April 16, 2024.

I have a terrible fever, but that doesn't mean I stop working.

Seanrudin and Putain de Plagieur: Thanks.

DJ Sprouts: I already understand the scolding. From now on, Lincoln will be less intrusive when advising his sisters. But in Lori's case, he couldn't resist, maybe because he's been wanting to say this for a long time. I can also try to make longer chapters, but then it will be more work to translate.

Your Saving Grace is Here: "Leni is far too pure for our world." Hard to believe that, judging by It's A Loud (4x) House, Brawl In The Family and No Such Luck.

Enjoy!

Chapter 02:
Leni

Knock Knock Knock Knock!

"Who is?"
"Leni."
"Lincoln isn't here. Would you like to leave a message?"
"Tell him I can't wait."
"Just 1 minute."

Leni (16 years) puts her ear to the door and hears her brother getting dressed and zipping up his jeans.

Soon after, she hears the sound of the key in the lock.
The door opens and she is faced with her younger brother, Lincoln (11 years), wearing his trusty orange shirt and blue jeans.
"Go in and close the door."

After entering and closing the door behind her, Leni looks around the room.
Everything normal.

"You used your head this time," Lincoln scoffs.
"I can't be stupid all the time," Leni admits, in her typical high-pitched, childish voice.
"Can I help you?"
"Linc, Lori told me about how she's been feeling better since she's been talking more with you. Like, she lies on your bed and you listen her attentively."
"Huh? That was a secret between us."
"I think so. But she said it's been so good for her that I should try it."

"Do you want to vent?"
"Yes."
"Let me see," Lincoln rubs his chin. "There's something really big inside your chest that's about to come out."
"Huh?" Leni looks shocked and puts her hands on her left breast. "Is my heart rebelling against me?!"

They look at each other.

And they laugh.

"Okay, enough," Lincoln decides. "Let's leave the comedy to Luan."
"Yes, that's it," Leni continues. "I need to make a crucial decision and for that I need your guidance. Can we talk?"
"Sure."

Lincoln grabs a broom and pokes at the ventilation duct in the ceiling.
"What are you doing?" Leni doesn't understand.
"Walls have ears," He justifies.
"But on other hand, they don't have mouths."
"He he he he..." Lincoln is amused by his stupid sister's clever quip.
"Isn't Lucy in the duct?"
"No, she isn't," Lincoln puts away the broom. "Whatever we talk about in this room will die here."
"Excellent."

"Okay, then," Lincoln deepens his voice. "Dr. Loud is ready to serve you now. You can lie down on the couch."
"Thank you, doctor," Leni smiles. "But there's one more thing I need to do."

Leni clears her throat and starts shaking her head and arms in a rather bizarre way, even for someone of her standard.
"Leni requests! Leni requests! Turning off Dumb Blonde Mode! Turning off Dumb Blonde Mode!"
"Leni?" Lincoln finds strange.
"Request completed successfully!" She announces in a deep and serious tone of voice, closer to Lori's.
Lincoln opens his mouth, stunned.

"This will be easier," Leni speculates, in her real voice, as she discards her flip-flops and sunglasses and lies down on Lincoln's bed. "What's wrong, you've never heard me speak normally?"
Lincoln shakes his head as he takes the chair to sit next to his sister.
"To paraphrase William Shakespeare, there are many more layers within me than your vain philosophy dreams of," She continues.

Lincoln swallows hard:
"All good. Now say everything and hide nothing."

"Okay," Leni breathes deeply, looking up at the ceiling, hands clasped together. "So my problem is the Stanislavski Method."
"What?" Lincoln scratches his head.
"I've been pretending to be someone I'm not for a long time: idiot, retarded, ultrasensitive, bad confidant, terrible liar..."
"I'd say you're a pretty good liar," Lincoln disagrees.
"Yes, because I managed to fool you this whole time," Leni frowns, smiling. "And I also act like someone who doesn't understand subtleties of language and needs everything to be explained to me as clearly as possible. As if I were an autistic girl, just like Lisa."

