Later that day at school, Lincoln was walking to lunch with Clyde at his side. Since the van was fixed, the family was able to make it to the last four hours of school. Lincoln couldn't stop thinking of Lynn for the life of him, but whenever Ronnie Anne was around him he wasn't thinking of her. He was thinking of his crush and close friend. It was a pain, but he tried his best to overcome his wild thoughts. Him and Clyde had gotten their lunch trays and sat down at a table. Lincoln looked at his peas and pushed them around with his fork. Clyde watched his friend fiddle around with his food, seemingly absentminded.

"Lincoln, are you okay? You're acting like the first graders over there, except you're not throwing food at people."

Lincoln's head shot up in that instant as he tried to recollect where he was. "Oh yeah. I'm fine, buddy. I was just thinking of Ronnie Anne."

Clyde shook his head. He knew Lincoln and Ronnie Anne had a thing for each other, but they never did anything about it. "When are you ever just going to ask her out?"

"I can't ask her out. I mean, c'mon. We're just friends and us going out would put a lot of space between you and me. Trust me, we'll get to that wall when we get to it." Lincoln ate some of his peas and drank some of his chocolate milk. "But, if we were to go out, you'd be cool with it, right?" Clyde was Lincoln's closest friend and ditching him for any girl seemed bad in his eyes. He just had to ask to be safe.

"I would be fine. I'd have a lot more time to capture Lori's attention if it happened, anyway. Just to be able to caress her golden hair would be so awesome." Clyde's mind began to drift as he thought about Lincoln's eldest sister. He began to drool before someone elbowed him on the shoulder. He snapped back to reality and turned to see that it was Ronnie Anne. "Oh- Hey, Ronnie Anne."

"Ronnie Anne? What're you doing here? Aren't you supposed at home?" Lincoln cared for her and he didn't think she should be at school.

"I wanted my mom to take me. I knew you'd probably be worrying about me all day. So I figured, what the heck? Where did you and your sister go after you guess left my house, anyway?"

"Me and Lynn went to some abandoned skatepark. She got hurt, but I helped her. We talked a bit then we…" Lincoln trailed off, halting the rest of his story. Telling them what happened after that would be a terrible idea. "...Got a ride home." Lincoln weakly smiled but got a gaze of confusion from Clyde and Ronnie Anne.

"Okay…" Ronnie Anne after eating some pizza. "So, was that it?"

Lincoln nodded almost instinctively and felt himself begin to sweat. He doubted he was, but his armpits said otherwise. He quickly got up and headed towards the bathroom. Clyde, being the the person he was, followed Lincoln there. Inside the bathroom, Lincoln stood in front of the mirror, using a wet paper towel to clean his face. He pulled it down to see Clyde walk up to him.

"Uh, hey, buddy." Clyde waved making an effort to break the ice that just formed. "You wanna talk about what happened? Don't bother saying there isn't anything wrong because Dr. Lopez taught me that nothing will be solved if a problem isn't at least presented."

Lincoln sighed and looked over at Clyde. He wiped his face one more time before balling the paper towel up and tried shooting it in the trash can by the door. He missed and laughed lightly. "Okay, so me and Lynn were sitting on a bench, and we started talking. After that we… kissed." Lincoln turned away from Clyde who was a little shocked at the revelation. Did he actually just hear his friend say that he kissed his own sister? It was odd, but Clyde tried to not freak out about it.

"Wow, that's a lot to take in." Clyde rubbed the back of his head and looked at his friend. "Was that all that happened? Just a kiss?"

"Yeah, just a kiss, but it wasn't just any old any kiss. It felt just like the kiss I gave Ronnie Anne a few weeks ago. It had meaning and I think I might like her more than a sister. I'm not sure, but I don't really know how to feel at this point. But, Clyde, please don't tell Ronnie Anne about this! She may never look at me the same way again! Me and her are already close and I don't want any of that to change."

"Don't worry, Lincoln. I'll keep it between us. What you should find out is if Lynn feels the same way about you. If she does… then we may have an issue."

"Alright, I'll do just that, Clyde."

Lincoln and Clyde proceeded to high five each other before walking out of the bathroom. They were headed back to where they were seated earlier, but they had noticed that Ronnie Anne was gone. They looked around but couldn't find her anywhere. They assumed she had left to go to another class or something and the two sat down at their table. It was a lot more silent between the two. They shared a few glances back and forth but never once actually talked to one another. They sat there until the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. The two picked up their trays and threw them away before heading to class. On their way there, Lincoln saw Lynn heading his way and nervously looked at Clyde. Lynn waved at Lincoln and ran over to him.

