Chapter Twenty-Four

The day had finally come. Lynn was helping Lincoln pack up his car. Lisa was instructing them as to how to pack so as to maximize space. Lincoln had a fairly small car and a good few boxes. While the boxes were compact, they had to pack them tightly to make sure that everything would fit.

"You know, I could outfit your car's trunk with a mechanism that makes it about five feet cubed larger inside than outside." Lisa said.

"And how long would it take to finagle that upgrade?" Lincoln asked.
"Oh, I'd say about an hour. Maybe two." Lisa said. Lincoln thought for a moment. It was only 9 in the morning, but Northwestern University was almost five hours away. He didn't have classes that day, so he would have the weekend to get settled in his new dorm and walk around. He had time.

"Okay. You're on. Gives me a bit of time to say my final goodbyes." Lincoln said.

He went up to his room and typed in a complex command to his phone, dialing up Jordan, Stella, Rusty, Liam, Clyde, Chloe and Zach.

"Wow, Lincoln! Are you on conference call with all of us at once?" Clyde asked excitedly.

"Yeah. Lisa's phones can do that. You just have to tell the phone what you want." Lincoln said.

"Sounds like Lisa got hold of alien technology." Zach said suspiciously. The rest of the group laughed. Zach clearly didn't know Lisa that well.

"Lisa's technology is alien level technology, dawg." Rusty laughed.
"What? Lisa's an alien?" Zach asked.

"No! No! She's just the greatest scientific mind in the world. She's got access to almost any lab she wants to work in. She's got grants up the hoo ha and she can pretty much invent anything. She's outfitting my car's trunk right now with what amounts to a tesseract." Lincoln said.

"Ooohhh…" Lincoln's friends all gasped.
"A what?" Jordan asked.
"A tesseract, Girl Jordan! A space that's larger inside than outside! It uses space expansion technology to create an extradimensional space within an object." Clyde said.

"That's ridiculous. Not to mention impossible." Jordan scoffed. Normally she wouldn't scoff at Lisa's technological claims, especially since she'd availed herself of much of Lisa's prowess over the summer.

"Well, tell that to her time machine." Lincoln chuckled.

"What? She made a real time machine? Or just like a model of the TARDIS from Doctor Who?" Rusty asked. He couldn't deny feeling a bit skeptical of a supposedly real time machine.

"No, she made a real time machine. But listen, you guys can't tell anyone. Seriously. She hasn't used the time machine in over four years and for good reason. It almost always creates some sort of time paradox. Not good. Time isn't meant to be messed with." Lincoln said.

His friends all promised they'd keep their knowledge of the time machine to themselves.

"So, Stella and Jordan… You're going all the way to New York, right?" Clyde asked.
"Actually, I'm going to Massachusetts. It's the city of Cambridge where MIT is." Stella said.

"But I'll only be about 3 and a half hours away from where Jordan is going. You're going to the Culinary, right Clyde?" Stella asked.

"Yeah. I'm excited and kinda nervous." Clyde said. He was getting sweaty already just thinking about being so far away from home.

"Don't be, Clyde. You'll be amongst people just like you. And you're already one of the best cooks any of us know." Lincoln said.

"And won't Chloe be there as well? Isn't she taking baking while you take Cooking and then you'll each do the other?" Rusty asked.
"Yeah. We'll both be going for eight years to get degrees in both cooking and baking." Clyde said. It was a long college career. But Clyde had gotten scholarships to do both because of his phenomenal cooking skills already. The college said that they'd never tasted cookies as good as Clyde's. Not from someone who hadn't even gone to baking school yet anyway.

"I have to get going. Mom and Dad are calling me down. Grandma wants to take some pictures with me before I leave." Stella said.
"Oh, and Grandma wants me to thank you for rescuing that bracelet. She said that not many people would be brave enough to rush into gunfire just for a piece of metal and stone." Stella said.

"She said that the bracelet had been given to her by her mother, and to her mother by her mother and so on for over seven generations." Stella said.

"Tell her she doesn't need to thank me. I know how important that bracelet is to you. And to her." Lincoln said. Stella's grandmother told a slightly rambling story about the bracelet and how her great-great-great grandmother had it crafted by hand. Whether the story was true or not was debatable. It sounded more like a legend. But the bracelet was important in the family, needless to say. Stella said goodbye to everyone and hung up.

"What about you, Jordan? Looking forward to being in a new state?" Lincoln asked.

"A little nervous. I hear Poughkeepsie is a pretty nice area. Historic. Hyde Park has the Roosevelt Estate in it and there are other famous estates around the area as well. So I won't be missing out on any culture. But I really will miss Royal Woods. The town isn't what it used to be. But it's still my home." Jordan said.

"That it is. I'll miss it too. But you and I and Chloe will be really close to each other." Clyde said.

"We can hang out and I hear there are some good karaoke places around that we can sing at." Clyde said.

