Louie

Louie didn't go back to Biology. He didn't even go to his next period. When he heard the bell ring for the last class of the day, he elected to head off to the nearby park. It was a bit run down and didn't see a lot of use, but he didn't mind. It had a large tree nearby, and it was a sunny day. He lied down next to the tree, putting his satchel to the side, and just waited for the distant call of the school bell to tell him that he could go home without having to answer any awkward questions.

He stared up at the branches of the cedar he had chosen to rest against, just a bit away from the main part of the park, its leaves slowly swaying back and forth in the light breeze. He inhaled, drawing in the early spring air, and then exhaled slowly.

Escuchen de cerca, niño. No quiero tener que hacerte…

He moved his hands onto his chest, clasping them together as he rested.

It was my fault, man! I showed him that dagger, if I had just…!

He clenched his hands together, taking another deep breath.

Well… it'd be seen as a case of neglect, or abuse…

Louie winced and sat up. That was enough of those thoughts. He reached into his satchel and took out a pair of headphones. Taking his phone out of his hoodie pockets, he plugged it in and started to browse through his music library.

Before he could find a decent track, his phone buzzed with a notification. He frowned, then took a look at what it was.

Louie – come down to the bin when you're able. I want to talk to you about something.

- Scrooge

"…Goddammit, Huey." Louie muttered. Of course, the first thing he would do is text the adults and tell them he was skipping class. Of course, Scrooge would be the first one to want to rouse on him. Of course. He stared at his phone for a moment, irritated and suddenly angry.

Then, he heard another interruption, coming up from behind. He paused. He could hear someone walking up, soft footfalls upon the ground. Eyes narrowed, he put his phone away and looked over to the side.

Walking up to him was a young girl, around about his age. She was a duck, her face covered with light brown feathers with large white patches around her eyes and a black beak. Dark headfeathers flowed down her shoulders, somewhat unkempt and messy, and since she was looking away from him, he could see the faint outline of makeup covering her cheekbone, just under her eye. She was wearing a black leather jacket over a red top, a long dark green skirt covering her legs.

She stopped when she noticed he was looking at her, letting Louie get a good look at her face. He recognised her, but he couldn't put a name to her. She wasn't one of the students in his grade. Maybe she was in the one above or below him.

She seemed to hesitate, a distasteful expression on her face. Then he saw her sigh, and she continued walking up to him.

Louie watched her curiously for a couple more moments, then he stood up, picking up his satchel and standing up, waiting for the girl to approach.

"Hey." She said to him. "It's Louie Duck, right?"

"Yup." He replied. He raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Can I… help you?"

"…Yeah. I'm looking for something." She told him. Louie detected a faint Indian accent in her low voice.

"Alright then." Louie said, adjusting his satchel and giving her a confident smile. "You've come to the right guy, then. Follow me."

He started to walk away from the tree he had been resting at and towards the park proper. He heard her following, and he glanced over his shoulder. The girl was looking away from him, apparently uncomfortable. He figured he could fix that.

"I feel like I've seen you before." He said to her, getting her attention, but not her gaze. "Do we share a class?"

The girl shook her head. "No."

"No? Alright… were you in the chess club? I was in that for about a month." He continued, turning around and walking backwards.

"No." Her tone was blunt, and distinctly unfriendly.

"…Debating team?"

She finally turned to look at him, glaring at him directly in the eye. "Why does it matter?"

"Hey, relax! I'm just trying to get to know you!" Louie replied, putting his hands up. The gate into the park was getting close. "Look, we'll start with your name. You know mine, but…" He gestured towards her, inviting her to introduce herself.

"…I'd prefer not to say." The girl replied.

Louie stopped in front of the gate, his hand resting on the chain-link fence beside it. "…Yeah, no." He said, keeping his smile up. "That's not how this works. I try to keep a thorough record of my transactions, and I can't very well do that if I don't know your name."

The girl gave him a very dark look for a moment.

Then, she sighed in resignation. "Chanda." She told him. "Chanda Kulavaan."

"Thank you." Louie said, opening the gate. "Wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Fuck off, dickhead." She snarled, pushing past him into the park. "Let's just get this over with."

Louie let an annoyed scowl cross his face, breaking the persona for just a moment before he forced the smile to return. He had a sneaking suspicion that this was going to be a difficult customer.

He followed her into the park, then led her towards a simple wooden table. Telling her to wait, he then strode over to a slip-and-slide nearby, one of the ones that wrapped around in a spiral before opening up at the bottom. A piece of paper attached to it and encased in a plastic sheet read, 'UNSAFE STRUCTURE'.

Louie knelt down at the bottom of the slide, reaching out underneath the bottom lip. Grasping something, he pulled out a red metal lockbox of moderate size and noticeable weight. He shook it a little bit, hearing that there was still stuff in it, then made his way back to the girl, who was standing next to the table, not taking a seat. He placed the lockbox on the table with a hefty thunk, smirking.

She frowned. "…What is…?"

