In the town of Royal Woods, Michigan, lived a big family called the Louds. The family consisted of two parents and eleven kids. Due to its large size, the family was notorious for causing quite a lot of mischief and noise, hence the name ‘Loud’. But for awhile, the Loud family had been having a string of good luck. Every event they had participated in has ended in happiness.
“AND THE SQUIRRELS WIN!” an announcer at a baseball game announced proudly causing the entire audience to erupt in cheers.
“YEAH!” Lynn Loud Jr., the pitcher for the Royal Woods’ Squirrels, cried triumphantly. She was 13 years old and a huge lover of sports. But what she loved more than playing and competing was winning. Lynn was also very superstitious and believed that good luck brought good outcomes. This belief extended to the rest of her family.
Lynn’s parents and nine sisters cheered for her and her team from the bleachers. All except a small person wearing a Royal Woods’ Squirrel mascot costume, who just sat and watched silently alongside the Loud family.
“ROCK ON ROYAL WOODS!” Luna Loud yelled as she finished her song at her rock concert. She was a 15 year old rocker with a passion for music and British musicians.
Her parents and nine sisters cheered for her, except the person in the squirrel costume who just sat quietly.
“And Lola Loud wins the Miss Lucky and Fortunate Pageant!” an announcer at a beauty pageant declared.
“YES!” Lola Loud squealed with pride as she showed off her looks to the cheering audience. She was 6 years old and the younger of two twins. The other twin was her sister, Lana, who was her polar opposite. While Lola was a pageant queen who prided herself on her beauty and wanted to make it known throughout Royal Woods, Lana was a tomboy who loved animals, playing in mud, eating gross things, and fixing things with tools.
Lola’s parents and nine sisters all congratulated her on her triumph, all but the person in the squirrel costume.
Later one night, the Loud family had arrived back to their little broken-down-looking house on Franklin Avenue. They all chatted happily as they exited the family van, which they affectionately referred to as ‘Vanzilla’.
“Well Louds,” Lynn Loud Sr., the patriarch of the family, said. “I have to say it’s been a great week for all of us.”
“Yes indeed, dear,” Rita Loud, the matriarch, agreed as she carried baby Lily in her arms. Lily Loud was 15 months old and the youngest of all her siblings. "We're very proud of your success in your golf tournament, Lori.”
“It was literally nothing,” Lori Loud proudly said. She was 17 years old and the oldest of her siblings. She loved being put in charge of her siblings by her parents and communicating on her phone with her friends (especially her boyfriend, Bobby Santiago). “But it was nice to have a little bit of luck on my side,” she said looking back at the person wearing the squirrel costume who was still sitting in the van.
“And my fashion show was, like, a huge success,” Leni Loud said happily. Leni was 16 years old and the second oldest of her siblings. She loved fashion, designing, and shopping. But her biggest flaw was her low intelligence.
“And Luan really got everyone at her comedy show,” Lynn Jr. said.
“It was lucky no one got too squirrely,” Luan said with a laugh as she looked back at the person in the squirrel costume. “Get it?” she asked her family, but her siblings all groaned at the joke. Luan Loud was 14 years old and was a passionate comedian. She loved jokes, puns, gags, pulling pranks on April Fool’s Day, and her ventriloquist dummy, Mr. Coconuts.
“Let’s not forget Lucy’s grave-digging competition, dudes,” Luna reminded them.
“If I had a heart, it would be bursting with joy,” Lucy said in a monotone and emotionless voice. She was an 8 year old goth who loved vampires, spirits, writing poems, anything supernatural and dark, coffins, and her vampire bust of Edwin from her favorite show ‘Vampires of Melancholia’.
“Or Lisa’s science fair,” Lana also reminded everyone.
“The chances of success were 1,999,999 to 1,” Lisa said bluntly. Lisa was 4 years old and the second youngest of her siblings. She was a child prodigy and loved science, inventing, tests, equations, and experimenting (mostly on her siblings).
