Louise's Junior Year

Bye, Louise.

Louise spun around in her sister's old desk chair, looking around at the few horse posters that she had kept up through high school. It felt strange not having Tina around all the time anymore. Their mom had made it clear that no one's bedrooms would be changed until they had gotten their own places. Really their own, not just somewhere they'd stay through college so sometimes going in her room left Louise feeling like her sister was just away for camp, or something, and would be back soon.

The home phone that sat on Tina's desk began to ring and Louise quickly answered, "Hello?"

"Hello?" Logan mimicked Louise's voice.

"Oh! Someone thinks he's brave when he's too far away to get slapped!"

"Guess you'd just have to come all the way over to Washington to show me who's boss." He challenged.

Louise leaned back in her chair, "I'll get on the next flight. Be there in the morning to wake you up with a good one right across that pretty face."

"Aww. You really think it's pretty?" Logan laughed then let out a sign, "I really wish you could. It'd be nice to wake up to you..." Louise was quite, causing Logan to rub his forehead, "I'm sorry. That was dumb."

"No. No. It's fine."

"It's not. I'm sorry, Louise. Old habits die hard, right? Promise though. No more flirting."

Louise set an elbow on the desk in front of her then rested her cheek on her hand. "If you say so...Logey." The two went back and forth for the next couple of hours. Both slipping up and pushing their new friendship line from time to time.

"So...ready for another year at Wagstaff High?"

"Oh yeah! I'm just thrilled! Can't you tell?" Louise let out a loud groan. "It's gonna be weird without you."

"You'll still have Andy and Ollie."

Louise laughed a little, "Yeah, yeah. They're great. Just don't think skipping class with either of them will be quite the same as when we'd go sneak off." Now Logan was quite. Louise sighed, "And now I'm being dumb."

"No. It's just," Logan hated what he was about to say, "you know, eventually, you can skip class with some new guy."

"Is this your way of telling me you met some college chick already?"

Logan laughed, "Not a chance. It's only been a week since classes started and I haven't spoken to a soul." Louise felt a little relief by his answer. "So...uh, when you do meet some guy...will you tell me?"

"Seriously? Duh? You've gotta tell me too. You know, when you meet 'some guy.'" Louise teased. "You promised we'd still be close. A promise to Louise Belcher is something you cannot break."

"Good." Logan pulled his phone away from his face to see the time. "You should get some sleep soon. It's going to be hard waking up so early tomorrow."

Louise let out another groan, but agree. The two said their goodnights before hanging up.

"Louise! Hun! It's time to get out of bed!" Linda tapped away at her daughter's door.

Louise throw open the door, "I'm up! Happy?"

"I'll be happy when you change out of those pjs and get your tochus to the table. You've gotta eat fast or you'll be late!"

Taking her sweet time, Louise dressed in a pair of jean shorts and a green tang top. She then pull on her bunny eared hat before stopping by the kitchen to have her mom hand her a piece of toast. "That's it? How am I supposed to focus and learn if you're starving me?"

"Well. You could've had a bowl of cereal if you hadn't taken half an hour to get dressed. Gene already left!" Linda pulled her youngest in for as many kisses on the head as she could give before she was pushed away. "Have a great day at school! Love you, my baby!"

Walking down the sidewalk, Louise noticed a boy about her age running. He quickly passed her then ran up the school steps. Taking a moment to straighten out his shaggy brown hair before going inside. Louise followed, seeing the boy frantically trying to open his locker, throwing everything in, then looking over a map and schedule. "Um, need some help?"

"I'm fine. I just..," He looked up at Louise.

"You what?"

He stared for a moment before remembering what he was trying to say. "I just don't know where my first class is. I, uh, wanted to get here early since I'm new, but my alarm didn't go off." Louise snatched the schedule from his hands then motioned for him to follow. "You don't have to help. Class already started like ten minutes ago."

"Eh, it's really no big deal. We're already almost there." The boy kept watching her. "So...you got a name?"

"Me? Yeah! Elliot."

"Louise." She stuck out a hand, Elliot shook it with a large grin. "Well. Here we are." She jerked her thumb at a door. "See ya!"

Elliot waited till she turned the corner, "Bye, Louise."