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Lori Loud sat at the kitchen table, despite being accompanied by her parents, the oldest sister felt a loneliness that was not common in a house populated by over a dozen people. Her loneliness was somewhat dampened, like every other emotion churning in her mind, by the thick fog of a drunken haze.
“You know very well this is a sober household, miss Lorelei Loud.” Her father began, his words lagging a bit as the interrogation victim processed every syllable. She did catch the use of her full first name, which always wounded her pride. “While I can't really blame you for going a little wild after your graduation party...your mother and I have no choice but to put our feet down.”
Lori wanted to come up with a response to this, she desperately wanted to fight back against these people that she had resented for so long. But the liquor in her veins ruined any chance to be witty. Lori could do little but twitch and lazily roll her head across her shoulders as the parents of the Loud House continued.
“We found this under your bed.” Mother spoke coldly as she produced a half empty bottle of cheap vodka. Lori could not muster the mental energy to react, but she recognized it as her own private stock.
“You have a lot ahead of you this summer, Lori. You need to start putting your life in order for college and we aren't going to let you squander your future.” Dad continued the lecture as mom walked away from the kitchen table and made a big show of pouring out the transparent liquid down the drain.
Lori was reduced to tears as her father laid out the details of her punishment;
“You're grounded for the summer. We're taking away your cell phone. You can use my laptop if you need to do research on courses and applications, but I'll let you know now I run a tight ship on that thing. No friends, no Bobby and no wasting your time browsing Mybook or whatever.” Dad belied his own exhaustion with his last statement. It had been very late when Lori stumbled her way into the house, her efforts at a stealthy return to her bed ruined by a poorly positioned cat.
“And if we decide we want to search your room for anything you shouldn't have, don't think we'll accept any guff.” The mother spoke up from her position by the sink. Lori hated when her parents got like this. They thought it was okay for them to miss out on everything positive in their kids lives, but when something went wrong they pulled a total one-eighty and acted as if they really cared. Lori wanted to cry out at them that they had no right to put so much pressure on her, and then get upset when she had to vent the stress somehow. But all the young woman could do was cry quietly, and in the end nodded in agreement to the terms. The parents of the house said nothing more as they walked back into their own bedroom and left Lori to stumble up the stairs into her familiar bed.
The details of what happened to Lori never made it beyond that kitchen. All the other children knew was that Lori was not interested in anything that would require her to get out of bed. Leni brought her room-mate meals out of pity, and the children had to raffle off laundry duty as an extra chore someone had to take care of on top of their own work. Otherwise, things kind of continued on as they always did.
Lincoln was up in the attic, his childish brain had gotten tired with his usual pastimes after only a few weeks of more free time than he knew what to do with. Boredom and curiousity drove him into the shadowy storage space as he scoured the old cardboard boxes for something to occupy him. Relics of bygone ages were scattered amongst seasonal fare and off-season clothing, but Lincoln's eyes grew wide as he stumbled across a time-weathered case that had no lid. Inside the faded plastic tub sat a bundle of thick black wires, but Lincoln could see a shape just a little below them. His hand dove into the tangled mess and tried to pull out whatever secrets the attic held. Finally his tiny fingers found purchase, and Lincoln hauled out his prize. It was a mass of black plastic, and it seemed that the various wires were coming out of it's back end. Lincoln knew an old-timey piece of TV equipment when he saw one, but his main comparison point was a VCR. This had it's hinge on the top, and instead of one big black rectangle it had two little grey flaps protecting an odd looking electrical slot. Lincoln dumped out the contents of the tub onto the dusty attic floor. His confusion only grew as he found two of the oddest controllers he had ever seen. They had thick wires fused to the fronts and terminated in odd, circular plugs. The controllers themselves did not look fit for human hands, as they had three prongs coming out of the central mass. As Lincoln sifted through the relics of a bygone era, he finally found something that could help him figure out what he was looking at. Amongst the cords Lincoln uncovered three cartridges, each was about the size of his hands. As he inspected them, he saw that the front of each cartridge seemed to once have a space for some kind of label or sticker, but there were signs that they had been removed somehow. On the back sides however, each had a small piece of masking tape bearing a familiar name, 'Lori'.
Lori heard a knock at her door. She had not received any visitors since her self-imposed internal exile. The only person she saw anymore was Leni, and she was out for the day.
“Who is it?” Lori asked, confused at what social cues would be needed right now. Lori was somewhat relieved to hear her little brother's voice come from the other side of the door, and she stumbled out of bed to let him in.
