A/N: This chapter came out way longer than I expected. Sorry about the wait. Hopefully, you'll enjoy this one a lot because honestly, it's one of my favorite chapters that I've ever written for any story.
The piercing, mechanical cries of Leni's phone alarm rang under Leni's ear, the noise muffled by the pillow that acted as a sound-nullifying barrier. At first, the grating chirps did nothing to help Leni do much except stir and grumble, but eventually she was shaken out of her sleep cycle. With a few sleepy murmurs and minimal straining, Leni was finally able to reach under her pillow and press the button to silence her alarm—a task that was ingrained deep enough in her brain to pull off while she was only half-awake with her sleeping mask on.
Afterwards, she let out a dainty little yawn, still too drowsy and lethargic to do much else after just waking up. She had a wonderful dream last night, and she was almost sad to see that she'd have to leave it behind to start a brand-new day of school.
'Aw, and I was so close to giving my licorice kitty a bop on the nose,' Leni thought as she brought her hands up to peel back the sleeping mask from her eyes.
With quick precision, she took a hold of the mask, swiped it off, flung it over her head…
…and stared face-to-face with a grinning Lori, who was leaning in up close while she stood at the side of her sister's bed.
The unexpected sight, which was unsettling on its own merits, caused Leni to let out a little shriek as her eyes bugged out of her head.
"Hey, Len-Len!" Lori chirped, seemingly not taking notice of her little's sister's fright.
Leni's hammering heart slowed and her nerves were soothed over by the feeling of confusion from the greeting.
"Who's 'Len-Len'?" Leni asked, furrowing her eyebrows and pointing to herself. "I'm Leni."
A few seconds ticked by before she began to question her statement, and her eyes widened. "Or...am I?"
Lori laughed and brought a hand over to Leni's face to softly pinch her left cheek, oblivious to Leni's indignant scowl from the gesture.
"It's a nickname, you silly-willy goose!" she teased as she jostled the flesh lightly in her grip.
By the time Lori had let go, presumably to do something else while acting crazier than a bowl of "Kooky Krisps", Leni began patting her mouth and quickly looking over her arms.
Leni frowned. No beak, no feathers, and last time she checked, she didn't honk; she was no goose, silly-willy or otherwise!
Before she could set Lori straight, though, said sister came back to her bedside, waving her phone in her hand excitedly.
"Oops, I almost forgot!" Lori said.
Leni shrugged. "Forgot wh-"
"Sister selfie!"
Before Leni could even blink, Lori swooped in, pressed her cheek up to Leni's, held her phone up in front of their faces, and pressed the photo button after flashing a big grin. The blinding light flashed out in an instant, stinging Leni's eyes before she could close them.
"Too bright! Too bright!" Leni cried as she used one of her arms to rub at her aching eyes.
Once the twinge had subsided to tolerable levels, Leni peeked an eye open and instantly realized that her vision was still a little blurry. Regardless, she could see that not only was Lori oblivious to her plight but that she was too preoccupied making goo-goo eyes at her phone and giggling, as if she had seen Lily doing something cute.
"This one's gonna be a keeper," Lori said as she casually tossed her phone over to her bed.
The act knocked the breath out of Leni, almost as if she was swiftly jabbed in the gut. Lori waking up bright and chipper was one thing, and Lori taking selfies with her was nothing new, but if there was one thing that Leni knew that her big sister would never, ever, do, it was treating her phone so carelessly.
But before she could voice her concern, Lori beat her to the punch with a statement of her own.
"You know something, Leni?" Lori asked, her hands clasped in front of her as she rocked back and forth on her heels.
Instantly, Leni's head hung down and she frowned, recalling something hurtful that her genius sister had said to her about a week ago. "According to Lisa, not a lot."
Expecting Lori's next words to be something along the lines of an actual response to her reply, she was taken aback, though flattered with what Lori had to say next.
"I think you look adorable in sky blue," Lori said.
