Chapter Text
Lincoln Loud, Clyde McBride, Liam Hunnicutt, Rusty Spokes, Zach Gurdle, and Kara Wade sat on the school bus to Royal Woods Middle School, ready to meet up with the newest addition to their friend group, Trent Matthews.
A month has passed since Lincoln succeeded in fixing Trent's reputation. No more did Royals Woods view Trent as the troublesome accomplice of the even more devious Chandler McCann. Nowadays, Trent was treated with kindness, and he returned the favor. Lincoln even decided to bring Trent into his friend group, though there is still some debate over whether to bring him into the Action New Team or just have him as a mere moral supporter.
Of course, it is not to say that there are still those who are more reserved, including the aforementioned Chandler McCann and the friends that he still has. They did not like how a former friend of theirs and the boy that they usually torment were getting more attention. Naturally, it led to criticism from them, but Lincoln and Trent have gotten used to handling this kind of behavior from others.
However, the group would later find out that Chandler and his cronies would not be the only critics to deal with.
And today is no different as the bus pulled up to the school, only for Lincoln's group and the other students to hear…
"Filthy weasel!" came a girl's voice.
They all looked outside to see Trent getting shoved by a trio of female students.
"You shouldn't be attending this school anymore!" another girl said.
"You'd be better off at Hazeltuckey if you really hate Royal Woods so much," a third girl added.
As the trio walked away, the kids on the bus groaned; there were still some students who refused to move on from past events regarding Chandler and his pack of friends, both current and former. As the kids disembarked, Lincoln and his group went over to Trent to see if he was okay.
"Man, this is bogus," Liam complained. "We've gone through every length in life to give Trent a better reputation. Heck, we went as far as to have his brother help out. But there are just some people who can't let go of the past."
"Well, you know the old saying," Lincoln began. "'Old habits die hard'."
"Or in this case, grudges," Trent added. "We can't exactly convince everyone that I've changed my ways."
"You got us there," Clyde muttered.
Inside the school, they relayed the earlier event to Chloe Campbell, Clyde's girlfriend, and Emma Bravo, Chloe's best friend and Clyde's previous love interest.
"Sheesh," Chloe hissed. "Are people still miffed about what happened in the past?"*
"Some people are able to let their anger cool down and move on," Lincoln explained. "Others just can't let go of their grudges. But this is nothing new for us. I'm able to ignore criticism from Chandler despite my best efforts to improve. So, Trent might as well do the same."
"I don't know, Lincoln," Emma replied. "I'm more worried about how these 'critics' are expressing themselves to you guys. On one hand, you have the verbal ones, who'd use their words as weapons. Then, you have the rough ones, so-called 'critics' who take the extra step by inflicting physical harm, whether it's a humiliating prank or something far worse."
"Emma, you worry too much," Trent said confidently. "I've actually handled a lot worse in my life, even long before I met Lincoln and Clyde. Ever since Lincoln started defending me, I've learned a lot about his methods of handling bullies. Heck, I even learned some of his sisters' methods. So, I'm practically covered."
"Are you?" Kara asked, still unsure.
"They can beat me verbally and/or physically, but it's not going to get in my way," Trent added. "The Louds even told me that if I keep enduring such attacks, then even those same tormentors will start to respect me. And one of these days, I will earn the respect of my entire school and prove that I'm nothing like Chandler anymore."
With that said, Trent headed off to his homeroom. Lincoln smiled, feeling just as confident as Trent, but the rest of the group was more concerned.
"Or burn out trying," Clyde added, referring to Trent's earlier comment.
Later, Trent and Stella arrived at their homeroom.
The two can see that some of their classmates are glaring at them, obviously still holding their grudges towards the former delinquent, despite what Lincoln has done.
However, there was only one who was far from holding any sort of grudge.
Mollie Monroe.
Mollie is someone you do not want to cross. Like Lincoln's family, she's also of military blood, as her dad, Marion, is an army colonel, thus making her an average, rough-and-tough girl, while her mother, Miriam, is a physician, thus also giving her a softer side to go along with it.
Once, she had tried to beat Lincoln's cannonball splash record, but Lincoln miraculously retained it, and the two have since buried the hatchet.
When Lincoln started defending Trent, Mollie became one of many students to help them out. So, this was nothing new to her either.
"What's this all about?" she asked the two as they sat down.
"Some people just can't let go of their grudges," Trent quietly answered.
"Normally, Lincoln and Trent would often be subjected to verbal attacks," Stella added. "But this morning, Trent got shoved by a few of the older students."
Mollie gasped upon hearing that.
"They're starting to get physical now?" she asked.
Before Stella could reply, the homeroom teacher arrived, and the school day finally started for the kids. Hopefully, things would be a little smoother for them as their homeroom teacher admired Lincoln for his efforts, passions, good heart, and the well-being of others, such as what he had been doing to help Trent.
