The covers of the bed were now officially messed up, but the boy didn't care. It was very early in the morning and he had already been awake for close to an hour, ever since Tante Mattie woke him up. He got dressed, made his bed, had breakfast and then promptly went back to his room and flopped down on his bed, flat on his stomach. In the past fifteen minutes, he had rolled over, from his stomach to his back and vice versa, at least fifteen times. He stared at the ceiling, his strangely unique red-on-black eyes betraying how nervous he was.
A light tapping on the oak door caught the child's attention and he turned his head to see who was there. Seeing his much-older brother Henri, he sighed and turned away.
Henri chuckled softly, so his brother wouldn't hear, and walked in. He sat down on the bed and raised an eyebrow. "Tante Mattie ain' gon' like de fact dat you messed up your bed, y'know."
"I don' care."
The other eyebrow joined its partner halfway up Henri's forehead in astonishment. He was thirty-seven years old and even he still cared what Tante Mattie said and thought. "You don'?"
The boy rolled over, careful not to make eye contact with his brother, and buried his face into his pillow. Henri had to strain to hear the muffled reply. "Non."
It was Henri's turn to sigh. He reached over and very gently lifted his young brother up and sat him in his lap. He brushed the unruly auburn hair out of the fascinating eyes and then chuckled again. "I t'ink you do care, Remy. I t'ink you're jus' pretendin' you don' b'cause it will take your mind an' mine off de matter at hand today."
Remy twisted around and faced Henri squarely, his expression appealing and defiant at the same time. "Okay I do care, an' I'll fix it b'fore she sees it. But I don' wan' go an' I don' see why I have to!"
"Remy, you've missed five an' a half years of school already…" Henri began.
"It ain' hurt me to miss dat much, missin' de next eight years of it won' hurt me either." Remy interrupted.
"Do you really b'lieve dat?" Henri asked, curious. He realized it had not occurred to his father or the other senior members of the family that Remy wouldn't be keenly interested in going to school with his new cousins and getting an education. Henri's father, Jean-Luc LeBeau, patriarch of the New Orleans Thieves Guild, had adopted Remy three months before. Now, the first day of the new school year was here, and ten-year-old Remy did not want to go.
"Yes." Remy replied. "Tante Mattie or Papa or someone in de Guild can teach me."
"If one of us agreed to dat, how d'you t'ink Emil an' Etienne would feel?" Henri asked. "An' don' you wan' go see what dey've been talkin' 'bout since de start of August?" Remy stopped frowning and Henri saw the tiniest bit of curiosity in his eyes. "On top of dat, wouldn' it be nice to be in classes wit' Emil an' Bella Donna everyday, an' be somewhere totally apart from Guild life?"
Remy considered this for a moment and then hesitantly agreed. "Yeah, I guess so…but Henri, I won' know anybody…de kids will make fun of my eyes…"
"You didn' know anyone here until you got here, right? School's de same way. An' if anyone makes fun of you, I have a feelin' Bel will t'reaten to beat de crap outta dem an' Emil will devise a computer virus to destroy deir computer discs an' email accounts." Henri assured him.
In spite of his misgivings, Remy had to laugh as he scrambled off Henri's lap. "Dat's true. Dey'd bot' do it too."
"Oui. So, what d'you say, kiddo? How 'bout we fix up dis bed of yours an' go wait for the others to get here?" Henri suggested. He stood up and looked down at Remy, who nodded. Together, they remade the bed to perfection and after Remy picked up his backpack, Henri took his hand and they went downstairs to the living room to wait.
Both Jean-Luc and Tante Mattie joined the two brothers in the living room just as the doorbell rang. Jean-Luc made a detour to the front door and was greeted by his three nephews, Theoren and Etienne Marceaux, and Emil Lapin. With them was Genard Alouette, who was a soon-to-be graduating senior at the same school the three younger boys were attending.
Theoren and Etienne were the sons of Belize Marceaux, Jean-Luc's best friend and brother-in-law. Jean-Luc's sister Gabrielle was Theoren's mother, while Etienne was the result of Belize's second marriage, to Geneva Bowen. Theoren had been the legal guardian of his brother since their father had been killed when Etienne was four. The two brothers were as different as night and day, both in looks and personality, but their devotion to each other was astounding.
Emil was only a few weeks younger than Remy. He was the son of Jean-Luc's youngest sister, Emily Therese, who had died merely minutes after her son was born, and Francois Lapin. Even at his tender age he was already quickly mastering every aspect of computer programming, and was also the most mischievous member of the Guild. He and Etienne had become fast friends with Remy the day they met him, which led to a forming of a Thieves Guild version of The Three Musketeers rivaled only by the friendship between Henri, Theoren and Francois.
