(The following is a nonprofit work of fanfiction and is outside of the original canon. All names, characters, businesses, places, events, and/or incidents of any kind depicted within this story are being used for entertainment purposes only.)

(The Loud House and all related characters were created by Chris Savino and all rights belong to Nickelodeon.)

- Chapter Sixteen -

A Casually Loud Morning

Thunder cracked from outside, a sudden flash of lightning temporarily illuminating my entire bedroom from my small window. It stopped for a moment, leaving me in near total darkness once more. My entire body shook as I laid down under the covers of my blanket. Sweat formed around my face and my breathing became labored with a feeling of dread. I could barely make out the shadows that danced around my room, along with the echoing of low ghostly whispers.

I leaned my head up and saw a red light just barely glowing from the gap below my door, and mist began to seep on through, almost covering my bedroom floor.

My heart pounded more fiercely than ever before when I heard the sound of heavy footsteps slowly lumbering down the hallway. I became chilled to the bone when I realized that it was getting closer and closer, vastly approaching my room. Looking down at the gap below my door, I saw two thick shadowy stumps standing next to each other in the glowing red light. That was when I became conscious that they were actually a pair of feet.

"M-M-Mom...?" I fearfully called out with a stutter. "D-Dad...? G-Girls...? I-I-Is that you...?" There was only a single pair of feet standing directly behind the door, so it could have been any one of them.

I flinched when I heard a row of fingers drumming against my door, except it didn't sound like the kind of drumming fingers would normally make against a wooden frame. They sounded more like a sharp tapping, like somebody was using a row of knives. Feeling the need for security, I grabbed for my He-Man action figure and held him closely to my side. Sadly, this did very little to keep me at ease. An ominously guttural chuckle was heard from behind my door.

This sent an instant chill down my spine, followed by the familiar ghostly singing choir of young children.

"One, two, Freddy's coming for you..."

No! Please! Not again!

I squeezed my He-Man figure so tightly in my hands, I thought it were going to break at any moment.

Before I could react, four rusty chain links suddenly appeared from the side of my bed, and they quickly slithered over to the other side like steel snakes, firmly strapping me down in place, preventing me from escaping. I tried to wrestle my way out, but it was no use. I was trapped, like a housefly in a spiderweb. I laid down flat on my bed and was forced to watch helplessly as my bedroom door slowly creaked open, and a large belch of mist spread even further across the floor.

And just like that, I was once again welcomed by the looming, fedora-wearing, silhouetted figure of Freddy Krueger.

"Three, four, better lock your door..." Another flash of lightning brightened the room up for a short moment, revealing Freddy in all of his horrifying slasher villain glory.

"Sorry, Linky," he told me, his demonically deep voice rumbling through my bedroom. "It's just little old me. Your dear Uncle Freddy coming to tuck you in." The rusted yet sharpened blades of his right gloved hand drummed against the side of my door and then he slowly clawed them downward, leaving behind one long claw mark across the flat wooden surface. The terrible sound made me grind my teeth together, and it practically made my ears bleed.

"Five, six, grab a crucifix..." Gradually, Freddy walked over to the side of my bed, chuckling sadistically again as he did so, and he dangled his bladed glove just above me, each sharply pointed tip just inches away from touching my face.

God, please! I mentally begged, moments away from crying. Please get me out of here!

"Seven, eight, gonna stay up late..." the ghostly voices continued harmonizing. Out of a twisted sense of humor, Freddy swiftly cut the head off my He-Man figure with a single blade, the plastic piece falling down and disappearing off into the now mist-covered floor. He stared down at me, eyes burning intensely like an out-of-control wildfire with that ever-present devilish smile of his plastered on his burnt face.

"Time to go to sleep, kiddo," he growled with sadistic glee. "Forever..." With the way he chillingly uttered that last word I knew right away what he meant by. Before I could have the chance to let out a scream for help, he quickly covered my mouth with his other hand. I tried desperately to wrestle my head away, but he was too strong. I was now at his mercy. Slowly, Freddy raised his bladed fingers up above his head, readily poising himself to strike the deadly and final blow.

"Nine, ten, never sleep again,"

"Say goodnight, Linky," he quoted.

