Wow! It's been awhile since I updated this, huh? Well..whatever.

After that very strange exchange with Elisabeta, Nicole managed to cut in and tell her all about what she'd seen earlier with the drum majors. This made me feel really awkward-after all, the only person I knew was busy with someone else. It was a little depressing to just sit quietly and pick at my tuna...

"Ano, that looks very tasty. Is it tuna?" My head jerked up at the sound of that soft voice. When I glanced around, I saw that it was coming from the Japanese boy, Kiku Honda.

"Y-Yes," I stuttered. "M-My papa made it for me. He is a very good cook. I really like tuna." I sounded stupid. I sounded really stupid.

"I also like tuna, especially when it is salted. I make it for my family often. They say it is very good." He gave me a tiny smile. I smiled back.

"I would love to try it some time," I replied. "If everyone in your family likes it, then I am sure it is very delicious." I took a bite of my own tuna. I wondered if his is was good as Papa's.

"It is! It's really really good!" Kiku's smile dropped. I turned my head. It was Mei. "Isn't it, Li?" Her brother nodded. "See?" she demanded. I nodded.

"Th-That is why I said I wanted to try it..." I mumbled. "Tuna is one of my favorite foods...any kind of fish..."

She nodded. "Oh, okay. Well, I know you'll love Kiku's! It's the best!"

"O-Okay." Mei was, um...forward. And very assertive. It was a little intimidating. I blushed and went back to my lunch.

After lunch I had English, which was the class I had been dreading. It was going to be horrible, I just knew it. I mean, I could speak English, I just couldn't speak it very well, never mind read English literature and write papers for it. I was going to fail...

"Good day, class. My name is Mr. Braginski. I hope we get along well." He smiled. I saw someone a few seats away raise their hand. "Yes, Mr...Laurinaitis?"

The boy, who had shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes, asked, "Are you Miss Natalia's brother?"

Mr. Braginski paled. "D-Da."

Toris smiled. "Well, then I'm sure this will be a great class, if what she says about you is true." Mr. Braginski's face regained a little color and he nodded.

"I assume this means you've heard good things, da? Good. Well, why don't we get started?"

After that class, I had French. Admittedly, I was very excited for this class-it would be very easy, which was more than I could say for any of my other classes. Unfortunately, I had been placed in French I. Maybe if I talked to the teacher, I could be moved up.

"Bonjour, bonjour! Entrez! Asseyez-vous où vous voulez!"

At the sound of that light, happy voice, I nearly froze. It was familiar.

Too familiar.

When I saw the owner of the voice, all of my suspicions were confirmed. That person had golden hair, sparkling blue eyes, and was flirting with a group of girls who were standing around his desk.

"Papa?"

At the sound of my voice, his head turned and he smiled. "Bonjour!"

"Papa, what are you doing here?" I asked in French. He laughed.

"Silly Sesel, I'm teaching, of course! Didn't I tell you I was going to teach French here?"

"Non, you did not," I replied flatly. "That would have been something I would have wanted to know."

"Well, it's too late to tell you now. Ohonhonhon~" He laughed some more. My eye twitched. Papa...

"Papa, you can be so annoying sometimes..." I muttered. "And why am I in this class anyway?"

"Well, it's because you are a 'freshman', as they say here. Though I could try to pull some strings to get you into a higher class..."

"And by that, you mean flirt with the counselor until she changes my schedule." I crossed my arms.

"Silly Sesel, the counselor is a man."

I smacked my forehead. "You'll still do it!"

He nodded. "That is true, I will. It may be a bit difficult-he's apparently married." I shook my head. "For today, you can just sit in the back with that girl from Montecarlo and practice your conversational skills." He pointed to the back of the room at the girl from Montecarlo. I'd only been there once, to visit some distant relative of Papa's. "Her name is Nicole. I hope you two can get along."

I followed where he was pointing to. There was Nicole, playing solitaire by herself on her desk. I turned back to Papa. "I'm sure we will." I slipped through the desks to the last row and sat down next to Nicole.

She sighed and put the cards she was holding down. "Hello, Sesel. I noticed the teacher pointed you back here. Why?"

"H-He says we're supposed to practice our conversational skills since we're both fluent in the language...so, uh... vous êtes de Montecarlo?"

"Oui. Comment le professeur sais que vous êtes parle couramment le français?" she asked. Her brown eyes narrowed behind her small glasses.

"Oh! C'est mon Papa." She frowned. "Mon Papa qui ne m'a pas dit qu'il était l'enseignement du françaisdans cette école …"

Nicole snorted. "Tu es une fille drôle, Sesel."

Sesel blushed. "Q-Quoi? Pourquoi?" she demanded.

The brunette shook her head. "Jamais l'esprit." She gestured to the cards laid out on her desk. "Tell me, Sesel, can you play poker?" she asked suddenly, switching to English.

"N-Non."

She frowned disapprovingly at me. "That's not good at all. I suppose I'll have to be the one to teach you," she sighed, but I could see her glasses glint dangerously. Oh, no. I don't think this will turn out well at all.


Wow! So, uh, there's Chapter 1. Sorry it took so long...oh, and for those of you who also read that other one I'm supposed to be updating...or both of them...yeah, that'll be up soon. So, uh, thanks for reading!