“Well Louds, I say we order pizza in honor of such a lucky week,” Lynn Sr. announced which caused his family to cheer in excitement as they all entered the house.
As soon as they were all inside, the person wearing the squirrel costume finally stepped out of the van. Lynn Sr. and Rita’s kids all seemed very happy with how life was treating them. But Lincoln Loud, their only son, was not. Lincoln was 11 years old, the middle child, and the only boy amongst his siblings. He loved comics, video games, and watching his favorite TV show, ‘ARGGH! (Academy of Really Good Ghost Hunters!)’. Unlike his sisters, Lincoln didn’t have any special talent that made him very noteworthy to his family and was often overlooked and thought very little of. And because he was the only boy, it made him an easy target for teasing from his sisters and getting into trouble.
Lincoln took the squirrel head off his own head. His most distinguishing feature was his white hair. “Well, here we are again,” Lincoln said unhappily to the readers. “I try to convince my family I’m not bad luck only to be put in this situation.” The past few days had not been very kind to Lincoln at all. One day, his sister, Lynn, forced him to attend one of her baseball games. It was the first time Lincoln had ever attended one of her games. When her team lost, Lynn, due to her superstitious nature, blamed Lincoln for it and called him bad luck. At the time, Lincoln was longing for some alone time to himself. Due to the rest of the family sharing in Lynn’s superstitious beliefs, he thought the best way to get what he wanted was to play along with it. For awhile, everything seemed to work out well, his family (including his own parents and family pets) bought into the deception and banned him from all of his sisters’ events. But then, the belief got way out of hand to the point where he was banned completely from the house and forced to live outside. When he attempted to confess to his lie, Lynn still refused to let go of her belief and convinced the others not to believe him. In a last ditch effort, he snuck into one of Lynn’s baseball games disguised as the team’s mascot. When Lynn won the game, he revealed himself to his family. At first, it seemed that his family finally realized that he wasn’t bad luck after all. Shortly after, he began making him wear the squirrel costume everywhere they went thinking it made him good luck. Over time, the suit became very smelly and uncomfortable to wear, but his family didn’t seem to care. Lincoln was now more of a good luck charm than an actual family member. “While I do love my family and I believe deep down they love me too, and I’d do almost anything to make them happy, I’m beginning to lose my patience. I just don’t understand how anyone can be so easily fooled by a bunch of phony baloney.”
“Nice outfit, Loud!” yelled Mr. Grouse, the Louds’ grouchy and elderly neighbor, in a mocking tone. “What are you doing, training to be a squirrel?”
It was at this point that Lincoln had reached his limit. He had been suffering for over a week with no one showing him any sympathy. Now a loud and angry voice in his head was screaming to him ‘Enough was enough!’
“That’s It!” Lincoln angrily declared and marched through the front door of his home and immediately up to his room. His room was once a closet but was turned into his room as he got more and more sisters. Needless to say, it wasn’t as big as his sisters’ rooms. However, during the whole bad luck fiasco, his family had sold his furniture. Now there was nothing in his room but a laid-out blanket for him to sleep on one side and his backpack and a pile of his clothes in a corner on the other. This sight increased the anger he was feeling right now.
“Could you all excuse me for a minute?” Lincoln asked the readers. “I need to make a call.”
Downstairs in the living room, the Loud sisters were all gathering on the couch with plates of piping hot slices of pizza on their plates. They were getting ready to watch one of their favorite shows, ‘The Dream Boat’.
“Fresh pizza and a new episode of ‘The Dream Boat’. Yeah, I think I’ve earned this,” Lynn said proudly.
“I think we all have, dudes,” Luna commented.
“Wait, we’re missing something,” Lola informed everyone.
“Oh, the right shoes for the new episode?” Leni guessed.
“No, I think I know what we’re missing,” Lori assured her sister and then turned her attention up the stairs to her brother’s room. “Hey twerp, hurry up and get down here! The new episode of ‘The Dream Boat’ is on. And don’t forget to wear that suit, I don’t want to see Karen go for Bryant by mistake.”
