t w e n t y s i x ;
That afternoon after classes were done for the day, Louise was in her bedroom, and the first thing she did when she got there was to call her older brother Gene on the phone. A confrontation which was inevitable was the only thing on her mind.
"I can't believe you and Danielle have a thing. Ew. She's evil and she's out to get me. And I can't stand her." Were the first words that left her mouth the moment she heard him pick up the phone. She didn't even greet him, nor did she wait for a greeting from him.
At that point she didn't want to be friendly or even cordial with him. He was her brother and he knew, from her own words, that Danielle was someone at school who had been giving her a hard time. She thought that as her brother, Gene would be more supportive of Louise's hatred towards Danielle Bradford. She thought that her rivals would be his rivals as well, like any brother should do. But instead, he was being lured into the gates of hell by the Devil herself. Danielle knew how to fool people and make them her little puppets when she wanted to. Louise wasn't even sure Danielle even liked Gene. She was probably just talking to him to bother Louise, and it was definitely working.
Gene rolled his eyes at her from his end of the phone. Louise was already seventeen, and she'd be turning eighteen in a little over a half a year. It was time for her to grow up and stop seeing the world like a child. Life wasn't always about pranks and messing with other people. He thought she would understand it by now, but he saw that he was wrong. All he wanted at nineteen at the moment was to focus on his music studies and possibly finally get a girlfriend. Gene had never really gotten girls interested in him, nor did it bother him much before. But as he got older, he started to yearn for someone to share things with, like Jimmy Jr. and Tina were doing. They were childhood sweethearts and had always liked each other. Gene just wanted someone to like him too.
Then there was Danielle, who was pretty and nice, and she seemed to like him. He was even texting her right then, as he spoke with Louise. He sighed into the phone as he started to reply to his little sister. "Maybe if you got to know her, you would see that she's actually nice."
Louise scoffed a little too loudly at his words. She could not believe what she was hearing. Danielle must have been quite the actress to make Gene believe that she was actually a decent human being. But Louise knew who she really was and she would never fall for her tricks if Danielle were planning to use them on her as well. "Danielle is not nice. She's only nice to you because you're a boy and she thinks you're cute."
Still, remaining surprisingly calm, Gene tried to pacify her. "Look, I'm going to visit again in two weeks. Maybe the three of us can hang out and you two can get to know each other better."
Louise, who was laying down on her bed, threw her head back and groaned in frustration. Normally, she would have been at her soccer practice at that moment, but that phone call could not wait. She had asked Annie and Aimee to talk to their coach and inform her that she had been sick all weekend, and that she would not be making it to practice that afternoon as a result. That gave her two hours of alone time in her dorm room before the twins would come back, and she could talk to her brother in peace.
"That's not going to happen. Don't waste your time." She said to him, and without waiting for a response from him, she hung up the phone.
-
For the next week, Louise couldn't stop thinking about Dieter. She was already waiting anxiously for Friday afternoon so that she could sneak out of school and see him again. But she knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up, sneaking out of school every weekend. So she decided she would only do it once a month after this second outing. She didn't want mother superior finding out and getting her expelled. Then she would have to go back home and she'd never see Dieter, the twins, and Logan ever again.
