Being in a family with so many brothers and sisters was a surprisingly easy adjustment for Bei. After all, she was in a home that could properly support said siblings and herself. Even getting a room all to herself was a very fortunate adjustment. Besides Leni who she now considered her mother from having the feeling that she was dedicated now to her adoption to Bei it felt like she had many parents. Something that had become obvious in sentiment even if no words were used to explain exactly what was going on.
She had found that a surprisingly easy way to maneuver around her siblings in their more rowdy states was complete silence. They were so used to noise with one another when they got worked up that it made it easy to grab the last slice of pizza from under them or to just walk up to the living room TV, turn it on and switch the channels while they'd be arguing over the remote.
A habit that was rather unwelcome by her mother who wished she'd take more of a chance to practice her English. Admittedly her lingual skills could have used some work even for her age, though her grasp of the alphabet and in writing was rather advanced for her expected level.
With her older siblings and herself at home, not having to go to school that day, Bei quietly walked the hall that led to the stairwell opening on the floor that most of her siblings and she had their rooms placed in. Looking around she could see how many of her brothers and sisters were using their free day.
Luis, normally occupied with painting and putting together his model mechas in his room had been talked into painting scale building models by Lizy.
"Blue! There should be more blue for the windows since the buildings are gray and boring," Lizy said.
"You should want the buildings to be boring so your monster looks more interesting," Luis said.
"My monster is gonna look cool cause he's cool!" Lizy insisted.
Looking over to Lacy and Lynn III out in the hallway she saw that Lacy had agreed to an impromptu fencing match with her little sister as the two of them were now dueling vigorously with a pair of blunted blades intended for just that. Such was not unusual for her to see. What was making it a little more interesting was seeing Lyra and Lemy decide that this was a good moment to practice their violin playing and provide some musical accompaniment that truly set the mood of a duel.
Bei continued making her way downstairs, stopping by the kitchen to pick up one of the waffles that Liena had made that morning. While settling down on the couch taking advantage of the fact no one was taking up the living room for the time being she glanced outside the front window to notice Reina and Lina spray painting on a large white poster paper, with Lina showing her little sister how to create graffiti art.
Now settled down onto the coveted couch closest to the television Bei turned on the TV and Cyseria video game console, one of many set up among the entertainment system and focused on getting ready to play.
She had in fact gotten a few levels into the video game she was playing when Lyle had made his way downstairs, looking a little exerted as he had been made to step in as his little sister's fencing partner in Lacy's place for a few minutes.
Seeing that Bei was playing her video game at the moment, Lyle walked over to stand over his little sister.
"Do you mind if I play with you?" Lyle said.
Bei wouldn't have minded any of her siblings playing with her. All of them were at the very least decent, though she could sometimes find herself overwhelmed trying to play with those with remarkable skills such as Loan. Luckily Loan preferred holing up within the confines of her room in the basement.
However, Lyle she especially enjoyed spending time with. She considered Liena and Lyle the sweetest of her siblings, and she especially adored her older brother. His bashful introduction had left an impression on her as he had wanted her to feel welcomed and truly like a Loud especially as she was now considered Leni's daughter.
Thus, Bei smiled at Lyle and moved over, patting the spot on the couch next to her.
"Thanks," Lyle said.
Bei nodded then kept on smiling as he adjusted the game settings for multiplayer gaming, leaving the siblings to happily play with one another.
That had gone on for a few hours before they heard a knock at the door.
Despite the fact that those who stepped up all the way to the Loud's front door were usually trusted enough and had some business to make it there they still made it a habit to look out of the peephole. Once Bei saw that Lyle was smiling after he looked through the peephole she looked over wondering who was there then frowned once she saw Gloom stepping in. Dressed comfortably for her visit, the usual outfit of hers clear on display with her purple headband, black sweater, matching skirt, white leggings and black and white sneakers.
"Hey Legolas!" Gloom said, confidently jumping towards Lyle who had caught her while she had wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
"Hi Gloomy," Lyle said, swaying his best friend around as he held her.
Bei looked between the screen and controllers contemplating if she should just go back to playing the video game on her own when Gloom stepped over to greet her.
