Chương 3: 3. Ch 3- Rest
(A/N: I forgot to say this at the start of the last chapter, so I'll say it here- wow! I was not expecting such a positive response to this, especially straight away! Your reviews, favourites and follows have meant a lot to me, so thank you so, so much for the support!
In terms of this chapter, this is where the timeline of this story doesn't really add up with the series' chronology, so please keep that in mind. Thank you again, and I hope you continue to enjoy!)
It was just a couple of minutes after four when Lynn Sr. pulled Vanzilla into a parking school outside of Royal Woods Elementary School, with a smile on his face. It was the one day of the week where he had an early finish, so he had agreed to collect his son from school after his practice. As he turned off the engine, Lynn continued humming to himself. 'I wonder how Lincoln got on,' he thought, opening the door and stepping out. 'Who knows? Maybe he'll actually turn out to be really good at it!'
He locked the van door, before sauntering over to where he could see a number of students exiting behind the school, all wearing their PE kits. As he got closer, he saw the school's PE teacher and coach to most of the sports teams, so he raised his hand to wave at him.
"Coach!" He called out, getting the hefty man's attention. Lynn walked past a couple of students, unknowing of the fact that they were sniggering at him. "How you doing, Coach?"
"Eh, same as always, Loud," he replied. "How's the restaurant?"
Lynn's smile didn't falter, since he knew that Coach Pakowski was rather fond of the food at Lynn's Table. "Busy as usual, but today's my easy day, so I thought I'd pick up Lincoln." His expression turned serious for a moment. "Speaking of Lincoln, how did he get on? He didn't try to bail out, did he?"
"No, Lincoln turned up on time, warmed up and took part same as everyone else."
The Loud patriarch bent over and exhaled out of relief. "Well, that's good to hear. I'm just glad he made an effort." Straightening his posture, Lynn noticed his son heading towards them, accompanied by Stella with his arm around her shoulder, so he smiled. "Ah! There's my boy!"
Lincoln looked over at his dad, then turned to Stella. "I think I've got it from here," he told her.
"Are you sure?" She asked, to which the snow-capped middle child nodded. "Alright." He removed his arm from her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay. See you tomorrow, Stella." She waved to him as she walked away, while Lincoln began to slowly limp towards his father, favouring his left leg. Despite winding from the mild pain, Lincoln struggled a smile as he approached the two adults. "Hey, dad."
Lynn noticed the way Lincoln favoured his leg, and frowned. "You okay there, champ?"
"I'm okay, I just- pulled a muscle, I think."
"Yeah, I think you overexerted your leg during that last lap," Pakowski told the boy. "Just give it a day to rest, and come see me on Wednesday if it gets worse."
"Thanks, Coach," Lynn told the PE teacher.
"It's nothing." He looked back to the boy. "See you around school, kid."
Whilst Pakowski walked away, the two Loud males looked at each other. "Alright, lets head on home, kiddo," Lynn told his son. Lincoln nodded, before the two slowly made their way back to Vanzilla. Once the pair of them were in the van and buckled in, the father turned on the engine and began to drive away. "So, Lincoln, what did you think of track, huh?"
"It was… okay," Lincoln quietly responded, looking out the window.
Lynn glanced over at his son, concern taking over his mind. "Just okay?"
Lincoln sighed. "If I'm being honest with you, dad, I didn't really enjoy myself. I didn't really feel any energy for it or any accomplishment- by the end, I just felt tired."
"Well, sometimes, sports do that to you, Lincoln."
"I know, but… I just didn't have fun doing it."
Lynn sighed, giving a nod. "I hear you. Still, I'm proud of you for giving it a go this time. That's a big improvement from…" He cleared his throat, realising his mistake. "Well, you know."
Lincoln frowned. The two remained in an awkward silence for a minute or so, before Lincoln finally spoke up again. "Dad… are you upset that I'm not into sports like Lynn is?"
Lynn Sr. blinked, surprised to hear this. "What makes you say this?"
"Well, it's just… every time we come back from one of Lynn's games, you're always so proud of her, and I always notice that there are other dads doing the same for their kids. I just wondered if that was something you wanted."
The patriarch was quiet, thinking very carefully about how to respond to this sudden amount of truth, before figuring out what to say. "Lincoln… let me tell you a little something about parents. When a man finds out he is going to have a child, a lot of the time, they'll hope it's a boy, because for men, one of the first dreams you get after hearing the news is of them playing sports with their son, and if they do have a boy, that'll make them want that so much more." He took a deep breath. "I'll admit that I was like that when we found out that you were going to be a boy."
Lincoln frowned again. "Oh, I… I see."
"Now, hold on a minute, Lincoln. Let me finish. While it is true that I would have liked that, as I've watched you grow over the last eleven years, I've seen you become your own person. You've developed your own interests and hobbies, you've acquired your own skills, and you've become the person only you can be. And no matter how much I would have liked you to be into sports so we could share that, I am so much prouder at the fact that you've accomplished what you have."
