That's it! Enough! Lincoln had been hatching this idea for a long time, but at one point things went too far, far enough to make it happen. The thing was, the guy had spent the last year attending a sports section in town that his older sister, Lynn, had dragged him to. And so, he decided to quit and never come back. And it was all right at first. Yeah, Lincoln wasn't the athletic type, but he wasn't discouraged by that. On the contrary, there was even some motivation to play sports after he got bored of just sitting at home reading comic books. His mother had once already forced Lincoln to go to sports, seeing how much time her child spent at home. But back then that attempt failed, because Lynn went to sports instead of him. However, even this time something went wrong, even though he no longer resorted to that trick of his as he did last time, and now Lincoln is ready to crush everyone in his path, furious and, apparently, very offended by something. In fact, he was literally holding himself back from crying with resentment. It was a disaster for Lincoln.
Once inside the house, Lincoln decided not to show himself to the rest of his sisters, lest they ask too many questions about what had happened to him today. He literally looked like he was in a bad mood. When he went into Lynn and Lucy's room, he went straight to his older sister and decided to speak his mind. Fortunately, Lucy was somewhere else at the moment, probably coming up with new poems.
- Lynn! What's going on is a nightmare! - he said as he came into the room. At that moment Lynn was just sitting in the room doing nothing.
- Whoa, take it easy, bro!
- How can I take it easy? How can I take it easy when things like this get done?!
- You don't have to yell like that. Take it easy, Lincoln.
- You better tell me why! Why is it always me? What am I, the scapegoat, huh?!
At another attack by her little brother, Lynn, realizing that any constructive attempt to calm him down was useless, responded with a preemptive punch right in Lincoln's face. Linc recoiled from this unexpected blow and stared at Lynn with goggling eyes, not saying a word. It seemed to work.
- Quit it! Just tell me what happened already.
Well, it only seemed to work. And then Lincoln cried, for he could not stand it any longer. Would even his own sister hurt him the way the boys in the section had already done? Of course, his cries were heard by all his sisters, who gathered in the room at the same moment. Leni was the first to speak out.
- Oh, what's wrong? Linky, how did you get that bruise?
- Lynn! – Lori shouted angrily at Lynn, suspecting her of being the cause of their only brother's crying, - What have you done to Lincoln?!
- Oh, nothing! He was the first to come here and...
- Stop, - Lori interrupted her abruptly, - we'll deal with you later. Come here, Linky, - she said to the still crying Lincoln, - tell us what happened to you.
After that they went to the living room on the first floor, sat on the couch, and waited for Lincoln to calm down at least a little.
- I brought a glass of water, Linky. Here you go. It'll do you good, - Lola said as she brought it over. Drinking all the water at once, Lincoln put the glass aside.
- Feeling better now?
- Yeah, thanks.
- Tell us, Linky. We all listen to you, - said Lori.
- What's there to tell? I just wanted to deal with the abusers, and they wouldn't even let me do that! – said Lincoln, still in a state of anger, but no longer in such a rage as a few moments ago.
- It would be a good start to know how it all began, - said Lisa, at the same time writing something in her diary.
- Yes, - said Leni, - Please tell us in order.
- Where did they offend you, lil bro? - Luna asked.
- At soccer, - Lincoln said.
- That's okay, bro. We're so gonna get them scums for you!
- Actually, the first time I went to that section, or rather, when Lynn took me there...
- Hey! Don't hold me responsible, you could have left at any time!
- Oh, really? Then who said she would spend her whole life calling him a wimp and a loser if he did that? - Lori said, looking at Lynn disapprovingly.
- Okay-okay, I'm shutting up, - she said, blushing with embarrassment.
- When I got there, - Lincoln went on, - it was all right at first. Maybe I could even make some friends, because there were guys like me, not-the-athletic ones. But as time went on they just started pushing me out, and the coach didn't even tell them anything, he encouraged it.
- What's your coach's name? - Luna asked.
- Mr. Burton, - Lynn said.
- Oh, that jerk? He was our medium school gym teacher, so creepy. He always had a problem with things. He used to put the weak ones down, but he wouldn't touch his favorites. As soon as one of them got on someone weaker, he didn't even notice it. But he himself picked on the others pretty much always, yeah. He got busted once for smoking with the seniors. There was a lot of noise back then, - Luna said with a thoughtful look. - Guess they fired the guy after that thing. Never mind.
- Go on, - said Lori.
- Whenever I go out on the field, let me do just one thing wrong, and they would already yell at me. But the guys either laugh at me for not being able to play, or call me names. And when we play, they don't pay any attention to me at all. It's like they play by themselves. No matter how many times I try to get the ball, I end up just running around the field for hours.
Several episodes related to this bitter experience loomed in Lincoln's mind. First of all, he remembered an arrogant, white-haired kid of his age, maybe a little younger, who didn't like Lincoln the first day he had been in that section. Not even one training session went by before he would give Lincoln some annoying pranks. Like tripping him. Or hit him in the tendon. Sometimes he was brave enough to punch Lincoln in the stomach, on which he often complained to the coach, who invariably replied, "Just punch him in the face," which Lincoln could not afford, knowing that it would cause even more trouble. And he couldn't fight, either, to tell the truth. So he tolerated all the offenses, though he didn't know how to forget them at home.
Another peculiarity of Lincoln's situation was that every time he came onto the field and get down to the game, he was bound to hit someone or accidentally hit someone's foot. But he didn't do it on purpose, no, it was completely accidental every time, it just looked like he was doing it on purpose. That's because he simply couldn't play soccer at all. He was repeatedly called names for it and was sometimes even beaten. But when he went to the coach and got the same answer, Lincoln decided that any attempt to stand up for himself would inevitably fail, and therefore there was no point in trying any further.
But Lori decided to ask Lynn a straight question.
- So, Lynn, why didn't you help your brother all this time?
- No way! I always gave him passes. If anyone touched him, I helped him out, - Lynn said, as if making an excuse, even though it was all a lie. Both she and Lincoln knew it, but the boy was tactfully silent. At training Lynn mostly just ignored Lincoln, and when someone hurt him, she found out about it rather late and so there was nothing she could do about it. Or she just didn't want to do anything about it.
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...