L'amour à Paris

Chapter Three

I opened my eyes, waking up to a harsh beeping sound. I groaned as I remembered how Hiroko insisted on having my own alarm clock so I could get used to not having her wake me up in the morning. I stretched and forced myself up from my bed to turn off the annoying alarm. I opened my closet door and pulled out my outfit for school, which was a white button-up shirt with a dark green jacket and jeans.

I started to hum to myself as I turned on the shower and I felt myself smile at the memory that formed in my mind. My sister and I would sing all the time to try to cheer my mother up when we first moved to France to live with her. Well, we would only speak French around her, considering how she wanted us to stop speaking our native language, Italian, because it reminded her of our father. We would sometimes put on a small "concert" for her in the living room. Sometimes we wouldn't even sing, we would basically scream the lyrics at each other just for fun. I laughed at the memory and began to gently sing in the shower to pass the time as I washed myself.

~~~

After I had freshened up and "performed" in the shower, I had gotten dressed in the clothes I had chosen for my first day of school. I quickly fixed my hair and brushed my teeth before leaving the bathroom to go to my room to get a pair of dark brown boots. I sat on my bed and started to pull on my boots. As I was tying the lace on the first one, my eye was caught by something on one of my bedside tables. I leaned across my bed and grabbed it - "it" being a folded piece of paper. I unwrapped it and immediately rolled my eyes when I saw who it was signed by.

Cher mon Italien préféré,

I had came by tonight, but mew were asleep. I didn't want to wake mew from your catnap. Purr-haps we can meet once more tomorrow. I hope you haven't switched to being Ladybug's fan yet! (ΦзΦ) Also, Romano, you should make sure that you lock the door to your balcony. It was unlocked and that is very dangerous. You need to be more cautious! I don't want anything to happen to my favorite fan! Any-meow, I'll see you tonight, tomorrow, whenever I can.

Cordialement,

Chat Noir

I smiled at the ridiculous note and set it down on my bed to finish putting on my boots. I got up and checked my balcony door and, sure enough, it was unlocked. I locked it and smiled at the new idea that popped into my head. I went over to my school satchel that Hiroko gave to me and pulled out one of my binders, placing it on my bed. I chose a divider that settled itself in the back and pulled out a marker from my bag to label it "Who is Chat Noir?" I got up from my bed and left my room to look for Hiroko. I ended up finding her in the kitchen, busy with something next to the stove. I walked to the entrance of the kitchen and tapped on the counter. "Hiroko."

She looked up from what she was doing. "Oh, Romano, good morning. I didn't expect you to be done that fast. Do you think you can wait for a few minutes for breakfast?"

"Yeah, but that's not why I came here." I leaned forward to look at what was inside the oven, seeing how the stove didn't have anything on it. "It does smell good though." I moved back when Hiroko tried to shoo me away. "I'm going, I'm going. I need a sheet protector, though. Where are they?"

"They should be in my desk. Check on the left side, middle drawer."

"Alright, thanks," I said as I made my way to her room. I opened her door and I felt my eyes widen at the mess of papers and files everywhere. "Che cavolo." I carefully stepped around the mess of papers on the ground and made my way to Hiroko's desk. I knelt beside the drawers and opened the middle drawer. I picked up a few sheet protectors and went to close the drawer, but something stopped me. I squinted my eyes and leaned closer to the drawer. There was a small hole at the bottom, but it was black. It wasn't the white like the carpet that Hiroko had in her room. I moved to look under the drawer and just as I had thought, there was no hole. "È strano..."