That Is Sport

Chapter 1: The Misadventures of Lincoln

Meanwhile, Lisa wrote everything down in her diary, occasionally glancing from time to time at her brother or at her sisters.

- Tell me something, Lincoln. Why did you go there if it was so bad? - Lisa suddenly asked. All the sisters turned their eyes to Lincoln, for the question was quite interesting.

This question stumped Lincoln. Why indeed? What had kept him there until the last moment, if things were really bad? He couldn't find an intelligible answer to it, and probably couldn't find one.

- I don't know. Maybe because I needed some sport to keep in a good shape?

- Come on. You never liked sports. Maybe you just liked being humiliated.

- Of course, not! - Lincoln said with a nervous chuckle, denying it. - How would I like it?

- No, no, I'm just mistaken. This is different. Never mind that. But it happens, too, remember that.

A little while later, after a short thought, Lisa continued.

- So, look, Lincoln. It's always like that in sports. When a newbie comes in, usually the coaches don't even look at him until he starts showing results. And the better he does, the more honor he gets. He will be invited to various competitions and tournaments, so that he will also gain popularity. But in order to retain this honor, they often try to put their rivals under their belts. They hate them terribly. They can call them names for no reason, or they can seriously set them up in front of their coach. And the coaches, in their turn, allow that, because they believe that there is a strong person, who has and should have the privilege, and there are just weak ones. In other words, they act just like animals. Here, in sports, only the strongest survives too, - and that's when Lincoln realized what was going on.

One day he found an account on Instaframe that belonged to their section, quite by accident, and scrolled through a few posts. He found that one guy, the blond-haired one who often bullied Lincoln, who probably joined the section much later than him, had already been invited to appear in videos, so that more people would know about the section itself, and he could be seen more often in pictures of competitions about which Lincoln up to that moment knew absolutely nothing, because he had never been invited there. In a word - the guy was a real star there. At the same time, no matter how hard he tried to prove himself, even if he couldn't play soccer as well as the guys did, Lincoln had never been afforded the same opportunity. Now everything was clear to him. More accurately, it was quite obvious.

- But Lynn, - Lisa suddenly glanced suspiciously at her older sister, who seemed nervous and smiled for some reason, - knows all this even better than I do, but for some reason she doesn't admit it to herself. She acts as they do, but kinda sorta unconsciously. Why is she always so competitive? Do you think it's because of her temper? No, it's not! I mean, of course, her temper has something to do with it too, but it's mostly what she learned in sports. Because most team games, Lincoln, just so you would understand, are not really team games, but competitive ones, and therefore pit savages against each other. Such "teams" most often have an atmosphere of hatred and jealousy. And the coaches support this spirit and occasionally give favors to their favorites, and bully the weaker ones, or let them bully the weaker ones. You just got caught up in it, Lincoln, that's all.

Such a detailed and rather plausible explanation shed light on many of the truths that were now being revealed to the Louds children. Lynn felt bad at this point, but she couldn't describe exactly what caused the feeling. It was as if she had learned some terrible secret about herself that she had already guessed of, but for some reason she had never thought about it, and if she had, she had never given it much of her mind.

- Yep, that makes sense, - Lori said.

- So, is it better not to do any sports activity at all then? - Lincoln asked.

- No, - answered Lisa, - it's a very good thing to do sports. You can't live without it. Just don't do competitive sports, that's all. You can't do without regular jogging, but you don't have to kick a ball or punch someone in the face. Get it?

- I mean, Linc, - Luan said, - stay away from all the ambitious people who despise personality and respect brute strength and success built on such strength. You won't get anywhere with them, though they try to prove otherwise, - one of Lincoln's older sisters finished her rather serious thought, which was very uncharacteristic of her.

- Well, okay, - said Lori, - so you went to that sports section. Maybe something kept you from leaving it. Or maybe you just liked going there, even though there were things like that going on. Doesn't matter at all. But why didn't you tell us about your problems before? Why didn't you tell us, or Lynn?

There it was, another question Lincoln could hardly answer. Or rather, he could, for the fact was that he had asked Lynn for help more than once, as the only athletic and fighting sister in the house, but she would always find an excuse. And he also couldn't complain about that at home, because what a shame it would be to go to ask the girls for help when he was being harassed by bullies! That's what Lincoln thought. But still, he decided not to betray his sister. So, he answered:

- I didn't want to.

- But why?

- I don't know.

- Lincoln, - Lisa said again, - the answer is quite simple. I can only guess, but maybe you didn't want to talk about your problems because you were taught that it was shameful and that only tattletales would do that. Maybe they wouldn't even leave you alone if you had told your parents or us, your sisters, about your problems. But this leads to a third, similar question: why stay in a place like that? It's not like anyone was keeping you there.

The truth was Lisa's. But it was one of those questions to which a human could never give a proper answer in life, because he himself does not understand why he is engaged in this or that activity in life, which seems to hurt him, but at the same time he does not give it up. This is, so to speak, one of the manifestations of the unconscious. But most often it happens to many people out of despair.

- But what happened today, Linky? - Leni asked.

- Yes, we're very interested in finding out what brought you to tears! - Lori added.

- Well, all right, I'll tell you. Everything today was as usual. The truth is, I've been hatching my revenge plan for a week now. I really, really wanted to revenge some scumbag...