18. Chapter 17

It took far longer than any of us may have cared for, but it's finally done! I wrote out the rest of Luna's little arc, two new chapters, and can finally say this story is back on track! It's been a long while, so any feedback is greatly appreciate. And a big THANK YOU to everyone who messaged me and helped me keep my interest in this story alive!

Avoiding Estrangement Chapter 17)Loud-Sitting Part 3

Luna couldn't remember the last time she had been so desperate for some silence. Lily's wailing was really starting to drive her crazy. After getting sick of the baby girl constantly throwing her toy onto the sidewalk, Luna had decided to just keep it instead of letting Lily have another chance to throw it again. And Lily had wasted no time in letting Luna know how much she disliked that idea.

Ever since, Lily had been crying nonstop. Luna wasn't so sure she could take it for much longer. She felt like she was going to lose her mind at any given second. Sure, she was used to putting up with Lily's crying at home, but at least there she had the option of leaving the room or putting on her head phones. But even if she had brought her head phones with her, she couldn't wear them any sooner than she could just leave Lily in her stroller and walk away. She was stuck with it until Lily stopped crying.

"Lily, little sis, you're giving me a headache." Luna grumbled. "Could you please just chill? Here, you thirsty?"

Slowing to a stop, Luna picked up Lily's bottle of juice and offered it to the crying girl. Lily took it and immediately threw it onto the ground. Luna groaned and stopped to pick it up, allowing the twins to get further ahead.

"Hang on you two!" Luna called. "Don't go any further until we catch up!"

The two blondes slowed down to wait. Luna was grateful that they weren't riding in Lola's jeep. If they had, the would have already been too far ahead to notice that Luna was calling out to them. Luna started to push the stroller again and the twins also started moving again.

"Yeah, sure. It's not like I told you to let us catch up or anything." Luna grumbled. "Whatever. As long as I can see them it should be fine."

"I'm afraid I need to disagree with you on that." Lisa said from Luna's side. "It would be in your best interest to display some authority and command them to remain still until we have rejoined them."

"Yeah, probably. But authority isn't really my thing. I'd rather not make waves. They aren't causing trouble so I'm not gonna be harsh."

"Very well, do as you wish. But such a relaxed approach may very well invite trouble down the road." Lisa stated. "I just hope that for your sake you are capable of handling any problems that may arise. You are already falling short of the standards that Lori has set into place."

Luna cast a quick glare at the younger brunette, holding her tongue at the same time. If not for the fact there were so many young ears nearby, Luna would have made a comment about Lisa's little remark. That and she didn't want to chance upsetting Lily further by snapping. The tyke wasn't crying as hard as before, but it was painfully clear to Luna that she was still cranky. She whimpered and fussed with each step forward that Luna took. The teen tried to hush her baby sister, getting little, if any results.

Lily's' cries began to soften after another minute or so. Luna began humming a bit to try and further soothe her baby sister. As they neared the corner of the sidewalk, Luna stopped to take a better look at Lily. The tiny blonde was sucking on her thumb and struggling to keep her eyes open.

'Please fall asleep' Luna thought, continuing her humming. She checked to see if any cars were coming and started across the street. After taking the first step, she felt a tug on her shirt. The culprit was Lisa who was keeping a firm grip on the hem.

"Something up, little dudette?"

"Yes, you neglected to hold my hand when we commenced crossing the street."

"Oh, uh… well… you didn't ask." Luna replied.

"There should have been no need for me to do so. It is a requirement which our mother and father insist upon. And as the one responsible for my well-being, you should've known that."

"Yeesh, okay. I got it." Luna said, holding out her right hand. "Is there anything else that I should know?"

"Do you mean other than the obvious?" Lisa asked in return, taking Luna's hand as they continued across the road. "Well, aside of your inability to get Lily to take her scheduled nap, none of us have been provided lunch yet. I too require a brief REM cycle which will need to be postponed as I will need to tend to the matter of… cleaning my room."

