LinCleo

LinCleo is the het ship between Abe Lincoln and Cleopatra Smith from the Clone High fandom.

Season 1
ESCAPE TO BEER MOUNTAIN: A ROPE OF SAND

Abe, Gandhi and Joan walk into Clone High for the new school year and Abe sees Cleopatra putting things in her locker as Joan tells him that she wants to date more this school year. Abe agrees, his eyes locked on Cleo, telling Joan that he also wants to date this year, specifically Cleo, because of her looks and intelligence, as well as her "commitment to community service." Joan tries to tell him that it would be better to date an old friend rather than someone new, trying to drop the hint that she's pining for him, but he ignores her. Cleo comes up to Abe and says hello, complimenting his hair. He freezes up and tries to look slick by leaning his arm against the glass trophy case behind him, which shatters under his pressure and cuts him. Joan tries to tell Abe that he is bleeding, but he is still frozen in shock by Cleo approaching him. Cleo tells Abe that JFK is holding a party that Friday and she wants to see him there before walking away. Abe offers delayed responses to Cleo's remarks after she goes as he comes out of his stupor.

Abe is washing his hands in the boy's bathroom when JFK walks in, telling Abe to keep away from Cleo because he wants to sleep with her and to not come to his party on Friday. Later at the Grassy Knoll, Lincoln talks with Gandhi and Joan about how to get into JFK's party so that he can be around Cleo and get her attention. After ignoring Joan trying to profess her love for him, Abe walks over to the table that Cleo and JFK are sitting at and he asks JFK if he can go to the party after all if he brings beer. JFK allows it and leaves with Cleo, holding her hand. Cleo looks at Abe before they go and Abe is frozen again in awe.

At gym class, Joan is sent to Principal Scudworth's office for talking. Cleo comes up to Abe and calls him a stud after Joan walks away. She said that she heard about him buying beer for the party that night and she says that she loves underage drinking. Abe is frozen again and Cleo walks off. When he comes to, Abe desperately asks Gandhi how he's supposed to get the beer for the party.

At the party, Abe secretly brings non-alcoholic beer because he is unable to get any real beer, but the rest of the students think and act as though the beer is real. Cleo says that she thinks the beer is talking for her when she explains that she always saw Abe as an honest guy, but his bringing beer to the party has shown her that he's also a cool guy. She puts her hands on his shoulders and then pulls him in by his shirt until they're pressed nose-to-nose, where she says it feels like a phone is connecting their two hearts. The two suddenly kiss and begin making out as Joan walks back and watches, shocked. JFK sees and approaches them, asking Abe what he's doing with Cleo. Abe tells JFK that him and Cleo are now going to be together forever, and JFK argues that the kiss only happened because Cleo is drunk. Cleo pulls away and JFK asks her which of them she will choose. Abe holds her hands and tells her that he cares about her and wants to spend more time together. JFK shows her his abs and she says that she needs time alone to mull over the decision. She walks away dramatically from the two of them.

Cleo goes into a spare room in the house and calls Joan's teen crisis hotline to ask for advice about the choice of Abe or JFK to date. Joan finds that she's talking to Cleo and first tells her to sleep with JFK, before seeing that Abe is upset over the competition with JFK and she tells Cleo to go with Abe instead before hanging up. Cleo comes out and tells JFK and Abe that she will choose Abe over JFK. Abe is shocked as JFK storms off and Cleo holds Abe's hand. Suddenly, a police car shows up because there were reports of underage drinking and Abe and Cleo hop to hide behind a bush together. The two watch Joan and Gandhi get arrested and Cleo tells Abe to forget about his friends and come back to her basement with her.

Abe comes clean about the beer he brought to the party being non-alcoholic, and the school thinks he's a loser before Joan pays off Van Gogh to paint a mural of Gandhi naked on one of the school walls. As Abe, Gandhi and Joan look at the mural, Cleo and JFK walks by and Cleo slips a piece of paper into Abe's hand. The paper reads, "sorry. luv, cleo." She looks back and smiles at him.

EPISODE TWO: ELECTION BLU-GALOO

When Cleo gets emotional over her decision of not running for re-election as student president for the upcoming school year, she leaves her event. Abe tells Joan that he should go find her to console her. When he finally finds her, he finds that she is making out with JFK, because he beat Abe to consoling her after her emotional outburst. Later at the Grassy Knoll, Abe talks to Joan about the possibility of him running for school president. Joan tells him that he should run so that she can manage his campaign for him so that they can spend more time together. Abe says that running for president is a great idea, so he can get the admiration of Cleo. He says that she likes and is dating JFK because he's a natural leader, and he needs to be more like that for her to pay attention to him again.

