Authors Note: I wanted to say thank you all for the support, the 4500 views, the follows favs and reviews are all greatly appreciated, I really had no confidence when I started this story, though you all have made me far more confident in my writings now, even if I am slow at updating. Thank you all again. I should also note this chapter contains Stellacoln and Clynn themes.
For Lynn, life had a feigned sense of normalcy for the next 2 days, after dealing with Jake she went straight home and passed out, she had been able to lower any worries her family had with relative ease. Lincoln of course was not happy at all with her, but did not hold it against his sports loving sibling given the urgency of the situation, that did not stop him from giving her an earful for it though. Adrian and Brell had dropped by the practice location the next day to apologize to Luna's whole band and explain the situation in full, Luna was pleasantly surprised at the action, Lincoln was still shocked that they actually did apologize, given how their meeting had gone, he was merely happy when Lynn's name didn't come up at all out of pure luck. Jake had seemingly gone missing, nobody knew where he went, it was as if he just turned to dust in the wind. In that timeframe Lisa and Lana had succeeded in the last of the repairs, Luna Sam and Sully were all extremely grateful to have all their instruments repaired, unfortunately Lynn had forgotten Sam's hug strength when receiving thanks the last time, getting a spine crushingly strong reminder.
Lynn had made one of her bigger steps that night two days ago however, the acceptance of her spilt personalities being a part of her, that did not mean she was happy with them, it made the sporty Loud feel far more ashamed, and if anything, it only made Lynn question everything she thought she knew about herself even more, it felt like any progress she achieved was drowned in confusion in trade. Hearing the audio recording Lincoln had made while talking to the maternal personality only added onto said confusion, neither really discussed it any further since Lynn more or less fled from the conversation with excuses, not that her brother blamed her.
Today, Lynn was trying to get through school like normal, she had been able to get through classes with relative ease, she was able to suppress the depressed personality with the use of a simple pushpin, whenever it would speak, Lynn would simply jab it into some part of her hand while hiding the action under her desk, the brunette had to withstand the pain enough to not make any noise as well, though it was nothing compared to some of the pain she had been dealing with lately.
Lynn currently found herself walking through the halls, it was lunchtime at the moment, the sports loving Loud was heading to the cafeteria, there was a rather excited mood in the school today, she had no clue why, it just seemed like many were in a very good mood seemingly at random. When the brunette got to the cafeteria, she couldn't see any of her friends there currently, Lynn guessed they were off doing various other things in the glorified free time that was given with lunch.
"Hey, Lynn! Over here!" She heard Lincoln's familiar voice call out, seeing the white-haired boy waving her over, being sat at a rather small table off to the right of the room, with Clyde and Stella sat at it too. Lynn shrugged, guessing a lot of his friends weren't around either, after getting her tray of food the sporty Loud joined them at their table, taking a seat opposite of her brother.
"Hey Lynn, how goes it?" Clyde greeted her, he looked pretty happy to be seeing her again, Lynn did not understand why, though guessed it was just because of the fact they had gotten closer unintentionally, the brunette seeing Stella give a small wave of greeting, clearly nervous. The raven-haired girl had never really met much of the Loud family, having only really encountered one or two of them personally, aside from Lincoln and Lynn, she had seen the many siblings around town, though given the reputation that the sports loving Loud had, it did little to help the tall girl relax in her presence, her nickname was Lynn-sanity for a reason after all.
"I'm doing okay." Lynn replied while digging her fork into the tray of the food in front of her. "Do any of you know why everyone is acting so excited today? It's been going on all day." She attempted to inquire, becoming rather curious since the usual chatter of the cafeteria also seemed pretty abundant.
"Oh, that's cause of Chandler again. He's hosting some party tomorrow night." Lincoln rolled his eyes at the mere mention of the name, Chandler was known as more or less being the party king of their school now, he would always host some big extravagant party a few times a year, with any excuse he could get, it was near impossible to get an invitation, Lincoln and Clyde had tried their best a few years back once, though gave up when realizing it was just not worth the trouble. As far as Lincoln cared, Chandler was a wannabe bully at best who took advantage of people until they were no longer of any use to him.
"Yeah, everyone is talking like he's bringing something that'll make this party better than all the rest. I couldn't care less." Clyde added with what he had been hearing, all four of the students sat at the table seemed to have the same level of interest in this party, nearly zero.
"Rusty and Liam have spent all day trying to get invited, I haven't seen them since this morning." Stella commented, that was where those two had gone primarily, it was why it was just the three of them at the table before Lynn showed up.
