Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
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Chapter eighteen: New Management
It was a calm enough morning one day in Royal Woods, Michigan. Over at the Loud family residence, Lincoln Loud, the only male child out of eleven total children, was laying on his bed in his bedroom, which is actually a (formerly boarded-up) linin closet, looking up at the ceiling as he allowed his mind to wander. A while ago, he had been labeled and decried as bad luck, and as a result was treated by the Louds so badly that he ended up running away. About two months or so after that, Lincoln returned home when he was discovered by his ex-sister Lori, and after that he began the slow, bumpy, and somewhat awkward road of reconciling with the Louds.
The sole Loud boy has made considerable progress in that regard, and in one or two cases, those who returned to Lincoln's good graces became better people as a whole for the experience. Yes, it's starting to look like the whole bad luck incident from a while ago is making the Louds closer than they have been in the past, ironically enough.
Getting up, Lincoln left his room, figuring that he should head down to the kitchen for a snack since he was hungry. As he walked, he stopped when he saw two of the Loud girls, Luan and Luna, leave the bedroom that they shared with each other. They were about to head down the stairs to the first floor of the Loud family residence, but stopped short upon bumping into their little brother.
"Oh, what's shaking, Lincoln?" Luna asked.
"I was going to head to the kitchen to grab a snack or something," Lincoln replied.
"Cool, cool," Luna remarked in a conversational manner, "Hey, you wanna help me with setting up some gear in the garage for when Sam and my other friends come over later to rock out?"
"No, he can't do that," Luan replied to her older sister, "Because I need him to help me bring some of my Funny Business gear to and from a Birthday party that I was hired to perform at!
As the two teenage girls began to go back and forth, Lincoln was partly reminded of the reason why the bad luck incident from a while ago got so out of hand; the sole Loud boy wanted some time to himself because at that point, he was exhausted from having to go to all sorts of events that the Loud girls were having. There was even one point, prior to having to go to that grave-digging competition that Lucy had, where three of the Loud girls, those being Lana, Lisa and Luna, argued with each other because all three of them wanted Lincoln to come to a thing they were having at the time.
To decide which of those events he would decide to go to, Lincoln used a six-sided die, assigned numbers one and two to Lisa, numbers three and four to Lana, and numbers five and six to Luna, then told the girls that the one among them that he would support would depend on the result of him rolling the die once. Lincoln ended up rolling a two, which meant he ended up helping Lisa set up some stuff over at the local university for a lecture she was going to give. Given what the other two girls had in mind, Lincoln silently felt relieved that he ended up helping Lisa, due to the lack of extreme volumes and dirtiness.
…Of course, that was in the past; now it's the present, where a fair portion of the Louds were still trying to reconcile with Lincoln. To the white-haired boy, his choice in this situation was rather clear. "…Sorry, Luna," Lincoln remarked to his musically inclined ex-sister, "But I'm going to have to go with Luan on this one."
"Yes!" Luan cheered as she pumped both fists into the air. Luna, for her part, seemed a bit sad that she had lost to her comedic younger sister, but understood why and respectfully decided to step to the side.
"…I understand, bro," Luna remarked to Lincoln, a small but noticeable hint of sadness and regret in both her expression and tone, "Maybe next time, huh?"
"Maybe," Lincoln replied, his tone more or less dry, before he turned to go head down the stairs to go get himself a snack.
The following school day over at RWES, after classes had ended for the day, Lincoln was leading his younger sisters who attended the elementary school with him home, as Lori couldn't pick them up given she needed to use Vanzilla to help her varsity golf team friends with something. Lincoln understood that it was an out-of-nowhere thing that Lori could not have counted on happening, and the need was rather urgent, so Lincoln wasn't going to hold it against the oldest Loud girl.
…The same could not be said of the youngest of the Loud girls who were old enough to attend school, however.
"I cannot believe that our older sister expects us to just walk home," Lisa remarked, her usual dry monotone carrying a hint of annoyance, "She does realize that it's a considerable distance to walk for children of our ages? Especially myself?"
"…I walked all the way from Royal Woods to the city that the Santiagos were considering moving to until Mrs. Santiago changed her mind," Lincoln said to the little genius, his tone acquiring a hint of bitterness, "Keep in mind that the city in question is located in a completely different state."
"…Yes, well, erm," Lisa said, starting to find that she was having trouble with coming up with a response, "Well Lincoln, you are the oldest out of all of here, and your legs are-"
"Lisa," Lincoln interrupted, his voice getting cool. The white-haired boy stopped, prompting all of the young Loud girls to stop as well and regard him. All of the younger Loud girls looked to their older brother, but Lincoln's line of sight was fixed squarely on his brainy younger ex-sister. Using a tone that would be hearing no argument from Lisa, Lincoln said, "Not now."
