Chapter VII
The Loud Crowd: Part I
Early the next morning…
"Ughhh…. what time is it?" Nathan groaned as he sat upright in his bed, checking his alarm clock.
7:36 A.M. it read.
He'd been up nearly all night, and as a result had hardly nanaged to get any sleep. This was rather odd to him, normally he'd have no trouble falling asleep; in fact, he'd usually have the opposite problem, preferring to sleep in well into the afternoon. But strangely enough, he couldn't bring himself to shut his eyes last night, as if something was keeping him awake, and there was. Luan. He took a second look at his alarm clock, but the time remained the same. He looked back at his pillow and thought, "Maybe if I shut my eyes, I can trick my body into falling back asleep for a few more hours."
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't nod off. He tried everything—counting sheep, burying himself in his cover, he even tried listening to a 10-minute documentary on lint—but to no avail. It was almost as if he, dare he say it, didn't feel tired.
"What? Why isn't any of this working?" he thought. "Come on body… sleep. Sleep!". Nothing. Giving up, he decided to get dressed and try to go out for a jog. Maybe he could tire himself out after a good thirty minutes or so of exercise, so then hopefully he could finally get some more sleep. Or… maybe he would see what Lincoln had planned for today, and if he could hang out. Might as well find something to do today.
After getting dressed, Nathan made his way into the kitchen, where he saw his mother had just finished making waffles and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Catching sight of him, she looked quite surprised.
"Mijo, you're up already? Even your sisters aren't up yet, and you usually don't wake up until hours after them, especially during summer." Isabella said, walking over to her son, and placed a hand on his forehead. "Are you feeling alright? Do you feel sick at all? Did you have nightmare?"
"No mom, I'm fine." Nathan reassured her, but he wondered would he be up this early if he was actually fine. Regardless, he sat down at the table and started scarfing down his breakfast. "So mom, you start your job today?" he asked between bites.
"Yes, I'm so excited! I'm actually about to make my way to the veterinary clinic downtown, it's on Greenway Avenue, I believe."
"Hey Mom." Michelle and Mikaela both groggily said as they entered the kitchen. Noticing Nathan was already eating, Michelle said, "Nathan, you're up already? You sick or something?"
"No way the real Nathan would be up this early. I bet it's a clone" Mikaela added, before starting her meal.
"No, I'm not sick..." Nathan stated again. " And no, not a clone either. Why do you guys all think there's something wrong with me just because I got up earlier than I usually do?"
"Because you're… you. The Nathan we know wouldn't wake up anywhere near this early during summer. I mean, you once literally slept an entire day." Mikaela stated.
"Hey, what can I say, I'm a changed man." Nathan shrugged.
"That was last week."
"…" Nathan started to object, before giving up. As much as he wanted to argue, he knew that his sister was right. "I guess I just woke up early so I could go for a jog or something, like I used to do back at our old place. I thought the fresh air would do me some good. And then maybe I'd swing over by Lincoln's place."
"Ahhh… so that's why you woke up early." his mother said, with the hint of a smirk on her face. "Trying to see tú enamoramiento, eh?"
"What? Mom…"
"Kidding, kidding." she chuckled. "It's fine if you go to your friend's house…"
"Yes!" he thought to himself. "A day to myself. Just me, Lincoln, his sisters… Luan. But most importantly, an entire day without…"
"If you agree to take Mikaela with you." his mother finished.
Dang it.
"What?!" both Nathan and Mikaela exclaimed simultaneously.
"Why I do have to go with my loser brother when he's just trying to visit his girlfriend?" Mikaela questioned her mother.
"Yeah, why does she have to come with— for the last time, I don't have a girlfriend!" Nathan responded.
"Guys, guys… listen. Mikaela, it would do you some good to meet the neighbors, especially with a house with so many girls. Who knows, you might get along with some of them. And Nathan, you're in charge of Mikaela for the day while you two go, unless Michelle goes with you." Isabella stated.
"But…" Nathan began, but he knew that arguing was pointless; once his mom made a decision, it was near impossible to dissuade her. Turning to his sister, then back to his mom, he gave an exasperated sigh. "Yes, ma'am."
"Thank you, mijo." She said, giving him a kiss on his forehead. She made her way towards the front door, but not before hugging her two daughters. "I'll be back home at 4:30, try not to kill each other while I'm gone."
"No promises…" Nathan and Mikaela muttered under their breaths as they glared at each other.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, love you mom!" they said.
"Alright, love you!" their mother said, closing the door behind here. As soon as he heard his mom's Volkswagen Jetta pull out of the driveway, he turned to his older sister.
"Well, today just went south. You coming with us Michelle?" he asked.
"Sure, why not. Besides, watching you too bicker all day is better than just sitting at the house watching television." Michelle replied. "Now, let's go see that girlfriend of yours."
"I don't… forget it."
