Temporal Exploring 101 - Deep Future

IV.27 Most excellent news

"I have got great news for you, girls," our French teacher announced, on our first day of school after the midterm break. "Most excellent news."

My classmates exchanged worried glances. Most excellent news in Ms Mallet's book could easily turn out to be most dismal news in our book.

"This class is going to take a trip to Paris, to stay there for an entire week," our teacher continued, almost beside herself with enthusiasm. "Yes, I know what you are going to say. You are going to ask, how is that even possible, Ms Mallet? Only third-year students at St. Albert's get to visit France, it has always been so, hasn't it? And you are right about that, mes enfants."

"But this year, a veritable window of opportunity has opened for you. The hostel in Paris where our third form have been staying happens to have a vacancy, a week from now. So they kindly invited our school to send one additional class to Paris, offering to provide lodgings for the students for an entire week. Isn't that marvelous?"

She looked around. If she had expected a reaction as enthusiastic as her own from our side, she was disappointed. For the most part, there was stunned silence.

"Um," Dorothy Barnett said.

"And I know what else you would say, if you were not speechless from joy," our French teacher told us. "You would ask: But Ms Mallet, we are not prepared for this. And again this would no less than the truth, mes enfants. So very true. You girls are so not prepared to go to France and survive there, if only for a single week. Why, you would not even be able to buy une baguette in a bakery! You would be most likely to starve, right in the center of Paris! And why is that so, you may ask. It is because you are lacking the necessary basic French vocabulary, not to speak of the grammar. But fortunately there exists a remedy for that."

She cleared her throat. "I have discussed this problem with Headmistress Stuart and with your class teacher Ms Jefferson, and we have arrived at a most excellent solution. For the remainder of this week, you will be privileged to take part in a veritable crash course of the French language, taught and organized by Ms Mallet. All your other teachers have kindly agreed to take a one-week hiatus from teaching their respective subjects, so we shall have the entire time this week for learning French."

Groans of dismay could to be heard all around.

"Oh my god, one entire week with only French lessons?" Helen Langden gasped.

Nobody in my class loved French lessons very much. Actually, the majority of my classmates, including myself, tended to hate them.

"Yes, isn't that marvelous?" our teacher repeated. "What do you say to that?"

If there had been a kind of stunned silence before, the current mood in our classroom covered the entire range from disbelieving to devastated.

"So, what do you say, class?" a proud and happy Ms Mallet prodded.

"Merde alors," Mallory Carmichael muttered.

Which earned her a few appreciative giggles from her classmates and a visit to her tutor courtesy of Ms Mallet, for a much-needed attitude adjustment.

Personally I thought that the task of adjusting Mallory Carmichael's attitude was way beyond the ability of any tutor at St. Albert's.

While Mallory was gone, discussing things with her tutor – judging by the outrage that had shown on Ms Mallet's face I thought it likely that Mallory was getting strapped, at the very least – we proceeded to discuss our upcoming excursion.

"Couldn't we spend that week in the United States instead, Miss?" Jen Turner helpfully proposed. "We could like, visit Los Angeles and you know, Hollywood. The big studios where all the great movies are produced."

"Which would offer the additional advantage that we wouldn't have to learn a complicated new language in order to survive at that place," her sister added.

"Yes, let's do that. Let's go to LA for a week. Or I don't know, to New York? Couldn't we do that, Miss?" Dorothy Barnett asked.

"Who needs to understand the French language, anyhow, let alone speak it?" Eleanor Bradford inquired. From her tone of voice it was clear that she considered it a rhetorical question. "I mean, other than the French people themselves perhaps," she amended.

"For that matter, what keeps them from learning and speaking English, instead?" Dorothy asked.

I studied their faces, trying to determine if this was Dorothy Barnett and Eleanor Bradford trying to be funny. But no, they both seemed to be dead serious.

Ms Mallet's face had turned bright-red with anger. I feared that some sort of explosion was imminent when there was a knock on the door of our classroom.

"Come in," our teacher yelled.

The door opened and Mallory Carmichael entered.

"So, did we decide already where we would like to go instead?" she hopefully inquired.

"We are going to Paris and nowhere else," Ms Mallet thundered. "End of discussion."

"If you insist," Jennifer muttered.

Our teacher glared at her. "What was that, Turner?"

"Nothing, Miss."

"I should hope so."

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A / N : Myself, I would have been delighted to go to Paris. But then, it was probably mostly the prospect of one entire week of only French lessons that elicited the girls' negative reactions.

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