"Hey, Lincoln. You're headed to class, huh?"

"Y-Yeah, I am. What about you?"

"Our gym teacher has us running outside the school and we're on a water slash pee break."

The two continued their conversation all the while Clyde observed on the side lines. Every response, laugh, and joke he mentally noted. If Lincoln were to forget what he was supposed to do, he was obligated to fill that role himself. The only problem was is figuring out if Lynn actually liked Lincoln more than just a brother. Once he's found that out, everything would start falling in place. The conversation between Lynn and Lincoln seemed to die down after a while and ended with a hug. Clyde could help but notice that Lincoln's hands slowly made their way down Lynn's waist towards her butt, but for whatever reason, Lincoln stopped. The two backed away from each other and Lynn waved goodbye before running off. The two continued to make their way to class and once there, took their seats—right next to each other, as good friends should do.

"So, Lincoln… what was that about? You know, your hands?"

Lincoln slammed his head on the desk and let out a muffled scream. "I don't know, Clyde… I really don't know. I just hope I can get out of this phase. I just can't help it."

Later that day, after the end of school, Lincoln walked to his locker and opened it. He found a white note inside that was lying on top of his backpack. He unfolded it and read what it had said.

Hi, Lincoln. It's Clyde. I couldn't walk home with you today because me and my dads had stuff to take care of. You'll have to figure out how Lynn feels on your own—at least until I get back.

Lincoln shook his head and stuffed the note in his pocket. How was he supposed to do this on his own without his other half? Clyde was his go-to person when he needed help with something, but with him gone, this was going to get really challenging. He pulled out his book bag and closed his locker. He turned around to see Lynn standing behind him. Lincoln hopped back a little from being startled.

"Hey, Lynn. What's up?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to walk home with my little bro, if you don't mind."

"Oh, you can walk with me. Clyde was busy anyways, so I could use the companionship." Lincoln then remembered what he had to do. "We've gotta talk about something on our way home."

"Okay. Whatever it is, we can talk about it."

Lynn and Lincoln began to walk together down the hallway. All the while, the two were constantly tempted to hold each other's hand. They did know the consequences if they did literally anything in public. But no matter what, the two always had the sudden urge to just go for it. Twenty minutes had passed since Lincoln and Lynn had left the school and were closing on to home. Somehow along the way, they ended up holding hands, but the two hadn't really took notice. They made it to the front door of their home and entered inside. The pair discovered that they were the first and only ones home just by judging the fact that it was really quiet. A luxury that the Loud household doesn't get to have too often. The two were about to part ways, but their grip on each other's hands stopped them. They looked at their hand and then at one another in the eye. Lynn blushed and quickly let go of Lincoln's hand went upstairs to her room. Lincoln then remembered what he had to do. He ran upstairs and went into Lynn's room. She was laying on her bed lightly tossing a baseball in the air and catching it in her hand. She noticed Lincoln and sat up.

"Oh yeah. We were supposed to talk about that thing, right?"

"Yeah…" Lincoln made his way towards Lynn and sat down beside her. He eyes were soon fixed on her legs that were still somewhat scarred from the fall she had earlier this morning. "Lynn… do you just love me as a brother or more than that?" Lincoln felt his body heat up after asking that question. Lincoln then felt Lynn's arm wrap around his shoulder.

"Look, Linc. I do love you… I think I love you more than a sibling should, but…" Lynn rested her head on Lincoln's lap causing him to squeal slightly. "I know it could never work…" Lincoln's face felt boiling at this point and that feeling he usually gets when he's with Ronnie Anne started to form—in his pants. His mind frantically raced to get it to go down. Thinking of sad thoughts, mathematical equations and other things started to work, but even glancing down at Lynn would cause it to come back. As soon as he was about to give up, Lynn lifted her head and got up. "I've got some homework to do. See ya, Lincoln." With that, Lincoln let out a sigh. He was so close from screwing up and luckily the universe had other plans for him.

"Okay… that was a close call. I really don't know what'll happen after today, but it shouldn't really get in the way between me and Ronnie Anne. I at least hope so." Lincoln got up and went into his room. He laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling. He had finally gotten the answer he was searching for: Lynn did love him more than a brother. Lincoln thought about how it possibly couldn't work at all, and the fact that he was interested in Ronnie Anne. Being stuck in his feelings was the worst pain he had felt since chipping his tooth. He rolled over on his side and closed his eyes. Only time would tell how things would progress. He did have five more years with Lynn, after all. Their feelings could possibly subside in that time. All they needed was to keep a friendly distance between each other and everything would go normally for them.