"Right, that. Are you gonna be able to handle that alright?"

Lisa sighed. "There is a distinct possibility that it may be more of an endeavor than I would care for. To be perfectly frank, I wish you hadn't allowed me to wait so long."

"Me?!" Luna blurted out, very surprised by the accusation. "How am I responsible?"

"You let me remained immersed in the tub for a longer period of time than usual. Had you gotten me out at the appropriate time, we could very well have departed sooner and have already arrived back home by this time. Now I fear that I may not have enough time to solve the problem before Mother and Father return."

"Great, just great." Luna said, grumbling once again. "I guess I'd better start figuring out what to tell them when they see it. And I bet Lori is gonna rub it in my face that she was right about babysitting all of you."

"No comment." Lisa stated. "You may release my hand for now, please."

Luna let Lisa's hand go. She was slightly relieved to be able to push Lily's stroller with both hands again. It had been awkward trying to manage with only one. Now maybe she could try to catch up with the twins, who were nearly a full block ahead of her. She picked up the pace, nearly leaving Lisa behind. Lisa sped up as she noticed Luna moving away from her, calling out her name. This distracted Luna enough that she didn't notice a bump in the sidewalk and ran it over with the stroller. The sudden jump startled Lily, who had finally dozed off not even five seconds before. She began wailing again instantly.

"Dang it." Luna muttered, slowing the stroller down again.

The sound of Lily's crying died down to whining for the rest of the walk. Luna tried humming again, but quickly gave it up after a minute. As they got closer to Flip's, the twins began to pull ahead again, mainly due to Luna's need to slow down and hold Lisa's hand each time they had to cross a street. By the time Luna finally caught up to them, the twins were already waiting outside of Flip's Food & Fuel.

"Hurry up slow pokes!" Lana called.

"Yeah, we don't have all day, you know!" Lola added.

The urge to give Lola a bit of attitude rose up, but Luna held it back. She didn't feel like dealing with Lola's sass, but it was still better than doing something that would test the feisty girl's temper. Lily's crying had already worn Luna down enough. She didn't need a princess-level hissy fit on top of that. This needed to be as quick as get in, get what they needed and then get back home ASAP.

Luna opened the door and started to awkwardly push the stroller inside. Both Lola and Lana cut her off without so much as an 'excuse me' and then vanished around the first set of shelves. Lisa actually bothered to assist her by holding the door, providing relief to Luna from the aggravating task. After Luna finished getting Lily's stroller through the doorway, Lisa went right up to the counter to speak with the owner. Luna meanwhile began looking for a pack of baby diapers, finding some quickly enough. There was a lone pack, luckily in the size she needed, sitting on the bottom shelf with a price sticker marking them up for $9.99.

"Sweet!" Luna said to herself. "I have just enough! Finally a lucky break!"

Not wasting a second, Luna grabbed the pack and moved straight for the counter. But Flip wasn't there at the moment, leaving Luna waiting. She drummed her fingers on the countertop, feeling a little impatient. She took a quick look around the store to see if maybe Flip was stocking the shelves or something like that, but didn't spot him at all. What she did see however was the twins on their way over with armfuls of candy.

"Jeez, hope you didn't have to empty your piggy banks. That's a lot of sweet stuff." Luna noted. "And you gotta wait until after lunch before you eating any of that, okay? I don't care if you're paying for it, you can snack on it later."

"Whoa, what do you mean we're paying for all this?" Lana asked. "We didn't bring any money!"

"Yeah, aren't you treating us?" Lola followed up, quirking an eyebrow. "Daddy always does!"

"I'm not our dad. And I've only got enough cash for Lily's diapers, so put that stuff back!"

The twins frowned and went to return the various goodies they had gathered from the shelves. Lola cast a dirty look at Luna who returned it without a second thought. This only seemed to make Lola more annoyed, but Luna just didn't care. Flip was still nowhere to be seen and she didn't feel like standing around for who knew how long until her got back.

