Forever | Protector 3.2 | Wattys2017

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Nolan

       I was happy Jerome waited until his last year at the university to take a second-language. I mean, it wasn't required, but him taking a French class would be an easy A+ for him, so he could have taken it at any time.

       For my major, I had to take a second language and Jerome needed any elective so he decided to take it with me.

       So, if it was hard for me, I got my own personal tutor living at home. I just hoped the class wouldn't be hard.

       Jerome said he had the professor before for an English class and she was extremely nice, thankfully. I didn't want any overly strict and harsh professors in my first year at university.

       "So, is the professor a tough marker?" I asked Jerome as we were on our way to the classroom.

       "Not really, no," Jerome said. "I mean, I never had her as a French professor, but for the English class, she wasn't that tough as a marker. If you made one mistake, she would point it out and she didn't deduct marks unless you kept making that mistake over and over again. She'll probably go easy on me since I'm her favorite student."

       I raised an eyebrow. "Really? Or are you just saying that?"

       "No, really," I said. "The very first essay we had to write was something about ourselves, and I mentioned that I was born in Seychelles, then raised in Canada, Quebec to be specific, so she asked if I spoke French and when I did, she said that she was also a French professor. So I'm her favorite student."

       "Just because you could speak French?"

       "Yes."

       Yeah, I wasn't buying it.

       As soon as we walked into the classroom, the professor, Professor Dubois, looked over and smiled. "Oh, mon élève préféré!" she said in a happy tone. "Comment ça va aujourd'hui?"

       "Ca va très bien," Jerome replied. "Et vous?"

       "Ca va très bien aussi," Professor Dubois said. "Est-il ton ami?"

       "Non, il est mon fiancé," Jerome said.

       Professor Dubois gasped. "Oh, félicitation! Quand est le mariage?"

       "Decembre," Jerome said.

       I'm so lost

       I was good at speaking French, but not so much translating what other people are saying unless it was written on a piece of paper.

       People who learned more than one language and could speak it fluently amaze me.

       Jerome looked over at me. "You look confused."

       "I'm so confused."

       "Oh, well, she congratulated us on our engagement," Jerome said. "And she called me her favorite student."

       "You were serious about that?" I asked.

       "Uh, yeah," Jerome said. "I'm that amazing."

       "It's true, he is my favorite," Professor Dubois said as she looked at me. "You kind of look familiar. Do you have a sibling attending this school?"

       "Three, but I assume you're thinking about my older brother Ryder," I said.

       "Ah, him, the grammar police," she said. "I taught him once. Never again. Many of us professors signed a petition to not allow him in our classrooms."