★ ꜱʟᴀᴘꜱʜᴏᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛᴀᴄᴋʟᴇ ★
𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝟵 - 𝗧𝗥𝗬 𝗡 𝗠𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧
Clyde prided himself in being Lincolns guy, in being one half of Clincoln McLoud. He loved that they were an inseparable duo, always pulling off stunts and plans that only the two of them could complete.
In his years of being Lincoln's best friend, he also found himself getting involved in the boys full-time job as the man with a plan, constantly helping his sisters with their issues. Usually, Clyde had nothing against helping his best friend's sisters with their problems.
But sometimes, he had to draw the line somewhere.
And this right here was one of those times.
"UGH, come on, Clyde! I really need to get this right!" Lynn grunted at the poor boy who was struggling to get up from the floor. His ears were beating from the loud and sudden shout the girl had made just a moment earlier, and if he were honest, he didn't really know how to help her. Sports weren't really his thing.
"Lynn," he started, grabbing the edge of her bed to support himself. "I don't think this is gonna work."
Lynn huffed at that and hit the helmet on her head a few times, clearly frustrated at that.
"Who else is gonna do it?" She was clearly bothered that she couldn't get her speech right, if the crazed look on her face were to judge. Clyde has seen her before a game before though, and this felt a bit more intense for some reason.
"Uhhm," Clyde lifted his finger. "What about her?"
The 'her' in question was of course none other than Royal Woods Middle School's very own troublemaker, who was currently peeking her head above the Loud's windowsill from the outside. If Clyde's head wasn't aching in pain, he might've questioned how she managed to climb up the wall and dangle from the windows ledge.
Lynn whirled around to where Clyde was pointing and immediately dropped her hockey stick onto the ground. As it clattered on the floor, the jock fumbled the window open and dragged the vermin in. Much like Clyde had just done, the girl collapsed onto the bedroom floor. Lynn took a few moments to adjust, but after those moments, she started whaling on the girl.
"What was that?!" Lynn demanded to know from the thug on the floor. "You couldn't just use the front door like a normal person?"
"Nope," she wheezed out from below.
Lynn, evil and merciless Lynn, started lightly kicking the girl repeatedly, chanting 'Get up' over and over. Despite the aggression, she actually had a slight smile when doing so.
Clyde, who had officially gotten over his headache, scratched his head at the sight. He was glad that the exuberant athlete's attention was now on someone else, but that didn't mean he wasn't confused at the sight.
Why was Lynn Loud Jr kicking the most dangerous girl in school? And why did the girl not seem to be more bothered than just slightly aggravated by the assault?
"I'll, uh," the two girls stopped to look at him with odd faces. It made Clyde feel incredibly unwelcome. "-just see myself out." And with that, the boy ran off, leaving the two alone in the Loud's room.
Lynn stared at the closed door for a few more seconds before turning her attention back to the girl on the floor.
"You're late," she stated.
"You didn't give a specific time."
Lynn ignored the excuse (*explanation) and kept a cold gaze on the girl. "Why did you climb in through the window?"
"I saw your dad out front," she answered simply, as if that statement was a perfectly reasonable explanation for her previous act. Lynn looked at her in disbelief for a second before shaking it off.
"Whatever," she took her helmet off. "Just get up and help me."
Seeing as there was no reason for her to stay on the ground, the thug obliged and quickly arose. Lynn's hair was slightly messy due to being under a hockey helmet, and the juvenile would've been lying if she said the ruffled look didn't suit her. Lynn, feeling her watchful eyes, re-tightened her ponytail and the thug cleared her throat and started examining the room.
"There's... a lot of morbid shit in here, huh. Didn't peg you for a goth, Loud."
She was leaning over Lucy's desk and sticking her finger out at one of her Halloween decals.
"I'm not. That's my sister's side of the room."
The girl clicked her tongue and straightened up again. "You have sisters?"
"Nine. And a brother too," she hummed. The guest turned to look at Lynn in shock.
