Emil had never quite imagined that five minutes could be so short, as he, along with Leon, and Seb ran into their form room panting. Fortunately, the rest of the class seemed to have gotten lost, because the classroom was empty except for a girl in the front row with short blonde hair, who Emil recognised as the girl from earlier. Seb went to sit next to her, while Emil and Leon went to sit next to the window, the former behind the latter. Moments later, A group of students arrived.
Unpacking his bag, the boy looked up as a short girl with long blond hair pulled into a plait sat down next to him. "Bonjour," she greeted him in a sweet, silky yet honest voice. "What's your name? I'm Lucielle Bonnefoy." Emil put his bag on the floor. "Oh, uh, Emil Steilsson," he replied. Her name seemed oddly familiar. "And, umm, do you happen to know Francis Bonnefoy?" "Oh yes! He's my older brother," she smiled. "Do you have any siblings?" Her gentle questioning seemed too polite for Emil to not answer truthfully. "Lukas Bondevik.." "Oh!" Lucielle's bright blue eyes lit up. "Mr Bondevik! But, to be frank, you look more like Mr Vainamoinen," "yeah..." he looked down. I get that a lot.
Lucielle started a conversation with the boy sitting next to Leon, a polite guy called Cheng. The conversation was mainly about gambling, and Emil didn't have the heart to join in. Instead, he inspected his partner's school uniform. The girls' one was composed of a ruffled white blouse with a plain dark pink pinafore, socks (Luci was wearing knee-high ones) or tights, black shoes, a jumper (optional), and a blazer. He noticed that most of the class weren't wearing their blazers, so he took it off and hung it on the back of his chair.
Emil decided to finally wander the unknown - that is, to actually converse with the people sitting behind him. So he turned around, to see a girl with dark hair tied into bunches framing her coffee-coloured skin, and a boy with silky platinum blonde hair and a long fringe. The girl was reading a book entirely in French. Goddamnit, not another one of Francis' acquaintances. He chose to look at the boy instead. The boy caught him with his clear green eyes, and spoke in a smooth alto voice. "Hello, Emil. I am Luca Müller, nice to meet you." Emil actually could only see one eye, so he concentrated on it. "Uhm... are you ok?" Luca waved a slim hand in front of the boy's face, breaking him from his stupor.
"Oh, hi." Emil replied awkwardly. Luca smiled, then tilted his head to push his fringe away. "So... you've seen Lucielle, right?" Emil nodded. "Isn't she pretty?" Emil shook his head, then stopped, almost nodded, then stopped again. "I'm not interested," he said quickly. "In Lucielle, I mean." Luca shook his head. "Ever heard of aesthetic appreciation?" He sighed and tutted, and Emil uncomfortably shifted around as the form tutor arrived.
"Hello everybody!" A shortish woman with a white-blond bob cut and a blue headband walked in cheerfully. The room grew silent. "I am Miss Braginskaya," she smiled, and sat down at the desk. "Hey Katyusha!" Somebody in the class called, and Emil whinced. A tall boy with strangely cut hair and glasses was waving at her. He expected the teacher to be angry, but she simply grinned. "Hello, Eduard! Now, I shall call the register.."
Emil listened, calling out when his name was called. Leon's name was there, as was Seb's, Lucielle's, and Luca's. The girl behind him turned out to be called Michelle Azikiwe, the girl from earlier was Lili Zwingli, the boy with the slightly curled hair was Raivis Gallante. Cheng was also called out, as with Leon's sister, Xiao Mei Wang. A few other names skimmed through Emil's brain, and all too soon it was time for their first lesson.
The form room just happened to be his English classroom, so he stayed in his seat. Most of the students filed out, including Sebastian, however everybody in his row remained seated. You have got to be kidding me. This is the strangest councidence I have encountered in my sixteen years of living. Michelle finally decided to speak as a group of students lined up outside the classroom. "Bonjour, Emil! Or should I say hej?" Emil shook his head. "Bonjour is fine. I'm not Swedish." Michelle nodded dreamily, then spoke up suddenly. "Hey, Luci!" The two girls conversed lightheartedly, as the English teacher marched in, and the class followed behind him.
Emil had always loved English. He wanted to live in the country someday, with its beautiful lakes and hills, bustling cities, and fossil-filled beaches. It was also a way of getting away from his irritating older brother and Mathias, the man who he seemed to like so much. The teacher stood at the front of the class - he had quite a charming face despite his thick eyebrows. "Now, class, I am Mr. Kirkland, but for those of you who know me, you can call me Arthur." The girl sitting on the table next to Emil perked up. "Hey Artie, can we-" "No, Nadia, you cannot call me Artie. We went through this." Mr Kirkland cut in. Nadia looked disappointed, and her partner tugged at her sleeve. "But Tom.." she started.
The assistant strode over to Nadia and Tom's table and smacked a textbook down on the desk. "Both of yous, fer goodness' sake, let the lesson begin." He spoke through a thick Welsh accent. Arthur nodded. "Thank you, bro- I mean Aeron." Once the class had quietened down, Mr Kirkland called the register. Leon took this opportunity to turn around and look Emil straight in the eye. "So, uh, do you like English?" Emil was confused. "Yeah?? I mean, I'm bothering to take the subject for A Levels so..." Leon shrugged. "I don't know, it just seemed like a far too artistic subject for you. " Emil sighed dramatically. Luca would be proud of him. "I get that a lot."
