His glimmer of hope

Chapter 2

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It was 6:34 and Max was already late. Second day on the job and the nerves were already kicking in! He shot up from his bed and raced to his closet grabbing a long sleeved, button down, orange shirt with a pair of khakis and his brown dress shoes. As he changed into his clothes and styled his hair, thoughts of France kept flooding his mind. Coming from France was a huge change for Max and the American lifestyle was extremely different. He had lived in the USA for only a year now and missed France badly, but something about this town prevented Max from moving back in a heart beat. Tossing the thoughts away, he began to focous on work. Max collected his belgongings, which included a brief case full of paperwork and his travel cup full of coffee and headed out of his condo.

"Good morning Mr. Lawerence! I am Principal Williams," The principal greeted, he had escorted him from the main entrance to a classroom which he was supposed to be teaching. "This is where the fun begins! Here is your schedule," He handed him a sheet of paper with block schedules and lunch times. "Let me know if you have any questions, the students should be here in 5 minutes. I will call you after this block to discuss the security situations, bus pickups, and stuff along those lines. The phone numbers will be near the phone and they should be labeled. Here we go!" He handed Max the key and motioned him to open the door, Max followed and unlocked the door. Principal Williams gave him a pat on the back and wished him luck as he walked away.

He opened the door and a white board was sitting on the wall near an older desk which sat in the corner. There were around twenty seats that were lined up in rows. Max sat his breif case on his desk as he grabbed his coffee and took a seat. Suddenly there was a roar of echos coming from down the hall. Students started to pour in as many peeked into his door to see who the new french teacher was. A girl walked into the classroom, who had long black hair and a huge grin on her face.

"So you must be the new french teacher!" Her eyes fluttuerd at Max's as she waved to her other friends to introduce themselves.

"Caroline!!" A group of girls screamed. An abundance of kids came into Max's classroom and surronded him as they kept asking him questions. Before things got worse, the bell sounded and the noise had quieted down.

"Everyone, please take your seats," Max announced. The students had followed pursit and took their seats. The room was silent as Max spoke, "My name is Mr. Lawerence and I am the new french teacher. I will tell you guys a little about myself, then we will introduce names because I don't know anyone here and I need to put down the seating chart."

Max scanned the classroom and looked observed the students, some short and fat, and others tall and lanky. A group of diverse kids who Max could tell wanted to learn from him, but there was one girl in the back of the classroom he had his eye on. She was burying herself in her gray cardigan as she read her massive book, she was unlike the other students who wouldn't stop making eye contact with him as he talked. Her long blonde hair draped over her face, and the only feature Max could see was the freckles that were across the bridge of her nose. He snapped out of scanning the students and began to talk.

"I am from France and I was born in a small town which to this day I cannot pronounce," The class giggled as he continued. "I moved to Paris when I was seventeen because I couldn't take living with my parents." Max continued to stare at the girl as he talked, eagerly trying to get her attention. "I had a passion for traveling and learning different languages, so I decided to learn english and became fluent in the language."

The girl with the dark hair raised her hand. Max pointed towards her and she spoke.

"Isn't Paris the city of love?" She asked.

"I guess it is, but there wasn't much love where I lived. It was more-or-less you pay your bills and try to move out. Living in Paris was expensive!" Max responded.