PICTURES | j.p. mangan

four

"I'm not going back," Marie sat at the Martins dinner table, pushing shredded pieces of beef around her plate as she had lost her appetite thinking of the first day of school's events.

"Marie-Madeleine do not be ridiculous." Her father said sternly, the sound of his knife scraping across the porcelain plate assaulting the siblings ears. Jean-Marc's eyes flickered between his sister, who sat across from him and their father who sat at the head of the long, dark brown table.

"I don't belong there," Marie whispered more to herself than to her family but still Jean-Marc felt a pang at his heart when he heard his little sister's defeated voice.

"Today was an isolated incident, nothing like that will happen again." Marc assured his sister to little avail.

What Yves and Jean-Marc Martin failed to understand was that Marie was not upset about her classmate losing an eye but instead about the isolation and belittling of the girls throughout the entire school day. Marie missed her days at St Mary Magdalen more than ever. She missed living by the sea, she missed the peace and she missed the sisters. Marie was a likeable girl who had a sort of charm around her that most found very attractive, yet still somehow she had always struggled at maintaining friends - most likely because the girl never felt truly at home wherever she went.

Marie-Madeleine had learnt the mindset early on that she was special. Her late mother would always celebrate her beauty and charm, and most adults that met her had mentioned to her parents how she looked like she was straight out of Hollywood. Although, Marie had never ventured further than forty miles from her family house, as even St Mary Magdalen's was merely a village over.

It was because of this mindset, along with the first days treatment, that Marie found herself not wanting to return to school. If she could have it her way, Marie would become an actress in Paris and find a handsome husband who loved her very much and then she would settle down. Marie often chastised herself for not being more ambitious but she was beginning to see herself as the world did, a pretty face and little more.

"The boys all tease us. When I don't know the answer they all laugh at me." Marie complained.

"That is the way boys are - they love to poke fun at things and people. Not because you are a girl but because you are a classmate, they would do it to each other." Marc attempted to make his sister less insecure about her class.

"You are not like that. You are a boy."

"Yes I am," Marc chuckled at his sister's nativity. "I and the rest of my class were when we were your age, it is simply something you grow out of as you mature."

"Well put, Jean-Marc." Yves Martin praised his intelligent son. "Marie-Madeleine, you will learn to enjoy school more, it is only different now and then you will get used to it."

I don't want to get used to it, she wanted to say but thought arguing back would serve no purpose. So, instead she excused herself from the table and went to their smaller living room. With The Martin's successful cigarette company, the family house was modest for their wealth but still quiete big and has some seclusion as it was a fifteen minute walk from the town centre. The house technically had three living rooms, but one had been turned into a library, which was adjacent to Yves' study - which Marie was never allowed in.

The smaller living room was painted a light wash yellow, and had a record player with racks and racks of vinyls to chose from, as well as a coffee table in the middle of the rectangular room, two couches; one on either wall adjacent to the door and a curved bay window seat on the wall furthest from the door. Marie spent most of her time downstairs in the small living room, listening to music and looking through the same four magazines that she owned.

Softly she picked up The Beach Boys latest record and as she took off the dust jacket the vinyl itself fell from her hand and landed on Marie's discarded heels, scratching it.

"Shit."

And that was how Marie-Madeleine began to walk, occasionally run, through the park towards the town centre to buy a replacement before she could get in an argument with her brother over her breaking his things.