It was another busy Saturday afternoon for Carol Pingrey, following another busy Saturday morning of golf practice and yearbook photos. Now she had to cram for a physics exam, and if she was able to get that out of the way, she might have a couple of hours to curl up on the couch with a bowl of frozen yogurt and catch up on some of her DVRed shows from earlier in the week.

She'd gotten through most of chapter 17 in her textbook, only for the doorbell to ring. With her parents away at another business conference, she knew she'd be the one to have to answer it, and she could already hear the barking of her very loud pet corgi echoing through the house.

"Shhh, Winston, enough!" scolded Carol, glaring down at her very adorable but often misbehaved corgi. "It's just the doorbell, shhh!"

Carol opened the door. Standing in her doorway was her new BFF, Lori Loud, with a somewhat flustered smile on her face.

"Oh, hi Lori!" said Carol cheerfully. She was a bit annoyed to have been interrupted, but she knew if Lori had come to her house that she had something important to say. "How's it going?"

Lori was a bit reluctant to speak, so Carol tried to reassure her.

"Is something going on?" Carol asked, showing some concern.

"Well, the thing is, I was wondering if you could come over today," asked Lori, looking a bit guilty but also really hopeful. "I really need a friend to come over..."

"Is everything all right?" Carol asked, showing even more concern for Lori now. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh, no, everything's all right," said Lori, laughing nervously. "It's just... could you please come over to my house?"

"I...I'm sorry, Lori, but no can do," Carol replied, gesturing inside the house. "I'm super busy, I've been working on the yearbook and now I'm studying for the big physics exam next Tuesday. If I don't get at least a B-plus in AP Physics there's no way in heck I'll make valedictorian!"

"Carol, do you even like physics?" Lori asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not really," said Carol with a sigh. "But I need AP electives to get my GPA up, it's the only way I'll be valedictorian! I know you said I should relax and decompress, but-"

"It's okay, Carol," said Lori, putting a hand on Carol's shoulder to calm her down. "I'll let you get back to your studies."

"You're not... mad, are you Lori?" Carol asked, able to see that Lori looked quite disappointed. "I'd really rather be hanging out with you than cramming for physics, but-"

"Really, it's okay," said Lori, giving her friend a reassuring smile. "Actually, it's... kind of dumb the reason I'm asking you over."

"Huh?" Carol replied, blinking. She thought that Lori's reason for inviting her would be a lot more pressing. She was glad that Lori wasn't mad and wasn't in trouble, but it seemed like a bit of a hassle to come all the way over to her house just to ask her over for something dumb. "What is it?"

"Well... you see, my brother's been getting special privileges lately because he's always got his friend Clyde over. So my sisters and I started thinking that if we had some of our friends over, we could get special privileges too. So each of us is bringing our best friend over to the house to teach Lincoln a lesson."

Carol stood there in the doorway for a few moments, not knowing what to think or to say. Then she started laughing.

"Oh my god, Lori, that's ridiculous!" laughed Carol, placing her hand to her forehead and giggling profusely.

"It's not that ridiculous, you know!" Lori replied, putting her hands on her hips.

"Why can't you guys just, you know, take turns or something?" asked Carol, wiping a tear away from one of her eyes. Lori sighed.

"With ten other siblings? The next time I'll get a turn to do what I wanna do will be next month," said Lori with a groan. "Anyway, I'm sorry to bug you, I'll just call Whitney and have her come over."

Lori started to leave, only for Carol to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Lori, wait," said Carol, her eyes widening with concern. "Don't you think that this could get...I dunno, out of hand? I mean, if all of you have a friend over, then eventually someone's going to get the bright idea to have two friends over, and then one of you is gonna have three friends over... and pretty soon the whole house will have like five dozen people in it and somebody's gonna call the cops on you for noise or something!"

"Carol, that is literally never going to happen," said Lori, lightly taking Carol's hand and lifting it off her shoulder before turning and leaving.

O-O-O

"Carol, that is literally exactly what happened!" shouted an exasperated Lori. It was the following Saturday, and Lori had just finished telling Carol of the events of the previous night, when all the Loud kids had most of their friends over and the entire house had been consumed with fighting and the cops had been called and their parents had brought the hammer down.

"Well, I'm not happy to be right," Carol replied, giving Lori a sympathetic look. The two were sitting on the couch in Carol's living room, with Lori sitting on one side and Carol's corgi on the other. "I'm just glad nothing really awful happened."

"Yeah, that fight got pretty intense," said Lori, thinking back to the events of the previous night. "All our friends beating the crap out of each other..."

"Good thing I stayed out of it!" said Carol with a laugh. "I can't throw a punch to save my life!"

"Well, Luna's girlfriend Sam has a wicked left hook," said Lori. "She took out one of Lynn's soccer teammates with a single punch! And Lola's pageant friends are biters, ALL of them. And for being such a sweet little girl, Lisa's friend Darcy is nasty! I think she keeps a brick in that giraffe because she was knocking out Lana's muddy buddies left and right."

"Okay, okay, I missed out on a fun show, I get it," said Carol, snickering. "So that's why Becky showed up to the student council fundraiser this morning with a black eye, and why Chaz was holding an ice pack over his crotch all day."

