8. Lincoln's Blue Period - Part I

Hello, people! I know many of you want to kill me for how long it took me to update. For those of you who didn't heard the news, in this hiatus I wrote a pretty long One Shot (26.000 words, that's basically half this fic) called "First love". It took me two weeks to write it, and one more week to translate it. And then it took me one week to write this chapter and translate it. And believe me, if I would've sticked to my original draft, this chapter would be nearly twice as long, and it would've required an additional week to write. So, since I didn't wanted to make you wait that long and a 16.000 words chapter is ridiculous, I divided it in two parts. This is the first part, and hopefully I'll post the second part next weekend.

I'd like to thank you all for making this story what it is. While I'm the one that's writing it, it's only because of you that the story means something. Reading your support and knowing you like it it's what motivates me to give my best and even stop studying for college for a while so I can write down a new idea before it fades away.

I never imagined this story would have an impact like this. Since I'm just a guy from Argentina translating his own story, I thought this would go pretty much unnoticed. But after seven chapters, I check the story and I find that it has 140 followers, 130 favorites, 221 reviews and 36´000 views. I mean, how cool is that for a translation full of mistakes? I know this story isn't the most popular, it isn't the most liked, and it's most definitely not the best. But your constant support makes me feel the happiest and luckiest guy in the world. So, once again, I'd like to personally thank all of you who read this story, and to mention the ones who share their thoughts about it (you probably don't even remember what you wrote by now...):

Red the Pokemon Master, HtfLover (if Savino contacts me to make a movie out of this, you'll get 20% of my paycheck), littlealexartinez61910, SoI'llKillYou, 76 (if you like Ronnie Anne, this is your chapter… I hope), Unknown Russian (I like the concept of a sister like Luan, but I feel like the show hasn't showed us the best side of her), NamelessName (we'll have to wait and see), Iron-Doughnut (Thanks for both your positive criticism and the advice on 'medication'. Things like that are really tricky for me, ha), Mew Shadowfang (you mean because of the end? It was actually a reference to a movie, haha), Shadowmaster91, MorenoX25 (As Darth Vader said, "I find your lack of faith disturbing"), Zach the Red Raider, ExMarkSpot (you sure about the urine? D: ), Codymitchell1 (well, he should be! Hahaha), Godzilla2915 (Thank you. I'm no theist myself, but I don't think you should mess with other people's beliefs, specially in a situation like this one. And Chris Savino is the creator of The Loud House. And he's my God, hahaha), ElectricLoud, RedEyes (sad story, bro D: ), FullOfRegret (haha, it was a pretty shitty drawing. I'm no artist, I just draw some parts of my stories as a hobby), TrollCritic (You're welcome, my friend. Thank you for your touching words), BoukenDutch (Thanks. And Lucy doesn't really knows for sure; she truly trusts her brother), Grim-XIII, TheEquestrianidiot 2.0 (That's another great God), Samtastic 3.0, Emperor of Performances (The idea came after realizing Lincoln's the only thing holding the family together. And since I'm such a maniac, I decided to see how it would look like if he wasn't there), TexasGunKing, LoudSin, Dead heart 9, DANGIT-Man, Thunderstrike16, The Wannabe WriterOriginal (The Road is a great fucking movie), thehardboiledhit (Thank you, although I don't think it's the best, haha), Omega Ultra (Thank you, mate), ImpossibleJedi4, Fattius Pattius (That's because Foreman wasn't in the case with him), Hope, Fan 117 (Dude, aren't all these thing enough for you? You want memory loss too? Damn, think about the family!), applez, OMEGA09 , The kadabrao (after this story I don't want Lincoln to ever suffer again, hahahaha), Secret life of writing, Mr. Noname, MikeTheHuman113 (I appreciate your criticism. I'll work on some of the things you pointed out [the Dr House part it's already done, haha])

If my math's correct, chapter 7 got over 40 reviews. That's like a wet dream for me.

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Chapter 8:Lincoln's Blue PeriodPart I – Misunderstandings

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Lisa's multiple tests had left Lincoln extremely tired. Luckily, none of them had been terribly painful, and they were mostly non-invasive. The worst part had been taking the blood samples, but even that wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Still, seeing so many blood in a recipient had left him quite nervous. As soon as she was done doing her initial examinations, Lisa hurriedly kicked Lincoln out of her room so she could get to work. He assumed he couldn't really help her, so he didn't complained and went back to his own room.

As soon a he sat on his bed he realized he was feeling really tired. His arms felt like they were made of lead, so heavy that he could barely lift them, and he thought that his joins could use some WD-40. Lisa had warned him that he might feel a little numb after the blood extraction, so maybe that was it. Or maybe it was the fact that he had had one of the worst days of his life.

Whatever it was, he just laid on his bed over his blankets, put his head on his pillow and closed his eyes. He breathed in and out a couple of times and he soon fell asleep, finally having some well deserved rest in a dreamless nap.

Even if it was just a nap, Lincoln slept through it like a bear in winter. He wouldn't fully remember it when he'd wake up a couple of hours later, but he was slightly aware that during his rest he had been visited by some of his sisters. He seemed to remember seeing Leni, that Lori had kicked Lola out of his room when the younger one tried to wake him up, and even at some point he'd opened his eyes only to find Lynn, kneeling on the floor next to his bed, looking at him with her eyes full of tears. He was so tired that the only thing he could do was just grab her hand before falling asleep once again.

He didn't woke up until a few hours later. Those little accidents that had interrupted his sleep were now strange memories that faded away with every second he was awake. The first thing he noticed was that he was alone in his room, which seemed odd, since he had the feeling that he'd been with someone else. The second thing he noticed was that someone had taken the time to delicately remove his shoes from him, change his jeans for the bottom part of his pajamas and tuck him in, under his blankets. He initially thought it might have been his mother, but after seeing his jeans on the floor and not tidily folded in a chair, he knew it had been one of his sisters.

