Lincoln has brought along Leni, Luan, Lucy, and Lily to read Business Over Brother. The story opens with Luan going into Lincoln's bedroom on a Saturday morning. The Lincoln in the story appears to be studying, which piques Luan's curiosity. She puts her hand on Lincoln's shoulder, so the real Lincoln points out that it's rude to use people as armrests without asking. Luan asks her younger siblings but they all decline. Leni volunteers to be Luan's armrest, but she's too tall.
The Lincoln in the story explains that he has to do a 200 question test, which annoys him, but the real Luan suggests thinking of it like playing 20 Questions ten times over. The Luan in the story reveals that she could use an assistant for a birthday gig, but Lincoln is too busy. On the couch, Lily suggests doing Lincoln's homework, but he points out that the teacher would notice if he asked his two-year-old sister to do his homework, which Lily thinks is fair.
Luan in the story starts to beg, calling Lincoln her favourite brother, even though he's her only brother (when the real Lincoln points this out, Leni thinks Mr. Coconuts is another brother), but the Lincoln in the story asks what makes this particular party so special. The real Lucy suggests asking one of the sisters, but Luan reminds them all that Lucy scared the birthday girl, Leni had all the kids proposing to her, and Lily ate all the desserts.
Story Luan reveals that the family is "loaded" and they'll be having five cakes. The real Lincoln points out that the amount of cake won't change anything as she's not the one serving the cake, and Leni tries to make an analogy about cakes and boots full of water, which confuses everyone else. Then, Luan in the story reveals that there are only sixteen people at the party and that she wants him to convince the hosts to let her keep the leftovers. Lincoln, however, needs to study or face grounding, so the real Lucy suggests turning him into a vampire because they don't need to sleep. In the story, Lincoln says he'll consider it but isn't making any promises.
Later in the story, Luan has not heard from Lincoln and the party is coming up. She goes into his room and begs again, but Lincoln can't go to the party (and he'd forgotten about it anyway). Luan then knocks Lincoln over with a spring-loaded glove, steals his homework, and has Charles and Cliff shred it up. Story Lincoln tells Luan off and decides to quit being her assistant. Luan starts to feel guilty for causing Lincoln to "hate" her, so the real Lincoln reassures the sisters that there's nothing that could make him hate any of them.
At the party, Luan feels bad about what she did and wants to make it up to Lincoln. When she gets home, she has a plan, and Leni (the real one) suggests flowers, since according to her, they mean "I'm sorry", while chocolate means "I love you" and chocolate flowers mean either "let's have fun tonight" or "I'm not mad anymore".
Story Luan enters Lincoln's room, where it turns out her plan is to simply point out that Lincoln isn't mad at his other sisters. This doesn't work, especially since, as the real Lincoln points out, his other sisters didn't destroy his homework. She goes on, morosely stating that she was lonely and was closer to Lincoln and his younger sisters (except Lily) when they were babies. Leni on the couch says that while people do develop likes and dislikes that don't match their older siblings' when they get older, she will never drift too far apart from her younger sisters.
The Luan in the story then decides to help by making a new copy of the test and using the answer sheet... even though, as the real Lincoln and Luan point out, that's not really as heartwarming as it should be, as it would be cheating. Thankfully, though, Lincoln convinces Luan to throw the answer sheet away.
He gets the highest score, and after the story, Lincoln offers cake, which makes Lily run around in joy.
This episode provides examples of
- Accidental Aesop: In-Universe, Lincoln thinks the story might have a moral about how one should have faith in oneself and also about how taking someone's homework is wrong— Luan does well without Lincoln and still gets the cake, but feels guilty about having his homework destroyed.
- Adaptational Jerkass: The Luan in the story uses Lincoln as an armrest without asking, begs him relentlessly even when he needs to study lest he be grounded, and even has his homework destroyed. Downplayed though, as she feels bad about it and tries to make up for it.
- Ate It All: Lily once ate all the desserts at a birthday party.
- Balloon Belly: Lily once got fat in the past directly after eating all the dessert at the party.
- Big Eater: Lily once ate all the desserts at a birthday party.