Lisa, to her credit, knew that she was effectively being asked to keep quiet. While giving an understanding nod, Lisa mumbled in a humbled and mildly sad tone that was just loud enough for Lincoln to hear her, "Yes, Lincoln. My apologies." The other three girls, who unlike Lisa had the benefit of having already been forgiven by their older brother, were surprised to see that Lisa was not only pretty much told to shut up, but that she obeyed the command immediately and without complaint. Lucy, Lola and Lana could tell full well that their brainy younger sister has, in a very rare instance, been not only humbled but intimidated. To say that none of them envied Lisa would be a bit of an understatement.
"…Whatever," Lincoln replied to Lisa's apology as he turned around, "We ought to not waste anymore time by just standing around here." The white-haired boy proceeded to continue his walk, with the younger Loud girls all following behind him, although Lisa was a just a bit slower to respond that her older sibling units.
The atmosphere among the younger Loud girls, especially from Lisa, was considerably heavy, and it wasn't until about two minutes or so did any of the younger Loud girls dare to speak up. It was Lola. "…Umm, Lincoln?" Lola began in an unsure tone that had hints of being afraid, "I, umm, got some homework that kind of has me stumped. Could you, umm, help me with it when we get home?"
Lincoln could tell from Lola's tone that his telling Lisa to zip it had worked a little too well, given that his pageant-winning younger sister sounded scared. Lincoln stopped and turned around again, prompting the younger Loud girls to stop as well. It was there that Lincoln saw that not only did Lisa looked worried, but so did Lola, as well as Lana and Lucy. Seeing this, Lincoln sighed in a resigned tone.
"Sorry, Lola," Lincoln said in an apologetic tone.
Slumping slightly, Lola replied, "It's okay, Lincoln. I guess you're going to be busy with your own ho-"
"That's not what I meant," Lincoln interrupted gently, cutting Lola off and getting her plus the other younger Loud girls to look up at him. "I didn't mean to frighten you. Or Lana or Lucy for that matter. Heck, I even really didn't want to frighten Lisa. I was just not in the mood to hear her complaining is all." To the younger Loud girls as a whole, Lincoln said, "I'm so-"
"AHHHHH!" a random male voice cried out in a mix of alarm and fright, cutting Lincoln off and making him look around for the source of the noise. After hearing the same voice cry out once again, Lincoln could tell that the owner of the voice had to be around his age. Lincoln could also tell what direction the crying came from, so he turned to face the appropriate direction.
"…Stick close," Lincoln said to the younger Loud girls as he proceeded to head in the direction that the cries came from. Lola, Lana, Lisa and Lucy, although they were all confused, followed their older brother to where he was going nonetheless, as they themselves had heard the panicked cries and were curious as to what was going on.
Lincoln and the younger Loud girls that were old enough to go to RWES eventually made their way to a nearby park, and once there, they all saw the source of the cries; a boy who looked to be roughly Lincoln's age was being chased around by a clearly angry older boy who looked to be old enough to be a student of Royal Woods Middle School. What made this even more shocking was that Lincoln recognized both boys; it was Chandler and Francisco.
"Get back here!" Francisco snarled angrily as he tried to catch Chandler, only for the younger boy to be just a few steps ahead. Although the conceited boy had a noticeable lead, Lincoln could tell from where he and the younger Loud sisters stood that Chandler will not have that lead for long. The white-haired boy still didn't care for Chandler too much, and would normally leave him to deal with his bully. …But Chandler's bully was Francisco, the boy who tried to cheat against Lincoln in the Kendo tournament from a while ago, the boy who tried to confront him rather forcefully about it at the Royal Woods Mall claiming that someone must have switched his shinai out on him while he wasn't looking.
The boy who broke Lincoln's older sister Lynn's heart.
"Hey, it's one of the three boys who tried to pick on that boy that Lisa's friends with!" Lana said in an accusing tone as she pointed to Chandler.
"But he and his friends tried to stop a mean older boy from picking on me," Lola pointed out, "And after the mean older boy was taken to the principal's office, that boy with the reddish-brown hair even helped me up!"
"And is that really that oafish slime ball Francisco who's chasing him?" Lisa asked rhetorically in an accusing tone as she pointed to Francisco.
"What should we do?" Lucy asked, just the barest hint of concern seeping into her otherwise emotionless monotone.