A quick glance at the clock told him that it was a quarter past eight. He frowned, confused. They always had dinner at eight o'clock, why didn't they wake him up? He quickly dressed up and stepped out of his room. He went downstairs and got to the dining room, where his five older sisters and his parents were having dinner.

It was one thing to know that he was going to die, that his days were numbered. It was terrible. But seeing it reflected upon his sisters and parents faces was even worse. They all had their heads down, seemingly more worried about staring at the food rather than eating it. His parents seemed to be the only ones who had touched their plates. His sisters were all holding the forks in their hands, absently moving their food. He noticed that Lynn was practically stabbing his beef stew over and over again, leaving it in such small pieces that one could just drink it in a soup. It didn't went unnoticed by him the fact that Luan was wearing her mime attire, and that the black makeup on her eyes was all messed up, going down her cheeks painting a few tear tracks. In a house full of girls, where makeup was such a sacred thing, something like that could never go unnoticed. But no one seemed to care. They were all just staring at their dinner.

It was a devastating picture. His experience with the grown up table wasn't the best. He considered it extremely boring. But if there was something that he'd learned, was that they always had something to talk about. Perhaps it were mundane things like a math test, or an anecdote from their parents jobs, but the grown ups always had something they could talk about. Seeing them in such silence, with everyone focused in their own world, in their own thoughts, made him somehow feel even worse, if that was possible.

He knew he couldn't sneak to the kitchen, so he decided to step closer and wait for someone to notice him. He didn't really feel like just, appearing out of nowhere and saying hi. Luckily, his presence was acknowledged almost immediately. Leni was looking down at her food. She decided to drink a little to soothe her sore throat, and when she raised her glass she saw Lincoln on the corner of her eyes. She turned around, and for a single second Lincoln saw such a depressed face that could be photoshopped into Picasso's Guernica and it wouldn't seem to be out of place. If it wasn't for the fact that he felt a stab in his heart when he saw her like that, he would've thought that he had imagined it, because suddenly Leni's face was the same as always, radiating happiness.

"Hi, Lincoln! You're awake!" She said with a smile, while she took what seemed to be her first bite at her food.

Lori and Luna looked up and left their forks on the table. They tried to relax their faces, but they weren't even close to show themselves as happy as Leni was. Lynn wiped her eyes with her sleeve before slowly turning around. Her eyes started to nervously alternate between Lincoln and the floor. Luan stayed the same.

His parents did react. They immediately looked up to their son, and Rita got up from her chair and walked right next to him.

"Lincoln, honey" she said as she hugged him like she hadn't seen him in a month. "How are you? How do you feel?"

"I'm great, thanks" he said, while she put a hand on his forehead to make sure he didn't have a fever. "I fell asleep in my room."

"We didn't want to wake you", Mr Loud said. "You seemed really tired..."

"It's okay, don't worry" Lincoln told him, slowly slipping away from his mother's grip. "Well, I'll… I guess I'll just go to my table."

He turned around, prepared to head down to the kitchen were his younger sisters were already eating, but his mother put a hand on his shoulder.

"Honey, your father and I have been talking. You can eat at the grown up table anytime you want" she said, as her lips started to tremble. "And if you don't like the food we have here you can take food from the kiddie table."

"You can have dessert, too" his dad told him.

"And if you want seconds, just tell me and I'll cook you whatever you want."

Lincoln felt incredibly guilty.

Everyone in the grown up table was looking at him, waiting for him to say something. They were surely expecting him to say that he'd love to run away from the chaos of the kiddies table, hang out with them while still being able to enjoy chicken nuggets, ice cream and even have seconds. And that was a most tempting offer. Never, in his eleven years of life, he went to sleep being hungry. They were never lacking food, but sometimes he did feel like he could use some seconds, just so he could go to sleep feeling completely full. They were now offering him all the treats he'd always wished to have.

But they weren't giving him these treats as a reward for his good behavior, or for acing his tests. They were consenting him because he was sick. They were treating him differently because he would be gone too soon. His older sisters seemed okay with the new arrangement. Lynn was even starting to clear the table in the spot next to her, making room for him.

He understood that they would want to have as much time with him as possible, and that they'd like to consent him. He truly understood them, but he wasn't comfortable with the idea of accepting a differential treatment because of his condition. He didn't want to take advantage of his disease so he could have some treats. What kind of monster would do that? Besides, no matter how tempting the idea of having dessert in the grown up table was, the last thing he wanted was to make his little sisters suspicious.

"Thank you, really, but I think I'm gonna stay in the kiddie table" he softly said.

His parents sighed and slowly nodded, as if they knew he was going to say that. His sisters looked down at their plates again, and Lynn dropped her knife, not worried about the sound it made as it hit her plate. She clenched her fist and frowned, looking straight at her food.

"I mean, it's not that I don't want to be with you guys" Lincoln rushed to say. "But… You know… I don't want the girls to… Well..."

"It's okay, sweetie" his mother assured him.

"You can eat wherever you want, son. If you change your mind, or if someday you want to eat here, the doors are open."

"Thanks, dad. I guess I'll go get some dinner."

Giving the table one last smile, only returned by Leni, he went to the kitchen.

In the kiddie table, oh surprise, his younger sisters were fighting. Lucy seemed to be arguing with Lisa about how the vegetables were sentient. The little genius was too busy reading some annotations on her notebook while absently eating her broccoli, and that was only making the goth girl angrier. Lola and Lana were fighting over the mayonnaise, both of them arguing that they had touched it first. They were basically in a tug-of-war, a pretty violent discussion that seemed to be about to escalate into a fist fight. The only one having a peaceful dinner was Lily, who was pretending that her spoon was a little plane all by herself.