Leni's sadness vanished in a microsecond and returned the smile that Lori had been giving her all this time. "Really?" she asked, her eyes sparkling.
Lori nodded. "That's why…"
She quickly ran over to her closet, rummaged through it for a few seconds, and returned to Leni with an armful of outfits. Her outfits, a wad of her sky-blue tank tops underneath her arm.
"…I'm letting you wear my clothes," Lori said as she plopped the pile of clothes by Leni's feet, completely missing her dumbfounded expression. "I'll still wear them too, but honestly, they look so much better on you than they do on me."
Leni's eyes, unlike immediately post-selfie, were fine now, so the fashionista was forced to arrive to the one outcome that she thought she'd never see from Lori in a bajillion years—her sister, who was always adamant about her never letting her so much as touch anything from her wardrobe, was cheerfully giving her permission to try out her clothes.
Leni was almost tempted to slap herself to see if she was still sleeping; this couldn't be real. The selfies, the clothes, the really creepy grinning…the last time she remembered feeling this icky was when she decided to try out crocs for the first time. Like, worst decision ever.
"Lori," Leni said, her teeth and lips clenched in a nervous grin, "I don't think you need to-"
She was cut off when Lori erupted in a happy squeal that stung at her eardrums and made her grimace.
"7:06!" Lori exclaimed as she pointed at her analog alarm clock while bouncing up and down like a sugar-crazed rabbit. "You know what that means?!"
"T-time for a shower?" Leni both asked and hoped; she really didn't need Lori to do another…
Uh-oh.
Leni whimpered when she saw that Lori had ran over to her bed and picked up her phone.
"Sister selfie!" Lori cried before she sprung into action.
Lisa shuffled over to her babbling baby sister, who was looking over the edge of her crib at her older sister intently. Upon looking down at the object she had in both hands, Lily began to squeal in delight and clap her hands; she could recognize that Jack-in-the-Box anywhere.
"Here you are, my precocious infant sibling," Lisa said as she placed the toy next to Lily, who immediately took interest in it and started slapping the top with one hand and giggling.
"I've upgraded your Jack-in-the-Box with a Peek-A-Boo animatronic that interacts with you upon triggering the mechanism," Lisa said.
Even with her underdeveloped brain, Lily could get the gist of what Lisa was trying to convey to her. Now, instead of haphazardly jostling the toy around, she was now peering at it from all angles, trying to detect the anomaly that Lisa was referring to.
"Poo?" Lily said as she poked at the crank with her finger.
Lisa chuckled and leaned forward to peck Lily on the head. "No, no, Lily. Not poo; boo. As in 'Peek-A-Boo'."
Giving one last glance at her sister, who was now slowly but surely turning the crank, Lisa said, before departing from their room to head to the shower, "Well then, I'm off to prepare for another rousing day of public education. Have fun with your new toy."
What Lisa didn't manage to see or hear, after closing the door behind her, was the sound of Lily's crying; it turns out that babies did not appreciate a wired, robotic clown popping up out of the box and droning "Peek-a-boo!" over and over again while it stared at its "victim" with its bright red eyes.
It had been two minutes now and Lana remained motionless, as if her limbs were paralyzed. She had been like this ever since she woke up; her first reaction was to gasp in shock and what followed was her body's refusal to move as her brain was trying to both process the new development that her eyes feasted on and cope with the horror before her.
Even with her eyes glued forward, she could still see a certain pageant winner by her bedside, flailing her arms around animatedly while she wore her award-winning smile.
"Isn't it great, Lana?!" Lola cried. "I woke up half an hour before you and made sure your room was all sparkly and clean for you!"
Lola, much to Lana's dismay, was true to her word. Not a speck of mud or dirt could be seen anywhere, none of her dirty clothes were scattered all over the floor, and all her trash was as good as gone.
Heck, even her skateboard was polished and repainted; not a trace of its battle scars or smidges were left.
But, sadly, Lola wasn't quite done with her "good news".
