During English class itself it was clear that my renewed efforts of last lesson had paid dividends as well as Miss Edwards didn’t call me to the front of the class as much as she used to. She still did, but at least it wasn’t as constant anymore.
“Miss Beaumont, don’t take this as an opportunity to start slacking again.” Miss Edwards said to me after the class was over.
“I’ll definitely try not to!”
“Good to hear that. Students, have a nice weekend and see you all back here on Monday. Do not forget to read up on your lessons just in case I decide to do a pop quiz.” And with that she left the classroom.
History class went pretty easily as usual. Continuing from Tuesday’s lesson, we spent the period talking about the waves of revolutions that followed the French revolution. Namely the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. Apparently there was an incident in 1848 of a group of revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the Belgian government. One of their legions decided to go by train but were promptly stopped and disarmed. For some reason I thought that was pretty funny. Miss Peeters said it was also a great example of how a new method of transportation would revolutionize the way armies would travel in the future.
“That was all for today, class.” Miss Peeters smiled and started packing her bag.
While she was doing so I walked to the front of the class to have a little chat with her. “Hey, Miss Peeters.”
“Ah, Aurora, how can I help you?”
“It’s nothing, really, just wanted to say you were right about Miss Edwards.”
“See, she’s not that bad is she?”
“Yeah.”
Miss Peeters smiled once more. “Is there something else you need right now? I would love to chat a bit more with my favourite student…” She lowered her voice. “Don’t tell the others, okay? I’m not supposed to have favourites.” She winked.
I nodded with a small giggle. “Okay.”
She went back to her normal talking volume. “But it’s just that I have a bit of a lunch date with Mx. De L’Arbre and I don’t want to be late for it.”
“Ah, please don’t let me keep you then!”
She winked at me again and grabbed her bag. “See you on Monday.”
“Have a nice meal!”
“You too.” She waved me goodbye and left.
I walked back to my friend group to start packing my bag.
“So apparently Miss Peeters has a lunch date with Mx. De L’Arbre.”
“Oh, nice! I always thought they would be a cute couple together.” Claire commented.
“Mhmm.” Emma nodded along. “They have great chemistry.”
“Yes!” Ria also gleefully agreed.
“That’s definitely true, by the way, where do we want to go for lunch today?” I asked, not that I was hungry or anything, because… you know.
“I don’t know, I’m finding myself in an English mood today.” Emma rubbed her chin.
“English sounds good.” Ria and Karin both nodded as well.
I looked over to Claire.
“English is good for me too.”
“Want us to wait for Anya as well?”
Claire shook her head. “No, she sent me a message telling me she’s too busy so she can’t eat with us today.”
“Awh, I hope it’s nothing too bad?”
“Just school work. It happens occasionally.”
“Ah, tell her we all wish for her school work to be done as soon as possible!” Ria insisted.
“I will, I will, she’ll be happy to hear that you are thinking about her.”
I smiled and looked around the classroom, looking around to see if Pres was still here. I spotted her near the tea kettle, checking the box of tea. “Hey Pres!” I called over to her.
She looked back, a bit surprised by the sudden callout. “Is something the matter? Aurora?”
“I was wondering if we could all join you to the English resto.”
Pres slowly nodded and looked back at her tea. “Give me a moment, I will be right there.”
“Nice, looks like we are all going to eat together, it’s been a while.”
“When there’s so much choice it’s hard to get everyone aligned.” Emma commented.
“Remember that time when Rora so desperately wanted pizza she just outright refused to step into the restaurant.”
“Oh, right!” Emma started giggling.
“Hey! That restaurant was way too fancy to begin with, and how do they dare to call themselves an Italian restaurant without a single pizza on the menu!” I defended myself.
“Aurora has got a point.” Claire agreed. “An Italian restaurant without pizza is almost the same as a steak house without steak.”
“Thank you, Claire. See, she gets it.”
“But their ossobucco is so gooooood.” Emma almost started salivating right on the spot.
“Yesss!” Ria joined her.
“You bunch of weirdos. But at least they added pizza know so things are all good and well. Maybe the thousands of complaints from me helped convince them.” I started laughing with the rest of the group soon following my lead.
“I’m ready.” Pres joined us as well. “Just had to make sure everything was clean.”
“Alright, let’s go then.” Claire led the way out of the classroom, with me and Emma closing up the group from behind.