Lincoln didn't have the energy to intervene in any fight. He just sat on his chair, but his presence didn't went unseen.

"Lincoln! Tell Lana to let me have my mayonnaise!" Lola hurried to say.

"No, tell her to drop it! I grabbed it first!"

"You wish!"

"Let it go!"

Rolling his eyes, Lincoln took the mayonnaise from them.

"Hey!" They both complained at the same time.

After getting some on his plate, he took his sister's and put the same amount on both plates. In less than ten seconds, he gave them back their dinner, all ready so they could go on with the night. That was usually the part when the twins would settle down and said 'Thanks, Lincoln!' at the same time with a smile. But that wasn't quite the case. They seemed oblivious about their food being handed back to them. They kept glaring at each other.

"Um, guys? You both have your mayonnaise. You can now stop hating each other" Lincoln confusedly said.

"Ugh! You always do the same!" Lola complained, ignoring her brother. "You always want to be right about everything!"

"That's not true! You're the one who always wants to do everything your way!"

"Gosh, you always ruin EVERYTHING!"

"Okay, that's enough" intervened Lincoln, separating the twin's chairs and standing in the middle. "This is clearly not a mayonnaise situation. What's going on?"

The two girls crossed their arms and turned around, facing away from each other. None of them wanted to answer him. Lincoln was about to say something, when through the door that led to the dining room he heard a thud against the table and the sound of a chair being violently moved.

"Lynn? Where do you think you're going?" He heard his father say.

"My room" rudely said Lynn, completely forgetting her manners.

"Dinner's not over yet" her mother said.

"I don't care. I'm not hungry."

"Come on, sis" started to say Luna.

"I said I'm not hungry!" She snapped back.

The house remained silent after that, with the only sound being Lynn's steps as she climbed up the stairs.

"That's what's going on" Lucy said, answering Lincoln's question.

"They've been acting all weird" Lola said, looking at Lincoln.

"Yeah" Agreed Lana. "Today Lynn was practicing with her punching bag in the backyard, and when I asked her if she wanted to make some mud piles with me she first ignored me and then yelled me to leave her alone."

"And when I went to your room to see if you wanted to be in a tea party, Lori kicked me out and treated me like I was doing something bad."

"Luna locked herself in the garage all day long, playing her guitar" Lucy added. "I wanted to ask her for a rhyme for a poem, but she didn't let me in."

"Yeah, and Luan's sad mime routine is way over the top" said Lola.

"I like it" Lucy said. "I've always found mimes fascinating creatures. Little souls trapped in a body incapable of communicate, with their imagination as their only tool for survival."

"You do know it's a simple act, don't you?" Lisa asked her.

"Why are they all acting so weird?"

After Lana's question, they all looked at Lincoln. He was hoping that they couldn't see the sweat coming down his forehead. He needed an explanation, stat, and it better be a very good one. It was clear for him that Lucy at least suspected something. He still remembered when she had asked him if it was true that he was okay. Being forced to lie to her still hurt him, specially after promising her that he was going to be okay. But he couldn't tell them the truth yet. He wasn't ready.

"Lincoln, do you know why are they acting like this?" Lucy asked him, confirming his worst fears; she was still suspicious.

"I, um, well..." he started, adjusting the neck of his polo shirt, which seemed to be squeezing him.

"It's my fault" Lisa said, continuing to eat normally.

"Your fault? What did you do?" Lola asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Recently I communicated them that I could no longer be their tutor, since I've decided to dedicate my full time in a new scientific investigation that could change the history of mankind. And our family" she added, looking up to glance at Lincoln for a second. "We are currently approaching the end of a new school term, and they are aware that the probabilities of them getting an F in their exams has potentially increased, now that they're on their own. The prospect of having to take summer classes has them both nervous and worried."

"Wait a minute!" Lola exclaimed. "You won't help me with my homework?!"

"No."

"You won't help me with math?" Lucy calmly asked.

"No."

"Sigh..."

While the three girls started to argue, thinking about how would they manage to do all their homework without Lisa's help, the little genius looked up at her brother. Lincoln was also glancing at her. He didn't know if he should be grateful for she bailing him out, or if he should feel guilty for exposing Lisa to the rest of his sisters. She simply nodded and got back to her notes. She was really good at ignoring her sisters. Being left alone, Lincoln started to eat his dinner, immersed in the chaos.

He started to think about how much he would miss those dinners.

When his alarm clock woke him up at six thirty in the morning, Lincoln lazily turned it off and just sat on his bed. Looking at the small fluorescent letters in the screen he saw it was Wednesday. School day. Still a little sleepy, he started to dress up. He had to hurry if he wanted to make it to the bathroom before his sisters. However, as he was combing his hair, he noticed his math books were on his desk. He stopped for a second, wondering why they were there. He had math on Tuesdays. They should be on his backpack.

And then his brain finally woke up, and he remembered it all. He didn't go to school the day before, and neither on Monday, because he had only come back to his house the day before. He had been in the hospital. And he had talked it over with his parents, and they've decided that he wouldn't be attending school anymore, since he didn't feel like he could do it.

Because he was going to die.

He let himself fall down over his bed, sitting against the wall. He was going to die. It was true, it hadn't been a nightmare. He stared at the reflection in the mirror, at his very own face, and he realized he was really expressive. The image before him was the perfect canon, the most accurate representation of a resignated face. It was the face of a man who had his hope taken from him. But there were also some things the mirror couldn't show. The crystal couldn't reflect the horrible sensation he was feeling in his heart, like his most important muscle was completely numb, experiencing a tickling sensation. That really scared him. Even though he knew it was something purely emotional –the tickling had started only when he remembered he was going to die–, a part of him was scared that it might be a symptom of his heart starting to fail. He started to be agitated. He didn't want to die.

