Authors note: Hello all. I hope you like my first fic, I haven't got much writing under my belt nor english is not my first language, but hope you all can like it anyway. I'll do my best to update as often as I can. Please review.

Another early morning in Royal Woods, Michigan. It was a week after summer had begun. The heat cranked up to merciless. For the season, schools had let out for the vacation. Some would enjoy the peace and have fun in the sun, whilst others would be preparing for vacations or to visit relatives.

The sound of an alarm clock rung inside one small room of a home, in which a bed and a wardrobe took up a majority of the small space. The room only had one window which was tiny and circular, able to be spun around.

"Ugh…" a voice groggily groaned. A hand reached out from under the blankets and hit the snooze button on the alarm, then reached behind the alarm clock and unplugged it from its power source. The young boy sat up, stretching, his freckled and buck-toothed face appearing from the blanket.

"Knew I forgot to turn that off," Lincoln Loud rubbed his eyes. He had slept in until ten in the morning, and had been doing so since summer had begun, and he had somewhat started staying up later than usual. Being the middle child of the family did not really change much. His days were rarely the same. He shared the home with not just is parents, but ten sisters of varying ages, who all too had a lot of their own plans for summer.

The last four days involved arguing for planning future vacations. Lincoln was unfortunate enough to take part of it and give his vote on the location he thought would be great to visit some time during summer and left it at that, since no one could agree at all, he defaulted to opting out of the voting at all and playing with the youngest sibling to take some stress off his parents, even if she was rarely a handful.

After fixing his white-haired bed head, Lincoln got dressed in his usual pair of blue short jeans and orange short-sleeved shirt with two buttons at the top. His bed made, he headed out of his room and into the hall that was so far clear of his siblings, but plenty of random things, dirty clothes, some toys, and a loudspeaker, all of which lay on the floor. Lincoln forgot whose turn it was for laundry. He would have to ask his family about that later.

"Ey! Morning, bro! I was just about to come get you!" he heard a loud voice speak up. He looked beside him to see his older sister Luna step out of her room in a purple shirt with a white skull on the front, an earring dangling out of her left ear and bracelets on both wrists. Her short brown hair was in its usual pixie cut. Lincoln smiled, seeing her. Luna, the third oldest, lived up to the surname by working hard on her rock career and improving every day. If he had to pick a favorite sister, it would be her. He mentally hoped there would not be a day where he had to pick favorites. Imagining it alone was nightmarish.

"Morning, Luna. Where's everyone?" Lincoln hoped she could fill him in on the others' whereabouts. He presumed she was about to come wake him up personally and most likely with the Loud speaker setup nearby.

"Mom and dad just got everyone downstairs for a family meeting. They told me to come get you," Luna explained to her little brother. He did not get a chance to speak up before she had picked him up, and then hopped on the staircase railing and slid all the way to the bottom before she hopped off and put him down.

"Th-thanks," Lincoln nervously laughed. He enjoyed a rail ride as much as his sister, but he would rather enjoy them voluntarily. He could see the other eleven family members gathered in the living room, and the family dog, Charles, resting on his back in his nearby dog bed.

"Good morning, son," greeted their father cheerfully. The young boy was able to tell by the tone that at least this family meeting had good news in it. Their parents' tone was the thing that gave away if it was good or bad.

"Morning all," Lincoln gladly greeted to a Loud variety toned hellos. He sat down at the coffee table, seeing how all the chairs were taken. He noticed nothing but a strange looking hat on the table, one that looked like it had been thrown in a blender and poorly stitched back together afterwards. It was full of various papers, but he could not read what any of them said.

"Alright, settle down, everyone… since the last few days have been very rough and I know there has been arguing behind closed doors," Mrs. Loud was holding the youngest of the family in her arms, Lily, the one year old infant. Lincoln swore that he could hear a few awkward gulps, guessing the ones arguing in privacy realized they were not being so private about it after all.

"And there is plenty of time to think about our summer vacation, so in the meantime, we thought we'd have a nice little family surprise for everyone," Mr Loud continued, before picking up the damaged hat and shaking it a little, the papers crinkling inside. He then held it out.

"Everybody draw one," he insisted. Everyone of the Loud family beyond their parents and Lily drew one piece of paper each from it Lincoln looked down at his confusedly there was a name written on it the paper reading 'Lori', addressing the oldest sibling in the family, whom was quite obsessed with her cellphone. The young boy looked over to her, an older blonde haired girl laid back in her chair, wearing her blue tank top and white jeans. She seemed as confused as everyone else with the random names of their siblings on each piece of paper.

"What are these for?" Lincoln spoke up first. He could take a guess that no one was supposed to know what names were drawn by the others.

"Well this is a random draw. It's quite simple. Whoever's name you draw, you have to get a gift for. We thought it'd be a nice way to relieve everything after the last few days of… bickering," Mr. Loud explained. That was if everyone was up to doing it. Lincoln smiled, thinking it would be nice.

