Dark Prince

I woke up the next day, Monday, feeling ready to face my new school. Acey had told me she goes there aswell, and after the afternoon we spent the day before in the park, I could almost call her my friend. As usuall a good dose of axiety fluttered in my stomach as I walked down the block from my hotel. At least my vintage bag matched the feel of Paris, and it helped that I had to wear a uniform to this new school. As I turned the last corner a majestic castle greeted me. Kids were walking out of their limo’s and private cars with drivers like on any regular day, but my eyes widened abit unintentionally. This was what the rich were like…
Walking into the massive wooden door of the school a gust of knowledge and wealth encroached on me. I looked desperately for Acey. In a school of 3-4000 I knew it was quite hopeless. My shaking hands started rapidly going through all the pages and roadmaps I’ve been given about the school. I’m sure I was at this point a red flag to being a new student. People hurriedly walked around me as I had to stop and stare at each fancy engraving of a door number. Little cubbies the covered the walls and only pushed everyone closer together into the tiny hallway. However, the longer I walked the more it seemed that these hallways were endless.
I looked up from my map of the school and noticed a teacher holding a boy by his collar and expressing something angrily in French. She was quite classic. The teacher was probably in her late 50’s, had a short easy-to-take-care-of haircut, and was a plump women that no nobody (at least not a student) would ever want to get in the way of. And yet, she was my last hope.
Cautiously I approached as she finished writing something quickly down and handing it to the boy. Just before she noticed me the boy gave me a quick glance of horror. I swallowed nervously and met the teacher’s eyes. They were brown and showed no sign of kindness. My heart pounded a little faster. “um, ecscuse moi, can you please help me find this room-“ I pointed down at my sheet,” –I am new here and don’t know much about the school.” “ You, don’t speak much French, non?” Her accent was harsh and only made her seem angrier. “um, not , not that much. No madam.” “ Well, Qui-es tu? I mean who are you girl? Maybe come here early if you need help no? Follow me .” She grabbed my arm with force and strutted down the hallway that I have just searched over a second ago. As she wobbled, clearly showing a part of her age, her feet relentlessly kicked the front of her long skirt forward with each step. It was as if even her feet wanted the world around them to get away from her. “here you go, girl. It’s a good idea to come early tomorrow morning, I don’t have all day for being a tour guide, Au revoir.” She shoved me to the right door and proceeded to waddle down and curse at the last few students running to class. All the doors around me seemed to lock at once, and the door in front of me, a beautiful redwood, wanted to keep me safe from what was inside. No I MUST face this- I breathed out quickly and somehow, thankfully, remembered to knock on the door before entering.

As I walked in the door the whole class stood up in their seats, a sign of respect. Their matching black and white uniforms made me feel a little better, since I can only imagine how much I would stand out if I was in my regular clothes in a private school full of the wealthy. “Bonjour madame, quell est votre nom?” This lady seemed much nicer. She had her black locks in a tidy bun, and was probably in her 30’s. She wasn’t much taller than me, and had a welcoming authority over the classroom. EVERYONE STARED. “je..” I could barely remember the little French I did know. And then I spotted Acey sitting in the back row, giving me her warm smile and an encouraging thumbs up. “Je m’apelle Ava.” “oh, you’re the new student-right!” She had a nice accent not nearly as bad as the teacher I’ve met in the hall. She took my attendance and introduced me in better, fluent French, to the class. The class repeated “Bonjour Ava” in synchronization and I was placed in the last open seat, right in the front of the class. For the obvious reasons this was the last seat left…

The rest of the day went boringly so. Acey was helpful enough to walk me quickly through the school in between classes and show me to all the rooms on my schedule. The castle possessed three grande floors and a basement. Just as my luck would have it I had a class on each floor. I didn’t get a chance to speak to many people during the day and at lunch Acey was nowhere to be found. That gave me an opportunity to explore the depths of the school library. The end of the day couldn’t have come any slower.

The last bell resonated throughout the school and the door automatically opened the roar of all the students. I spotted polished red hair in the distance and followed. “Acey! Acey!” I ran up to her to see how she was. She was talking fluent French to another girl that soon said goodbye and paced to her awaiting driver. “hey Ava! How’d you like it here?” I sighed. “Not a good day for you?” “Yeah, but it’s only the first day and maybe I’ll learn enough French to actually talk to people soon.” Acey smiled. “Do you want to come to a little café near by? They have great pastries and and we can walk down a bit to look at some of France’s newer architecture like the Belambra city hotel. Trust me you’ll like it there”

The café was about 15 minutes from the school, but contained good enough pastries to make up for a little walking. The hotel Acey spoke about looked a little too new for the city, but was very neat and well taken care of it seemed. It looked like a good place to be, and out of everything Acey showed me that day it was that hotel that stayed on my mind.