39. Ch 39- A New Day Has Begun

(A/N: Hey, guys. Sorry about this being a shorter chapter, I decided to split it into two. Also, now that the previous chapter is up, I thought I'd take a moment to let you know something about the future of this fic- we are now at the halfway point! Woo! Well, we are in a sense. Honestly, there's three ways of looking at it- timeline, number of chapters, and moments. In terms of timeline, we aren't quite halfway, and I don't think we're at half the number of chapters yet, but last chapter was a pivotal moment in the story, which I am considering the halfway moment. I'm still surprised it's been going this long, but I'm having fun with this, and I'm gonna see it through to the end.

Thanks for reading once again, and enjoy!)

Chapter 39- A New Day Has Begun

The sun rose once again in the town of Royal Woods, the rays of sunlight piercing through windows of everyone's houses serving as a wake up call so they could start the day. This was no different in the Loud House, the two parents of eleven being called to duty by the natural light landing on their faces. After letting out their yawns, stretching their muscles and opening their eyes, the married couple of over twenty years looked at each other with slightly sleepy smiling faces.

"Morning, dear," Lynn greeted first.

"Morning, dear," Rita greeted back, before rolling over and looking at her bedside alarm clock. "Looks like we've got ten minutes before we need to make sure the kids are up."

His eyes opening more, Lynn Sr grinned. "You know what that means?"

She rolled her eyes before telling her husband, "go on, you can use the bathroom first before the kids have to." He rapidly pressed his lips against her cheek before dashing out of their bedroom and upstairs to use the house's only bathroom, leaving her to sigh happily. 'Twenty two years, but he still acts the same as the day I met him,' she reminisced, 'and I wouldn't ask differently.' Getting up and out of the bed herself, she remembered what her son had told her the day before. 'I think I'll go see how Lincoln got on yesterday. Better put on some coffee first, though. Lord knows how many of this family need it, especially on a Monday.'

She walked into the kitchen and began to put on a pot of coffee, turning it on before heading upstairs to check on her sole son. Walking to the end of the landing, she knocked on the door of the linen closet turned bedroom and called in, asking, "Lincoln? Can I come in?" When she got no reply, she opened the door and saw that, to her surprise, his room was empty. While slightly concerned, she kept a level head as she thought, 'he spoke with Lynn yesterday. Maybe she knows where he is.' She closed her son's bedroom door, then walked over to the middle door opposite the stairs and knocked on it. "Lynn? Can I come in?" Once again, she received no reply, so she entered, but this time her smile returned in full as she saw the sight of her fifth and sixth eldest children in the same bed, snuggled together. 'Just like when they were younger,' she thought happily. 'I think I'll let them have ten more minutes, just like the others.'

She quietly closed the door before heading back downstairs, not knowing that the small *click* the door made had caused the athlete to start to stir with a groan, lifting her hand to rub her eyes. This motion, in turn, made her brother start to do the same thing, making her look down and remember that she had invited her brother to share the bed with him.

"Morning, bro," she said mid-yawn, stretching her arms as he sat up.

"Morning, Lynn," he groggily replied, wiping the sleep from his eyes. "Is it Monday morning already?"

"Well, it ain't Thursday." He gave a small chuckle, which made her smile before she looked over, seeing that her goth younger sister and roommate wasn't out of her coffin bed. "So, we cool after last night?"

"I was gonna ask you that. You forgive me for not telling you the truth?"

"I already did, didn't I? So, yeah, I guess we are cool."

He smiled, giving her a quick hug and telling her, "I'm glad."

"Me too." She waited for him to let go, then added, "and, hey. Everything from last night stays between us."

"Thanks, Lynn."

"I'm serious. I've got a reputation to keep, can't have my teams know I spent last night getting all mushy with you." This got a louder chuckle from her brother, making her feel even more confident that the issue between them was now behind them. "Now, get out of here. Go use the bathroom before the others get up while I change."

"You sure? I don't mind waiting for you to use it."

