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 Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 8:04 pm
Fortune had smiled upon Andrea that day, and granted him a substitute in Algebra class. Their particular sub actually did know something about the subject, unlike many of them, but the teacher had anticipated otherwise, and left everyone a homework assignment and a free period. So not only did Andrea have the time to complete his homework during class, but he had been able to ask the sub about one of the problems that had given him and a few of the other people sitting nearby trouble.
And since he had a free afternoon now, and it was such a nice day, Andrea headed over to one of the little coffee shops for a tall iced mocha and some time to write to his cousin.
He and Nicoletta traded letters by airmail a few times a year, mostly because both of them were busy people. Occasionally they would trade a shorter email or facebook note, but Andrea was adamant about actually writing her a letter, in Italian, at least a few times a year for practice. His cousin, two years his elder, was perfectly fluent in English, but she wrote her responses in Italian, as well. Originally it had been his mother's idea, to keep him at least decently good at her native language, but Andrea found it enjoyable. Even when the school had not been able to offer him foreign language credit for any of it.
So Andrea sat at one of the small outside tables in front of the cafe, his battered book of 501 Italian Verbs open on the table beside him while he worked on his letter with a pencil in one hand and his iced mocha in the other. The occasional breeze threatened to steal the slightly crinkled sheet of floral stationary with his cousin's last letter on it, but it was weighted down on one corner with all those verbs. One small gust did manage to pick up one of Andrea's napkins, however, and he quickly set the mocha down on the table to try to chase it down before it blew away.
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:57 am
She had not attended class that day, mostly because she'd had a follow-up doctor's appointment and her grandmother had demanded an opportunity to eat with her granddaughter. That meant a free pass out of school for the entire day, and she had taken it gleefully. She had used it, too--to go shopping. She set her bags next to her chair and started to sit; she just needed to resettle everything, and then she'd go get some lemonade or something from inside.
Then a napkin slapped into her face. For a moment, she blinked, and then she snapped her hand up to pick the paper out of her hair. There was a boy running towards her, and she smiled at him uncertainly as she refolded the napkin and then offered it to him. "Is this yours, mister?" He looked older than she did, which meant he was owed respect. Even if it only looked like he was only a year older, anyway.
She held out her right hand then, smiled and said, "I'm Elke. What's your name?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:35 pm
Andrea winced as the little napkin hit a girl just walking into the store. He highly doubted it hurt much, but wow, sort of embarrassing.
"Yeah, sorry," he told her with a quick sheepish smile, accepting the offending paper when she returned it. "I thought I had all my paper stuff weighted down, but I missed this guy." He folded it in half, then in half again. "I guess I didn't even need it, but you know if I hadn't gotten napkins, I would have spilled something."
When she offered her name and a handshake, the dark-haired boy looked a bit surprised for a moment before he switched the napkinball to his left hand took her hand in his right, replying, "I'm Andrea. Nice to meet you, however strange the means." At least she wasn't mad. It was just a napkin, but people could get their shorts in a knot about anything.
He then stepped over the chain that separated the outside door with the section of sidewalk with the shop's tables, and reached out to get the door. "Here, let me get this for you, to make it up to you."
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Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:37 pm
"That's how it works, always," she said, smiling. She always got three napkins: two for spills, one for her lap. It worked out very well, she thought. Elke tilted her head at his surprise; had he expected her to snap? Well, yes, it was very embarrassing to get hit in the face with a napkin but she didn't see any makeup smudge so, she really didn't think she was going to suddenly be terribly embarrassed by having more blue eyeshadow over one eye than the other.
Was she? Elke steeled herself to resist the urge to grab her compact and check her makeup. The thought of looking anything less than perfect, ehhh!
She brought her smile back. "Andrea?" She said it with an Italian accent, the one she'd learned in her lessons. "You don't have an accent," she reflected on further thought. "Are you Italian?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 3:17 pm
The sophomore boy smiled as she spoke his name with the proper accent - something he was nto used to hearing outside of his house.
"I'm half," he told her with a smile. "Born and raised here in Destiny City, but my mom was born over there." Then Andrea inquired, in Italian, "Are you also Italian? Or just study the language?"
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