Disclaimer: We don't own Loud House or Pokemon. All rights to Loud House belong to Nickelodeon. All rights to Pokemon belong to Nintendo and Game Freak. All rights to the "It's (Not) Your Fault" Loud House comic goes to JaviSuzumiya on DeviantArt. Credit for the story idea goes to SuperSonicBros123.
Truth Revealed
The next morning at the Loud House, the Loud siblings were getting ready for school; except for Luna who was too depressed, Lincoln who wasn't even there, and Lily because she was too young.
"Where's Lincoln?" asked Lana.
"Probably not going to school again." said Luan.
"Who cares?" asked Lynn Jr. "After how he talked to us last night, I don't feel like dealing with him right now."
"Me, neither." said Lola.
"Now kids, leave Lincoln alone." said Lynn Sr. "He's been through a lot these last few days after that Stella girl broke up with him."
"And Luna hasn't gotten any better either." said Rita.
"She's still taking losing Sam hard, isn't she?" asked Luan.
"What can we do?" asked Lana.
"Wait and see what happens." said Lori. "The police are still trying to find Sam and deal with what she did."
"Let's just go to school and worry about it later." said Lucy. As the Loud sisters and Rita head for Vanzilla, Lana sees Lincoln's inflatable slide coming out from under his window.
"What's that doing out?" asked Lana.
"Lincoln must've used it to get out of the house without us seeing him." said Luan.
"Stinkoln's probably trying to avoid us after last night." said Lynn Jr with a frown.
"He's probably at his school by now." said Luan.
"I'll deal with him when I see him there." said Lola as she punches the palm of her hand. Rita and the Loud sisters who were going to school enter Vanzilla and head off to school.
After Lynn Jr gets dropped off at the Royal Woods Middle School, she goes in and starts walking down the hallway to her locker.
"Hey, Loud." said a voice from up ahead of her. She looks to see a girl from the RWMS Photography Club (a/n: The one that was in the dark room in the episode 'Middle Men'. Unsure of the girl's name since it never came up in the episode, so we'll call her P.G, or Photography Girl for short.) walking over to her.
"What's up?" Lynn asked P.G.
"How are things with your family?" asked P.G.
"Not cool." said Lynn. "Luna's still upset, and our brother refuses to own up to what he did, and he's being a real chump about it."
"There's something you need to see." said P.G.
"What?" asked Lynn.
"Come with me." said P.G as she leads Lynn to the Photography Club's room. Once inside, they go over to a computer where the picture showing Lincoln and Sam kissing was on the screen.
"C'mon, everyone's seen this picture already." said Lynn.
"Take a close look." said P.G. "Doesn't the couch cushion seat your brother sitting on seem unusually small?" Lynn looks closely at the screen and sees that the right-hand seat did look smaller than it was supposed to.
"Yeah, it does now that you mention it." said Lynn. "What does that mean when it's like that?"
"That this photo was doctored." said P.G. "Someone must've taken a photo of your brother and the blonde girl and moved their images closer together to make it look like that they were kissing, while moving the part of the couch the girl was sitting on with her, covering up the part of the couch your brother was on."
"What?! You mean this photo was altered?!" exclaimed Lynn.
"Yeah, and whoever done this must've been an amateur. Probably watched a quick online tutorial and did this without noticing the cushion." said P.G. Lynn was in shock at this.
"Holy schamoley. Lincoln really didn't kiss Sam." said Lynn.
Meanwhile in Lisa's kindergarten class, Lisa was looking through her microscope, but her mind was elsewhere. Sighing, Lisa hops off the stool she was standing on and walks to her backpack. She reaches in and pulls out a tablet, then taps the image of a file on the monitor labeled 'SECURITY FOOTAGE/LIVING ROOM' and scrolls the video to the moment the 'kiss' happened. When she saw the entire scene, she saw Lincoln kissing Lucy's Edwin bust instead of Sam, courtesy of a prank by said girl.
"Great Einstein, there was no kiss between my brother and Sam!" exclaimed Lisa, getting Ms. Shrinivas and her classmates' attention.
"Lisa, please keep your voice down." said Ms. Shrinivas.
"My apologies, Ms. Shrinivas." said Lisa as she continues looking at the paused video. After class, Lisa shows the security footage to Lucy and the twins.
"So, Lincoln didn't kiss Sam?" asked Lola.
"Lincoln and Sam are innocent?" asked Lana.
"Was Lincoln a better kisser than me, Edwin?" Lucy asked her Edwin bust that she had with her for some reason.
"We need to inform our elder sisters about this." said Lisa.
