Chatoyant College Book 2: Initiates

Chapter 6: Edie's Classes are Boring

"Hi, mind if I sit here?" came an unfamiliar male voice from beside Edie.

Edie looked up, startled, her flower gaining a petal that looked half-torn. The boy standing next to her was tall, and had longish, black hair that was falling into his eyes. He looked vaguely familiar. "Uh, sure," she said uncertainly. Well, she certainly wasn't going to stop the guy from sitting wherever he wanted to, though she didn't see why he would want to sit next to her when there were still empty seats.

He sat down and swung his bag to the ground, offering her a friendly grin. "You live in Gilkey, don't you?"

Ah, that would be the mystery. She smiled a little and nodded. "That's right. That's why you look familiar."

He stuck out his hand. "I'm Marlin."

She shook it. "Edie. Are you a freshman too?"

"Nope, sophomore," he said, raising one eyebrow. "You're a freshman taking 103? Pretty impressive."

"Really?" She'd thought it was unusual, but not impressive. "It's just what I tested into. I was actually hoping to skip the basic classes and go right into conversational or literature, but I guess I didn't do well enough." She shrugged. It was a little disappointing, but she could get into the higher-level classes next semester, so it wasn't too bad.

"Wow." Marlin shook his head. "I took AP French and still only tested into 102. I guess you're planning to be a French major."

She nodded. "That's the plan, anyway. Nothing's set in stone, especially not here."

"That's for sure," he chuckled. He looked like he was about to say something else, but then the teacher walked in the room and told them all, in sweetly spoken French, to sit down and shut up.

The class went as well as Edie could have hoped; all they did was some review, but the teacher obviously didn't expect her or either of the other two freshmen in the class to have any idea what she was talking about, and was pleasantly surprised when Edie and Joy, one of the other freshmen, were not at all lost. She also praised Edie's accent, which was a nice change--her teachers in high school had been very tough on that aspect. She hoped that it wasn't that the teachers at Chatoyant were less exacting--she wanted to speak French as much like a native as she could, especially if she was going to be a major.

She did leave the class in a very good mood, especially since the teacher had also said that their textbooks would mainly be used for homework assignments and they would rarely have to carry them to class. Plus, she seemed to have made a new friend in Marlin. He walked out of the class with her. "Where are you going next?"

Edie checked her watch. "I have about twenty minutes until my next class--it's the FYE class. I just figured I would hang out in the lobby and read until then."

"Oh, that's cool. I was going to go grab lunch with my roommates." They were in the lobby (the FYE class was in the same building as the French class) and he stood there awkwardly for a moment, looking from side to side. Finally he shuffled his feet and said, "Well, I guess I'll see you later, then."

"Sure," Edie said. "We live in the same building, after all."

"Right. Well, see you."

"Bye."

He finally walked away and out the door, standing at least a head above most of the other students moving in and out of the building. She wondered if he played basketball or something.

Edie sat down on one of the hard wooden chairs in the lounge and opened her book. It was, unfortunately, difficult to concentrate; there were people walking through all the time, not to mention the ones sitting in the other lounge chairs, all of them talking and laughing. She wished she'd brought her knitting instead--that was easier to concentrate on when there was noise, especially when she didn't have to think much about it. She made a mental note to start bringing her knitting with her to French and FYE.

After ten minutes, she decided to wait in the classroom instead of the lobby. It was empty, and she again took a seat in the front--might as well look like she was eager to learn. She had no idea what the class would be like, but it was required for all freshmen.

This teacher arrived early to class and spent five minutes chatting cheerily with Edie and the others as they trickled in. Edie would have been much happier to be left alone with the book, but at least the teacher seemed to like her. Once class started, the woman passed out syllabi and explained the class: it would introduce them to the campus and to college life, teaching them about the dangers and joys of living campus as well as how to organize their time. Edie barely resisted rolling her eyes. She doubted that the class was going to teach them about the very real dangers that she and her friends had already experienced, and if she didn't know how to organize her time already, she wouldn't have done well enough in high school to get into this college. She resigned herself to one very boring semester. At least it was a short class.