It's recess, and I'm all alone. It's nothing new, but I don't know where to go, and everyone is looking at me. Sol had some business to do and left me all alone, so now I'm sitting here like a lost infant in a crowded shopping mall. I'm scared. Not knowing what else to do, I hide my head in one of my textbooks I've yet to open and check its contents.
. . .
Ok. I'm confused. What the hell is this stuff? Simultaneous equations? Exponential and logarithmic functions? An introduction to derivatives? Sorry, I didn't realize I was in a fucking daycare. I thought this was all elementary stuff. I mean, come on. What self-respecting human above the age of six doesn't know about the central limit theorem?
"Seraph Thorne. Might I request a moment of your time?"
Do the people here not know how to write radical functions? No... I must be getting ahead of myself. I must've been given the wrong textbooks or something.
"Excuse me? Seraph Thorne?"
Maybe I'm just being patronized by the school staff... I don't know. It's obvious that everyone knows how to add and subtract three-dimensional vectors. I should ask Sister Clementine about this later. But the question is, 'do I have the balls to?'
"Seraph Thorne?"
"Hm?" Is someone talking at me? I look up from my children's book and see a voluptuous green-eyed blonde smiling down at me. There's an entourage behind her, so she must be important. She's looking at me, so she must want something. "Can I help you?"
"My name is Marie Monette. I have come here to bid hello to you, Seraph."
"Oh... Hello..." If she feels the need to introduce herself, she must be more important than I thought and judging by the class's not-so-secret conversations I'm overhearing, I was right.
"I can't believe La Grande Soeur de Toute came especially to see him..."
"I can't believe it... it's preposterous..."
"He should have gone to her!"
"Absolutely not! He can't be allowed to visit Marie!"
Bitch, what should I have done?
She's not leaving. Really wished that would've been the end of it. Whatever. May as well ask her a question that popped into mind.
"So... why is your nickname La Grande Soeur de Toute?" I ask her. Translating it with my limited French skills, I think it's something along the lines of 'Everyone's Big Sister.' My question must've been offensive or something because a voice popped out from her entourage.
"Nickname?" A girl with short hair at the back of the crowd stepped forward and glared at me sharply. Well, she tried to, anyway. She was clearly disgusted with how I looked but tried to hide it. I could see her eyes look just to the right of my cheek. She's trying to be intimidating, but it's kind of hard to find her as such when my resting face frightens her. "Did you just say 'nickname?' How rude. The term is 'title.'"
"Yes ma'am." Wait, why am I actually intimidated?
"Luna," Marie speaks up in my defence. "Seraph has only been attending this school for one day. It is only natural that he would be unfamiliar with Vincennes' vocabulary, wouldn't you agree?" The girl falls silent and steps back. "...Well, then. Seraph, it seems your first goal will be to pass the Premier Judgement at the end of the first term. I wish you luck. Farewell." With that, Marie and her escorts departed the classroom. They didn't answer my question. At least she's gone, now. The entire class let out a sigh of relief. Sol came in half a minute later, so I decided to ask her.
"Even before she became La Grande Soeur de Toute, she was already renowned as Grande Fleur," she tells me. Mhm, yes, I understand everything now. She giggles her little giggle. "I can see that I'm speaking nonsense to you. I'll explain later." That 'later' was my long-awaited lunch break. Sol led me to the dining hall. I think I'm adapting very well. Just this morning, I felt like a criminal just walking around, but now I'm already used to it. Hurray for apathy! We enter the dining hall, and I am shook. The place was packed. There were long tables that could fit twenty kids and circular tables that could only fit four, but some of the girls took seats from other tables to sit with their friends. There were two vending machines in the corner and an open kitchen, so you could see the chefs cooking your food. The thing that surprised me, however, was how clean everything was. Sol tutored me in the ways of the dining hall.
"Before you line up, you first need to take a chip." There was a basket on the corner table, and the students were pulling out little tokens from it. "The chip represents a menu item. There will always be two main dishes that change daily." That's great and all, but there's one slight problem.
"Um... How do we pay?" I didn't mention this earlier, but I have come into money. The school was giving me an allowance. I'm not sure if it's because I'm on some kind of scholarship or if they just pity me. Either way, free money is free money.
"Payment is included in our tuition, so it's free." I never paid tuition. But then again, I am here on a scholarship, so I don't care. Why am I even getting an allowance from the school if I'm not buying food? The menu was posted up next to the box. I don't know what exactly this 'lasagne' is, but it's the first thing I saw, so it's what I'll be having. We took our orders from the counter and sat down at an empty table. I was about to eat this thing when I saw Sol making the sign of the cross. I wait for her to quickly finish because I'm not rude. "Oh, you don't have to wait two seconds for me. It's just a habit. Even though I'm not Christian, I've just been at Vincennes for so long. Now, I promised to talk, so we'll talk over lunch." I listen to her explanation as I eat my tasteless food.
"First, regarding titles. At Vincennes, some of us have a second name we're known by. We don't call them nicknames. I couldn't tell you why. In addition, only the student council president's title takes the definite article 'La.' The student council president's title is La Grande Soeur de Toute. This is as it's always been. Marie also has a personal title, Grand Fleur. Oh, I have a title as well. It's Soleil De École." I think that means Sun of the School. High praise, but I could see where it came from, considering she is literally named after the star in our solar system. "It's not that I don't like it. But I don't like this custom that seems to rank students by worth. But I do like titles that reflect a person's personality. For instance, Rosalia, whom you met this morning. Her title is Belle Épine. It means 'Beautiful Briar Rose.'" No it doesn't. It means 'Beautiful Thorn.' Don't spread misinformation. It's a good thing the title works for her either way. She seemed very thorny. "Well, I think that's about it for titles..."
As she spoke, someone appeared beside us at the table. "Excuse me," she playfully calls out. "Could I cut in?" She was a girl with long dark hair that was tied back into a ponytail. She wore a weird, grey cap that had black triangular ears on top of it and a photo camera around her neck. I don't like where this is going.
"Oh. Tabby," Sol acknowledged her. Without even waiting for permission after asking, she introduced herself.
"Pleasure to meet ya. My name's Tabitha, but you can call me Tabby. I'm the news clubs' ace reporter. I'm gonna be reporting on your activities for the year... or, well, however long you're staying. I thought I should introduce myself." Ah, shit. "Now, let's have a quick interview. Do you mind?"
"I do."
Thanks for the chapter.