As February melted in March, life in the Loud house began to accustom to the new normal. Rita was bound to the house, focusing most of her energy on the latest arrival. Each day would start at sevenwake up, feed Lincoln, help her husband get the girls ready, give them each a kiss as they left, cradle, take phone calls from the office, feed Lincoln, work with Lynn Sr. to care for the girls, feed Lincoln, spend time with the whole family, tuck him into his criband end at nine. Of course, there were also the errands. During all the kids' early months, there were more than a few times when she asked to help Lynn Sr. out, given how he was forced to act as both parents to the older ones. Her husband, however, gave a confident grin and insisted that she was the one with the weight of the world of her shoulders. Sure she found it charmingand it wasn't like taking care of an infant was any easy featbut even the house and daily routine can get dull.

After being out of the hospital for two weeks, Rita was confronted by Lori. Her eldest daughter begged her to have a sleepover with Emily, something she had yearned for the past four months. It had been a while since someone else had visited the home, someone that was outside the gelling status quo. And besides, it was unfair to stretch Lori's patience for so long. Rita granted it.

The big night arrived soon enough, on the first Friday of March.

"This is gonna be great!" Lori exclaimed as she sorted through various boxes in her room. Leni lied on her bed, holding Bun Bun, "You have no idea how fun tonight is gonna be. Do you know why?"

Her little sister was barely paying attention, though. Leni mostly stared at her doll, focusing on the individual fibers that make up its fur. She was drawn to how its material felt warm and soft in her hands and made the design look adorable.

"Leni, look up!" Lori said. Just like that, her sister plopped Bun Bun on her tummy and sat up, "Is this how you're gonna be tonight when Emily comes over?"

She stared at Lori for a solid few seconds before shrugging.

"Well you can't! You are going to hang out with the two of us and I don't want you doing or saying anything weird. Got it?!"

No answer. To Lori, her sister's gaze irritated her incessently. After impatiently waiting several seconds on the false hope of getting some kind of response, she sighed.

"Now when Emily gets here, the first thing we're gonna do is watch the new episode of Los Angels and I want you to be able to talk about it with her. So, here's what you have to know," Lori said. Disregarding her sister's blank expression, she continued, "So over this past season, Josh and Marcy are dating, which is a very bad thing. Josh is rude and bad. But last week, Josh messed up big time when he took another girl to the Spring Social and kissed her right in front of Marcy. Now, we'll see if Marcy will make the right decision and break up with him."

Before she could outline the rest of the itinerary, though, the doorbell rang.

"She's here!" Lori proclaimed, her smile widening, "Let's go."

She grabbed Leni's hand and ripped her from her bed; the motion was so fast, that she accidently dropped Bun-Bun. Lori rushed down the stairs, dragging Leni like a blanket. Upon reaching the bottom step, she lunged for the door knob and twisted it. Sure enough, waiting out there was Emily and her mom.

"Hi Emily! Hi Mrs. Burke," Lori said, locking her hands behind her back with a grin.

"Hi Lori and Leni," Emily replied as she cheerfully held her blanket and pillow. It was evident by her smile and upright posture that she had been just as patient for this evening as Lori has.

"It's nice to see you two," Mrs. Burke said, "I was wondering if I could speak to one of your parents."

Lori nodded.

"Of course," she said. She then turned away, directed towards to the living room, "Mom! Dad! Come over here!"

Lynn Sr. was the first to emerge. He confidently approached Mrs. Burke and shook her hand. Not long after, Rita came in carrying Lincoln.

"Aw! He's so cute! Congratulations, you two," Mrs. Burke said as she saw the mother come in.

"Can I see? Can I see?" Emily demanded as her eyes and smile widened. Seeing the girl's reaction was enough for the Loud parents to mirror her joy.

"Thank you," Rita said as she presented Lincoln for the two Burkes to see. Both of them took that opportunity; they aw'ed and cooed to new baby, who giggled at all the affection he was receiving. Lori, meanwhile, rolled her eyes.

"How does it feel having six kids running around?" Mrs. Burke asked playfully.

"Well it's a full-time job, but they're all our special bundles of joy."

"Things are never boring around here," Lynn Sr. added, as all the nuances of his daily routine came to mind.

As the four parents continued talking, the children got bored; even Emily lost interest as the subject shifted from baby Lincoln. The two friends agreed to go into the other room and settle down. Upon seeing the girls starting to walk away, Leni instinctively followed them.

"I'm so excited for the new episode!" Emily said, her face puckered with anticipation.

"Me too! Marcy is literally gonna dump him," Lori said. Her eyes then darted to her sister, who was standing nearby, "Am I right, Leni?"