However, Lincoln was dressed in his trademark orange polo shirt and blue jeans and was just finishing up making an angry call to his sister’s boyfriend. There was a time when Lincoln hung out with Bobby and the two got along quite well. Bobby was like the older brother he never had. Unfortunately, their relationship had been stained when Lincoln remembered seeing him with Lori and his family during the game he snuck into. He believed they had managed to convince him that Lincoln was bad luck too as he didn’t seem to mind that he wasn’t there. Like Leni, one of Bobby’s biggest weaknesses was his low intelligence which made it very easy for Lori to have her way with him.
“But Little Loud, I didn’t know how bad it was,” Bobby tried to explain himself over the phone.
“I can’t believe you let them fool you like that!” Lincoln yelled angrily into the phone. “And to think I actually thought you were cool and nice.”
“Wait bro, just let me explain!” Bobby desperately pleaded.
“NO! Bros don’t do that to that to each other! They don’t turn their backs on one another when they need them. So as of right now, WE ARE BROS NO MO!” When he was done, Lincoln hung up and in a fit of anger threw the phone at the wall smashing it to pieces. After taking a few heavy breaths, he regained his composure. But he still had a great deal of anger stirring inside him. “Now to deal with the rest,” Lincoln announced to the readers and began heading down stairs. Without his squirrel costume.
Down in the living room, the Loud sisters were all ready to watch their show. While waiting for their brother, Lori decided to give her boyfriend a call.
“Hey, Boo-Boo Bear,” she said affectionately. “I just wanted to call and see how you're-” But then she was interrupted by what sounded like her ‘Boo-Boo Bear’ crying. “Bobby are you okay?”
“Sorry Babe,” Bobby said sounding very broken hearted. “But now’s not a good time.” Then the tearful young man hung up.
“Huh, I wonder what happened,” Lori said concerned.
Lincoln finally came downstairs and sat in the big chair on the left side of the couch. He sat there staring at the TV with a grumpy expression on his face paying no mind to his sisters, who looked very uncomfortable seeing him without his ‘good luck’ suit.
“Lincoln, aren’t you forgetting something?” Lola asked sounding a little annoyed.
“No,” Lincoln responded defiantly.
“Go get your suit,” Lola ordered her big brother. Out of all his sisters, Lola was by far the brattiest and always made him do whatever she wanted. But Lincoln was not having it this time.
“I don’t want to,” he defiantly replied again making Lola growl with anger.
“Do you want Karen to chose the wrong guy and ruin the episode?” Lynn asked in an annoyed and angry tone.
“Go put on the suit, Lincoln,” Lori ordered her little brother. Because she was the oldest, Lori felt it was her right to lord her superiority over all her younger siblings. She bossed Lincoln around more than she did her sisters. But Lincoln wasn’t having that either.
“It smells and it’s uncomfortable,” Lincoln talked back. “I’m not wearing it anymore.”
“That’s literally not my problem,” Lori said uncaringly. “Now go.”
“No,” Lincoln remained defiant.
“Do it,” Lori demanded. She sounded like she was getting angrier, and in the Loud house, making Lori angry was practically a death wish.
“No.”
“Now!” Lori demanded raising her voice.
“No!” Lincoln rose his voice too.
Now Lori was mad. “Do as I say, or I will literally turn you into a human pretz-”
But before she could finish her threat, Lincoln got out of the chair, stood in front of the TV, and faced all his sisters with a furious look on his face.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” he yelled loud enough to make sure he got his point across.
“We’re not liking your attitude, brah,” a dissatisfied Luna said.
“Don’t you guys think this has gone on long enough?” Lincoln angrily asked his sisters.
“What do you mean?” Leni asked confused.
Before Lincoln was about to explain himself, he noticed something out of place. He did a silent head count, and found he was only facing nine of his sisters. Lucy was missing. It didn’t take him long to realize she was standing silently right behind him. The goth had this annoying habit of sneaking up behind people which scared the living daylights out of them.
