[story] mon cher ens amusant
author: seis kink (seiskink69)
email: maple-chiongster [at] hotmail.com
During lessons, one was obliged to listen to the teacher talk, yet in this case her words - or rather, Shakespeare's, since it was one of his plays she was reading - receded into the background, whereas the subtle sound of pencil scratching on paper was amplified. It was obvious to anyone with the least degree of perspicuity that Renee was not paying attention, her feverish movements and the irregular tapping noise produced whenever she pressed down on the wooden table a stark contrast to her meticulous note-taking classmates.
Before Renee could realize her conspicuousness and so move to draw her activities into discretion, the piece of paper she busied herself with was abruptly snatched away by the literature teacher.
Miss Roth glanced over a portion of the scribbles, carelessly. Then, registering their contents, she read on in amusement, her eyebrows achieving the level of her hairline. "Ladies, provide me with some reasoning to prove the existence of this mysterious gentleman," she started and read Renee's writing out loud, "The passion of his kiss matched the very shade of passionate red on his full lips, his gaze not betraying as reflected in his red orbs, seemingly on fire behind his curly blonde lockes, flopping down upon his pale skin, complimenting the crimson blush upon his cheeks.."
"An absolute shade of magenta is he!"
"I don't know, I personally prefer my men purple. After all, it's a royal colour."
"Red is scary! It's like blood!"
Thus ran the comments of Renee's classmates, heard among the giggles and rather unladylike guffaws which erupted throughout the room, a natural effect of comical writing.
"Bother," Renee sighed, sinking into her seat. She turned to her good friend Marie, who might provide her with some refuge amidst this humiliation.
Marie obligingly read from the text they had been studying. "Say," she commented. "Doesn't it seem like Oberon is the primary antagonist of this series of events? Perhaps even the faeries as well, in a way, being depicted as the main source of enchantment and magic, which gives an allusion to love."
"Are you going to comfort me or not?" From their years of friendship, Renee knew the most effective way to interact with Marie was in a blunt fashion, regardless of the possibility of either party's feelings being hurt. The possibly-injured party in this case being Renee, who might want a pat on the head or two.
"I thought you didn't feel comfortable when other people acknowledged your moments of foolishness," Marie replied.
Renee mused over her words for a second, and realized she had a point. Hence, she averted her attention to the matter at hand and said, "Yes teacher, he's a fake... I am afraid that nothing anyone can do or say will prove his existence. After all, who would look like that?"
As Renee was pointing to the back of the paper, Miss Roth flipped it around in curiosity and had to supress a laugh upon her student's caricature of a count with literal ruby eyes and an overly pouty mouth. Subsequently, the other students erupted into a second barrage of laughter once registering the second half of the joke.
All except Marie, the only person staying true to the objective of the lesson, which was to dissect and understand the given text.
"Do not immediately leave after this, Miss Gaudin," Miss Roth addressed Renee once regaining her composure. "I need to talk to you about your short attention span, your usage of flowery prose... and your taste in men."
Tea Party was probably the most anticipated event of the day, as the girls of the exclusive Abela Monique Academy For Young Ladies were allowed to dress in their expensive and elaborate haute coutre, along with equally dazzling jewellery. In that period, students transformed into women--moving comfortably in beige muslin gowns, bonnets tied atop their heads with feminine green bows, high heels with a precious emerald embedded in the middle. Some even wielded fans designed for seduction. While the hour was specially set aside for them to hone their socializing skills with each other, it served as an outlet for many to exhibit their wealth and excellent fashion sense.
However, Renee had never really seen the need to expend much effort dressing for Tea. The task involved more work than lugging textbooks from class to class, and it was not as if one could obtain good grades by mere dint of good looks. She had expressed this view to Marie when they had initially met as first years, a meeting in which Marie had asked whether she looked better in her brown or blue dress. Surprisingly, Marie had at once admitted to an equal disinterest in fancy dress, but had explained that she'd had to do something about her appearance after a teacher had reprimanded her for wearing the same dress for three consecutive weeks. Renee had offered to lend some of her dresses, most selected by her mother who had an eye for intricate details which Renee herself did not have, and Marie had accepted the offer, grateful for a change from the old-fashioned dresses which her mother selected. They had been friends ever since, and subconsciously paid homage to their first encounter by talking once in a while about 'silly dresses'.
