A Little Hotheaded

>When it came to sports in your neighborhood, you and Lynn Loud were the people to talk to. You both have won numerous competitions, trophies, and best of all, you've both won each other's hearts. You were only in 6th grade, but you decided to at least call it before it was too late.
>But you and Lynn weren't always thinking the same on everything. Lynn was reckless, VERY reckless, and it often led to her getting in a lot of near-death experiences. Like the time she got hit by a car trying to trick shot a hockey puck into a basketball hoop. Luckily it was only a fractured leg, and it was healed in a few weeks.
>Lynn may seem strong on the outside, but overtime you learned that her on the outside is the complete opposite on the inside. Lynn was always up for a game of punchies or wrestling, but when it came to thoughts and words, Lynn was basically defenseless. You always made sure to be careful with what you said around her. But others didn't think the same.
>You were basically Lynn's best friend throughout elementary, and with the middle school years recently starting, you were happy to see her. Not that you didn't see her during the summer. It was fun times wrestling outside in the mud, swimming in the pool, shooting hoops together - you two had fun. She was always up for roughhousing - and so were you. It was trash talk that was her game only.
>You remember the day you first found out how fragile Lynn was when it came to words. It was the beginning of last year. You two had already known each other for a while, but you never knew how you both felt about one another. Or how sensitive Lynn was.
>It was January, and snow was abundant everywhere. You, Lynn, and the entire Loud family had spent the entire day making snow forts, hiding in said snow forts, having a snowball war, and then destroying said forts. You two went into the backyard alone to have your own snow adventure later in the day. Lynn decided to ask you what you two should do.
>"Well, why not make a snowman? Might as well create something peaceful in all of this, right?" Lynn was ecstatic, almost like thats what she was hoping you'd say. You made the bottom snowball almost as big as you and Lynn, while Lynn was busy rolling the snow around her soccer ball.
>"Why are you putting it around the soccer ball? You'll have to destroy the snowman to get it."
>"I have a cool idea in mind. Just out this on your ball, I have to get some stuff inside,'k?" You nodded to her as she ran in, jumping over the fence surrounding the backyard porch. You pick up the large snowball and place it atop yours, and start rolling the head. Lynn comes back outside with buttons, a scarf, and a spritz bottle filled with ice water.
>As you start placing the final snowball onto the snow body, you can't help but ask Lynn "Whats with the bottle? It's kind of cold already isn't it?" She just nods her head at you and starts walking towards the snowman, first placing the button eyes, then the scarf, and finally starts spraying it down with the ice water. Especially around the middle sphere where her ball is.
>You didn't notice until now that the water was mixed with red food dye, and i was VERY dark. Made the snowman look bloody almost. When the bottle was empty, Lynn jumped up and down excitedly, and looked at you. "Well? What do you think?" You were confused.
>"The snowman just looks bloody now. Whats the point of that?" Lynn puts her hands on her hips and laughs.
>"Thats because you haven't seen the best part silly!" Lynn runs up to the porch and jumps off, doing some cool karate stunt moves that you thought only Jackie Chan could do. She's kicks the ball straight out of the snowman, leaving a giant hole in the center. The red liquid starts dripping, making it look gory.
>"Now do you like it?" She says to you, bouncing the soccer ball off of her knee. "I froze the snowman solid so the surrounding snow would support the head. Pretty cool huh?"
>You can't help but nod in amazement. "Man Lynn how are you so goddamn awesome? Thats was freaking sick! Not only does this snowman look awesome, but that stunt you did - Oh my god! I'm speechless!"
>Lynn starts blushing, looking down with her arms crossed behind her. "T-Thanks man. You did good too, making the snowman and all. Hey, come here for a second." She leads you to the massive hole in the snowman, ad tells you to look through it. She walks to the other side, and does the same. "Isn't it awesome?" She says this again, but then gets a somewhat serious look on her face.
>"Hey dude, I've been meaning to ask you something. But it's kind of serious. Promise you won't laugh?" You take her note of seriousness as a sign, and nod in agreement. "Good, here goes. We've both known each other for a long time, right?"
>"Yeah.." You can't help but trail off there. Is she going to pop the question? "I've known you since I started walking, ever since we went to daycare together."
>"Well, I was wondering." She's trying to find the right words for this, as you can tell by the stubborn look on her face. "I um, wanted to um, know if- if you would like if - Actually, you know what, forget it, It can wait."
>"Lynn come on. You know me, I can take it. Just ask the question."
