ONE MONTH LATER

Lana Loud crawled into the kitchen through Charles' doggy door, caked in mud. A brief rainstorm had since dissipated, leaving huge puddles in the backyard that proved too tempting for her to resist. Once she was inside, she did another imitation of her pet dog and shook off the mud and grime that covered her, sending it flying all over the walls. She left the mess behind and sauntered to the fridge, looking to rehydrate after her outdoors romp. And as luck would have it, there was a cold 12-pack of Sprite there for the taking.

"Score!" Lana grabbed a can, cracked it open and prepared to chug its contents when a dawning realization stopped her cold. Without warning, the memories of the family's April Fools Day contest against Luan filled her head as she put the can on the kitchen table and began to retrace her steps: We were tied at four pranks apiece. Luan was setting up the cake launcher in the fridge. I'd just shaken up that can and gotten out of Dodge before she could see me; I made sure to put it right in her line of sight. She opened it and got sprayed. I ran through and delivered my punchline, but...

And that was when it hit her. Lana paled in shock and pounded her fist into the table, knocking the can over. It spilled out its contents for a fraction of a second before she righted it, and in the blink of an eye, she left the kitchen and tore upstairs, calling for Luan. She approached the door to the room she shared with Luna and pounded on it with reckless abandon until the door swung open. Instead of her jokester sister, however, Lana found herself face to face with Mr. Coconuts. The dummy asked, "What's all the racket about, toots? I'm practicin' for my next performance!"

"Sorry, Mr. Coconuts! I really, really need to talk to Luan!"

"Okay. What's the password?"

Lana rolled her eyes and groaned, "Come on, Luan! I need to talk to you really bad!"

"And you can talk to her when you give me the password!" All Lana could do was slap her forehead in frustration and repeat verbatim the phrase Luan had taught her: "Luan Loud is the greatest comedian the world has, or will, ever know."

Mr. Coconuts vanished from her sight as the brace-filled smile of her older sister took the dummy's place. "Why, thank you, Lana! Come on in!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The handywoman entered the bedroom and closed the door as Luan retreated to her small refrigerator, asking, "You want something to drink?"

"Actually...that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"You wanna talk about soda?" Luan asked as she put her can down on the dresser.

"Well, soda's a small part of it. Let's just say that I have something on my mind."

The jokester arched her eyebrow in curiosity and replied, "And what would that be?"

"You remember this past April Fools Day? The us versus you competition?"

Luan grinned from ear to ear and exclaimed, "Of course! That was one of the greatest days of my life! I can't wait to see what you guys are gonna do next year!"

Oh, that's just great. Lana turned her stare to the floor as she mumbled, "Well, you know how we wound up tied at the end of it all?"

"Yeah..." Luan's face showed slight concern as she asked, "Was there something wrong with the totals?"

Lana let out a heavy sigh and replied, "Actually...there was. After you set up the catapult in the fridge, you opened a can of soda that I shook up. Remember?"

"I remember, and it was a-lime-ingly refreshing! Hahahahaha!"

Lana couldn't help but grin herself at the memory as she continued her confession. "I delivered the punchline and ran out, but...I just got so caught up in the fun I was having that..." She trailed off, shook her head, and took a deep breath, finally getting the words out:

"...I forgot to count it towards our total pranks."

The realization took a few seconds to sink in as Luan pondered what Lana had told her. But when it hit, Luan let out a huge, shocked gasp and covered her mouth with her hands, exclaiming, "So that means that..."

"Yeah," Lana sadly replied. "Technically, we won."

The confession knocked Luan for a loop as she realized the magnitude of Lana's error. She grabbed her by the suspenders and asked, "Does anyone else know?"

"No. Just you. I don't plan on telling anyone else either."

"Why not? This changes everything." Luan pulled out a notebook and began to take stock of all her pranking accessories. With more than a hint of sadness in her voice, she said, "You guys beat me fair and square. Looks like I'll have to hang up my pranking hat."

Lana gasped in horror and retorted with, "Luan, no! You don't have to do this! Please stop!"

