Capítulo 37: 37. Ch 37- The First To Know
Lynn stood there for a moment, silently taking in her surroundings. It was by no means her first time seeing vaults and balance beams and rings and the like- she had used them herself a couple of times during gym class, but never particularly by choice, as she had never taken much joy out of it. She had even been to this particular sports centre at least once before, but she had never been to this particular room in the centre, and pretty much never knew it existed. She could see a few younger children, already dressed for exercise, talking amongst each other, as well as who she assumed were some of their parents, while also seeing an adult man in a white t-shirt and red shorts with a clipboard in his hand.
"So," she finally spoke after about half a minute of silence, "all those times you said you were going to dodgeball practice… you've been coming here?"
Turning to look at her brother again, she saw him nod, his frown reflecting his guilt. "Yeah. This is what I've been doing all this time. I would've told you sooner, but… I wasn't sure how you and the others would react."
"So, this whole time… you've kept it from us?" He could hear her voice rise a little, worrying him that she was angry. "Do any of them know?"
"Well, mom found out a few weeks ago- I didn't lie when I said she saw me practice a little, though I didn't know she had seen it until practice was over." Lynn's eyes widened slightly as she remembered when her mother had taken her to the hospital for a checkup on her leg, and how Lincoln had called her to pick him up. "Once I had told her, I told dad after dinner while you guys were having a meeting."
Lynn's eyes widened again. "Wait a minute. Mom told us that you weren't at that meeting because you were keeping dad distracted so we could help her think of a present for his birthday. Was that just…"
"A decoy?" He rubbed the back of his arm, his nerves increasing. "Y-Yeah, sort of. I don't know if mom actually needed help with that or not."
She was going to say something about this, but seeing how her brother was clearly nervous about opening up to her about… well, everything, she decided to take a quick breath before asking, "so, mom and dad know. Is that it?"
"Well, Clyde and the others found out at our sleepover, though that was kind of… well, it's a long story."
"You didn't even tell them about it at first?"
With a shake of his head, he explained, "I was worried about one of you finding out from them. Clyde comes over quite a bit, and then there's the chance one of our younger sisters could overhear at school."
"So… s-so, this whole time, you've-"
"Lincoln!" They heard a voice call, both turning to see Chris jogging over. "Practice starts in five minutes, so you better go get changed."
"Okay. Chris, this is my sister Lynn. Is it okay if she watches practice?"
"Sure thing, man."
Lincoln nodded, then turned to Lynn and asked, "is it okay if we talk about this after?"
"Sure… we'll talk later." Though he could sense she wasn't fully happy about that, he walked off in the direction of the changing room, giving Lynn the opportunity to talk to Chris alone. "Nice to meet you, I guess."
He saw the girl extend her hand, so he shook it. "Nice to meet you too, Lynn. Lincoln's told me you've trained him a little on the side."
"Y-Yeah, kind of."
He gave a small laugh before replying, "yeah, Linc's told me a little about the… situation, I guess is what you could call it." Taking a knee, he put a hand on her shoulder, getting her full attention. "I know you've got a lot of thoughts going round your head- questions you want to ask him, doubts, maybe a bit of confusion."
She scoffed. "A bit is an understatement."
"Yeah, you're probably right. I'm not exactly a psychologist or whatever, so take this with a pinch of salt… but don't go too hard on the guy. All these things you're feeling, he's probably feeling the same things."
"I… I guess." He gave a small nod, then got back to his feet before she could ask, "so… what sort of things do you teach here?"
While Lynn was speaking with Chris, Lincoln entered the changing room, placing his gym bag on a nearby hook as he began to get changed. While he was doing that, Artie- fully dressed in his leotard- saw Lincoln and smiled. "Hey, Lincoln," he greeted. "I was wondering when you'd show up."
"Oh, hey, Artie," Lincoln replied, making the brown-haired boy's smile drop.
"Woah, you okay?" Looking at the Loud boy's face, he remarked, "you look kind of spooked."
As he put on his gym shirt, Lincoln looked over and explained, "something like that. I've decided to tell one of my sisters, and she's out there talking with Chris at the moment."
"Ah, I get you. Worried about how she's reacting to all of this?" Lincoln nodded. "Well, you're letting her actually watch rather than just telling her, so I guess if you show her how much you're enjoying it, it'll help. Worst case scenario, it softens the blow."
With a deadpan expression, Lincoln's remark to this was, "gee, thanks."
Artie let out a couple of chuckles. "I'm joking, dude. Relax, she's not gonna flip out on you or anything."
