章節 57: 57. Ch 57- Thanksgiving pt 1
(A/N: hey, everyone! Hope everyone's doing alright with the current circumstances. I know things are… to say the least, different right now, so I'm hoping that this story can at least bring a little bit of happiness to your day. Now, I know some of you are going to say once you've read this, 'Fiction, why are you doing a Thanksgiving chapter in April?' Well, originally, this chapter would've hopefully been up either before Thanksgiving or shortly after it, but after having taken a couple of breaks and starting another story alongside this one, that has obviously not been the case. Still, this chapter kind of had to happen at Thanksgiving for the sake of the timeline, so I hope that no one minds me doing that.
That's all I have to say for now, so thank you all for reading, and enjoy!)
The next morning had come, and after breakfast had passed, most of the Louds had gathered on the couch to watch some tv, none of them on their way to school since all schools were shut for Thanksgiving. The only ones not in the living room were the two parents, with Lynn beginning to cook in the kitchen whilst Rita looked after Lily in the baby's room, and Lori was still in her room.
"It's gonna be pretty weird not having Lori here for Thanksgiving," Lynn acknowledged.
"Yeah, but you remember the deal with the Casagrande's," Lana replied. "This year, they get Thanksgiving and we get Christmas."
"Yeah, you're right. Still, pretty weird."
"Given our eldest sibling's future plans of seeking further education, it will be likely that… that this will be the first of many occasions in which she won't be here," Lisa explained, her tone dropping as it sank in.
Lincoln noticed how his sisters all began to frown as they too let that idea sink in. "Come on, girls," he said, warmth in his voice. "It won't be like we won't see her at all. If anything, when she does go to college, it'll just make the moments we do see her more special."
Luna smiled, ruffling her brother's hair. "Always look on the bright side of life, huh, bro?" she mused.
"Someone has to."
They all turned their heads towards the staircase when they heard footsteps, seeing Lori come down, dressed in her usual winter outfit with a bag on her arm. "Okay, I'm heading out!" she announced, turning to her siblings. "Leni, Luna, are you sure you can watch the others?"
"No problem, Lori," Leni answered. "We've, like, totes got this."
"Yeah, dude," Luna added. "Easy like a Sunday morning."
The high school senior. "Thanks, girls. I'll be back by about ten, so I'll see you all then."
Her sisters all said their goodbyes as she headed to the front door, and when she opened it, she was pleasantly surprised at the sight of two elderly people- one a woman with red lips, a mole on her lower cheek and a brown bee hive hairdo, wearing a pink coat with white fur, brown trousers and white shoes, and a burly man with white hair and a grey moustache, wearing a light cream button shirt with orange suspenders, blue jeans with a black belt and white sneakers. A white camper van was parked behind them.
"There's my soon-to-be college girl!" The man greeted, quickly pulling Lori into a hug that she happily reciprocated.
"Hey, Pop-Pop!" Lori greeted, catching the attention of her siblings.
"POP-POP! GRAN-GRAN!"
The girls all practically leapt off the couch to hug their grandfather and his girlfriend, while Lincoln simply smiled and allowed the girls to greet them first.
"Oh, look at you all!" Myrtle cooked as she hugged the girls. "You're all getting so big!"
"That's because the Loud family has always had strong women." The senior looked up at the white haired child and his smile grew. "I thought there was one less grandkid hugging me. Get over here, Mini Me!"
Lincoln didn't hesitate in walking over and hugging his grandfather after Leni made some space for him to do so. "Hey, Pop Pop."
"I swear, you look more like me every time I see you. Won't be long before that moustache kicks in." Both grandfather and grandson laughed at the joke, before he noticed something else. "Come to think of it, you do look a bit bigger… have you been working out?"
"Eh heh… uh, just a bit."
"You can thank yours truly for that," Lynn boasted, to which Lori rolled her eyes.
"More like you can thank Jordan," she argued. "She got Lincoln to take up dodgeball practice outside of school."
"Really! I didn't even know there was a dodgeball practice in Royal Woods."
"I, uh, didn't either," Lincoln 'confessed'. "Like Lori said, my friend told me about it, and it turns out I really like it."
"Well, if it's something you enjoy doing, then I'm proud of you, kiddo!"
"Thanks, Pop Pop."
"I hate to cut this short, but I need to get going," Lori spoke up.
"You're leaving?" Myrtle asked, some sadness in her voice.
"I'd love to stay, but I agreed to spend Thanksgiving in Great Lakes City with Bobby and his family."