Meanwhile at the Loud House…
9:34 a.m.
Lincoln was sitting in the living room, reading an Ace Savvy comic in his undies as per usual, when he heard a knock on the door.
"Coming!" Lincoln called as he rushed towards the door. Opening it, Lincoln saw Nathan along with two unfamiliar girls. They took one glance at Lincoln and immediately started snickering, while Nathan averted his eyes, leaving Lincoln quite oblivious.
"Oh, hey Nathan!"
"Hey… um… Linc, where are your pants?" Nathan asked, briefly looking away. Lincoln, remembering that he was in fact in his undies, quickly turned a fresh shade of beet-red. He bolted upstairs, returning moments later in a pair of blue jeans and an orange polo shirt.
"Heh, sorry about that." Lincoln chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "So, are these your sisters?"
"Oh yeah, right. Lincoln, meet my sisters, Michelle and Mikaela" Nathan said, gesturing towards his older and younger sisters respectively. "Michelle, Mikaela, this is my bud Lincoln. So, was it cool if we hung out with you today, or are you busy? My mom wanted my sisters to tag along with me and meet your family."
"I don't think we have anything planned for today, but you and your sisters are more than welcome to hang out here." Lincoln said.
"Hey Lincoln, who are you talking to?" Luna asked, coming down the stairs with her other sisters in tow. "Nathan, what's up dude? These your sisters?"
"Yeah. Everyone, meet my sisters, Mikaela and Michelle. Mikaela, Michelle, this is Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, … Lynn…" he said her name rather begrudgingly, not forgetting the punch she gave him the other day, before continuing. "Lucy, the twins Lana and Lola—
"Hey, why does her name get to go first?" Lola complained.
"Because I'm the older one." Lana retorted, with a hint of a smug look on her face.
"Well, I'm the more mature one."
"You mean the prissier one."
"Am not!" Lola scoffed.
"Are too!"
"Ahem!" Nathan fake coughed, preventing the two from bickering any further. "Anyways, where was I… oh yeah. Then you have Lisa and Lily, the baby." He finished.
"It's nice to meet you all." Michelle said, before elbowing her younger sister. "Isn't that right Mikaela?"
Mikaela, clearly not wanting to be around, merely said, " Yeah, sure. Whatever", before putting in a pair of earbuds. Nathan, slightly annoyed with his younger sister's action, wanted to tell her off for being rude, but decided to let it slide for now. The last thing he wanted right now was to start an argument with her, since it would last for who-knows how long, and besides that he already promised his mom that he wouldn't. So instead, he decided to turn towards the Loud siblings.
"My mom wanted me to introduce my sisters to you guys, and we were wondering if you wanted to hang out for a bit." he said.
"Of course dude!" Luna responded, "We'd love to hang with you guys", the rest of the family agreeing with her.
"Cool. That's great." Nathan said. "Did you guys have anything in mind?" The Louds thought for a moment on something that they could do with their guests. Usually, given their different tastes in activities, it was rather difficult to find something that they'd all agreed on, especially now that it was summer. Then, while the rest were still thinking, Leni decided to speak up.
"Like, how about we go to the mall?" she suggested.
"Leni... that's actually not a bad idea" Lori replied, surprised that for once it was Leni who came up with a good idea. "There were a new pair of shoes that I wanted to buy."
"And I did need to get a new bat from the sporting equipment store." Lynn added.
"And we could go to the toy store!" the twins responded.
"And I did need to get a new replacement for my whoopie cushion" Luan added, raising said cushion in the air.
"I see nothing wrong with it to justify a replacement. Why do you need a new one?" Lisa asked skeptically. Luan, grinning, brought to Lisa's face before squeezing out it's contents while chuckling hysterically.
"See, it's all out of gas! Haha, get it?" Luan joked, much to Lisa's discontent.
"I really should have seen that coming." she deadpanned.
"And I heard that they recently added a new Ace Savvy arcade game in the mall, so we could check that out." Lincoln said to Nathan.
"Wait, there's an arcade at the mall?" Nathan asked. "Why are we still here, then? Let's go to the mall!", he finished as he headed towards door. Before opening it however, he turned around with a confused look. "Um, quick question. Where exactly is the mall? Is it within walking distance, because we didn't bring a car."
"Don't worry, you guys can ride with us in our family van, and I'm driving. Come on." Lori responded as she and the rest of her siblings made it out the door, with Nathan and his sister's following shortly after.
Author's Note:
Hey guys, XxTheGlitchHopxX here with the newest chapter of Let's Get Loud. This chapter is fairly short compared to the other chapters, but like them I plan to break it into several parts, so expect another chapter fairly soon. I went back and tried to edit some mistakes that I found, but I might have missed a few, so I apologise in advance for any grammatical errors. Write a review and let me know what you guys think, and stay tuned for more chapters in the future.