Lincoln paled when he saw his oldest sister open the door for him. He had seen her during some pretty low points during her life, but this was like rock bottom minus ten feet. She was wearing nothing but an off-white tank top with holes along the bottom hem that poorly obscured her panty line. Lori's hair was a tangled mane that almost maintained a perfectly flat angle along the back of her head, as if she was still in her bed. Lincoln stammered before he brought up the courage to power through and attempt to talk to his shut-in of an older sister.
“I found this box of stuff in the attic...there was no lid, but I found your name on some of it. What is it?” Lincoln asked as he picked up the plastic tub and held it up to her.
Lori felt time slow as recognition shot electrons off in her brain. The oldest sister wordlessly stuck her hands into the container and brought memorabilia of her childhood up to her eyes to inspect it, as if it was unreal.
“Kid, this is my old nintendo.” Lori finally spoke up, as she finally laid hands on the ancient nintendo 64. “When I was...maybe a little younger than you, mom and dad got us one of these on sale. I wasted my entire middle school career on this thing.” Lori remembered her nights of fun with the machine that was outdated even on the day she got it. Lincoln's eyes lit up. Even he recognized the nintendo brand, even if he had never touched one of their machines before. Excitement swelled and poured out of the boy's voice.
“Do you think it still works?! Can we try it out?!” Lincoln was practically jumping up and down, and Lori was catching his viral enthusiasm.
The two siblings rushed downstairs, and almost heard a choir of angels sing when they found the living room uninhabited.
Lincoln helped untangle the ball of wires while Lori worked behind the tv, searching for the right plugs to connect the obsolete console. It took them more time than they thought it would, but eventually Lori was satisfied with the arrangement of cables, and all that was left to do was pick a game.
“I don't remember ripping off the labels, but...I guess we can just try them one at a time.” Lori explained to her baby brother as she slapped a cartridge into the machine, but when she flicked the power on, he was surprised to see the screen stay black.
“Aw dang, shoulda known.” Lori mumbled angrily as she pulled the cartridge out and pursed her lips. Lincoln was utterly confused as he watched his big sister blow into the bottom of the game.
“Wouldn't your spit mess up the circuits or something?” Lincoln asked Lori, his ignorance of older electronics showing through, but the big sister did not fault him for not knowing how games older than he was would have worked.
“No, you blow on it to clear the dust out, check it.” She said smugly as she popped the cartridge back into the slot and turned the machine on for a second time.
Lori's pupils dilated as the iconic nintendo 64 logo spun on the tv screen. Nostalgia crashed through her mind as the loading screen transitioned into the starting cinematic for Kirby 64. Lincoln was oddly enamoured with the old graphics and beepy music. Then he heard a sniffle, and turned his head to see his big sister crying with a smile spread across her face.
“Twerp...do you mind if I...just play this for a bit?” Lori asked, and Lincoln nodded wordlessly. The two of them sat next to each other on the big couch as Lori started a new game.
Saquerine music filled the living room, and Lincoln was surprised by how his big sister was so enraptured by the simple, 2d movement and combat. Lori meanwhile was reliving her childhood. The big sister could almost hear Leni's sounds of surprise as she remembered each beat of the game's progress go by. Or when Luna would be pestering her for a turn. But they were gone now, and the only sibling with her was more than happy to let her enjoy herself. She got to forget about her obligations to prepare for a life beyond high school. She didn't have to care about what was going to happen between her and Bobby come september. Her world was a cheap plastic controller and kirby the pink baby-monster.
Lincoln's stomach gurgling broke the atmosphere of the room. Lori was pulled out of her imaginary adventure and realized she had wasted several hours with this game without a word being said between her and Lincoln.
“Oh my god, did I literally just play this all morning?” Lori turned and asked her little brother, who just shrugged and responded with a question of his own.
“Would you like some lunch?” He asked, and before Lori could even answer he jumped off the couch and made his way to the kitchen to prepare something for the two of them to eat. Lori's mind continued to take stock of her situation, and realized that she looked so bad Leni would have locked the bedroom door and not let her out until she changed. Red streaked across her face as she realized how long she had just spent braless around her little brother, and while Lincoln worked in the kitchen she slipped back into her room to make herself presentable.
When she eventually came back down, her nose was met with the smell of sweet syrup. Lincoln had heated up some baked beans and poured out two bowls, with pieces of toast on the side. Lori thanked her little brother and went back into the living room with her food, eating quickly so she could get back to playing video games. Lincoln ate a little slower, and eventually spoke up again.