He opened his room door and went out to the hall, feeling the urgent need to see at least one of his sisters. It was still too early, but he could hear the movement inside his sister's rooms, and he imagined they would be changing and getting ready. Without even thinking about it, he went straight to Lucy and Lynn's room. He didn't wanted to wake Lily up, and it was still too early to end up in the middle of a fight between Lola and Lana. He opened the door of his closer sisters, in terms of age, and poke his head inside their room.

"Hey guys, are you awake?" He asked.

He heard a small scream and right away a pillow flew right into his face. Being just a pillow, it didn't hurt him, but the surprise and the fact that he saw an object flying to his face made him lose balance, and he fell to the floor.

"OH MY GOD! LINCOLN!"

Even before he could assimilate the soft impact, Lynn was already kneeling besides him, grabbing the pillow and throwing it away from him. She looked at him with worry in her eyes, like she had accidentally shot him in the shoulder with a gun. She looked completely terrified. Just a second later, he heard what seemed like a stampede coming down the hall. He looked up and saw Luan, Luna, Leni and Lori, all with their hairs being half made and their mascaras all messed up. Lynn's scream seemed to have interrupted them in whatever they were doing, and they went running to see him.

"What happened?!"

"Is he okay?!"

"CALL AN AMBULANCE!"

"I'm literally already on it!"

Lincoln was used to the fact that his sisters loved him a lot and would be overprotective with him. He would never openly admit it, but he truly loved that they care for him that much. It made him feel loved. But seeing them like that, calling an ambulance just because they found him on the floor, only served to make him feel even more miserable.

"Lincoln, bro, are you okay?!" Luna asked him, grabbing one of his hands and squeezing it with all her strength. She looked like she was about to cry.

By then, the twins and Lisa had gathered around to see what was all the commotion about.

"I'm alright, don't worry. You don't need to call an ambulance" he assured them, standing up.

His older sisters sighed, relieved. Lori cancelled the call, and they all seemed to relax a bit.

"But, why were you on the floor?" Asked Leni, clearly confused.

"Lynn threw a pillow at him" said Lucy, seemingly materializing out of thin air behind all their sisters.

The only ones scared were Lincoln and the twins. The rest of the girls shot daggers with their eyes at Lynn. Lincoln also turned to see his sister, and he was only then aware of the fact that she was just wearing her shorts and her training bra. She had her t-shirt in her hands. Now that the dust had settled, she started to feel a little embarrassed, and quickly crossed her arms over her chest, just as her face started to blush.

"I-I was changing, and Lincoln just appeared out of nowhere, I got scared, and then..."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Lori exclaimed, glaring at Lynn with her arms akimbo. "Are you literally saying that you got nervous because Lincoln walked into you dressing up? Come on, it's not Hugh, it's just Lincoln!"

"Dude, we're eleven kids bottled up inside a small house, there's no such thing as privacy" Luna told her, also mad, but trying to palliate Lori's tone. "Lincoln has walked in my room at the wrong moments a lot of times. And we've all seen more than his undies. Those are awkward moments, but we're family! You can't get like that just because your brother saw you with your bra."

"Besides, Lincoln's not at that age yet!" Added Leni, covering Lincoln's eyes so he couldn't listen to her.

By then, Lincoln was already completely blushed. On the good side, his mind was now fully distracted from his depressive thoughts and his fatal destiny.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Said Lynn, quickly putting on her t-shirt. "Of course I didn't mean it, I just got..."

"I don't care, Lynn" Lori interrupted her. "You know how things are right now. You can't throw stuff at Lincoln!"

"Did you already forget what happened the last time you hit him?" Snapped a very angry Luan, speaking for the first time since Lincoln had returned home.

The rest of the siblings gasped and turned to look at Luan, not believing what they had heard. Some put their hands over their mouths, while others, like Lincoln, simply stayed there, flabbergasted. Lynn, meanwhile, took a step back like the words had hit her. Certainly, she looked as if she was in physical pain after hearing that. She had her mouth half opened, and a hand on her chest. Her gaze went from Luan to Lincoln. He looked at her too. He wanted to say something, he wanted to tell her that it wasn't true, that she shouldn't listen to Luan's words. He wanted to say a lot of things, but he didn't find the right words. And maybe it was that doubt what Lynn saw in his eyes. Maybe that's what made her shed tears.

Taking advantage of the fact that they were right next to the door, she grabbed her backpack and her bike helmet. Her siblings tried to stop her, but she passed through them like an arrow, going downstairs at full speed. Lori went to try and get her, but she didn't even got close to her before Lynn stepped out of the house, grabbed her bike and started to pedal away.

"Dude, what the heck?!" Said Luna, not-so-gently shoving Luan's shoulder. "How could you say that?! What's the matter with you?!"

Luan, who was fully dressed as a mime except for her make up, made a gesture of zipping her mouth shut, and walked away to her room. Luna started yelling at her, and followed her to their bedroom. Leni went along, trying to calm them. Lincoln was left with his younger sisters, feeling miserable.

"All of this because of a pillow?" Lola asked out loud.

"Man, high school exams must be really tough" said Lana.

While his younger sisters went back a little confused to their rooms, Lincoln decided to go downstairs. When he reached the living room, he saw Lori sitting in the couch, with her head looking at the ceiling and a hand over her face. Clearly, this wasn't the morning she had been expecting. And Lincoln couldn't avoid thinking that it was maybe his fault.

"Lori?" He called her, slowly getting closer.

His sister sighed and sat more comfortably.

