EDITH quickly finished the dishes and placed the glasses on the draining board before throwing the cloth on the counter.

       "I'm going to class!" she shouted, grabbing her jacket from the coat rack.

       "Edith, wait! I need you to help me with the desserts, please." her mother called out to her.

       The redhead frowned. "But I have class in 20 minutes."

       "Please. You know it's a hard time for us."

       Edith pursed her lips. Ever since her mother got sick, she took longer to prepare meals for the restaurant and was constantly tired, which meant she always needed help. Edith obviously couldn't let her down.

      "Okay. But Thierry already left half an hour ago. Can't you ask him for help sometimes?" she said as she took off her coat.

       "Thierry's a boy. He needs to go to school." her mother replied as they were walking into the kitchen.

       Edith shook her head. "I need to go to school too."

      Victoire Lefebvre let out a laugh. "You don't need it. You'll be fine, even if you don't graduate."

      "But I will graduate. Right?" her daughter frowned.

      The older woman looked down at her desserts. She seemed to think about what to reply. "You know..." she said. "It's not for now. We still have time to think about it."

       "Think about what?"

       "You know, if someone asks to marry you, you won't really need your diploma." Victoire shrugged.

       "But even if I get married— which I don't want for now, I'd still want to graduate. I don't see why my husband could work and not me. I mean, I want a job and a career."

       "And that is awesome, honey. I just meant we don't know what tomorrow will be."

       Edith stared at her mother for a moment. She didn't want to be like that. She didn't want to be someone who worked at the same place as her husband because he wanted her to. She wanted to be able to do whatever she wanted. And she wanted to graduate, not to get married or to work at the bar with her mother.

★

      Edith rang the school bell. Obviously, helping her mother had made her late. She had missed the first hour of class. A supervisor came to open the gate for her and let her in. She ran to her math class and knocked on the door. The rest of the class was packing up to go to the next class.

      Mr. Marcelin let her in. "Miss Lefebvre, we weren't expecting you anymore."

      "I'm really sorry, sir." she replied, approaching his desk.

      "Here's for you." he handed her the sheet of her last exam. "Try to be in class on time, maybe it will help you not to get an 8 at the next test."

       She took the sheet with shame. She really thought she had passed this test. She brushed away some hair out of her face. People were slowly leaving the room.

       "As I told your classmates, we're going to try a new approach. I asked them to work in pairs to preparate a presentation. As you weren't here, you don't have a partner. Lucky for you, you weren't the only one missing, which means you'll be working with Mr. Faure." the teacher said as he looked at the list of students.

       Marc. She didn't know him very much but he was pretty discreet and for the little she had spoken to him, he was nice, so it wasn't bad new. Mr. Marcelin explained to her what the presentation was about before letting her go to her next class.

★

       The next day, Marc was back in class. Edith and he decided that they would work in the evening at her place since she had her shift at the bar just after school, Marc would join her there when she was finished.

       While she was wiping down a table, two boys came in and sat at the bar. They were Laubrac and Mercier, another boy in their class. She assumed they had to work together for the presentation. She went back behind the counter and put down her rag to approach them.

      "Hey." she smiled.

      "Hey, Edith." the boys smiled when they saw her.

      "I didn't know you worked here." Alain told her.

      She shrugged. "My parents own the bar. Can I get you anything?"

      "Just a coffee." Mercier replied.

      "Same, please." the curly haired boy added.

      She nodded and grabbed two cups which she placed under the coffee machine. While the coffee was brewing, Mercier questionned her. "You're here every night?"

      "Every night, every morning, every time I'm not in school." she replied, stopping the machine to hand them their cups.

      At that moment, her younger brother Lucas rushed into the restaurant and put his bag under the hanger. "Sorry, I'm late!"

      "This is my brother Lucas." the redhead nodded towards the boy.

       "Hi." he waved, walking behind the counter with his sister.

       "Hands." she reminded him and he ran to the sink to wash them.

       The two siblings left Edith's classmates to serve other customers and a while later, Marc entered the place. Edith waved in his direction to let him know she was coming and he walked towards Laubrac and Mercier to greet them.

       Edith finished what she was doing and walked back to the three boys. "Hi."

       "Hey." Marc said. "Where are we working?"

       "We're living upstairs. I'll show you." the girl replied before grabbing her cigarette pack near the door. "Bye, guys." she told the two other boys.

       Mercier, who was writing in his book, simply waved without lifting his head, but Alain gave a sweet smile to the redhead and she returned it as she opened the door, revealing the stairs that led to the Lefebvre's appartment.

      Marc followed as she made her way to her place, lighting up a cigarette. She opened their appartment door and handed the pack to the boy. "You want one?"

      "Thank you." he replied, taking a cigarette.

      They sat at the living room table and took out their books. The girl took a puff of her cigarette and sighed. "So. Which author should we choose?"

      "I don't know, really. I don't read much actually." Marc replied.

      "You don't?" she asked in surprise and he shook his head. "Okay, well, uh, have you heard about the book Little Women?"

       "Oh, yeah, we read some parts of it in 6th grade!"

       Edith's eyes lightened up. "Great! Did you like it?"

       "Yeah, it was nice."

       "Maybe we could do the presentation about the author, Louisa May Alcott? Does that sound good?" the redhead asked.

       He nodded. "Yeah, it does."

★

       The next day, Marc and Edith agreed to take a break from the project since it was the teacher-student soccer game. Marc wanted to watch it, and Edith thought she could take the opportunity to try to understand her 8 in math. She was sitting on a bench in the hallway, her legs pulled up beside her so she could lean her notebook on them.

       "You're not watching the game?"

       She lift her head and saw Alain standing in front of her. He was raining outside so his curls were wet. It was kind of cute.

      "I'm trying to understand this math test, but I can't figure it out." she replied. "Why aren't you outside?"

      "I was in the bathroom. You know I got a 19 on that test." he said.

       She frowned. "Congratulations?"

       He chuckled. "No, I meant I can give you my test if that helps you. I can't explain everything to you since I'm working at the farm when I'm not here but if you n—"

       "That would be awesome!" she exclaimed before lowered her voice. "Sorry, I cut you off."

       He laughed again. "It's fine. I'll give it to you tomorrow."

      "Thank you. Thanks a lot." she said with a genuine smile.

      "So..." Laubrac gave her a soft smile. "You wanna come and watch the end of the game with me?"

      She looked down at her test. She couldn't understand a thing so she decided she just decided she would work on it with his test. She looked back at Alain and smiled.

      "Okay."

— thanks for reading, i hope you still like it🫶