"Guess that explains where my friends went." Lynn stated, assuming most of them were in a similar position of attempting to get ahold of those party invitations. The brunette could not deny, a party sounded like it would be a great change of pace compared to the agonizingly boring routine, being benched from all sport related activities for another week did little to help that boredom either.
While the four enjoyed the small talk with one another, eating their lunch idly while trying to pass the time, Lynn tried to get to know Stella a little better, though any attempts at conversation with her did not go far, actually Lincoln seemed to be the one that communicated best with the taller girl, it did not take long for the 5th oldest Loud to tell that the two were closer than they let on.
"I'm telling you; my stuff has been disappearing for the last few days now! Every morning I wake up and something different is gone." Lincoln told his best friend, Lynn quirked a brow at hearing that, she knew his toothbrush had gone missing, though had been unaware of anything else disappearing. At first, Lincoln thought Luan was behind it, however he gave up on that idea when realizing she did not like pranks that took a long time to manifest results, she didn't have the patience for it.
"Are you sure you just aren't imagining it?" Clyde responded in confusion; it sounded more like just coincidence. The bucktooth boy pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration at not being believed, he leaned back in his seat.
"I thought I was, but I keep finding proof of people being in my room at night, even with my door locked." The middle Loud sibling sighed, now understanding why Lori got upset whenever someone went into her and Leni's room without permission, he had to confess, the irony was not lost on him given the fact their room had became his own.
"How can you tell?" Stella asked, intercepting the question that Lynn herself was about to ask, the sporty Loud remaining quiet and just taking another forkful of food and stuffing it in her mouth.
"I put tape on my door and the doorframe, not a lot, just enough so that I know when the doors been opened or not." Lincoln explained what he had done, it was a simple yet clever method to find out if someone really was sneaking into his room, the tape would be no longer attached to either the door or the frame as firmly if it was opened.
"The first night I put the tape on the door, sure enough it had been opened, I put some on my door last night too, and it happened again. The lock doesn't do anything either." the Loud boy finished his explanation there, it was starting to make him feel unsafe in his sleep, it would be one thing if his door was simply being opened, he could pass that off for a number of reasons, the fact his personal belongings were gradually disappearing did little to help, nothing of any value was vanishing though, as if the thief did not want him to notice the items disappearing to begin with.
"Wait, seriously? Why didn't you tell me?" Lynn asked, finding it rather insulting that he did not confide in her with this problem, given how her only brother vehemently insisted she not lie to him about anything going on if it involved her split personalities. Lincoln rubbed his arm nervously, understanding her frustration.
"Because he doesn't trust us, that's why." The depressed personality spoke, the auburn-haired girl ignoring it for the time being, she had left her pushpin in her backpack, she did not feel safe keeping it in her pocket after one too many accidental pricks.
"You already have a rough time sleeping lately. I knew if I told you that you'd stay up all night to catch whoever was doing it." Lincoln answered, having mostly kept secret until now due to his own lack of success in figuring out the culprit that was trespassing into his room these last few days. Lynn crossed her arms and huffed, already making plans tonight to catch the thief.
"So, what went missing last night?" Stella tried to intervene in the conversion, feeling the tension slightly increasing, she did not want to see the sibling's fight.
"The socks I was wearing." Lincoln said with zero hesitation, Clyde stifled a laugh hearing that, Lynn failed to resist laughing, even Stella could not fight the small grin breaking out on her face, it sounded so ridiculous to imagine someone going through all that effort just for a pair of socks.
"Seriously? They stole your socks?" Lynn chuckled, her brother nodded, insisting he was not mistaken.
"And the coffee cup I had on my desk the night before that." The middle Loud sibling said, personally, he was annoyed and disturbed by the situation, having two of his dearest friends and one of his closest sister's laughing at him did little to brighten his mood.
"So, someone's taken your toothbrush, your coffee mug, and your socks... Why?" Clyde found it too random to even begin making sense of it, Lynn and Stella were in similar agreement on the confusion, as funny as it sounded, it did not make it any less weird, the white-haired teenager throwing a hand up with a shrug, he was very interested in knowing that answer himself.
"This is so boring, let's just take go outside, take Lincoln under the bleachers and see what happens." The obsessed personality jeered in boredom, Lynn just did not listen to it, she still felt awkward whenever she had to ask Lincoln for a hug just to suppress that split personality. Even after privately explaining her reasoning behind it and him insisting it was perfectly fine, she still felt strange doing it.
