Gwen woke up the next morning. She was dressing up like a goth, trying to gain Lucy's trust.
She came down as the Louds looked confused.
"Oh, Luke's next show is tonight." Lola says.
"There's my cue." Lucy says.
Lucy goes to Luke's house as Charity leads her to Luke. Lucy blushed upon seeing Luke.
"Lucy!" Luke says, embracing her. "You're alive!"
"Yeah." Lucy says, blushing as her body was thin from not eating. "So what have you been up to?" Lucy asked.
"Nothing much. Just getting ready for the show." Luke says.
"Okay" Lucy says.
Luke then feeds her some of his breakfast and gives her a glass of blood orange juice. Lucy smiled at Luke.
"Thanks." Lucy says.
"You're welcome." Luke says. "Are you coming to the show?"
Lucy smiles and nods.
Later, Lucy watched Luke rehearse. She admired his dedication and hard work he put into his show practices.
She frowned, thinking about her family. Luke could see how sad she looked.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Luke asked Lucy.
She nodded. Luke had Charity make some tea and they sipped on it as they sat and talked about everything that had been happening in the Loud household.
"I'm not sure who to trust anymore." Lucy says. "Lisa basically put my life in danger because of her science. The whole family has been trying to gain my trust. I'm so sick of them right now."
"Understandable." Luke says. "Considering everything they've done, it's enough to make me want to do something about it. And if they try anything, it'll be the last time they do so."
"I'm sick of being a pawn in their wicked games. I'm done." Lucy says. "They just want me to trust them again so they can use me. I just can't do that anymore."
With the Louds, they were all just doing their own things.
Leni was making a new dress for Lucy. She missed watching vom with her
Suddenly, Leni got a text from Lucy, asking her to check on Luna and Lincoln. Leni went to the hospital to do so.
"Hi, guys." Leni says. "Lucy said you needed help?"
"Could you change the channel?" Luna asked.
Leni changes the channel for Luna and Lincoln.
Meanwhile, the show was in an hour. Lucy was with Luke, helping him get ready. Gwen came in, having made Luke a costume for his show. Luke squealed and took it, then ran off to try it on.
Lucy glares at Gwen.
"Oh, Lucy…" Luke smiled. "Don't I look amazing as the Mad Hatter?! This is just wonderful!"
"Yeah, why is she here?" Lucy asked as Gwen looked down.
"She came with me." Charity says. At that, Lucy clammed up. She knew Charity had ended up taking Gwen in, but didn't want to say anything more.
Soon, the show was beginning. Luke stood backstage, a bit nervous.
Lucy hugged him as Luke looked at her, smiling nervously.
"It's okay." Lucy tells Luke.
Luke holds his customized "Mad Hatter"-themed guitar, smiling down at it.
Lucy looked down. "How can you just wear that costume? Gwen made it." Lucy asked, wanting to know why Luke trusted Gwen. She didn't want to tear it off him, knowing it would hurt him.
"She's 5." Luke says. "I like this design, too."
"You know what, go on and do your best." Lucy tells Luke. Luke nods and gets ready to go on.
Fans were chanting Luke's name as Doug introduced the show.
"Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for a great show!" Doug says.
Luke watched Oliver, and he looked angry. Oliver stole his routine. He felt very upset by this. So upset that he just walked away.
Lucy feels bad as she watches Luke walk off.
"I need to help him." Lucy says.
"But how?" Gwen asked.
"You want to help Luke, why? Who are you, really? I can't trust you." Lucy says.
"Let me help or Miss Charity calls CPS again." Gwen says. Lucy sighed.
Lucy sat down, thinking of what to do and thinking of songs Luke could do.
Luke cried at his dressing table.
"Look, Luke, I know who can help you. My sister Luna is good at this sort of thing." Lucy says.
Luke sniffed. "My performance career is over..." He sobbed.
"We can help you." Gwen says.
They chose an awesome song. Luke felt nervous.
Lucy kisses him and rubs his back.
Luke dejectedly takes off his Mad Hatter costume.
"You can do this." Lucy says.
"Not anymore…my Mad Hatter theme was stolen by him!" Luke shouted. Lucy had no idea what to do.
"He wins! He wins, okay?!" Luke screamed before storming off.
Lucy frowned. She decided to curse Oliver, but Charity stopped her.
"We use words, not physical or mental violence." Charity says.
"I need to expose him." Lucy says.
"Not in your way." Charity says.
Luke just left the show venue, in tears. He was working on how he was going to get himself eliminated from the show.
Lucy watched this. "Gwen, expose Oliver, and maybe I'll trust you." Lucy says as Gwen nods.
Lucy runs after Luke.
"Luke, you can't give up." Lucy says.
"Why?" Luke sniffed.
"You can do this." Lucy says. "You can still do it. Once you do, everyone will see that you're the original." Lucy says as Luke nods, determined.
