t w e n t y o n e ;

"Dieter!" The sixteen year old shouted, throwing herself onto her brother like she hadn't seen him in years. He chuckled as he easily held her in his arms. She was light as a feather to him, much thinner  and shorter than Louise and with a head of red hair that matched with that of her older brother. When they pulled away, she gushed with excitement, "Daddy says you'll be passing out more pageant buttons tonight. Thank you so much for doing this for me."

"No problem, kid." He smiled, tousling her hair and she complained as a laugh escaped her lips, she tried dodging his hand. Gesturing to Louise, he introduced the two girls. "This is Louise. She and her sister are new in town."

Liesl nudged her brother and shot him a wink. "Girlfriend material?"

He coughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head with a shy smile playing on his lips, but didn't reply to her question. Louise felt her cheeks heat up with a blush.

"This is my sister Liesl." Dieter introduced her after a short pause. "She has no filter."

Liesl smiled at Louise. "Hey." The red head said with a wave of her hand.

"Hey." Louise nodded as she smiled back.

She thought things were going well. Liesl was nice enough, though she did seem a bit colder when regarding Louise as opposed to Dieter. But Louise understood her. It was a given that she would be more comfortable around her brother, who she'd known her whole life. She had only met Louise that day.

The three spent time at the carnival together, with Dieter passing out buttons half the time. But Louise didn't mind. Whereas before she would have found it totally lame for a boy to do things like that, now she found it thoughtful of him to do that for his sister. She remembered all the times she had helped Tina and Gene, and all the times they had helped her as well. It was what siblings did for each other. They also went on all the rides together, with Liesl hogging up all her brother's attention whenever she could. As the night progressed, it seemed that she was beginning to get jealous of her brother's date.

When it came to the ferris wheel, Dieter sent his sister alone, and sat with Louise on the two person seat. 

"Sorry she's so clingy with me." He apologized for his sister. "Its always been just the two of us since we were born. We don't have other siblings and I've always protected her."

Louise gave a shake of her head. "Don't worry about it."

"I wanted to have a nice time with you, and she kind of ruined it." He continued apologetically.

But Louise tried to reassure him with another shake of her head. "I understand. You don't have to apologize about it." Though, if she was being honest, part of her wanted Liesl to get lost so that she'd have more time alone with Dieter.

She saw her opportunity when a group of Liesl's friends approached her and started to make conversation. Dieter had seen his chance and took Louise by the hand, dragging her away. His sister called after them, wanting to tag along, but her friends held her back, talking about the latest gossip at school, or other things that girls their age normally talked about. Just by looking at them, Louise figured they would probably get along well with Danielle.

He was taking her in the direction opposite of Liesl and her friends, but Louise's eyes widened in surprise when she saw Logan and Maria Valentina walking towards them. Only Logan had seen her, since Maria was too busy talking about how her last few days in town had gone. Louise quickly tugged on Dieter's arm. "Lets not go that way." She said to him, pulling him in another direction.

"Why?" He wondered in confusion, but allowed himself to be led by her somewhere else.

"I want a corn on the cob." She came up with a quick lie when she saw the booth nearest to them.

Nearby, Logan had gotten Maria Valentina to stay in line for another booth while he went to the toilet. But he had other things in mind. He saw Louise heading over to the corn on the cob booth and followed her there. When he saw her with that boy from the pharmacy, it had served to put him in a bad mood.

He walked up as the two of them were standing in line. "I need to talk to you." He told Louise, and gripped her upper arm.

Dieter was about to step in when he saw Louise trying to pry her arm from his hold. But she stopped him by raising a hand, not wanting to make a scene or letting a fight break out between the two boys. She never had two guys fight over her before and it really wasn't something that appealed to her. The idea of two guys fighting over her like she was a peace of meat made her cringe internally. She assured her date that she'd be right back and followed Logan to a secluded part of the carnival--a back alley where all the trash was being stored until they could bring in a trash truck to collect it.

"Seriously Logan." She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.  "What do you want?"

"Are you still mad about what I said last night?" He asked her, with genuine curiosity. But he was also slightly annoyed at the fact that she was still angry because he had tried to apologize, and she didn't give him the chance to do so.

"You mean when you called me fat?" She accused, words full of venom. Her green eyes narrowed into thin slits.

He heaved a sigh full of frustration and ran a hand through his blonde hair. "I thought you didn't even care about those kinds of things. I thought you didn't care what people thought about you." He knew it was no excuse and that she was right, he shouldn't have said that to her. But he also thought that the Louise he knew didn't care if anyone called her names. She was strong and could shake off any comments that he made. He and Louise had been calling each other names since she was nine. He didn't understand what was so different now.