"Well, it's a shame you won't be here, but I understand, sweetie. We'll be here overnight, so we'll see you when you get back, alright?"
"Okay, Gram Gram." She gave the two elderly people one last hug, before making her way through and heading towards Vanzilla. "See you later!"
The Louds and Myrtle all waved her off as she got in the van and drove away. When they went back inside, they saw the two Loud parents come out from the kitchen and upstairs respectively, Lynn wearing his white chef's apron while Rita was holding Lily in her arms. "I thought I heard you out here," the matriarch proclaimed as her grandfather and his girlfriend came to hug her and her husband.
"Hello, Rita!" Myrtle greeted. "You are looking absolutely beautiful, dear!" She then looked down at the infant giving her a wave. "And you are still as cute as button!" She gave a small pinch at Lily's cheek, making the infant giggle.
"How's the restaurant doing, Lynn?" Albert asked the patriarch.
"It's doing good, Al," he replied. "Business has never been better."
"Well, I'm guessing that dinner will be absolutely lovely!" Myrtle told the brown haired man. "Of course, I'm sure you save some recipes for yourself."
Lynn chuckled. "I do have a few I save for my family."
"Hey, Pop Pop!" Lynn Jr spoke up. "Wanna throw the pigskin around for a bit?"
"Maybe later, All Star," the old man answered. "Right now, Myrtle and I had something else in mind."
"We were thinking," the elderly woman said to the two younger adults, "that while you two start working on dinner, we could take the kids to go see the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade!"
"Yeah, we figured it would give you some time alone in the house, and it would give us a chance to spend some time with the kids. We'll even grab lunch while we're out."
"Are you sure?" Rita asked. "You know how much of a handful they can be."
Her father simply chuckled. "Rita, they're kids, they're always gonna be a handful. I may be getting old, but I can still handle these ten."
"Me and Leni will help out," Luna spoke up, the blonde girl next to her nodding. "It'll be fine."
Before the mother of eleven could argue, she felt two pairs of hands wrap around her legs, making her look down to see the twins looking up with begging eyes. "Can we, mom? Please?"
"Oh… alright." The twins rejoiced at their mother's acceptance. "But, I want all of you to listen to Pop Pop and Gram Gram. If I hear any of you got into trouble, you won't get dessert at dinner."
"Yes, mom," the nine kids all replied.
"Wonderful!" Gram Gram spoke up, clapping her hands together. "Well, if we leave now, we can hopefully get a good spot to watch the parade! Everyone, grab your coats, alright?"
They all nodded, before rushing upstairs to grab their coats, leaving the four adults downstairs. "Are you sure you'll be alright?" Rita asked, handing Lily over to Myrtle.
"Dear, everything will be fine," the older woman replied. "They're gonna have fun, and that's what matters."
"Well, call me if anything happens."
"We will." Albert then looked up the staircase as the kids all started to come downstairs, now wearing their winter coats and some wearing their hats and gloves as well. "Alright, everyone got everything?" After seeing the nine heads nod, his smile grew. "Then, let's go!"
The two parents watched as the kids went with their grandfather, saying goodbye to their parents as they left the house. Once the door was shut, they looked at each other. "Looks like the house is ours."
"It sure is," Lynn replied. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Country music?"
"You know it!"
The van ride from Royal Woods to Detroit hadn't taken them long, with only mild traffic, and the two elderly people in the front two seats were happy to talk with their grandkids and learn what was new with them to pass the time. When they eventually got into Detroit, those that were next to the windows looked out at the city, having not actually been to the city before. "I can't see the parade," Lana complained, to which Pop Pop chuckled.
"Don't worry, Lana," he assured her. "The parade started a while ago, but it's going through the whole city, so we've got time to find somewhere that we'll be able to see from before the parade gets to us."
"Are we gonna find somewhere that the TV crew will be filming?" Lola then asked.
"No, I doubt we'd be able to," Myrtle answered. "There's gonna be lots of people trying to gather there, so it'll be way too busy, and I don't want any of you to get lost." Though the pageant princess was mildly upset at this, she understood the reasoning, so she didn't say anything as the van pulled into the parking area behind the library. "Okay, kids! We're here! Little ones, make sure you're holding onto someone's hands. Everyone from Lincoln up, make sure you're watching out for the little ones. Understood?"
Once everyone had agreed, they got out of the van, with Albert locking the door. Leni took Lana and Lola's hands, Lynn took hold of Lisa's (the scientist begrudgingly allowing her to), and Luan took Lucy's, before they followed the two elders around the library and through the city. They walked a couple of blocks before they found the barricades, the sidewalks fairly crowded in anticipation of the upcoming parade- mostly families with children, but also gatherings of friends. They made their way to a big enough space by the barricade, the twins practically climbing up the barricades to see over them.
