Careless Magic book 1

Chapter 5

Welcoming all students and guests, the Administration Building sat in the front of hexagonally-shaped Kingsley. But leading out from either side of the building was a stone pathway connecting all six buildings. A large grassed courtyard surrounded a tall, brick, bell tower. The same dark, red brick architectural style dominated the buildings at Kingsley.

The English and Theatrical building was placed on the far northeast side of campus, and the History, Language and Arts building was placed on the southeast side. The walk along the brick path was short; we just had to pass the Gymnasium to get to it.

Green grass, green trees, and flowers still in bloom, embellished the beautiful campus. I would have loved to walk this alone, and take it all in slowly.

Unfortunately, I was not alone. I was forced to walk to French not only with Lilly and Talbott, who couldn't keep their eyes off each other, but with my new best friends Seraphina and Kiran as well. And to my ultimate disdain, Seraphina could not keep her hands off of Kiran, I realized this shouldn't bother me, and I hated that it did.

The walk was short however, and soon we had all climbed yet another marble staircase to find ourselves on the second floor of the H and L building. I glanced at Lilly who pointed me in the direction of French.

I entered into another class that had already begun; I was apparently unable to get to class on time today. A young, sophisticated, teacher glanced back from the chalkboard to glare at me. Her short, cropped, black hair was the same color as her short, cropped, black skirt suit. She wore bright, red lipstick and dark-rimmed glasses. She reminded me of something out of a bad adult film.

"Vous etes en retard," although she was speaking French, her irritated tone did not escape me.

"I'm sorry. I'm new," I tried in English. I had never had a French class in my life. At my previous schools I took Spanish; but that was not even offered at this school and, so I was stuck with French because it was the only open class. Aunt Syl promised me it was very similar to Spanish, but after what Kiran said, I was sure it was the last available space.

"Excusez-nous s'il vous plaît. C'est toute ma faute," Kiran and Talbott finally made their way through the door behind me and of course, Kiran took the initiative to introduce himself to the teacher; and it appeared he was speaking in perfect French, although I had no clue what he was saying. "Eden est nouvelle aussi et nous avons perdu notre chemin. Pardonnez-nous s'il vous plaît."

"Il n'y a pas de problème. Je suis heureuse que vous nous ayez trouvé," the adult film school dropout responded to Kiran in the most pleasant voice. She had completely transformed from the woman who spoke to me only seconds earlier, to another adoring fan of our one and only Kiran. "Accueillez, accueillir."

"Eden, you look confused," she turned her to me, and although she was not completely rude, she was not friendly either. Her English was marked by an unmistakably French accent. I wondered cynically if Kingsley had all of their language teachers directly flown in.

"I'm sorry, I just, um, I don't speak French. I've only taken Spanish," I tried to look as apologetic as possible, while wondering silently if you could be kicked out of this school just for irritating the bejeezus out of every teacher.

"Cela ne peut pas être?" she said again in French, shaking her head. "Why would they put you in this class if you cannot speak the language?" Without waiting for an answer, she continued. "Well, you are just going to have to learn. I refuse to dumb down my curriculum because one student is ignorant."

She looked at me as if she expected me to fight her on this. I didn't expect her to "dumb" down the class either. Although, I thought she could have said it in a nicer way; but that was what I had come to expect of this school, of its teachers, and of its students. I just kept looking at her in the same apologetic way as before.