t w e n t y e i g h t ;

On the way back to Logan's house, he tried to casually make conversation with her. But she caught on immediately that he had been only trying to find out what Dieter was talking to her about in the parking lot. Louise rolled her eyes at him in mock annoyance, but she told him anyway. It seemed that for the moment they were getting along and maybe he could be someone, other than the twins, that she could talk about these things with. 

"He said they were going to the movies and asked if we wanted to come." She said. Of course, the invitation had been only for her, since they were a group of teenagers and having Logan come along was every bit like them having a chaperon. 

He kept his eyes on the road and tried to mask his annoyance. "If you want to go with them I can drop you off and you can just let me know when the movie ends. Its really not a problem." Literally everything Dieter Park did or said made Logan feel annoyed. There was just something about him that made Logan feel that way. He was too nice, and too perfect. He was nothing like the type of boys he thought Louise would be into. Someone like her, he thought she'd be into someone a little more reckless and rebellious. Kinda like how he used to be when he was a teen. This guy was the complete opposite of what he thought she'd like. 

As though suddenly feeling shy like at the diner, Louise bit down on her lip as she thought about what she was going to say next. She didn't want it to be weird or awkward. And she was trying to figure out just how to say it so that he wouldn't see it that way either. "Well since you were so nice about sitting with Dieter and his friends at the diner, I thought I would do something nice in return for you. Maybe we can stay home and watch some movies together."

He perked up at the sounds of her words first, but then there was a look of suspicion on his face. This was also out of character for Louise. He glanced at her for a half a second before he returned his gaze onto the empty road. "I feel like there's some kind of catch to this." He told her, unsure of how to react or what to say. He kind of expected her to laugh in his face and tell him she'd never hang out with him. But then another part of him told him that she sounded rather genuine. He wanted to believe her and there was also a very slim part of him, maybe less than one percent, that was kind of excited to hang out with her. He couldn't quite put his finger on that strange little sliver of an emotion. 

"There's no catch." She assured him, before correcting himself just a millisecond later. "Well...there is one catch."

There it is, he thought to himself.

When he said nothing, she continued. "We have to watch Thieves. Its my favorite movie of all time." She said with an excited grin playing on her lips. She then went onto describe what the movie was about, and he had to admit it did not sound half bad. Based on what she was telling him, he felt like he had seen the movie before.

It was an action adventure where two small time thieves made this big plan to rob one of the biggest thieves in the city. Their plan was to recruit a group of civilians and they would train them to orchestrate the entire thing, having them all pose as employees of the guy's mansion--the maid, the busboys at a party he was having, etc. Logan wasn't surprised that this was the kind of film she liked watching. Louise was never into girly things, and this movie sounded like it was anything but girly. 

When they got to his house, he went to the kitchen and searched his cabinets for all the available snacks he could find. He was a bit surprised that he found any, since Valentina had been at his house the week prior. She was on a strict diet with no sweets, and no junk food. But whenever she went to see him, she's rid his cabinets for anything to eat because she knew he had snacks. Logan was able to find some buttered popcorn, a half eaten family sized bag of peanut m&m's, and a couple of sodas to drink them with. 

Meanwhile, Louise was in the living room setting up for the movie. She had found it on Netflix and was sitting comfortably on the couch waiting for him to come back. He entered the living room with a fresh bowl of popcorn, set the drinks and the chocolates on the coffee table and then went to his room. 

"Where are you going?" Louise called after him.

But he said nothing, and when he came back, he was carrying a blanket in his arms. "In case we get cold." He gestured to the blanket as he walked up and plopped down on the couch beside her. 

She waited for him to get settled in and then the movie started playing.

-

Louise didn't end up seeing Dieter again that weekend. He told her he had a project to work on for school that was due that following Monday, and she told them they could just hang out again the next time she was in town. He told her that would be nice, and then invited her to their annual ghost hunt in the mountains. He explained to her that every year since they were fifteen, he and his friends would get together and make the drive up to the mountains, where they would walk the old hiking trails at night, hunting for ghosts. Louise thought it sounded like fun and it was exactly on Halloween weekend. She didn't have plans anyway since they technically could not leave school grounds.

She counted down the days until she would see Dieter again.

On the weekend before the hunt, Gene came to visit. But he was also there to visit Danielle. Louise rolled her eyes as her brother met up with her first in the courtyard, but then they were intercepted by Danielle who ran up to Gene and threw her arms around him like they were already an item. Louise wouldn't have been surprised if they were one.

Danielle pulled away from Gene and turned towards Louise. "Hey Louise." She said in the sweetest voice that just made Louise gag in her mouth. She only swallowed it back because she knew her brother would think she was exaggerating. 

"Hey." Louise mumbled quietly.

She then turned and started walking away with the intention of going back to her dorm. It was Friday afternoon, she had the entire weekend ahead of her. She didn't want to spend it watching Danielle and Gene act all mushy with each other. What was worse was that everything had piled up against her. Gene was there visiting Danielle, the twins had their parents in town and the Ariolla-Hendricks' had made a juicy donation to the school in order to have Mother Superior let the twins stay with them at their fancy country side home for the weekend. Annie and Aimee told Louise they could ask their parents to make another sizable donation for Mother Superior to let her out for the weekend as well. But she didn't want the twins spending money for her sake. Especially not when she was already an expert of sneaking out of the school for free.

