Lincoln had found the morning to be rather odd, it only got stranger when he got to school and the first thing he saw was an ambulance parked outside the school. The white-haired teenager had come straight over, but was not able to really see anything, mostly due to the fact a lot of people were crowded around obscuring the view.
Lincoln was about to give up on figuring out what was going on at the moment, though the middle Loud sibling noticed someone else off to the side of the crowd, a tall girl with black hair that curls up at the back end that went just past her shoulders in length, she was wearing a white coat that had a pair of red stars on the sleeves and black pants.
"Stella? Hey!" Lincoln eagerly approached his friend that was taller than him, she was Stella Zhau, a good friend of the Loud boy for the last couple of years, she wasn't from Royal Woods initially, though had to move here due to excessive bullying at her last school just because of how tall she was, Lincoln was one of her first friends here.
"Oh, Lincoln! It's good to see you out of the hospital." Stella warmly greeted her close friend, even giving him a small hug that he gladly accepted. "Me and Clyde tried visiting you, but they said you already were pretty swamped with guests and wouldn't let us up." Stella stated, still remembering how horrified she was when they first received word about the assault on the two Loud siblings, sadly the hospital had been a lot stricter about the number of visitors allowed.
"Are you sure you're ready to come back to school though?" Stella quirked as their embrace ended.
"I barely got scratched compared to Lynn, I'm good to be back. Can you tell me what happened?" Lincoln reassured he was alright, before directing the conversation back onto his own curiosity with the paramedics, seeing the ambulance beginning to pull out of the parking lot and drive away. Zhau held her head, looking like she regretted finding out herself.
"It was someone from the boy's football team, I don't know what happened, he was coughing up a lot of blood though and could barely speak." Stella explained to the best of her ability what she had seen, once the ambulance had left, the two could see the many students starting to scatter, most going inside, while the others heading off to finish their various tasks.
"Was it an accident?" Lincoln had to ask, football was a pretty brutal sport, and he especially knew how tough the coaches could be sometimes, if what Lynn had told him was even half true. The bucktooth boy noticed the black-haired girl rubbing her hands together nervously, she shook her head.
"His face was all bruised and his head was swollen... I think he was attacked, and that scares me a lot." Stella confessed her fears, their Highschool had bullying issues the same as any other school, however this was on a whole higher level. Sure, some of the members of the boy's football team were known for not being the best students, but neither of them could imagine any of them deserving this.
"That sure doesn't sound like a normal fight." Lincoln stated while heading inside the school with Stella, there could be a hundred reasons why it could have happened, either way he found no reason to dwell on it further.
"Have you seen Lynn? She walked to school today, she was acting pretty upset... Actually, she's been acting pretty weird ever since we got home." The only boy in the family of many sisters spoke while they were heading to their first class, the two sharing a fair number of classes together, not that they minded. Lincoln was becoming more and more worried by the day for Lynn, she had been pretty shaken up after they were both assaulted, yet instead of getting better it seemed like the sporty Loud was getting worse.
"Sorry, I haven't seen her, I only got here a little bit before the ambulance did." Stella apologized, feeling bad for not being able to assure her friend. "Acting weird? How so?" She followed it up with a query of her own, anyone that knew the Loud family knew most of them were rather unique, so when one was described as 'acting weird' it tended to raise curiosity.
"She helped make breakfast, she was able to break up Lola and Lana's fight like she had done it a hundred times before, even though she always avoided getting involved, she acts like she's scared to be around me half the time, and she is even more emotional than before." Lincoln tried to explain everything to the best of his ability, these were only the details of Lynn's behavior that he was aware and informed of, not even fully knowledgeable on everything that truly was wrong or had been going on.
"I know it's going to take time to get past what happened to us, but I'm starting to think something else is happening, something not related to the mugging at all." Lincoln finished with that, not sure how else he could really describe the situation, it all felt strange to him. He had to wonder if he was at fault for Lynn's odd behavior or not, it was like she was a completely different person sometimes. Stella pondered on this information while trying to think of the proper response, she did have an idea come to mind rather quickly though.
"Traumatic events can do a lot to people, but maybe it's made Lynn start rethinking her life?" Stella suggested while they came to a stop at Lincoln's locker, the white-haired boy looked perplexed when hearing that, while fiddling with his locker combination.
"Rethinking her life?" Lincoln repeated that part, hoping for more elaboration before he said anything in response to the notion.
"Well, yeah. I mean, Lynn is great in a lot of sports, that'll carry her to college, and through it probably, but has she ever really had a plan for her life past that?" Stella began, Lincoln idly listening while getting what he needed out of his locker. "Has she ever wondered what would happen if she wasn't able to play sports one day? What she wants in her life? Who she wants to be? Traumatic events can make people think over every last thing they thought they had or knew." The taller girl continued, her bucktooth friend closing his locker once again.
