Authors Note: Well, I hope you all enjoy my new story, I don't have an update schedule in mind (yet) but I owe you all for the patience, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you desire for it to be continued. This is Fallen Pens, dropping out. Also I should mention, this is not an incest story, I had changed my mind against that in the last few days, apologies again.

Summer had barely begun. Only four days having passed since schools had closed to let everyone enjoy their freedom and all the plans they had in mind. The small city of Michigan, Royal Woods, was more active this time of year.

"I love summer. I always have and always will. A lot of my best memories are from summer… but so far not this year. Honestly, it's felt pretty gloomy since the year started… and I really have no clue how to fix it," Lincoln Loud sat on a bench, in the park that he came to with a few of his younger sisters who requested him to.

The fourteen-year-old thought to himself, consumed by his mind at the moment more than anything else. He had been in a slump since the new year began. He had been going through day by day, yet whatever insanity ensued could not liven up the dull nature that he felt. He tilted his head back on the bench, feeling the sun in the nearly clear sky beating down upon him. He was unintentionally getting a tan, since all he did since summer holiday started was lay outside somewhere and gaze off into space.

"Are you depressed?" A voice sounded when his head was tilted back. He felt a refreshing cold chocolate popsicle get shoved into his mouth. He sat up straight with a raised eyebrow and saw his fifth eldest sister beside him.

"Lynn? When'd you get here?" Lincoln coughed, taking the popsicle out of his mouth.

"I was with my other baseball partners to thank our coach for the season. When we finished, I thought I'd come by to see if you were alright," Lynn explained, not trying too hard to hide her clear sadness. Lincoln knew how she felt. When summer started, everybody was sick of playing sports and would treat summer as a time to rest and recover their sore limbs. Lynn on the other hand was the polar opposite, as result everyone distanced themselves from her.

"I'm sorry, Lynn. I'm sure your next coach will be just as good," the middle Loud child gave her a one armed hug. She was going through one last goodbye to the long time baseball coach of three years. He had announced his last season due to a near death experience after a baseball cracked his skull not so long back.

"I hate summer…" Lynn sighed. She put the chocolate treat into her mouth, beginning to suck on it like Lily would with a pacifier. He kept up the one armed embrace.

"But you don't have to worry about me. I'm not depressed. I'm just real deep in a rut," Lincoln reassured, thankful for his family's concern. All of his sisters feared this ever since he first turned thirteen. They were worried that one day their only brother would begin to lose his mind to his hormones. They only got more worried after a year of supposed calm, becoming more fearful now that Lincoln was hiding his true emotions from them.

"Where'd you get the ice cream by the way?" Lincoln asked. His entire family was chocolate addicts. He too enjoyed the chocolate popsicle a lot, especially for the hot weather.

"Oh, the ice cream guy… y'know, the guy who rides down hills on his cart and crashes a lot? He's giving free ice cream out today to celebrate the start of summer," Lynn explained, pointing toward the ice cream man who had a line of entire families in front of him, all eager to get a frozen treat.

"I swear, that guy is bursting with nothing but happiness," Lincoln muttered, wondering if having free ice cream available at all times was a constant mood booster. He kept munching away at his chocolate ice cream with Lynn trying to relax.

"Did you say free ice cream?!" They heard Lana and Lola. The two stood in front of them with excited looks, their missing front teeth showing from their bright smiles.

"Where?!" Lana pleadingly demanded. Lynn pointed a finger to the man on the far end of the park.

"Thank you!" Lola ran off ahead in such a rush that she almost had let her tiara fall off her blonde head.

"Wait up!" Lana chased after her twin practically on all fours, not wanting to miss out on this.

"…They know the ice cream man isn't going anywhere anytime soon, right?" Lincoln chirped, throwing his popsicle stick in the trash bin beside them.

"Eh… they need the exercise," the sports lover giggled. When the moment passed, she tried to reorient the conversation back to what she was worried about.

