A/N: No worries, Dusty. Chapter 9 was not the end of the story. There's plenty more to come. Anyway, here's Chapter 10. Glad you're all enjoying it so far.

10.

It was 7:00 a.m. again and Louis pulled himself out of bed. At least the school year's almost over, Louis thought. Louis crawled out of his bed and dragged his feet over to his closet. He pulled on another Hawaiian shirt and some khaki shorts. When it came to his wardrobe, Louis was not one to change. He brushed his teeth and made his way to his car, still parked in the drive way. But he was intercepted along the way. "Louis, honey, you should eat something before you go."

Louis had 20 minutes. "Okay." Then Louis proceeded to grab an armful of pancakes and eggs and was off like the wind.

Eileen looked towards the door Louis had just walked out of, "Hmm, his appetite must be back."

Louis sped on his way to Polk High. He was sticking pancakes in his mouth with his bare hand as the tunes blasted away in his Nova. It looked like the old Louis. It looked like things would be back to normal. He pulled into his usual parking spot, at the usual 5 minutes after the first bell to start the day. Maybe Louis just needed to get some rest to get those troubles behind him. He opened up the front door to the school and kept a sharp eye for administrators who were eager to give him a tardy slip. Louis hid behind a pillar and took a good look at the scenery. Louis tip-toed past the front office and made his way to the stairwell. Louis made his way up the stairs to his class. But he first needed to make some preparations for something. Then Louis made his way to the classroom and discreetly took his seat next to Twitty.

Class moved along slowly and the bell rang. Louis was snickering thinking about the drop he'd just made. "What are you laughing about, man?" Twitty asked.

Louis was trying desperately not to laugh. He took a hold of Twitty's shirt and pulled him closer. "You see, I got this great prank set up. It's just down the hall. If my calculations are correct, Tom should be coming out of his Home Ec class or Quilting or whatever he's in, and he should be coming out to be greeted with . . ." Louis heard the familiar, bold scream:

"STEVENS!!"

Louis' grin was instantly gone and his eyes were bugged out. "Uh oh. Wexler got it." Principal Wexler was standing at the end of the hallway covered in clam chowder and absolutely furious. His eyes were staring at the prankster and Louis could see the fire consuming the principal. "Um, dude, I think I gotta go." Twitty patted Louis on the back for good luck and Louis was off to the races.

Louis was off and running, and as usual, he was knocking various people over as Wexler pursued him. Wexler raised his finger in Louis' direction, "Stevens!!" Louis continued knocking students over and even a couple teachers. He was running frantically. He made a turn around a corner and ran into Corey who was chatting it up with Tawny. Louis hit the ground hard when he ran into the mammoth, muscular actor. Louis panicked as he tried to get back to his feet. Tawny, who was very confused about the whole ordeal, said, "Louis, what's going on?" Louis bounced to his feet and was off running again before he could answer Tawny. She was still a bit confused until she saw Mr. Wexler running past them, with clam chowder covering his face and suit. Tawny made a sarcastic grin and said, "Oh gee. I wonder what happened."

Corey looked down the hall watching the husky principal chase after the ambitious prankster. "Tawny, why does your friend always do stupid things? I mean, what's his problem?"

Tawny crossed her arms, sighed, and said, "Well, Louis likes to play practical jokes. Sometimes he'll act like a real kid. He's alright. He's still just growing up." Then Corey put his arm around Tawny and said, "Well, it's nice that we know a couple people who are grown up." Tawny giggled slightly and they were on their way. Meanwhile, Wexler was still in hot pursuit of the crafty prankster. They had nearly made an entire revolution around the hallways. Louis was looking back and he didn't even notice that he was back at the sight of the infamous prank. Clam chowder was still covering the floor, Louis slipped, flew in the air and landed on his butt on the ground. He staggered, trying to get up, but this time it was too late. Louis was pulling his weight up when he felt a hand grab his ear.

"Gotcha!"

With a horrified look on his face, Louis said, "Mr. Wexler! Hi! How ya doin'? Hey, what happened to you?" He was trying to act innocent, even though he had just been running away from him.

"Mr. Stevens! You are coming with me!" Mr. Wexler screamed as he pulled Louis by his ear to the front office. When they arrived there, he dropped Louis in his usual chair and Wexler took his place behind his desk and pulled out a file. Still dripping with some of the clam chowder, Mr. Wexler said, "Stevens, your shenanigans have gone on far enough."

"Mr. Wexler, it's not what you think."

"Then what is it? Then what is it that's dripping from my body? Is it cole slaw? Bean dip perhaps?"

"Um, it's clam ch. . . I mean, um . . . how are you doing today, Mr. Wexler? How's your mom doing these days? Which reminds me, there was a nice elderly lady I was about to walk across the street, but you pulled me over. So if you don't mind . . ." Louis said as he was beginning to get up out of his chair.

"Park it, Stevens."

"Um, Mr. Wexler, what's that?" Louis asked, referring to the manila file folder that was packed a little thick with papers and referrals.

"This," Wexler began, "Is your personal file."

"All of that is my file?" Louis pointed and asked.

"No, this is just since Christmas." Louis frowned. "January 18: you brought a camel to school and were charging students $5.00 to ride the animal to class."

"What's the big deal, Mr. Wexler? We're in America, a capitalist country, and well, I was capitalizing..."

"Stevens! Do you know how long it took Janitor Bud to clean up the messes he left. It was everywhere!"

"Well, you see . . ."

"And on January 30: You were taking bets for the Super Bowl. You had a big board set up, you had a cheap green visor, and twenty dollar bills were sticking out of your pants." Louis still frowned. Wexler continued, "And on Valentine's Day, you brought in a mariachi band to create a diversion while you were leading a raffle in the hallway." Now Louis chuckled as he recalled the classic prank. "But the reason I'm making you sit through this is because I'm giving you one last chance to straighten up. You will be walking the graduation line in 3 weeks . . . provided that you don't pull any more pranks until then. Do we have an understanding?"

"I guess so, but what happens if a prank gets pulled, which I didn't do, but I end up taking the blame anyway?"

"Then you will be suspended and not permitted to walk the line with your friends."

Louis gulped hard and went to class.