So, some events in this story will conflict with some stuff seen in the recent episode The Taunting Hour. But, this story was like 98% complete by the time I saw that episode, and I don't want to change it. The conflict isn't all that big, anyway. So, without further ado, here's a story featuring Lincoln and Luan!
Party Downer
On a crisp, clear Saturday morning, Lincoln Loud and his older sister Luan were standing outside on the driveway beside their home. They had a small, red wagon next to them that Lincoln was slowly filling with various props as Luan checked them off on a list attached to a clipboard.
"Okay, roller skates?" she asked.
"Check," replied Lincoln, placing said items into the cart.
"Rainbow wig?"
"Check."
"Banana cream pies?"
"A stack of two dozen, fresh from the oven this morning!"
"Foam canisters?"
"Uh… how many should there be? I have five here..." said Lincoln, holding them up.
"Five should be enough for today. I'll have to remember to buy some more before next weekend though." observed Luan as Lincoln placed the canisters into the cart.
Luan went back to the clipboard. "Balloons?"
"Two packs of fifty regular ones for decoration in ten colours, one pack of fifty long ones for balloon animals, four colours." said Lincoln.
Luan nodded before saying "Remind me to get the modelling ones in more colours next time. I'm getting too many kids complaining that they can't have a giraffe in purple, pink or orange."
"Noted," said Lincoln, putting the packs of balloons onto the wagon.
"Do you have everything in your magic kit?"
"I think so, let me check." Lincoln picked up the small black case he kept his magic props in and opened it. "Let's see… top hat, magic wand, playing cards, smoke pellets, prop flowers, multi-coloured handkerchiefs, saw… oh, wait. I don't need that one."
He took the saw out of the case and set it aside. By mutual agreement, Lincoln and Luan had decided against the magic trick where he pretended to saw someone in half. The kids they were performing for were mostly between six and seven years old and they didn't want to risk upsetting them with that trick.
"Well, that's everything that should be in the case..." said Lincoln, shutting it again and putting it onto the wagon. "Now I just need the magic wardrobe..."
"Here it is," said Luan, picking up a wooden crate. The wardrobe was flat-packed inside and would require assembling once they arrived at their destination. Thankfully it was a relatively simple thing to put together.
"Thanks," said Lincoln, taking the crate from her. "And you're okay with me borrowing Gary?"
"No problem at all," said Luan, holding up a cage containing a white rabbit. They put the crate and the cage onto the wagon. "Well, that's nearly everything..." Luan continued, examining the clipboard again. "I just need to get my unicycle out of the garage, and the bag of whoopee cushions is still up in my room."
"You get the unicycle, I'll grab the whoopee cushions," said Lincoln, turning to make his way to the front door of the house.
"And tell the twins to hurry up and get ready, will ya?" Luan called after him. "We need to get there in plenty of time to set things up."
Lincoln gave her a thumbs up as he entered the front door of the house. Fortunately he did not have to look far to find the twins as both Lana and Lola were coming down the stairs, all dressed for the party they were to attend. The only thing either of them were missing was their shoes.
"Guys, hurry up and put your shoes on, please." he said as he hurried past them and over towards the staircase. "As soon as I grab the whoopee cushions from Luan's room, we need to get going."
"Fine," grumbled Lana.
Lola, meanwhile, protested "But Charlie's party doesn't start for another two hours. I still don't understand why we have to get there so early!"
Lincoln pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing in frustration as he explained, yet again, why they were getting there so early. "It's because Luan and I need to have plenty of time to set things up. And with Mom, Dad, Leni, Luna and Lynn all out of the house today there is no one here to wait at home with you and bring you over later."
"You could always leave us here on our own and come back to get us later." suggested Lana with a grin.
"Yeah, that's never going to happen," replied her brother, sternly. "Now come on. Shoes on, please. And where are the presents you're bringing?"
"Oh, they're still up in our room," said Lana. "I'll go get them."
"No, I'll get them, it's fine," countered Lincoln. "You two just put your shoes on."
At the top of the stairs he turned right towards Lana and Lola's room and went inside to find the two presents. Both were in the shape of small, square boxes. Lola's was wrapped in bright pink paper with plenty of glitter over it and was done up with a red ribbon. Lana's was wrapped in a newspaper from three days ago, the wrapping held together with poorly placed duct tape and, in at least one corner, chewed gum.
Lincoln groaned in annoyance. That glitter was going to get everywhere, while the gum was just gross. He would have to sort this out quickly. He grabbed both presents, stacking one on top of the other and tucking them under his left arm before leaving the room and heading down the hallway to the room Luan shared with Luna.
Inside he found the net-bag of whoopee cushions on the floor at the foot of Luna and Luan's bunk beds. He grabbed the bag and slung it over his shoulder before making his way back downstairs, where he found that the twins were still putting their shoes on.
"Hurry up, please," he said before placing the items he was carrying on the floor. He then made his way over to the small end table that sat between the couch and the armchair in the living room. Careful to not knock over the red lamp that sat on top of it, Lincoln opened the topmost of the two drawers. Here his mother kept a supply of wrapping paper and decorative gift bags. Finding two of said gift bags, he took them and shut the drawer before turning back to the presents. He put Lola's present in the first bag, thus taking care of the glitter problem. Then he ripped the newspaper off of Lana's gift and placed the toy train into the other bag.
He handed the gift bags to their respective twin and turned to put the newspaper wrappings in the nearest bin. By now the twins had succeeded in getting their shoes on, so he picked up the bag of whoopee cushions once again and ordered them out through the front door.
Once they were outside they found Luan waiting for them, wearing a yellow bicycle helmet and holding a unicycle. "Everyone ready?" she asked.
"Finally." groaned Lincoln in mild exasperation.
Luan got onto her unicycle and found her balance before taking the bag of whoopee cushions from Lincoln. The boy then grabbed the handle of the props wagon and began pulling it, the twins walking on either side of him, carrying their gifts while Luan led the way on her unicycle.
All in all it was nearly a half-hour walk to their destination, though Lincoln could easily have made the journey in twenty minutes were it not for pulling the prop wagon and maintaining a slower speed that allowed the twins to easily keep up.
They entered what might be considered a richer part of the town. The homes looked a little more grandiose, with far more land surrounding each home than the properties on Franklin Avenue. Each house had a white fence acting as the boundary to the front of the property, high enough that Lincoln had to stand on tip-toe to see over the top of them. The rest of each property was surrounded by brick walls with a dark red hue, eight feet high to ensure privacy. Most of the houses had paved front yards with borders of perfectly maintained shrubbery.
The whole street seemed more up-market than the home that Lincoln's best friend Clyde lived in with his dads. In short, the houses around here put those in Franklin Avenue to shame, and that went doubly so for the slightly more ramshackle house that the Loud family inhabited.