"That was Darcy too, I think," said Lori. "Anyway, I just came over to say you were right, it was stupid to try and use our friends like that to get special privileges. I'm just glad we got away with losing twenty dollars from each of our allowances, I was worried we wouldn't get to have friends over anymore."

"Well, since you're short on money, why don't I take you out to dinner tonight, my treat?" asked Carol. "There's an awesome new sushi place I've been wanting to try out and Whitney can't go since she rolled her ankle in that fight."

"That's really sweet of you, Carol, but no...I made my bed and I've gotta lie in it," Lori replied. "And Whitney didn't roll her ankle, Sam got her in a figure four leglock."

Carol laughed.

"So who's tougher, Sam or Bobby?"

"Are you kidding?" Lori asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise. "Sam would kill my Boo Boo Bear, no contest. Bobby's not a fighter, Ronnie Anne kicks his butt on a regular basis."

Carol and Lori both exchanged a giggle over that remark, though Carol did sigh wistfully, unable to help but feel a slight pang of jealousy at Lori for having such a sweet boyfriend, even if it was a long distance relationship.

"Still planning on going to Midwestern with him next year?" asked Carol with a smirk.

"Yeah," said Lori, nodding. "I should probably be hitting the physics books like you, I know that school's tough to get into. I'm sending my application next week, I hope I've got enough extracurriculars..."

"You've got only one less than I do, and my counselor says I'd have enough to get into Richford if I wanted to, so I think you'll be okay," Carol replied. "You ever think maybe sometimes we're overdoing it?"

"Trust me, Carol, nobody in this room overdoes it more than me," said Lori. "It's like you said, we're ridiculous."

Lori sighed and bowed her head, having one more thing she needed to say to her best friend.

"And... I'm sorry," said Lori.

"For what?" Carol asked.

"For trying to use you," said Lori, sighing. "You know, the friend card? I feel bad enough for letting Whitney and all my other friends get caught up in that mess, if you'd have gotten caught up in it too, I don't think I could even face you anymore."

Carol could see the regret on Lori's face, and quickly moved to reassure her, placing a hand on her cheek and smiling kindly at her.

"You're a good friend, Lori," said Carol. "I can't even imagine how hard it would be to live with ten wacky siblings. I have enough trouble keeping the student council under control, and we only hang out a couple hours a week! It's hard enough doing all the stuff you do without being able to just kick back and enjoy the food you want to eat or watch the shows you want to watch. So... I get it. And even though I knew it would've been a bad idea, I would've come over to your house to help you if I hadn't been buried under a ton of work."

"It would've been fun," Lori replied. "The two of us standing there, giving Lincoln a smug glare..."

"We could've taken a selfie of it too!" Carol said excitedly before letting out a giggle. "And maybe during that big fight I could have tripped somebody, that would've helped, right?"

"Yeah, you would've had a great time!" said Lori, before she and Carol shared another laugh. "Well, anyway, I guess I'd better go... I'm doing some extra chores so that hopefully I can pay off that twenty bucks in one week instead of two. I just wanted to come over and let you know what happened."

Carol leaned over and gave Lori a hug before the two stood up from the couch. As soon as they did, Winston began barking sharply.

"Oh, it's time for Winston's supper," said Carol, looking down at her dog and glaring at him.

"Is he still mean?" asked Lori, reaching over to pet the dog only for it to nip at her hand, forcing her to yank it back. "Yep, still mean...!"

"He is, but I've grown kinda attached to the little guy," said Carol, petting her corgi on the head and then walking with Lori to the door. "It was good seeing you Lori, maybe you could text me after your chores are done?"

"Yeah, I think I will," said Lori, stepping out onto the porch. "See you later, Carol."

Lori started to walk away from the house, but Carol suddenly remembered something and placed a hand on Lori's shoulder.

"Lori, you know... there's more than one way to play the friend card," said Carol.

"Hmm?"

"Next time you want to have something special for supper or watch TV, why not just come over to my house? I mean, we watch most of the same shows, and I'm home alone a lot of the time so we can pick up anything you want. Just call first and let me know and I'll let you come over and hang out, okay?"

"Well, I... I don't want to impose," said Lori, looking a bit guilty again.

"I like hanging out with you, Lori," Carol replied. "So I don't mind doing the stuff you want to do sometimes, and if it helps you out, I mean..."

"Carol, you are literally the best friend ever," said Lori, giving Carol a much tighter hug than the one Carol had given her a few minutes ago. Carol smiled and returned the hug, glad she could make Lori feel better. "Maybe I will go to that sushi place with you. But... tomorrow. And I'm paying my half."

"Sure thing, Lori," said Carol, smiling as the two parted from their hug. "And let me know next time you decide to throw any wild house parties!"

"I think you missed the last one," Lori replied with a smirk. "I'll text you later!"

Carol went back inside the house, where her yappy corgi was waiting, barking wildly at her.

"You'd better chill out, Winston, or you'll get a noise complaint called on us!" said Carol, making her way over to the kitchen to grab some dog food. "Lori, you are the most ridiculous girl ever..."

And as she scooped some dog food into Winston's bowl, she smiled. For all the ordeals Lori Loud had to go through seemingly every day, Carol Pingrey still couldn't help but be a little bit jealous of her.