"Lori, I'm sorry, this is all my fault. I didn't..."

"Lincoln, stop. It wasn't your fault. It's not Lynn's neither. It's our fault. We're all too susceptible. I should've kept it cool, handed the situation better. But as soon as I heard your name I just… I just panicked."

Lincoln sat besides her and hugged her. At first, she was taken by surprise; it wasn't common for him to take the initiative in a demonstration of caring like that. But she immediately embraced him.

"I just… I needed to be with someone" Lincoln told her.

"Why? What happened, Lincoln?"

He tighten his grip.

"Nothing" he lied, not wanting to worry his sister. "I just wanted to be with you guys."

Lori broke away from the embrace just long enough to stare at her little brother's eyes.

"Listen, twerp", she affectionately told him. "Remember rule number one of the house?"

"Thou shalt not enter Lori's room, literally never" he recited.

"Well, that rule no longer applies to you, you hear me? If you need help with something, just tell me. If you want to come in and ask me to take you to the mall, you can do it. If you had a nightmare in the middle of the night and you want me to sleep with you, go ahead and tell me. And… And if you only want a hug, you can wake me up and I'll give you as many as you want."

By the time she finished, Lori was about to cry. Lincoln had seen too many tears in such a short morning. He put his hand on Lori's left cheek and very carefully wiped away a tear from her eye with his thumb. She smiled at the gesture and put her hand over his, closing her eyes and enjoying the warmth of his touch.

"Kids, is everything okay?"

Lincoln turned around, totally confused after finding his mom standing in the kitchen, wearing her apron.

"Mom? Shouldn't you be heading to work?" He asked.

"I spoke with doctor Feinstein. I'm taking my vacations now, so you don't have to stay home alone in the mornings while your sisters go to school."

"Oh, I see. Thank you, mom."

"Don't mention it. You can go back to sleep, if you want. I can wake you up by ten."

"No, it's fine" he said, standing up. "I'll go to my room. I need to get ready for something."

"What are you up to?" Asked Lori

Lincoln bit his lower lip and looked down. Just by thinking about what he intended to do in the afternoon, he felt exhausted.

After the bell indicated the end of classes, the fifth grade students picked up their stuff and abandoned their classrooms. They went straight to their lockers, grabbed their books and they left the building with their friends, chatting and laughing. That's what most students did, but not Ronnie Anne. She was walking alone, with her skateboard in her hand and her head down.

She wasn't your average eleven years old girl. She loved video games, skateboarding and wearing baggy clothes. She always said what was on her mind, she was a pretty straightforward girl and she didn't backed off from anything. Unfortunately, her tomboy reputation didn't help her to make friends. In her old school she had this small group of friends she could hang out with, but now she had no one to talk to. It's not like they hated her; everyone seemed to be polite with her. But she didn't belong to any group. She had no one to talk to after school, and no one to laugh with during recess. There was only one person she could hang out with, whom she could be herself and have some incredible moments. Even if they couldn't be seen together by the rest of the school, or even by their families, they would often spend a night texting, and they hanged out once a week, or so.

But right now, that person wasn't…

"Hey, Ronnie Anne."

She stopped dead on her tracks, and looked up. Standing just a few feet away from her was none other than Lincoln Loud. Not only that, but he was also wearing a different attire than his usual. He had an orange shirt with its long sleeves folded up, he was wearing his khakis, and he also had some nice brown shoes. His hair was sparkling and perfectly combed, while still managing to keep his cowlick. Ronnie Anne couldn't keep a smile from appearing on her face as she remembered the last time she saw him dressed up like that. It was the same clothes he wore in that double date they had in Jean Juan's. He looked just like when they shared their first kiss. It didn't matter that he had stolen a kiss from her before that one, because it was in Jean Juan's when she first kissed him back. For all it had meant for her, as far as she was concerned, that was her first kiss. And so far, it was her last kiss, too.

"Hey, Lincoln" she greeted him. She was so happy, seeing him after three days without him in school, that she wanted to have a smile from ear to ear. But she had to keep it cool.

"So, how's it going?" He asked, nervously swinging on his feet.

"Not bad. You know, like always. How about you?"

"I'm good."

They didn't say anything else for a few seconds, looking anywhere else but each other. She hated awkward silences.

"Nice khakis" she chuckled, causing Lincoln's cheek to gain a new shade of pink.

"Thanks."

"But what gives with that hair?"

"Well, remember how my sisters go nuts when they know I'm going off to see you? Today I found they got that from my mom."

"You came here to see me?" She asked, blushing too.

He was about to say something, but they were interrupted by a shout.

"Hey, Lincoln!"

After turning around, they saw that Liam, Rusty, Zach and a few more guys from their class were watching them from about twenty meters.

"You skip school all week and you don't even come to say hi to your friends?" Said Liam, from the distance.

"Ooooh! He's busy talking with Ronnie Anne!" Rusty said, and they all started to laugh.

Ronnie Anne sighed. She dropped her skate on the ground and prepared her fist.

"I promise this won't hurt you too much" she whispered, before raising her voice so they could hear her. "Very funny, lame-o, but I won't be falling for the same trick twice!"

She raised her fist as if to hit him, but Lincoln took one step forward and gently grabbed her by the wrist. Surprise by that, she put her hand down.

"Lincoln, what are you doing?" She asked, looking flustered to the boys who were starting to sing a silly love song. "Don't you see they'll be teasing you if they see you with me?"

Lincoln smiled at her.

"I don't care if you don't care."

Ronnie Anne stared at him with her mouth open. Lincoln always hated when his friends teased him because of her. That was why they would only hang out at the arcades or in the cinema, hidden from those guys. That's something she always found weird about Lincoln. He wasn't ashamed of people making fun of him for his comics, and he had enough self esteem to go to a convention with a costume that had his underwear on the outside. But only after the slightest teasing about him and Ronnie Anne being an item, he would blush and get on the defensive.