“So what are those other games? Lemme just...” Lincoln crawled up to the console and picked one of the cartridges up. The little brother attempted to emulate what he had seen his big sister do, but only earned himself ridicule as he blew into the bottom of another game cart, and got bits of beans in the crevices.
“Oh my god, and you gave me lip about my spit.” Lori chided as she got up from the couch and went to find paper towel and the right cleaning solution. Lincoln attempted to pick out the larger chunks with his finger, but the older sister waved him away and went to work properly cleaning the game. Lincoln looked over her shoulder as Lori sprayed a paper towel-wrapped finger with a bottle of window cleaner, and ran the blue-stained paper along the inside of the cartridge. Once she finished the one Lincoln had fouled, she went on to the last of the three games as well so that this wouldn't happen again. Finally satisfied she gestured Lincoln closer and handed him one of the games.
“Okay, so first you pull out the game already in the machine, then push the new one in until you feel a little click.” Lincoln followed Lori's instructions, and cracked a small smile as he felt the electronics slot into place. His finger snapped for the power switch, and Lincoln and Lori both watched in anticipation for the title screen.
Lori groaned aloud as Mario Kart came up on the TV. Lincoln recognized the names and faces riding in the little go-karts, but didn't understand what about this could upset his big sister.
“Do you not like this game?” The boy asked, eliciting a rolling of Lori's eyes. Her disgust of the game waned a bit as she explained the past to him.
“It's not the games fault...Leni, Luna and I just got into a lot of fights over this. One cup and then I'm stopping.” Lori explained her negativity as she handed her little brother a second controller. She began navigating the menus almost by instinct, but stopped at the character selector when she saw the P2 cursor was not moving.
“It's not doing anything!” Lincoln whined, as his left hand had settled on the farthest left prong while his right was wrapped around the far right. His thumb was twiddling the d-pad to no effect, and Lori laughed inwardly at her brother's mistake.
“Your left hand needs to be on the centre stick. Here.” Lori explained as she put her controller down and softly wrapped her hands around his. Lincoln's face went a little crimson as his big sister redirected his fingers around the n64 controller in the way they were supposed to rest.
“Kirby is the weird game that does use the d-pad, but every other game was played like this. Just move the little stick to pick a racer.” Lori finished her assistance and sat back down on the couch as Lincoln picked one of the few faces he recognized; Donkey Kong. Lori shifted her cursor over to Peach and soon the racing began.
Lori was rusty, but Lincoln was utterly inexperienced. As memories of past victories ran through Lori's mind and gave her an edge in every way imaginable, Lincoln was struggling to even navigate the racetracks. The little brother's face soured as he noticed Lori was doing something at the starting line that let her shoot off far ahead of everyone else. He took his eyes off the TV and fixed them onto her hands holding the controller as he spoke up.
“How do you do that?” Lori actually thought to pause the race, so that she wouldn't lose her lead. She then turned his head to face his and asked him what he was talking about. “At the start of the race, there was fire coming out of your car and you shot forward!”
“Oh, that?” Lori chuckled, a sly grin cutting across her face. “You have to get the timing right for pressing the gas button.” The big sister was about to explain to her little brother what that timing actually was, but it occured to her that she didn't know how to put it into words. She just knew when to mash the button.
“Well?” Lincoln asked with a hint of impatience in his voice as Lori seemed to stop her explanation mid-sentence. Lori went back to the game and restarted the whole cup.
“Here, let's get back to the start of a race and uhh...try to watch when I start.” Lori was not sure how well this would work out, but she was well versed enough in her siblings personalities to know when Lincoln was getting upset. His eyes were glued to her thumb as it hovered over the A button. Lori meanwhile was watching the little guy in the cloud holding the lights signalling the countdown.
When the second light shone blue, Lori's thumb pressed down on the gas and she could tell she had nailed the timing. Lincoln meanwhile had not been watching the screen, and lacked actual context.
“Wait, why did you press it then?!” He cried out, his eyes zooming between his sisters hands and the tv screen, looking for a prompt. Lori saw this was going to ruin the entire event, and quickly tried to steer things away from the problem.