Jean-Luc smiled at the two excited young boys as he let them all in. With the arrival of his cousins, Remy suddenly got more excited about going to school and after they got Tante Mattie's permission, the three raced outside into the backyard for a few minutes before it was time to go. Genard absently pushed his glasses up on his nose and sighed as he watched them run off. Theoren laughed at him.
"You t'ink you can handle takin' all t'ree of dem to school an' back everyday, Genard?"
Genard shrugged. "T'ree is only one more'n two. Long as deir excitement level drops some after de first week, it'll be fine." He looked at Jean-Luc. "You comin' today, right?"
Jean-Luc nodded. "At de start, oui, but I can' stay all day, I have a meetin' wit' de High Council. I arranged for Remy to be in almost all de same classes as Emil an' Bella Donna dis year…I know Marius don' approve of de friendship b'tween Bel an' Remy, but havin' her an' Emil 'round most of de time will help him adjust. T'ings will change as dey get older an' figure out different academic interests."
"Makes sense." Genard replied, checking his watch. "We gotta go soon. It might help if we were dere a little early so Remy can get a feel of de place at de same time dat de rest of de students are actually dere."
Tante Mattie went to the kitchen and called the three boys in from the backyard. They weren't quite as noisy coming back in as they had been going out, but the grown-ups knew that was just a result of first day of school jitters.
Twenty minutes later, Jean-Luc pulled the car into a parking space in front of the Isidore Newman School campus. Emil and Etienne climbed out of the car, taking about classes and looking around for Bella Donna. Jean-Luc and Genard had gotten out as well and were getting ready to follow the boys when Genard noticed something.
"Jean-Luc, look."
Jean-Luc turned around, his long ponytail swinging. "Hmm?"
Genard pointed at the car. Remy was still in the backseat, looking almost as scared and nervous as he had the day Jean-Luc caught him trying to steal his watch. Jean-Luc sighed and started to open the door, but Genard put a hand on his arm, stopping him. "Let me. You never went to school, you don' know what it's like, an' for de time bein', dose two are too preoccupied. Please?"
"Okay." Jean-Luc replied, walking off to round up Emil and Etienne while they waited for Marius to bring Bella Donna.
Genard opened the door and slid into the backseat beside Remy. Those strange red and black eyes looked at him uncertainly, but Genard just gave a small, knowing smile and commented quietly, "It's not as bad as it seems, kid."
Remy snorted. "Dat's easy for you to say, you got to start comin' here when you were four, like dey did, like everyone else did. Everyone but me…"
"An' dat fact has never once been to our advantage, Remy." Genard replied. "You'll notice somethin' real quick here. Maybe not today, maybe not even by de end of de first week, but you will. Newman ain' a big school, Remy. Dere's not even twelve hundred students here, in spite of de number of grades. De other kids will figure out pretty quickly dat you're connected wit' one of de Guilds, especially when dey see who your friends are. An' dey'll leave you alone."
"Tante Mattie says you're a loner. Is dat why?" Remy asked after it came to his attention that he didn't know very much about Genard, who was a soft-spoken observer.
"Oui. I have no friends here, Remy. Jus' you, Emil an' Etienne. De year I started here, I was four, like you said. Everyone who's come here all deir lives starts at age four. Claude was de only other member of de Guild who was attending here den, an' he was sixteen. Two years later, he graduated an' I was on my own, left to figure out for myself how to avoid getting beaten up." Genard laughed.
Remy tilted his head. "I t'ought you said de other kids leave you alone if dey know you're connected to de Guilds…?"
"Dey do." Genard confirmed. "You're lucky dat you an' Bella Donna are friends. She won' spend de years you guys are here together tryin' to t'ink of ways to kill you. In my own case, de only members of her family who were here wit' me were Questa an' Singer. Dey both graduated in May. I've been lookin' forward to havin' a whole school year of peace for months now."
"I bet!" Remy laughed. "Hey…is Papa gon' pick us up after school today?"
Genard smiled again. "Today, yes, b'cause it's your first day. After dat, I get to play chauffeur for de rest of de year. T'ink you can handle dat?"
"Yeah, I can. T'anks Genard."
Emil and Etienne ran over and opened the door. "Are you comin' or what?" They exclaimed in unison. They were eager to show Remy around and get going on the new school year.
Remy and Genard looked at each other. Genard raised his eyebrows and Remy grinned. "Yeah we're comin'." He said, grabbing his backpack and following Genard out of the car. "Let's go."
Jean-Luc and Genard walked behind the three boys, laughing at their antics and warning them not to get too carried away.
"Were you ever dis excited on de first day of school?" Jean-Luc asked Genard, frowning as he tried to remember Genard ever really getting excited over anything, school or otherwise.
"Non." Genard replied thoughtfully. "But I was pretty happy at de end of de term last year when Questa an' Singer graduated. I finally have a year of peace ahead of me. I would've been much happier if dey'd been closer to Claude's age instead of only a year older'n me. Ugh."
