Madeleine Combeferre: Many Meetings
(This is what happens when you go on long, boring camping trips. You end up with odd figments that probably shouldn't exist. I just want to let everyone know that she's Not My Fault and that, for the time being, she most certianly up for sale. And yes, I stole the title directly and shamelessly from Mr. Tolkin.)
Mon Dieu, so this is Paris. I guess I just never thought it would be so big. Not that I haven't been to the city before, I'm not a farm girl, but I never thought there could be so bulidings, so many people trying to get so many places at top speed, all in once place.
And what do I do now? I've visited the University, I'm enrolled there now. Me! The little girl who reads too much! Finally somewhere I can learn things I've never gotten a chance to before, and never would have been able to otherwise: latin, greek, Homer, medicine. And finally, here I am in a guise where all this will be given to me without question.
I'm getting a bit hungry, so I enter a nearby café and find it packed with students. I almost walk out again from fright, but no, if I'm going to do this I might as well start now. Finally finding an empty table, thankfully situated in a small corner, I sit.
"This seat taken?" I jump at the sound of the voice behind me and twist my head around to see a handsome young man, just a little bit taller than me with dark hair and green eyes looking at me curiously.
I shake my head silently and he sinks into the chair, grinning. "L'amour de Dieu, it's busy tonight. Since when is it ever this busy here? I swear, there isn't another seat in this entire place."
I blush and say nothing. God, why am I blushing? Blushing is something Madeline would do and I'm not her anymore. What if he finds out who I really am? And I've just arrived. Oh, I can't ruin this now! Maybe I'm lucky and he didn't notice...
He did, of course, but he merely laughs. "You alright? Or are you just new here?" He studies me for a moment. "Don't tell me you're starting at La Sorbonne? You can't be more than sixteen."
"I'm twenty!" I blurt out, suddenly finding my voice, and a moment later I kick myself for it. I may be tall for a girl, but I'm still slight of build. Of course people are going to think I'm younger than I am...
"Alright, sorry." He offers a friendly grin. "In that case, welcome to Paris and the hell known as academia. Name's Rene Courfeyrac." He holds out a hand.
I shake his hand and grin back. "Maxime Combeferre."
I have passed the test.