We walked into the classroom with only a couple of minutes to spare before the lesson started. Karin, Emma and Pres were already there and were talking about something when we joined them.

“Had a nice English meal, Pres?”

She nodded, tea in hand. “It was exquisite, as always. How was yours Aurora?”

“It was okay, wasn’t really hungry though.” I smiled back and looked over to Emma. “Managed to finish your work?”

“Right on time.” She sighed.

“You did finish the third page too, right?”

“There was a third page!?” She immediately went frantically looking over her papers.

“No, she’s joking.” Her sister quickly clarified.

“Stop that you idiot! You almost gave me a heart attack.” Emma punched my arm a couple of times, making me smile even more. She’s just

so fun to pull pranks on. “And get that shit-eating grin off your face!”

“I’ll think about it.” After my smirky reply she playfully punched my arm a couple of times more.

She put her papers back in her bag after she was done. “By the way, have you been feeding the ducks this entire time?”

“Ah no, Ria fell asleep so we’ve just been chilling on a bench for most of it.”

“Just chilling, huh?” For some reason the tone she said it in, sounded overly sceptical.

“Yeah, pretty much.” I shrugged.

“Hmm.” Emma hummed and looked around the classroom. “Anyway, have you seen Claire on your way here?”

I looked over to Ria who shook her head. “Nope, we didn’t.” And now that she said it, it was pretty unusual for Claire to cut it that close for class. “Maybe she got caught up somewhere.”

“Or she got stuck practicing one of her scenes again.”

“Oh, fair maiden of the forest, where art thou?” I knelt on the bench and reached out my hand towards Emma.

Emma smirked and immediately started playing along. “Oh, miss knight, I am here, as I’ve always been, patiently awaiting your presence!” she put her hand in mine and I swiftly kissed it.

Ria-chan started giggling with our exaggerated performance and both me and Emma couldn’t hold back our laughter either.

“Good afternoon students.” Miss Peeters popped her head into the classroom for a second. “You all look to be in a good mood today.” She smiled.

“Ah, we were just joking around, Miss.” I answered her.

“Humor is a great way to relieve stress.” She stated before continuing. “I’ll be right there, I just need to talk to Miss Almada from the class over about something. Could you all take your course bundle ready on page 36?”

The present students almost immediately start taking out their bundles.

“Thank you!” With a big smile Miss Peeters disappeared again. Miss Peeters is the perfect example of catching more flies with honey than with vinegar. Instead of the classic lecturing a lot of teachers do, she found merit in class discussions. She saw that understanding your learning material is so much more important than just knowing it by heart. And if you made a mistake during her class, she wouldn’t laugh, ever. She would ask you why you came to that conclusion and explain how and why you could get another conclusion instead. And that’s exactly why she’s my favourite teacher. The fact that she teaches history is of course also a big plus.

Pres went back to her seat at the front of the class while the rest of us got our course material ready for class. After that we sat down and patiently awaited the return of our teacher, who arrived three minutes later.

“Wow, Claire is actually too late for class.” Emma whispered, having taken her place between me and Ria.

Before I could reply a huge bang of thunder rang through the classroom before rain started clattering against the window. “Oh no… I didn’t bring an umbrella…” I sighed.

“You can borrow one from the student administration.”

“And remind me where that building is, exactly?” I stared at Emma as I asked my rhetorical question.

“It’s right next to the French restaurant… Oh, I got your point.”

I sighed again. “I need to go there anyway for my uniform, but let’s just hope it stops raining by then.”

“Hmm, indeed, your boobs have grown quite a bit.” She looked down at my chest which I quickly covered with my arms.

“Don’t just stare at them, you perv.” I blushed.

“Says the pervy vampire.” Emma whispered incredibly quietly.

“Hey!” I pouted but couldn’t finish my protest as Miss Peeters started the lesson.

