Hello everyone! I'm back with Chapter 3 of Actor. I would like to say before hand that any misspelling in the dialogue is intentional and is meant to convey accents by the speaker. Shout out to the Third commenter! Thanks for the advice, I will be referencing to improve story quality. Enjoy Chapter 3: The Means.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House.
Luan woke up in her plaid yellow pajamas. She stretched, yawned and got out of bed. She stepped into her white bunny slippers that were placed at the foot of the bunk. She looked at the clock, which read 6:15 AM.
Luan looked to the top bunk. Luna was rubbing her eyes, now just waking up. Luan turned to the closet and put on her usual shirt and skirt. She then went outside to the hallway, to join the line to the bathroom.
After using the bathroom, Luan went down to the dining room, where she put bananas and sunnyside eggs on her plate. She kept thinking of how the school day was going to go.
On the other side of the table from where Luan was eating was Lisa telling Lily about her 'Metallic Mass Detector' or whatever the hell that was. As Lisa droned on and on about how it could give accurate readings on the amounts of said metal compounds that were in the house, Lily kept playing with her food on the high chair.
When she was finished with breakfast, Luan put the dishes in the washer and went back to the upstairs bathroom to get bits of the egg that she had just eaten out of her braces.
Luan grabbed her toothbrush and began to insert the long, thin brush inside the gaps to remove the leftover debris. She was almost finished doing this when she stopped and looked at herself in the mirror. Her mouth was still wide open, showing the ugly brackets covering almost all of her teeth, with her buck teeth being the most prominent. Luan actually cringed.
"My god," she thought. "No wonder they pick on me." After some time she finally broke out of her trance. She placed her toothbrush back where it belonged and exited the bathroom.
Luan looked at Royal Woods High School through the door window as Vanzilla pulled up to the curb. She saw the two blue double doors, almost concealed behind a crowd of waiting students. Students, who were as likely as not to pick on her.
Luan did the math in her head; 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM was 7 hours and 30 minutes.
Most of that time was devoted to class periods, but what time remained was to hallways and lunch. 7 and ½ hours. 7 and ½ hours of being a target at high school. Math, science, reading, writing, all of it. Only the pantomime class would be nice. There she would have Benny, and her peers. But the rest of the time would be terrible.
The van came to a stop. Luan, Luna and Leni all exited the vehicle. The three of them walked together to the entrance and then went their separate ways to their respective social group.
Luan walked up to the group of kids hanging out next to the bushes to the left of the entrance. The students here didn't really talk to one another; they were just here because being among their peers was enough social interaction for them. She saw Benny standing at the far end of the group and walked over to him.
"Hey there, Benny!" Luan said. Benny turned around at his name being called. A smile spread on his face when he saw her.
"Hi Luan," he replied. "How was your weekend?"
"It was nice enough. I was a clown at another birthday party, and I've been practicing stand up routines."
"Sounds great. Is that all that happened?" Benny started, his smile slowly beginning to fade. "Are you doing okay?"
He knew. How could he not? Those three that had beaten her up must have made the story spread as far and wide as possible over the weekend.
"I'm okay Benny. Thanks for asking." This reassured Benny, and the smile he had fully returned.
"Good to hear Luan. I was showing Mrs. Appleblossom to some kids the other day and I thought, why don't we do a puppet show together at kids birthday parties? Diary Land is in the off season right now, so I can manage."
Doing a puppet show, and with Benny! Luan thought back to her earliest memories, of how she first entertained her family with those old sock puppets. Benny really did know how to make her happy.
"Yeah, that's a great idea! The kids would love it!"
The school bell pierced the air with a loud ringing. The double doors opened and the kids flooded inside like a river. Luan and Benny said their goodbyes and went inside to start the school day.
Luan sighed in relief as she exited the hallway and into the courtyard. She had been correct, by every account, on how the school day would turn out. There was first the usual 'Brace-face' and other insults, but now with the new 'push-over' over remarks. They would laugh to themselves behind her back in the classrooms and shove her around in the hallways. It was enough to make anyone crazy.
The only respite, thank god, was pantomime class, which she shared with Benny. It was only there where the majority of the kids treated her the same as everyone else.
She sat down on the raised steps surrounding the golden acorn in the middle of the courtyard. She was completing algebra homework when she saw Benny approaching.
"Hi, Luan," Benny called out. "How was your day?"
"Tolerable," Luan replied. It really had been anything but, but still she had to deal with it. Benny sat next to her and held her hand.
"Luan," he said, "I am always there for you."
Luan was thankful that Benny was always this kind and concerned. He was like family. Like family. Luan smiled at this thought. Benny and Luan then spent the time helping one another with homework. They kept this up until they saw a student walking towards them.
It was Parvana, another member of the Theater Club. She was waving around a cell phone in her hand. When she got to Luan and Benny she said, "You guys won't believe it! Check this out!" Both Luan and Benny leaned forward to get a better look at Parvana's phone. They saw the top of a news article, the headlines reading, "Julia Dreyfus, famous actor, to visit Royal Woods, Michigan."
