High school: the epitome of rumors and immature teenagers. Lincoln Loud never thought that he would fall victim to this cliche trope, yet here he was, faced with backtalk of him having relations with his female friend.
"What. the HELL. did. You. do." A purple hooded girl with sunglasses covering half of her face crept up behind the white-haired teenager and shoved him against his locker by his collar, nearly choking him. "Answers. Now."
Lincoln, who was also experiencing awkward stares from others, was oblivious to how this rumor had gotten out. "I'm just as clueless as you are!" He shouted, trying to let go of her grip. "I got a call from Clyde this morning, debriefing me on the situation, and I have NO idea how this happened, honest!" He begged for mercy.
She dropped him and huffed, "I'll let you off the hook this time, but I'm gonna need to have a talk with you this weekend. My house at 3, Saturday, and DON'T be late." She threatened and slowly inched away, hiding her face.
The rest of the school week was…unusual, to say the least. It's not everyday that you wake up the next day with the amount of attention as a celebrity. In Lincoln's case, it felt kind of nice. Of course, the reason behind his attention wasn't authentic, and it definitely wasn't something he should have been proud of, but it allowed for him to be in the spotlight for once. He wasn't the most popular guy in the school, but he was being treated as one for "hitting that", whatever that means. Whenever he was asked about it, he never confirmed nor denied what happened at the party, which further intrigued the immature high schoolers. And heck, for once, girls actually started to hit on him! Older girls at that.
"Hey, Linky…" Cristina, one of the girls back from his childhood, trailed his path, along with a couple of other girls. "I can carry your backpack if you like."
"Not if I carry it first!" One of the other girls shouted, which caused a cat fight between the other side characters.
"I could get used to this." Lincoln smirked.
Meanwhile, for Ronnie Anne, she HATED being the center of attention, especially for something as…intimate as sleeping with someone. It wasn't something that she did, but it didn't stop people from believing the rumor wholeheartedly. Whenever she would walk by a group of people, especially the guys, they would immediately call her out, making moaning sounds or just full out saying that she's a slut. She was quick to shut them up, but it didn't make the bullying go away. In the end, she decided to just keep a low profile.
She now had to spend her lunch in the school bathroom. "I can't believe this." Ronnie Anne groaned, complaining to Sid on FaceTime. "Dude, what the hell do I do in this situation?"
Sid put a finger to her chin, eating her school lunch. The rest of the gang, Nicky, Sameer, and Casey, were also deep in thought. "Man, I don't know! I mean, nothing like this has EVER happened before to us. You know how much of a low profile we like to keep." Sid explained.
The purple hooded girl sighed deeply, "Yeah, which is exactly why I never imagined myself in this situation. I just can't take it! I'm being catcalled, slutshamed, and so much more left and right!" She cried. "Get me out of this hellhole."
Casey commented, "You know she's really hit rock bottom when she's calling in the bathroom stall."
Sid glared at him. "This is no laughing matter!" She looked back at Ronnie Anne through her phone. "We will get through this! Us Great Lakers don't take bullying lightly–give those asswhores a piece of your mind."
Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow. "Asswhores?" She then giggled for the first time today. "Thank you for the encouragement, guys. I really needed it. You're right–they can't just mess with Ronnie Anne Santiago and think that they can get away with it."
They all cheered and whooped. "Teach those asswhores a lesson!"
Lincoln panted as he ran over to Ronnie Anne's place. After his encounter with her a couple of days ago, he really didn't want to piss her off even more. "Made it with 15 seconds left to spare." He piped up, ringing the doorbell. He was surprised to see Ronnie Anne still in her disguise get-up. She quickly pulled him in and shut the blinds.
She darted her eyes around and dragged him to her room. She shut the door, clicking the lock in place. The tomboy finally removed her disguise and calmly said, "I think we both know why I invited you here today." She plastered on a smile, which had the most obvious hint of malice.
The white haired boy gulped in fright. "Because you're an amazing friend and wanted to spend time with your favorite bundle of joy?"
"NO!" She shouted. "Now, what is it that I'm hearing about us," She pointed to her then him, "raw dogging each other at Girl Jordan's party?"
This caused the Loud to uncontrollably laugh. "I'm sorry, raw dogging?"
The Latina looked away from him, blushing. "It sounded better in my head…but that's besides the point." She then focused her intimidating gaze on him and continued. "HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!?" She then shouted even louder than before, causing him to jump. "Ay dios mio, this is only my FIRST WEEK at Royal Woods High, yet I FAILED to achieve what I wanted most–A NORMAL LIFE! All because of YOU!" Her eyes filled with rage. She pulled him by the collar again, this time to her face. She couldn't even focus on how good his cologne smelled or how cute his freckles looked because of her intense anger. "Explain yourself, Loud."
Lincoln, again, gulped in nervousness. 'We're so close right now…I never realized how pretty freckles are. ' However, he shook off those thoughts and cleared his throat. "Look, Ronnie Anne, I'm really sorry that this rumor has gotten out of hand. But for the record," he put his index finger up, "I wasn't the one who started the rumor. You know, you could say that we're both at fault for entering Girl Jordan's parent's bedroom."
He immediately regretted saying that, as all it got him was a slap in the face. "How. dare. You." She seethed. She didn't even care that she was reverting back to her old bully self. "You don't even TRY to correct the rumors. Don't think that I didn't see you this week, Lincoln. Walking around with 5 girls hangin' on each arm." She crossed her arms. "But of course, keep up the act, since it's CLEARLY beneficial to one of us." She let go of the collar and turned her back to him, unable to face him. "Ya' know, if I hadn't distanced myself from you this week, it would've been much worse. The rumors, I mean. So, you're welcome."
He was stunned, not because she slapped him–he felt like it was well-deserved–but because she purposefully distanced herself from him. He realized that they haven't even talked since the rumor got out, let alone texted. "What can I do to make this better?" Lincoln sheepishly asked, knowing the answer already.
"What can you do?" She asked, sarcastically. "What you can do is what you should've done from the get-go: tell them that it's a lie." She huffed. "Do you know how much it hurts," she put a hand to her heart, "to see how little you care about how this effects me?"
He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Lincoln, being the oblivious little teenager he is, barely paid attention to what Ronnie Anne had to face due to the "tiny" rumor. All he could manage to utter was, "I think it's best that I leave." And that's exactly what he did.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
hey guys, hope this chapter wasn't too, like, idk, insensitive? i know that it can be unrealistic, but keep in mind that this is based off of a cartoon, so yea, it's bound to have more of an unrealistic plot.
also, as to why i made Lincoln leave like that at the end, I based it off of a personal experience. I kid you not, one of my (ex) guy friends actually said that shit to me. I just assumed that teenage guys do that when their female friends get too sensitive with them and whenever they don't know what to say lol :D like, when I accidentally started crying while he was there (due to some circumstances), this BITCH went all "I think it's best I leave" LIKE BRO I CLEARLY NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO? but whatever, I get that some people, especially teen boys, are emotionally unavailable anyway. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry that it's so short.