Louise lowered her head slightly, suddenly feeling self conscious about herself. "I don't care about those things." She informed him. But then found herself adding, "It was just different hearing it from you."

"Why?" He asked her. 

A part of him wanted to tell her that he thought she was perfect just as she was. But the more logical part of him forced him to keep quiet. They were arch enemies after all and she was a minor. He couldn't have those thoughts about her. He shouldn't. But he did and it was inevitable. The least he could do now was to keep those thoughts in his head.

"When Danielle calls me names it doesn't matter because she's a girl." Louise explained. "But when you said it...it was a guy's opinion. If you think that way about me, what would Dieter think?"

Dieter.

Logan suddenly felt his heart drop. So she had been more worried that it was Logan's real opinion of her because he was a man, and because Dieter was a man too, she thought he might think the same thing about her. In the back of his mind, Logan was disappointed and had even hoped for a different answer.

Before Logan could formulate a response, they turned at the sound of another voice. They were immediately met with Dieter Park.

"I would never say something like that to you." He assured her, taking a few steps towards Louise. "I think you're absolutely beautiful, you're funny, and smart. You're so different to the other girls in this town. But its a nice different." It was a small town and no one really visited. The people there always saw more of the same thing. Louise was new in town, and that was what made her more appealing to them, Logan figured. 

"Wow..." Louise started in awe. "I've never been moved by something so cheesy before."

Dieter smiled his prize winning perfect American boy smile at her and offered his hand for her to take. "Lets go back to the carnival."

Louise took his hand just as Logan called out to her. "Louise--"

But she quickly cut him off. "I'll return to your house on Monday morning so you can take me back to school."

Without anything more, she returned to the carnival with her date. She avoided Logan and Maria for the rest of the night. Dieter was the same, but he instead spent the rest of the night trying to avoid his sister Liesl.

When the carnival closed for the night, everyone piled out into the streets and Dieter led Louise to his car. They got inside and Dieter had texted his sister, so that she could meet them there. The two teenagers were sitting in the car, waiting for Liesl, when Dieter broke the silence between them. "Were you actually worried that I might think you weren't pretty or something?" He asked her, eyeing her with curiosity. 

Louise slowly nodded her head.

"Honestly, from the first moment I saw you, I wanted to talk to you." He admitted, his voice low and he licked his lips, blue eyes trained on her own lips. "And...I wanted to do this..."

He trailed off and started leaning in slowly.

Louise closed her eyes tight, waiting for his lips to touch hers, but both of them were startled away from each other by Liesl knocking on the window to the passenger side where Louise was sitting. "Its cold out here. Open the door, Dieter!" She shouted so that they could hear her inside the car.

Dieter sighed in frustration and unlocked the doors. He had an old car--a cherry red Mustang--and Louise had to get out so that Liesl could climb into the back seat. The sixteen year old red headed beauty queen smiled at both of them as though she hadn't just interrupted a potential make out session. Louise was still red in the face just thinking about how Liesl had seen them about to kiss. "Sorry." She said, but she didn't sound the slightest bit apologetic. "It was just really cold outside." 

Her brother said nothing and started the car, putting it into drive.

As they entered the residential areas, Dieter asked Louise, "Do you want me to drop you off at your sister's place or at Logan's?" He wasn't too keen on dropping her off at Logan's house though.

Louise crinkled up her nose. "My sister's place is really far, and I don't want to see Logan right now. Can you maybe just take me to a motel?" She had thought of a nice save--a good reason as to why she couldn't go to her sister Maria Valentina's house. She had some money. Her parents sometimes sent her money to buy food or books for school, or any other things that she wanted. But since the students were never allowed to leave the school, she had money saved up. More than enough to book a motel room for the night--or several nights if she wanted to.

Dieter gave a shake of his head. "Nah. Just stay with us. I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind."

"Dieter--" Liesl started to protest.

But her brother cut her off, shooting her a look in the rearview mirror. He normally took his sister's side and was quick to protect her. But he didn't like the way she was acting towards Louise. She wasn't exactly being mean, but there was a subtle hostility in the way she regarded her.

"If its not a bother..." Louise smiled slightly at him, her hand touching his knee.

Now she was purposefully trying to mess with his sister. 

He shook his head, and returned the smile back at her. "Like I said, I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind."

-

finally an update after like six months.

what is this about logan being jealous and louise not being nearly as sarcastic as she normally is? i thought that now that she's crushing on someone, she might be trying to keep her typical sttitude in check. 

but not to worry. louise is still louise. so there will be more interesting stuff to come.

thank you all for reading and supporting me. it means a lot. 

-clary