"After school, right?" asked Lana.
"Precisely." said Lisa. "Has any of you seen Lincoln by the way?"
"No." said Lana. "We went to his classroom to find him, and he wasn't there. We asked his teacher if he showed up today, but she said he didn't."
"That's odd. Why isn't he here?" asked Lisa.
"Let's ask his friends; maybe they've seen him." suggested Lana.
"An excellent idea." said Lisa. The sisters look around and soon find them near their lockers.
"Hey, Clyde!" said Lola.
"Hey, Lola; what's up?" replied Clyde.
"Have any of you seen Lincoln lately?" asked Lana.
"No, we haven't seen him in a week." said Clyde.
"And why should I care about that two-timer?" asked Stella with a scowl.
"He isn't a two-timer." said Lucy.
"He really didn't kiss Sam." said Lana, shocking Lincoln's friends, especially Stella, but not Rusty who looked away with a nervous expression.
"What?!" replied Lincoln's friends, except Rusty.
"I have video evidence revealing that our brother unit did not, in fact, kiss Sam." said Lisa. She then plays back the video footage of that moment and shows it to Lincoln's friends.
"Oh my gosh." said Stella with a hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes. "Lincoln was telling the truth."
"We need to find him and let him know about this." said Liam.
"After school; I don't want to be tardy." said Clyde. Unknown to most of them, Rusty had a frown on his face.
'Dang it. Now Stella's gonna want to get back together with Lincoln.' Rusty thinks to himself.
Later that afternoon once school was over, Rita picks up the sisters from their schools; Lisa and Lynn then told their older sisters, except Luna, along with their mother, what they discovered.
"O-M-Gosh! Lincoln was telling the truth!" said Leni.
"He really didn't take Sam from Luna." said Luan.
"Luna literally needs to know about this." said Lori.
"Where's Lincoln at?" asked Rita.
"He never showed up at school today." said Lana.
"WHAT?!" exclaimed Rita, Lori, Leni, and Luan.
"We haven't seen him at all today, and neither did his teacher or friends." said Lola.
"Where is he?" asked Lori.
"We should look for him and let him know that he's been proven innocent." said Luan.
"First we'll tell Luna about what we learned, then we can all look for Lincoln." said Lori.
"Lincoln's friends are already out looking for him." said Lana.
"Good." said Rita.
"Send me that evidence you just showed us to my phone, and I'll post it all online immediately." said Lori. "Maybe things will start getting back to normal after that." Lynn and Lisa do so, and Lori posts it so everyone in Royal Woods will learn the truth.
Later, after everyone got back to the Loud house, they all showed Luna what they learned and discovered today. Right now, she was banging her head against the wall.
"How...can...I...be...so...stupid?" asked Luna.
"Well, we do sometimes tend to act without thinking." said Lori.
"But why has Sam been hanging out with Lincoln a lot this past month?" asked Luna.
"Listen to the audio I got from that day." said Lisa as she brings up the talk that Sam had with Lincoln in the dining room. Luna then heard everything that Sam said about her past and the reason why she's been spending a lot of time with Lincoln.
"I feel like a complete jerk." said Luna. "I really owe Lincoln and Sam an apology."
"Even after all the things Lincoln said last night, true as they may be, we owe him that much for not believing him and not looking at the surveillance footage like he suggested in the first place." said Lori.
"But we don't know where he is." said Lana.
"Wait, we saw that inflatable slide out this morning, right?" asked Lori.
"Yeah?" replied Rita.
"How do we know he used it early that morning?" asked Lori. "What if he used it last night after our fight?" The family looked a little scared.
"Let me check his room." said Lynn Sr. He goes into Lincoln's room. Several seconds later, he runs out of it with a worried look on his face. "Some of Lincoln's things are gone; his backpack, some of his clothes and comics, even Bun Bun."
"You think Lincoln ran away?" asked Lana. Everyone looks at each other with worried looks on their faces.
"I'll check the security footage." said Lisa. She runs to her and Lily's room and goes to her surveillance monitors. It showed Lincoln in his room, packing his backpack, then going down his emergency slide.
"Oh my goodness; my son ran away!" said Lynn Sr with tears in his eyes.
"We have to find him!" said Luan.
"Everyone in Vanzilla!" said Lynn Sr. "He couldn't have gotten that far if he was on foot!"
"What if he took his bike?" asked Lana.
"Either way, we'll find him!" said Lynn Sr. The family, including Lily, get into Vanzilla and head into Royal Woods to search for Lincoln.
End of Chapter 4