Hi! I'm back! Long story short, I started a new job that required me to move home. Between the move and getting used to my new role, writing took a bit of a back seat. Hopefully things have calmed down enough now that I can get back on track.
Anyhow, here's part one of the Lincoln and Luna chapter. Well, it's more of a Lincoln, Luna and Sam chapter. What can I say, she worked her way into the story and refused to leave!
Rock On, Lincoln: Part 1
It was a rather grim Thursday evening in Royal Woods, Michigan. Although the sun had not yet set in the sky, dark grey clouds blotted out most of the light while slowly drizzling raindrops fell onto the world below.
Inside the garage of 1216, Franklin Avenue, the sure – to – be – a – famous – rock – star – one – day Luna Loud paid no mind to the weather outside and instead focussed on hooking up her favourite guitar into one of her sterrett brand amplifiers. Once she was sure everything was plugged in and ready to go, she stood up straight, raised her hand and struck a chord.
The subsequent noise caused the windows of the garage to rattle dangerously, several dogs in the neighbourhood to begin barking and a car alarm across the street to begin blaring.
Luna cringed, having forgotten to turn the amplifier down from its maximum setting. Nearby her girlfriend and band mate, Sam Sharp, was cringing in a similar way, having clamped her hands over her ears.
Suddenly a voice barked out from next door "Louds! Turn down that racket!"
As Luna hurried to the open main door of the garage to apologise to their neighbour, she heard her dad's voice. "Luna Loud! What did I tell you about noise levels?"
Luna got outside and looked around. Their neighbour was leaning out of an upstairs window of his house while her dad was standing at the back door to the family home.
"Sorry, Mr. Grouse! Sorry Pops!"
Grumbling to himself, Mr Grouse retreated, slamming his window shut.
"Just don't let it happen again," said her dad before he went back inside.
After ducking back into the garage, Luna took a moment to shake some of the rainwater off of herself before looking at Sam sheepishly. "Whoops..."
Sam giggled and said "Nice to see Luna Loud living up to her last name as always..."
Luna grinned. "Heh, heh… yeah… Kinda sucks that the music room at school had to close for that burst water pipe. No one cares how much noise we make in there after school."
"The benefits of soundproofing," said Sam. "But I'm sure we'll survive keeping the volume down for one practice session."
Just then the two other members of their band arrived.
"So I'm guessing that was one of the two of you who just woke up every sleeping person in a six block radius?" asked Sully, the only male in the group.
Luna groaned and slapped her hand to her forehead while Sam grinned and pointed playfully at the culprit.
Sully chuckled while Mazzy gave a laugh and said "Nice one, Lunes."
"Yeah, okay. Very funny," said Luna. "Can we get on with our practice session now?"
"Um… about that..." said Mazzy, holding up her right hand, revealing it to be in a brace.
"How the heck did you do that?" asked Luna.
"Mom spilled some soup on the kitchen floor and I managed to slip in it." Mazzy replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "Smacked my hand real good and got a nice big bruise on my butt. Should have been looking where I was going instead of playing with my phone."
"I take it playing the drums is out of the question." said Sam.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Well, I guess it can't be helped." said Luna.
"Still sucks though," said Sully. "First we can't practice in the school's music room, now we don't have a drummer."
"Hey, Luna. How about we get your brother, Lincoln?" suggested Sam. "You said he plays drums with you sometimes, right?"
"Yeah, sometimes," replied Luna. "But the little dude's nowhere near Mazzy's level though."
"Couldn't hurt to ask," said Mazzy. "I could give him some pointers as we go along."
Luna thought about it for a moment until she said "Okay, we can ask, though to be entirely on the level, I ain't exactly sure where the little dude is right now. I think LJ said somethin' about draggin' him to a pick-up soccer game with her friends in Ketchum Park after school..."
"They might have changed those plans given the rain." Sully pointed out.
Luna nodded in agreement and took her phone out of her pocket. She scrolled down to Lincoln's name trapped the icon to call him.
After letting it ring for about a minute, she hung up. "No answer. Great. Well, guess I'll have to go inside and see if he's here."
As she headed towards the door, she received a surprise when the other members of the band moved to follow her.
"Uh, guys, just a heads up: there's a full house tonight and some of 'em get a bit crazy when its rainin' out."
"Yeah, we know Luna," said Sam, grinning. She more than the other two was pretty well versed in how things went in the Loud House.
The third eldest Loud sister gave a nod and then led the way around to the front door of the house.
She grabbed the doorknob and pushed it open, allowing them to step inside, just in time to see Luan rise up on her knees by the fireplace and launch a banana cream pie the length of the couch to nail Lana right in the side of the head, causing the younger girl, who had been sitting on the arm rest at the opposite end of the couch as she watched the television, to fall sideways onto the floor.
Luan let out a huge burst of laughter. "Nailed ya!
Lana got up, wiping pie out of her eyes and clearly ready to do battle. "Oh, you like pies, do you?" She darted out of the living room and into the dining room where she dove under the table and emerged a moment later with a large metal bucket filled to the brim with mud. "Then eat mud pies!"
Luan gulped and ducked behind the couch as Lana began to launch handful after handful of mud in the direction of the family prankster at a rapid rate. So rapid, in fact, that she didn't react in time to stop herself when Lynn Jr came crashing down the stairs in an attempt to practice parkour indoors, and ended up right in the line of fire.
In total, eight wads of mud smacked into the family's resident jock before Lana realised what was happening and ceased her assault, eyes widening as she realised what had happened. "Uh-oh!"
Lynn angrily wiped the mud off of her face before turning around to glare at the culprit. "You better run, Mudzilla!" she growled as she cracked her knuckles menacingly. Lana gulped and dashed off towards the kitchen.
"Aw, don't threaten family like that, Lynn," said Luan, poking her head up from her hiding space. "After all, mud is thicker than water." she gave a hearty laugh before adding "Get it?"
Lynn scowled at her older sister, raked her fingers over her jersey to collect some of the mud stuck there and then threw it at the jokester. Luan's laughter ended when the mud smacked her in the forehead.
