20. Ch 20- Sleepover At Clyde's

(A/N: first off, sorry about the late upload. Wanted to get Loud and Proud finished, but

I'll do my best to be consistent with uploads from now on.

Also, I need to send a huge, huge, HUGE thank you to Marius Wales, who was kind enough to create a cover for this story, and I absolutely ADORE it, so thank you so much! If you guys love it as much as I do, then I recommend you check him out on DeviantArt.

Thank you all for reading, and enjoy!)

Just before six, Lincoln found himself approaching the McBride residence, the yellow mailbox signposting its location. The McBride's had a fairly fancy house, with white walls, a blue roof, an orange front door and a black and white tiled chimney. There was only one floor, but the house was quite wide. The front lawn was as neatly mowed as always, either side of the driveway leading to the garage to the right of the front door.

Walking up to the front door, Lincoln rang the bell and stood there for about fifteen seconds before the door opened up, with Howard standing on the other side. "Hello there, Lincoln!" He greeted.

"Hey, Mr McBride," he greeted back. "I hope I'm not late."

"Not at all, you're right on time. Clyde and the others are in the living room, come on in."

"Thank you." He followed the ginger man into the house, closing the door behind him. Once inside, Lincoln went into the living room, seeing the fancily decorated room. There were paintings on the wall- whether they were genuine or printed, Lincoln never asked- a cream carpet on the floor which met the black wooden floor that held the dining table by the large window, and a blue curved couch with orange pillows, upon which Clyde, Stella, Liam and Zach were sat. "Hey, guys."

They all looked over at him and smiled. "Hey, you're here!" Stella greeted s he walked over.

"Yeah, I would've gotten here sooner, but Lola almost ran me over with her princess car." He could see she was confused by this, but she simply shrugged it off. "So, where's Rusty?"

As soon as he said that, they heard the doorbell ring. "I'm guessing at the front door," Zach jested. They all chuckled while Mr McBride answered the door, returning a moment later with Rusty, who was sweating and panting.

"Sorry I'm… late, guys…" he gasped, putting his hands on his knees as he doubled over.

"I'll get you some water, Rusty," Howard offered.

"Thank you."

While Howard took off for the kitchen, the others looked at Rusty with bewilderment. "Why are you so tired?" Stella asked.

"Other than being out of shape," Liam whispered to Zach, who stifled a snorting laugh.

"My dad, he… he made me help him with… with his shop, so… I took my bike here."

"Well, we're all here now," Clyde spoke up, "so why don't we start the sleepover?" They all voiced their agreement. "Well, I've got a couple of ideas for what to do later, but for now, why don't we watch some TV for a bit? It's the season finale of Operation Dessert Storm."

While Lincoln, Rusty, Zach and Stella all smiled, Liam rolled his eyes. "I still don't understand what's so good about that show," he muttered.

"Come on, Liam, lighten up," Stella told him. "It's a good show, and the food looks delicious."

The farm boy scoffed. "You compare any of that to the great food my ma could cook with the stuff from our farm, it'd be like comparing a fancy restaurant to the school's fish tacos."

"Thanks for that image, Liam," Lincoln groaned, grasping his stomach as he and the others winced in disgust.

"Here you go, Rusty," Howard said as he returned with a glass of water for the tall boy, his husband Harold not far behind.

"Thanks," Rusty replied, accepting the glass before drinking from it.

As Clyde turned on the TV, Harold noticed what Clyde had put on. "Oh, right!" He exclaimed. "It's the season finale, right?"

"Yep!" Clyde told his dad. "It looks like it could go either way this season, too."

"We'd better hurry to our room," Howard suggested. "We don't want to miss the reveal of the challenge."

"Why don't you join us?" Stella asked.

"Oh, that's sweet of you, Stella, but we don't want to interfere in your sleepover."

"We don't mind," Lincoln added, before Liam, Zach and Rusty all shrugged and voiced their agreement, which touched the two men.

"Well… why not? Thank you, kids."