"My wares." Louie replied, taking a key out of his pocket.

"I'm looking for something specific." The girl told him. "I'm not interested-"

"Hey, you have no idea what I have in this box." Louie interrupted her, unlocking the strongbox. "And even if I don't, I'm sure there'll be something that I do have that'll catch your fancy."

"…Fine." The girl said irritably "But you're wasting your time. Just so you know."

Jeez, this girl was unpleasant. Trying not to let his displeasure show, Louie just turned the strongbox to face her and opened it up to show her the contents within.

"Still feel that way?" He asked.

The girl's expression shifted from one of hostility to one of confusion. "…What's…?" She began to ask.

"Lemme break it down for you." Louie said, beginning to pull out the things in the box and place them on the table. He started with a bag of store-bought chocolates, colourful writing upon the plastic bag containing them. "This here is a bag of candy bars. Nothing special about them, but they're only one dollar each, and if you come to me for them, you don't have to trapse all the way to the store during class hours."

"Hold on, wait-"

"Next, I've got cherry and ginger Pep, both particularly rare." Louie continued, not giving the girl room to think. He pulled out two cans, one pink, one orange. "These cans are empty, obviously, but I do know where to get more. They'll run you about five bucks. And to finish off the foodstuffs, I've also got this for ten bucks."

He put an empty green beer can in front of her.

"And don't worry. I won't need ID." He joked.

She stared at him. "…And the… other stuff?" She asked, pressing him.

"Oh, yeah!" Louie said, feigning forgetfulness. He continued pulling stuff out of the strongbox, showing each item to her as he did. "Tickets for some up-and-coming concerts, real useful if mom and pop won't let you go… weighted dice, if you feel like ripping off someone gullible… a bunch of trading cards, which a bunch of nerds seem to think are valuable for some reason, uh… fake IDs, but those have to be custom-ordered… and, of course…"

He took the last thing out of the strongbox – a bundle of papers, held together in a plastic folder – and dropped it ceremoniously in front of her.

"Cheat papers." Louie explained, a devious glint in his eye. "Containing the answers for every upcoming test in the next three months. For every subject."

He took a seat behind the goods, waiting for her decision with confidence.

The girl didn't respond for a moment. Slowly, she reached out and picked it up the papers to stare at them.

Then, she let the plastic envelop fall back on the table limply.

"…This is it?" She asked hoarsely, as if in dismay.

Louie blinked, taken aback. His practiced mask flickered for a moment, then he laughed softly and said, "Well… I mean, most people would call it an 'impressive collection'…"

"This is all it is." The girl mumbled, her breathing starting to get faster. "It's just‑ It's all-!"

Without warning, the girl swept her arms across the table and threw all of the items onto the ground. Louie jumped in alarm, catching himself just before he could fall off his seat. His gaze flicked between the items, now strewn across the dirt and grass, then back to the girl, staring at her in bewilderment.

"You're supposed to be a drug dealer!" She shouted at him, her tone a strange mix of distress, anger and disbelief. "I thought you got people stuff from out of town and hospitals, stuff that other kids couldn't!"

Louie stared at the girl, slowly raising an eyebrow at her. "Ooo-kay… well, whoever told you that is either wildly misinformed, or trying to get me expelled."

The girl backed up, grabbing at her headfeathers and muttering, "No… no, no, no…"

Louie kept staring as the girl paced back and forth, completely lost. He didn't have any idea what was happening anymore, and for the first time in a while, he found himself at a loss for words.

"You're the richest family in Duckburg!" The girl suddenly blurted out, whirling around to face him. "You have to be involved with that shit, or at least know somebody who is!"

He didn't say anything for a moment, trying to find the right response to that accusation.

"…Do we even go to the same school?" He ended up asking uncertainly, pointing between the two of them. "Just 'cause if we did, then you would know that's not my deal. Never has been."

The girl didn't respond. She backed off and looked away, a conflicted expression upon her face. There was an awkward pause between the two of them, Louie not sure what to say in response to this outburst. "I'll just… uh…" He muttered, slowly and somewhat cautiously kneeling down to pick up his things.

"…What…" The girl started again, prompting Louie to look at her. "…What would it take to make it your deal?"

Louie stared at her, then shook his head, officially fed up. "Alright. We're done. I don't know what your problem is…"

"It isn't for me," The girl said quickly. "It's for-"

"I don't care who it's for." Louie cut her off, standing up to glare at her. "Unless you want the cops to be tipped off that there's a 'Miss Kulavaan' looking for drugs, I suggest that you leave. Now."

The girl opened her beak, then closed it, struggling for words. Then, with a furious look that seemed to be on the verge of tears, she stormed off, violently throwing the gate open before marching back in the direction she had come from.

Louie watched her leave, letting out a held breath once she was safely out of earshot. "What the hell…?" He muttered to himself, completely nonplussed by the whole situation. He looked down to his wares, sighed, then began to pick them back up.