When Abe teams up with school corporate sponsor X-stream Blu to fund his election campaign, he begins leading in the polls against JFK. Cleo runs in to say that suddenly things aren't working with JFK and she wants to be with Abe instead. Abe is excited, but still tries to comfort Cleo. Joan is under the impression that Cleo will keep switching between JFK and Abe based on whoever is leading the polls. As Joan expected, Cleo tells Abe that she wants them to take a break when JFK starts winning again with Joan's help, because she wants to be with JFK instead. Abe is upset and sits at the dock to think. Coincidentally, Joan is on a parallel dock thinking as well.

A.D.D.: THE LAST 'D' STANDS FOR DISORDER

Cleo, accompanied by JFK, puts up posters around the school for her Awareness Fair. She plasters one over Joan as she stands against the wall and then Cleo tells Abe that she will have an open-mouth kissing booth at the fair that she will be running herself. JFK asks her for a kiss right then, and the couple make out as Abe watches in the middle dejectedly. JFK and Cleo then have a fight about the fact that Cleo is paying less attention to JFK than he wants, and he walks off angrily. Later, Cleo sits outside in the school's garden and Abe finds her. She's holding a rose she plucked from the rose bushes behind her. Abe asks what she's doing there and Cleo tells him that the garden is where she goes to think whenever her and JFK break up, mentioning that it seems like they've been fighting a lot more than usual lately. Abe then responds that the roses behind her must be lucky, but she doesn't understand. Abe fumbles and then says that they must be lucky because she visits them, and she says that they can't be lucky because they're just plants and they don't know when she visits. She then says that she's just sad because now she doesn't know how she'll be able to work the kissing booth without JFK. Abe offers his help, saying that he loves open-mouth kissing.

Helping Cleo set up her kissing booth, Abe tells her that he's worried about Gandhi after he is diagnosed with ADHD (referred to in the show incorrectly as ADD due to the time period), as the school body believes it is some sort of contagious disease. Cleo says that she's worried too, because she's scared that Gandhi will bite her as part of an "attack." Abe assures her that Gandhi has never hurt anyone. Cleo interrupts his train of thought by asking which open-mouth kissing technique he prefers, showing him two options by kissing the air. Abe is excited by the idea of kissing Cleo.

Cleo and Abe sit in a booth together at the Grassy Knoll that evening and Abe is impressed by the fanciness of the booth because it's one of the "popular" booths that he never gets to sit at. Cleo tells him that he can have fanciness like that all the time if he sticks with her. Suddenly, Gandhi hops over on the tops of the booth seats and asks Abe to help him because he's being alienated by the students and hunted down by the PTA for his ADHD. Cleo asks Abe if he has a celibacy wish by continuing to hang out with Gandhi after his diagnosis, and Abe assures her that he doesn't, but is still torn between helping his best friend and trying to date Cleo. Gandhi makes a joke at her expense and asks Abe to give him a high five, but Abe doesn't, because he sees Cleo staring him down intently. Gandhi is heartbroken and tells Abe that it's just him, the same best friend he had before the diagnosis. Abe lies and says he's just tired, and Gandhi takes off his matching friendship locket he shared with Abe and gives it back before walking off. Gandhi is then overtaken by a crowd of angry and violent PTA members from the school and is placed in a mental hospital. The next day, Abe visits Gandhi as he paints outside in the mental hospital on his way to run an errand for Cleo. As they are talking heatedly, Cleo calls and Abe assures her that he's on his way to the errand she wants him to run for her. Abe tells Gandhi that he has to go to pick up Cleo's lip balm from the lip balm store and walks off. While in the car on the drive over, however, he has a change of heart and goes to the ADD Education Institute that is conveniently next-door to Cleo's lip balm store.

