Chapter VI
Two is Company, Twelve's a Loud:
Part III
Thirty minutes later…
Nathan and Lincoln are now in the latter's room, playing the racing gaming Highway Hot-Trails II on Lincoln's console. Nathan's vehicle, a sleek remodeled Mercedes-Benz, was in the homestretch of the narrow, constantly bending track, with Lincoln hot in pursuit. However, on the last curve before the finish line, Nathan turned too widely, resulting in his car colliding with an AI controlled vehicle, a much bulkier Volkswagen Tiguan, temporarily stunning both vehicles. However, this minute pause was the opening Lincoln needed, and his vehicle, a retextured police cruiser, cruised through the finish line, landing him in first place. Yet again.
"Dang it!" Nathan exclaimed, burying his face with his hands as he plopped down onto Lincoln's bed. "That's the third time in a row that I lost, and I even picked the fastest car this time."
"You should really switch that car. Sure, its speed stats are the best, but it has the second worst durability in the game. All it takes it two hits and your car is stunned." Lincoln explained, for the umpteenth time.
"Nah, I'm just a bit rusty, is all. Best ten out of nineteen?"
"Sure, why not."
"Lincoln, can you come help me in the kitchen?" Lynn Sr. called from downstairs.
"Coming dad!" Lincoln called back, and Lincoln and Nathan made their way downstairs to the kitchen. In here, Lynn Sr. was preparing a meal, but as expected in preparing dinner for a family of thirteen, he seemed to had his hands more than full.
"Hey son, can you pass me the chopped onions?" Lynn Sr. pointed, or in this nodded to, the diced onion resting on the chopping block on the counter, as he mixed the other vegetables in a large bowl along with the pork and beef. Noticing Nathan, he brandished a smile onto his face. "Heya Nathan, it's great to see you again. How did your family enjoy the cake I baked for you guys?"
"Oh hey, Mr. Loud. We loved the cake, my mom more than the rest of us." Nathan greeted the adult.
"I'm glad she liked it, I'll be sure to make more for you guys." Lynn Sr. chuckled. "And please, don't make me feel so old. Lynn Sr. will do just fine." He said grabbing the diced onions Lincoln handed to him and mixing it along with the other vegetables, adding a "Thanks, kiddo" to his son's direction.
"Are you making meatloaf?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah, today is Meatloaf Sundays. It was originally Meatloaf Mondays, but now we just make more so we have leftovers the next day."
"Oh, can I help out?"
"It's okay Nathan, no need to trouble yourself. I can handle it." Lynn Sr. reassured him.
"No, I want to help, it's the least I can do since you made a cake for me and my family. Besides, like mi mama always says, 'If a guest allows you in their home, make sure to treat the hosts.'" Nathan said.
"Oh, alright then, the more the merrier." Lynn Sr. responded with a smile, and then turns to his son. "What about it son, you wanna help your old man out with dinner tonight?"
"Yeah, sure Dad." Lincoln responded.
"All right, then. Lincoln, can you fetch a couple of aprons for you and Nathan? They're in the cabinet, where they always are."
5 minutes later…
"Nathan, how's the meatloaf coming along?" Lynn Sr. asked, preoccupied with making a Sweet Potato Pie, while Lincoln was peeling potatoes for the mashed potatoes. Nathan went over to Lynn Sr. and showed him the now chucked beef.
"I just finished mixing everything together, but I think it's missing something. Do you have any Tabasco sauce and Rosemary? Oh, and bacon?"
"Tabasco's in the cabinet next to the stove, bacon's in the fridge." Lynn Sr. directed Nathan, who promptly got the ingredients. "Why did you need the bacon?"
"Trust me, Mr. Loud." Nathan said as he placed the uncompleted meatloaf into the porcelain pan on the counter, draping slices of bacon above before placing it into heated oven. "This meatloaf will be phenomenal."