After making the final touches to her attire, Renee stepped into the rose garden. Shielding herself from the sudden burst of sunlight with her hand, she began her search for Marie.
Marie had already found herself a table and poured herself a cup of tea, untouched after a couple of delicate sips. As she joined her good friend, Renee could not help but feel a little frustrated with Marie for being immersed in the Geography textbook.
"Does my hair look blonde?" Renee enquired in order to distract Marie from the Water Cycle and Acid Rain, despite not caring very much for the maintenance of beauty.
"No, it's brown and always will be," Marie replied without looking up.
Renee reached forward and tried to pry the book away from Marie, but Marie was faster.
"Be careful," Marie snapped and adjusted her large pink hat. "These artificial fruits may drop any time."
"So take off the hat," Renee advised, as if Marie doing without a hat was the most logical thing in the world.
"The formal appearance would then be jarred," Marie said defensively, despite being inwardly annoyed by the hat. "Furthermore, your ribbon is crooked."
"Quiet, it looks straight from the back! Anyhow, let's socialize," Renee said, reminding her of the fundamental purpose of the two hour-long activity.
"We couldn't possibly, we're not strangers," Marie said matter-of-factly.
"Well, the guidebook of proper etiquette doesn't say that friends can't socialize," Renee argued, ignoring the fact that she hardly touched the guidebook. "Right, as usual, we shall start with a conversation on the weather."
"Water evaporates from the surface of the ground," Marie read out loud from her textbook, "into water vapour, which will coalesce to form clouds. When the clouds become too heavy, water droplets are released from the clouds as hailed or rain. Rain will infiltrate the ground as groundwater."
Renee, for once, was at a loss for words, not knowing whether this was a failed attempt at humor or not. She spoke the first thing which came to mind, "You forgot the part about the surface runoff."
Marie revised the portion she was reading and raised an eyebrow. "You're right, dear," she said. "You must be getting more involved in class as of late."
"Oh, well, you know, one can't satisfy a beau if all one can do is compliment him on is his intelligence. One must also contribute to the conversation from time to time," Renee said jokingly, violating one of her principles that talking about boys at a Tea Party was an aspect of idiotic behaviour.
"However, there is always the alternative of him complimenting you back," Marie retorted. "Tell me reasons why I am wonderful, before I describe to you how simply spectacular you are."
Thus began their own exercise of praising each other endlessly, which took up the rest of the afternoon. In the middle of it, Marie kept staring at Renee's face as if pondering which lovely feature of hers to elaborate on next, justifying her actions as part of their game. Renee once again displayed her prowess in purple prose when she described the dazzling effect of sunlight being trapped between Marie's eyelashes. Marie gave up all attempts to outdo her, and subsequently admitted defeat.
Renee returned to their shared dormitory late, only to find Marie lying on her bed and solving Advanced Mathematic problem sums. She immediately sensed the incongruity of the sight, for Marie had changed into her pyjamas and looked ready for a good night's rest.
"Stop doing that," Renee advised as she took off her socks and shoes. "It is liable to give you nightmares."
"Thankfully, my sleep has been consistently black and dreamless," Marie replied in a neutral tone, not sensing Renee's sarcasm.
With soft footsteps, Renee approached Marie's bed and as softly, lay down beside her. She leaned back against her good friend, reluctant to move away as it would mean having to drag her exhausted body over a distance again.
"Marie, tell me a bedtime story," Renee made a rogue request.
No reply. Over her shoulder, Renee idly observed Marie inching her way to the solution of a complicated problem the teacher just explained the very day. It utilized a double angle formula and half-angle formula to derive the final answer.
"Marie," Renee crooned and tugged at the other's sleeve.
With that, Marie swiftly closed her thick volume with a loud ‘thud' and moved closer to Renee. She moved closer than expected, such that her breath could be felt.
