"Have you figured out what's going on?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" He smiled before I asked for a further explanation.
"My God, Matt! You're so naïve!" He said.
"Shut up and tell me!" But he couldn't, because right then our French teacher demanded silence as the lesson began.
"I'll show you after school." He whispered. Our lovely teacher noticed that he was talking and decided to pick on him, probably to make some sort of example how we all need to pay attention and blah blah blah. You know, the usual.
"François! " She said, "Qu'est-ce que tu as fait ce weekend?" It was her usual drill to ask people what they did over the weekend when she was mad at them. The poor student would then have to reply with a one or two minute speech about what they did that weekend and sometimes she'd even ask questions. I don't think it would matter with someone like Francis, who'd started speaking French around the same time he's started speaking English, but for someone as shy and bad at French as me, I was always terrified of being chosen."
"J'ai regardé la saga d'Iron Man avec mes amis, vendredi soir. Samedi, je suis allé chez mon ami G pour faire mes devoirs de maths et après ça, nous avons bu plusieurs verres."He said casually. Seriously, sometimes it's like he's taken a page out of Gilbert's book. (Which I assume would be called How to annoy your teachers to death in less than 10 days. 100% guaranteed to work!)
"Quoi? Tu as bu de l'alchool?"
"Oui madame. C'était très amusant. " He said once again casually, as if he wasn't talking to a teacher at all. He's definitely been spending too much time with Gilbert. If he gets expelled too, then who and I going to hang out with? It seems like our whole group is turning into a bunch of delinquents. Before you know it, Ivan will be setting classrooms on fire.
Well actually, I wouldn't put it past him to do that on a regular basis. But that isn't the point. French was long and boring, and in the end, our teacher gave us another project. Hadn't we just handed one in? Yes. Did she care? No.
But this did mean that instead of hanging out with Arthur, I'd have to spend my time after school working with Francis to get the project finished. I don't mind Francis that much, it's just that he isn't Arthur. And I'd rather be with Arthur if I had the choice. Arthur was better than everyone else in every way possible. (A/N Holy crap. That sounds so obsessive…) The end of the day finally came, and when it did, Francis grabbed me by the collar and pulled me along.
"What the hell are you doing, Francis?" I struggled.
"Stop struggling. I want to show you something." He said as he took me to Gilbert's locker. There was nobody there.
"Yeah, Gil's in detention." I said.
"Just as I thought." Francis said, more to himself. It sounded like something someone would say in Scooby-doo. But I wouldn't know that for sure. Because I obviously don't still watch episodes when they come on TV.
"What?" I said, still not understanding what was so special.
"Since when did Gilbert go to detention on time?" Francis asked. Okay. He had a point there. It unlikely enough for Gilbert to show up for detention, let alone be perfectly on time for it. But I could not connect the dots. Does this mean I'm dumber than Francis? That's actually quite depressing.
"I dunno. Maybe he's decided to turn over a new leaf?" I suggested. Francis didn't even respond to that one. He just gave me an 'Oh come on!' look. Gilbert was probably never going to want to behave himself. Ever. It just was not who he was.
"Come on!" Francis grabbed me by my sleeve and started dragging again.
"Where the hell are you taking me?" I asked, trying not to fall over. He walks surprisingly quickly.
"Just come on!" He tugged harder. Eventually, we made it to the gym. The door was still unlocked, of course. A lot of people used the gym after school to exercise. Usually, there had to be a teacher present to make sure the kids don't destroy anything, but I guessed that Mr Beilschmidt was talking to Gilbert or something. He'd probably be in a little trouble if someone found out that he was leaving the gym unattended. Francis carried on dragging me to the small office that came off the gym. The door was closed and probably locked, but it was also old. I wasn't sure if Mr Beilschmidt had figured it out yet, but even though the door had a lock on it, if you twisted the knob sharply and then pushed the door really hard, it would open. Francis did exactly that.
Once the door opened, I heard yells of surprise. One was Gilbert's and I heard a lower one that I could only assume to be Mr Beilschmidt. They jumped about a mile away from each other, but it was clear what was going on. Mr Beilschmidt looked away awkwardly, Gilbert neatened his hair and straightened his shirt that had seemed to have ridden up to his ribcage.
"What are you two doing in here?" Mr Beilschmidt barked.
"I could ask you the same question." Francis said, smiling. I took a small step away from him. He's just so creepy sometimes. Especially when the topic is something sexual.
"Gil…" I began. Gilbert's entire face had gone pink, his equivalent to being flushed red. I looked at Francis almost accusingly for a moment. He could have just told me what was going on instead of insisting on showing me. We could have avoided one of the most awkward confrontations I'd ever had.
"Guys! What are you doing here?" He said.
"I came to see if I was right, which I was." Francis said. Honestly, how he can act so chill at a time like this amazes me. It's like he walks in on people's private moments all the time.
