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

Linka hugged her brother one final time before entering her classroom. She and her brother were in different classes. Something about splitting kids up so they make friends. Linka entered the classroom, and what was once buzzing with noise and laughter came to a complete silence.

"Hi."

Silence.

"I'm Linka Lewis – I mean Loud."

A few kids giggled. Then, one girl yelled, "What type a person can't remember 'er own name?"

Everyone laughed at that, even the teacher.

Disheartened, Linka went to sit down, but one of the kids stuck his foot out and tripped her. She went flying and landed on a table with a thud. She looked back to find her prosthetic was back where she left it. The whole class laughed again.

"You know what we do to kids what don't know their name, that can't walk? We fry 'em!"

With that, everyone pulled out deep fryers filled to the brim with a frying oil and leapt at her.

Linka woke with a start. After she realized that she had been dreaming, she looked to find her brother at her side.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I just had another nightmare."

"Oh. Well its 6 anyways, I don't think there's any point in -"

"Lincoln! What if everyone in my class is a bully? What if there is no good person in my class? What if I can't make a single friend?"

"Well, then you'll still see me and Clyde and Ronnie-Anne at lunch recess. But don't worry. You'll make at least one friend, I'm sure of it. Come on. Let's head downstairs. Lori usually gets up early the first day of school to make us some special breakfast something."

Linka rubbed her eyes and, after putting on her prosthetic, followed Lincoln into the bathroom. They brushed their teeth, then headed downstairs to find Lori in the middle of the cooking process.

"… I'm literally cooking for my family right now!... I know, right Bridget! It's, like, literally super weird how your dad can literally use a cellphone, he's like 80 years old… Oh, okay. See you in school."

Lori put down her phone, her cheery tone gone, muttering under her breath about stupid Bridget and her stupid… bagels? It was rather hard to hear, what with all the sound of cooking waffles around her. She was making 2 waffles for every member of the family, and with 13 people who could eat waffles, she was making 26 waffles.

"Hey, Lori."

"Hey, Linka. What's wrong?"

"Oh, she's just worried about going to school."

"Oh. You wanna help me? I always feel, and Dad and Luan and Lola and literally half the other sisters agree with me that baking and cooking helps me relax."

"Ok, sure."

Lincoln found it rather odd how Lori was able to change her mood so readily and so quickly. She had gone from cheery gossip to angry muttering to helpful in all of 2 minutes. But he was sucked into helping his sisters with the waffle after Linka begged him to.

"You know, Lincoln. You're literally a pushover when it comes to your sister. Like, you literally can't really resist any demands she makes."

"Oh, you're one to talk! I've seen how you and Leni and Luna and Luan all dote on her."

"Oh, whatever. I literally don't care."

They continued making the waffles, even as one by one the various inhabitants of the house were woken by the fragrant aroma of freshly cut fruits, whipped cream, maple syrup, and waffles (The whipped cream and syrup weren't cut, naturally). By the time they had finished, they were standing in front of a line of girls plus Mr. and Mrs. Loud, all in their nightwear. All of them, save Lisa, were dreading what would come next. Which teachers would they have, what classes, which friends would be in their classes, all of that was weighing on their minds. Save for Mrs. Loud, of course, who instead had to deal with the teeth of Mr. Sackler, a very brutish and unsophisticated gentleman whose habits made his teeth ripe for bacteria and breeding grounds for all manners of unpleasantries until they rivaled even Flip's mouth in toxicity.

They dispensed the waffles to the family, then to themselves. The family all sat down and ate one of the quietest meals Linka had ever seen during all her 2 months at the Loud house, including the week when half the family was away at sleep away camps. All the more time to think. To anticipate. To dread. Despite Lincoln's reassurances, Linka was afraid. Chandler couldn't have been the only one. There was surely another few people like him what found pleasure in the bullying of the weak, which Linka clearly was.

"Linka?" Linka was jolted out of her thoughts. "Are you, like, alright?"

"Yeah, Leni. I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You've literally eaten nothing." Lori chimed in.

"I'm not that hungry. Can I be excused?"

"You aren't nervous, are you? Just know that the elementary school is a very safe environment." Even as Mrs. Loud offered her advice, Linka shook her head.

"I'm fine, honest." Linka left the table and headed upstairs to change into her dress. As she left first from breakfast, she was also the first completely ready for school. Despite the reassurances of near everyone else (Luan was feeling too nervous about starting high school to be of any real help, Lisa was indifferent, and Lucy decided to keep her mouth shut), Linka was still extremely nervous. The same scenarios kept repeating in her head throughout the car ride to school until she got out of the car with Lincoln, Lucy, Lana, Lola and Lisa, feeling extremely dizzy and nervous.

Linka regain her footing, and the snowcapped, skittish, skinny, soon-to-be student slowly slogged to the school entrance. The young girl stayed glued to her brother's side till they reached the 5th grade hallway.

"You'll be fine. I promise. I'll see you at lunch, the third table from the door, near the trash can." Lincoln hugged his sister one last time, before disappearing into Ms. Johnson's class. Linka hesitated, before stepping foot in Mr. Jones' class.

She found 6 groups of 4 desks each, that meant 4*6. What was 4*6? 4*6, 4*6, 4*6 … nothing. Linka was having a bad feeling about her starting 5th grade, when she had already forgotten all her times tables.