"Hey, Loud!" The small group at the table suddenly heard, Lincoln and Clyde both recognized the voice too easily, Lynn and Stella could see a freckle faced auburn-haired boy standing there, wearing a yellow coat with a green undershirt. Chandler McCann, the party king of school more or less, he was always a rather well known boy in school since he was young, though upon entering high school, Chandler had only gotten more popular due to the fact it seemed like each party was a step up from the last.
"Ugh, what do you want, Chandler?" Lincoln half-heartedly responded, not really in the mood to deal with whatever the glorified bully wanted, he did take notice of a lack of Chandler's usual posse of goons.
"Yeah, we're trying to enjoy lunch." Clyde stated, in a similar mindset of his best friend.
"I don't care about you, loser, it's her I need to talk to, alone." Chandler scoffed at the two before pointing a thumb to Lynn, who could only blink in surprise hearing that, the most the sporty Loud had interacted with him in the past was during her hall monitor days when it felt like an infinite uphill battle to deal with Chandler, one she gave up on since it was always a waste of time.
"Forget it, whatever you want it can't be good." Stella tried to say on Lynn's behalf, though before the McCann boy could respond, the four saw Lynn stand up from her seat at the table, stretching.
"Fine, I'll hear you out." The girl with the ponytail agreed, stepping over towards the party lover, only to be stopped when her brother grabbed her wrist.
"Seriously Lynn? He just wants something from you." Lincoln claimed, he could not believe his sister was even considering this, whatever Chandler wanted there was no possible way it was good, Clyde was hoping he was not about to see another fight break out, still partially shocked from seeing how merciless Lynn could be in a brawl.
"Yeah, and no one will feel bad or care if he winds up missing a few teeth." The aggressive personality sounded eager to have an all too willing victim to take their anger out on.
"He might be a jerk Lincoln, but even he's not stupid enough to try and mess with me." Lynn told her only brother taking his hand off of hers, insisting it would be fine, the 5th oldest Loud beginning to follow Chandler out of the cafeteria. Lincoln held his head, today was already stressful enough, it was not even half over yet, he still dreaded this afternoon when Lynn was supposed to inform Lisa of the truth of her split personalities issue. Clyde found it rather weird how mature the older Loud was being, Lynn wasn't exactly known for being the best at following logic or thinking things through that deeply.
Lynn found herself standing outside with Chandler, at one of the side entrances to their school. She was surprised it was just them, she had half anticipated the party king of their school to have his personal minions with him at all times. Though the actual surprising part came when she heard what it was that he wanted from her.
"You want me... To be your bodyguard?" Lynn repeated, finding it rather hard to believe, though Chandler had eased up now that they were not being watched by public eyes, he was actually pretty tolerable so far. Lynn found it actually flattering that someone was turning to her for her strength, though she never imagined it would be him of all people.
"Yeah, at my party. I found this in my locker this morning." Chandler took an envelope out of his pocket, handing it over to girl with the ponytail. On the front of it was a few words written down, it read 'You're dead meat!' The 5th oldest Loud opened the envelope, taking out the small letter written within, beginning to give it a once-over.
"You screwed up Chandler, you think I'm going to forgive you after what you did? No, you ruined someone's life! Enjoy this party cause it's going to be your last by the time I'm done with you!" The letter read, it was clearly written down in a hasty rage, the words looked very hard pressed against the page, as if the pen used had almost pierced the paper itself.
"Alright, what'd you do?" Lynn questioned Chandler with an unamused expression on her face, while stuffing the letter back into its envelope, she imagined the list of people that the party loving boy had angered was probably as long as the school building itself.
"Hey, if I knew who I pissed off and why, I'd have already made nice with them just to make my life easier." Chandler retorted while stuffing the threatening message away in his pocket once again. The McCann boy hated problems coming around during any of his parties, he usually was a lot more willing to work with others on getting whatever it was that he wanted, just because it was a lot less of a headache. Lynn could tell he was not lying to her, and she knew he would definitely not be nearly as relaxed as he was if he had ruined someone else's life like the letter claimed.
"Don't go to the bathroom or walk home alone, that's the best advice I got for you." Lynn shrugged, she turned her back to him and was about to leave, only for Chandler to quickly run around to get in front of her again, she was impressed at his speed, making a note of it, in case her track team ever needed a new pair of legs on it.
