Chapitre 74: 74. Ch 74- No Joke
(A/N: hello, everyone! Now, as I previously mentioned, I'm gonna be working on a project for potentially the whole of July. Again, I'll let you guys know if something comes of it, but for now, all I can say is, I may not have as much time to work on this fic over that month. I'll upload when I'm able to, but that's all I can do for the time being, as this project is gonna take a lot of my time. I'm sorry for this and I hope you can understand, you've been so supportive with this fic and with all of my work, and without that support, I don't think I'd ever be able to do this project I'm working on.
Until I next speak to you guys, thank you for reading, and enjoy!)
While things were happy over at the elementary school during lunchtime, the same couldn't be said for everyone at Royal Woods High School. Most of the high school students were talking with their friends as they ate their lunches, but a certain brunette was sat by herself at a picnic table outside, staring with almost no emotion at the half eaten sandwich in her hands. Luan sighed, her hunger having somewhat faded. 'That seems about right,' she thought to herself, lowering the morsel back into the brown paper bag.
"I thought I'd find you here," she heard a voice from behind her say, though she didn't turn to face him. She just grew a faint attempt at a smile.
"You know me, Benny. If I can't keep my thoughts inside, I've gotta go outside." She heard a chuckle, finally turning her head to look over her shoulder and see a boy with brown curly hair, wearing a blue and white two-tone button shirt with dark grey jeans and white sneakers. He had a soft smile on his face, more apparent than the one Luan dared to make. "What are you doing here?"
"I was worried about you, Luan." He sat down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I saw that you weren't that focused in drama class, and I knew something was up." She looked down, no smile left on her face. "Is everything okay?"
"No… just the same as usual."
His smile faltered upon hearing this. "Oh, so… things haven't turned out alright between you and your brother yet?"
She shook her head, to which he sighed. Luan had told her boyfriend the previous Friday about what was happening with her family, and while the boy had been deeply disappointed by the comedienne's actions, he knew he couldn't be mad at her, instead offering a shoulder to cry on. She was appreciative of the support he gave her, even if part of her felt that she didn't deserve it.
"So far, three of my sisters have made up with him, and three of them already knew the truth. I'm not hurt at him not telling me anymore… if anything, I feel he was right not to."
"Don't say that! I don't know your brother like you do, but I'm sure he would have told you eventually. It sounds like he was just-"
"Scared of how we were going to react." Her eyes grew sadder. "And we proved him right to be."
Benny frowned, not saying anything for a few seconds as he studied Luan. He had never been fond of hearing her talk in such a low manner, especially about herself- even in his disappointment, he still saw the absolute world in her and wanted to do whatever he could to help her out. Of course, he knew that there wasn't all that much that could be done on his end, given this was a family matter, and he wasn't part of her family, so he couldn't interject himself. That didn't stop him from being there for Luan, though.
"Have you spoken to him since Friday?"
She gave a shake of her head, eyes directed at the table in front of her. "Not particularly. A couple of "hey Lincoln"s and a thanks after he finished using the bathroom, but we haven't talked." He was going to ask her something else, but she had more to say first. "I spoke to Luna yesterday, after school. She said she had managed to make up with Lincoln, but she had to come up with a song to help her to tell him how she felt. If I tried that, I'd just make things worse."
Benny gave a small tilt of his head. "What do you mean?"
She shuffled slightly, allowing her to face him more directly. "I couldn't write a song like Luna, because I'm not that good when it comes to music. I definitely can't write a joke or a routine to let Lincoln know how I feel about all this. He'll think I'm not taking it seriously, and that'll just make things worse!" She ducked her head again. "I'm hopeless."
"No, you're not!" She flinched slightly from the sharp response, but lifted her head when she felt his hand against her cheek, guiding her gaze up to meet his. "Luan, I know that you can figure this out. You are the most caring, considerate, amazing girl I know. You've shown me that you care about people, your family most of all, and I can't imagine how tough things have been for you and your siblings with what's happened… but if your sister Luna can make up with him, then I know you can."
Seeing the confidence in his smile and the hope in his eyes, Luan couldn't help but blush, giving a goofy smile of her own. "Aww, Benny… even when I feel like I'm at rock bottom, you always know how to pick me up." He gave a small chuckle, before seeing her smile fade. "Still, I wish I knew how I could show him that I want to support him. That's what he deserves, above all else."
"You're right, Luan. I wish I knew what you could… wait… that's it!" Luan watched curiously as his eyes lit up in realisation. "You want to support your brother, right?" Slightly confused as to where this was going, Luan nodded. "Well, why don't you go support him? When your brother next has practice, show him that you support him!"
Though it took her a couple of seconds to figure it out, she gasped when she eventually did, her eyes going wide in the process. "That's it… that's it! Why didn't I think of that? Benny, you're a genius!"
It was the curly haired boy's turn to blush slightly, scratching his cheek with his index finger. "I wouldn't say that."
