Chapter Text
After lunch, Lincoln and his new friends were relaxing in the shade of a tree outside during recess.
"No! No way! Not possible!" Rusty was arguing. Lincoln had just told his friends (the ones who didn't already know) that being deprived of his sight for so long had sharpened his sense of hearing to an almost superhuman level of acuteness, and that's how he was able to avoid all the dodgeballs earlier in the day. Lincoln just sat with his back against the tree trunk, his hands behind his head, a smug smile on his face, and his cane leaning against the tree beside him.
"I wouldn't have told you if it wasn't true," he replied.
"Proveit, then!" Rusty ordered.
"I just did! Or were you not watching the dodgeball game?" Lincoln asked.
"Prove it again! Maybe the dodgeball game was afluke!" challenged Rusty.
"Have it your way, then. Heads up!" Rusty whirled around at Lincoln's warning and was promptly clobbered in the forehead with somebody's stray Frisbee.
"That's funny. That'srealfunny," Rusty grumbled while the others laughed. "I still don't believe you, by the way."
"That's fair. I figured not everybody would," Lincoln said with a shrug. The bell rang to signal the end of recess. As his friends walked back to the building, Lincoln stretched and reached for where he knew he left his cane.
His fingers grasped empty air.
His eyes widened behind his sunglasses, and he groped around for his cane. He knew it couldn't be far if it just fell over or something. He crawled around on his hands and knees, but he still couldn't find it.
"Looking forthis?" Chandler's voice came from somewhere in front of him. Even though he couldn't see, Lincoln knew Chandler must have been holding his cane.
"Give me my stick back, Chandler. I need it, and it wasreallyexpensive! My parents can't afford to replace it," Lincoln said. Unfortunately, he couldn't see the sad*stic grin on Chandler's face.
"Oh. Well, if that's the case..."CRACK!"There!Nowwe're even for getting me detention!" Lincoln's heart sank as he listened to Chandler's retreating footsteps. After groping around some more, he finally found his cane...
...in two pieces.
"Great. How am I supposed to get back to classnow?" he groaned and sat down in the grass.
"Lincoln?" Lincoln turned his head in the direction of the new voice, a girl around his own age. "I saw Chandler break your cane over his knee. Would you like some help?"
"Uh...sure. And you are?" he asked.
"Oh, sorry! My friends call me Cookie. You and I are in the same grade," the girl introduced herself. "So, how do you want to do this?" Lincoln thought for a moment.
"I think it would be easiest if you walk in front of me and I have my hands on your shoulders. You okay with that?"
"Sure. Just to warn you, though, I'm a little on the small side for my age," Cookie replied.
"Hey, I can't discriminate. I mean, Iliterallycan't discriminate," Lincoln replied before tapping the rim of his sunglasses. Tucking the two halves of his cane into his belt, he shakily got to his feet. Cookie slid her hands into his and guided them to her shoulders, which were just barely level with Lincoln's ribs. True to her word, Cookie was small and fairly bony. As they started walking, Lincoln couldn't help it. "I don't mean to be rude, I really don't, but...are you being properly fed?"
"Oh, I've pretty much always been like this. My parents say it's because I came into the worldahead of schedule," Cookie explained.
"Ah." The two walked in silence until the abrupt change in temperature alerted Lincoln to the fact that they were now indoors. "Hey, is there a payphone or something in the hall I could use?" Lincoln asked. "I just need to call my big sister real quick."
"Not anymore, but you can use my cell phone," Cookie offered.
"Thanks." Lincoln told Cookie the number for Lori's cell phone so that she could dial it for him, then Cookie pressed the call button and handed the phone to Lincoln.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Lori, it's Lincoln." Lincoln pulled the phone away from his ear when Lori started shouting with worry.
"Oh my gosh! Lincoln! Are you okay? What happened? What's wrong?"
"Sheesh, Lori, calm down! It's notreallyan emergency! I just need a favor!"
"Oh, heh heh heh. Sorry about that, Linc. What do you need?"
"Can you bring Charles with you when you come pick me up? I'll explain why when you get here," Lincoln requested.
"Yeah, I can do that. See you then, bro. Love ya!"