It was something new to see him so calm about it. So decided. And she liked him being like that. She also liked the fact that he was still holding her hand.

"I'm okay with it, I can kick their butts any day of the week. But are you sure you're okay with it? I can punch you now and talk with you later."

"As tempting as a blow to the face is, my doctor told me to avoid things like that."

Her smile quickly faded away, and she looked down. Of course, she didn't forget that Lincoln had been in the hospital.

"Hey, don't worry" he told her, sensing her sadness; he then blushed again and cleared his throat. "Look, I'd like to… I mean, if you want… I thought you might be interested in… Well, of course, if you don't have any plans..."

She looked up, raising an eyebrow.

"Just say it, lame-o" she encouraged him, smiling.

Lincoln stammered for a few more seconds before he sighed. He then calmly looked her in the eye, but she couldn't take him serious with how red his face was.

"Do you want to go and have some lunch with me?"

She knew that now Lincoln couldn't take her seriously neither, not if her face was as blushed as she thought it was.

"Lunch? Like, right now?"

Lincoln looked to the side, trying to ignore the teasing he was still receiving from his classmates.

"I, uh… Well, if you don't want to, maybe we could..."

"Calm down, lame-o" she told him, while she was trying to calm herself down. "I'd like to have lunch with you, but I didn't bring any money. We can stop by my house so I can take some cash from Bobby."

"Oh, don't worry, my mom gave me enough money, I can pay for both our meals" he quickly assured her. Ronnie Anne couldn't help but chuckle at those words.

"You know, if I didn't know you any better, I'd say you're asking me out."

She started to laugh, waiting for Lincoln to join her. But he was too busy looking elsewhere, trying to hide how blushed he was.

"What's the matter, Romeo? You forgot your flowers?" His classmates shouted.

Ronnie Anne looked at Lincoln's friends, that were now laughing uncontrollably. Taking advantage of their distraction, she grabbed an empty plastic bottle from the trash can and throw it with all her strength. Poor Liam didn't even see it coming until it hit him right on the forehead. They all stopped laughing.

"Check this out! This one's full!" Ronnie Anne loudly said, grabbing another bottle. "Ten bucks says I can knock down the one with the orange hair!"

Since most of the guys had orange hair, they all ran away, leaving Lincoln and Ronnie Anne alone.

"I'm pretty sure there were less violent ways of getting rid of them" Lincoln commented with a head shake, but smiling a little bit.

"And that's why people keep messing with you."

"Are you telling me I should throw a bottle to your head?" He playfully asked.

"You can try it" she answered, smiling back. "And then I would pulverize you. So, any ideas about where to go, lame-o? Just tell me you're not gonna take me to Jean Juan's."

"What? No! I was actually thinking about going to the Burpin' Burger" Lincoln excitedly said.

"Cool! We can go to the one in the mall, so then we can hit the arcades."

"Exactly. Shall we go?"

"Lead the way, lame-o" she said, softly bumping him in the shoulder.

"...and then the teacher said 'But if the dog ate your homework, who did you bury the day of your math quiz?' " Ronnie Anne said, finishing the anecdote.

Lincoln, who was drinking his soda, spitted it all out in laughter, with some of it coming out of his nose. Ronnie Anne also bursted out laughing after seeing him like that. People passing by tried to ignore the two kids that, sitting on the edge of the fountain with their Burpin' Burger bags, were hysterically laughing. Lincoln was wiping his face with a napkin, and even though his nostrils were burning for the liquid that had gone through them, he couldn't stop laughing.

"Oh, man, she caught him good" he managed to say, after catching his breath. "Dang it, why the best things happens in school only when I'm not there?"

"That was actually the only funny thing that happened these last few days. The rest was pretty much the usual stuff" she said, while chewing her double cheese burger.

"Even so, I kinda missed being with y… I mean, hanging out with the guys."

She totally realized what he almost said, but she decided to cut him some slack. She took some of the bread from her burger and smashed it in smaller pieces. Then she threw it to the fountain, watching the little fishes gathering around to eat the crumbs.

"I didn't know you liked fishes" Lincoln said, noticing his friend's smile.

"I love animals" she admitted; she looked up and found him smiling. "What? Don't you believe me?"

"No, no, I do believe you. It's just that I like this, getting to know more about your caring side."

Ronnie Anne grabbed as many fries as she could and stuffed them in her mouth, so she could have an excuse to don't say anything.

Since when was Lincoln so confident? They would hang out pretty often, and they always had fun, shared some good laughs and enjoyed their moments together, but he never behaved like that. Inviting her to Burpin' Burger, paying for her order and now telling her she had a 'caring side'. There was something different about him, but she didn't know what it was. He seemed to be a little distracted, like his mind was divided between the conversation he had with her and something else. He looked a little nervous, with his shoulders abnormally tense. His eyes always seemed to be a little tired –and living with ten sisters, it would be a miracle if he wasn't–, but now it looked like he hadn't had a good night sleep in weeks.

And somehow, in some other aspects he looked more relaxed than usual. She wasn't sure about what was it that gave her that impression, but she felt like Lincoln wasn't worried anymore about all the small things that would usually bother him. Like the fact that his friends were teasing him for being with her, or that he had suggested to sit next to the fountain and not in a bench. The people passing by frowned at them, like it was something gross to eat there. But Lincoln, a boy who was usually very worried about things like that, seemed totally oblivious. It was like he didn't care for what other people would think about him anymore.

Something was wrong, and Ronnie Anne was determined to find out what it was.