“Any idea what you’re going to do about P.E.?” Em spoke softly so the others couldn’t hear what we were talking about.
“Ah, right, I forgot we had that today…”
“So you have no plan whatsoever?”
“I think I’ll figure something out, what discipline were we doing today?”
“Outdoors track if I recall correctly.”
“Pfff…” I sighed. “Uhm, I could try to just hold myself back?”
“It could work but I think Miss Garcia might notice that.”
“But pretending I’m sick would also be too suspicious…”
“Hey, what are you two whispering about?” Claire was looking back at us, drawing the attention of the entire group.
“She was just uh…” I tried to come up with an excuse but was beaten to it by Emma.
“I was explaining something to her about JavaScript.” Emma nodded confidently.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were good at that.” Claire looked at her suspiciously. “Would you mind explaining it to me too? I hate that programming language with the burning passion of a thousand suns.”
“S-sure.”
“Me too, me too!” Ria jumped up and down enthusiastically, even Karin raised her hand and nodded.
Emma looked at me with a defeated face.
“Now you’ve done it Em… you should’ve picked something you were actually good at.” I whispered at her the moment the group had turned away their attention again.
“I just said the first thing that came into my mind, I didn’t know she would call my bluff.”
“It’s Claire, what were you expecting? That woman is borderline psychic.”
“Heeelp meeee.”
“Sorry, I’m even worse than you are when it comes to that.”
“Urggghhh.” Emma groaned, severely regretting her life choices.
A short walk later we arrived at the English restaurant and walked past the door me and Claire went through yesterday to get to the roof. Claire pushed open the lavishly decorated doors that lead to the main floor of the restaurant, revealing the marble floor and the even more decadent interior.
“Oh, I suddenly remembered why I always feel out of place here.” The gold leafed ceiling reflected the light of the magnificent chandeliers hanging from it. An enormous mirror on the far side wall making the room look even bigger than it already was.
Ria poked my arm. “Are you coming, Rora?”
The rest of the group had apparently already continued on, leaving me to stare at the room alone. “Ah, right, sorry. Was just a bit overwhelmed.”
Ria smiled and grabbed my hand, guiding me to the richly set buffet. “Just follow me.”
“Aye, aye.”
“Do you already know what you’re going to eat?” She said while gazing at all the different plates.
“Not really, but I’ll probably keep it a bit light again…”
“Make sure you get enough food in your system, okay? Don’t starve yourself.” Ria looked at me with her cutesy pouty face. “I don’t want you to faint during P.E.”
-That won’t really be a problem, quite the opposite actually…- But I nodded with a smile anyway. “Yes mom.”
Ria quickly had filled her plate with all kinds of goodness, although her selections reminded me more of an English breakfast than a lunch. She even had a seperate plate with desserts as well. It amazed me how much food could fit in that tiny body of hers, but then again, you’d also think that of a lot of those competitive eaters you see on the internet nowadays.
“Here you go.” Ria took a couple of scones and put them on my plate, together with a sausage and some beans in tomato sauce. Although she did make sure the tomato sauce didn’t touch the scones.
“Hey!”
“You weren’t picking anything Rora!”
“Alright, alright, I’ll start with this then. But let me at least carry your tea because you’ve already got your hands full. I don’t want you to get into any accidents.”
Ria smiled and handed me her cup of tea, taking her plates into her hands. “Thank you.”
With our food and drink in hand we joined our friends at one of the big round tables at the corner of the restaurant, I got seated between Emma and Ria.
“Everyone, have a nice meal.” Pres spoke to the entire table.
“Have a nice meal!” The rest of the table replied and we all started eating.
-Eating with friends- I looked over to Emma and Ria-chan, making me start to blush a little. -and… uh… maybe more than just friends is always a nice experience.-
Emma must’ve noticed I was looking because she started blushing too. Ria however was just eating without a care in the world.
-Please don’t ever change, Ria-chan.-
mow... so cute
vewwy
Javascript: if I could use any other language I would but it's required in several scenarios. Give me inheritance pleaaaaaase. What's the point of adding classes to js if you don't include one of the most important parts of classes
(I have to admit, I know very little about programming xd)
@FieryKathy sorry i saw a computer science comment to be made and went for it.
Thanks
np :3
“Now you’ve done it Em… you should’ve picked something you were actually good at.” I whispered at her the moment the group had turned away their attention again.
She should've used EmScripten ya C.