"And check this out," Lola said as she rushed over to Lana's reptile tank and came back a few seconds later—this time, with a familiar face. "I even gussied up Hops and gave him a tiny little top hat. Isn't it cute?"
Besides squeaking out a tiny cry out of her unmoving, agape mouth and her right eye twitching, Lana didn't make any movements, an observation that didn't knock Lola off her stride.
"That's okay," Lola said as she placed Hops down beside Lana. "No words of gratitude are necessary."
With that, she leaned forward, gave Lana's cheek a kiss, and skipped towards the door to head to the bathroom.
"Bye now!" Lola sang, leaving her frozen-up twin to relish the early morning atrocities that knocked her for a loop.
The sound of the door slamming shut finally got Lana to snap out of her stasis, allowing her to let out a groan of despair:
"Whyyyyy?"
Luna was not having a good time right now.
After waking up, besides the fact that Luan had already gotten up before her and was slipping into her yellow skirt, the first thing that the rocker realized was that her neck was throbbing with pain. It didn't help that the ache flared, no matter how slightly she turned her head.
After the last pang of soreness shot through her neck, she hissed through her teeth, causing Luan to look up at her roommate after she had tied her hair into a ponytail.
"Something wrong, Luna?" Luan asked, shooting her sister a concerned look.
Luna clambered down the bunk bed, being careful to do so without twisting her head around too much.
"I'll say, dude," Luna grumbled once her feet touched the floor, and she faced her sister. "Either all that headbanging practice last night is catching up to me or I slept on the wrong side of the-ow!"
Another slicing jolt cut through her nerves like they were made of butter, and Luna winced as the pain ebbed enough to let her speak. "In any case, my neck's stiffer than rigor mortis."
Luna, not really knowing what to expect as a response, took in Luan's big, eager smile with interest. There was a plan brewing in that head of hers, but she didn't know what she was going for.
"Not to worry, Luna," Luan said as she wiggled her fingers. "I know just the thing to take care of your neck."
Luna smiled, thinking that she knew where Luan was coming from.
"Really? Thanks, Lu," Luna said and sat down on her beanbag, waiting for Luan to give her neck a good rubbing.
"No problem," Luan said as she walked over to her prop trunk. "Just sit there and let my friend handle this."
Luna reeled back a bit as a perplexed frown settled over her face. "'Friend'?"
Luan didn't answer, choosing to open her trunk and rummage through it while Luna looked on in confusion. Needless to say, this was not what Luna was expecting when it came to a neck massage. Was Luan getting some cream or ointment or whatever, that being the "friend" she was referring to? If so, then why was she looking through her prop trunk? Luna thought better than to think she was trying to pull a prank on her; Luan wouldn't be this open about the set-up if she was.
And speaking of odd behavior, there was still that matter about her, Lori, Lynn, Lola, and Lisa at dinner yesterday. In a rush to get her homework done before today, Luna had forgotten to ask Luan what thatwas all about—they were being weird with Lincoln and if that had anything to do with what Luan was doing now, then she'd have to-
"'Massage Therapist Coconuts' at your service!" Luan exclaimed, pulling out her beloved ventriloquist dummy while simultaneously pulling Luna out of her thoughts.
All Luna could manage to utter was a low, elongated, "Uhhhhhhhhh…"
Seeing Mr. Coconuts wasn't anything new, but with what Luan had just announced, it implied that she was planning to have the dummy—stiff, wooden hands and all—knead her sore neck.
As if sensing Luna's tension, Mr. Coconuts—through Luan's doing, of course—assured, "Don't worry, sugah! These hands were made for kneadin' and that's just what they'll do!"
Dread slithered through Luna's belly like a wet, slippery noodle, but she braced herself, choosing not to make a run for it. Luan was just looking out for her…with an approach that was a bit too unorthodox to call rational.
But still, what was the worst that could happen?
She got her answer when Mr. Coconut's rough hand sank into her flesh and muscles. Her yelp of pain didn't deter Luan from continuing.