"Who said Lisa is autistic?" Lincoln is curious.
"I'm telling you," Leni elaborates, sitting up in bed. "She carries a lot of neurodivergent traits from Asperger's Syndrome: she doesn't smile, doesn't show emotions, is hyperactive and terrible at social sciences. But none of that matters, because I love her the way she is."
"WOW!" Lincoln marvels. "You really are smart."
"If you want, I can give you more examples of my great reasoning," Leni assures.
"Well, I would say… Leni!"
"What was?"
"There's a spider on your left arm."

Leni turns her head and confirms Lincoln's observation.
She blows the spider away.
"Then? Where did we stop?" She turns to her brother.

"..."

"No, I was never afraid of spiders. I owe Lucy an apology later."
"Why?" Lincoln doesn't understand.
"Because of my dissimulation, she was never able to fulfill her greatest wish, which was to have a pet tarantula," She admits, patting her knee.

"Okay, then," Lincoln cuts short, playing with his pencil. "But let me understand: do you assume this dumb blonde stereotype anytime, anywhere?"
"Yes. I'm stupid all the time," Leni confesses, lying back down. "Whether at school, or at my job at the clothing store, or here, at home..."
"And no one else knows?"
"That I'm a great actress? Lori kind of knows. After all, I'm the closest to her in this family. Lisa must know too. It's usually with Lily that I act more normally, especially because she's a baby and I know she won't report me. As for our other siblings, I'm not so sure. Dad and Mom certainly don't know, they are so absent."
"But exactly why do you do that?"

"Now we come to the million dollar question," Leni clenches her fists, feigning excitement. "I love this game show. In fact, that's part of the problem. I always had a huge almanac culture and competed with my friends to see who knew the most answers to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. But I soon saw that others distanced themselves from me or thought I was too snobbish. I also realized that boys, in general, don't take well to the idea of a girl being smarter than them, even in something stupid like a TV game."
"Just for that?"

"That was just the tip of the iceberg. Things got worse as I stood out in Middle School. I was, like, the brightest girl in the class, and also really pretty. This not only aroused the envy of the girls, but also the interest of some boys who took advantage of me to do schoolwork in their place and also to pretend to have some love interest in me."
"But you said guys don't like smart girls."
"Exactly. How many men boast about having genius wives while at the same time they surround them in the house and psychologically manipulate them, claiming that they are much smarter than women? I soon realized this and decided that I didn't want that for myself."

"OK. So you decided that you would start 'being stupid' as a kind of protective shield."
"You hit the target."
"Well, I can understand you doing that at school, but... even with your family?"

Leni swallows hard.
"I think I went too far," she admits, with a hint of sadness.
"Don't worry, I'm not angry," Lincoln assures. "But is there any specific reason why you're not honest at home?"

Leni rubs her fingers:
"I, like, feel sorry for Lori because she is burdened with so many tasks at home, in addition to having to put up with the endless demands of 9 siblings asking her to do X for them or drive them to Y."
"9 siblings?" Lincoln is embarrassed. "Does that include me?"
"And me too," Leni admits, smiling slightly. "We are all cut from the same cloth. That's why she shares her tasks with us, to prevent us from getting everything for free from her. And she's right."
"And what does this have to do with you?"

"Well, I'm the second oldest sister, right after her. If the siblings can't go to her, they will naturally go to me. And to prevent me from getting overwhelmed too, it's much more convenient for you to think that I'm a retard who always messes up. You understand well what I'm saying. Isn't that why you lied to us, saying you were bad luck?"

Lincoln is silent.

And hangs his head, ashamed.

"Oh oh!" Leni sits back down. "I am really sorry."
"It's okay," Lincoln lies.
"No, it's not okay," Leni opens her arms. "Come, sit here with me."

Lincoln climbs into bed and hugs Leni, who kisses her on the forehead, nose, ears, cheeks, chin and ends with the traditional peck kiss.
"Words can't describe how much I regret that episode," She reaffirms, stroking her brother's white hair. "It's amazing how idiots we can all be sometimes..."
"That's weird," Lincoln rolls his eyes. "I should be the therapist, not you."
"No one needs therapy more than the therapist himself," Leni smiles. "I saw it on television."