"But you have to do it anonymously. No one can know who gave them their gift." Mrs Loud added. It was meant to be a surprise after all, and in retrospect, anyone should be able to tell whom they received the gift from based on the gift alone. Lincoln felt unsure now but he would be happy with any present from any of his sisters. This looked like the end of the meeting fornow. Lincoln had to wonder to himself what to get Lori. The young boy was prepared for situations where he couldn't decide on a gift, or at least needed an idea for one. Everyone had already scattered to return to their previous activities.

Lincoln decided to focus on the surprise gift for now. He did have a lot of plans for summer at one point. Unfortunately they fell through quite fast at the very beginning. He was going to enjoy any activity his family offered him to tag along for. Just as he went upstairs though, he saw the dog lying in front of his door in the hallway.

"Oh, sorry, Charles. Didn't see you there," the white haired boy chuckled, reaching down and scratching the dog's head a little before he opened the door to his room.

"Come on," he let the dog go inside. Charles had a preference to slumbering in the preteen's room. Lincoln never had much of an idea why, but he didn't mind. Once inside, he closed the door behind him, seeing his pet on his bed already and resting on his stomach, watching as Lincoln went down on his hands and knees, beginning to rummage around under his bed, knocking aside several items to find what he wanted.

"Come on, I know it was down here last time," Lincoln groaned, sitting up and leaning against his wardrobe. The last time he had even touched this item was a few months ago during Christmas Eve. Once it had served its purpose, he had slid it under to the back part of the bed with other important items that were only to be withdrawn only for certain situations. When the young boy got off the floor, he saw Charles sitting in the same spot, instead his tail wagging fast and holding an old, orange book in his mouth. It had a golden heart on the front of it keeping it closed.

"Oh, there it is! Thanks, Charles," Lincoln hummed, taking the slightly drool covered book from his dog, not bothering to question where the dog found it that he couldn't. The young boy sat on the bed, pulling the heart symbol off the button and letting the strip keeping it closed come undone. He flipped it open, beginning to go through each of the few pages.

"Sure hope this helps," Lincoln thought. Each page had a picture of one of his sisters, and under each a written down list of things they either wanted or wanted to do. He mainly wrote them down for future reference. He found himself in a decent amount of awkward birthdays when he got someone a gift they did not want, and it was not like he could give them money. That would be as bad as nothing at all, or worse to some of his sisters. For sure however, he knew Lori would not like nor need cash from him.

"Okay, well… that's not good," he scratched his head. He had reached Lori's page, and unfortunately everything on it was marked off. She already owned every item on said list. Viewing each sisters' individual page and seeing their top most desired item was a bit guilt striking to him, not because he was only getting a gift for one, but because he wished he could surprise them all. Lincoln often either got wrangled into their antics, or they got wrangled into his. All his sisters cared for him too. He just felt like he was not able to express it with words, feeling that he owed them a lot, considering how much they tolerated of him no matter how many times they told their brother it was fine.

"You got any ideas, Charles?" Lincoln turned his head to his dog that was gnawing his front left paw to deal with a sudden annoying itch. Lincoln was focusing on Lori's gift, and the fact that everything was a little more than pricy was not helpful either. He could think of something to show his thankfulness for his entire family later.

"Wait a minute, that's right… Lori's phone has a cracked screen, doesn't it?" Lincoln spoke to himself and his dog, thinking aloud to anyone helped him think better, even if they could not talk back. That and he liked to pretend that he was in an actual conversation with the animal for the sake of it.

"Lynn accidentally hit it out of Lori's hand with a soccer ball…" Lincoln recalled that all too well, mainly the yelling which was so loud that it drew everyone's attention. Thankfully Lori still could use her cellphone just now it had a cracked screen and needed more gentle care or else the broken part would cut the user, a complaint he heard from her a lot. The young boy had no clue where he would get the money for a phone though knowing his oldest sibling she would not want an old outdated model.

"I really should've done better with my saving," Lincoln told himself, feeling Charles licking his hand. He petted the dog happily. Unfortunately, the preteen was broke. He had spent all his savings recently on a new game console. Even if the television in his room was small and crummy, he thought it was fine for gaming, but the timing could not be more off than it was now.

"Lincoln! You should take the dog out for a walk! It looks like it might storm soon!" his mother's voice called out. No matter how loud things were, she could always be heard easily. Charles was already at the bedroom door with his tongue hanging out, panting at the idea of walking.

"A walk sounds pretty nice right now," Lincoln smiled, thinking that could help him think better. He wished he was not feeling like he owed every sister a gift, but he couldn't help how he felt. Whatever he can do, he would do his best. For now, he needed to think up a way to just get money for Lori's new phone. It only took a brief few minutes before he got Charles on his leash before heading out the front door and down the street to get this inevitably unknown length of a walk started.

"Why do I feel like such a bother to them all…?" Lincoln still had that one weird thought echoing in his head.