Meanwhile, what Luna didn't notice was her younger brother looking on at the scene through the open bedroom door.
He sighed, shook his head, and made his way downstairs. That was the fifth unpleasant observation that he had picked up on since waking up, and they all revolved around his erratic sisters giving their respective roommates a hard time.
"This is getting way out of hand," Lincoln muttered under his breath.
Around half an hour later, Vanzilla was almost completely full. Only a few of the Loud children weren't accounted for, but for nearly half of the ones who were present, they were in sully moods.
Despite Lola willingly giving up the "Sweet Spot" for her sake, Lana wasn't pleased at all. Looking out at the neighborhood through the passenger window, she bore a grumpy scowl as she folded her arms and did everything in her power to ignore Lola, who wouldn't stop staring at her with her creepy, annoying grin.
Leni, who was riding shotgun, wasn't very pleased either. Her eyes were still blurry after the last "sister selfie" that Lori, who was sitting right beside her (or…maybe it was her mother; her vision wasn't very reliable at the moment), subjected her to and that was three minutes ago. At this rate, she'd be lucky to spot another "half-off sale" tag ever again.
Luna was in the foulest mood out of anyone present. Thanks to Luan's intervention, her neck felt like it was tied in knots and those knots were tied into even smaller knots and then those knots were…well, she got the picture. The point was, 'Massage Therapist Coconuts' was better off as 'Woodchipper Chow Coconuts' as far as she was concerned. Now, she couldn't do much more than look straight ahead—not even the tiniest twitch of her head would spare her from another sharp thrust of needling, burning pain.
Because of her predicament, she couldn't turn around to see who it was that entered Vanzilla. She had an idea who it was when that person sidled up beside her to buckled up in the empty seat next to her—thanks to the wonders of peripheral vision, she could spot a mop of black hair and a frown that suggested that Lucy was miserable…
…er, more miserable than usual.
If Leni and Lana's moods were telling, then Luna thought she had a good idea about why Lucy was so agitated. But, even with the other sisters preoccupied in either waiting for Lori to leave or striking up conversations with each other—Lynn, Luan's, and Lisa's backrow chitchat being the most cordial—Luna thought it best to keep her voice down; inquiring about Lucy's possibly troublesome roommate was sure to start trouble if her words could be intercepted by someone other than Lucy.
"Hey, Luce, you're not lookin' too good," Luna whispered, taking care to lean down without twisting her neck. "Lemme guess, you had a rude awakening too?"
Luna crossed her arms as her casual frown was replaced with a scowl. "Sigh," she whispered back. "If you call your roommate violently combing your hair a 'rude awakening', then yes. My scalp feels like it got tenderized like a steak."
"That sounds way better than what 'Massage Therapist Coconuts' did to me," Luna said, recalling a particularly painful jab that Mr. Coconuts administered to the base of her neck.
Lucy's eyebrows raised in astonishment, though Luna couldn't tell because of the hair. "Do I even want to ask?"
Luna sighed. "Not unless you wanna hear a story that's too scary for even someone like you."
"Hey, guys," called Lana, who was still giving Lola the silent treatment in the hopes of angering her, "does anyone know what's keeping Lincoln? He's running late."
After she said that, some of the sisters checked their phones and realized that, yes, Lincoln was cutting it rather close. With Lori's strict policy about punctuality, she only allowed a three minutes and fifteen seconds grace period for anyone who hadn't arrived before the appointed time. After that, she would leave them to make it to school on their own.
By now, Lincoln had only about two minutes left to go before Lori would get fed up and drive away in a huff. Lynn, Lisa, Lola, and Luan seemed unconcerned with what Lana had said while Lucy, Lana, and Luna were at the edge of their seats, hoping that Lincoln would arrive before Lori would drive off without him.
Meanwhile, Leni just snorted. "Lana, don't be silly," she said as she pointed to the left corner of the backrow of seats. "He's sitting right there."
Thankfully, Luna didn't have to twist her neck to look behind her to see if she was right or not; she knew for a fact that she was way off.
