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

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

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

“Vous etes en retard,” although shewas speaking French, her irritated tone did not escape me.

“I’m sorry. I’m new,” I tried inEnglish. I had never had a French class in my life. At my previous schools Itook Spanish; but that was not even offered at this school and, so I was stuckwith French because it was the only open class. Aunt Syl promised me it wasvery similar to Spanish, but after what Kiran said, I was sure it was the lastavailable space.

“Excusez-nous s’il vous plaît. C’est toute ma faute,” Kiran andTalbott finally made their way through the door behind me and of course, Kirantook the initiative to introduce himself to the teacher; and it appeared he wasspeaking in perfect French, although I had no clue what he was saying. “Eden est nouvelle aussi et nous avonsperdu notre chemin. Pardonnez-nous s’il vous plaît.”

“Il n’y a pas de problème. Je suis heureuse que vous nous ayez trouvé,” theadult film school dropout responded to Kiran in the most pleasant voice. Shehad 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,” sheturned her to me, and although she was not completely rude, she was notfriendly either. Her English was marked by an unmistakably French accent. Iwondered cynically if Kingsley had all of their language teachers directlyflown in.

“I’m sorry, I just, um, I don’tspeak French. I’ve only taken Spanish,” I tried to look as apologetic aspossible, while wondering silently if you could be kicked out of this schooljust for irritating the bejeezus out of every teacher.

“Cela ne peut pas être?” she saidagain in French, shaking her head. “Why would they put you in this class if youcannot 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 curriculumbecause one student is ignorant.”

She looked at me as if she expectedme 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 Ihad come to expect of this school, of its teachers, and of its students. I justkept looking at her in the same apologetic way as before.

“Well, I suppose the best way foryou to catch up is by full immersion. I am Ms. Devereux. We speak only Frenchin this class, and although I will give you some grace, I expect you to catchup quickly. You will need a tutor as soon as possible. You will sit at my desk,until I feel you are ready for a partner. Go quickly,” she waved her arm in thedirection of the teacher’s desk and didn’t give me another look. “Kiran andTalbott, I am so glad you have chosen this class. Please sit down anywhere,”she spoke her instructions so quickly and with such a thick accent, I hadtrouble understanding, but I did as she told me.

I took my seat at her desk andpulled out my French books. I knew that I was the center of attention and againfelt completely humiliated sitting in the front of the class, all eyes staringat me. Worst of all, Kiran was barely able to contain his laughter.

I opened my books and forced myeyes on to the page. Even the introduction was written in French. I rolled myeyes and groaned inwardly, while Ms. Devereux spoke rapidly in a language I wasafraid would be the reason I would never graduate from high school. All of thestudents answered her questions without missing a beat; including Kiran whoseflawless French rivaled even Ms. Devereux’s.

I tried to avoid staring at him theentire class, but found myself glancing in his direction more than I would haveliked to admit. Every time I looked up from my book, I found him staring back,making me blush for reasons I couldn’t understand. I thought I found himcompletely horrible?

The class flew by; I spent most ofthe hour just trying to find words in the book that I heard spoken in class,although I was sure not one French word was spelled phonetically. It appearedthat all of the students could already speak French fluently, and Ms. Devereuxwas out of her mind if she thought that I would ever be able to catch up.

When the bell finally rang, Ms.Devereux lectured me again on the importance of finding a tutor quickly. But asthe entire class was gone by now, I didn’t see that happening today. Kiran andTalbott were the only two people I recognized in that class and I’d be damnedbefore I asked either of them.

I found history on the third floorof the same building and realized that except for French, the same people werein all of my classes so far. This had to be the entire junior class. I had beenhoping to meet new people, to be given a second chance at proving I was not theidiot everyone in my class thought I was. But it didn’t look like I would getthat opportunity.

Thankfully, Lilly saved me a seatand I took it, grateful once again that she was willing to be my friend. Mr.Emerson, my “A History of Europe” teacher, was an elderly man, with anall-white beard and all white-hair. He did not even bother to acknowledgeKiran, Talbott, or me, which actually surprised me. He was so far my favoriteteacher, although I couldn’t admit that he did much teaching.

We spent the entire hour listeningto him drone on and on, not once looking up from his lecture notes. His voicewas a gruff monotone that I found very hard to listen to.  I struggled to take notes, but noticed thatmost of the students were either sleeping on their desk or passing notes backand forth.

Several of them ended up on Kiran’sdesk, and I observed his smug smirk after he read each of them. I could onlyimagine the important messages the girls in this class found necessary to sendhim. Talbott had his fair share of notes as well, although he had abstainedfrom reading a single one. All the while, Mr. Emerson was oblivious to itall.

The bell rang, and we were off tolunch. The cafeteria was located exactly one building over from theAdministration Building. Only seniors were allowed to take lunch in thecourtyard, and as Lilly and I walked back across campus, we couldn’t help butfeel jealous. They sat basking in the sunlight, and again I noticed that all ofthem, without exception, were extremely beautiful. The same characteristicsthat defined my class, defined them as well, uniquely bright eyes and flowinghair. They all seemed to be ready for a photo shoot despite the drab Kingsleyuniforms.

Lilly and I walked slowly behindthe mob of juniors in front of us, watching the other students gather aroundKiran aggressively. Talbott stood close to him as if to protect him from theoverzealous girls. The seniors, who had thus far ignored the passingunderclassmen, seemed just as enthralled with him as all of the others. Severalof the girls and boys stood up and approached him, shaking his hand and takingpictures with their cell phones. These people were seriously delusional.

The cafeteria was more like a greathall, with long, thick, oak tables set up all over, than a typical lunchroom. Iturned to Lilly for direction, but her blushing red face looked down at theground. We hadn’t talked since we left the other building, and I couldn’timagine what had upset her. I wondered if she was just as astounded over thescene in the courtyard as I was.