Sensing an opening for her to interrupt, yet still knowing that this whole thing could escalate further at any moment, Luna took her chance to speak up. "Yo, L J You seen Linc anywhere?"
"Not since we got back from the park," replied Lynn. "Stupid rain meant we had to cut things short."
"Any ideas, Luan?" asked Luna, turning to the comedienne.
Using the armrest of the couch to pull herself back up to her feet, Luan frowned in thought as her face dripped with mud. "He helped me with a stock check of my party supplies when he got back with Lynn, but we finished that like a half hour ago."
Just then Lana reappeared, poking her head around the doorway that led to the dining room. Having heard Luna's question from the kitchen she said "I saw him go into Lisa and Lily's room not too long ago."
"Sweet! Thanks Lans." said Luna, happily, before leading her band mates over to and up the ever creaky staircase.
As they got to the top of the stairs there came a high pitched whistle to their right, followed by a loud boom. A moment later a plume of green fumes came out of the door to the right of the staircase. As those fumes dissipated, Luna and her friends made their way over to the source of the explosion.
Looking into the room they saw five year old Lisa sprawled out on the floor of her bedroom, her front covered entirely in soot. Against the opposite wall, her desk stood with several smashed beakers and test tubes scattered around and at least two textbooks looking slightly burnt.
"You okay, Lis?" asked Luna.
In response the little scientist sat up and shook her head as if to clear some of the dust before taking off her glasses and beginning to wipe the lenses clean on her signature green coloured turtle neck jumper. "Fear not, sister unit, I am fine. It was merely a slight miscalculation on my part, nothing to worry about."
"Cool," said Luna. "So, have you seen our bro around? Lana said he came in here."
"Negative." replied the child genius. "Our brother unit departed moments after his arrival approximately twenty seven minutes and eighteen seconds ago. Were he still here there is an eighty seven percent probability that he would have reminded me to utilise the dinitrotoluene when my experiment first began producing copious amounts of fumes."
"So, no idea where he went after here?"
"Oh, now that I can answer. He came in here to pick up Lily and escort her to Leni's room. I did not enquire as to why, and I cannot say for certain that he is still there."
"Cool. Thanks Lis."
With that, Luna left the room and began leading her band mates along to the other end of the upper hallway.
"Uh, shouldn't we be more concerned about that?" asked Sully, in a worried tone.
"Nah, it's cool," replied Luna. "You heard the girl, she's fine."
And, putting the matter of the resident genius out of her mind, she approached the door to the bedroom of her oldest siblings and knocked. "Yo, Leni! You in there?"
"Sure thing, Luna," came Leni's voice from beyond the door. "Come on in."
Luna pushed open the door, walked in and found Lincoln. The boy was sitting on Lori's bed next to the goth sister Lucy and was diligently painting her fingernails with black nail polish. He was concentrating so much his tongue was sticking out a little bit, his eyes were squinting slightly and he had completely failed to notice the four new arrivals.
Leni, meanwhile, was positioned on her bed with the family princess, Lola. Both were sitting there with their hands slightly raised, fingers spread as they waited for their own freshly applied nail polish to dry.
Little Lily, meanwhile, was on the floor at the foot of Leni's bed, playing with some of her toy blocks.
Leni beamed a bright smile as the group entered the room. "Hi Luna! Hi Luna's band!"
"Hi," they all replied as one before Sam continued "So… what's going on here?"
"Oh, just painting our nails and some girl talk." replied Leni in her ever cheerful tone. "I totes would have invited you too, Luna, but I knew you had band practice, and none of the other sisters really care for painting their nails."
"It's cool, brah," said Luna, waiving off Leni's concern that she might have slighted the rocker by not inviting her. "But, uh, why is Lincoln here?"
"Because he does such a good job painting fingernails." replied Leni, holding her hands out to show off that hers were done in her signature seafoam green. "He could, like, totes become a professional finger nail painter. He does mine way better than Lori ever could. Plus its so much fun to gossip with him while he does it."
"Uh-huh!" replied Luna before turning to the pageant queen. "And you?"
"A princess would never paint her own nails," said Lola in a snooty tone. "She would have a servant do it for her. Of course, mom says I'm not allowed to have servants, so I get my brother to do it instead. I used to have Lori do them, and when she left for college I wanted Leni to do it, but she pointed out that Lincoln does a far better job."
"And I'm hopeless at painting my own fingernails, especially when it comes to doing my right hand," said Lucy without waiting to be asked. "Frankly, at this point I don't trust anyone but Lincoln to get my nails right."
At that moment, the boy in question finished his task with a flourish. "There we go, Luce," he said brightly. "Two coats of inky blackness successfully applied."
Lucy held her hands up so that she could inspect his work. "Each one is like looking into an endless void of despair and death. Thank you, Lincoln."
"No problem, Lucy." the resident boy replied, putting the bottle of black nail polish onto Lori's bedside table and picking up another, this time a deep pink. "Okay, Lola. It's time for your second coat-"
He broke off as he looked up towards Lola and, for the first time, noticed the new arrivals.
"Oh, hey!" he said, happily. "Here to get your nails done, Luna? I'm sure we've got some purple around here somewhere."
"I'm good dude, thanks." said Luna.
"Okay. Anyone else?"
"Got any blue?" asked Sam, stepping forward.
"I wouldn't mind the same colour as Leni, actually," said Mazzy, eagerly.
"Dudes, that's not why we're here." interrupted Luna.
"Uh, right," said Sam, backing up.
"Oh, my B, dude." said Mazzy.
Sully just rolled his eyes at them.
"So what did you guys want?" asked Leni.
"See, here's the thing," said Luna. "Mazzy has sprained her wrist and can't play the drums. We were wondering if Lincoln could step in."
"Oh, sure," said Leni. "We're just about to move on from fingernails to hair anyway, and we don't need Lincoln for that."
"But he hasn't done my second coat yet!" came Lola's whiny protest.
"Please, Lola?" asked Luna. "This is urge!"
"I can handle your second coat Lola," offered Leni.
Lola rolled her eyes and huffed while crossing her arms across her chest indignantly "Fine! But if Leni gets it wrong, I'm holding you accountable, Luna."
