Hey, everyone! I am SO sorry for not uploading a new chapter recently! I haven't been doing too well myself, and going through anxiety recently. I also haven't had a ton of time to work on writing, and am writing this near the day of Halloween itself. I'm sorry if this chapter might be a little short as well. The story just hasn't developed enough for me to be able to actually write LONG chapters. Anyways, this chapter is going to be the chapter where things start to get a little more serious. Enjoy!
P.S. In my first fanfiction, one of the people that have read some of the chapters which I believe is JustBien told me that the first two chapters were great, but felt that they should be collided in to just one chapter. Now, I LOVE that idea as a whole, but when it comes to a writer like myself, I usually like to leave hints at the end of the chapter to leave everyone wondering what the next chapter will include in it. It's no offense against him, it's just the way I like to write things, as well as keeping MANY chapters. I also feel like doing two April Fools fanfictions is a little much, and the other story has less development, so I'm going to finish this fanfic first before getting back to that one, as it'll give me a better idea of what to write since this story will have more development in Luan's character and have a deeper non-canon backstory as well. That's all! And (saying again) hope you all enjoy!
Chapter Two: An Unexpected Surprise
Luan slowly walked down the creaky staircases, causing her eye to twitch. She was not at all happy with Lynn's attitude, although she was surprised that she didn't think about April Fools Day at the least once, but decided to just not think about it. After she stopped thinking about those thoughts on Lynn however, she immediately forced herself down the wooden staircases without knowing why she did. The only thing she could think of was getting ready to eat breakfast.
Once she got down the staircase, her siblings, Lori, Leni, Luna, Lynn, Lincoln, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa, and Lily saw her as quick as the Flash, and immediately froze with stressed looks on their tired faces.
"Oh, uh… hey, Luan…" Lincoln said with fright.
Luan just ignored what he said, wanting him and the other Louds to remember that they had gained some of her trust back last April Fools day. Lincoln was surprised at how Luan didn't pull a dirty minded joke out of her buck teethed mouth and the others were as well.
"Hey, dude? You doing alright?" Luna said with bravery.
"There isn't a need to barge into my business, Luna," Luan responded.
Luna just stood where she was in silence, not knowing what to do or what to say after hearing such words coming out of her younger sister's mouth, as the entire family doesn't tolerate such behavior.
Without telling everyone else, Lori decided to step in and ask Luan if she was alright, even if it meant taking bigger risks on a petrifying day.
"(Approaching Luan) Luan, are you okay? You don't seem like yourself today," Lori asked.
"I-'m-I'm fine, Lori… just, you know, tired, I guess," Luan responded.
Lori just gave her a side eye after hearing what she had heard. Lori even wondered herself why she even came back to the Loud House for the week on a scary holiday.
"What's with the side eye, Lori?" Luan continued.
"Oh, nothing," Lori responded quickly, even though she knew exactly what she should've said.
Luan responded back by re-giving her older sister the side eye herself, causing Lori to laugh a little in her mind.
"Alright, sis. If you ever need me, just come and-" She was cut off by seeing her little sister giving her hand gestures.
"(Through hand motions) Lori, shhh! Don't give her more ideas!" Lola signaled Lori.
Lori immediately ran back to the others before Luan could even ask why. She was still overall surprised that her family hadn't gained her immediate trust back. But she wondered if the trust that her family had promised her was even real. It didn't seem like it. The only thing it seemed like to Luan was that it all was a cheap lie, just so her family could get out of her grasp before all hell breaks lose in the Loud House.
Luan just looked down at herself, feeling as if she was the reason every single sibling in her family groaned at her jokes, why everyone liked to keep boundaries from her every once in a while, and keep boundaries away from her dummy, Mr. Coconuts as well. The only thing that kept her from thinking that was the fact that all she wants to do is make the world smile along with her, but none of it seemed to be working. Even if she can make an entire audience laugh with her corny jokes, she worried they would soon get old. She is someone who has mixed feelings about certain things, especially when it comes to her siblings. Whether it'd be Lynn's sporty behavior, Leni's ditziness, everything in between. Comedy was the one thing she could agree on doing everything there is about it, whether or not her family liked it or not. But, ever since the last April Fools Day, helping Lincoln figure out who the prankster was made her feel different about herself, as she didn't act so insane on that day. It started to make her both want to prank her siblings, but also not as well. The one thing she never realized to think about in this type of situation though is if she wants to make the world smile along with her, then she shouldn't put people through all harm's ways so she can give herself a laugh, as that's something that is only doing herself a favor, not anyone else. Making herself seem selfish in her sibling's eyes.
