Act I
It was a typical everyday evening in the Loud House, when suddenly the front door was busted open by a proud and ecstatic young pageant prodigy…
"Lola Loud, coming through!" she said as she walked through the doorway, carrying a large, shiny golden trophy that was bigger than she was.
Leni, who was present in the living room at the time, emitted a surprised "ohhh, shiny." in awe of Lola's prized possession.
"You can look, but you can't touch." Lola said smugly before walking past her older sister.
Lynn was running across the room, when Lola placed her hand out and forced Lynn to stop in her tracks. "HOLD IT!" she yelled furiously at her sporty sibling, making sure she got the little jock's attention.
As soon as she stopped, Lynn also took notice of Lola's big shiny prize. "Woah, where did you get that from?" she asked in awe.
"I won it in today's 'Little Miss Grace and Glamour Pageant'. It was a tough competition, but in the end, Lola Loud claimed her victory!" she said proudly as she clenched her other fist in satisfaction.
Lynn then watched as Lola walked past the siblings' trophy case. Her prize was too big and grand to fit inside it. It was bigger than all her other previous trophies and awards. It was also bigger than any of the trophies that the other siblings had…
"Hmpf!" Lynn said angrily to herself as she folded her arms and pouted in annoyance. "I've still got the most trophies, even if yours is the biggest." she said quietly in frustration, her ego having taken a little damage from the fact that one of her younger sisters had won a bigger prize than anything she had.
Lola then walked upstairs with the trophy as she headed to her room, but first, she encountered her sister Lisa in the upstairs hallway. Lisa was carrying a trolley with an array of dangerous-looking chemicals in small bottles. Just before Lisa was about to bump into her sister, Lola shouted "Lisa!" to alert her.
"What is it, sister?" the young science prodigy asked.
"You almost bumped into me! You could've spilled all those gross chemicals of yours onto my trophy!" Lola berated her.
"My apologies. It's just that I'm in the middle of conducting an experiment where I test materials that are resistant to the most corrosive and toxic chemicals in my inventory. I'm just heading outside to test what rocks we have in the backyard." Lisa explained. "It's part of a research project I've been assigned with. Not one of my more spectacular studies, but still important researched nonetheless."
"Well, keep your chemicals away from me and my trophy!" Lola told her off.
But as Lola walked away, Lisa let out a curious "Hmm" before asking her "Lola, what metal is that trophy made of, might I ask?"
Luna, who was practicing her guitar solo in her room, also overheard the conversation between Lola and Lisa. She raised an eyebrow when Lisa proposed that Lola's trophy was made of a really strong material.
"I don't know, the judges said it was made out of some incredibly rare metal from the Far East." Lola nonchalantly replied as she shrugged, before resorting back to an angry vocal tone. "All the more reason for you to leave it alone! It's probably very valuable!"
As Lola retreated, Luna said to herself "I could do with some metal like that. My new guitar amplifier is so weak that it breaks every time I use it." She then followed it up with "Worst 40 bucks I ever spent on Bamazon."
Lola finally made it back to her room, where she placed the trophy down on the floor, next to her bed. Lana, who was taking care of one of her pet reptiles at the time, noticed Lola with her large prize. Reacting in a similar way to Leni, Lana's eyes went big as she said "Ohh, shiny." in awe of it.
"Lookie, no touchie." Lola dismissively clicked her fingers and snapped Lana out of her trance.
"Where did you get that from?" Lana then asked.
Lola then pridefully explained once again, "I won it in today's pageant. It's the biggest trophy I've ever had. You can't imagine the hard work put into getting this thing."
"Is it very valuable?" Lana asked.
"Well, the judges said it was made of a very rare kind of gold metal, so yeah, I'd say it's pretty valuable."
"Why is it rare?"
"They said it was a really strong, incredibly hard to obtain material from the Far East. Either way, I don't want you getting your dirty little grubs on it, so leave it alone!" she then shouted at her twin.
Lana said to herself "Really strong metal, huh? I could use that to patch up some of the cars I'm working on."
"I HEARD THAT!" Lola furiously shouted, slightly startling the tomboy twin.
And so, Lola went to sleep with her giant trophy beside her bed. She actually fell asleep on her side, with her arms reached out and clutching onto the trophy. She slept with a very proud and satisfied smile, feeling very happy that she had managed to obtain such a substantial accolade for all her efforts.