The two friends turned to the younger girl as she opened her mouth.

"I thought...you wanted them to break up. Why would Marcy...like...dump trash all over him?" she said slowly.

Lori sighed as she regretted her word choice. Emily, however, chuckled and gave her a nice grin.

"Oh Leni, dump is just another way of saying break up. Come to think of it, I didn't know that you liked Los Angels. I'm glad that Lori has been getting you to watch it with her," she said. To boot, she even cast Lori a glance of acknowledgement. Leni didn't smile back, though. She looked confused.

"I have...haven't seen it...Lori only told me about it today because...she wants me to watch it with you..."

"Well you're gonna love it," Emily replied, "Los Angels is my favorite show and you picked just the right moment to start. After tonight, it's gonna be your favorite show too."

Emily faced Lori, who looked well-assured. Even with the addition of a third member, nothing felt abnormal to either of them. Or at least at the moment. It was then, however, that Emily's parents made their way over to them.

"We're heading out honey. Now listen to what Mr. and Mrs. Loud say. And don't be up too late," her dad said.

"And remember to have fun. It's a special night for you, kids," her mom added.

And with that, they both surrounded Emily and gave her hugs, kisses, and "I love you's". Emily's cheeks blushed a little, embarrassed that her parents were doing this in front of Lori. But soon enough, they broke away and gave their last goodbyes before exiting. At last, the true fun could begin.

Lori and Emily sat down at the couch together. As the former grabbed the remote and flipped on the TV, the latter saw Leni, who was standing and looking out the window.

"Hey Leni," Emily said. Surprisingly, it didn't take long for the girl to turn to her. With her audience's attention, she patted an open cushion on the couch with a smile, "why don't you sit down with us? We would really like it."

She froze for a moment. As much as she liked the offer, she felt a force that planted her feet to the carpet. There were several questions floating in her mind. Was the offer real? Was it really being directed at her? Why would Lori's friend want her company? But after seeing Emily's lips curled upward in such a natural way, she found it a little easier to make her way to the open cushion.

The show was set to start in ten minutes. At the moment, it was playing a rerun of the previous Los Angels episode, which Lori had described to her. On the screen, Leni saw two girls putting on expensive dresses, doing each other's hair, and talking about flip phones and email. Although much of the dialogue seemed like pointless banter to her, her eyes quickly became glued to the clothing. Both of them had flashy sequins that made the whole frame sparkle. One of the girls adorned a bold violet while the other was wearing a more subtle shade of blue. Leni became so wrapped up in the clothing design that she missed Lori's commentary.

The rest of the episode went by in a similar fashion. Sure there was talking and events happening, but all Leni was focused on was the colors of everyone's attire. She couldn't explain why this was the point of interest, but it was and nothing else mattered.

When the big cliffhanger happened, Lori and Emily gasped, as if they had seen that climatic moment for the first time once again. Unfortunately for them, they were punished with a five minute commercial break before the new episode began.

"Oh my gosh! I'm gonna die!" Lori cried as she stared at the screen.

"I can't believe that Josh would do such a thing," Emily said bashfully. Lori jerked her head to her.

"I told you he was bad news!"

"He was so mean..."

"You didn't want to believe me!"

"To think...that he was cute...I don't know what to think anymore..." Emily said. Her mouth was agape and her eyes were wide enough to drive a convertible through. She then turned to Leni, who was a statue, "What do you think Leni? I know you've only seen a couple minutes of this, but what are your first thoughts?"

Leni shrugged.

"The dresses are pretty..." she said with her eyes still on the screen. She watched as the big logos and fast editing of the commercials zoomed by. All the while, she started thinking more and more about the colors she saw at the dance. She thought about how they came together, how they contrasted, how they made herself feel.

"Isn't Josh literally the worst?" Lori asked, looking over to her sister. Sadly, though, she didn't really get a response; Leni just kept staring at the screen, as if the episode were already on. She wanted to ask again, but then she realized what was happening. Leni was in her bubble again—her thick, plastic sanctuary.

Before the two fans knew it, the theme song began playing. Virtually all the sound in the room came from the TV, or at least from what Emily and Lori heard. Leni, meanwhile, slouched forward and used her arms to hold up her head.

The episode began with the same people wearing the same clothes as the last episode. They stood around and it looked like the girl in the light blue dress got a face that Mrs. Boxer said is anger. Leni gave herself a point for figuring that one out. But then that girl walked off and it was the next day. Now the same girl was wearing everyday clothes and there were a lot more colors on it. To Leni, the outfit may not have been as nice as the dress, but the colors wrapped her in anyway. It looked like she was sad, but Leni knew that she couldn't hug her; she tried that before with other people on the TV screen. As this scene went on, she heard the two friends sitting next to her chatting it up, but she didn't want to pay attention to it. It was colors first and faces second.