>"Okay, okay, fine. Would you like to be my... boyfriend? Please don't laugh!" But thats exactly what you do. Burst out laughing. "Oh, well I thought we had something..." She starts looking down, almost as if she's going to cry. You better fix this now.
>"No no, Lynn, I'd LOVE to be your boyfriend! The only reason I'm laughing was because I was gonna ask you too! Well, not today. Maybe later."
>Her face beams up in happiness. She runs around the snowman and practically chokes you as she hugs you. You can't help but hug back. "Oh thank you thank you thank you! I'm literally the happiest I've ever been right now!"
>She was happy, until the major incident happened. One of Lynn's sports rivals lived behind her, and decided to stand on the fence to get some dirty talk in.
>"Aw, look at the two LOVEBIRDS making out in the SNOW! HAHAHA!" She's bursting out laughing. "Man you too should see yourselves."
>Lynn is quick to jab back. "Why are you talking? I don't see you dating anyone." The girl is at a lost. Her face said it all - shit, she's right. Unfortunately, this girl happened to know Lynn's weak spot.
>"Whatever, thats not what I came to talk about. What I came to talk about was your SHAMEFUL display yesterday at the school. Man you guys got creamed! It was hilarious to watch it all."
>"Hey shut up about that." Lynn says very defensively. "We were just having an off game, thats all."
>"Yeah, and that OFF game had a final score of 78-12! HAHAHA!" She's laughing again. "Oh god, thats funny. Anyway dork, I'm going. Just wanted to tell you you'll need to get good before you actually think you're good at sports. See ya NERD!"
>You can see Lynn is furious. But she's not the slightest bit angry. She's actually crying. You never thought Lynn was capable of crying, let alone by words and not an injury. "Hey, Lynn, just forget her. She's just trying to get under your skin. Lets just go back to the snowman okay?"
>In a fit of rage, Lynn beats down the snowman as hard as she can. With every fiber of her being, she's beats and crushes the ice of the bloody snowman until its just a red puddle. She then takes her soccer ball and kicks it with such force, it explodes. You can see that she's being blinded by sadness and rage, but you don't know what to do.
>"I'll see you at school tomorrow." Lynn speaks, between tears and sniffles, hiding her tears from you. "Bye." Lynn finally runs inside and slams the door, and you're left with the little red puddle that used to be your symbol of love.
>That happened a year ago. At least on that day you and Lynn were officially dating. But boy was it a rough year for both you and Lynn. Since that girl knew you two were dating, she went out of her way to get her friends to constantly pick on Lynn. It was terrible for her. Some days she'd come home happy and excited to hang outside and play sports. Others she just sat inside her room, silent, not even kicking a ball at her feet.
>One day you decided to ask Lynn's siblings if she was always like this. Everyone seemed to say no, except for the young goth whom she shared a room with.
>"She's been like this ever since she lost her first tournament." Lucy said without any emotion. "She just does a really good job at hiding it. Like how I do a good job hiding my Princess Pony comics. Don't tell anyone I said that."
>She continued. "Usually it happens only when she loses a sport game she's playing, but ever since she turned 13 her moods have changed since. She became much more sensitive, not only to losing, but to words as well."
>This made you ponder a bit. Yes, she was right, Lynn never did this until very recently. Must be mood swings since she's just barely 13. You've just wondered why words seemed to hurt her more than losing. You didn't dare ask her though, for fear she may think you're trying to make fun of her.
>Lately though, Lynn has been getting much worse, to the point where she actually skipped school on day. She faked being sick to her 10 siblings, but when you came to check on her she was perfectly fine. Well, fine as in no sickness. But on the inside she was hurting more than a broken leg.
>On that day, you came home from school with a present for her - a new soccer ball. She had been using an old, patchwork soccer ball made of cushion and tape for the past year because she couldn't afford a new one. It was her birthday soon, and you wanted to surprise her. When you knocked on the door, Lynn's brother Lincoln opened up.
>"Oh hey man whats up?" Lincoln said while putting and hand in the air. Your hand met his midair, and the beautiful clap of two people high fiving occurred. It felt good to know Lincoln was still a chill guy while living with 10 sisters.
>"Nothin Linc. I gotta ask though - is Lynn okay? I wanted to give her a early birthday gift but she wasn't at school."
>"She's in her room. She was sick this morning, so be careful when going in there. Had a fever." You say thanks to the young brother and head up the Loud House stairs. While your opening the door thats right across the staircase, Lynn's older sister Leni passes by.