"That would be fun. If we were allowed to go into bars. We're only 18, Clyde." Jordan chuckled. Clyde sighed.
"Oh yeah. Right. Well, maybe when we're old enough."
"Or if we get fake IDs." Jordan joked. Clyde laughed nervously.

"I-I don't think so. You can if you want to. But I'm not ready to go to bars." Clyde said.

"What about you guys? Are you ready for college?" Lincoln asked the rest of the group.

"Totally, dawg. I can't wait to start college life!" Rusty said excitedly.

"I'm pretty nervous. I'll be so far from home." Chloe said.
"Ah'm not goin' ta college. Ah've got all Ah need here." Liam said. Sometimes Liam wondered if he might enjoy branching out and doing more with his life than just being a farmer.

But his Meemaw needed him on the farm. Maybe in a few years if Meemaw was able to get more help on the farm, he could go to college. But Liam had never been that great a student anyway. Never a bad student. He just wasn't really the academic type. He had been a good pitcher when he played on Lynn's baseball team. But school wasn't his strong suit.

"I'm a bit nervous. But I'm hoping to investigate supernatural and paranormal phenomena where I'm going to college." Zach said.

"Sounds like fun." Lincoln said. He and the gang talked for a little while longer before one by one, they had to hang up and get going. Lincoln sighed, looking around his room, making sure that he had everything he needed. He sighed. He had only lived in this house for about two years. But he liked his new home and he was going to miss it when he was away. He looked around the house, talking to each of his sisters for a little while. He wished Lucy luck in her writing and her witchcraft career.

He said that he was sure that she would one day live in Salem and be the role model for witches all around the world. He knew that he wasn't saying goodbye forever. But it felt like forever at the moment.

"Do you really have to leave today? Would it hurt you to delay leaving by another day or two? Classes don't start until Monday. Why don't you leave on Sunday?" Lily asked. Lincoln sighed. In a way, he would love to put off leaving for a few days. Spend a little more time with his family.

"If I do that, I'm not sure I'll be able to leave." Lincoln said, hugging Lily tightly.

"I promise I'll be home for summers and holidays." Lincoln said gently, rubbing her head lovingly. Lily leaned into his embrace. She was only seven and wasn't ready for her big brother to go away. She'd had a similar problem when Luna moved out and when Luan went to college. With Leni it wasn't such a problem because she was still pretty young. Leni didn't go to college either. She went right into the working world, starting various fashion lines. She'd even been at the forefront of a few fashion trends in her time.

"I promise, I'm not leaving you forever. But I need to go to college, start the next step of my life." Lincoln said. Lola and Lana ran up to him, hugging him as well.

"Linky! We're gonna miss you!" Lana protested.

"I'll miss you two too." Lincoln said, spending some time, just chatting with them. Luan, Luna and Sam had come over to spend some time with him so they could say goodbye as well.

The whole family was there. Bobby and Lori were there. Bobby was still scarred, but had been released from the hospital almost a week ago. He was filling out his paperwork to get early pension from the police based on the severe injuries he'd received on the job. The police force was being pretty good about it. But Bobby still regretted on one hand that he was quitting. He was on the other hand glad that he would be getting a safer job.

Soon, the rest of the sisters all gathered in and they were having a sibling meeting up in Lori's room. It felt like old times. They gave the floor to Lincoln. Lincoln stepped up.
"Hey, girls. It's gonna be lonely not having you around. But I promise I'll come back every holiday that I can. I'll get to tell you guys what Illinois is like. I'll get to go to Chicago. Which, assuming I don't get mugged and left for dead, should be a lot of fun." Lincoln chuckled.
"Hey, if anyone lays a hand on you, they'll have me to deal with!" Lynn said intensely.

The other sisters agreed with Lynn on that. Everyone knew that if you messed with one Loud, you messed with them all. They all had their own way of dealing with people. But it was rarely pleasant. The rest of the sisters took their turns talking about what they would miss about Lincoln. Soon, Lisa came up and announced that the trunk was properly outfitted.

"Crowd in for a picture, Lise." Luna said.

She had Rita and Lynn come up and then Sam took a picture of the whole family. Lisa developed the photograph in fifteen minutes and gave it to Lincoln with an inexpensive frame.

"Okay. I guess that means that it's time for me to go. I'll really miss you all." Lincoln said, going down and packing up the trunk, getting everything loaded in comfortably. That took about half an hour.

He then got into the car himself and turned it on, taking one last look at the family house before driving away, telling the car to put in the coordinates of Northwestern University. It was a bittersweet moment for him. He was branching out into the world. Already, he was a successful comic author and artist. But he wanted to get some official training in at college. He wasn't sure if it would really help. But maybe he would learn some things he didn't already know.

If he did, that was always good. He said one last goodbye to his family and drove off to the next stage of his life.

To Be Continued