"Let's see..." said Luan as she passed by the houses. "That's number 1312… 1314… here we are. 1316. This is the one."
She opened up one of the gates and led the group towards the front door. As they went, Lincoln suddenly realised exactly where they were.
"Hey, this is Girl Jordan's house," he observed out loud.
His sisters paused and gave him funny looks. "Girl Jordan?" asked Lola. "Why do you call her that?"
"Because there are two people with the name Jordan in sixth grade. We call the boy one Boy Jordan and the girl one Girl Jordan." replied Lincoln, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world.
Lola looked entirely unsatisfied with that answer, but before she could ask him anything else, Luan cut in. "Seriously Lola? Lincoln brings up a girl in conversation and that's the question you ask him?"
"Ooh! You're right!" said Lola in realisation before turning back to her brother. "Is she pretty?"
"Aaand I'm done with this conversation," said Lincoln, pushing past the three girls and continuing on towards the front door of the house.
Luan followed after her brother, laughing as she went. Lola, meanwhile, leaned towards her twin and said conspiratorially "That means she is pretty."
The tomboy frowned and replied "Or she's ugly and Lincoln is too polite to say so."
Luan got to the front door first and knocked. Moments later it was opened by a girl about the same age as Lincoln. She had light brown hair tied back in a braid, a small blue bow in her hair and pearl earrings in her ears.
Lana leaned towards Lola and said quietly "Okay, you were right."
"Well, hi there," said Luan, cheerfully. "We're Funny Business Inc., where your fun is our business. We're here for the birthday party."
"Oh good," said Jordan. "Mom said to expect you soon. She said I should show you to – Lincoln?" She broke off in surprise upon realising her classmate was there, her view of him having initially been blocked by a combination of Luan and the tower of assorted props in the red wagon.
"Hi, Girl Jordan," he greeted, pleasantly.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm with Funny Business. Luan here is the owner, the clown and the mime. I'm the assistant and occasional magician."
"Oh, that's cool! I didn't realise you did this. Well, come on. I'll show you where you can set up out back."
Rather than try and manoeuvre the props wagon through the house, Jordan led them around the side of the property and out to the back yard. Here, there was a large swimming pool, complete with diving board and slide. Lincoln gave an involuntary shudder at the sight, something that caught the attention of his sisters, with Luan immediately asking him what was wrong.
"I just don't have the best memories of the last time I was here..." he replied, to which Jordan gave a laugh.
"Well, if it makes you feel better, Ajax is going to be inside for the duration. Just don't leave your clothes lying around, you know, in case he manages to get out."
Luan gave Lincoln a funny look. "Do I even want to know?"
"It was a pool party!" Lincoln said, defensively.
Jordan giggled and led the group around the pool. Thankfully she refrained from mentioning that Lincoln had been in his tighty-whiteys rather than a pair of swimming trunks. Luan Loud did not need that kind of ammunition at her disposal, thank you very much!
Away from the pool there were grassy areas and a small outbuilding where pool equipment was stored. Just down from the outbuilding, against the wall, a stage made out of wooden pallets and sheets of wood had already been set up along with a tall, wooden frame from which they could drape colourful curtains and bunting for decoration. Luan had arranged for the items to be delivered by a courier the previous day.
"Well, here we are," said Jordan. "My dad put all of this together last night. He was supposed to be here to help you get set up but he got called into work for an urgent patient consultation, so I'm afraid you will have to make do with just me for now."
"Well, I hope you're feelin' strong, toots," said Luan as she took a large duffel bag off of the wagon. "This stuff isn't light."
"Toots?" asked Jordan, cocking an eyebrow.
"Just be glad the puppet isn't here," Lincoln muttered to her as he lifted the crate containing his magic wardrobe off the wagon. "Lana, I'm gonna need your help with this."
"On it!" the tomboy twin said with enthusiasm, producing a hammer from… well.. somewhere!
"No, Lana! This thing screws together. We just need a screwdriver. No hammers!"
Her shoulders slumped with misery. "Oh, man!" But she set about helping anyway.
Meanwhile, Jordan set about helping Luan unfold the red curtains that would serve as the backdrop of the stage. Even Lola began helping out by unfurling the bunting which would be hung along the front of the stage.
Lincoln decided to strike up a conversation. "So, Girl Jordan, I'm guessing the birthday boy, Charlie, is your younger brother?"
She smiled at him and said "Lincoln, there's only one Jordan here right now. I think you can drop the Girl part."
"Uh, yeah, right," he said, blushing a little with embarrassment. "Sorry Jordan. I guess its just habit now."
"That's alright. And to answer your question, yes, Charlie is my brother. He's out with my mom and older sister right now getting a few snacks and things for the party and picking up the cake. Though they should be back any minute now." She pulled out her phone to check the time on it. "Actually, Mollie should be here soon as well..."
"Mollie's coming?" asked Lincoln.
"Yes, she's bringing her own brother, Tommy. He's Charlie's best friend. Mollie said she would bring him by early so they can hang out while she helps us to set up -" She was interrupted by her phone ringing. Looking at the screen she smiled and said "Speaking of..." before answering. "Hey, Mollie… No, we're around back setting up… Yeah, just come around."
Not a minute later, another female classmate of Lincoln's walked around the side of the house, accompanied by what must have been her younger brother. She was a brunette, her hair darker than Jordan's, and was wearing her usual attire of pink shirt, purple jacket and red skirt.
Jordan went to meet her friend while Tommy ran over to greet Lana and Lola. Lincoln did not hear what Jordan and Mollie said to each other but as the two approached the stage area, Mollie caught sight of him and broke out into a broad grin. "Hey, Lincoln! Not in your skivvies this time I see!"
Luan perked up at that. "Uh, what now?"
Lincoln sighed and made the introductions quick. "Luan, this is my classmate, Mollie. Mollie, this is my older sister, Luan."
"Pleased to meet ya!" said Luan brightly, holding out her hand.
"Likewise," replied Mollie, reaching out for said hand.
Knowing his sister as well as he did, Lincoln reached out and grabbed a hold of her wrist. "Hold it!" He inspected her hand and, as he had guessed, he found a buzzer there which would have given Mollie a shock had their hands touched.
"As I thought," said Lincoln, prizing the item away from Luan.
"Aww! You're no fun!" she pouted at him before turning back to Mollie. "So, I wanna know more about that "skivvies" comment..."
"You really don't..." said Lincoln as Jordan giggled at his expense.
"There's not much to know," said Mollie. "Jordan had a pool party, Lincoln didn't have his trunks so jumped in the pool in just his briefs."
"Oh, really?" asked Luan, turning to look at her brother with an expression that seemed to suggest she felt like Christmas, her birthday and April Fool's day had all come at once.