“Lucy, I’m not in the mood right now,” Lincoln told her without turning around. “So please get your spooky self out of my blind spot and where I can see you.” Sensing her older brother’s anger, Lucy obediently did as she was told. Now Lincoln was ready to speak his mind. “This whole bad luck/good luck thing has been going on for almost two weeks and I for one am sick of it.”
“It’s not our fault you’re not smart enough to get it, Lame-o,” Lynn retorted.
“Who’s the dumb one, Lynn?” Lincoln rhetorically asked his older athlete sister. Out of all his sisters, Lynn was the one he was angry with the most because she was the one who started all of this. “The guy trying to think logically or the girls giving in to a ridiculous belief that no one can prove is true?”
“Mom! Dad! Lincoln’s being mean and he won’t put on his squirrel suit!” Lola called to her parents who were inside their room right behind the couch.
“Lincoln, be nice to your sisters and put on that suit,” Rita told her son from her room.
“You heard her, now up up,” Lola said triumphantly and pointed upstairs to Lincoln's room.
“I’m not done!” Lincoln said refusing to comply. “I’m sick of you all making me your little scapegoat and good luck charm. I will not be treated this way any longer.”
“Mom! Dad!” Lola called to her parents again.
“Lincoln, don’t make us come in there and do our jobs as parents,” Lynn Sr. said sternly.
“There’s a first time for everything!” Lincoln retorted causing all his sisters to gasp in surprise. Lincoln was never one to talk back to his parents.
“What was that, young man?” Rita asked coming out of her room with her husband. They both looked very crossed by their son’s defiance, but Lincoln didn’t look intimidated in the slightest.
“Good, now that you’re all here, I have something to say,” Now Lincoln was going to give his entire family a piece of his mind and nothing was going to stand in his way. “You guys have been acting like crazy people over this whole luck superstition for almost two weeks and have been making my life more miserable than usual.”
“Look son,” Lynn Sr. calmed down and attempted to reason with his boy. “Things have been stressful lately.”
“Oh, really?” Lincoln said doubtfully. “Because it certainly looked like you were all having the time of your lives.”
“Lincoln, calm down,” Rita said feeling uneasy. “What’s your problem?”
“YOU’RE MY PROBLEM! YOU’RE ALL MY PROBLEM!” he shouted furiously shocking his whole family. The family pets; Charles the dog, Cliff the cat, Walt the canary, and Geo the hamster; all watched the scene in the living room while cowering under the dining room table. “You banned me from your family activities, kicked me out of the house, sold my furniture, and made me wear a stupid, ugly, stinky squirrel suit! All because you all stupidly gave into the Lynn’s stupid belief that I was bad luck! ARE YOU ALL INSANE?!”
“We said we were sorry,” Lynn argued.
“I don’t think you really meant it because right after that you made wear that dumb outfit for good luck. IT’S A STUPID MASCOT COSTUME! There’s nothing lucky about it!”
“Well we think it is!” Lola argued. “The day before yesterday, you came to school without it and I got a B on my test when I should’ve gotten an A!”
“There you go again, making me the scapegoat,” Lincoln said annoyed. “Somehow I don’t think the grade you got was entirely my fault. Maybe you didn’t study hard enough.”
“I did too!” Lola said angrily and defensively. “I’ll prove it.” She cleared her throat before speaking. “The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.”
“That’s a right triangle,” Lincoln corrected her.
“Unfortunately Lola, he’s right,” Lisa bluntly told her older sister.
“DANG IT!” Lola yelled frustrated that she had just made herself look dumber than her brother.
“See what I mean?” Lincoln turned to everyone else. “And I still can’t believe that someone as ‘smart’ as you, Lisa, fell for that nonsense.”
“Okay, I admit for awhile I did open my mind to the possibility of luck,” Lisa bluntly admitted. “But now that I rethink about it, there were many logical explanations that would’ve put that crazy superstition to rest.”
This actually didn’t make Lincoln feel any better. Actually, it seemed to make him madder. “I bet you can’t calculate the exact percentage of how much it infuriates me that you could’ve done that at anytime and saved me a lot of grief.”
