61. Ch 61- Message Alert

"Grr… where is it?"

Lana looked away from Izzy's cage, seeing her twin and roommate reaching under her bed. "What are you looking for?" She asked, prompting the pageant princess to back up and look at her.

"I'm trying to find my ribbon stick. I have pageant practice after school tomorrow, and I need to do some solo practice today to make up for not practicing on Thanksgiving." She narrowed her eyes at the animal lover. "You didn't let Charles play with it again, did you? That ribbon stick was very expensive."

"No, and I didn't let El Diablo near it, either."

"Wait, what?! When did your snake get near my ribbon stick?!"

"He thought it was a female snake one time." She smiled at the memory. "I had to give him a dead mouse to get him away."

Lola did not share the sentiment, giving a shudder at the thought. "Whatever. If you do see it, just place it on my bed, and don't let any of your pets anywhere near it." She decided that it was best if she looked elsewhere, so she left her sister alone in their room. 'Where could it be?' she pondered, looking down the landing, then looking the other direction. 'Maybe Linky's seen it somewhere. He did join my tea party after the fight yesterday.' She walked up to the far door and pushed it open before stepping in. "Linky?" A quick glance around told her that the boy was not, in fact, in the room. "Oh, right. He has practice." Looking back into the hallway and seeing that it was empty, she smirked, closing the door. "They won't mind if I look around quickly."

She started her search by walking over to the bed, kneeling down and looking underneath. "Comics, roller skates, cosplay costume… broken guitar? Must be one of Luna's." She paid it no attention, continuing to search until she found that her ribbon stick wasn't there. "Dang it." She crawled back and stood up, dusting herself off. She took a quick look towards the desk to see if he had picked it up and put it on there, but only saw his laptop, video games, action figures, loose comics… and something else that caught her attention. "Ooh! What have we here?" She picked up what looked to be her brother's phone, and saw that it was still on. More importantly, however, she saw what was displayed. "What the…"

She was startled when she heard the door open, turning her head to see that it was Lori. "Lola, what are you doing in here?" she asked, before noticing the phone in the younger girl's hand. "Are you looking through Lincoln's phone?!"

Lola opened her mouth to argue, but before she could get a word out, she saw more of their sisters begin to congregate behind the high school senior, all giving her the same stink eyed expression and scolding her for doing so. She tried to explain herself, but the others were talking too loudly, causing her to get mad. "Hold it!" She took a moment to compose herself once the others had quieted down. "Thank you. As I was about to say, I was only in Lincoln's room because I was trying to find my ribbon stick."

"And why would it be in Lincoln's room?" Lucy questioned, making the others gasp after not realising she was there. "Seriously?"

Lola calmed down again from the brief shock. "Well, he DID join me for a tea party yesterday, so I thought he might have seen it."

"And you couldn't wait until he got back from dodgeball?"

Lola rolled her eyes at the comedienne's question. "Well, I didn't think he would mind, and I was only in there for a minute, but I didn't find it in here either."

"Oh!" Everyone turned to the second oldest blonde. "That's right! I borrowed it."

"Why would you borrow my ribbon stick?!"

"I wanted to use some material like that for a fashion project, so I took it to the material store so I could look for that material. Don't worry, I brought it back. It's in my bag."

"Okay, we're getting off point here," Lori interrupted, bringing everyone's attention back to the first grader. "That doesn't explain why you have Lincoln's phone."

"I was just leaving," Lola continued for explain, "when I saw that Linky had not only left his phone, but that it was on, and it's a good thing I did! You should see what's on here."

"Dude, that's low, even for you," Luna chided.

"Trust me!" She turned back to Lori and added, "you especially will want to see this."

Though Lori was going to deny, she couldn't deny that Lola's tone from saying this had caught her attention. With a sigh, she took it from the younger girl, shaking her head as she gave it a brief glance, intending to put it straight back, but seeing what was on the screen changed that altogether. "What the… what the heck is this?!"

"Perhaps you could be more descriptive," Lisa stated in a flat tone. "As in, with words."

"This is… some kind of list about me! 'Gossip', 'scary', 'phone obsessed'… what the literal heck?!" As some of the others began trying to look at the phone as well, Leni shot a worried look towards Lucy, and though her bangs hid it, Lucy was returning the same look to the fashionista. "Wait a minute… he's got them for each of us!"

"He has?" Lori nodded at Luan's question, before showing her the list on the high school comedienne. "'Joker', 'pranks'… 'clown school'? What does that have to do with Lori being a gossip?"

"It says I'm a gossip too," Luna mused as she took the phone and looked at her phone. "I wonder if this has anything to do with yesterday."

"Yesterday?" Lori turned to the brunette. "What do you mean?"

"Little bro wanted to talk to me about something before the protocol broke out. Didn't get chance to talk about it, because Sam asked me to hang out, and by the time I got back, I kinda forgot about it." She rubbed the back of her head, feeling slightly guilty. "Hope it wasn't anything too serious."

