The weekend was on them in no time and Dewey found that his car still wouldn't run, much to his and Rus's disappointment. Still, it was expected to run into problems when doing an experiment, so Dewey chose to see it as a learning experience rather than a setback. Later that evening, he gathered his stuff and waited for Webby to show up. The two had agreed to meet up and attend Louie's swim meet. Every now and then Daisy and Donald would join them. Huey never showed up for anything. Sometimes, it would be hard to keep track of Louie's activities between the swim and the rifle team. Thankfully, the coaches had collaborated as quite a few students were on both teams. The swim team met in the morning and the rifle in the evening. Actual competitions for the rifle team wouldn't start for another two months and by then the swim meets would be finished.

Webby padded up the walk and rang the Ducks' doorbell. Her heart always fluttered when she went to meet Dewey. She had no idea if he thought her as anything more than a very smart family friend, but she hoped she could eventually get him to. It was odd; she did consider them family in a way, having grown up with them, but when she was with Dewey it was different than when she was with his two other brothers. It was hard to explain; her heart skipped a few beats and her breath sometimes caught in her throat when he smiled at her. Happiness just welled within her and she wanted him to be filled with the same happiness when he saw her. She couldn't tell if there was any of this going on for him; if there were, he was very adept at concealing it. Then again, he was so wrapped up in trying to help his brothers, especially Louie, she wondered if he was even clued in to any feelings he might have that didn't relate to his brothers. She wanted Louie to do better with his grades just as much, if not more, than Dewey. She definitely wanted to see Louie happy, but she really wanted Dewey to have more free time and perhaps spend some with her. On the flip side, she was guiltily grateful that Louie had issues because it was a great excuse for her to offer to help tutor him with Dewey. At times, she feared that if weren't for the tutoring, Dewey would simply forget to get in touch with her so maybe that coveted free time would be better to not have.

All the boys were childhood friends of her so she did hope for the best for Louie. She had seen his grades and helped tutor and study with him and, like Dewey, she had serious concerns about a possible learning disability. It made no sense why it was so hard for him to remember anything; he didn't seem to get too nervous when test taking so it couldn't just be chalked up to nervous jitters. Then there was the matter of Huey, who had become this angry, impatient duck within the last couple of years. Webby rarely saw him herself. She was a grade behind and while in school generally saw Louie more than his brothers, the two being in the same grade and having a few classes together. After school, she hung out with the two of them as often as she could convince her grandmother to let her.

Dewey answered the door with a grin and Webby felt her heart skip a couple beats, her own face lighting up with a smile. "Hi!"

"Hey, Webby. You ready to head out or did you want to get a drink or snack before we left?"

"I'm good," she assured him. He nodded and locked the door behind him.

"Looks like it'll just be you and me," he informed her. Webby felt her heart flutter again and she fought down the urge to look too happy about it all. Despite the frustrations she sometimes experienced when tutoring Louie, she was extremely grateful towards the brother who preferred green. It was because of him that she always had a legitimate excuse to hang around Dewey and it was because of his extracurricular activities that she often got to walk alone with him to their school, usually to watch a swim meet. Webby had never been so fond of swimmers in her life as she was now as the sun shone brightly on both her and Dewey, walking side by side. She knew these memories would last forever.

As always, they found stuff to chat about on their walks. It was easy to find something to talk about so they rarely had awkward silences. They had known each other too long and knew each other too well, so the few times they did lapse into silence it was companionable. With the problems between his brothers, Webby found herself often updated on the situation during these walks and with how well Louie was doing. When she wanted to see Dewey get really excited she'd ask about the car, if she wanted to see him contemplative she'd ask about what he thought about Louie's studies. it had just been earlier this week Louie had received the poor grade in English and yet another in their history class a couple days later. Due to her own activities she had been unable to get in touch with Dewey over it. She was in the newspaper club at school and often went out to find stories. The club had formed with the help of the an art and English teacher. The two teachers basically supervised the whole project, allowing the students to mimic various city newspapers and even created a website so they could produce it digitally as well. She had been so wrapped up in it all, she hadn't been able to ask about Louie. She wasn't sure why she always did, but she always hoped that something would have broken though; that he would have made a good grade and she just missed it somehow.

"How's Louie doing?" While she had seen Dewey again in their biology class, she had been running late and hadn't really been able to talk to him then.

"All right, he failed his science test and you know about the English test and the history one," Dewey said with a sigh. "He did a make-up on the English test and got the grade raised to a low C. The science teacher isn't going to be as lenient. He's going to have to do a lot of extra credit and he'll be retaking the history test Tuesday." Webby hid a smile; sometimes Dewey sounded like he was talking about his own kid or something. Dewey scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "I talked with Phoebe and Rob, you know the two who sometimes tutor him before school and during lunch?" Webby nodded; she had spoken with them before. "Phoebe's going to go over the science with him and Rob said he's trying to go over the history. I'll probably be going over both in the evenings plus the new homework."

"Are you going to want any help? I can come over one or two days when I don't have newspaper club."

"Well, I don't want you to have to go out of your way or anything, but I could use some help." It was true; Dewey really did value and appreciate anyone else who put forth the effort to help his brother.

"It's no problem!"

"Thanks, I mean it."

Louie's face lit up when he saw Dewey and Webby. Parting from his teammates, he went over to their area and greeted them. "Hey, guys! Glad you came."

"Of course," Dewey said, happy to see his brother actually happy and not stressed. About the only time he saw him this way was at his swim meets and the rifle meets.

"You better knock those other guys out of the water," Webby encouraged, emphasizing her point with a punch in the air. Both boys laughed good-naturedly at her antics.

"I'll try," Louie assured her before returning to his teammates.

He could feel his heart race a bit when his event was called up finally. There were seven other swimmers competing in this one; ten lengths of the pool. He loved swimming, he really did. He also enjoyed competition, but he was always on edge when it came time for the actual competition. He wasn't good at anything else, so it was his mission to excel in his extracurricular activities. He had never revealed this to any of his family members. After all, until recently he had only been good, but not the best in all the athletic activities he participated in. Lately, at his swim practices, he had been practicing with a new kind of ambition. He attacked the challenges with ferocity and grim determination to be the absolute best. It was odd. Before middle school, though he had enjoyed sports, he had never truly cared about winning or losing. Failing a grade and his crumbling relationships with his family, especially Huey, had lit this flame in him to want to be the absolute best in these activities. He was good, too. By far, he was one of the better swimmers on his swim team, only the captain being better and not much, at that. Duckburg High's swim team was already one of the best ones in the state of Calisota. He beat most of the other swimmers out easily. The last one, he beat by less than a second.

Dewey and Webby were both floored. Louie had never beaten every other swimmer out before. Usually, he came in second, third or fourth place. Never last, but never first either. They exchanged a stunned glance before Dewey cracked a smile. "I guess he took you pretty seriously."

"Yeah." Webby agreed, her shock giving way to happiness and pride. Something about it was unsettling to her companion, though. Dewey's smile didn't quite reach his eyes and he looked unsure of whether he should be should be cheering or not. There was just something about the look in his brother's eyes that seemed odd and out of place. He couldn't quite place it, though, and finally decided to file it away in the back of his mind for now and live in the moment.