Dreams of Tomorrow

“Athalya, do you want me to drive you to school today?” asked her grandfather as Athalya was finishing eating breakfast.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll take the bus.” She explained as she put her empty bowl in the sink and pulled a little at the hem of her pajamas.

“I’m going to get ready for school now.” She said, as she hurried up the stairs and to her room. She opened the closet and took a pair of dark jeans, a grey T-shirt and some clean underwear before she headed to the bathroom next door.

She got out about ten minutes later, fully dressed and went to her room, putting her PJs under her pillow and putting on her socks as she sat on the edge of her bed. Then she walked over to the full-length mirror hanging next to the closets and grabbed her eyeliner. She applied some before smudging it a little with her finger. She put it back on top of the chest of drawer and grabbed the perfume bottle, spraying some before she tied her hair in a ponytail. She looked at her reflection once again before she grabbed her backpack that was located next to her desk, slide her schedule in her pocket and headed back to the kitchen.

“I’m going now.” She announced, as she kissed her grandmother’s cheek as she was doing the washing up and walked over to her grandfather to do the same.

She put her shoes on, grabbed her jacket from the pattern and put it on before she swung her back over her shoulder, waving at her grandparents and then leaving the house. She took her CD player from the front pocket of her backpack and put the earphones in her ears. She arrived at the bus stop and waited about a minute or so before it showed up.

She was about to get inside when she saw a boy running.

“Hold on.” She told the driver as she waited until the boy arrived, breathless.

“Thank you.” He said, trying to catch his breath. She smiled and got inside as the boy thanked the driver.

She sat on the same sit as the day before and looked out of the window until the bus moved and she noticed that the boy had taken the sit next to hers. She recognized him as the same boy that had taken the sit next to her the day before.

Athalya got out of the bus, and stepped aside, avoiding the crowd of people. She adjusted her backpack on her back and started to make her way towards the school. She was about to walk into the hall when she saw Valary standing underneath a tree, with her friends. She would have kept walking if Valary wasn’t waving at her. She took the earphones out and put everything back in the front pocket.

“Hey.” Said Valary, smiling at her. She was standing next to Matt, he had his arms wrapped around her shoulder.

There was a chorus of “Hi, Hey, What’s up?”

“Hey.” She said quietly, she felt awkward standing there. She wasn’t one of them and she couldn’t understand why they were talking to her.

“So, what do you have today?” asked Val, smiling warmly at her.

“Huh…” Athalya trailed off, taking her schedule out of her pocket and looking at it. “Double math and then English. Then lunch break and then French and Spanish.” She explained, looking up from her schedule to see Zack looking at her.

“I’m sorry but you will have to deal with Jimmy in math. He wasn’t here yesterday because he skipped, but I have a feeling he is going to show up in a minute.” And just as he finished his sentence, a tall boy, wearing a bright orange kimono came towards them, running.

“Hey ya!” he said, waving at everyone and crushing Val in a hug.

“Athalya is with you in math, please don’t make her get a detention like you did with Matt in biology.” Val said, looking up at the tall boy. He nodded,

“Yes ma’am!” he said, and then turned to smile at Athalya who had a surprised expression on her face as she was looking at the orange thing Jimmy was wearing.

“Don’t mind him, he thinks he is badass because he’s wearing a kimono when in fact it’s just a bathrobe.” Said Zack with a smile as Jimmy flipped him off.

The bell rang announcing the start of a long day in school.

“Damn…” muttered Justin, rubbing his eyes. “I’m going to fall asleep.” He muttered, yawning. Athalya looked at him and smiled before she focused on her feet, following Val and Matt.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” asked Zacky as he walked next to her.

“I’m still getting used to the whole thing.” She explained, lifting her gaze to look at him briefly before she looked at her shoes once again.

