Separate And Ever Deadly

Chapter 1 - Damn you, British people!

Sheffield, 2005

"Hi! You gotta be Marie! I'm so pleased to finally meet you! I'm Amy and she is my mother, Penny!"

"Hello!"

"How was your trip, darlin'?" Penny asked.

"It was fine, not too long, but exhausting, madam." I replied quietly doing all my best to sound British.

"Oh, call me Penny, sweetheart!"

"I suppose you are tired. We'll take you home, ok?"

"Oh thanks!"

We arrived in a small but nice and cosy house in some suburb named High Green. That particular place felt very familiar from the very beginning. Maybe too familiar. I somehow felt I was going to enjoy my time there.

"This is your room, Marie!" Amy showed me a tiny green room (which was actually big taking into account the size of the house) with a bunk bed. "It used to be me and my brother's room."

"Oh, you have a brother!" I concluded.

"Yep, but he doesn't come home too often. And when he does he sleeps on the sofa so... It's only yours!"

"Thank you so much." I shrugged.

I opened the wardrobe and noticed an old "The Beatles" poster hanging there. I smiled. I just loved the Beatles! Amy must have had a great music taste I thought.

The sundown light was entering the room through a large window, making a remarkable record collection shine. I swept my fingers past the tens of vinyls and could feel the smell of dust and old paper. I felt in love immediately with all of them.

The few pieces of vintage furniture were perfectly polished and everything was maybe too arranged for my nonconformist style. People had always considered me a very neat and tidy girl, but they couldn't see beyond my outside look. I was more of an introvert.

After unpacking some of my luggage, I went downstairs for the dinner.

"It's different, isn't it?" Penny asked me.

"What?"

"This place. From Paris."

"Oh of course it is! But this is exactly why I chose to come here. You know, it's an experience exchange and its aim is to discover how other people live and... Yeah..."

I never finish my phrases. Fact.

"And how other people talk!" Amy added with a slight smile.

Amy was a beautiful 18 year old girl who made me feel really awkward because of her perfection. She had blonde hair, deep blue eyes and that thing when she was looking at you, to analyze every single inch of you.

"Indeed. I'm learning English in school but I've never been taught the Yorkshire accent."

Everyone started to laugh. It was a good start, right?

"Here's the deal! We teach you the Yorkshire slag and accent and you teach us French." Amy proposed. "Deal?"

"Deal!"

"How do you say 'I'm happy' in French?"

"'Je suis heureuse' if you are a girl. If you are a boy, it's 'Je suis heureux'"

"What?! Oh, it's that thing with the genres, right? We have that thing in German too. I'm a German teacher." Penny said.

And we started a long conversation about these three languages.

I went to bed early that night with a huge smile on my face. It wasn't going to be that bad, was it?

7:00

I had to make a good impression at school in my first day so I woke up early and tried to make up but there was no way my make up skills had improved overnight. I gave up fast.

I looked like on any other day spent home before entering the highschool door.

My heart was pounding fast as I felt everyone looking at me. I let myself guided by Amy inside the classroom. We were supposed to have the maths class. What a perfect way to start!

And as if it wasn't enough, the teacher, without knowing my name or the reason for being there, called me at the blackboard. I was totally scared as I picked up a piece of chalk. My average math skills didn't function that well that day. I started to stumble into my own words as everyone in the room was laughing. I ended up swearing in French without anyone understanding and being sent back to my seat by the stupid teacher, who later seemed to realise who I was.

I was too ashamed of myself to spend another second in that place. I wanted to go home. I just wanted to sit in my bed and cry alone. I've always been a very sensitive person. Unfortunately. But people don't have eyes for that, you know? They just don't care about your feelings, they think that if you smile, you're happy and your life is amazing and you don't have anything to complain about, but in fact...

High school was a hell in France but here, it seemed ever worse. And the bad part was that I didn't know anyone. It was just me and a bunch of unknown selfish people.

We took lunch in the cafeteria after the biology class, which went on a little better.

"Hey pals! She's Marie! The French girl I've told you about! She'll be staying at my place for the next six months!" Amy happily introduced me to her friends. "Marie, they're Jane, Walt and Rob."

I shook their hands and sat down trying to enjoy the food. Of course, I ended up playing foolishly with it and giving it to the others, and eventually decided that the red apple was the only thing that wouldn't make me sick.

It was funny how they were all laughing and joking and I was just sitting there, almost crying and thinking of a plan that could make my staying there less awkward.

After a couple more classes we walked home with some guys. Before getting out of the court, some boy whistled at me:

"Hey frenchie! If you need someone to show ya how things are done in here..."

Blahh!!! But at least someone liked me. I had to try to get comfortable with the idea that I was "the one". The one everyone was talking about, was joking about. I was getting more and more sick and I couldn't wait to take a shower and wash this awful day off my skin, then lying in my bed alone.

Damn you, British people!

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Heyyyy ^w^

Sorry for being away for a while. A couple months ago I started writing this new story and accidentally ran into it a couple of days ago, so I decided to give it a try and post it.

(Sorry for using the same name as in my other fanfic, but I just love it and I think it really suits the character)

Please tell me what you think about this first chapter! :D

Have a great day!!!!