le 26 juin

Delphine wanted me to take her swimming, so I did. I didn’t swim because guys have to wear Speedos if they want to get in the water. I don’t think I have it in me to publically wear one now. It wasn’t an issue when I was little, but now, it’s just a way to get harassed by tourists who know nothing about French culture.
Gérard tells me that I need to loosen up. Of course he would. He likes the attention he gets from tourists.

It also isn’t like Lille is the hottest place on the planet. I don’t consider 20* (Celsius of course) to be a pool day. Delphine clearly does, and that’s enough to make me have to go.

I tried to talk her out of it. I said I would take her for some crêpes before Maman returned home from work, but she said we can still do that and go to the pool. I asked her if she wanted to walk through the Citadelle, and she told me that parks are extremely boring.

The second time I met Sabine was at the Citadelle, and I just wanted to walk through to think about that. Since I was around four when this happened, Maman reminded me.

A band was playing “La Vie en Rose” in the background, which is probably the most cliché French song ever written. Still, good old Édith Piaf- her legacy lives on. Sabine was humming along, which wasn’t unusual. She has always loved music. She just couldn’t play it. Her piano lessons ended in tragic failure- the woman instructing her claimed that Sabine was simply not teachable. I can’t remember if Sabine was upset or not. She did, however, want to punch the instructor I am sure…

Back to that day in the Citadelle, Sabine was singing and swinging on a swing. She was minding her business as usual until an impatient girl shoved her off the swing. Her knees and arms were scrapped, and she was in tears. Although Sabine didn’t like me whatsoever, I still made sure she was OK. I talked to her and comforted her until our mothers stopped talking and realized that Sabine had had an accident that would be the first of many notorious accidents. I told the girl who shoved her, “tu es méchante!” Sabine laughed through her tears, and I actually think we had a conversation after that- well, as much of a conversation as a four year old can have.

But that wasn’t the first time I met Sabine, like I said. The first time was far more entertaining, and it showed a side of her that I didn’t know could exist…

-JH

Too much togetherness!

Salut, tout le monde! Lilly sait. 
C'est tout. 

Our conversation went something like this:
Lilly: Why did you cross your name off the list?
Moi: What list? (Playing dumb is always a smart, good option.)
Lilly: Don't play dumb with me. You know.
Moi: No, I don't.
Lilly: You crossed your name out. Just admit it.
Moi: I think somebody really, really hates me and doesn't want me to be part of the team! Jealous girls these days...you HAVE to love them!
Lilly: Nobody thinks you're potential competition. Just confess, please!
Moi: Fine. I did.
Lilly: But why? I wanted to be apart of something for once! I wanted my best friend to be apart of it, too!
Moi: I'm sorry, Lilly, but I know that I do not have the ability or desire to cheer.
Lilly: I get it. No, really, I do. I'm not mad or anything. I'm just disappointed. That's all.
Moi: Why don't you ask Jess? You're just as good of friends with her as you are with me!

Lilly then froze in her tracks. "Silly," she scoffed. "You know Jess already made the varsity soccer team. She doesn't do cheerleading. Whatever is going on between you two needs to stop. It's pathetic and ridiculous."

I sighed and headed for my room. I consider myself to be an introvert, and I very much enjoy my quality thinking time. Being around people sometimes overwhelms me, and it just overwhelmed me right now. Lilly is my only true friend in America, but she has been really bothering me lately. Maybe we just need some time apart? I probably was wrong for making sarcastic Jess remarks, but Jess is just the absolute most annoying person ever. She is my academic competition that I don't even want to compete with! After she realized that I was just as smart and well-traveled as she is, she decided to start competing with me when it came to school-related things. Oh, and the best part? She is a huge know-it-all. And she LOVES to brag about her accomplishments. She is gifted, yet before every test, she declares that because of soccer practice, she didn't have time to study and she'll probably fail. How annoying. She never gets anything but As! It's like she just wants attention...

The thing is, her twin (Zan or Alexandria...whatever you know her by) is smart, too, but she never brags. She does her own thing.

Oh, girl drama sometimes. It can be buckets of fun...