Directly into Renee's ear, she whispered, "One added to cotangent-square equals to cosecant-square."
the end
email: maple-chiongster [at] hotmail.com
During lessons, one was obliged to listen to the teacher talk, yet in this case her words - or rather, Shakespeare's, since it was one of his plays she was reading - receded into the background, whereas the subtle sound of pencil scratching on paper was amplified. It was obvious to anyone with the least degree of perspicuity that Renee was not paying attention, her feverish movements and the irregular tapping noise produced whenever she pressed down on the wooden table a stark contrast to her meticulous note-taking classmates.
Before Renee could realize her conspicuousness and so move to draw her activities into discretion, the piece of paper she busied herself with was abruptly snatched away by the literature teacher.
Miss Roth glanced over a portion of the scribbles, carelessly. Then, registering their contents, she read on in amusement, her eyebrows achieving the level of her hairline. "Ladies, provide me with some reasoning to prove the existence of this mysterious gentleman," she started and read Renee's writing out loud, "The passion of his kiss matched the very shade of passionate red on his full lips, his gaze not betraying as reflected in his red orbs, seemingly on fire behind his curly blonde lockes, flopping down upon his pale skin, complimenting the crimson blush upon his cheeks.."
"An absolute shade of magenta is he!"
"I don't know, I personally prefer my men purple. After all, it's a royal colour."
"Red is scary! It's like blood!"
Thus ran the comments of Renee's classmates, heard among the giggles and rather unladylike guffaws which erupted throughout the room, a natural effect of comical writing.
"Bother," Renee sighed, sinking into her seat. She turned to her good friend Marie, who might provide her with some refuge amidst this humiliation.
Marie obligingly read from the text they had been studying. "Say," she commented. "Doesn't it seem like Oberon is the primary antagonist of this series of events? Perhaps even the faeries as well, in a way, being depicted as the main source of enchantment and magic, which gives an allusion to love."
"Are you going to comfort me or not?" From their years of friendship, Renee knew the most effective way to interact with Marie was in a blunt fashion, regardless of the possibility of either party's feelings being hurt. The possibly-injured party in this case being Renee, who might want a pat on the head or two.
"I thought you didn't feel comfortable when other people acknowledged your moments of foolishness," Marie replied.
Renee mused over her words for a second, and realized she had a point. Hence, she averted her attention to the matter at hand and said, "Yes teacher, he's a fake... I am afraid that nothing anyone can do or say will prove his existence. After all, who would look like that?"
As Renee was pointing to the back of the paper, Miss Roth flipped it around in curiosity and had to supress a laugh upon her student's caricature of a count with literal ruby eyes and an overly pouty mouth. Subsequently, the other students erupted into a second barrage of laughter once registering the second half of the joke.
All except Marie, the only person staying true to the objective of the lesson, which was to dissect and understand the given text.
"Do not immediately leave after this, Miss Gaudin," Miss Roth addressed Renee once regaining her composure. "I need to talk to you about your short attention span, your usage of flowery prose... and your taste in men."
Tea Party was probably the most anticipated event of the day, as the girls of the exclusive Abela Monique Academy For Young Ladies were allowed to dress in their expensive and elaborate haute coutre, along with equally dazzling jewellery. In that period, students transformed into women--moving comfortably in beige muslin gowns, bonnets tied atop their heads with feminine green bows, high heels with a precious emerald embedded in the middle. Some even wielded fans designed for seduction. While the hour was specially set aside for them to hone their socializing skills with each other, it served as an outlet for many to exhibit their wealth and excellent fashion sense.
However, Renee had never really seen the need to expend much effort dressing for Tea. The task involved more work than lugging textbooks from class to class, and it was not as if one could obtain good grades by mere dint of good looks. She had expressed this view to Marie when they had initially met as first years, a meeting in which Marie had asked whether she looked better in her brown or blue dress. Surprisingly, Marie had at once admitted to an equal disinterest in fancy dress, but had explained that she'd had to do something about her appearance after a teacher had reprimanded her for wearing the same dress for three consecutive weeks. Renee had offered to lend some of her dresses, most selected by her mother who had an eye for intricate details which Renee herself did not have, and Marie had accepted the offer, grateful for a change from the old-fashioned dresses which her mother selected. They had been friends ever since, and subconsciously paid homage to their first encounter by talking once in a while about 'silly dresses'.