“Listen, I'll show you some other time...but uhh...listen.” Lori stopped talking for a moment to shut the nintendo off before turning her attention to Lincoln fully. She could not help but giggle when she noticed a small tear forming in the corner of one of his eyes out of frustration over the game. Being laughed at only made Lincoln feel worse, but Lori brought a hand up to his face to wipe the tears away. This calmed him a bit, and gave Lori a chance to keep talking. “I'm going to have to unplug this thing, and...I don't think mom and dad would be happy knowing I've been wasting time like this. So we gotta keep it a secret, okay? I'll bundle it all up and you can hide it in your room somewhere, and...we'll find time to play again.” Lori's word carried a bit of a lie in them. She didn't really know if she would have the time or energy for something like this again. Filling out application after application every day was exhausting, and she knew that missing out on all that today would come back and bite her tomorrow. Lincoln caught something off in her words, and spoke up about it.
“Why can't you keep it in your room?” He asked, and quickly earned himself a snappy response that let out a bit too much anger.
“Mom and Dad have been searching my room. I...it's not safe there. You keep it.” Lori did not want to go any further into the explanation of what was going on, and once she finished unplugging the console and wrapped up all the cords and controllers, shoved it all into Lincoln's arms.
“We'll play again tomorrow, I promise.” Lincoln said with a level of certainty uncommon in boys his age, but seemed perfectly normal coming out of Lincoln Loud. Lori smiled at the boys dedication to her, and ruffled his white hair before heading back to her room, hopefully she could make a little headway on her applications before dad got home.
Lincoln wound up tucking the machine under his bed, and as he set it down there, he pulled out his laptop and turned it on. He had already started thinking about a plan to make this all work for Lori. This had been the first time all summer she had left her room, and if playing a silly old video game was what it took to make her smile, then silly old video games were the order of the day.
Lori's day was downhill from there. She quickly returned to the comfort of her bed and began to use her father's laptop to study up on colleges and courses. This would be a lot easier if she could contact Bobby and ask him what he was doing. The two lovebirds had not put much thought into the long term future together, aside from the childish promise that whatever they did would be together. Right now all she could do was guess where he would want to go, and apply to any course that she could muster even remote interest in. Lori imagined how many letters of acceptance she was going to get, and dreaded how many times she would have to go through the same process to opt out of all but one of them.
Hours passed, and when dinner was served, the Loud family gasped in unison as Lori mustered the energy to join them in the dining table. She did not speak to anyone and nobody spoke to her out of fear of startling the hermit. But everyone was happy to see her take a step forward in accepting what was going on in her life. Once the meal was finished, Lori brought her plate into the kitchen and crept back into bed.
The next day, Lori was woken up by another knock at her door. She did not want to unravel herself from the comfortable blanket-burrito she had created, so the oldest sister simply shouted that the door was unlocked, and Lincoln slowly opened the door before letting himself into the bedroom.
“Hey Lori, can I uhh...borrow some money?” Lincoln could not look his big sister in the eye as he asked this. Being in debt to his sisters never ended well, but on some level, Lincoln's body language was played up in an act to earn him some sympathy. Lori did not like lending her money away, but at the same time...she was stuck in the house, what did she have to spend it on? The older sister finally pulled herself out of her blankets, and swung herself out of bed. It was a good thing Lincoln wasn't looking at her, as Lori realized her pajama bottoms had slid pretty far down her thighs. She quickly pulled up the waistline before walking over to her dresser to access her hidden cash-stash.
“Yeah, sure. How much do you need?” Lori thumbed through a stack of bills, and stopped as Lincoln rattled off a pretty significant sum. The oldest sister turned around and gave her little brother a look of incredulity. “What do you need that much money for?!”
“Uhh...you'll see? I can't tell you but trust me you'll love it.” Lincoln's eyes met hers as he said this. It didn't take a Lisa to figure out that this must have had something to do with what happened yesterday, and if it was Lincoln then in the end he must have had good intentions. Her more frugal instincts screamed as Lori pulled out a good chunk of her savings and prepared to hand it to the boy, but as Lincoln stretched his arm out to take the money she pulled away at the last second. “Hang on twerp, this ain't gonna be free...I want you to run by the Santiago house and talk to Bobby for me.”
Lincoln nodded, he knew the way to Ronnie-Anne's house pretty well, and it wasn't too far off course from where he wanted to go. Lori handed her little brother a fat wad of cash before walking over to her desk, and like a savage she picked up a pen and began to write her lover a letter.
Lincoln did not peep at the letter as his big sister wrote. He knew that whatever she was going to say to Bobby should be between them and no one else. He pulled himself up onto Lori's bed and sat there twiddling his thumbs for minutes on end as Lori put her unused handwriting skills to use.
