Sorry for the long delay, I had this chapter go through intensive evaluation by Delquea (Again, thank you for your time) to make sure the chapter is of quality. Certain chapters will be subject to peer review so these delays will probably happen again.

Moving on, I would like to address I will be using series continuity a bit loosely, as some chapters will be based off of episodes that happened after the chapters going after it, in case anyone is wondering.

Anyways, enjoy!

Any and all characters used in the story are not my own creation, they are owned and created by Nickoldean Studios. Any and all episodes used are not owned by me, they are owned and created by Nickoldean Studios.

Lynn looked at Francisco one last time before she made her move. She had kept the vigil of watching the sign that proclaimed the school's name in large golden lettering for a week since she had slipped Francisco the love note and now he was leaning on it, just as the letter told him to.

It could not have been more perfect; the anxiety that had been growing had now paid off in the euphoria she felt now that he had accepted, and Francisco was alone. She walked over and took a spot next to him, only about a foot apart.

Francisco looked over to her. "You're Lynn, right?"

She nodded. "Yep, that's me."

"I remember you; the pitcher on the Squirrels, right?"

"Yeah. What'd you think of my throws?"

"They were perfect; until you beaned me on the shoulder."

Lynn had forgotten about that and now that it had been brought back to memory it put a damper on things. She rubbed the back of her head under her ponytail in a guilty manner.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. Me and the rest of my siblings had this rigmarole over a love letter we thought was meant for one of us, and I was trying to send you a signal."

He shrugged. "No worries. I've been through worse and I got first base."

"But I still got you out," Lynn pointed out.

"But I would have hit a home run had you thrown a good pitch," he countered.

"But you didn't," Lynn finished. She felt a smile tugging the corners of her lips up and the same for Francisco.

"Well… that was fun," Francisco said. "Are we like, a thing now?"

"No clue. I've never done this before. You?"

"Same." They both looked down the street as the bus drove up.

"Want to share a seat?" Lynn asked.

"Don't see why not."

The school bus came to a stop right in front of them and the doors swung open. They walked onto the bus and took their seats in the middle of the bus, putting their backpacks at their feet. They waited until the bus had started moving again before striking up another conversation.

"So," Lynn started, "Now that we're together, what happens next?"

"Well, I think then we become boyfriend-girlfriend? But that seems too soon."

"Yeah. How about we stay as crushes?"

"Okay. Now that that's figured out, what do we do now?"

"Uh…," Lynn came up with nothing. "I don't know. I'll have to ask my sisters when I get back home."

"Sounds good. How about we start with sitting with each other during lunch?"

"Good idea." The bus jolted to a stop at the beginning of Franklin Avenue. "Uh, here's my stop." Lynn stood up. "See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow Lynn," he said in return. She walked down the aisle, got off the bus and went up the stairs of the porch. Before she went inside she stopped to watch the bus continue down the street before turning onto the next.

She went inside and skipped up the stairs gleefully. Everything had worked out perfectly; the love letter, the introduction! And now they were together! She bounded into her room and chucked her backpack into a corner on her side of the room and jumped onto her bed in one swift motion.

She readjusted herself so that she was flat on her back with her hands behind her head. She let out a content sigh, basking in her victory.

Meanwhile, Lincoln's day had not been nearly as pleasant, to say the least. There was now no doubt that Paige had no interest in him, which was bad enough to begin with. And then out of the blue he had been hit with not one, two, three, but four different pranks, all which were perpetrated by the tough girl in the purple hoodie. He guessed he simply wasn't good with girls.

His only consolation was that he had managed to arrange a meet up at 3:30 in front of his place, and that he had someone to talk about it to.

"So, you really confronted that bully?" Clyde asked.

"That's right. I told her three thirty in front of my house, and we're going to settle this."

"Whoa! You're going to fight!?"

"Clyde, please, I'm not an animal," Lincoln reassured him. Even if he had wanted to, he had no illusions she could knock him to the floor with ease. "I'm going to deliver a strongly worded speech… as soon as I write it."

Clyde nodded, then glanced up at Lincoln's head. "Looks like she wrote something for you too."

