An irish Lovestory - the summer of Life

Holidays are starting

The next morning, Carlotta sleeps relatively late by her standards. She writes Luke a note and puts it on his bed. Then she gets dressed and has breakfast with Chiara, Luke's sister. Half an hour later she is at the bus stop waiting for the bus to take her to the lake. Johanna's bus is late again and so Carlotta goes for a walk along the water until she sees her best friend.
"Tell me everything!" says Johanna, as soon as they have sat down on the grass. So Carlotta begins. "The rest of the half-year too, or do you only want to know everything about yesterday?" Of course Johanna wants to know everything, so Carlotta tells her what has happened since they last met six months ago.
"Well, we arrived back in Ireland and I actually regretted leaving you alone again right away. I thought about our wonderful time together in Germany and decided for myself that I would not go back after this six months. So to Ireland. Luke and I told my dear aunt and she understood. A few weeks later, the tap dancing competition took place. I couldn't dance in it, but I helped with the choreo and I also sewed the costumes. We only came second, but that didn't matter. And I spent the rest of the half-year with lessons, exams and a bit of free time." She takes a breath, then continues, "Well, yesterday I went to family court. Ms Harana from the Youth Welfare Office wanted to put me in a foster home in Constance and my birth mother wanted to take me back to Ireland. But...!" Carlotta grins. Johanna says, "You've asserted your stubbornness once again and now you can stay here!" Carlotta nods and tells Johanna what she said in court yesterday. Again she presses the tear-jerker and pretends she is really crying. Johanna laughs herself silly at her friend's talent.
"And what's new with you?" Carlotta asks her. Johanna just fusses a little, but at a stern look from Carlotta she grins and tells what has been going on in Germany for the last six months. "I was going to tell you just after Easter, but then you had your exams and I didn't want to disturb your studies." Carlotta gets a little impatient and looks at Johanna urgently. "It didn't work out between Erik and me, but you remember the guy from my birthday, don't you?" Of course Carlotta knows him. The birthday was almost a year ago, but he really didn't look bad and so she can still remember him. "Good, because we've been together since just before Easter. I wanted to tell you, but at first I thought it might not work out..." Johanna breaks off, but Carlotta has known her for almost eleven years now, so she knows her very well. "The others are fine too, by the way, but they couldn't come here," she adds casually. She doesn't say that she and Luke have been writing to each other for some time about having a surprise party for Carlotta. Her mobile rings and she picks it up. "Hey honey, yeah, I'm still at the lake with Carly. I'll come by later, yeah, I love you too! See you later!" She hangs up. Carlotta's mobile phone rings too. Luke is calling her.

"Carlotta will you come back to your house later and we can pick up a few more things." Of course she still comes. It's unusual for Luke to get up so early in the holiday, but it's only the first day of the holiday, so maybe he's still on his school sleep schedule and hasn't gone into holiday mode yet.
She and Johanna talk a bit more and make some holiday plans, then they get on the bus and drive to Carlotta's house. Johanna immediately agreed to help her. When they finally arrive on the bus three quarters of an hour later, Luke is already standing outside the door waiting for the two girls.
As soon as they are outside the door, Luke hugs Carlotta and also Johanna briefly. "Tell me Luke, since when do you manage to get up before fifteen in the holidays?", Carlotta asks him with a grin. She knows very well that he doesn't like to talk about his sleeping habits in front of others. But he doesn't let on and simply puts his arm around her waist. Then he leads her inside and straight into the spacious living room.
There are lanterns and fairy lights everywhere and a few presents in one corner. "You know you don't have to get me anything!" she calls into the kitchen, from where she hears giggling. Caught off guard, Elea, Helen and Anastasia stumble out. Hugo and Petra also come out shortly after the three of them with Charlie in tow. Carlotta knows immediately that Charlie was not Luke's favourite guest. "So you've used Johanna again to keep me out of here? How long have you been planning this?" Luke crosses his arms behind his head. Johanna replies, "Since the first visit to the court. We didn't know if it was going to be as a goodbye or a welcome, now we just did the party. That wasn't Dean earlier either, that was Luke." Carlotta raises an eyebrow. She knows she can trust Johanna and doesn't care about the treasure because Luke wouldn't cheat on her either. Since he's also a bad liar, she would have realised by the second date with an affair at the latest anyway that he had deceived her.
Luke presses a remote control and the room darkens. Soft music sounds from the speakers and Johanna opens the door to the kitchen. There is a buffet with a lot of Irish specialities. Carlotta hugs Luke and goes into the kitchen to taste. Also there are carrot chips that Elea has brought. She pauses for a moment, but then tries one. "Wow, didn't they burn this time?" Elea grins and shakes her head. She has tried to forget that the microwave was on fire. But Anastasia laughs about it again and shows the picture of the burning microwave once more.
But dinner has to wait for now, because Carlotta has to unwrap some presents first and then watch a film. It is only during the film that Carlotta remembers that she and Luke are supposed to take part in a film project during the summer holidays and that she will not be able to realise some of her plans with Johanna. But she represses the thought and continues watching. After the film is over, they all talk a little more before storming the buffet. Carlotta sits with Luke for a moment and says: "Thank you for this great day. I wouldn't know what to do without you. While things will change for both of us after the summer holidays, change isn't always bad." Luke puts his arm around her and says, "With any luck, you won't just be a writer, you'll be an actress and I'll be on screen with you."

"That's what scares me!" whispers Carlotta. Luke looks at her, confused. "Why are you afraid of it? Look, if you don't want it, there's nothing wrong with it. But you're an excellent actress and I'm sure the woman from the cinema thought of something to approach us both!" Carlotta leans against him and smiles. At least with him she can be herself and not have to pretend to anyone what she really isn't.
Charlie saves her, thankfully, by plopping down on the couch and Carlotta jumps up at first as the cream falls onto the couch. "It's velvet!" she shrieks with a played evil tone. He doesn't notice that she doesn't really care whether the couch gets dirty or not. So he runs into the kitchen and comes back armed with a rag. Carlotta takes a step backwards, grinning, and promptly falls on Luke, who hugs her from behind. "Let's enjoy this summer one more time before the serious side of life starts again. We'll go somewhere, anywhere, and have a really good time. We have a holiday home in Spain, we could go there." Carlotta looks at him in shock. "You already know we have to go to the shoot! And what are we going to tell your parents? We'll never make it in our lives!" Luke looks deep into her eyes and asks, "Since when do you think so much? You've always left the pessimistic thinking to me. There will be other shoots we can be on, a little truancy like this won't define our careers! But if we do, no one, not even Johanna, must know anything about it!" Carlotta closes her eyes for a moment and thinks. Actually, it's exactly what I've always imagined. Seeing the world with Luke, travelling without parents.... But that can only go wrong! But she nods, not realising herself what she has just done.
Fortunately, Johanna pulls her onto the dance floor and she can no longer back out. Carlotta would love to tell her about Luke's plan right away, but she keeps it to herself. She owes it to Luke, because whenever she feels bad, which has been more often again lately, he is there for her. So she says nothing for the rest of the afternoon and is also very quiet by her standards in the evening at Giesma's home. She has always been rather quiet, but she is rarely this quiet.