Lincoln clapped a hand over his eyes and groaned. "Mollie, you have no idea what kind of ammunition you have just given her!" He turned back to his sister. "It was just me and the guys. All the girls were at the other end of the pool. None of them were meant to see."
"Which reminds me," said Mollie, stepping up and putting an arm around Lincoln's shoulders. "You bailed before we could do the cannon ball contest."
"Because none of you girls were supposed to see me in my briefs." he reiterated.
"And how did that work out for you?" asked Jordan, playfully.
From the tone of each of their voices it was clear both girls were just messing with him, but Lincoln couldn't help the redness in his cheeks. "Clearly my actions were not very well thought out that day..."
"Lincoln, we're just messing with you," said Mollie. "Now come on, how can I help you guys set up? And how long have you been working as a clown for kids parties?"
"Actually, Luan here is the clown." explained Lincoln, glad of the change of subject. "And she owns the company. I'm just her assistant."
Luan was quick to correct him "Lincoln, you're my co-host. I promoted you, remember?" She turned to Mollie. "He's the magician."
"Like when you were in the school talent show?" asked Mollie.
"Exactly," said Luan. "I didn't realise how good Lincoln was getting with his magic tricks until I saw a recording of that talent show. After seeing that, promoting him was a no-brainer."
"That's cool," said Mollie. "So, come on. What do you need a hand with?"
"Actually, you can help me and Lana put the magic wardrobe together if you'd like," said Lincoln.
"A magic wardrobe?" asked Mollie. "It's not gonna lead us to a frozen landscape with talking lions and centaurs is it?"
Lincoln laughed. "No, no. Its just a simple trick wardrobe. Someone goes inside, I shut the door, say some magic words while they hide in the false compartment and the kids think I made them disappear."
"Hey, maybe you could make Jordan disappear?" suggested Mollie. "It's her little brother's birthday party after all. She should be involved."
"Sounds like a plan," said Lincoln.
Jordan grinned. "Okay, I'll do it."
As they set about putting the prop wardrobe together, Lincoln demonstrated how a large panel in the middle rotated. All Jordan would need to do after Lincoln closed the door was turn around with the panel and then simply wait until he did the spell to bring her back.
Soon the staging area and all the props were ready, and it was a good thing too as Jordan's mother and older sister, Jessie, had returned with the birthday boy, Jordan's father had returned from work and more than twenty kids ranging from six to seven years old were eagerly waiting for the show to start.
Behind one of the curtains, Luan put on her red nose before turning to Lincoln. "Everything set?"
"We're all good," he replied. "Let's go make some kids laugh."
Luan nodded, got onto her unicycle and pedalled out onto the stage while Lincoln pressed the play button on the laptop, allowing the circus music to play loudly through the speakers.
"Hey, Hey, Everybody!" Luan called out as she took centre stage in full clown getup. "I hear it's someone's birthday today…!"
The show went fantastically. The kids loved Luan's clown routines, even Lana and Lola who had seen it dozens of times thanks to Luan constantly practising at home. In his role as assistant, Lincoln's timing had never been better, tossing her balloons, water melons, banana peels, whoopee cushions and banana cream pies as and when they were needed.
Then Luan was off the stage and it was Lincoln's turn. A well placed smoke pellet disguised his entrance onto the stage. Any kid who didn't know better assumed he appeared out of the smoke. The resulting "Ooooh!" from the kids in the audience told him he had them in the palm of his hand and was soon performing one piece of magic after another, card tricks, disappearing items, pulling Gary the rabbit out of his supposedly empty top hat, the list went on.
The kids loved every second of it, and through it all, he could see Jordan and Mollie sitting at the back near the parents, recording the whole thing on their phones.
And then it was time. Luan wheeled out the wardrobe and Lincoln announced loudly "Now, for my last piece of magic today, I'm going to need a very special volunteer."
Several kids raised their hands, waving them frantically as Lincoln made a show of looking around the audience before finally landing on Jordan.
"Aha!" he said. "Charlie, is that your sister sitting at the back?"
"Yeah, use her!" shouted the boy in question, apparently eager to see what the magician had in store for his older sibling.
"Well, I don't think we can say no to the birthday boy can we? Charlie's sister, could you come up here please?"
Putting her phone away, Jordan got up to play her part.
"Okay everyone, can we have a round of applause for Charlie's sister?"
All the kids clapped and cheered.
"So, Charlie's sister, do you have a name?" he asked, acting as if the two of them did not know each other.
"My name is Jordan." she replied, playing along with the routine.
"Well, that's a very nice name, Jordan. Now, I'm going to need your help here. It's a very simple magic trick, there's nothing to it, okay?"
"Okay."
"Good. Now if you'll just come over here… oh!" he made as if to guide Jordan towards the wardrobe, but as he got nearer to her, he suddenly paused.
"What's wrong?" asked Jordan, unaware of what this part of the act was meant to be.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just my allergies. Are you wearing perfume?"
"Just a little bit."
"Oh dear," said Lincoln before delivering a loud, fake sneeze into his hands. In time with this action, a large bunch of flowers suddenly burst from between his fingers, eliciting more cheering from the kids.
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Lincoln in fake surprise. "Where on Earth did those come from? Luan? Do you have a vase for these?"
Luan, who had not known that particular trick was coming found herself giving her brother credit; he certainly had been working on his act. She did manage to find a vase in amongst all of their props and brought it onto stage for Lincoln to place the flowers in. With that done, she set the vase down on the table alongside the top hat and playing cards and walked back off the stage as Lincoln turned back to Jordan.
"Well, let us try this again, shall we?" he asked, guiding her towards the wardrobe. "All I need you to do, Jordan, is stand in here, okay?"
"That's it?" she asked.
"That's it," he affirmed and she stepped inside. A moment later he closed the door behind her and turned back to his audience.
"And now, boy's and girls, I'm going to make Jordan disappear!"
More than a few of the kids gasped at his proclamation.
"Yes, that's right. All I need to do is say a magic word and she will disappear! Ready? Here we go! 3… 2… 1… Abracadabra!"
Offstage, Luan used the laptop to play a whooshing sound effect, after which Lincoln threw open the door with a dramatic flair, revealing that there appeared to be no one inside.
"And there it is boys and girls! Charlie's big sister Jordan has disappeared! Thank you very much for coming to see this show today, I've had a lot of fun and I hope you have too..."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" said Luan, jumping up onto the stage, her full clown getup back in place. "You can't be done yet!"
"Why not?" asked Lincoln, feigning ignorance.
"Well, for a start, I think you need to give Charlie his sister back!"
"Yeah!" called out several kids in the audience.
"Give her back?" asked Lincoln, trying to look as uncomfortable as possible. "Yes… you're right. I should give her back. But there might be one teeny, tiny problem with that..."