Sabine

le 24 juin

There is practically one month of summer left, and I haven’t had time to do anything that I wanted. I guess that is what comes with having a single, working mother as a parent. My eleven-year-old sister Delphine and I had an option to visit our father in Marseille, but we hate his wife (never will you hear us call her our stepmom!). She’s, for lack of better terms, a nerd. She doesn’t allow for us to have any privacy, and she needs to know where we are 24/7. If I am relaxing in my room, she’ll freak out and accuse us of sneaking around.
Paranoia. They have to have something to hide. Delphine and I prefer to wait until Père comes to Lille to visit us so we don’t have to put up with la putain.
Anyway, my friends are in Lille, so if I EVER had free time, I’d want to spend it with them, NOT la putain’s 13 year old daughter Léa. She’s basically crazy, to say the least. She has a deranged crush on me, and she constantly asks me invasive questions.
Some people have it worse, though, like my friend Sabine. I considered her sister to be crazy until I learned the dangerous truth. I couldn’t live with that. I basically protected Sabine when her sister and a group of awful girls went against her. It was the right thing to do, and I’m happy that Maman raised me to be the “perfect gentleman”. She said that she didn’t want me to end up like my father, and considering who my father is with, I want to be the furthest thing from him. My parents got divorced when I was six because he was having an affair with that creep. How low. I could never treat a girl that way, especially if she was my wife. Adultery is the lowest thing a person can do, and it destroys lives. My mother suffered from a rough bout of depression, and I hated seeing her like that. Delphine drew numerous fun, happy pictures for her, and it made me sad to hear Maman tell her that those didn’t make her feel much happier.
After Maman got the treatment she much needed, I vowed never to treat a girl like that. I even encouraged Maman to date again. Fortunately, she did, and her boyfriend Christophe is definitely a better role model for me than my dad was.
I miss talking to Sabine about this. I could email her all I wanted, but it wasn’t the same as talking to her in person. She basically grew up with me, and she was a friend when I needed it. The least I could do was be the much needed friend when those girls tried to make her life miserable. I will admit that I had a crush on her (had being the key word), but I was always uncertain of whether she liked me back or not. When Gérard moved here, I was under the impression that she was extremely impressed by Gérard, his passive aggressive and bitingly sarcastic sense of humor, and his perceived wealth. Gérard is one of my closest friends, but I do need some time away from him. He wears thin on me too quickly. Sabine doesn’t, though. She never really has. I mean, she could basically be a total maudite vache at times, and she could scream and get nasty with you, but something about her makes me overlook that. I’m not sure what though.
Maybe “did” was an understatement. I still DO like her. I enjoy the few emails she sends me each month, even the ones that contain Miley Cyrus fangirl material. That’s another thing- because of Sabine, I have a few Miley songs on my iPod. I ask her when she plans on coming back to Lille, and she either ignores that question or says je ne sais pas.
Then again, I’m not sure why I even care so much. I know we men are supposed to break girls’ hearts, but once again, the gentleman in me cannot fathom doing that. At a risk of sounding like a typical American middle school girl (in Sabine’s opinion, anyway), Sabine broke my heart. Plain and simple. I don’t think she’ll ever realize it, nor do I think she thinks what she did would matter so much. But it does/did matter. It still upsets me to think about it.
There’s so much more to that, but I don’t have much time to explain. Delphine wants me to take her to buy a new CD.
-JH

A lack of team spirit

Salut, tout le monde! Est-ce que quelqu’un a fait quelque chose que vous n'avez pas aimé? Ce matin, j'ai voulu tuer Lilly...pas littéralement, bien sûr!

Lilly was in quite the hurry this morning. I passed her in the hallway, and I said my usual bonjour, and she said her usual "hey". As she ran, she shouted, "I signed you up!"

Instinctively, I asked, "For what?"

She brushed off my question and said, "Well, I have somewhere to be, but I just wanted to let you know that I signed you up!"

Again, FOR WHAT?!?!?! She couldn't at least tell me that much?!
I had no idea where she was off to, but I'm pretty sure I didn't want to find out, either, so I avoided asking. Besides, I'm sure she was going to harass Micki as usual.

After walking a few more inches, I saw it. Part of my soul died.