“Actually I think I can,” Lisa bluntly replied.
“I’m about to calculate my hand upside your head!” Lincoln said shaking his fist threateningly.
“Easy elder brother, there’s no need for violence,” the prodigy child nervously pleaded with her older brother while taking a few steps back. Lincoln had never threatened any of his sisters with physical harm before. No one had ever seen him get this angry or violent. The parents and other sisters were starting to get nervous too. Lincoln was clearly not in a good mood and his family was realizing that now.
“Lincoln, please stop,” Rita nervously told her son, but to no avail.
“But before I forget, I have something I want to say directly to you, Lynn,” he said glaring at his older athlete sister.
“Okay. What is it, Stinkoln?” Lynn asked. She was getting pretty annoyed with her brother’s defiant attitude.
“First, I want to congratulate you,” Lincoln suddenly changed his tone of voice to a more mellow and calm one. “Not for your victory in your recent game, but for achieving this title. I actually thought either Lori or Lola would be worthy of this. But congratulations, Lynn. You are officially…” Then he changed his tone back to anger and rage. “THE WORST SISTER EVER!”
“What?!” Lynn exclaimed.
“You threatened me with a baseball bat to come to your game, then you had the gall to blame the whole thing on me when you lost, turned the entire family against me, forced me to live like a homeless person, and then forced me to dress like a rodent! All because of your stupid superstitions! And you didn’t even care how much I was suffering! How selfish can you be?!”
“Selfish?! You’d know all about that wouldn’t you, Mr. I-Want-Some-Time-To-Myself-And-Not-Be-With-His-Family?!” Lynn argued aggressively. “I still can’t believe how dumb you were to play along with it at first just to get a little time to yourself. And you call me selfish?! So everything bad that happened to you, you totally deserved it!”
Lincoln's anger began to grow due to Lynn's arrogance and stubbornness of the rest of his family. But he kept his rage at bay. "I go to everyone of you guys' events and support you because as Lori said, 'this family supports each other.' But when have you guys ever supported me on anything?" This question caught the parents and girls completely off guard. None of them could think of an event where they supported Lincoln. "Where was the support I needed when I was miserably living like a hobo outside picking acorns out of my pants?" Each one of Lincoln's livid questions made the family think real deeply. Then it seemed like they had all just realized something. For all their talk about supporting each other, none of them had done anything to support Lincoln. It was like their eyes were finally opened to their hypocrisy. "Well if no one is going to support their 'son or brother', then I should at least be allowed a break from hanging around with you nutcases every once in a while. Does that not sound fair?"
While it looked like the rest of the family was having an epiphany, Lynn refused to let go of her stubborn pride. "Okay Lame-o, you want us to support you then go do something worth supporting for once in your pathetic life!"
Hearing that made Lincoln’s pupils shrink greatly in size as pure rage overcame him. “SHUT UP!” he screamed and delivered a good hard blow to Lynn’s left cheek knocking backwards and off her feet. At this point, Lily couldn’t take it anymore and started crying.
Lynn got back on her feet while rubbing her aching cheek. She glared back at her younger brother with murder in her eyes. “YOU LITTLE-” But before she could do anything, their father intervened.
“Enough!” Lynn Sr. shouted getting everyone’s attention. “Both of you.”
“Now Lincoln, please apologize to Lynn,” Rita politely asked her son. She didn’t like where this was all going and wanted it to stop.
Lincoln seemed to calm himself and do a little rethinking. “You’re right, I take it back. You’re all the worst! I work, slave, and sacrifice for all of you. I’ve even taken the fall for some of you!” He looked directly at Lucy when he said that last part. The goth girl sank shamefully into her seat on the couch, she knew what her brother was talking about. “And THIS is how you all repay me?!”
“We thought you were bad luck. What did you expect us to do?” Lana said.
“Okay, answer me these questions,” Lincoln turned to Luna. “Luna, I’ve attended your rock concerts before. Did anything bad ever happen?”
