More reviews would be cool, but here's the next chapter anyway. Just let it happen. Btw, there is some French in here that makes sense in context, so you don't really have to translate it. However, if you want to use google translate. Thanks.
Song: Bjork, "The Hunter"
Biochemistry homework turned out to be relatively challenging, but nothing she couldn't figure out. It was the fourth week of her new school, and she was doing objectively alright. Ashley's French had improved greatly thanks to partying every night during the summer, and meeting gobs of new people in the surrounding communes. At school she was relatively popular, she had already met most of the other students during break, and everyone seemed very interested in the Stewart twins.
Evan was on the football team, and apparently doing very well. Leia didn't really pay attention. She would go to his matches, but she would also bring a book. Sports without flying brooms were even more uninteresting than sports with flying brooms. Ashley had become her art teacher's favorite in the drawing class she was taking. She was fairly good at it, and the teacher believed the lie that she had been at a fine arts school for the last two years. All of their lies were working out.
"What homework are you doing?" Jerome said, opening the door to her bedroom. He had gotten to the point where he would just walk into her room. Jerome was the closest thing she had to a real friend here.
"Biochemistry." Leia as Ashley said, sitting at her desk, the only furniture other than the bed. Her room was painfully dull. It felt like a dorm room without anyone livening there.
Jerome had also taken a focus on biology, so they had all of the same classes.
"How is it?" He asked, looking at her work.
"Not as bad as I expected."
Jerome shrugged.
"Want to go out?"
"Where?"
"Erquy will only be nice for a few more days."
Ashley had begun noticed how restless Jerome is. He couldn't sit still for very long. He probably started his homework and got bored and wanted to get out of the house. Erquy was the town where the beach was that they always went to. It was only a thirty minute drive from the Belaire's house.
"Sure. Want to leave now?"
"Yeah, yeah, I want to get out of the house. Is Evan still on his walk?"
Evan had gotten in the habit of taking long walks for hours. At least that's what he said, the family really had no idea. Ashley assumed he was meeting some girl, but who knew?
"Yeah, he's gone."
Ashley nodded and reached down to put her shoes back on. She was grabbing a light jacket off the floor when she heard the patter of Margo's feet.
"Où vas-tu?" The eight year-old asked quietly, translating in English to 'Where are you going?'
"Erquy. Venir avec nous?" Her brother responded, asking her if she wanted to come along. Everyone was quite fond of the youngest Belaire.
"Oui, s'il vous plaît. Permettez-moi de ma veste." She nodded while smiling as she walked back to her room to get her jacket.
"You don't mind?" Jerome said looking to Ashley as she stood up and walked towards the door and into the hallway.
"Of course not. I love Margo."
Within five minutes they were in Jerome's car and on their way to one of the last good days of beach.
"J'aime la plage." Margo said, saying 'I love the beach,' when they were in the car, and Leia was shifting through Jerome's pile of CDs.
"Moi aussi." Ashley agreed, looking to the back seat of Jerome's Volvo. Margo had long blonde hair, and an honest face. She looked more like her father whereas Jerome took after his mother. She held the features well, but she would probably have an awkward phase in adolescence.
For his part, Jerome had a really good taste in music. Littered on floor of his passenger seat was Bjork's Homogenic, Morrissey's Maladjusted, OK Computer, Marcy Playground's album, Dinosaur Jr.'s Hand It Over, a bunch of Sonic Youth albums, but also Sleater-Kinney's Dig Me Out. The hardest part was finding a record that was appropriate for an 8 year old. While they were all in English, Leia put in Bjork just to be safe.
"Cette musique est bizarre." Margo said after a moment of Bjork singing, noting that music was strange, while looking dreamily out the window.
"Ça vous plaît?" Jerome asked, taking a quick look back at her. He would change it if she didn't like it. Margo didn't reply for a minute.
"Oui." She finally said.
Bjork's voice echoed through the car as they passed by rolling green pastures. The beauty of her surroundings wasn't worth the fear that Leia constantly felt. Even now, at this peaceful moment, she feared that she was endangering herself, Jerome, and Margot. She tried to shake the thought away, but it stayed.