“Okay, get this to Bobby and don't let him not give you a reply.” Finally finished pouring out weeks of unrequited love into the paper, Lori folded the letter over several times before handing the thick square to her baby brother. Lincoln tucked it into his breast pocket and saluted his oldest sister before rushing out of the house and into the garage to mount up on his trusty pedal-powered steed.
Lincoln stopped his bike right outside the Santiago home. He left it lying on their lawn as he walked up to the front door and pressed his finger into the buzzer. The young boy stood and waited on the doorstep for almost a minute before Bobby answered the door, and looked down at him before shouting back into the house.
“Hey, RA! It's Lincoln!...Hey buddy, uhh...” Bobby was about to ask Lincoln a question that had been nagging in his mind since the party, but the white-haired boy cut him off.
“Actually Bobby, I'm here to talk to you...Lori asked me to give you this.” Lincoln pulled the letter out of his pocket with reverence, and slipped it into Bobby's hand. The young man stepped away from the doorway and slowly unfolded the letter, and Lincoln took this as a cue to enter the house.
“Hey Linc! Whass...what's up?” Ronnie-anne's smile faded away as she walked up to the two boys, neither of them seemed particularly happy to be where they were. Bobby's eyes were glued to the paper covered in scrawled ink, while Lincoln stared up at Bobby, waiting for him to finish.
“Hey Ronnie, sorry but I'm just running errands...can't stay long.” Lincoln shrugged at the little girl, who's faded smile flipped into a full blown pout. The girl walked away angrily and loudly as she made a big fuss about the first time in ages Lincoln dropped by to visit, it wasn't even for his actual girlfriend.
“I...I don't know what to say, little buddy.” Bobby finally said something as he finished reading the letter. Lincoln did not waver from his position, and his eyes drilled holes into the young man until he finally got the hint and walked into the kitchen, he opened a drawer and pulled out a pencil and paper to write a reply letter. This did not take as long as Lori's did, but he folded it up the same and handed it over to the young boy. Bobby could not look Lincoln in the eye as the latter changed hands, but Lincoln did not think much of it as he tucked it into his breast pocket. The two men mumbled goodbyes to one another, and Lincoln rushed out of the house and back to his bicycle. Something about Bobby worried Lincoln, but that wasn't his business right now.
Lincoln did not make it back home for several hours, and when he finally pulled back into the family driveway, it was with a 'new'-old bike wagon attached to the rear of his bicycle, and a rather large box in tow. He pulled everything into the garage and used all his strength to carry the box into the home and up the stairs. His final destination was his own bedroom, and once he dropped the heavy load onto the floor he closed the door behind him and got to work setting the surprise up.
Lori had fallen back to sleep, and was awoken for the second time today by knocking at her door. She dragged herself out of bed and went to answer the door, and was not surprised this time to find Lincoln standing in front of her.
“Hey Lori, here's Bobby's letter! Whenever you're ready, come to my room for a surprise!” He beamed as he handed the folded note to Lori, who accepted it wordlessly and closed the door on Lincoln. The little brother could tell her brain wasn't quite in gear yet, so he went back to his bedroom to wait.
Lori did not come to Lincoln's room for hours. Aside from one bathroom break and a run down to the kitchen for a snack, the little brother waited patiently on his bed for the oldest sister to arrive. When she finally came in through his door, Lincoln was shocked to see how awful she looked.
Her eyes were red, and her hair was as much as a mess as it could possibly be. But she was wearing actual clothes, and only sniffled a little bit as she walked into Lincolns room and took a seat on his bed.
“Please tell me this is a happy surprise...” She mumbled sadly, breaking Lincoln's heart until he resolved to make whatever was wrong right. Lincoln got off the bed and threw apart the curtain hiding the contents of his closet with a triumphant 'ta-da!'
The CRT TV was about as old as the nintendo 64 was, which made the two machines incredibly easy to connect. Lori saw that the stack of three game cartridges had doubled in size to six. Finally, she saw that Lincoln had not only grabbed two more controllers, but also accessories such as a rumble back, save card and one of those red-black expansion packs for the console. His smile wavered a bit against the after-effects of whatever misery Lori had gone through, but he powered through it for her sake.
“I did some research, and slapped together a big nintendo setup for you! The TV should always be setup for it, I got more games we can play together and if you wanted to bring in Leni or Luna they can join to and there's a saving pack so you can play longer games and-” The little brother's strained speech was cut off when his big sister's arms wrapped around his head and neck. Lori pulled Lincoln towards her and cried into his hair, rocking the boy back and forth.