"Sweet!" said Luna, brightly. "Come on, Linc, let's go!"
"Uh, don't I get a say in this?" asked Lincoln.
"You got some place else to be?" asked Luna, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, no," he admitted. "But I don't like it when you guys just assume I'm free to help you."
"Kid's got a point, Luna. You shouldn't make assumptions." said Sam in a tone meant to tease her girlfriend.
Luna groaned loudly. "Uagh! Fine. Lincoln, if you're not busy and its not too much trouble, me and the band would appreciate you helping our practice by playing the drums."
"Well, since you asked so nicely..." said Lincoln hopping off of Lori's bed. Halfway to the door he paused and added "Oh, I've got a video chat at seven thirty. I'll need to stop for that."
"Who would be calling you at seven thirty?" asked Lola.
All eyes were on him, causing his cheeks to develop a pinkish hue as he replied "Ronnie Ann."
In response to his answer, everyone else present let out an "Aaaww!"
Sam bumped Luna's shoulder with hers and asked "Luna, why didn't you tell me your bro's got himself a girlfriend?"
Lincoln's blush increased as he stammered "I – not – you – she's not..."
Luna gave a laugh and walked over to her brother and threw an arm around his shoulders "Don't worry, dude. She's just messin' with ya!" She looked to Sam as she led Lincoln towards the door. "Lincoln and Ronnie Ann are just friends, nothing more." Unseen by Lincoln was the wink Luna gave Sam as she said those words.
"Ah, gotcha." said Sam, knowingly.
Back out in the garage, the band began getting everything together, with Mazzy leading Lincoln over to Luna's drum kit.
"Okay kid, let's see what you've got," she said, handing the white haired boy a pair of sticks.
"Uh, okay," he replied taking them from her. "It's been I while since I last did this, so I might be a little rusty..."
"Yeah, when is the last time you played, bro?" asked Luna.
"I think it was on that trip we took," replied Lincoln. "When we had to do that open mic thing to get money for a bus fair."
Luna laughed. "Oh yeah! That was a pretty sweet gig! They loved us!"
"And you wouldn't stop showing off for the crowd afterwards, so we ended up on the wrong bus!"
Luna laughed again, though this time in embarrassment while Sully rolled his eyes and Sam commented "Sounds like Luna, alright."
"Are there any songs the two of you have practised together a lot?" Mazzy asked of the brother and sister.
"Hmm, well there is one..." said Luna, hand rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "You still remember the beat for that one, bro?"
"I think so," answered Lincoln, catching on to the song Luna was talking about. "But, like I said, I haven't done this in a while."
"Well, just give it a shot, so we can see where you are," said Mazzy.
Lincoln nodded and took his seat behind the drums and Luna joined him with her guitar. Before they could start, Lincoln turned to his sister and asked "Should I sing as well?"
"You know it bro!" said Luna. "I'll do backups!"
"Okay," he agreed before taking a moment to get ready. Finally he nodded to Luna.
She grinned at him and called out "One, two, three!"
Lincoln opened by playing a pretty rapid drum beat that barely lasted a second before Luna joined in on her guitar. And then they began to sing -
(Lincoln) Crashing through the crowded halls
Dodging girls like ping pong balls
Just to reach the bathroom on time
(Luna) Hey, hey, hey!
(Lincoln) Leaping over laundry piles,
Diapers you can smell for miles
Guy's gotta do what he can to survive!
(Luna) In the Loud House, In the Loud House
(Lincoln) Duck, dodge, push and shove,
That's how we show our love!
(Luna) In the Loud House, In the Loud House
(Lincoln) One boy, ten girls
Wouldn't trade it for the world!
(Luna) Loud House
Loud, Loud House
(Lincoln) Me time, a little room to breathe time,
A little quiet and peace I've never had.
At least I'm never lonely
Would never lack it for a sports team
Maybe this crazy's not that bad.
(Luna) In the Loud House, In the Loud House
(Lincoln) Duck, dodge, push and shove,
That's how we show our love!
(Luna) In the Loud House, In the Loud House
(Lincoln) Gotta love mom and dad,
For not going completely mad!
(Luna) In the Loud House, In the Loud House
(Lincoln) One boy, ten girls
Wouldn't trade it for the world!
(Luna) Loud House
Loud, Loud House.
The song came to an end and the brother and sister duo went silent, looking to Luna's bandmates, ready to receive their judgement.
Sully and Mazzy were standing there in open-mouthed surprise while Sam had the biggest smile on her face.
"When did you come up with that?" asked the blonde.
"About a year and a half ago," said Luna with a fond smile. "It was the Saturday before Linc was due to start his final year of elementary school and he was really nervous about it, so I dragged him into the garage for a jam session to help him forget his worries."
"Okay, first, that's adorable." said Sam. "And second, you were right about Lincoln being able to play, right guys?"
"Yeah, not bad, dude," agreed Sully. "I mean, I could tell you're a little out of practice, but the potential is definitely there."
"Definitely got the potential," agreed Mazzy. "We shouldn't have expected anything less, I suppose. You are Luna's brother, after all."
Lincoln felt his cheeks colouring slightly with embarrassment at the praise he was receiving. "Uh, thanks, guys."
"It's nothin' I haven't told you before bro!" said Luna. "I think with enough practice you'd make for one heck of a drummer. And you're not too bad on the double bass either."
"Not to mention the singing," added Sam.
"Thanks. I'm actually in the middle school's glee club," admitted Lincoln.
"Oh, no way! So was I!" said Sam, her eyes lighting up eagerly. "Is Mr Budden still the one running it?"
"He is. He's certainly an… interesting person." answered Lincoln, rubbing the back of his head abashedly.
Sam grinned, knowing exactly what he meant. "I take it he's still unbelievably over dramatic and has maintained his addiction to strawberry flavoured flippees?"
"Actually he usually has cherry flavoured now, but apart from that, yeah."
"Nice. So, when is your next performance?"
"No idea. We missed out on regionals, so any show we do is just for the sake of it. My friend Clyde did some research and he seems to think we'll probably do a show around valentine's day, but Mr Budden hasn't said anything about that yet."