"Oh yes?"
"Yes. You see, I don't know the spell to bring her back!"
Luan gave an over the top gasp that would have made her drama teacher, Mrs Bernardo, very proud. "YOU DON'T KNOW THE SPELL TO BRING HER BACK?"
"I didn't get that far in my training yet..."
Inside the wardrobe Jordan had clamped her hand over her mouth. She didn't want to give away the trick, but listening to Lincoln and Luan work their audience was making it very hard for her to not laugh.
"Well then, you had better find out how to do it!" said Luan, firmly. "We can't leave here without bringing her back! Where is your spell book?"
"It's where I keep all of my important things. In my top hat."
They went over to the table and Lincoln made a show of reaching into the top hat. "Now, where did I… wait, is this it?"
He pulled his hand out of the hat, and clasped within that hand was a bright red handkerchief, which was tied to a green one, which was tied to a yellow one, which was tied to a blue one, which was tied to a red and so on.
"Well, that's not it," said Luan as the kids laughed. "Try again."
Lincoln, after pulling out a line of fifty handkerchiefs, put his hand in again, and this time he pulled out a rubber chicken. "Wait-" he exclaimed.
"Oops. That's mine," said Luan, taking it from him. The squeak it made as she grabbed it got them some giggles from their audience.
Lincoln reached in again, only this time he pulled out an air horn. "This is yours too..."
"Sorry..."
Next he pulled out a flash light.
"Why do you have that in there?" asked Luan
"Always pays to be prepared..." explained Lincoln.
Next he pulled out three juggling clubs. "Seriously, stop putting your things in my hat!"
"Neh, meh, blah, blah!" came the mocking reply.
The arguing sibling bit was getting just as many laughs as anything else had.
"Wait, where did I put that flash light?" Lincoln reached for the object in question. He turned it on, aimed it into the opening of the hat and made a show of looking around inside before declaring "Aha! There it is!"
He reached in again and this time he pulled out the spell book, getting cheers from the children.
"Okay, let's see..." he said, opening it up.
"Hurry up! Jordan might be getting cold wherever she is!"
"Alright… Got it! Okay, the book says all I have to do to get Jordan back is say the incantation backwards."
Luan gave a puzzled look before asking "But what is abracadabra backwards?"
"Arbadacarba!" said Lincoln.
Luan had her hand in her pocket, holding a small remote. One push of a button and the whooshing sound effect played again.
Lincoln hurried over to the wardrobe, opened the door with a flourish and a relieved looking Jordan stepped out, to much applause from the children.
"What happened?" asked Jordan, acting confused. "I was in a really dark place for ages!"
"Sorry about that," said Lincoln, pretending to be ashamed of himself. "A small mistake was made and, well..." He picked up the bunch of flowers he had seemingly sneezed into existence earlier and held them out to her as a peace offering "Here, take these as my apology."
"Oh, I don't think that's good enough, Lincoln" said Luan. "After all, she was gone for a very long time… Oh! I know!"
She practically bounced off the side of the stage, returning moments later with a large banana cream pie in her hands. She turned to the audience and asked in a joyous voice "What do you think boys and girls? He used a spell to make Jordan disappear without knowing how to bring her back. I think he deserves this, don't you?"
The kids cheered loudly as Luan handed the pie to Jordan, who took it from her with a grin.
Lincoln made a show of slumping his shoulders in defeat and moments later…
SPLAT!
"I've gotta say, Linc, that bit about you not knowing the spell to bring Jordan back went over really well." complimented Luan as they were packing everything away.
"Sometimes magic going wrong is the most entertaining," explained Lincoln as he folded up his multi-coloured handkerchiefs. "That arguing sibling bit went better than I expected as well."
"I guess some of the best comedy really is the stuff you can relate too," said Luan, looking up from stuffing the bunting back into its bag. "Hey, your girlfriends are coming over."
Feeling suddenly reckless, (possibly brought on by the show going so well, and probably out of desire for revenge on Luan for handing Jordan the banana cream pie) Lincoln promptly responded to her joke by taking the lid off of a nearby carton of eggs and found that there was just one egg left over. He quickly took it and smacked it down on top of his sister's head. "Urgh! Lincoln!" she complained.
Jordan and Mollie came up to them, each bringing a slice of cake for the clown and magician. "So, do you two just carry on with the comedy even when no one is watching?" asked Mollie.
"Oh, sure," replied Lincoln. "Gotta come up with our routines somehow, right Luan?"
His sister just glared at him with anger in her eyes as a large dollop of egg yolk ran down her forehead, down her nose and then dripped to the ground.
"I'm gonna pay for that later, aren't I?" he asked, as if he had only just realised what he had done.
"Of course not, dear little brother!" said Luan, suddenly adopting a very fake smile, her tone of voice very dangerous. "You're gonna pay for it now!"
And with that she gave Lincoln a huge shove and he promptly fell backwards into the pool.
When Lincoln resurfaced, Luan stopped laughing just long enough to ask "So, Linc, wets up?"
As she went into a fit of giggles, Jordan and Mollie actually began laughing at her dumb pun, something that Lincoln felt utterly offended by and could not allow to go unanswered, so he used his arms to splash all three of them. Their laughter died pretty quickly, and for a brief moment Lincoln thought he might have really annoyed both Jordan and Mollie, who turned away from him.
However, they only did this to set their phones down on a nearby table. Both then turned and ran towards the pool, launching themselves into the air as they neared the edge, yelling as they did so "Cannonball!"
Lincoln was hit with water from both sides as Jordan landed to his left and Mollie to his right. When both girls resurfaced things quickly dissolved into a splash fight between the three of them. The sight of this was seemingly all the encouragement most of the younger kids needed to also jump fully clothed into the pool, despite the protests of their parents. Lola was a notable exception, as she refused to get her pink dress wet. Lana, meanwhile, had no qualms about diving straight into the water, shouting a very loud "Yaaaahooo!"
Luan stood on the side of the pool for a few moments longer before deciding that the old adage is true; if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And she jumped into the pool as well with a shout of "Geronimo!"
The rest of the weekend passed without incident and all too soon it was Monday morning. At Royal Woods Middle School a new week of education was just beginning. While most students made their way to their respective home rooms, Lincoln headed off to join his friends Clyde McBride, Stella Zhau, Liam Hunnicutt, Rusty Spokes and Zach Gurdle, ready to deliver the morning school news report.
In Mr Bolhofner's classroom Jordan took her seat in front of Emma and turned around to begin chatting to her, idly noticing as she did so that Chandler's seat at the back of the classroom was empty. Well, that was nothing to be sorry about. A year ago, Chandler McCann was regarded as one of the coolest kids around, someone everyone in school wanted to get in good with. And as much as she hated to admit it now, Jordan had been one of those people.
