the white ball to Paula and the yellow one to Naomi, while Margo would pass the white one to him and Lynn would pass him the yellow one. It was pretty tricky to get the hang of at first, especially as every now and again someone would end up with both balls coming at them at the same time, but they soon got into a rhythm.
For their next task, Margo set out ten small, plastic cones in a straight line pointing towards the goal. Their objective was simple – use their feet to guide the ball between each of the cones and then take a shot at the goal. Lincoln didn't really need to practice taking shots at the goal, but he happily took his turn when Paula passed the ball to him. The footwork was a little more complicated than he had expected, but after doing the exercise several times he got the hang of it.
After a while of doing that task, Lynn decided to mix things up again. This time Lincoln, Lynn and Margo stood on one side of the pitch while Paula and Naomi went to the other side. The objective was simple – dribble the ball across the pitch and then pass it off to the next player once they were about six feet away from them. Lynn crossed first before passing to Naomi, who took the ball back across for Lincoln, who took it over again to Paula, who brought the ball back for Margo, who took her turn and passed it back to Lynn, for the whole thing to start over once again.
Eventually Lynn decided it was time for some proper goal practice. Lincoln pulled on the keepers gloves that were technically Lynn's, but he had claimed them for himself for now and got ready to make some saves. As he did so, he suddenly realised that they had a small audience.
"I think we've got some company," he observed, causing the four girls of the team to look towards the stands. Sitting there near the front row, trying to look like they weren't paying much attention to what was happening on the pitch, were seven kids from Lincoln's grade. Mollie, Girl Jordan, Rachel, Kat, Emma, Artie and Lance.
"Looks like us talking you up in front of the girls in the hallway paid off." said Lynn with a grin. "Got some girls watching you run around in shorts, bro!"
Lincoln's cheeks flushed pink. "There's guys over there too!" he said, defensively.
"They're probably just here for the soccer though," said Paula. "Then again, they might be into you too. You never know."
Instead of getting more embarrassed, Lincoln saw a chance to turn the tables. "Or maybe they're here to watch the four of you run around in shorts, did you think of that?"
"Hmmm," hummed Margo thoughtfully. "I think the real question here is how much noticing of us running around in shorts have you been doing, Lincoln Loud?"
"I – not – what?" he stammered, eyes wide with alarm, only to be met with four identical, teasing grins. "Dang it." he muttered, shoulders slumping in defeat.
Lynn laughed heartily as she approached her brother before saying "Alright girls, enough embarrassing the only boy on the team. Let's get some goal practice in."
Relieved that his sister had taken sympathy on him and rescued him from that highly mortifying situation, Lincoln headed for the goal, hearing Paula comment as he went "You would think that having ten sisters would make it more difficult to embarrass him."
Thankfully for Lincoln, the girls did lay off the teasing for the rest of the training session, allowing him to work on his goal keeping skills without blushing. He did pretty well too, and was soon developing the ability to read the style of each girl, predicting where each shot was going before they even kicked it. He didn't get it right every time of course, but being able to predict where a shot was going before it was taken certainly made making the save a lot easier.
All too soon, however, Coach Keck came out onto the soccer field and called them in. She herself had only just finished overseeing a training session for the school's netball team (one of the few sports Lynn had no interest in playing, as she viewed basketball as being superior in every way.)
Margo threw the yellow ball to Lincoln for him to bring in while she herself took the white one and Lynn carried the stack of plastic cones. As the team walked by the stands and towards the exit, the group of Lincoln's classmates were getting their things together too. Unseen by Lincoln, Rachel nudged Jordan in the side. Jordan blushed slightly, but called out "Looking good out there, Lincoln."
Surprised at being spoken too, Lincoln stopped in his tracks (nearly causing Paula to walk into the back of him) and turned to face her. "Oh, um, thanks, Jordan."
"Yeah, not bad, Loud," said Mollie. "Are you thinking of joining a school team?"
