Rudy Stieblitz wandered the halls of Wagstaff Elementary, meandering toward the cafeteria for lunch. Mentally, he had been making notes and lists for days now, conjuring up a plan that had been in the works for a while now. Ever since that one magical Valentine's Day when Louise Belcher had given him his first kiss and at the same time, taken his breath away. Although it usually didn't take a lot to drain the small asthmatic's lungs, that was the real kicker.
He remembered it every day since, and he knew he would never forget it. Even though previously, the thought of Louise had never really crossed his mind as more than a friend, now, the boy had a new perspective. He had told nobody according to Louise's wishes (threat) and the two hadn't discussed it since.
Today that would change.
Louise had just grabbed her tray and sat down in her usual spot by her two siblings, Gene and Tina Belcher, and began picking at her lunch, which today was tacos. Although not enthused by this, her older brother was nearly ecstatic.
"Holy crap, Gene, slow down. You're gonna get the bends or something, God," Louise said in her common sarcastic tone. "We have tacos every week, anyways."
"Don't tell me to slow down!" said Gene, mouth full of taco meat. "Tacos are a national treasure!"
Louise rolled her eyes and dropped the subject, letting Tina continue her previous thought that was being discussed before Louise had sat down.
Rudy spotted the unmissable pink ears across the busy cafeteria, bustling with kids from different grades. With a puff of his inhaler, he made his way toward the lunch line to grab some food and collect his thoughts.
After coming to the end of the line, Rudy turned his head toward the direction of Louise's iconic hat, and began walking that way. An attempt to clear his nervous and distracted mind resulted in tripping over his accidentally-left-untied shoelace, and down he went not five feet away from the Belcher kids' table, in a spray of taco fillings and chocolate milk everywhere within a three foot radius.
Louise, noticing the carnage, jumped to her feet in the middle of her sentence to help her best friend. Tina and Gene got up as well, even though the latter's eyes were mostly on the taco splatters.
"Geez, Rudy, are you okay?" Louise asked, giving the boy a hand and pulling him up. When she heard a few kids snickering, she shot out a look that could kill, and then quickly turned her attention back to her friend. She grabbed a napkin from the nearest table and handed it to Rudy, who was fishing out his inhaler from his pocket again.
"Oh, I'm fine, Louise. Thanks for helping me," he said, attempting to clean his shirt off. "Actually, I wanted to-"
The redhead was interrupted by the sound of Louise scolding her older brother. "Hold that thought, Rude- Gene, what the hell are you doing?"
Gene was in fact scooping up bits of taco with a spare taco shell off the floor. "Oh, sorry. Where are my manners?" he said, standing up to hand Rudy a bit of taco. "Rudy, you gonna eat this? Five minute rule!"
"Uhh, no thanks, Gene. I'll just get a new one," said Rudy. "Louise, I-"
"Five minute rule??" asked the smallest Belcher. "Dude, it's the five second rule."
"Not on taco time," responded Gene.
"Whatever. Hey, Rudy. I'll get you some more lunch, just head to the bathroom and get cleaned up, we'll take care of this, okay?" said Louise.
Rudy decided it best to bring up the subject of the kiss later. He nodded and headed toward the school bathroom, mentally resolving to just get it over with and not let himself get interrupted again, although he understood it wasn't on purpose that Louise had interjected his thought. There were more important things to do for now, such as picking up some spare clothes and changing.