"What?" He felt his hair and felt paper covering the right corner of his temple. He pulled it off and examined it. Lame-O, it said in sharpie. Make that five pranks.

"Ooh, watermelon lime!" Clyde noticed. Lincoln stuffed the sticky note in his pocket and felt his head again. There was a wad of gum intertwined in his hair. Great, now he had to get it out without his sisters noticing.

"Well, I gotta get this out without anyone noticing. See you later," he said in goodbye to Clyde.

"Wait, don't you think you should get some advice from your sisters? It worked out with Stella, right?"

"Apples to oranges, Clyde. It's one thing to impress a girl, it's another thing to get her to stop picking on you. And my sisters are way too overprotective, they'd probably take matters into their own hands."

"Well then, you better get that gum out. You want to look intimidating, after all."

"I was born intimidating," Lincoln joked. He tried pulling the gum out but winced in pain as he was pulling on the hair more than the gum.

"You know, peanut butter would be good to get that gum out," Clyde advised.

"The smooth or chunky kind?"

"Well if you use the one with chunks, you'd have to use the smooth stuff to get rid of the chunks."

` "Good point, thanks pal." He waved goodbye and they parted ways. Lincoln opened the door and peered inside. There seemed to be no sisters lurking about. He opened the door all the way and slipped in, closing it quietly behind him.

He took one step forward and stepped on one of Lily's squeaky toys. Lily came crawling in, about to say hello to him. He quickly raised a finger in front of his lips and shushed her. Lily repeated the gesture and noise, thinking it was a game.

He continued on past her into the dining room. He had just made it to the threshold of the kitchen when Lori said, "Hold it right there!"

Lincoln tensed up, waiting for the inevitable questions, and then the following overreactions.

"He wore cargo shorts on your date? That's literally the worst thing I have ever heard."

It was just Lori having a conversation over the phone. He let out the sudden stress with a sigh and got to the refrigerator. He opened the doors and started rifling through its contents. "Peanut butter, peanut butter… where's the peanut butter?"

He heard someone walking in from behind him. He turned his head halfway so that the gum was out of sight and he could see who it was. It was Luna, humming a catchy tune under her breath.

"Oh, hey Luna. What's happening?"

"Just a knack for a snack."

"Pudding?"

"Yeah, hook me up with some."

"You got it." He felt around for some and pulled one out, handing it off to Luna. She tore off the wrapping and plunged a spoon in. "Thanks. Stay cool."

Lincoln waited until she was gone to continue his efforts. Surprisingly enough, the peanut butter had been right behind the pudding. He grabbed the can and opened it up for glob to work with. He was dismayed when he found nothing inside.

"Ah!" he groaned in frustration. "Why do people keep putting empty jars back in the fridge!?"

He tossed it into the trash and tried to figure out what to do next. Out in the living room Lincoln could still hear Lori's conversation.

"Socks and sandals? Cut it out!"

'Cut it out!' That's it! He'd just do the job with some scissors. There was a pair in Mom and Dad's room, he'd have it back in no time. He waited until Lori had finished her phone call before heading for the parents room. He swiped a pair off the desk and started up the stairs for his room.

Luan also started down the stairs and he leaned on the wall to keep her from seeing the gum. "Hey Luan."

"Hi Lincoln. What do you think of this joke?" She cleared her throat for the delivery. "If I were you, I'd go for the baboon!"

Lincoln genuinely tried to make sense of the joke, but couldn't. "I don't get it."

"Oh, that's just the punchline. I still gotta think of the setup."

"Have fun," he said as she went past him down the stairs.

"Always," she said back. He finished the trip up the stairs and almost made it to the safety and privacy of his bedroom when Mom's voice traveled upstairs. "Lincoln, honey! I need you to take out the trash!"

Again thwarted! Just thirty seconds tops and it would all be over with!

"Okay Mom! Just one minute!"

"Not five minutes! Now!" she persisted.

"Thirty seconds!"

"Lincoln, listen to your mother," Dad chimed in.

Not wanting to push the envelope further he complied. He snuck back downstairs and took the trash out. He brought it around the back and dumped it into the trash can. He turned and saw Leni walking towards him. He quickly picked up the lid and put it on his head like a cap.