"No, no," replied the white haired boy. "These girls have a five-a-side tournament this weekend and their keeper had to bail so I stepped in."
"You should think about trying out for the boys' school team," said Lance. "The keeper they have now isn't very good. He prefers playing mid-field to goal. After seeing you practice, I'm sure the team would sign you on without question."
"Uh, well, I'll think about. Thanks Lance."
As the team turned and carried on walking towards the changing rooms, Margo spoke up "Well, how about that…?"
"I know," said Lincoln. "That's the nicest Lance has been to me in ages."
Behind him, Margo, Paula and Naomi slapped their hands against their foreheads while Lynn began to laugh next to him. "I don't think that's who Margo was talking about, bro."
They had a second training session after school on Friday and then, entirely too soon in Lincoln's opinion, Saturday morning rolled around. As planned, Lincoln and Lynn got up early and went for a quick jog around the block before returning home to consume the hearty breakfast that their father had prepared. As they entered the dining room they saw that their parents and each of their siblings were already making short work of the bacon, eggs and pancakes on each of their plates.
"Okay fam," began Lynn Sr. as Lincoln and Lynn Jr. took their seats. "We need to get going at no later than eight-thirty, so once you're done eating you need to get upstairs and get cleaned up as quickly as you can, okay? This is a big day for both Lincoln and L. J. and I would hate for us to be late."
All the siblings gave words of agreement and Lana and Luan, the first two to finish, got up to head upstairs to the bathroom.
Before long, everyone had finished breakfast, cleaned up, gotten dressed and piled into the family vehicle affectionately known as Vanzilla, and they were off. The sports centre where the tournament was being held was on the north side of town. When they got there, they saw four soccer pitches marked out fairly close to each other, with a large number of players and their family members milling about as the event organisers tried to get everyone in place.
"Nervous, champ?" Lincoln heard his father ask him as some of the sisters got out of the van.
"A little bit," the only son replied.
"Well, don't worry. I'm sure you're going to do great."
"Of course he's going to do great," said Lynn Jr. "After all, he's been trained by me, and he's the best goal keeper I've ever seen."
Lincoln smiled weakly at her confidence. "Thanks, Lynn."
Having worn their sports kits from home, Lincoln and Lynn set off to find the other three girls, who they soon located talking to a referee by one of the pitches.
"There you guys are," said Margo upon seeing them. "Our first game is on this pitch."
"Now that you're all here, I will go and track down your opponents," said the referee. "You two should change your footwear. You start in ten minutes."
The two Loud siblings nodded and took their studded boots out of their bags as the referee went off to find the other team.
Once their footwear was changed, Lynn ordered them to bring it in for a team huddle. They quickly stood in a circle, facing inwards, each with their arms wrapped around the person on either side of them.
"Alright, girls… and Lincoln," Lynn began. "We've trained our best. We've taught Lincoln everything he needs to know. We deserve to win. So let's show everyone here what we're made of, right?"
"Right!" four voices said back to her.
"We got this!" she said.
"We got this!" they agreed.
They broke apart and turned in time to see the referee bringing their opponents over to them. They still had a few minutes before kick off. Lincoln walked back towards the goal, nerves starting to really kick in now. He hadn't counted on this many people being here. Obviously with eight teams playing, not everyone would be watching him, but still!
As he stood waiting for things begin, he was suddenly aware of a familiar voice calling to him.
"Hey, Lincoln! Over here!"
He turned to his left and saw his family standing alongside the pitch and there, in front of them all was Lori, the eldest of his sisters who was usually away at college. She was waving excitedly at him, having been the one to call out to him. Quickly he jogged over.
"Lori!" he exclaimed, going in for a hug that she happily returned. "I wasn't expecting you to be here."
"Well, originally I wasn't going to come, but then mom called and mentioned that you were going to be playing as well and I literally just had to come and see this in person." explained Lori. "How did this even happen?"
