Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Loud House or other franchises you might recognize.

The jubilation from the twin's victory, that elation, that excitement, that very good feeling had carried them through the rest of the summer. Linka had had no more nightmares from that camp's end to the week before school began. Her days were spent sketching, or painting, or playing video games, or hanging out with her brother, or Clyde, or Ronnie Anne, or playing with the pets (Cliff especially), or babysitting her younger sisters, or being doted on by her older sisters, 'til all of the days were blurred together. She couldn't remember what day of the week it was, only that it was past Tuesday. On Tuesday, after 3 weeks' worth of nagging by Lincoln, she finally told the sisters and parents what she had told Lincoln that night during the camp. Wait, no. never mind. That was last week. She yawned and stretched like a cat, before opening her new cell phone, given to her courtesy of Mrs. Loud. She had tried to call her as Mom, but the word felt alien to her tongue. It felt wrong, still, to call this woman Mom.

She checked her phone, and found that it was Thursday. 4:52:43 to be exact. She slipped on her leg, hopped off of the bed and headed downstairs to find Luan and Lisa sitting, watching television.

"Hey Linka!"

"Hey Luan! What are you doing?"

"Just watching some reruns of older funny television shows."

"Really? Oh cool, what's this one?"

"Oh, its Fawlty Towers. It's about an Englishman who owns a hotel, but he always has a mental breakdown because of his ineptness."

"And it's a fascinating case study, too. I'm taking notes on the human psyche."

"Umm, shouldn't you take notes on real life? It's not like he's what people actually act like -"

Ding-Dong!

Luan turned off the television, and with a great effort got up and stood at the door.

"Who's there?"

"Is this the La'ood residence?"

"You're not al-loud to know until you tell me who you are! Get it?"

"LUAN! JUST OPEN THE DOOR!"

Luan was shocked to hear the shy pacifistic Linka yelling like that, but the way she said it was so adorable that she just had to chuckle.

"Are you feeling alright, O adopted older sister? I usually don't have time for emotions, but you seem to be uncharacteristically aggressive." Lisa was very calm and precise as always, but one needn't have looked too deeply in her face to find there the worrying emotion.

"I think I know that voice. Just open the door, Luan!"

Luan obliged.

The noise generated by the three sisters had at that point attracted the other siblings and Mrs. Loud (Mr. Loud working the dinner rush that night) to the living room, and all held their breath in anticipation as the door opened to reveal a man and women, arms linked, standing there.

The man was a tall white man with a thin black moustache and goatee, whereas the woman was shorter fair woman with black hair and large glasses.

"So, this is the Loud house, right?"

"Yes. I'm Rita Loud. What can I do for you?"

"Is Linka living here?"

"Yes." Linka made her way through the crowd of sisters and Lincoln, and stood before this man. "Tommy?"

"Yeah. It's me."

Linka hugged him. Tears welled from her eyes and she wept quietly and freely.

"I'm sorry I didn't come and adopt you. I thought you died in that car crash. And what happened to your leg?"

"They had to amputate it in... well, after the crash."

The two hugged each other for some time before Rita grew tired of waiting and tried again.

"Sorry, but who are you?"

"Oh yes, Rita, was it? I'm Thomas Lancaster, and I -"

"Wait, like, why is your nickname Tommy if your name is Thomas. Shouldn't your nickname be, like, Thommy or something?"

"Leni, it's literally the same reason as the nickname for Roberto is Bobby." Lori slapped her forehead.

"Er… Anyways, I'm Thomas Lancaster, and I was Linka's older brother for the first 7 years of her life."

"Oh. Uh... Pleased to meet you. And you?"

"I'm his fiancé, Sarah."

"Wait, you're getting married?"

"Yep. And I want you at our wedding." He ruffled Linka's hair.

"Are you here to take Linka away?" The younger twins queried in unison before hugging one of Linka's legs each.

"No, no. I just wanted to say hello. I want to be part of her life, though. Maybe some weekend take her and her twin to spend the weekend at our house in Cleveland some weekend. Maybe. And she definitely has to be a bridesmaid at our wedding. It's next summer."

"Of course. Well, do come in. My husband's not going to come home till 8 today, but you must have dinner with us."

"Yes, dinner sounds lovely."