Luan just smashed her head on the table, trying to get rid of all those nasty thoughts in her head, as it only stressed herself out more. The more she though about it though, the more clueless she got. She still really doesn't know that pranking her family is what's causing the Louds to avoid her however. It was specifically the one day last year that made her feel different about herself, leading her to all these thoughts that caused her heart race through the pulp of her vessels. Luan tried to do all she could to ignore it, but she couldn't for some weird reason.
"(Breathes in and out) hey! It's okay, Luan. Just having lots of stress for a reason you don't know! And if you don't know, then why is it needed to stress out anyways?" Luan said with fast pace.
"Uh, Luan, you sure you're alright? You seem to be panicking a little bit," Lincoln asked.
"Oh, yeah! I'm doing fine! Lori already talked to me about all this anyways!" Luan responded.
"Well, you don't seem to be doing fine yourself and I'm surprised no pranks have been set up," Lincoln said.
"Lincoln! What the heck? Didn't you hear Lola tell Lori to not give Luan any ideas about April Fools?!" Lynn whispered.
Luan just looked down on herself, only concerning Lincoln more. He knew that Luan normally doesn't act like this on April Fools Day, but most of the sisters didn't seem to think about it, as they already had left the kitchen without Lincoln. The only sisters standing there were Lisa, Leni, and Lori.
"Luan, you're concerning us. What's going on?" Lori asked.
"Lori, can't I just be left alone?" Luan demanded.
"Well…." Lori nearly awnsered.
"That's what I thought," Luan side eyed her.
"Let's just get out of here before Luan gets angry," Lincoln recommended.
"Alright, alright," Lori awnsered.
The Louds (sans Luan) left her alone in the kitchen so she could have time to herself. But all of a sudden, she had this sudden urge to get up and go with her siblings without knowing why.
"Uhh, hey, guys? Do you mind if I come along with you? I-I-I don't know why, I just feel like it!" Luan asked her siblings as they entered the dining room.
The siblings were surprised. Luan had acted so different around them all morning, and now it seems like she wanted to play a dirty trick on them to see them suffer from her torturous pranks. But Lincoln decided to be the bigger man and allow her to join in for breakfast.
"Sure, Luan!" Lincoln happily responded with such joy.
The Sisters' (sans Luan) jaws dropped after hearing what Lincoln had awnsered. They weren't willing to give Luan the chance to spend time with them on April Fools Day, but seeing Lincoln saying yes to her, they could only raise their eyebrows at him like he had made the biggest mistake in his life.
"What, guys! Don't you all remember that we had gotten her trust back from last year? Sure, she pulled at least one prank on us, but that was one of her least harmful ones! Shouldn't we give her the chance to hang with us today?" Lincoln questioned.
"Well, you've got a point, but what if it's just a plan to attack us with more pranks!" Lola responded.
"We don't know what Luan could be thinking, and sometimes we shouldn't. Maybe it's best we don't force her to tell us her thoughts in her mind," Lincoln said.
"Hmm…. Alright, we'll give Luan a chance, but IF she does ONE harmful prank to us this year, she WONT get the CHANCE to hang with us through the next April Fools Days until she turns eighteen!" Lola demanded.
"What do you think, Luan?" Lincoln asked.
"Hmmm… deal, I guess," Luan said shaking Lola's hand violently.
Luan was ready to have one of her pranks pulled on any of her siblings, though she wondered in her mind, "Where are my parents?"
Luan could only wonder that, but it was most likely because they had work today and were able to get out of the house without falling for one of her traps. But what surprised her the most is the fact that one of her siblings had stepped on a string where eggs were supposed to fall over their head, but none ended up falling on them. Luan decided to continue on with her day, as that was only one of her pranks out of god-knows-how-many-pranks.
"Wow, Luan! I'm surprised there hasn't been one prank pulled on us yet!" Lori smiled.
"Well, I-I" Luan stopped.
"Hey, look everybody! The Ice-cream Truck is here!" Lana stated.
The siblings ran with excitement all over their faces, even Lynn, who could use some sugar in her body.
"WOAH!" All the siblings gasped.
There was multiple flavors on the list. Mint chocolate chip, vanilla, chocolate, banana, and more. All of a sudden, they saw the ice cream lady. She looked different from all the others. She wore a leather black hoodie that looked very futuristic. It covered almost the entirety of her face and the only thing that could be seen was her yellowish eyes. Her hands were covered with fake rings and jewelry, making Lola's eye wide for a tiny second. But the shoes were covered with a long dress, which was all flannel color. It looked as if she hadn't got ready in the morning.
"What ice-cream flavor would you like?" The lady asked.
All the siblings spoke at first, which is when Luan arrived out the wooden door. When she did, the ice-cream lady took a quick glance at her and gasped.