"Loud, come on, you know why I'm asking you for help. Rumor has it you're the one that destroyed Tyler and Brandon, and those two even give my friends a run for their money in a fight." Chandler insisted she help him, hearing the two be mentioned made Lynn freeze in place, had one of them blabbed? She thought her aggressive personality had made it readily apparent what would happen if either of them spoke about the fight.
"I don't know anything about that." Lynn instinctively deflected in response to that rumor, that was pretty much enough confirmation for Chandler to the exact opposite of her claim. She guessed that it was just natural word of mouth in their school that had spread it, because as far as she was aware, Tyler was still in the hospital, and Brandon was too scared to come to school currently.
"Don't be so heartless, look how desperate he is, a man like this has to be really scared if he is turning to you for help. The bigger person would help out someone like this, no matter how bad they were." The maternal personality pointed out, Lynn rolled her eyes while trying to ignore the head pain, as well as the overwhelming desire to just take this opportunity to give Chandler a black eye as well for all the trouble he had given her and her little brother in the past.
"A party sounds fun! We can get Lincy to take us too, it'll be great." The obsessed personality giggled, sounding more energetic at the mere concept of that than anything.
"I'll do anything, I just need some muscle and an extra pair of eyes at the party. I've spent a lot of money on this, and I had to do even more favors than I want to admit to get it done." Chandler pleaded, making it clear how desperate he was, Lynn found herself tapping her foot in consideration, she groaned in frustration, both at him and the voices in her head. She hated him, but ignoring someone that was begging for her help was not her style either.
"Alright, I'll do it, but only if you give me three extra invites to the party." Lynn offered to him, in trade for her strength she wanted to at least make sure there were others she actually liked at this party, just so she would not suffer alone in case it was a total blowout, the sports loving Loud was not the biggest party fan, not for the kinds Chandler hosted at least.
"Are you serious?" Chandler crossed his arms, it was a rather bold request on her part, no one had ever finessed him for extra party invites before, unfortunately he had no leverage in this situation.
"Hey, you wanted someone to protect you, did you really expect me to do it for free?" Lynn rhetorically asked, there was a few moments of pondering on Chandler's part, he sighed, reaching into his backpack and taking out four small envelopes that held the party invitations, he held them out to her between two of his fingers.
"Fine, just try not to bring any really big losers or killjoys with you." He said, Lynn had a cocky smirk on her face as she took the invitations from him.
"You got it boss." Lynn jokingly winked, as much as the McCann boy disliked her right now, he had to internally confess that he felt at ease knowing she would be there. "By the way, what's so special about this party?" She had to ask, thinking it would be better to find out in advanced rather than later on.
"Sorry but if I spill the surprise to you, then somehow everyone'll know, party starts at 7pm tomorrow, address is in the invitations." Chandler ducked her inquiry, with the agreement made, he made his leave, there was probably only ten minutes left before lunch ended and they had to be at their next classes, Lynn looked down at the four invitations in her hand.
"I better go tell Lincoln; he'll be even madder with me if I drop this on him last minute." Lynn thought to herself, not wanting to risk making her brother more irritated with her than he currently was, she smiled while pocketing the invitations before heading back inside to return to the cafeteria. The sports loving Loud hoped that the letter Chandler received was nothing more than someone making empty threats, though she could tell how much hatred was behind its creation, she had no clue really what to expect tomorrow night, all the brunette knew was that spending the night at a party instead of trying to tolerate the voices in her head sounded like a very refreshing change of pace.
When Lynn got back to the cafeteria, she could see Stella was gone, presumably to get to class early while Lincoln and Clyde remained to just enjoy the last of their lunchtime. The two boys took notice of the sporty Loud the second she returned however.
"Is everything alright, Lynn?" Clyde worriedly asked, she had been gone for a long time, he half anticipated Lincoln's sister to return covered in bruise, or that they would find an ambulance for Chandler outside.
"What'd Chandler want?" Lincoln questioned as well, the only reason he had not gone looking for his sister when she did not initially return was at the insistence of his best friend. That was when they saw Lynn take out the party invitations, she tossed one to Clyde and then her brother.
"He wanted a bodyguard at his party, that's all." Lynn declared, looking rather proud of herself at the moment.
"No way..." Clyde blinked, staring at it in wide eyed surprise, having never expected to be holding one of these in his entire life.
"And you managed to get him to give you extra invites? Holy cow." Lincoln had to agree with his practical brother of a best friend, it was equally as amazing to him, as far as the white-haired teen could tell his older sibling was not hiding anything either, though now he was worried about what Chandler needed a bodyguard for at his party.