Linka was forced to let go of her brother as he and her and future sister-in-law walked past. They got along fine with the sisters, talking to them over the Lynn-sagna that Mr. Loud had made before he left for work. Lisa admired him for his PhD in Chemistry, Lana for her PhD in engineering, Lincoln for his video game skills, Lynn for his athletic prowess, Luan for her comedy, Luna for his good music skills, and Leni for her fashion. Everything was going swimmingly until dinnertime, when Sarah asked a question.

"So, I guess you're all getting ready for school, huh?" She was met with a chorus of unenthusiastic (well, except Lisa) responses from everyone save Linka.

"School?" Her voice was uncharacteristically quiet. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute. School meant new people. New people were bad. New people were very bad. New people introduced the possibility of more people like Chandler. Chandler was going to be there. He promised that he wouldn't bully them, but she wasn't sure. She just wasn't sure, and perhaps that was the scariest part.

While her mind was very chaotic, her outer appearance was very still.

"Linka?"

"Linka, are you okay?"

"Linka?"

"Linka, can you see how many fingers I'm holding up?"

"Linka?"

"Do you need anybody?"

"Linka?"

"Have you been hypnotized by an invisible spirit?"

"Linka!"

The revelation that school was nearing seemed too much for her. Linka suddenly stood up and ran upstairs into her room. Thomas looked ready to run after her, but Sarah pulled him down.

"Does she act like that often?"

"Well, for the first month she was here, she had nightmares and panic attacks, but those went away."

"Did you ever take her to see a therapist?"

"No. We were going to, but we figured that since she stopped having episodes, the therapist was unnecessary."

"I think you should take her to a therapist. I can pay for it, if you want. Obviously, if you have so many kids, you'd be a bit strapped for cash."

"No, that shouldn't be necessary."

"Well, its getting late. We probably should leave. Give Linka our regards. Here's a gift to Linka, forgot to give it earlier, $25 in the envelope. Here's our contact info, call us if you change your mind. We should be going, but we'll be back. Maybe some weekend in September, remember."

The couple left the house as Lincoln sprinted up the stairs to find his sister in a fetal position on her bed.

"I know you're going through a lot right now. But if you're worried about bullies and stuff like that, then don't worry. We all have each other's backs. If something or someone is bothering you, we'll all help. That's one of the most annoying and helpful parts of living here, in the Loud house." Linka, comforted partially by her brother's words, hugged him, before going to bed.

…

The following Saturday found the entire Loud family back in Vanzilla, heading to the mall. Linka had recovered from her revelation the previous night. Though she was nervous about being in a public setting, she was back to her normal state.

"Alright, Louds! We've got a lot of stuff to do and only a few hours to do it. I've got Lori to do that group text thing to send the school supply lists to all of you with phones. Lori, Luna! You're gonna get binders and folders. Leni, Lola! You're gonna get back to school clothes. Lucy, Lisa are on notebooks. Luan, Lynn, Lana get binder paper, and Lincoln and Linka should get Linka a new bag. Lily, your mother, and I will get some groceries. You know, aegs,, melk, all that."

Thus did the Loud family split up. Linka, who still had not begun the therapy yet, had issues with crowds, and so Lincoln guided her through shortcuts and alleyways in the indoor city until they reached their office supply store where more than half the other sisters were.

"You know, I think I like the colors on that one, why don't we open –"

"Linka! I literally need to know what color binders and folders you want."

"How about orange, blue, white and black. Now, lets open this. I wanna see how much room there is for lunch and my jacket."

"Oh, we buy lunch at school most of the time, and we have lockers for -"

"We found this disgustingly brightly colored artistic notebook with flowers and stuff which hurts the very fabric of my soul. I'm guessing you want this."

"… Yeah."

"Why your foolish mortal eyes are attracted to such vile colors I will never know."

"… Right. Now about the bag. If we don't need that much space, then, then I guess any bag will work -"

"Just checking, dude, about the colours of your bag. You wanted blue and orange, plus black and white, right sis?"

"Yes" Linka hissed. Lincoln, due to the amount of time he spent with her, was used to seeing her a bit annoyed, but for Luna it was a bit shocking.

"You alright, mate?"