Joan believes she is hearing divine voices like her original counterpart and paces around Abe trying to tell him about it in her crazed stupor as he looks over her to disapprove of the sight of Cleo working the kissing booth by herself and kissing a long line of much older men. Gandhi then comes up to the booth and asks for a kiss from Cleo. She is disgusted and calls Abe over to make him create a mob to banish Gandhi like before. Abe refuses and brings Tom Green out in front of the crowd to try to educate them on the realities of ADHD. However, Tom gets distracted and wanders off, and Abe picks up for him about the dangers of discriminating against someone with ADHD. To prove that ADHD is not contagious or dangerous, Abe makes out with Gandhi in front of everyone, including a shocked JFK and Cleo. When he pulls away, the crowd then hates the idea of a gay kiss more than a person with ADHD, saving Gandhi and pushing the hatred onto Abe instead. Cleo comes up to him after the kiss and tells him that his gesture changed her mind on what ADHD is like. He leans in for a kiss but she stops him and tells him not to touch her.

FILM FEST: TEARS OF A CLONE

Abe is running in a track meet for the school and Cleo is one of the cheerleaders. She gets hot and starts pouring a sports drink all over herself. The sight distracts Abe while he's running and he trips, losing to JFK. The next evening, Joan and Abe are sitting at the Grassy Knoll together working on their project to create Clone High's first ever film festival, intended to be a showing of students' creativity through film because Joan makes experimental films in her free time. Cleo walks by the booth and stops to say hello to Abe, interrupting Joan trying to confess her love again. Cleo tells Abe that her movie is an autobiography detailing how hard it is for Cleo to be so beautiful, smart and popular. She says all this to ask if the films for the festival can have a time limit. He says in a daze that there isn't, but Joan butts in to tell her that there is. Cleo is annoyed at Joan and then walks away, telling Abe she'll see him later.

SLEEP OF FAITH: LA RUE D'AWAKENING

Principal Scudworth announces to the school that the PXJTs are approaching, a standardized test parodying the PSATs. Cleo is shocked and cries at her locker, knocking her things out of it dramatically. She goes to pick up the prep book for the test that she dropped on the floor when Abe puts his hand over hers. He offers to help her with the test because she's anxious about needing to do well to get into Clone State. She says that there's been no one to offer physical and emotional support for her ever since she and JFK broke up officially, and Abe leans in. He asks how he can help her and she tells him that she needs a study buddy for the PXJTs. He agrees and says that he'll pick up flash cards for them at lunch, and she asks if he can pick her up a latte too on his way back. She kisses him on the cheek before crawling away.

Days later, Abe rushes up to Cleo at the lunch table to tell her that he almost hit a truck of pandas while driving sleep-deprived. She seems shocked about the news, but in reality is annoyed because it means that Abe didn't run her errands for her. He confirms that he didn't, saying that the incident on the road was a wake-up call for him that he needs to prioritize his sleep schedule over doing everything for Cleo. Cleo apologizes for him needing to sleep, because she wanted to invite him over to her house to spend time with her that night. Abe suddenly changes his tune and announces that he can, in fact, stay up to spend time with her. She's happy and confirms the date. At Cleo's home that night, Abe stands at the window as Cleo tells him that her plan is to get sleep while she has Abe read her the prep textbook. He's baffled and says that he thought they were going to do something else, but she cuts him off and manipulates him into believing that they'll finally be together once the test is over. It works, and he starts reading the textbook to her.

JFK proposes a drag race between him and Abe to determine who will get to date Cleo after the PXJTs. Abe still hasn't slept and Joan comes up to him before the race starts to tell him that he'll kill himself if he drives the race without sleep. He assures her that he won't as the race starts. As Abe is driving, he realizes that he does need sleep and pulls over to sleep for the night. Luckily, JFK is about to cross the finish line as he crashes, and Abe still makes it to the finish line first the next day after sleeping, winning Cleo over. Cleo hugs Abe at the finish line and tells him that she's all his. He says that he only won because of Joan becase she urged him to sleep. Cleo asks what they should do on their date, and Abe says they should sleep together. They laugh about the play on words, but then Abe actually asks to sleep with Cleo.

HOMECOMING: A SHOT IN D'ARC

At a basketball practice, Abe tells Cleo that he's dedicating his next shot to her. She watches as he tries to shoot a three-pointer and ends up throwing the ball too far and breaking one of the gym windows. The ball hits a bunch of things off-screen and flies back to hit Abe in the face. Joan joins the boy's basketball team dressed as a man named John D'Arc, and Cleo is attracted to her. Abe starts getting upset about it and at another practice, Abe tries confronting Joan to say that she likes to take other men's women in front of the rest of the team.

