Lincoln was terrified at the sight he was seeing: he saw somebody that would possibly ruin his relationship with Stella, get him arrested, or worse: it was Lori Loud.
"Lincoln?! What are you doing here?! Also, what the hell did you do to your hair??? And why is your right hand all bandaged up???" Lori asked as she ran up to Lincoln, Steve, and Stella.
"Uhm...I dyed my hair earlier, and I cut my hand a few days ago on a big tomato slicer, blood was all over the place," Lincoln stuttered, scared to death, not knowing how to even start.
"And who are these people??" Lori questioned.
Lincoln gulped and prepared to say something, until Steve asked Lori, "Who are you?"
Lori frowned and claimed "I'm Lincoln's oldest sister. I'm here on a college trip right now. Who are you?"
"Uhm, uh...I-" Lincoln was cut off.
"Lincoln, how many sisters do you have?" Steve asked his companion, since he had never met Lori before, or even heard about her.
"Too many...Lori, this is Steve. He was the man who saved me from a street gang. He took me home, where I begged Mom and Dad for him to stay, and they accepted. Then, we decided to take a vacation to the Philippines. And this...this is Stella, a friend who I just met. We were going to return to our hotel room," Lincoln lied, as he wanted to leave out all the details about murders and crimes.
"How long are you guys here for? I'm here for another two weeks, I would've told Mom and Dad but my phone died...permanently, so I have to get a new one," Lori said.
"A long time," Steve said.
Stella and Lori shot each other confused looks but shrugged it off. Lori then said, "It's too bad I don't have a phone right now, I could've asked Mom and Dad about your guys' vacation."
Lincoln felt his heart beating like crazy and Steve whistled, trying to look innocent.
"Yeah...too bad..." Lincoln said, nervously smiling.
"Alright, the last question, then I have to go: how did you and Shaun get the money for the vacation?" Lori asked while pointing at Steve, who she had mistakenly called Shaun.
Lincoln looked over at Steve, who fibbled, "It's Steve, darling. Also, I'm rich, because I invest in stocks, and I work two jobs."
"Cool. Have fun, Lincoln. If I don't see you guys again here, see you in Royal Woods!" Lori guessed.
"Sounds good. Have fun, too, Lori," Lincoln gulped.
She waved and then ran back to wherever she came from. Lincoln and Steve let out a huge breath and then looked at each other, both wondering how they even managed to convince Lori through lies like that.
"Let's go to our hotel room, shall we?" Steve asked as he ushered the group back to the hotel.
As they were walking back, Lincoln and Stella got to know each other a little more, and Steve got to know Stella a little more, too.
"So, do your parents, not like you?" Lincoln asked Stella while walking through crowds of people.
Stella sighed and explained "Okay...I was adopted. My parents are from Italy, and they adopted me when I was around 3 months old. I'm 12 years old, just like you, and lately, things have gotten worse. More arguing, more disagreements, blah blah blah. I'm ready to move out, all my mom cares about is the clubs and bars, and my dad works full time and never really sees me a lot."
Lincoln and Steve both apologized to her and assured her that she was welcome to join them in their so-called "vacation". Stella considered it and then the trio arrived at the hotel.
Good luck was finally on Lincoln's side, for once. He lucked out with the Lori run-in. Once the trio entered the hotel room, which was room 601, Stella said right away: "Look, if you guys are going to move somewhere, I would suggest moving out of Manila. It's just so polluted and crowded, try somewhere like Cagayan, Davao, or better yet, Bukidnon."
"Would you come with us? Don't forget, we'll keep you protected, we're rich, and we're nice," Lincoln reminded.
Stella shrugged and then asked, "Wait, why would you need to protect me?"
Steve jumped up and said, "In case your, uhm, parents to try harm you."
Stella nodded, yawned, and then asked, "I'm gonna take a nap, I'm bushed!" Lincoln wanted to, as well, but Steve wasn't tired, so he said, "You guys can sleep in here, I'm gonna go run some errands while you guys nap."
Once Steve left, Lincoln fell asleep on the couch while Stella slept in the guest bedroom, it was a suite, don't forget.
It was a few hours later, Steve was back, and Lincoln had woken up. Stella was still asleep so Lincoln quietly greeted Steve.
"What errands did you have to run?" Lincoln asked.
"What do you think?" Steve chuckled. Lincoln snatched his phone from the nearby couch and checked his notifications. One of them was a text message...from Lori.
Lincoln felt confused and then unlocked his phone to view it. It said "Hey, I just got my new phone from a store down here! I can't wait to tell everyone about how I saw you!!"
Lincoln repeatedly swore to himself until Steve noticed, and then Steve anxiously asked, "What? What's wrong?!" Lincoln showed him the text and Steve didn't exactly catch on at first until he realized it: the rest of the Loud family knew exactly why they were actually in the Philippines. If she would tell them what Lincoln and Steve claimed to her, they would correct her, and Lori would find out, possibly even snitch on them about their crimes.
Suddenly, a pounding occurred on the hotel door. Lincoln slowly opened it, revealing a furious-looking Lori. She kicked the rest of the door open and let herself in the room.
"YOU KILLED HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE?!" Lori screamed, somehow not waking Stella up.
"How the fuck did you find me?!" Lincoln asked.
"Lisa's tracker! You're not on a vacation, you're in hiding!" Lori claimed.
"I know it's bad, but just listen to me: we had no choice!! Either we would get killed by Bradley, or save our family! We destroyed the FBI and PMA to save the family, but they got pissed and kicked us out! We had to leave otherwise we would've been arrested and possibly executed, so we're hiding!"
"YOU'RE STILL A MONSTER! WHO EVEN IS BRADLEY?!" Lori screamed.
"A best friend murdering asshole," Steve said, still crushed about John's death.
"Just like Lynn! That faggot murdered Clyde, and she got bailed out from using our money!" Lincoln testified.
"Another thing, how did you get the money?! Now I don't trust Steve's theory about stocks and two jobs!!" Lori continued to rage.
"We robbed the Hazeltucky bank and got millions of dollars," Steve nervously said.
"YOU FREAKS! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GUYS DID THIS! WAS THAT ONE GIRL PART OF THIS, TOO?!" Lori yelled.
"Okay, now Stella didn't have anything to do with it, we just met her. Please don't tell the police or anything!! I'm sorry, Lori! If I'd known that you would be here, too I-" Lincoln explained or at least tried to.
"As far as I'm concerned, you and Steve are no better than murdering criminals!" Lori stormed away, slamming the door behind her.
"That's what we are, or were! We're gonna change ourselves, believe us!" Steve tried to exclaim but Lori was already gone.
Somehow Stella had slept through the whole argument.
"Well, looks like my relationship with Lori is ruined," Lincoln told Steve.
Back out into the hallway, Lori was approached by two hooded men. They walked up to Lori, where one of them asked, "Excuse me, miss. Aren't you Lincoln Loud's sister? If so, what room is he in?"
Lori cocked an eyebrow but told the men, "Room 601, but who are you guys?"
One of them smiled and claimed "Old friends from Royal Woods. We need to tell them something. And no, neither of us are Bradley Fuller."
Lori shrugged and nervously walked away, with the men walking up to the door and knocking on it.
When Lincoln looked through the peephole, he didn't see anybody, so he opened the door, where two boys jumped out in front of him.
Lincoln fell back in fear and got up to try and identify the two people. Steve also looked over at them.
"Oh, no," Lincoln said.
The shorter of the men smiled and said "Oh, yes."