A Cry in the Park - A Bob's Burgers fanfic - by BobsBurgersStories1

A Cry in the Park - Part 26

After what turned out to be a pretty uneventful summer, the Belcher kids were back at school. Louise was now no longer on crutches, and was walking-boot free, but she still had a rather noticeable limp. She'd gotten into the habit of putting all of her weight on her heels when she walked, which they were trying to break her of, as it caused her pain.

They'd found her a therapist, but Louise didn't breathe a word about her ordeal. Linda and Bob persevered, hoping that therapy and her anxiety medication (which they hid in her food) would help her.

Louise was quite proud that, over the summer, she'd gotten quite good at lip-reading; her father was a bit difficult, because of his moustache, but the rest of her family were easy. It really was quite a useful skill, and she couldn't believe she'd never learned it earlier. Now, she could listen in on conversations she wasn't meant to hear; she was much better at it than Tina.

   "Hey, guys, how was your summer?" asked Regular-sized Rudy as they arrived outside of school.

   "Same old, same old," said Louise, not looking the least bit happy to be back.

   "It was good," said Tina. "On our days off, we went down to the beach and looked for sand dollars. It was fun watching the new Junior Life Guards working out."

   "Cool. Oh, Louise, you don't have crutches any more." Rudy tactfully ignored the dark circles under her eyes.

   "Took you that long to notice?"

   "No, I just think it's great. But..." he hesitated, and Louise looked pointedly at him. "I just – are you allowed to not wear the crutches?"

   "Why wouldn't I be?"

   "Your limp," said Rudy before he could stop himself.

   "Well, I'm sorry, next time I get pushed into a well, I'll be careful to land in a way that doesn't break my ankle awkwardly!" she spat, her eyes blazing. "I'll have this limp for the rest of my life! And are we really just insulting each others' appearance now, because.." she deliberately looked him up and down, "you really don't wanna go there."

   "Whoa," Rudy muttered, as Louise stormed into school.

   "She doesn't mean it," Gene told him. "She's just a bit..." he trailed off, and waved his arms, and Rudy nodded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That evening after school found Louise and Bob at the Wharf Arts Centre, in second-row aisle seats for Cake 3: The Winner Cakes it All. She honestly couldn't believe she'd ended up here; that weird, infected part of her that made her feel bad for other people (bleh) had kicked in.

She crossed her arms and scowled as Bob waited impatiently for the curtain to rise. The only reason she had agreed to go to this stupid show was because there was literally nothing else on that she wanted to see. Amateur production of a play from the 1800s? No, thank you. Ballet? Not even if you paid her. Shakespeare? She would rather gouge her own eyes out.

But there was a time limit on the tickets she had been sent, and she was determined to put them to use.

They arrived home after the show, Bob excitedly clapping his hands together, and Louise with the same thunderous expression on her face.

   "How was it, my baby?" asked Linda, darting away from Bob's "caking".