F is for (Fake) French People {open}

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Frank adjusted her beret so that it set on her head with a jaunty angle. she then reached down and tugged at her fashionable coat, trying to make sure that it did a wonderful job of covering her body from the chill. She did make certain to pull out the little ruffled scarf she'd tied around her neck, letting the splash of red show at her throat. Then she adjusted her designer clothing and tapped her designer boots.

"Qui, qui," she said in a very believable French accent. Frank reached up and pulled her hair back behind her, fluttering her eyes for a few moment. Those fluttering eyes searched the courtyard carefully, looking for likely victims. Okay, they weren't really victims, since Frank fully intended to just tease them for a little bit and then let them back. It was sort of like fishing, except the fishing was a prank and the fish that you tossed back into the pond were poor students who didn't know any better.

Ah, there was a likely suspect! Frank bounded up to them, attempting her most hangdog, puppy-dog-eyed expression. "Pardon me, but I am, how you say, very lost," she said, layering the French accent even thicker. She tossed her head and dug a map out. "I am very new to zis place, and it is zo very confusing, not at all like St. Bethany. Oh I apologize, but my English iz not so good. My name is Francoise," wide smile, and she popped up to give the poor victim a kiss on either cheek. You know, like French people did.

[Ayn Coutard]

Turning to hear the voice behind her, Ayn sipped her coffee patiently while she waited for the girl to finish speaking. As far as the French teacher knew, they weren't having another french student join them any time soon. She sounded as though it were an off version of French. An accent she couldn't place. It sounded more North Eastern then her region. "Bonjour. Je ne vous ai pas rencontré avant, ne serait-il pas plus facile si je parlais en français pour vous?"


Turning, she gestured towards the pathway, meaning to walk with the new student. Assuming that the girl would provide her name, Ayn drank deeply her hot coffee, not minding that the steam trailed up and tickled her nose. "Je suis Mlle Coutard, l'instructeur français ici à Bellefonte. Où cherchez-vous à obtenir? Je pourrais vous montrer autour si vous voulez ... ce serait bien d'avoir quelqu'un à qui parler. La plupart des gens ici ne peuvent même pas dire leur nom dans une autre langue."

<sub>Hello. I haven't met you before, would it just be easier if I spoke in French for you?

I am Miss Coutard, the french instructor here at Bellefonte. Where are you trying to get? I could show you around if you want... it would be nice to have someone to talk to. Most of the people here can't even say their name in another language.</sub>

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Oh wow, that was a lot of French. Frank, never one to be great at schooling her facial expressions, balked a little, her eyes blinking at the pretty woman. Next time, Frank needed to make sure that whomever she approached was, you know, a student or something. She wasn't even certain that she could keep up with that much French.

But wouldn't it be fun to try?

Let's see, something about being easy, which Frank really hoped was "is French easier," then bits about her being the French teacher (duh), and uh, something about names. Well, Frank could at least manage more than her name in French... "Oh, tu parles Français ! C'est juste délicieux et plus agréable. C'est tellement difficile sur les oreilles d'entendre tous ce français. Mais peut-être que nous devrions parler l'anglais pour que je peux pratiquer ?*" That was even several sentences, and Frank was just thrilled to have been able to string that many words together. She even managed to (mostly) keep her accent together.

"So we speak English, oui?" Frank tried, attempting the moderately thick accent yet again. She then motioned with the map, though there was a long pause where Frank tried to recall where precisely it was she had been planning on going...


*Oh, you speak French! That is just delightful and most pleasing. It is so hard on the ears to hear all this English. But maybe we should speak the English so that I can practice? {or so says bing translator <.<}

[Ayn Coutard]

Ayn listened patiently, nodding. "Très bien." Smiling down at the map, she started to walk anyways, hating the fact of staying still very long. "It would do me good. It hard sometimes to remember words." She sighed, her feet automatically taking the point of a dancer, even in her winter boots. "At least, you be in French class then." She pointed out with a slight smirk. It would be nice to have the someone other then just Franck who seemed to care at all about the language.

"People here very nice. Be friendly, they friendly back." She advised, arching an eyebrow. "Where from... Canada, ou France?"

_{Very well then.
ou = or}

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Super good; Frank actually felt like she was gonna pull this off. She'd managed to get through the initial introductions, and the French teacher seemed to be going along with it. Frank couldn't help but be a little excited about that: she'd managed to fool the French teacher with her French. How awesome was that? Ayn was gonna be super impressed when she found out that Frank was actually an American who'd just spent an obscene amount of time oversea.

"Oui," said Frank, nodding as well, "ze words, zere are very hard sometimes. But I am looking forward to ze class of française. You will be ze teacher? Zat will be very good, since we have already spoken."

She beamed at the teacher, then looked at the map, trying to find a destination that she hadn't already been to. The teacher then mentioned something about the people here being friendly if you were friendly back. Well, Frank figured she'd have half the population of Kalispell as her friend by the end of the month then. She'd just have to make sure to throw a few parties between then and now.

The next question Ayn asked, Frank had actually been prepared for: "Francaise," she said, nodding, "ze region of Champagne-Ardenne, just a little outside of Sedan," which was an area that Frank knew relatively well, as her closest French friend had actually come from there. She'd managed to memorize the region simply because of it had the word "champagne" in it. Frank prodded the map, pointing at the West Wing, "I had wanted to know where ze cafeteria was," she said. This was, after all, an important place for Frank to know, and she wasn't 100% certain she knew where it was yet. give them somewhere to walk to, at any rate.