Mr Kirkland finished, then stood up straight. He cleared his throat, forcing Leon and Emil to look at him. "So, we will be looking at the play 'An Inspector Calls' by JB Priestly. We will be analysing the text in preparation for when you will have to do so next year. So," he turned to Mr Kirkland II. "Bro-Aeron, could you please hand out the books?" Aeron (calling both of them Mr Kirkland would just be confusing) smiled and unwrapped a packet of light blue exercise books. "My pleasure." Michelle snorted. "By the end of the day, we're going to have way too many books." She whispered. Emil had to agree.
After all the exercise books and copies of 'An Inspector Calls' were given out, (the copies were brand-new, glossy, paperback editions. Cheng kept running his fingers along the spine.) They finally started the work. Their task was simply to read the first five pages, which Emil completed with ease. Some of the others in the class seemed to have trouble, however. Lili seemed to be slightly shocked, having seen the BBC film previously, that such a graphic play was being distributed to children. Apparently there was a scene where a girl committed suicide, however Raivis assured her that it wasn't present in the play.
While all this exciting conversation was happening, Emil was having conversations of his own. "Hey Leon," he leaned forwards. When he didn't reply, the Icelander blew on the back of his neck. "Oh come on! You could've just tapped." Cheng laughed quietly. "Ah, you two are just hilarious. Leon, you're just like dad!" The mentioned winced. "Oh god, does that mean I constantly say weird things like 'white people, sheesh' and get myself stuck in toilets? Bro, please don't say that." Cheng laughed again.
"Wait, you're brothers?" Emil asked. Luca cut in from behind. "Doesn't that make you triplets, with Xiao, I mean." Leon nodded. "It's practially your situation except Emma and Abel are the same age as you and aren't nearly as sweet and nice." Lucielle inhaled sharply. "Imagine having Francis as a twin..." "Or Lukas. Actually, that would probably be better because then he couldn't fuss over me because of my age." Emil offered.
"But Francis isn't that bad!" Michelle piped in. "Arthur was quite the fusspot to have as a dad. He would aways fight over me with Francis, but in the end he won. His other children were quite interesting, to say the least- one of them teaches Hockey here. And Francis told me about the curse-" suddenly everybody in the row looked straight at the African. "-of Eddie Poe." Leon glanced at Emil, before proceeding to grab the other boy's sleeve. "What's that?" The latter asked, his voice level as his friend peeked over his shoulder. Michelle inhaled, and began to speak.
"Once upon a time, a hundred years or so ago, there was a writer called Eddie Poe." "Are you sure that's not Edgar Allen Poe?" Luca asked, tilting his head and causing both eyes to be obscured by hair. "Yes." Michelle spoke so firmly that the boy didn't dare interject. "Now," she glanced around the room, "Eddie was not very well known. A strange man called Edgar Allen Poe, purely by coincidence," she shot Luca a look, "took all of his work and published it with his name. " Leon nodded, dropping his head down onto Emil's desk, and the boy resisted the urge to mess up his hair. Lucielle smiled faintly.
"And then Eddie died, penniless and impoverished-" "They mean the same thing-" "Cheng, listen. So, he died, penniless and/or impoverished, all due to Edgar. So, thirsting for revenge, he now haunts the site, which used to be his home. He wreaks havoc, such as destroying books by Edgar Allen Poe, scaring students. Sometimes, stuff goes missing..." "Michelle?" Mr Kirkland's voice crossed the room. "You're not telling your friends all that Eddie Poe rubbish Francis told you, are you?" "No, sir!" She smiled brightly. "Eddie Poe...?" Nadia, Thomas, and Lilli all ask simultaneously. "Never mind," Mr Kirkland says hurriedly. "Now, let's start analysing the first chapter!"
The rest of the lesson passed quite uneventfully. Emil fiddled with Leon's hair, Cheng and Lucielle resumed their conversation on gambling, and Michelle tried to explain why you could use the phrase déjà vu, but couldn't use bereits gesehen or scho gesinn, much to Luca's disapproval. "It's as if the French are more important than the German or Luxembourgian!" He exclaimed, aghast. The work in the lesson seemed relatively easy, and Emil made extensive progress on Leon's new hairstyle. The boy didn't seem to mind, except for the occasional "that hurts," or the equally poetic "oh my freaking god, Emil, I'd better be able to untangle it before Maths" Emil laughed softly at that, while Cheng and Lucielle shook their heads gently at the sight.
"Oh, for goodness' sake," A girl called Mathilda's voice grew suddenly loud, as the room became silent from shock. She seemed to be the quietest in the room, usually. "I don't give a damn what yer silly lil brain thinks about this Eddie Poe guy" She appeared to be arguing with an american boy called Austin, but for what, Emil never found out as Mr Kirkland started coughing aggressively." "Now, er, Mathilda, please excuse your language, thank you." The teacher said. "Now, oh! It's ten o' clock! Hop along to your next lesson, class."
I tried lol. Also I added some characters for counties and whatnot because there aren't enough characters aged 16-17 in canon.Nadia: Greater ManchesterThomas: West MidlandsMathilda: DevonAustin: Texas