Once he'd put his stuff back into the lockbox and hidden it once more, he found himself at a loss on what to do. Obviously, a major priority now was figuring out where exactly that girl had gotten the idea that he sold drugs, because that was not a rumour that he wanted circulating around town. Then, there was the matter of Scrooge's text, and the chewing out that would inevitably follow.

He mulled it over, standing in the middle of the playground, absent-mindedly tapping the strap of his satchel. The distant ring of the school bell echoed from afar.

Making a decision, he pulled out his phone and typed out a message.

Alright i'll be there soon

No sense putting it off, he thought as he sent the reply. If he didn't face the music now, he'd just have to face it when he got back home. And it was possible that there wasn't a rumour at all, just a misunderstanding. He'd tackle it if someone else came to him expecting to buy coke or… whatever that girl had been looking for.

With that done, he sent another quick message to Launchpad, requesting a pick-up. Once that was said and done, he stepped out of the park and leant against the fence, waiting. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone to look for music again.

Before he could, it started to ring. A blurry profile picture of Dewey showed up on the screen.

"…Everyone's interrupting me today." Louie muttered, swiping the icon on the screen and holding the phone to his head. "Hello?"

"Hey, Lou!" Dewey's voice replied. "We're heading over to the mall. Wanna come with?"

"We?"

"Uh, me… Webby, and Huey. Interested?"

"Can't. I'm heading over to the Bin." Louie replied. "Sorry."

"The Bin?" Dewey asked, a hint of confusion in his voice. "Why?"

"Dunno. Scrooge wants to see me for some reason."

"Huh." Dewey replied. A moment later, he exclaimed, "Oh! Maybe's he's gonna give you an internship or something! Like, as an economist or whatever!"

"Well, he's going to be disappointed if that's the case." Louie replied. "I'll see you guys at home later, 'kay?"

"…Okay, man. See you later."

"See you."

"Oh wait, I was talking to the team before about the Trent-"

Louie hung up.

It took about ten minutes for the limo to show up, screeching to a halt against the sidewalk. Louie paused the song his phone was playing, approaching the long black car as the side window descended. He took out one of his earbuds, leaning down as Launchpad's face revealed itself from within the car.

"Hey, Dewey's brother Louie!" Launchpad said cheerfully.

"Hey, LP." Louie replied, opening the side door of the car.

"I heard Mister McDee wanted to speak to you, so I came over as quick as I could." Launchpad told him as Louie stepped into the back seat. "Wanna sit in the front?"

"Nah, I'm fine in the back." Louie told him, sitting back in the leather seats and closing the door behind him. Sitting in the front seat with Launchpad was a death wish as far as Louie was concerned.

"Okay!" Launchpad replied, taking off and immediately doing a hasty U-turn. Louie quickly clicked in his seatbelt, holding back a curse as the car swerved and the tires screeched. He shut his eyes as he righted himself, and he took a deep breath to calm himself.

"Man, it's been a long time since you've driven in the limo, huh?" Launchpad started saying absentmindedly as he sped down the road. "You usually take the bus now, so I don't get to drive you guys that often!"

"Yeah, it's been a while." Louie muttered, reaching for the headphones that had fallen out.

"Not to mention the fact that I'm in St. Canard a lot of the time." Launchpad continued. "Definitely not because I'm helping Darkwing Duck fight crime or anything like that. I just have family over there! Yeah, that's right."

"You don't say." Louie replied, putting the earbuds back in and reaching for his phone.

"Oh, man, but have you heard the news about Darkwing?" Launchpad gushed, turning around and leaning over the seat as he talked. "He fought the-"

Louie tapped a button on his phone, and Launchpad's voice faded into the background as music flowed from the earbuds. It was a popular top 40 track, the kind that had a slow, meditative energy to it that helped Louie relax. He took a deep breath and sighed, letting himself go.

It was a simple matter from there to just pretend that he was listening to Launchpad. Whenever he saw the blundering pilot's beak close, he would just say something along the lines of, "Wow," "Do tell," or "Well, there you go." If Launchpad noticed, he didn't let it on.

Once he felt that he was safe to tune out, he did so. He let the music take hold, leaning back and relaxing as the city of Duckburg blurred past in the window. For that moment, for that car ride, he was free. Free from memories. Free from overbearing family. Free from bad thoughts. He could just sit, close his eyes, and tune out from the-

A loud crash jolted him out of his reverie, and he was almost thrown from his seat from the impact. Once again, his headphones went flying, and he found himself biting back a curse.

"Alright, Dewey's brother Louie! We're here!" Launchpad said brightly, turning around to look at him with a wide smile. "Mister McDee should still be in his office!"

Louie rubbed his head, raising a brow at Launchpad. "…You know you can just call me Louie, right?"

"Yeah, but Dewey's brother has a nicer ring to it."

Louie looked at the ex-pilot for a good six seconds, trying to see if there was any trace of irony in that statement or in his expression.

There wasn't.

"…It was good seeing you, LP." Louie muttered, opening the door and stepping outside.