So, I've had this image of Haleb in my mind for a while that I had been meaning to write a story about. I just couldn't come up with a storyline worth telling. This is where the amazing tvfanlife stepped in and gave me a prompt that I couldn't resist.

Your usual disclaimers apply: I do not own these characters and I am not making any money with this. So please don't sue me. :-)


MIDNIGHT IN PARIS


Chapter One

~ 9:06 AM ~ Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris ~

"Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. Alright, we're complete." Mr. Gilbert finished his mumbled count of all the students gathered around him at the exit of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. "Maintenant je veux que vous m'écoutiez tous attentivement, je vais vous donner les instructions pour le reste de la journée. J'ai ces lettres ici pour vous. Elles sont de la part de-"

He stopped speaking after his sharp teacher's eye noticed that not everyone in the crowd was paying attention to him. "Aria, peux-tu laisser ton téléphone pour une minute? C'est important."

The crowd looked at him incredulously and bedazzled. No-one seemed to have understood a word of what he had said. Apart from that one girl, standing next to the teacher with a notebook and a pen ready at hand, shoving the phone that she had just pulled from her coat back into the pocket.

Mr. Gilbert scoffed and went on in English, "Aria, could you put your phone down for a minute? This is important."

"This is important, too. I'm just texting my boyfriend back home that I've arrived safely."

"Well, you can tell him later. You'll have plenty of time during your train ride to your host family's home."

Aria cringed at his words but did as she was told while exchanging meaningful glances with another girl.

Just as their teacher was about to open his mouth to repeat his announcement, he was interrupted by said girl.

"Mr. Gilbert, we've only just arrived. Could you just speak English with us now? We're all pretty much exhausted from the night flight you made us take." Hanna broke the awkward silence and asked the teacher of her French class to give them a break from their usual attempts at French conversation. She smiled courteously at him and added, "I mean after all, it's like 3am in Rosewood, right? I can't even think straight in my own language at 3 in the morning, let alone in French."

The fifty-something teacher sighed at the lazy group of students who did not meet his expectations when it came to eagerness about learning a foreign language. Eventually, he conceded. "I said I want you all to listen carefully as I'm going to give you instructions for the rest of the day. I have these letters here for you. They're from your host families."

He meandered through the small groups of students and browsed the heap of envelopes in order to hand everyone their destined message.

Secluded from the rest of the class sat 17-year-old Caleb Rivers on a flat bollard with his legs drawn to his body, arms resting on his knees, a medium-sized duffel bag lying at his feet. He was the odd man out, clearly sticking out from the other students with his long hair, dark clothes, and a faint air of indifference.

He took the letter from Mr. Gilbert who was passing by, all the while explaining some ground rules for the group of exchange students. Luckily for them, in their native language. They were all about to spend two weeks at Rosewood High School's partner school in Paris, France. Mr. Gilbert was the French teacher with a sincere passion for his own first language, and to him, this was homecoming.

Caleb opened his envelope and found a handwritten message and a family picture of the people he was supposed to spend the following weeks with inside. His facial features relaxed upon seeing the familiar face in the photo. Then he looked up and searched for a pair of bright blue eyes among the sea of faces around him.

It took him less than two seconds to find them. They were directed at him, ignoring the three other pretty girls around them who were all talking vividly in reaction to having opened their own letters.

The red eye flight to Paris had taken away some of their usual sparkle, but all things considered, Hanna Marin was still the most beautiful girl to him.

A fashionista, his complete opposite.

With passion like a wildfire.

His friend. But more importantly, his girlfriend.

Not that many people knew about that. Her friends, who were huddled together, laughing, showing off pictures to each other, knew, of course. But to this day, Caleb wasn't sure if they had welcomed him into their circle of friends.

Interestingly enough, the boy in the photo that had come with his letter, knew about their relationship.

But apart from them, he and Hanna were intent on keeping things low-key, taking things slow. They had only been dating for four weeks, and that in itself seemed like a miracle to him.

Hanna had quickly skimmed her message and smiled at the picture of a family of three before lifting her gaze off of her letter to proceed reading the reaction in Caleb's face. She was instantly relieved when she saw him smiling at her. She knew she would have to let him go soon as they would all take different trains to go meet their host families. Deep in her heart, she wanted to walk over to him and ask if he was happy with his placement. But that would only create unwanted attention.

It was hard, acting like they were nothing more than fellow students, when she was around him. But if she wanted to keep Mr. Gilbert and his strict, all-seeing eye off her back, she and Caleb had to confine themselves to longing looks… and exchanging hundreds of texts.

If Mr. Gilbert knew that two of his students in French class were dating, he would keep a watchful eye out for the girl, fully aware of the massive responsibility resting on his shoulders about having brought a class full of pretty teenaged girls to his home town.