"So, you think Lynn's acting different because she's doubting everything? That she's lost confidence in herself?" Lincoln had to question, rubbing his head in uncertainty. He knew that Lynn did not really have any other hobbies beyond sports, wrestling, karate, kick boxing, whenever she could not participate in one sport, it did not matter which, it was equally as devastating. Lincoln still remembered two years ago when Lynn's fixation on sports had been so strong that it almost caused her to be held back a grade, if it hadn't been for Lisa Lynn would have been doomed. Though the close call did little to stop Lynn from feeling devastated at the news. The Loud boy felt like Stella might be onto something, though it seemed off the mark in his head.
"Can I tell you something, Stella?" Lincoln asked, Stella nodded, more than happy to listen to him.
"Sure, what's up?" Stella looked around to make sure no one else was listening to them or eavesdropping, since it seemed important and personal.
"It's about when me and Lynn got attacked..." He muttered, the taller girl leaning on the neighboring locker, she raised a brow, wondering if Lincoln was really going to tell her about the traumatic event in further detail. She would not blame him, though it felt like something someone would do with someone they were closer to.
"Lynn grabbed a bat to attack those guys, I had trouble seeing because they were all on me, but..." Lincoln suddenly found himself pausing, the words caught in his throat as he recounted their assault, swearing he could see flashes of it happening before his eyes still. He breathed, trying to keep his own composure.
"She had this, smile... It was creepy, like she was having the best time of her life while attacking those thugs. I don't even know if she remembers it." Lincoln was able to force the words past his lips, not wanting to sound accusatory towards his older sister, yet it was an image he still felt was burnt into his mind. There was an awkward silence in the air between him and Stella, she was uncertain what to say.
The sound of the bell ringing caught their attention and suddenly snapped the silence in the air away.
"I've got to get to class Lincoln, but look, if I can do anything to help or if you ever need someone to talk to, well, I wouldn't mind being that someone." Stella said with a nervous smile, a slight blush forming on her cheeks, Lincoln took a moment to realize what she was implying, a faint crimson began to appear on his own.
"Th-thanks Stella, for sure! I'll see you around, and thanks for listening to me." Lincoln eagerly responded, the two splitting up to get to their separate classes for the day, they only shared a handful of similar classes.
When Lincoln got to his first class, math, he wasted no time in taking his seat next to his familiar best friend, Clyde, who seemed a little distracted. Clyde did not even initially take notice of Lincoln.
"Hey Clyde, how goes it?" Lincoln spoke up, getting his friends attention.
"Hm? Oh, hey Lincoln... It's good to see you, sorry I'm just a bit out of it this morning." Clyde apologized for not taking notice of his friend sooner, though he clearly was happy to see the Loud boy out of the hospital.
"I can tell." Lincoln commented, while Clyde looked alright, the middle Loud child did take notice of something, a small amount of blood that was on the collar of the bespectacled boy's shirt, the glasses wearing teen had been trying to hide it with his coat, though Lincoln could see it, just barely.
"Did something happen?" He chirped, blood wasn't weird when it came to Clyde, though the fact he was trying to hide it is what got Lincoln's attention, he noticed his glasses wearing friend also had a slightly swollen nose.
"Oh, uh..." Clyde found himself pausing, remembering what he had agreed to do for Lynn and groaning internally, right now he was mentally debating who he wanted to risk lying to. After seeing Lynn fight on his behalf, the boy in the glasses decided he owed her his silence for the time being.
"I was with Lynn and I wasn't paying attention when I turned a corner, someone in a bad mood hit me in the face with their locker door on accident." Clyde lied on the spot with no hesitation, having been making excuses in his head since the moment he agreed to keep quiet for Lynn. Lincoln however, did not believe it, the opposite in fact, he could tell when his practical brother of a best friend was lying very easily.
"Alright class, settle down!" The sound of the teacher's voice speaking up forced them to be silent, Lincoln made mental note to check on Lynn later, he was more worried about her currently, plus he thought maybe she had some insight to what might have truly happened to Clyde.
At the moment Lynn was in her own classroom, the first class for her today was history, she had gone straight there after cleaning the blood off her hands and helping Clyde get cleaned up. She was idly scribbling down notes and trying her best to ignore the rest of her classmates. The sports loving teen had been getting bothered a fair bit before class began about her injury and the incident as a whole, until that ambulance showed up and drew everyone else's attention, much to her relief. Lynn was entirely oblivious to one important detail however, and that was the fact the ambulance had come for Tyler, one of the two she had beaten down in the hallway earlier.