"He gave me three extra invites, I wanted to give one to Stella, buuuut..." Lynn held out the other extra invitation to her only brother. "I think you should do it." She hummed teasingly, Lincoln knew what she was implying, the bucktooth boy beginning to feel nervous as result.
"Come on, I know you like her, and she likes you, just be bold and brave." Lynn insisted, Lincoln looking to his best friend, as if looking for permission, their friend group had rather unanimously agreed to not try to make a move on Stella unless she made one on them first, though that was rather shaky now since Rusty tried and failed spectacularly a year ago.
"Are you serious? That tall broad doesn't even see him that way!" The obsessed personality screamed in disbelief, it felt like someone just hit Lynn in the head again with how much pain she felt in her skull, the sporty Loud did not react though, she suppressed any signs of the pain, trying to remain calm.
"Ugh, fine, but only if you don't cower out from talking to Lisa tonight." Lincoln took the extra invitation from his older sister, Lynn looked nervous herself now, last night they were supposed to talk to Lisa about the split personalities, the sports loving Loud had avoided it by working out until she nearly passed out from exhaustion, needless to say, it did not increase her standing with the white-haired boy.
"Guess I can't avoid it forever... Alright." Lynn exhaled, giving in. With that said, Lincoln took the extra invitation, standing up and hurrying off to go catch up to Stella while he had the chance. The brunette felt happy knowing he was going to try again at love, given he had already struck out twice in that area. Lynn had an idea last night about how to protect Lincoln from the obsessed split personality, thinking that maybe if Lincoln had a girlfriend, that he would be safer from it, plus a vague hope that maybe it would give up on him subsequently. Though even Lynn had to admit to herself, it was a ridiculously far stretch.
"You sure that's a good idea, Lynn? Your family meddling in his love life is what made Ronnie Anne dump him." Clyde questioned if this was the best idea, he understood her perspective, if he had a chance to help nudge his friend into a happy relationship, he would take it too. Lynn guessed the Santiago girl was no longer exactly in Lincoln's friend group, he had tried to keep things casual between them, though the memories of what they once had was enough to make Ronnie Anne avoid them for the most part.
"I'm doing it to help Lincoln, at his age he needs someone he can be affectionate with." Lynn replied while sitting on the table, she did want to make sure her brother was taken care of, there was a lot he could not talk to his family about, which meant he had to turn to his friends usually, having a significant other was someone you could share far more with than you could with anyone else.
"Hey uh, since you're playing cupid today..." The glasses wearing boy cleared his throat, trying to speak, though he sounded nervous, the brunette raising an eyebrow as she looked to him.
"W-Would you like to go to the party with me?" Clyde nervously requested, there was a brief pause as Lynn processed what he was saying.
"Clyde, are you asking me to be your date to the party?" The 5th oldest Loud needed him to clarify what he was saying, unsure if she could believe what she was hearing, she could see how embarrassed Clyde was about this.
"If I say yes, are you going to hit me?" Clyde swallowed, assuming he was going to be shot down extremely hard, and making Lynn mad in the process was definitely the biggest risk he was scared of.
"Bahahaha! Oh my god, this is so pathetic." The obsessed personality was laughing at him, even if he could not hear it, Lynn still felt bad for him. Just another downside of accepting these personalities as a part of herself, knowing that some part of her actually held these thoughts made her feel terrible.
"He's only asking because he feels sorry for you..." The depressed personality continued; the brunette drummed her fingers on her leg as she tried to think on what he was saying, Lynn sighed.
"Screw it, why not?" Lynn hopped off the table, beginning to walk away to get to her next class, it took Clyde a moment before he actually registered what she said, quickly getting up and darting after her.
"Wait! For real?!" He asked with a bright smile on his face, following the sporty Loud through the hall.
"Yeah, you're not nearly as big of a wuss as I thought you were, plus I sort of owe you one so, why not?" Lynn responded, while trying to simply ignore the obsessed split personality in her head, it seemed her agreeing to this date had set it off the deep end even further, her head felt like it was going to explode, yet the brunette had trouble understanding it, it felt more like it was giving off a constant static scream in disapproval, she wished Lincoln was here right now so he could help suppress it. "Just don't act weird, alright? Be yourself, it's just a regular party and nothing more." Lynn implored him to just be himself, not to treat this like some fancy dinner date, while actively resisting digging her own nails into her skull since the pain was only increasing with each passing second.