"That's kind of a long story," replied Lincoln. "The short version is Lynn's original keeper had to bail on her, so I stepped up."
"Well, I hope she wasn't too pushy..." Lori expressed with concern.
"No, no. Just a bit of tried and true Loud Sister manipulation." Lincoln explained. Seeing that Lori didn't quite understand he elaborated. "She gave me the puppy dog eyes until I gave in."
"Ah. Classic." said Lori, fondly. "Oh, I brought someone else too. Come say hi."
She grabbed her brother's hand and led him between the rest of his sisters until he was standing in front of a familiar elderly man.
"Pop-Pop!" Lincoln cried out in delight, going to hug his maternal grandfather.
"Hey, there's my look alike!" joked Pop-Pop in reference to the fact that he, like Lincoln, had white hair. "You all set to play?"
"Sure am, Pop-Pop." replied Lincoln. "Lynn did train me after all."
"Well then, the other team don't stand a chance, do they? Speaking of your sister, where is my favourite little slugger?"
As if she had heard them, Lynn Jr. suddenly appeared through the crowd. She greeted Lori and Pop-Pop enthusiastically, but hurriedly so she could turn to her brother. "Come on bro! We're starting in a minute."
Pop-Pop laughed heartily. "Go on kiddos. Go take it to 'em."
The rest of the family called out their own words of encouragement as Lynn led her brother back onto the pitch. He quickly got in front of the goal while his sister moved to her position nearer the half way line. The team had agreed to play with Lynn and Margo positioned to the front while Paula and Naomi were to the back. The other team were in place and Lincoln noted that they had gone for having one person forward and three back. A more defensive play style, but one that Lynn and Margo were likely to make short work of.
Four referees blew their whistles and eight teams began their games.
The ball remained in play at the opposite end of the pitch for almost ten minutes. Between them, Lynn and Margo were able to put real pressure on their opponents, only passing back to Paula or Naomi when necessary, but their opponent's defence was just a bit took much for them and suddenly the opposing attacking player broke past them and made a run, with two other players breaking away from their usual positions to accompany him along the length of the pitch. There were a tense few moments where the three passed around Paula and Naomi before Lynn ran in and broke it up, helping Naomi out of a two-on-one situation which allowed Naomi to pass to Paula, who quickly sent it back down the field with Lynn running after it.
She caught up to the ball, brought it under control and passed it to Margo, only for her to lose it to the last remaining defending player who sent it back down the pitch. The other two defenders had remained there, preventing Paula and Naomi from doing their jobs and allowing the opposing attacker to made a direct strike at the goal.
Off to the side, Lincoln's entire family held their breaths as the ball shot towards the goal. Lincoln saw it, lunged to his right and caught the ball securely in his hands. As his family and some other spectators cheered, Naomi broke free of the guy marking her and Lincoln sent the ball towards her. She took it and got it to the half way line, where she sent it across to Paula, who kicked it high to Margo. Margo took the ball against her head to bring it to the ground and then kicked it towards the goal. The opposing keeper knocked the ball away, but they didn't call Lynn's signature move a Loud Rebound for nothing and, before one of the opposing players even had a chance to think, Lynn bounded forward and kicked the ball straight into the back of the net.
Hearing the cheering of his teammates and those who had come out to support them filled Lincoln with elation, as his ponytailed sister turned and yelled towards him "Yo, bro! That save was dope!"
"So was your goal!" he called back, now fully believing Lynn's words from her pep talk.
We got this!
Shortly after three in the afternoon the following day, the five team mates were sitting outside the Burpin' Burger, enjoying their victory meal. Each of them had a gold medal around their necks (actually plastic, but who cares?) and each carrying a small trophy. The medals were for being the winning team while the trophies were each for their individual accomplishments.