However, that was back in the days of Elementary School. Now they were in Middle School and, slowly, many of his fellow sixth grade students were coming to see him for the jerk he really was. Sure, there were still a good number kids who hung around him, mostly boys, but many students wanted nothing to do with him these days. That was in no small part caused by his attitude towards Lincoln Loud. While more than a few students had written Lincoln off as some kind of dork in the past, everyone had recently begun noticing that he was actually one of the nicest people you could meet. Sure, he was still a dork, but he owned it, and Chandler's penchant for making fun of the white haired boy earned him no points with more than a few of his classmates these days.
It was kind of strange though. The more people ignored Chandler, the worse his behaviour seemed to get, which only made more people ignore him.
Mr Bolhofner came in and got everyone to quiet down before turning on the television, and not a moment too soon. The Action News was beginning.
The screen flickered to life, revealing Lincoln and Clyde sitting behind a reporters desk, looking as much like professional newsreaders as they were able.
"Good morning kangaroos!" greeted Lincoln as cheerfully as possible. "Its Monday morning and the Action News Team is here to get you all up to speed for the week ahead. I'm Lincoln Loud-"
"-and I'm Clyde McBride," said the co-anchor, stepping in seamlessly. "Coming up, we have a look at the weather for the week ahead with Stella, a report from Rusty about last Friday's netball game, and Liam will be talking to biology teacher Ms Pham about what the seventh grade students can expect to see on their trip to the Royal Woods Museum this coming Thursday."
"But first-" began Lincoln, only for the entire feed to seemingly go out, with the screen flicking to black and all audio disappearing.
As the students in his classroom began mumbling in confusion, Mr Bolhofner begrudgingly got out of his seat and went to check the television for any faults, only for the feed to suddenly return. Except, the person being shown on screen wasn't Lincoln, or Clyde, or any other member of the Action News Team.
Instead, it was Chandler.
"But first, we go live to Chandler McCann for some breaking news!" said the boy, clearly delighted at having successfully interrupted the show. "In an exclusive video sent to me by an anonymous source, I can reveal that this past Saturday, Action News's very own Lincoln Lame managed to thoroughly embarrass himself by asking out Girl Jordan! Now, I will warn you, some of you may find this footage to be hilarious, so please, watch with discretion..."
With that, the screen went blank again for a moment, only to be replaced by video footage that must have come from Mollie's phone. What followed was a poorly edited clip that ran for no longer than twenty seconds, which began with Lincoln, dressed in his magician's outfit, picking up the bunch of flowers from the table and handing them to Jordan as a peace offering, all a part of the act from her little brother's birthday party. What wasn't part of the act was the audio, which was very obviously Chandler doing what he though was an amazing impression of Lincoln (meaning he was purposefully making Lincoln sound like a complete moron) and saying the words "Hey Jordan, I know I'm completely lame and a doofus, but would you go out with me?"
There was then a very obvious cut in the footage that removed Luan and her role entirely, which made it seem like a large banana cream pie appeared in Jordan's hand out of nowhere. Chandler's voice then said, in a high pitched tone that was meant to resemble Jordan "Ew, no! Get away from me, loser!" She then seemed to emphasise her point by slamming the pie into his face.
It was crude, it was dumb, it was downright mean and it was clearly not real, but throughout the school a large number of students still laughed at it.
The image on the television returned to that of the newsroom where a thoroughly embarrassed looking Lincoln sat next to an uncomfortable looking Clyde. After a few moments of silence, Lincoln said in a barely audible voice "Excuse me..." before taking off his microphone and walking off camera.
He did not return for the rest of the show.
With the laughter of some of the kids around her (though not Emma, she was happy to note) ringing in her ears, Jordan took out her phone and frantically typed out a text to Mollie.
- Please tell me you didn't send the video from the party to Chandler!
A few moments later Mollie's reply came.
- Of course not! I know better than that. I don't even have Chandler's number any more.
Jordan let out a small sigh of relief that her friend had not been the one to mess up so badly. But the question remained, how did Chandler get his hands on that footage?
And what could she possibly say to Lincoln to make this right?
For Lincoln the morning had been terrible. While the students were quiet in classrooms in front of the teachers, they showed no such restraint in the hallways. Constantly Lincoln kept his head low, trying to block out the taunting and mockery. Not every student made fun of him, but those who did more than made up for it.
Almost immediately after the clip was broadcast, Chandler personally sent it to the phone of every student that he could, with many of the recipients quickly sending it on to others. So in with all the laughter and verbal taunting, Lincoln also had to put up with the clip being played at full volume everywhere he went. Someone even had the nerve to follow him into the bathroom and play it on a loop while he was trying to have a pee! Some people really had no respect for a man's privacy!
Lunch time proved to be no better. After getting a plateful of spaghetti and meatballs from Chef Pat, Lincoln joined his friends in sitting at a table in the far corner, hoping that people would ignore him there.
He had no such luck.
While Chandler himself had been hauled off to Principal Ramirez's office shortly after his prank and had not been seen around the school since, three of his remaining friends quickly zeroed in on Lincoln and began to mock him. Ryan, Jason and Kenny stood behind him, calling out their taunts while Lincoln stared at the plate of spaghetti in front of him. His appetite was long gone by that point, but he was hoping he could somehow tune them out by fixating on the food.
What the boys completely failed to notice, however, was that a certain girl with her brown hair tied back in a ponytail was sitting just two tables away, along with several of her friends. Hearing the boys taunting her brother, Lynn Loud Jr. set down her fork and got up from her seat. Her friends, Margo Roberts and Paula Price did the same.
Having heard more than enough taunting for one day, Stella couldn't take it any more and had to say something. "Guys, can't you just leave him alone?" she asked of the bullies.
"Hey, what's got you all riled up Zhau?" asked Jason, the biggest one of them. "Annoyed that Loud asked out Girl Jordan and not you?"
As the other two began laughing, Lincoln reached his breaking point. It was one thing to mock him, but making fun of his friends was another thing entirely. He got to his feet and turned to face the boys, preparing to tell them exactly how unfunny they were, but the words died in his throat as he noticed what his tormentors had not.
The three girls approached quickly and quietly. Moments later, all three boys stopped laughing, instead yelping in pain as Lynn, Margo and Paula administered each of them with an atomic wedgie, pulling their underwear with enough force to wrap the waistband around each of their respective foreheads.
"Who-?" the ringleader began, turning around to find out who had attacked him, though words quickly failed him.
"You wanna go?" snarled Lynn, pounding her right fist into the palm of her left hand menacingly.
Wisely all three boys chose to run off instead.
In the silence that followed, no one dared move, wondering just what Lincoln's older sister would do next.
