e i g h t e e n ;

As they left his house that afternoon with the sun setting over the horizon, they were stopped by a voice that struck a nerve in Logan Barry Bush. It was the voice of his neighbor who lived across the street. Her name was Mrs. Perkins and she already disliked her handsome new neighbor because when Valentina arrived in town for her pageant, she stayed at her boyfriend's house the first few days. The beautiful latin model was fond of doing her chores whilst listening to Spanish music at full blast while her boyfriend was away.

From what Valentina told Logan, Mrs. Perkins called the police to get her to turn down the noise level, and the two ended up getting into an argument. From that very moment, the older woman had decided she didn't like Logan either and used every chance she could get to make his life difficult.

His neighbor was still outside when he walked out of his house with Louise trailing behind him. Only instead of gardening like she had been doing that early afternoon, she was on her porch swing, reading a novel. She looked up from her book when she heard his door open and watched the two with suspicion. Getting back on her feet and adjusting her glasses on her eyes to see better, she asked Logan. "Is she your new girlfriend? What happened to the loud mouthed one that was here last time?" There was a part of her that only hoped Valentina and Logan were broken up so that she could finally get some peace and quiet.

Logan gave a shake of his head, trying his best to sound polite. "No, Mrs. Perkins, this is...Vania. She's Valentina's...half sister." He told her a lie, since he couldn't exactly say that Louise was his student, and that she was staying at his house for the weekend. But what he really wanted to reply to her was none of your business.

Louise rolled her eyes at his lie, but Mrs. Perkins didn't catch it.

As they got in the car and Logan pulled out of the driveway, heading down the row of houses, Louise scoffed. "Vania? Valentina's sister? Dude, we look nothing alike. That woman must be blind as hell if she believed you."

"I said half sister." Logan corrected, finding the situation slightly amusing now that they were out of danger. But before that, he was terrified of the consequences that might come if anyone found out that he was allowing one of his students to stay at his house. "Besides, it wasn't entirely a lie. Valentina really does have a younger sister named Vania. But you're not her."

"Obviously." Louise responded.

They reached town and parked in front of one of the shops on main street. The little town was old timey and reminded Louise of old Coca-Cola ads. She could see a pharmacy, a fifties styled chocolate shop, an antiques shop, a thrift store, and rows of trees that provided shade everywhere she looked. Further down she could see the crowd and colorful lights and decorations of the carnival. She had never seen anything like it. The closest thing she remembered was back home, the row of shops where her father's burger restaurant was located. For an instant she felt like she was back home.

She got out of the car and Logan did as well, walking around to place some coins in the time meter next to the car. He put enough for three hours since the carnival was taking up all of main street and he thought Louise would want to see all of it.

Louise tugged the ears of her pink hat down in excitement as she took in everything.

"This is gonna be fucking awesome." She grinned.

The two walked side by side, passing the little shops that were still open for the afternoon, but were in their last few minutes of the day. Most people wanted to close up already to enjoy the fall carnival.

As they reached the thrift shop, Louise noticed that they were still open and tugged on Logan's arm with urgency. "Lets go in here." She told him. But it was more like a command than a request. "I need to get something else to wear. These jeans are really not cutting it for me."

He sighed, but followed her into the shop.

The moment she entered, she rushed to a rack with all kinds of pants of different colors and made of different fabrics. Louise usually wasn't fond of going shopping, and didn't care what she wore...but that was as long as she was comfortable and she was definitely not comfortable in Valentina's skinny jeans. Valentina was taller and thinner than her, which made Louise barely fit into those jeans, and the fabric on the legs pooled down at her ankles.

She sifted through everything, but ended up finding nothing that she liked, or nothing that was exactly her size. They were always either too small or too big. 

She moved onto the dresses next and sifted through them until she found a simple green dress, the exact shade of green as the one she used to wear all the time when she was nine years old. Only this one was smaller around the waist, whereas her old one was straight all the way down. She pulled it off the rack and hurried into the changing room to try it on. Louise quickly stripped out of her clothes--or Valentina's clothes--after closing the room to the changer and smiled to herself as she saw her reflection in the mirror.

The dress fit perfectly and it was comfortable.

She walked out in her new dress and asked Logan with a smile. "How's it look?"

He had been looking at a rack of sunglasses, waiting for her to finish when he tore his gaze away from them to look at her. He was speechless for a moment. He had never thought Louise as pretty, only annoying and insufferable. It wasn't until that moment that he thought her beautiful and even attractive.

He gulped nervously and gave the most diplomatic response he could--he was her teacher after all. "You don't look ugly."

