During English class itself it was clear that my renewed efforts of last lesson had paid dividends as well as Miss Edwards didn’t call me to the front of the class as much as she used to. She still did, but at least it wasn’t as constant anymore.

“Miss Beaumont, don’t take this as an opportunity to start slacking again.” Miss Edwards said to me after the class was over.

“I’ll definitely try not to!”

“Good to hear that. Students, have a nice weekend and see you all back here on Monday. Do not forget to read up on your lessons just in case I decide to do a pop quiz.” And with that she left the classroom.

History class went pretty easily as usual. Continuing from Tuesday’s lesson, we spent the period talking about the waves of revolutions that followed the French revolution. Namely the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. Apparently there was an incident in 1848 of a group of revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the Belgian government. One of their legions decided to go by train but were promptly stopped and disarmed. For some reason I thought that was pretty funny. Miss Peeters said it was also a great example of how a new method of transportation would revolutionize the way armies would travel in the future.

“That was all for today, class.” Miss Peeters smiled and started packing her bag.

While she was doing so I walked to the front of the class to have a little chat with her. “Hey, Miss Peeters.”

“Ah, Aurora, how can I help you?”

“It’s nothing, really, just wanted to say you were right about Miss Edwards.”

“See, she’s not that bad is she?”

“Yeah.”

Miss Peeters smiled once more. “Is there something else you need right now? I would love to chat a bit more with my favourite student…” She lowered her voice. “Don’t tell the others, okay? I’m not supposed to have favourites.” She winked.

I nodded with a small giggle. “Okay.”

She went back to her normal talking volume. “But it’s just that I have a bit of a lunch date with Mx. De L’Arbre and I don’t want to be late for it.”

“Ah, please don’t let me keep you then!”

She winked at me again and grabbed her bag. “See you on Monday.”

“Have a nice meal!”

“You too.” She waved me goodbye and left.

I walked back to my friend group to start packing my bag.

“So apparently Miss Peeters has a lunch date with Mx. De L’Arbre.”

“Oh, nice! I always thought they would be a cute couple together.” Claire commented.

“Mhmm.” Emma nodded along. “They have great chemistry.”

“Yes!” Ria also gleefully agreed.

“That’s definitely true, by the way, where do we want to go for lunch today?” I asked, not that I was hungry or anything, because… you know.

“I don’t know, I’m finding myself in an English mood today.” Emma rubbed her chin.

“English sounds good.” Ria and Karin both nodded as well.

I looked over to Claire.

“English is good for me too.”

“Want us to wait for Anya as well?”

Claire shook her head. “No, she sent me a message telling me she’s sick so she won’t be here today.”

“Awh, I hope it’s nothing bad?”

“Just the flu. She has a pretty weak immune system so it happens occasionally.”

“Ah, tell her we all wish for her to get better soon!” Ria insisted.

“I will, I will, she’ll be happy to hear that you are worried for her.”

I smiled and looked around the classroom, looking around to see if Pres was still here. I spotted her near the tea kettle, checking the box of tea. “Hey Pres!” I called over to her.

She looked back, a bit surprised by the sudden callout. “Is something the matter? Aurora?”

“I was wondering if we could all join you to the English resto.”

Pres slowly nodded and looked back at her tea. “Give me a moment, I will be right there.”

“Nice, looks like we are all going to eat together, it’s been a while.”

“When there’s so much choice it’s hard to get everyone aligned.” Emma commented.

“Remember that time when Rora so desperately wanted pizza she just outright refused to step into the restaurant.”

“Oh, right!” Emma started giggling.

“Hey! That restaurant was way too fancy to begin with, and how do they dare to call themselves an Italian restaurant without a single pizza on the menu!” I defended myself.

“Aurora has got a point.” Claire agreed. “An Italian restaurant without pizza is almost the same as a steak house without steak.”

“Thank you, Claire. See, she gets it.”

“But their ossobucco is so gooooood.” Emma almost started salivating right on the spot.

“Yesss!” Ria joined her.

“You bunch of weirdos.” I started laughing with the rest of the group soon following my lead.