"All these people looking at us with every chance they have... Isn't it creepy to know the only reason they care about you isn't because of your victories in sports, no, it's just because you're a wounded little fawn." The depressed voice began to speak up within Lynn's head, it seemed like not having any stimulation nor distractions was enough to make it come out primarily. Lynn found herself staring down at her pen once again, her eyes drifting down to her injured leg. The brunette had given up trying to grab her leg to stop it from talking, that wasn't enough anymore, it took more.
"Ugh, I'm really stuck in a corner here..." Lynn mumbled to herself, trying to focus on class, it was about halfway done, yet her head pain only got worse and worse the longer she had to listen to the depressed personality, the girl with the ponytail had to wonder if that hit to the head during her fight earlier today had made her injury worse. There was nothing she could do currently, stabbing herself in the leg with a pen in the middle of class? She wasn't that sneaky, the many eyes on her from people treating her like a celebrity due to the mugging did not help either.
"You really hate class that much? Just ram that little pen right into your eye... That'll get you out." The depressed personality continued, Lynn took in a deep breath, focusing on writing down notes and listening to her teacher, she was feeling a lack of energy though, even more so than what usually happened in her classes. Lynn felt like everything around her was starting to drift away, as if her senses were getting drowned out gradually the longer she sat in silence.
"Miss Loud?" The brunette was snapped back to reality, when she suddenly heard the familiar voice of her teacher, when she looked up from her desk, she could see him standing before her, not the most intimidating individual, the opposite actually, a new teacher that became a member of the staff a month ago, he was rather meek, the student's liked him a lot though since he had more of a firm and gentle approach to correcting mistakes.
"Y-Yes Mister Smith?" Lynn hesitantly responded, wondering if she had gotten in trouble somehow.
"I appreciate you focusing more on learning, but class ended a few minutes ago." The history teacher pointed out for the sporty Loud. Lynn looked around in confusion, sure enough the classroom was empty aside from one or two other students that were at their desk making sure they had finished taking down their notes correctly.
"Oh, sorry. Guess I just zoned out." The sports loving girl apologized, one glance down at her notebook did little to help her confusion, a lot more was written down that she did not even recall doing, yet it seemed pretty incoherent. She shut the notebook and stuffed it away in her bag before standing up, beginning to leave with no further queries from her teacher.
That was how the first part of Lynn's day went, each class she went to made her feel more and more mentally gone, time felt like it was skipping around her almost. Now that lunch was here, the sporty Loud found herself at her locker, trying to just stuff her items in there without a care. Lynn was not sure she was in the mood for lunch today, she felt too miserable to go to the cafeteria.
"You don't deserve to eat." That downer personality that had been talking nonstop all morning it felt like, was getting on Lynn's last nerves. That depression was sucking the energy out of her, she only knew that pain could keep it quiet, though that was when Lynn had an idea suddenly cross her mind while looking at her locker door.
"I need to shut it up..." Lynn panted while holding her head, she looked around to see if anyone else was around, looking relieved when realizing she was alone, assuming everyone had gone to lunch. The auburn-haired girl put her left hand on the edge of her open locker, grabbing the door with her right hand. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, trying to build up the courage and mentally prepare herself for the pain this was going to cause.
"Lynn? Lynn!" Lynn heard her younger brother's voice, that made her freeze in place and grit her teeth.
"Crap..." The sporty Loud let her head rest against the locker door for a moment, she stepped back, not able to silence the depressed personality now. Lynn turned around to see Lincoln standing there, the young boy was startled slightly when seeing his older sister, she looked miserable and radiated an energy of pure misery at the moment, he saw her eyes half-glazed over. Lincoln found it disturbing, Lynn having no energy? That sounded almost impossible. Right now however, she was acting like she had not slept in a few days.
"Lynn? Are you alright?" The white-haired teenager worriedly asked, not caring if his sister was sick of being asked that or not, he could not hide or disguise his concern. Lincoln had been looking for Lynn in between classes since this morning actually, he had not been able to locate her at all, like she had been avoiding him deliberately. The middle Loud sibling knew she was going to be down about not being able to play sports for a few weeks, though this seemed to be a new level of sorrow he had not witnessed from Lynn before.
"He's only asking because he has to, not like anyone else in your family likes you." The depressed voice chimed; Lynn wondered why the obsessed one was being quiet right now, normally it became active the second Lincoln got close to her at all.
"No, I'm not Lincoln. Everyone is just pretending to care about me, or wanting to hang out with me because they think I'm cool, I hate it." Lynn explained to her younger sibling, she was not lying when she said she hated the special attention brought on by the circumstances of their incident, yet she was exaggerating how much it actually bothered her, she was mentally debating right now on the idea of gambling on Lincoln by telling him the truth.