After looking at what was going on, Lincoln remarked, "Looks like it's a one-on-one kind of deal right now." Turning around, Lincoln said to Lana, "Hey Lana, you can take on three fifth graders on your own and still win, right?" After his tomboyish younger sister nodded in the affirmative, Lincoln said, "Good. With that being the case, would you mind backing me up on this one?" The tomboyish Loud sister gave her older brother a mildly confused look, not at all sure what he was implying.
…
Chandler could not believe his luck; he was heading home after a day at school, and he randomly bumped into Francisco, his current rival. The older boy was clearly upset (Chandler had a pretty good idea as to why), and was chasing Chandler with the intent of giving him a good thrashing. To make matters worse for Chandler, he was alone on this one; none of his goon-friends were around, which deprived Chandler of his primary advantage in physical confrontations, which was his side outnumbering his opponents. Although in recent events, Chandler's reliance on superior numbers to see him through a fight didn't help at all, what with his first encounter with that Chris bully, not to mention that one six-year-old girl who-
"HIYAA!" a young female voice shouted in a battle cry, interrupting Chandler's thoughts as he also heard Francisco cry out in surprise. Turning around, Chandler saw that the same six-year-old girl who had beaten him and two of his goon-friends up a while ago had just jumped at Francisco, and was now in the process of beating on him. Before the conceited boy could gather his thoughts properly, he saw to his surprise that Larry (Lincoln) had shown up just as Francisco got back up. The white-haired boy successfully grabbed Francisco in a full nelson, and as the two boys struggled, the six-year-old girl proceeded to kick Francisco in the shins.
"Larry?!" Chandler said, surprised at who had come to his rescue, "What are you and that little girl doing?"
"What does it *UHNN* look like we're doing?" Lincoln replied as he grunted while struggling to keep a hold on Francisco, "My little sister Lana and I are trying *UHHN* to bail your sorry butt out of trouble here!"
"That girl is your little sister?!" Chandler nearly exclaimed, clearly surprised that the little girl who whumped him eight ways to Sunday was related to the white-haired boy. …But then again, after intimidating Biff Bizowski into submission and going toe-to-toe with that Chris jerk, Chandler thought that it sort-of made sense that the little girl was related to Larry; she must have gotten her ability to throw down with formidable opposition from her older brother. Chandler made a mental note to never cross Larry, or any of his other relatives. In fact, the conceited boy figured that it may be in his best interest to get on Larry's good side.
…
Francisco managed to get himself out of Lincoln's full nelson, but he didn't stick around for much longer after that. Considering it was three-on-one (even though he was older than all of the kids he was facing), Francisco wisely decided to get out of there, not wanting to take any risks. The older boy considered himself lucky that little girl never considered trying to score a critical hit on his hidden treasure.
After seeing Francisco run off out of sight, Lincoln turned to face Chandler, which prompted Lana to turn and look up at the boy as well. "…Care to explain what all of that was about?" Lincoln asked as he gave Chandler a look that was partly firm but overall just curious.
"Oh, Francisco's just really steamed that it was my dad, and not his, who scored a big promotion at work," Chandler explained, "It's something between my family and his."
"Uhh huh," Lincoln replied dryly as he considered what Chandler had said; the white-haired boy had some vague idea about the rivalry between Chandler and Francisco, and that said rivalry had something to do with their respective dads competing with each other for a very favorable promotion at the sewage treatment plant where they both worked. According to Chandler, his dad was the one who ended up getting that promotion, screwing Francisco and his family over in the process.
"…Congratulations on your dad getting promoted," Lincoln remarked in a neutral tone.
"Heh, thanks Larry," Chandler replied, "And thanks also for bailing me out of trouble." With a mildly curious look, Chandler said, "You know, I'm actually a little bit surprised that you even bothered with bailing me out of that jam with Francisco."
With a gentle shake of his head, Lincoln said, "At this point, I'm pretty much indifferent towards you. I had a lot of other stuff more important than dealing with you to worry about." After giving a sigh, Lincoln jerked a thumb in the direction Francisco fled in and continued, "But that guy, I just don't like him at all. I'm really steamed at him."
The curiosity in his expression growing a bit, Chandler asked, "What did he do to you to get your jammies in a bunch? Did he pick on one of your younger sisters or something?"
"Francisco cheated against me when we faced each other in a Kendo tournament over at the community center," Lincoln began to explain, "Then when he found me at the mall later, he tried to tell me that someone must have switched his gear out on him while he wasn't looking." With a hint of seriousness seeping into his tone, Lincoln added, "He also broke the heart of one of my older sisters."