"Nine?" she exclaimed, almost looking impressed, but more so perplexed. "Years old, right?"
The athlete scrunched her nose. "No. Nine sisters."
"Whoa," she whistled.
"Stop getting distracted! I asked you to come for a reason!" Lynn, who was tired of the small talk, marched toward the girl.
"Oh, right," the delinquent pushed past Lynn to sit on her bed. Very disrespectfully, Lynn would add. "Motivational speech, right?"
"Right."
They were silent for a moment. The thug blinked at her, waiting for her to continue.
"Oh. Well, I don't really have a speech planned." Lynn admitted. The girl face-palmed. Of course she didn't.
Despite the fact that she only just got comfortable in the girl's bed, the boxer was forced to stand up again due to the Loud's bad planning.
"What are you doing?" Lynn asked perplexed.
"Helping you plan."
"Okay... standing up didn't really do anything." The degenerate deflated and draped herself over the bed again.
"Fuck off I'm trying." She put her hands over her face and rubbed her eyes a bit. "How about... hmmm. Maybe?- No, no." She retracted her arms and wrapped her hands over her chest. "I don't know"
Lynn let out a huge sigh and collapsed right next to the girl, not even thinking about the fact that they were now very close to each other.
In Lynn's bed.
She subtly scooched a bit away from her before speaking again.
"Me neither. I was kind of hoping you would motivate me into motivating others."
"Oh?" Lynn punched her in the arm a bit harder than intended. Either way she opened her mouth to defend herself.
"Not like that! I meant like... Maybe you'd piss me off or something. Get me mad enough to be determined to beat you, which I guess would make me improvise a speech or something."
There was a pause of silence.
"That was a stupid idea."
Lynn closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
It made sense in theory. The other girl usually managed to push all of her buttons without even trying. The mere thought of her used to send Lynn into a deep spiral, making her ruthless both verbally and in sports. But now it didn't seem to work the same. At some point in time, Lynn stopped associating her bad feelings with the girl. It used to be so easy to hate her, but now it just... wasn't.
It didn't make any sense! It's not like the thug changed her behavior or anything drastic like that! She was still crude and aggressive. She still bothered kids in school, and she still hung around her same group of lackey's. She hadn't changed one bit.
...
But she had, hadn't she?
It was subtle, but it made all the difference to Lynn.
The thug was still a piece of shit, that there was no question about. It was just that she now also was a piece of shit who went out of her way to help Lynn. Someone who walked the athlete home when she missed the bus. Someone who checked up on her after her stupid friend ran into her, despite however shitty her check-up was. Someone who took the time to fix what she did wrong, even leaving a note to apologize in her own stupid way.
Someone who was currently sitting in the athlete's room because she asked her to help her with a speech the thug had no business with.
She was by no means a saint, nor was she a friend. She was just someone Lynn used to hate, but now didn't anymore, because that person turned out not be who Lynn thought she was.
But Lynn definitely didn't like the girl, though.
Sure, she sometimes enjoyed her company rather than being alone, but she still wasn't the most friendly person to be around. She was just different. She seemed to actually put effort into rectifying her conflict with Lynn, for whatever reason the jock couldn't wrap her head around. Maybe she wasn't her friend, but she didn't have to be her enemy either. She just happened to end up being more than just a Royal East dirt-bag,
and that intrigued Lynn.
"Yeah, I got nothing," she spoke up. She felt the mattress rustle beside her and turned to see the thug yawning into her hands. She kinda looked different to Lynn now too. Maybe it was just the lighting, but there was definitely something off about her face.
Lynn still wasn't used to seeing this weirdly calm version of the thug. She'd only seen it a handful of times, and most of them were after training. Even yesterday after school, the girl was still the cocky version of herself that Lynn knew and hated. But this version of her? The calmer version. She was okay.
"Tired?" Lynn asked the girl who rubbed at her eyes again. That question seemed to catch her off guard for a bit.
She cleared her throat. "Just a bit."
"You work anything today?"
"Mhm. Mostly just errands for my brother though."