With horrible glee, Freddy brought his iconic weapon of choice down upon me, and all I could do was let out a helplessly muffled scream for my life...

Thursday, July 16th...

With a fidgeted gasp, I jolted wide awake, sitting straight up on my bed. I looked down and quickly perceived that there were no longer any rusted chains strapping me down. I had woken up back into the real world again. Quickly recognizing that it was just another Freddy Krueger-related nightmare—for what was quite possibly the hundredth time in a row this summer—I flopped my head back down against my pillow, feeling pretty exhausted, and also very much annoyed.

"For Pete's sake, Freddy!" I groaned under my breath, carefully massaging my now sweat-coated face with my bare hand before running it through my white hair. I took a deep breath and heavily sighed, relief washing over my whole system.

What day is it today? I mentally asked myself. I glanced over at the calendar, which was still hanging on my bedroom wall, taking notice of the many X's marked, covering a little more than half of the month of July.

Just one more day and Jaws: The Revenge will be out in theaters.

I grinned a little bit from this knowledge. It truly felt like yesterday when Clyde first told me about this movie, and that was all the way back in late May. I let out a second groan from under my breath when that familiar sense of realization I felt before dawned on my brain again. Three months. It had been exactly three ding dang months since the last day of school. Now it was just a month or two away from starting again. I was right when I said that time flew by pretty fast.

At this rate, summer's going to be over before I even realize it, I thought to myself, before looking at my Back to the Future movie poster still pinned up on my bedroom door. What I would do to have Doc Brown's famous time-traveling DeLorean right about now. I drifted my gaze over to my alarm clock on my nightstand and saw that it was now almost eight o'clock in the morning. It was at this point in time that we no longer had to worry about going through our typical morning rush for school.

We could get out of bed and use the shower at our own simple leisure. Although, one could only imagine the absolute nightmare it was going to be for us to get out of that lazy phase when the first day of school starts all over again. Through my nose, I was able to catch just a small whiff of this morning's breakfast. Decidedly, I got out of bed, grabbed my towel and loofah sponge, and headed outside. Seeing that there was no line out in front of me, I just casually walked on through the hallway.

I could already hear the sound of breakfast about to be served downstairs.

"Anyone in here?" I called out, after knocking three times on the bathroom door. Almost instantly, the door swung wide open, revealing Lola attired in her favorite pink bathrobe and a white towel neatly tied upon her blond-haired head almost like it was a turban. She took in a deep refreshing breath and smiled.

"She's all yours, Linky," my little pageant queen for a sister declared as she walked past me and headed for her room.

"Let's hope there's still some hot water left..." I mumbled.

Wasting no more time, I went inside and locked the door, stripped down, and took my seven-minute shower, washing myself with my soap-covered loofah all the while humming to one of my favorite 80's songs. When I was finished, I dried myself up with my towel and beelined back into my bedroom to change into my clothes. For the rest of that day, I was dressed in my usual pair of blue high-waist denim jeans and an orange cargo shirt with the sleeves rolled up to my elbows.

After putting on my socks and Nike Bruins, I came back outside just in time to see Lola, now wearing her favorite shoulder-padded pink dress, about to walk down the stairs. I followed her down to the dining room where the rest of the family were still in the middle of breakfast. Taking my seat closely next to Lynn, I saw that our dad had once again as usual spared no expense for the food; grilled sausage links, scrambled eggs, oven-cooked bacon, cold milk and pulp-free orange juice, a plate of stacked biscuits, waffles, pancakes, the works.

From here, our family got to talk about other things, like what we wanted to do before summer was over as well as plans we had previously established. We talked about maybe going out to see a rock concert, a football game, as well as going out to the mall—again. Lori said something about wanting to go hang out over at the Royal Woods Roller Skating Rink, which I was not at all opposed to the idea. I always liked spending my time over there, mostly to watch the other skaters and play around with the limited number of arcade machines. I was not that good at roller skating. Not even a little bit.

When the idea of going to the movies was finally mentioned, I quickly took this opportunity to break the news to everybody.