>"Oh hey, I know you." She says with glee. "Wait, don't tell me. No, you're not the pizza guy... AAAHHH!" She shrieks suddenly while still looking at you. "YOU'RE LYNN'S BOYFRIEND! AHHHHH!" She's jumping and down in giddy joy, happy to see her baby sister has someone who loves her outside the family. "Tell me, what juicy secrets has she told you? Anything that she said she'd never tell the family?"
>You could tell by the inquisitive look on her face that she was testing you. "Sorry Leni, but Lynn hasn't told me anything. Even if she did, I'd probably keep it a secret like she'd want it to be." She shrieks again, and picks you up and starts hugging and shaking you. "Oh I knew you were the one! Oh I knew you'd never hurt my baby sis!" She kisses you on the forehead, and says one final thing before walking away. "Treat my little sister nicely, say? She's been acting strange lately." With that Leni was down the stairs and into the living room.
>You opened up Lynn's door and see it's empty. Literally nothing to be found, nor anyone. You can just tell that Lynn's in here, but you can't see here. So you decide to bait her out.
>"So uh, Lynn. I know you're in here, could you please come out? I have a little birthday gift for you." The closet door opens, and Lynn is crouched down in the corner facing the wall and sobbing. Uh-oh. "Hey, Lynn, whats wrong?" You take the soccer ball out of your bag and show it to her. "I uh, got you a new ball. Happy early Birthday!"
>Lynn doesn't even turn her head to look at it. "Thanks, I love it. Just throw it on my bed."
>Dear god. You throw the ball on the bed and place your bag on the floor. You walk over inside the closet and close it again, so it's just you and Lynn.
>"Okay miss Peppy. You have a problem, and I'm the man thats gonna fix it. Neither of us are leaving this closet until you tell me why you've been acting so strange lately." She chuckles a little, so you're making progress. She turns around and faces you, and her face is beet red from crying.
>"You know what, fine. Maybe I should at least tell you, considering we are dating and all."
>You lean in close to Lynn, snuggling next to her, trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible. You hear her sniffle a bit, probably crying because theres someone that cares so much about her. "Now remember, tell me everything that happened today, okay? I want to make sure I fully understand everything."
>"Alright, I will. So it started 2 days ago. Remember that bitch from the day we first started dating?" Woah, swearing was a new territory for Lynn, you were surprised. You nod your head, ands continues. "Well, it was the middle of gym class, and we were playing a pickup game of basketball. Naturally I was dominating everyone in my grade, including that whore."
>"Okay Lynn, I get you're going through a lot of emotions right now, but could you tone down the swearing in case someone hears us? I don't really feel like you need to be caught acting like this."
>"Alright, fine. So as I was saying, I was owning everyone in my grade. So she decides to call upon two of her friends who happen to be in 8th grade."
>"Huh, so this is who you want us to play? Some 6th grade runt? Come on, we've got better things to do than waste our time here."
>"You wouldn't be up for even one game?" Lynn said, spinning the ball on her finger. "I'll even let you go first". She thrusted the ball towards the bigger of the two, and you could tell she was mad.
"Oh, so that's what you're gonna do? Fine. Let's make a little wager then. If you beat us, we'll leave you alone for the rest of your life. But if and when YOU lose, prepare to be the laughing stock if the school."
>"A deals a deal, then. Let's play ball."
>The two gigantic girls started the game with a few passes back and forth. Lynn snatched the ball midair and ran under the hoop for an easy lay-up. "Beat that suckas!"
>Alright kid, I'm done playing nice. You've just awoken the beast." The girls started the next round, and in almost two seconds flat the ball was in the net. The girls were constantly teasing Lynn, holding the ball above their heads and constantly making shots. Lynn hardly ever got the ball, and when she did, it was gone in a flash.
>The final score ended up being 43-2, Lynn only making one basket the entire game.
>Lynn's "rival", the girl who called the others over, walked over giving a very slow clap, and then started to speak. "Wow, you just got utterly CREAMED! HAHAHA!" Lynn couldn't help but look down in shame, and keep on taking what she was dishing out. "You really thought you would beat two people who were TWICE your size? HAHAHA! Oh my god, thats precious. How would you family feel knowing that their sister who's only known for being good at sports just got utterly WRECKED! Admit it Lynn, you're nothing. Without sports, you're useless. Just admit it, because you know it. You're worthless, unless you have some type of fucking ball in your hand."
>Listening to Lynn tell the events made you feel sorrow for her - but at the same time you felt guilty that what that girl had said was true. Being good at sports was really the only thing Lynn had.