"It doesn't matter." Lori took the phone from her and turned it off, returning it to its owner's desk. "When that little twerp gets back, we're going to have a sibling meeting to talk about this. If he's hiding something from us, we're going to make him tell us." She then left the room and closed the door behind her. "For now, just do whatever you want, and no one tell Lincoln about this straight away."

The others nodded and began to go their own way. "Lola, I'll get your ribbon stick for you in a minute, okay?" Leni said with a smile, to which the self proclaimed princess rolled her eyes.

"Fine. I need to do my reading, anyway."

Once Lola was back in her room and the landing was all but empty, Leni dropped her smile and turned to Lucy, whose frown was deeper than it normally seemed. "What do we do?"

"I… I don't know," the goth admitted, rubbing her foot on the carpet. "We better tell Lynn when she gets back."

"Yeah…"

"Okay, everyone! Great session today!" Chris declared after finishing the cool down. "Glad to see Thanksgiving hasn't made any of you forget anything, you're all showing real improvement. That does it for today, so I'll see all of you on Tuesday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend."

Everyone thanked the instructor before beginning to head towards the changing rooms or to the exit. As they walked towards the changing rooms, Lincoln turned to Jordan and asked, "so, is it your mom that's giving us a ride this time?"

"Yeah," Jordan replied. "I think it's your mom's turn next week."

"I think so, yeah. So, I guess I'll catch up with you in a few minutes, then." She nodded, and they entered their respective changing rooms. Lincoln walked over to the bench where his stuff was waiting. As he sat down, he looked over and saw Artie, who was changing into his regular clothes. "Is it weird that I don't feel completely out of breath for once?"

The brown haired boy chuckled, poking his head through his t-shirt. "Nah, it just means you're getting better," he told the other boy. "First few weeks when I started, I was completely wiped after every session. Over time, my body started to get used to it."

"Guess that means all this practice is paying off."

"Yeah, it is. You're getting good, Lincoln."

The Loud child's smile grew from the compliment. "Thanks, Artie."

"Hey, me and some of the guys are planning on visiting the arcade after school on Wednesday. You wanna come join us?"

"Thanks, but I can't. I already spent my arcade money for the week yesterday, and I'm working on my geography project that day."

"Oh, right. Who'd you get partnered with for that?"

"Jordan."

"I'd ask which one, but given how you haven't called her this in a while, I'm gonna guess you mean Girl Jordan." Lincoln nodded. "Yeah, you lucked out. I got stuck with Papa Wheelie."

"Ooh, unlucky. Still, thanks for offering. Maybe another time."

"Sure thing, man." At that moment, he stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder. "Well, I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"See you, Artie." He waved a little as the other boy made his way out of the changing room, leaving Lincoln to get changed by himself, and with no one else to talk to, he got done fairly quickly. He grabbed his stuff and left, heading back into the gymnastics hall, where he was surprised to see that his sister was there, her roller blades hanging on her shoulder and her helmet still on her head. "Lynn?"

"Hey, bro!" She greeted. "How was practice?"

"Pretty good. What about you? How was roller derby?"

"You know it, bro!"

He chuckled. "Yeah, should've known. So, what brings you here?"

"I figured I'd catch a ride home with you this week, if that's cool with Jordan."

"Sure, I doubt my mom will mind," they heard Jordan say as she approached them, fully changed into her regular clothes. "She's probably outside waiting for us, so we should go and meet her."

"Cool."

They headed out of the sports centre and into the parking lot, where they found Mrs Rosato waiting by her car. She saw the kids walking towards them and smiled. "Hey there, kids," she greeted.

"Hi, Mrs Rosato," Lincoln greeted back. "This is my sister, Lynn."

"Nice to meet you," the jock then told the woman.

"It's nice to meet you too. Do you need a ride home, too?"

"Yeah, if that's okay."

"Sure, no problem. Hop in." So, whilst the adult got into the driver's seat, the three kids sat in the back, with Lincoln in between his friend and his sister. "So, Lynn," Mrs Rosato asked as she started to drive away, "other than Lincoln, I only know your older sister Leni through my other daughter, Jen. Why don't you tell me a little about yourself?"

"Here we go," Lincoln jokingly said to Jordan, getting the girl to laugh while Lynn simply ignored his comment.

"Sure. I'm his fifth oldest sister, and I'm the athlete of the family."

"Oh, really? What do you play?"

"I do a few sports: basketball, soccer, roller derby, s-" She gave a quick look to her brother, catching herself before she caused another episode. "Uh, lacrosse, football and ice hockey."

"Wow! That's a lot of sports! How do you find the time to do all that?"

Lynn chuckled at Mrs Rosato's question. "Well, different seasons start at different times in the year, and it keeps me active. Plus, now that this guy right here's doing gymnastics," she reached over and wrapped her arm around her brother's shoulder, "I've gotta help him keep in shape, which means I can keep in shape too."