We were at the second powerpoint slide when a flash of lightning made the entire world look white, shortly followed by another clap of thunder. Right at that moment the door at the back of the classroom opened, with a soaked Claire standing in it’s opening.

“I wouldn’t expect a less dramatic entrance from you, Claire.” Miss Peeters acted impressed. “Truly a great feat of shock and awe.”

“I’m sorry I’m late Miss, I, uhhh, got caught up somewhere…” Claire apologized.

“It’s alright.” Miss Peeters smiled. “Please take a seat. Does anyone have a towel for your classmate?”

Emma turned around, opened her sports bag and threw a towel at Claire who had come to sit right next to me.

“Thanks Emma.” She tried to dry her hair and face a little bit,

“No problem.” Emma turned her attention back to the front of the class.

I kept looking at Claire for a bit longer and noticed some kind of bruise in her neck when she was drying her hair.

“You might want to cover that up, Claire.” I pointed at my own neck to show her the place of the bruise.

For some reason she started blushing. “Ah, thanks…” she quickly adjusted the collar of her uniform to hide it from sight.

“Are you okay? Did you fall or bump into something?”

Claire’s face got even redder. “Uh…I’m fine… it’s nothing like that…” She shyly whispered back.

“I’m glad to hear that.” I smiled and turned back my attention to the lesson.

Meanwhile Emma was staring dumbfounded at my face. “Denser than osmium, alright…”

The lesson progressed pretty smoothly. We had a pretty interesting discussion about the causes and the consequences of the French Revolution. After which we looked at a couple of pieces of media and how they represented it. Unfortunately the class came to an end while the storm was still raging outside. Even though our course packet did have an above average amount of history in it, I’d definitely not mind it if we had an hour or two more.

“Hey Aurora, can I have a word with you?” Miss Peeters asked as she walked past our row.

“Sure thing Miss Peeters.” I quickly put away my bundle and followed her outside while the others were curiously watching me.

Once we were outside Miss Peeters closed the door behind us and started talking to me. “I’m glad your grades are really good for my course, but how are the other courses going? I heard you were still having some issues?” There was a bit of concern in her voice.

“Hmm… English is still not that good but I’m getting better bit by bit thanks to some extra lessons from R...Corelia.” I replied.

“That’s good.” She smiled and patted my head, she was one of the only teachers who could do that thanks to her height. “I’d hate to see you having to repeat a year. So if you need any help, don’t feel afraid to ask the other teachers, ok?” She leaned in closer and whispered with a laugh on her face. “I know Miss Edwards can sometimes be very intimidating but she does care about her students.”

Sounds like Miss Edward’s reputation didn’t only do its rounds in the student body, I giggled. “Thank you for your concern, I will definitely do so.”

“Good.” She smiled and picked up her briefcase from next to her. “Have fun with your next lesson.” Miss Peeters waved goodbye, right in time for Mx. De L’Arbre to show up.

“Of course she’ll have fun with the next lesson, it’s French after all!” They called after their colleague, fist shaking in the air. Miss Peeters couldn’t hold back her laughter. These two teachers always have had great chemistry together.

“As long as you’ve completed the tasks I handed out last week.” They looked over to me.

“Naturellement Mx. De L’Arbre.” I gave them a thumbs up.

“Ah, merveilleux!” They opened the door and I followed them in, sitting back down at my seat.

“What was that about?” Emma asked curiously. Ria, Karin and Claire were also listening in attentively.

“Just some study advice, that’s all.”

“Awh, boring. No juicy content.”

“You wanted me to be in trouble?”

“Nooo….okay, maybe a little bit.”

“Wow. Aurora will remember this.”

The both of us started giggling.

“One would think the two of you like drama more than I do.” Claire laughed as well.

“Claire, that’s practically impossible.” Ria-chan joined our giggle team.

“Mhmm.” Even Karin agreed.

-I bloody love my friends.-

“Let’s begin the lesson, class.” And with that, the second to last lesson of the day started.