"Oh, that reminds me, the new Jaws film is coming out tomorrow," I blurted out. Dad looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Already?" he asked just before taking a sip of his coffee. I inclined my white-haired head into a single confirming nod. Everybody else appeared to be rather unsure about this new information—could you really blame them?

"It still boggles my mind that Universal literally went and made a fourth one," Lori said, sounding less than enthusiastic.

"I know, right?" Luna agreed with our sister, before shoveling a forkful of scrambled eggs into her mouth. "Even after the not-so-tubular blunder that was Jaws 3-D. You'd think Universal would have the decency to—"

"Luna, don't talk with your mouth full!" Mom ordered from the head of the table next to Dad. Feeling silly about forgetting her manners, Luna swallowed down her food and she smiled embarrassedly.

"Hey, I'm not exactly sure about it either, girls," I said while carving a good slice of my pancake with my fork. "But who knows, maybe we might get lucky this time around. It's like people always say; fourth time's the charm, right?"

"As much as I would love to share with you the same positive sentiments, dearest brother," Lisa lisped very nerdly. "But I'm afraid I must disincline from doing so, for I honestly find the probability of this fourth installment reaching greater success than that of its negatively received predecessor to be less than promising. And on a sidenote, no other human being on this green earth has actually uttered the phrase 'fourth time's the charm'." I frowned at my little sister's words.

"Well, excuse me for only trying to be a little hopeful." I quietly commented before stuffing my maple syrup-coated slice of pancake into my mouth. Lynn's eyes widened suddenly, clearly having remembered something, and she looked over at me with a huge grin.

"You know what else is coming out in theaters tomorrow?" she asked, becoming excitedly. "That new movie Robocop! Oh boy, that one looks so totally rad!"

"I would very much love to see The Lost Boys," Lucy uttered in her trademark gloomy tone. "It's going to come out in just two weeks."

"Ooohh, The Lost Boys, huh? I didn't know you were into Peter Pan, little sis." Leni said, completely naive. Lucy shook her black-haired head at our second oldest sibling.

"For your information, dear sister; it's a vampire movie. It has nothing to do with Peter Pan." she specified, much to Leni's utmost displeasure. "And also, that one kid from The Goonies is going to star in it as well."

"Sean Astin?" Lana wondered curiously with a mouthful of food. Once again, Lucy shook her head.

"Corey Feldman," our goth for a little sister replied. "And next month in mid-August, they're also releasing The Monster Squad. It's going to have Count Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon."

Sounds like it's gonna be quite the monstrous mashup, I thought jokingly. Yeah, I can be funny too. Luan's not the only comedian of the family.

"Can somebody please pass me the orange juice?" Lola asked, holding up her empty glass cup. Obligingly, Mom grabbed a large carton of Tropicana orange juice and poured some into our little sister's glass until it was half full.

"Say, what about that other movie?" Luan piped up abruptly, finishing her cup of milk. "You know, the one that came out about two weeks ago? What was it called again...? Oh yeah! Adventures in Babysitting."

"Oh, I've heard of that!" Leni chirped next to Lori. "It looks absotively funny! And it's even, like, more tubular knowing that Elizabeth Shue is in it too!"

"I've seen the commercials for it a few times." Lori remarked unhappily. "Looks way too much like the story of my life." Lynn and I exchanged amused glances while Lily giggled and clapped her little hands in her highchair, ketchup and sticky maple syrup covering her chubby little face. Understanding what Lori meant, the rest of the girls giggled as well, much to our first born eldest's chagrin. Dad chuckled a little before calming down and taking another sip of his coffee.

"Alright, we'll try and do what we can before the summer is over," our old man explained. "But try to keep in mind that your mother and I aren't made of money, okay? There's only so much a family of thirteen people can do and spend in one year." I casually rolled my eyes with a smile.

Like that's ever stopped us before in the past. I remarked in my head. Still, I obediently nodded my head in understanding as did the rest of my sisters.

"And don't forget, we're going to see Pop-Pop later today at three-thirty," Mom reminded us. "So, this means all of you have to be on your best behavior with the other seniors when that happens, alright?" As if we didn't know about this already. Again, we obediently nodded in understanding.

