Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Loud House or other franchises you might recognize.
And Linka's wishes had, it seemed, come true, for the most part at least. The little girl had had a phenomenal first few days of school, and was progressing tremendously. She now had 3 whole friends, where the shy-by-nature girl had only 1 in the orphanage, and these friends were ones she could count on to be there for her when she needed them. She had now 11 siblings and 2 parents on whom she could call her family, and a house to live in, in which she felt completely at home.
She awoke Friday morning, and waited in line to brush her teeth. As she was waiting in the line of 7 people (that there were now 2 bathrooms cut down on the amount of time she had to spend in line tremendously.) Lincoln came up to her.
"Linka. You need to wear a skirt today."
"Since when have you, like, cared about fashion?" Leni was bemused.
"Dude! Don't you remember the plan – oh…" Luna quickly put her hands to her mouth, but the damage had been done.
"What plan?" Linka asked.
"Look, Linka. You literally need to show your class and your friends your prosthetic leg at some point. You wore a bunch of skirts over the summer, you have to wear one now." Lori said in her commanding, authoritarian tone.
Linka thought about it, and agreed. So that's how she found herself going to school in vanzilla that morning with her brightly-colored leg very visible.
"Everyone's gonna make fun of me."
"No! Your leg is really pretty, Linka!" Lola delivered a very rare complement.
So the little girl, upon entering the school, said bye to her brother and sisters and entered her classroom. She was the only one there.
"Oh, hey Linka. I knew I had some amputee student this year, and I was wondering who it was." Mr. Jones spoke from the back of the room, making Linka jump. She hadn't seen him.
Linka nodded shyly in acknowledgement, then sat down at her desk. As the children began filing into the classroom, no one noticed, not even Paige, who sat right next to her, until the pledge of allegiance rang through the school. As everyone stood up, Linka reluctantly did as well, and Paige noticed her leg immediately. When they sat down, Paige whispered to her.
"Wait?! Are you like a… a one leg person thingy?"
"Yeah. I'm an amputee."
"Oh my god, that's so cool!"
"Not so loudly" Linka hissed.
"Sorry! Anyways, why didn't you tell me?"
"I was worried that you would make fun of me for it."
"A little less talking, please."
And the class was quiet. Linka sat down for the next 2 hours until 10:00, when it was time for art. Linka prayed no one would notice while Mr. Jones walked them down to the art room -
"Wow! Is that a robotic leg?"
"Do you move it, or does it move itself?"
"Are you a cyborg?"
Linka just walked into the art studio.
"I'm Mrs. Williams, the art teacher. Today, we're just going to do a free draw; we'll go over rules next week and start painting the week after that."
Linka got immediatley to work. Using pencils, she sketched a tiger in the jungle. Mrs. Williams made her rounds around the art studio, stopping every now and then to look at student's art. She stopped in front of Linka and asked for her drawing. Linka hesitated, and then gave the art to Mrs. Williams. She held her breath in anticipation, bracing herself for biting criticism.
"Wow! That's incredible! You have to… Cristina! Come look at this!" Mrs. Williams beckoned to a girl from the far corner of the class. A girl who Linka recognized from her class, with curly red hair and clothes that reminded her of a catholic school uniform.
"What, Mrs. Williams – Wow! Linka! You have to join the art club!"
"I don't know, I might -"
"Your art is way too good."
"You mean that?"
"Of course!"
"You look kinda familiar" said Cristina as they walked back from art to Mr. Jones class.
"I'm Lincoln's twin. He was adopted by the Louds, and then they found me and adopted me as well."
"Oh. So I guess you know about me, then." She sounded a bit
"No?"
"Oh. Never mind. Don't ask anyone! Don't ask any of your sisters who I am! And if we're gonna be friends, please never ask me to come to your house!" Cristina was starting to yell. She walked off after this peculiar announcement. Linka was very confused. Paige was just laughing. It was evident that she knew, somehow, what Cristina was talking about.
That day at lunch, though Cristina invited her and Paige to sit with her, they as usual sat with Lincoln, Clyde, Ronnie Anne, and the rest of them. By the end of the day, she had 4 whole friends who weren't in her family. 5 if you counted her friend from summer camp. 2 (or 3) of these friends had been made without any involvement with her brother.
So it was no wonder that Linka felt fine. She felt great. So why was she spending that Friday afternoon in Vanzilla with Mr. Loud, heading to the psychiatric offices of Dr. Lopez? Linka wasn't entirely sure, though Lincoln had tried to explain it to her many times. No matter what he said, she surely wasn't suffering from trauma of any kind. Sure, she had nightmares and some trust issues, but there wasn't much that this woman could do about that, right?
Her musings were interrupted by their arrival at a rather large office building. Royal Woods Medical Complex, the sign posted there read. Linka and her father left the car and entered the complex. Mr. Loud stared at the board with the practice listings.
"Alright, kiddo. The pediatric psychiatry practice is in… Floor 3!" Mr. Loud made a face. "I don't want to walk that much! Do you want to walk that much? No, right? Right! So lets just take the…" He trailed off at the sight of the young girl shaking her head.
"Dad, I'm fine with walking up 3 flights of stairs, and I'm the one with 1 leg. You must be really out of shape!" Linka was giggling, though she stopped when she noticed that her father was rather surprised.
"You called me Dad!" The man in the green sweater felt tears streaming down his cheeks, and he pulled the little girl into a hug.
"I think I've been doing that for a while, now. Or that might have been in my head…"
Linka and her father walked into the offices, and they went to the front desk and checked in. Then they went back and sat down, Linka admiring the fish.
"Linka Loud?" A kindly looking old black woman called her to the exit of the waiting room.
Linka got up and started walking, then turned around and looked at her father.
"Are you coming?"
"No. We already got the introductory meeting out of the way, now it's just you going to talk to the doctor."
Linka hugged her father then left and followed the nurse summoning her.
She entered a room which had a very cluttered desk in front of a wooden chair, and a shrink's couch next to that. A tan-skinned middle-aged woman with large square spectacles sat in a bean bag, one leg over the other. She was wearing a white lab coat.
"Hello, dear. Why don't you just sit in that wooden chair. Yes, that's it. My name is Dr. Lopez."
"Hi, Doctor."
"So I understand you've been having some nightmares."
"Yeah."
"I think I can help with that."
Linka exited the building a different girl. She remained quiet throughout the walk from the practice to the van. Only when she got to the van did her silence break.
"So, she said that I should try taking deep breaths whenever I'm worked up, and I should try to open up more about my traumatic experiences with you guys."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. She also said that my chances of getting bullied are slim, based on what she knows about North Royal Woods Elementary School, but should it happen I should talk to you guys at once."
"Ok. That sounds about right. I remember Luan got bullied a little in elementary school, and I think something happened to Lori as well, but I can't recall anyone else getting bullied at all. You should be fine."
"And I told her that I want to find out who our birth parents were and why they wanted to get rid of us. She told me that if I really wanted to and I did it, that would help me a lot."
"We'll all help you with that. All 14 of us."
"Thanks, dad."
Mr. Loud smiled. The novelty of hearing that word in the voice of that girl still felt special. The good mood generated from that smile lasted him well into the night.
Sorry for the long update time. Next chapter should be out soon. I cut the scene short with Dr. Lopez because I'm not actually sure how any of that is supposed to work.