"It sounds like you two are pretty close."

"Well… we've definitely gotten closer this past couple of months. Right, bro?"

"Yeah," he told her. "We weren't not close before, but when I have ten sisters, I couldn't really get closer to one without upsetting the other nine, you know?"

"I can imagine," Mrs Rosato agreed. "It's the same when you're a parent. When Jordan was little, Jen always worried that we were favouring Jordan over her, but we always did our best to make sure that wasn't true."

"Yeah, our dad struggled with that a while back."

As Lincoln began retelling the story, Lynn reached into her pocket and pulled her phone. Turning it on, she saw that she had received a message from Lucy, which read:

Lucy: we need to talk

'Guess I had my phone on silent,' Lynn thought to herself, her brow furrowed as she wondered what the goth might want to talk about. 'Hope it's not too serious.'

Lynn: k. On my way home now

Satisfied with her reply, she put her phone back in her pocket. 'Guess I'll find out soon.'

The ride home didn't last long, with the car pulling up outside of the Loud house about five minutes before five o'clock. Once they had gotten out, Lynn and Lincoln said goodbye to the Rosato's and waved them off as they drove away, before heading towards the house. "You do realise it's stuff like that which makes your friends think you like her, right?" Lynn asked her brother, making him blush.

"You're a real pain at times," he bluntly responded. "You know that?"

"Yeah, but that's why you love me, bro."

He rolled his eyes before heading into the house, seeing the rest of his sisters sat on or in front of the couch. They turned to their brother when they saw him enter, giving him smiles that he didn't notice were just that little bit too eager. "Hey, Linky!" Luan greeted. "How was dodgeball practice?"

"Pretty good. Has Dream Boat started yet?"

"Nah, you've got time."

"Okay, cool. I'll grab a shower and join you."

The others all gave an "okay" as he made his way upstairs, none of them noticing that Lynn gave them a questioning look as she entered, closing the front door behind her.

'What was that about?' She thought, before shrugging it off and heading into the kitchen. She walked up to the fridge and pulled out a soda, taking a sip as she turned around, only to spit it out as she came face to face with Lucy, the goth looking unimpressed as soda dropped from her face. "Geez, Luce! I know we joke about the bell idea, but you've really got to stop that."

"Noted." She wiped away some of the liquid that had drenched her fringe. "You're back late."

"I got a ride back with Linc, so what? Anyway, what's up with the others? They were acting kind of weird."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." She looked over her shoulder, checking that the others weren't watching, then turned back to her roommate. "Lola was in Lincoln's room earlier. She found the pictures on his phone."

"Pictures? What pic-" Her eyes slowly went wide as she realised what Lucy was referring to, a sense of dread washing over her. "Oh."

"Lori's going to hold a sibling meeting after dinner, and they're going to make him come clean. What do we do?"

"Alright, just give me a second here." She took another drink from her soda, racking her brain as she tried to figure out how to deal with their current predicament. Once she gulped down her drink, she reached an idea. "Okay. I need to go drop my stuff off upstairs. When he's done with his shower, I'll let Lincoln know what's going on, and we'll try and think of a cover story."

"You think he can fool them?"

"If anyone's gonna think of something, he's probably our best shot. For now, head back to the couch. Give me a shout if one of the others tries to come upstairs."

"Okay."

"Good." She watched as her sister walked away, sighing heavily. "Lincoln, you're in for it now." She gulped down the rest of her soda, throwing the can in the trash before leaving the kitchen and heading up the stairs. She checked to see if the bathroom was still in use, which it was, so she headed into her room and dumped her bag next to her bed. 'Okay, what should he tell them? They'd probably believe if him if he said he had a crush… Nah, he won't go with that. Same goes for if he did something to get in trouble... Dang it! How is he so good at thinking of stuff like this?' Just then, she heard a door shutting, and a poke of her head outside of her room showed that the bathroom door was now open. Looking the other way, she saw that her brother's bedroom door was closed, telling her that he was done with his shower. 'Now or never, Lynn. Blitz play, let's go.'

She walked over to the door and gave it a knock, not having to wait long before her brother answered it, now dressed in his pyjamas. "Lynn? What's up?"

"We need to talk about something, bro."

"What is it?"

Lynn opened her mouth, but was unable to speak before someone else could. "LINCOLN! LYNN! GET YOUR BUTTS DOWN HERE! THE SHOW'S STARTING!"

"ONE SECOND!" Lincoln turned to Lynn and told her, "we can talk after dinner."

"Wait—" It was no use, as her brother had already began to head downstairs again, leaving the athlete to give a resigned sigh. "And that's full time." She slowly walked downstairs to join her siblings in the living room, sitting down next to her raven haired younger sister. Lucy turned to her, looking like she was going to say something, but one shake of Lynn's head silenced it before any words could be said. Both knowing that there was nothing they could do, they both gave a glance over to the boy, who blissfully watched as the reality show started, unaware of what was to come.