“See you guys at lunch break!” said Jimmy, waving at everyone as he got in the classroom, followed by Athalya. She wasn’t especially small, but wasn’t as tall as Jimmy and he kind of scared her with his eccentricity. Jimmy stopped to talk with a few persons as Athalya kept walking until she reached the back row and took her sit next to the window. She took out her stuff and waited for the lesson to start. She felt awkward sitting there in this classroom.

When she was still living in France, she had always dreamt of going to the United States, it was her life-goal, but now that she was there, it didn’t felt right. But maybe it has to do with the circumstances of her leaving.

She never really liked France but now, she kinda missed it. She knew the language, it was her country, she was born and raised there, she lived there her whole life and now she had to leave. She wanted to go back to her old house, she wanted to see her friends, laugh with them…

She let out a sigh as the teacher came in. She kept her attention focused on the lesson during the two hours, not letting her mind wander for a second.

In English, she sat at the back of the class and was surprised to see Zack taking the sit next to her.

“So, how was math?” he asked, smiling at her as she looked at him weirdly. She wasn’t expecting him to sit next to her. They didn’t know each others.

“It was okay.” She said, looking at her hands.

“Did Jimmy annoy you?” he enquired. Athalya shook her head,

“He wasn’t sitting next to me.” She explained, twirling a pencil between her fingers.

“He wasn’t? This guy is a dumbass…” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Was there any reason for him to sit next to me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He should have.” Replied Zack, nibbling on his lip ring.

“I don’t see a reason why. He has his friends, I wasn’t expecting him to sit next to me.” She said, looking at Zacky.

“You are his friend too.”

Athalya shook her head, “We aren’t friend just because Valary was nice enough to let me eat with you yesterday. You don’t know me, I don’t know you, how can you say that we are all friends?” she asked, keeping her eyes on Zack who looked away. He turned a little on his sit so he was facing the blackboard and stayed silent.

Athalya bit her lip. She had done it again. Every time someone was trying to be friendly with her or start a conversation, she turned them down. And it seems to get worse… She sighed, took her pen and started writing down what the teacher was saying.

**

The bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson. Athalya opened her mouth to apologize but Zack was already out of the class before she had the time to say ‘sandwich’. She slowly gathered her things, putting everything back in her bag and heading outside. She didn’t felt like eating. She went to sit under an oak tree and grabbed an apple from her bag. She had brought it incase she would be hungry.

She took her book from the bag, the same book she was ready the previous day and opened it at the page where she had left, reading while taking small bites from her apple. She was halfway through the book when the bell rang and she ha to go back to class. French. She put her book back in her backpack, threw the rest of her apple in the trashcan and made her way towards the French class. Once again, she had to hand the piece of paper to the teacher. She smiled at her.

“Where do you come from?”

“France.” Athalya replied, feeling confident.

“Vraiment?” (really?)

Athalya nodded, “Oui, j’habitais en Normandie, près des plages du débarquement.” (Yes, I lived not far from the D-Day beaches.)

“C’est génial! Tu peux aller t’asseoir.” (That’s great. You can go sit down.)

“Merci.” (Thank you.)

Athalya went to sit at the back of the class, trying her hardest to ignore the curious stare of the other students.

What is she doing here? Why is she in that class? Did you hear her accent?

She closed her eyes, and waited for the lesson to start. She felt like an animal locked in a cage in a zoo, as people were walking by, starring curiously at her.

“Sorry we’re late!”

She lifted her gaze to see Matt, Justin, Zacky and Val walking in the classroom.

“Et vous êtes encore en retard!” muttered the teacher, shaking her head.

“Excuse us.” Apologized Val as she ushered everyone to the back row, Matt went to sit next to Athalya.

“Do you mind?” he whispered. Athalya shook her head and took her back off the chair. Matt smiled and sat down.

“Okay class. Silence now. Est-ce que l’un de vous ce souviens de ce que nous avons fait la semaine dernière?” (Does anyone remember what we’ve done last week ?) asked the teacher standing up.

“I just remember you telling us that we’ll be watching a movie today.” Said Matt.