During gym period, it was another game of dodgeball, and this meant that Lincoln and company had to put up with the antics of the school's "Dodgeball Queen", Jordan Roswell, also known as Girl Jordan, who is also a close friend of theirs. This time, Trent was in their team, having studied their methods.
Unfortunately, some of the students who were also present were among those who still held grudges against Chandler and Trent, and the cold glares that were directed towards the latter were somehow messing with his head. Trying as he might to ignore the criticism and harassment from his peers, Trent started to show signs of struggling, and that made Lincoln's crew worry.
Eventually, he got struck square in the face with a ball, causing one of his lenses to break, but it was not at his tormentor's hands. It was from Girl Jordan, who cringed at the sight of what she had accidentally caused. Trent went down and found himself unable to get back up, as if the muscles in his body were failing him.
"Oh, my gosh!" Girl Jordan cried. "I'm so sorry, Trent!"
Lincoln's crew hurried to Trent. No one was expecting him to take quite that much of a brunt from a dodgeball, let alone one that the prodigy threw herself.
"I didn't mean to hit him that hard!" she continued.
"It's fine, Girl Jordan," Lincoln assured.
But the others were just as concerned as Girl Jordan.
"Are you okay?" Stella asked. "C…Can you stand?"
She attempted to help Trent to his feet, but the kids saw that he had a black eye and a bruise on his forehead.
"Goodness, Trent!" Zach said as he and the others cringed at the sight of the wounds. "Are you really alright? Say something."
But Trent couldn't say anything. He was too disoriented to do so.
'Could this be what Emma warned me about?' he thought to himself, remembering his earlier conversation with her. 'No. It can't be. Girl Jordan's a friend of ours. But even so… What if…?'
"Coach, Trent's hurt!" Jordan said.
Outside the gymnasium, a particular group smirked upon hearing this.
It was Chandler and his crew.
"That'll teach you to leave us hanging," Chandler said with great pride. "It's me and my pals who are staying popular, not some defective merchandise like you."
Unbeknownst to them, Lincoln overheard what Chandler said and snarled.
Coach Keck blew her whistle again, deciding to call off the match.
During lunch period, many of the other students just didn't leave Trent alone today. It was a miracle to Lincoln's group that there were also those who were fed up with this kind of behavior, but despite that, no one seemed to have a solution.
Aside from that, the crew can see how eerily quiet Trent has become. It was as if Emma's warnings were finally catching up to him.
"I-If it helps you, Trent, I never really blamed you in any of Chandler's schemes," Clyde said in an effort to comfort Trent. "Kind of like how Lincoln never blamed you."
"I know you don't, Clyde," Trent said, though he was gradually beginning to lose the will to simply speak.
"Guys?" came a voice.
It was Girl Jordan and Mollie, along with a few of their own friends.
They approached their table and sat down with them; Mollie sat down on Trent's other side and held his hand to comfort her homeroom classmate.
"What do you guys want?" Trent asked.
"Can't some students sit with their fellow schoolmates?" Mollie asked rhetorically.
"We're being vigilant at the moment," Stella retorted. "Haven't you seen how many students are against us?"
"So, what?" Mollie retorted. "At least, we're making our allegiances clear."
"We're just as fed up as you are with this nonsense," Girl Jordan assured.
That made Trent smile just a tiny bit.
"Even so, we're still outnumbered," Rusty argued. "And it's not just in our school."
"Rusty's right," Kara added. "Who knows how many people haven't let go of their grudges?"
No one had an answer.
As the school day was coming to a close, Lincoln and his friends decided to accompany Trent out of concern for his current state. All Trent wanted was to move on from his past mistakes, but those who have yet to do so kept reminding him. Even worse, just when he thought he could get used to the cold shoulders after studying Lincoln's methods, all of that would change after getting hit in the head by Girl Jordan's dodgeball; some even thought he got a concussion. Because of that, he had been reduced to a nervous wreck who could hardly speak, and that made Lincoln and his crew worried.
Ironically, the incident during gym period earned the group another ally.
"Guys?" came a voice.
The crew turned to see a particular staff member approaching them outside her office door.
Principal Ramirez.
Despite some viewing her as incompetent at times, there's little doubt that she can be a mother figure to her students. She also admired Lincoln for going to great lengths to defend Trent from his bullies.
"Is everything okay?" she asked.
"Honestly, it's… hard to tell," Lincoln answered. "Trent here can barely speak."
Principal Ramirez stroked Trent's hair to comfort him, having heard about the incident during gym class from Coach Keck.
"I know you're all going through a lot," she said to the group. "But no matter what, the staff and I are here for you. Okay?"
The kids just nodded, unsure of what to say to her.
Without another word, Lincoln's group made their way to the front entrance.
Hearing one last round of jeers from his tormentors, Trent exited the school with Lincoln and his crew in tow and slammed the doors behind them.
Unbeknownst to them, a particular student had been watching them from afar.