Les Chapeaux Rouges | COMPLETE

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIII

"Class, wait in front of the doors until everybody is off the bus!" Monsieur Beaulieu stood up from his seat in the front and positioned himself by the exit with a handful of tickets.

All of his classes were here today, at Versailles. We were going to take a tour and see the gardens.

Monsieur nodded seriously at me as I passed, handing me my ticket. "This should be of special interest to you," he murmured. I wondered if his words had something to do with our conversation a few weeks ago about the diary. He hadn't mentioned it to me since.

I was deep in thought, twirling a strand of hair around my pointer finger when Amélie and Gabe emerged from the bus not long after. They joined me on the sidewalk.

"What did Monsieur say to you?" Amélie asked. I shrugged, knowing that the whole story was too long to tell right now. "Just that he thought I'll think this trip is interesting."

She nodded slowly and said, "You like history..." but she didn't say it to me. Or Gabe. Or anyone. I gave her a strange look that she didn't see before brushing it off. Amélie had some strange quirks that I didn't understand, but she seemed to be a good friend when it counted.

After the whole group was assembled, we met our tour guide for the first part of the trip, inside the palace. She was a middle aged woman with greying hair and a perfectly pressed uniform. She eyed us distrustfully as she introduced herself as Rose in fluent English.

"We'll be going into parts of the palace that are not open to the public," she informed the classes. "Touching anything is absolutely off limits."

We broke up into groups of ten and were whisked away through the grand doors, told we would meet up when if was time to go to the gardens.

Rose, who was in charge of my small group, proved herself exceptionally knowledgeable about the last few French kings and the role the palace itself had played over the years. She was also a lot friendlier when she realized that we didn't want to steal or destroy all the items on display.

We wandered through the hallways of the huge building for about an hour, listening to Rose talk and taking in the grandeur around us. I walked a little in front of Amélie and Gabriel, who whispered amongst themselves, trying to absorb as much as possible.

Monsieur Beaulieu was right. Somehow, the palace drew me in and held me spellbound from the moment I walked in until the moment we met up with the whole group outside. I had never been half as studious as Maggie or paid nearly this much attention when somebody tried to teach me something. Never. Until today.

We emerged out some back door near the gardens after seeing everything we were supposed to. "We're going to have a quick lunch break and then meet up with our next guides," Monsieur Beaulieu announced as Rose and the others disappeared.

I turned to Amélie and Gabriel. "I'm going to find the toilets," I said, eyes scanning the public area we were in. Our classmates were starting to walk down a path to wherever we were eating. "Okay," Amélie said, nodding. "We'll meet you over by the others.

I wove my way through the throngs of tourists back to the main entrance and followed the signs, feeling proud of myself. I didn't even need to ask for directions.

As it turned out, getting there wasn't the problem. I thought I had a pretty good idea of where my class was eating- I'd left then at the entrance to the gardens- but finding said place was easier said than done. I stood where I'd last seen everyone, looking around me and growing more wary by the second.

Well this couldn't be good.

I could see fountains and trees for what seemed like forever ahead of me, but not a single one of the people strolling through looked familiar. Where could they have gone? Where was food allowed?