"Hey Lincoln, is my desk lamp here? I can't find it anywhere."

"Nope. Have you tried looking on your desk?" he suggested, barely keeping a straight face at how ridiculous this was.

"So smart! What's up with that hat?" Leni asked, now just noticing it.

"Oh, this?" he struck a cool pose, the kind you would see in a magazine, "These are all the rage now. I'm surprised that you didn't know."

She seemed content with this and wandered off with an inspired hmm. Lincoln yanked the lid off and rubbed his hand on his shirt as he went back inside and back up the stairs. He let out a relieved phew as he put his hand on the doorknob of his room.

"Ahem."

'What now!?' he screamed to himself silently. He turned to see Lisa standing behind him.

"Greetings human. There's liquidambar styraciflua in your follicular area."

"A what in my who now?"

"You've got gum in your hair."

"Oh, yes," Lincoln tried to play it off. "I'm sure it's just-,"

"I assume that being of slightly above average intelligence, you didn't place it there yourself. Therefore, I can only deduce someones been picking on you."

"Lisa, please!" he begged in a whisper to keep anybody else privy of their conversation. "You can't tell! I don't want anyone else to be involved."

"Don't worry. I don't have enough room in my brain for this kind of tomfoolery."

"Phew." Without another word or second thought he finally entered his room to get down to business.

"Thirty one, thirty two, thirty three," Lynn counted off as she did her pullups on the frame of Lucy's four post bed. She made it into the forties when the door to her room opened. She ignored it thinking it was Lucy.

"Sibling unit?" Lisa's monotone voice droned up to her. She kept going without a change in pace.

"Forty two, Hey Liz," she said in return, waiting for whatever she had to say.

"I have a piece of information I need to dispose of, and you were the most convenient person to transfer it to."

"Forty seven, go ahead, forty eight," Lynn continued.

"There is evidence to suggest that Lincoln has been made a target by one or more of his peers. In basic parlance, he is being picked on."

Lynn fell from the frame, bounced off the mattress and fell to the lightly carpeted floor, knocking the wind out of her. Lisa didn't do anything. "I see you have comprehended this information. I will make my way out." She left Lynn alone with her spiraling thoughts.

Lincoln was being picked on. That single thought in turn sparked a chain reaction of horrendous memories, most prominently her first week of middle school; the pranking, the cruel laughter, the loneliness, the never ending bullying, the depression that lingered on long after.

She'd be damned if she let Lincoln, or any of her little sisters, go through all that. She raised herself off the floor and stumbled to the door. She was going to kick that bullies ass… and invite the rest of her sisters in doing so.

Lincoln pulled up on the wad of gum until the strands of caught hair were taught. He opened up the scissors and slowly inched the open blades forward until they flanked the raised hair. He brought them together… and gum was loose.

He took one look at the gum, a pink mess with white strands of hair sticking out in places and moved to throw it away.

Bang!

Lincoln flinched and almost fell out of his chair. His head snapped around to see who had intruded. Lynn had kicked his door open, and assembled behind her was the rest of his sisters.

"You're being picked on!" Lynn exclaimed.

Great, now they know, and things are about to get all sorts of hectic. All he could do was turn his irritation on Lisa for spilling the beans. "Lisa, I thought you weren't going to say anything!"

"No," she corrected. "What I said was that I did not have room in my brain for your secret. Hence, I removed it and transferred it to Lynn, who has more than ample room."

"Thanks." There was a beat of silence before Lynn understood its meaning. "Hey!"

"So you are being picked on!" Luna said, bringing them all back to the point.

"Of course not!" Lincoln protested, hoping they couldn't hear his nervousness.

"Then what's that?" Luan pointed to the gum in Lincoln's hand.

"That's just my gum." He reluctantly put it in his mouth and tried his hardest not to let his gag reflex trigger. "Mmm… watermelon lime!" he said. And hair. Lots of hair. He finally lost it and coughed it out onto the table, and then chaos reigned, as each sibling yelled out a revenge plan louder than the last.

