Good Things Come In Threes

There is only one foolproof social survival strategy, and that is nonparticipation. This is especially true when it comes to school. Children, from grade school to high school, are tribal creatures who gain immense satisfaction from excluding others. Whether your grades are too high, or your grades are too low, or you're too short or too tall or too skinny or too fat or in any way separate from a perfect average ideal, your peers will find the one thing that really bothers you - something that can really drive under your skin and dig at you, something that will gnaw at your ego and sit on your chest while you lie in bed thinking about the day you've had - and they will use it to hammer away at you until you are completely defeated. The benefits of not standing out are that there are no defining traits to use against you. It's like safety-proofing a room. Once you've sanded away anything that could be conceivably mocked, you can make yourself invulnerable to any social climate, no matter how harsh.

Christina had mastered this method. It was perfect. She only spoke when she was spoken to. She achieved average grades. She looked good - but not great. This was all carefully cultivated. An artistic masterpiece designed NOT to be observed, but merely to hover vaguely at the edge of a memory, a random onlooker in a crowd. And it worked. Christina had made it all the way to fifth grade mostly unscathed.

Like I said, foolproof. But the thing about foolproof plans is that they underestimate how clever fools can be. And for a fool, Lincoln Loud was damn clever.

Lincoln Loud was the perfect model for why Christina's system worked. Everything about him was not just noticeable, but strikingly so: his marble-white hair; his Day-Glo orange shirt; his chipped tooth; his alliterative name; his oversized family; and that family's tendency to be at the epicenter of every problem in a ten mile radius. Like that time he "made a connection in the other direction" at that football game. Or that time he tried to sell romantic advice to his friends - that was a real laugh. He was a dorky, white trash kid who was mocked and ridiculed every time he attempted to be anything else. That's why Christina can't draw attention to herself. She knows the score. She understands how these things go.

That is, she thought she understood. But that stupid, dumb jerk Lincoln ruined everything by acting like a bonehead as usual. That video of him roleplaying with that ugly little statue spread around the whole campus before Christina had even gotten to school. That stupid, dumb jerk Lincoln. Putting the name Christina on everybody's lips like that. Sure, she hadn't done anything wrong or embarrassing per se; still didn't stop the incessant teasing about Lincoln and Christina sitting in a tree. She'd never been so humiliated in all her life. All she wanted to do was run home and lay down in bed and hope that she got swallowed up and killed like in that one Nightmare on Elm Street movie. She convinced her parents to switch classes. She wanted to switch schools.

That's about as solid of a rejection as you can give without leaving the country or breaking the law. Lincoln was gracious about the whole thing. He never spoke to Christina once, and in a few weeks he'd already pushed her to the back of his mind. She'd sit on a park bench and sometimes she'd see him hanging out with that girl Ronnie-Anne. You know, talking, smiling, maybe even holding hands sometimes. He'd moved on. And after a while, the most loudmouthed of the teasers moved on too.

So why didn't she feel like it was over?

On those days, on that park bench, watching Lincoln and Ronnie-Anne together... she felt like maybe she hadn't handled the situation right. Maybe her non-involvement policy should have been suspended. Something about everything that had gone on and how it had turned out knotted up in her stomach and made her feel sick. It might have been the fact that she knew, beyond a doubt, that at one point Lincoln was completely infatuated with her. And now he wasn't. And he was hanging out with another girl and having a good time.

That stupid, dumb jerk Lincoln. Christina always kind of had a thing for him.

Of course, she couldn't say anything to him about this. No way. Not like she'd risk her lack of reputation to make a move on a laughingstock. She suppressed her feelings and ignored them. Sooner or later a more acceptable boy would come along and she'd put Lincoln aside. Then she wouldn't have to worry about it. Still, she'd think about him from time to time. Maybe she'd imagine him having a bad day, and she'd say just the right thing that would make him smile. Or they could sit at lunch together and share a snack cake. Maybe they could even hold hands. Lincoln looked like the kind of kid who used hand sanitizer on the regular. His palms were probably nice and soft.

This was all kindergarten-level romance, of course, but Christina truly was an innocent girl despite all her cynicism. Isolation hurt her; she wanted someone else in her life she could lean on. Being alone felt terribly, well, lonely. Maybe that's why she fixated on Lincoln. Despite his outsider status, he had a loving family, a few friends, even a girl. He symbolized the companionship she didn't have.

Things could have been different.

Maybe things COULD be different?