She signed me up for cheerleading tryouts. I am not the kind of girl who does cheerleading. For one thing, I don't even know the basics! I can't flip, tumble, or whatever the heck cheerleaders do! I'm not flexible, coordinated, nor do I have the desire to scream corny cheers at the top of my lungs. The outfits are awful, and ugh. It's just way too American for me. The "appropriate clothing" mentioned, which probably consists of short gym shorts and tank tops, doesn't fit my style. And sneakers. Mon dieu. I dislike those things with a passion. So not cute! The running laps part, though, was what particularly turned me off.

So, I did what every not-flexible, uncoordinated, not-cheerleader-material girl must do. I ran back to my room, grabbed a pen, and ran back to the sign-up sheet.

What on earth was Lilly thinking? To top this off, she has even less athletic ability than I do! I know that she wants to be apart of a school sports team, but she just isn't a gymnast. I'm not, either, so I'm not putting her down. I just happen to know my limits. She...well, doesn't...

Sabine

A chapter's ended, but the story's only just begun...

Bonjour, tout le monde!
Another school year down, and many more to go! Friday the 3rd was our last day of school, and it was a little more eventful than the last days of years past. I would have posted about this earlier, but things were busy around here.

It was all about dumb, boring movies that week.

Lilly was about to literally die of boredom in history class. We had to watch a war movie, and she HATES war movies. I do, too- it’s not like they are overly entertaining or anything. Anyway, she could not sit still for the life of her. I just rested my head on my purse and tried to take a nap. That’s what 99% of the class did. It was awful. Just awful. War movies must be a guy thing; my brother and dad love them. Lilly says her dad and uncles do, too. Chrissa’s brother is obsessed with them as well…

We are now going to “surprise” her and make her watch Dear John. That isn’t all war, but still...I didn’t really enjoy it. I doubt she would like it.

In English class, we watched like every animated Disney movie ever. Bolt wasn’t included in this, sadly. That’s the only animated Disney film I enjoy.

In Spanish class, we watched West Side Story…yeah. I have nothing to say about this. Fortunately, it was in English. On a side note, Micki (who wore actual clothes this time) downed another bag of Goldfish.

We didn’t really watch movies in any of our other classes. They were just boring. We kind-of sat there, and some people had their hands in their purses and were texting. Yes, I was one of those offenders. If you do it right, you won’t get caught.

When the final bell rang, Lilly and I skipped down the hallway and sang as loudly as we could. Melanie dragged behind us and laughed.

Lilly then forced Melanie to skip with us. Lilly belted out “We’re the three best friends that anyone could have”, which is from The Hangover, one of her favorite movies. She repeated it until Melanie and I finally joined it. Hey, we had to make that girl happy somehow…

The skipping randomly stopped when Lilly caught sight of Micki. She left us and chased after her.

And I have no idea what happened. “It’s going to be okay, Sabine. I’m taking care of things,” was all Lilly said to me when I asked her about her confrontation with Micki…

This cannot possibly be good…

-Sabine

Goldfish and Llamas

Salut, tout le monde!
I have been so busy with the end of the school year- who knew it could be so stressful? I have a written and oral Spanish proficency test tomorrow, so wish me luck! I have been studying forever. I even skipped out on International Club and went to the Spanish study session.
And guess who my partner was?

Oui...Micki. Lilly is convinced that Micki has an eating disorder, but I definitely don't think that is the case. She had a bag of Goldfish hidden in her lunchbox, and she ate the entire bag- no, she INHALED the entire bag! I asked her if I could have one, and she flipped out and said that the Goldfish "weren't mine". Um, yeah, but giving me one won't hurt. Maybe she's just territorial? If so, I can understand. I'm extremely territorial, too. ;)
We were quizzing each other on basic phrases, and I asked her, "¿Cómo te llamas?" BUT!!! I made a Chrissa joke with the "llamas" part after I asked because it reminded me that Chrissa is obsessed with her pet llamas. Anyway, she gave me the death stare and walked away.

"First you want to heist my Goldfish, then you make Chrissa jokes out of the Spanish language? Wow, Sabine, just wow. You are so not an honorary Sun Queen anymore," Micki told me.
D'accord...who said I even want to be an honorary Sun Queen? The point is, Micki has been acting strange lately, and I want to get to the bottom of it.

-Sabine (qui ne comprend pas Micki...)

PS- Those Americans and PJs...why must they flaunt them in public?