"Well, not to brag, but my group won regionals two years in a row, so if you ever want some pointers..."
Lincoln perked up at her offer. "Really? Well, yeah, sure. That'd be great!"
"Hey!" protested Luna. "You never asked me for any pointers, bro!"
"Um… you never offered..." replied the boy, looking worried that he might have offended her.
Luna gave a laugh and ruffled his hair affectionately. "Ah, I'm just messin' with ya, bro. I never did glee club myself, so Sam's the better person to help you out. Now, I believe we have some band practice to get to."
Everyone agreed and got into position. Mazzy pulled up another stool and joined Lincoln behind the drums as Sully stepped up to the keyboard. Luna and Sam picked up their respective guitars and wrapped the straps around their shoulders.
"So, do you know what each of these things are?" asked Mazzy, gesturing to the assorted pieces that made up the drum kit.
"Not all of it," replied Lincoln with a slight frown. "I know that this one down here is called be bass drum. Luna says its the most important one."
"And she's right. For a lot of bands, the bass drum is used to help everyone keep time. You ever see a marching band perform?"
When Lincoln nodded she continued. "So, for a marching band, their bass is usually used to help everyone march at the same time. So long as the drummer keeps up the right beat, everyone marches the same. In this kind of set up, the bass is also used for timing, though in this case its for the music. Others will listen for the rhythm you provide and play accordingly. If you speed up, so does everyone else. Get it wrong and you can throw everyone else off."
"Okay," said Lincoln, in understanding "So, the most important thing is to keep a steady rhythm?"
"Right. So, I want you to try a simple one." said Mazzy. "This drum here is the snare. I want you to put them together for a simply rhythm. Use your foot to hit the bass twice with the pedal, then use a drumstick to hit the snare twice. Hit the bass twice again, and then hit the snare once."
Lincoln nodded and picked up one of the drumsticks and performing the rhythm Mazzy suggested.
Boom, boom, tap, tap, boom, boom, tap.
"Good," said Mazzy. "Keep it going."
Boom, boom, tap, tap, boom, boom, tap. Boom, boom, tap, tap, boom, boom, tap. Boom, boom, tap, tap, boom, boom, tap.
"Doing good, bro! Keep it up!" said Luna, enthusiastically before turning to Sam and Sully. "Okay guys, let's go."
As the other three members of the band began to play along, Lincoln wasn't really listening to them, instead focusing a lot on what he was doing. The rhythm Mazzy had him playing was relatively simple in theory, but the longer the song went on, the more he found himself struggling to keep the pace steady. Although he wasn't consciously listening to the music the others were playing, he was listening subconsciously, and soon he found himself playing faster. This, in turn, caused the others to play faster and before they knew it, everyone was ever so slightly out of sync with each other, at which point Luna called for everyone to stop.
"Sorry, guys," said Lincoln in embarrassment, knowing he was the one who caused the problem.
"No worries, dude!" said Sam, brightly. "You did pretty well."
"We'll make a great drummer out of you yet," added Mazzy. "You've definitely got the talent for it. If you want, I'd be happy to keep giving you lessons going forward."
Lincoln was a little bit surprised by that offer. "Uh, thanks. I'll definitely think about it."
For more than an hour and a half after that, the practice session continued. The band themselves soon forgot about playing themselves and, as one, began focusing more on helping Lincoln. Eventually, however, Lincoln's prior engagement interrupted things.
Setting down the drumsticks, Lincoln pulled his ringing phone out of his pocket and winced, noticing not only the name of the caller, but also the time.
"Uh, I'd better take this," he said, looking up at Luna. "I'm ten minutes late for my talk with Ronnie Ann."
Luna just gave him a warm smile and nodded towards the door. "On you go, bro!"
The boy nodded, got up and began hurrying towards the door, answering the phone as he went. "Hey, Ronnie Ann. Yeah, sorry. I was in the garage with Luna and her band and I lost track of time..."
Once he had left the garage, Luna turned to her band mates. "Sorry about this evening, guys. I know Lincoln was meant to come out here and help us to practice, but we've ended up spending a lot of time teaching him instead."
"Don't sweat it, Luna," said Sully. "Helping Lincoln has been a ton of fun."
"Yeah, dude's got some real talent," agreed Mazzy. "Who knows, with some more practice, he could be as good as I am when he's my age."
"You know what always amazes me about you Mazzy?" asked Sam with a teasing grin. "Your modesty, that's what."
Mazzy returned the smile and gave a shrug of he shoulders in a kind of I am what I am gesture while the other three shared a laugh.
Once the laughter died away, Sam turned to Luna and asked "So, this Ronnie Ann girl. I want to hear all the details."
"Uh, it's kinda complicated, Sam." said Luna, with a wry grin.
"Oh, come on!" said Sully, dismissively. "Lincoln's, what, eleven? How complicated can things be at that age?"
"Well, let's see..." said Luna. "She lives more than a three hour drive away. Before she moved away she used to bully him at school. One time the other sisters and I put the idea in his head that he should kiss her and she was so startled by it she gave him a black eye. Oh, and to cap it all off, she's the younger sister of Lori's boyfriend, Bobby and any negative turns in Lincoln's dynamic with Ronnie Ann can have, and has had, knock on effects on Lori's relationship with Bobby."
Once she finished her explanation, Sam, Mazzy and Sully stood staring at her with open mouths for nearly a full minute before Sam found her voice.
"Holy crap on a cracker!" said the stunned blonde. "That is complicated!"
"So, when you say she used to bully him..." prompted Mazzy.
Luna gave a sigh and said "Look dudes, I don't know the whole story. And bully might be too strong a word for what went on. Near as I can tell, she was a kid from a broken home, whose father was in a different country. Her mother and brother both worked long hours, leaving her home alone a lot of the time, and her social skills sucked pretty hard. So she started lashing out at the world, and for whatever reason, Lincoln became her main target."
"And the black eye?" asked Sam.
"Yeah, that was completely our fault. As soon as we found out he was being bullied by a girl all ten of us sisters went and decided it meant that she had a crush on him and convinced him to kiss her. I didn't notice it at the time, but looking back on it, the lil' dudette had no idea how to process what had happened. That much was written all over her face."
