PICTURES | j.p. mangan

six

"Hold this." Jean-Marc told his sister, throwing his blazer in her hands as he reached into his trouser pocket to get out a cigarette.

The pair would be driven to the bus stop by their father, before he had to drive the opposite way from the school to get to work, and then the Martin siblings would have to walk the small distance to Volitaire High together.

"I have PE today." Marie told Marc what Simone had been going on and on about all of their phone call last night.

"I don't do PE anymore." How unfair.

At her old school, Marie did not have to do PE as it seemed rather unnecessary as the girls of St. Mary Magdalen's would go on many walks around the property and would often go swimming in the sea in their spare time.

"No?"

"Seniors get a study hour instead, it is more beneficial for us before the exams." Marc seemed very set in his opinion that the exams were the most important thing and that subjects not included on the exam should not even be taught.

"Ah, yes." Marie agreed.

"Anyway, you need to pay more attention and take lots of notes to catch up on everything you have missed." Marc said to his little sister.

"Yes, I will." Marie assured her brother as they stopped by the gates of the school, Marc got called on by his friends but Marie did not see any girls at all there yet. "It's fine, go."

Marc smiled sadly at his younger sister, before leaving, and Marie smiled softly back, not wishing for him to worry about her.

Marie walked to the steps and noticed that she still had her brother's blazer but then she saw Simone and Michele walking in the gates and summoned them over so she was not alone.

"Oh, Marie! The worst thing has happened, the worst!" Simone began dramatically, throwing her hands up in the hair, looking like the spectacle of despair.

"She fell and had a bruise on her thigh." Michele cut Simone's blabbering short.

"No one will even notice, Simone." Marie assured the frantic girl.

"No! What if I meet the love of my life and his eyes meet mine and mine his and we stare and then he looked and boom! The big bruise on my thigh ruins it and he-" Simone managed to cut her own monologue short. "Whose jacket is that?"  She asked, staring at the black blazer that was hooked around the straps of Marie's bag.

"My brother's, that reminds me I must get it back to him before-" the bell rang and Marie let out a sigh of defeat, "-the bell."

"It's okay, we will come with you at lunch to give it back." Michele said, linking arms with the blonde girl. "Let's go."

"Whoever can tell me the date of the battle of Marathon, by this afternoon will become class leader." Mrs Giraud said before dismissing the class for recess.

Unluckily for Marie, her brother, a senior, was not at recess at the same time as those in her year. So, she had to keep a hold of the jacket until she saw him next, hopefully at lunch.

"I can't believe it! It's like he did it on purpose, coming back on the day of Jean-Pierre's hearing to make a spectacle!" Simone exclaimed, too loudly and thus making a spectacle of herself.

"Oh I do hope Jean-Pierre gets to stay, I will never hear the end of it from my parents if he gets expelled." Michele admitted.

"Your parents?" Marie asked.

"Jean-Pierre is Michele's brother! Oh, he was so brave when defending you! He doesn't deserve to be expelled because of it." Simone added once more, luckily the girls were on a bench a fair distance from Descamps and his posse of Dupin and Vergoux.