FALL

Chapter Two: L - anguage/etters

Four more transfer students had come later into their school, three girls, two of whom were freshmen, and one senior that would skip class to constantly smoke in the ladies' washroom. One junior boy transferred out as they moved upstate with their family and taking his place was another boy from upstate moving in with his uncle. Jonathan kept up with the latest gossip lest he became the subject of it by mistake – he was already a topic among his peers for being that weird kid. He did not need anything else added to it that could blindside him.

Speaking of gossip. Leonard may not have been on the football team but now had the reputation for hanging out with the quote: cool kids. In truth, he hung out more with the cheer squad than the guys. This was working out in Jonathan's favor to be honest. Daniel's girlfriend broke up with him and boldly asked Leo out. It was the hot gossip of the week that Leonard turned her down saying he already had his eye on someone else – but refused to say who. Claiming to be too shy to ask. He reminded Jonathan of the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz in that regard.

Why was this good for Jonathan though? Because it meant the football guys were paying less attention to him to keep watch on their girls. The new male was decent by social standards to look at, made the girls smile and laugh often, and was strong enough to not get outright bullied like Jonathan was. It was a point proven when Leonard lifted a whole cafeteria table - connected sixteen-seater benches and all - like it was nothing so Mindy-Lea could retrieve her dropped hair scrunchy and not be forced to crawl on the gross floor. And it did not seem like Leonard had any interest in bullying Jonathan either, he'd ignored his very existence after their first encounter. He hoped this trend kept up all year.

"Mister Broussard," their teacher, Mrs. Williams, had stopped what she was explaining to the class looking towards Leonard in the back of the room, "since you seem so bored," he had obviously flipped ahead many pages, "care to join us back on chapter six and read the first paragraph aloud." She wasn't asking and trying to make an example out of him for seeming lazy.

"Yes ma'am," He stood up flipping back to the right page and held the book in one hand, "La maison qu'il habitait se composait, nous l'avons dit, d'un rez-de-chaussée et d'un seul étage: trois pièces au rez-de-chaussée, trois chambres au premier,"

This was French I, right? Jonathan picked up his eyes from the book to look behind himself along with the majority of the class at that moment. He was having a hard time reading at the pace this young man was speaking. Something about his French was not traditional either – it sounded familiar and Jonathan realized Leonard was probably raised on Cajun French. Could it have been his first language? Not that they sounded exact, Leonard still stumbled on a word here or there but there was no reason he should even be in this class. The school might have just shoved him into the only language course that they could with him transferring in.

By the time Jonathan looked back down to his book, Leonard was finishing off the paragraph, "aux curés de campagne que des affaires ou les besoins de leur paroisse amenaient à Digne." Then he scooted back into his seat without another word.

"... Uh. That was, good." She was the type of teacher to never admit anyone did anything above just good, "Clara Beth you can read the next sentence." Jonathan nearly scoffed aloud – no one was going to follow that up with any kind of dignity.

He got to watch amused as Clara Beth paled then flushed bright red as she tried to sound out the words.

The rumor that Leo knew the language of love was the next hot gossip about him to weed its way through the school. He had all kinds of trouble his way from it, girls trying to write him love letters in French or asking him to help them 'study' was the new fad for the following month.