"Right about what?" Gilbert asked.
"That you two were… you know…" They both continued to avert their eyes.
"Well I guess we can't really hide it, can we?" Gilbert said.
"No. I guess not."
"So you guys are dating." I said.
"You could call it that." Gilbert said sheepishly. So they were wheeling (A/N Do other people say that too? Or is it just Canadian slang?) right now. This was not going to end well.
"I thought you were straight, Gil." Francis said.
"Me too." Gilbert said, looking at Mr Beilschmidt and smiling. I guess there was some love in there, and if I fell in love with my brother's boyfriend, who the hell am I to judge other people's relationships. It looked like they made each other happy. Wasn't that good enough?
But then again, the school board doesn't really think like that.
"You guys'll be in so much trouble if you're caught." I warned.
"I know." Gilbert said.
"I mean, you could even lose your job, Mr Beilschmidt."
"I know." He replied.
"Is it even legal?" I asked.
"Not…yet." Gilbert said. He wasn't eighteen for a few more months yet, so of course it wouldn't be legal. That hadn't really stopped him before, but I could tell that he knew how much trouble Mr Beilschmidt could be in if he got caught, otherwise he would have bragged about it to us. He's Gilbert, usually he'll brag about anything and everything. This time, though, he actually kept his mouth shut. Maybe he was serious about this. No way. That thought was too weird. I'd never known Gilbert to be in a relationship that could be considered anywhere near serious.
"So you guys are having illegal sex in the school?" Francis said, pointing out what clearly wasn't a very bright idea.
"It was a bad idea." Mr Beilschmidt admitted. Well at least he can admit to his mistakes. That's always nice in a man, Mom says.
"But how did you guys even start dating? The last time I remember, Gilbert was vowing to prank you harder than any teacher he's pranked before." I asked.
"Should I tell the story, Ludwig?" Gilbert asked.
"Go ahead." Mr Beil-no Ludwig said.
"Okay, so it was in my first detention, and Ludwig was being the typical teacher who cares too much about his students." Gilbert began, sitting down on one of the chairs in the office and indicating that we should to the same too, "He noticed how high my average was, and started asking things about why I felt the need to pull pranks when I had the grades to go to an Ivy League school after this. I said that I didn't know, and that I guessed I just liked the attention. He asked about my parents, what they did and where they worked, stuff like that, and found out that they're pretty much never at home. I dunno, I guess he was feeling sorry for me or something, but he offered to have me over for dinner on the Saturday, just in case I wanted to talk some more or something."
"So that's why you kept trying to make me leave your place early on Saturday!" Francis said.
"Yeah, so we'd drank a lot before I went to dinner, so I was pretty tipsy. At first, we just talked more about my parents, and then we were talking about Germany. He's… he's not like all the other teachers. He told me about how he used to smoke and drink and stuff as a kid because his parents never cared a lot, but then he turned his life around and wanted to become a teacher so that he could help other kids change their lives before it was too late. I don't know exactly how it happened, but as the night went on, I guess we kinda saw something in each other, and when he dropped me off at my house that night, we kissed. I wasn't expecting it, but it felt better than any girl I'd kissed, it felt more, real. Like it meant more or something. But yeah, that's how it started. We net up again on Sunday, and today at lunch too."
"That's so sweet!" I said, my heart melting like butter on a pancake.
"So are you going to tell anyone?" Ludwig asked.
"Please guys, don't" Gilbert begged, looking worried, which was a first for him.
"That depends," Francis joked, "Am I going to get an A in gym."
"Fine." Mr Beilschmidt said.
"Seriously?"
"Maybe. Now will you please get out of here unless there's anything else you want," And with that less-than heartfelt goodbye, we left the two lovers to err… continue what they were doing. We finally went to Francis's house to get started on the French project we had to do.
Bonjour! Je suis LLF!
HOLY CRAP! THE FRENCH! WHY CAN'T I STOP!
Anyways, translations:
Qu'est-ce que tu as fait cette weekend?-What did you do this weekend?
"Euh, j'ai regardé tout de les films Iron Man avec mes amis, vendredi soir. Samedi, je suis allé chez mon ami Gilbert pour faire un projet de maths et après ça, nous avons bu trop d'alcool. "-Erm, I watched all the 'Iron Man' movies with my friends on Friday evening. On Saturday I went to my friend Gilbert's house to do a math project and after that we drank a lot of alcohol.
"Quoi? Tu as bu l'alchool?"-What? You drank alcohol?
"Oui madame. C'était très amusant. "-Yes ma'am. It was very fun.
This is what happens when you do a debate in French. You get stuck in French mode. And I hate being in French mode.
Food analogies make me hungry.
FAVE/FOLLOW/REVIEW PLEASE!
Long days and pleasant nights,
LLF