"You're failing French?!" Kim asked, too surprised to remember to be tactfully quiet. They were at the Krispy Kreme, and several customers' heads turned from the pink ranger's sudden outburst.
Trini winced from the volume at which Kim had spoken in. "Yes. Not so loud, okay?"
She was ashamed of her grade, expecting the class to be an easy A. With a fluent background in Spanish, she figured French was similar enough, and could easily fill in her much needed group 3 credit while still learning a new language.
It had to be her biggest regret of junior year, choosing French class over Spanish class, a class that she was sure she was definitely fluent in. That's what I get for wanting a challenge, she thought.
Kim shifted in her seat, guilty. "Sorry, sorry. It's just- you know I'm in immersion, right?"
"Yeah, I know that."
She did. It was initially one of the reasons why she'd taken French in the first place- for Kim to tutor her so they could casually spend more time together and then from there, turn into something more than friends. But that plan had proved to be redundant, considering Kim had insisted on becoming her girlfriend before second semester had even started.
"So?"
"So what?" Trini cringed. The words sounded staged, even to her own ears.
"So, I can help you with French, T!"
Trini frowned. Once upon of time, she would've been ecstatic at this offer. Now, she wasn't so sure. "I don't know, Kim." How times have changed.
"C'mon, I'll do it for free?"
Trini's brows shot up, and then dropped quickly, in a way that suggested she thought that free or not, that was a terrible idea.
When Kim saw that Trini didn't look convinced, she continued. "Why're you so hesitant?"
"It's not that I'm hesitant," the shorter girl started slowly, trying to choose her words carefully, "I'm just not sure that this is a good idea."
"That means you're hesitant." Kim pointed out, trying to figure out why her girlfriend didn't want her help.
"Okay, fine!" Trini conceded, "maybe I'm hesitant."
"Why?"
Crap, Trini thought, this is dangerous territory. "Uh..."
"Well?"
Trini pursed her lips. "You're kind of... how do I say this?" She trailed off, racking her brain for a harmlessly vague word to describe what studying with Kim usually entailed. "Uh... Distracting?"
"... Distracting?"
"Yeah, yeah! Distracting," she nodded eagerly, deciding that this was the exact word she needed, "like, whenever we study together, we never get anything done. We just sit there and dick around until one of us has to go."
Kim blinked. "That's it?"
"Yeah, I guess," Trini said, scratching the back of her head.
"You made it sound like it was gonna be really bad!" Kim said, relaxing easily. "This is an easy fix. This time, we'll just have to focus."
Trini scoffed, the urge to laugh at Kim's naïveté strong. "Really, Kim? You think we can 'just focus?' We're like, the worst procrastinators of all time."
"No, we can do it!" She insisted.
"Kim..."
"C'mon, Trin! If you go to summer school, then that's less time that I have with you in the summer!" Trini blushed at that, ignoring Kim's obvious selfish reasons and instead focusing on the fact that she wanted to spend time with her, "it doesn't hurt to try it at least once?"
The yellow ranger sighed, and threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine, fine. But we're just gonna end up hooking up."
Kim beamed at Trini. "Summer school who? I don't know her."
It was a Friday night, and Trini was grouchy because she'd wanted to go out on the weekend, not stay in Kim's room to study.
"Can we make this quick, Kim? I want to relax. It's the weekend!"
"Okay, Trini. The quickest way to learn French is to immerse yourself in it," Kim said, sitting up from her slumped position on her bed, "so from this point on, we're only going to speak in french."
Trini glared. "How am I going to speak a language I don't even know? You're tutoring me for a reason."
"... Right," Kim agreed, accepting Trini's point, "I meant, 'from this point on, I'm only going to speak French.'"
"How am I going to understand you?"
"I'll make gestures. Don't worry. This is how I learned."
"Yeah, but the difference between you and I is that you learned this when you were four, and I'm learning at sixteen."
"Same difference."
"Kim, sixteen is four squared. I'd say that's a pretty huge difference."
"Shut up, T! This is a French lesson, not a math lesson. Focus."
"I don't think this is going to work."
Kim sighed. "Let's just try it?"
"Fine."
"Okay," Kim said, once she was sure Trini was ready to pay attention. "On va commencer."
Trini gulped. She didn't expect that to sound so hot.
"So, the only thing about inversion is that you need to know what the opposite of the pronoun is, and you gotta move the verb to the front."
"I thought you were only going to speak French?"
"Stay on the task, T! Do you get what I'm saying?"
Trini stared at her blankly.
Kim sighed. "Okay, that's fine. I'll start. I'm going to invert the sentence:
J'ai dix-sept ans.
that turns into:
As-tu dix-sept ans?"
Trini coughed, trying not to think about any more impure thoughts about Kim and French, and spoke. "I- I think I get it."
"Yeah?" Kim asked, not convinced. Trini seemed distracted. "Okay... try problem 4."
The yellow ranger picked up her pen, and tried not to focus on how Kim was watching her, breathing down her neck. She quickly wrote down the answer and crossed her fingers, hoping, rather than knowing it was right.
"Yeah, that's right!" Trini breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, okay, now try problem 5, but with 'vous' instead of 'tu.'
Trini picked up her pen again, but hesitated. This sentence looked tricky.
"It's chill, T. It actually helps to read the question out loud before answering it."
"Okay, but don't laugh at my poor French accent."
Kim moved her hand up, pulled a gesture that said, my lips are zipped shut, and waited for Trini to continue.
"Okay, numero cinq:
Je veux aller me coucher avec toi."
"Right, right, and what would the inversion be?" Kim whispered, due to her proximity to Trini.
The yellow ranger's brow furrowed in concentration. It was hard to concentrate with Kim so close. On top of that, she was also unsure of what was the verb, and what wasn't.
"Uh... voulez-vous coucher a moi?"
Trini said, still unsure of her answer. She turned to Kim to look for any signs of approval, and found none. Instead, she was met with hooded eyes and a smirk.
"Hm... oui, je veux coucher avec toi."
"Kim? What does that mean? Was I right? Trini asked, puzzled over the pink ranger's reaction.
Kim didn't reply. Instead, she leaned even closer, her eyes fluttering shut.
Trini, confused, but not one to complain about the situation, closed her eyes as well, and let their lips touch.
It turned out that was a pitfall to the end of their study session, because Kim immediately pushed Trini onto her back after first contact.
"So I take it I was right, then?" Trini asked, breathless, while Kim sucked at her neck.
"Not quite," Kim chuckled, and continued with her ministrations.
"... are you going to tell me what I did wrong?"
"Well... one, in your answer, the correct form would be, 'voulez-vous couchez avec moi?' it's 'avec,' sweetheart, not 'a.'"
"Okay," Trini said, nodding as Kim pulled her shirt off.
"-And two," Kim continued, "you asked if I wanted to sleep with you."
"What!" Trini yelled. "What kind of textbook is that?"
"It wasn't the textbook, T," Kim laughed, "it was you."
"I know I'm irresistible, but that was really cheesy."
"While that may be true, I meant that the textbook's original question said, 'I want to go to sleep with you.' You just fucked up the order."
"Oh," Trini said, blushing.
"It's okay to be wrong, babe," Kim said, fingering the buttons on the yellow ranger's jeans.
Trini nodded her consent at Kim to let her know she could proceed. "Oh, but I wasn't."
"Hm?"
"I told you we'd get distracted."