Chapter 2 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I got into Rimouski ten hours later. It was 4:45 back home in Alberta, but here, it was already 6:45. I struggled off the bus with my carryon luggage. I’d hadn’t brought a ton of my stuff or anything. Which may seem strange considering I had NO clue how long I was going to be here, But when I’d tried to pack more things my Dad had told me that I’d have a rather generous sum (1500$) deposited in my bank account every month for my expenses. (A perk of having a guilt ridden Father who is an extremely wealthy and prominent attourney.)

Great-Aunt Amèlie was there waiting for me. Mom had shown me a picture of her before we’d left for the airport. The funny thing was, she kind of looked like me… a much older version, but still. “Nicole!” She called, waving, pronouncing my name the French way… it sounded like Nee-Cole instead of NicK-ole.

I couldn’t help feeling a little shy. Especially when I saw someone male (and cute) standing… or at least so it appeared, next to her. I walked towards them and my fears were confirmed… the guy was with her. “Let me help you.” He said with a cocky grin, reaching out to grab my bags.

I wasn’t sure that I liked how cocky his smile was, but he looked to be a bit older then I was, and I wasn’t about to piss him off just yet. I was swept into a hug. “Oh Nicole, ma petite.” Aunt Amèlie said hugging me tightly. “I am so glad you came here.” She said in heavily accented English. “It has been long time since I have seen your Papa and it is wonderful to have you come.”

I smiled. It was hard not to smile at such a warm welcome. “Thanks.” I said, not able to say it was nice to be here, since, well it wasn’t.

But Aunt Amèlie didn’t seem to notice. “This is Marc Tobin.” She said, pronouncing it “Mar-c”. “He plays for the Ocèanic. I am his billet.”

Mark smiled at me. “Nice to meet you Nicole.” He said.

He was pretty cute, with his bleached blonde hair, and he wasn’t a hulk like most of the hockey players I knew. Well maybe he was, but he didn’t seem like it. “Nice to meet you… I umm didn’t know that my Great-Aunt would have anyone living with her….” I said in exhaustion, realizing only after the words were out of my mouth how stupid they sounded.

Aunt Amèlie smiled. She was clearly oblivious to the tension between Mark and I. “You must call me Tante Amèlie ma petite.” She said smiling broadly. “I always billets the boys.” She informed me. “Mark he even stay part of the summer with me… he a good boy.”

Mark grinned and winked at me, and I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. He was definitely just as cocky as the major junior hockey players from the Hitmen that I knew back home. It was actually somewhat comforting… a reminder of home almost. “I’m sure he is Tante Amèlie.” I said, realizing that she was waiting for me to say something.

“We will go to house.” She said, indicating her car. “I have supper for us and then Mark will take you out with him and his friends for tonight.”

She was so obviously oblivious that I figured I’d give Mark a chance to get out of this. I mean, I wanted to go out and meet people, and I didn’t want to spend New Year’s Eve sitting on some ancient couch watching an old TV with my Tante. “You don’t have to do this you know.” I whispered as I helped him put one of my bags in the trunk. “I know she put you up to this.”

Mark grinned. “Now if you were fat or ugly, I might have taken you up on that offer.” He said, giving me the once over. “But you’re neither, and everyone figured that you’d be one, the other, or both.”

“Everyone figured?” I asked, looking up at him with raised eyebrows.

“Well yeah.” He said with a shrug. “Mme. Paradis was so excited that you were coming that she made sure that everyone knew.”

“Oh great.” I said. “Do they know I don’t speak a word of French other then ‘bonjour’, ‘aurevoir’, ‘je m’appelle Nicole’ and ‘ou est la toilette?”?” I asked.

Mark grinned. “A few people speak decent English.” He said. “But just a few.”

“Speaking of which… how do you speak English so well?” I asked, intrigued as he held the door of the car open for me.

“I’m from St. John’s, in Newfoundland.” He said. “A lot of the other guys on the team are from small towns or la Ville de Quèbec and they don’t speak much English. I’m more the exception on the team, though if you speak Slovak you can talk to Michal, or if you speak Czech you can talk to Hrdel… but don’t worry, you’ll pick it up.”

“French, Slovak or Czech?” I asked with a grin.

“French.” He replied. “Though if you want, I’m sure Michal and Hrdel will teach you how to cuss in Slovak and Czech if you ask nicely.”

I laughed, thinking that all I was going to be able to do when I got back to Airdrie was cuss in other languages, then asked. “Wait, you’re a Newfie, how do you speak French?”

“French Immersion.” He replied. “And a couple years in the Q. Believe me, you will pick it up quickly… in a place like Rimouski you don’t have much of a choice.”

As we drove to wherever it was in town that my Tante lived Mark and I continued to talk. He was actually a fairly decent guy. Well, at least he seemed fairly decent. It was only about a seven-minute drive to my Tante’s. She chattered the whole way, half in French, half in English, so I understood only about half of what she said. I glanced at Mark at one point, and he grinned at me amused.

When we got out of the car I elbowed him. “A lot of help you were. You understood every word she said.”

He laughed. “Of course I did. I hope you know that you agreed to clean the bathrooms and take out all the garbage.”

“I did not!” I said. “I understand enough French for that!”

He laughed. “Are you sure?” He teased.

“Well no.” I admitted finally.

He laughed. “Well I guess you’ll have to wait and see huh?”

“Jerk.” I muttered under my breath.

“Nee-Cole!” Tante Amèlie called from the house. “Come!”

I headed into the house, Mark following with a couple of my bags. “Yes Tante?” I asked, since she’d seemed to have something to say.

“I will show you a chambre.” She said. “I thought to give you this room.” She opened the door on the ugliest room I had ever seen. It held a canopied bed, and everything matched. Which sounds good in theory, but when everything matches because everything (pillow cases, bed skirt, bed spread, wallpaper, lampshade) are covered in horrible pink roses, its not so great.
I swallowed hard. I could not spend who knew how long living in a room like this. “Umm its…” I started.

Tante Amèlie interrupted me though. “I was going to put you ici Nee-Cole, but Mark he say that he wants companie. So you will have a chambre in the sous-sol avec him.”

I had no idea what a sous-sol was. I just hoped that it didn’t have horrible pink roses all over everything. “Follow me.” Mark said, turning back into the kitchen.

I followed him, and sighing with relief as he led me down to the basement. “So I ahh, guess this is the sous-sol.” I said, horribly mispronouncing the words.

Mark laughed at my pronunciation. “Oui.” He said. “This is, c’est le sous-sol.”

I blushed, realizing how wrong my pronunciation was. “Oh. Well thanks for convincing Tante Amèlie not to force me to live in the hideous rose room.”

Mark shrugged. “I figured that no sixteen year old girl would want to live in that room.” He grinned at me, elbowing me in the side. “Besides, I figured if you were truly heinous I’d annoy the hell out of you until you wanted to live in the rose room.”

I laughed. “So you really don’t mind me going out with you and your friends tonight?”

“Mind?” He asked, eyebrows raised. “Dressed right you’re gonna kill. Everyone’s been wondering what Madame Paradis’ niece looked like, and they’ve been giving me a rough time ever since they heard you were coming.”

“And how long has that been?” I demanded, realizing that this was the second time he’d mentioned “everyone” knowing about me and wondering just how long my parents had been making these plans behind my back.

Fortunately for me, Mark saw nothing wrong with my question. “Since the end of November.” He said.

I smiled, masking my anger at my parents. “Well then Mark.” I said flirtatiously… he was cute after all. “Let’s show ‘em who got lucky.”