"Hi Bei!" Gloom said.
Bei stared back at the girl neutrally for a moment before deciding to greet her back with a rather lazy wave.
"We were just playing Underground Adventures 3 before you came here, do you want to play too?" Lyle said.
Bei looked at Lyle rather indignant with the suggestion however he was looking at Gloom rather than at her thus ensuring he wouldn't notice while Gloom herself didn't seem to be oblivious.
"Yeah I'd like to play," Gloom said.
Though she was glum about the arrangement, Bei moved over to make room for Lyle as Gloom sat down on his left side glad that at the very least her brother was staying to play with her even if Gloom was still there, in her opinion disturbing the moment she had between herself and her brother.
Gloom grinned as they had gotten a few levels in before leaning in and bumping arms with Lyle letting his fingers slip on the left stick leading to him reacting with mock annoyance.
"I see someone is scared worrying that she's not going to reach the end of the dungeon first," Lyle said.
"Nope, I'm making it just fine," Gloom said.
She only giggled as Lyle bumped his thigh against hers much to Bei's annoyance who wished that Gloom would focus on the game if she was going to be involved in her time playing the game with her big brother.
Glancing over at Bei, Lyle noticed that she seemed to no longer be having fun. Looking between Gloom to his left and Bei on his right he wasn't sure why his little sister was staying despite his assumption that she wasn't having the best time. All while Gloom smirked at him, leaning in a little closer.
"Hey Gloom, wanna go out to the backyard?" Lyle said.
"Um. Sure!" Gloom said, a bit surprised to suddenly be pulled away from the game but adjusting fast.
Despite the fact Lyle believed that leaving to hang out with Gloom in the backyard would let Bei go ahead and have more fun playing on her own or let her go do something else to have fun, Bei looked over to see her brother going out through the side door with Gloom holding her hand out considering saying something only to go silent feeling that would be pointless.
Bei laid with her front set down on the floor of her bedroom, playing with her action figures setting them up in a battle scene as she thought about which of her siblings would be willing to help her make it so Lyle's attention was more focused on her rather than Gloom. A challenge considering most of her siblings liked Gloom well enough to not try to keep her stuck at home.
She herself considered Gloom to be fine most of the time, and her opinion would certainly continue to be so were it not for the fact that what had happened that morning hadn't been happening for a few days by then where she felt like Gloom was robbing her of the attention that she wanted from her big brother.
Leia certainly had the moral flexibility that was more rigid in most of her siblings, but she didn't like negotiating prices with her. Though some of her siblings could make something useful for what she had in mind they would have to be too involved and likely wouldn't be on board once she admitted what she was asking for their help with. Such was the issue with Lieo who could create plenty of useful tools but would want to see the results of her "experiment".
That was how her mind wandered to her older sisters Lupa and Lila. If she asked for a magic spell, of which both had limited practice in she would have to explain too much to her liking. It was how she settled on Lila, she had an assortment of different kinds of mushrooms some of which she knew would left people feeling funny or even with a stomach ache. Best of all, her older sister wouldn't ask too many questions.
Walking over towards almost the opposite side of the hall, Bei knocked on Lila's door.
As soon as Lila opened the door, Bei could tell that she was working on an experiment. She had walked out wearing a large black disinfected apron, gloves she had borrowed from their Aunt Lisa's laboratory and a plague doctor themed gas mask.
"Hi Bei. Give me a moment and I'll clean up my work," Lila said.
Bei was glad to let Lila go back into her room and do just that. She could smell how the young goth was letting something decay in her room. A common experiment of Lila's that was why Bei often avoided going to her older sister's room to hang out with her.
"Come in," Lila said, dressed out of her lab gear now wearing a plain black t-shirt with her waist length black cape over it and floor length black skirt.
Bei stepped into Lila's bedroom and walked over to Lila's trays of mushrooms placed on top of her desk in the corner of the bedroom each labeled with their scientifically designated names or the ones that her older sister had instead determined for them. Deciding on one at random Bei pointed and asked her question.
"Kill or not kill?" Bei said.
Looking over to see the mushrooms that Bei was pointing at, Lila squinted to make sure she knew what the species in question was before answering.