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of the bell. 20-minute recess. She grabbed her bag lunch and headed out with the rest of the students, trying not to get noticed.

---

Christina idly munched on an apple, watching the other kids horsing around at the playground. She never really joined in the schoolyard games. Not that she wanted to, of course; recess gave her some time to herself. To think. And she had a lot to think about lately.

Why didn't she go see Lincoln again? Not in a big, showy way or anything. She'd just go and see him after school, and she'd just explain that she didn't mean to react the way she did back then, and maybe they could still be friends? Then she wouldn't be bothered by it anymore. She'd be violating her one rule, but she felt like it might be worth it in this case. Why didn't she just do that?

"Hey!"

An altercation over at the swingset caught Christina's attention.

"No, Ronnie, wait your turn!"

Ronnie-Anne Santiago was currently grappling with a young-ish boy whose name Christina couldn't quite place. He might have been a... David? Dave? Something like that? Anyway, his name mattered less than the fact that Ronnie Anne was holding him in a half-nelson while he fruitlessly tried to keep his grip on the swing.

"Get OFF, loser! You've had your turn!"

Ronnie shoved the poor kid off the swing and onto the woodchips. Gracefully, she lowered herself into the now-unoccupied seat.

"I'm gonna tell teacher!" the kid wailed.

"Whatever. Go and tattle if you want. You aren't getting your swing back."

Alright, THAT'S why Christina didn't try to meet up with Lincoln. Ronnie-Anne was a holy terror, and everybody knew it. What if Christina went to talk to Linc, and then Ronnie heard about it and rearranged Christina's face? Christina liked her face the way it was. She was starting to reconsider this plan of hers. Maybe non-participation was the best?

She tried to take another bite of her apple, only to realize that she'd already gnawed it down to the core. She really needed to stop zoning out like this...

"Hey, Ronnie. What's going on?"

Lincoln Loud, he of the traffic-cone-colored shirt, had just walked up to the swingset. Christina noticed the way Ronnie's expression softened.

"Nothing much. Just swinging, I guess."

"Alright, cool. You want me to push you?"

She scoffed. "I'm not a little kid, lame-o. I don't need you to push me."

"It'd be fun! I'm a real good pusher. One time I almost got Lana to go all the way around the top bar."

"Well... I guess you could give me a little push. Just to start me off, though."

Christina watched with rapt interest as Lincoln got behind Ronnie. He placed his hands on the small of her back, and gently moved the young girl forward. When she swung back, he'd push against her and add to the momentum. In a few moments Ronnie-Anne was getting some pretty impressive airtime. Ronnie laughed, and Lincoln smiled. That kid was happy just seeing other people be happy.

That made up her mind. Christina was decided on this now. He was too good for that little bully. Christina was going to tell Lincoln how she felt about him. After school. Today.

---

The day's final bell rang at three fifty-five. Students filed out of the classroom, chatting with their friends, grumbling about how much homework they got. Christina carefully blended in, weaving her way through the crowded halls. She'd spent the rest of the day planning out how she was going to approach Lincoln. She used to be in his class, and she knew the quickest way from Mrs. Johnson's homeroom to the buses, so she could make a pretty good guess what path he'd be taking. She could guess where to find him.

She allowed herself to get jostled by the surging tide of kids until she ended up outside. Christina scanned the crowds until she spotted a familiar flash of orange. She made a beeline for her white-haired target.

Lincoln was saying goodbye to Clyde, hefting his backpack over his shoulder, when he spotted her. They held eye contact for a few moments, only interrupted by blinking. He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

"Uh, h-hi, Christina. I haven't seen you since..."

He looked away. Christina knew what he was getting at.

They stood there in awkward silence as throngs of homebound children rushed past them.

Christina quickly shoved a crumpled piece of paper into his hands, then hurried off to her bus. She hopped into an open seat and pulled her backpack close to her lap, trying to hide how hard she was blushing. She hoped he'd read the note. She hoped he'd reciprocate. It was pretty easy to understand, after all. Just three words were written on it:

'I like you.'

---

After a long night of being unable to sleep, and a long school day of being unable to concentrate, Christina was back on the playground for a half-hour recess. Normally she was able to withdraw easily into her own thoughts, but today she was hyper-aware of her surroundings. Anxious, nervous, butterflies in her stomach, she sat on a quiet bench on the more secluded side of the school, waiting for Lincoln to arrive.

"Get up."