Both Luan and Benny began to ask rapid fire questions to Parvana, who could not distinguish what was being said because of the noise the two were making made the questions unintelligible.
Julia Dreyfus was a famous actor, and arguably the best of the day. She was the role model of the Theater club, where even Mrs. Benardo, overseer of the club, looked up to her. Dreyfus was wanted by every movie and play producer in the country, and very sought after abroad. Rumor said that she would play as Ace Savvy's love interest in the upcoming Ace Savvy movie. She even had her own talk show, The day with Dreyfus, where she would discuss performances with peers on live television.
And to think that someone so important would be coming to Royal Woods of all places! She had to meet her.
"When is she coming?" Benny asked.
"It says that she'll arrive on Wednesday," Parvana answered. "She'll stay for three days and leave on Friday."
Luan began thinking of how to meet Dreyfus when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out. She had been texted by Lori, "I'm here."
Luan picked up her backpack and began to walk away to the entrance.
"Bye Benny! Bye Parvana." she said. They both waved goodbye and she walked back into the school. The few students that stayed behind this long too saw her and began to talk amongst themselves. It didn't matter, she would be gone fast enough.
Opening the door to the outside, she walked up to Vanzilla, where Luna and Leni were already waiting.
When Vanzilla arrived at the Loud House, Luna bee-lined for the garage. Inside was her guitar and some of her speakers for the sound system she and the band was going to use. Sam, Mazzy and Sully's things were being brought to the garage by Chunk.
Luna set up the sound system, cranking all the knobs and dials to their appropriate level when she saw Chunks' penny colored van pull up on the curb. Luna walked over to the van as Sam, Mazzy, Sully and Chunk exited.
"Hi Lunes," Sam called out.
"Hi Sam!" Luna said in reply. Chunk had opened the back of the van, and Mazzy and Sully were moving the drum set into the garage.
"What song will we be jamming to today?" asked Luna. Sam pulled a binder from her back pack and started to flip through it. The binder contained the music sheets for each song contained, one for all the band members for reference.
"Well, we have Dream On, For those about to rock and Bad to the Bone, to name a few. I just don't know what to pick."
Sam being indecisive was an annoying tendency with her. Luna and Sam had mostly solved it though every now and then she would hesitate to reach a conclusion.
Luna looked over Sam's shoulder at the binder. Her eyes went over each of the song titles until landing on one.
"Why don't we do Earl Gray Skies?"
"Gud choice, luv," interjected Chunk in his heavy accent. "A tru classic."
Luna turned back and into the garage to ask what Mazzy and Sully thought. Both agreed to practice Earl Gray Skies.
Sam passed music sheets around for reference to the band, while the others tuned their instruments. Luna sat on a stool at a corner of the garage and began to tune the strings. E, A, D, G, B and E again. She caressed her hand on the strings of the V-80 Shredder; perfection. Chunk shut the garage door to soundproof the garage.
"Everybody ready?" asked Mazzy.
"Yeah,"
"Yep,"
"Yes,"
"Okay then. Who will start us off?"
Luna raised her hand. Everyone else nodded their heads in agreement and readied their instruments. Luna pulled out a guitar pick from her pocket and counted down.
"One, two, three, four!"
Luan passed by the garage, having finished walking Charles. As she passed the side door to the garage she heard the band performing Earl Grey Skies by Mick Swagger. She took Charles to the backyard and unleashed him. He immediately went and started digging some holes in the ground. Luan saw the dog finally dig up an old bone.
"Well, Charles seems to have had a miner success,": she laughed to herself as she walked back to the house. She was about to walk past the garage and into the house when she thought to check to see how the band was doing.
She tried the side door, but it was jammed. "This damned door," Luan thought to herself as she tried to open it. It wouldn't budge. She then tried ramming into the door. It worked too well and it slammed on the wall of the garage. This caused Luna to lose her concentration and pull the pick on the string too hard. The string snapped back like a bow and the pick she had been using fell into some nook and cranny of the garage.
"Sorry about that," Luan said a bit sheepishly.
"No worries, brah," Luna replied in that fake British accent she used often when singing.
"There's mor picks in tha front o tha van," Chunk said.
Luan nodded and shut the garage door. She walked over to the copper colored van. She opened the door and sat in the passenger seat, looking for the picks. She checked the storage space between the passenger and driver seats. She found gum, napkins and bottles of water, but no guitar picks.
She then tried the glove box. She pressed the open button with her thumb, and the door fell open without a sound. She then began to sift through the junk until she found the box.
There was something gray and metallic in front of the box of picks. She carelessly began taking it out of the glovebox with her hand. When she pulled her hand out she froze, stopped blinking, stopped breathing. In her right hand was a gun.
The meaning of the chapter title means getting what you need to do what you want, in case some of you were wondering. I have a request to the viewers: Could you find a fanfiction artist that can make drawings that look almost exactly like the Loud House cartoon style? Thanks for reading! I will be back with Chapter 4 soon!