Chapter 9: Crepes Drowned in Syrup

Maya's POV:

Paris was full of food, full of delicious, succulent, filling food. NOTHING and I mean NOTHING was going to get in my way of finding that food, and learning to cook it. My inability to pop popcorn hadn't stopped me from almost burning my dorm down, and it most definitely wouldn't me from checking out restaurants. How badly could it go anyway? All I had to do was order food…and eat it.

My excellent, full proof plan completely bombed when I realized I couldn't speak a word of French.

"Uhm, ze pancakes, with ze extra syrup?" I say, attempting a French accent to make myself seem smarter.

« Excuse my friend here, she means she'd love two orders of crepes with syrup of course! » someone says behind me, in perfect French.

I spin around.

Oh come on!

Paris is 105 km2 and I was STILL stuck running into Chase?

"Hey," he says, nodding.

I furrow my eyebrows. "Hi!" I say, as exuberantly as possible. He casts me a strange look…I guess I was a little TOO happy.

Or maybe he's too depressing to ever recognize happiness.

I start chuckling to myself at the thought and catch him rolling his eyes.

"Well thanks for that, I realize now it'd probably be best to learn some French before venturing out into France," I say.

"You realize this NOW?" he asks, sitting in a booth across from me.

"Good job you can repeat everything I say," I reply in a snarky tone, narrowing my eyes at him.

"How did you find this place, the crepes are delicious here!" he says, looking at the menu again.

"I came here for the food, I'm not COMPLETELY useless here Chase!" I say.

"Well then, I guess I'll have to stick around for a while," he replies quietly.

Huh.

"Bienvenue à la meilleure crêperie de France! Ici, je vous présente vos crêpes! Les boissons, quelles boissons voulez-vous? »

« OH HELLO! » I sputter. « I MEAN, BONJOUR! »

The waiter looks so stunned for a moment.

Chase rolls his eyes. "I'll do the talking right now," he says. "What do you want to drink?"

"Orange juice," I say.

"Bonjour! Merci pour la nourriture. La femme voudra le jus d'orange, et moi je voudrais un peu de the. Elle ne parle pas le français, c'est pour je lui accompagne. »

« YES MERCI, OUI! » I say.

Chase kicks me underneath the table.

Ok…WHAT GUY KICKS HIS BREAKFAST DATE?!

Ooh my God did I just say breakfast DATE?! No, NO, NO!

"What are you doing?" Chase asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

"HUH?" I say, too loud.

He sighs. "You've gone all red, what happened?"

"OH I-UH, I HAVE ALLERGIES!" I say, coughing into a napkin.

"Sure," he says, rolling his eyes.

I still didn't even know why he was here following me, but I didn't have the time to ask as the delicious smelling crepes or pancakes or whatever this delicious buttery, warm, sweet, breakfast was placed in front of us. I took up my fork and knife and ate up, blocking out Chase and concentrating on the scrumptious meal before me.

I pay for the meal, and get up, grabbing my coat. I slip it on and exit into the rain, skipping joyfully, without a care in the world.

"HEY WAIT UP!"

Of course…the ever-present storm cloud.

"Where are you heading?" he asks.

"Home!" I say, resuming into my euphoria. "It's really important! I have the best plan right now! I'm going to go write a review of all the food and such, it'll be amazing! Then I just have to figure out how they made it, and then I'll be good to go!"

"What?"

"I'm going to write everything down and put it on a cooking show and the food blog I have. I wonder if got any new followers lately!" I ramble on.

"Hold the phone, what are you talking about?" Chase asks, taking my arm to stop me from prancing around.

"I'm here for the food, or don't you remember? This is part of it! I love food, and I have a blog about it and everything, it's so much fun! And there are things like food raves all over the place, it'll be totally amazing once I actually make it. I'm still sort of unknown, but things will pick up eventually!"

"You have…a food blog?"

"Yep! And there's another thing too, there's a channel that I come on sometimes for the recipes and cooking instructions!"

"Don't you think you should learn to actually cook before you teach other people to?"

I blush crimson. "Why do you always have to shoot me down like that Chase?" I say, rolling my eyes.

"Oh," he says, looking at me. "Sorry."

"Huh?"

"What's wrong now?" he asks. "I said I'm sorry. I don't mean to be all…pessimistic; it's something I should change I suppose."

"And you're starting with me?" I ask him, furrowing my brow.

"Well yea," he says. "I mean, I know you pretty well from having worked with you back in Waffle Town, but I've never stretched out to actually be your friend or whatever. You know, life isn't the same without a couple of friends."

"Wait, so you're using me as your escape from pessimistic thoughts?"

"You don't have to think like that," he says, blushing.

Had I just made CHASE blush?

"I want to," I say, looking at the ground, a tiny smile on my face forming. "It's like…it's like I'm your friend or something."

"Huh?"

"You rely on your friends," I say, "to help you in hard times. So we'll make a pact ok? We'll befriend each other and help one another out!"

"I guess so, if it prevents fewer explosions," Chase smiles.

I roll my eyes and start laughing. "That was one time, and I still couldn't manage to pick off Gill, so I'm looking for a new method this time."

We both start laughing. "So where to?" he asks.

"GOD CHASE, I told you, we have to go home!"

"Oh come on, there's still so much food to try out. We'd waste time travelling. Buy a phone or something, type notes on it to save for later. We're going pastry shopping!"

We link arms and stroll down the street looking at all the food and smelling the pastries.

Although I had no idea what I was doing, I was sure this was the start of…something.

Author's Note!

I'm actually not sure if I'm formatting this properly -_-

OH WELL HERE WE GO!

So the past couple chapters have been...sorta ok...but short. AND I DESPISE SHORT CHAPTERS. So, I've preloaded my computer with long, beautifully dramatic ones on the weekend! And soon, SOON MY DEAR AWESOME READERS, you shall be presented with the touchy heart felt stuff that made me cry while I wrote it at 2:00 a.m. yesterday!

If you're going to do something at 2am, let it be productive, and for Harvest Moon lovers.

OH AND IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS OR CRITICISMS, TELL ME!

XX AudaciousAdventures