Hanna checked if the coast was clear and saw Mr. Gilbert still handing out the remaining letters. She made quick work of sending Caleb a short text.

"You okay?"

She watched him pull his phone from his leather jacket, and a set of warm brown eyes instantly darted up at her for a second before focusing on sending a message back.

"Never been better. You?"

Hanna looked around and then let her fingers swipe over the keypad.

"Yeah. My host parents have a son. Jealous?"

The answer came promptly.

"Should I be? Does he look like Justin Bieber?"

She looked up from the small screen again, grinning back at him through a gap in the throng of people scurrying across the plaza past her group of friends. "More like Justin Bieber's little brother. He's 13. ;-)"

Their gazes met again when suddenly, their line of vision was blocked by Mr. Gilbert who had come to a standstill between them, crossing off things on a clipboard and looking around every now and then during his lecture about cultural differences and unrightful prejudices.

Finally, noticing that the students were getting restless and were barely listening, he finished his speech and escorted them to the airport's train station to send them off to different parts of the city on their own account. They would all be seeing each other again bright and early in the morning for their first lesson at a high school somewhere in the heart of Paris. He said goodbye to everyone and motioned for Caleb to follow him along; he would have to take the first train along with his teacher.

Caleb got up from the bollard and hoisted his duffel bag onto his back. He strode over to Hanna and her friends and stopped to look at the girls' faces, saying loudly, "See you all tomorrow." Then his gaze fixated on Hanna's face, silently mouthing the words "I'll call you later," while waving awkwardly with his phone in his hand.

Having gotten directions in their individual letters on how to get to their host families' homes, the students scattered in different directions, some taking regional trains which were about to leave in a matter of minutes, others had time to spare and strolled through the station to go shopping.

Hanna shrugged apologetically at her boyfriend as if she were to blame for his obligation to share a group ticket with their teacher and watched him leave. She felt sad about seeing him off without so much as a kiss. Caleb was only her second boyfriend, yet everything about their relationship seemed so different, so… right. She was a little mad at the circumstances, being in her favorite place in the whole world and having her boyfriend there with her, but they weren't allowed to touch each other, much less spend some alone time together. The upcoming days were already full with classes, field trips and down time with her temporary family, the Girards.

If she had any luck, she would see Caleb again during recess at school. But that wasn't for another twenty hours. And until then she would have to get by without him. However, she was happy that Caleb got to come along for the exchange trip after all, as he had only recently joined French class and it had taken him forever to bring the signed permission slip that allowed him to go in the first place.

The only thing that could lighten her up at the moment was the thought of going on a sightseeing tour through the city with the others the day after tomorrow.

Hanna heard Spencer call her name and was ripped from her thoughts. She put her phone back into her purse, grabbed her suitcase and followed her friend.

"Do you think I can take a nap before our train leaves?" Hanna asked after a yawn had slipped from her mouth.

"Hanna, our train leaves in 25 minutes." Spencer looked at her reproachfully.

"So? I'm good at napping. Just show me the way to the nearest lounge chair. I'll even settle for a bench. I'm so tiiiiirreeddd," Hanna whined, falling behind after Spencer.

"Han, everybody's tired. At least, you got to bring your boyfriend along for the trip. Text him, call him, do… whatever you're doing with him on the phone. I'm sure Caleb can help keeping you awake through the jet lag." Spencer paused and allowed Hanna to catch up with her. "Mine is sound asleep in his bed in Rosewood and won't get up for another three hours. So, please, do me a favor and snap out of it."

At that, Spencer walked away and left her standing alone. Hanna increased her pace and soon went head to head with her again. "Wow! So Toby still hasn't made any effort to move to second base with you and you're still grumpy about that? Is that it?"

"Why? Have you and Caleb?" Spencer suddenly came to a standstill, causing Hanna to bump into her.

"Spence!" Hanna called out at her.

"So, have you…?" Spencer looked at her with a curious expression on her face.

Hanna's cheeks turned a deep shade of red.

"Oh my god, Hanna." She exclaimed excitedly. "How was it? You need to tell me all about it. We have twenty minutes to cover until we can board our train."

The blonde girl looked around and pointed at a nearby café. "Alright, I still haven't been to the currency exchange office yet. How about you buy me coffee and I'll spill?"

to be continued...


I hope you liked this sneak peek. If you did, I'd be happy to read your reviews. I promise you won't have to wait much longer to read the next chapter. I haven't finished writing the whole story yet, but for now, I think it's going to end up with 8 chapters.

Thanks to tvfanlife for constant prompts and inspo, thanks to hannnarivers for proofing and to FrenchBenzo for helping out by translating into French. :-)

Stay tuned... Zip!