"Yeah, I'm sure. Now, beat it, Stinkoln." He rolled his eyes, knowing she meant no harm in her words, before getting up and leaving his sisters' room, allowing Lynn to shake her head. 'Even now he's doing sports, he finds a way to be a dork,' she thought to herself, which was quickly followed by, 'did that rhyme? Ugh, I think Lucy's wearing off on me.' Letting our another yawn, she realised that she had to start preparing for the day, so she got up, got undressed and changed into her usual jersey and shorts, then walked over to her bedroom door. When she opened it, however, she let out a loud yelp due to the unexpected sight of Lucy, still clad in her pajamas. Once her heart was back to normal, she narrowed her eyes and said, "I thought you were still in your coffin?"

"Sigh… I got up early to try and beat the bathroom line," the goth explained, her voice stoic as always. "Dad's in there at the moment, and Lincoln is the only one in the queue. I think everyone else is still asleep."

"Yeah, okay, thanks, Lucy. Now, you mind?"

"Sure. Also, I don't know what was up between you and Lincoln, but I'm glad everything's okay between you now."

Lynn has to blink to fully take in what Lucy was saying. "Wait, were you listening to us last night?"

Lucy simply shook her head and told her, "I just saw you two asleep together when I woke up. You looked… peaceful."

"Oh. Well, thanks, I guess. But, yeah, that was between me and Linc, so-" Before she could even finish that sentence, Lucy mimed a zip motion over her lips, assuring the sporty Loud sister that she wasn't going to tell anyone, which made Lynn smirk. "Thanks, spooky."

Lucy nodded, then stepped out of the way so Lynn could leave the bedroom and so she could enter it, the middle schooler heading downstairs where her mother was stood enjoying a cup of coffee. As Lynn approached the fridge, Rita saw her daughter and smiled. "Morning, sweetie," she greeted.

"Hey, mom," Lynn replied, opening the fridge door to grab the carton of orange juice, which felt pretty light. "I think we're out of OJ."

"There should be a new carton at the back."

After a bit of searching, Lynn found that there was indeed an unopened carton, pulling it out with a "got it" before placing it and the empty carton on the counter before shutting the fridge door again.

"I'll remember to pick some more up after work. So, Lynn, what did you think of practice yesterday?"

"It was…" She did a quick check over her shoulder, before looking back at her mother and continuing. "It was surprising, I guess. Don't get me wrong, it was cool that Lincoln let me see all that, and he was enjoying himself, which is what mattered. I just wasn't expecting… that. You know?"

"I know, Lynn, and I'm proud of you for being understanding of all this. I know it was a lot to take in, but I'm glad to know that you're okay with all this now."

"I won't lie, I was a bit upset at first, but I took some time to think about it, and yeah. I can kind of see why Lincoln kept it to himself. Don't know if I would have done the same, but, y'know."

"I know, sweetie. I know." Looking at her watch, Rita sighed and said, "guess I better make sure the rest of your siblings are up," before taking a quick drink of her coffee and walking through the dining room, Lynn being able to hear the familiar, "OKAY, KIDS! FEET ON FLOOR!"

It didn't take long before Lynn heard the rest of her siblings starting to move about upstairs, while her father and brother quickly made their way into the kitchen as she poured herself a glass of orange juice.

"Morning, Junior!" Her father greeted, while her brother simply gave a wave, his other hand typing into his phone.

"Morning, dad. Morning, Link." As she looked over at her brother, she saw him typing and smirked. "Since when did you get attached to your phone?"

With a roll of his eyes, he told her, "I'm not. Jordan just wanted to know how everything went yesterday." This only made his sister smirk more, putting him straight on the defensive. "Don't even say it."

"Say what?"

"You know what."

"I was only going to say that you and Jordan have been acting… 'closer'."

"I know where you're going with this, and I'm telling you, we're just friends."

In response, she merely raised an eyebrow and asked, "you sure about that?"

With an exasperated groan, he slipped his phone into his pocket. "Remember yesterday, when you didn't make any of these kinds of jokes and actually called her my friend? Why couldn't that be one of the changes that stuck?"

