Words with * will be translated at the bottom.
"Class, welcome again to a new semester of the school year. As freshmen, it is important to focus even more on this part of your high school year. Now, new semester means new seats."
Madame Blanchett assigned the seats by last name. Of course since Aurélie's last name began with L, she was in the middle. Freshmen means fresh meat and she was prepared for that.
Once the seats were in order, there was no hesitant to begin class. Madame Blanchett taught the French basics since most of the students here were international and barely knew any French. Lucky for Aurélie, her uncle was French and taught her most of the basic beforehand.
Numbers, letters, Hello and Goodbye is what the majority of the class was like. It wasn't a struggle for most people in that class. They all seemed to get the hang of it after the first few rounds of pronunciation. Aurélie was called on several times due to her excellent tone and accent. Although she wasn't French at all, she still managed to emerge on top.
In fact, Aurélie is American. Her family moved to France when she was in sixth grade due to job transfer for her mom. And consists of her father, mother, and herself. Although she is an only child, she won't be for very long. Her mother is five months pregnant now with a baby girl who Aurélie is dying to meet. With a baby on the way, that means tighter room. AURÉLIE would have to split her room in the future when the baby gets older. For now, they baby will remain in her parent's room.
"LeGrand, may I talk to you for a moment?" Madame Blanchett called.
Aurélie scrambled her stuff together and shoved them into son sac*. Her foots trailed to the front of the class, now it was just her and the teacher.
"I cannot believe how fluent you are in French. Are you sure you're not supposed to be in a public, French school? It seems like you should."
"Oh no, no, no. I'm supposed to be here. Mon oncle* taught me a little bit of French when I first moved out here. It was mostly the basics and I guess it just stuck with me." Madame Blanchett gave out a chuckled.
"Oh là là, je suis désolé*. I'm sorry, it seems like you should be. Well in that case, have you talked to your consoler about switching classes? This is a basic French class and I believe since you already mastered it, you should move onto French deux*. "Aurélie shook her head. She really didn't want to make a fool of herself in the second class."With all due respect, I would rather stick around in French un*. I'm comfortable here and I don't believe I've learned everything for the basics yet. Plus, I think only hearing me on the first day of the new school year couldn't possibly determine my placement of foreign language."
Madame Blanchett sighed and placed her papers on the desk. She seems embarrassed but Aurélie wasn't trying to do that. She felt a little guilty inside.
'You're right, my apologies. Sorry for keeping you from lunch."
"Madame, it's no problem really! You were only complimenting me. I should be saying sorry, I totally exploded at you when I shouldn't have. That was very disrespectful of me." Blanchett looked at her and nodded.
"S'il tu plait*, it's no trouble dear, now head out pour le déjeuner*. I heard it was pizza day at the school cafeteria. Something like that." Aurélie quickly thanked her and walked out the class doors and headed to the school ones. She has never eaten the school food because of all the rumors going around about it so since she moved here, she eats lunch at home which she never did in America.
Aurélie was eager to get home and eat a Caesar sandwich which Swiss. It was her favorite and nothing could beat it. The smell of the sauce was rummaging through her head, yet the smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies was lingering through her nose.
Once at the stop light, she looked around her for the source of that smell. No one? But how? She thought maybe it was a bakery down the street, but there wasn't really any close by. The only one she knew of was a Boulangerie* that belong to Monsieur Dupain and Madame Cheng but that was a few more blocks down further than her own house. Plus, that was only selling croissants and cakes, not cookies.
Honks from a car caught her off guard as she moved her eyes to the street she was about to walk on and saw a speeding car honking at an older male who was slowly walking across the street. There was no green signal however and the car didn't look like it was going to stop. Aurélie panicked. The old man could be killed if no one did anything. She didn't want to think about that, and she did the unthinkable.
She ran across the crosswalk and shoved the elder away from the speeding car. Aurélie was then quickly struck by the oncoming vehicle. The sounds of screams came out of her mouth and all the materials she was carrying flew out of her frail hands. Her body laid unconscious in the middle of the street with the car that stuck her over the injured girl. Aurélie's last memory running through her head was the faces of her parents, softly saying goodbye as her vision began to fade into darkness.
*son sac: his/her bag/backpack
*Mon oncle: my uncle
* Oh là là, je suis désolé: Oh dear, I am sorry.
*deux: two
*un: one
*S'il tu plaît: please (informal)
* pour le déjeuner: for lunch * Boulangerie: Bakery