:p
Adowable
A rant about this "British food"
Ria took a couple of scones and put them on my plate, together with a sausage and some beans in tomato sauce. Although she did make sure the tomato sauce didn't touch the scones.
Scones? As in the dessert? Wah?
Also who calls baked beans, beans in tomato sauce? The sauce doesn't even taste or look like tomato sauce.
Also wheres the essentials for a true full English, the hash browns, the bacon and the black pudding! (Maybe with some toast too) without any of that you're just eating beans and sausages which is the saddest breakfast I've ever heard.
Atleast they got a cuppa to make up for it.
I'm hungry for a full English now...
All english breakfasts I've eaten always had beans with tomato sauce.
@FieryKathy it's just called baked beans in the UK
Going out of your way to say tomato sauce (which is what we call ketchup) just makes it sound wrong, Ketchup and the baked bean sauce are nothing alike.
@Snoodle_Booper Hmm, so tomato sauce is a synonym for ketchup over yonder?
@FieryKathy yep!
So saying beans with tomato sauce (ketchup) just makes me feel ill... Ketchup and beans don't mix and the image it creates in my head makes me want to vomit.
@Snoodle_Booper I seee
British "food". If food was a colour - British would be beige. (c) Reddit.
I've yet to see any British restaurants anywhere in Europe, and I've been to quite a few places, only pubs and those normally serve local food if any.
Maybe I am not posh enough. Then again, can't imagine a posh restaurant serving "British" food.
@mmx29 but teatiiiime :p
@FieryKathy Tea is great, beige slush with milk is awful.
Have you heard of the Paris Syndrome? Japanese have it, they think of Paris as a very cultural place and are very disappointed when they visit to the point that some get depressed over it. That's how it is with British food and tea "culture". I was very disappointed when I first came to Britain, still am almost 20 years later.
Food is beyond awful. Tea only comes in paper nappies. Desserts are sugar coated in sugar and sprinkled with sugar.
But that's just a very bleak outline, albeit shared by a lot of foreigners I talk to.
I really like how you are writing Pres, with her obsession with tea, but the British restaurant just got to me :D
@mmx29 well, theres a bit of everything at the school so its fine :)
@FieryKathy Yeah, this is what actually ticked me off. A food truck with US/British stuff would be more in-line, but hey, you're the author :D
Well... not just those. English foods: Jammy Dodgers(which I've been told are like Jam filled Ladyfingers), Spotted d*ck, Fish&chips, etc...
POINT2: PIZZA, while considered Italian by many, is Actually NOT italian food. The basis for pizza is actually a Chinese dish, that an Italian-American tried to replicate. His failure ended up being tasty, and so PIZZA was born. YOU order a pizza in Italy? Yeah you get a piece of flatbread with tomatoes on top, sprinkled with a Vinaigrette dressing.
Point3: Crepes aren't JUST a dessert. There are Breakfast Crepes, filled with egg, sausage, Bacon, and cheese, served with maple syrup... And one guy in Chicago sells Pizza Crepes... in addition, Beans in Tomato sauce? ARE they baked or boiled? Do they have bits of pork in them? Is it Toma-Bean Soup(tomato soup with beans), Baked Beans(Carmelized Tomato Sauce on beans) or Pork&Beans(Beans and pork chunks, boiled in tomato sauce)
@Darkakuahebi Sounds like there's only one kind of crepe that I dont consider as heresy xD
@FieryKathy the breakfast Crepe is good... sausage eggs cheddar bacon and syrup on very thin Pancake(basically) with whipped cream... Everything good in a breakfast, In one!
Ok, actual Brit feeling the need to rant... wtf are you lot smoking?
First, no, ketchup and tomato sauce are not the same bloody thing. The former is thicker and goes on food, but tinned food is pretty much exclusively named with the latter. You don't cook "tinned spaghetti in ketchup"... baked beans come in tomato sauce. What's the difference? Consistency... tomato sauce is somewhere between watery soup and cooking stock level of consistency where as ketchup is think enough that you need to pound the stuff out of the bottle. Pretty sure the stuff you stick on pizza is supposed to be termed tomato base or tomato puree, btw. Now, you will get ketchup if you ask for someone to pass you the tomato sauce, but which and how you ask in a chippie probably outs your background as badly as your accent.