Then there was Logan. They were on pretty good terms with each other, and things had been uneventful all week. Her pranks had to be exponentially toned down because of the severity of her situation. St. Mary's was her last stop before being sent to juvenile detention. Louise just didn't want to put her parents through that grief. Now her only choice was to spend the entire weekend alone, or to spend it with Gene and Danielle.

As she thought about it, she decided that she'd rather be alone.

"Where are you going?" Gene called after her. Danielle stood by his side and he had his arm securely around her waist. "I came all the way here to hang out with my two favorite girls."

"I just came to say hi real quick. But I can't stay. I have soccer practice." Louise informed him without turning back. And it wasn't a lie. She really did have soccer practice, and Danielle had cheerleading practice. But she knew her classmate was willing to skip it for the sake of a boy. Louise couldn't afford to skip out again. She had missed for the past two Fridays feigning that she was sick and she knew her coach would begin to suspect that she was lying if she missed for a third Friday in a row.

"Well maybe we can hang out after." Gene called again as Louise continued walking.

"Maybe." Louise shrugged. But she thought that it was more likely that she would not.

-

Soccer practice felt oddly longer without the twins, and it was quiet on her end. Other than her friends and room mates Annie and Aimee, Louise didn't really have friends at school. It wasn't that she couldn't make friends. She just genuinely didn't want to. Especially not with the girls of St. Mary's. Most of them were rich and snobby like Yami had described back at the diner. Louise also knew that many of her classmates thought they were better than her solely because of the fact that Louise was there on a scholarship. 

As soccer practice ended and she left the locker rooms in the physical education building, she passed the parking lot in the front of the school on her way to the dorms. Her eyes glanced, looking for one car in particular, and she found that she was a bit pleased when she found it. 

Logan was still at school and it was well past five thirty, two long hours after the final bell rang for the afternoon. She wondered what he was still doing there. Tossing her gym bag on the ground in the grass--no one would dare steal her things anyway--she jogged up to the front of the school building and entered, passing the front office. The secretary who worked there would be off in two more hours and that was when the main building would close for the afternoon. She said nothing as Louise passed her to enter the building. 

As soon as she entered the building was the cafeteria. That was where everyone ate their food, and the outside eating area was only reserved for senior students. The way to identify them was by uniform colors. The first years wore an ugly light pastel yellow dress with a white rounded collar, which Louise thought was a nightmare for girls when they were on their days probably. And she was glad she wasn't there for her first year of high school. The second years wore a pastel pink dress with the white rounded collar, the third years wore a sky blue dress, and the fourth years wore the dark green dress.

On the left side were the toilets, and on the right was the math hall. At the back of the cafeteria it split into two hallways. On the back left was the history hall, and straight ahead was the science hall. If Logan was still in the school, he was probably still in his classroom. 

The first door was the second year biology classroom. Then there was the first year earth sciences classroom. Next was the third year A&P classroom, and last was the chemistry room. Louise walked by casually and took a peek through the small window on the door. Logan was there, sitting at his desk, seemingly grading some papers. 

Without even knocking, she pushed open the door and entered the classroom. He looked up from what he was doing in surprise. He was surprised that someone was interrupting him at that hour, but then he was also surprised that it was Louise who was there to see him. With confusion still on his face, he set down his pen and the monthly test he was grading, and asked her. "Can I help you?"

Her very first instinct was to blow a raspberry at him. 

When he rolled his eyes at her and tried to go back to his work, she started speaking in an attempt to sound casual. "I was just wondering what you were still doing here? Most teachers are out quicker than anything on Fridays. Plus, they're about to lock up the building in about an hour."

"If you were waiting for me to leave so you could hide in my car and sneak out of school to meet up with your little boyfriend, you're gonna have to wait until seven." He told her. That was probably the reason why she was so interested in finding out why he hadn't left the school yet. He then added, "If I don't get these tests graded here at school, I'll just put them off all weekend. Mother Superior wants the grades for the quarter reports in by Monday afternoon."

Louise snorted at his words. Not the part about the grades, but the part about Dieter. "I'm taking a break from seeing Dieter this week. We're meeting up next week so that I can go hiking in the dark with him and his friends."

"Why does that sound exactly like something you'd be down to do?" He asked her. Back when he was younger, he knew he'd probably be willing to do it as well.

Even now, it didn't sound all that bad. But he was older and it was awkward to go out with a bunch of kids. And he was getting way ahead of himself, since he hadn't even been invited. Maybe he could offer to drive some of them and wait in the car, just so that he could keep an eye on Louise. Outside of school he felt like he was responsible for her safety. She was still a teenager and didn't know much about the outside world. 

Louise gave a shrug of her shoulders, not denying what he said.

-

for plot purposes, there will be a lot more dieter and louise action starting now. so please bear with me. logan will still be present. but at the moment i want to have him in the story as her friend (sort of because they were once enemies). i also will follow the calendar of school year. so this is around halloween time. 

thank you so much to those of you who still read and support this story. it genuinely means a lot to me. 

i still have a couple more plot points and stuff to develop, so please stay with me. i know i've been writing this story for about four years now. but i will try my hardest to continue updating it with regularity.

-clary