51

"Yes, that was it." Lucy looked upset.

Lincoln comically scraped his sister's hair.

"Do I notice a tone of jealousy? What's the matter, little sis? You want me just for you?" Lincoln wiped the lipstick off his face and caressed Lucy's head while giving her a tender kiss on the cheek, making the goth girl blush. "Don't worry, little sis, I will always be yours. Now eat; you can't start the day on an empty stomach."

Lucy looked at the stairs and was surprised. It was a plate of dark chocolate waffles with red maple syrup and a glass of red fruit juice. "How did you make the dough black?"

"With black vegetable dye that I bought at the organic market a few days before I came. When you're done, you call me to take the tray."

Lucy looked at the tray again, her face sad now. "You're spoiling me so much, I can do it."

Lincoln turned to where Lucy was, and though he could not see with his eyes covered by that rim, his sister knew he was looking at her tenderly. "If you say so," Lincoln said, leaving the room and closing the door.

Lucy sighed with relief, put the tray down, and proceeded to put on her pants and skirt and eat her breakfast. She still didn't understand how her brother, being blind, could cook so well.

Lincoln is heading downstairs when he hears shouting coming from one of his sisters' rooms.

"Lincoln." Even after three years, he could recognize that tone of voice.

"What's the matter, Lola?" Lincoln asked.

Lola came out of her room with a big pink backpack. "I want you to accompany me to my training place for the beauty pageant in two weeks."

"It's not that I don't want to. But isn't Mom usually with you?"

"Mom came back so tired last night from her date with Dad. And none of the oldest had time."

"I see. Well, I'll take you." Lincoln responded with a good-natured smile that, after three years of being away from his younger sisters, he would have put up with even Lola's whims.

"Good. Take my bag, and let's go."

Lincoln wore the shirt Leni had made for him under his jacket, while Lola wore a very elegant winter outfit in shades of pink.

Downstairs, Lori and Leni's friends have breakfast with the Loud sisters.

"Hmm. It's amazing that your brother cooks so well." Tori tasted Lincoln's blueberry muffins.

"I could eat this every day and not care if it went straight to my hips." Fiona had just finished and was satisfied.

"Your brother will someday make a great husband, Lori." Dana was drinking a glass of fresh juice.

The word husband made all the girls at the table, including Leni, go into a dream and imagine a future with Lincoln.

Lori snapped her fingers to wake her friends from their fantasies. "Hi, he's my brother, and he's underage, you perverts."

"You'll just have to wait three years," Carol said, biting her lower lip.

Dana took the waffle butter. "Just as you won't be able to take care of him forever, someday he'll find a girl to take care of him. Oh, the blind are good with their hands. I wonder how true that is. Perhaps I should be the one to take care of Lincoln."

"You really do." Lori said as she took one last bite of the waffle.

Jackie still had a stubborn look. "My sexy blind man." She fantasized about kissing him passionately on the lips when, in reality, her friends only saw her kissing a waffle while she filled her face with syrup.

Lincoln and Lola came down the stairs, ready to go.

"Goodbye, Lori. I'll take Lola to her beauty pageant practice."

"Okay, be careful."

The girls turned around and flirtatiously waved in unison.

Down the street, Lincoln and Lola were walking towards the Royal Woods Theatre. Lola walked holding Lincoln's hand, causing tenderness to the people they saw passing by, thinking what a good girl the little princess could do to help a poor blind boy.

Suddenly, an alarm bell is heard in a store, from which two burly men emerge. One with brown hair and black hair with a hairstyle similar to Lincoln's and the other with lighter hair and spiky brown hair, both laden with several bags of liquor, packs of cigarettes, and the occasional adult magazine, as well as the money box. The criminals board a potentially stolen snowmobile and begin their escape.

"Hawk faster, start! said the dark-haired man, riding a snow scooter and slapping his friend's back.

"Damn, stop hitting me." With the turn of a key, the snow scooter kicks off with a powerful engine roar. "Hey, that's nice; let's get out of here." The youngsters start moving at full speed.

Meanwhile, Lincoln and Lola were four blocks from reaching their destination and another four blocks from the approaching snowmobile at full speed.

"Let's go, Lincoln, quick."

"Calm down, Lola; we leave about an hour before your start."

"You don't get it; if I don't show up so early, Lindsay will have the whole stage and the best props."

"Well, I see it. The early bird stays with the worms."

"Exactly, And also Iach. But forget about it; we have to hurry; come on, I know a shortcut here." Lola took Lincoln down a diagonal street that cuts a block towards the theater; they just had to cross the street. The traffic light was red, allowing pedestrians to cross. Lola had already reached the middle of the street, and Lincoln was following her, when suddenly Lincoln's ear caught the sound of an approaching engine, which accelerated more and more towards them.