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 twenty: Buddy Assist
Lincoln Loud was walking through a residential area in his hometown of Royal Woods, Michigan one day. On this particular occasion, Lincoln was accompanied by his younger sisters Lola and Lana, the six-year-old twins of the Loud family. In addition to Lola and Lana, the group also had Skippy, a boy in RWES's first-grade year, same as the twins. Skippy also just so happens to be the boy that Lana has a crush on; as far as Lincoln could tell, the feeling might be mutual.
"Why are we heading over to Winston's place again?" Lana asked, sounding as if she was not going to enjoy heading to the group's destination, which was the residence of Winston, another six-year-old who was in RWES's first-grade year. And similar to how Lana has a crush on Skippy, Lola has a crush on Winston.
"Winston said that he found something really cool yesterday in his family's backyard while he and his older sister Samantha were helping to dig some holes in the ground in preparation for constructing a patio of some kind," Skippy explained, "Winston is a close personal friend of mine, so naturally he invited me over so he can show me what he found."
"Winston also invited me over to show me what he found because he's a proper gentleman who knows how to treat ladies such as myself," Lola added as she addressed her older twin sister, "You're coming along because mom thought that it would be nice since both Skippy and I are going, and Lincoln here was kind enough to see us all over."
"Well mom wanted to make sure that you two and Skippy all got to Winston's place safely," Lincoln remarked. After the group turned around a corner, the house where Winston and his family lived came into view. After a brisk walk over, Lincoln and the first graders made it to their destination.
"Allow me," Lola said as the group reached the front door. Reaching up, the pageant winning Loud sibling rang the doorbell, and after the group waited for a few seconds, the door was answered by Winston. He wasn't wearing his usual jacket, but he was wearing the light blue vest, which was worn over a long-sleeved white shirt. Other than that, Winston's attire looked like it usually does.
"Ah, I was wondering when you all would come!" Winston greeted in a friendly tone, "Please, come in!" After Lincoln and the others made their way in, Winston remarked to Lincoln and Lana, "Truthfully, I was only expecting Lola and Skippy to come over, but having you two as well is a welcomed surprise."
"Me and my sisters' mom wanted me to make sure my sisters got over here safely, and she also thought that it'd be nice if Lana came since both Lola and Skippy were coming," Lincoln said.
Nodding in an understanding manner, Winston replied, "That's very reasonable." Clapping his hands together, Winston continued, "Now then, since everyone's here, I suppose that now would be a good time to-"
"Hey, Winston," an older female voice called out, cutting Winston off in the process and making him and everyone else turn to see a teenage girl standing there. She had fair skin and blonde hair like Winston, but the girl's blonde hair had a streak of blue in it. Also, the girl wore a towel around her body, and her hair was damp, indicating that she had just gotten out of the shower. "Your shampoo and conditioner are both empty," the older girl began, a mild hint of annoyance in her tone, "What the heck?"
"Well of course they're both empty, Samantha," Winston replied, "I used the last of both in my shower earlier! You really ought to get your own shampoo and conditioner!"
"Wait a minute," Lincoln said as he got a look at Winston's older sister, "…Sam?! Is that you?!"
Looking at the guests that Winston had, the older girl cracked a smile. "Hey, little bro!" The older girl, revealed to be Sam, said in a pleasantly surprised tone, "You never told me that you were having some of Luna's siblings over!"
"Wait a minute, hold up," Lincoln said, getting everyone to look at him. Turning to face Lola, Lincoln said, "How come you never brought up the fact that Winston's sister Samantha was Luna's girlfriend Sam?"
"To be honest, I never knew that either until just now," Lola replied honestly as she gave a dumbfounded shrug, "Winston always referred to his older sister as Samantha, so I just assumed that was her actual name."
"It is her actual name, but she prefers to go by her nickname," Winston explained, "And speaking of my older sister." Turning around, Winston said to Sam, "Aren't you going to get dressed? I'm pretty sure mom wouldn't like hearing about how you were walking around wearing only a towel while I had friends over."
"Winston, little dude, you need to take a chill," Sam remarked in a relaxed and laid-back manner, "I'm pretty sure that-" Sam was cut off when a phone home that was on a nearby hallway table went off. Turning around, Sam walked over to the phone to answer it while her back was turned to the younger kids. "Hello, you just reached Sam, the most rocking girl in Royal Woods," Sam said as she spoke into the phone, "To who am I speaking…Luna, dude! What's up?!" Lincoln and the first-graders watched as Sam talked on the phone to Luna, who by chance had called while they were all over.
"…Nothing much," Sam said into the phone, "Hey, some of your siblings are over here. My guess is that Winston wanted to show off that fancy sparkly rock that he found while we were helping digging some holes in the yard in preparation for the new patio that our family is going to build. …Yeah, my mom wants to build a new patio for some odd reason. So anywho, to what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your lovely voice? …*GASP* Are you kidding me?! No way, dude! That is SICK!" Lincoln had no idea what Sam and his sister were talking about, but judging by the excited tone Sam was using, it had to be something that both girls really liked.
"Well anywho, I ought to let you go," Sam said, "I just got out of the shower, and I need to get dressed. Okay, see you later, Luna." After hanging up the phone, Sam turned around to face the younger kids. "Dudes, Luna just scored two tickets to the upcoming rock concert at the Royal Woods concert hall this Saturday!" Sam said as she shot the younger kids a thumbs-up with her free hand (the other hand was busy keeping the towel up), "This weekend is totally going to be off the chain!"
"Yes, yes," Winston replied, "You and your girlfriend are going to have a very nice time at the concert this Saturday. Now will you please go get dressed? The last thing that we need is for you to walk around while wearing only a towel while there are five younger children present, three of which are boys!"
"Pfft, you're a spoil sport, lil' bro," Sam remarked in a mildly annoyed tone before turning around and heading off to her bedroom. After the older girl had gone to her room, Winston turned to face his guests.
"I am so sorry that you all had to see my older sister act like the decadent philistine that she is," Winston said in an apologetic tone.
"Your older sister isn't the only one who acts like that," Lola replied to her crush in a knowing deadpan tone.
A short while later, Lincoln, the twins and Skippy were sitting in the living room while waiting for Winston to get back. Their patience paid off, because Winston came into the living room, his hand clasped around something. "Well then, everyone, here it is," Winston said as he showed the guests what he had found; it was a bright red, sparkly rock that seemed like it was a gemstone. "This is what I found yesterday," Winston said as he showed off his discovery.
"Winston, it's pretty!" Lola remarked, her eyes fixed on her crush's discovery.
"It looks like a hunk of cherry-flavored candy," Lana said, as if she were imagining that Winston's discovery was actually candy.
"I'm more of a strawberry candy kind of guy myself, but the color's roughly the same," Skippy commented, silently wishing that he had some candy. As the first-graders stared at the sparkly rock, Lincoln's eyes widened as he looked at it himself, realizing what the rock might actually be. "…Hey Winston," Lincoln began, "Can I see that rock really quick?"
"Sure thing," Winston replied as he walked over and handed his discovery over to Lincoln. The white-haired boy gave the rock a quick look over, tilting it slightly so he could examine it from every side. After a few seconds, Lincoln handed the rock back over to Winston. "So, what do you think?" Winston asked the older boy.
"I think that you found a ruby," Lincoln replied.
"A RUBY?!" all four of the first graders exclaimed in unison.
Nodding in the affirmative, Lincoln explained, "I'm pretty sure it's a ruby, although just to be on the safe side, we should get Lisa to take a look at it. She's good at examining things, so we can count on her to give us a more accurate judgment."
"Oh, you mean your sister Lisa," Winston replied, "Umm…she's that tall, bossy one that Lola says passes gas all the time, right?"
Giggling cutely in a manner that clearly showed that she found what Winston said to be funny, Lola said, "No, no, Winston, that's Lori. Lisa is my younger sister with the brown hair and the glasses."
"Wait, I thought that was your sister Lynn," Skippy said, a confused look on his face.
"Lynn is one of our older sisters," Lana corrected, "She's the one who's into a lot of sports and tries to turn pretty much everything into a sport."
"I thought that was Leni," Winston remarked.
"No, Leni is me and Lana's older sister who's really into fashion," Lola clarified.
"I thought that was Luna," Skippy said.
"No, Luna is the one that Samantha is going out with," Winston said, "But I believe that we're getting off subject here." Looking at his possible ruby, Winston continued, "Imagine if this really did turn out to be a ruby. That would make it the find of the century."
"Well we should get Lisa to look at it with her science stuff first, just like Lincoln said," Lola advised, "Lisa's smart, so we can trust her."
After everyone agreed that they would take that course of action, Skippy said, "Okay then. Just so we're all clear on this, Lisa is one of your older sisters, right?"
Over at the Loud family residence, Lincoln, Lola, Lana, Skippy and Winston were standing around in Lisa and Lily's room, watching as Lisa examined the supposed ruby that Winston had found. "Mmm hmm," Lisa hummed to herself as she viewed the sparkly stone through one of those magnifying glasses used by people when examining precious stones and other such valuables. After a few more seconds, Lisa handed the stone back to Winston as she said, "Well I believe that congratulations are in order, Winston. You are now the proud owner of a ruby."
"Wow, isn't this great, Winston?" Lola said in an excited tone, "You have a gemstone!"
"I still can't believe I actually got this," Winston remarked in a tone that was a mix of surprised and mildly unsure, "I mean, what do I do with it?"
"I'd hold on to it if I were you," Lincoln advised, "I have no doubt that it's valuable, so you need to keep it someplace safe."
"Lincoln's got a point, Winston," Lana said. Turning to face Skippy, who was looking at the crib in the room, Lana said, "What do you think, Skippy?"
After a few seconds, Skippy turned around and said, "I'm sorry, but I didn't quite catch that." Turning back around, Skippy continued, "Your baby sister Lucy distracted me. I have to admit that she's rather adorable."
"Skippy, that's Lily," Lana clarified, "Lucy is my older sister who wears a lot of black and writes a lot of poetry."
"Hang on," Winston interrupted, "I thought that was Luan."
"No, Luan is our older sister who likes telling jokes and pulling pranks," Lola corrected.
"I thought that was Lola," Skippy remarked with a confused look on his face as he turned back around, prompting Lana to laugh hysterically.
"I'M LOLA!" Lola exclaimed, clearly annoyed with her sister's crush's idiocy.
"Lola, dear, please calm down," Winston said gently in a tone that showed he was concerned, "There's nothing to be gained from losing your temper."
As the first graders were talking to each other, Lincoln turned to face Lisa. "…I think that we ought to prepare some flash cards to help teach Winston and Skippy which one of you girls is which," Lincoln said dryly to his brainy younger sister.
"Such a set of flash cards can be useful to more than just those boys," Lisa remarked, her tone clearly indicating that she agreed with her older brother.
The following afternoon, Lincoln was in the Loud family's backyard, keeping an eye on Lana and Skippy, the later of which came over because Lana wanted to show him how she improved Lola's princess car, figuring that if she taught Skippy how she did it, then he'd be able to do the same to variations of the princess car that are aimed at boys. Lincoln thought that it was rather cute how Lana wanted her crush to be able to accomplish the same mechanical feats that she has been known to-
"LANA! SKIPPY! WE NEED YPUR HELP" Lola's voice called out, clearly fuming. Lincoln turned around, and Lana and Skippy stopped what they were doing to look over, to see Lola enter the backyard with Winston following her. The impeccably attired six-year-old boy seemed very troubled by something, and was clearly trying to put on a brave face.
"Lola, Winston, what's going on?" Lincoln asked as he, Lana and Skippy came over, "And why does Winston look so upset?"
"The ruby that I found wasn't where I left it," Winston explained, "I distinctly remember placing it in the drawer of my nightstand in my bedroom last night before I went to bed, but when I opened my nightstand drawer this morning, the ruby was gone. This is especially terrible since I finally figured out what I wanted to do with the ruby, but since it's gone, my plan is shot."
"The ruby's gone?" Skippy said, clearly looking shocked. Shaking his head in a manner to try to get his mind focused, Skippy said to Winston, "Don't worry, man, I'll help you find it!"
"Alright!" Lana said as she pumped a fist into the air, "Looks like we're on the case!"
Over at Winston's family's place, Lincoln and the first-graders went to Winston's room to begin the search for the missing ruby. Upon Winston opening the door and letting everyone in, Lincoln and the others were amazed to see a surprisingly tidy room with dark bluish paint on the walls, a bookshelf with a good number of books on it, and there were even those two masks, one happy and one sad, that are often associated with theater.
"What's with the masks?" Lana asked as she pointed to the twin masks.
"Oh, Winston says that he wants to be a therapist when he grows up," Skippy explained.
"It's pronounced 'thespian', my good man," Winston corrected.
Turning around to face Winston, Skippy asked, "Is that a fancy word for therapist?"
"No, it's a fancy word for actor," Winston replied. Walking over to the nightstand that was next to his bed, Winston pulled it open, and when everyone else walked over, they saw that the drawer only contained a few pencils, a pen, and an eraser. "There's no way that the ruby could have gotten lost in a jumble in the drawer because there isn't enough stuff in there to create a jumble," Winston remarked.
"Well don't worry, Winston," Lola said, "That's why we're all here. We're going to help you find it!" As the others also tried to raise Winston's spirits, Sam went walking past the open doorway of Winston's bedroom. Sam came back about a second later, looked into the room, and saw all of the guests.
"Whoa, little dude," Sam remarked to her little brother, "You never told me you were having a party! Where's the table with all the grub?"
"This isn't that kind of party, Samantha," Winston replied to his older sister, "I invited Skippy, Lola and two of Lola's siblings over to help me find the ruby that I found when we were helping mom with digging holes in the yard in preparation of building that patio she wanted."
"Oh, you mean that thing?" Sam asked, "Well where did you keep it?"
"In the drawer of my nightstand, but it wasn't there when I next checked it," Winston explained.
"Hmm," Sam hummed as she walked over to her little brother's nightstand, opened it, and checked things out a bit. "…Huh, well I'll be," Sam said as she pulled the drawer out of the nightstand. Showing the end of the drawer to everyone, Sam pointed out that there was a hole in the back of the drawer, a hole that looked like it was made by a small rodent. "I knew that mom should have called an exterminator," Sam remarked as she stuck her finger through the hole, "It looks like a mouse stole your ruby, little bro."
"A mouse stole Winston's ruby?" Lola said in an incredulous tone, "What would a mouse even want with a ruby?"
"The mouse must have thought that it was a piece of food or something," Skippy remarked, "I mean, it did kind of look like a piece of fruit-flavored hard candy." Walking over to his friend's nightstand, Skippy looked into where the drawer was pulled out of. Pulling the nightstand itself away from the wall, Skippy revealed that not only was there a hole in the back of the nightstand, but that there was also a hole in the wall of Winston's bedroom, about at the level of where the drawer of the nightstand would be.
"…Wow, you don't see that every day," Skippy remarked as everyone looked at the hole.
"Well this is just great," Winston said in an annoyed tone of complaint, "Now our family's mouse problem is coming back to bite us in the rear, all because mother wasn't quick enough to call an exterminator."
"Relax, Winston," Lincoln said, "All Lola, Lana and I have to do is head back to our place, tell Lisa what's going on, and bring her back here with the appropriate tech needed to get the ruby back from the mice."
"Oh, if you guys are heading back to your place, can you also grab Luna?" Sam asked, "I need some sugar from her."
"But Samantha, the sugar canister in the kitchen is full," Winston pointed out, a mildly confused look on his face.
"Not that kind of sugar," Sam replied.
Later, after Lincoln and the twins came back to Winston's place, everyone was standing around while Lisa was working on a laptop that she had set up on Winston's bed. There was some sort of antenna plugged into one of the USB ports in the laptop. "Wow," Lisa remarked aloud as she looked at a live video feed that was playing on her laptop, "It's rather amazing what the mice have been able to do within the walls of your family's abode, Winston. It's pretty much a maze in there."
"What exactly did you do, Lisa?" Skippy asked.
"I put a mouse-sized mouse robot into the hole in Winston's wall," Lisa began to explain, "I'm controlling the robot via imputing commands with my laptop, and the video feed is coming from a miniature camera in the robot."
"So, this is like looking through the eyes of a mouse?" Lana asked, then after Lisa gave a nod in the affirmative, Lana added, "Cool!"
Everyone crowded around a bit to look at the live video feed on Lisa's laptop. From the looks of it, it seemed like it was coming from a point of view where one was trying to make their way through a maze of wood, large metal nails, and pink fluffy wall insulation. "Hopefully we should be able to locate the ruby within short order," Lisa remarked, "After all, we're currently on a path that seems to have been made by the mice, so logically we AHA!" Lisa suddenly exclaimed as the live video feed showed that the ruby had been located. Upon seeing the ruby, everyone else began to cheer in victory.
"Yes, yes," Lisa said in a tone that suggested that she wanted the others to simmer down, "Now all I have to do is-" Lisa stopped short when the video feed shook a bit, as if the robot mouse whose eyes they were looking through was bumped into. Using the controls on her laptop, Lisa made the mouse turn around and see a real mouse of roughly equal size. From the looks of it, it seemed that the actual mouse wanted to fight the mouse-sized mouse robot.
"Oh dear, this doesn't look good," Lisa said, "At least I had the foresight to make my mouse robot capable of fighting back against real mice incase of any hostilities." Lisa then proceeded to input some commands, and from the video feed, everyone saw the paws of the robot mouse swipe at the real mouse. The real mouse attempted to bite at one of the robot mouse's ears, but another paw swipe made the real mouse back off. "Grrr," Lisa growled in a mildly annoyed tone, "Because of that other mouse, this is going to take-"
"Wazzup, little dudes?" Luna's voice called out, prompting Lincoln and the first graders (Lisa couldn't take her attention away from the computer) to look up and see Luna and Sam standing in the doorway of Winston's bedroom.