After we were finished with our breakfast, having cleared out the whole table until there was nothing else left, we went and cleaned our dishes in the kitchen, and we chose to either go upstairs into our own rooms or casually sit out in the living room and watch some TV on the old Zenith. I for one chose to race back up into my bedroom and carefully closed the door. I then noticed that the edge of my box containing all my Dungeons & Dragons stuff was sticking out from beneath my bed.

For no reason whatsoever, I pulled the box all the way out and looked inside, casually looking at everything I possessed; miniatures, character sheets, gameboard, everything that was critically essential. Almost suddenly, my brain flashed straight back to Dairyland, when Chandler was there and once again declaring this game of being "satanic" to try and get on my nerves, like he always did. My left eye twitched annoyedly at the not-so-pleasant memory.

For many years, I didn't know where people even came up with the idea that a popular tabletop fantasy role-playing game such as Dungeons & Dragons somehow "promoted" satanism and demon worship. I particularly remember how much it always got on my nerves whenever the news media kept on ignorantly declaring it as such despite the fact that they totally knew nothing about how the game is actually played, and not to mention they had zero evidence to back up these claims.

As far as I'm concerned, the Satanic Panic was pretty much one giant witch-hunt created by overzealously concerned parents and religious groups who wanted to point the finger and blame something for all the juvenile behaviors of young kids and teenagers of that time. Yes, my family and I were Christians ourselves, believe it or not, except we were all smart and mature enough to understand how silly it was for these people to just blindly accuse one simple yet popular game of being the cause for anything bad happening in American society.

Carefully, I pushed the box back underneath my bed with my left foot, disappearing from view.

Maybe I could turn our campaign into an epic fantasy novel one day. I thought. After that was over, I went over and searched around inside the bottom drawer of my nightstand, fishing out my Sony Watchman. I flopped back down on my bed, pulled the aerial antenna straight up and switched on the handheld brick-shaped device. Before I even knew it, I was promptly met with the final fight scene of The Karate Kid: Part II, where Daniel had just defeated Chozen in an epic battle to the death.

I quickly became thrilled when Danial, bleeding, sweating, and beyond exhausted at this point, pinched Chozen's nose, threw him aside, and the surrounding audience broke out into a choir of exhilarated cheers while Mr. Miyagi proudly smiled. My heart nearly fluttered when Daniel got on his knees and embraced Kumiko, and she to him. Many times, I would imagine myself as Daniel, having defeated my enemy after a grueling battle, and embracing the girl I loved.

I couldn't help but smile and blush at the very idea of Sam all dressed up in a pretty choice Japanese kimono. Right after thinking that, the tiny screen of my Sony Watchman faded to black, and Peter Cetera's Glory of Love instantly played as the end credits started to roll upwards. I gently rested my head against my pillow and sighed blissfully at the romantic lyrics, allowing Cetera's melodic singing voice to continue playing on my Watchman.

Out of the many sappy 80's love songs I grew up listening to, this one was possibly without a doubt one of my most favorites. It was truly such a beautiful song that the lyrics alone could very easily tug at your heartstrings and bring a tear to your eye.

This could be our song, Sam. I thought hopefully, before starting to sing along in a whispered tone so nobody could hear me. In that moment, I became so comfortable in my own bed to the point where I was almost starting to drift off to sleep. Of course, that was until I abruptly heard three loud knocks on my door, speedily pulling me out of my impending daydreaming.

"Hey, Lincoln!" Lori's voice called from the other side. "Mom wants you to take out the trash!" I furrowed my brows.

"Like, right now?" I called back.

"Yes, right now!" she replied, but in a more irritable tone of voice this time. "You better get a move on!" I sighed under my breath, a little annoyed myself that my precious moment of peace and quiet had been rudely disrupted.

"Okay, I'll be right down!" With that, I turned off and put aside my Watchman and jumped out of bed. After opening my door and seeing Lori, I walked past her and into the hallway towards the stairs.

"What was that you were listening to just now?" she asked as she closely followed after me. I hesitated for a few short seconds before giving her my answer.

"The Karate Kid," I spoke. "Er, Part II, I mean." I wasn't exactly wrong, was I? My oldest sister crossed her arms and smirked impishly.

