t w e n t y f i v e ;

Logan felt a cold sweat breaking out onto his face as he approached the security booth at the entrance of the school. He knew well that Louise would not make a peep, lest she wanted to be sent off to juvenile detention, which was the next stop after she had burnt down Mr. Frond's office back home. But he also knew her well and he knew she liked getting on his nerves, and this was just the way to do it. He also had nowhere to go, other than the private catholic girls school. The last thing he wanted was to have to go back home to his parents, where they would nag him to no end about the most miniscule details in life. 

When are you finally getting married? 

You should start having children before you look old enough to be their grand parent.

He was only twenty five, he had plenty of time to think about getting married and starting a family. What was worse though, was that Maria Valentina was already trying to have those talks with him and he simply did not feel ready. He also did not see himself getting married to her in the near future. She was stunning, and he had a good time when he was around her, but he wasn't sure if that could exactly be considered love.

The twenty five year old was cleared at the security booth and he heaved a sigh of relief as he pulled up to the staff parking lot in the front of the school. There were a few cars already there, but some were also just arriving like him. One fellow professor smiled at him and waved a greeting towards him. He waved back nervously and looked at Louise still on the floor is his car through his rear view mirror. Well, all he could really see was the pink of her bunny ears hat that she always wore. 

"Wait until there are no other people who can see you before getting out of the car." He told her through gritted teeth. He knew he was probably exaggerating the situation quite a bit. But he really wanted to keep his job, and he would be unable to if there were rumors going around that he had something going on with Louise Belcher. Logan shuddered at the thought. 

She rolled her eyes at him. "Fine."

He grabbed his belongings and left the car nervously, going into the building without taking another look back. Louise could hear cars pull into the lot here and there, every few minutes. When there was a more extended period of time and she heard nothing, she took it as her chance to open the back passenger door and hopped out into the dirt lot. There was no one outside, no one pulling up either, and she straightened out her green uniform dress, which to her surprise was still slightly damp. Then she made her way expertly across the campus to her dorm room.

When she pushed the door open and stepped into the room, she spotted Annie sitting at her vanity, combing out her long brown hair, while Aimee was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. Both twins looked over at the door when they heard it open--Annie turned her head in her direction, while Aimee peeked her head out of the bathroom. Both of them looked at her with surprise, as they hadn't seen her in over two days and had to do a lot of lying to get their friend out of trouble.

Aimee hurried back to the bathroom to rinse out her mouth and ran out to get the details from Louise. "Oh my God, Louise! I can't believe you were able to sneak out of the school for two whole days. Please tell us everything." She gushed, and it seemed like she hadn't even paused to take a breath.

Louise responded with a shake of her head. Her eyes took a glance at the digital clock on her night stand. "I'll tell you guys at lunch. It looks like classes are about to start."

Aimee pouted, wanting to know the gossip. But reluctantly accepted because she didn't want to be assigned detention so early in the week. She also thought about the fact that she would be going to her favorite class with her favorite teacher. On their way to class, Aimee gushed about how she was excited to see him, and how he had probably missed her too. Louise rolled her eyes at her friend's school girl infatuation. If only she knew, Louise thought to herself. But she didn't want to burst Aimee's bubble. It wasn't like she and Logan had anything going on anyway. Yes, they had spent most of the weekend together. But he was dating Maria Valentina, and she was very much interested in Dieter Park. 

They walked into the classroom and sat at their usual seats in the back of the room. Logan started off class promptly when the bell rang and called out attendance. Then he had collected everyone's homework assignments. Then he started off with his lesson.

Every so often. he'd turn when he heard giggling coming from one of the girls. It was Danielle Bradford, the girl Louise had tried to prank days ago, but things went south when Gene seemed to get along well with her. He was a totally different person now. Girls actually liked him, and he seemed to find her pranks rude and obnoxious. 

Once she saw him turn around, Danielle would quickly put her phone face down on her lap and pretend to pay attention. Logan let it slide a few times, since he knew what it was like to be a young teenager disinterested in a lesson. It was easy to get distracted. He knew he often used to get scolded for texting or even doodling on the desks in class. But it had been the last straw when he turned and she blatantly texted back in front of his face. Danielle knew that she was caught and knew she was going to get some kind of scolding. At that point, replying to her text in front of her teacher would probably make no difference. 

"Miss Bradford." Logan called on her from the front of the class. The smile dropped clean off her face and she once again put her phone away, faced down on her lap. But it was too late, he had seen her. He had seen her the first couple of times, but he thought she would eventually stop if he gave her the chance to do so. "What is so interesting on your phone that you can't pay attention in my class?"

Louise looked from Logan to Danielle as the confrontation unfolded. The other girls in the class fell silent too, trying to catch every moment of their exchange. Logan's eyebrows were furrowed in annoyance and Louise looked to Aimee when she heard her whisper something.

"He's so handsome when he's angry." The seventeen year old said with an enamoured sigh.