Luke came on stage and did his "Let's Go Crazy" act. The judges look at Oliver, realizing he stole from Luke.
"Oliver, you're disqualified." Doug says.
Oliver walked offstage, defeated.
Gwen showed the judge the footage, then Lucy looked at Charity holding Gwen, then Lucy lost it and ran off crying.
Luke smiles backstage.
"Way to go, Luke!" Charity says.
Lucy snuck into CPS and looked around finding her parents' diary and looked at the pages and saw the plan. An elder child, Lori. A fashion model, Leni. A rockstar, Luna. A comedian, Luan. A sports star, Lincoln/Lynn Jr.; the perfect family.
Lucy sees that Lola, Lana, Lisa, Lily, and herself weren't on the pages which meant one thing.
"You just had to forget protection! We had our perfect family!" Rita says.
"We'll manage. Besides, what's the worst that can happen?" Lynn Sr. asked as Lucy was only a baby.
"I was a mistake…" Lucy says and flipped through some pages and found out that Rita and Harriet had been and Lucy resembling Harriet didn't make things better. She also reads on how Lincoln had no talent and turned out to be a disappointment. The only time Lynn Sr. or Rita really mentioned Lucy was about how getting married to a boy like Luke can get them rich. Lucy vomited, feeling sick as she laid on the lobby floor in the CPS offices.
Forest gasped and picked Lucy up.
"What happened, sweetheart?" Sally asked Lucy. Lucy felt her face turn green and her stomach upside down.
Forest took Lucy to his house.
Lucy wouldn't let him take her in. She had trust issues.
"Lucy, you don't have to be afraid of me. I'm a nice person." Forest says. "I only want to help you."
Lucy just screamed as Sally watched. "She's suffered from too much betrayal. We can't take her home, because, well, that family is awful. Maybe the hospital. Her brother is there." Sally says.
"I'll give her a ride if you take her into the hospital." Forest says.
Sally nods.
Meanwhile
"You got her trust back? Impressive…" Lola said and hugged her.
"Yeah, we gotta celebrate!" Lynn says.
"Really?" Gwen asked.
"Tonight is about you!" Lana says.
Luna was smiling, watching Luke's interview and noticed Lincoln asleep.
Sally came into the room as Lucy vomited in a trash can. Luna gasped and asked Sally to put Lucy on her bed.
Sally did so as Luna held Lucy close.
"It's okay, baby sis, I'm right here…" Luna says as Lucy begins to cry.
"I'm a mistake…" Lucy sobbed as she was telling Luna what she found.
"You're kidding!" Luna says as Lincoln was stirring.
Lucy shook her head. "I'm not kidding." She says.
"They got disappointed in Lincoln because he didn't have actual talent…That is all kinds of bogus!" Luna says.
"Luna, Lincoln, we brought food." Rita says as they came in with pizza, causing Lucy to shake as she was scared so badly. Well, let's just say the bed changed color. Luna saw this and saw just how terrified Lucy was.
"I'm a mistake! I'm a mistake!" Lucy sobbed as she clung to Luna.
"What's going on?" Rita asked, reaching for Lucy, who was freaking out, not wanting to be touched by her.
"Don't. Touch. Her!" Luna snapped.
"I'm her mother." Rita says.
"Not anymore." Forest says, stepping in.
"Poor child." Sally says. Security guards came and took the Loud parents out to some waiting police cars. They were arrested on the spot after seeing the stuff in the diary.
Lucy was still holding on to Luna. She turned green, about to vomit. Luna held her head over the toilet most of the night as she vomited for hours and cried herself to sleep.
Luna winced, forgetting her own injuries. But she had recovered from them. She sees Lucy is more important right now and sees Lincoln went back to sleep.
"Oh, God, what happened?!" Luna asked.
The next day, Luna woke up to see Lucy in the bathroom with a razor blade, cutting her arm while crying.
Luna ran in and tended to her while calling Charity and Luke.
Luke woke up after hearing what was going on. He and his mom arrived 20 minutes later.
"Lucy, darling!" Luke says, worried. "I'm here, I'm here…"
Lucy ran into Luke's arms, sobbing.
"What happened here?" Charity asked Luna.
"Lucy read our parents' diary and well, she was never planned to be a part of the family. Then CPS found out and our parents were arrested. They'll be in jail for a long time." Luna says.
"Trust me, if your siblings try anything stupid, they'll be next." Charity says.
Luna nodded. "I think I'll keep an eye on Lincoln and Luce-Change here." She says.
Lucy sniffed, she was still upset. Luke held her.
"You think she lost her mind?" Charity asked.
"I think once she found out." Luna says. "But she's suffered a lot. And after what I've seen and now heard, I don't think I plan to go back home after the hospital."
Lucy tugged Luna's gown.
"Hey, Luce-Change, what's up?" Luna asked.
"Thank you. I forgive you." She says. Luna smiled and hugged Lucy.
"You're welcome, dudette." Luna says.
End of chapter