- Big "WHAT?!": Fanfic Lincoln yells, "What?!" upon learning that there are five cakes but only sixteen guests.
- Blowing a Raspberry: Lily blows a raspberry at Luan when Luan asks if she can use her as an armrest.
- Boomerang Bigot: Lucy complains that kids are oversensitive, even though she's only nine years old herself.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When Leni says that flowers mean "I'm sorry" and chocolate means "I love you", Luan asks what chocolate flowers mean.
- Character Exaggeration: All the Loud kids have a Sweet Tooth, but Luan in the story is ridiculously desperate to get some leftover cake, to the point of her saying that "cake was on the line".
- Chocolate of Romance: Discussed when Leni says that giving someone chocolate is code for "I love you".
- Continuity Nod: Lily and Luan fist-bump after remembering Luan being locked in the basement on April Fool's Day, which is a reference to "Silence of the Luans", in which Luan was locked in the basement but Lily pranked everyone to get Luan's spirit back.
- Damned by Faint Praise: In the story, Luan calls Lincoln her "favourite brother" to butter him up, but it doesn't work as he's her only brother.
- A Dog Ate My Homework: Discussed when Luan says that since her story counterpart had Charles (along with Cliff) shred up Lincoln's homework, he could say that a dog ate it and it'd be true.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Lily still can't say her "R"s or "L"s right.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Lily may love cake, but she agrees that having Lincoln's homework destroyed for cake is going too far.
- Lincoln agrees that he would be angry if Luan had his homework destroyed, but there's nothing she could do that would make him hate her.
- Story Lincoln is mad at Luan, but doesn't snap at her when he sees she's sad.
- Humour Dissonance: In-Universe, Luan can't see what's so funny about her story counterpart's "joke" that goes "We need to test our equipment".
-
I Knew It!: Lucy predicts that Luan in the story will ignore Lincoln saying he's not making any promises. - Lame Pun Reaction: Everybody groans when Luan says that she wouldn't blame Lincoln for getting "testy" for destroying his homework.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Luan is stricken with guilt after having Lincoln's homework destroyed in the story.
- Non Sequitur: Leni says that "serving five cakes at once is like squeezing water from a boot and having it come out the other end."
- Noodle Incident: We never find out what happened when Lucy was Luan's assistant, but it led to the birthday girl lying on the ground in a fetal position sucking her thumb.
- Pun:
- When the Luan in the story says that Lincoln having to study on the weekend "sucks", he replies that it "sucks away [his] weekend".
- Luan in the story tells Lincoln that convincing the hosts to let her keep the leftover cake will be "a piece of cake".
- The story's Luan calls her having Charles and Cliff shred up Lincoln's homework "getting rid of the paper trail" and "a paper cut".
- After the story, Luan says that she wouldn't blame Lincoln for getting "testy" if she destroyed his homework.
- Rule of Funny: Luan outright says that the only reason her story counterpart was able to set up the spring-loaded glove was due to the "rule of funny".
- Running Gag: Lucy keeps joking about Lincoln being turned into a vampire.
- Sad Clown: A variation. Luan pretends to laugh and smile when she's at work in the story, but not because her personality is a lie, but rather because she feels guilty about wronging Lincoln.
- Shout-Out:
- Lincoln jokingly wonders if Kirby is invited to the story's birthday party, since there are five cakes but only sixteen guests.
- Lily describes cake as "love" and "life", which is a reference to a... decidedly less cute meme called "Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life
".
- Single Tear: Luan cries one tear in the story when explaining that her plan to get the cake was "like a challenge".
- The Sleepless: Discussed and invoked when Lucy suggests that in the story, she could cast a spell to turn Lincoln into a vampire, since they don't need to sleep and he could do his homework at night.
- Sweet Tooth:
- Lily once ate all the desserts at a party and wants Lincoln in the story to help Luan get the cake since "cake is life".
- Story Luan is dead set on getting the leftover cake, to the point where she has Charles and Cliff destroy Lincoln's homework. She does later claim that it was because she saw it as a challenge she and Lincoln could do together, but she still clearly wanted that cake.
- You Are Grounded!: Discussed when Lincoln says that he will be grounded for a week if he doesn't finish his test.
