Illegal Innocence (Student/Teacher Relationship)

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

We finally made it to Italy. After four planes and two and a half days of waiting and flying, we made it to Florence, Italy. Chloe and I made our way out with the other few select students in a group outside of the gate.

Everyone around us spoke Italian very fast, but that was sort of a given considering we were in Italy. There was a small group of three people waiting outside the gate, waiting to greet us. They were supposed to be our guides throughout the year, helping us learn Italian and showing us where to go. Two of them were middle-aged, looking like they couple pass for teachers, but there was one male that looked like he was just beginning college.

"Welcome to Italy, American friends," one of the middle-aged men said, smiling at us.

"Ciao," we all said in tired voices. There were only about ten of us in the American group, and the only person I was familiar with was Chloe. We were the only two coming from Ohio. Three of them were from California, two from New York, one was from Florida, and the other two were coming from Arizona.

"Now, first we need to get you to where you will all be staying for the first month of the year," the middle-aged woman said in a friendly Italian accent. She turned to the younger man. "Alphonso, please guide them towards the shuttle."

The young man- Alphonso- nodded and began walking with us. The middle-aged man and woman took up the back, following the rest of us. My guess was because they didn't want anyone to get left behind.

Fifteen minutes later, after having a major struggle of keeping everyone together in the busy airport, we made it outside. It was dark outside, just like when Chloe and I left Ohio. There was a six hour time difference between Florence and Ohio, and it was five o'clock in the morning now, so Elliott was asleep, or just getting to sleep.

"Follow me, everyone." Alphonso finally spoke. His accent gave me chills. I always thought accents were sexy, though- especially British.

We shuffled into the shuttle, carrying our luggage with us, and took the long ride to our hotel. Chloe leaned against me, and I knew that despite being in Italy, she was about to fall asleep on her feet.
"Okay everyone," said the middle-aged woman. Slowly, ten pairs of droopy eyes looked over at her. She was smiling brightly and looked fully awake. I wondered if she was always up this early- like this was nothing to her. Alphonso yawned next to her, and the other man looked at us all with a watchful eye. The woman spoke again in the same cheerful voice. "How rude of us! We never introduced ourselves!"

I rolled my eyes. At first, it sounded like she needed to give us information about Italy, but then stopped herself when she realized that we really didn't know their names.

"Well, my name is Antonia Rossi," she said. She turned to the middle-aged man, motioning him to introduce himself.

"My name is Emilio De Luca," the man said.

"And I'm Alphonso," the young man said. "But I'm sure all of you know that already, by introduction of Antonia earlier."

Alphonso smiled, running his eyes through all of us. His gaze landed on mine and he gave me a thoughtful look. His eyes were a pretty green, making it a good compliment of his olive skin. His black hair didn't fall in front of his eyes, but swept to the sides of his forehead. I had to admit, he was fairly attractive, but it was a cute kind of attractive.

When I looked away from him, breaking eye contact, I could still feel his eyes on me. It stayed that way the whole ride to the hotel. When the shuttle finally stopped in front of the tiny hotel in front of us, the sun was already coming up over the hills in the distance. I blinked against the strong rays of light and grabbed my luggage. Chloe followed after me sluggishly as we stepped off of the shuttle. Emilio guided us inside the tiny inn and led us to the front desk. The woman there, who looked as tired as us, checked us in with forced hospitality. Emilio translated everything she was saying to us, and vice versa.