Lynn's trophy was in the style of a traditional cup and was for being the best team captain. Margo's was shaped like a soccer boot and was for scoring the most goals, not only on the team but out of anyone in the tournament. Paula's was a soccer ball on a plinth for being the most hard working player (for obvious reasons!) while Naomi's trophy was in the shape of a shield and was for being the best defensive player of the tournament.
Lincoln's trophy, meanwhile, was shaped like a pair of keeper's gloves and was awarded to him for letting in the fewest goals out of all the keepers in the tournament.
The only moment of disappointment had been getting to the Burpin' Burger and discovering that there was only one twenty five dollar gift card between them, rather than one card for each of them as Lynn had initially thought, but they had quickly moved beyond that, paying the difference with their own money.
The fast food restaurant had been unusually full for the time of day when they arrived and they decided to take their meals outside. The tables outside had been full as well, so now they were sitting on top of a four foot high brick wall on the far side of the car park as they enjoyed double bacon cheese burgers, fries, large sodas and a box of thirty chicken nuggets that they were splitting between them to have six each.
"So, how does it feel Lincoln?" asked Margo, barbecue sauce on her cheek. "To be on the winning team?"
"Feels pretty good," admitted Lincoln before putting a ketchup-covered fry into his mouth. "Although, I still say you girls went a little overboard in that last game. I mean, was it really necessary to put eighteen goals past that poor kid? I thought he was gonna run off crying!"
"But I wanted the top goal scorer trophy!" protested Margo, holding up the object in question. "No way was I going to let that kid from Hazeltucky get it!"
As everyone laughed at her statement, Paula picked up the box of chicken nuggets "Hey look! An extra nugget!"
"That's not just an extra nugget," said Naomi, looking into the box. "Its two nuggets stuck together!"
"Well, who gets it?" asked Naomi.
"Burping contest!" proclaimed Margo.
"A what?" asked Lincoln.
"A burping contest," explained Lynn. "You chug some of your soda and whoever does the biggest burp gets the free double chicken nugget."
"Yeah… I'm not doing that." said Naomi.
"You're loss," said Margo, picking up her soda and drinking a large amount. Setting the cup down, she waited a moment and then let out a pretty loud burp.
"Okay, good start," said Lynn. "Paula?"
Paula took her turn to drink but quickly stopped, coughing and spluttering. "Gyah! Bubbles up my nose!"
"And Paula's out!" declared Lynn as Margo and Lincoln laughed. "You sure you're not gonna take part Naomi?"
"Fine," she relented before taking her turn. She did a pretty solid burp after drinking, but it was nowhere near Margo's level.
Lynn took her turn and easily beat her bestie before turning to Lincoln. "Come on, bro! Your turn!"
"I think I'm good..." said Lincoln.
"Aww. Are you shy about burping in front of girls?" teased Margo.
"Yeah, come on Lincoln. Its us." said Lynn "We're not gonna give you a hard time for burping like Lola or Lori would."
"Okay, fine." he relented. He took a big gulp of soda, waited a moment and then let out a burp that put even his sister to same.
"Whoa! We have a winner!" announced Lynn.
"Dude, I think that guy on the bus heard you," said Margo, pointing to the blue and silver bus driving past them. "He totally gave you the stink eye then!"
Paula handed the chicken nugget box to Lincoln "I guess you win."
Lincoln accepted the box but instead of consuming his prize himself, he broke the double nugget apart and then separated the two now individual nuggets into halves and handed one half to each of the girls, keeping nothing for himself.
"Aw, thanks bro!" said Lynn as she accepted her half.
"A great goalkeeper and a gentleman," stated Margo. "Who knew?"
"Keep this up Lincoln and you might make a girl swoon," teased Naomi.
Getting used to this type of teasing by now, Lincoln just rolled his eyes and joined in with the laughter.
As he sat there on the wall, Lynn and Margo to his left, Paula and Naomi to his right, Lincoln closed his eyes and leaned back a little, taking a moment to reflect. In all honesty, the biggest surprise for him this past week had not been how well he had done as goal keeper, although that was definitely a highlight.