Now hold on a minute. That's not Lincoln's voice.

"I said 'get up'!"

Two small hands grabbed the front of Christina's dress and yanked her to her feet. The young girl found herself inches away from the snarling face of Ronnie-Anne Santiago. Like a bunny rabbit held in the claws of a vicious wolf, her body went helplessly limp in Ronnie's grasp.

"So, what, you thought that you were just gonna walk right up to Linc and snatch him up, huh? You thought, 'Oh, Ronnie-Anne, who cares about her, I can just trample all over her because I'm Christina and I can do whatever I want', is that it?"

Christina would have assuaged Ronnie's fears with an eloquent response, but at the moment she was too busy watching her life flash before her eyes.

"Well, here's what I have to say to that!"

Ronnie-Anne pulled her fist back. Christina closed her eyes and waited for the cold embrace of death.

And she waited.

After she had waited a respectable amount of time, and death did not seem forthcoming, she dared to open her eyes.

Ronnie-Anne was still there. So was the fist. Ronnie fought to keep her angry expression, even as tears started to well up in her eyes, even as her grip on Christina loosened. Her arms dropped to her sides and Christina collapsed back onto the bench, hoping that her heart would restart itself sometime soon-ish.

"I... was going to p-pound you," Ronnie said, speaking every word as if it were a mouthful of disgusting medicine, "but then Lincoln wouldn't... be my friend anymore. And then he'd go and k-kiss you and forget about me."

Ronnie-Anne lowered herself onto the ground, before falling with a THUMP onto the asphalt. She visibly winced when her tailbone hit the floor. Ronnie embraced her knees and pulled them close to her chest, apparently hoping it would hide her face if she decided to start crying.

"I don't understand," she sobbed, burying her head in her arms, "why you want to be so mean to m-me... You're so pretty you could have any g-guy you want... and I'm NOT. Why are you trying to take Linc away from me? Why do you hate me?"

Christina watched silently while Ronnie sniffled on the blacktop. Thinking. She was never much of a people person, but something compelled her to walk over to the girl in the purple jacket and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Ronnie looked up into her eyes.

After a few seconds of verbal fumbling, Christina did something which was moderately unusual for her: she spoke.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Christina asked, hesitantly.

---

"I've been real rough with him," Ronnie said. "Lincoln, I mean."

Class ticked by slowly, but soon enough the day was out, and Ronnie-Anne and Christina could meet and talk. Ronnie walked down the dirt paths of Ketchum Park, arms folded behind her head. Christina followed, listening intently.

"I used to think he was a real wimp. Like, he's kind of girly, and he likes comic books and nerdy stuff like that. So I used to shove him around a lot. Trying to, you know, toughen him up. But I don't know..."

Ronnie-Anne shoved her hands into her pockets. "He just laughs it off now, when I tease him. If someone did to me what I was doing to him, I'd sock him!"

Christina only nodded. Her non-participation lifestyle had made her very adept at listening.

"The other kids just get out of the way when they see me coming. It's fine, because it means they aren't gonna try to push me around, but it's just..." Ronnie sighed. "That lame-o is the only kid who's ever actually wanted to be my friend. At all. So... maybe he's tougher than I thought?"

"Maybe," Christina mumbled.

"And it's just that, you know," Ronnie continued, "when you were putting moves on him, I got nervous. Because you're the girl that he really wanted to kiss, and I'm the one that used to shove sloppy joes down his pants every day. He'd start hanging out with you, and... once he had a girlfriend, he'd get bored with me, and he wouldn't spend time with me any more. Like Bob-"

She suddenly stopped walking. Christina nearly bumped into her.

"N-never mind. It doesn't matter. That's all I have to say."

Christina raised her voice a fraction of a decibel.

"I wouldn't... have really paid any attention to him. But then he made that video. I was really angry for a few days. I hated him for putting a spotlight on me. But after a while, I decided... maybe he was kind of cute. And it felt nice knowing that someone thought I was pretty enough to... do that stuff with. That's why I wanted to make up with him. I don't know if it'll make up for how badly I took it when it happened, but I want to try."

Neither of them said anything for a while. They simply walked together for a few minutes, sharing a companionable silence.

"I'm still going to talk to Lincoln," Christina said. "You can too. You're not dating him or anything, so it shouldn't matter, right?"

"I can't really stop you, so do whatever you want. Just don't hurt him too bad, okay? That's my job." Ronnie hesitated. "And he's the only friend I've got."