"Dude, that's Lynn," Luna said.
Leni chuckled sheepishly. "Oh. Uh, sorry, Lynn. My eyes are kinda bad right now. Like, during breakfast, I accidentally used the wrong end of the fork on my sausage."
Lynn laughed, though her tone clearly showed that she wasn't being mocking her. "S'alright, sis. I don't mind being mistaken for my awesome little brother."
Lana, who was still a little worried for her brother, checked her phone again and had another grim report to tell. "It's almost been three-and-a-quarter minutes, guys."
Luna clinched her fists nervously. 'C'mon, bro. Put your pedal to the metal and get here already.'
But alas, Luna's willpower couldn't make Lincoln materialize into Vanzilla by the time three minutes and fifteen seconds had passed.
Lucy, Luna, Leni and Lana sighed, knowing that there was no use trying to talk Lori out of giving Lincoln just a little bit more time. Any second now, Vanzilla would be screeching out of the driveway, heading towards their respective schools.
…
…
…
Except, another full minute now, and Lori still hadn't gone anywhere. What gives?
"Lori?" Lana asked, looking at the eldest Loud sister through the rear-view mirror.
Lori looked back and flashed a grin at Lana, the likes of which were almost as unsettling as the one that Lola was still giving her.
"Yes, Lana?" Lori replied, batting her eyelashes.
Lana cringed at the gesture. "Why haven't you left already?"
Lori looked back at Lana with a look of bewilderment, as if Lana had a second head growing out from her neck…
…and then threw her head back as peals of laughter rang out. She found her voice through her merriment after the laughter ended after a good ten seconds.
"We're waiting for Lincoln, of course," Lori said, wiping a tear from her eye. "We can't leave without him."
Leni, Lana, Luna, and Lucy collectively gasped. They weren't ones to look count a blessing as a curse, but they thought that nothing short of Bobby proposing to her would get Lori in a good enough mood to overlook her punctuality rule; who was this girl and what did she do with Lori?!
They didn't have a chance to draw any conclusions as the sound of the sliding door opening, along with panting and wheezing, caused everyone to turn towards the source of the noise. Sure enough, there was Lincoln, bent at the waist while his hands clasped at his knees. He gave himself another five seconds to catch his breath before he entered the van and took the empty window seat next to Lucy.
"I couldn't find my other shoe," Lincoln said, his breath labored from exhaustion. "Turns out, Charles snuck off with it and chewed it up in his doghouse. It took me nearly twenty minutes to get it back from him."
He then looked at the back of Lori's head, too afraid to see her expression through the rear-view mirror; even with her streak of "niceness" lately, Lincoln wasn't about to take her tolerance for granted.
That's why Lori's response surprised not just Lincoln, but Leni, Luna, Lucy, and Lana as well.
"Aw, that's okay!" Lori said. "Thanks for trying to be punctual, Lincy!"
Again, Lori's behavior forced Leni, Luna, Lucy, and Lana to try and wrap their heads around Lori's complete 180°. As if yesterday at dinner wasn't weird enough, now Lori was practically acting like Mother Teresa…
…except they were pretty sure that Mother Teresa didn't smile creepily at people. Add to the fact that their respective roommates were also behaving pretty bonkers this morning, and that left them with a mystery that was pretty gosh darn annoying—both because they couldn't come up with an answer that made sense and because while they were left in the dark, dealing with their roommates' actions was aggravating to say the least.
"Okay, everyone," Lori said, "before we get on the road…"
Lori pulled out her phone from her pocket and waved it at Leni, who gulped as her pupils dilated—she didn't need good vision to see what was coming.
"Oh, Len-Len?" Lori sang.
Leni groaned. "Oh no."
"Sister selfie!"
LATER THAT AFTERNOON…
Lincoln's room could feel pretty darn cramped when more than three people were in it, but Leni, Luna, Lucy, Lana, and Lily managed to make it work.