Brriinngg Brriinngg…
The sound of egg timer went off, and Nathan, grabbing the oven mitts Lynn Sr. gave him, took the meatloaf out of the oven. Almost immediately after the succulent meatloaf was placed on the counter, the noses of Lynn Sr. and Lincoln were drawn to savory scent, drawing in the wispy vapor as quickly as they appeared.
"Nathan, this smells amazing!" Lincoln exclaimed, fighting the urging not to pilfer the meatloaf for himself.
"It sure is" Lynn Sr. congratulated Nathan. "You even made the meatloaf smell better than when I make it."
"It was nothing really. It's just that my mom makes meatloaf sometimes, and it your recipe was similar to the one she uses, so I just added a few ingredients to resemble hers. I hope that's no problem, Mr. Loud." Nathan said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"A problem? Of course there's no problem, son. It smells absolutely delicious." Just soon after that, the rest of the Loud children, minus Luan, and Rita Loud, made their way into the kitchen.
"Dad, what's that smell? It's smells great!" Lynn Jr. said, practically lunging forward to take a bite.
"Yeah Dad, that meatloaf smells wicked. Is it time to eat yet?" Luna added.
"Honey, did you make the meatloaf differently this time, it's smells fantastic. Not that it wasn't all fantastic before." Rita Loud added.
"Well, I can't take full credit for the food, Lincoln and Nathan helped out with kitchen duty. Actually, the reason why is smells so darn good is due to Nathan following his mom's recipe." Lynn Sr. admitted.
"Woah, you know how to cook?" Leni asked Nathan.
"Ehh, I dabble a bit. I always used to help my mom cook, so I picked up on some skills." Nathan said modestly. Remembering his mom, he quickly checked his phone for the time; 6:35 P.M. "Speaking of mom, I should probably head home, it's starting to get dark." His words were quickly followed by complaining by the Loud children, who didn't want him to leave yet.
"Well Nathan, it seems nobody wants to see you leave yet." Rita Loud said. "Why don't you stay for dinner?" Everyone else voiced their agreements.
"Umm, I guess I could stay for dinner, but I'd have to check in with my mom first. Would you excuse me for a sec?" Nathan says as he pulls out his phone and dials his mom's number, walking into the living-room to talk. While he was doing this, Rita did a quick headcount, and noticed that a certain brunette was missing.
"Kids, have any of you seen Luan?" Rita questioned, and everyone except Luna could not answer.
"She said she had a gig at a children's birthday party earlier this morning, but I haven't seen her since she left."
"We should call her and see if she is one on her way home. Luna, Lynn, go ahead and set up the dinner table, I'll try to contact Luan." Rita directed to her children, and Rita pulls out her phone to contact her daughter.
"Luan, are you almost back… you are? … alright, just make it back safe honey." Rita ends her call with her daughter, and turns to inform her husband and children on Luan's location. "Okay, Luan said she'll be here in a few minutes, and that we could start dinner." At that moment, Nathan returns into the kitchen.
"My mom said I could stay for dinner. Thanks for letting me stay a bit longer." Nathan said to Rita and Lynn Sr.
"The pleasure is all ours."
...
Just as the Loud family, along with Nathan, were saying grace for the meal, there was a knock on the door, and Lynn went to answer it.
"Hey guys, I'm back." Luan announced as she entered the kitchen with Lynn right behind her. She goes to sit down at the adult table with her parents and elder siblings, but stops as she sees Nathan. "Hey guys, who's the new guy. He can't be a new sibling, I wasn't gone nearly that long for that to happen." she said, chuckling at her own quip.
Nathan, who was busy chatting with Luna about various Rock and Jazz bands, turned to the direction of where he heard the unfamiliar voice. And right then and there, he could feel his heart swell in his throat. Thinking back on it, he didn't know what is was about her that made him feel as he did in that moment; was it her eyes, or the two little strands of hair that stuck out like cute antennae? Or was it the way her nose wrinkled when she laughed, a laugh that melted all but the coldest of iron? But he learned two things at that moment. One, Nathan was lucky his mouth was closed at the time, for had it not, his heart would be somewhere on top of the meatloaf on his plate. And two, Luan's jokes were awful.
