Act I

It was time for lunch at the middle school cafeteria. Lincoln and his friends were eating their food and engaging in their usual social small talk. This time, the conversation was something quite tasty, as Rusty had quite the hopeful hunch to share with his pals.

"Guys! The Rust-man has scored, big time!" he said enthusiastically as he ran over to the table.

"What is it?" a curious Liam asked as they all turned their heads.

"You know that girl from seventh grade? Gina Watson?"

"Yeah?" Zach replied.

"She's totally into me!" Rusty insisted with undeniable confidence.

"Really?" Clyde asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, I mean, nothing personal, but Gina is one of the most popular girls in the whole school!" Lincoln reminded his friend.

"While you're… just you." Zach bluntly put it.

"Thanks, man. Thanks a lot." Rusty replied with deadpan sarcasm.

"Well, what did she say exactly?" Lincoln then questioned.

"Well, it wasn't what she said, but I noticed the way she was eyeing me just now when we were standing in line for lunch." Rusty claimed.

"That's it?" Clyde asked, a little underwhelmed by his "evidence".

"I'm telling you, she's totally into me!" Rusty then boasted with immense swagger.

Although all this got him was a group of unconvinced, judgemental facial expressions from his four male friends, who were still sceptical of his claim.

"I think I have a way to settle this." Stella then proposed.

As it happened, she had a cup of tea next to her at that very moment. She picked it up and drank out of it, so she could "interpret" the remaining leaves inside the cup.

"Oh, right. I remember. You did this when Clyde was wondering if Emma liked him." Lincoln then recalled.

"That's right. My granny taught me how to read tea leaves. So, why not give it a try and see what we get?" she said as she began to observe the remains inside her cup.

The boys then gathered around her as they awaited her conclusion…

"What does it say?" Liam asked.

"Yeah, does it say me and Gina get together and make some magic?" Rusty asked.

As Stella observed the tea leaves, her expression shifted from curious to worrisome, alarming her friends.

"I see Royal Woods, and I see Rusty, and us… and… I see fire all around us!" she declared, earning a gasp from the others.

"And there's lightning!" she followed, causing the boys to mutter a second gasp.

"And there are tons of people shouting and screaming!" she continued, resulting in a third, even louder gasp from the others.

Stella and the boys then stood there in fear and dread, as her tea leaf readings gave off far more grim and disastrous results than anything they could have predicted. Meanwhile, a disappointed and annoyed Rusty was still focused on his initial query.

"Pfft, that was a waste of time. I didn't get an answer about Gina Watson. Besides, those leaves weren't even right about Clyde and Emma, anyway. I'm sure all that stuff is just nothing!" Rusty dismissively put it. "I'm going to just walk over and ask her out. Might even see if I can get her to go to the Infernal Dance-Off with me this Saturday. What's the worst that can happen?" he then announced before marching his way over to the object of his affections.

"Actually, from what I remember, those tea leaves weren't wrong about that time with me and Emma, were they?" Clyde then recollected.

"No, they got all the details right. Except they were referring to you and a different girl. We just jumped to the wrong conclusion." Stella confirmed.

"Do you think that could be the case this time, too?" Liam asked.

"I'm not sure." Stella said.

"Well, I don't like the sound of those hints. From what you just said, Royal Woods could be facing an impending disaster!" Lincoln fearfully predicted. "Luckily, I know just the person who can help." he then declared triumphantly.

"Well, if there's any chance that I could be right and Royal Woods really is in danger, I guess we should try." Stella agreed.

Just then, the boys and Stella were interrupted by a loud, audible slap coming from the other side of the cafeteria.

"OW!" Rusty yelled as he held his cheek in pain.

He had just tried, and failed, to woo his so-called love interest.

To be fair to Rusty, Gina was quite an attractive girl, in a downplayed way. She had a slightly dark skin complexion, and a nice hairstyle with a blue headband. She also wore a green skirt, a lavender short sleeve shirt, and long white socks with black Mary Jane shoes.

But unfortunately for the Rustman… she wasn't interested. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"Don't talk to me again, you creep!" Gina shouted furiously before storming off.

"But wait!" Rusty pleaded, trying to stop her before she left. "I saw you looking at me in the lunch line a few minutes ago!"

"I wasn't looking at you, I was looking at the food! I was starving, and it looked good!" she corrected him.

"Oh." a disappointed Rusty muttered as he lowered his head in shame, allowing Gina to walk away.

Zach then nudged Liam and asked him "What do you think he said?"

Liam just shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Knowing Rusty, probably nothing appropriate." Clyde then remarked.

That evening, Stella joined Lincoln at his house, where the two made their way toward Lucy and Lynn's room.

Lincoln knocked on the door, and his goth sister answered.

"What is it, Lincoln? 'Vampires of Melancholia' is about to start."

"That might have to wait, Lucy." Lincoln told her.