But the real high point had actually been getting to know Lynn's friends better. It had only been a week, but already he was getting along with them far better than he did with most of the girls in his own age group. How much of that was his fault he didn't really know, but apart from being on relatively friendly terms with Girl Jordan and Mollie, the only actual female friend he had at school was Stella.
It was strange, really. He had ten sisters, so talking to girls shouldn't really be that hard, but it was. There was always a slight paranoia that he was being silently judged when he spoke with one of the girls in his class, a fear that saying something even slightly wrong would just end up with him on the receiving end of a lot of grief.
But with Lynn's friends, that pressure wasn't there. Sure, they teased him from time to time, but when they did it, it wasn't mean spirited. In fact, they wanted nothing more than for him to tease right back, and there was no judgement coming from them. Heck, the fact that he had just sat there and had a burping contest with them was testament to how things were different with these girls.
And as for his relationship with Lynn, that was a whole other matter. Of all his sisters, the dynamic he shared with the girl immediately older than him was by far the rockiest, a relationship that involved lots of bumps, bruises and name calling. But now, thanks to this tournament, things seemed to have changed for the better. They weren't just brother and sister any more. Now they were team mates as well, and at that moment, he felt closer to her than ever, as though playing soccer had brought them together better than anything else had done before.
His thoughts were interrupted by Margo. "So, Lincoln, are you going to try out for the boys soccer team at school now?"
He pondered her question for a few moments. Lincoln had always resisted the idea of playing sports. All of that running around, tackling each other, getting bumps, bruises and who knows what else just so you might score enough points had always seemed pretty pointless. But after the weekend he just had, he was rethinking that. Sure he had bumps and bruises, and his muscles ached from exertion, but this felt different. Unlike gym class, which was mandatory, Lincoln had ultimately played because he wanted to. Okay, Lynn's guilt trip got him there, but the point stands. He had enjoyed himself because he actually wanted to play, and he wanted to play because of those he was playing with. So maybe he should give the school team a chance to see if he liked it.
"You know what?" he said to Margo. "I might just do that."
Just then Lynn's phone beeped. She took it out of her pocket and looked at it. "Oh, hey! Lori sent me the photo she took of us Lincoln."
She held the phone so he could see. It was the two of them, side by side, Lincoln with his left arm around Lynn's shoulders and Lynn's right arm around his shoulders, using their free hands to hold up their medals for the camera, huge, happy smiles on both their faces.
"Yeah..." said Lincoln slowly. "Look at that..."
Well, I did not expect that to go for as long as it did. I know some people aren't big fans of Lynn Jr. but she's actually one of my preferred characters (so long as she is getting along with Lincoln). Unfortunately she's pretty inconsistent within the show, constantly making steps both forwards and backwards. I honestly don't mind her burping (as should be obvious from this chapter) nor do I mind her calling her brother Stinkin' (though I purposefully chose to have her not do it here) – its something I think gets overused sometimes, but it doesn't irritate me. Anyway, this story is me trying to build on the improvements we saw between them during the episode "Diss the Cook" (one of my favourites of Season 5) – hopefully the show's writers give us more of that in the future – they're in the same school now, make her his ally, not his antagonist.
For those of you wondering who Naomi is, go to the Loud House Wiki and look up the Royal Woods Kangaroos and scroll down the page to Teammate #3 and that's her. She has appeared in the background in many episodes (even going so far as to get her own speaking part!) and I feel like its time she had a name. I was originally going to call her Nadia, but it seems one of Lynn's Roller Derby Teammates already has that name, so Naomi was the next name beginning with "N" that I thought of. Don't know why it had to begin with "N" - I just kind of got stuck on it. The mentioned but unseen Candace in this story is Teammate #4.
Next up: A story focusing on Lincoln and Luan.