About an hour later, the six kids and two men were on the edge of their seats as the host of the show stood in front of a pedestal with a silver trophy on it. Either side of him were the two contestants, a young brown haired man in a white dress shirt and black trousers, and a muscular man with a shaved head and a black moustache in a camouflage tank top and a matching army hat and cargo pants.

"Tonight's winner," the host declared, "and this year's Operation Dessert Storm champion… is…" Lifting up a silver envelope, he opened it and pulled out the card within, reading it out loud, "… Sergeant Derricks of the American National Guard!"

As the army sergeant saluted with tears in his eyes, and his competitor applauded him, the viewers sat in the Loud House had mixed reactions to the result.

"But those eclairs looked so delicious! How did he not win?" Lincoln exclaimed.

"Perhaps," Harold countered, "but the sergeant's cannolis look divine, and have such variety. I think that's what won the judges over."

"I still say my pa could whip up something better with what we grow on the farm," Liam sustained with crossed arms.

"Well, when your dad goes on Operation Dessert Storm, let us know," Stella quipped with a smirk, eliciting chuckles from their friends.

"Well, this was fun," Howard said as he and his husband got to his feet, "but we'll be heading downstairs for a while. Do you kids need anything before we do?"

"Actually, dad, can I grab the snacks for tonight?" Clyde asked.

"Of course, Clyde."

Whilst Clyde followed his dads into the kitchen, the others began talking amongst themselves, before Lincoln heard his phone go off, so he pulled it out of his pocket and checked the screen before chuckling to himself, confusing the others. "What's so funny?" Rusty asked.

"Oh, it's… it's nothing," Lincoln replied, pocketing his phone again. "Just a dumb meme Girl Jordan sent me."

While the three boys frowned a little, Stella put a hand on her hip and smirked. "Well, what is it?"

"It's kind of an inside joke, really."

"Go on, show us!"

"Well, alright."

He put the meme on his screen, and turned it around to show the others, but after a few seconds, all Stella did was squint her eyes. "Yeah, I don't get it."

"Told you."

So, while the white haired boy turned off his phone and put it away, Clyde and his dads returned with the snacks for the rest of the sleepover. "Alright, kids," Howard said as he put the bowl of chips down on the table, "if you need us, we'll be downstairs."

"Thanks, Mr McBride! Thanks, Mr McBride!" They replied before he took off.

"So, what should we do next, Clyde?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, I was thinking we could play a game or two for a bit," he offered.

"Really?" Stella replied. "We didn't play enough games at the arcade?"

Clyde chuckled. "I was going to suggest a board game."

"I dunno, buddy," Liam said doubtfully. "Remember when we tried that last time?"

"Oh, come on!" Zach replied. "It was not that big of a deal."

"Zach, you flipped the board like it was a hay bale."

Lincoln, Rusty and Clyde were all stifling laughter, much to the redhead's embarrassment. "I told you, I got cramp."

"So, I'm guessing board games are off the table," Stella reasoned, which made Lincoln groan.

'That was worse than one of Luan's puns,' he thought.

"Well, why don't we play truth or dare?"

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Rusty argued, his cheeks heating up. "Last time we did that, I accidentally went outside in my underwear and got attacked by a squirrel."

Stella did her best to hide her laughter behind her hands, but couldn't hold it back, which only made Rusty's blush more intense. "Well then, what else can we do?"

A lightbulb then went off in Lincoln's head. "How about instead, we play a card game, and the winner of each round gets to ask someone something?" He suggested, to which the others took a second to think before smiling.

"That sounds like a great idea, Lincoln!" Stella replied.

"Yeah! I'll go grab a deck of cards!" Clyde added.

"We better move this to a bigger table then," Rusty said, grabbing one bowl of chips. While Clyde went off to find the cards, the other moved their snacks onto the dining room table and took their seats around it. Clyde returned a moment later, sitting at the available chair and putting down a deck of Ace Savvy cards in the middle. "So, how about we play some poker?"