“No,” the rocker admitted with a hint of remorse.
“Lola, I’ve attended many of your pageants. Did anything bad ever happen those times?”
“No,” the spoiled pageant had to admit. She too sounded like she had a little remorse in her voice.
“And Lori, before you bring up what happened to your golf clubs, I broke them on purpose in order to make you think I was bad luck. But before that, I’ve attended a lot of your golf tournaments. Did anything bad happen any of those times.”
“No,” the eldest was forced to admit. “Literally nothing bad happened.”
“So why would any of you think that any bad or good luck would change any of that now?”
“Okay, we get it, Linky,” Leni said in a kind and seemingly understanding tone. “If you don’t want to wear that squirrel suit tonight, then you don’t have to. We’ll just deal with whatever bad thing happens.”
“I don’t want to wear that thing EVER again!” Lincoln angrily replied. With Leni’s low intelligence, he really shouldn’t be surprised.
“Well, you’re really pushing your luck,” Luan joked and laughed a little. “Get it?” But Lincoln shot her a very livid glare that told her he was not in the mood for her jokes, especially at his expense. “I’ll be quiet.”
“Have you learned nothing?!” At this point, Lincoln had had all he could take for a lifetime. “Well, if this is the way it’s going to be from now on, then I am done. No more poems, no more fashion modeling, no more mud pies, no more jokes, no more pageant couching, no more music, and no more sports!” All his sisters looked upset and devastated by his declaration of wanting nothing to do with them anymore. “I am sick and tired of having to deal with bossy, ignorant, annoying, pathetic, arrogant, ungrateful, creepy, disgusting, spoiled, self-absorbed, noisy, smelly, pesky, crazy, and superstitious excuses for sisters!” Each insult was like a knife tearing into his sisters. The parents watched in shock and sadness as the relationship between their children fell apart before them.
“Are you done?” Lori asked glumly.
“NO!” Lincoln yelled. He opened his mouth and let out a huge burp. Then he lifted his right leg and let loose a loud fart. Finally, he hocked a big loogie and spat it to his right. It hit something metal off screen and made a loud ‘DING!’ noise. “Now I’m done.”
“Okay Lincoln, you’ve made your point. Now can you please settle down,” Rita pleaded gently putting her hand on her son’s shoulder.
“Don’t touch me!” Lincoln angrily said smacking her hand away. Now it was time for him to tell off his parents. “How could you let this happen to me?!”
“Lincoln, we-” Rita tried to explain.
“You thought casting out your only son like a leper over such a ridiculous reason was what was best for the family? Am I not part of this family too? What were you going to do next? Put me up for adoption? Drop me off in the middle of nowhere far away? Deport me?”
Mr. and Mrs. Loud didn’t answer him. But they had nervous and embarrassed looks on their faces which seemed to tell him everything.
“Wow!” Lincoln exclaimed in shock and disbelief. He never thought his own parents would go that far. “So much for family.”
“Honey, we can work things out,” Rita desperately tried to reason with her boy. “Please listen to me, I’m your mother.”
“No, real mothers don’t turn their backs on any of their children no matter,” Lincoln told her, his voice full of disappointment. “Even animals who leave their children after they are born are better than you. You can write that novel of yours about someone else, because from the way you’ve treated me, I don’t think I’d want to read it.”
This left Rita heartbroken and on the verge of tears. Her own son had cast her aside, just like she did to him.
“And Dad,” Lincoln turned to his father.
“Yes son?” Lynn Sr. said nervously knowing it was his turn.
Lincoln walked up to his father and looked him in the eyes. “What’s the capital of Thailand?”
“Bangkok,” Lynn Sr. answered confused by this sudden and strange question.
“That’s right!” Then the boy threw his fist and hit his old man right in the area that defined his gender causing the rest of the family to gasp in shock. This was something none of them ever saw coming.
“OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I GET IT!” Lynn Sr. cried in pain as he held onto his aching personal area and collapsed on the floor. His wife and daughters all gathered around him to see if he was okay while his son ignored his pain and began walking up the stairs to his room.
