"Twenty-Eight hours, thirteen minutes and fifty five…. fifty six, fifty seven minutes…." Lori mumbled as she paced her and Leni's bedroom floor. Her siblings had gathered ceremoniously to watch one of their big sister's famous meltdowns.

As Lori paced she was simultaneously pulling at her hair and becoming more and more hysterical.

"Ya know, normally Lori's meltdowns fill me with more joy than this," Lucy lamented in her typical monotone.

"Yeah, she's gone nuttier than a box of cashews," Luan joked.

"She's so stressed and sad," Leni commented.

"You know how she gets about her scheduled phone calls with Bobby….if he doesn't call soon she's gonna keep us up all night with her fit and I need my beauty sleep!" Lola complained.

Lincoln looked at his sister for a moment, before turning his face towards the imaginary fourth-wall camera.

"You've been with us long enough by now to know that in a family this big there's always some drama going on. It normally means entertainment for the rest of us. You also know that one of Lori's favorite things is talking to, about, with, next to, over the phone with, basically anything having to do with Bobby. Meltdowns like these are not uncommon, just last week she had one because Bobby ended their conversation with I love you to heaven and back, instead of infinity and back like he normally does. This time feels….different though, it's like he disappeared off the face of the earth. It's been over a day since he called, texted, or sent a singing telegram and Lori is (Lori wails)…..not taking it well."

"Maybe Bobby's committed some crime and gone off the grid!" Lynn suggested.

This only made Lori cry more.

"Hey, if he did that means we can bust him out!" Lana offered.

"Nah, Bobby's a good guy! He would never fight the law and let the law win," Luna protested.

"M-Maybe it's me! Maybe, I-I drove him away from me! Maybe I call too much or my voice is too annoying, or like I say like and literally literally too much!"

"While your self diagnosis of your more irritating personality traits is accurate, you are failing to consider that you and Bobby have courted for an excessive amount of time and that if he found these traits annoying he would have left you long ago," Lisa stated.

"What if he's in danger? What if he's hurt? Or has a hangnail? Or like worst of all….a zit!"

Leni shirked in terror, "DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT LOR!"

Lincoln put a supportive hand on Lori's back, "I'm sure he's just busy right now Lori. You've been saying yourself that senior year is more stressful than what people think."

"I always thought you didn't do much work because you were so old," Leni commented.

"Seventeen and Eighteen are hardly considered geriatric ages," Lisa said with an eye

Roll.

"Yeah, but like people get wrinkles by their thirties so it's basically a mid-life crisis!" Leni argued.

"It's a crisis alright….you sit in class and have to ask permission to pee, but yet you have to go make all these decisions about the rest of your life; where to go to college, what to major in, what and who you are meant to become. It's like way stressful!" Lori explained.

"But there's lots of fun stuff too! Pretty prom dresses, senior picture dresses, graduation dresses!" Lola said dreamily.

"Those dresses symbolize something Lola, they symbolize growing up….leaving the nest."

Suddenly a wave of sadness rolled over the siblings faces. They knew that the end of this year would symbolize something for all of them. It would be the first one of the kids to leave for college. They knew how excited Lori was to be starting a new chapter and were thrilled for her, but a family this big doesn't make goodbyes any easier.

Little did they know that was a lesson they were about to learn the hard way.

RING-RING

Their heads collectively snapped up as they checked their own cell phones to make sure they were hearing right. The sound of a landline phone was unusual in this day and age, if their dad wasn't such a packrat they might have gotten rid of it years ago.

"Maybe it's a sale on plumbing supplies!" Lana said excitedly rushing downstairs.

Out of pure curiousity the others followed.

"What? How?" they heard their father state. He sounded shell-shocked.

Lola, Lisa, and Lana, who had quickly realized this wasn't about plumbing, subtly clung to Leni, who was holding Lily in her arms, Their daddy was such a goofball it unusual to hear him sound not only sad…..but also scared.

"Do-do they know why?" he whispered.

"A note?" he said.

What was going on?

"I-I'm so sorry….please….let me know if there's anything we can do….anything….we'll take care of her…..alright goodbye."

Mr. Loud took a shaky breath before turning to face his beautiful children, who instantly erupted into a mob of questioning and sound.

He was still too shocked to make words.

Luan's voice cut through first, "gee pops, who died?"

Little did she know the pain of her ironic statement.

Their dad's eyes misted as he looked directly into the eyes of his first-born daughter, "Bobby."