"No way," Clyde refuted, shaking his head. "If my dads see us playing poker, they'll think you guys have gotten me into gambling, and that you're a bad influence on me! And then, they'll-"

"Clyde, snap out of it!" Lincoln told him, shaking his shoulders. "Take it easy, buddy, you're spiralling. Just breathe." Clyde nodded and proceeded to do so, leaving Lincoln to turn to Rusty. "Why don't we play some Blackjack instead?"

Rusty shrugged. "That works for me."

The others voiced their agreement, and began to play, with Clyde dealing for the first round. After taking two cards each, they took it in turns to either take more cards or stick with what they had, with Rusty being the only one to go bust. After revealing what they all had, it was Stella who was the winner, with her three cards adding up to nineteen. "Alright, that's a win for me!" She cheered as everyone returned their cards to the dealer. "Okay, then. I think I'm going to ask Rusty to tell us, what was the worst thing that happened when you tried to pick up a girl?"

He grumbled to himself, feeling everyone's eyes on him while he looked down at the table. "Well… there was one girl who… laughed in my face, before throwing her drink at my pants."

The boys all winced at the story, while Stella simply smirked. "Maybe next time, don't try cheesy pickup lines that are more of an insult than a compliment."

"Hmm… Whatever. Can we just play the next round?"

She gave a small laugh, then nodded. Clyde passed the cards to Zach, who then dealt the cards for the next round. After Liam, Rusty and Clyde all went bust, the other three revealed their cards, showing Lincoln as the winner. "Alright! I think I'm going to ask Stella this time."

"Go for it," she told him as everyone handed Zach back their cards.

"Let's see… Ooh! What would be the thing that you miss the most from your old school?"

"That's a good question, Linc!" She put her hand to her chin as she thought about what her answer would be, a smile gracing her lips when it came to her. "I think it would be one of our teachers, Mr Erickson. He always had these great stories, and my favourite was one about a high school teacher he taught. The guy was a smoker, and when he had the lighter with him, he was playing with it under the desk, and accidentally lit himself on fire." This brought out a range of reactions, with absolute horror from Clyde, shock from Lincoln and full on laughter from Zach, Liam and Rusty. "Yeah, he was a great teacher."

"How does he compare with the teachers at Royal Woods?"

"I don't think you get to ask two questions," she joked, prompting him to roll his eyes. "But, yeah. The teachers here are good teachers, but I preferred his stories."

Lincoln nodded, then turned to Zach who passed him the cards. "Okay, looks like I'm dealing for this round." He gave everyone their two cards, and after both he and Rusty had busted- the latter of whom complaining that "the deck is rigged", to which Stella shot him down by saying "no, you're just bad"- the four left in the game revealed their cards, and Zach smirked upon seeing he was the only one with a blackjack.

"Sweet," he said to himself, before looking around the table. "Okay, I'm gonna ask… Liam. Remember the sleepover we had at your farm, where you tricked us into thinking we ate Virginia? Have you ever actually killed a pig that you beat in a wrestling match?"

Stella went bug eyed. "Wait, what?!"

Liam, however, simply guffawed. "Naw, that was just payback for ditching me, I swear! My pa has reared pigs for their meat, sure, but we've never dealt with that, and especially not over a dumb wrestling match."

The others exhaled in relief, except for Stella who was still confused. "Wait, you wrestle your pig? Isn't that… inhumane?"

"Naw, it's friendly, really. Helps her to keep in shape, and it doesn't actually hurt her."

This settled her mind on the matter. "Okay." She turned to Lincoln, who then handed her the cards, which she dealt out. Once everyone was finished taking new cards, no one had busted, and after everyone revealed their cards, Clyde was the winner, with his cards adding up to twenty. "Alright, Clyde. What will you ask?"

"Well… I do have one question, but… I'm not sure if I should ask it."

Lincoln tilted his head a little. "How come?" He asked, noticing that Clyde seemed nervous. "Come on, Clyde, you can be honest with me."

"Yeah, Clyde, go on! You can ask it," Stella insisted, with the other boys doing the same. The nervous boy took a drink from his glass, gulping it down before looking down at the table.

"Okay… I'll ask it. The question I want to ask you, Lincoln, is… why have you been spending so much time with Girl Jordan?"