"Come on in, kids, look for the desk marked with your nametag. Feel free to unload your folders and notebooks and stuff into the desks." The voice, which was low in pitch but light in substance in a very listenable mixture, came from a man, Linka guessed near 30 years of age, with a thin beard and moustache.

Linka found her desk easily. As she sat down, she felt less nervous.

No one noticed my limp. That's good. No one noticed me at all. That's nice, I –

Another girl sat down at her table. The redhead was wearing a nice yellow shirt.

"Hi! I'm Paige!" The girl was very bubbly and excited. Linka, reprehensive, shied in her seat.

"What's your name?"

"Linka."

"Oh, ok. So, I just moved here, so you're gonna have to help me out."

"Oh, I can't really help with that. I'm kinda new here as well."

"Oh. Then we'll learn together."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Friends?"

"Friends."

Paige held out her hand, and after some hesitation, Linka shook it. They shook for a near minute before the both of them burst out in giggles.

"So. Umm… What did you do this summer?" Paige choked out between giggles.

"I got adopted by a big family, so I mostly spent time getting to know them. I went to an art camp, but I spent the rest of the time just playing video games."

"Really? What games?"

"Well, to start, I managed to beat Lincoln, (he's my brother) and everyone else in Mario Kart and Mario Party…"

Thus began a long conversation at the start of a long friendship. The two girls had much in common, save for their personalities. They both liked the same sorts of games, though Paige hadn't heard of strategy games before. They both liked art, though Paige was into clay working rather that sketching and painting. They barely noticed two boys, whose names they gathered to be Jackson and Timothy from the name cards, sitting down at their table, and only ceased their conversation when Principle Huggins came on the PA for the morning announcements.

"Good morning. I am Principle Huggins, your principle, speaking. I hope you have a pleasant school year and a great first day of school. Now, let us stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance, to the flag…"

Once the announcements had finished, Mr. Jones took attendance, and then began.

"So, I am Mr. Jones. I will be your 5th grade teacher this year. In just a moment, you will receive your lockers and stuff, but first we're gonna play a little get-to-know-each other song."

"This is soooo stupid! We already all know each other." A whining drawl alerted Linka to the prescreens of someone whom she had been dreading meeting at school: Chandler.

"Well, it says here that we have 2 new students, and that's besides the point that I don't know your name either."

"I don't see the point in wasting all of our time for that, though."

"If you like, you could take a test instead."

Silence

"That's what I thought. Now, the rules of the game are simple, you just have to stand in a circle, and…"

After the game, the kids went and chose their lockers. These weren't lockers that locked, but rather were to be left unlocked all the time. Linka and Paige's lockers, due to the similarity of their surnames (Loud vs McPhaid), were separated by only Jackson's. As such, the girls were able to carry a conversation.

"What do you think of Mr. Jones?" Paige queried as she stuffed her light autumn coat in the locker.

"I think I'm glad that he stood up to Chandler."

"Really? He was kinda rude, don't ya think?"

"Not really. You haven't met Chandler yet, I met him while I was away at summer camp. He's a real bully, and a meanie to boot."

"You're real lucky I promised not to bully you." A quiet, furious, voice behind Linka alerted her to Chandler standing there. He grumbled and headed back into the classroom.

…

Lunch time arrived with little incident. Linka had long discarded her timid nature, which Paige took as a sign that she had become comfortable around her. After they had bought their lunch from the cafeteria, that snow-capped young girl practically dragged her friend to the table where already sat Lincoln, Clyde, and Ronnie-Anne.

"Hey, Linka. Who's this?" Clyde made his inquiries while he was in the middle of eating his sandwich, so Linka had to take some time for decoding his message before responding. Luckily for her, Paige seemed to understand perfectly.

"Oh, I'm Paige. I'm new here. I just moved from Buffalo."

"I'm Clyde. I'm Lincoln's best friend."

"Wait… OMG! You look just like Linka. Its like I'm seeing double! Your Lincoln, then?"

"Yeah. That's me." Linka noticed that Lincoln was blushing, but she said nothing. "Were you the ones who moved into that green house on Smithson street?"

"Yeah, we were!"

"Oh, that's cool. You live on our path home from school."

"Cool, cool. We should walk home together, then, the all of us."

"Sure."

The new friends sat about the table eating and talking, and then all played together at recess before being called back inside. That afternoon found the class doing mundane tasks such as practicing their cursive and taking a test to find out how competency they were at math and English. Linka was indeed rather proficient, and her early completion of the tasks assigned gave the snow-capped girl time to think and reflect. She realized that the amount of friends she had at that moment was perhaps the most she had had at any one given point.

By the time school ended that day, the 4 had become fast friends with Paige, though Lincoln felt a bit uncomfortable around the redhead. They walked home together, dropping Paige off at her house and separating from Clyde when his street came, then walked the extra 15 minutes till their own. Linka and Lincoln arrived at home to find Mrs. Loud on the porch writing her novel.

"How was your first day of school?" she asked, making to open the door and let the 10 year olds in.

"Good!" Linka said this with an excited tone not seen very often in the little girl.

"Think you could survive another 179 days in these conditions?" She asked.

"I think so!" hoped Linka, though those acquainted with the realities of storytelling know that the fact that this story is not yet over means that there is more to come before this story can have a happy ending.

Sorry for the long wait. I had a lot of things happening at once, plus an odd form of writer's block in which I knew exactly how I want the story to end, but not how this chapter should. Next chapter hopefully will be out sooner that that.