Lincoln did not say anything, and Lori had nothing to say. The siblings hugged out her tears for several minutes before she finally calmed down and made a little distance between them. Lori picked up a corner of Lincoln's bedsheet and wiped her face on it.
“I'm sorry...it's just...thank you Lincoln. I really needed something like this to...can I stay here tonight? I don't want to throw myself back into all that garbage.” Lincoln had always had trouble refusing his sisters, but never in a million years could he say no to Lori when she got like this. He patted her on the shoulder and handed the young woman a controller. She ruffled Lincoln's hair and reached into the closet to pick out a game to help forget her troubles.
“So...” Lincoln and Lori were playing gauntlet together, when she finally worked up the courage to explain her outbursts. “Bobby isn't going to college after all. His family wouldn't be able to afford the house without him working full time.” Lincoln felt his sisters pain at these words. He knew they were deeply in love, and something like this was a disaster to them. “I guess I'm uhh...I don't know. I was hoping Bobby would make a decision and then that could make things easier for me? But that's...selfish, I need to make my own life choices.” Lori's heavy words echoed over the repetitive noises of sword swings and dying enemies. Lincoln was mature for his age, but things like this were beyond him.
“Can I help you make a decision?” Lincoln finally spoke up, catching Lori's undivided attention. She turned away from the game and stared deeply into her little brother, desperate for direction. “Would it be...possible for you to stay home while you go to school? I don't...nobody wants to...think of a home without you.” Lincoln could not look at his sister as he said this. While it was true that the rest of the family was caught up in their own little worlds this summer, one of the more pressing reasons for their avoidance of Lori was the fear that she would be leaving home in a few months time, and that fear lead them away from her. A part of Lori's mind felt a bit of shame at this. But she needed to hear something like that, and if Bobby wasn't going to steer her in a direction, then Lincoln was probably a good backup choice. Lori grabbed her brother's head and brought it to her lips for a kiss on the forehead. Causing Lincoln to squirm in her embrace. “Dangit, I died!”
That night, Lori joined the family for dinner again, but before anyone had a chance to finish their meal and get on with their lives, she took a stand at the table and clinked cutlery against glass to catch the attention of all assembled.
“Okay kids, I just wanted to give you all an update...I've been looking at schools, and have decided on Orleans community college. It's an hours bus ride away and offers a few courses I've been looking into.” Lori's declaration was met with a tide of cheers and hollering from the family. Those sitting closest to her jumped out of their seats to hug the oldest Loud sibling. No one was happier about this news than the parents of the house. A hug around the neck from mom and a cheerful slap on the back from dad melted away all the insecurities and contempt she had been keeping in her gut since the first day of her punishment.
Lori's punishment was lightened from that day on. She had a curfew of 9pm, was given her cellphone back and was free to spend time with whomever she pleased, so long as she could show proof that the young woman was making some progress on getting into one of the courses she was applying for. Bobby was thrilled to hear that his girlfriend was staying in the area, and whenever the two had free time they made trips to the Orleans campus and toured the facilities. The curfew was never a problem for Lori, as once her day was done she had a new way to spend time. Lincoln threw himself into the world of retro gaming when his older sister wasn't around. They had separate save files for several games, and while he had trouble at first the sheer amount of time he had meant Lincoln managed to outpace Lori in every one of their RPGs. When she was home however, Lincoln was more than happy to pop in mario party or let Lori progress on Zelda while he watched or did something else. Time passed, and summer gave way to autumn. Lincoln was struggling with Paper Mario as he heard a familiar knock at his bedroom door, and he paused the game to let Lori in.
“Hey punk, it's my turn to surprise you.” Lori said smugly, and she handed her baby brother a box sloppily wrapped in out-of-season christmas paper. Lincoln eyed the gift before tearing the wrapping off, and gasped at the present in his hands.
“A gamecube! I read about this, it has the Paper mario sequel!” Lincoln set the shoebox on his bed, and dumped it out to examine the contents. There was the adorably tiny purple box, as well as two controllers that were just as confusing to look at as the sixty-fours. Lincoln counted four of the tiniest cds he had ever seen, all in clear rectangular cases. He flipped each one over so he could see the labels, and squealed in glee when one of them read “Paper Mario: the thousand year door”. “Thank you! Oh gosh!” Lincoln wrapped his arms around Lori's legs for a hug, and she patted his shoulders tenderly.