"I'm sorry to ask you this, but it's an emergency." Stella added.

"What kind of emergency?" Lucy asked.

"You're into magic and superstition, right? Well, Stella was taught by her granny to read tea leaves, and what she found today was… worrying, to say the least." Lincoln elaborated.

"Hmm, what exactly did the tea leaves tell you?" Lucy questioned.

"Well, when I looked into the cup earlier, I saw Royal Woods, and lots of fire, and lightning, and people screaming!" Stella grimly recalled.

Just as she did, Lisa walked past the room with Todd and happened to overhear their conversation.

"Interesting." Lucy replied, with a slight amount of intrigue detected in her otherwise monotonous voice and body language.

But then, a more cynical point of view interjected. "Pfft. That is pure hokum. As if the fate of an entire town can be based on the nonsensical, superstitious practice of something as ludicrous as reading tea leaves from a cup." Lisa claimed.

Only to earn herself a sassy reply from her robotic companion. "And yet, your dismissive attitude has been proved wrong so many times."

"Todd, I swear if you don't stop badmouthing me, I'm going to remove your voice box!" an annoyed Lisa warned him. "Although… previous experience does dictate you have a point." she then begrudgingly admitted.

Lisa then brought her two siblings and Stella into her room, where she decided to give Stella's theory a fair shot. She revealed to them a rather large, bulky yet elegant looking machine that she had been constructing.

"Behold the Weather Estimation and Lucidity Patrol, or W.E.L.P. for common folk. Using advanced satellite capability, this machine will determine ahead of time if any abnormal weather circumstances are due to enter Royal Woods." Lisa explained. "This should disprove your nonsense unequivocally. As usual, science prevails over superstition." she then boasted, earning her a slightly annoyed "Hmpf" from Lucy.

Lisa then activated her device and scanned weather patterns and predictions all across the globe. She and the others awaited the results. Stella, Lincoln, and Lucy watched as Lisa's eyes widened with surprise… and a hint of terror.

"Sweet mother of Einstein!"

"What is it?" Lincoln asked.

"I'm getting readings of a heatwave approaching Royal Woods within the next 48 hours!" she said as she pointed to a big red area on her electronic map monitor.

"Fire…" Stella fearfully recalled.

"And there is a thunderstorm coming in from the east!" Lisa then followed as she pointed at another part of the map where a dark cloud symbol was visible.

"Lightning…" Lucy also remembered.

"Okay, so we're going to get a bit of bad weather. Maybe that's all Stella's tea leaves were telling her." Lincoln tried to say optimistically.

"But what about the part where there were lots of people shouting and screaming?" Stella wondered.

"Look there." Todd then said as he pointed at the monitor.

Lisa gasped before revealing "And the machine is also indicating that there is a 70% chance of a hurricane hitting the town before the end of the week!"

"Well, that would explain it." Lucy said.

"This doesn't sound good." Lincoln then grimly added, his optimism having flown out the window with that last revelation.

"Ugh! What have I done?! Have I cursed the town?" Stella asked worryingly.

"No, Stella. You didn't cause this catastrophe, you only forecasted it. That's a good thing." Lucy reassured her.

"What?!" Stella asked in disbelief.

"How is any of this a good thing?" Lincoln then questioned.

"Because now we have a chance to stop it. Quick, follow me." Lucy instructed.

Lucy, Lincoln, and Stella then left as Lisa began to inspect her machine more closely.

"Todd, assist me as I look into this alarming turn of events in more detail."

"Sorry, Lisa, but I'm leaving, too." Todd said.

"What? Where are you going?"

"Luan is helping me with my pranks. Even robots need their relief sometimes." Todd revealed as he then grabbed a pie and made his way out of the room.

Lisa then sighed to herself and remarked "Where did I go wrong with him? I programmed him to be less 'human' than that."

Author's Footnote:

So, after a matter of months, I'm finally back with a new story. For those of you who don't follow my work on other websites, I've been making some reviews of the show lately, so feel free to go and look those up if you haven't already.

This story fits into the B-Canon timeline (AKA all the stories I've written since 2021s "The Quest for Glory"). However, it takes place chronologically before the events of "Inside the Loud House" and its immediate successor, "The Loud's Finest Hour" (naturally, since that was written to be the grand finale of the show... er, sorry, B-Canon timeline XD). Just so you guys know where this fits into the grand scheme of things.

Recently, I've had a few more ideas for 3-act stories. The one I'm thinking of doing after this is about the Loud family holding an informal "trial" of sorts (I've been watching a lot of "Better Call Saul" lately, lol). Maybe Lola gets something stolen from her, and she blames Lana, who defends herself. Then all the other siblings get dragged into it and a big sibling meeting/trial goes down. I could see some comedic potential there.

But for now, here's the story that was voted for by the users of the Loud House Wiki. Please enjoy, and expect the next chapter in about a week or so.