As the next few minutes passed by, Luna began to become very annoyed. Not only was she still waiting for service in a line of one, but Lily was fussing again. Luna felt her patience reaching its limit. She didn't care what it was that was bothering Lily, but she expected if she just ignored her, she would stop eventually. It was not a problem for her to solve.

But then… Luna noticed that smell…

First, Luna's eyes went wide and her nose wrinkled. Next she gagged a little, her face starting to turn green. She looked down at her baby sister, a feeling of dread beginning to fill her. A part of her hoped that she was mistaken, that is had just been a bit of gas, but a quick check dashed that hope into bits.

Lily had soiled her diaper again. Only this time it was much, much worse. The homemade diaper was doing well enough keeping the source of the smell contained, but that foul odor was coming through as strongly as could be.

"Aw, come on! Not now!" Luna moaned. She looked around the store again, hoping this time she'd spot Flip. Her eyes fell on the entrance to the back area, also known to be Flip's office. Luna cupped her hands around her mouth and took a quick, deep breath. "YO! Flip! Need some service out here pronto, dude!"

A moment later Flip emerged from his store's back area, a frown on his face. He held up a single finger to let Luna know to wait before he vanished out back again. Luna frowned herself after seeing the man so quickly, and rudely for that matter, turn his back to her. She almost stormed off to follow him, but wasn't about to risk ticking him off. The last thing she needed was for him to kick her out. It may have been her imagination, but Lily's diaper was starting to smell worse. If she couldn't get the diapers here and now, her next best option would be at the nearest super market. And she definitely didn't have enough time for that trip.

After another two to three minutes of waiting, Flip came back out again. Behind him was Lisa who was tucking something away into her backpack. She looked up at Luna and gave her a quick thumbs up, signifying she had achieved her objective. Then she walked off somewhere into the store while Flip made his way behind the counter. He stood by his register and leaned onto the counter, his eyes glancing at the solitary item sitting there.

"Is that all?" he asked, sounding a bit annoyed. "The way you were callin' me over, I was expecting you had ice cream or something sittin' around and melting. I was just in the middle of closing a business deal when you interrupted me. And as it is, your sister just up and barged in when I was about to get a great deal on some volcano insurance. At least she had something of interest to me. If you just wanna buy this, why can't ya wait a minute or two?"

"Sorry dude." Luna said. "But I'm kinda in a hurry and I need to buy these diapers so I can get home quick. I'm just glad that you had one pack left. I'd be in a bit of trouble if you didn't."

Flip's eyes widened a bit, a sly smile coming to his face. "So… what you're sayin' is that you need these diapers really badly then?"

Luna nodded. "You have no idea, dude. So if I could just pay for these and get going, that would be cool."

"Sure thing, kid." Flip said, ringing up the pack of diapers on his register. "That's gonna be fifteen bucks."

"Fifteen?!" Luna repeated. "Dude, the price sticker says they're only ten!"

"Not anymore." Flip replied. "Ya see, we got something in business called supply and demand. I supply the goods and demand you pay what I want for them. Get it?"

"Not cool, dude!" Luna argued, clenching her fists. "I don't have that much! And I'm only paying the price that's already on them!"

"You'll pay me fifteen or they go right back onto the shelf."

Luna grinded her teeth, a vein starting to bulge on her forehead. She really wanted to pop the old guy right in his smug face. But she didn't want to give him a reason to call the cops, so she controlled herself. It looked like she would have to just call the whole trip a bust.

Unless….

The foul odor coming from Lily's dirty diaper was still stinging Luna's nostrils. It was so bad that it nearly made her gag again. But there was opportunity to be found with that. Maybe she'd need to help Flip understand just how badly she needed to get those diapers.

Luna undid the straps that held Lily in her stroller and lifted the baby girl up. She cringed a bit as the smell got stronger with proximity, but maintained her composure. Next she returned her attention to Flip, a wicked grin spreading on her face.