"Guys, guys! Please stay out of this, I've got it under control!" They ignored his pleas and kept going.

"You should go straight for the school principal!"

"Forget that, you should literally text an embarrassing picture of him to all his friends!"

"I'm going to write an insult comedy that will leave him in tears!"

Lynn performed a spinning kick that nearly clipped Lincoln's midsection. "Hoo-wah! Basic ninja stealth. That's how we're going to take him down."

Lincoln rubbed his freshly cut hair in annoyance, doing his best to tune out the frenzied sisters. They were going to make things worse, this was not how it was supposed to go.

Lynn grabbed him with faux roughness and put him in a hold. "That's the camel clutch! Another good option for you." She let him go and he stumbled out into the hall in an attempt to get some more space and refuge from the barrage of retaliatory suggestions.

"Look, I don't need any-," his attempt to silence them was completely ignored.

"We'll start with some basic dumb jokes. Like, 'you're so dumb you locked yourself inside your car.' That sort of thing."

"Ooh, I know! I'll invite him to a tea party and make him use the chipped cup!" She adopted an over the top sinister grin as if she was the greatest supervillain of all time. "I'm so evil, sometimes I scare even me."

Lynn froze up in an awkward position and it became dead quiet as they all waited to see what she would do.

"What are you doing?" Lincoln asked. She sprung at him and pulled his shirt over his face.

"Surprise mime attack! I invented myself," she said proudly as Lincoln fixed his shirt.

"Lynn, I'm not going to fight. I-"

"Ugh! Fine! I'll deal with him myself." Lynn snapped. She started walking off but Lincoln grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back before she could do anything rash he would pay for later.

Luna produced a pair of cymbals. "You should do this!" She brought them together right next to Lincoln's ears, spiking his adrenaline again. "His ear's will be ringing for days!"

"Ugly jokes are always good, too. Like, 'you're so ugly, you have to trick or treat over the phone!'"

"What?" Lincoln almost yelled, his ears still ringing and heart furiously pumping. He felt that any more of this would give him a heart attack.

Lynn came back with an old yearbook, opened it up to Lincoln's grade and started running her finger through the names. "Which one is it? Him, or him? Or maybe him!"

Lincoln had had enough of this. He yanked the book out of her hands and proceeded to shut them all down. "No, stop it, all of you! It's not even a boy," he said in exasperation.

"Is it a dog?" Leni asked stupidly.

"No, Leni, it's a girl-"

And he was cut off by the most ear piercing shriek he had ever heard in his life. Everybody, save Lisa, squealed with ridiculous joy.

"Uh… what?" he asked dumbfoundedly, unable to explain the sudden shift in his sisters. They all squeezed him in a bear hug, squeezing the air out of him.

"Normally, I don't care for inane human emotion," Lisa stated calmly, but… EEEEEEEE!" she squealed, and joined the rest of his sisters who were suffocating him in their combined embrace.

"Lincoln! Why didn't you tell us you had a girlfriend?!" Luna said excitedly.

"She sounds so pretty," Lola added, a complete turn around from the revenge she had been planning on wreaking.

"What -cough- is happening?" Lincoln wheezed out. They let him go and he gasped for breath.

"When a girl picks on you, that only ever means one thing: she likes you!"

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!" They all squealed again. Lincoln was starting to get annoyed again, now at their conclusion they had come to was completely detached from reality.

"That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! She shoved a sandwich down my pants! I've been picking sesame seeds out of my butt for days!"

"So romantic…"

"That's a classic."

"You guys are nuts!" he berated them, now angry. "She HATES me! And I'm going to meet her today and give her a piece of my mind!"

"You need to give her a piece of your heart instead," Lori said in a romantical tone.

"What!?" Lincoln nearly shouted.

Leni continued. "I think he needs to kiss her."

"What!?" Lincoln shouted for real this time.

"Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her!" his sisters all started chanting. He had it with them, bolting past them and locking himself in the bathroom. He pulled out his walkie talkie to talk to the last sensible person he could; Clyde.

"Mayday! Mayday! Clyde, do you copy?"

"Roger. I mean this is Clyde, not Roger. But yeah. Roger, it's Clyde."