"Love you too, Lori." The line disconnected, and Cookie guided Lincoln back to their classroom after retrieving her phone.
"Thereyou two are! What took so long?" Ms. Johnson demanded.
"It's not our fault, Ms. Johnson," Lincoln defended. "You can blame Chandler formydelay. Cookie here was only trying to help," he explained and pulled out the two halves of his cane. The teacher glared at the student in question, who shrank down in his seat.
"Chandler? Is this true?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Cookie piped up meekly. "I saw the whole thing. Chandler broke Lincoln's cane over his knee." She was extremely nervous for two reasons: number one, she wasn't comfortable being the center of attention; number two, Chandler happened to be one of her three ex-boyfriends, and the most toxic of the three at that.
"That's it! Chandler, principal's office!Now!" Ms. Johnson yelled. "The rest of you, stay here and do homework!" Ms. Johnson grabbed Chandler's shoulders when he got to the front of the room and steered him towards the principal's office.
"You're both dead,"Chandler snarled as he passed Lincoln and Cookie. Cookie gulped and shivered while Lincoln only smiled. His smile disappeared when he felt Cookie shivering through his hand that was still on her shoulder.
"Are you alright?" he asked her.
"I...I don't know," she replied honestly. "Chandler's my ex. He was...abusiveas my boyfriend. Mostly verbally and mentally, but sometimes physically."
"I see," Lincoln replied. "Well, if he ever tries anything, I'll send my sister Lynn after him. She's the sports jock in my family."
"Thanks, I guess. Hey, wanna be study buddies?" Cookie asked. "I'm having a hard time with History, and I couldreallyuse someone to help me get a better grasp of it."
"I'd be delighted," Lincoln said with a smile. "You can come to my place after school if you want."
The rest of the school day went by in a flash, and Cookie accompanied Lincoln and Clyde to the door of the school, where they were greeted by an enthusiastic black-and-white Pitbull Terrier wearing a leash and a harness. The harness was dark gray with silver reflective strips and SERVICE DOG spelled out in white letters on both sides.
"Cookie, this is Charles," Lincoln introduced the girl to the dog. "Mom and Dad originally adopted him to be my seeing-eye dog, but when he's not on duty, he's more like the family pet. Without my stick, he's my Plan B for getting around. Go ahead, you can pet him." Cookie hesitated before scratching one of Charles' ears, and the dog closed his eyes and thumped one of his back feet on the ground. "Well, whaddaya know; he likes you already!" Lincoln said with a grin. "Alright, Charles, lead us back to the van!" Charles barked and started tugging on the leash in Lincoln's hand, guiding him toward the Loud family's primary (read:only) vehicle with Cookie following. Lori had already dropped off Leni, Luna, Luan, and Lynn at home, so there was plenty of room for Cookie to sit with Lincoln and his younger sisters. "Everyone, this is my new friend Cookie. She and I will be doing homework together," Lincoln introduced. Cookie shyly waved back when Lincoln's sisters greeted her.
"Hey, Linc, where's your stick?" Lana asked.
"Oh, some jerk in my class named Chandler took it during recess and broke it," Lincoln replied. "That's why I had Lori bring Charles. In fact, if it wasn't for Cookie, I wouldn't have been able to get back to class!" Cookie turned pink at Lincoln's praise. The twins and Lisa snickered and winked knowingly, making her blush even harder.
They got back to the house and were greeted by Rita and Albert, who had the day off.
"Oh, hello! And who might you be?" Rita asked upon seeing Cookie.
"She's my new friend Cookie. She said she needed help with her History homework, so I volunteered to tutor her," Lincoln explained. "Oh, before I forget..." Lincoln pulled out the pieces of his cane and explained what had happened during recess. Rita groaned and rubbed her temples while Albert examined the pieces.
"Eh, it's a clean break," he said with a shrug. "Nothing some super glue and duct tape can't fix. It'll be good as new in the morning." Albert took Lincoln's cane to his bedroom in the basem*nt to fix it.
Cookie jolted when Lincoln suddenly took her by the hand. He looked at her and smiled.
"My room's upstairs. C'mon, I'll show you around," he said.