"Yeesh," Chandler remarked, visibly taken aback by what Lincoln was telling him; granted, Chandler knew about the Kendo tournament thing for a while now, but he didn't know that Francisco tried to shake Lincoln down about it later. And the conceited boy had no idea that Francisco actually broke a girl's heart; the conceited boy had, up to this point, only seen Francisco as a rival, an obstacle to overcome so that his family would have a more favorable position. But after hearing about the older boy breaking a girl's heart…Chandler, for the first time in a long time, found himself to be honestly, sincerely disgusted with what he was hearing. If Chandler himself was ever lucky enough to get a girlfriend (the conceited boy would prefer Astrid Ace), then he would treat that girl as she deserved; nothing less than royalty.
"…Chandler," Lincoln said, getting the conceited boy's attention.
"What's up?" Chandler replied.
"We ought to let some adults know what happened," Lincoln began to explain, "Because unless someone responsible helps us with defusing the situation here, chances are that Francisco will only try his hand at giving you a beating again. He may even try to extend that same courtesy to myself…" With a troubled sigh, Lincoln added, "…Or any of my sisters."
"…Follow me," Chandler replied.
A short while later, Lincoln, as well as the younger Loud girls old enough to attend RWES, followed Chandler to his place. Once there, they were led inside by Chandler, and all of the kids were greeted by an adult woman who Chandler introduced to the Loud kids as his mother. "Chandler, sweetie, who are these kids?" Chandler's mother asked, "None of them look like any of your usual friends."
"Mom, this is Larry and his younger sisters who go to Royal Woods Elementary," Chandler said as he made the introductions.
"Hang on," Chandler's mother replied, "I thought that one high school girl from a while ago said that this boy's name was Lincoln."
"I'm addressing him by a nickname," Chandler explained, "Anywho, you remember that guy that dad was competing with at work for that big promotion? Well, the guy's son tried to beat me up earlier, but Larry and his sister with the red hat saved me and even managed to scare the older boy off."
"And older kid tried to assault you?!" Chandler's mother nearly exclaimed, clearly alarmed that her son/only child was almost the victim of a physical assault.
"Yeah," Chandler replied, his expression clearly conveying worry, "Like I said, it was the son of the guy that competed with dad at work for that promotion."
"I'll take it from here, sweetie," Chandler's mother said, "In the meanwhile, you, your little friend here and his sisters try to stay out of trouble." Chandler's mother went to the home phone that was on a table nearby to make a few calls. As his mother did that, Chandler turned around to face Lincoln and his sisters.
"You guys…want some snacks?" Chandler said in a mildly unsure tone that clearly indicated that Chandler was confused about what to do next, "I think there's still a good twelve-pack of cola cans in the kitchen."
"…Sure, why not?" Lincoln replied, "And while we're doing that, I can call my family and let them know what happened." With a gentle shake of his head, Lincoln continued, "I hope that this won't interfere with my older sister's varsity golf team meeting. She's got the family's van right now since she had to help with picking everyone up."
"Your sister who had her heart broken by Francisco?" Chandler asked, a curious look on his face.
"No, that's Lynn," Lincoln clarified, "It's Lori who's got the van."
"…Lori, you say," Chandler replied, feeling as if the name of the older Loud sibling sounded familiar to him for some reason, although he couldn't figure out why.
The police came by a short while later to interview Lincoln, Lana and Chandler; all three of them said the same thing, that Francisco was trying to chase and beat Chandler. Lana even mentioned that Francisco kicked at her, causing the edge of the bottom part of his shoe to scrape against her right forearm, drawing a mild amount of blood. One of the officers that came by took a look at the cut on Lana's arm to confirm the story.
After the police were done with the Louds and Chandler, they went about tracking down Francisco. The older boy claimed that he was attacked by the other kids, but the police were not all that inclined to believe him, especially considering the fact that one of the kids he claimed had attacked him was a six-year-old girl who he had hurt. Evidence was gathered, including using a cotton swab on Francisco's shoes along the bottom, and after the evidence confirmed the presence of blood (barely just there, mind you), the police carried out the next logical step; they proceeded to arrest Francisco.
When Lincoln and the younger Loud girls were finally able to get home, they proceeded to explain what had happened to the others; with the exception of Lynn Sr., who was at work at the time, everyone was home, even Lori who had just arrived home prior to the arrival of the elementary school-age Loud kids. To say that everyone was surprised by what had happened would be an understatement.
"Francisco was arrested?!" Lynn exclaimed, clearly shocked to hear this bit of info.