She quickly pulled him towards her in a side headlock and gave him a 'gentle'- or at least, Lynn's version of gentle- noogie. "Can't have everything change, Linc. Gotta have some things stay the same, or we won't know what's changed." Though he pouted at the noogie, he did laugh a bit as he pushed her off, fixing the mess that she had made of his hair. "Speaking of change, I'm gonna do a bit of research at recess- would do it at lunch, but I've got soccer practice, and lunch is when all the literature nerds raid the place."

"What do you mean, research?"

"I'm gonna see if I can figure out a better workout for you. Now that I know the truth, I can come up with something better for your specific needs."

"Lynn, you don't have to do that."

"Nah, it's cool. Besides, now I know what you do at practice, I can help you out more."

His lips curled upwards just that little bit more. "Thanks, Lynn."

"Ah, c'mon, don't get mushy on me. Besides, dad's about to cry."

"Am not!" Their father quickly refuted, though his choky voice gave away that he clearly was, making both kids laugh together once more.

When recess came around at Royal Woods Middle school, Lynn felt relieved. Her classes felt like they were a drag, especially since she didn't have PE until Wednesday, and she had double Chemistry. She didn't hate the subject itself, but it was boring, and only made worse by the fact that she had Dr Jensen, an elderly grey-haired man in a tweed suit, who was known among the students as 'Doctor Snoozen', since not one student could claim to have never fallen asleep in his lectures- even the students who were actually interested in chemistry struggled to keep awake during his long, drab, tiresome explanations on the chemical properties of the different elements… in fact, Lynn was struggling to keep awake just thinking about it, but she shook her head. 'Gotta try and snag a computer,' she reminded herself.

"Alright, that concludes this lesson," Dr Jensen declared, the sexagenarian stretching each word longer than was thought to be humanly possible. "Ensure your assignments are on my desk by Thursday, signed at the bottom. Class dismissed."

Lynn practically leapt out of her chair and into the hallway, where she saw two of her closest friends and teammates, Paula and Margo. "There you are, Lynn," Margo greeted. "Finally got released from Dr Snoozen's lab?"

"Ugh, tell me about it!" The Loud girl replied. "It's always a nightmare in those classes."

"Hey, we're gonna go see if the basketball courts are clear," Paula spoke up, using her crutch to point the way. "You coming?"

"Can't. As much as I'd love to, I gotta go hit the library." She could see the surprised looks on their faces, and before they replied, she added, "yeah, I know, not like me. I'm doing a bit of research for my little bro, trying to help him get in better shape. Anyway, I better go before the computer's get swiped. I'll catch you later, girls."

Before she could even hear them reply, she was off, the yell of "NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS" slowing her run to a brisk walk. Though the two different years at the middle school had different times for lunch and recess, the corridors were still pretty packed, since those that weren't headed for recess were headed for their next classes instead, so Lynn had to keep making her way past the different students heading in different directions. When she saw an opening, Lynn practically lunged forward enough to get to the door to the library, the door closing with an echoing thud behind her which made a few students momentarily lift their heads and look at her. Lynn, however, didn't care, making her way towards the computer lab at the back, where there were fortunately a few computers spare.

"Alright," she said as she sat down at the computer, keeping her voice low, "let's see what we can find, eh?" She entered her login details, then sat and waited as the computer started to load. The computers weren't ancient, but they were hardly new models, so this took a good minute, which the Loud girl mostly spent spinning in her swivel chair, until the homepage popped up. She opened up a web browser and began her research, thankful that the desk holding the computer came with a small barrier that prevented others from looking at her screen, because if someone found out what she was up to, she would have two potential issues to deal with- mockery for doing a 'girly sport', and her brother's secret possibly being revealed by accident. 'Not on my watch,' she thought as the tab showed her the search results. She reached into her bag and pulled out a pen and a notepad which, despite it being November, was practically unused. 'Okay, then. What have we got here?'