"My sisters have lost their minds! They think the bully likes me! They want me to kiss her!"

"I don't know. Maybe they're right about this."

Lincoln groaned, thinking Clyde's obsession with Lori was blinding him. "My sisters can't possibly be right about this!"

"They're girls Lincoln. They know more about these things than we do. It's a scientific fact."

"Yeah, but…" his sentence trailed off into nothingness. Could, just maybe, the girl like him? "Wow. Me? You really think she might like me? How would I know?"

"There's only one way to find out."

Lincoln nodded to himself. "You know what Clyde? I think I'm going to follow my sister's advice."

"Great to hear! Tell me how it goes."

"Will do." He turned the thing off and stuck it in the pocket of his jeans. Outside he could still hear the chant of, "Kiss her!"

He unlocked the door, stepped out and yelled, "Hold it!" They all went silent and waited for what he had to say. A bold smirk broke out across his face.

"So am I going to kiss this girl or what?"

They all squealed that Lincoln was about to give his first kiss, except for Lisa.

"Again… EEEEEE!"

It was three thirty and Lynn and her sisters were lined up forming a straight path to the front door. Lincoln came down the stairs radiating confidence and walked through them like it was a runway.

"It's three thirty," he announced. "Lola, lip balm." She pulled one out of her pocket, took off the lid and inexpertly smeared it across his mouth.

"Lana, breath mint." Lana gave him a starlight mint and he knocked it back before moving on.

"Go get her, Romeo," Lynn said with an encouraging pat on the back.

"You got this, little bro," Lori went as she took pictures of it on her phone, wanting to record this very special day.

"Aw, our little Lincoln," Lola cooed.

"All grown up." Lola passed Lana a tissue to blow her nose with.

"She's here! She's here!" Leni shrieked from the windowsill. Lynn ran to watch the magic happen and in the jostling got a spot looking through the middle panel of the window. She was standing out on the sidewalk in front of the walkway. Mexican American, dark hair pulled back in a low ponytail, wearing a purple hooded jacket and completely oblivious to their watching. They heard Lincoln leave the house and watched him walk up to the girl.

They sweetly said ahh as he planted a kiss right on her lips…

…and let out and ooh when she gave a mean right hook that left Lincoln staggering. Lynn winced, and she swore she heard the punching sound effect from Indiana Jones.

The girl stormed off as Lincoln tried to get her to come back but gave up. He turned around and walked towards the house. They crowded around the door, this time to apologize for their skewed judgment.

Lincoln opened the door and stepped back inside now sporting a black eye already swollen shut. And he was looking steamed, not making eye contact with any of them.

"Sorry, buddy. Our bad."

"Well, at least, you gave it a shot."

"I'll get some ice for that shiner," Lynn volunteered.

"X-ray machine, stat."

"I'm really sorry Lincoln."

He ignored all of them, continuing up the stairs. Lynn didn't have the heart to try and continue apologizing. The others didn't follow him either, and jumped when they heard his door slam shut.

After he had slammed the door shut Lincoln flopped down on his bed and felt around his black eye. It had nearly swollen shut, and whatever he could see was blurred by the uncontrollable tearing in that eye.

He felt angry at both his sisters and himself. Their advice today had been way out of left field and he knew they were wrong, and he had been right. But no, he had listened to them, and he was more to blame for that than them. All because he thought there had been a chance she liked him!

He heard someone whistle. He perked up trying to find where it had come from. The whistle came again and he figured it hadn't come from the hallway, which left only his window. He flipped the pane and looked out and was nearly hit by a rock.

It sailed past him and landed on the floor. He stopped to pick it up. There was an index card wrapped to the rock in string. He untangled it and read it.

"Sorry, Lame-o. Here's my number. Text me?" He read aloud. He didn't know why but the feeling of resentment was slipping away. He smiled. He went back to the window to see if he could see her. He was instead hit in the face with a slab of meat. He pulled it off his face and read the note attached to it too. "For your eye. XOXO, Ronnie Anne?"

He put the note on the desk and pressed the steak to his black eye. His sisters really had been right. But he could tell them about that later.