"Those kill," Lila said.
Bei continued on pointing at each different tray of mushrooms, asking follow up questions for the mushrooms that weren't lethal.
"Make you sick?" Bei said, a question that was soon followed up with, "How sick?"
After a little while of this routine Lila laughed as she had assumed that Bei wanted a set of mushrooms that would make her sick but not too sick that she couldn't recover. Further assuming that she wanted something on hand for staying at home for a sick day from school.
Lila looked through the drawers placed around her desk to pull out a container of pale mushrooms with a blue tint to them.
"I think these are the kind of mushrooms you'd like," Lila said.
Bei stared at her older sister, wondering how she could have guessed what she was planning to do especially since she hadn't seen Lila do anything that would let her be able to read her mind. Something that kept Bei worried as she had assumed she had been found out only to realize Lila was just assuming what the plan was that she had in mind.
After giving herself that assurance, Bei smiled and nodded to let Lila carry on with her assumptions and reached out to grab the mushrooms only for Lila to hold up a finger and stop Bei from taking them.
"Hold on, Bei. I'd like some help with something if you want a few free sick days from school," Lila said.
A point that left Bei huffing in frustration, hoping that she wouldn't have to play test subject for one of her sister's experiments.
Bei wondered if Lila had a black robe in the size of all her siblings to pull on them at a moment's notice. At least that was how Bei explained how quickly Lila had been able to just pull out a robe in her size before turning off the lights, lighting at least twenty candles for her room where the black out curtains made it look pitch black in the middle of the day then handed her a pair of reeds to shake like summoning instruments.
It left Bei rather annoyed to slowly shake the reeds rhythmically especially since their whispering noise sounded like maracas that she was handed to rather obviously keep her occupied while Reina, Luis, Lyra, Lemy, and Lina played proper instruments with each other whenever they'd practice together.
"Guide Spirit, come forth. Guide Spirit come forth," Lila continued chanting within her summoning circle.
The first time Bei had seen her Aunt Lucy and her big sisters Lupa and Lila perform their rituals together she had been genuinely impressed to see real magic at work. Now however she was used to the matter simply as an addition to their skill sets. Especially since she was aware they would never risk performing anything dangerous or intense around her.
Bei continued shaking the reeds and tried not to exhale too hard seeing the bright blue wispy spirit manifest quickly followed by Lila trapping it inside an amulet.
Once Lila turned on the lights again, Bei tossed away the reeds and pulled off the robe.
"Thank you," Lila said as she gave Bei the mushrooms she had promised in the container that was keeping them in their preserved state.
From there, Bei took a few of the mushrooms and stored them away in her pink fanny pack before putting the rest of the mushroom container inside one of her clothes drawers for if she needed a few for herself later.
She would wait a few days, becoming more despondent the more times she felt Lyle was picking Gloom over her. Waiting to see when she could have Gloom take them for a snack or when she'd stay for dinner.
Her chance would come during an occasion of the latter when Gloom had walked with Lyle from school, and so would be staying for dinner.
Going into the kitchen to find Liena and Luan looking through the fridge and pantry Bei looked through their cook book trying to find a dish with mushrooms, finally settling on a soup.
"Hm? Oh, Bei," Liena said, noticing Bei tugging on her skirt to get her attention.
Bei pointed at the soup shown in the cook book then rubbed her stomach.
"You'd like to have this today?" Liena said, taking the book.
Bei nodded with enthusiasm, glad that her big sister's practice with non-verbal communication made it intuitive for her to figure out such gestures intended to limit how often she'd speak.
"Aunt Luan, do you think we could make this for everyone today?" Liena said.
"Hmm. It would be a new one we haven't made yet, and I sure would like to have a fungi in my dish," Luan said soon followed by an energetic chuckle from herself.
Liena chuckled weakly, always being polite towards her aunt's puns while Bei turned around looking similarly unimpressed with the comedian. They had seen her comedy shows and her sitcoms, they knew she could do so much better. It was part of what made the puns even more painful.
Once the meal had been cooked and prepared the whole Loud Family had gathered together with an extra seat having been brought for Gloom.
