There is quite a lot that needs to be explained and addressed before we kick off our story that it is far too much to fit into a standard author's note at the beginning of a chapter, or a foot note at the end, so it, unfortunately, merits an entire foreword.

For starters, I would just like to take a moment to explain that in spite of my own personal inkling that such minor Loud House characters like Shannon and Ruby could very well have potential, I really did not want to seem as though I was pulling off a Javi Suzumiya move by making a mountain out of a mole hill with a ship that clearly has no water to sail in to begin with (i.e. Luaggie, Siluna, et al) – and, as such, I was rather resistant to the idea of even expanding on this any further, especially in the form of a fanfiction story that is not very likely to gain much traction for focusing on such minor characters as opposed to any of the major characters.

However, after some very thoughtful comments made by fellow author and friend, Albertson, in regards to my writing for and expanding on such minor characters in some of my previous stories, I felt encouraged that, perhaps, this was something I could very well work with. Because of his comments, as well as his enthusiasm for writing for LGBT couples and ships, I reached out to him with a propostion that the two of us could collaborate on such a project, and I really have to thank him for that: I had conceived the basic outline for the premise of the story, and he graciously helped fill in a lot of voids and gaps in terms of what directions the story could go in and how the characters could grow throughout the course… believe me, this was hardly an easy task for either of us given these characters are so very, very minor, and the source material had provided very, very little to work with as it was – it took quite a bit of bouncing around some ideas, but between the two of us, we were able to develop the story that you will be reading in the chapters to come. Initially, Albertson felt that, because of the underlying theme of this story, it would be most appropriate to publish it during Pride Month in June – however, at that time, I was still working on and finishing up Tears of a Clone for its June 20th (Father's Day) release, so that made trying to write and complete this story for that month rather impractical. Luckily, all was not lost: as it turns out, September 23rd happens to specifically be Bisexual Pride Day, which is just as appropriate of a date to begin publishing this story.

Of course, we know so little about these characters as it is, so as with, say, Maggie, previously, it is a bit of a stretch to apply such a sexual identification/preference to such minor characters without even knowing for certain what their preferences actually are… as has been the case with some of my previous stories and writing, whatever may become canon within the source material that can and/or will contradict the events that are depicted herein, I am fully prepared to reclassify this as retroactively AU if I have to – especially should the source material provide us with any canon surnames that would have to be changed like I had to do with Benny in Loud Triangle.

I would also like to mention that for the first time since The Missing Loud, I actually do not have any sort of a regular update schedule planned for this story… it's not something that's being written off-the-cuff or is being made up as I go along in the writing process like Secret Santa Siblings was, however, as previously mentioned, with such little from the source material to work with, that has presented a rather unique challenge that is making the writing process something unlike my previous stories. Roughly three very specific episodes with characters who have only had but very small roles are what have provided the building blocks for this outing; as such, the story will take place within the timeline of seasons three and four (with fleeting references to season five), and will span a year's worth of time. As a matter of fact, this is why this story, which was originally going to be titled 2 of Hearts, has been renamed This Will Be Our Year (which was inspired by that Kohl's back to school commercial using the same song by the Zombies).

To paraphrase what has been previously addressed, because this story is focusing on such incredibly minor characters that much of the fandom more than likely has very little interest in anyway, my expectations are not exactly high; for those of you who are even willing to check this story out and give it a fair chance, I do hope that you will enjoy it for what it is... I have been enjoying not only writing it so far, but also collaborating with Albertson along the way, and I thank him once again for his involvement.

So, with all of this out of the way, shall we proceed with the succeeding story?

P.S.: I advise you do yourself a favor… if you read the characters' dialogue in their voices, I would recommend Shannon's voice as heard in "Stage Plight" as opposed to her voice sounding like Lana with a sinus infection in "Director's Rut." (To quote Michael Mozart of Jeepers Media, "I mean really, what were they thinking?!")