"Thank you, Lynn, you won't regret it! I'll pick you up at 6 tomorrow." Clyde excitedly promised to not disappoint her, she was the last person he wanted to get on the bad side of after all. The two split up at that point, the brunette kept going, wanting to just get to her next class now. She did want to check on Lincoln, or more truthfully, spy on how his efforts to ask Stella out went as well, but the sports loving girl was not able to bring herself to do it, out of fear of making that obsessed personality lose control even more, she could tell it was a bad idea. Lynn decided to just focus on trying to get through what was left of the school day, suddenly looking forward to talking to Lisa now.
Lincoln had been able to catch Stella at her locker, she was rather surprised to see him at first, all that confidence he had initially was faltering faster than anticipated. "H-Hey Stella, uhm, I need to ask you something." The middle Loud sibling began, rubbing his neck nervously.
"Sure Lincoln, what's up?" Stella smiled, always able to make time for him, whenever she had trouble with homework or any class specifically, she would always turn to Lincoln for help usually, even for problems unrelated to school the white-haired teen was clever and kind in many situations. The tall girl blinked when he suddenly presented a letter to her face, she took it in confusion.
"I'm asking you to go out with me." Lincoln came straight out and said it, recalling his older sister's insistence at being brave and bold, instead of being cowardly, it was how he had gotten his first girlfriend after all, even if that had not ended well his sister's advice tended to not be that bad.
"An invite to Chandler's party? Lincoln how did you manage to get these?" Stella chirped in surprise, he did not answer, there was an anxiety inducing freeze in the conversation as she pondered on it. "Lincoln, you're sweet, and have a really big heart... But I don't know, I'm not really interested in dating or having a boyfriend." The tall girl initially replied, she saw the bucktooth boy weakly laugh hearing that.
"Do you remember valentine's day? You got a ton of letters, but one was slipped in your bag." Lincoln started, asking if she could recall anything about the events of earlier this year on valentine's day, as much as he appreciated the compliments from her, he wasn't going to back down without giving it a real try though, even if it meant embarrassing himself in the process.
"Huh? Well... Yeah, I found it weird, most of the letters I got that day were either put in my locker or on my desk, except that one." Stella nodded; she could not really forget that letter either, simply due to how strange it had been.
"And in that letter was a really, REALLY awful poem, and was unsigned, right?" Lincoln continued, seeing Stella nod slowly, he held his head, looking hesitant to continue, his nerves were getting tattered the longer it took him to say it. "That was from me, I forgot to sign it because I stayed up all night writing it over, and over again. I was too scared to tell you that I was the one who gave it to you though, because I knew just how bad it was." The bucktooth boy declared; he could see Stella starting to snicker, finding his sheepish behavior cute.
"You aren't wrong, it was pretty bad." Stella tried not to laugh, not wanting to be rude during such a moment, though it was hard to resist, merely recalling it was enough to make her uncontrollably giggle. Lincoln felt his gaze drifting to the floor. "It was bad, but it was heartfelt." The raven-haired girl continued, she put the party invitation away.
"I'm still not sure about having a boyfriend..." Stella continued as she closed her locker. Lincoln sighed, guessing he could take solace in the fact he tried his best and admitted to writing one of the worst poems in existence. "But a date or two doesn't sound bad. Sure, I'd be happy to go with you." Stella warmly smiled, deciding that maybe it was not a bad idea to see what would happen if she tried to get closer to someone.
"Really?" Lincoln blinked in surprise, having expected to be shot down, albeit gently, he knew that a friendship could never be the same once one or the other tried to turn it into anything more.
"Really, I'll meet you after school tomorrow, we can hang out until the party." Stella hummed, finding his astonishment rather cute, she leaned into him and gave him a gentle hug, Lincoln felt his heartrate picking up as result, when they broke apart, she gave him a wink before beginning to make her way to her next class.
"Wow, I was expecting to crash and burn." Lincoln confessed to himself, he was not complaining though, that pent up irritation was pretty swiftly abated now. "I'll have to thank Lynn later." Lincoln smiled, that was when the sound of the bell ringing caught his attention, and he remembered he had to go fetch one of his books from his locker for science class. He hurried off, while he was thankful for Lynn's not so gentle nudge towards asking Stella out, Lincoln was still worried about whatever trouble Chandler was dragging his sister into. For now, he just wanted to focus on today's tasks for the time being.