The episode was mostly routine. In every scene, everyone was wearing a different set of clothes and faces. There were times where she couldn't make out what a person was feeling because they weren't smiling or crying or shouting or imitating any face on Mrs. Boxer's cards. In those moments, she entirely fixated herself on the colors. One of the girls owned stuffed animals, however, and even with Lori's jeering, Leni found herself paying attention to those furry plushies when they appeared on screen.

The last ten minutes of the episode had the girl and the boy in a room for some reason. The girl had a light blue sweater on, the same shade as her dress from the dance. The guy was wearing a crimson T-shirt. There were only a few instances where Leni could detect the emotion one of them was feeling, but such an observation was made almost entirely on the facial features as opposed to other factors. Admittedly, she started getting bored after a while and leaned back as the rest of the scene played out. Eventually, the two of them hugged each other and kissed.

"No!"

Leni twisted her head to see Lori, whose face is most certainly angry. Emily's, though, was pretty hard to make out.

"Maybe they'll be a twist in the last minute," Emily said.

"It can't! It's over! All that waiting and they stay together!"

Leni turned back to the screen, where the two characters were still hugging as the end credits began rolling. Seeing this, she got up and waddled her way to her big sister with her arms extended.

"Now's not the time, Leni," Lori said bitterly.

"You need...a hug."

"No I don't."

But even with Lori's protests, Leni leaned into her and wrapped her arms around her torso. Lori, though, still frowned and her eyes shot daggers at that still frame of Marcy and Josh's embrace.

"Maybe next season, right?" Emily said, forcing up a smile.

"Whatever," Lori said, sighing. She then grabbed the remote and punched the off button.

"So what do you wanna do now?"

"Wanna head upstairs?"

Without verbal acknowledgement, the two friends rose and began walking towards the staircase. Leni, however, remained on the couch, looking around. As the two neared the stairs, Emily looked back and noticed this.

"Hey Leni. Do you wanna join us?" she asked warmly.

Sure enough, the little sister got up, albeit slowly. She walked, occasionally tumbling, as she approached the waiting Lori and Emily. Once they were all together, the trio headed up the wooden steps. As they got closer to the second floor, however, they could hear noises and giggles. Although each of the other sisters were alone in their rooms, they made quite the noise with all of their toys.

Upon reaching their room and closing the door, some of the excess sound had been cut off. Emily had only been in Lori and Leni's room one other time, which was over a year ago. Still, she was impressed by how comfy and feminine everything looked. The room had a noticeable amount of blue and pink on the walls and furniture, plastic dolls mixed in with stuffed animals, a representation of Bizney's assortment of 'teenage girl' things and cuddly things.

"Did you want to play Barbies?" Emily asked, observing Lori's on her bed.

"Sure," she replied.

The two plopped themselves on the ground. Lori crawled her way to the nearby closet and began pulling out various accessories. Before either of them knew it, their space was littered with pink plastic constructs and other things—the Barbie convertible, brushes, benches, dresses, costumes, purses, shoes.

Meanwhile, Leni picked up Bun-Bun and lied down on her bed. She closed her eyes and started snuggling with it. Feeling its squishy body made her feel fuzzy on the inside, even if it wasn't enough to make her smile on the outside. She took slow and deep breaths as she tried to immerse herself into her own special meditation with her doll.

"Hey Leni," Lori said, her voice having lifted itself from her earlier frustration. She leaned up and saw her sister looking at her, "Why don't you join us? Give Barbies a try."

Leni squeezed Bun-Bun as she got up and found a seat in between the two friends. Lori was holding her Barbie and Emily was using two of the extras.

"So Leni. Which one do you want?" Emily asked as she held out the two plastic dolls. They each looked identical—blue eyes, white smile, and bendable joints. After staring at them for a moment, she lowered her head and hugged Bun-Bun.

"You can't use that," Lori said, annoyed, "You have to use one of the Barbies."

But she didn't listen. She tightened her grip on her precious stuffed animal. For the second time that night, Lori realized that she was in the midst of a losing battle. Emily, though, maintained a smile.

"It's okay, Leni. You can use your bunny if you want," Emily said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "we can make a special game out of it. That way, we can all have fun together."

Leni lifted her head and nodded.

"Okay," Emily said, "how about the bunny is a cutie and the Barbies are trying to win his heart."

She looked back down at her stuffed doll and squeezed it. All she could feel was cotton throughout every portion of it. She looked back up, clearly confused.