"Look, I'm having a blast here with you. But I can see something's bothering you. Are you going to tell me or do we have to keep pretending it's nothing?"

Lincoln slowly and silently nodded, more to himself than for her. He had his eyes staring at the floor, thoughtfully.

"Lincoln?" She said, seeing how weak he suddenly seemed to be. "Are you okay?"

He looked up, right at her. They were sitting next to each other, only separated by the Burpin' Burger bags. Ronnie Anne stared at his eyes. Even though they were in a crowded place, the moment their eyes met they were transported to another dimension, a place where there were only them. A place where the background music, the buzz of the people and the announcements on the speakers could not be heard over the sound of their hearts beating fast.

He took a deep breath and then gently put his hand over Ronnie Anne's. She didn't say anything, just kept staring at his eyes. She didn't flinched when he leaned an inch closer. She just held her breath, waiting. And that's all he needed to make up his mind.

Leaning in, in a somewhat quick and clumsy way, Lincoln closed the distance that separated them, and he put his lips over hers. They both closed their eyes shut, fearing that if they opened them the magic of the moment would disappear. He had barely tilted his head, so their noses were slightly touching. None of them was breathing, and they only had their lips firmly pressed against the other's. Both Lincoln and Ronnie Anne knew, in theory, how to kiss like a grown up. They knew their lips should be moving a lot more, and that they would normally open their mouths to give room for the other person's tongue. But they had seen their siblings kissing before, and they thought it was something completely gross. They were eleven. For them, just pressing their lips together was an incredible adventure.

When they ran out of air, they finally broke the kiss. They stared at each other for a second, and they were soon utterly embarrassed. They both sat staring at the front, with their arms on their sides. They were as still as statues.

"I, um, I'm sorry" Lincoln said, not daring to look at her. "For not asking you."

"You never asked me before" she remembered him.

Lincoln let out a little chuckle, seeing that she was right.

"But this was different" she continued, relaxing her shoulders a little. "The first time you kissed me it was because your sisters told you that I liked you and you wanted to keep me from kicking your butt."

"Well, in retrospective..."

"And that time at Jean Juan's" she interrupted him, "you kissed me in front of everybody because you had been really rude to me and you didn't want your sister Lori to kill you."

"What? No, at that moment I truly felt that..."

"You always had a reason to kiss me" she said, not letting him finish once again. "But not this time. Why did you kissed me?"

Lincoln finally turned his head to see her.

"I don't know" he honestly said, trying to think about what had made him take the initiative to kiss her. "I just… felt like I wanted to. Are you angry with me?"

"No… Not really" she admitted.

Lincoln managed to relax a little after hearing that at least he hadn't make her angry. Ronnie Anne, meanwhile, was getting more flustered by the second. In a way… In some ways, she really liked this new Lincoln, one so secure and sure about himself, that would take the initiative. It was so different than the rather shy and even slow guy she knew he could be at some times. But she just couldn't help but feel like there was something wrong with the whole situation.

"So… I heard you were in the hospital" she said.

Lincoln's smile disappeared.

"Yeah, I know."

"You know? Your sister Lucy told you?" She worriedly asked, fearing that the little girl might have said something she shouldn't have.

"Lucy?" He asked, confused. "No. Lori told Bobby, and he must've told you about it."

Ronnie Anne gave herself a facepalm.

"Of course. Bobby."

"You spoke with Lucy?"

"Well… Yeah, on Monday, at school. I wanted to know what had happened to you, and she told me you were still in the hospital. She told me you were fine."

"Oh. I see..."

She considered telling him that she had stopped a guy from bullying his little sister, but in the end she didn't think it was necessary to do so. She was sure that that bully wouldn't bother Lucy again, so there was no reason to worry Lincoln about nothing. Certainly, she didn't wanted to talk about how dead worried she had been about him. She regretted to have mentioned the meeting.

"You know, she thought I hated you, because of the punch I gave you when you kissed me in front of your house" she remembered.

Lincoln smiled.

"She was probably messing with you. She gets happy everytime she finds out we're meeting. Remember that time I ducked you so you wouldn't invite me to the Sadie Hawkings dance? She got me a date so I wouldn't feel bummed out."

"Really?" Ronnie Anne asked, confused. "But she was talking like she really thought I was like some kind of bully."

"I'm not pretending to understand Lucy's motives; I don't know why she'd do that. Maybe she wanted to see your reaction, I don't know. But she's fully aware of our relationship."

That word echoed inside Ronnie Anne's mind, and she felt her heart beating faster after hearing it.

Relationship. It could mean a bunch of stuff. There were friendly relationships, family relationships, even work relationships. But in that context, applied to the both of them, the word had another meaning, a new dimension. She didn't know how to define it, though. They weren't just friends. That was clear. Their relationship was beyond a normal friendship, it was something deeper. She didn't know what it was, but she loved it. They were comfortable enough with each other to be their real selves, to talk about their likes and their hobbies, knowing they wouldn't be judged. They could hang out in the arcades and play for hours, or they could go to the park, walking by the old bridge that went across the small stream, talking about ghosts, their favorite bands, what they wanted to be when they were older, the movie they had seen last night, or whatever they wanted to talk about. His messages were the only ones she always waited to read in the nights, and just by seeing a notification from "Lame-o" she would be happy. They were clearly not just friends. But what were they?

They weren't a couple because none of them had officially asked the other one about it. If Lincoln asked her to be his girlfriend, she knew she'd say yes. But that's not what she wanted. They were only eleven years old, they weren't ready to take the things to the next step. She knew how a relationship could change people; at least, she knew how it had changed Bobby. Being in a relationship brings along a lot of restrictions that would tie them up. They'd have to answer to every single text they send to each other. They'd have to be romantic. They'd have to meet as much as possible. In school, they wouldn't be able to hang out with their friends, they'd have to be with each other so everyone knew they were an item. If they were in a relationship, Lincoln could no longer talk with other girls, and she couldn't talk with other boys anymore, because they might get jealous, or people would start spreading gossips. And gossips could destroy a couple.