"And that goes for the rest of you," she declared loudly to everyone in the lunch room. "Pick on my brother and you'll have to deal with me. Got it?" Her tone told them that this was a promise, not a threat. When no one said anything, she nodded her head in satisfaction. "Good. Oh, and if any of you still happen to have the video on your phones, I very strongly recommend that you delete it."
More than a few students hurriedly began pulling out their phones to do just that.
"Hey," said Lincoln quietly, catching Lynn's attention. She turned to him. "Thanks," he said.
Without saying anything, Lynn stepped up to her brother and pulled him into a firm hug that he happily returned. After a few moments she said in a low voice "Just wait until I find McCann."
Lincoln smiled as he pulled away from the hug and asked "Are you gonna hang him by his underwear from the flagpole out in front of the school?"
"Actually, I was thinking I would stuff him into his own locker, but I like your idea more."
For the first time since the whole incident that morning, Lincoln actually gave a laugh. Just a small one, but it was genuine and felt good. "Well, you're going to have to wait. I think he's still stuck with Principal Ramirez."
"She had better be giving him detention until the day he finishes eighth grade." muttered Lynn.
Lincoln couldn't help but smile at her attitude. He turned and looked to his other two saviours.
"Thanks to you two as well. You didn't have to do that..."
"What? Of course we did!" exclaimed Paula.
"Yeah, dude." agreed Margo. "You've played on a sports team with us now. That means we've got your back."
"Exactly," said Paula. "We gotta look after the best goalkeeper around."
Lincoln felt a surge of affection for both of them. "Thanks, girls."
Four tables away, Girl Jordan and Mollie sat with Emma, Chloe, Rachel, Gabby, Kat and several other girls and had clearly seen Lynn and her friends come to Lincoln's rescue.
"Now might be a good time to go over and apologise." suggested Rachel.
"Are you kidding?" asked Mollie, mortified. "What if Lincoln doesn't want to hear it? I don't want to get a wedgie from Lynn!"
Jordan had to agree with Mollie. While it was nice to see Lynn sticking up for her brother, the older girl did present a very real threat. Obviously she did not know that Jordan and Mollie were likely the source of the video, otherwise she would have come over to confront them about it already. But it very clearly would not be a good idea for Lynn to find out about it in the middle of the lunch room. Like Mollie said, what if Lincoln didn't want to hear them out, or worse, did not accept their apology? They would very likely end up with the waistbands of their underwear wrapped around their foreheads as well! But then again…
"Maybe Lincoln would consider us even if that did happen…?" she offered.
"I don't think Lincoln would want that," said Emma.
"Yeah," agreed Chloe. "He's definitely mad at you but not enough for that. Just give him a little longer to cool off before saying anything."
Jordan and Mollie nodded in agreement, but both still felt terrible. Besides, even if they went over to Lincoln now, they had no idea what they would say. He would probably want to know how Chandler got that footage in the first place, and they still didn't have an answer to that.
For Lincoln the rest of the day was somewhat more bearable. Math class with Mr Bolhofner had been awkward as Girl Jordan had attempted to get his attention several times. Not wanting to hear anything from her, he ignored her.
Worse, halfway through the lesson, Chandler had walked through the door, having finally been released from Principal Ramirez's office. While he wisely said nothing to Lincoln in front of Mr Bolhofner, the mean smirk he gave the white haired boy as he made his way to his seat near the back of the classroom did a lot of talking for him. Once he was seated, Chandler spent almost five minutes using an elastic band to fire paper clips at the back of Lincoln's head before Mr Bolhofner caught on and angrily ordered the boy to leave the classroom.
Lincoln did not plan on doing what he did next, but as Chandler was passing Lincoln's desk to go and stand outside, the only son of the Loud family stuck his foot out a little, and hooked it around Chandler's left foot. It was oh so very satisfying seeing Chandler face-plant onto the floor. Even sweeter was the fact that Mr Bolhofner either didn't see what Lincoln did or chose to ignore it. Either way, Chandler's protestations about being tripped over fell on deaf ears.
Soon the school day was over and they were all getting on the bus to head home. Lynn made a point of sitting next to her brother, just in case anyone did not get the message from lunch time. Thankfully it seemed that everyone did, in fact, get the message and no one approached Lincoln to make fun of him. Instead he and his sister spent the ride home talking happily about the little piece of revenge Lincoln had managed to get on Chandler in math class.
Once they got home, Lincoln headed straight upstairs to take a shower. He hadn't had gym class or anything like that, but he felt that a hot shower would help wash away some of the stress of a largely miserable day. It worked and it was a much more relaxed Lincoln who left the bathroom and walked over to his bedroom to put on some fresh clothes.
When he got there, however, he saw that he had a message on his phone. It was from Chandler. Against his better judgement, Lincoln opened it and saw that Chandler had sent him the video, accompanied by a bunch of laughing emojis.
With a sigh Lincoln placed his phone back on his bedside table and pulled on some clean clothes before sitting down on the edge of his bed, the gloominess that had plagued him earlier in the day coming back in full force.
Fortunately he was not left to wallow alone in his misery for long, and a knock on the door was followed by a concerned looking Luan entering the boy's bedroom.
"Hey, Linc," she said, sombrely. "Lynn gave me a heads up about what happened at school. How are you holding up?"
Lincoln picked up his phone and handed it to her. "Take a look for yourself."
"Oh, Lincoln! I couldn't..."
"You might as well. Everyone else has."
Luan looked down at the phone and after a moment's pause she played the video, Lincoln grimly sat listening to the audio as the clip played.
Once it was done, Luan gave a kind of derisive sounding sniff and she handed the phone back to her brother, commenting as she did so "Well, that was just plain crass. Clearly this kid doesn't know humour."
"I don't know about that," retorted Lincoln. "Plenty of kids at school seemed to find it funny."
Luan sighed and took a seat on the bed next to her brother. She put her arm around him and pulled him close before saying "Look, Linc, bullies like this Chandler kid -" But before she could go on any further, Lincoln interrupted her.
"Luan, I'm not bothered about Chandler making fun of me. By this point I don't expect anything else from him. But what bothers me is that he used what I do with you against me like that. Do you get what I mean?"
She pondered his words for a few moments before replying "Yes, I do. It's not the taunting itself, its the ammunition he's using."
"Exactly," said Lincoln. "I can put up with him calling me names, or throwing things at me, or just generally being a jerk towards me, but this is different. This is taking something I like doing and purposefully ruining it to make me feel bad. Its taking the time I spend with my sister, corrupting it and then throwing it back in my f-face."
He stuttered the last word as his bottom lip quivered a little and tears began stinging at his eyes. Immediately Luan's big sister instincts kicked in and she turned more towards him to wrap her other arm around him as well and pulled him close, holding him in a tight hug until he had calmed down a bit.