"When's the parade gonna get here?" Lana asked.
"Well, we got here a little early," Pop Pop admitted. "Still, the website gave an idea of when the parade would pass by here, so assuming everything runs smoothly, it shouldn't be much more than five minutes."
"Okay. Can I sit on your shoulders when it comes?"
"Hey! I was gonna ask him if I could do that!" Lola yelled.
"Well, I asked him first!"
Lincoln knew what the twins were like, so he quickly intervened. "Don't worry, Lola. You can sit on my shoulders if you like."
Just like that, the anger faded from the pageant princess' face. "Thanks, Linky."
"Always the problem solver, huh, bro?" Luna joked, her brother giving a chuckle in response.
"What can I say? I don't like seeing you guys fight."
"We know. That's why we love you, bro." She saw the slight blush appear on his face and was going to say something about it, but something else caught her eye. "Hey, Linc? Ain't that your friend over there?"
He raised an eyebrow, following his sister's gaze to see who she meant. Though he had to squint as he looked through the crowd of people, he was able to spot a familiar blue bow and braided ponytail. "I think you're right." He then cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "HEY, JORDAN! OVER HERE!"
He waited for the girl to see him, holding his hand up and waving it in the air, and he eventually saw her waving back. It took a few seconds before he saw her approach him through the crowd, the girl wearing a white cardigan over an ocean blue tunic shirt, black leggings with black pumps and her blue scarf that he had gotten used to seeing her with. Stood next to her was Jen, who was wearing a light blue sweater on top of her usual attire.
"Hey, Lincoln!" Jordan greeted first. "I'm surprised to see you here."
"Same here," he replied.
"Mom wanted us away from the kitchen for a while," Jen explained. "Last year, we tried to help with some of the cooking for dinner."
Jordan chuckled sheepishly at the memory. "Yeah, it… didn't go well."
Lincoln gave a gentle chuckle as well. "I get it. The last few times me and my sisters were cooking… well, I think calling it a disaster would be fair as well."
"Hey, Mini Me!" they heard Pop Pop speak up, turning to see the big smile on his face. "Is this a friend of yours?"
"Uh huh. Pop Pop, this is Jordan. Jordan, this is Pop Pop."
"Hey, aren't you that old guy I saw breakdancing?"
Jen gave her a light slap on the shoulder. "JORDAN!"
The younger Rosato cupped her mouth, not having thought about what she was saying, but before she could apologise, Pop Pop gave a hearty laugh. "Don't worry, when you get to my age, it's like a badge of honour," he assured Jen, whose face relaxed a bit at hearing this, before he turned to Jordan again. "Yeah, I've still got a few tricks I can pull, even for an 'old' guy." He gave another laugh, this one being shared by the two sixth graders. "So, you're Jordan, huh? I hear you got my grandson to take up dodgeball outside of school."
"Oh, uh, yeah."
Lincoln felt a little bit guilty, knowing that he was lying to his grandfather, but he quickly helped his friend out. "I'd been trying to find a sport I could get into, and when nothing else worked out, I bumped into Jordan. She told me about... dodgeball, and after I gave it a go, I've been doing it since."
"Well, if that's the case, Jordan, guess I ought to thank you. If you helped my grandson find something like that he enjoys, then you must be a pretty good friend of his."
"Well…" Jordan's smile fell a bit. "I wouldn't say that we were that close before…"
"But," Lincoln added, "we've definitely become better friends since. Right?"
She looked him in the eyes, and her smile returned. "Right." She looked back at the man. "It's nice to meet you, sir."
"It's nice to meet you too."
"Ooh! Look!" They heard Leni call out. "Here comes the parade!"
The kids and two elders all looked in the direction Leni was pointing and saw indeed that the parade of floats and balloons heading their way. The two twins were quick to get on the shoulders of the two male Louds so they could see, smiling in awe of the floats and balloons heading down the street, waving to the attendants that waved to the crowd.
"Look at the Blarney balloon!" Lana called out, seeing the iconic green dinosaur balloon. "It's huge!"
"That's gotta take forever to fill out!" Lola reasoned, to which Lisa scoffed.
"Forever is a gross overstatement," the scientist denied. "Based on its size and the 90 people holding onto the ropes, that balloon would hold approximately 12,000 cubic feet of helium, which is capable of lifting 750 pounds. That would take about an hour and a half to completely fill."