After coming back from school, Lincoln had gone to them and asked them to meet him in his room later for an "urgent matter". They didn't have any idea what Lincoln was proposing, but for now, they would just wait for Lincoln to arrive and tell them himself.
While Leni sat in Lincoln's chair, bouncing a happy Lily on her knee, Lucy sat Indian-style on the floor. Meanwhile, Luna sat on the edge of Lincoln's bed, sighing happily as Lana stood up on her knees behind her as she gave her neck a proper kneading.
"Oooooh, right there," Luna moaned, her tongue nearly flopping out of her open mouth. "Yeeeeeeeah, that's the stuff."
Lana's ministrations continued for another eight minutes before she pulled her hands away, leaving a content Luna with a neck that was still a little stiff and sore, but not nearly as aching as it was before. She gave it a test run by turning her head and smiling at Lana—an action that only prickled her with a tiny jab of discomfort.
"Thanks Lana. I always knew you were handy, but not like this," Luna said.
Lana gave her a thumbs-up and moved back to lay across Lincoln's bed while her head rested on his pillow.
"At this rate," Lucy said, "we're all gonna need massages to unwind because of the way some of our sisters have been behaving lately. I attempted to drive out whatever evil spirit is making them act like lunatics, but none of my talismans or incantations have had any effect on them. I guess the cause isn't anything supernatural."
At the mention of her twin sister, Lana glowered as she looked up at the ceiling.
"Well, whatever it is that's making 'em go bananas, we'd better get rid of it soon," she said as she folded her arms behind her head. "When we came back from school, I caught Lola trying to teach Hops how to cakewalk! Can you believe that?! Hops is many things, but he ain't a cakewalker!"
Meanwhile, Luna was beginning to grow weary of waiting for Lincoln. Granted, she really didn't have anything better to do, but that didn't mean that she was fond of waiting around longer than she needed to.
"Say, when's Lincoln gonna show up?" Luna asked. "You'd think that he'd be here by now, considering that this little meeting was his idea."
"Who knows?" Leni replied as she let Lily down to go toddle around on the floor. "But on another note, Luna, I'm really concerned about you."
Luna's eyebrow arched up. "Why?"
Leni lips formed a disapproving frown. "Because you've lost, like, a lot of weight. And you've shrunk too. I think you need to see a doctor."
Luna was quick to offer a confused expression to the ridiculous notion that Leni was giving her…
That is, until she saw who, or rather what, Leni was addressing. Luna tried her best to repress her amusement with tight lips, but her efforts proved futile as a few snorts and snickers came out.
"Leni, you're looking at a lamp," Luna said.
Leni took a few seconds to process both Luna's words and her line of sight, straining her hazy eyes to focus. To her dismay, she realized that Luna was right on the money. She could only shrug helplessly as her cheeks began to glow pink.
"Your vision still isn't any good?" Lucy asked, a little smile of her own forming.
"Not really," Leni said, her face etched in mortification. "Lori kept taking selfies with me throughout the school day. Because of her, I nearly walked into the boy's bathroom, right in front of Chaz too!"
Then, another thought came to mind and it forced Leni to reconsider.
"At least, I think that was Chaz," Leni mulled while tapping her chin. "That might've just been my biology teacher. Either way, it was totes embarrassing."
By now, Luna was no longer amused. Leni's story was a grim reminder about what some of their sisters were doing to them. Thankfully, since she and Luan went to different schools, she didn't have to worry about Luan annoying or embarrassing her, but it was only a matter of time before she would try to make her mark with…whatever it was she was doing.
"Well, I don't know about you guys," Luna said, sliding off the bed and rising to her feet, "but I don't think I can put up with another day of this. First, it was with Lincoln at dinner yesterday and now, they're giving us a hard time. They're my family, and I love 'em, but I'm goin' off the rails on this crazy train of theirs, and I don't like it one bit."
The other murmured in agreement, but that was as much as they were allowed to do before the door flung open and interrupted their groove. They all looked towards the open door and smiled.