Lincoln breaks away from his sister and returns to his chair.
"Okay, but what do you want to do now?" He asks.

"I feel tired of all this. I want to be a common girl and lead a normal life, like all other teenagers."
"Not everyone," Lincoln quips.
"Yes. But I'm afraid of their reaction. Like, is everyone in high school going to consider me a fake? What about my friends? Will they still accept me for who I really am?"
"Well, you can't jump higher than your legs. Start by acting sensibly at home."
"But I don't feel ready to bring our sisters together and say, 'Look, guys, I've deceived you my whole life and I love you.' What if they lose trust in me?"
"You don't need to make any pompous announcements. Just set a good example for them and don't be spouting nonsense all the time."
"But do you know what it's?" Leni smiles yellow. "A part of me likes to talk nonsense."
"I like too," Lincoln admits. "But even good things must come to an end one day. It's the natural cycle of life. Certain things need to die so that others can be born."

"True. What about my friends? Maybe they see my stupidity as my charm. What if they move away from me because they find me less fun?"
"I don't believe that. But if it does happen, you will have the opportunity to really get to know them. The important thing is that your friends accept you the way you are. Real friendship can be nothing less than that."
"You know I have very few friends. It's not like I was prepared to lose some of them."
"We mature over time. False friendships should not be kept like family jewels, but rather sent away."
"You have a good point."

"Well, we're done here," Lincoln announces, looking at his watch. "How do you feel, Leni?"
"Much better," Leni hugs herself. "It's as if I've finally removed the mask that forced me to hide all this time."
"Will you commit to being a serious girl and speaking in your normal tone of voice?"
"Yes. Maybe I'll play once in a while, but without compromising my identity. It will be sad to lose a part of myself in this process, but now it's time for me to mature."

Leni breathes a deep sigh of relief.
And gives Lincoln a big hug
"Thank you very much, brother."
"Anytime, sensible fairy," Lincoln quips, making Leni laugh.

The two share another peck kiss.

Leni gets up and heads for the door.
"I will do anything to compensate you. Like, take you to watch a WWE fight."
"I thought you didn't like violence."
"Relax. It's all an act, after all."
"And isn't time to take a break from acts?"
Leni laughs.

When she is about to open the door…
"Wait. There's one more thing," Leni warns.
"Speak."

Leni turns to her brother:
"I really like giving affection, but I'm also getting tired of always being 'Miss Kindness'. I can't spend all my time giving off the image of a fragile and manipulable girl, especially since I'm going to take on the role of Second Mother in the family next year, when Lori moves to university."
"Leni, showing affection is not frailty. You can be affectionate at the right time and strict at the right time too. In fact, everything you do, be it kissing, hugging or scolding our sisters, has to be performed as an act of love."
Leni nods.

"Anyway, thanks again, Lincoln. I love you. I will in this."
"Good luck, Leni! I love you too!"

She opens the door and takes one last look at her brother.
"Checkmate."

BLAM!

Since then, Leni starts to act more sensibly with her family, not speaking in a high-pitched voice, not acting like a brainless person and demanding more from her sisters, including Lola and Lana, for their stupid fights. Some sisters find Leni's new behavior strange; others disdain her authority, claiming that she is not Lori. But Leni doesn't care, as she knows it will take some time to build an aura of respect within the family.

Leni makes up for Lincoln by taking him to a paintball club, where she mercilessly "shoots" him. Lincoln is surprised, as he never imagined that Leni could have a warlike side.

One day, Leni takes courage and brings the family together, explaining that she always pretended to be stupid and apologizing for that. She promises to do her best to be the second best sister of all (behind Lori).

The whole family forgives Leni and gives her a group hug.

I find interesting the idea of each Loud Sibling creating its own method of self-protection. Lori, in Driving Miss Hazy, shares her chores with her siblings so that none of them abuse her too much. Lincoln, in No Such Luck, invented that he was bad luck (or rather, capitalized on Lynn Jr.'s accusation) to get rid of his family. Likewise, Leni could pretend to be idiot so as not to be overwhelmed by her siblings' requests.

Next chapter will be about Luna.

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See you soon!