Eventually they pulled away. "Look, Lincoln, I've been where you are now. Maybe not to this extent, but I've had plenty of kids at school make fun of me for doing what I do. But the thing is, they just don't understand it. They don't get how I can get any joy out of dressing up like a clown and juggling a bunch of apples for a group of seven year old kids. They don't know what I get out of dressing as a jester and making a bunch of balloon animals to give out. They don't know, and the truth is that they don't want to know."
She reached up with her right hand and gently ran her fingers through Lincoln's hair a few times in a soothing gesture before continuing. "Even when I post things to my online comedy channel, there are people who give me a hard time for no reason. In fact, there's this one guy who goes into the comment section of every video I upload, just to post the same comment every time."
"What does he say?" asked Lincoln, glumly.
"You're not funny." answered Luan. "That's it. The same three words, posted on every video I upload, usually within the first hour of me uploading it. Can you possibly imagine being that guy? Clearly he has nothing better to do with his time but wait for me to upload a video, just so he can post the same comment he has on every video I have uploaded for the past two years! Most people who don't like the content someone puts out would just stop watching, but not this guy."
"Sounds kind of pathetic, really," mumbled Lincoln.
"That's because it is pathetic, Lincoln. Don't get me wrong, I've learned to take criticism, and I welcome it if its constructive, but there's nothing positive about what this guy does. And its the same with this Chandler kid. He's horrible to you because he has nothing better to do with his time. Anyway, my point is, I've learned to tune out people like that guy who always leaves that comment. I know he's there, but I ignore him and others like him. I've had to in order to keep doing what I love. But I get it if that's more than you're willing to do..."
Lincoln pulled away from her a little to look up at her with confusion written all over his face, so she clarified. "I'm saying if you want to quit being my co-host, I completely understand."
Her brother's expression changed to become one of complete seriousness. "Luan, I love performing kids' birthday parties with you. Its fun and it gives us something together that we don't have to share with anyone else in our family. It's our thing, and there's no way I'm gonna let Chandler McCann of all people ruin that. Hell will freeze over before I quit on you."
Luan positively beamed at him and pulled him into another hug. "Aw, thanks Linc. To be honest I was kind of worried you would quit and that would be a shame. You're the best co-host a gal like me could ask for."
After a few moments of them sitting there, just enjoying their embrace, Lincoln pulled back and cleared his throat before stating "Well, there's one more important thing I need to do, and to be honest, its more than a little overdue."
"Oh, really?" asked Luan. "And what might that be?"
In answer, Lincoln picked up his phone, deleted the copy of the video Chandler had sent him, and then both blocked and deleted the boy's phone number from his device. "There," he said, looking back up at her. "That's the first step in tuning out those types of people."
Luan smiled proudly, her eyes watering a little, and pulled him back in for yet another hug. As she held her brother, the family joker rested her chin on top of his head, and was just enjoying the closeness when some movement over by the doorway caught her attention. Looking over, she saw Lynn standing there, clearly having come to check on Lincoln as well. Maintaining the hug with Lincoln, Luan raised her hand a little and gave Lynn a thumbs up. The sporty sister smiled and gave a nod of acknowledgement before retreating, leaving the clown and the magician to it.
Stella Zhau had just taken out her history homework when she heard her phone start to ring. Picking up the device in question, she saw that the caller was none other than Girl Jordan.
She seriously debated whether or not she should answer the call or just hang up. On the one hand, she was annoyed at the girl. Lincoln was one of her best friends and he had had to put up with a lot today because of the footage Chandler had obtained from Jordan's brother's birthday party.
On the other hand, Stella had always found Girl Jordan to be a generally decent person (aside from a certain stink-bomb incident and the occasional dodge-ball thrown after the ending whistle blew) and she really hoped that the events of the day were not Jordan's fault.
In the end, her indecision about answering was rendered moot as the phone stopped ringing. Well if it was important, she was sure the girl would try calling again.
Stella had just opened her history textbook to the section on the Donner Party when her phone began to ring once more, and again it was Girl Jordan.
Deciding to just get the inevitable talk over with, Stella picked up her phone and asked, in a tone that was perhaps a little bit harsher than she had intended "What do you want?"
"Just for you to hear me out..." replied Jordan's voice.
The next morning Lincoln dutifully made his way to the headquarters of the Action News team. He had told Luan he wouldn't let other people's attitudes put him off of performing magic at kids' birthday parties, and he wasn't about to let them put him off being a part of the school's dedicated news team either.
Little did he know, he was going to really enjoy this morning's show!
Stella, microphone in hand, walked along the corridor, pushing her way through the crowd of students as they made their way to their respective home rooms. Boy Jordan, a recent recruit to the team, was diligently following on behind her, camera at the ready. Stella had filled in the rest of the Action News Team (besides Lincoln) on what was gong to go down this morning, and they could hardly wait.
Stella came to a stop at a corner in the corridor and looked around it carefully. Chandler was there as planned, fighting to get his locker door open. The girl couldn't help the very satisfied smirk that appeared on her face. Everything was going according to plan.
"Okay, fellers!" said Liam in the studio room. "You're on in three… two… one!"
"Good morning kangaroos! It is a bright, sunny Tuesday morning and the Action News Team is here to get you up to speed with all that you need to know for the day ahead. I'm Lincoln Loud." said Lincoln cheerfully and in a manner that seemed to suggest that he hadn't spent a good amount of the previous day getting mocked by many of the students.
"And I'm Clyde McBride," said Clyde. "Coming up we have a report from Rusty on yesterday's offering of spaghetti and meatballs from the cafeteria, but first I'm getting word from Stella Zhau that she has some breaking news to report. Stella?"
Lincoln frowned slightly. Usually if there was a call of breaking news both he and Clyde would hear it in their earpieces. However, before he could dwell on it too much, the feed cut over to live footage of the Action News Team's intrepid female reporter.
"Thanks for that, Clyde." she said, backing up into the corridor that Chandler was currently in. "I'm here for an exclusive episode of What's in Your Locker with none other than the one and only Chandler McCann!"
By this point she had gotten pretty close to the boy in question and asked hurriedly "So, Chandler, can you show us What's in Your Locker?"
"No," grumbled Chandler, moodily. "I can't even get the stupid thing to open! Someone's glued it shut and now my key is stuck in..." he broke off, turning around in surprise, suddenly realising just who it was that he had been talking to. "Wait! What's going on? Is this some kind of revenge for that video I made of Lincoln Lame yesterday?"
"No," replied Stella in atone of voice filled with fake innocence. "But this is!"
Before Chandler could respond, the door to the locker on his right burst open and out of it came Mollie, who was holding a large red water balloon. She promptly smacked it down on top of his head, causing it to burst and send a rush of water cascading over Chandler's body.