"Hey, you! Come over here for a second!" The lady demanded.
"Uh… Okay?" Luan shaked.
Luan went over to the young looking, slim woman and immediately gave her an ice-cream of all flavors.
"Wow! What a surprise! Thank you, mam!" Luan happily said.
"Anytime! Enjoy your ice-cream!" The lady said with an urge of joy.
"I will!" Luan responded as she went back inside.
"An ice-cream with all flavors? GIVE ME!" Lola demanded with quick behavior.
"Woah there, Lola!" Lori said as she pulled her back.
The ice-cream lady only looked at Luan as she shut the front door with an awkward smile. The Louds didn't bother though and instead got their ice-cream for the long run.
As the Louds went back inside, they looked at Luan, who seemed to be enjoying her ice-cream. They all decided to re-think the entire situation of Luan pranking them deviously on a disastrous day, but they all of a sudden stopped when one of the Loud Sisters made a bloodcurdling scream of agony.
"(Screams in pain) My head!" Leni screamed.
The Louds saw a terrifying sight. It was a sight that made everyone scream for one short second. Leni was holding a splattered ice-cream in her hand that had a tiny needle that poked her soft, round forehead. Her forehead was bleeding as tiny drips of dark red blood covered tiny bits of her nose. While the Louds have seen worse sights (such as Lynn falling 20 feet to the ground) it was pretty serious as it looked like an expired chemical was injected into the needle.
"Leni!? Are you okay?!" Lori screamed in fear.
Leni was in too much pain to the point she couldn't speak in that moment. she crouched down dropping the ice-cream out of the palm of her right hand and put the hand over her forehead. Her teeth clenched hardly against each other and didn't know how to respond.
As for Luan, she knew the family would blame her for this entire deviously planned prank. Her lips started to form into round waves with her buck tooth sticking out from the rest. Her brown eyebrows curved upside down and attached to the tips of her eyelids. She started to become teary-eyed and tried to back away without her siblings noticing, but it was too late. They immediately saw her walking away suspiciously and one of the younger sisters spoke out, blaming her older sister.
"So you were the one who pulled this prank on Leni!" Lana shouted.
"What have you even done, Luan?! Leni could've got injured if the needle went deeper than it did! It even looks like there's some sort of poison inside the needle, which is pouring out as of now!" Lola screamed at Luan.
"Seems like it's from an expired drink that I can clarify is 2000 year old wine, which is not safe to go down your esophagus, nor to be touched by, as it can contain harmful bacteria inside of it," Lisa stated.
"Oh, great! I'm going to die now!" Leni cried.
"G-guys! It wasn't me! I swear…! How could it be me when the ice-cream lady pulled it…? An-and why would I want to kill one of my family members? I would never!" Luan tried to convince her siblings.
"I can tell you're CLEARLY lying! Besides, that ice-cream lady could've been part of your plot! She really isn't an ice-cream lady, is she? Now, tell us who that person was, or else I'm going to pulverize you!" Lynn demanded.
The Louds surrounded the slim Luan, causing her to get more anxious. She didn't know what to do, or what to say, but all she could do was nearly cry. Seeing her older sister the way she was made her feel even worse than she did. The siblings were blaming her, everyone had lost trust of the young teenager once again, she only stood by herself, and didn't know the right words to say to stand up for herself, nor convince her siblings to gain her trust back, she was alone.
"WELL?! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF!?" Luna ferociously screamed.
Luan couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't take how her siblings reacted around her. She always remembered that her family was usually terrified of her on April Fools, which she would always enjoy, or would get annoyed with her. It wasn't the case this time though. It was different. They were standing up for themselves, causing Luan to have mixed feelings. So, she did what she had to do. She twisted her waist, clenched her fist tightly, and her fist dove through the strong air, punching Luna straight in her face, causing the rockstar to fall down in the process.
"YOWWW!" Luna screamed.
The family looked at Luan both in disappointment and fear. They still didn't believe Luan either way though. She never gave a good enough explanation to if she actually had pranked Leni or not.
Meanwhile, Luna had felt the agonizing pain of Luan's punch. She was screaming and crying in pain, and was even more severe than how Lynn got punched in the face when she was younger. Luna was bleeding 3x the amount Lynn did, and her lip was entirely swollen. Her nose has formed an extremely dark green bruise, and was painful to touch. Luna's eye immediately got swollen and dark red started to form on her eyeball. She could barely see, and she nearly went temporarily blind. It felt as if her entire face started to rip into shreds of flesh, blood, and bone.
Luan could only feel tears running down her cheeks as she saw what she had done to her older sister. It made the young teenager cry more tears of somberness when all of her siblings looked at her in disappointment. Her heart started to beat faster than a usual heart would beat and started to pant heavily as if she had gotten very ill.
