The devil's heart - Joseph Descamps Mixte 1963 [ENG]

Prologue

Hadler's residence- 1963

     On this pleasant morning, the young Lorene Hadler was looking at her hair in the mirror, annoyed. It was impossible for her to find the perfect hairstyle on this very special day, frustrating her deeply. It was more than necessary to make a good impression on her schoolmates, but also on any curious person who might be wandering around the Voltaire high school gates. Because of her dad's involvement in the project, her every move had to be measured not to have a negative impact on Lawrence Hadler's political career. This man was ruthless when it was about debating, and even worse when he had to beat an opponent. However, a particular tenderness radiated from him as soon as his dear daughter - the second born one - was in his sight. He was of those parents who were strict but fair, reserved around their own children. That's why it was somehow surprising of him to announce that Lorene would leave the uptown manor for her uncle's secondary residence, exactly where the first French mixed-sex schooling high school would develop. He trusted her.
     The teenager looked at herself in the reflection, furrowed her brows and gave up. The woman in charge of dressing her up, perfuming her and enhancing her young mistress heard the profuse sighs, constant brushing noises and pins thrown against the dressing table upstairs. She decided to go up, as the time to leave for high school drew closer, miss Hadler still hadn't joined her family in the dining room for a generous breakfast. Jane knew when she had to step in and also interpret Lorene's signs of abandonment when she was struggling with a task. Today, it was about projecting the image of a well-mannered, discreet and delicate high school student. She had to emphasize the most pleasurable aspects of personality to make a good impression on the teachers, but also on the majority of the students. This subtle manipulation, deceitfully innocent, would be of good use in the future - because it was useful to be highly thought of, and being disheveled as well as poorly dressed wasn't a way to achieve that, so she had to avoid it at all cost. Otherwise, she'd die of embarrassment.
     When Jane had found the perfect hairstyle, her mistress and her could join Jonathan Hadler and Katherine Dumas - the second wife who kept her maiden name of the man who had, since August, warmly welcomed his niece. The couple was delighted to be given the custody of Lorene, her demeanor and meekness made her easy to live with despite her young age. Where a lot of parents encountered many difficulties with their children from high school, no one had reproached her for anything. She was conscious of the weight her shoulders had to carry ever since her birth, of what was expected of her. So Lorene was disciplined. Out of duty more than anything. Guided by a destiny on which she had no direct control.

     Once the house was far behind, the croissants filling her stomach alongside a hot chocolate, Lorene starting feeling a sense of dread slowly creeping up her throat. The private middle school in town looked much different from what was awaiting her. Her schoolmates would be way less stiff, serious and anyway... mixing with boys... Lorene automatically made her way to high school on the uneven cobblestones, her mind clouded. She had trained herself to go back and forth from home to the school on her own, refusing the invite of her chauffeur to drive her back to Uncle Jon's in his Peugeot 404. The car he was so proud of, the first one to have a fuel-injected engine. To blend in more easily among the Voltaire high school students, Lorene deliberately chose to walk, she didn't want her rank to prevent her from getting closer to the others. Seeing her arrive by car, dropped off by an employee ? This could create a gulf even though they hadn't even met yet. After a few minutes, the high school large wrought iron gates were towering the young Hadler, who was suddenly petrified. As her future classmates were making their way in bit by bit, the schoolyard was then only filled with young men paying close attention to the arrival of the girls who would share their daily lives from now on, who were far less interesting before without them. Many gazes would land on her entirety under the September sun, as it would warm her back, staring. Lorene exhaled and closed her eyes. She wouldn't be alone in this, some of the girls had to be in the same state. She had to find one of them. Entering the high school grounds would be more tempting once she would have company. Lorene owned her eyes, she was the only one. So she gathered her courage, activated her social skills, the ones she'd use on banquets and receptions which sprinkled her life ever since she learned on how to remain neutral and hide her true emotions behind the utmost politeness. No matter what happened. Getting through the storm of starting a new school year would ultimately be child's play.