"Yeah?" The girl beside her nodded. "What's he like?"
"He's fine, I guess. We aren't really that close. We used to be when I was younger, but now I just see him for work. He owns this auto-repair shop and pays me for whatever help I give him."
Lynn thought about this for a moment. Obviously, she knew the girl worked a lot—how could she not know? It was like the first real conversation the two had. She knew she had about a dozen spare jobs, but this was the most she's heard about it. Before, she always assumed the girl just walked around being a heathen to the world, but finding out that she was actually a working member of society made Lynn feel a little guilty. There was a lot of things about the girl that Lynn just assumed.
"I couldn't imagine not being close to my siblings," Lynn admitted. "They're a pain in my ass, but they're always there when I need it."
"That's nice," the fighter said sincerely. Lynn could've sworn she heard some sadness in her tone, though. "I couldn't imagine what it's like living with twelve other people."
They shared a short-lived laugh at that before resuming their conversation.
"Yeah. They're... a lot," Lynn mumbled, feeling her eyes get heavy. "I love them though."
"Except maybe Luan. Her jokes can be... something."
The guest chuckled.
"I think I've seen her around school. She was the one from the other day, right?"
But Lynn didn't answer this time.
"Lynn?"
The two looked at each other again. This time, it lasted a lot longer. The jock felt the need to say something, but this liminal space they found themselves in was too special to interrupt. Neither of them seemed to want to. It was a moment of time between just the two of them, filled with nothing but a calm silence.
...
Before it ended with a harsh bang of the door.
"LYNN!" Lincoln shouted upon his entrance with the same boy from earlier following behind him. The girl in question immediately sprung up and out of bed turning toward the boy with a wild look in her eyes.
"WHAT HAPPENED?" she yelled concerned. The boy ignored his sister's question and started speaking instead.
"You need to practice your motivation," he pointed at her with both hands before dragging her out of the room. Faintly, the thug could hear him say something along the lines of someone needing to break a world record.
The delinquent lifted her torso off the bed slightly, leaning back on her elbows looking annoyed. She eyed the glasses-wearing boy who seemed to be looking at her quite apprehensively. It was starting to piss her off.
"The hell are you looking at?!" she snapped at him, causing the boy to stumble back and almost fall for the second time that day.
"NOTHING!" he screeched frozen in place. His glasses fell off his face at his jump, but the boy made no move to retrieve them.
The girl sighed and eased her nerves a bit. Admittedly, she was a bit angered by the two boys bursting into the room. She wouldn't admit it, but she too was starting to relax on the mattress. Maybe not as much as Lynn, but enough for her to get peeved at the interruption.
After shaking off her anger, she spoke up again.
"Calm down. No need to be so on edge," she murmured, fully sitting up now. The boy seemed to listen to her slightly, but she could tell he was still shaken.
"Uh-h" he stuttered. "Are y-you one of Lynn's f-friends?"
She shook her head. "Not really."
She picked up the kids glasses and handed them to him, which he hesitantly accepted. He watched her with careful eyes for a moment before putting his glasses back on. After the minuscule act of kindness, he seemed to relax a bit more. Granted, he still looked nervous, but the lack of shaking was at least good.
"Oh" he said after a second. "Then, why are you.. here?" he tested carefully.
"Just to help her with a thing."
"Oh! I'm here for that too," he said, almost fully calm now. She eyed him slightly. The vandal didn't recognize him from school or anything. Probably because they were in different grades. She wondered if he came to the house often. He seemed to be friends with the athlete's brother.
At her gaze, the boy stiffened in fear once again. The girl sighed at the relapse and rolled her eyes.
"What are you so afraid of?" she questioned.
"Uh," he sweated. She simply raised an eyebrow at that.
"I-it's just... you seem like the type of person to.. you know... pummel me?" he admitted hesitantly. His voice grew quieter and quieter at every word.
The boxer wasn't really that shocked at that. It was probably true. Had the kid been her grade and walked around looking at her like he did now, she probably would mess with him. She was kind of known for that.