"Argh! Cold!" he yelled, but his torment wasn't over yet.
The locker door on his other side swung open and Girl Jordan stepped out, a banana cream pie in her hand. She drew back and then launched the pie into Chandler's face with the same force and accuracy that made her a feared opponent on the dodge-ball court.
SPLAT!
Chandler yelped and swiped at his eyes to clear the pie away from them. Looking up he saw no friendly faces before him and so he turned and began sprinting off down the corridor.
"Yeah! You better run McCann!" Mollie shouted after him.
Satisfied that Chandler would not be coming back their way any time soon, Girl Jordan looked to Stella and held out her hand. Stella had no qualms about handing over her microphone to the other girl, who turned to look directly into the camera that Boy Jordan had used to record the entire event.
"Lincoln Loud. I hope that was enough to get our point across, but if it wasn't then please know we are truly sorry for what happened yesterday."
Mollie came up beside her. "Its true! We swear, we had not intention of allowing Chandler to get a hold of that footage from Jordan's brother's birthday party on Saturday, but it happened anyway and it shouldn't have and we're sorry for that."
Jordan continued "We shared the video with a few people because we thought it was cool how you and your sister perform birthday parties for younger kids and we wanted our friends to see it. Though it seems now that one of those friends was untrustworthy and sent it to Chandler anyway."
"We don't know who it was yet, but when we find out we're going to make them apologise too," added Mollie.
"Anyway, we just hope that you can forgive us, Lincoln." Jordan finished, before handing the microphone back to Stella.
"Well, there you have it folks, a heartfelt apology if ever I heard one," said Stella. "And don't forget, if you have a younger sibling with a birthday coming up, contact Luan or Lincoln Loud at Funny Business Incorporated, where your fun is their business. You won't be disappointed. Now, back to Lincoln and Clyde in the studio..."
The video feed cut back to the studio, where a stunned Lincoln appeared to be at a loss for words. So much so that it took a nudge in the ribs from Clyde to finally get him to speak.
After clearing his throat awkwardly, the white haired boy said "Oh, um… Apology accepted, girls. And thank you for that uplifting report Stella. Now we go over to Rusty for his report on yesterday's lunch. Was that really a hint of nutmeg we could taste in the spaghetti and meatballs…?
It was lunch time and Lincoln had just entered the cafeteria, carrying his lunch bag. Sometimes he had whatever the school was offering, but the chance to gorge himself on his Dad's home made mac 'n' cheese bites and chocolate pudding was always going to win out over whatever Chef Pat could serve up. Of course, he also had an apple and some grapes as his healthy option, and a juice box to wash it all down with.
Looking around he spotted his the rest of the Action News Team sitting at their usual table and he was just about to head over to join them when he heard someone calling his name. Turning around he saw that it was Girl Jordan, who was sitting with Mollie, Rachel and a handful of other girls. Curious he made his way over to them.
"Hey, Jordan. What's up?"
"I just thought that you might like to know, we've found out who sent the footage to Chandler." the girl replied before holding up her phone and revealing that she had a video chat going with a familiar face.
"Sadie?" exclaimed Lincoln in surprise.
"Hi Lincoln," the girl on the screen replied, looking somewhat sheepish. "I hear I've been causing you a few problems..."
Seeing the look of total confusion on Lincoln's face, Mollie spoke up. "Sadie is one of the friends we sent the video of the party to."
"And I'm the one who forwarded it to Chandler." the girl admitted, sadly. "Unfortunately I've been a little bit out of the loop since my mom moved us to Canada and I wasn't aware that we don't like Chandler any more."
"Ah. Well that does make sense I guess," said Lincoln as everything fit into place. Sadie had attended Royal Woods Elementary School with them until about three months before they finished fifth grade. That all changed when her parents had gotten a divorce and her mother, a native of Canada, had taken both Sadie and her sister back to her homeland. Lincoln had very briefly gone to school with her in Canada for about a week right at the start of sixth grade (don't ask!) before returning full time to the Middle School in Royal Woods, Michigan.
"Sorry," Sadie offered, clearly embarrassed.
Lincoln quickly dispelled her concerns. "Don't worry about it. You didn't know. It can't be helped."
"Thanks. And for the record, that party was a lot of fun to watch, even if Mollie's camera skills need a little work. Do you and your sister ever travel to Canada to perform? My sister's birthday is in two months."
"Well, I'm sure Luan would love the trip, but, unfortunately, I am currently banned from entering Canada for the next three years." replied Lincoln.
Every girl at the table gave him a highly confused look, prompting him to shake his head and state "Don't ask."
"Well, that's too bad," said Sadie. "Some of us miss you up here in Canada. I'm sure you would have got the hang of ice fishing eventually."
"Yeah..." said Lincoln, slowly. "I'm good where I am, thanks."
That earned him a round of giggles from the girls at the table while Sadie shrugged her shoulders and said "Well, suit yourself, eh?"
Just then Rusty's voice called out "Hey, Lincoln! Are you joining us or what? I've got a bag of buffalo chips to trade for your mac 'n' chesse bites!"
"Whoops! I'd better go," said Lincoln. "It was nice talking to you Sadie. Girls." He turned and walked off towards his friends while the girls called out their goodbyes. As he went he called out to Rusty "If you want any of these mac 'n' cheese bites, you're gonna have to do a lot better than a bag of buffalo chips, pal!"
Once he was out of hearing range Sadie spoke up again. "Okay, Jordan. You're right. He is kinda cute."
Jordan's cheeks flushed red as the other girls began giggling at her expense. Mortified, she pressed the button to hang up her phone.
"Sorry Sadie. My finger slipped."
Some people like it when stories have morals, so I guess if this has one, it's to be careful what you share online, even if its only with friends. Sadie sending the video to Chandler was an honest mistake but it could have been someone acting malice.
For those of you who don't know, Sadie is a mostly background character, created as s pre-teen caricature of Sadie Figueroa who worked on the show, first used in the Girl Guru episode where Rusty tried asking her out while riding a horse, and appeared mostly in the background until the episode Schooled, where she is attending the school Lincoln briefly attends in Canada. This chapter features my head-canon explanation of this – her mother is a native Canadian, got divorced and moved back to Canada with Sadie.
Go to the Loud House wiki and look up the page Lincoln's classmates. The boys given wedgies to are Unnamed Boy 1 (Ryan), Unnamed Boy 2 (Jason) and Unnamed Boy 6 (Kenny).
Anyway, next up is either a Lincoln and Luna story or a Lincoln and Lori story. Fair warning though, both are only between 30% and 50% done, so don't expect them to come out so fast. Which one gets published first is just a matter of which gets finished first!