Chapter Text
“I’ll miss you!” I say to Elyas before I got into the car. Finally. It’s finally starting! Now, at two o’clock in the afternoon, it’s starting. I’m in the car with dad. He will drive me to Cologne to the airport, where I will board a plane to Paris. There I will get on the next plane and fly to Barcelonnette, where my host family will pick me up. I open the window and wave to them. When we arrive at the airport in Cologne, where my Dad helps me check in and drop off all my luggage. We make it very easy for ourselves. Bye and he’s going. I still have to wait two hours for the gate to open. I take my phone and headphones out of my backpack to listen to a little music. I briefly think about which playlist I should listen to and finally decide on my coming out playlist. Once again, I wonder what I have been asking myself over and over again over the last few weeks. Will I come out in front of the people I will meet? Or have to come out? “Hi, is it still free here?” asks a deep voice in broken German. I turn in the direction from which the voice comes. Crush alarm, shoots through my head.
“Uh, of course,” I reply. The young man is almost two meters tall.
“I’m Cass and you?”
“Val,” I finally say. “Where are you flying to?” I ask, because I’m curious. My God, Valerie, that’s none of your business. “Actually, no, that’s none of my business. Sorry.”
“Ah, no problem. Don’t have to fly anymore. I’m waiting for my sister. She wanted to pick me up,” I nod. “And you?”
“To Paris. And from there to Barcelonnette. I’m on my way to a year abroad.”
“Cool,” he replies and turns to his cell phone. I risk taking a careful look at the screen. He texts with someone. ‘Baby❤️❤️’, is written as a chat name. Next to it a selfie. A young woman smiles at the camera. I turn my eyes away. It’s none of my business at all. I “Is this the first time flying?” he wants to know when he looks up from his phone. I see his brown eyes. He’s damn pretty. And not single!
“Yes,” I answer.
“And? Are you excited?”
“Yes. I can’t wait for it to finally get off to a good start.” And so it will certainly go on for an hour. Question for question, answer for answer.
“CASS!” we hear a loud, bright voice. Cass jumps up.
“KATE!” he shouts and runs to a young woman who resembles him apart from the physique. Clearly twins!
“Kate, this is Val. We had a nice conversation while I was waiting for you. Valerie, this is my twin sister Kate.”
“Hi,” I say.
“Hi,” she replies. “I’m sorry to steal your conversation partner from you now, but I’d like to talk to him.”
“All good, have a good trip!” I answer.
“You too!” both reply at the same time. “Ciao!”
“Goodbye.”
“Bye!”
And then I sit there alone and get bored. I pick up my phone again and turn the music back on before I put the headphones back on. The music is good. As always. I write Elyas. Just a few minutes later he answers. I am quite honest with him and tell him how excited I am, but also that I am a little afraid of the flight. Of course, he distracts me from these thoughts and involves me in a conversation about Moonlight, one of our favorite movies. And then my flight is called and I know there is no turning back now. I’ve known it for a long time, but now it feels damn real. Almost too real. I feel the adrenaline kick. I put both phone and headphones in my backpack.
Fortunately, I have a window seat, I think, when I get on the plane. It’s a crazy feeling. The first time I will fly. And then also alone. I’m not on the plane for ten minutes, but I already know that I’m going to hate it. Two hours to Paris and then one and a half to Barcelonnette. Not to even start from the journey from there to my host family. I don’t even know if anyone will pick me up. Julio, my host father, said in his last mail that I might have to take the train because you currently have a family emergency. It may sound stupid, but I’m glad you didn’t cancel me at short notice. I’ve been looking forward to it here for over a year.When the machine then takes off, I take my headphones out of my hand luggage and put them on. The music quickly distracts me from my nervousness. Then I take my iPad and continue to write on Love, your majesty. Faster than expected we are in Paris, where I am picked up by a young woman so that I can get to the other plane in time. And only a short time later I’m on the second plane. Here, too, I take my iPad to hand and continue writing on Love, your majesty. I’ve been writing the story for two years now. And I’m still writing it. It’s done, but I sit down again and again and write a chapter again. The characters are getting more and more character. Everything gets more profound every time. And it’s always not the way I want it. I don’t plan to publish this one day. Maybe one day I’ll let Elyas read it. And other friends, if I get any. But so far? So far, all of this is only for my eyes. I also thought about sharing the whole thing on a page like AO3, but somehow it didn’t feel right, which is why the pages can still be found secretly in my iPad. And then the announcement finally sounds in the loudspeaker that we are starting the landing approach. As far as I can understand, at least.
Half an hour later, the plane is standing. I need a short moment before I can get up to get up. Yes, I’m happy, but all this makes me incredibly nervous right now. And I’m a little scared too. My host family sounded nice in the emails we exchanged, but no one said that they are in reality. I step off the plane and see a poster. ‘Bienvenue à Barcelonnette, Valerie!’ Before I walk towards the two, I briefly send messages to my family and Elyas that I have arrived safely. Then I walk towards the two of them. My host father and my host sister. “Salut Julio, salut Victoria,” I greet them.
“Salut,” my host father greets me back. “By the way, you can call me Dad. And Jane Mum.” I nod.
“Salut,” says the young woman next to him. “I’m Victoria, your sister, if you couldn’t tell. But please call me Tori, everyone says that. In addition, Victoria is a terrible name.” I nod.
“Salut. And I know that I introduced myself as Valerie, but if we already do a round of names here, I am Valerie, but I would prefer Val.” Now the two are noding in front of me.
“Great. Then we can go. I hope you’re hungry.”