That didn't mean that she didn't feel a small pang of guilt though.
She didn't classify herself as a bully. She didn't actively go out of her way to search out prey or something like her friends did. She mostly just dealt with people that have wronged her in the only way she knew how.
People like to act all innocent and harmless. Whenever they try something, it's brave, but if she or her friends ever fought back, they were predators. Of course, they weren't that innocent. They were kind of dickheads, but she never actually initiated a conflict. She only reacted.
She gave the boy a thoughtful look before responding.
"Okay, okay... Well- wait, first you-you gotta stop that, man." She was referring to the way the boy quivered and held his hands up. It was starting to get on her nerves. "As I was saying, I'm not gonna 'pummel'," she grimaced at the odd choice of words. "-a sixth grader, okay? You've got nothing to worry about," she said as if it were obvious. Clyde seemed to relax again at this.
"Second, getting bullied is a choice." Clyde seemed to have fully relaxed at this point, because otherwise there was no way he would've sent her the confused 'are you being serious?' look he currently adorned. The thug was about to withdraw her statement about not beating him up, because she almost got offended by the way he looked at her as if she were an idiot. Either way, she continued her explanation as if nothing had changed.
"If someone ever messes with you, just fight them," she said naturally.
"Look at me!" he gestured to his body. "Do I look like I can fight off any bully, let alone three?"
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Three?" she repeated confused. "Wait, are you actually being bullied?"
The boy realized his mistake and quickly tried to sputter out some excuse. It was a futile attempt, though, as he could tell that the degenerate was not buying any of it. He sighed.
"Just some 8th graders that bother us on the bus..." he sighed. "Taylor, Anderson, and Pablo. Me and Lincoln managed to get them off our backs for a while, but they keep coming back whenever they catch me alone..."
She recognized the names. How couldn't she? They were in the same grade, after all. When the Royal East residents first transferred those three were actually the first students to try to befriend them. She didn't really like them—they were after all posers—but they seemed to steer away from her and her friends after a particular lunch incident, so she never really interacted with them much.
But this infuriated her.
As stated before, the thug didn't like to label herself a bully. Because she wasn't one. Even though she fought a lot of her peers, none of her fights were ever malevolent or a form of putting others down by physically beating them. Sure, she would slander them, but never hurt them physically until they started it first.
She also had standards. Self-imposed levels of quality that she followed, one of them being that she didn't mess around with people significantly younger than her. Those three assholes weren't like her at all. They seemed to have no boundaries, no morals. They liked to bother some kids just so they could feel high and mighty?
Unluckily for them, if there was one thing the delinquent hated, it was false authority.
"Really?" she kept her composure despite her inner rage. The boy nodded. "Well, I know them, and I'm not against pummeling them." Clyde raised an eyebrow. "Next time they mess with you, you tell me."
Despite the very violent implications behind the girl's words, her demand actually made Clyde feel a bit safe. And happy. Sure, he was still a bit confused over why the girl cared, but he wasn't about to look a gift-horse in it's mouth. He smiled at her before quickly noticing an issue.
"But how will I find you?"
The thug smiled and got a distant look in her eye, as if she was remembering something.
"I'm on a federal list. Just google me and my number'll come up."
...
"YES!"
Her voice had been overused at this point, and the exclamation of happiness did not help soothe it's aching at all. But to Lynn and Lana, none of that mattered, because both of them had just completed their goals for the day.
Lana shook her hands as Lynn jumped up and down in excitement.
"I beat the world record!"
"I wrote the perfect speech!"
Both of them stopped what they were doing and went in to do their handshake. After a short-lived hug at the end of it, the girls were still highly exuberant.
It was cute, the girl who was currently descending the stairs and just so happen to witness the moment thought. Well, it was cute for the little girl to be so giddy. Lynn, though? She was cute in a more patronizing way, or at least that's what the thug managed to convince herself.