'I'm glad you think so,' the white haired boy couldn't help but think, but instead of saying this, he offered a smile and said, "thanks." Artie nodded, before getting to his feet and leaving the changing room, leaving Lincoln alone with his thoughts as he continued to get changed. 'Okay, Lincoln,' he thought to himself. 'There's no turning back now. Just take it a step at a time. You've made it this far. You can do this.'
Once he was fully dressed, he made his way back out of the changing room, where everyone else was ready for practice, while he could see that Chris was still talking with Lynn. While he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, he simply hoped for the former as he walked over to Jordan.
"You okay?" She immediately asked him.
"As much as I can be, I guess," he confessed, then quickly added, "still, I might as well enjoy myself. That's why I come here, after all."
She smiled and gave a nod. "Exactly."
"Alright, kids!" They heard Chris call out, turning in time to see him walk over. "Let's get started with a warm up."
So, for the next couple of hours, Chris led the kids through another session of TeamGym, starting with the trampette after warming up, focusing first on the proper technique for the jump, then on recovery from the initial landing, both for the vault trampette and the vaultless trampette. After a five minute break, they moved onto tumbling, spending at least half an hour working on some new manoeuvres for the kids to learn, before allowing them to do a run.
Throughout the session, Lynn watched on- mainly focusing on Lincoln to see how he was doing, but occasionally looking at what some of the other kids were doing as well. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't interested, having been curious from the start since this was what Lincoln had revealed to have been doing for the past month. She couldn't honestly say that she understood why Lincoln was interested in this, since it wasn't the type of sport where you could win, or at least not like basketball or hockey. Then again, seeing her brother practice as he did, she couldn't deny that he seemed to be into it. As his older sister, she was happy to see him happy, but she was in two minds about the situation.
Lincoln, on the other hand, did his best to focus on the session at hand. Whenever he was chosen to do a run or practice a move, this was relatively easy, as it took his full attention to make sure he didn't screw up- one moment of distraction could cause even the slightest misplacement of a hand or foot to throw him off, but he was fortunate enough to avoid that for the most part, and was starting to feel like he was really getting the hang of it. When it wasn't his run or his turn, however, he found himself occasionally glancing over to Lynn, trying to see if he could figure out how she was reacting to all of this. She would occasionally be looking at him when he looked over at her, so he would quickly look away again in an attempt to avoid suspicion, but when she wasn't looking, her facial expression gave away no signs as to what she was thinking. This didn't comfort him, but at the same time, it didn't make him feel more worried. All he could do was hope that she would open up to him afterward.
After the final stretches and cool down were complete, the session was over and the kids began to leave, some going straight away while others went to get changed first. Lincoln, however, made his way over to his sister first. "So… what did you think?" He nervously asked.
She didn't answer straight away, instead trying to think how to word it. "It was… interesting," she eventually told her brother, her answer not instilling confidence in him.
"Oh… so, you didn't enjoy it."
She mentally groaned at this, her guilt appearing when she saw him frown. "That's not what I… look, bro. It's not that I didn't enjoy it. I'm just… not used to being on the sidelines during practices, you know?" He did nod, showing he understood, but it didn't make him feel better, and it showed. With a heavy sigh, she put a hand on his shoulder, attracting his gaze. "Look, Linc, I'm gonna be straight with you- I need to think about this a bit. Can we maybe talk about this later?"
As he looked back at his sister, he could see a bit of pain behind her stare, letting him know that none of this was easy for her, possibly even harder than it was for him. "… okay," he answered with a nod, his voice unconsciously quieter.
"Alright. Mom's outside, she said she'd drop Jordan off and take us home, so I'll head out to meet her, while you and your friend get changed."
He nodded again, and they both went their separate ways, with Lynn heading towards the exit and Lincoln heading into the changing room. Artie had already packed up and left by the time Lincoln was done talking with his sister, so he was the only one there as he put his feet into his shoes and grabbed his bag with his other clothes, then made his way back out, where he saw Jordan stood waiting for him. "My mom said she'll drive you home," he told his friend. "She's waiting outside with Lynn."
"Okay," she replied, the two beginning to walk towards the entrance. "How's everything going with your sister? How's she taking everything?"
"Honestly? Not as well as I'd like, though better than I was expecting. She said she needs to think about it."
"I see. What about you?" He looked at her, a little confused. "How are you taking all this?"
A small exhale escaped from his mouth, before he told her, "about the same as her, I think. Not as well as I'd like it to, but a bit better than I had feared."
