Chapter 2
« Bonjour classe, comment ça va? »
« Bonjour Monsieur ! Vous êtes très bien ! »
« Bon ! Maintenant, qu'est-ce que vous faisiez hier ? »
And this would be the point where I usually tune our teacher out. Monsieur Dubois, our French teacher, was a tall, thin man that was in his early 40's. His blond close cut hair was already receding to the back of his head and his beard was showing bits of gray. He was a fun guy to be around, always cracking jokes that never made any sense, and if it wasn't jokes, it was soccer. This man must've been dunked into a tank of soccer when he was a kid and just grew up swimming around in it.
Monsieur Dubois was the high school boy's soccer coach, and by God, he was brutal. I played soccer my freshman year when he was the JV coach, and we would run around the school, just as a warm-up! The man was a stubborn loser, and there definitely was a penalty if we lost a game. But now, off the soccer field, he was just a funny guy who taught French.
Turning over to one of my friends, I snuck a glance at the math homework we had last night. Quickly jotting the page number and the number of problems I open the big hulk of a math book and start working. Almost halfway through class I finish and turning my attention back to Monsieur Dubois, I notice we are actually learning a new thing today.
"Hey what is this", I ask Carly while I point to the chalkboard.
"He is talking about all the tenses and stuff we are going to learn next year."
"Sweet", I exclaim.
"Would you like to finally join the class Mr. Robinson?"
"Non, merci beaucoup Monsieur", I say jokingly back.
After giving me the death glare, Monsieur Dubois went back to teaching. I turned around back to Carly, making sure he didn't notice.
"So did you see that boy who was right by us this morning?"
"No, I mean not anybody besides you and the normal people I see."
"Are you sure? Tall kid with amazingly blue eyes, and black hair too! He was…" I stopped myself, knowing exactly what the words were going to be. Turning my gaze away from her, I stare to the classroom window and try to focus my attention on a gray squirrel in the tree right outside.
"Umm, Josh what about him were you going to say?"
"Oh that, hahaha sorry I drifted", I lied as I came back to the conversation, "I was just going to say I've never seen him before."
"Ok", Carly glanced me up and down, her blue eyes this time piercing into my flesh and then into my soul, searching for the truth.
Turning back around, I notice my palms are sweating. How long have they been like that? I sat in my seat staring at my feet, wondering how I almost let my lips speak like that. Thinking back to the brick building, I realize I needed to go and pay a visit one day. Not just outside, where I would look like a creeper planning a hate crime or anything, but inside where I could actually learn a thing or two. Not just about the world and society in general, but possibly about me myself.
That night I lay in bed thinking. Pondering repeatedly about what I was as a person, and if I should acknowledge myself for who I am. Eventually shoving the ideas, thoughts, and other forms of consciousness that plagued my mind, I began to wonder about the boy that came to school. Who was he? Was he an exchange, or possibly a new student even? These questions and more danced across my brain until sleep took over and led me to dream sweetly.