"And then she just defaulted to punching him?!" asked Sully.
Luna nodded. "Right in the eye. Lincoln was so steamed at us. He swore that he would never take our advice about anything ever again. I felt so bad for him. She did apologise to him later though. Lola found a note from her stuck in his journal."
"So they've gone from that to being friends?" asked Sam.
"Yeah, dude. They're real close now, despite the distance. Knowing what I know now, I can see that's all she needed: a friend. Someone to be there and talk to her when she got lonely. Someone to spend time with, when her family couldn't be there with her. And, despite everything that had happened between them in the past, Lincoln stepped up and became that friend. I can't speak for all my sisters, but I, for one, am glad for that. Personally I ain't a huge fan of most of his other friends."
"Wow, really?" asked Sam in surprise. She had never heard Luna say something bad about the friends of one of her siblings before.
Luna gave a shrug and said "I used to think they were okay but, well, you remember when I told you guys that Lincoln started performin' a magic act?" After a moments wait to get their nods of acknowledgement she continued. "Well, a couple of months ago, Lincoln went to enter a talent show at his school. He was so excited about doin' his magician routine. But then all five of his closest friends went way out of their way to try and convince him not to do it. It got him pretty upset at them for a bit, but he forgave them."
"And I'm guessing that you haven't?" prompted Mazzy.
Luna shook her head. "I was super bummed for Lincoln when I found out. Luan and I couldn't go to the talent show because we had other things goin' on, but Lynn was there and she recorded the whole thing for us to watch. He was so good and he clearly enjoyed what he was doing, so when I found out they tried real hard to talk him out of performing… well its just sucks, you know? Lincoln sometimes struggles with his sense of self-worth when it comes to being good at things, so the idea that his best friends would try and stop him from doing something he's passionate about just doesn't sit right with me. I don't think Lincoln's noticed, but me and Luan have been real peeved at his friends ever since."
"Well I can't blame you for that," said Sully. "What they did sucks pretty hard."
"It gets worse," continued Luna. "When Lincoln first joined the glee club, he got given the solo in their debut performance. But Clyde, who is supposed to be Lincoln's best friend, got wicked jealous and tried to sabotage him. Did his best to make sure Lincoln lost his voice before the big performance. He'd have ruined the whole thing for my bro had his conscience not gotten the better of him."
Sam scowled in annoyance at that, before declaring "Lincoln needs new friends. Better friends. Cooler friends. Friends who will appreciate him and won't try to screw him over." A smile appeared on her face as she gleefully added "And I know just who we should start with."
"Who?" asked Luna, genuinely puzzled.
"Tabby!" replied Sam, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Nice!" commented Sully.
"Good call," added Mazzy.
"Uh, heh heh, um, that might not go so well..." said Luna, awkwardly.
"Why not?" asked Sam, pouting at the notion that her girlfriend was seemingly dismissing her idea so quickly.
Sully sighed and said "Let me guess: "its complicated"."
"Just a bit, yeah," acknowledged Luna.
"How?" exclaimed Sam, with no small amount of disbelief in her voice. "How can introducing Tabby to Lincoln possibly be complicated?"
"Because I already introduced them, an it didn't turn out so great," answered Luna.
"Again, I ask how?" reiterated Sam. "Tabby is super cool and Lincoln's an awesome dude. You get along great with him, and Tabby's like a mini you. How did them meeting not turn out great?"
Luna let out a sigh before replying "Well, it I guess I should tell you about the time I set Lincoln up on a date for his school's Sadie Hawkins dance..."
And so she did.
"So you're a drummer now as well?" asked Ronnie Ann in a teasing tone.
Lincoln smiled back at the screen on his phone, showing the live video feed of his far away friend. He reclined back on his bed as he replied "Just helping Luna out with her band practice while Mazzy's injured."
"But you said Mazzy offered you lessons in the future," said Ronnie Ann. "Are you gonna take her up on that?"
"I dunno. Maybe."
"Well, do you enjoy playing the drums?"
"Yeah, it's pretty fun. And I really like getting to jam with Luna. I'd like to get better so that I can keep up with her..."
"Seems like you have your answer, Lincoln." she said, a smug grin on her face. "Not to mention, it'd be pretty cool, you know? You could even start your own band or something."
He gave a chuckle. "Heh, heh, yeah. I dunno about that, Ronnie Ann..."
"Don't dismiss the idea Linc. At least take Mazzy up on her offer for a few lessons. You might really enjoy it. You didn't think you'd ever enjoy a sport until you began playing soccer with Lynn and her friends, right?"
"That's true..." said Lincoln, thoughtfully. He had initially only intended to play in that one weekend tournament to help his sister and her friends out, but since then had been talked into taking part in several training sessions, including one shortly after finishing school that day, although the rain meant that they had to cut things short.
Heck, he was even seriously considering trying out for the boys soccer team at school thanks to his recent, newfound enjoyment of the sport. And if he had gotten to that point in soccer, what would happen if he took Mazzy up on her offer for drum lessons? Would he one day end up as a part of a band like Ronnie Ann had suggested? Thanks to his involvement with his school's glee club, he already knew that he could sing pretty well, so what if he could back that up with some skill with a musical instrument?
Suddenly he could picture it in his mind: himself up on a stage, playing the drums, two other people on guitars, maybe someone else on keyboard or something, all of them rocking out before a crowd of fans. Luna, his third eldest sister standing front and centre, filled with pride for him, throwing up the goats as she yelled "Rock on, Lincoln!" at the top of her lungs.
Around her were his other sisters also cheering him on. And either side of them were others. Other fans, also of the female persuasion, but very much not ones he was related to. He couldn't quite make out what they looked like, but -
"Lincoln? Linc? You okay?"
Lincoln blinked and gave a slight shake of his head as he returned to reality. "Huh?" he asked, eloquently.
On the screen of his phone, Ronnie Ann smirked at him. "You zoned out dude," she said. "You were gone for, like, five minutes."