>"And thats when I did it." Lynn continued on.
>"Um, what exactly did you do?"
>"I reeled my arm back, and socked her right in the nose. HARD. She was bleeding all over the floor, she was crying, and I just stood there - wondering if I actually just did that. It was scary. I got sent to the office, and now I'm suspended. I pretended to be sick so I did't have to tell my parents about what happened. And thats all that happened."
>As you're mentally processing Lynn's story in your head, you can't help but wonder who was actually at fault here. That girl did make fun of Lynn, but Lynn did challenge those two girls to the game and punched the girl.
>You look at Lynn and see she has her head down in her knees, crying again.
>"Man, I'm so scared. I don't know what to do!" She starts sobbing. You move in real close to her, and put her in a big, heartfelt bearhug. She starts to cry more, so you let go of her, wondering if you did something wrong.
>"No, please, keep hugging me." Lynn says, as you put her back into your bearhug. "I'm sorry, it's just - it's just, I'm happy that even though I look and sound terrible, you still care about me." She's holding back her tears, but you slowly caress the back of her head.
>"No Lynn, just let it out. You need to get this off your chest, just keep crying."
>Suddenly Lynn rolls on top of you and wraps her arms around your neck, and brings her lips up to yours. At first you are surprised, and try to push Lynn away - but as you look at Lynn's face, you could see her expression was reading - "Please don't push me away, I need this."
>You slowly place your arms around Lynn's back and close your eyes, delving deeper into your kiss. As your lips move around to match the shape of Lynn's, your tongues continue to dance around each other, each of you memorizing each other's taste.
>Lynn, now mesmerized by your kiss, now longer tries to hold herself over you, and is now laying down on top of. But it doesn't matter to you. What matters is that Lynn feels okay now, and that she's happy. That is until you hear a knock on the closet door.
>Your eyes open up wide as the closet door starts to slide open. You try to push Lynn away from you, but her arms are still hooked around you, and Lynn has a surprisingly strong grip. You start to make noises to get Lynn's attention, but it's as if she's stuck in another world.
>You can't help but watch as the closet door opens and there, standing in the doorway, is Lynn's roommate, Lucy. Lynn is still in her trance, so you finally decide to push yourself up. You can this is Lynn's first kiss, because even though all of this has been happening, she's still going at it.
>You look at Lucy for help, and she walks behind you and uncuffs you from Lynn's grasp. Lynn, finally realizing that you two are no longer laying down in the closet, takes her lips away from yours and moves away quickly, obviously out of embarrassment.
>"Oh god, wow, uh, wow um... Was I, um, really kissing you that whole time?" You can't help but give her the Postal Dude look that says it all - Hell yeah baby.
>Lucy starts, and Lynn gives her full attention, probably because she doesn't need Lucy spreading this around. "So Lynn, I came in here looking for you. Lincoln needs to talk to you outside. And you," she looks straight at you - at least you think she does, hard to tell when you can't see her eyes. "Lori wants to talk to you downstairs. She's watching T.V. in the living room. Now if you'll both excuse me I'm going to write some poems that show my inner spirit."
>Oh fuck, you're in for it now. The only reason Lori would want to talk to you is to talk about Lynn - did she know about what you two were doing? You pray that she doesn't.
>You make your way down into the living room and sit down next to Lori, who is currently watching Netflix on the t.v.
>"So, let me get this straight. You are dating Lynn correct?" Wow, straight into the facts. This was going to be something. You nod you're head slowly, and Lori speaks again.
>"Alright, I have one final question for you. Did you or did you not just kiss my sister inside of her closet?" You turn stone cold. You feel your face go pale. She's still watching Netflix, and you're just staring into oblivion. After about 5 seconds of quiet, Lori goes ecstatic.
>"EEEHH! I knew it I knew it I knew it! My little sister just had her first kiss! Oh, please tell me all the details. I need to know everything!"
>You're surprised to say the least. "Wait, you're not mad? You're okay with Lynn and Me dating?"
>"Why would I be mad? Lynn's always talking about you, it would be terrible if you guys weren't dating!" Just then, Lynn comes downstairs, jumping over every other stair to get down. When she looks at you, she starts blushing, and then tries to hide it from Lori.
>"H-hey man, wanna go outside and play a game of hoops?" You look at her with heartfelt sentiment and nod, walking towards her, placing an arm around her. You look back at Lori, who winks at the both of you, as you and Lynn play your last game as friends - and your first game as lovers.