Though Liena, Lincoln and Luan made it a habit to pass out the food and silverware for everyone one of the adults would often volunteer and insist that one of the kids go ahead and volunteer as well. That night in particular, Lucy got out of her chair to help and looked between her two daughters determining Lupa to be the one less likely to volunteer without any prompting.
"Rise from your seat and help with the partition," Lucy said.
"Fine, Mom," Lupa said after groaning and getting out of her seat.
Then seeing her chance, Bei got up and went over to the kitchen to help too.
"Thank you, Bei, for being a good girl and volunteering," Leni praised, causing Bei to beam as she smiled.
Lupa looked over at Bei coming in to grab some bowls of soup to pass around too and chuckled at the sight of her rather small little sister rushing over to take one of the bowls and scurry back. Chuckling before teasing her.
"Okay, no need to rush off like you're at a restaurant," Lupa said.
Bei simply glanced at her older sister regarding her neutrally before rushing off out of sight of the adults and her siblings doing her best to be swift placing Lila's mushrooms into the soup, mixing them in before setting the bowl in front of Gloom.
"Thank you, Bei," Gloom said.
Bei simply settled into her chair to enjoy her dinner, occasionally glancing over to watch the mushrooms take effect over Gloom.
Once Gloom had settled down in the living room next to Lyle she felt an intense pain in her stomach and laid down on her side groaning from the painful sensation.
"Gloom? Do you need anything?" Lyle said only to give his friend a closer look then press his hand to her forehead and knew immediately that she was suddenly well above her normal body temperature.
"Oh no," he said before rushing off to see who was on hand to check on her whether it be his mother, one of his aunts or his father.
Lisa had been helping Luan wash the dishes at the time and immediately pulled up her wrist device to perform an initial analysis on Gloom while Luan was much more hands on with checking on their guests.
"She seems to be displaying only mild fever symptoms," Lisa muttered to herself.
Luan took out her phone immediately scrolling through her contacts to find her friend on the list.
"I'll let Maggie know what's going on," Luan said.
"I'll take Gloom down to the clinic," Lisa said, picking up Gloom and taking her to her personally built clinic near her lab in the basement level.
A moment would pass for Lisa to perform her examination, taking an oral swab from Gloom and brief prick of blood while Luan talked to Maggie and Bennie about what had happened to their daughter over the phone.
Once that moment had passed, Lisa walked up the stairs where everyone else had been told to wait so they could keep Gloom quarantined in case the culprit was something contagious.
"Alright everyone, Gloom has been afflicted with a case of food poisoning. Lucy, could you come with me for a moment?" Lisa said.
There was a sigh of relief, but also some confusion as to why Lisa was requesting Lucy, and over why the rest of them weren't experiencing similar symptoms.
"Can I come down to see Gloom?" Lyle said.
"You may," Lisa said after some deliberation.
After considering the possibility herself, Bei decided to go downstairs with her brother. She was aware how much her Aunt Lisa was able to accomplish, but that she had been able to figure out so quickly what had happened worried her.
Now down in the basement, Lyle held Gloom's hand in the brightly lit sterile white medical bay where Gloom had been settled down on a simple but decently comfortable medical bed.
"It's alright, Aunt Lisa says you just have food poisoning. She can fix that no problem," Lyle said.
"That's good," Gloom said.
Bei looked on with some shock at what the mushrooms were able to accomplish. Gloom looked absolutely pale and ghastly the way her hair was clinging to her face not to mention how generally off balance she clearly looked from having thrown up just moments ago. It made her regret how far she'd gone. She wanted to leave Gloom occupied, not cause her to suffer.
Meanwhile, Lucy looked at her little sister with confusion over what she had been called down to the basement for.
"Was there some trouble with treating our guest? Something you need my mystical cures for?" Lucy said.
"No, I can synthesize a cure just fine with my own equipment. However, you must know that I found the cause to this case of Gastroenteritis. Blue Flower Mushroom," Lisa said.
"Oh," Lucy said, knowing only her youngest daughter was the only one with any samples of them for miles.
"I'll synthesize treatment for Gloom," Lisa said.
That left Lucy to go back up the stairs and look around to find Lila.
