Chapter XXIII: First Day of School
I didn't know how I felt about being on call with Athena whenever she wanted, but there was no use worrying about the inevitable. I had no power to stop an immortal goddess, so I put it to the back of my mind.
This body of mine wasn't used to staying up all night. I would need to start conditioning it... Maybe tomorrow. Or the day after. When I get home, I think I might just sleep.
Unless I had homework. Gods, I hope I didn't have homework. Did French schools hand out homework on the first day? Please no.
The woman who walked in was pretty cute. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties. "Welcome class, I am Professor Dubois. It's a pleasure to meet you, class."
Professor? This was starting to feel a bit Hogwartsy.
"I will be your Professeure Principale for the remainder of the school year. I look forwards to getting to know all of you."
As far as I could tell, Professeure Principale was the French equivalent of a homeroom teacher. In my last go around, I didn't have a homeroom in Elementary, Middle, or High School, so this was something new.
To think, I could be in Quebec with my mom right now if I didn't cave. I wondered how long she was going to stay.
"I will also be your history teacher." I checked my schedule. History was my first class. "Please take out your textbooks and turn to the forwards."
It was interesting learning history from a French perspective. The facts remained the same, but it was a different take compared to what I was used to. Maybe I should try and become an exchange student. I bet it would be interesting to learn this subject in other countries.
The class kept me surprisingly engaged. Which was a feat, considering just how tired I was becoming.
When the bell rang signaling the end of class, I almost packed up my things and stood up. Old habits die hard and if I was still in the US, I would be going to my next class.
"I will see you all again before lunch," Professor Dubois said as she left the room. A grouchy old man appeared next for math and I didn't like him from the moment he snapped at us to shut up.
"I am Professor Clement and you will only speak when spoken to. I do not allow disruptions in my class, do you understand? I was teaching class when you were all glimmers in your father's balls, so you will respect me."
He sounded like a jackass. That was my first impression and as the lesson went on, that impression turned out to be correct. If he heard anyone speaking, he'd stop the lesson to berate them in front of the class. He asked them questions we hadn't gone over yet and when they failed to answer correctly, he called them stupid. In a variety of colorful ways.
When anyone failed to answer a question to his expectations, they were given the same treatment. When he called on me, I made it my mission to answer the problem right and I did. Daliah had taken it upon herself to teach me beyond where my peers were in school, so I had already covered everything Professor Clement was teaching.
When I answered correctly each time, his face soured. He turned away, grumbling about the youth not being as stupid as he thought. It was a relief when his hour was up and he left the classroom with a stink eye. I couldn't shake the feeling that it was directed at me.
Oh well.
We had a ten-minute break, which I was going to use to speak with my friend, but they looked dead on their feet. I decided I would let them relax.
Professor Janvier was a jovial man in his late forties. He taught French literature and unlike Clement, he could take a joke. In fact, he told a lot of jokes, liked to talk with us, and he encouraged us to participate. It was a far cry from Professor Clement, and I liked him a lot more.
I didn't care for literature class in my first life, but I might enjoy the class this time around. It was fun and it even shaved off my tiredness for a while.
The last class before lunch was Chemistry, and it was the first time we left our classroom. We were taken to another story and ended up in the chemistry lab. It looked like your standard school science lab.
We had Professor Blanchard for Chemistry. She was an old woman, about the same age as Professor Clement, but unlike the crotchety old man, she wasn't an asshole. She was strict, that much was certain, but she wasn't mean about it. She made sure to we understood the dangers of this class before she let us continue.
Professor Blanchard detailed the lesson very clearly, though she didn't touch a single chemical. She used this time to go over our lesson plan and the safety rules. if anyone refused to listen, we would be kicked out immediately.
When Chemistry ended, we returned to our normal classroom. Professor Dubois was waiting for us. In her hand was a stack of metallic cards. It was only a few minutes before lunch. "These are your lunch cards. In order to enter the cantine, you will need to scan these. Please, do not lose them."
There was a card for everyone in the class. I grabbed mine as the bell rang. I was the first one out the door and I waited for my friends. They slowly shuffled out, looking a bit like zombies.
"Should we head to the cantine?"
Amos had bags under his eye. "I"m going home to see if I can sleep for an hour."
Lunch at this school did last for two hours, so I suppose that was a smart move. Kanade and Euphie expressed the same sentiment.
I read that in a lot of schools around France, lunch was served in different courses. A three or four-course meal. In Lycée du Ciel, after I scanned my lunch card, I had a buffet-style selection that I could choose from.