Louise snorted and her eyes narrowed into a glare. "You're such a little shit." She said, walking past him and shoving his girlfriend's clothes into his arms.

She walked towards the front counter and stopped once again when something caught her eye. On another rack filled with hats, there was one that matched her pink bunny ears hat exactly. But this one was a baby blue color. 

She grabbed it off the rack and turned  suddenly, making Logan run into her. In one swift move though, she got on her tip toes and placed the hat on top of his head. "You were always jealous of my bunny ears." She said to him in a teasing manner, her slight annoyance at him from earlier had dissipated. "Now you can have your own."

He pulled the hat off his head and took a look at it. It really was exactly like the one she was wearing, but a different color.

Louise continued to the front counter where there was an older man at the register. He smiled at them politely when they approached him. "Found anything you liked?" He asked them.

The seventeen year old nodded, gesturing to herself and then Logan.

"How much for this green dress, and that blue bunny ears hat?" She wondered, smiling at him in return. 

Logan was surprised at how warm and friendly she could be towards the elderly. But she was often bitter and sarcastic with him and other people that were her own age. At least she seemed to show a sense of respect towards her elders. 

"Twenty for both." The man said, after making a simple calculation in his head.

"Logan," Louise snapped her fingers and stepped to the side, allowing him to step forward. "Pay the man."

The twenty five year old rolled his eyes at her, but again did as he was told. It wasn't like he could expect a jobless seventeen year old to pay for the items. And his parents--being as old school as they were--had always taught him that when a man was around, a woman should never have to pay for things. He stepped forward, pulling his wallet out of his jeans pocket and getting a twenty dollar bill out. He handed it to the man at the counter who rang up their purchase and handed him a receipt in return.

As he handed the slip of paper to Logan, the man commented, looking from Louise to Logan. "Its sweet that you buy your girlfriend things, and you got matching hats too. There aren't many gentlemen like that left."

Logan was about to correct him, but stopped himself. There was really no harm in letting him think that since he'd probably never see him again. And it would take him more effort to explain that Louise was supposedly his girlfriend's sister, and not his girlfriend like the man thought.

They left the little shop and walked the rest of the way until they reached the carnival entrance. There was a two dollar entrance fee, which Logan ended up paying for again and they were allowed inside. 

As soon as they entered, Louise left his side and raced to a booth with a sign that read rides bracelet, $5. It was for a bracelet that would allow them to get on any of the rides as many times as they wanted that night. That was another ten dollars subtracted from his wallet and he had already spent over thirty dollars in less than a half hour. But he never complained, which struck Louise as something out of character for the annoying Logan Barry Bush that she remembered. And she was determined to take advantage of this non whiny Logan as long as possible.

She made him get on all the rides with her, and made him try every food at the carnival.

It was nearing eleven at night when he finally said something to her. She had dragged him tot he line for churros, and he had noticed he no longer had enough money in his wallet. But instead of telling her the truth, he decided to tease her out of wanting to eat churros.

"More food?" He asked her with a sigh. "Haven't you eaten enough?"

She was in the middle of biting into her corn on the cob when his words made her stop and freeze. She looked up at him, clearly offended. 

"Are you trying to say I'm fat?" She asked him.

He immediately knew that he had screwed up and that he needed to choose his next words carefully. Even though Louise was different from most girls and didn't care what people said or thought about her, she was still a girl after all. Him asking her if she was going to keep eating was like saying that she was fat and needed to stop eating.

"No, I--"

He tried to fix things, but it was too late.

She quickly shook her head, refusing to hear what he had to say. "Rule number one of going out with a woman: never tell her that she's fat, even if she is." 

Before he knew it, her small hand balled up into a fist and she threw it forward to collide with his gut, just like she did when they were younger. Logan immediately doubled over in pain and he received another blow. She had dumped her corn on the cob on his head after pulling off his blue ears hat. Now his head was smeared with mayo, butter, cheese, and corn.

"Fuck you, Logan." She yelled at the top of her lungs as she stormed off, out of the carnival and into the empty main street.

"Louise wait!" He called after her, but he was still in too much pain to move.

By the time he recovered, she was gone, no longer in sight.

-

a sort of long ish chapter as an apology for not having updated in months. i know i said i would update if it reached 12.3k reads and this story is now at like 18k.

but i want to explain why i took so long. this story wasn't getting as many reads as it used to, so i got unmotivated and discouraged. but then i saw how many people commented and liked this story. so many people wanted an update. so i knew that i had to continue, for you guys.

thank you so much for reading and supporting this story.

and as long as even one person supports this fic, i will continue writing for it. i hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!

-clary xx