Lisa ignored the knock on her bedroom door. She was much too busy for whatever trivial affairs her siblings were up to today. Lisa really should have known better than to think that whoever was outside the door would just leave. The door cracked open, and Leni peeked her head in.

"Lisa? Are you in here?" Leni asked.

"No," Lisa replied, "Lisa has left the premises.

"Oh, okay! I'll, like, try again later."

Lisa rolled her eyes, but nonetheless returned to work. Her relief was short lived however, as moments later Leni was walking through her door.

Leni walked in between Lisa and her desking, standing with her hands on her hips. Even from her place atop the stool, Lisa had to look up to meet Leni's eyes.

"Okay, I see what you did there, and that's like, totally uncool!" Leni said.

Lisa nodded. "Perhaps it was insensitive, but the fact of the matter is I'm very busy and I need to get back to work."

The anger melted off of Leni's face, morphing into concern. "That's actually, um, what I'm here about? The rest of us are kinda concerned you've been working too much. Also, like, no one can really sleep with all of your machines running."

"What?" Lisa replied indignantly. "That's preposterous. Lily and I share a room, and she hasn't made a peep.

"Um, actually, Lily has been sleeping in Mom and Dad's room for the past few days."

Startled, Lisa looked over her shoulder and was shocked to find the crib empty. How had she not noticed that? "Oh. Well, regardless, my current work is far more important than sleep. That's why I haven't slept in three days."

"What?" Leni shouted, "Lisa, you need to sleep. Besides, I don't think you've made any progress in the past day. Maybe some sleep is, like, just what you need."

Lisa squinted. "What makes you think I haven't made progress? I can't imagine you have any idea what I'm working on."

"Oh, come on. I'm not blind. I may not have any idea what it says, but I know the notes on your chalkboard haven't changed in a while. You usually erase the whole thing every few hours," Leni replied, rolling her eyes. "Actually, this part at the end is the only thing you've changed at all. Is that what you're stuck on?"

"That was awfully… observant," Lisa said, slightly awed at Leni's perception. "Fine, it's true I am at somewhat of an impasse. However, that only proves my point! I need to work through this so that work may continue at its usual speed."

Leni didn't reply at first, looking down at her younger sister. It was true that she was supposed to be in here getting Lisa to turn everything off so that the Loud house could finally get some sleep. She had been chosen as the Loud siblings representative (or rather, had been the last one to say "not it"). But still… She knew how stubborn Lisa could be, and with a lack of sleep it would be even worse.

"You should tell me about it," Leni decided.

Lisa startled, having expected another plea for her to just give up. "What?"

"Tell me about what you're working on! That's what I do when I get stuck doing homework."

Lisa snorted. "I appreciate it, but I don't think what I'm doing equates to high school level homework. Besides, I doubt you have anything to offer me in this regard."

Leni winced. "Okay, but like, it can't hurt, right? Nothing you've done so far has worked."

Lisa was silent for a moment, and then she sighed. "I suppose you are correct. It's worth a shot. Please, take a seat."

Leni nodded, sitting down on Lisa's bed. Lisa turned to face her chalkboard. "Essentially, what I'm working on is a solution to…" Leni nodded again, even though she didn't really understand what Lisa was saying. She tried to pay attention, but it had been so long since she had gotten any sleep. In the end, the soft monotony of Lisa's voice lulled her to sleep.

"Ah-ha!"

Leni jolted awake at Lisa's exclamation, disoriented. "What?" She asked groggily.

Before she knew it, Lisa was on her lap, shaking her shoulders. "Leni, you're a genius!"

"Like, are you sure? Literally no one has ever said that to me before," Leni replied, eyebrows furrowed.

"I'll admit, I was beginning to feel hopeless. But just as I was reaching the end of my explanation to you, I realized; I had been using the wrong exponent this whole time! Do you have any idea what this means?" Leni blinked. "Of course you don't but that's okay. I know. I have so much work to do." Lisa jumped down off the bed, but Leni grasped at the back of her shirt before she could get far.

"Wait! Could you do that work tomorrow? Please?" Leni pleaded. Before Lisa could interrupt, she continued, "Plus, you really should sleep. You don't want to make any more mistakes."

Lisa contemplated Leni's words before finally nodding. "I suppose you're correct. I will shut everything down for the night. Thank you for your help tonight. And also…" Lisa paused, glancing downward and shuffling her feet awkwardly, "I am sorry for what I said earlier, about you not having anything to offer. Without you, I may not have ever found my mistake."

"That's okay! I'm glad I could help!" Leni said, smiling brightly. "I'm, like, super tired now though, so I'm gonna go back to sleep." With that, Leni lay back down in Lisa's bed, curling up immediately.

"Leni, this is not… Aw, what the heck, I suppose it's fine just for tonight," Lisa muttered, climbing into bed herself, and falling asleep beside Leni.

rubber ducking, aka rubber duck debugging, is the process where programmers explain their code line by line out loud, sometimes to an inanimate object like a rubber duck. Having to explain it to someone else makes it easier to find errors you wouldn't find by just staring at your work for hours on end.

find me on tumblr at dodongodislikessnow

feel free to leave me ideas for siblings you'd like to see, or whatever else, either here or on tumblr. thanks for reading! leave a comment if you liked it, or if you didn't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