Many hours of darkness passed, and when the bright morning sun rose in the sky, Lola finally awakened. She let out a yawn before reaching back over to once again grab hold of her prize… but to her shock, all she grabbed was the thin air.
Lola opened her eyes and saw that the trophy was gone. Sure enough, there was only one "reasonable" response…
"GAAARRRRHHHHHHHH!"
The whole house shook as Lola screamed at the top of her lungs. Her trophy was gone, and she wasn't happy about it.
"No! No no no no no!" she nervously said to herself as she wandered around the room, trying to find it hidden somewhere as if it was just some little trinket, and not the giant ornament that it actually was.
"This can't be happening to me!" she said worryingly to herself as she checked under her bed, and in her cupboards, and then… she saw something alarming.
She glanced over at her twin sister's bed. Lana, surprisingly, was still asleep. The girl slept like a log, after all. But what really shocked Lola was that beside Lana's pillow was a golden handle. A handle that looked like it came off the missing object in question.
"You…!" Lola said quietly to herself in a tranquil fury, before cranking up the volume. "LANA!"
Finally, Lana's eyes opened and she began to wake up, no longer able to sleep through Lola's loud rage…
"Uh, what is it, Lols?" she asked groggily, before hearing an audible "RARRGHH!" and being pounced on by her twin.
Their fight cloud quickly spilled out onto the bedroom floor and began to make an unholy noise, one that could be heard all over the house.
The rest of the siblings quickly made their way to the twins' room. Fights happened all the time in the Loud House, but this one felt different… it felt more vicious and nastier than usual.
"Woah! Chill, dudes!" Luna said worryingly.
"Get off her, Lola!" Leni ordered, but to no avail.
"Guys, calm down!" Lincoln also pleaded.
Luna then whistled and called for Lynn to make her way into the room. "LJ, You're up!"
Lynn then charged head-first into the fight cloud and quickly emerged from it with one twin held up in each of her hands, held at either side of her. Lola was still aggressively trying to grab and pounce her way toward Lana, but thankfully for the other twin, Lynn's strength was just about able to keep the two separated.
"Guys! What the heck was that about?!" Lincoln questioned.
"It's Lana! She stole my trophy!" Lola angrily accused her.
"What?! No, I didn't!" Lana argued back.
"I saw that golden handle on your bed next to your pillow! You thought you could take it so you could use its metal to help with patching up your cars!"
The siblings then looked over and saw that Lola's observation was indeed correct. The golden handle was still on Lana's bed, right where Lola said it was. They all then let out a collective gasp, as it appeared Lola's accusations were true.
"Lana, did you steal her trophy?!" Luan interrogatingly asked her.
"Aw, come on, guys! If I did steal her trophy, why would I leave evidence right next to my bedroom pillow?! That's just dumb!" Lana then pointed out, which made some of the siblings reconsider the validity of Lola's accusations.
"Well, she does have a point…" Leni said, unsure of what to make of it all.
"Like heck she does! She's trying to fool us!" Lola said.
Suddenly, Lincoln had an idea, as if he was thinking intensely and then a light bulb appeared over his head. "I got it! We need to prove if Lana is guilty or not, so I suggest we settle this the old-fashioned way."
An excited Lynn then replied "Oh ho ho, I like you're thinking, bro. We let Lans and Lols settle it with some boxing rounds."
Lincoln just facepalmed in response to Lynn's false interpretation of his words. "No, Lynn. I mean we should settle this with a sibling trial."
And with that sentence, the sisters emitted a variety of contrasting facial reactions. Lana appeared incredibly fearful and nervous, while Lola looked angry and annoyed, because this would mean she'd have to work harder to achieve her sense of "justice". Lynn, Luna, Luan, Leni, and Lisa all had varying blends of confusion and worry plastered on their faces, while Lily just took everything in relatively tamely. And Lucy, as always, didn't really visually emote that much.
"What?" a weirded-out Luna asked.
"Wh-what?" Lana also nervously responded.
"WHAT?!" Lola also replied, though with a much angrier tone of voice.
"It's the only way to settle things, once and for all." Lincoln justified.
"Come on, Lincoln! She did it! I caught her red-handed!" Lola still argued.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Lola. Besides, like she said, why would she leave evidence right there next to her? It could have been planted there, it could have ended up there by accident, we don't know. That's why we must find out!" Lincoln explained. "I say we hold the sibling trial tomorrow morning. That should allow both sides a day to develop their cases." he then said as he glanced at Lana and Lola. "Until then, I suggest we keep these two separated."