“En français Matthew s’il te plait.” (In French Matthew please)

Matt made a face and started thinking, trying to translate just as a piece of paper was passed to him.

“Read that.” Whispered Athalya.

“Vous avez dit que nous allions regarder un film.” He said unsure, and messing up some words.

“Bien Matthew.” She said with a smile before she focused her attention back to the class. “Comme je vous l’avais dit la semaine dernière, aujourd’hui nous allons regarder un film…”

“Thank you.” Whispered Matt, looking at Athalya.

“No problem.” She whispered, taking back the piece of paper and hiding it in her pencil case as the teacher was coming their way.

“As-tu déjà vu ce film?”(Have you seen this movie already?) asked the teacher, looking at Athalya and holding up a VHS case. Athalya looked at the VHS for a second,

“Oui, je l’ai déjà vu! C’est ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’, non ?”(Yes I did! It’s ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ isn’t it ?) asked Athalya.

“Oui, c’est ça.” (Yes, that’s it.)

“Ouais bah j’ai lu le livre en cours aussi…” (Yeah, well I read the book in class too…)

“Très bien, que peux-tu nous en dire?” (Very good, what can you tell us about it ?)asked the teacher with a smile. Athalya felt the heat rose to her cheeks.

“Hum, çà se passé au 17ème siècle je crois, en France, à l’époque des libertins. C’est un roman épistolaire… écrit par Choderlos de Laclos si je me souviens bien.” (It takes place in the 17 century I think, in France, at the age of the libertines. It’s an epistolary novel...written by Choderlos de Laclos). The teacher smiled brightly nodding and then went to put the VHS in the player. Athalya dropped her head in her hands and sighed. She waited until the beginning of the movie because she knew the students would stop watching her and would be engrossed in the movie. It wasn’t the best movie ever, she had seen better but it was quite good, in her opinion at least.

**

“Athalya? Do you need a ride after school?” offered Matt as the bell rang and the students were slowly walking out of the classroom.

“No, I’ll take the bus. Thanks for the offer though.” She said with a small smile, swinging her backpack over her shoulder and walking past Matt.

She headed to her next class, trying her best to ignore all the curious glance from the students in the hallway.

She wasn’t paying attention to where she was going until she bumped into someone and lost her balance.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry!” apologized the guy as he held out his hand. She took it and got back on her feet. He was shorter than she was, and he probably was younger. She recognized him as the boy from the bus.

“It’s my fault, I should have payed attention to where I was going. Sorry.” She apologized with a small smile before heading to the class. She showed the paper to the teacher and went to sit at the back of the class. The boy sitting on the row in front of her kept turning around, trying to make conversation but before the end of each sentence, the teacher was asking him to turn around.

“Jason Berry! For the fifteenth time, turn around!” Yelled the teacher, slamming both hands on his desk. Jason smile sheepishly at Athalya before turning around. Athalya laughed slightly, shaking her head before she wrote down the vocabulary that was scribbled on the blackboard. As the bell rang, she hurried outside of the class and out of the building, to the bus stop.

“Do you mind?”

Athalya looked up from her CD player only to see the same guy as the day before, as know as the guy whom she bumped into in the hallway. Athalya took her bag off the seat and the boy smiled.

“I’m Jonathan.” He said, holding out his hand. Athalya smiled and shook his hand.

“Athalya.” She replied softly.

“You’re new right? Because I’ve never seen you around…”

“Yeah, I’m new. I just arrived in town.”

“Ah okay, do you like it here?”

“It’s okay, maybe too much sun… But it’s not bad.” She replied with a shrug.

“Were do you come from?”

“France, west part of it. I’m used to the rain and the wind.” She explained.

He nodded. She was almost expecting him to ask more questions but no, he simply sat there, silent. She smiled, happy that he wasn’t too noisy and put her earphones in her ear.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the bus stop?” he asked as they both walked out of the bus.

“Okay, see ya.” She said, waving.

“Save me a seat!” he called out before walking in the opposite direction.

Weird kid she thought as she turned around the corner.