Leni looked down at the scientist. "Don't you want to see the parade better?"
"My view of the festivities is fine as it is."
"Ugh, don't be such a downer, Lisa!" Lola said with a roll of her eyes, her twin nodding.
"Yeah, come on, it's fun!"
Once again, the four year old scoffed. "I fail to see how mobilised stages and inflated latex figures of popular culture characters, advertisement and other assorted characters can be considered 'fun'."
"It's more than just that, Lisa," Albert argued. "It's about showing how the United States have diversified and strengthened since the days of the colonies. Society and culture have come a long way since our country was born."
"I suppose…" Before she could properly prepare a counter argument, she felt Luan put her hands under her armpits and lift her up, so that the scientist was sat on the comedienne's shoulders. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Since you're so 'highly above' all this," Luan told her, "I thought you'd like a higher view!"
The second youngest Loud simply crossed her arms and muttered to herself as Luan laughed at her joke, the two sixth graders also giving a small laugh at the situation. "Guess Lisa's not the 'outdoors celebration' kind of girl, huh?"
Lincoln shook his head at her statement. "No, she's definitely more the 'indoors acknowledgement' kind of person." Jordan couldn't help but giggle at his choice of words. "Still, at least everyone's getting along."
"Yeah, and it's not every day you get to see a parade." She looked a little further down and gasped. "Hey, look at that next float!"
Lincoln looked where she was pointing and gasped as well. Heading their way was a red and black float with the Ace Savvy logo on the sides. A large parade balloon of the titular hero was flying above it, and stood on top of the float were a number of people dressed as characters from the comics, with villains such as Card Shark, Crazy Dice and Snake Eyes acting evil and maniacal, and heroes such as Ace Savvy, One Eyed Jack and even the Full House Gang waving to the crowd. "No way! That's awesome! I knew that the Full House Gang had gotten popular online, but I didn't think they would get this popular!"
"Well, duh!" Lola said from above him. "After all, you had me to base the Queen of Diamonds on."
"Ahem."
"Oh, and the others too, I guess."
Lincoln rolled his eyes, giving a happy chuckle as he returned to watching the parade with his family and his friends. They were there for close to an hour, watching as the different floats, balloons, acrobats, clowns, marching bands and other assorted people and attractions passed by. They saluted the troops that passed by, under Pop Pop's assistance, watched in awe at some of the tricks the street performers did, and all in all had a good time until the last float passed by, the crowd beginning to disperse.
"Well, wasn't that fun, kids?" Myrtle spoke to the kids, getting a positive reaction from most of them, while Lisa chose to simply stay silent. "I'm glad you had fun! Now, who's hungry?"
Once again, the Louds reacted positively, whilst Lincoln turned to Jordan. "I'm guessing you'll be heading back home, then?"
"Yeah, probably," she replied. "Still, it was nice hanging out with you."
"She's right," Jen agreed. "It was cool to see you again, Lincoln."
"Thanks. You too, Jen."
"Hey, Lincoln!" They heard Pop Pop call to the boy. "Why don't you invite your friends to come join us?"
"No, no, that's okay, sir," Jen answered first. "We were gonna pick something up on the way back home."
"Don't be silly, I don't mind. It's not often I get to meet one of my grandkids' friends. Come on, my treat."
"Yeah, come on, Jen!" Leni added, her happy smile on her face. "It'll be fun!"
The older Rosato turned to her younger sister. "What do you think?"
Jordan nodded to her, then faced the old man. "We'd love to!"
"Wonderful!" Myrtle cheered. "Let's go!"
Once they began moving, Lincoln turned to Jordan with an amused grin, making her tilt her head at him. "What?"
"Other than Clyde, you're the first person that's actively wanted to be around my sisters after their first encounter," he explained, prompting her to playfully push him on the shoulder.
"Come on, they're not that bad. Besides, I'm probably gonna end up talking to you the whole time."
"Not to mention, free food," Jen added, getting the two younger kids to laugh.
"Yeah, that's true." As they walked along, Lincoln looked and noticed something about his friend. "Hey… is that the outfit you wore for the fashion show?"
"Yeah, it is," she confirmed. "I kind of felt like wearing something different, since my Aunt and Uncle are visiting for dinner, and I don't see them often."
"Well, like I said back then, it looks good on you."
Her cheeks turned pink. "Thanks. You look good, too. Although, you do remind me of Chucky Green."
"Why does everyone say that?!"
As the kids walked and talked, neither of them noticed Jen behind them, taking a couple of pictures with her phone. 'So cute…'
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