Lynn looked up after her and Lana shared yet another hug and saw the boxer she invited over heading for the exit. She pushed down the slight twinge of guilt she had for pretty much abandoning the guest in her room the whole day, instead opting to salvage the situation as much as she could. Hopefully she wasn't too upset, although Lynn wasn't really that worried about that.
"You're leaving?"
Two girls in the room reacted to the athlete's question. One of them, who got distracted from cradling her guinea pig, was confused by the inquiry. The other slightly froze before turning around 180 degrees and facing the older of the two sisters.
"Yeah. I didn't really talk to my dad before leaving, so he's probably wondering where I am by now," the delinquent shrugged her shoulders. Lana examined the scene playing out in front of her before asking a question of her own.
"Uhm, who are you?"
The older girls in the room looked at each other for a second before rushing to answer, both speaking over the other.
"NOBODY"
"Just had to pick something up."
"DON'T WORRY ABOUT HER!"
The guest scrunched her face and raised one brow, looking confused at the jock whilst slightly shaking her head. Lynn ignored both the girls and instead strode to where the boxer was standing. Lana, who probably should've been even more bewildered by the answers, started to look at both of them with an unreadable expression instead.
"Sorry for ditching you. I got kind of caught up in something," she apologized quietly to the girl with a surprisingly sincere tone that the jock definitely wasn't known for. Lana's unreadable expression started shifting into something else.
"You better be," the thug replied, but her eyes held a bit of mirth to them. "It's no problem," she clarified a second later. Lynn nodded.
The athlete felt something else pit in her stomach. For some reason, she almost didn't want the degenerate to leave. Which, wow, that was a first.
She opened her mouth to say something, but caught herself just barely about to ask the girl to come to her dad's half-birthday dinner. What was that?! She couldn't invite her to a family dinner. Not only were they famously not friends, but mixing her kinda-okayish-acquaintance and entire family together for one meal was not the ideal situation to put yourself in. Lynn's mind was a mess right now, which was confusing because she never thought like this.
"You- uhh" come on, Lynn. THINK. "erhh, shouldn'tttt-leave your shoes in a mess! God, I knew you didn't have manners, but just kicking your shoes off and leaving them wherever is insanely rude," her voice got supported by a faux-confidence about half-way though her first sentence, making her save a bit more believable.
Her ability to make her words sound convincing were however no match for the very obvious fact that the girl in question was holding her shoes in her hand, presumably because she took them off in Lynn's room. Where she had snuck in.
Everyone—even Lynn's younger sister who was intensely observing the situation with a delighted look on her face—was painfully aware of this fact. Lana bit back a knowing smile in the background, piecing together this sight from today with the previous conversations her sister had taken part in this month. The boxer looked more bewildered. She didn't understand if this was an attempt to conceal the fact she had snuck in through the window, or if the Loud girl had officially lost it. She decided to base her next move off of what she did understand, and promptly flipped the jock off,
Lynn clenched her teeth a bit and closed her eyes in a moment of weakness. She recovered quickly though.
"Well, it's great you found your thing. Goodbye," and with that she shoved the girl out and slammed the door behind her. Phew, crisis averted.
"Let's go tell Lincoln the great news!" she jogged past her sister, ignoring the knowing look the younger girl held.
...
After being so rudely kicked out of the house by the same girl who had asked for her help, the Royal East thug had half the mind to turn back around and give the athlete a proper yelling. She decided against it though, but that was only because of the yelping she heard from just a few meters away. It sounded a bit like a starving sea-lion begging for food.
"Oh dear! Some help please!" the voice exclaimed, sounding like the individual talking was trying to portray themself as calm. It wasn't working.
The girl quickly jogged over to the body wedged between the pavement and a large teal van. She crouched down and put her hands under the car, pushing with her shoulders. With the added help from the person below, they managed to get the individual to slide out from under the van. But that was not without the person gracefully smacking their forehead against the bottom of the vehicle.
"Ouch!" the man yelled out, softly rubbing his head with his palm. The girl took a look at the guy and was quickly able to deduct that this was the same man who was fixing the van when she snuck in—Lynn's father.