PLANE CRAZY: GATE EXPECTATIONS

Abe and Cleo are about to share their first kiss when Cleo stops them and says that she doesn't want to kiss where they are because the location for a first kiss has to be perfect. It's revealed that Abe has created an entire lake and waterfall scene and they are in a gondola, and he asks how he could possibly make the scene more perfect. Cleo says that she would hate to bring up her first kiss with JFK, which Abe begs her not to do, but she does it anyway. She mentions that the two were naked and Abe freaks out. She tells Abe that she needs her first kiss to be extra perfect because she's the clone of Cleopatra.

Later, at Cleo's house, Abe and Cleo sit holding hands and facing each other at one of her windows. Cleo tells Abe that she wants to do so many unnamed things with him once they have their first kiss. She makes mention of the fact that she slept with a college boy in her past and that stresses Abe out. She tells him not to talk and that the moment finally feels perfect. They lean in and are about to kiss as Cleo's drunk foster mother interrupts the moment by slamming the door open. She hands Cleo an envelope and tells Abe that she also used to be pretty in high school. Cleo sees that the envelope is a returning of her application to be a dancer for boyband singer Ashley Angel's dance academy, to which she was accepted. Abe is excited and happy for her, but says that the academy is somewhat questionable because it's just a TV show school. She assures him that it's not and that she needs to go because the opportunity will look great on college applications. Abe mentions that the show is filmed far from Exclamation, and asks about their relationship while she'll be gone. She's too busy celebrating to answer his question.

Cleo is at the airport ready to board her flight as Abe runs dramatically through the airport calling out her name. He finds her and tells her not to get on the plane to leave. She asks why he's there, and he tells her that he's trying to stop her from making the biggest mistake of his life. She reminds him that him asking her to stay is just forcing her to stop pursuing her dreams. He tells her that he only cares about their love. She tells him that she would love to stay and have sex with him as lovers, but that she cares more about their future. She leans in to kiss him before the pilot gets between them to tell them that the plane is now boarding. Abe asks that Cleo at least take his letterman's jacket with her, and she promises that she'll wear it on TV for him, as a secret message between them.

After watching Cleo live on the first episode of the show, Abe is upset that she wasn't wearing his letterman's jacket. He confronts her about it when she calls him later after the airing. She tries to convince him that she was wearing it, when Abe hears giggling from the other line. Abe asks who is there with Cleo, and she tells him that she's spending the night with Ashley Angel, and that he's tickling her. Ashley asks to talk to Abe and tells him that Cleo's a nice girl. Abe tells him about the agreement that him and Cleo made to never touch anyone else under the eyebrows, and Ashley makes fun of the rule. Ashley passes the phone back to Cleo and Abe yells that she's cuckholded him, and that he wants her to mail his jacket back.

Cleo surprises Abe after coming back by hiding in his locker to find her. She tells him that she came back to be with him, but that he's not acting the same as before she left. He tells her that he's acting different because she lied to him and didn't wear the jacket on TV. She continues to push that she was wearing it, but he doesn't believe her. She runs away crying. Later that day, Abe finds that Cleo was wearing his jacket on TV, just shrunk down to be on a necklace. He calls Cleo's home number to talk to her, but her foster mother picks up and tells him that Cleo was back at the airport, getting ready to leave to be with Ashley Angel again. Abe runs, like before, through the airport calling for Cleo to stop. However, when Cleo sees him, she runs quickly onto the plane.

Joan comes up with the idea of driving to where Cleo's flight has a layover to stop her from getting to Ashley. They successfully make it and Abe chases after Cleo again to tell her not to get on the next plane. He tells her that he finally saw her letterman's jacket necklace, and that he wants her to come home so they can start a new life together. She tells him that she wants that too, but that she doesn't want to look back in a few years and regret not flying out to spend time with Ashley Angel again. She whispers that he was the one in his ear before boarding the plane. Abe lets a tear fall down his cheek as he watches Cleo go. When he turns around from the window, however, Cleo is standing there and she scares Abe. She tells him that love works in mysterious ways when he asks how she got there when she was just on the plane. She shushes him and they finally share their first kiss. Abe looks up and thanks Joan.

Fanon
This ship is commonly paired with Arcoln, JFCleo, and JoanFK, due to the love triangle between Joan, Abe and Cleo in Season 1 and the added complication of JFK in the mix in Season 2. Abe is pining for Cleo for all of the first season and the two date for a few episodes of the first season before breaking it off, then later having an on-off relationship until the end of the first season, after which the two rarely interact. LinCleo is the fourth most popular Clone High ship on AO3, and is the most popular ship for the Cleopatra and Abe Lincoln character tags on AO3.

Fandom
FAN FICTION