"I could be your friend."

Christina had said it before she really thought about what she was saying. Still, Ronnie-Anne mulled it over.

"So you're asking me if you want to be MY friend? Really?"

Christina shrugged. "Sort of."

Ronnie broke into a wide smile.

"That's fine by me."

---

"Gimme the phone!"

After she'd walked home, Christina decided the next logical step in her quest to win over Lincoln Loud would be to actually spend some time with him. It was a Friday afternoon, so the weekend was wide open; Christina figured she would look up his number in the school directory, call him up, and ask if maybe it would be okay if she could come over this Saturday?

Of course, this is easier said than done. You might think that it would be easy to just punch in the numbers and ring the kid up, but Christina had an obstacle in her path. A smug, obnoxious, brown-haired obstacle.

"Chandler, you can't hog the phone! Mom said!"

Chandler "the Handler" was big man on the elementary school campus. He was also an irritating little bastard, which his sister Christina knew more than anybody else.

"Oh, 'Mom said'," he mimicked, holding the phone up with one arm and pushing Christina away with the other. "In case you haven't noticed, Mom isn't here right now, so nyah. What would you even need the phone for, anyway?"

"I'm gonna call my friend! Now give - me - the - phone!"

Chandler smirked. "I didn't know you had friends."

"I do! Just let me call him!"

"Ooooh!" Chandler continued his little game of keep-away, but Christina's comment appeared to have given him a second wind; he shoved back Christina with more fervor, and stretched his arm even higher out of her reach. "Does Chrissy have a boyfriend?"

"Shut up, Chandler! Just give it!"

Chandler shrugged, or shrugged as well as he could with a phone in one hand and a sister in the other. "Maybe if you tell me who the lucky guy is, I'll let you have it."

Christina was fuming. It was always like this with him. Chandler would boss her around just because he was like a year and a half older. Well, she didn't have time to play this game today. She'd already taken more than her usual share of chances today, why not try for another one?

She started thinking again, something she was pretty well-practiced in by this point. Mom or Dad would break this fight up right away, but Dad was busy at work with his sewer plant stuff and Mom was eating out at Ristorante Costoso with her yoga instructor. Dad didn't get home until Christina was already in bed, and Mom might not even get home until the next morning, so she couldn't rely on them. Chandler might carry on this fight for hours if it amused him, so tiring him out wasn't really an option... really, there was only one thing to do.

Christina reared back and kicked Chandler in the nuts.

Alright, so it wasn't a GREAT plan, but this was all in the heat of the moment.

He gasped and dropped the phone. Christina swooped in and snatched it up before her brother could react, leaving him gasping while she raced up the stairs and into her bedroom. She locked the door as quickly as she could and slumped down onto the floor, clutching the telephone to her breast as if it were an ancient treasure.

Hopefully the wailing from downstairs wouldn't get picked up over the phone.

She hurriedly tapped the number out as she remembered them. Maybe if she got this call over with quickly she wouldn't have time to feel anxiety about what she was about to do.

An unfamiliar voice picked up on the other end. "Hey, what's happening? This is Luna Loud, at the Casa Del Loud. Who is it?"

Oh, it was one of Lincoln's thirty-seven sisters. Which one was Luna? She wasn't the girl with braces, was she? No, uh...

Whatever, it didn't matter. Christina just had to summon her inner courage and suppress her social anxiety enough to get Lincoln on the phone. She'd already done so much lately; talking to Lincoln and Ronnie, standing up to Chandler... speaking over the phone should be even easier, considering she wasn't even there in person, right?

"Christina," she mumbled.

"What's that bro? Couldn't hear you the first time."

"Christina," she said, now at an audible volume. "Is... Lincoln here?"

"Christina, huh?" The girl on the other end of the call took a moment before answering, as if racking her brain to recall the name. "Oh! Yeah, you were Lincoln's little friend at the SMOOCH concert, weren't ya? Are you finally going to take me up on that recommendation?"

Oh, this was the girl from the concert! Then that 'recommendation' was back when Luna was trying to hook her up with Lincoln-

Christina was feeling a little dizzy all of a sudden. Good thing she was already sitting down.

"J-j-just put him on the phone!"

"Yeah, just a second-" This next part was muffled, as if Luna had put her hand over the receiver and turned away from the telephone - "HEY, BRO, GET DOWN HERE! CHRISTINA'S ON THE PHONE!"

