Chapter 2: Francine

The new student was very nice and cool, we talked for an hour or so before she said she felt sleepy and went to sleep, I did too and the next morning we woke up a bit late so we needed to walk to school. “There is a buffet in the school so we can eat there!” I told her. “Wow cool!” Karuta said, she looked a bit sleepy but was excited for the day like me. I styled my hair into a long ponytail while she let hers down and wore the school uniform that was delivered to her hotel last night. Once we arrived, Karuta gasped in shock by how the school looked. I had been attending here for 2 years so nothing I hadn’t seen before but it was quite beautiful. There was a garden with a bunch of pretty wildflowers in various colors and the school had huge stairs that led up to the entrance of the building. “You should probably go to the office first to check in!” I told her and she went to the office. I decided to go with her to introduce her to the principal although I desperately wanted some food to eat. When we arrived at the principal office which was near the cafeteria, the principal opened the door when we knocked on it and was very happy to see an exchange student. “Hello! What is your name?” She asked kindly. “Oh my name is Karuta, I am from California,” Karuta said meekly. “Cool! We mostly get students from countries in the european union or asia, this is our first time having kids from the US,” the principal said, she was quite young unlike most principals, probably in her late 20s. “Well, I won’t hold you up for long, here is your schedule, you can get anything from the cafe and Francine, show her around,” the principal said and we both dashed out to get some food. We went to the cafeteria which was huge, we were excited to eat. “You should get a pastry! I love them,” I suggested to Karuta and we both got plates to get food from. “Do you have breakfast at your school in home?” I asked her. “No, well we have a breakfast club but it is not as gourmet as this!” Karuta said, she looked so excited, like a toddler first learning how to walk. She got practically one of everything and then we both sat at a table to eat. “This all looks so good!!!” Karuta shouted and everyone stared at her. “Uhh…sorry,” Karuta said. Then we ate our food and Karuta liked the pastry I suggested, it was blueberry flavored but soon the class bell rang and we both had to dash to German. “Karuta, francine, you are late!” The teacher said. “Est tut mir leid (sorry)” I said in german, Karuta copied me, not knowing whether to speak German or Engilish. “Well, since you are an exchange student, you should probably go to the exchange student class,” The teacher said and Karuta went out the door to the exchange student class, what a shame, I was hoping she could sit next to me. I sat down and we started a new project about writing articles about something that interests us. “You have a week to turn this in, so please get as much done as you can,” the teacher said. The boys at the back of the class were barely listening at all and just talking about fortnite or whatever interested them. I was writing about kittens because they were interesting but I didn’t know if I could see Karuta until lunch. After engilish I had gym, history, math, and then finally … “RING!!” Went the school bell. I then dashed out of my seat and saw Karuta in the cafeteria. “I learned a few key german sentences it was nice,” Karuta said. “We were doing a project on what interests us, I did Katze (cat) and it was nice, we also did PE, where we played dodgeball but I got really hot from it.” I said. “Nice! we did math next and learned German numerals,” Karuta said, while we talked about our day we got some warm cheese pretzels from the cafeteria and ate them in bliss. “This day is fun so far but I wish I could see you more,” Karuta said. “Me too!” Isaid. After eating lunch, there was a break where the kids could walk in the outside of the school. “We should go to the garden,” Karuta suggested. “Yeah,” I said. We went out and the cool autumn breeze hit our faces. “Oktoberfest is soon,” I said. “What is that?” Karuta asked looking confused. “Oktoberfest is a festival that we do in Germany during october, some people who are old enough drink wine but I can’t so I usually get some cider or soda, it is fun. You can also eat food and chat with other festival goers,” I explained to Karuta, she looked happy. “Well, let’s go together and have fun!” Karuta said. The two of us then walked in the courtyard and talked, Karuta told me about her life in California and I taught her some German words.