"Are you sure you're not depressed?" Lynn requested once again. She understood if their brother was trying to stay quiet and subtle about things. Most people tried to hide their inner woes, under the belief that it was weak to seek out any form of help.

"I'm positive, Lynn. It's really hard to be sad with a family as crazy as ours… Or at least when they're not mobbing me… but…" Lincoln's voice trailed off toward the end. He laid his head back on the bench again.

"But?" Lynn pressed him to continue.

"I feel like I do the same thing every day. The most interesting thing to happen to me this year was when I was moved up to the adults table," Lincoln explained how he really felt. It was just a routine that had been going on for a long time. His self-occupation as peacemaker of the family was the sole thing breaking the ruts. Even then, it was not much.

"You can always join up with us for something… You know you don't need to even ask." Lynn reminded him, dropping her popsicle stick in the trash can too.

"Lynn, I don't enjoy the same thing you all like nearly as much," Lincoln reminded her. She had broken his bones enough times to probably be aware of this by now. He loved his sisters, he always did and always would do his best to make them all happy, he had to make sure they can all get along, but he was not able to have the most fun with the dozens of things they all loved. It was just a case of preference for all of them.

"Point taken… you just need to look for a hobby, that's all. I know you want to take care of us, Lincoln, but you have to take care of yourself first," the sports addict told him, giving him a thankful hug. Lincoln smiled, appreciating it. Lynn was feeling immensely relieved to know he wasn't truly depressed from the look on his face.

"Oof!" Lincoln felt a sudden hard tackle. Lana had jumped on them both to join in on the hug. Her red hat was full of various ice cream treats.

"Don't leave us out of hugs!" Lola surprised them. The twins had used their adorable charm to get more ice cream for them all.

"Calm down. There's enough hugs to go around," Lincoln laughed. He knew Lynn was right though. A new hobby would help him, but he had no idea what he could try. Being a jack of all trades type made things a little harder. "Maybe Clyde'll know… Oh well. For now, how about we just enjoy some more ice cream?"

His sisters all eagerly nodded.

"Oh, is that one strawberry? Can I have it?"

"I dunno… It has a chocolate filling. I'd like that."

"But you don't even like strawberry!"

"Alright, you two. Calm down," Lynn sighed and gestured before the twins could get into one of their common, trivial fights.

"Ah… I love you guys," Lincoln brightly smiled, with a raspberry popsicle snug in his mouth.

The next two hours at the park was spent between the four playing together. Lola now rode on a rocking spring horse, and Lana was being spun on the carousal by Lynn.

"Haah… jeez… They haven't even slowed down for a second," Lincoln panted, feeling exhausted. He did his best to keep up with them, but the heat of the sun was draining him. Chowing down on ice cream failed to keep him cooled down for long. Lincoln soon heard a calm, downbeat ringtone. He recognized the caller instantly. He pulled the cellphone out of his pocket and put it to his ear.

"Hey Clyde, what's up?" Lincoln answered, while taking a seat under a shady tree.

"Hey, dude. Sorry if this is a bad time, but I found something that I had to tell you about," Clyde McBride, his lifelong best friend, sounded eager today.

"What is it?" Lincoln let him continue, watching his family from afar.

"I found this flyer that's requesting high schoolers help for a summer camp."

"Uhh…" Lincoln raised an eyebrow, "We just started high school this year. Is it worth it?"

"Is it worth it? Lincoln, you were talking about how you needed a change of pace with me and Ronnie Anne the other day! …Actually, you've been talking about it with us a lot," Clyde exclaimed. He among very few people knew about Lincoln's secret relationship with the school bully, Ronnie Anne Santiago. The trio tended to get along as good friends outside of school.

"So, what? Are you thinking I should become a camp counselor? I don't think they'd really allow it…" Lincoln responded, imagining that the requests for help were more aimed at those in their late teens.

"I still think this is something we should look into. I mean, c'mon! Wouldn't it be a great change? Being able to get out into nature, instead of spending time doing nothing beyond wondering what to do," Clyde argued. Lincoln rubbed his head. Lazing about and pondering on ways to kill time feeling so unenthusiastic had indeed irritated him long enough.

