23. Ch 23- A Brother's Work

"Well, I guess I'd better let you go," Lincoln said after nearly a half hour of talking with his friend. "I know you're planning to hang out with the guys."

"Yeah, I probably shouldn't keep them too long," Ronnie Anne agreed. "It's a rule that whoever's last has to get the hotdogs." They both chuckled at the joke. "So, talk to you again in a couple of weeks?"

"Sure. Saturday okay?"

"Yeah, but make sure it's after seven, okay? There's this home video show that cracks me up!"

"Yeah, that works. Aargh! ends at seven, so I'l call you after that."

"And make sure you put it on the right day on your calendar, okay?"

"Har, har," he fake laughed with a roll of his eyes, but couldn't not smile. "Smell ya later, Ronnie Anne."

"Smell ya later, Lame-O," she replied, before both sixth graders closed the video call. Leaning back in his chair, Lincoln sighed, feeling the same mixture of happiness and contentment he felt from those long distance calls.

"So," he said to himself after a few seconds. "What to do now?"

Just as his mind began to go through his options, his door was opened by the six year old pageant princess of the family. "Oh, Linky!" She said, her voice the same 'sweet' tone she always used when she needed something. With a roll of his eyes, he sat up and looked at his third youngest sister.

"What is it, Lola?" He asked, not even pretending to be surprised.

"I need my favourite pageant coach to help me prepare for the Halloween Little Bewitcher pageant. Leni has already agreed to make my costume, I just need some help fine tuning my performance routine."

"And I suppose, in Lola terms, that means, "will you help me?" Is that it?"

She scoffed. "What part of 'favourite pageant coach' didn't you understand?"

He gave a small smirk as his eyes rolled again, sitting up and turning to face her properly. "Okay, Lola. If I help you, what's in it for me?"

He received a faux look of shock in response. "Isn't the satisfaction of helping your favourite sister enough?"

He simply looked unamused at the argument. "When I asked to borrow some crafts for my art project, you demanded I attend every tea party you held for a month."

"Hmm… touché. Alright, how about I give you ten percent of all my trick or treating candy?"

"Twenty-five percent, no candy corn, and all of your Starry Chews," he bargained, holding his palms flat against each other.

"Fifteen percent, and I keep the candy corn and the Starry Chews."

"Twenty percent, and I get the green and the orange Starry Chews."

"But the greens are the best ones!"

He simply smirked with a raised eyebrows. "How much does this pageant mean to you?"

She growled a little, then regained her composure with a deep breath. "How about… twenty percent of all my candy, I take the candy corn, we split my green and orange Starry Chews, and you get all the purple ones."

"Hmm… Alright, I'll compromise there. You have a deal."

With a grin, Lola held out her hand, which her brother shook. "Pleasure doing business with you. I'll meet with you first thing after lunch in the back yard, and I'll show you what I have so far."

"Okay, Lola." So, once she skipped away, Lincoln decided to grab his phone, then stand up. 'I wonder if Leni could help me make a costume for the Halloween party,' he wondered, his legs already heading towards the shared bedroom of his eldest siblings. Approaching the open door, he looked in and saw Leni alone, sewing what looked to be a pink cloak- 'probably Lola's pageant outfit,' he thought. Knocking on the door, he saw her stop her work and look at him with a smile. "Hey, Leni. Are you busy?"

"Hey, Linky!" She replied as the boy entered. "I'm just working on Lola's witch costume for her pageant. Want to see?"

With a shrug, he told her, "sure." She took the garment and held it up to the boy, showing him that it was a baby pink dress with a magenta cloak attached to the back of it. "Looks pretty good, Leni!"

"Thanks! I've mostly finished it, I just need to do these last stitches, then attach the sequins to the cloak, and it'll be perfect!"

"I'm sure it will."

"So," she asked as she put the dress back on the sewing table, "what's up?"

"Well, I'm going to a Halloween party, and it's fancy dress. I was originally going to go as Ace Savvy again, but I've decided to do something different, and I was wondering-"

She gave him a knowing smile and held her hand up. "Say no more, Linky. What did you have in mind?" With a smile, he opened a web browser on his phone and showed the picture to the fashionista. Looking it over with a scrunched face, she hummed in thought for a few seconds. "Can I get some measurements?"