"Oh really?" she questioned, a pinch of tease in her voice. "Because for a moment, it sounded more like you were listening to Peter Cetera." I rolled my eyes.

"It was the end credits." I explained, before finally reaching the stairs. After traversing down to the dining room and into the kitchen, I saw a large black trash bag sitting closely next to the refrigerator, all tied up at the top and ready to be taken out. I frowned disconcertingly while sighing through my nose, knowing darn well that this thing was going to be pretty heavy. Walking over and grabbing the trash bag, it was exactly as I had predicted.

With some difficulty, I swung the bag over my shoulder and carried it upon my back.

Jeez! What did Mom stuff inside this thing? I thought, gritting my teeth. As quick as I could to try and get this stupid chore finished and over with, I hurried my skinny backside over to the front door and out into the front yard—just in time to see Dad drive away to work in his 1985 Ford Taurus. Now that he was gone, I looked at my surroundings. This beautiful morning would have been a lot nicer were it not for the fact that I was struggling to carry an eighty-five-pound trash bag on my back.

Spotting the metal garbage can standing closely to the curb, I made my way over there, and with all my strength, tossed the bag inside and slammed the lid on top. Resting against the can, I wiped away some growing sweat from my forehead and let out a relieved, "Phew! Glad that's over with." Before making my way back into my house, I quickly spotted Mr. Grouse taking out his own trash with that same grumpy look he always had on his face.

"Morning, Mr. Grouse!" I called out to him. All he did was roll his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Morning to you too, Loud," he grumbled through his white bushy mustache before walking back into his own house. I merely smiled and lightly shook my head with a small chuckle. With my mission now having been accomplished, I too returned to the safe confines of my own home.

"Now, time to get back to my Watchman." I muttered under my breath. However, the very second I set foot into the living room, I heard Lana call my name. I turned to my left and saw her, Lola, and Lily sitting comfortably on the couch. All three of them looked at me with expectant eyes and bright smiles. After grabbing my attention, Lana then asked me if I wanted to sit down and watch TV with them, all the while patting an empty cushioned seat next to her left.

I glanced over to look at the screen of our family's old Zenith and saw that they had just started watching a rerun episode of Snorks. For those who might not have a single idea what that was, Snorks was an animated television program that originally aired on NBC at the time. I would pretty much easily describe it as like The Smurfs if it took place underwater instead of in a fairy tale-like fantasy world. I looked at the screen for a moment before switching back at three of my sisters.

At first, I wanted to tell them Snorks was not exactly my thing—Truth be told, I just wanted to make up an excuse to go back upstairs into my room and play with my Watchman—but I quickly stopped myself short, realizing how much of a hypocrite I would have sounded. How could I possibly say that to them while knowing I loved watching other shows like Pee-wee's Playhouse or Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, Inspector Gadget, or even Scooby-Doo? The only answer I could come up with was that I couldn't.

Guess my Watchman's going to have to wait for a while. I thought to myself conclusively, before smiling at my three little sisters.

"Sure, why not?" I said, shrugging my shoulders. With this, I walked over towards the middle of the couch—my usual spot—and picked up Lily who sat in-between Lola and Lana. After taking my spot and setting my two-year-old sister on my lap, the four of us relaxed and watched the show with beaming smiles on all our faces.

"Come along with the Snorks!" the show's theme song played on the TV screen. "Swim along with the Snorks! So much to see waiting for you and me! Have some fun with the Snorks!"

"Yay! De Snowks! Hehehe!" Lily giggled adorably, clapping her pudgy little hands excitedly. My heart would almost melt every time she did that. I gently patted her little blond-haired head, all the while being careful not to bump her little pink bow which was just inches away from blocking my view of the TV screen.

And so, I continued to remain seated in the middle of our living room couch, Lola and Lana cuddling up on each side of me, hands wrapping around my arms...

Yep. I'd say this chapter's pretty much what the title says. Sorry if it's nothing too spectacular or adventurous, aside from the beginning, that is...

But then again, normal life in general is kind of an adventure in of itself, right? Though, I guess it just depends on how one perceives it.

Anyway, don't forget to send me a review and tell what you think is good or what could be done better.

Have a pleasant day and a fun Spring Break.