Jean-Luc laughed. "Well somehow I don' t'ink dose t'ree young people are gon' give you much peace dis year, but I'm glad you're happy."
"Yeah well. I figure I prob'ly d'serve it after all de years I drove Claude insane." Genard said. He spotted the leader of the Assassins Guild, Marius Boudreaux, across the campus, walking with his daughter Bella Donna and pointed in their direction. "Assassins at two o'clock."
"Hmm. I want to talk to Marius. Could you get de boys settled an' den wait wit' Emil an' Remy until we get dere?"
"Sure." Genard said, calling the three young thieves over to him. Marius and Bella Donna joined them and all four children started chattering non-stop. Marius frowned, not liking his daughter to be so chummy with the children of his life-long enemies.
"Dey're jus' children, Marius." Jean-Luc commented quietly, noticing his rival's unhappy look. He caught Genard's eye and nodded.
"Hey boys, let's go find your homerooms, okay?" Genard suggested brightly, starting to herd the three boys away. Remy looked hesitantly over his shoulder at his father and Genard grinned. "He'll come in a minute, he jus' wants to talk to Monsieur Boudreaux, an' I t'ink we should let him, so let's go."
"Papa, can I go wit' dem? My homeroom's de same as Remy an' Emil's is…" Bella Donna said.
Marius' frown deepened, but it crossed his mind that Genard wouldn't let anything happen to any of the children. Plus, he and Jean-Luc wouldn't be long. "Oui, you can go. We'll be along in a minute."
The four children walked in a group ahead of Genard into one of the stately buildings on the campus. They dropped Etienne off at his homeroom class and then headed to one of the two fifth grade homeroom classrooms to wait for Jean-Luc and Marius to join them. When they found the correct room, Remy hung back at the door while he looked around the room and watched Emil and Bella Donna argue over where the three of them should sit.
There were three rows of five single seat desks lining the room, with a big teacher's desk at the front of the room. A large blackboard covered the wall behind the teacher's desk. Another board covered a second wall while a third wall contained a window looking out into the campus courtyard. At the back of the room there were shelves with books, globes, maps and various other classroom supplies. Genard started to say something to Remy when a voice said his name.
"Monsieur Alouette! Comment ca va?"
Genard laughed at the look of fear that crossed Remy's face. "Bonjour Madame Lucietto. Ca va bein. How was your summer?"
"Too short, as dey all are dese days it would seem." The gray-haired woman replied. "How was yours?"
"Interestin', to say de least." Genard replied. "I assume you've spoken wit' Jean-Luc?"
"Indeed." Madame Lucietto knelt down to Remy's level and gave him a warm smile in response to his own somewhat frightened expression. "You mus' be Remy. Your father an' I have been talkin' 'bout you lately. May I tell you a secret?"
Remy nodded and glanced up at Genard, who merely grinned. Madame Lucietto, chair of the language department at the school, had always been one of his favorite teachers. She looked stern, but Genard knew better, and he had a feeling Remy was about to find that out for himself.
"I'm not nearly as mean an' nasty as I look." Madame Lucietto told Remy. "In fact…" She looked over to where Bella Donna and Emil were sitting, waiting for Remy to join them. "Mademoiselle Boudreaux has a worse bite den I do."
Remy cracked a smile and began to relax. He made a mental note to ask Genard about Madame Lucietto later and said, "I b'lieve it."
As the rest of the students filed into the room, Jean-Luc and Marius appeared, walking towards them down the hallway. Madame Lucietto told Remy to take his seat and then had a brief conference in the hallway with the Guild patriarchs. When they left, she looked at Genard, catching him staring thoughtfully at Remy.
"He'll be fine, Monsieur Alouette. Why don' you get to your own class b'fore you're late for homeroom?" she suggested.
"Oui." Genard replied. He didn't want to be late for homeroom, at least not on the first day. Before he left he caught Emil and Remy's attention and waved goodbye to them.
They watched Genard leave, and then Madame Lucietto closed the door and began the new school year. Remy knew he wasn't alone, and he knew he never would be, with Bella Donna and Emil close by and Genard never far away either, at least for this year. He also thought he was going to like Madame Lucietto. But as the roll was called, he had an overwhelming urge to bury his face in his hands and cry. He wanted nothing more than to be at home with his father and Tante Mattie again, or roaming the streets with Emil and Etienne.
Sighing and holding back his misgivings about being at school, Remy managed to follow Emil's example when the time came.
"Monsieur LeBeau." Madame Lucietto called.
Remy smiled and replied "Ici."
Madame Lucietto looked over her class list directly at the fourth row back, where Emil, Remy and Bella Donna were sitting. She raised an eyebrow over her wire-rimmed reading glasses and said to them, "I have a feelin' I'm going to have my hands full wit' de three of you dis year."
"Prob'ly." Bella Donna grinned evilly. "But don' let it bug you."
"I never do, Mademoiselle Boudreaux."