After a few seconds of the sound of feet thundering down the stairs, Christina was greeted by a new, more familiar voice.

"Christina!"

"Lincoln."

"Uh, now that I actually have a chance to talk to you, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about that video and-"

Oh my word. The first chance he gets to chat with this girl and he brings up that video. That doofus. Christina was going to have to teach him how to talk to a lady sometime.

"It's okay, really. I'm not mad about that anymore."

"Great. I mean, thanks. That's good!"

There was a dreadful, pregnant silence here. Christina hoped that when she gave Lincoln that note that she wasn't blushing as hard as she was now.

"S-so," Christina stammered, "are you doing anything today?"

"NO! I mean..." Lincoln deepened his voice. "I think I can fit it into my schedule." He probably thought that this made him sound suave, but it actually made him sound exactly like a dorky eleven-year-old who was attempting to sound suave. It was adorable.

"So it would be alright if I came over?"

"Uh, yeah, whenever you feel like. A few of my sisters are over here, but it's not like I've got anything important going on."

"That's great. ...See you, I guess."

"See ya."

Christina quickly disconnected the call, and allowed her tensed muscles to relax. Today has been full of action, excitement, and adventure for Christina. She successfully talked to like three people! She was cheering herself inwardly.

Still, the most difficult part was yet to come. She'd already come this far, so she couldn't just back down now. Now she had to actually meet with the kid in person and hang out with him like normal children do. She couldn't stop now, not when luck was already on her side!

Now she just had to get out the front door and onto the sidewalk, and then she could get over.

Which would require running past a very pissed-off Chandler.

Hmm.

Maybe she should just climb out through the window.

---

Finding her way to the house was pretty easy. It advertised itself. Anyone who doesn't understand the phrase "noise pollution" would get an instant lesson standing anywhere within twenty yards of that little Franklin Avenue residence. The front yard and roof covered in scattered toys and miscellaneous objects wasn't too hard to notice either. Christina had a pretty good hunch that this was where she was supposed to be. The thing was, as she approached, she noticed that she wasn't the only person visiting that day.

Christina carefully made her way up the front porch steps. "Ronnie?"

The girl in front of her started at the sudden noise. She turned around to look at the cause of the sudden interruption, her disgruntled expression softening once she saw who it was.

"Oh, it's you. What're you doing here?", Ronnie asked.

"I was invited."

Ronnie-Anne's eyes widened, possibly at the realization that she, too, could get invited to things. "Well, I'm also here. So what are you going do to about it?"

"I guess I'll be here with you," Christina said.

Ronnie pouted. "Well, I got here first."

"Okay."

Ronnie, realizing that she wasn't going to elicit a reaction from her, mellowed out some as Christina knocked on the door. "He might not even be home. I've been ringing the doorbell for like three hours and nobody's answered."

On cue, the doorknob turned. The front door swung open, revealing the little white-haired dork right at Christina's eye level. Lincoln broke into a wide smile once he saw who it was.

"Oh, hey Christi-" His words cut out once he realized that he wasn't welcoming just one visitor. "Ronnie. Christina and Ronnie. You didn't tell me you were both coming over, ha ha." His tone of voice was like that of someone walked in on while changing clothes.

"I'm your friend, aren't I? Do I have to give you a written notice every time I show up? Come on, lame-o, let's get inside."

---

To be honest, Christina hadn't actually 'hung out' with anybody before, especially not over at someone's house. It was... different in there. Not bad, but different. For one thing, it actually looked like people lived in it. Christina's house was always kept spic and span for when Dad brought his business partners over; it always felt like a movie set, or an IKEA display to her. Something she was permitted to live in, rather than something she owned. She didn't feel that way at all here. The furniture was chipped and stained and matted and worn, and the air was filled with the clashing smells of animals and perfume and dirt and stuff she didn't even know what it was. Christina hadn't even been in here for a full minute and it already felt homely in here.

"So you guys can make yourselves comfortable," Lincoln said. "One or two of my sisters should be - oh, hey guys."

Two girls were already hanging out on the living room couch, sharing a bowl of popcorn, watching a movie. The slightly older-looking one waved them over.

"Hey, bro! We were just chilling over he-" Once she saw the girls accompanying Lincoln, she paused. Then a smile crept across her face. "Ooooh, you're hanging out with two girls at once now? You're so smooth, Lincoln!"