"That joke was awful. But who is she?" Nathan thought to himself. "Oh, um—Nathan, my name is hey." Nathan said in a foot-in-mouth way. "I mean, hey, my Nathan is name—err my name is Nathan." He hurriedly corrected himself, but he felt the damage, to his pride anyways, had been done. But he was surprised to find that it got a laugh out of Luan, and for once he felt glad that he screwed up.
"Haha, that's a pretty long name. I'll just stick with Nathan." She said as she sat down in the chair next to Luna on the opposite side of Nathan. "I'm Luan, nice to meet you." She said as she raised her hand to shake his. Nathan brought his hand up, and when their hands touched he felt a spark; not it the figurative sense, but that he actually felt like he'd been shocked. He brought his hand back quickly, and saw that in her palm was a joy buzzer. "Oh man, that never get old! I guess that was quite the shocker for you, get it?"
"Luan, what did we say about pranking during dinner, and pranking guests?" her mother scolded. "And also, why were you out so late? You know that curfew is at 6:00."
"Sorry mom, but there was a birthday emergency. Mrs. McCarthy from downtown's triplets had their birthday today, and the clown that she hired before cancelled, so she called me on short notice. But I was paid extra for showing up. The party just ended 20 minutes ago, and I came back as quick as I could."
"Alright, but don't make this a habit, young lady." Rita said, and with everyone at the table, the meal began.
"Wow, Dad, this meatloaf is amazing!" Luan said.
"Thanks sweetie, but you'd have Nathan to thank for the meatloaf this time. But you're right, this is great" Lynn Sr. said as he ate, and Nathan smiled nervously.
"Oh, thanks. But if you think this was good, you haven't tried my mom's cooking yet. She could make a meatloaf that would make this taste like cardboard."
"Well, if her cooking is that great, maybe we should all get together and cook a meal for you guys." Lynn Sr. said.
"You said it, dad." Luan said, as she took another bite of food. "I loaf your cooking, but like your meatloaf had meat its match! Haha, get it?" she chuckled, earning a groan from everyone except her parents and Nathan.
"So Nathan, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself. I'm sure we'd all love to get to know you." Rita said as she finishes her meal, to which everyone else agreed. The younger kids from the children's table gathered at the adult table to listen to Nathan. "Where did you use to live before you moved here with your family?"
"Oh, I used to live in Middletown, Ohio. We moved to Royal Woods because we have family in the next town over, and my mom heard there was a veterinary clinic here that had a position open."
"You're mom's a veterinarian?!" Lana exclaimed excitedly. "That's awesome! What does she do?"
"She's mainly just going to be treating wounds and assisting in dental work, but she said she's going to be training under a Canine Practitioner, so after a while she should be licensed to set bones. How come you ask?"
"Being a Veterinarian is one of my dream jobs, other than a mechanic. I've always wanted to work with animals."
"That's interesting, but where does your father work?" Lynn Sr. asked.
"Oh, my dad? He's a game developer for PixCell Studios in back in Ohio. He does the 3D visual graphics for a lot of videogames."
"Wait a minute, your dad works for PixCell Studios?!" Lincoln asks. "That sounds incredible! Did you get to beta-test a few games?"
"Yeah, when I was younger I'd be allowed to beta-test some of the games, along some of other kids of parents who worked there, since the company wanted feedback from a younger age group or something like that. But I think it was more along the lines of 'Here's some games, don't bother us.' Either way, it was pretty cool."
"You said your father works in Ohio? He must have to get up really early to make it to work every day." Lynn Sr. said.
"Oh, my dad doesn't live with the rest of my family. They've separated a while ago, around 6 years." Nathan corrected, and everyone got what he meant immediately, except for Leni.
"Your parents separated? Does that mean they were stuck together at one point, and then split apart, like… meiosis? I think that's it." Leni said, and all the while Nathan couldn't fathom the nonsense in that comment.
