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

Linka began having regular, once every 2 week meetings with Dr. Lopez. She felt they really helped her open up to her family at last. She felt reassured that she had another person to talk to about her problems. Her first and foremost confidant, however, was still Lincoln, with whom she and Paige still sat with at lunch, much to the chagrin of Cristina. It was the 2nd week of October when Linka remembered to ask her sisters about Cristina, and they had an extremely funny story to tell. They showed her the video as well. That Monday, while they were standing outside of the class waiting for Mr. Jones to come back from lunch and open the door, she confronted Cristina about it.

"So, my sister Luan showed me a funny video the other day." Linka began mischievously.

Cristina's face turned pale, and Linka started giggling.

"Its not funny!"

"It really is."

"You know how embarrassing that video was? I had to switch into a different class half way through 4th grade!"

"Its still kinda funny, though."

Cristina looked like she was about to retort, but Mr. Jones arrived at that moment. They filed into the classroom and sat in their seats, and Mr. Jones smiled at them until they quieted down.

"Thank you. Now, I am going to change your seats tomorrow. So if everyone could put down the names of 3 people they want to be in a group with, that would be good. I'll make sure everyone gets at least one person from this list."

Linka was panicking. She didn't know anyone other than Cristina or Paige by anymore by name. The 2 boys that sat at her table were nice, she supposed, but she didn't really know them that well. In desperation, she wrote on the list Paige, Cristina, Jordan. Only the girl Jordan was in her class, the boy Jordan being in her brother's class.

Linka daydreamed through the rest of school that day. She remembered, when looking back at it, as it was an important day in her life, she remembered of school only choosing new groups and the 5 minutes after school ended, when Chandler was walking past Linka's locker and tripped her. Her stuff went flying as she put out her arms to catch herself.

"I'm soooo sorry, Linka" said he, though his sarcastic voice full of thinly-veiled malice conveyed otherwise. "I didn't see you there." He proceeded to walk away.

Everyone who saw this, save Paige, began laughing. Linka, red-faced, was helped up by Paige, and the two girls began picking everything up.

As Paige and Linka met up with Lincoln and Clyde, Linka was not in a happy mood. She started ranting about everything that had happened that day. She continued talking for 7 minutes straight, that by the time that she had finished, Paige had already gone.

"Linka. Calm down!" Lincoln shouted. Linka stopped ranting. "I thought you were trying to make more friends."

"I am. But its kind of hard. Its hard for me to make friends. Paige and Cristina" (Upon hearing the name Cristina, Lincoln made a face) "are the only friends who I've made so far independent of you."

"Guys, can you argue later? Dr. Lopez says -"

"Oh, shut up Clyde! No one cares what Dr. Lopez thinks!" Lincoln was shouting. "Maybe Linka would be better at making friends if she was completely human!"

It was one of those things that as soon as he said it, he wished he hadn't. Linka walked over to him, and shoved him with astonishing power for someone so emotionally and physically weak as her, and then walked away quickly. Lincoln could see her face crumple and saw hot tears pouring out of her eyes.. Clyde helped Lincoln get up.

"What have I done?"

"Come to my house. It'll be alright, you'll see." Clyde walked his friend, whose head was in his hands, to his house which was very nearby.

Lori, Leni, Luna and Luan were at home. Lori was on the phone talking to Becky, Leni was knitting a dress, and Luna and Luan were watching a movie or something. Lori didn't really care. Why were they home so early? Because there was a bank robbery across the street from the school, and so school was ended early that Monday.

"… He's literally a god, Becky... Oh, you've got to go? Ok. Bye!" As soon as Lori hung up, she got a call from Linka.

"Lori?" Lori had to strain to hear the little girl. She was very, very quiet.

"Yes?"

"Can you come pick me up?" Lori was shocked to hear the voice that came out of her little sister's voice, which was choked with tears. Her sister sounded very small, and though Linka was small, this tiny voice of hers made her sound absolutely minuscule indeed.

"Linka? Are you literally okay?"

"Yeah. Just pick me up please? I'm at the intersection of Anderson and Great East Rd."

Click.

Lori walked over to her ditzy younger sister.

"Linka wants me to pick her up."

"Really? Doesn't she walk home with, like, Lincoln and their friends and stuff?"

"I don't know. She was literally crying. I'm just gonna go pick her up, you're in charge of Luna and Luan until I come back."

"No."

"No?"

"No. I'm coming with you. Luna and Luan are old enough to, like, take care of themselves. And if Linka is, like, crying, and you're like, driving, then whose gonna, like, calm her down?"

"Okay, you can come. But don't tell Luna and Luan, or they'll want to come too."

They walked down the stairs and found Luna and Luan watching a foreign movie with English subtitles.

"Hey, we're literally just gonna just go on a short drive."

"Whatever. Later, dudes."

"Yeah. Linka's, like, crying or something and we have to go and, like, pick her up."

Lori slapped her forehead. Luan paused the movie and both performers stood up.

"We're coming too!" they shouted in unison.

"No, that's literally not a good idea." Lori tried to defuse the situation. "You know how Linka is with crowds, right? There's already two of us going, and I don't think that it's a good idea to have more people come, especially when she's crying."

"Okay. We'll stay at home."

Lori and Leni drove to the intersection where Linka was. She had stopped crying, the tearstains still there on her face. She got into the van quietly, sitting down next to Leni, who hugged her.

"What happened?" Leni asked.

"I don't really want to talke about it." The little girl's voice sounded tiny.

"That's completely fine." Leni reassured the little girl. Lori thought she had a magical power of sorts: being nice.

They got back to the house. Luna and Luan were extremely tense. They had not resumed their movie, anxiously awaiting the return of Lori, Leni, and Linka. Soon, those very 3 girls walked in. Linka left her bag by the door, and came to the couch where Luna and Luan were sitting, wriggling in between them and sitting in such a manner that her head was on Luna's shoulder, and her feet, both real and prosthetic, were pushing into Luan's side.

"You want a brownie?" Luan offered the little girl, who's face was still covered in tearstains.

"Sure. Wait! Why did you make brownies?" Linka caught herself. She almost disobeyed a golden rule of living in the Loud house: always question food from Luan.

Luna laughed. "Don't worry, Linka. The cookies aren't spiked. We decided to watch a movie and eat brownies. Kinda like a bonding thing, sis."

"Bonding? You guys have one of the best roommate relationships in the house! You're like best friends!"

"Bogus, dude! You and Lincoln definitely have the best roommate… Oh, come here, love. Don't start cyring again! What's wrong?"

Tearfully, Linka began to explain her story. By the time she had finished, all 4 sisters were angry.

"I'm literally gonna beat him into a pulp!" Lori yelled!

"Wait!" Linka held her hand up. "I know you're mad at him, but don't hurt him. He's still your brother." Suddenly noticing that all the attention of the room was on her, she shrunk back in between Luna and Luan.

"What movie is this?" Linka asked after silence struck the room for several minutes.

"Mayabazaar. It's an old Telugu movie, kinda like a comedy and musical mixed in one." Luna took another bite of her brownie before continuing. "My Indian friend recommended it to me."

"Oh, cool. I'll watch it with you, then."

And so she watched it with them until the doorbell rang. Linka stood up.

"I really don't want to talk to anyone else right now, except for you 4, since you already know what happened. Can you stall whoever's at the door? I'm just gonna be in my room. And don't tell anyone else what happened." With that, Linka grabbed her bag and ran up the stairs as fast as her prosthetic leg would allow her, summiting the steps just as the door began to open and ducking out of sight before Lynn could see her. She didn't talk to anyone until dinner.

I told you the next chapter would be out soon.