She gave a giggle at how cute he was acting, before realising something else. "Benny, I know I owe you for helping me figure this out, but I need to go speak to my sister real quick. I promise that I'll make this up to you somehow, but-"
"Luan, it's okay. I can wait, just go."
She smiled again. "Thanks, Ben." She packed up her lunch and grabbed her bag, then stood from the picnic table. She began to walk away, but stopped after a few steps. "Oops! Almost forgot!"
"What do you-" Before he could finish that sentence, Luan had turned around and walked up to him, allowing the Loud to place a quick and tender kiss on the boy's lips, making his eyes go wide in surprise. She let go after about four seconds, leaving the boy in a dazed state.
"Thank you, Benny. I'll repay you properly soon."
With that, she walked away, the boy eventually melting into a giggling, lovesick mess once she was gone. "Wow…"
After she had left her boyfriend, Luan had found Lori in the lunch hall. She let Lori know of her plan, and though she wasn't entirely confident, she accepted it and agreed to let the other high school Louds know. After that, Luan returned to Benny and they talked for the rest of lunch until classes resume. She managed decently enough to focus on her classes without getting too caught up over what was to come. When the final bell eventually rang, she grabbed her stuff from her locker and almost ran out of the doors, knowing that she didn't really have time to waste. She needed to get their before practice started, not wanting to spook her brother by showing up halfway through.
The sports centre was further from the high school than it was from the elementary school, so when she caught up enough to see Lincoln and his friends entering the sports centre, she came to a stop so she could ready herself. 'Alright, this is it, Luan,' she thought to herself. 'No turning back… God, I hope I'm not making a mistake.' Her doubts began to resurface from the back of her mind, fighting to convince her to turn around and walk away, but she knew that nothing would be achieved that way, so she forced them back. 'No, Luan. It's time I made this right.'
With the admittedly small amount of resolve she was able to muster, she stepped into the sports centre. The first thing she did when inside was approach the reception desk. "Excuse me," she said to the blonde woman. "Where can I find gymnastics practice?"
"Head right down there, turn left at the end and go through the double doors," she explained.
"Thanks!" With that, Luan followed the directions she had been given, eventually finding the double doors and pushing her way through. As she saw just how big the gymnastics area was, she gave a whistle as she looked around. "Fancy! And I thought Chuckle's Clown School was big, but this is gym-massive!"
She gave a small chuckle at her joke, not noticing that someone was approaching her from behind. "Excuse me." She jumped slightly, turning to see Chris looking at her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
She placed a hand against her chest to calm herself down, smiling back at him. "Oh, it's fine, really. I wasn't really paying attention. Pretty scare-less of me, am I right?"
She laughed again, with Chris giving a weak chuckle of his own. "Right… so, are you here to try gymnastics?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm actually here to watch my brother. That's okay, right?"
"Of course! Usually, we just get parents or maybe grandparents who come by and support the kids, but brothers and sisters can too. So, since I know Artie only has a brother, I can only guess you're one of Lincoln's sisters."
"I am, yeah. Has he… mentioned us?"
"He has, he… yeah, he has."
She could tell from the way his tone dropped slightly and how he hesitated that not all of what he had heard had been good, making her smile drop. "Oh… I see…"
He saw that the girl's demeanour had lowered, making him gently raise an eyebrow. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I just… I'm thinking this might have been a mistake. Maybe I should go."
"No, no, no, no! Hey, hey, listen. You don't have to leave, and I think you should stay."
"You do? But, you said that Lincoln had told you about us."
"He did, and he told me about what's been happening, so I think I know why you've come here. You want to show him you care, right?"
"W-well, yeah, but it's more than that." She grabbed the back of her wrist and began to rub her forearm, looking down slightly. "Lincoln's been our biggest supporter for all of our activities, and… we wanna support him for his. We screwed up before, and now we wanna make things right. I wanna make things right."
Chris' smile returned. "Then stay. Watch your brother practice, and then after practice is over, tell him that." He looked over and saw more of his trainee's arriving. "I need to go start things up, so just think about what I said, okay?"
"Okay." She let the instructor walk away, before looking around some more. She noticed that some girls she had seen hanging with Lincoln were looking at her, so she diverted her gaze, which was when she saw her brother exit the changing room in his workout clothes. The second his gaze locked with hers, she knew that this was it. 'Let's make this work.'
She smiled and gave a wave, prompting the boy to confusedly wave back. He made his way over to the high schooler, no urgency in his steps but no hesitation either. "Luan?" he greeted. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I didn't have any homework or anywhere to be, so I thought I'd come see you practice," she explained. "Hope you don't mind."
"Uh… I guess? Still, it's… kind of odd that you just showed up."
"What, I can't come and see my little brother practice his hobby? Don't be gym-nasty." She gave her typical laugh, following it up with a "get it?"