"I think you mean mitosis. And no, that's not what I meant by they separated. I mean that they aren't together anymore."
"But you just said they weren't stuck together." She said, and Nathan was left flabbergasted.
"… I don't know if she's serious or not and that thought is very concerning." Nathan thought to himself. He knew at this rate he'd never be able to get her to understand him, but luck decided to come to him; in the form of Lori Loud.
"Leni, he means that his parents are divorced." Lori said sharply, which Leni finally understood.
"Oh, I'm sorry I brought it up." was all Lynn Sr. could manage to say, and took sudden interest in his plate at that moment, the rest of the Loud family following suit. Noticing the faces of everyone, he realized that they were mistaken.
"What? Oh, no no, it's not like that at all. I know what you might think, but it's cool between my parents. They're actually pretty good friends now." Nathan explained to them. "Sometimes whenever I visit my dad with my sisters, my mom tags along whenever she doesn't have work."
"Wait a Nano-sec, that doesn't make sense. If they are quite as chummy as you are stating, why did they split up?" Lisa asked, which Nathan responded with a shrug.
"My parents just said they fell out of love with each other. I don't know, they just thought it would be better if they split up and remain friends. Before we moved here, back in Ohio, my dad's place was downtown, within walking distance. I won't be able to visit him as often as I used to, but it's just something to get used to, I guess."
"Well, that's good. That they still get along, I mean." Rita Loud smiled. "But what about YOU, Nathan? Is there anything you like to do?"
"There's not really much to me, other than I like to sketch and listen to music." Nathan said. "And I do card tricks from time to time."
"Wait, you do card tricks?" Luan perked up, sitting all the way up in her chair.
"Yeah, I used to perform card tricks ever since I was a kid."
"Do you think you could show us a few card tricks?" Lola asked, and her siblings voiced their agreements, and soon the dining room was filled with noise. Deciding to intervene, Lynn Sr. stuck two fingers into his mouth and gave a high-pitched whistle, silencing the children.
"Oops, sorry Dad." They said in unison.
"Um yeah, I could so you guys a trick or too. Do you guys have a deck of cards anywhere?" Nathan asked. Luan asked to be excused from the dinner table, and a minute later she returned with a deck of playing cards, a blue Artifice deck from the looks of it. She went over to hand Nathan the deck, and for the briefest moment, he could feel her hand touching his.
"Cold shower, cold shower…" Nathan thought, before he mentally slapped himself. "Come on Nathan, get a hold of yourself. Just calm down, stop making things weird."
"Umm, Nathan?" Luan began, and Nathan realized something; he was still holding onto her hand. Quickly drawing his hand back with a nervous chuckle, he started to open the deck up. Pulling the cards out and giving them a quick shuffle before turning to everyone else. "
"So, who wants to see some magic?" Nathan says, and everyone had a look of varying excitement, sans Lisa, who wore a skeptical look on her face.
"Preposterous, there is no such thing as 'magic'. It's all just hogwash." Lisa said.
"Ah, on the contraire, my dear intellect. Magic is as real as anything else, it just takes a keen eye and an open mind, that's what my abuelo used to say." he said, but the look on Lisa's face was anything but believing. "Here, why don't I show you want what I mean? I'll teach you a trick, maybe then you'd come around."
"As ridiculous as that idea is, I'll go along with it, only to prove you otherwise." Lisa said, and Nathan began his trick. First, he performed a Sybil cut, gauging his audiences' reactions as he went along; everyone was amazed, except for Lisa.
"This is a Sybil cut, it's personally one of my favorite ways to shuffle cards." Nathan said before stopping abruptly, placing all the cards in his left hand, pressing down on two of the sides with his thumb and middle finger, while placing his index finger underneath the deck with his finger bent. "And this is called the TJ Murphy Deck Flip." He says, and releases the pressure on the sides of the cards by removing his middle finger and thumb, causing the deck to flip in the air 1.5 times before catching the deck in his left hand. Finishing this, he hands around a third of the deck to Lisa. "Want to try it? Just do as I did. Hold the card like you would a phone, but as you do it press down on the two sides of the card with you thumb and middle finger. Finally, bend your index finger and place it under the deck. Hold down, not too hard though, and then let go, and it'll flip in the air."
