5.

Kingsley’s campus was hexagonal in shape. The Administration Building sat in the front, welcoming all students and guests. But leading out from either side of the building was a stone pathway connecting all six buildings together in the shape of a hexagon. A large grassed courtyard was located in the middle, surrounding a tall, brick bell tower.

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. All of the buildings at Kingsley were built with the same dark, red brick and in the same architectural style.

The campus was beautiful. The grass and trees were still green and the flowers were still in bloom. I would have loved to have walked this alone, and taken it all in slowly.

Unfortunately, I was not alone. I had somehow been forced to walk to French not only with Lilly and Talbott, who couldn’t seem to keep their eyes off of each other, but with my new best friends Seraphina and Kiran as well. And to my disgust, Seraphina could not keep her hands off of him. 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 and she 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 very young, very 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, but after what Kiran said I was pretty 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 is saying. “L'éden est nouvel aussi et nous avons été perdus le long de la voie. Pardonnez-nous s'il vous plaît.”

“Oh, ce n'est aucun problème. Je suis heureux ainsi que vous nous avez trouvés,” the adult film school drop out 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 attention to me, and although she was not completely rude, she was not completely 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.

“Well, I suppose the best way for you to catch up is by full immersion. I am Ms. Devereux. We speak only French in this class, and although I will give you some grace, I expect you to get caught up 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 the direction of the teacher’s desk and didn’t give me another look. “Kiran and Talbott, 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 had trouble understanding; but I did as I was told.

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

I opened my books and forced my eyes on to the page. Even the introduction was written in French. I rolled my eyes and groaned inwardly, while Ms. Devereux began speaking rapidly in a language I was afraid would be the reason I never graduated high school. All of the students answered her questions without missing a beat, including Kiran whose French sounded more perfect than even Ms. Devereux’s.

I tried to avoid staring at him the entire class, but found myself glancing in his direction more than I would have liked 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 him completely horrible?

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

When the bell finally rung, Ms. Devereux started to lecture me again on the importance of finding a tutor quickly. But as the entire class had left by now, I didn’t see that happening today. Kiran and Talbott were the only two people I recognized in that class and I’d be damned before I asked either of them.

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

Thankfully, Lilly saved me a seat and 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 an all-white beard and all white hair. He did not even bother to acknowledge me or Kiran or Talbott, which actually surprised me. He was so far my favorite teacher. Although I couldn’t admit that he did much teaching.

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

Several notes ended up on Kiran’s desk and I observed his smug smirk after reading each of them. I could only imagine the important messages the girls in this class found necessary to send him. Talbott had his fair share of notes as well, although he had abstained from reading a single one. All the while, Mr. Emerson was oblivious to it all.

The bell rang and we were off to lunch. The cafeteria was located exactly one building over from the Administration Building. Only seniors were allowed to take lunch in the courtyard and as Lilly and I walked back across campus we couldn’t help but feel jealous. They sat basking in the sunlight, and again I noticed that all of them, without exception were extremely beautiful. The same characteristics that defined my class, defined them as well, uniquely bright eyes and flowing hair; they all seemed to be ready for a photo shoot despite the drab Kingsley uniforms.

Lilly and I walked slowly behind the throng of juniors in front of us, watching the other students gather around Kiran aggressively. Talbott stood close to him as if to protect him from the overzealous girls. The seniors who had thus far ignored the passing underclassmen seemed just as enthralled with him as all of the others. Several of the girls and boys stood up and approached him, shaking his hand and taking pictures with their cell phones. These people were seriously delusional.

The cafeteria was more like a great hall, with long, thick, oak tables set up all over, than an actual lunch room. I looked to Lilly for direction, but she was looking down at the ground and her face was all red. We hadn’t talked since we left the other building and I couldn’t imagine what had upset her. I wondered if she was just as astounded over the scene in the courtyard as I was.

“Are you ok?” I asked, trying to be as nonchalant as possible.

“Um, it’s just that, well, I don’t usually sit with anyone else at lunch,” her voice was shaking slightly. She was embarrassed because she assumed I would think less of her. However, I couldn’t have been more thrilled at the news.

“Oh thank God!” I blurted out. We both immediately started laughing and got in line for lunch.

After picking our way through the large buffet-like selection of food which seemed to resemble more of a Thanksgiving feast than cafeteria food, we found an isolated table and took our seats. I looked around at the lunchroom full of people, all sitting together in their own respective cliques. I noticed that Kiran and Talbott had found a table near the middle of the room surrounded by girls, including Seraphina and several seniors, all giving Kiran their undivided attention.

“So what’s the deal with that girl from earlier?” I tried to sound casual.

“Which girl?” Lilly looked up from her apple.

“The one that could be Kiran’s twin,” I mumbled, allowing the sarcasm to drip into my tone. I was embarrassed by the pang of jealousy punching me in the stomach.

“Oh, that girl,” Lilly rolled her eyes and took another bite of apple. “Well her name is Seraphina Van Curen. Her family has been part of this school forever, like since it opened a thousand years ago,” Lilly was obviously not impressed with her either and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Huh,” I said a little distracted, wishing I was brave enough to ask Lilly to spill all of the dirt.

“Apparently Talbott is impressed with her,” Lilly looked over at the table and the blood immediately rushed to her cheeks.

“I don’t think its Talbott that she’s after,” I said sardonically, but hoping to reassure Lilly that Talbott was still available. Although I had no idea what she saw in him.

“Those girls are the rest of the girls in our class. The one with short black hair is Adelaide Meyer, and the one wearing all of the diamonds is Evangeline Harris. They and Seraphina, make up the holy trinity,” she rolled her eyes again and I laughed. I’d been in enough high schools to understand the social order of things. “The rest of the girls are just followers, with no minds of their own.”

“Wonderful,” I mumbled under my breath.

“Just steer clear and they won’t bother you…. Most of the time,” she looked down at the table, in a way that hinted they had probably bothered her more times than she would like to have admitted.

“Well this is the side of the cafeteria I prefer to sit on,” I smiled at her reassuringly; it could not have been more of the truth.

The bell rang before I was finished but we got up to clear our things anyways. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to get back to all of the humiliation. We double checked to make sure we had the next class together, Calculus, something I was destined to fail at, and made our way to the exit. Mrs. Truance was standing in the doorway eyeing me. Great, they had already decided I didn’t fit in and should be expelled promptly.

“Ms. Matthews, Principal Saint would like to see you in his office please, wait here and you can follow me there,” she looked less than happy to be running this type of errand. I stopped to wait beside her, waving to Lilly as she walked by giving me an apologetic smile. “Mr. Kendrick, please come with me as well.”

Kiran and Talbott had been approaching us with their group of lackey’s and Kiran rolled his eyes when he was forced away from them. Kiran walked over to us slowly, and I noticed that his eyes were looking over me in an appraising way. At the same time I felt a wave of nausea and a tingle of excitement ran up and down my spine. And slowly but surely I began to feel the tiny prickles I knew would soon overwhelm me.

“Mr. Angelo, your services will not be needed, unless of course you are not able to continue on to class alone?” Mrs. Truance’s voice was snide and demeaning when she addressed Talbot, and I couldn’t help but let out a small snicker; however, that got me a very dirty look from everybody.

Mrs. Truance turned on her heel and stalked off toward the Administration Building. I allowed Kiran to pass, and followed in step behind them. What had I done now?