"I guess that's a good thing," she offered, trying to make him feel better about the situation. "I'd ask if you want me to talk to her, but… I don't know if it's my place to." She placed a hand on his upper arm, then added, "well, if you need someone to talk to later, then give me a text, okay?"
He smiled, thankful for her being supportive. "Thanks, Jordan."
Almost half an hour later, Vanzilla arrived back at Franklin Avenue, Rita having already dropped off Jordan before getting her kids home. The ride had been quiet for the most part, with Rita speaking to Jordan slightly more than her kids since Jordan actually spoke back. Lynn didn't even make a remark when Lincoln and Jordan shared a hug before the Rosato girl got out of the van. As Rita turned off the engine, she turned to her kids, who had already undone their seatbelts, and said, "alright, we're back." Lincoln got out of the van first, but before Lynn could, Rita told her, "one second, Lynn." The dental assistant waited for her son to go in the house, before asking the young athlete, "so, is everything okay between you two now?"
"S-Sort of," she confessed, scratching her cheek nervously. She had already been told by her mother that she knew why Lincoln had asked her to join him at practice. "We didn't get much chance to talk one-on-one, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all."
"Hmm… I see. Well, make sure you think about it, and remember that this is just as hard for Lincoln as it is for you. Okay?" She nodded to her mother. "Alright. Now, go on in. I need to speak with Mr Grouse. Apparently, one of Lana's pets snuck into his garden and scared him."
With a shake of her head, the mother of eleven left her van and prepared to deal with her grouchy neighbour, leaving her fifth eldest daughter to head inside, making a steady beeline towards her shared bedroom, where her goth younger sister sat at her desk, writing what was likely another poem. "Hey, Luce," she greeted, practically leaping onto her bed. "What's shaking?"
"Nothing, really," she responded in her typically monotonous way. "How was Lincoln's training?"
"Oh, it was… kinda cool." The second Lynn heard Lucy's pen stop scribing, she knew exactly what was about to happen: 'she'll put her quill back in her ink pot, close her stupid book, shuffle her chair back, and turn to face me.' Lo and behold, that was exactly what happened.
"'Kinda cool'? You, Lynn Loud Jr, who plays in at least seven different sports regularly, and loves everything sport related… thought it was 'kinda cool'." Despite not looking at her younger sister, she knew that despite her eyes not being visible for her bangs, her eyes were squinted in confusion.
"Oh, buzz off, Luce. I've got stuff on my mind right now, I don't need you on my case."
"… is it to do with Lincoln?"
"Come on, Luce, what part of buzz of don't you get?"
"Sigh. Okay, fine. I'll just go talk to Lincoln."
Lucy didn't even fully make it to her feet before Lynn had sat back up and was saying, "wait, alright, fine, I'll tell you." With a sliver of a smile, Lucy shuffled her chair towards the jock, who was thinking about how to explain it without breaking her promise to her brother. "Here's the deal- Lincoln talked to me about something, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, I'm happy he told me, but on the other hand, I'm mad he chose now to tell me." Lucy opened her mouth, but Lynn was quick to cut her off and explain, "I'm not telling you what he said." Lucy's mouth promptly shut again, while her older sister simply sighed. "Honestly, I don't know what to think about all this."
Lucy took the moment to take in her sister's posture, tone and facial expression. She was hunched forward, whereas Lynn usually stood up straight as a sign of her physical prowess. Her eyes looked slightly tired, staring down at the floor, and her voice sounded kind of lost, making Lucy able to tell that Lynn was desperately trying to figure it out, and while it wasn't blatant, she figured it was because she didn't want to ruin the relationship between her and their brother, which had been somewhat improved as of late.
"Can I give you some advice?"
Lynn gave a small scoff at the suggestion, remarking, "I thought that was my job. But, yeah, I could definitely use it. What you got, Coach?"
"Think about whatever he told you from his perspective. If you can figure out where he's coming from, it might shed some light and help you put your own thoughts into perspective."
Lynn thought about it for a second, her sister's advice bringing a smile to her face. "That's pretty good, Lucy. Kind of like when playing football, you've gotta think about what the other team is planning so you can prepare your defence."
"… sure."
Lynn gave a smirk, seeing that her sister didn't realise how that analogy worked. "Thanks, Lucy."
"Sure thing." Before Lynn could do anything else, the goth girl asked, "could you help me with my poetry? I'm struggling to get the flow going."
"… eh, sure, why not? We've got some time before Dream Boat."
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