"Yeah, yeah. Its just that I keep getting interrupted and it keeps distracting me from finding a bag. First Lori, then Lucy, now you, and its really getting me mad."

"Oh, I get it dude. I have the same problem when Luan comes home from something and complains about her problems or cracks puns, I don't know which one is worse, and she totally ruins my groove. I can just ask what type of dress you want and text it to Leni so you don't get interrupted again if you want."

"Yeah. I just want a dress that's like what I'm wearing now but an orange dress instead of a skirt, I guess."

"Ok. Texting now."

"Thanks"

"No problem, sis. I've gotta Get Back to Lori, I'll see you at lunch. Oh, and just for the future, you should use it's instead of its in that context and put some punctuation at the end of thanks."

Linka just stared at her older sister as the musician of a thousand decibels went back to the binder section of the store. Eventually Linka got a bag with a flower design on it to match the flower hair-clip she had. The loud Loud kids paid as one and headed back to the food court for lunch.

As they reached the food court, they were met by the other sisters and the parents. Luna went over to their parents and whispered something to them. Linka saw them nodding. When Linka asked her about it, she shook her head.

"I'll tell you later, dude."

She wouldn't have to wait long, though. After eating her cheap food court piza (so cheap that it was missing a 'z'), she walked with her family to the car. They got in the car and started driving… not in the direction of her house.

"Daddy, where are we going? I wanna go home and prepare for the Miss Young Royalty pageant."

"Well, Lola, we'll be home by 3. 4 at the latest."

"We better." The little girl said that in an aside, but Luna heard her anyways and shuddered. Lola mad was not a fun Lola.

Then, Vanzilla pulled into a parking lot. It was the parking lot for a pet shelter.

"Why are we here? I hope Lana's not getting another stinky snake or lizard or something else that's just gonna mess up our –"

"Hey! You take that back!" Both Lana and Lola unbuckled their seatbelts.

"Make me!"

With a roar of anger, Lana leapt on top of Lola and the two erupted into a ball of dust and fabric coming from the seat. By the time Lori was able to calm them down, some of the chair stuffing was also visible. Linka had tried to back away as much as she could until she found herself almost on Lincoln.

"No. Actually, we're here for Linka."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. We've noticed how hard it's been for you, and how hard you've been working to overcome your… your problems. We saw how you love to play with Cliff, and so we decided that you can get a cat."

Linka's excitement knew no bounds. The giggling giddy girl gently gathered herself and entered the shelter. After only 10 minutes she had made her decision. 'Twas a tripod cat missing his back leg, same as her. The name of the cat was Felix. Truly was it love at first sight. Linka, enamored and enthralled by the idea of owning a pet who was like her, grew to liking him near immediately. She would hear of no other pet. Thusly did Felix come to be the newest edition of the Loud family.

…

The last days before school were torture for everyone's psyche, but especially Linka's. Linka had gotten an appointment with Dr. Lopez, though it unfortunately wouldn't be until after her first day of school. Linka had, for the first time since winning the bet, nightmares. Not about the conditions of the orphanage, but about the upcoming school year and being bullied. The girls in school would all bully her. They'd turn her into a pineapple and punch her while she was stuck in one place and couldn't fight back due to being a pineapple. They'd turn into giant pencils and shove her into a pencil sharpener. They'd take out giant moustaches and slap her up the head with the hair until she fell unconscious.

"So then, they all turned into binders and drowned me in paper –" Linka broke off as she heard her brother giggling. Felix glared at Lincoln from his mistress's lap. Lincoln took some time to catch his breath before speaking,.

"Sorry, sis. Its just that all of these are really funny, the way you're telling them. Wait! I just had an idea! What if you wrote them down, and then drew them. It would be like a horror comedy movie but in drawings."

"Yeah. That might work. Thank you for listening to my nightmares." Linka hugged her brother.

"No problem. That's what twins are for."

"I don't know what I'm gonna do tomorrow. You, Clyde, and Ronnie-Anne aren't in my class."

"We still have lunch and recess together and stuff, and if you need me I'll be in the next room. You'll be fine. Good night." With that, Lincoln left his sister's bed and turned off the lights.

I hope so, Linka thought to herself. I hope so.

So I'm not sure if your suggestions were met with this chapter. Please let me know if they are or any other suggestions you have for making this story nicer.