"Sure."

"Okay. Just stand on the podium real quick." He obliged, stepping onto the miniature podium that Leni used when working on new designs- she did have a mannequin that she sometimes used, but she preferred working on people, since- in her words- "mannequins don't wear clothes outside. They only wear them in stores." Technically, this had some truth to it, but it was shrugged off by her siblings as a Leni being Leni. The blonde took her measuring tape and began measuring Lincoln for his costume, taking a minute to get them perfect and write them down. "And that should do it!"

"So, do you think you'll be able to make it?"

"Totes! I can get it finished by, like, Wednesday."

With a smile, he hugged the eleventh grader. "Thanks, Leni."

She happily hugged him back. "No problem, Linky." As they released the hold, she had an idea. "Ooh! Do you think then, after Halloween, you could help me? I have a fashion show coming up, and I need someone to model for it. It's for kids clothing, so you'd be great for that size."

Feeling uncertain about the idea, he frowned. "Are you sure? I don't think I'd be very good at modelling."

With a small pout, she kneeled down to his height. "Please, Linky?"

Seeing his older sister deploy the puppy dog eyes, his great weakness, he did his best to hold out before giving in not even two seconds later. "Okay, I'll model for your show."

Gleefully, she clapped her hands. "Yay! Thanks, Linky! Now, I better get Lola's costume finished. She said she planned to practice her routine later."

"Yep, and she wants me to help coach her again, so I'll let you carry on."

'God only knows what she'd do if she thought I was keeping Leni from finishing her costume,' he thought as he left his eldest sisters' room. 'Now, to relax while I have the chance.'

"Hey, Lincoln! You busy right now?" He heard Lana shout from downstairs, causing him to sigh.

'A brother's work is never done.'

After a half hour of helping Lana clean El Diablo and Izzy's tanks, a 'spontaneous' sparring session with Lynn that lasted twenty minutes, two requests for rhymes from Lucy and ten minutes with Luna giving her his opinions on two songs she had been working on, Lincoln finally got the chance to relax a little as lunch came around. He made himself one of his PB J and sauerkraut sandwiches, grabbed a banana and poured himself a glass of water, and took it upstairs to his room, where he put the food and drink on his desk, stripped down to his underwear and sat down so he could read a comic book while he ate. He was sat there for about twenty minutes before he was finished with both his food and his comic, putting the book down next to the empty plate and glass.

"That was a good read," he said to himself, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head. "Wonder if I can fit another in before-"

He didn't get to finish that sentence, as Lola opened the door, giving him a look of disgust when she realised he was in his undies. "Do you have to do that?"

"It's my room," he reminded her.

"Ugh, whatever. Just put some clothes on and meet me in my room rather than the back yard."

"I was about to," he muttered as she walked away. "Guess that second comic will have to wait."

So, he got up, put his clothes back on, and took his plate and glass downstairs. After placing them in the sink and binning the banana peel, he made his way back upstairs and knocked on the door to the twins' bedroom. "You may enter!" Walking in, he saw Lola sat at her tea party table with her stuffed animals, one seat unoccupied. Upon seeing her brother was fully dressed, she smiled. "Have a seat."

"Thank you," he replied, sitting down as best he could on the tiny seat.

"Tea?" She offered, holding out a teacup.

"What variety?"

"Some of daddy's favourite Earl Grey." He opened his mouth to speak. "I asked him this time, I swear."

Satisfied, he nodded. "Sure. Anything beats that Darjeeling tea." He frowned in disgust. "That was not pleasant." As he pushed that to the back of his mind, he accepted the cup and allowed Lola to pour the hot tea into his cup. He then added a bit of milk and sugar, before beginning to stir a spoon in the cup. "So, what have you got so far?"

"Well, I've already got the music selected, Leni is making my costume, and I have the overall routine cemented, but I think there's something missing. Some extra… pizzazz."