"Luna, now's not a good time," Lola said, "Lisa's trying to get Winston's ruby out of the wall with her robot mouse, but a real mouse is trying to fight the robot one!"
"Say what now?" Sam said as she and Luna walked around and came up to see what was on the screen of Lisa's laptop. Upon seeing the video feed and what Lisa was doing, Sam's eyes lit up. "Dudes!" Sam exclaimed, "This game looks totally sick!"
"It's not a-HEY!" Lisa began, but she exclaimed midsentence when Sam shoved her out of the way and took over. Lisa was about to try to force Sam away from the laptop, but seeing the girl with the blue hair streak going at it, then seeing from the video feed that the robot mouse, under Sam's control, was absolutely punishing the real mouse, decided to watch and observe. About twelve seconds after Sam took over, the real mouse turned around and fled.
"Hey, get back here!" Sam shouted at the computer screen, but Lisa proceeded to shove her out of the way.
"That wasn't a game," Lisa said, "What you were watching was a live video feed from a mouse robot that I put into the wall to get Winston's ruby back after a mouse stole it." Imputing some commands into her laptop, Lisa made the robot mouse turn around and show the ruby that was still inside the wall. Seeing this, Luna's eyes and Sam's eyes both widened. "Although to your credit, you were doing a far better job at fighting the real mouse off than I was," Lisa remarked, "So give yourself a pat on the back."
"Do you play online games?" Skippy asked. Pointing to Lisa's laptop, Skippy continued, "Because seriously. You were tearing it up there!"
"Oh, I used to dabble," Sam replied in a self-amused casual tone, "But after I discovered my passion for rocking out, I sort of fell out of the gaming scene. Although I had one hell of a headshot count on this one FPS title before I stopped gaming."
"I see," Lisa remarked. Turning around to face her laptop again, Lisa continued, "Well anyway, I need to use my mouse robot to grab the ruby and drag it back out of the wall."
"What, there's no more giant mice to fight?" Sam said, "Lame." Within the next few minutes, Lisa's mouse robot managed to get Winston's ruby back out of the wall. Everyone cheered in celebration as both the ruby and the robot mouse came out of the wall.
"So, Winston," Lincoln began, "Now that you got your ruby back, what are you going to do with it? You did say that you had a plan for it."
"Indeed, I do have a plan for it, Lincoln," Winston replied to the white-haired boy. Turning to face Lola, Winston handed her the ruby while saying, "Here you go, Lola. This is for you."
Gasping in surprise, Lola said, "You're giving it to me?" The pageant winning Loud sister then squealed excitedly as she jumped up and down repeatedly before throwing her arms around Winston's shoulders while thanking him repeatedly. The others in the room watched this display, their hearts touched by how sweet it was.
The following day at the Loud family's residence during breakfast, Lincoln was siting at the table with a glass of juice while the twins, Lisa and Lucy were all having breakfast. "Winston actually gave you the ruby he found?" Lucy asked, "That was rather thoughtful of him."
"What do you intend to do with it, Lola?" Lisa asked.
"Keep it someplace safe," Lola replied, "And I already have it hidden, so no one but me knows where it is. It's also in a keepsake box, so there's no chance that a mouse will be able to snatch the ruby while it's hidden."
"Well I'm glad to see that you're taking care of it," Lincoln remarked.
"Well of course I'm going to take care of it," Lola said in a matter-of-factly kind of tone, "It's the first thing that my crush ever gave me."
END, RESTORED IMAGE CHAPTER TWENTY
Author's notes:
…I don't know why, but I always had the idea that even though Lola and Lana frequently fight with each other, their respective crushes Winston and Skippy would be as thick as thieves. Also, in case anyone was wondering about why Winston and Sam are related, well I have been hinting at that over the course of the story so far. (In fact, I'm surprised that no one has guessed that those two were related, at least here.) This chapter was my attempt at a funny little distraction from the main plot, as I'm overall a humor guy at heart, but as always, how well this chapter does is up to you, the readers. Anywho, I have something in mind for the next chapter, and it's something that I'm certain that a number of readers have been wanting to see. It'll be rock'en, dudes.
One, how did you get those little triangles over the circles (I think it's pretty neat), and two, by 'making out', I meant that those two (Lori and Bobby) would have their arms around each other while they kissed each other. Nothing beyond that would take place.
