Lucy's style of Basketball

Act 1: LJ comes home

(Cover photo by Sonson Sensei, Picture commissioned by David Lewis and used with his permission)

"You want to be number one...give it one hundred per cent....give it a hundred per cent....you can be anything you want to be..."

Lynn Loud continued to recite these words as she did chin ups on her door frame. She could feel her muscles burn with every lift but it only pushed her to keep going. She loved the burn. She loved to feel strong and know that she was only going to get stronger. To prove this point, once she reached her usual record of one hundred chin ups, she decided to do ten more.

"One hundred and nine...one hundred...and...ten! BOO YA!" she cried as she slapped the top of the door way and landed on her feet.

At thirteen years old, Lynn had dominated just about every sport you could name. There wasn't anyone in royal woods who didn't know her.

Well, part of that was because of her huge family, Lynn had four older sisters, five younger sisters and one dorky little brother. The Loud family had developed a....reputation...around the neighbourhood. (As well as several neighbouring districts. Some of which they can't go back to.)

But even so, Lynn was the strongest and the fastest and she had the trophies to prove it. Some kids found her to be a little intense but she didn't care. She was-

"Lynn?"

"AAAAAAH!! Way to interrupt my thoughts Lucy."

Lynn glared at her little sister. Lucy Loud was about as different from Lynn as you can get. While Lynn was a die hard competitor, Lucy was a die hard goth. At eight years old, Lucy was obsessed with vampires, werewolves, and every other form of scary trope, occult subject and form of magic. Her favourite colour was black and her hobby was writing poetry while moping around the house like a black rain cloud. Also, while Lynn was full of energy and never passed up the chance to make herself heard, Lucy was so quiet you could never hear her sneak up on you.

"I wrote a new poem. Could you give me some feedback?" Lucy said in her dull monotone voice.

"Is it something really depressing?"

Lucy didn't answer this. She just stood there motionless. With her jet black bangs covering her eyes it was hard to tell what she was thinking.

"Alright, lets hear it." Lynn relented.

"It's called, "an ode to a bleeding heart"

Lynn rolled her eyes and groaned. Lucy seemed to not hear her.

"My passion decorates the wall....my soul bleeds out on the floor....everything inside me is empty...you should have taken me to the mall...: All is death and despair....life was born without meaning...How to escape this torment....when the hopelessness follows me everywhere...."

Lynn sighed but kept a straight face.

"Last week I spotted a grave...I was filled with the urge to jump in-"

"O-KAY! That was great Lucy. Really great. I liked it a lot."

"What did it make you feel?" Lucy asked

Unfortunately, Lucy wasn't just Lynns' sister. She was also Lynns roommate. With eleven kids in the house the girls all had to share rooms and Lynn and Lucy got stuck together. And because they share a bedroom, Lynn is the one who was most likely to hurt Lucy's feelings. And when Lucy gets upset she tends to hide in the ventilation system for hours. Or even worse, she breaks out the creepy voodoo dolls made of candle wax and mutilates them in front of everybody.