He winced slightly but was still able to look at his savior with a thankful smile on his face. "Geeze Louise, thanks for the help back there! I'm Lynn," he stretched his hand out for a handshake.
'There's two of them?', the girl thought whilst accepting the handshake. She kept a neutral facial expression throughout it all and introduced herself as well.
Lynn—the older male one—raised his eyebrows in surprise before pulling his lips into an unexpected smile. He blinked a couple times and spoke.
"Oh, yeah! Lynn has talked about you before! I'm glad the two of you are starting to get along. Her sisters have been bothering her about that for a while now!"
Now it was the fighter's turn to be shocked.
First off, this whole 'not fully hating each other' thing was a real concept and not just something the girl had been imagining. She had previously wondered if Lynn had even noticed or cared about the fact that they were fighting less. A part of her was actually a bit concerned that maybe this whole period of spending time together without ripping the other's throat out was just circumstantial and that they actually weren't getting along. Now she at least had confirmation that it was something both of them are aware of.
Secondly, Lynn talks about her?
Or at least sometimes.
Enough for her dad to remember her. And enough times for her sister's to have made comment on it. It made her feel funny, although the thug was not so sure if this was a bad thing or not- The jock could easily have been talking shit about her. Now she was a bit more nervous about this encounter with Lynn's father Lynn. Just how much did he know about?
"Uh, yeah," she said lamely, as it was the only thing she was able to push out. Big Lynn didn't seem phased at this at all though and instead brightened his smile. He gestured toward the truck. "Wanna help out? I could use another set of hands."
The juvenile was about to decline. Fixing a van with some middle-aged man who happened to be the father of someone she spent a lot of effort hating on was not really the most fun or relaxing activity. For some reason though, she felt a bit like she owed it to him and the family. After everything she that had happened between her and his daughter, she felt like she for an unknown reason wanted to make up for it.
"Okay, I got some time," she shrugged and grabbed a wrench. He looked pleased at that and started explaining something she already understood. Either way, she nodded along and added a usual comment to signify that she was listening and understood.
As they fixed the van, the man excitedly told her about life-stories and experiences he's had with the van. Most of them consisted of him getting inspiration for a song or coming up with new recipes to try out. It was honestly boring as shit, but the thug sat through it. It was almost endearing to a point.
After a little less than an hour they managed to fix the issue with the car. They both sat with suspense in the van's front seats while Lynn Sr tested to turn it on. After a short celebration over the fact that it did indeed start, the delinquent decided it was time to leave for real.
"Thanks for the help, kid!" Lynn waved while packing his equipment back into the toolbox outside the garage. The girl nodded and waved back while walking away. Right before leaving though she stopped and turned around again.
"Happy half-birthday, sir."
Lynn Sr smiled at that. It always filled his heart to see good kids. It equally always filled his heart to have his half-birthday to be remembered, but that wasn't the point. He had been a bit doubtful when he found out Lynn was starting to get along with the teen, even though he managed to hide it well. He was concerned over his daughter's well being. And while he supposed being friendly with a ruffian was better than being enemies with one, he was still apprehensive of the thought of Lynn hanging around with those kinds, even if they only interacted briefly.
This girl was different, though. Lynn Sr could tell she didn't have any ill intentions. So even though he didn't really want his daughter to hang around the wrong crowd, he decided that maybe this girl was okay.
--------------------------------------
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Longest chapter yet, my eyes are tired. Originally you were supposed to come to the surprise party thanks to clyde suggesting he asks for your help now that he can kinda contact you, but idk that felt way too rushed even by my standards so I went against it. Plus it would be kinda weird for the family to have a party with someone none of them really knew.
blah blah many mistakes u get the gist of it. Im trynna make the family (and lowkey the audience rn) to get to know the character a bit more before moving forward. Every time i finish a chapter I think that the reader and lynn have developed their relationship too fast, but every chapter I'm too lazy to go back and slow them down. Just tell me if you think they going too fast ok? Maybe im just being paranoid or smth idk.