On the Bright Side
“Where did all the dang sprinkles go?” Lola Loud asked at the table.
The entire Loud family stopped eating.
Lincoln slowly lowered his spoon. “What?”
Lola held up an empty sprinkle container and shook it furiously. “My sprinkles! They're gone! Every single one!”
Lynn grabbed the container. “Maybe you ate them.”
“I did not eat a whole container of sprinkles!”
Luan raised a hand. “Technically, she could have. I've seen stranger things happen before breakfast.”
“Luan, you once ate a candle because you thought it was a giant birthday marshmallow,” Luna reminded her.
“It smelled like vanilla!”
“That doesn't make it food.”
Lily reached across the table and stuck her finger into the empty container.
“Sprinkles?”
“No sprinkles,” Lincoln said.
Lily looked personally betrayed by this information.
Lola jumped out of her chair. “This is an emergency! I need sprinkles for my cupcake!”
“It's just a cupcake,” Lincoln said.
Lola stared at him.
Lincoln immediately corrected himself. “It's an extremely important cupcake.”
“Thank you.”
Lynn opened the pantry. “Whoa. We're out too.”
Lucy silently reached into the cabinet and pulled out three empty containers.
Everyone gasped.
“It's worse than we thought,” Lincoln said.
Luan dramatically placed the back of her hand against her forehead. “The sprinkles are extinct.”
“They're not extinct!” Lincoln said.
“Not with that attitude.”
Within fifteen minutes, the Louds discovered something even stranger. Royal Woods was completely out of sprinkles.
The bakery had none.
The grocery store had none.
The ice cream shop had none.
Even the little frozen-yogurt place had run out.
One furious customer stood outside holding an empty cup.
“They gave me plain yogurt!” he shouted. “PLAIN!”
Lola looked horrified.
“This town has lost its way.”
Lincoln decided to investigate.
He recruited Clyde, who arrived carrying a magnifying glass, a notebook, and a detective hat.
“Where'd you get the hat?” Lincoln asked.
“My dad's closet.”
“Why?”
“He said it makes me look suspicious.”
“You mean official.”
“No, he definitely said suspicious.”
They began searching downtown.
Lynn found a sprinkle on the sidewalk.
“Evidence!”
Luan picked it up.
“Chocolate.”
Lincoln frowned. “So?”
“So whoever did this has excellent taste.”
“Put it down!”
Luan dropped it.
A second later, she picked it back up.
“Luan!”
“Fine!”
The trail led behind several stores and eventually toward Flip's Food & Fuel.
Lincoln stopped.
“Guys…”
Clyde swallowed. “You thinking what I'm thinking?”
“That Flip stole the sprinkles?”
“I was thinking about tacos.”
“Never mind.”
They peeked through the back window.
Inside, Flip was sitting in the middle of an enormous mountain of sprinkles.
There were bags everywhere.
Rainbow sprinkles covered the floor. Chocolate sprinkles filled barrels. Tiny star-shaped sprinkles were stacked into towers. There was even a kiddie pool filled with sprinkles.
Flip was wearing swimming goggles.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced to himself, “welcome to the world's first sprinkle pool!”
He jumped into it.
SPLOOSH!
Sprinkles flew everywhere.
Lola's eye twitched.
“He did not.”
Lincoln opened the door.
“FLIP!”
Flip froze.
A rainbow sprinkle was stuck to his forehead.
“Lincoln! What a completely normal and non-suspicious visit!”
Lola pointed at the room.
“You stole all the sprinkles!”
Flip looked offended.
“Borrowed.”
“You have a swimming pool full of them!”
“It's a business expense.”
“You're swimming in sprinkles!”
Flip looked down at himself.
“Okay, that's fair.”
Lynn stormed inside. “Why would you steal every sprinkle in Royal Woods?”
Flip sighed.
“Because I had a problem.”
Lincoln waited.
“I bought one bottle.”
Everyone nodded.
“Then I bought another.”
More nodding.
“Then I thought, ‘What if I run out?’”
Lincoln crossed his arms.
“So you bought more.”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
Flip pointed behind them.
There was an even larger pile hidden behind a curtain.
“Oh, come on!”
“And then,” Flip continued, “I thought, ‘What if the entire town runs out?’”
Lola stared at him.
“So you made the entire town run out!”
Flip nodded proudly.
“When you put it that way, it sounds bad.”
“It is bad!”
Flip looked around at his enormous stash and spread his arms.
“They always told me to look on the bright side. So when I saw all these colors, I figured I was looking at a whole lot of bright sides.”
Lola stared at him.
“That doesn't even make sense!”
“It made sense when I said it.”
Lola grabbed a giant bag of sprinkles. “We're taking these back.”
Flip lunged for it.
“NO!”
Lynn grabbed Flip.
Clyde grabbed Lynn.
Lincoln grabbed Clyde.
Luan grabbed the bag.
Lily wandered in and grabbed a handful.
“Everybody stop!”
Too late.
Lily accidentally dropped the handful onto the floor.
Flip screamed.
“My babies!”
“They're sprinkles!” Lincoln shouted.
Flip dove after them.
Lola grabbed his ankle.
Flip grabbed a shelf.
The shelf tipped.
Everyone looked up.
“Oh, no,” Lincoln said.
The entire sprinkle collection began sliding off the shelves.
“RUN!”
The room erupted.
Bags burst open.
Rainbow sprinkles flew through the air.
Chocolate sprinkles bounced across the floor.
Luan opened her mouth.
“Don't even think about it!” Lynn yelled.
Luan closed her mouth.
A giant container rolled toward the door.
Lincoln jumped over it.
Clyde slipped on a pile of sprinkles and crashed into a cardboard display.
Lola screamed as rainbow sprinkles landed in her hair.
“My pageant hair!”
Flip crawled out from underneath a pile.
“My beautiful inventory!”
“You caused this!” Lincoln shouted.
“I regret nothing!”
A bag exploded behind him.
Flip looked around.
“…I regret a little.”
The Louds eventually managed to gather the sprinkles and return them to the businesses around Royal Woods.
That evening, Lola finally decorated her cupcake.
She carefully placed the last rainbow sprinkle on top.
“There,” she said proudly.
Everyone admired it.
Then Flip appeared behind them.
“I've got a confession.”
Lincoln sighed.
“What now?”
Flip pulled a tiny container from his pocket.
Everyone stared.
“Is that…”
“Emergency sprinkles.”
Lola lunged.
“GIVE ME THOSE!”
Flip ran.
“You'll never catch me!”
Lynn chased him.
“GET BACK HERE!”
Luan followed.
“Save some for me!”
Lincoln shook his head and ran after them.
“Why is our family like this?”
Lucy calmly watched them disappear down the street.
“Because life without sprinkles would be dull.”
A sprinkle landed on her shoulder.
She looked at it.
Then smiled.
“Even I admit that's pretty good.”
