Chapter 13: Interruptions

We found the hotel and Gaillard and Odeletta were talking in French to each other the whole time, they checked in, and we all went up to our assigned rooms.

The difference between girls and guys were odd, so we got put in a room with two girls.

The girls being Odeletta and some girl named Harper.

Now we're all just standing in the room awkwardly.

There's two queen sized beds.

"Girls in one bed, boys in the other?" Harper suggests.

She's pretty. She seems nice enough. Odeletta mutters something in French. We all walk further into the room, shutting the door.

We have to meet Gaillard in the lobby at six and it's already one.

"What did you say?" Harper asks. Odeletta looks at her and sighs.

"We are in the ghetto." She says, ripping open the curtain and looking out the window.

"Is it true you two had sex?" Harper asks, looking at the two of us.

"Yes." Odeletta turns around to look at her. I scoff at her bluntness and her eyes land on me.

"Is something funny?" She asks.

"Are the people getting killed tomorrow your family?" I blurt. Harper and Mason look at me with wide eyes, and Odeletta's eyes narrow into slits.

"Fuck you, Natalie." She grumbles she throws her suitcase onto the desk and rips it open, fishing out clothing and beauty products before shoving past me, into the bathroom, her elbow digging into my ribs. I wince.

"You can't just ask her that!" Harper hisses.

Mason just sighs.

"Excuse him, he doesn't have proper etiquette." Mason grumbles. He tugs his shirt off and gets in bed in his jeans.

This is going to be a long trip.

_____

"Okay class," Gaillard says at six in the morning the next morning after she counted to make sure everyone was here. "The people you roomed with last night will be your France buddies. You are to stay together, no matter what. You will room together at the hotel in France. Now, the bus is outside and you have retrieved your things from your room, so we are going to go to the bus now."

We all go outside to the bus, getting on.

Odeletta sits with Harper, I sit with Mason, and when everyone is seated, the bus starts moving.

I notice Odeletta looking out the window.

When the bus finally stops in France, we head to some resturant.

At 8:30, I see Odeletta get up, looking at Gaillard, who nods.

"We have a small pit stop to make before she starts our day." She says in the front of the resturant after we've finished eating.

I shrug, and we get back on the bus, driving.

There's so many people here, talking, laughing, but it's all in French.

When we get to the place we're going, I see a large building.

As we get off the bus, I see Odelett looking like she's ready to pass out. She looks at Gaillard, who nods. She shuts her eyes, whispering something to her.

"What?" Gaillard asks in English, her eyes huge. She asks her something in French, and I hear her say Nathan.

Everyone immediately looks at me, including Mason.

"What are they talking about?" He hisses at me.

"I don't know." I say.

Odeletta is arguing with Gaillard now. Odeletta gets frantic as Gaillard turns around, looking at me. She opens her mouth to say something to me, but Odeletta says something quickly in French, pressing her hands together, literally pleading.

They both glance at me, and I start rubbing the back of my neck, anxious.

Bells start ringing from the large building, and somebody nearby is speaking in french, and I hear the words, "Cinq minutes."

Cinq in French is five.

Odeletta whips around, drops the notebook in her hand, and runs as hard as she can towards the building.

The next thing I know, I'm swiping her notebook off the ground and sprinting after her, hardly registering the sound of the class chasing after us. Odeletta rushes into the building, me following right behind her.

She runs down the hall, to the left and then the right, up a set of stairs, stopping at huge doors.

When the class catches up to us, she whips around, her eyes looking at me. I hold the notebook out to her.

She looks at me, and she looks...

She looks like she just watched her mother get beaten, she looks petrified.

"Don't try to stop this." She whispers.

"Stop what?" I ask.

Instead of responding, she rips open the door.

The time on the way reads 10:05AM.

The bells went off at ten, they said five minutes.

I open the door behind her, and not only me, but the entire class shoves into the room.

A court room.

"Attendez!" Odeletta says, panic lacing her voice. The room grows silent.

I see two prisoners in full prison outfits standing up. The woman is crying.

"She wants me to translate." Gaillard whispers to us, ushering us into seats.

"What is she doing?" I ask, looking at Gaillard, who looks scared, too. When she doesn't answer me, I ask again, frantic. "What is she doing?"

She swallows.

"She's stopping her parents execution." She whispers.

My eyes widen.

"She just said wait." She says when we all sit.

"Qui es-tu?" The judge asks with narrowed eyes. Odeletta looks like she's about to pass out.

"He asked who she is." Gaillard mutters.

Odeletta responds, her voice shaking.

"She said I'm their daughter, that she can prove their innocence."

"Can they execute her for this?" I hiss at Mason. He looks grim as he shrugs. I look at Gaillard, who heard me. "Can they?"

She swallows.

"Yes."