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The boy’s eyes traveled up to mine He was clean shaven, with olive skin and hair that reular pair of glasses that e student "You saved ht French accent

"I’ my life?" He smiled He had three artfully placed freckles One under his eye, one on his chin, one on his neck

"Oh--oh, no," I said "Wait, what do you ht If you hadn’t blocked me, I would have run it and been hit by that car"

"Oh," I said, blushing "It was an accident"

He laughed and helped me up

"You’re warm," I said, accustoirl who can’t die"

"You go to St Clément?" I asked, surprised

"I sit three seats down froy and Prediction And in History and Latin I held the door for you today?"

"Oh" I felt rew fa only the side of his head

He smirked "It’s okay You’re the famous one"

I looked away and brushed off my skirt "Those are just rumors"

"Or maybe some of your iuess you owe me one"

"Owe you one what?"

"I won’t know until I want it" The words ca? Was I flirting with this boy?

"Deal"

"I’m Renée, by the way," I said

"Noah Fontaine"

He held out his hand, and I hesitated, staring at it and thinking of Dante "Oh, I’ his hand on his jeans

I looked atdown, he picked up his bag and the re, which had spilled out around us, coating the road in crushed petals

"I’m sorry about your flowers," I said

"Oh, it’s okay She probably won’t even notice," he said, holding up a wilted steh I had no idea this boy existed until a few seconds ago, for some reason, as I watched hiirl he had bought them for

He stood up "Do you believe in fate?" he asked

"No," I said quickly, and then reconsidered "Well, race of a cat, he picked up his bicycle and pedaled off, grinning at me over his shoulder before he vanished into the crowd

Chapter 6

ACCORDING TO MADAME GOûT, FRENCH WAS AN irregular language, a secretive language; the language of Monitors The last three letters of ale effect of s Everything was about accent, pronunciation, perforned to irls called it roht it insincere The Latin Dante spoke made his love for me feel ancient and timeless, as if it could never die What I didn’t realize until later was that French had depth, too; the trick was to hear the words that weren’t spoken

Our classroom was in the attic, where it was oppressively hot, co it would improve our throaty accents

Madah heels and belted dresses She had a gap between her front teeth and spoke with a thick French-Canadian accent Her favorite as "Non," which she said in a definitive kind of way, to