"Hey, what's with the look?" Flip asked. "You aren't gonna try anything funny, are ya?"

"Trust me, dude." Luna replied. "There's nothing funny about this!"

Luna held Lily out in front of Flip. Lily squirmed, kicking her legs and whining softly. Flip quickly took notice of the smell, his eyes going slightly wide and turning slightly red. He immediately pinched his nostrils shut and turned his face away from the two Louds.

"Oh jeez-louise!" he wheezed, waving the odor away with his free hand. "What the heck do you feed that kid?!"

"You wanna find out?" Luna asked daringly. "Cuz she needs a change, now! And unless you let me buy those diapers for the price that's on the pack, I'm gonna change her right her, right now."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold it!" Flip said firmly, waving his arms back and forth. "I don't need none of that! Bad for business! Fine, you can have it your way. Just take care of that little stinker in the restroom."

"You got it, dude." Luna said, smiling triumphantly as she set Lily back into her stroller.

"Okay, so your total is gonna be sixteen bucks."

"What!?" Luna nearly shrieked. "You can't be serious! That's more than you charged me before!"

"Hey, I'm only asking for ten for the diapers. Just like I said I would." Flip told her. "But those Flippees are three bucks a piece. Those two are your sisters, aren't they?"

Luna turned around and saw Lola and Lana standing not too far behind her. Both of them were holding a Flippee and already sipping on the frozen treats. All Luna could do was slap her hand to her forehead and let out another groan.

"Aw, come on! I told you two I'm not buying you anything already! I don't have the cash for those!"

"But Lisa got one!" The twins simultaneously protested.

"She what?!" Luna exclaimed, turning to see that Lisa was also in possession of a Flippee. "Dude, not you too!"

"Do not be so quick to jump to conclusions, elder sister." Lisa calmly instructed. "I paid for this with my own legal tender."

"You did?" Luna asked, feeling a little less worried as she saw Lisa nod. "Okay… uh, you don't happen to have a little more cash that you can lend to your big sis… do you?"

A short while later, following an embarrassing moment for Luna and a diaper change for Lily, the group was en route home. They had gotten nearly a full block away from Flip's and the twins were still enjoying their Flippees. Lily was starting to doze off again, but was stubbornly trying to keep her eyes open. If Luna was right, she'd see Lily napping at any moment. That would be two things off of her list of problems, not that she felt too good about how the first one had been solved.

"I still can't believe that I had to borrow money from my four year old sister." She mumbled, her shoulders slumping slightly.

"Well maybe next time you should bring more money with you." Lola said, tossing her empty Flippee cup over her shoulder.

"Yeah." Lana agreed, catching Lola's cup and sipping on the straw in hopes of finding just a tiny bit left. "I mean, why even bring us along if you weren't going to buy us anything?"

"Because I needed to get new diapers for Lily and you're all too little to be left by yourselves."

"We could have just stayed with Leni!" Lola pointed out. "She's a much better babysitter than you are! She actually buys us stuff when she takes us to a store!"

Luna felt her frustration returning. If there was a time and place for her to be dealing this this it was definitely not there and then. It got under her skin easily enough when Lori gave her attitude, so Luna was not doing so well tolerating it from her six year old sister. She was just barely able to keep herself from raising her voice.

"Well the next time Mom and Pops need someone to babysit you, Leni can do it. Cuz I wouldn't have bothered saying I would if I knew you'd just be a pain in the butt the whole time. Why can't you just be more like Lucy? She hasn't even said anything this entire trip!"

"Uh, of course she hasn't." Lola replied. "Because she isn't even here!"

It took a few seconds for Luna to let Lola's statement sink in fully. Then she looked around and noticed that Lucy was not with them. She started to panic and turned to rush back to Flip's so suddenly that she almost toppled over Lily's stroller in the process. Lily began to wail, frightened badly by the sudden action. Luna slowed and checked on her baby sister before deciding it would be best to not try running with the stroller and just left it behind.