“I’m ready.” Pres joined us as well. “Just had to make sure everything was clean.”

“Alright, let’s go then.” Claire led the way out of the classroom, with me and Emma closing up the group from behind.

“Any idea what you’re going to do about P.E.?” Em spoke softly so the others couldn’t hear what we were talking about.

“Ah, right, I forgot we had that today…”

“So you have no plan whatsoever?”

“I think I’ll figure something out, what discipline were we doing today?”

“Outdoors track if I recall correctly.”

“Pfff…” I sighed. “Uhm, I could try to just hold myself back?”

“It could work but I think Miss Garcia might notice that.”

“But pretending I’m sick would also be too suspicious…”

“Hey, what are you two whispering about?” Claire was looking back at us, drawing the attention of the entire group.

“She was just uh…” I tried to come up with an excuse but was beaten to it by Emma.

“I was explaining something to her about JavaScript.” Emma nodded confidently.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were good at that.” Claire looked at her suspiciously. “Would you mind explaining it to me too? I hate that programming language with the burning passion of a thousand suns.”

“S-sure.”

“Me too, me too!” Ria jumped up and down enthusiastically, even Karin raised her hand and nodded.

Emma looked at me with a defeated face.

“Now you’ve done it Em… you should’ve picked something you were actually good at.” I whispered at her the moment the group had turned away their attention again.

“I just said the first thing that came into my mind, I didn’t know she would call my bluff.”

“It’s Claire, what were you expecting? That woman is borderline psychic.”

“Heeelp meeee.”

“Sorry, I’m even worse than you are when it comes to that.”

“Urggghhh.” Emma groaned, severely regretting her life choices.

A short walk later we arrived at the English restaurant and walked past the door me and Claire went through yesterday to get to the roof. Claire pushed open the lavishly decorated doors that lead to the main floor of the restaurant, revealing the marble floor and the even more decadent interior.

“Oh, I suddenly remembered why I always feel out of place here.” The gold leafed ceiling reflected the light of the magnificent chandeliers hanging from it. An enormous mirror on the far side wall making the room look even bigger than it already was.

Ria poked my arm. “Are you coming, Rora?”

The rest of the group had apparently already continued on, leaving me to stare at the room alone. “Ah, right, sorry. Was just a bit overwhelmed.”

Ria smiled and grabbed my hand, guiding me to the richly set buffet. “Just follow me.”

“Aye, aye.”

“Do you already know what you’re going to eat?” She said while gazing at all the different plates.

“Not really, but I’ll probably keep it a bit light again…”

“Make sure you get enough food in your system, okay? Don’t starve yourself.” Ria looked at me with her cutesy pouty face. “I don’t want you to faint during P.E.”

-That won’t really be a problem, quite the opposite actually…- But I nodded with a smile anyway. “Yes mom.”

Ria quickly had filled her plate with all kinds of goodness, although her selections reminded me more of an English breakfast than a lunch. She even had a seperate plate with desserts as well. It amazed me how much food could fit in that tiny body of hers, but then again, you’d also think that of a lot of those competitive eaters you see on the internet nowadays.

“Here you go.” Ria took a couple of scones and put them on my plate, together with a sausage and some beans in tomato sauce. Although she did make sure the tomato sauce didn’t touch the scones.

“Hey!”

“You weren’t picking anything Rora!”

“Alright, alright, I’ll start with this then. But let me at least carry your tea because you’ve already got your hands full. I don’t want you to get into any accidents.”

Ria smiled and handed me her cup of tea, taking her plates into her hands. “Thank you.”

With our food and drink in hand we joined our friends at one of the big round tables at the corner of the restaurant, I got seated between Emma and Ria.

“Everyone, have a nice meal.” Pres spoke to the entire table.

“Have a nice meal!” The rest of the table replied and we all started eating.

-Eating with friends- I looked over to Emma and Ria-chan, making me start to blush a little. -and… uh… maybe more than just friends is always a nice experience.-

Emma must’ve noticed I was looking because she started blushing too. Ria however was just eating without a care in the world.

-Please don’t ever change, Ria-chan.-