After making the final touches to her attire, Renee stepped into the rose garden. Shielding herself from the sudden burst of sunlight with her hand, she began her search for Marie.
Marie had already found herself a table and poured herself a cup of tea, untouched after a couple of delicate sips. As she joined her good friend, Renee could not help but feel a little frustrated with Marie for being immersed in the Geography textbook.
"Does my hair look blonde?" Renee enquired in order to distract Marie from the Water Cycle and Acid Rain, despite not caring very much for the maintenance of beauty.
"No, it's brown and always will be," Marie replied without looking up.
Renee reached forward and tried to pry the book away from Marie, but Marie was faster.
"Be careful," Marie snapped and adjusted her large pink hat. "These artificial fruits may drop any time."
"So take off the hat," Renee advised, as if Marie doing without a hat was the most logical thing in the world.
"The formal appearance would then be jarred," Marie said defensively, despite being inwardly annoyed by the hat. "Furthermore, your ribbon is crooked."
"Quiet, it looks straight from the back! Anyhow, let's socialize," Renee said, reminding her of the fundamental purpose of the two hour-long activity.
"We couldn't possibly, we're not strangers," Marie said matter-of-factly.
"Well, the guidebook of proper etiquette doesn't say that friends can't socialize," Renee argued, ignoring the fact that she hardly touched the guidebook. "Right, as usual, we shall start with a conversation on the weather."
"Water evaporates from the surface of the ground," Marie read out loud from her textbook, "into water vapour, which will coalesce to form clouds. When the clouds become too heavy, water droplets are released from the clouds as hailed or rain. Rain will infiltrate the ground as groundwater."
Renee, for once, was at a loss for words, not knowing whether this was a failed attempt at humor or not. She spoke the first thing which came to mind, "You forgot the part about the surface runoff."
Marie revised the portion she was reading and raised an eyebrow. "You're right, dear," she said. "You must be getting more involved in class as of late."
"Oh, well, you know, one can't satisfy a beau if all one can do is compliment him on is his intelligence. One must also contribute to the conversation from time to time," Renee said jokingly, violating one of her principles that talking about boys at a Tea Party was an aspect of idiotic behaviour.
"However, there is always the alternative of him complimenting you back," Marie retorted. "Tell me reasons why I am wonderful, before I describe to you how simply spectacular you are."
Thus began their own exercise of praising each other endlessly, which took up the rest of the afternoon. In the middle of it, Marie kept staring at Renee's face as if pondering which lovely feature of hers to elaborate on next, justifying her actions as part of their game. Renee once again displayed her prowess in purple prose when she described the dazzling effect of sunlight being trapped between Marie's eyelashes. Marie gave up all attempts to outdo her, and subsequently admitted defeat.
Renee returned to their shared dormitory late, only to find Marie lying on her bed and solving Advanced Mathematic problem sums. She immediately sensed the incongruity of the sight, for Marie had changed into her pyjamas and looked ready for a good night's rest.
"Stop doing that," Renee advised as she took off her socks and shoes. "It is liable to give you nightmares."
"Thankfully, my sleep has been consistently black and dreamless," Marie replied in a neutral tone, not sensing Renee's sarcasm.
With soft footsteps, Renee approached Marie's bed and as softly, lay down beside her. She leaned back against her good friend, reluctant to move away as it would mean having to drag her exhausted body over a distance again.
"Marie, tell me a bedtime story," Renee made a rogue request.
No reply. Over her shoulder, Renee idly observed Marie inching her way to the solution of a complicated problem the teacher just explained the very day. It utilized a double angle formula and half-angle formula to derive the final answer.
"Marie," Renee crooned and tugged at the other's sleeve.
With that, Marie swiftly closed her thick volume with a loud ‘thud' and moved closer to Renee. She moved closer than expected, such that her breath could be felt.
Directly into Renee's ear, she whispered, "One added to cotangent-square equals to cosecant-square."
the end