French Touch v2.0 - 2. Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning feeling more tired than when I had gone to bed, probably the jetlag.

I lazily stayed under my covers, staring at the blank ceiling above me, listening to the city noises outside. Now being a 16 year old teenager you can probably guess that I had a certain stiffness between my legs. I slowly took care of it, enjoying the feeling more so than some other times.

After whipping myself clean I went out seeking breakfast. My father had already left for work, but my mom was still here somewhere. I could hear her go through cardboard boxes somewhere in the apartment. I found her in the living room, sorting through piles of things we had brought over.

“Morning sweetie,” she said without turning around.

I swear my mom has super-human hearing.

“Morning mom.”

“If you want breakfast there is some left in the kitchen.”

I nodded and sought out my morning cereals. Thankfully cornflakes are pretty widespread and my mom had found some yesterday at the grocery shop. After copiously drowning them in milk, I took a spoonful, eyes closed, in pure bliss. They didn’t even taste any different than those from back home.

Now let me tell you something about me real quick. I am NOT a morning person, like at all. Without breakfast I cannot function, without my morning shower I cannot talk or think. I can get up early, but I don’t like it. Finally, don’t bother trying to get me to try and eat something different than cereal, my morning bowl is sacred, nothing you can do about it.

Once I was showered and properly dressed, I started unpacking. First my books, and there were many. For example: The Belgariad by David Eddings, all of the Percy Jackson, some of the World of Warcraft novels, the Shadow Throne series, the Leviathan trilogy. I could go on, but I’m too lazy to. I also have a sizable collection of manga, Pandora Hearts, SAO, One Piece and Fairy Tail. Once my books were neatly classified in my bookshelf I set up my computer. Before leaving I had made sur to get all the needed adapters for the current and stuff. It took me a while, but I finally had my PC up and running. I enjoyed the sweet humming that I hadn’t heard in a few months as I had had to give it up when all the furniture left to cross the Atlantic in May.

My dad had set up a Wi-Fi connection and given me the access codes. I found the network and joined it. Blessed is the one that invented Wi-Fi!

I brought up a Google Chrome page and logged on Facebook. I had a few messages from my friends back home, nothing very exciting. I answered them, but having a 6-hour difference with them meant they were still sleeping. I went on YouTube to try and pass the time. Before I knew it, an hour had passed, and Jason had woken early.

“Yo James how’s France?”

“Hey! It’s fine for now :)”

“Really? How was your flight and stuff?”

“Flight was fine, I slept through most of it xD other than that is was raining when we got there.”

No way was I going to mention my bag falling on me and me making an absolute fool of myself in public…

“Any hot ladies?”

Even my best friend didn’t know I was gay, and I kept up the illusion I was straight with him and everyone else.

“Nah I haven’t gone outside much yet, been sleeping :D ”

“Haha. Well I got to run ttyl :) ”

“See ya!”

My mom called me for lunch, she had made something quick for us and totally American: macaroni and cheese. Even though I love my mom’s Mac’n cheese, they were a sort of let down from last night…

I decided to spend a bit more time in my room that afternoon and at the same time (about) as yesterday I went out around the block. Just like yesterday kids my age were smoking without a care in the world in front of their school. Even though I tried not to be too obvious about it, my eyes longed to catch a glimpse of yesterday’s dream boy. After a little moment of panic they found him and my heart skipped a beat (that never happened before).

I knew next week I’d be with them, like in school and stuff, but I found it so odd just to think about it. I mean I barely spoke any French. I could probably say hi and keep a very basic conversation going, but how was I going to follow in class? My parents really had a weird idea to put me in the public system…

Dream boy didn’t see me (thank God for that!) and I could steal a few minutes of staring without attracting any attention. I went home after that and just played on my pc.

The evening was uneventful, and I went to bed early. I had a good jerk off before I let Morpheus take me in his gentle arms.

The next few days went by in almost the same fashion, and before I knew it, it was Sunday evening and the next day I would be going to school. My mom had tried to get me to go out and visit Paris, but I really didn’t feel like it. I didn’t want to be reminded that I was someplace that I didn’t know at all in a country that wasn’t my own. She had that look in her eyes that told me she was worried about me, and it’s true that I did sigh a lot, out of boredom and homesickness. I think she hopped that being back in school would make me think about other things than home. I talked to Jason some more, and a couple of my other friends. I missed them the most.

I was so alone here.

Monday morning my alarm woke me at 7, after a quick shower and breakfast I packed up a notebook a pen and headed out early. My dad had set up everything with the school, I was to go straight to an office called the “Vie Scolaire,” which I was told was sort of the main office for students. I was also given directions to actually get there.

I entered the building, took the first hallway on the right, and sure enough I saw a little sign jutting out from one of the doors that said “Vie Scolaire.”

I took a deep breath and entered.

There were shelves with identical, big notebooks, a desk and two doors. There wasn’t anyone at the desk, but one of the doors was open. I knocked and peeked inside. A young man looked up from one of the two desks and said:

“Je peux vous aider?”

“I euh… Je m’appelle James, on m’a dit de venir here euh.. ici,” I answered in my best possible French.

The guy frowned then he seemed to remember something and he got up and motioned me towards the other door.

He knocked twice and entered the other office.

He exchanged a few quick words with an elderly lady then let me before closing the door behind me.

The office was smaller, only one desk, but a lot of shelves full of files. At first I hadn’t seen the other woman in the room, much younger and that stood behind the elderly one.

“Hello James,” she said as she turned to face me.

“Hello,” I answered timidly.

“My name is Ms. Le Collet, I am your English teacher this year. This is Mrs. Becker the CPE, and we will try to help you get settled in to your new environment.”

I nodded, though I had no idea what a CPE was (I later learned it meant: “Conseiller principal d’éducation” which is a fancy tittle for someone that manages the day to day aspect of the school, he/she is the one you are sent to if you get in trouble, and he/she is in charge of all the people that watch over us during the day).

I was then given my “empli du temps,” or if you prefer my schedule. It’s crazy, some days classes only ended at 6 in the afternoon, and every day I started at 8. Anyways, we also went over the rules that I was to respect. Ms. Le Collen was very kind and told me that I could come see her anytime if I had questions. She also said that once a week I would have a short 10 minute meeting with her just to make sure everything was fine. Mrs. Becker barely talked but nodded a lot, she didn’t look very kind.

“And finally we assigned you a buddy to help you around. He lived in LA for many years, and is both fluent in French and English, and he is one of the top students of his class. He should be here soon, so that you two can meet and then get to your first class on time.”

I nodded, and as if on cue the door behind me opened.