Grabbing a 1/3 of the deck, Lisa tried to replicate what Nathan did, but whenever she went to place pressure on the deck, instead of flipping it merely scattered the cards all over floor.
"Yikes, I thought this was supposed to be the TJ Murphy Deck Flip, not the TJ Murphy 52 card pick-up." Luan joked, while Nathan started to pick up the cards of the floor.
"Don't worry about it, I used to mess up a lot when I first tried it. Took me nearly a week to get it right. Try not to grip the sides so hard next time. You'll get it soon." Nathan gave Lisa back the cards to practice, and after a few minutes of practicing, Lisa finally managed to flip the card properly, but a few cards on the bottom landed on the floor in the process. "There you go! You're a pretty fast learner, you learned way faster from when I was taught to do that. A few more tries and you got it." Nathan congratulated her.
"That was great, sis." Luna applauded her.
"I admit, I did find some satisfaction in completing that." Lisa commented. "Though I've yet to find any 'magic' in this. All it was a display of physics."
"Well, to you, it might seem that way." Nathan said as he gathered all the cards together. "But you see, that was just a warmup. This is where the real fun begins. Let me show a little thing called The Werm Flourish." he began with a smirk.
Starting off, he divides the deck into three sections, holding them in a high straddle grip, placing each section of cards above one another in a Z-formation, before rotating both the top and bottom section of the deck, so that each section of the deck was facing downwards. He then pushes the top card off of the third section with his index finger and gripped the top card with his pinky, so that the deck of cards now resembled a square.
"This is how you start the flourish off. Notice that I'm now able to move all the top and bottom section by moving my two hands." He demonstrated, and now everyone, including Lisa, were intrigued on what would happen next. "Okay, this next part is a bit harder to follow, since I'm going to be putting this into an S-formation." Nathan continues by grabbing the bottom card of the left section with his thumb, and rotates the card so that it swings up, which he quickly grabs onto his left pinky, and pushes the top card off the bottom deck. Using the same thumb he used to rotate the bottom card, he latches onto the top deck, slowly extending his arms away from each other, so that all the cards made an S-shape.
"Now, this is the last part of the Werm flourish, so look closely." He said. He then moves his right hand until he is able to touch the top section of the S-formation, and peels of the top card with his pinky, before bringing his right hand back down. At this point, 6 cards were displayed, giving the deck the formation of a type of worm. Almost finished, he brings the top section to his chin, and splits the section of cards into two separate sections, before slowly bringing his chin, along with the now half section of cards, back up. Finally, he retraced his steps, until a few seconds later, the full deck of cards rested in his palm. "And that's how to do the Werm flourish." He said, and everyone else burst in cheering in applause.
"That was awesome, dude!" Luna shouted, giving a wolf-whistle.
"You got to teach me how to do that sometime!" Lincoln said ecstatically.
"Indeed. While I still fail to see any apparent acts of sorcery, that was quite enjoyable." Lisa commented.
"That was quite a trick, Nathan. Color me impressed!" Lynn Sr. applauded.
"Thank you, really." Nathan blushes. "And I'd be glad to show you guys how to do it, anytime."
"Can I try it out?" Luan asked, her response leaving him stunned for a moment. After his shock went, he placed the deck of cards in her hands.
"Here you go. Now don't worry if you don't get it right away, it is pretty tricky to get down…" he started, but what happened next silenced him. Not only had Luan managed to copy the trick down to the letter, but she managed to do it quicker than Nathan himself. At the end of it nearly everyone was left speechless, and only moments later Nathan could only manage, "…woah. How did you do that?"
"What can I say, I'm full of tricks, at least when it comes to entertainment, anyway. I guess you might say I'm a JACK of all trades." Luan joked.
