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“Merde!”
Claudine’s involuntary exclamation rang through the dance hall as she righted herself. It hadn’t been a significant stumble by any means, Maya doubted anyone else would have noticed it if not for Claudine’s swearing.
Ah, no, her… random French word which Maya definitely did not understand, of course. Fortunately, simply looking over (or continuing to look, as the case so happened to be) after Claudine yelled was unlikely to fully reveal the truth.
Similarly fortunately, Maya had grown used to schooling her reaction neutral in response to Claudine’s French swearing. Not that Claudine was shy of a “Kuso” or two even in Japanese, but if anyone else knew just how much fouler Claudine’s mouth was when speaking her mother tongue…
Evidently, at least one other person in the room did, as Souda-sensei turned to glare at Claudine. “Miss Saijou,” she said sternly, “I do know what that word means.”
Claudine blanched. “Ah. Je suis désolée, sensei.”
Souda-sensei nodded, gaze still harsh. “And remember, loosen the tension in your core, or you’ll overdo the motion again.”
“Thank you, sensei.” Claudine bowed once, readying the motion again. “Sac à foutre.”
Maya’s eyes widened, nearly stumbling in her own turn as Claudine continued. “Ha! Tu ne la connaissais pas celle-là, n'est-ce pas? Putain."
Maya did stumble at that, overdoing the turn and nearly falling to the floor as her foot very much did not land where it was intended to.
“Tendou Maya!?” Claudine wheeled round at the sound. “Stumbling as well?” Her eyes narrowed. “Are you mocking me!?”
“No, Saijou-san,” Maya said quickly, grateful for any excuse. “The turn is quite difficult, after all.”
Claudine’s eyes stayed narrowed. “Good. Then you better get ready for me to far out-perform you at it when I do it perfectly one hundred times in a row!”
“I would expect nothing less, Saijou-san,” Maya said, settling back into position with a confident smile of her own.
Thank the heavens for their ridiculous rivalry.
Maya sat down with her lunch tray, slightly apart yet at the same table as her classmates. Claudine had not yet arrived, which was unusual, since today was a Tuesday, and it was usually Wednesdays and Thursdays when Claudine’s schedule resulted in her arriving slightly late to lunch, usually around a quarter of an hour.
A shame, but Maya wasn’t about to let that get between herself and her delicious beef strips with rice. And she did still have the company of the others, of course.
Particularly Mahiru, who seemed to be almost glowing.
“You seem in very good spirits today, Tsuyuzaki-san,” Maya noted, lifting her chopsticks.
“I am!” Mahiru replied with a smile. Kaoruko shot a conspiratorial glance towards Futaba, eyes then rapidly flicking between Mahiru and Karen. Futaba, for her part, just sighed.
Mahiru continued. “I’m going to see Riverdance with my parents this evening! They’ve come the whole way to Tokyo for the show, it’s not been to Japan in years!”
“That’s so cool!” Karen shouted, as in the background Futaba turned a withering stare to Kaoruko, who huffed. “I’ve always thought tap dancing was sooo cool, like takata takata ta ta ta!”
Maya quickly swallowed her food to interject. “Riverdance is not tap dancing, it is step dancing. While there are obvious similarities, and Irish step dancing was of course one of the inspirations for early tap dancing, tap dance incorporated much of the improvisation of African dance traditions, thus eventually giving rise to, and becoming part of, the wider field known as jazz dance.”
“Ohhh that’s so interesting!” Karen said. “They never mentioned that in my jazz dance classes! Is that why you learned about tap dancing then? To know more about jazz dance?”
“Hm? Oh, I just looked into it because—” Maya froze for a moment. “…Because I wished to know more about the background of jazz dance, yes,” she lied through her teeth. “It is precisely as you say.”
Right at that moment, the true reason for Maya’s extensive research on tap dance (and social dance and locking dance) seated herself at the table, plate mounded with beef and rice. “Heard Mahiru say something about Riverdance?” Claudine grinned. “Have fun! Maman took me to see it in Paris years ago, made me wanna learn it too! Course, tap dancing’s not quiiite the same, but you’d have to be the most pretentious nitpicker on Earth to care about that.”
Maya could feel Kaoruko’s gaze boring into her as she hurriedly stuffed some more beef and rice into her mouth.