Her whispering needed some work though, and about half the class had heard what she said, including their teacher.

Logan shot her a quiet, yet firm glance that screamed: not now, Miss Arriola-Hendricks. Aimee seemed to understand his silence perfectly and shrunk in her seat, face burning with embarrassment. Louise snorted though, finding all of it completely amusing. Especially when she saw that her worst enemy at school was being confronted by her worst enemy from back home. A battle of the horrible people, as she amusingly put it in her mind. But of course, Logan had the authority to end Danielle whenever he wanted. 

"Nothing Professor Bush." Danielle assured him nervously, with a shake of her head.

"Hm." He hummed as he walked towards her with a few strides. The next words that left his mouth were ones that even Louise found to be cruel, even for his standards. "Then I presume you won't mind if we read your little conversation out loud?"

Louise noticed the way Danielle went pale in the face. She thought he would just take her phone and be done with it. But she really had pushed him too far by blatantly using her phone like that in the middle of class. But reading her conversation out loud in front of everyone would be the most humiliating thing that any teacher could ever do to a student. 

He stuck his hand out in front of her. "Give me your phone, Miss Bradford."

Danielle bit down on her lip hard, her eyes filling up with tears. She didn't want to hand over her phone. But her only other option was probably to be sent off to Mother Superior and she thought that was even worse. She was known to be very mean and give severe punishments. Nothing like corporal punishments like they used to do back then. But the parents had signed off waivers for the nuns and other teachers to incorporate punishments like this in order to get the girls to reform or behave. With those permission papers, this was not even considered an invasion of her privacy. He was allowed to do that to her as punishment.

She reluctantly placed her phone in his open hand and he clicked on her home button to turn the screen on. It required a password to open, which he seemed to figure out in a matter of seconds.

"I also studied computers while at university." He informed the class, to which they all seemed impressed.

That meant that he could probably hack computers or phones. He was good with that. 

He opened up her text conversations and looked at the first one, which was the most recent. He read off the name on the screen. "Bae." He read off the screen awkwardly. "Him: I had a good time with you. Her: Me too. When can you visit me again? Him: I'll see when I can travel again. I can probably see my sister too and we can spend some time together since you say you guys are good friends."

Louise felt her heart drop into her stomach. All of the clues were pointing to one thing. But she was going to be in denial until it could be confirmed.

Logan continued reading while the other girls were snickering to themselves and muttering things about Danielle now. The girl in question now had put her head down on her desk in embarrassment. "Her: I can't wait. I already miss you, Gene." He looked at Danielle, and then at Louise, knowing what they both already knew. "Wait. Gene Belcher? That Gene?"

From the back of the room, Louise threw her head back and groaned a loud complaint. "I can't believe this. You hate me, but you're quick as hell to flirt with my brother? And another thing, you told him you and I are friends? Ew."

Danielle lifted her head up off the desk just long enough to retaliate. "What did you expect me to tell him, that I hate your fucking guts?"

Louise scoffed at that. "Uh...yeah."

"Girls." Logan interjected before things could get more out of hand between them. Handing the phone back to Danielle, he said to her. "This is too weird, I am overwhelmed. Let's just continue with the lesson. Miss Bradford, put your phone away or I will send you to Mother Superior next time I see you texting in my class."

Danielle nodded her head gratefully and grabbed her phone from him, quickly putting it away in her back pack. 

Logan went back to teaching the lesson planned for that day, but the thought still lingered in the back of his mind. People from his past were catching up with him. Gene was Louise's brother, and that made it obvious that he would see or hear from him again. The same with Andy and Ollie. Maybe he was just overthinking things. But he almost felt like he could not escape the life he knew back home. It had all started the moment he saw Louise again. That had to be it. That was all her doing. 

He also remembered something Gene had said to them when she was only nine and he was seventeen. I bet when you guys reconnect in your thirties, you'll get married.

He was only twenty five now, and she seventeen. But they had reconnected, and Logan couldn't deny she was no longer that insufferable little nine year old he once knew. She was still as insufferable as ever. But somehow, he didn't get as annoyed with her as he used to. He sometimes even found himself with the tiniest feeling that he wanted to be around her. Like when those guys had cornered her by the main street the previous night.

Logan had it in him to protect her, and it wasn't even out of obligation.

But these were strange feelings that he didn't know how to handle. She was still in high school, still under age. And somehow he found himself a bit interested in her. Though he would never act upon it.

For one, she didn't see him that way. And second, he was her teacher.

-

i feel inspired to write for this story again. so i know louise is still underage in this story, so there will be no hanky panky until she is eighteen. so please readers, dont hang me for making them love interests in the story. she still has a lot of time before the story develops and he has never thus far been inappropriate with her. nor will he ever be that until she is eighteen.

but we can now see that our logan is having conflicting feelings about her, which he knows are wrong. louise is completely oblivious though, as of now.

so keep reading to find out what happens next.

thank you!

-clary