He blushed. "No, Luna! They're just my friends- uh, this is Luna and Luan, by the way. Luna, Luan, this is Christina, and you already know Ronnie-"

"Don't bother talking to Luan right now," Luna said. "She's real deep into this movie. She won't hear you." And, in fact, Luan did look very engrossed by the film.

"Are you guys watching that movie with the rock band again? Haven't you already seen it like a thousand times?"

Luna crossed her arms. "It's like the only music flick Lu will watch with me. I mean, yeah, we've seen it a lot-"

"'In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids'," Luan muttered under her breath. "'No one knows who they were or what they were doing...'"

"Like I said, we've seen it a lot of times, but whatever. You guys wanna watch with me?"

"What do you guys want to do?" Lincoln asked.

Ronnie shrugged. "I'm down with whatever." Christina nodded.

Lincoln took Ronnie's hand, and - in that beautiful, tender moment, the one Christina had been thinking about for all those weeks - Christina's. It was just as soft as she'd imagined. She squeezed his hand tightly as he pulled the two girls over to the couch, almost like she was making sure he wouldn't let go.

"Look, - mmmph - you're gonna love this part," Luna said, in between mouthfuls of popcorn. "They're doing a concert in - mmmph - Stonehenge, and they bring this prop out, and- I mean, I don't want to give it away."

Christina wasn't really interested in the movie anyway. She was so excited, it was hard to focus. When she woke up this morning, she didn't have any friends at all. Now she had two! Just being here with Ronnie and Lincoln and some of his family was just - what's the right word - cozy? Christina felt at ease here. It wasn't exactly peaceful, but it was relaxing. It was more like home than home.

Christina slowly leaned to the side, inch by inch, until her head was resting on Lincoln's shoulder. She couldn't tell if he hadn't noticed or if he was just pretending to not notice. If only she could see his face right now. Well, that didn't matter too much. It's so comfy over here. As Christina slowly drifted into sleep, she smiled to herself. Just a little bit.

A few moments after she closed her eyes, a loud creak from upstairs jolted her awake.

"Whawazzat?" she asked, still a little drowsy.

Luan and Luna gave each other a quick glance, then both got off the couch at the same time.

"Uh, that was probably just-"

"Just the wind, bro! SO drafty in this house, haha!"

"We should go upstairs and close the window!"

As they scampered upstairs, Christina wondered if this was really something they had to do as a pair, but she didn't question it. Maybe they used the buddy system.

Ronnie turned to Lincoln. "That reminds me- you haven't shown us your room yet, have you? Isn't it a closet or something?"

"It is NOT a closet, Ronnie! Not anymore, anyway... I mean, it's small, but it's comfy! And I don't have to share it with any girls!"

"You're gonna be sharing it with us. Come on, lame-o, we're not getting any younger over here."

---

The door swung open. Lincoln jumped onto the bed, bounced off, and banged his head against the wall. He winced, then crossed his legs and put his arms behind his head in an attempt at a 'relaxed' look. He could at least TRY not to look so nervous about two girls being in his room.

"So, this is it!" he said, gesturing. "My room! I've got comics, I've got action figures, I've even got my own laptop! It's the lap of luxury in here."

Ronnie sat down at the foot of the bed. Christina, unsure of whether or not it'd be overstepping her boundaries to join her, remained standing.

Ronnie spread out flat on the bed. "This room sucks, Linc."

"No, Ronnie, it's a good room."

"It's totally tiny! We can barely fit in here. Name one fun thing you can do in this room."

"For one thing," he said, plucking a comic off his dresser, "I read up here. You know Ace Savvy, right? There's a good arc going on right now, but the current issue's kind of lame. It's all leading up to a big confrontation with One-Eyed Jack, and then they settle it with a foot race? And don't get me started on-"

"Hey, Linc."

"What?"

"That stuff is BORING."

Lincoln threw the pillow at her. "You asked to come up here, now you're up here. What do YOU think we should do?"

"We could just talk. You know, talk. You've probably got a billion crazy stories to tell, right? And you-" She looked over at Christina here- "You've barely said a word since you got here. Come sit over here, c'mon. I want to know about you."

Christina shook her head. "N-no, I don't have anything to talk about..."

"It's okay," Lincoln said. "I can talk for both of us! Come on over."

Carefully, cautiously, Christina took the two steps over to the bed and sat down between Lincoln and Ronnie.

"Okay, so, Lori and Leni were freaking out because they both wanted the same dress, right? So I said..."

---

(WIP)