"Wincoln!" Lily cried.
"Sorry I'm late, you guys," Lincoln said, closing the door behind him.
From the look on his face, he was a tad miffed, and Lana had an inkling as to why.
"Let me guess, Charles took your other shoe?" Lana asked.
Lincoln blinked. "Actually, he did," he said, impressed that Lana was on the mark. "How'd you guess?"
"Guess I'm just that lucky," she replied, then sighed as her thoughts drifted to the plight that was affecting her and everyone else in the room. "Too bad we're not as lucky with our crazy sisters."
"Preachin' to the choir on that one, dude," Luna said.
"Anyway, why'd you bring us here, Lincoln?" Leni asked.
Lincoln, deciding to make up for lost time, got to the heart of the matter as quickly as he could while he had everyone's attention.
"Well, I think it's painfully obvious that we have a serious sister problem on our hands," Lincoln said, "For whatever reason, Lori, Luan, Lynn, Lola, and Lisa are being super nice…or at least, they're trying to be super nice."
"Yeah, try super 'annoying'," Lana chimed in, her remark earning a few scattered mutters of agreement. "I don't know what's gotten into 'em, but we need to put a stop to it."
"I agree," Lincoln said. "At first, I was willing to put up with them, but now that they're giving you guys a hard time too, I can't just let them do as they please anymore."
Lincoln groaned when he realized that what he was about to say next was most likely not going to be given lauding approval, but he felt like he had to say it.
"But the reason I wanted to talk to all of you is because I don't think that we should tell them that they're getting on our nerves," Lincoln said.
As he predicted, his five sisters immediately gave him pointed looks.
"What?" Leni asked.
"Seriously?" Luna asked.
"Why not?" Lana asked.
"Poo-poo!" Lily objected.
"You can't be serious," Lucy said.
Lincoln continued, doing his best not to cave under the pressure.
"It'll hurt their feelings if we tell them the truth," he explained. "Like it or not, they're clearly trying to be better people, and we shouldn't make them feel bad for it."
That simple line of reasoning extinguished the indignation that each of the five sisters felt about the proposal. It was true; through thick and thin, they loved their family. Plus, even though they hadn't considered their behavior as "being nice", once they stopped to think about, they supposed that what Lincoln was saying did have a kernel of truth to it.
Still, that didn't mean that they were completely satisfied with the idea of not telling them the truth. Luna was the first to speak up about that discontentedness.
"So, what're we supposed to do? Just let them bug us to death?" Luna asked.
Lincoln grinned and shook his head. "Nope," he said. "In fact, we're gonna bug them to death."
Leni threw her hands up to her cheeks and gasped in horror before she glowered at her brother. "Lincoln!"
Lincoln rolled his eyes and grinned. "Metaphorically speaking, Leni."
Leni's aghast expression dissipated as she let out a sigh of relief. "Oooooooh, okay."
…
…
…
"That's the opposite of 'literally', right," Lincoln?"
"Yes, Leni. Yes, it is."
It didn't take long after that for Lucy to jump in with a new objection.
"But what's annoying them supposed to accomplish?" Lucy asked.
Lincoln turned to the goth, his grin turning into an eager smile as he felt himself brimming with conviction.
"If we get on their nerves long enough," Lincoln said, looking at his sisters as he talked, "there's no way they can keep up this 'nice' act of theirs. That way, they can stop the madness on their own, and we don't have to hurt their feelings."
Lincoln watched as once again, his five sisters gave his words some thought. After about a minute, they all looked up at Lincoln, their expressions making Lincoln's smile grow even wider—they all looked like they were in on his plan!
"Well, when you put it that way," Luna said. "I guess you make a good point."
The others echoed her sentiments with nods, stirring Lincoln into letting out one final declaration before he officially initiated his scheme.
"Then, let's annoy the pants off our sisters!" Lincoln cried.
A/N: Yes, I know. I used a joke about Luna and a lamp in this fanfiction. I'm just one cheeky fella, aren't I?