"I know, trust me I've had my own fair share of people bugging me." Lincoln rubbed the back of his head, though he imagined he had been bothered far less than his older sibling simply due to the fact he wasn't as well known in their school as she was. The bucktoothed boy was guessing that whatever was upsetting Lynn this morning, had been only made far worse due to trying to force herself through school despite being injured.
"Lynn, you've been acting upset since this morning, and acting stranger for even longer, whatever it is, keeping it bottled up won't help. Please, tell me what's going on." Lincoln pleaded with Lynn to tell him what was weighing so heavily on her mind, she genuinely considered telling him the truth, but how would he react? She did not know if Lincoln would help her at all even, or if he would tell everyone in their family.
"You can't trust him; he'll stab you in the back the second he thinks you're not able to handle it." The depressed voice weighed in with their opinion of the mental scramble that was going on in Lynn's head. She felt her threshold being reached, she wanted to just break down on the spot, Lincoln could see her left hand was trembling despite her best efforts. The young boy reached down, taking her hand into his own in an attempt to reassure her.
"Please Lynn, I hate seeing you like this." Lincoln repeated his request, she hesitantly gazed at her little brother, her eyes meeting his, while his expression was nothing short of genuine concern, her eyes held nothing other than desperation.
"How many times has he screwed not just you, but your other sister's just for his own selfish needs? He doesn't care about you, the only thing he wants, is to make sure you won't make his life harder." The depressed voice only got stronger; Lynn felt like her heart was about to explode with how hard it was beginning to pound against her chest. The white-haired boy was starting to see water welling up within his older sister's eyes, he did not get a chance to speak.
"I-I need someone to help me, Lincoln. I just can't tell you here, or at home..." Lynn had to force herself to speak, her voice being shaky, she was not sure she could trust Lincoln fully with this, she knew her brother was the one that knew everyone in the Loud family the best, he might be the key to finding a solution to her split personality issue, and if not that, then he could at least assist her in keeping the voices suppressed.
"Alright, so you need somewhere private." Lincoln motioned for her to try and relax, while pondering on it momentarily, before an idea came to mind. "Oh, I know! The chemistry teacher's been a substitute for the last few days, and she leaves the second school lets out, we can talk there after school." The white-haired teen suggested, he noticed that it seemed like Lynn was no longer listening, like something had finally pushed her closer to that breaking point. What Lincoln was not aware of, was that the depressed personality had begun a long tirade in his older sister's head.
"A burden, that's all you are and ever will be."
"Every day your family wonders what kind of trouble you're going to cause next."
"Your teammates are happy you're gone, it'll let them actually have a chance to shine for a change."
"Wasting your brother's time on a hopeless cause? You really don't care."
"You don't deserve the help; you don't even deserve to breath."
"Y... Yeah... Chem class, after school... Got it." The sports loving Loud said, her gaze being rather vacant and hollow, her eyes not focusing on any one particular thing. Lincoln was scared from that look alone, he knew that she would not tell him anything without that assurance of privacy.
"Okay, just take it easy in the mean-time, please?" The comic book loving teen told his older sister, trying to be reassuring despite the fact he was terrified of whatever it was that was going on. Lynn was not the type to ever admit to needing help, so hearing even that much was plenty scary.
"Yeah... Thank you, Lincoln..." Lynn said, her voice becoming hollow, Lincoln decided not to press her, he began to walk away to get to the cafeteria, having missed a good portion of lunchtime already, he was not going to drag her along if she did not want to, and it was very apparent she did not want to eat right now.
Lynn couldn't handle the voice that was becoming prominent enough to drown out her own thoughts, her breathing was becoming ragged and her heart had not calmed down at all, the brunette knew if she did nothing then the depressed personality would take over, she did not want to know what would happen if that occurred either.
The 5th oldest Loud sibling turned back to her locker, placing her left hand in between it and the door. Not hesitating whatsoever in slamming the locker as hard as she could onto her hand, Lynn had to bite her lip as a small cry of pain escaped her, an overwhelming sense of agony shooting up her entire arm from the subsequent impact. She panted, falling onto one knee. After a moment, she wrenched her hand free from the locker and looked at it, seeing the large bruise now on her limb.
Lynn had a smile of relief appearing on her face, there was finally peace and quiet in her head once again. She groaned, still feeling the pain in her hand, standing up and wandering away, planning on going to the nurse's office to quickly get patched up, before just heading to her next class early in a vague hope that it will somehow speed up the remaining school day.