"I have to, sis." Luan grabbed an empty cardboard box and began throwing all her props into it. "Goodbye, fake dog poop. See you later, whoopie cushion. Au revoir, fake vomit."

"Luan, PLEASE!"

"Lana, you guys won. That means it's time for me to stop pranking...to stop being funny."

"I SAID NO!" The force of Lana's statement stopped Luan dead in her tracks as she looked up from the box. "Get that idea out of your head right now!"

"But those were the stakes! You can't just go back on your word!"

"Well, as of this moment, I am!" Lana reached out and grabbed the box from Luan, dumping its contents onto the floor. "I can't let you do this to yourself!"

Her sister's righteous fury left Luan at an uncharacteristic loss for words. Lana was breathing heavily, her face scrunched up in an attempt to appear serious, but instead looking like she had a bathroom emergency. "Lana..." Luan's face had sympathy written all over it as she knelt before Lana so they were eye to eye. "There's a bigger reason you didn't count that prank, isn't there?"

When she asked that question, a flood of memories hit Lana all at once-Luan and Mr. Coconuts telling jokes at her sixth birthday party. Luan cranking out armpit farts alongside Lana, laughing all the while. Learning how to juggle bouncy balls with Luan giving helpful pointers. It was too much for Lana to handle, and she burst into tears on the spot. Luan's sisterly instincts kicked in as she reached into her shirt pocket and held out a small handkerchief, which wound up in Lana's hands in the blink of an eye. She blew her nose with a loud honk and tossed the soaked rag into the dirty laundry, breathing heavily for a while as Luan sat next to her and rubbed her back to calm her down. The comforting gesture caused her cries to lessen to sniffles as Luan asked, "You okay?"

"Y...yeah..."

"Did you not count that prank on purpose?" Lana gulped back the lump in her throat and nodded her head.

"Why did you do that?"

Her younger sister remained silent as she tried to find the words to explain. Luan assured her with a sympathetic, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I understand."

"No. I have to tell you." Lana sniffled and began her explanation. "If we won, you would've had to stop doing what you love. I mean, sure, your pranks can get out of hand sometimes, but that's who you are. I...I couldn't take that away from you." Lana dragged her arm across her eyes and continued: "It's like what happened with Lincoln and the victory undies. I didn't count my prank because...it wouldn't be fair to have us happy and you miserable. You're always looking on the bright side of things, you always have a joke to tell, and you'll do anything for a laugh. Without that, this house wouldn't be the same. I love you too much to ever do something like that to you."

Luan pulled Lana closer and rested her head on top of her sister's hat, sniffling back tears of her own as she replied, "That's the most beautiful thing anyone's ever said to me."

"And I mean all of it. But...is there anything I can do to make this up to you?"

Luan grabbed the can of soda and said, "Actually..." Lana asked, "What's wrong? Are you not thirsty anymore?"

Luan's reply was ten hard shakes of the can before she handed it to her younger sister. As Lana held it in her hand, she instantly realized what Luan was doing. A grateful smile appeared on her face as her elder sister said, "I am...but I think you need it more."

It was all Lana could do to keep from crying again as she cracked open the can, sending the carbonated beverage into her face. Her eyes glistened, both from the soda and the kindness of her sister's gesture, and Lana stretched out her arms and ran into Luan's, who had done the same. Within seconds, the both of them were enveloped in a massive hug, with Lana exclaiming "Thank you" over and over again while Luan smiled and rubbed the back of her head.

"There's no need to thank me, Lana. I'm just doing what's Sprite." Lana began to laugh as Luan removed her hat and ruffled her hair, saying, "Now we're even."

"Cool beans," Lana said as she put her hat back on. With a new, determined grin, she declared, "But you just wait until next year! I'm gonna get you so good!"

"Not if I get you first!" Luan squeezed the trigger of her fake flower and sent a small jet of water flying at Lana, who ducked and reached into her pants pocket, grabbing a handful of earthworms. "Let's see you worm your way out of this one!"

The door exploded open as Luan and Lana ran downstairs, both of them laughing as they exchanged good-natured pranks. Life in the Loud house was officially back to normal.

The Loud House and its characters belong to Nickelodeon and Chris Savino.