Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

II

THE PAST

"Bonjour," the teacher began the class. "Welcome to the new school year, I wish you all the luck and good results this year. I hope you will graduate for some of you, and for the rest, I hope you will pass this year. I'm gonna introduce myself, my name is Professeur Camille Ansel, and I will be your mentor and maths teacher for the year." Professeur Ansel was a petite lady; her grey hair was in a tight ponytail, she was wearing a brown suit, she had huge glasses on her nose.

Juliette scanned all the people in the class, she seemed like one the oldest of them all, and most of them were boys. She chewed on the inside of her lip and looked down; she still didn't agree with her mother to attend this 'special' class. Juliette felt like she had everything under control last year, but apparently, it was only Juliette who thought about that. This class made Juliette feel different from her friends, from the other students. It wasn't like she wanted to be here, since this wasn't what she wanted in the future.

"This is the sport class, meaning you will only have class thrice a week so you can focus on your own career in the sport. Before we are gonna begin, I would like you to introduce yourself to the class and me. Who would like to start?" Camille looked around, no one wanted to volunteer. "Then I will pick someone. Young lady, who are you?" The strict eyes of Professeur Ansel were piercing Juliette's innocent eyes. "Stand up and introduce yourself, please."

The heart of Juliette began to pound in her chest; she wasn't a huge fan of speaking in front of a lot of people. Everyone looked at her, making her blush slightly. She was standing up and cleared her throat. "Err..." she began and played with her fingers. "My name is Juliette Reynolds, I'm seventeen years old, and I'm part of the national junior team of speed skating," she introduced herself to her new class.

"Merci, Juliette," Professeur Ansel nodded and looked at the person behind her.

Juliette sat down and swallowed hard; gosh, that was embarrassing. She ran both of her hands through her hair and looked outside, all her old classmates were chilling outside, waiting for their class to begin. This was her first year at a private school, next to the typical high school and her old school.

The boy behind her began to talk. "I'm Pierre Gasly, I'm sixteen years old, and I'm a racing driver. I'm currently racing in F4 together with a few more people in this class," Pierre proudly told.

"My name in Anthoine Hubert, I'm fifteen years old - almost sixteen, and I'm a racing driver as well. I'm currently racing in karts," Anthoine told.

"Hi, I'm Sara Dubois, and I'm a badminton player," a cheery girl said. "Oh, and I'm sixteen years old."

Each and every one of the class introduced themselves to the teacher and to the newbies in the class. Juliette zoned out, she didn't really care about them. She kept looking outside, observing the area for the millionth time. Juliette's behaviour showed she didn't want to be here, like she didn't care about school. That wasn't it. Juliette cared about school, more than anything else - if she had to be honest with herself. The 'she didn't want to be here' part was entirely true, she wanted to be with her own friends, at her own school with her own schooldays.

The first class was all about getting to know each other and the Professeur. It was only just an hour, but it felt like a whole day to Juliette. Perhaps I need to get to know everyone and things will get better? But I don't want to make it better. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and quietly blew out some air.

The second and third class was English, the teacher asked to make groups of four.

Juliette looked around, it seemed like she was one of those few new people in the already existing class. She knew it was going to be tough to be a part of their class, and she knew she had to socialise in the first week; otherwise, she would stay alone forever in the class. Fake smiles, fake conversations and fake interest it was. Groups were forming. Juliette looked behind her and saw three people talking and laughing; two boys and a girl.

A girl looked at Juliette. "Juliette is it, right?" The girl asked. Juliette nodded. "Do you want to join us?"

"Yes, please," Juliette politely answered and showed a fake smile.

The teacher handed out the assignment, and everybody started to work on it.

"We have to give a presentation about a sporting legend in English," the girl read from the paper. "Amazing, I cannot speak a word English in front of people. I'm not gonna do it."

A boy laughed. "And that's why you're gonna do it."

"So, about whom are we going to give a presentation?" The other boy asked.

"Let's do Michael Schumacher."

Without any consultation with Juliette, the group decided to give a presentation about Michael Schumacher. The group shared their idea with the teacher and it got approved. They got sent to the computer lab to do some research and claimed the back of the lab. The girl and one boy started to do some research.

"Pierre, you're gonna do it, you can speak the best English of us all," the girl teasingly said to a boy. "I don't even know what this says in English."

"No way, Sara," the boy named Pierre said.

He was the karting boy, right? And the girl was named Sara. So the other boy must be Anthoine.

"If you want to give us a good grade, yes," Anthoine shot to Pierre.

"I'm not gonna stand in front of everyone and let them listen to the worst English accent ever," Pierre protected himself.

Juliette built the courage to speak up. "I will do it," she broke her silence.

All eyes were plastered on Juliette, she finally spoke. She was more in the background.

"Are you sure? You don't have to do it if you don't want to," Sara warmly smiled.

Pierre also smiled. "You're new here, you don't have to do it," he said.

"I insist," Juliette said. This was her way to impress them and the class. "It's okay. Just tell me what to say, and I will improvise the presentation. Don't worry about it."

"Can we trust you with our assignment? We don't know you, no offence though. The teacher is tough and strict, he's never impressed or happy," he said, he doubted the situation.

"Very kind of you," Sara whispered disapproving.

"None taken," Juliette replied to Pierre. "My dad is English, my mum is French... So I grew up speaking both French and English," she shared. "And I know Schumacher."

A huge smile grew on Anthoine's face. "Julie is doing the presentation," he said. "I like you already."

"It's Juliette, you stupid," Pierre hissed.

Juliette softly smirked. "Julie is fine, don't worry," she shyly said.

"Let's put your through the English test, introduce yourself," Sara excitedly said. Juliette introduced herself in English and said some random sentences. "Yes, you're doing this. We are going to nail this, you're going to nail this!"

A smile curved on Juliette's lips, this may not be terrible after all...