"Oh…. Uh, sorry." he stammered. "Just thinking..."
Ronnie Ann raised an eyebrow at him and said "Is that so? Well, just be careful. I wouldn't want you to hurt your brain."
"Very funny." he said, deadpan.
As Ronnie Ann laughed at his expression, her bedroom door opened and her best friend, Sid Chang, entered. "Ronnie Ann, the concert is starting!" she announced, before noticing who was on her friend's laptop screen. "Oh, hi Lincoln!" she said, brightly. "How's it going?"
"Pretty good, Sid. Thanks." he replied, happily. "I didn't realise you were going to a concert, Ronnie Ann."
"That's because we're not going to it," she replied. "Twelve is Midnight are playing in Argentina. We're gonna watch a live stream of it."
A smirk appeared in Lincoln's face. "Twelve is Midnight? You two really like that Yoon Kwan guy, huh?"
Ronnie Ann's face flushed with embarrassment as she exclaimed "Shut up!"
Now it was Lincoln's turn to laugh at his friend's expense as Sid, too, gave a giggle at Ronnie Ann's obvious embarrassment.
"Are you done?" the latina girl asked, scowling at her friends. Sid and Lincoln exchanged looks through the respective screens before turning back to their friend and replying "No." and laughing some more.
"OK, that's enough." Ronnie Ann proclaimed after letting them laugh a little longer. "Lincoln, don't you have band practice to get back too?"
Sid's eyes lit up at that and she turned back to the boy in question. "Ooh! Lincoln, you're in a band?"
"No, I'm just practising with my sister's band." he replied.
"Maybe you should join them," insisted Sid. "That would be so cool!"
"Told ya, Lame-O." said Ronnie Ann.
"And I said I'd think about it," replied Lincoln. "I'll talk to you later, OK?"
"Yeah, talk to you later," said Ronnie Ann.
"Bye, Lincoln!" called out Sid before the call ended.
Lincoln put his phone into his pocket and hopped off of his bed to go back downstairs and out to the garage. As he did so, his mind returned to the mental image he had of himself performing as part of a band in front of a large, adoring crowd of fans. Maybe two of those fans would be a certain Latina tomboy and her cute Asian BFF…
Nope. He scolded himself, mentally. Bad Lincoln! You and Ronnie Ann agreed to just be friends so that things won't be weird between you. And that extends to Sid as well… probably.
And with that, he pushed those thoughts out of his head and began making his way towards the stairs.
Sam had a contemplative look on her face as Luna finished regaling them with the story of Lincoln and Tabby at the Sadie Hawkins dance. Finally she said "You know, never mind Lincoln and Tabby getting along, I'm amazed she even speaks to you after that, Luna."
Luna had the good grace to look ashamed at her girlfriend's accusation. "I know. I just go so mad at Lincoln, I didn't think of how Tabby would feel when she found out."
"Sucks pretty hard," commented Mazzy. "Would it really have been that hard for three of you to call your friends and explain that another sister had fixed him up with a date already?"
Luna looked down at the floor, sadly. That's exactly what they should have done. But then, deep down, Luna knew that she, Luan, Lynn and Lucy would never have agreed upon which friend to send him with. Luna herself would have demanded it be Tabby so Lincoln had someone he could rock out with. Luan would have insisted he go with her friend, a girl nicknamed Giggles, so that he would have someone to make him laugh. Lynn would have asserted that it needed to be her roller derby friend Polly, so that Lincoln had someone who could keep him on his toes. And Lucy would have wanted it to be her friend Haiku, someone who would encourage him to think deeply and avoid the normies.
That Polly and Giggles went to different schools, Tabby lived in a different country most of the time and Haiku was three years younger than Lincoln, and therefore there was little chance of any one of those relationships continuing beyond that one dance should also have been a big factor for them to consider….
Sam held her hands in front of her mouth, palms resting together, fingers drumming against their opposites as she thought. "Well, we can probably still get them to be friends. Though you really should call and apologise to her before we do anything, Luna."
"That's fair." Luna acknowledged.
Sam let her hands fall to her sides before asking her girlfriend "Think you can convince your parents to let Lincoln come with us tomorrow night?"
Luna thought about it for a moment before answering. "I dunno dude. Mom and Pops might not be cool with the idea. They're still not entirely on board with me going to The Red Herring without supervision."
"It's not that bad a place," said Sully, somewhat defensively.
"No, it's not," agreed Luna. "But they do serve alcohol there. That's the bit my 'rents aren't comfortable with."
"But you'll be there with him," said Sam. "They'll trust him with you, won't they?"
In all honesty, Luna did not have an answer for that. Sure, her parents weren't entirely comfortable about her going to a place that did serve alcohol, but they let her go anyway, trusting her to be responsible. Taking Lincoln was a whole other matter entirely. She liked to think she had proved herself responsible enough to be allowed to do such a thing, but the fact was that until she asked, she had no idea of knowing what their answer would be. Maybe she should run the idea by them before she asked Lincoln. That way if they refused, she wouldn't get his hopes up for nothing.
Just then the side door to the garage opened up and Lincoln himself came back in.
"Hi!" he said, brightly. "Did I miss anything?"
"No, not much," said Sam. "Though we were just talking about going to see a band perform tomorrow night. You wanna tag along?"
Luna resisted the urge to face palm. Well, there went that plan!
"Oh, sure, that would be great," answered Lincoln, enthusiastically. "What band is it?"
"Just Chunk's band," said Sam. "You know, our usual roadie?"
"Ok, cool." said Lincoln. "I've always wanted to see Chunk's band. What time do we leave?"
"Whoa! Hold up there, little bro!" interrupted Luna, before Sam could state a time. "We gotta clear this with mom and pops first. It's at The Red Herring, and they might not be comfortable with you going there given your age."
"Well, let's go and ask them!" said Lincoln.
Sully spoke up. "Listen, Lunes, me and Mazzy are gonna leave that with you. We gotta take off."
"We'll see you tomorrow though," added Mazzy. "Hopefully you'll be there too, Lincoln. And think about my offer for drum lessons, yeah?"
"I will," promised Lincoln as the pair gathered their things and headed out.