"I'll be right back! Don't move from that spot!" She ordered, looking over her shoulder at her sisters.

"Where are you going?" Lana asked.

"Back to Flip's to find Lucy! I'll be quick, I promise!"

"What on Earth are you talking about?!" Lisa called out, cupping both hands around the sides of her mouth. "Lucy didn't depart with us, she's still back at our dwelling!"

Luna slowed to a stop. She stood on the sidewalk in silence for a short while. Then she turned and made her way back to the younger girls, all of whom were looking very upset. Lisa in particular was glaring up at Luna in a manner that reminded Luna of their mother. It was so similar that it had Luna starting to feel a little unsettled.

"So… Luce hasn't been with us from the start?"

"No, she has not. I sincerely find it difficult to believe that you did not realize that. It would have been fairly obvious if she had been present."

Luna groaned again, mentally kicking herself. "Dude, I can't believe I left her behind!"

"Really?" Lola asked huffily. "Because you were pretty quick to do the same to us just now!"

"Yeah, you were gonna leave us alone out here!" Lana added, angry tears in the corners of her eyes. "You can't do that!"

"What?! You two were walking way ahead of us on the way up!" Luna pointed out.

"That isn't the same." Lola argued.

"How is it not the…" Luna started, only to suddenly let out a small cry of frustration. "You know what? Forget it! I really don't have time for this! Let's just go home, I'll make lunch and then you can just go do whatever! Now move it!"

The twins obeyed, but not before giving Luna one last dirty look. Luna resumed pushing the stroller with Lily still crying loudly. She did her best to ignore it and focused on getting back to the house. Lisa walked alongside her, watching her only younger sibling briefly before turning her attention to Luna.

"Your reckless and impulsive action earlier has very badly upset her."

"Yeah, I noticed." Luna replied dryly.

"Perhaps you could try to soothe her with some humming like you did before?"

"Don't feel like it." Luna grumbled. "It's not like it would make a difference anyway. She can just cry all the way back home for all I care."

"That isn't a very responsible approach to this situation. You startled Lily, so it only seems reasonable for you to calm her down. Does it not bother you to know you caused her distress?"

"I guess. But she'll get over it once we get home. She will probably have cried herself to sleep by then."

"That may not be for the best." Lisa noted. "Lily would nap through her normally scheduled lunchtime and as a result not be able to suspend consciousness for the required length of time. She would wake up hungry and most likely be just as irritable as she is currently."

"Mom and Pops will be home by then." Luna said simply. "That's when all of you go back to being their problem."

Lisa looked up at Luna in shocked silence. The gravity of Luna's words weighed down on her and she frowned. In her mind she quickly debated whether or not to remain silent. She almost did, but the desire to speak her mind won in the end.

"Well, I'm so truly sorry that we've been such a burden on you, elder sister." Lisa said, a barely detectable trace of sarcasm in her voice. "I sincerely had no idea."

"Dude, please don't start." Luna sighed. "I'm still kicking myself for leaving Lucy behind and not noticing."

"That does not excuse the hurtful comment that you just made. I understand that my earlier mistake is a worrisome inconvenience, but I am quite confident that I can handle the matter without your assistance." Lisa stated firmly, just before the reached the edge of the sidewalk. She hesitated a moment before slowly lifting up her hand towards Luna. "Although I do still require your assistance to cross the street."

Luna held Lisa's hand as they crossed. When they reached the other side, Lisa tugger her hand back abruptly. She started to walk ahead of Luna, heading to catch up with the twins. Luna didn't say anything and just continued on her way to the house. Once she finally got there she was disappointed to find that Lily was still awake. She let out another sigh and picked Lily up as she headed up to the door.

"Mom and Pops will be back soon." She reminded herself. "I just need to keep it together for a little longer and this will finally be over with. No biggie."

Little did she know that her troubles were far from over.

End of Chapter 17.