"What's a...heart?" she asked.

"The Barbies are just trying to get the bunny to fall in love with one of the Barbies."

Once again, there was a long period of awkward silence. Lori was used to it and normally she would be more accepting of it, but it was a little more irritating knowing that her friend had to sit through it as well. Sometimes, she wondered why her sister couldn't just pick up on stuff.

"Barbies don't feel love," Leni said.

"But for now, we're just pretending. Of course, Barbie can't feel love because it's just a doll. But if we act like they do. It makes playing with them a lot of fun."

Leni stared at Emily with her lips clumsily loose and her eyes unfocused. Although it took her several more seconds to process, she eventually reached a conclusion and nodded her head.

"I think I get it now..." she said. She then held up her doll as if she were presenting it to a large audience, "I talk to Bun-Bun a lot and we have...fun and friends from...doing that..."

Lori felt the need to restrain herself from rolling her eyes, but couldn't help but be relieved by Emily's grin.

"Well I think that's great. Bun-Bun is about to meet some new friends."

"Okay..."

The three of them got a good grip on their toys and started playing.

"Hi there," Lori said, setting up her Barbie next to Bun-Bun, "What's your name, mister?"

"Bun-Bun. And what's your name Lori?" Leni asked with conviction.

"No, Leni. Don't call me Lori during this. I'm supposed to be someone else right now," she said. She saw how her sister's eyes were starting to show signs of light, which made her grin a little.

"Okay. And, like, what's your name?"

"Barbie. Thanks for asking," Lori replied. Similar to Leni, she too started to get more into the act, "Wanna take a ride in my car?"

"You bet!"

Lori slid her doll into the tiny pink convertible. Since Bun-Bun was too big to fit, Leni plopped her behind the toy. As she dragged the car, the hand holding Bun-Bun moved along with it.

"You are adorable you know. Has anyone ever told you that?" Lori asked.

"Yes. I've been told by...um...like," Leni paused to think of a good pseudonym, "...Ducky that I'm super cute and fluffy and huggy!"

Eventually, Lori stopped the car next to Emily's Barbie and pulled her's out.

"This is my friend Barbie," Lori said, "Barbie, this is Bun-Bun."

"It's nice to meet you," Emily said. She then looked up and saw Leni truly smile for the first time in a while. There was something heartwarming when she did it that made Emily's lips curl up as well. Emily wished that Leni was more expressive; to her, it was really sweet.

"Thanks," Leni cheered, "You know, Barbie, your friend said that I was really cute. Is that true?"

"Yes. I could hug you so much right now!"

"And I could hug you too, but I am too big and I might squish you."

"Don't worry about that," Emily said, looking up at Leni, "I can take hugs from anyone."

Lori looked onto this, though, and came up with a new idea. She moved her doll closer to the two.

"What about me, huh," Lori said, putting on a faux jealously, "I thought you wanted to hug me!"

"Uh...yes..." Leni said, hesitating. Her voice tightened and her smile faltered a little, "Of course...I...like...love you both. And I'm gonna hug you both!"

Leni then lifted Bun-Bun and planted it over both of the Barbie dolls, whom Lori and Emily pressed side by side, and shook it around for a few seconds. To add to it, Leni included a little buzzing sound. After that, she pulled it away.

"Thanks Bun-Bun," Lori said, "I really liked that! You are a great hugger!"

"I agree," Emily said.

By now, Leni's grin was as wide as it was when she first saw baby Lincoln several weeks earlier. Lori felt it was quite a sight to behold, even if she herself sometimes found happiness to be sappy.

"Kids, it's dinner time!" Lynn Sr. announced from downstairs.

Even with this declaration, none of the girls moved at first; it was if they were all waiting for one of them to act and take the lead.

"Leni. You can go down first. Emily and I will be down in a minute," Lori said gently, carrying a reassuring grin.

"Yup yup yup!" Leni chirped, lifting up her Ducky arms. As she carried that smile, the youngest of the trio got up and left the room. Lori waited a few seconds for her sister to leave earshot.

"Hey Emily. I'll probably be saying this a few times during the night, but," Lori said, "thanks for letting Leni hang out with us. I think it's really helping her come out of her shell."

Emily smiled upon hearing this.

"You're welcome," she said, standing up, "I think it's cute that you're looking out for her like that. You're a great big sister."

Lori blushed. It was a little embarrassing; she wasn't one to cave in to schmaltz, but she couldn't help it.

"You know," she said, giggling, "it always helps to be more accepting of others. Especially to Josh."

Even with her cheeks red from happiness and her voice on the verge of laughter, Lori found it in her to shout out in the most comical way

"Hey!"