As Lincoln, Luna and Sam headed towards the back door of the house, the boy asked "So, are Sully and Mazzy a couple or something?"
Sam gave a short laugh and replied "No, dude. They're both gay."
"Oh," said Lincoln, caught a little by surprise. "I always assumed they were together. But its cool if they're gay. I just didn't know."
As they reached the entrance of the living room, they saw Lincoln and Luna's parents sitting on the couch with Leni, Luan, Lucy, Lana, Lola and Lily, all watching some show on the television.
Lincoln paused and looked down at himself with a slight frown before turning to Luna and asked "Do you think I should put on my convincing suit?"
The corners of Luna's mouth turned up in a fond smile before she replied "I guess it couldn't hurt bro."
Lincoln nodded and hurried off upstairs.
"You know, it's pretty cool that Lincoln is so chill about Sully and Mazzy." said Sam as she leaned against the door frame between the dining room and the living room.
"Well, one on his friends has two dads," replied Luna. "So its not like he hasn't grown up knowing about this kind of stuff..."
Sam smiled and nodded before a sudden look of realisation flashed across her face. "Wait, did he just say 'convincing suit'?"
Luna laughed and motioned for Sam to follow her upstairs. There, they waited for a few minutes outside Lincoln's bedroom door before the boy came out, now dressed in his pale blue suit with orange tie.
"How do I look?" he asked.
"Very dapper." complimented Sam.
"Rockin' that suit like always, dude," added Luna.
"Thanks," he said, before bringing his hand up to his hair. "Maybe I should get some gel to do something about my turkey tail."
"Don't bother," said Luna as she put an arm around his shoulders and began guiding him towards the staircase. "Face it bro, you'll never win your battle against the turkey tail."
Back down in the living room, Lincoln and Luna took a moment to gather their thoughts before stepping up to speak with their parents while Sam held back a little.
"Hey 'rents!" began Luna in a chipper tone. "Just checkin' to make sure you remember I'm goin' with Sam and some others to watch a band play at The Red Herring tomorrow?"
"Yes, we remember, honey," replied Rita, though there was a slight edge to her voice hinting at her still present hesitancy to allow her daughter to visit the establishment in question.
Despite this, Luna pressed on. "Cool, cool. So, see, here's the thing… me and the band were talkin' earlier, and we thought it might be cool, if you guys are okay with it, for Lincoln to come with us."
That statement certainly caught the attention of her parents, as well as the six other sisters who were also present.
"You're asking to be allowed to take your eleven year old brother to watch a band at a place that serves alcohol?" asked Lynn Sr.
Luna winced slightly. Him pointing out that Lincoln was still only eleven made the whole thing seem that much more of a bad idea.
Sensing that Luna was about to be told "no" which would damage her plans to get Lincoln and Tabby to be friends, Sam spoke up. "He'll be with me and Luna the whole time."
Whether her statement provided the Loud parents with any comfort or not wasn't entirely clear. While both of them did like Sam, she was still a pretty new arrival in the lives of the family and any assurance she could make about Lincoln's safety did not carry as much weight as it might have had they known her for longer.
"Its not as simple as that, Sam," said Rita. "We're not entirely comfortable with you and Luna going to The Red Herring, and Lincoln is much younger than both of you."
"Come on, mom, please?" pleaded Lincoln. "I really wanna go, and Luna won't let anything bad happen to me."
"First sign of trouble and I'll drag Linc's butt straight outta there, promise." added Luna.
Again, Lynn Sr and Rita looked to each other, having a completely silent conversation through subtle facial expressions, the kind of thing that only came from two people knowing each other for a very long time.
After a few long moments, the family patriarch's shoulders slumped a little as he gave in to whatever his wife was asking and turned back to Lincoln and Luna.
"Alright, how about this?" he posited. "Luna, I will drive you and Lincoln to The Red Herring tomorrow night. I won't go in with you, but I will wait in the van outside. That way if something does happen, I'll be nearby."
Luna's whole face lit up with a joyous smile. "Really? Thanks Pop-Star!" She ran over to hug her father. "I promise, we'll be on our best behave!"
"Yeah, thanks dad!" said Lincoln as he joined the hug.
Suddenly an idea came to Luna and she turned to her brother. "Yo, bro! We gotta sort out your threads for tomorrow. C'mon Sam, we'll need your input too!"
As Luna and Sam moved to head back over to the staircase, Leni bounced to her feet excitedly. "Ooh! Are you guys playing dress up with Linky? Can I come?"
"You know it," agreed Luna.
"Yay!" cheered Leni. "C'mon Lincoln!"
"Hey, wait-" the boy in question tried to protest, but Leni, with a strength that belied her frame, simply scooped him up and threw him over her left shoulder in a fireman's carry and then joined Luna at the foot of the stairs. Together the two sisters began walking upstairs with Sam following on behind, the latter trying desperately to not laugh at Lincoln's face at his expression quickly rotated between being stunned, indignant and fearful.
"I almost feel bad for him," said Lana.
Up in Lori and Leni's room, Lincoln found himself sitting on Lori's bed next to Sam while Leni and Luna went off to his room to fetch some of his clothes.
"Dude, why do you look like someone being led to the electric chair?" asked Sam, looking down at him.
"I'm about to take part in a fashion show with Leni. This will take hours."
"Oh, come on Lincoln! I'm sure you're exaggerating… oh my!" Sam's assurances died when Leni and Luna entered the room carrying between them more clothes than seemed reasonable for Lincoln to even own.
"Did you really need to bring everything?" asked Lincoln, indignantly.
"Well, we need to examine all options in order to find the perfect outfit," explained Leni as she and Luna dumped the mass of clothes onto her bed.
Lincoln sighed as he got to his feet and began sorting through the pile. "Fine, but can we all agree to remove my swim trunks, bathrobe, pajamas, Christmas sweater, Ace Savvy costume, mime outfit, clown costume, school gym kit, ARRGH! uniform, Dairyland udder cap, lucha libre mask, karate outfit, monster truck hat, umbrella hat and my galoshes from consideration? There is no way any of that can be worked into an outfit for a rock concert."