"You got me there… alright, Clyde. I'll go talk to the person running the program," Lincoln agreed. He knew his best friend would not let up otherwise. Clyde sounded happy to hear that.

"Great! I'll text you the address and meet you there," Clyde hung up. Lincoln had a bad feeling he had agreed to something without thinking deeper into it. It was not the first or last time that it would probably happen either.

"Is something going on Lincoln?"

Lincoln saw Lola beside him, who had come over after noticing him tiredly seated under a tree.

"Nah. Clyde just wanted to tell me about something… Hey, Lynn!" Lincoln grabbed his sporty sister's attention. She walked away from the carousal while Lana kept ahold of it to spin as long as she could.

"What is it, Lincoln?" Lynn asked as she rubbed Lola's head. Her brother saw the address shown as a text message. One tap of the button and it was up on the map for him to easily follow.

"I hate to leave early, but… I'm going to go meet up with Clyde about something important. Can you handle watching them?" Lincoln requested.

"Seems easy to do. I owe you a lot anyway, plus they're both in a good mood," Lynn agreed, it sounded simple enough.

"Thanks, Lynn. I appreciate it," he smiled, not entirely sure what she meant when she said she owed him, but did not dwell on it. He simply headed off to leave the park.

"…You've been waiting on him hand and foot a lot lately," Lola told Lynn.

"What? I haven't!" Lynn crossed her arms and furrowed her brow.

"Lynn, the other day you woke up early to make him breakfast," Lana dizzily stumbled a little. Her polar twin helped her stay balanced, not wanting to lose a valued asset to her argument.

"That was so I could apologize for breaking his hand!" Lynn kept her arms crossed, not letting down that defensive aura of hers.

"All you did was dislocate his pinky…" Lola murmured, looking to her twin confusedly. It was a simple football accident that dislocated a digit of Lincoln's hand. They didn't even need to take him to the hospital for that. Lori simply popped it back into place with one hard tug.

"You've done a lot to make things up to him over that. Last time you said it was because you hit him in the face with a football, when the ball only hit his ear," Lana added. They were becoming increasingly suspicious about Lynn's motives for acting weird to their brother for over a year now.

"Do you two want to go home early?" Lynn rhetorically responded.

"No…" the twins said in unison, feeling slightly afraid from seeing her mad.

"Then just get some more ice cream and go to the swing set."

Lincoln took a short moment to get to his destination, a rather small building that looked to have been remodeled a dozen times over the decades it had been run.

"Lame-o! Over here!"

Lincoln brightly smiled at the two coming down the sidewalk, Clyde and Ronnie Anne.

"Ronnie Anne! What're you doing here?" Lincoln asked, pleasantly surprised, his arms spread out. His school bully was in a simple purple shirt and shorts, her hair done up to a ponytail. She had made a few rules about their relationship, the biggest rule being no affectionate touching without warning.

"Eh. I caught Clyde headin' by Burpin' Burgers. I decided to drop lunch an' come along for the ride," Ronnie Anne explained, gladly hugging him. The two had been dating for a few years now, but had miraculously been able to keep things secret from nearly all.

"Are you two really still shy about kissing in front of others?" Clyde asked when he read the atmosphere.

"N-no way! It's just…" Lincoln could not get the words off his tongue. It felt wrong to answer on her behalf a question directed to both of them.

"We've kissed plenty of times in front of others," Ronnie Anne pouted slightly. This seemed to make the third wheel of the group snicker slightly.

"Really? The only time I've seen you guys kiss is when you didn't know I was around," Clyde did not lighten up on the joking, finding their reactions cute. To witness the Santiago girl embarrassed was a nice way of payback to him. She had broken many pairs of his glasses, after all.

"We kissed the other day! We were on a double date with…" Ronnie Anne stopped herself, wanting to vomit at recalling it.

