Pardon My French

by Cathy Hapka

  They’re really not such bad kids, Nicole mused as she watched them from a distance, nibbling on a pastry. They’re just kids. I guess maybe I expected them to be something they aren’t. But I think I’m actually going to miss them—at least a little.

  Just then Annike peeled away from a little cluster of students near the food table and walked over. “Nice speech,” she said with a smile. “Hard to believe you are really the same girl who could hardly say a word in front of a class without turning red and forgetting how to speak English, let alone French.”

  Nicole grinned, thinking back to that awkward day in their Artist’s Eye class when she’d had so much trouble describing the métro. “I know. My friends back home probably won’t recognize me.”

  The comment came out sounding more wistful than she’d intended. Annike looked sympathetic. “Are you worried about what your friends at home will say?” she asked.

  “A little.” Nicole stared down at the pastry in her hand. “I mean, it’s not going to be easy to face Nate again. I don’t think he understands why I didn’t want to get back together with him.” Tears sprang to her eyes, but she swallowed them back quickly. “But I had to do it. He wasn’t right for me, no matter how many times my friends told me he was. And no matter how much I wanted him to be.”

  Annike nodded and sipped at her drink. “It will get easier,” she said softly.

  “I know. That’s one thing I’ve learned this semester, at least.” Nicole smiled ruefully. “Anyway, at least Mom and Dad are pretty psyched about the new me.”

  Annike giggled. “Could they talk to my parents?” she joked. “When I told them I wanted to travel to America to visit you next summer, they nearly passed out at the thought of the plane fare.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find you a good deal.” Nicole grinned. She could hardly wait to show Annike around her world. “Maybe you can even talk Petra or some of the others into coming along.”

  “I’ll start working on it when we go to Spain next week,” Annike promised. “I think Petra really wants to meet your friend Patrice—she cannot believe you know someone else who talks as much as her!”

  Nicole chuckled. “It will be a meeting of the motor-mouths.”

  She was still thinking about Patrice—and her other friends back home—as someone called Annike, leaving Nicole standing alone again. At around the same time she’d decided she really didn’t need a boyfriend like Nate anymore, Nicole had also started to realize that she didn’t need—or want—Zara’s bossiness in her life anymore. It was scary to think about pulling away from Zara, especially since it meant she would surely lose any hope of friendship with Annie as well. Where would that leave her next semester?

  With Patrice, she thought fondly. Patrice had been the only one to e-mail with sincere concern and sympathy after hearing she’d broken up with Nate for good. That was a true friend.

  They’d need each other to face the Wrath of Zara the next semester. But Zara would just have to realize that if she still wanted to be friends with them, it would have to be on their terms. And if she didn’t? It didn’t really even seem like such a big deal now that Nicole had so many other things to look forward to.

  Despite the courage of her thoughts, she shivered a little. It wasn’t going to be easy. But what was?

  “Are you cold?” a voice spoke behind her. “I can shut the windows.”

  Turning, she saw Luc standing there, for once free of the children. He was holding a wineglass and smiling, looking just as handsome as he had the first time she’d seen him. Only now he also looked like a friend.

  “No, that’s okay, I’m fine. Just thinking,” she told him.

  “Looking forward to going home?” he asked.

  “Sort of.” Nicole gave him a half smile. “I mean, of course I can’t wait to see my family and everything. But some of the other stuff...”

  He nodded. She had already told him what had happened between her and Nate.

  “There will be a lot of changes for you. But many of these changes are good, n’est-ce pas?”

  “You’re right, they are. I’ll be busy next semester figuring out exactly what I want to do next year. Where to go, whether I want to stay in one particular place or travel around more, whether to take classes again or maybe get a job. And of course after that, there’s college to consider. I was so sure I’d be following Nate to school that I’ve barely even considered my options.” She shrugged. “Anyway, it’s all pretty scary to think about, but exciting, too. And I think I can handle it as it comes, you know?” She wrapped her arms around herself. “Who knew I had this brave, adventurous person inside of me?”

  “I think your parents knew it,” Luc pointed out. “That is surely why they sent you here.” He winked. “And I knew it, too. Who else but a true adventurer could come up with such a haughty brush-off of my advances immediately after vomiting all over the sidewalk?”

  Nicole winced, knowing she would probably never live down her not-so-grand entrance to Paris. But that was okay, too.

  “Well, you guys were smarter than me,” she said. “Because if I hadn’t come here, I’m afraid I might never have figured it out. At first I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to survive here. It all just seemed really, really hard, you know?”

  He sipped at his drink. “Oui,” he said. “But as we French might say, il faut casser le noyau pour avoir l’amande.”

  “You have to break the shell to get the almond?” Nicole translated uncertainly. “Oh! I get it—it’s sort of like saying ’No pain, no gain!’”

  “See? You are now understanding French almost like a native.” He raised his glass and smiled. “A toast to you, and to the unknowable future—les jours se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas.”

  “Thanks. And thanks for being un vrai ami—a true