“Ah, Daiba-san!”
Nana turned around to an unexpected sight. Tendou Maya strolling into the prop department as if she owned the place. Well, Maya always walked like that, but her presence anywhere near Class B was unusual, especially without a performance of her own on the horizon.
“Yes, Maya-chan?” Nana greeted her with a smile.
“I wished to inform your department, as it seems they were unaware, that the backdrop you are preparing for our juniors’ upcoming performance of The Three Musketeers is inaccurate, and should be replaced,” Maya explained.
Nana tilted her head, hair flopping to the side as she did so. “How so? It shows Paris, right?”
“Naturally,” Maya agreed. “But an anachronistic Paris.” She pronounced it Pa-ree, the same way Nana had heard Claudine saying it. “You see, The Three Musketeers, while written in the 1840s, was set in the seventeenth century. As such, Paris of the era would not contain nineteenth century landmarks such as La Tour Eiffel or L’Arc de Triomphe.”
Nana stared in wide-eyed disbelief as Maya continued. “Indeed, the tower would not even have begun construction until seventeen years after Dumas’ passing, never mind that of his characters. Furthermore, for the backdrop to contain La Tour Eiffel and the spire of Notre Dame in the foreground in such a configuration, would make it utterly impossible for the mere fifty metre Arc de Triomphe to be at all visible above the skyline—”
“Maya,” Nana interrupted softly, trying to think of a delicate way to phrase no one in Tokyo is going to care even slightly. “The purpose of the backdrop is simply to immediately communicate to a layperson viewer that the play is set in Paris. And aside from that, the performance is in two days, I couldn’t possibly ask everyone to remake the entire backdrop without the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame—”
“Notre Dame—” How was she pronouncing it so much more… French than Nana was? It was the same word. “—would have been present, as it was completed roughly between 1220 and 1230. I’m uncertain if the famous damage necessitating its replacement in 1786 would have been clearly visible during the era of The Three Musketeers, but—”
“Maya,” Nana said, a little firmer, “we’re not replacing the entire backdrop two days before the performance when we have so many other things to prepare for.”
Maya looked like Nana had just kicked her in the stomach.
Nana sighed, relenting slightly. “I’ll have a chat with the others about historical accuracy for future set designs, alright?”
Maya nodded. “Thank you, Daiba-san. And I do wish you the best of luck with the remainder of preparations.”
“Thank you, Maya-chan.” Nana smiled as she turned to retreat.
…Since when was Maya so knowledgeable about Paris?
“Yes, sensei,” Maya heard her new girlfriend (girlfriend!!!) saying as she rounded the corner. “Sorry, sensei.”
Sakuragi-sensei nodded, turning to leave as she finished whatever rebuke Claudine had been receiving. The moment she was out of earshot, Claudine turned away, muttering, “Fils de put—”
She stopped, eyes widening as she saw Maya approaching. Sudden realisation clearly overtook her, remembering the few sentences of French Maya had spoken to her the previous week. “Casser les couilles, you know!”
Maya smiled apologetically. “Je suis désolée, ma Claudine.”
“Tendou Maya!” Claudine yelled, flushing furiously red. “You… You! How long! Merde, you must have been studying for months! Fucking—”
“I don’t think that one’s French,” Maya pointed out, chuckling gently. “Although I must thank you for, ah, greatly expanding my knowledge of French vocabulary. I do not believe that any of the resources I had accessed would have been quite so enlightening towards the vernacular as it is truly spoken by the natives.”
“Well just for that, I won’t help you learn any more!” Claudine huffed, folding her arms.
Maya’s eyes widened. “So you had been intending to help me?”
Claudine, if possible, turned even redder, twisting away. “Well obviously. Can’t leave you stumbling around pronouncing everything wrong, can I?”
Maya’s heart filled to bursting. “Oh, thank you so much, Claudine!”
“Méchante va!” Claudine stepped closer. She quickly glanced side to side, down the otherwise empty corridor. “You want a real lesson on French culture?”
“Dearly so, ma Claudine,” Maya said, smiling earnestly.
“Well, this is called Frenching.”
“What i— mmf!” Maya was silenced as Claudine’s lips crashed into hers quite thoroughly.
As it emerged, learning about Claudine’s interests and culture was much more engaging at the source.