"I love…" Nathan begins to say, but hurriedly corrects himself. "… your jokes. You really have a for witty banter." he says nervously.
"Well, I have been known to be quite the JOKER. But I gotta admit, you're quite the card yourself. Haha, get it?" she says. Nathan then hears a buzz in his pocket, and reaches for his phone. A text message.
Big Sis: Nathan, where are you? It's getting pretty late.
Nathan checks the time, and saw that it was 7:40.
"Well, it's been nice, but I have to get going." Nathan says his goodbye. "Thank you for the meal. Bye guys."
"Anytime, Nathan." Lynn Sr. says.
"Bye Nathan!" the Loud children say. Nathan goes to open the door, and takes one more look back at the people he met today, and started for his house.
Nathan made it back to his house, but the entire walk home his mind drifted to only one thing, or more specifically, one person: Luan. It was weird feeling to him whenever he thought her name, something that he had no words for. It the kind of feeling you get when you after eating your favorite meal. No matter what he tried, that name crept back into the center of his mind. Luan.
Opening the door to his house, he saw his mom and his sisters on the couch watching The Love Boat, and they turned around to greet him.
"Mijo, how was your day? Tell us about your day." his mother, Isabella, said, beckoning to him.
"Yeah, bro, what did you do?" his older sister said, making room for him on the couch. Nathan discussed his day with them, including his encounter with all of Lincoln's sisters, wisely choosing to leave out the part with Luan. After he finished, his mother started talking.
"Wow, you must have had a pretty fun time." his mother said.
"Of course he did. Why else would he still have a dumb grin on his face." his younger sister, Mikaela said. Nathan was about to argue with her, until he realized that she was right.
"You're right." Isabella said, before turning to look at Nathan. "So, who is she?"
"Wait, who is who?" Nathan asked confused.
"Do you think I was born yesterday?" she asked. "I'm talking about the girl you like." This caused Nathan to freeze a bit. Was it that obvious?
"Why would you think I like someone?"
"Maternal intuition. Now, which one is it?" she replied. "Is it the musician girl you were talking about? Or is it the blonde girl?"
"Mom…" Nathan complained.
"My money is on the brunette girl who tells jokes." Michelle commented.
"Michelle!" Nathan said shocked. This was surprise to him, it was usually his little sister who teased him like this.
"What's the matter, honey? Come on, tell us who this lucky girl is?" his mom said. For a moment, Nathan thought of almost telling his family the truth, and admit who he liked. Key word being almost.
"Mom, I don't like any of Lincoln's sisters! Ok?" Nathan said.
"Oh. Well, then what about Lincoln? You'd know I'd be fine—"
"What, Mom!" Nathan interrupted her, clearly not liking how the conversation was turning out. "First off, I'm like four years older than him, so no. Second, I told you already, I don't like anyone! Can't I just be in a happy mood without being interrogated? I had fun hanging today, so that's why I'm happy, that's it. Ok?"
"Ok fine, you don't need to get so defensive." Isabella said, before getting up off the couch. "Well, I'm going to go ahead and sleep. My big day at work starts tomorrow morning." She had, giving each of her children an embrace.
"Goodnight mom." Nathan and his sisters say together.
"Goodnight, mis hijos." She says opening her bedroom door. "And Nathan, why don't you invite Louds to dinner tomorrow. That way we can find out the girl you like."
"Lalala, not listening. Night mom!" Nathan said, before going in his room. As he lay in bed trying to sleep, there was only one thing that came to his mind.
"Luan… that's a nice name."
Hey guys, XxTheGlichHopxX here! Well after the wait, here is the sixth chapter for Let's Get Loud. I'm not really sure how I feel about the ending though, I kind of didn't know how to finish the chapter. Anywho, expect to expect the story to be updated weekly from now on. That's all I got for now.
Make sure to leave a review, let me know how I did, and have a good day! In the review, leave your favorite genre of music. Bye guys! :)