Lincoln's mouth opened as he prepared to respond, but after a moment, his expression soured. "Oh… oh, I get it, alright."
She was slightly confused by his darkened tone, but after a second, her smile dropped and she began to regret her approach to the conversation. "No… no, Lincoln, wait a second."
"No, Luan, I'm not gonna wait! For what, just so you can think of more jokes to make about this? What, it wasn't enough for you to laugh at me before?!"
"No! That's not why I'm here! Lincoln, I swear-"
"Then why are you here?!"
"BECAUSE I WANTED TO SUPPORT YOU!" The boy jumped back from the sudden outburst. Her eyes were squeezed tightly as she clenched her hands, but when she looked back at her brother, she saw him look at her in shock, and her vision become obstructed by sudden tears. Any words she had planned on saying to the boy were failing to come out, and all she was able to do was pant for a few seconds before eventually yelling, "forget it!"
Before Lincoln could say anything to stop her, Luan took off running for the exit. He called out for her to come back, but she didn't return, shoving her way through the double doors and leaving the boy to himself. He knew from the sudden silence that all eyes were on him, but that didn't even begin to concern him. His sister, on the other hand, did.
"Lincoln?" He heard Jordan ask, walking up to him to look at him with concerned eyes. "What happened?"
He couldn't even look her in the face, his heart sunken. "I screwed up… again."
Luan burst out of the sports centre, the air suddenly feeling a lot colder against her face. The tears could no longer be held back, and her hands were shaky as she lifted them to her head. "Why did I think this was a good idea?" she shouted to no one in particular. "Why did I think I deserved him forgiving me?! Why did- WOAH!" In her self deprecation, she didn't realise that she had caught her foot on something, causing her to stagger until she fell roughly to the ground. She was going to get up, but she instead just stayed their on her hands and knees, crying not from the pain of the fall but from how fitting it was. "That sums it right up, doesn't it?"
In her state, she didn't hear Lincoln exit the sports centre after her, gasping when he saw his sister on the ground. "Luan!" He ran over to her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said with little energy, using her grazed hands to push herself into a seated position on the sidewalk. "Why do you care? Or, rather, why should you care?"
He was taken aback. "What do you mean, why should I care? You're my sister."
"Even after what I did?"
"Yes, even after that. I'm never going to want to see you hurt, and there's nothing you could do to change that, Luan."
She finally looked at him, looking for any sign of deceit in his gaze, but found only truth. Because of this, she gave a small scoff and looked down again. "We don't deserve a brother like you, Lincoln. What we did was… no. What I did was wrong. I laughed at you when you were trying to tell us about your hobby, and if I hadn't done that, everything would be fine. The others wouldn't have thought you were joking, you wouldn't be mad at us, and I wouldn't be here feeling like a guilty idiot."
Lincoln frowned from hearing his sister talk like this. He had already heard four of his sister's talk bad about themselves this past week, all because of his mistake. Hearing it from Luan, though- a girl who had devotion to making people happier- it felt like a piece of her heart was missing, and that was what really made his heart drop. "Luan… I was only mad at you in the moment. I haven't been mad since, just… upset, if anything." She nodded, and was going to say something, but he beat her to it as he sat down beside her. "And it's not your fault this happened. It's mine."
Luan's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about? I'm the one that laughed first."
"And I'm the one that hid this from all of you for two months! If I hadn't been such a… a coward and just told you all the truth, I wouldn't have snapped at all of you! I wouldn't have been avoiding you! I wouldn't have struggled to tell you all the truth if I had just…"
She heard him give another sigh, this one shakier, so she looked and saw that he was fighting back tears. "Lincoln?" He looked at her, and she sniffled before pulling her towards him, allowing both siblings to embrace. "This is not your fault. Sure, you didn't tell us for two months… but if we hadn't made you think we would act like we did, you wouldn't have done that. More importantly, if I hadn't laughed when you told us the truth, we wouldn't be here right now like this. So, I'm sorry that I made everyone act like they did, I'm sorry that I acted like I did, and I'm sorry that we made you think you couldn't trust us."
He hugged her tighter, letting a few tears drop onto her shirt. "I forgive you, Luan."
A smile graced her lips. "Thank you." The two sat there for another twenty seconds or so, neither wanting to let the hug end. They only looked up when they felt something cold land on their heads up, making them realise something. "Woah! It's snowing!"
"Guess winter really is here."
"Really makes you winter, don't it?" She chuckled to herself, with Lincoln joining her a second later, before she began to stand up. "Come on. You'll freeze out here, and you still have gymnastics practice to do."
"Right, yeah. Do you… still want to watch?"
Her smile grew. "I'd like that." He smiled back and nodded, before leading her into the sports centre again. When they eventually returned to the gymnastics hall, Lincoln ran over to his friends to rejoin the session, whilst Luan just watched on from the side. As he listened to his instructor and began to follow his direction, she whispered to herself, "I'm happy for you, Lincoln."
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone