t w e n t y n i n e ;

By the time Halloween weekend rolled around, Louise was ready. She had packed a flashlight, some water, and some snacks for their hike. Dieter had texted that he would pick her up at Logan's house, and told Louise that he was welcome to come along if he wanted to. But the seventeen year old kept the invitation to herself. She saw how awkward and quiet Logan had been at the diner two weeks prior. She didn't want him feeling like he was the odd one out on their little hike. She instead promised herself that they could do something fun together over the weekend. 

Louise changed out of her St. Mary's uniform into a pair of black tights, and a comfortable black shirt, with a lime green windbreaker her parents had bought her. Her jet black hair was pulled back into a pony tail and she decided to leave her bunny ears back at her dorm room. With people as horrible as the two sisters Moira and Yami were, Louise knew she'd better not give them a reason to pick on her. Otherwise they'd end up collecting their teeth on the street. When she finished changing, she had sat on the living room couch waiting for about ten minutes when she heard a car pull up. 

Soon after, she received a text from Dieter, letting her know that he was outside. Louise grinned from ear to ear and jumped off her seat. She then looked to Logan and said her goodbyes. "I'll see you later, Logan. And thank you for helping me out so much, even though you don't want to, and even though we're like enemies and all." 

Enemies, she had used that word again. But Logan no longer saw them like that. Still, he nodded silently and she went out the door. She ran down the small pathway to see Dieter in his car. Liesl was in the passenger seat, and in the back was Clarissa. Behind his car were another two cars. In it were Rohan, Moira, Yami, Jai, and Finn. In the last car were Johnny, as well as two girls and boy she hadn't met yet. She assumed they were Ally and Ralph, and one other girl. She waved a small hello at everyone and Liesl got out of the car, pushing the front passenger seat forward and climbing into the back with Clarissa. Louise smiled gratefully and sat in the front passenger seat.

It only took them about forty minutes to get to the nature trail on the mountains. Yami was driving in that car and she arrived first. The second ones to arrive were Dieter's group, and the last were Ally's group who had gotten lost on top of the mountain for a few minues. 

Everyone got out of the cars and gathered at the start of one of the trails. As they talked together, a boy in a black cloak approached them. "Are you all here for the black magic circle?" He asked them and everyone shot him a confused look. 

"Nah man, you have the wrong group." Finn told him, and the boy scurried off into the trail.

As soon as he was out of ear shot, the group burst out laughing. They stood around for a couple more minutes before they made their way to the nearest hiking trail. Right by the entrance was a space which had once been an old zoo in the 1930s. Louise tugged on Dieter's arm, pleading. "Can we please look in there?" She asked, her eyes scanning over the vast space. There were old abandoned cages where the animals used to inhabit, and there was a little picnic area with stone tables. 

Dieter stopped his friends and asked them to follow them into the old zoo. As soon as they started walking towards it, Yamilla refused to budge. With her arms crossed over her chest, she refused vehemently to go in there. And she expected every body else to do the same. "I won't go in there. The spirits don't like that." She said, nose in the air in pride, as though she had some kind of special powers.

Moira immediately chimed in. "We'd better do what Yami says. She can see ghosts, so she knows what she's talking about."

Louise snorted in amusement. For one because she thought Yamilla was ridiculous in her comments, and also because her weird sister was always backing her up and hyping her up like she was the best thing that had ever happened to the world. Being her cousin, Rohan stopped and went to stand by Yami and Moira. Then Jai went to stand next to his girlfriend. They had split up into two sides. There was the four of them, and the others stood by Louise and Dieter. 

Liesl went to stand in the middle of the two groups. She wasn't all that fond of Louise yet, but she also didn't like Yamilla because she knew for a fact that she had led both Jai and Dieter on for years, before she ended up choosing Jai and breaking Dieter's heart. 

"If you don't want to come, you can stay out here." Louise said to Yamilla, deciding not to be quiet and meek like she had been the first day, and taking the other girl off guard. Yamilla had already decided she didn't like Louise and Louise didn't like her either. She was no longer going to sit back and pretend like they could get along. If Dieter liked her, he wouldn't see a problem in Louise defending herself from bullies like Yamilla. "Whoever else wants to come, can come. Whoever wants to stay, can stay out here with the rest."

With that, she turned and made her way up towards a set of stone stairs that went up into the first abandoned cage. Dieter followed behind her without hesitation. One by one, some of the others followed behind them. They were Finn, Johnny, Ralph, Ally, her sister Lizzy, and Clarisse. Louise climbed up to a stone platform in the first cage, Dieter jumping up behind her. But he had stood up too quickly and banged his head on the steel railings at the top of the cage. Louise tried not to, but she couldn't help but giggle at that. Dieter rubbed the top of his head in pain.

The inside of the cages was like a maze, and the group explored all of them, taking their time before returning to the start of the hiking trail. When they returned, the four who had stayed behind were still standing there waiting. Yamilla had her arms crossed over her chest and she shot a glare at Louise when their eyes connected. 

The group started their way up the mountain hiking trail. A couple of minutes of going up the mountain, Dieter had pulled out an EVP reader to catch any ghost voices. He and Louise stayed back, letting the group walk in front of them. As soon as Yamilla heard the noise, she turned and looked at the two of them with annoyance. "Turn that off. I told you the spirits don't like that. You should already know I'm sensitive to energies like that." As she said that, her eyes pooled up with tears of anger that she wasn't getting what she wanted.

Immediately, her boyfriend went to pull her in for a hug. Hie eyes narrowed into glares that were mostly directed at Louise. He thought that Dieter was changing because of her. "Hey bro, turn that off. Yami doesn't like it." 

Louise rolled her eyes. She knew well that this girl was using her tears to manipulate everyone to get what she want. She was probably always used to getting what she wanted. But Louise wasn't going to give that to her. "Don't be such a baby."

"Yeah, relax." Dieter said.

Yamilla pulled away from her boyfriend's arms, and walked faster to get in the front of the group. She ignored the two of them for the rest of the hike, except for a few instances.

Midway through the hike, they had reached a rounded part of the trail that went to go around a deep canal with a sewage tube running through the middle. Instead of going to her boyfriend, she went to Dieter and grabbed his arm. "Let's run across that tube to the other side. Its a shortcut and its faster." She grinned, looking to Louise to see if it had bothered her.

Dieter wedged his arm out of her grip. Then he looked to Louise, "Let's do it, Louise?"

Louise gave a shake of her head. "No thanks."

Her shoes had been very slippery that night. She noticed it when they were walking up the mountain and her feet kept slipping in the dirt. She didn't want to slip and fall off the sewage tube into the murky water below. Louise was as brave and reckless as the next person, probably more. But there were a couple of things she definitely would not risk. And this was one of them.

Looking to Jai next, Dieter said. "Come one Jye."

Jai gave a firm shake of his head. "If you guys wanna eat shit, go ahead. But I'm gonna go around. Just make sure my baby doesn't fall. I'm trusting you with her."

Louise once again rolled her eyes. This time at how oblivious this other boy was. His girlfriend was clearly throwing herself at Dieter and there he was, just standing back and letting it happen. Clinging onto his arm again, Yamilla hopped onto the tube below and Dieter followed after her. She ran across, almost slipping and falling halfway through. But they both made it. She moved aside and let Dieter climb up first. Then she reached her hand up so that he could pull her out of the trench. 

They continued walking up the mountain, enjoying the view of the scenery and the town below. They eventually decided to turn back after about an hour and a half of walking. 

At the end of the hike, the girls walked in the front with the boys walking behind them. Louise walked on the other end, opposite of the two sisters. She walked next to Clarisse and Lizzy, making conversation and getting to know them better. They were actually nice and Louise found she could actually get along with them. Liesl and Ally were talking together about the upcoming pageant, while the two sisters were walking by themselves and talking. 

Suddenly, there was a heavy rustling in the bushes on the side of the mountain and the boys started running ahead of the girls, afraid. The girls started screaming, and Louise could feel her heart race as they all ran the rest of the way off the mountain. They only stopped once thy got to the entrance of the hiking trail which was where they had started out three hours earlier. Once they knew they were out of danger, everyone in the group burst out laughing. Dieter went to Louise's side and comfortably wrapped an arm around her waist.

A few feet away, Yamilla was with Moira and Jai starting a scene. She was clutching her chest with her hands and breathing hard, acting as though she were hyperventilating. Jai hugged her tight and told her to breathe, assuring her that everything was fine. She dramatically started shouting. "Oh my God. That was a legit body being thrown off the side of the mountain. I just know it. I could feel it with my powers."

"What-" Louise started.

But Moira cut her off. "If Yami says it was a body, then it was a body. She has a gift."

From beside Louise, Dieter burst out in laughter that he could not control. Louise was confused, everyone around them was confused. But Yamilla was fuming.

"Why the fuck are you laughing? We could have died!" She accused, pulling away from Jai to face Dieter who couldn't even breathe from how hard he was laughing. Jai and Moira immediately shot Dieter glares as well. 

When he finally managed to calm down, he explained to them. "I'm laughing because I think its ridiculous that you'd think it was a body. What the hell?"

"The spirits told me so." She argued back, confident that she was right.

"Well the spirits lied to you 'cause it was me." He informed her, slightly panting from trying to catch his breath. She was completely taken by surprise because Dieter was not normally like that. He was calm and always was there, waiting on her hand and foot, doing everything she asked of him. She was definitely sure that this change was brought about by Louise. "I grabbed a big rock when no one was looking and chucked it off the mountain to scare you. And everyone of you cowards fell for it."

"That's not cool, man." Jai said next. Yamilla was still clinging to him dramatically. But the tears in her eyes were gone and replaced by a deep anger that was mostly aimed at Louise, thought Louise had dont nothing to her. "You could have sent Yami into one of her anxiety attacks."

"Yeah." Moira agreed with a nod of her head. "Yami has anxiety."

"Okay." Louise defended, her frustration at these people was through the roof. Her boyfriend and family members were letting themselves become controlled by this girl, and they were trying to make everyone be controlled by her every whim as well. "But she's fine right? We all got scared and we're not making a scene. Live a little. You guys act like you're eighty years old or something."

After that conversation, they all got in the cars and agreed to meet up at Granny's for dinner before heading home again. 

-

here we go. another chapter with louise and dieter. but i will bring logan back into the loop asap. i have a lot of plot points to cover involving the two of them.

thank you all loads for reading and supporting this story. it means the world to me.

i hope you all like the update and i will try really hard to post again in a couple of days. so please stay tuned for that. and again, thank you to all the people who still read and support this story. 

have a wonderful day!

-clary