Lincoln held back a laugh, covering his mouth with his fist. "Pizzazz?"

With a roll of her eyes, she tutted. "So uncouth…" She said to the nearest plush toy, before taking a drink of her tea, then looking back at her sole brother. "Look, Lincoln, if you're just going to laugh, then I'll figure it out myself."

"No, no, I'm sorry. It's just… never heard you say 'pizzazz' before." Again, she rolled her eyes. "So, maybe if you run me through what you have so far, we can take a look and see what we can do."

"Okay! Now, we'll have to do it in here since Lana is outside, and I will NOT have her ruining this dress again." He gave a small chuckle as he nodded in agreement. "Can you move the table while I prepare the music?"

"Sure thing, Lola." So, whilst Lola walked over to her CD player, Lincoln shifted the chairs and plush toys to one side of the room, before moving the small plastic table with relative ease, making sure not to spill his tea. Once the floor was clear, he saw Lola beckon him towards her. Knowing instantly what she meant, he approached the CD player whilst she grabbed a magenta witches hat that she put on her head, and her ribbon stick. She then made her way to the centre of the floor. "Ready?" She nodded, assuming her starting position with her head pointing down. "Three… two… one…"

He pressed the button, and the music began to play. Lincoln was surprised by the song choice at first, as it was of a slower pace than her ribbon dances tended to be, but once the opening lyrics played, it made sense with the theme of the pageant. She looked up upon hearing the first lyrics, then tossed her hat to the side in classy fashion. She then raised her ribbon stick in the air and began twirling it around her. As the music progressed, she manoeuvred her way through the performance exactly how she envisioned it- every flick of her ribbon was perfect, in time with the music and to the right degree; every twirl, step and leap she made was correct, never a foot out of place or an arm in the wrong position. Her movements flowed through the performance to the same high quality she expected of herself. As the song eventually reached its close, she performed the final wave of her ribbon stick and bowed, to which Lincoln applauded.

"That was really good, Lola!" He commended. "Seriously, that was some of your best work."

"Why, thank you, Linky!" She replied with a curtsy, but then formed a frown on her face. "Still, I feel like there's something missing, and if there is, I feel it could cost me in the talent portion."

Lincoln donned a thoughtful expression on his face. "Hmm… well… for the most part, I thought your performance was perfect. The only thing that I would say needs improvement would be the finish."

"You think so?"

He nodded. "I do. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but it felt too similar to the main body of your performance. It needed to be something a bit… grander. Something that would give the judges something to remember."

"Hmm… that might be it. But what could I do that would work?"

Lincoln tapped his chin for a few seconds as he searched his brain for the answer. "Maybe… no. Or what about… Hmm…" He snapped his fingers as he reached a eureka moment. "I've got it! You could throw your ribbon stick into the air, do an aerial walkover and catch it!"

Her eyes widened a little upon the suggestion. "Lincoln, that sounds… genius!" She rushes towards him and wrapped her arms around his legs. "I knew I was right to ask you for help again!"

He smiled at what was a true Lola Loud way of saying thanks, so he hugged her back. "No worries, Lola."

Then, all of a sudden, she let go of his legs and backed off, giving him a narrow eyed stare. "Wait a minute! How do you know what an aerial walkover is?"

"Uh… from you? Where else would I have heard of that?"

She stared him down, seeing a nervous grin on the boy's face. "Hmm…" The two had their eyes locked on each other, the boy feeling the sweat forming on his forehead at the idea he had let slip his secret. Fortunately, though, she smiled. "It seems I underestimated how much you appreciate the dedication it takes to be a pageant queen. You've clearly learnt a thing or two from my tutelage."

"But, aren't I- I mean, right! Well, uh, glad I could help. Shall I leave you so you can practice?"

"That would be most helpful."

"Then, I shall leave you be." With a bow to the self-proclaimed princess, he left the twins' room and headed downstairs. 'That was close,' he thought. 'Still, now that I've helped Lola, maybe that means I can relax for a bit.' Upon entering the living room, he saw that the TV was free, making him grin. 'And what better way than kicking ass at video games?'