She didn't want any of that. She didn't wanted to lose everything that made his relationship with Lincoln special. Why changing something that so far was working out so great? Something that just felt right? If they were both happy, why not stay the way they were?

They were kids. They could be together when they were older.

"Ronnie Anne?"

She got out of her of her trance when he called her. She looked at him and noticed that he appeared to be really nervous.

"Look… I've got something to tell you. Something important" he said, looking at her with a mixture of seriousness and sadness.

'Alright, Ronnie, don't panic', she told herself in her mind. 'It's Lincoln, he won't be asking you to be his girlfriend just like that. There's nothing to be afraid of.'

"I… I like you. I really do. That's why I don't want to keep hiding this from you. I need to tell you."

'Okay, you can panic now. He's gonna tell you he loves you.'

"It's something pretty recent, pretty much no one knows this. Only my older sisters and Clyde."

'It makes sense, he must've asked his sisters for help, and Clyde's his best friend.'

"Bobby also knows about this, but don't be mad with him, I asked him to not tell you anything because I wanted to tell you this personally."

'Bobby? Why would Lincoln talk about that with Bobby?'

Lincoln grabbed Ronnie Anne's hands and took a deep breath, preparing himself to say whatever he wanted to take out of his chest. Ronnie Anne was almost dying from her nerves. She wasn't ready for it, for Lincoln to declare his love for her. She didn't want to ruin their relationship forever. Because if he told her that he loved her, there would be only two options: to say that she didn't feel the same, which would be a lie and would ruin their relationship, or to say that she loved him too, be his girlfriend and then lose the magic of their no strings attached relationship. She wasn't ready for neither option. But Lincoln was a smart and understanding guy, he would always listen to her. Maybe if she explained to him what she felt about him and their special relationship, he would understand. Maybe that was her chance of a third option.

That's why, when Lincoln started to speak, she spoke over him.

"Ronnie Anne, I only got two weeks le..."

"Let tell you something first!"

Lincoln opened his eyes astonished.

"I, um, yeah, sure" he said, not knowing how to react.

She gently squeezed his hand, and looked at him with a hint of sadness in her eyes.

"Look, I like you too, okay?" She admitted, profoundly blushing. "Like, really like you."

It was the first time in his life that she was admitting her feelings so openly, and she felt really flustered, even more than she was willing to admit. Lincoln, meanwhile, was blushing too.

"I-I'm glad to hear that, b-but that's not what I..."

"Listen, I get you. I know what you're going to say, and I… I feel the same way..."

"Ronnie Anne, I don't think we're on the same page..."

"...but I really like this thing we have right now, and I don't want it to change, to lose its magic. I don't want you to feel bad, but I don't think I'm ready to be your girlfriend."

"Wow, wow, wow, stop right there!" Lincoln said, his face as red as a tomato, gesticulating with her hands to stop Ronnie Anne. "I'm not asking you to be my girlfriend!"

Lincoln's voice was full of sadness and impotence, but Ronnie Anne misread it. She was convinced that he was about to tell her how much he loved her, and she would have to painfully explain to him that she would rather stay the way they were. But hearing him say so eloquently that he wasn't going to ask her that, she suddenly felt sad.

"You're not?" She asked, feeling a cold hand gripping her heart.

"N-No, no, it wasn't that" he nervously said. "I mean, it's not that I don't want you to be my girlfriend! I'd like that. But… But I can't. I can't ask you to be my girlfriend. Not now, after..."

"After what?" She asked, feeling worse with every word he said. What did he mean he couldn't ask her? What was he talking about? What was going on?

Lincoln opened his mouth to answer her, but a voice distracted them.

"Lincoln!"

They both looked in the direction the voice had come. Dodging the people carrying the mall bags, a girl their age was running right at them. She was wearing a navy blue blouse and skirt, and her curly auburn hair was being held in place by an orange hairband. She approached them until she was just a few meters away from the fountain, but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Ronnie Anne. They both instantly recognize her, and they couldn't hide the surprise in their voices when they pronounced her name.

"Cristina?"

.

.

.

To be continued…

Usually I'm not the kind of guy who goes by cliffhangers. But every once in a while, they come in handy.

Next chapter, part 2 of "Lincoln's Blue Period" (and that's a reference to Picasso, not to his hormonal issues), will be the inflection point I had promised you. It's amazing how the story can differ so much from my initial drafts and storyboards in terms of length. Next chapter was actually supposed to be chapter 7, but scenes I imagined would be pretty short (like the McBrides scene, the scene with Bobby and now this date with Ronnie Anne) ends up needing more development to transmit what I want them to.

But that might be a problem. What do you think about the pacing so far? I feel like it may be a little slow, but I also think that I'm giving each scene some emotional weight, or building up something bigger that will be important for later. And that kind of makes up for the slow pace. Also, in a normal story days go by pretty quick, because you can't just describe EVERYTHING that happens to a character in a single day. But this story is different, because these are Lincoln's last two/three weeks. So I can't rush the days. Let me know what you think about it.

Oh, yeah, and finally, in my OS I said I was going to write a Halloween OS. But seeing that I only have one week left, and that college is not giving me much free time, I've decided to focus on Requiem until it's finished. That horror story will have to wait. Which is a shame, because I had this spooky, psychopath, childhood-killer idea.

Again, let me know how I can improve. Besides my shitty English grammar, of course. Maybe in summer I can get into Duolingo or something like that to learn the grammar rules.

Anyway, see you on my next chapter!