Little Annotations | Tristan Dugray

chapter nine

The afternoon was absolutely wonderful for Genevieve. School ended on time, and there was no traffic on the way home. Her chef made the most perfect Katsu for dinner, and she was all alone. She couldn't remember the last time she was truly alone, ever since Rory came to Chilton, she had less and less time to herself. She was always out and about, developing a minor fear of missing out. The girl found herself immersed in her homework, her phone thrown across the room, and classical music filling the air. It was peace

Well. Peace up until the person who she was dumb enough to allow a bypass to the 'do not disturb' feature on her phone called. She was in a deep dive of Greek and Roman myths when Tristan called and missed the first two, the third time her phone rang, she sighed and lugged to her desk where her phone sat.

"What?" She snapped and heard Tristan chuckle on the other side.

"You were studying weren't you?"

"I'm going to string you up with my charging cord Tristan." She said, hanging up, only for him to immediately call back.

"Leave me alone," She sung.

"No," He said, "I need your help..."

She groaned, "With?"

"I lost my chicken," He admitted. Getting such an admission from Tristan was big, the boy rarely did things of that sort.

Genevieve glanced at her own chicken, tucked in the far corner of her room, and made sure it was still in its cage. Chilton had no business sending their students home with defective cages for their chickens, but it was the only way to actually ensure that the students kept a proper eye on them.

"Where were you?" She said, grabbing her keys off of the hook near her door, "We've been out of school for four hours,"

"Just got home from Amy's house," He said.

"There isn't an Amy in our grade,"

"She's a grade below-"

"Ew," She said, hopping on one foot as she pulled her shoes on, "Didn't realize we were babysitting now,"

"Listen, are you coming over?"

"Yes," She said, unlocking her car, "You're terribly inconvenient you know,"

"It's not like you were doing anything,"

"W-"

"Studying isn't considered doing something in my book," Tristan said before she could speak. If things went South and his chicken wasn't found, at least he managed to pull her away from her books so she didn't end up overworking herself yet again.

"Well what if I was with someone?" She said, "Maybe the boy from New York's in town," Ever since she'd told Tristan about the 'cute' guy she met in New York, his comments became incessant. A new sweater? Maybe it's for the guy in New York. New hairstyle? The guy in New York. Even Delphine joined in on the comments.

"And what would you be doing with him?" Tristan said.

"I don't know- he'd actually have to be here for that," She sighed, "Tristan open the damn gate,"

He quickly ended the call and raced to the front of his house where Genevieve stood, an annoyed smile on her face as she leaned against her car. She was still in her Chilton uniform, but she looked different than she usually did in school. This Genevieve was more relaxed, less worried about the next test, and more worried about his currently misplaced chicken.

"You knew the cages were defective!" She said once he was in earshot, "I told you that the cages were defective!"

"Yes woman, I know you did,"