"That's fair," agreed Leni, throwing said items aside.
"What the heck is this?" asked Sam, picking up what appeared to be a large fox hat and a fluffy fox tail.
"Oh, that's Lincoln's Fenton the Feel Better Fox outfit," said Luna, as though that explained everything.
"Uh-huh..." said Sam, setting those items aside before picking up something else. "And this…?"
"That's the Prank-Me-Not Poncho," replied Lincoln. "Lana and Lola invented it to protect from the worst of Luan's pranks on April Fools Day. It didn't work."
"And the Russian hat…?" continued Sam.
"Don't ask..." said Lincoln, recalling his efforts to sneak into a party that Lori threw for her high school friends. Becky still called him Lincolnovich sometimes.
"And the dragon boots?" asked Sam, holding up the items in question.
"I had a very brief period as a goth so that I could help Lucy cheat her way into being elected as the president of her mortician's club." answered Lincoln.
Sam just stared at him silently for almost a full minute before commenting "There is so much I don't know about you, Lincoln, and I don't know if that should scare me or not!"
Luna let out a huge laugh at that, only to be interrupted by Leni letting out a high pitched shriek of joy. "Lincy, look! Its the manotard I made for you!" she exclaimed, holding up the item in question. "Oh, I can't believe you still have it!"
Lincoln stared, wide eyed at the offending item. "Yeah, I can't believe I still have it either..."
"Ooh, what's in the trunk?" asked Sam, leaning towards the large wooden item. It had been buried underneath everything else, but as more and more items of clothing were set aside it slowly became visible.
"We don't need to look in the trunk!" said Lincoln, hurriedly. Unfortunately for him, Luna was already flipping the lid open.
"Oh my God!" exclaimed Sam once the items within were revealed. Lincoln winced as she reached in with both hands, only to draw back moments later with a wig in each hand. One was black and resembled the hair of Lucy, and other brown and pulled back in a ponytail, reminiscent of Luan's signature style.
Lincoln opened his mouth to say something, but faced with Sam's incredulous expression, any words that might have come out failed to put in an appearance. After all, what the heck could he say to explain this? He, Lincoln Loud, had a trunk filled with what could only be described as cosplay costumes of all ten of his sisters.
Fortunately, that's where Luna jumped in with an explanation. "Oh, yeah! Lincoln sometimes covers for us when we sneak out."
Sam's eyes suddenly lit up with excitement. "Wait, does that mean there's a Luna cosplay in here?" She dived back to the trunk and began rooting around until, eventually, she stood up again, holding a purple crew neck shirt with a white skull on it, and a lavender plaid skirt in one hand, and a pair of purple boots in the other. She had a huge grin on her face as she locked eyes with Lincoln.
The boy felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "No." he said, emphatically.
"Oh, come on!" pleaded Sam. "I just wanna see..."
"Yeah, come on, bro!" added Luna. "I've never seen you dressed as me either. I only got to see you as Lily, and that weird cross between Lana and Lola."
"C'mon Linky!" added Leni. "It'll be fun!"
"No it won't." insisted Lincoln, before snatching the clothes from Sam and heading towards Leni's closet. He knew they wouldn't let it go until he did it.
"Hey, Linc!" said Luna, just as he made it to the closet door. He turned back, just as his rocker sister threw something at him, saying as she did "Don't forget the wig." Lincoln caught the item, rolled his eyes and ducked into the closet to change.
When he came back out, both Leni and Sam gave very high pitched squees of joy while Luna started laughing. "What?" asked Lincoln, feeling self concious.
"Dude, this costume is awesome!" said Sam, clearly delighted. "Luna, move next to him. I wanna picture of this."
Before Lincoln could protest, Luna threw an arm around him as Sam whipped out her phone. Leni mirrored her actions and both girls snapped photos of Luna and her currently look-alike brother.
"Those photos are not for sharing with anyone." insisted Lincoln.
"Oakie dokie." chirped Leni.
"Sure, no sharing," agreed Sam. "You have my word as a former Blue Bell scout."
"You were a Blue Bell?" asked Luna.
"For all of three months and one week," confirmed Sam. "And then they kicked me out."
"How do you get kicked out of the Blue Bells?" asked Lincoln.
"Well… you know how they sell cookies to raise money? Well, I ate, like, half of the ones they gave me to sell myself."
Luna, Leni and Lincoln all gave her looks of surprise, causing her to blush and admit in a quiet voice "I went through a tubby phase..."
"Aw, babe," said Luna, stepping over to wrap her girlfriend in a one armed hug while Sam pouted.
"Wait," said Leni. "I was in the Blue Bells too. I don't remember you being there, Sam."
""Oh, uh, I lived in Hazeltucky then," explained Sam.
Lincoln gave her an odd look. "You're from Hazeltucky?"
"Only between the ages of five and eight," replied Sam. "Why?"
Lincoln took a moment to weigh up his answer before simply replying "Don't tell Lynn. Hazeltucky is the main rival of pretty well every sports team she's a part of."
"Ah. Gotcha."
"Well," said Leni, brightly, and in an effort to get them back on track. "I think we should totes make the skull shirt the starting point for Lincoln's outfit. The rest can go."
"Agreed," concluded Luna and Sam.
Lincoln wrinkled his nose. "You want me and Luna to go out in matching shirts?"
"Yeah, it'll be cute!" insisted Sam.
"We can add this!" said Luna, excitedly. She held up a pair of black pants and matching black vest jacket.
"Ooh, nice!" said Sam. "Where did you get these?"
"Picked 'em up at a Smooch concert back along," explained Luna. "Had to get Lincoln lookin' the part for his first concert."
Sam's grin went from ear to ear. "Tell me more!"
Lincoln rolled his eyes. Yeah. His earlier assessment was correct. This was gonna take a while
So I'm gonna end this one here for now. I'm conscious of how long some of these chapters have been and I am aware some people aren't good with reading over-long chapters. With the whole concert and Tabby's reintroduction left to go, I've decided to break this one up into two parts. I have no idea how long part two will end up being, as it isn't complete yet, but it might be on the shorter side.