"No, you cannot go out tonight," Donald said.
"But it's Friday!" Louie said.
"I don't care. You didn't finish your homework for Tuesday, Wednesday, or today, so you can't go out."
"But I already told them I could go!"
"Then text them that you can't."
"But Uncle Donald-"
"No buts!" Donald said. "Now go start your homework for this weekend!"
Louie turned to go upstairs with a small growl of frustration. "I thought things would be different once we moved in with Uncle Scrooge."
Donald stood, arms crossed, as he watched his nephew climb the stairs to his room.
Once there, Louie flopped down on his bed. It wasn't fair. He didn't even want to do anything bad-he just wanted to get ice cream with some of the guys from school. What was wrong with that? Sure, he hadn't finished the majority of his homework this week-and, yeah, ok, he hadn't even started it on Thursday-but why did Uncle Donald have to punish him for it now? Why couldn't he wait until tomorrow or Sunday when he didn't have plans?
So many of Uncle Donald's rules had been relaxed once they moved into the Manor, Louie thought that life would be different. And, ok, in a lot of ways, it was, but ever since school had started up again, it was just like living back on the houseboat (well, except for the fact that Launchpad drove them home from school multiple times a week, but that didn't really count).
Louie looked out the window. He could almost see the ice cream parlor where he was supposed to meet his friends. He supposed he should probably text them sooner rather than later so they wouldn't bother waiting for him…
Or he could escape down the tree right outside his window.
No, he couldn't do that...right? That would be wrong. Sure, the Manor was big enough that no one would probably ever know, and he'd just be going out for ice cream with his friends, so nothing bad would happen, but...
Louie could almost imagine the tiny Louie-angel and the tiny Louie-devil sitting on his shoulders.
'There's no reason you shouldn't have a social life. And as big as your family is now, it doesn't count as a social life.'
'But what if Uncle Donald discovers you're gone? He'd be worried sick!'
'No one's gonna find out. This place is so big, Scrooge himself probably still gets lost in it. If someone can't find you, they'll just assume you're somewhere else in the mansion and drop it.'
'Uncle Donald has more than enough things to worry about already. You shouldn't add yourself to the list.'
'Uncle Donald's been stifling ever since you moved in with him. It's time you left the nest a little, learned responsibility yourself, firsthand.'
'After Uncle Donald's done being worried, he might turn that famous temper of his onto you.'
Louie shuddered. He'd be lying if he said he'd never thought about what might happen if Uncle Donald got that angry at him (or his brothers, for that matter). But tiny Louie-devil had a pretty good point…
Louie's fists clenched. You know what? He was going to go out and get ice cream with his friends. Uncle Donald would never know he was gone
Louie opened the window. One of the weirdest things about moving into McDuck Manor was that the windows didn't have screens. Apparently, that was a European thing, but Scrooge probably predated window screens anyway. Besides, he'd probably saved a whole $100 by not screening the windows.
He reached out for the tree branch and grabbed it with surprising ease. He swung onto the branch, momentarily lost his balance, and then shimmied towards the trunk. Louie had never been a tree climbing kid-it's pretty hard to be when you live on a houseboat docked to a pier-but he managed to slide down the tree with only a few scrapes.
Heart pounding, he ran towards the front gates. Laughter bubbled up inside of him, escaping in short bursts between breaths. He was free! Free to do whatever he wanted! Free from Uncle Donald's tyrannical rule! Free to-
Was this really such a good idea?
Yes. Yes it was. Besides, it was much too late to go back, and that ice cream was calling his name.
Louie slipped out of the front gates (easy, when you had the fob) and walked towards the bus stop.
"Bye, guys!" Louie waved at his friends before turning to walk the other way towards his bus stop. Sneaking out was definitely, 100% worth it. Louie should really do this more often.
Louie whistled as he waited for the bus. He glanced sharply to the left as he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Ok, sure, it was definitely a little later than he'd planned on being out, but that was fine. There wasn't a single text message or missed call from Uncle Donald. He'd be home before he knew it.
Louie looked again as a shadow flew through his peripheral vision.
"H-hello?" he said. "Is anybody there?"
Nobody answered.
Louie laughed to himself. See? Nothing to worry about. It was probably just light from the cars on the next road over. Definitely nothing to-
He heard a rustle in the bushes behind the bus stop and whipped around.
"I know you're in there!" he shouted.
Still no answer.
Louie's nerves must be catching up to him. That must be it. Why would anybody be hiding around a bus stop at night? That was just ridiculous.
Another shadowed passed through the corner of his vision and Louie could have sworn he heard a whoosh.
All right. Ok. How about, instead of waiting for the bus, he walked home? Louie could use the exercise, anyway.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and set off at a brisk pace. And then an owl hooted, which would actually be kind of cool if it wasn't so late and Louie wasn't so alone. Then maybe Louie saw another shadow move, he couldn't really tell, and, in retrospect, it was probably a tree blowing in the wind, and then he felt something fly at his head, which might have been a piece of paper or a plastic bag, but Louie was almost certain it was a bat, and suddenly running seemed like a much better idea.
Louie ran harder and faster than he ever had in his life. He ran so fast that tears came to his eyes and he could hardly catch his breath. Oh jeez, was that another bat? Since when did Duckburg have so many bats? They didn't even have any caves. Thank goodness, Louie could see the Manor now; he was almost there and-that was another bat flying past, Louie just knew it. It was gonna give him rabies or turn him into a vampire (Huey's voice echoed in his head, telling him that vampire bats weren't actually vampires). Oh, Louie was sorry, sorry that he hadn't done his homework this week, sorry that he'd snuck out. He'd never do it again, promise, as long as he lived-
And just like that, Louie was at the gates of McDuck Manor.
He used his fob to open them, not caring that they made noise and probably set off some sort of alert back up at the house. He slipped back onto Scrooge's property and waited, practically vibrating his feathers off, for the gate to close before bolting to the house. He switched gears and slowly inserted his key into the lock and turned it before slowly, slowly opening the door just enough so he could slip in. Keeping the handle turned, he slowly closed it again (good thing Uncle Scrooge kept all the hinges well-oiled) and turned the lock-
"I thought your uncle forbid you from going out tonight."
Louie jumped about three feet into the air, a yelp tearing itself out of his throat.
"What? No, I was just...checking the weather! For a...science project!" Louie said, trying desperately to regain his composure.
"Right," Mrs. Beakley said. Her eyes narrowed and she moved closer. "Don't let it happen again." She turned on her heals and returned into the depths of the mansion.
Louie breathed a huge sigh of relief and went upstairs. As he walked down the hallway, he heard a familiar quacking. It looked like Uncle Donald was sleeping in the "guest room" in the Manor tonight rather than the houseboat out in the pool. Louie pushed the door open.
"Good night, Uncle Donald!" he said, wrapping his arms around his uncle.
Uncle Donald looked surprised. "Good night, Louie," he said, returning the hug.
Louie happily returned to his own room. Yep, there was no way he was ever going to sneak out again.