"Chandler and his blind date," Lincoln finished for his girlfriend. It was an awkward experience. Chandler was somewhat a bully in their school, known for hosting fancy parties and only inviting those he could benefit from.

"That… sounds like a pure blackmail-quality miracle," Clyde murmured, "How'd you even convince Chandler to keep quiet?"

"The double date was the only way to get his blind date to agree to go out with him… In trade for him paying an unevenly split bill and us being there, he kept quiet," Ronnie Anne explained, sounding rather cocky with that trade off, even if the date was rather gross and had made it hard to enjoy the food.

"I think Chandler's ego is still recovering…" Lincoln shuddered, feeling glad to have gotten Clyde to stop teasing them both.

"Right… well, how about we just go talk to the person looking for counselors?" The glasses wearing boy insisted. His friends nodded, letting him go inside first. Lincoln was about to follow when he felt Ronnie Anne grab his wrist and yank him back.

"Ronnie Anne, what are yo- mhhpfff!" He felt a short passionate kiss to his lips. After a few brief moments, the black haired girl pulled away.

"You taste really sweet today… Sorry Lame-o, I couldn't wait," Ronnie Anne laughed. Lincoln looked spaced out by the sudden act. She just grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him inside, humming a silent tune to herself.

The trio sat in a small office, all sharing a single couch meant for two instead of three. They were simply waiting, thankful that there was no real line, save two other people who were here before them.

"This is creepier than a dentist's office…" Ronnie Anne mumbled.

"I've been to mom's workplace before. Trust me, the fish tank livens a room up a lot more than you think," Lincoln replied. Rita's occupation as assistant to a dentist resulted in him going to her work several times.

"I don't think that counts as a fish tank, dude…" Clyde commented, the three were staring at the desk in front of them. Resting on the side of it was an oval-shaped tank of water housing three jellyfish, all peacefully floating around.

Ronnie Anne wanted to make a joke at her boyfriend's expense since he had been complaining about everything feeling the same. What better thing to compare him to than a literal trapped sea creature that did nothing but float around and do nothing to kill time. She instead bit her tongue since Lincoln seemed to be generally in a poor mood because of this very rut his life had hit.

"Hey there. Sorry for taking so long," the door opened to a man in a blue shirt that seemed to have a typographic image on the front. The three did not pay much attention to it.

"Where've you been?" Ronnie Anne asked. The man with spiky blonde hair took a seat behind his desk.

"Sorry, my assistant needed help with her computer again…" the man's fake Australian accent sounded, "Y'know what they say."

"No, we don't know what they say…" Lincoln shook his head, not getting the joke. His house used that phrasing a lot, so much that it seemed made for them.

"Well moving on then…" the man coughed, "I'm Butch North and I take it you three are here for the counselor positions?"

"Well, I am at least. I'm Lincoln Loud," Lincoln smiled.

"I'm Clyde McBride. I want to sign up with my bro here," Clyde nodded.

"I want to sign up too. I'm Ronnie Anne Santiago," she added.

"Ronnie Anne?! I thought you just were coming for moral support," Lincoln commented, confused and rather caught off guard by his girlfriend's decision.

"You think I'm going to let you leave me for eight weeks straight?" Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow. Her boyfriend understood her point, that much was very true. Clyde remained silent, not wanting to be involved in their miniature fight.

"Well it's nice to see some actual energetic youth, but it isn't as simple as signing a piece of paper… What happens is we give you a week to study up for a set of tests, they're made to prove if you can or can't handle these types of responsibilities," Butch explained to them. The small group of teenagers assumed that it was how they found people right for the job, it made sense to them.

"Can we ask what kind of summer camp this is?" Lincoln partially stuck up his left hand.

"Our camp is out to help young people in need who are sent there… whether by their own desire, their parents orders or a judge giving them a last chance," the young man explained. That did nothing but make them worry more.

"A boot camp? Sorry, but… I actually have empathy for other human beings," Ronnie Anne scoffed, ready to just stand up and leave right now. She believed boot camps to turn minor offenders into hardened criminals like a regular prison. For a bully, even she had standards.