"Luan! What have you done!? You just put Luna in grave danger!" Lucy fumed.
Luan had no choice but to run up to her and Luna's bedroom. She couldn't stay where she was any longer. Her siblings were criticizing her in the wrong way and never meant to harm Luna in anyway. There was no way to win against all of her siblings with her standing by herself, but couldn't understand how dangerous she became on April Fools Day either way. She ran away up to her room, heartbroken in every way. All of the siblings had seen Luan do such, but they could care less, except for one, Leni Loud. She could see all the pain in Luan's eyes and wanted to make her feel better immediately.
"G-guys? Shouldn't we check on Luan? It doesn't look like she was lying. That's one of the hardest she has ever cried in years! I feel bad now!" Leni questioned and stated.
"How could you believe her? Don't you know she has pranked us ever since we were in diapers at the age of 2!?" Lola continued.
"Yeah, but you don't know her thoughts! She could be telling the truth! Even on a day such as this!" Leni cried.
Everyone just ignored Leni, but she decided to go check on Luan by herself, even if it meant taking big risks. She decided to keep an eye on whatever was around her to make sure she didn't get pranked, even though she stepped on some of them and noticed. She was surprised though because nothing was happening to her, making her feel morse safe but concerned more for Luan. She hadn't acted like herself the entire day, causing Leni to act that way.
Leni opened the creaky, brown, wooden door of the bright colored bedroom and all the lights were turned off. She saw Luan lying on her bed, snuggling with Mr. Coconuts in a way that could almost make Leni start to shed tears on her face. Luan's eyes were bloodshot red and was making sniffling noises through her nostrils. Leni could tell she felt bad for what she had done. Leni approached her younger sister slowly.
"Hey, Luan? Are you alright?" Leni asked.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Luan screamed.
"Hey, it's okay. You know I'll always be here for you when you need me," Leni softly told her younger sister.
Leni started to rub her younger sister's spine as tenderly as she possibly could, causing Luan to look behind herself.
"Leni, stop…" Luan groaned in annoyance.
Leni felt frivolous of her. She hated it when one of her siblings or anybody in general felt this bad. She always wanted to help the best she could. She continued to rub her younger sister's back.
"Leni, stop!" Luan demanded.
"But, all I want to do is help you!" Leni responded.
"Well, it's not working!" Luan shouted.
"Look, Luan! Please understand that I REALLY believe you! I know that what happened to me was harmful, but like you said yourself, why would you want to kill one of your family members? I know you don't want that to happen! I trust you! I don't want more harm to come to the family!" Leni admitted.
"I-I…" Luan mumbled.
Luan started to shed tears down her face. She could tell Leni believed her and her emotions of begging proved that to Luan. She could only hug Leni, feeling sentimental around her.
"I'm sorry for shouting at you, Leni. I shouldn't've screamed at you in the first place…" Luan apologized.
"I forgive you, Luan," Leni responded calmly.
Leni then remembered the ice-cream lady. Her eyebrows started to furrow.
"Leni, you okay?" Luan asked.
"I just remembered, you know the ice-cream lady? Shouldn't we figure out who that really is? You'd be a big help since you helped us figure out Lily was the prankster last year!" Leni questioned.
Luan paused for a quick moment. She remembered how much last year's April Fools Day bothered her. She didn't get to do what she had desired and wanted to, but didn't want her family getting harmed either. She had no choice, but to say a simple sure.
"Sure," Luan responded.
"So that means you'll help? Oh thank goodness!" Leni excitedly shouted.
"Yeah, I guess I can help. But we need to convince my siblings that I wasn't the one who pranked them," Luan stated.
"You got it!" Leni said.
The two older siblings, Luan and Leni team up together to gain the siblings' trust back for Luan, then search for the prankster who pranked them…
Hope you all enjoyed the second chapter of this fanfiction! NGL, this one took quite the patience and time to write it! Now, just going to let you all know, this fanfiction's purpose is NOT to torture the main characters AT ALL. There WILL be some moments in the fanfiction though that will cause some of the main characters to get tortured in some ways in future chapters. For this chapter, I learned that the way to make a chapter longer is to add many moments that weren't asked for, but needed (if you know what I mean) hence why it's 3x longer than the first chapter. This is only the beginning of the rising point of the story though, so be aware of what might come next! I'll just say that you'll see Luan getting to bond with some of her siblings throughout this story! Stay tuned for chapter 3!
P.S. HUGE thanks to the DeviantART user who had the idea, Fuzzball29 for letting me change up the synopsis of the story a little! Now it's even more fun to write! I FREAKING LOVE YA'LL!