There's also that abomination of calling brown sauce ketchup, but brown sauce is an abomination anyway *shrug*
Wtf is with black pudding and English breakfast anyway? I'd have to guess it's eaten about as regularly here as haggis is up north. A real "breakfast", if you insist on what sane people here would eat regularly, is sausage, bacon, fried eggs, bread or toast, and maybe mushrooms, baked beans, or hash browns if those are your taste. Hash browns are a good filler, but proper fry up without eggs is just wrong. Also, while we're at it, whether it counts as a breakfast largely depends on background and occupation... it's a lot of high energy food which is good if you're going to burn that off, and it's good if you've got the money to spend on tasty food without caring, but cereal or bread based breakfasts are probably more common... I grew up on jam sandwich breakfasts cause you can eat them on the move, but a fryup is pretty much ideal if you're out and buying on a brunch schedule.
And yes, you can serve baked beans with and without tomato sauce... comes down to how much you drain them, cause your average tin of beans is probably nearly quarter juice (wait, that in joke won't land, baked bean juice, ya know) and so how much of that you want plated depends on how much you care about other stuff getting soggy... if I'm mixing baked beans with sausage and chips I might not be so bothered either way, but bread'll go mushie if you dunk the whole mess on it... bread on the side'll soak it up so it's all good, on bread or toast though ends up being trickier.
As for "British food" in general, course it's beige, it doesn't exist... we have a ton of local food and stuff we've yoinked while fecking around with other countries... why do you think curry and kebabs managed to dig in so weirdly? What's served in pubs is probably closer to actual British food than anything else... heavy on meat, pastry and veg of the root crop variety. Traditionally, pig and sheep related meats, steak if you're posh, roast once a week... pies, pastries, etc for portability... Potatoes, carrots, with pea and beans filling one of the missing slots and cabbage another. Outside of places like London, food culture here, providing it ain't been tainted by imports, is working class farm and mine.
You want original English food? Apple. Pie. Lots of pies actually... Now I think about it, most things that actually are british food are pies, meat, and/or baked desserts. .... How hungry was the person that decided to try cooking with suet instead of making candles out of it?
Wait... got distracted. W'ere were aye? Ah yea, tea, right. Take 90% of what you know about tea and shove it out the air lock. I want some alone time with whatever idiot thought it was a good idea to call every kind of steeped infusion drink "tea". Tea in bags are just loose tea in a disposable bag... it's a lot finer which makes it brew consistently. Most of what we have here is Indian black tea derived, though if my relative's tastes are anything to go by modern tea there has diverged since we picked up the habit, leaning more on the spiced tea than we do. Milk in tea... I don't think that's originally our doing, but it's entirely taste dependent.
Thing is, loose tea is basically transmitted historically as a sign of wealth and "culture", it takes time and effort to prepare correctly and thus the association with people who have too much time and/or money and thus can. That largely got sodded off by the prompt invention of things like tea pots with built-in strainers, but the whole brits drinking tea image is almost the same as Japanese tea ceremony vs drinking it like normal people: rich people acting like rich people, people who want to be rich people watching rich people, commoners getting on with life.
And if you want to blame someone for tea bags, apparently that was an American. Might explain why teapots don't seem to exist there.
And finally... Pizza. Ffs, Pizza is an extremely Italian food, it's thick crust that isn't. The dish is entirely the fault of Italian migrants spreading out and adapting pizza (and pasta, for that matter) to the tastes and supplies of where they settled. I've no idea where the whole Chinese dish thing comes from, flatbreads in the Med are super old stuff and thin crust is the default kind of pizza in most of the world afaik... the variations with thicker crusts but still mostly pizza like, what you'd generally get ordering thick crust or deep pan here, has always struck me as being the result of someone attempting to bulk out pizza by increasing the dough component and saving on toppings, essentially the same process as happens in every form of cooking. Pie type pizzas are not really pizza, so much as they're pies made with pizza dough instead of pasty dough.
If people really want to complain about british food being boring and bland... and british restraunts being rare... look at what we did to poor Indian curry. The bloody East India Company got their hands on it, we mucked around with it, spread it pretty much everywhere we went, and some how invented chicken tikka masala as an after thought. Much like our language, we've thieved and butchered every food tradition we came across and littered the remains around to be thieved and butchered by others after we left... then we retired and let the US take over the job.
Bleh, and now I'm hungry too.
@Kaithar that was a chonky food rant :p hope you got yourself some food :)