"There! Now you have my number. Call me later tonight, okay?" Fanny said, handing Susan's phone back to her.
"Okay." Susan nodded. Fanny gave her a hug and run off down the sidewalk to her own house.
Susan turned back towards the building she was standing in front of. The name Lafayette was written in big cursive letters above the first floor. A French flag was hung proudly in one of the windows above a display of pastries.
A bell rang through the bakery once Susan entered. The smell of freshly baked cakes filled her nose. She looked around in awe at the elegantly decorated place. It felt like a piece of Paris appeared right in the middle of Albany.
A girl sat near the back of the room, leaning back in her chair with her feet propped up on a counter. A woman wearing an apron entered from the kitchen and swatted at the girl's leg.
"Marie-Antoinette! Enlevez vos pieds du comptoir! Les gens mangent ici!" Susan wasn't fluent in French at all, but she had a feeling the woman was telling the girl, Marie-Antoinette, to get her feet off the counter.
The girl complied. She hopped off her chair and put her phone away, finally noticing Susan. A bright smile spread across her face.
"Bonjour! My name is Marie-Antoinette, call me Marie, how may I help you?" The girl said. Susan couldn't help but notice her French accent.
"Oh, um, my mum sent me over. She asked me to get something for lunch." Susan explained, slightly taken aback by Marie's positive attitude. "She works in the school across the road."
"So does my dad! He teaches French." Marie said excitedly. "What about your mum?"
Susan smiled. "She's the librarian."
Marie looked at her in surprise. "You're Susan Reynolds. Theodosia's friend. She talks a lot about you, you know?"
"So I've heard," Susan responded absentmindedly before realization dawned on her. "Oh, you're that Marie! Theo said that you and your brother were in detention today for jumping out of the broom cupboard window."
"Glad to know my reputation precedes me." Marie laughed. "Anyway, is there anything specific you want?"
Susan fished the money out of her pocket. "Anything that ten dollars will buy me."
Knitting her eyebrows in thought, Marie placed the money in the cash register. "Four muffins. What's your favourite flavour?"
"Uh...Chocolate."
Marie nodded. "Thought so. You look like the type to like chocolate."
"You can tell what flavour people like just by looking at them?"
"Yep! Growing up above a bakery has its perks." Marie handed a paper bag with the muffins to Susan.
The Reynolds girl chuckled. "Sounds like a neat superpower."
"Marie! Get back here! The baguettes are burning!" A male voice called from the kitchen.
"Give me a minute, Georges!" She leaned back on the counter. "Both Fanny and Frances like strawberry, Theodosia always gets vanilla, Philip is obsessed with whipped cream and sprinkles-"
"Marie! The baguettes!"
"I should get going," Susan said. "It seems like you have work to do."
"My brother is just too lazy to take the baguettes out himself." Marie rolled her eyes. "It was nice meeting you, Susan."
"You too. I'll see you at school tomorrow." Susan waved over her shoulder as she left the bakery.
The whiplash from the change of scenery hit Susan like a bus. She suddenly remembered that outside the pristine French bakery was a dusty American city. A rumbling in her stomach reminded her of how long it's been since lunch break, making her hurry back across the road.
"You've been gone for a while." Maria said once Susan returned to the library.
"I was talking with Marie." Seeing her mother's confused expression, Susan elaborated. "Marie-Antoinette de Lafayette. She works in the bakery."
"Oh, the Lafayette girl. I know her. She and her siblings nearly burned down the library last year."
Susan stopped in the middle of reaching for a muffin. "What?"
"They were setting off fireworks behind the school and one flew in through the window. A bookshelf or two caught on fire." Maria explained. "Monsieur Lafayette marched all three of them in here and forced them to apologize and pay for the damages out of their own pocket money."
"That's the weirdest sentence I've ever heard." Susan laughed.
"Not the weirdest I've ever said." Maria shrugged. "Their older sister, Anastasie, was the calmer of the three. She controlled their destructive impulses. If I was you, I'd be afraid of what they're gonna do now that she's not here to control them. The Lafayettes are made of pure chaos."
"Chaos is what killed the dinosaurs, darling." Susan said with a cheeky smile, biting into a muffin.
Maria rolled her eyes. "You finish that muffin and start on the homework, young lady. You have an essay to write."
Susan glanced at the clock. Her mother worked until five, so she was stuck in the library for another two hours. Any other person would have complained, but the two Reynolds women easily slipped into a comfortable silence.
A few dozen minutes later, Maria's voice cut through the quiet atmosphere of the library. "Congratulations on surviving your first day of high school."
"Ha ha, very funny." Susan said sarcastically.
"I'm serious. You have teachers who like you, you made a friend, you didn't get into bad company. That's better than I did at your age."
Susan turned around in her chair. "What do you mean?"
Maria sighed. "I never had any friends when I was in high school. The teachers didn't like me because I barely ever did my homework. I worked two jobs back then and took care of my younger siblings. I was fourteen when I met your father. Fifteen when we started dating. You were born the summer before my senior year. My teenage years were short and miserable, and I couldn't be happier that you're not repeating my experience."
"Mum…" Susan was about to stand up but stopped short when Maria shook her head.
"No, sweetie, you go back to your essay. I'm alright." Maria smiled as if tears weren't pooling in her eyes. "Just promise me something, please."
"Anything."
Maria's face turned serious. "Always trust your gut. When I was with your fa- with James, nothing ever felt right. I thought I loved him, but something inside me was always telling me to run. You're the only person who knows what's good for you and don't you ever let anyone tell you otherwise. Don't end up like I did. Promise me, Susan. Please."
"I promise, mum," Susan said, wiping away a tear rolling down her cheek. "I promise."
"You know, we still have that tub of ice cream leftover from last week." The corner of Maria's lips tilted upwards.
Susan's face lit up. "Heathers movie night?"
Maria nodded. "I think we both need it tonight."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
A/N: Sorry that this chapter turned so sappy at the end. It came to me out of nowhere and it felt right to keep it in. I'm a sucker for good mother-daughter relationships and Susan and Maria are really fun to write for.
In response to a review left by ivy: I based the school off my own private British school, where we have homework and a full day of classes on the first day.