"Really? But… what have I accomplished? Everyone else has all those trophies and awards and-"
Lynn chuckled. "I don't mean things like that. I mean that you've been able to grow up into a kind, caring, independently creative eleven-year-old boy. So, you don't have lots of awards and stuff, that doesn't matter. I know you say that you haven't found your path yet, but that doesn't matter either. You'll find it when you're ready to. I mean, look at me- I worked in IT for so long before I chose to become a chef. That's just how life can be." He briefly turned his head to smile at his son. "So, don't worry too much about that- just enjoy your time as a kid, and you'll find your path one way or another. I just know it."
Lincoln smiled at his father after hearing this. "Thanks, dad."
"No problem, kiddo. And I know it might sound strange that I'm saying all this, since your mother and I trying to get you to take up sport, but we won't force you to do anything you don't want to. Not again, at least." Lincoln nodded, before realising that they were already near home. Lynn pulled the van into the driveway. "You need a hand getting inside, son?"
He shook his head in response. "No, I should be okay. I think I'll just head to my room for a bit and relax."
"Sounds like a smart idea. You do that, and I'll call when dinner's ready."
"Thanks."
While Lincoln got out of the car and steadily limped towards the house, Lynn locked Vanzilla before going ahead to get the door for him. The father of eleven watched as his son gingerly walked past him and up the stairs, before walking through the living room, which was surprisingly empty at that time of day, and entered the bedroom he shared with his wife. Once inside, he sat down on the bed, which was already half occupied by Rita, who smiled upon seeing him.
"Hey, honey," she greeted as he stuck his legs up on the bed after removing his shoes, "how was work?"
"It was okay," he replied, "Monday's are always a light day, which makes things easier. What about you? How was your day?"
"Same as always, I guess." She put down the book that was in her hands. "So, did you get Lincoln from track?"
"Yeah, I did."
She frowned upon hearing his slightly downcast tone. "So, I'm guessing he didn't do so well?"
"Well, Coach told me he tried pretty much as hard as the rest of the students, but Lincoln pulled a muscle during the final race. Plus, when I asked him about it, Lincoln told me he didn't enjoy himself that much."
"He actually said that?" Lynn nodded, causing her to sigh. "Well, at least we know he tried."
"So, what do we do now?"
"Well, there must be something he can enjoy. We just know it won't be track or football, but if he keeps trying new things, then I'm sure he'll find something."
"Honey, do you think we should maybe let Lincoln find something himself?" Rita looked questioningly at her husband. "We both know that it's best for him if he finds SOME way of getting exercise, but maybe us finding it for him is the wrong way to go about it."
"You really think so?"
"I really do."
She mulled it over in her head for a moment, before deciding he was right. "Alright. I just hope he finds something."
Lynn placed a hand on her shoulder and gave an encouraging smile. "He will. We just need to trust him."
Lincoln lowered his comic when he heard his door open. Looking to who had opened it, he saw Lynn Jr approach on her crutches. "Hey, bro!" She said. "How was track?"
"Oh, hey, Lynn," he replied. "It was… okay."
He moved to sit himself upright, causing him to wince when he felt a bit of pain in his favoured leg. Lynn immediately took notice of this. "You okay?"
"Yeah, just pulled something." He rubbed the sore spot a little. "It'll be fine, I'm sure."
"Want me to take a look at it?"
"That's okay, Lynn, you don't need to-" She ignored this as she shuffled his leg and sat next to it, before beginning to massage it. "Ah! Easy, Lynn, that- actually… that's pretty good." She smirked as her brother relaxed while she massaged the pulled muscle. "How did you get so good at massaging people?"
She scoffed. "Lincoln, I've been doing sports for more than half my life, and I've had every kind of minor injury you can get, along with a couple of not so minor ones. That, and with the amount of times me and the girls have gone to a spa, I've had pretty much every kind of massage there is- Swedish, Shiatsu, Sports, Thai, you name it. After a while, I kind of just picked it up."
"Well, this is actually really helpful. Thanks."
"No problem, bro. So, what did you think of track?"
He frowned. "Well… I didn't really enjoy myself that much. After a while, I just felt like I was running for the sake of it. I don't see myself doing that again."
"Eh, no sweat, bro. You just need to find one that you like."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really? This coming from the girl who does every sport imaginable?"
Again, she scoffed. "Oh, yeah, because you guys totally come to see my dance recitals and netball games." They both had a laugh at this, before Lynn stopped massaging his leg and turned to face him properly. "If I named all the sports I've tried, and all the sports that I still do, you'd see that the first list is a lot longer than the second."
Lincoln was interested at where this was going. "So, what sports don't you do anymore?"
"Well, for one thing, I remember when Lori tried to show me how to play golf, and I got bored within the first five minutes. Why can't they make it more interesting, like have everyone race to get the ball in the hole?!" Again, Lincoln started laughing, much to the joy of his sister. "Also, I may have joked about it, but I did try netball once, and I didn't really get into it. Same goes for volleyball and tennis."
"What about dance? Did you ever try that?"
"Never in a million years, bro." She shuffled a bit towards him. "The point is, there'll be things you like and things you don't like. You just need to give things a try and see for yourself."
He gave it a few seconds to sink in, before replying, "thanks, Lynn."
"No problem, bro." She raised a fist, which caused him to flinch. She prepared to punch him, but stopped herself. "Normally, I'd give you two for flinching, but I think you'll get one of these instead."
Lincoln was surprised when Lynn pulled her little brother into a hug, but didn't argue and simply returned it with a smile.
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