"Well, that's gonna be hard, bruh. They share a bedroom." Luna pointed out.
"Eh, it's cool. I'll just sleep in the doghouse with Charles tonight." Lana said.
"Then it's settled. Everyone free your schedule for tomorrow. We're going to have a trial." Lincoln declared, much to Lana's fear and Lola's frustration.
And so, Lola mostly remained in her room the rest of the day, whilst Lana kept her distance from her angry and accusative twin. That evening, despite having her troubles, Lana played video games with Lincoln, which she was hoping would be a good distraction for her.
"Ugh! Come on, Lana!" Lincoln told his little sister as they played two-player mode on Total Trash Takedown.
But Lana was just rolling with it. She wasn't really putting in maximum effort. She looked more anxious and distracted than focused, and Lincoln could tell as he briefly turned to the side and saw the expressions on her face that said it all.
"Lana, you know this is a big game tournament, right? We've been building up to this for weeks! I know you've got your own stuff with Lola going on right now, but I need you to focus. Okay?"
"Alright, alright!" she brushed him off and tried to keep playing.
Lana's character then failed to jump at the correct time and got run down by an oncoming garbage truck.
"Argh!" Lincoln cried in horror.
This momentary distraction then cost the boy dearly, as a large mosquito enemy then flew down from the top of the screen and picked Lincoln's character up, before flying away and causing them both to lose.
"GAME OVER" the screen said in big white lettering.
"NOOO!" Lincoln shouted as he got down on his knees. "Lana?!"
But Lana just sighed and calmly put down the controller. It was obvious her heart just wasn't in it that night. Lincoln could see that no matter how disappointed he was about his video game, clearly it was his sister who had the bigger problems.
He swallowed his own emotions and walked over to speak with her. "Lana, I'm sorry. I know it was a big ask to get you to still play with me today, given everything that's going on." he said.
"Eh, it's cool." she tried to downplay, struggling to mask her true emotions.
"Is it?" he rhetorically asked her, knowing the real answer.
Finally giving in, Lana revealed her true thoughts. "Ugh! It's not fair! Lola thinks I stole her trophy, and the others believe her! I could see it in their faces!"
"Not necessarily. That's why we're having this trial tomorrow. So you've got a fair chance to tell them your side of things." Lincoln tried to justify.
Lana then changed the perspective and direction of the discussion with one simple question: "Lincoln… do you think I'm guilty?"
"Lana… I…" he tried to reply with a degree of sensitivity and impartiality, but was distracted when he saw her sad, puppy dog eyes, staring upward at him. He then sighed and said "Honestly, no. You're not a thief, Lans."
But just as Lana began to look more hopeful, he was quick to remind her of one simple fact. "But what I think isn't enough. We need hard evidence and a strong case to clear your name."
"But that's just it! Lola is so good at making people think her way! She'll play strings to make me look guilty and make everyone believe her! I won't stand a chance!" she said as she began to get more upset and teary-eyed.
Seeing his sister needed someone to back her up, Lincoln knelt down, placed one hand on Lana's shoulder, and looked her in the eyes. "Yes, you do." he then reassured her. "Because I'm going to defend you. I'll act as your defense lawyer tomorrow."
"You… you mean it?" a still teary Lana asked him.
"Yes. Look, Lola may be temperamental, but she's not unreasonable. We just have to make her see reason… and that's where I come in. I've got your back tomorrow, Lana."
Lana then lunged forward and hugged her big brother. "Thanks, Lincoln. You're the best." she said in gratitude.
"It's cool, Lans. I'm happy to help."
Author's Footnote:
Yep, I'm back relatively soon after finishing my last story, "Leaf Our Town Alone", and this time I'm back with a tale focusing on the main protagonists themselves.
Let's just say I've been watching a fair bit of Better Call Saul lately, so I got the idea for a trial episode about the Louds from that. XD
But yeah, I'm hoping to make this another valuable instalment to my B-Canon Timeline. Naturally, this story also takes place before "Inside the Loud House" and "The Loud's Finest Hour" (since they are meant to resemble the closing of the show, and who knows? Maybe one day, they actually will be).
The usual standards apply. Expect the next chapter to be up anytime between the next 3-10 days, depending on how quickly I get through it. This will be another typical 3-act story as usual.
Favourite, follow, and review this story, please (as well as my other ones if you haven't already).