Nodding once in the affirmative, Lincoln said, "Yeah, although I'm not sure how much of a sentence he'll get."
"Well given that one of Francisco's crimes was kicking Lana with the edge of his shoe hard enough to draw blood, I theorize that the oafish slime ball will be in quite a bit of trouble," Lisa stated. Lana even showed her right forearm, which now had a fairly large bandage on it. Thankfully Lana's injury wasn't severe enough to warrant a trip to Royal Woods General.
"…That bastard is lucky the police are between him and me," Lynn swore in a clearly vengeful tone, "Because otherwise, I'd have-"
"You literally need to relax, Lynn," Lori said, "The police are taking care of things here. There is no need to worry."
"…I still don't like the fact that he hurt one of our siblings," Lynn spat dryly, her anger clearly fuming.
"And that is what makes you a good sister," Lincoln remarked to Lynn, getting her attention and the attention of everyone else. "You're looking out for the well-being of not just Lana, but all of us," Lincoln began to clarify to the sporty Loud sibling, then added while giving Lynn a pat on her right shoulder, "Thanks for that, Lynn."
Lynn smiled, touched that her younger brother, who she had once decried as bad luck compelling him to run away as a result, was actually thanking her, saying that she was a good older sibling.
"…No problem, Lincoln," Lynn replied.
Sometime the following afternoon, Lincoln could be seen walking to some random destination. The white-haired boy was accompanied by Ronnie Anne, whose expression was a healthy and even mix of suspicious and confused. "…Tell me again why the two of us are heading over to Chandler's place, Lame-o?" the Hispanic girl said to her white-haired companion.
"He invited me to a party…" Lincoln said as he began to explain.
(FLASHBACK)
Earlier that day, Lincoln was leaving RWES since classes were done for the day. As he was trying to leave, Lincoln heard a voice call out, "Hey, Larry!" Turning around, Lincoln saw Chandler come dashing up, accompanied by his two goon-friends. "I'm having a party at my place later tonight," Chandler said, "To celebrate my dad scoring that sick promotion at work. You wanna come?"
"You're actually inviting me to a party?" Lincoln replied, more curious and surprised than anything else.
"Well Chandler did say that you saved him from a serious beating, and that you also helped to get that Francisco jerk arrested," the first goon-friend remarked. Lincoln could tell that there was a small but noticeable hint of fear in the first goon-friend's tone, as if he were addressing someone that he was frightened of.
"You can even bring a plus one if you want," Chandler remarked, "With what I got planned, I'm pretty sure any of the four guys you hang out with would love coming by."
"A lot of the fifth-graders here are coming by," the second goon-friend stated.
Lincoln looked at Chandler and his goon-friends for a few seconds as he considered the proposition. After a while, Lincoln said, "I'll have to look into who's available to some with me, but sure. Just name a time and I'll try to swing by."
"Sweet," Chandler replied as he offered Lincoln a high-five, "Hope to see you there, Larry."
As he regarded the conceited boy, Lincoln had a look of amusement on his face as he accepted the high-five. "…Hope I'll be able to make it myself, Charlie."
Chandler, realizing what Lincoln was getting at, could not help but let out a laugh. "Hoo boy, that was a good one," Chandler remarked. Turning around, Chandler left with his goon friends as he said, "Catch you later!"
(FLASHBACK OVER)
"…I'm still a little wary of Chandler, so that's why I'm bringing you as my plus one," Lincoln said to Ronnie Anne, "He's probably expecting either Clyde, Rusty, Liam or Zach. I'd like to see what kind of a loop he'll be thrown for when he sees that I brought you."
"Yeah, I can see that," Ronnie Anne replied, "No way is Chandler expecting to see me at his party as your plus-one, Lame-o." The two fifth graders continued their walk to the party, although just a minute before they reached their destination, Ronnie Anne turned to face Lincoln so she could ask him something. "Did you really refer to Chandler as Charlie?" the Hispanic girl asked her white-haired companion.
END, RESTORED IMAGE CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Author's notes:
Well, there's chapter eighteen for you. Anywho, the next chapter will see me adapt the ninth one-shot from that collection I keep bringing up to this story's setting, although I'll have to add and take out a few parts when making the adaption, considering that in the original, Lincoln's presence is very minimal. The parts that adapt the ninth one-shot will also go over something that I see pop up quite a bit in stories that partly go over the episode 'Sleuth or Consequences'. As for the other part of the next chapter, it will be a new plot that revolves around, out of all people, Lisa.
As a side note, I'm working on two other Loud House stories right now.