"Lila, I need to talk to you for a moment," Lucy said.
Lila and Lupa looked at one another with confusion before Lila followed her mother upstairs where Lucy wanted to talk to her daughter in Lila's room.
Once there Lucy crossed her arms, giving Lila a measured look before asking her question.
"Who did you give your Blue Flower Mushrooms to?" Lucy said.
Lila looked down, squeezing the folds of her skirt nervously not wanting to answer that question honestly. She had given her samples to Bei as a gift and didn't want to expose her little sister for what she had done. Not when she had given that gift in good spirit for Bei to do with what she wished. She wouldn't want any of her siblings thinking she handed out those gifts without good will.
"I didn't. I don't know where they are, I must have lost them," Lila said.
Lucy breathed in deeply, knowing that Lila was protecting whoever she had given her samples to yet nonetheless needed to know who was responsible.
Bei shook a bit, surprised that her older sister who had considered family for only a brief amount of time was willing to protect her and do her best to make sure nothing happened to her. Not wanting Lila to get in trouble for what she had done, Bei knocked on the door.
"It was me," Bei said, tearing up as she held up the mushrooms she had still kept in her fanny pack.
A revelation that only led to Lucy looking at her niece with disappointment.
After drinking the medicine that Lisa had prepared, Gloom was feeling much better.
"Are you sure you want to hang out again tomorrow? You feel completely alright?" Lyle said.
"Yep, your Aunt makes some strong stuff. It's like a healing potion," Gloom said.
Lucy had brought Bei downstairs who was now grasping her hands looking down at the ground with guilt, and Bei could feel when Lucy set her gaze on her knowing what she expected. So, stepping forward the small girl started to tear up as she looked at Gloom.
"I'm sorry Gloom. I put. Mushrooms in your soup," Bei said.
"What?" Gloom said, more confused than upset or perturbed.
"You got her sick, Bei?! Why?! Did you tell Lila what you were going to use them for?! Why did you do this to Gloom?! You could have gotten her really hurt!" Lyle said rushing over and glaring down at Bei.
"Lyle," Gloom said softly, hoping to calm him down.
"For you to. Play with me. Not her," Bei said.
"Bei," Lyle groaned out with exasperation, covering his face. Still upset with his little sister, and yet part of him couldn't help but feel touched that she had acted out over feeling he hadn't been spending enough time with her.
"If you feel this way about things you talk to people about it. You don't poison their friends," Lyle scolded Bei.
"I'm sorry," Bei said.
Lyle marched off, still quite upset with his little sister just glad that Gloom had managed to recover but for the rest of the night he had locked himself in his room.
Once that matter had been handled Lucy had brought Bei back upstairs and talked to Leni about what had happened.
"Bei! You need to apologize to Gloom's parents and tell them what you did when they get here," Leni started scolding her young daughter.
"I'm sorry. Please don't send me back!" Bei begged.
"Sweetie!" Leni cried out in surprise, kneeling down and holding Bei by the shoulders.
"You're a Loud now. No matter what you do you're always going to be part of this family, I'll never give you back," Leni said.
"You do need to learn that you don't do this people. You don't hurt them, and this isn't how you get attention from your family or your friends. So you will be grounded," Leni said.
Bei had her tablet and toys confiscated for a few weeks, not allowed to join the rest of her family for movie or gaming nights as she was instead occupied with any chores that Leni had determined her daughter to be able to handle.
Gloom had forgiven her quite quickly, having a lot of sympathy for the young girl. Even encouraging Lyle to go easy on his little sister despite he himself being slower to let those bygones pass. Yet by the time Bei was no longer grounded his heart had softened towards her again.
To try to inspire some goodwill and get her brother to forgive her, Bei had Liena help her with slicing a few apples. Liena had let Bei know that apples, particularly sweet Red Delicious Apples was their brother's favorite.
Lyle had been reading a new book series when he heard a knock on the door and looked over to see Bei holding a plate of awkwardly cut apples.
Putting the book down he walked over and took the plate from Bei setting them aside on his bed before pulling her in and holding her up for a hug. His little sister was quick to hug him back, happy to be in her big brother's hold safely in his loving arms.