Just as he made to the last step, Lincoln turned around to say one last thing to his so-called family. “All I wanted was a little break from all of you. But now I never want to see any of you ever again! You all make me sick!” With that, he stormed into his room and slammed the door leaving his family with their shameful thoughts.
Later that night, when everyone had gone to bed, Lincoln was in his room, still awake, and finishing a recorded message on his laptop.
“And I wanted to say: thank you for being such a good friend, Clyde. I wish you lots of happiness,” Lincoln sadly finished his message and turned off his laptop. Lincoln had been sending recorded messages explaining everything that had happened to him lately to all the people he knew truly cared for him. He sent one to his maternal grandfather, Albert, whom he affectionately referred to as ‘Pop-Pop’. He sent one to his girlfriend, Ronnie Anne Santiago, who was also Bobby’s younger sister. And now he had just finished sending a message to his best friend, Clyde McBride. He even wrote a little note for his family and left it on the squirrel suit.
After he was done sending messages, Lincoln put on his backpack and started sneaking downstairs, being very careful not to wake anyone. He was about to head for the front door when something came to his mind. Quickly and quietly, he snuck into the kitchen, searched through the refrigerator until he found what he was looking for, and then headed back to the front door. He was about to grab the doorknob when he heard the sound of a small whimper behind him. He turned around to see the four family pets staring at him with sad eyes.
“Well, if it isn’t ‘man’s best friend’,” Lincoln said with disappointment in his voice when he saw Charles. He remembered during the bad luck fiasco, Charles growled at him as if he were an unwanted creature. But now it looked like the dog was regretting it. Charles walked up to Lincoln and started rubbing his head affectionately against his leg. “Go away, Charles,” Lincoln said pushing the canine away. The dog let out a few little whimpers and stared up at the boy with apologetic eyes. Looking at those eyes, Lincoln couldn’t stay angry. “Sorry guys,” he said to the animal companions. “But I can’t stay in this madhouse another minute. Promise me you’ll look after everyone, especially Lily.” The four pets nodded in agreement and watched with heavy hearts as their young master opened the front door and stepped outside. “Good bye,” Lincoln softly bid farewell to the animals and quietly shut the door.
Lincoln started walking down the sidewalk, but then he was stopped by a sudden and very unpleasant voice.
“Loud!” It was grouchy neighbor, Mr. Grouse.
“Don’t worry, I prepared for this,” Lincoln told the readers and reached into his backpack. He pulled out a rectangular-shaped tupperware he got from the fridge and handed it to Mr. Grouse. “Here’s some of my dad’s lasagna. It’s yours if you don’t tell anyone you saw me.”
“What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?” Mr. Grouse asked suspiciously.
“What do you care?” Lincoln bitterly replied.
“Come on, what kind of neighbor do you take me for?”
“I’d answer that, but you’d probably not like what I say.”
“Sounds like someone had a bad day,” Mr. Grouse said in an uncaring tone noticing the boy’s attitude.
“Yeah, I’ve had a pretty awful couple of days,” Lincoln retorted. “And you didn’t help in any way either. You knew what I was going through and you did nothing to help me out. Even after my family and I helped you spend Christmas with your family. To think I was actually starting to see you as a friend.”
“Wait now, I-” Mr. Grouse attempted to reason with the angry boy.
“Oh forget it,” Lincoln interrupted. “Just take your lasagna, forget you saw me, and go back to looking after the most important person in your life: yourself. Good bye!” With that, the 11 year old started back down the sidewalk in a huff leaving the old man with his food and his thoughts. For a moment, Mr. Grouse watched him go with a look of sadness on his face before going back inside his home.
“I never thought it would come to this,” Lincoln told the readers as he walked down the sidewalk. “The day I would trade it for the world. Sometimes I wonder if there’s anyone else out there who has it just as bad or even worse than I do.” Lincoln continued walking until his image faded into the night. He had no idea where he was going, but to him anywhere was better than here.