“A little.” And then the time has finally come. One more hour and I’m finally at my destination. At my home for ten months.
When we finally reach our final destination, I am very happy to finally be ‘home’. A woman opens the door. Jane, my host mother. “Salut et bienvenue à Gap,” she greets me and pulls me into her arms.
“Salut,” I reply and briefly explain to her that she should also call me Val.
I enter the house. “Come on, I’ll show you your room. And then we’ll have breakfast.” My host parents nod at Tori's words.
“Val, would you mind if we spontaneously throw a welcome party for you tonight? We could invite the neighbors and Tori could ask a few people from school if they want to come.” I shook my head. It would certainly be practical to know a few people before I would start school next week. I spent the rest of the morning texting to my family and Elyas that I had arrived safely. And send a few photos of my room afterwards. I then ran back down to the kitchen.
“Can I help something?” I asked when I saw that Julio was cutting vegetables. He turned to me:
“Sure, you could already chop the peppers and the Fromage de brebis?”
“Fromage de brebis?” I asked and he holds up a pack of sheep’s cheese.
“Ah, thank you!”
I spent the rest of Saturday in the kitchen until about six o’clock with small cuts of various things, as well as then processing them further. “Come, I’ll introduce you to the others,” said Tori. We ran down the stairs and went to a couple that I would estimate to be in my mid-70s. “Charlie, these are Ava and Gerhard, our neighbors to the left of our house. Ava, Gerhard, this is Val, my sister.” Sister....
“Nice to meet you, Val,” said the man, Gerhard. We went on and in the next half hour Tori introduced me to all our neighbors.
“Oh yes, the Nelsons are not there, their son is in the hospital. He had an accident at one of the ice hockey games last month. But I will also introduce her to you when we meet them. So if you’re into boys, don’t fall in love with either of them. David is an ass, but luckily doesn’t live here anymore. He’s studying in Paris. And Nick, well, he’s just an ice hockey player, and well, not much better either. He hangs out with a bunch of dicks.” I nodded. Not falling in love with these two boys was the only condition she gave me? I would be able to do that. “Enough of it. I’ll introduce you to the clique. They’ve been super curious about you since I told them that we’re getting an exchange student.”
Then she took me by the hand and pulled me outside on the terrace. Around 10 young people were sitting there around the fireplace. “Val, may I introduce, these are Tara, Darcy, Michael, Sahar, Imogen and Elle they go into my grade. Tao, Isaac and Aled are at your level.” I nodded.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Val.”
“Come, sit with us. We don’t bite. Promise!” I nodded and let myself fall into the empty square between, I think, Darcy and Elle.
“Sorry, I’m very curious, but I just want to know everything about you.” I turned to the girl on my right.
“Question number one: Why are you doing a year abroad?” I smiled:
“I like the French language. Then there’s the fact that I like to meet new people.” I grinned.
"Question number two, why is your name Val? Tori always said your name was Valerie.” I smiled.
“Val’s my nickname. Valerie is my real name. But I don’t like it. Terrible name, if you ask me.” Elle squeezed me out over all sorts of things, so that I only noticed at the tenth question that everyone else had stopped their conversations and listened to us. When she was about to start a new question, Tori took the floor.
“What do you think if we get something to eat and then just go for a walk and everyone can ask Val what they want. If that’s okay with you, Val?” she looked at me questioningly and I nodded confidently. We all got up and ran into the kitchen. Only a quarter of an hour we sat around the fireplace again and ate finger food and salads.
“Good. Then I’ll start, okay?” Tori looked at me and I nodded.
“What is your favorite book? You have to know, one of her travel bags was only filled with books.” I glare at her. Even when we unpacked the bags yesterday, she had asked me and I had given him the same answer, you now gave him again.
“All books by Alice Oseman, but especially Radio Silence. I don’t know why. It was just great to read.” I looked at Tori that she wasn’t really happy with the answer, but I ignored it. “Can you say your names again? I’m not so good at remembering my name.” Everyone nodded.
“I'm Tao. My question is, what kind of music do you like to listen to?” One of my favorite questions.
“Actually, I hear everything. Pop, rock, all sorts of things. Oh, and before you ask, I also have a lot of favorite musicians. But if I had to spontaneously decide now for a song on a continuous loop, it would probably be ‘We can be anything’ by Baby Queen. The song gives me a feeling of freedom.” He nodded.
“Aled. I’d like to know if you’re in France for the first time?”
“No. I have already been to Normandy twice and once to Brittany. Oh yes, and then I once did a day trip to Colmar and a student exchange to Rennes.” Aled was satisfied with it. Question after question went on and when we arrived back at Tori, we decided to ask for another round. Now it was Darcy’s turn.
“Are you part of the LGBTQIA+ community or are you an ally like Tao?” they asked me.
“I’m not an ally, but definitely part of the community. I, uh, I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I know I’m somewhat genderqueer. And for me it’s only boys. And you?”
“Omg, we found another one, Tari.” “So I’m non-binary and lesbian. My girlfriend Tara and Imogen are also lesbians. Aled is demi and gay. Michael is pan. Sahar is bi. Elle is trans. Isaac and Tori are aromantic asexual. Tao is our ally.”
Then the Q&A session continued. I was happy when it was slowly approaching ten o’clock and the guests gradually said goodbye. “Before you all leave, I would like to ask you something else,” I heard Tori next to me and the clique, which was already out the door, turned around. “You don’t mind if we add Val to our clique, do you?” I looked into astonished faces, all of which shook their heads decisively.