Everything looked good. It looked a lot better than the school lunch options I had before. I got a trey and I was able to pick anything I wanted. I loaded up with two chocolate croissants, two strawberry cream crepes, a side dish of cabbage and tomato salad, and the main course of roast beef, potatoes, and baked tomatoes with herbs.
I liked lunch but I didn't care for French lunch etiquette. I had to stay at a table full of strangers and wait for everyone to finish eating before I got up. Otherwise, I'd look like an asshole.
When I got out of the cantine, at last, I had another hour before school started back up.
"Salut!"
I turned around to catch a red-headed girl waving at me. My hair was a little darker than hers, but we had matching freckles. I waved back.
"I'm Sylvie. Nice to meet you."
She offered me her hand. I took it. "Calixte."
"We're in the same class, so it's nice to meet you."
"We are?"
"Yep. I sat on the other side of the room, down at the front."
"That's... Cool."
"So, where are your friends?"
"They went home to eat." More like sleep, but I wasn't going to tell her that.
"Oh. I was just heading home myself. I saw you and I wanted to say hi."
She seemed friendly enough. "Hi."
"I hope to see you around, Calixte,"
"We are in the same class. I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of each other."
"Right. Right."
I watched her vanish beyond the school gates. What was I going to do for the next hour? I found a spot under a tree that looked comfortable enough and I grabbed my home. I spent the hour watching gameplay of Primal Vale, err, I guess it was Dynasty now.
When it was almost two, I picked up and headed back to class. Euphie was already there, yawning into her hand. "How was lunch?"
Euphie yawned again. "I didn't eat anything. I slept."
"How was your nap?"
"Not long enough?"
Gradually the rest of my class started pouring back in. Kanade and Amos appeared at some point. Amos looked about as tired as Euphie, but Kanade had a second wind. She seemed much more awake than she had before lunch.
"What happened to you?"
"I drank a lot of coffee."
I couldn't tell if she was kidding. Our next class was P.E and a man came to get us. He was middle-aged and had a potbelly. He was dressed like a gym couch and introduced himself as Coach Morales. Despite being in a classroom, he blew his whistle as loud as he could. "Follow me!"
He led us to the gymnasium behind the main school campus. He pointed to two rooms. "Girls on the left, boys on the right. Go get changed, now!"
Gym. Physical Education. Whatever you wanted to call it, it's always been my least favorite subject. For almost an hour, we ran laps. That's all we did on our first day of P.E., just running laps. Coach Morales said he wanted to time us, and he sure did. He got a lot of different times.
"It won't be like this every day," Coach Morales said after we finished. "I just wanted to see how you would hold up. Now hit the showers, you smell like sweat."
"Yeah, I wonder why," I muttered under my breath. In the locker room, there was a line of showers, four kids to a cube. It was a little embarrassing to wash up around three other guys, but I'd get used to it.
The next class was Music, with Professor Lambert. He was in her late twenties and he was hands down the kindest teacher. He wanted us to express our creativity, and he encouraged us to try any instruments that caught our attention.
Since I started college in my last life, I had wanted to learn the piano or the violin. There was a line around the three pianos, so I chose a violin.
My last class of the day was a foreign language. I wanted to take English or Japanese, the first I was fluent in, and the second I was at a high conversational level. Both languages would be very easy for me, but both classes were filled before I got the chance.
Which left me with a selection of other languages that I didn't know the first thing about. There was no Korean option, and I didn't want to learn a European language, so I chose Chinese.
My teacher was a woman in her late forties named Zhao. Despite almost being fifty, she looked young. I didn't know what a tonal language was before that class, but as she explained the tones of Chinese and how they interacted with the language, I was starting to regret my choice. I should have sucked it up and gone for Spanish or German or something.
I was not prepared to learn a tonal language and I wasn't looking forward to it. I wish Lycée du Ciel offered a Korean class.
That was my first day of French school. Thankfully no one gave me any homework. After school, I googled the bus route back to my apartment and I got dropped off right in front. One elevator ride up and I found out I was exhausted. I threw my book bag to the side, stripped, and left my clothes where they had fallen. I'd pick them up when I woke up. Right now, I just wanted to sleep.
But first, I dug my copy of Dynasty out of my book bag and inserted it. There was my account card.
I logged onto the game just to check that everything was okay and everything was just how we left it. I was going to log off and get some sleep, but I was lying in my bed in the real world.
I looked outside of our inn room. It was raining in the world and it was dark outside. I loved sleeping while it was raining. So I laid down on the inn bed and fell asleep in the game. The Neural Sphere would log me out when I was asleep, so I didn't have to worry about that.
***
*Cantine is the French spelling of canteen, just in case anyone was confused.
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