Feelings

23: Houses

A sleek, black car rolls into the school's parking lot. Looks fancy.

Alex whistles. "A Rolls-Royce?"

"Yes. That is notre voiture. Come in." A guy who's dressed like a butler steps out of the car and opens the back door for us. Very fancy.

Amélie walks up to the guy. "Bonjour, Dominique. Ce sont mes amis."

"Tes amis?" He has a way thicker French accent than Amélie. "Avec tout le respect que je vous dois, Mademoiselle Paquette. Je ne savais pas que tu avais plus d'amis."

"Dominique! Bien sûr, j'ai plus d'amis!"

Dominique looks at us. "Eh bien! Bienvenu, entre s'il te plait."

"He means to get in the car," translates Amélie. "Dominique cannot speak English. He came over to Canada with us."

This is new. "Alright then."

Alex climbs in and then me. Amélie sits in the front passenger seat. Dominique gets in and we pull into the road. These seats are comfy. I think they might be leather.

Alex whispers to me, "She's stacked."

"What?" His slang terms confuse me.

"I mean I think Amélie's rich. If your family has a Rolls-Royce and a personal driver, you're rich."

Didn't think about that. "Could be."

"Qui sont-ils?" asks Dominique.

Amélie looks over at us. "Celui avec la veste est Alex. L'autre est Jae."

"Tu sais que tes parents voulaient que tu soirs."

"Tu as besoin de te relaxer! Ils seraient plus heureux si j'amenais des amis."

"Comme vous dites, Mademoiselle Paquette."

We arrive in front of Amélie's house. Amélie's massive, fancy house. Off-white walls, a black roof and big windows. This has to stick out. It doesn't actually. All the houses here are big and fancy, like Amélie's.

"Damn!" Alex looks like a tourist, looking out the car window.

Amélie looks over at us again. "Alex, s'il vous plait, do not use that language in front of my parents. They will be offensé."

"Aight, no problem." Alex leans back as we pull into the driveway. "What does 'oh-fawn-say' mean?"

"She means they'll be offended," I explain.

Dominique drives the car into a garage. "Ohhh, got it," says Alex. The car stops smoothly and Dominique gets out.

"Par ici." He opens the on my side for me.

I step out and Alex follows. This garage looks like a normal garage. Ugly grey concrete. I see Amélie's pink scooter and helmet leaning against a wall. "Where are we supposed to go?"

"This way," directs Amélie. We follow her into a huge living room with white walls. It looks as big as the whole house!

"Holy moly." There's a big fireplace with real fire in it. A spiraling staircase spirals up from the fireplace to a sort of inside balcony. 6 cushiony chairs surround a round wooden table. Opposite from the fireplace is a gigantic window from floor to ceiling. The sunlight goes through the window, bathing the room in beautiful, natural light. It gives me a view of a big garden. Essentially everything here seems to be big-ified. "That's a chandelier!" exclaims Alex. An enormous chandelier with hundreds of tiny glass pieces hanging from it hangs from the ceiling. 10 candles are also lit up. Who could reach them? It looks like it could fall at any moment.