"What you thinking?" Jerome asked, glancing over at her.
"About my secrets." Ashley replied, letting Leia show through a little.
"Can't you tell me? I won't tell anyone and Margot doesn't know English."
She smiled a little.
"I wish I could tell you everything, but I can't."
"How about I tell you one of my secrets?"
"Only if it's a good one."
Jerome had this goofy grin on his face, and Ashley felt like this was going to be good.
"I had a sexy dream about you last night."
She laughed.
"I thought you were going to tell me about something from your childhood or something."
"Children couldn't come up with this."
"I want to know details."
"Maybe later…" He said gesturing back to his sister. Ashley nodded and smirked.
"Tell me one of your secrets." Jerome continued after a beat.
"Mine are no fun."
"I think that's not true. It could be a silly secret."
She looked out the window and thought for a moment.
"I don't get David Bowie."
"Eh?" Jerome said as he had to swerve the car in surprise a little. "Joke, right?"
"I know, I'm sorry. I respect him as an artist, and I like his fashion sense, but I don't get him."
"What is there to get?" Jerome seemed rightfully offended.
"That's just it, I DON'T KNOW!" Leia said, hiding her face in her hands. "I'm so ashamed! I've never admitted it to anyone else!"
"That's good. No one else should know about that." Jerome laughed.
"I'm so sorry."
"Y at-il un problème?" Margo asked, confused.
"Oui, tout va bien." Jerome responded, reassuring her everything was fine.
Soon they arrived in Erquy, a fishing port that was a favorite of the Belaires. It was a charming town, with nice people and few tourists. The beach wasn't popular at this time of year, mid-September, and it was probably a bit too breezy to go there anyway, but it was too peaceful to miss. After parking the car, Jerome got the blanket that he kept in the back seat. They all laid down on the blanket, just far enough away from the shore not to get wet.
"Puis-je obtenir de la glace?" Margot asked after a while of sitting, basking in the sun. Not too far away was an ice cream trunk that she wanted to go to. Jerome nodded and started pulling out some coins out of his pocket.
"Crème glacée?" Jerome asked, looking to Ashley.
"Non, merci." She said, declining his offer.
"Deux chocolat." He told his sister, showing two fingers and adding coins into her hand. Margot nodded and skipped away.
"You're going to eat two ice cream cones?" Ashley asked, as Jerome watched her sister run up to the truck.
"No, I want to watch you eat one of them." She rolled her eyes at his comment.
"Well, Margot might have trouble holding three ice cream cones with only two hands."
"It will be fun to watch her try." He said laughing.
"Oh, I just remembered, I want to know the sex dream details."
"I tied you up and you called me capitaine."
"Is that it? Nautical BDSM?"
"I got to taste you."
Ashley arched an eyebrow.
"Then I took you from behind." He continued. "You enjoyed it a lot."
Leia snorted.
"And that's really what matters." She replied. As Margot walked carefully up to them, juggling three ice cream cones, a black butterfly flew onto Ashley's leg. The creature rested there for a moment, and instinct told Ashley to reach out and touch it. The butterfly immediately flew away as she got near it. Jerome noticed this altercation.
"Sometimes when you get so close to touching someone, they fly away and you never see them again."
The two looked at each other silently and let his comment sink in.
Margot finally made it with her strawberry ice cream, and the other two chocolates. Jerome took the two from her hands and gave one to Leia. She gave it a decisive lick as he stared at her.
"Pensez-vous que Ashley est belle?" Jerome asked Margo if she thought Ashley was beautiful. Ashley rolled her eyes.
"Oui. Est-elle votre petite amie?" Margot agreed and asking a cute question.
"What does petite amie mean? Small friend?" Ashley asked.
"It means sweetheart. Are you my petite amie?" He asked looking at Ashley so sincerely.
"Maybe." She tried not to smile.
"Peut-être." He translated for Margot.
"Je l'aime." Margot answered, eating her ice cream absentmindedly.
"I like her too." Jerome said, looking at Ashley.
Leia tried not to roll her eyes at this romantic moment. Love had only made her cynical.