"Hahaha! Oh god, no! I went to one when I was younger… of course I'll never condone another person going through that," the man looked at his jellyfish, "Our camps program is to help those that genuinely need it, and we need counselors who can actually help the young… We have three adult counselors, but the youth understand the youth, you know?"

"Makes sense," Clyde nodded, so far understanding.

"You said you were in a boot camp before? What happened…? If I can ask," Lincoln requested. This man's passion behind his work made him curious to know why.

Butch sighed, leaning back in his chair. He sounded like a man who had been through living nightmares a few times himself. Even if it made him a better person in the end, the memories were still in too deep to forget.

"I got caught shoplifting so they decided to send me to the Royal Academy Boot Camp… that place shut down about eight years ago, but when everyone was enjoying one of the rarer days to actually take it easy, but a bear got through the fence that was meant to keep us from escaping."

"Huh…" Lincoln let him continue.

"I figured that camp was something designed to punish someone and throw them away if their parents were sick of them, or some other family member. I was planning to escape when I noticed that bear break through. I was saved though…" Butch looked up to the ceiling, "My instructor and counselor was the most brutal man alive… and let me tell you all, I'd have been bear chow if it wasn't for him."

"Yikes…" Ronnie Anne stated. The three teenagers did not need to ask what happened to this boot camp instructor. Judging by his tone, it obviously was not good.

"So I decided to create my own camp years later to give troubled kids a real last chance, instead of giving up on them and hoping someone else can clean up the work," his words actually rung out to Lincoln. He liked the sound behind it. All he did was help his family most of the time. He was starting to believe he was actually perfect for this role.

"We'll see you next week for the test," Lincoln smiled. Butch looked happy to hear that.

"I like that look in your eyes… Here's what you need to study for. If you can do all this well, you'll be green lit and approved for the position," the man handed the three of them some sheets of paper for specific tasks to go over, "Oh, and on the other side is a list of what to expect if you accept being a counselor."

"Okay. Thanks!" Lincoln nodded. The three said their goodbyes before leaving the office.

"Wow, you look excited for once, Lincoln. I haven't seen you look this eager in a month," Clyde commented to his brotherly best friend as they all made their way back out onto the blazing hot streets.

"I've been able to help my family through a million and a half problems. If I can actually help someone in a long term way, it'd be great!" Lincoln exclaimed, hugging them both with each arm.

"There's the Lincoln we know and love," Ronnie Anne smirked to the bucktoothed boy.

"I can get a lot of books from Lisa about these topics, too," Lincoln added, looking at the list he had more than enough opportunity to study.

"Say, what's this camp called again?" Clyde suddenly brought up the question. They had forgotten to bring that up during that meeting.

"Uhh… Camp Leaf Crown Lake… Wait… Leaf Crown Lake?" Ronnie Anne's voice and train of thought trailed off toward the end. That name sounded familiar and made her feel uncomfortable. They knew it was outside of Royal Woods.

"That's a weird name, but I guess it could be weirder," Lincoln shrugged it off, making his mental checklist. Nobody really paid her comment much mind, but clearly it was distracting her.

"Dude, do you even know what you're going to say to your family?" Clyde asked him. Ronnie Anne had barely anything to worry about, since Bobby coddled her so much that she hated him for it, and Clyde's parents would be more than happy to let their son try to go out of his way to help others.

"…I have no idea," Lincoln coughed, the thought suddenly sparking off in his mind. He forgot in his excitement that he was about to be away from his family for this.

"So you're screwed?" Ronnie Anne asked, but her boyfriend shook his head.

"I'll just get mom and dad to agree first. That's really all that matters. I can handle the rest easier after that," Lincoln spoke the best immediate plan he had in mind. He wouldn't need all ten of his sisters' consent to sign up to be a camp counselor. They could all do with a break from each other he presumed.

"I mean it's not like they can't survive one day without me… Right?"

"This is for a couple of months, Lame-o…"

"Okay. This is going to be harder than I thought."